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Post by tzarine on Oct 27, 2023 13:23:28 GMT -5
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Post by Liiisa on Oct 28, 2023 9:56:55 GMT -5
François Dominique, Aseroë
I bought this book for its cover, which is a gorgeous painting of a weird mushroom. But it's very VERY nonlinear, and my brain just can't handle that right now. Not abandoned permanently, but temporarily at least.
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Post by Q-pee on Nov 10, 2023 13:19:45 GMT -5
I might be about to abandon Fraud, by Zadie Smith.
It sounded so promising but 155 pages in and NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. And not in a good way.
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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 11, 2023 2:56:48 GMT -5
I might be about to abandon Fraud, by Zadie Smith. It sounded so promising but 155 pages in and NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. And not in a good way. Oh no! I finished this last week and I really liked it - will report on the book thread later - but I've got to say, the plot is not super cohesive, if you're hoping for a big reveal connecting the main characters with the court case, that is not really gonna happen. If that helps your decision!
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Post by Q-pee on Nov 11, 2023 4:28:48 GMT -5
I might be about to abandon Fraud, by Zadie Smith. It sounded so promising but 155 pages in and NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. And not in a good way. Oh no! I finished this last week and I really liked it - will report on the book thread later - but I've got to say, the plot is not super cohesive, if you're hoping for a big reveal connecting the main characters with the court case, that is not really gonna happen. If that helps your decision! I was enjoying some of the subtle humour, and I don't need a whole lot of plot... but the lack of any plot at all is too much. I've moved on to a murder mystery - tons of plot
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Post by sophie on Nov 16, 2023 13:50:37 GMT -5
Richard Osman, The last Devil to Die. The newest one in the Thursday murder club series. I just couldn’t get into it.. after about 50 pages, I flipped to the end to see if my initial suspicions were correct.. and I returned it to the library. Maybe too many murder mystery books in a row.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 23, 2023 20:38:28 GMT -5
Claire Oshetsky, Chouette
Woman gives birth to an owl because she is married to a human but also has a lover who is a female owl ? and when she gets pregnant she knows it's going to be a baby owl. I got nearly a third of the way through it, but at this point the owl baby mother protagonist has alienated everyone she knows because of the influence of what seems to be a kind of malevolent infant owl and I just can't really take the mood anymore. Well written, though, or else it wouldn't have seemed quite so unpleasant.
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Post by Q-pee on Nov 24, 2023 9:22:36 GMT -5
Richard Osman, The last Devil to Die. The newest one in the Thursday murder club series. I just couldn’t get into it.. after about 50 pages, I flipped to the end to see if my initial suspicions were correct.. and I returned it to the library. Maybe too many murder mystery books in a row. for you or him? I'm always slightly suspicious of "bestsellers" from people famous in other fields. I feel they haven't quite earnt their writer's stripes, it might be unfair but it tracks often enough that I'm not abandoning my bias.
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Post by sprite on Nov 24, 2023 10:19:12 GMT -5
I've really enjoyed that Thursday series, which surprised me because yes, being good at one thing isn't about being good at another. He seems to have had a varied career, which I suspect helped with his storytelling. I want to read a Graham Norton, because I enjoyed the film/series of one of his books, but I'm hesitant.
I skipped through "Murder Most Unladylike" which was cute, and I would definitely recommend for a 11-14 yr old audience. Set in a 1930s English boarding school, narrated by a Hong Kong Chinese girl who has formed a detective society with her Jolly-English-Hockey-Sticks dorm-mate. It was fun, but I just ran out of patience for 500 pages. I'm a bit tired of authors having 500 pages of ideas and editors who let them keep all the ideas. We can't all be penning the next great epic!
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Post by Q-pee on Nov 24, 2023 10:26:23 GMT -5
I read one of Graham Norton's... haven't read another.
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Post by tucano on Nov 24, 2023 12:17:30 GMT -5
I also like the Thursday Murder Club books. I usually take the latest one on holiday. I didn't enjoy 'The Last Devil' as much as the others. Apparently he is taking a break to write a new book with a different detective duo.
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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 24, 2023 13:57:10 GMT -5
Claire Oshetsky, Chouette Woman gives birth to an owl because she is married to a human but also has a lover who is a female owl ? and when she gets pregnant she knows it's going to be a baby owl. I got nearly a third of the way through it, but at this point the owl baby mother protagonist has alienated everyone she knows because of the influence of what seems to be a kind of malevolent infant owl and I just can't really take the mood anymore. Well written, though, or else it wouldn't have seemed quite so unpleasant. Honestly this sounds incredible, but maybe not in a good way!
