Ash Reads Stuff

The Tea Planter's Wife  by Dinah Jefferies Publication Date: August 27, 2015 Pages:  418 (hardcover) Genre:  Historical Fiction My Goodreads Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads Syopsis: Nineteen-year-old Gwendolyn Hooper is newly married to a rich and charming widower, eager to join him on his tea plantation, determined to be the perfect wife and mother. But life in Ceylon is not what Gwen expected. The plantation workers are resentful, the neighbours treacherous, and there are clues to the past - a dusty trunk of dresses, an overgrown gravestone in the grounds - that her husband refuses to discuss. Just as Gwen finds her feet, disaster strikes. She faces a terrible choice, hiding the truth from almost everyone, but a secret this big can't stay buried forever.... My Review: This book started out veeeeeery slow for me. So slow that I put it down for a few months. I couldn't get into Gwen as a character and wasn't quite sure if anything exciting was actually ...

The LIttle Paris Bookshop  by Nina George Publication Date:  March 22, 2016 Pages:  416 (paperback)  Genre:  Adult  My Goodreads Rating:  Did Not Finish Goodreads Synopsis:  Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. The only person he can't seem to heal through literature is himself; he's still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared. She left him with only a letter, which he has never opened. After Perdu is finally tempted to read the letter, he hauls anchor and departs on a mission to the south of France, hoping to make peace with his loss and discover the end of the story. Joined by a bestselling but blocked author and a lovelorn Italian chef, Perdu travels along the country’s rivers, dispensing his wisdom...

The Library at Mount Char  by Scott Hawkins Publication Date:  March 15, 2016 Pages: 400 (paperback) Genre: Adult Fiction/Fantasy My Goodreads Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads Synopsis:  A missing God. A library with the secrets to the universe. A woman too busy to notice her heart slipping away. Carolyn's not so different from the other people around her. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a phone. Clothes are a bit tricky, but everyone says nice things about her outfit with the Christmas sweater over the gold bicycle shorts. After all, she was a normal American herself once. That was a long time ago, of course. Before her parents died. Before she and the others were taken in by the man they called Father. In the years since then, Carolyn hasn't had a chance to get out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father's ancient customs. They've studied the books in his Library and learned ...

Hi again! I'm still playing around with titles and graphics for this place. (I don't happen to be very tech-savvy, oops.) Anywho, it's the books that count, right? I'm pretty excited that I remembered to do this post, actually. There wasn't a lot of reading done in the month of March, but I read some good books- in my opinion, of course.  Five Star Reads: Four Star Reads:   Three Star Reads :      I also discovered Blogging for Books this month and had ARCs from NetGalley and LibraryThing . I love all these sites that basically let me do what I love for free! Here's a look at what I'm currently reading and what I'm looking forward to read this month! Currently Reading: This one is pretty heavy. It's taking me a while to get through.  (I'm also alternating between reading this and watching Arrow and Daredevil.)  Next Up: What are you reading?  This guy.

Wreck and Order  by Hannah Tennant-Moore Publication Date: February 9, 2016 Pages: 304 Genre: Fiction My Goodreads Rating: 2 Stars Goodreads Synopsis: Decisively aimless, self-destructive, and impulsively in and out of love, Elsie is a young woman who feels stuck. She has a tumultuous relationship with an abusive boyfriend, a dead-end job at a newspaper, and a sharp intelligence that’s constantly at odds with her many bad decisions. When her initial attempts to improve her life go awry, Elsie decides that a dramatic change is the only solution. An auto-didact who prefers the education of travel to college, Elsie uses an inheritance to support her as she travels to Paris and Sri Lanka, hoping to accumulate experiences, create connections, and discover a new way to live. Along the way, she meets men and women who challenge and provoke her towards the change she genuinely hopes to find. But in the end, she must still come face-to-face with herself. Whole-hearted, fiercel...