Book Chatter

Sunday Matters

Right Now:

I am coming to you very late today! High school ministry meets in the morning now and I didn’t get my post written early enough to schedule it ahead of time so, here I am!

Obligatory tree shot. It took a lot of effort to get our decorations put up this year. We waited because of weather. I don’t think I will do that again in the future. The day after Thanksgiving I am all fired up to do it but a week or two later? Nope. Everything turned out great though.

Christmas tree.

This Week:

I like to think that my week starts on Monday but this week it started yesterday and included a lot of wrapping and baking. I got a lot done but my dining room table looks like a Christmas explosion.

My son is home! I still have four more days of work and my daughter has school this week as well. The Hub, also working but most of us will be off soon. My club has a party this week. I have a retirement party to attend this week as well. Fun stuff.

Reading:

I am reading Promises of the Heart by one of my favorite people, Nan Rossiter. I am also collecting reading ideas for my make-believe evening of reading on Christmas Eve. I say make-believe because I really want to do it, but my daughter was just hired to sing at someone’s church on Christmas Eve so now I am not sure how that will work.

Bookish Holiday

Watching:

Haven’t made much of a dent in my Christmas movie watching. I will remedy that soon.

New Things I’ve Tried:

I bought a Danish Kringle from Trader Joe’s for this morning. Have you ever had one? I can’t eat it because of my allergies but it’s a delightful blend of sugary goodness. The Fam really enjoyed it.

Almond Kringle

Grateful for:

I’m grateful that I got some stuff done this weekend. I was fine but then everything started to ramp up and I got a little flighty. I’m good now. Just a few more days of work to go.

How are YOU all doing today?

The Family Upstairs
By Lisa Jewell
Atria Books, 9781501190100, November 2019, 352pp.

The Short of It:

As the title suggests, this is a book about a family but the type of family and the secrets they hold, slowly unfold into a story that I could not easily predict, which is a good thing!

The Rest of It:

The Family Upstairs is told from alternating points of view and jumps back and forth between the present day and the events of the past. Normally, this type of book frustrates me but here, I found it to work quite well.

One thread has Lucy on the street with her two young children. What happened to her? Why are they homeless? Another, involves Libby, a young woman who was adopted as a baby. She’s just been informed that she’s come into quite a large inheritance which makes her extremely curious about her past. In the last thread, we are introduced to the “family upstairs” and the sinister things going on that are revealed in pieces, bit by bit. ALL OF IT is related.

The Family Upstairs was THE book everyone was reading over Thanksgiving break and for once, I joined in. It took a little bit of time for me to get into the flow of it. All the time jumping slowed me down until about half-way through, when I began to turn the pages faster because it was all coming together in a way that piqued my interest.

I’ve read one other Jewell book, The Girls in the Garden and that was also very good. I remember adding all her books to my Kindle after reading that one, and I was not wrong to do so. I really like her style of writing. There’s a pulse to her work, a bit of tension that I enjoy but it’s not predictable or silly. I am loving these types of reads these days.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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