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Post by lillielangtry on Dec 13, 2023 1:32:14 GMT -5
I'm sure I remember reading about identical twins who married identical twins, and in fact case, wouldn't their children be like siblings if the parents were genetically the same?! Somehow I get confused immediately with that concept!
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 13, 2023 5:16:46 GMT -5
90. Miss Frost Solves a Cold Case, Kristen Painter. Christmas themed fantasy cozy mystery. Not as bad as it sounds, and funny.
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Post by scrubb on Dec 13, 2023 18:41:55 GMT -5
I'm sure I remember reading about identical twins who married identical twins, and in fact case, wouldn't their children be like siblings if the parents were genetically the same?! Somehow I get confused immediately with that concept! A woman I know has twin brothers. I believe they married twin sisters, but I'm not positive that they're twins. They might just be sisters. And I don't think anyone is identical. (They got married the same day, and their sister - the woman I know - was maid of honour at both weddings.) |
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 15, 2023 6:49:01 GMT -5
94) Gene Wolfe, Shadow of the Torturer (Book of the New Sun part 1)
First book of this celebrated far-future sci-fi/fantasy series that it took me ~45 years to get around to reading. The lead character is amazingly written - raised from childhood into a guild of torturers in the service of a monarchy, he is nonetheless someone you care about. What makes this stand out is the language; the author didn't invent a single term, but instead used unusual archaic or scientific terms. I'm going to zoom right into the next book in the series now.
The female characters are not written with as much agency as I'd like, but then this is a fantasy novel written in 1980, in the first person from the perspective of a very young man who was raised in an all-male guild of torturers, so it could be my expectations are a little high.
Enjoying nonetheless - this is really original stuff. Not as gory as it sounds.
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 15, 2023 8:31:25 GMT -5
Oops quoted when I meant to edit
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Post by sprite on Dec 15, 2023 13:56:13 GMT -5
The Waiting Land, Dervla Murphy (1967)
I read this on Romily's recommend of another of Murphy's book--this was on the only one on libby.
I don't normally like travel books, but this one starts in Kathmandu, and it was very interesting to compare her experience with my own. The author then goes on to the Pokhara Valley to work at a refugee camp for Tibetans.
The book is very of its time, with its romantic and paternalistic attitude to Asians, but it's hard to be too annoyed because she so obviously loved meeting people, showed them respect, and never whines.
it's really a lost era of travel. It sounds a little exciting, but I think I'm also happy with being able to buy food whenever I'm hungry.
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Post by lillielangtry on Dec 15, 2023 14:59:40 GMT -5
Kate Mosse, The Winter Ghosts
I'd been wanting to try a Kate Mosse. This short novel is no her best known work nor is it the best rated on Goodreads, but I thought it was good. It's about a young man in the 1920s who has not got over the death of his brother in the First World War. He travels to France to a region also haunted by its past. There's a nicely spooky atmosphere and though it was fairly clear what was going on, the details when they came out were interesting. I would try another of hers if I came across it.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 15, 2023 17:18:21 GMT -5
91. Rose Cottage, A Pride and Prejudice Variation, A K Madison. In which most of the nastier characters meet their comeuppance, and the good live happily ever after. A bit more kissing than I need, but otherwise not bad. It was written by someone I know from another internet list.
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Post by scrubb on Dec 16, 2023 23:55:42 GMT -5
I just discovered that John Williams wrote 4 books, not 3. I hadn't heard of his first one - Nothing but the Night.
So that's going on my "must find" list.
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Post by Q-pee on Dec 17, 2023 11:11:37 GMT -5
She and Her Cat
Makoto Shinkai & Naruki Nagakawa
One of those Japanese sort of fables.
The Guest Cat was utterly delightful and I wonder if it's now a genre - wistful with cats in Japan.
Anyway, this was just about OK.
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Post by scrubb on Dec 17, 2023 14:33:18 GMT -5
Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the making of The Birds of America, by William Souder.
It's a biography of Audubon - and in the first half, also of Alexander Wilson, a predecessor who published volumes about the birds in the USA. It's reasonably interesting but not super well written. I had no idea that Audubon was an inveterate liar, who made up not only his own history, but also a lot of natural history. When he presented a paper to the Natural Society (or whatever it was called) in England on rattlesnakes, he made up most of the information. He actually did know lots about the snakes, having encountered them frequently, but apparently didn't think it was exciting enough.
The book bogged down in spots and jumped around a bit sometimes. But overall it was interesting enough to be worth reading - particularly for someone who knew nothing about Audubon - while not being rivetting. I think i'd probably suggest looking for a better known biography over this one for anyone interested.
ETA: I just read that this book was nominated for a Pulitzer. Hmm. I really didn't think it was *that* good.
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Post by scrubb on Dec 18, 2023 10:53:57 GMT -5
These Precious Days, by Ann Patchett.
Collection of essays. I loved it. (Hence reading way too late last night.)
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Post by sophie on Dec 18, 2023 23:32:23 GMT -5
The Armor of Light by Ken Follett. A doorstop of a book, this novel takes place during the early part of industrialization in Britain and the Napoleonic wars. Characters are well developed, action is good, the story line is interesting and engrossing. It’s not a ‘great’ book, but it’s a great story well told. If your wrists are sturdy enough to hold up this tome, it’s worth reading. I enjoyed it.
