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Post by mod on Dec 1, 2017 20:56:46 GMT -5
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Post by scrubb on Dec 1, 2017 22:35:01 GMT -5
Thanks, Mod.
I'm reading a Louise Erdich - The Round House - and really liking it. THe only other book of her's I read was The Beet Queen, many years ago, and although I liked it I didn't love it. She's been on my "I really should read more of her stuff" list forever but I just didn't get around to it till now. WHich is my loss, it turns out.
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Post by HalcyonDaze on Dec 2, 2017 3:59:42 GMT -5
I am reading The Zookeepers Wife. I have to finish it by Monday for bookclub and I'm only up to about Chapter 8. I've had it here for weeks but it was sort of slow at the start and so I kept on putting it down again. Oops.
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Post by sophie on Dec 2, 2017 11:58:54 GMT -5
I was trying to read The Essex Serpent’ as several of you liked it.. bogged down and it was due at the library so I will get at it another time.
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 2, 2017 16:02:40 GMT -5
Thank you Mod!
I've been in between books for a week or so because I've been driving to work and doing tons of overtime and when I get home I just stare at my country's political trainwreck du jour. But when I finally pick the book up it's going to be something else by Rachel Cusk which I forget the name of and it's all the way across the room, so.... It starts with an "O."
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 3, 2017 4:59:45 GMT -5
Bookmarking. Thank you Mod. I should have finished my latest audiobook on Friday travelling to Louth, but the (dirt) road was in poor condition due to wet weather, so I couldn't go. Have a four hour trip to Dubbo on Wednesday, though.
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Post by lillielangtry on Dec 3, 2017 7:31:20 GMT -5
Thanks mod!
#85 Ece Temelkuran, Euphorie und Wehmut (Turkey: The Insane and the Melancholy) It took me a while to get through this as I was reading in German and I don't know much about Turkey. But it was interesting, and chilling; about Turkey, an authoritarian society, the suppression of the free press, etc. Much that is relevant to other countries as well.
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 3, 2017 12:44:23 GMT -5
I should get that for pero if it comes out in English, lillie - he's fascinated by the current situation in Turkey (maybe because it seems like it's just a couple of steps ahead of us sometimes)
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Post by lillielangtry on Dec 3, 2017 15:27:23 GMT -5
I should get that for pero if it comes out in English, lillie - he's fascinated by the current situation in Turkey (maybe because it seems like it's just a couple of steps ahead of us sometimes) It's available in English - that's the actual title above - as are several other books by her. I don't know which is the best to start with, this one was discounted so I just picked it up. It's written in 2015 so the last couple of years are not covered.
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 3, 2017 18:26:11 GMT -5
Aha cool thanks!
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Post by scrubb on Dec 3, 2017 22:25:52 GMT -5
Finished The Round House by Louise Erdich today. IT was very good. Not perfect - after keeping me very involved and gripped by the first 2/3s, there was a bit that felt slightly weaker - but very good. I think this one might have won the national book award? I will read more of her stuff for sure - this moved her up my list.
Oh, also, I went to Goodreads to check it out and read a couple of reviews, and found a woman who really disliked it - because she hates books with "politics, mythology, historical events, etc. etc." and thinks they should be about nothing but character and plot development. So I looked at what else she has read, assuming that she would hate a lot of my favourite books - and was surprised to find that we agree on many. But then I saw that she HATED Bel Canto, because she thought it should be quite a thriller, what with a hostage taking and all, but it didn't even get her heart pounding (or something like that).
When I'm on a better connection I think I'll find her again and copy exactly what she said about hating books that have mythology, etc., because it pretty much sounded like it would eliminate most literature from her "to read" pile. And yet she liked lots of good books.
