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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 20, 2017 2:43:07 GMT -5
Was that your first Sarah Waters, scrubb? I have read it, I think I've read all her books, but to be honest I don't remember much of it. I'd quite like to reread.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 20, 2017 5:29:52 GMT -5
ooh scrubb: I remember enjoying "The Paying Guests," or at least following it intently, since I can't really say it was strictly a fun book to read. I think the cognitive dissonance you're describing was part of what I admired about it?
I haven't read any more of hers, I think - must correct that.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 20, 2017 11:43:54 GMT -5
I've also read Nightwatch by her, which I liked a lot.
I'll read more of hers - had The Little Stranger out of the library last month, but didn't get to it before having to return it.
This one kept me reading, but I still didn't enjoy it. Somehow I didn't engage enough with the main character to feel the sympathy that I should have.
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Post by Webs on Nov 21, 2017 12:45:10 GMT -5
"My Brilliant Friend" is slow. It hasn't captured me.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 23, 2017 13:32:30 GMT -5
Last night I finished "Us" by David Nicholls. First thing I've read by him. I enjoyed it quite a bit - and found it a bit unusual to read a book focused entirely on a relationship, written by a man. It was well done, though. It drew a very clear portrait of the narrator/main character and made him fairly sympathetic. The format is present day story happening with installments of him telling the story of his marriage from when he first met his wife up to the present time. When I think about it, the younger him was much more sympathetic than the older him. His flashbacks/narration show him being a really difficult father as his son grows up - demanding, overbearing, unable to empathise or see from other points of view, and emotionally ungiving. Very realistic, though.
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Post by HalcyonDaze on Nov 23, 2017 18:24:43 GMT -5
"My Brilliant Friend" is slow. It hasn't captured me. I gave up on My Brilliant Friend.
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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 24, 2017 2:41:48 GMT -5
Scrubb, he wrote One Day, right?
I remember enjoying that although I don't remember the Details now. I think it was also very relationship-focused.
#81(ish) Ali Smith's Autumn This was out last year and was called "the first Brexit novel". It's a quick read and I enjoyed it a lot. It's more style than plot-focused and the British Edition cover is beautiful.
#82 Flora Tristan, Peregrinations of a Pariah Early French Feminist goes to Peru in 1833. She was a brave and feisty Lady. Excellent if you're into early travel writing.
#83 Jessa Crispin, The Dead Ladies Project contemporary bookish/travel writing. Crispin, who also ran the blog Bookslut for many years, sets off to explore Europe and discover underrated literary/arty types. She has a particular style which could be annoying (in particular her asides about her relationship with a married man she calls The Lover) but she's also witty and some of the People she focuses on are amazing. Listened to this on audiobook; the American narrator could NOT do an Irish Accent, it was cringeworthy.
#84 Sabahattan Ali Supposedly a rediscovered classic, only recently translated into English from the Turkish. Meh. It's a bit of a drippy love Story set in Berlin in the '20s but could really be anywhere. I don't see the attraction.
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Post by sprite on Nov 24, 2017 4:22:57 GMT -5
i heard some interviews with egyptian writers of american-style detective noir fiction. i should probably look some up.
finished 'the magicians' by Lev Grossman. meh. i kept reading because i felt like surely, soon, something would happen. but when stuff did happen, it was sort of an anticlimax. and the main character is so self-absorbed. the majority of the women in the novel exist for him to lust after, shag, or deliver unto him great home truths. the book ends on a deliberate cliff hanger. it was well-done, and sort of expected, but i prefer a book that could be read on it's own even when part of a series.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 24, 2017 12:08:46 GMT -5
lillie - yes, that's him. I might read One Day now.
And now I have to go add a book to the "Abandoned Books" thread.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 26, 2017 17:52:14 GMT -5
48) Clifford D. Simak, Way Station
Another weird little sci-fi book from the used bookstore. It has a giant glowing psychedelic eye on the cover, so who could resist that.
This one was a surprise. It was written and set in the early 1960s and concerned a man who had fought in the Civil War and yet, 70 years later, had barely aged and lived alone in the woods in rural Wisconsin. He is the station master for the Earth outpost of an intergalactic transportation system, and this is what the action in the novel revolves around.
This crazy-looking novel had a lot of depth of characterization, and wonderful, detailed descriptions of the woodland around the man's house. Great weird little book.
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Post by sophie on Nov 26, 2017 20:03:36 GMT -5
I haven’t been able to concentrate much to read this past week for some reason (!!!) and have been catching up on magazines. However, yesterday I started my book for the book club for this month ... Nomad by Ayana Hirsi Ali and I am loving it. The most poignant chapter is the letter to her (now deceased) grandmother. Explains so much about ‘culture clash’... and issues new Moslem female immigrants deal with upon arrival in a first world country. Edited to add that this was a most interesting book. Certainly it gives a window into the world of Muslim women and a few ideas of how to help them with all the patriarchy and bs they are surrounded by.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 27, 2017 11:39:42 GMT -5
Last night I finished #100)In This Grave Hour - a Maisie Dobbs mystery. I've pretty much enjoyed all the ones I've read in the series, but there is a bit of 'sameness' about them and this one really didn't have anything outstanding about it. Pretty sure I won't remember anything at all about it in a couple days.
Oh, and Bookbub just came up with The Essex Serpent for $1.99! I had it out of the library last month and had to return it before I even started it - woohoo! I'll save it for our trip in a couple weeks.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Nov 27, 2017 16:02:55 GMT -5
Just checked Amazon. The Essex Serpent is more than $8 in Australia.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 27, 2017 18:21:06 GMT -5
THis is on sale, though - it's normally something like $18. I checked out the price a while ago and got it out of the library instead of spending that much. Since I didn't manage to read it, I'm pretty happy about getting it on sale for $2.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Nov 28, 2017 5:57:02 GMT -5
I wouldn't pay $18 for an ebook!
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Post by scrubb on Nov 28, 2017 10:24:10 GMT -5
New, popular ebooks are often between $14 and $18. Even older, popular books are usually $11 - $15. I only buy a few at full price - usually things I've been really wanting to read for a long time, and just when I'm stocking up for a vacation.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 30, 2017 22:07:31 GMT -5
Finished November with one more Bookbub special - Christmas at the New Yorker: Stories, Poems, Humor and Art.
It does not make a good ebook, as the pictures were all too small to see clearly. ALso, it had what I assume were side panels in the paper version - little "boxes" with sidebar stories, etc. - that just got inserted right into the middle of the text in the e version. Still, I think I got my $1.99 of enjoyment out of "The night before Christmas" as if written by Ernest Hemingway. I had to read most of it out loud to Mr_S, through my giggles.
There were also short stories by a lot of big names, some of them good, some of them not so much.
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Post by sprite on Dec 1, 2017 4:34:55 GMT -5
i'll have to look for that hemingway thing for partner, it sounds good!
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Post by scrubb on Dec 1, 2017 22:26:05 GMT -5
sprite, James THurber is the author
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Post by sprite on Dec 2, 2017 6:47:54 GMT -5
thank you! going to get that printed off for his christmas sock.
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Post by tzarine on Dec 2, 2017 12:56:35 GMT -5
liisa
read the berlin stories as a teen frightening tale
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