Tag Archives: Books

My Journey With the Seven Sisters (and Pa Salt) by Lucinda Riley

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Two years ago, after carrying the large paperback of the first book, The Seven Sisters, in my beach bag for six years, I finally set aside time to start the entire series, which consists of eight long books.

Well, I just finished the last book, Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt, and boy, what a journey that turned out to be!

Each book centers around one of the six sisters adopted by “Pa Salt,” a billionaire, with each one named after a star in the Seven Sisters constellation, also known as the Pleiades. Despite not being exceptionally well-written and sometimes needing a good editor, I enjoyed all the titles. They border on melodrama and were all a tad predictable, but I didn’t give a fig; they all hit the right note for warm summer days on the patio. These books with dual timelines are full of family dynamics, intrigue, and romance, and incorporate some historical figures and history in each exotic setting (Switzerland, Paris, England, Ireland, Australia, Africa, and Brazil), and one has to admire Riley’s research and imagination. If you decide to start on this series, be sure to have the next book readily available, as each ends with a cliffhanger.

My other minor gripe was that these sisters were all smart people, but throughout their upbringing, no one thought to ask their father, Pa Salt, his real name? (I know!)

If you’re a fan of epic novels by Diana Gabaldon, Sara Donati, Beatriz Williams, and Kate Morton, try these addictive books.

COPYCAT JACKETS: You Can Judge a Book By Its Cover

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For those wondering where I’ve been for the past year: Like many of you, this pandemic thing quashed my creative juices for book reporting, plus WordPress “improved” their format and I just didn’t have the energy to figure it out. The other issue is the app I used to make collages for my book covers wasn’t working right but it’s back along with my desire to write about books. I will follow with more posts over the next few weeks, including a continuation of my reading history series. Was it because I received my first dose of the Covid vaccination? Or could it be because Typing Maniac is kaput and I seem to have a bit more time? You make the call.]

How many of you have browsed the shelves at the library (pre-quarantine, natch) and picked up a book only to discard it thinking you had read it? Don’t be so quick to judge! Check out the inside flap before reshelving as it’s entirely possible the title has a “copycat” jacket with the publisher using a similar font and graphic similar to another popular book. It’s more common than you might think with some even using the same photograph, as seen in the article Why Do So Many Book Covers Look the Same? Blame Getty Images. Here’s a small sample of the image used for two very different books but check out the article for at least ten books that used the same graphic.

Another interesting article, 57 Books That Look Like Other Books, is worth reading in order to see the various cover trends from the past few years. Here’s a sample. Hmm, I wonder which book graphic was copied.

This trend has interested me for years but it wasn’t until I read Lucy Foley’s The Guest List that I started collecting graphics of books with similar covers. Here is my collage of recent thrillers. Can you name the book that started it all and the similarities?

Here’s another cover trend for books with the setting of a world war (usually) featuring characters on the cover (mostly with their backs to the viewer) and planes (or a plane) in the sky.

So don’t think your mind is going south if you can’t remember if you’ve read a particular book; it’s most likely you are picking up a book with a copycat cover!

Please let me know in the comments below how your reading year has been going. Also, you are welcome to email me at ilovelibraries at gmail dot com should you wish to send me a private message.

So Here We Go…

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I have been threatening to write a book blog for years and last fall announced on my other blog (Novel Rambles) that something would be coming soon. Well, by “coming soon,” I meant eight months because that’s how long it’s taken me to finally get something together.

My plan is to write a regular blog, and by “regular” I’m not sure if that means weekly, monthly, or whenever I feel I have something to say, which if it’s about books would be just about every day. I will talk about books and reading, particularly what I’ve loved (or liked) and what I’m excited to read, or write a “theme” column. For those of you who don’t know me very well, I am active in reading advance reading copies (although now it’s more in the digital format) and often read books before they are published, sometimes up to nine months ahead of time. That means what I talk about will most likely be titles you won’t be able to get your mitts on quite yet but sometimes having something to look forward to is half the fun.

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I don’t want to blather one for much longer, so just be assured that I will work on passing on lots of good book information, some of which you might not see anywhere else–for a while anyway.

Also, I’m kinda bad at not finding typos until after something has been published so be forewarned there may a typo or grammar error now and then. Not pointing them out would be appreciated. 🙂

And the appearance and layout are still a work-in-progress and will eventually be tweaked, but getting hot book into the world info may trump those efforts.

Housekeeping: Please note the menu on the right side includes a “Follow” button so you can enter your email and be notified when a new blog is posted. Don’t worry, though, I won’t be sharing email addresses.

And the GoodReads widget shows what I’m currently reading. If you aren’t a GoodReads member, consider creating an account as I will often refer to my current reviews.

So here we go!