What I'm reading Wednesday...

 

Twenty-sixth challenge finish of the year.

Ada Blackjack:  A True Story of Survival in the Arctic by Jennifer Niven.  I have now read two books on Arctic expeditions.  This one was very good as well as the first one which I read about six or seven years ago.  Surprisingly one of the expedition members in this one was born and raised in our county seat!  I guess I never considered that a Texas native might want to explore the ice...scratch that, as we get deep into our HOT summers, I might choose to go also!  The personalities of the expedition members and how they work together made this story unique.  I listened to this on audiobook, so I could get chores done.

Twenty-seventh challenge finish of the year.

Ugh.  I begrudged the reading time it took to slog my way through this one.  The setting was a large, decrepit manor house in the English countryside.  The owners, though going broke, were hosting a big house party for their estranged daughter's birthday.  Lots and LOTS of characters to keep up with, more than a few of which kept switching identities with other party attendees.  It was torture to try to keep up.

Oh, and did I mention that each day magically started over on the day before, during which the characters switched to yet other party-attendees' identities?  And they did not retain the memories of the day 'before,' so they wrote themselves notes and hoped to come across them.  By the fourth replay of the eve of the party, I was SO exhausted with this book.  However, by this time, I was so tired of the 'secret identity' trope, that I did not want to read another entire book using it; so I persevered.  I skimmed some before switching to the audiobook version which I checked out from the library.  I think I listened to it at double time while I did other things around the house.

I finished, FINALLY, but I hated almost every minute, every page, every freakin' identity switch and day replay.  Obviously I do not recommend this book.