two NEW book ratings

Oh my goodness!  When I have a book to read…NOTHING else gets done around here! 🙂  I think my family must cringe when they see me walking in from a trip to the library….thinking,  “Great!….Now how am I supposed to get Mom’s attention if I need her!?!”  HaHa!  Here are my latest reads.  I’m giving them both 4 out of 5 stars.  (Just so you know, I RARELY give out 5’s).

The Rent Collector is fiction based on real people.  I was hesitant to read it, thinking I wasn’t interested in a depressing story about extreme poverty, but that was not the focus at all.  It focused on learning and how the mother became literate even though she lived in a municipal city dump.  Very good book!  I recommend it!

The Island at the Center of the World is a longer read, but very interesting.  It’s a history book about the Island of Manhattan in the early 1600’s.   I don’t know about your history teachers, but mine didn’t even mention the Dutch colony….all I was taught was the English colonies….the pilgrims, the puritans etc.  I might be a bit more interested in this book than the average reader because I’ve been doing a fair amount of New York family history.  But if you like history books, this one is very good!

Again, I give them 4 out of 5 stars.  Learn or DO something NEW today!

I’m reading a NEW book

I love to read and wish I had more time to do so.  This weekend I started a NEW book that was recommended to me.  I love, loVE, LOVE recommended books from friends and family because there’s nothing worse than spending time reading a book you don’t enjoy…right?    What a waste of time!  Recommended books, at least, have a better chance of enjoyment than just random books.  I’m all for time efficiency!  I’m also loving Shelfari.com where I can keep track of the books I’ve read and also the books I want to read.  It’s a virtual bookshelf.  I once started a book that sounded quite familiar and I wondered aloud to my husband if we’d maybe seen a movie with the same plot as I was reading.  He mentioned he thought he’d seen me read that book before.  Oops!  He was right!  I had read the book before and had simply forgotten I had.  So now I also type a short summary into Shelfari to jog my memory of what the book was about, in case I have that problem in the future.    My shelfari page is strictly for my reference.  I don’t really have time to use it for any social media purposes, but I love having it available!  Some of my friends use GoodReads, and I’m sure there are other sites out there.  If you like to read and haven’t tried a similar site….try something NEW!  You’ll like it!  OR pick up a NEW book!….and be sure to let me know of any good recommendations!