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 24, 2023 18:18:45 GMT -5
I think it's one of those amazing books that you just have to be in the mood for? It's a great metaphor for how having a baby completely takes over your life, but I just wasn't enjoying it. Maybe next year I'll try it again.
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Post by sophie on Dec 25, 2023 17:50:05 GMT -5
Nora Robert’s Identity. I just couldn’t get into it. I’ve read quite a few of her books, they aren’t great literature but entertaining. Maybe I just wasn’t on the mood, maybe my brain wants something deeper.. it’s going back to the library tomorrow!
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 28, 2023 21:57:43 GMT -5
Alice Winn, In Memoriam
It just reads too much like a gay romance novel - 40 pages in and the main concern was whether public school students Ellwood and Gaunt were going to be together or just fool around or what, and will they get caught, and etc and yeah I know eventually it's going to be World War I and at that point things were likely to get more interesting, but, meh.
Maybe I'll try it again someday... I'm just not too interested in romance plots.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 23, 2024 18:11:23 GMT -5
Robert Darnton, The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748-1789
I'm sure this is a really fascinating and important book, but I feel like I've had enough French history for now. I finished reading the introduction and part of the first chapter and decided that I really didn't feel up to it.
It's not the author's fault that all these nonfiction books that I'd put on hold a month ago all came available at once!
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Post by tucano on Mar 20, 2024 10:52:57 GMT -5
Not abandoned but I got to the end and wondered what all the fuss was about- Normal People by Sally Rooney.
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Post by Liiisa on Mar 20, 2024 12:00:26 GMT -5
Oh! Maybe I should be glad I haven’t gotten to it yet then
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Post by kneazle on Mar 20, 2024 15:22:07 GMT -5
Not abandoned but I got to the end and wondered what all the fuss was about- Normal People by Sally Rooney. I wish I had abandoned it. I hated this book. I have no idea why it won awards or why there was a fuss. Honestly if I'd been the reader at a publishing house it'd have been a form rejection. AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHAT DO YOU HAVE AGAINST SPEECH MARKS?!
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Post by lillielangtry on Mar 20, 2024 16:03:15 GMT -5
Hm, I liked it, but it definitely split our book club.
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Post by Liiisa on Mar 20, 2024 17:44:00 GMT -5
I kept it on my list because my mom hated it
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Post by sophie on Mar 20, 2024 23:07:29 GMT -5
Cult by Camilla Lackberg and Henri Fexeus. Translated from the Swedish by Ian Giles. Normally I like Scandinavian mysteries but this one is too weird and intricate. I might not be in the mood either. It’s going back to the library.
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Post by tzarine on Apr 4, 2024 19:08:22 GMT -5
i keep getting deeper into moby dick & abandon it over & over well i read the ending. it was great.
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Post by Liiisa on Apr 4, 2024 19:39:51 GMT -5
Yeah I think "Moby-Dick" is like "The Savage Detectives" - good opening, good ending, unreadable middle part
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Post by Webs on Apr 9, 2024 16:46:03 GMT -5
I had to abandon "The Wolf Den" not by choice but because Audible was fucked up. It's okay, I was getting frustrated it wasn't going anywhere and there were too many inconsistencies.
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Post by HalcyonDaze on Apr 9, 2024 18:43:00 GMT -5
I am debating abandoning The seven moons of Maali Almeida, purely because it is written in the second person and I find books like that very uncomfortable to read.
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Post by lillielangtry on Apr 10, 2024 0:01:51 GMT -5
I am debating abandoning The seven moons of Maali Almeida, purely because it is written in the second person and I find books like that very uncomfortable to read. I loved that book! But it is not an easy read, also for the subject matter as well as the style.
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Post by HalcyonDaze on Apr 10, 2024 2:40:55 GMT -5
I'm finding it interesting so far apart from the style. Not sure whether to push through or not.
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Post by Liiisa on Apr 10, 2024 5:21:28 GMT -5
Yeah, it was my favorite book that year, but if the style doesn't work for you, you aren't going to enjoy it!
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Post by Liiisa on Apr 26, 2024 19:22:27 GMT -5
I have officially abandoned "Parasol Against the Axe" by Helen Oyeyeme
So far it appears to be narrated by the city of Prague? I bet I would love this if I were capable of concentrating, but it's just too abstract for my current state of mind. So I'm going to take this back to the library and try it another time.
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