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Post by lillielangtry on Dec 19, 2023 1:26:50 GMT -5
Happy other people are enjoying the Patchett essays! That one kept me up late too.
Sophie, I read that kind of book on Kindle because carrying it around makes my bag too heavy!
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 19, 2023 5:56:13 GMT -5
95) Gene Wolfe, Claw of the Conciliator (Book of the New Sun part 2)
This strange, meandering sci-fi series continues. Favorite bit: where someone calls solar panels “the black plates that drink the sun,” which I will also do from now on. I forgot to mention that the introduction of this edition is by Ada Palmer, Renaissance historian and author of the recent Terra Ignota series - that was a wonderful surprise.
On to the next one.
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 19, 2023 18:58:28 GMT -5
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Post by scrubb on Dec 19, 2023 23:41:58 GMT -5
I would love that!
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Post by lillielangtry on Dec 20, 2023 0:15:31 GMT -5
Me too!
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 20, 2023 2:10:10 GMT -5
And me.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 21, 2023 16:46:31 GMT -5
92. The Crepes of Wrath, Sarah Fox. Quite a good, but fairly formulaic, cozy mystery.
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Post by lillielangtry on Dec 21, 2023 23:55:59 GMT -5
Good title though.
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Post by riverhorse on Dec 22, 2023 14:43:51 GMT -5
After not having hung out here for ages, I can contribute 'Carrie Soto is Back' by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I loved her other books I've read, so grabbed this when I saw it on Libby. This time the strong lead female character is set in the world of professional tennis. Making a comeback at the age of 37. An enjoyable read even though Carrie isn't quite as complex or fascinating as, say, Daisy Jones or Evelyn Hugo.
I've just downloaded the Wattle Island book after reading through this thread, as I loved my trip to Lord Howe Island many years ago so thought I'd give it a try.
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 22, 2023 15:06:12 GMT -5
I got to the library and I had FIVE books on hold and am still only about 2/3 of the way through the gigantic multi-tome series that I'm reading, oops. Better get off the internet and back to reading it, hmmm
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Post by riverhorse on Dec 22, 2023 20:11:16 GMT -5
Oh, one caveat on the Carrie Soto book - it contains a LOT of dialogue between Carrie and her coach father in Spanish - and Argentinian Spanish at that. Which could be super annoying if you don't understand Spanish! As it was, I enjoyed picking holes in the many mistakes made by whoever didn't pick up the differences between Argie and regular Spanish when editing.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 23, 2023 4:54:07 GMT -5
93. Miss Frost Ices the Imp, Kristen Painter. Cozy mystery/fantasy.
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Post by scrubb on Dec 23, 2023 17:56:52 GMT -5
Years ago someone on here mentioned a series about a "chalet school", set in the Alps. I loved girls school books when I was growing up, and happened across the first one in that series, so picked it up.
The School at the Chalet, by Elinor Brent-Dyer.
Sadly, I found it kind of tedious. Very wordy, and not one of the characters was particularly appealing or likeable.
And, it was ridiculous. The big climactic scene is when a misbehaving 14 or 15 year old girl goes off to hike alone up to a mountain pass on a rough path. She has a 4+ hour lead before they realize she's gone. Then another girl takes off after her. And it's another 1.5+ hours before anyone follows.
But somehow,the second girl catches up to the first right after she gets into trouble. Not 4 hours later. And then the 2 of them huddle together for almost no time before rescue arrives.
One gets bronchitis from being out in the cold, and the other gets "brain fever" from the stress. She's unconscious for 2 days and her life is in jeopardy.
So, I won't be looking for any more in the series.
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 23, 2023 18:34:26 GMT -5
Brain fever! There's a bird in India that the call the "brainfever bird" because it has a call that I guess the British thought sounded like it was saying "brain fever! brain fever! brain fever!" and now you get to hear it too
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Post by scrubb on Dec 23, 2023 22:32:00 GMT -5
Thanks for that, I guess!
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Post by lillielangtry on Dec 24, 2023 2:10:57 GMT -5
Ha, the Chalet School!
I loved them growing up, so it may have been me who mentioned them, but I'm not sure I ever read the first one?! It's an enormous series, 70 books or so spanning many years, and I just used to grab them at random from the school library.
I'm sure it is incredibly dated now! Later on, one of the first pupils from those early days grows up and has triplet girls (of course!), who later go to the Chalet School themselves (of course!) and, well, gritty realism it is not.
Happy memories, but some books are perhaps better left in one's childhood ;-)
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 25, 2023 16:22:30 GMT -5
The problem with the Kindle is that you can't always tell when you're starting a new book in a series and when it's just an incredibly long chapter, hence a bundle of two here. I had to look at wikipedia to see if the next thing that had come bundled with the Kindle version was the fourth bit or if it was some extra thing, and it turned out to be the latter, so:
96, 97) Gene Wolfe, The Sword of the Lictor; The Citadel of the Autarch
The third and fourth volumes of this strange, meandering, and incredibly intelligent sci-fi series; again with introduction by Ada Palmer. I will be thinking about this for quite a while and will likely read it again fairly soon.
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