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Post by lillielangtry on Dec 4, 2017 4:23:51 GMT -5
Finished The Round House by Louise Erdich today. IT was very good. Not perfect - after keeping me very involved and gripped by the first 2/3s, there was a bit that felt slightly weaker - but very good. I think this one might have won the national book award? I will read more of her stuff for sure - this moved her up my list. Oh, also, I went to Goodreads to check it out and read a couple of reviews, and found a woman who really disliked it - because she hates books with "politics, mythology, historical events, etc. etc." and thinks they should be about nothing but character and plot development. So I looked at what else she has read, assuming that she would hate a lot of my favourite books - and was surprised to find that we agree on many. But then I saw that she HATED Bel Canto, because she thought it should be quite a thriller, what with a hostage taking and all, but it didn't even get her heart pounding (or something like that). When I'm on a better connection I think I'll find her again and copy exactly what she said about hating books that have mythology, etc., because it pretty much sounded like it would eliminate most literature from her "to read" pile. And yet she liked lots of good books. We read The Round House for book Club a few years ago and I've been meaning to read some more of her since then, but haven't. Yes, it seems hard to imagine what that person could read at all really! Bel Canto, being based on a real-life incident as it was, was surely not a great choice for her...
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 4, 2017 5:35:15 GMT -5
I really want to read the new Louise Erdrich.
scrubb, that's a bizarre set of objections there. To me that sounds like she's going to like nothing but Jane Austen and romance novels? Maybe A Little Life, there's nothing but people's issues in that.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 4, 2017 9:17:25 GMT -5
67. Lost and Fondue, by Avery Aames. Quite a good plot, but a bit too much cheese for my taste. The cheeses were mostly local to the area, so of little interest to Australians, apart from the imported ones, like Brie or Camembert. And some of the action was a bit far-fetched.
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 4, 2017 18:26:04 GMT -5
OOH - I decided not to read the Rachel Cusk yet after all and instead am reading Jesmyn Ward's "Sing the Unburied, Sing," which has been praised and was on my list... and WOW so far it is very good.
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Post by HalcyonDaze on Dec 4, 2017 18:28:29 GMT -5
I borrowed a copy of Wonder from a friend last night. LC is reading it at the moment but I hope to get hold of it soon and read it before seeing the movie.
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Post by scrubb on Dec 4, 2017 19:26:46 GMT -5
Here's what she said. I was wrong - historical events aren't in her list of hates:
LEt's just say that the myth was NOT unrelated...
Here's part of her Bel Canto review:
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Post by sophie on Dec 5, 2017 1:14:51 GMT -5
On Island by Pat Carney. This is a series of short vignettes about life on the gulf islands. She is a former politician and senator with a good eye for character and details.
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Post by lillielangtry on Dec 5, 2017 2:14:13 GMT -5
Wow. First off, obviously everyone has the right to read what they want and I *sort of* get disliking fantasy elements. The difficulty to me is her Problem with so-called "politics". Most People don't want to be "preached at" but I think covering difficult issues is one of the things fiction does best. I mean, that rules out almost everything, right? War, Migration, mental health, poverty? Most of the classics immediately gone?
As for Bel Canto, it's a long time since I read it but I imagine that a drawn-out hostage situation is, indeed, largely crushingly boring. However I don't remember finding the book dull. And as for it being spoilered - haha! Well, given I had written about the incident in my PhD Thesis I wasn't expecting a surprise. Is it a giveaway if you know the Nazis lose the war?!
Horses for courses I suppose. Now I want to reread Bel Canto (I know my copy is in England though).
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 5, 2017 6:17:55 GMT -5
Ha, that person sounds like an extreme version of my mom, who likes thrillers and spy novels (preferably about World War II) and hates magic realism, super stylistic lit-fic, etc. But even she liked Bel Canto; she's the one who got me to read it!
Her reaction to my loaning her "Lincoln in the Bardo" was hilarious, basically like "w. t. f."
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 6, 2017 5:46:51 GMT -5
68. The Atlantis Gene, The Origin Mystery, book 1, by A G Riddle. This book is a bit like the Da Vinci Code meets science fiction. Very short chapters, jumping from one scene and set of characters to another in rapid succession. While it was quite a good read, I'm not sure I'll bother with the rest of the trilogy as they seem to get more far fetched than the first.
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Post by Phar Lap on Dec 6, 2017 6:06:48 GMT -5
Every time I see the thread title "And now the End is Near ..." I sing ... and so I face; the final curtain. And the song goes around and around in my head
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 9, 2017 7:16:04 GMT -5
49) Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing
Well, I was going to read the Rachel Cusk novel, but then I saw this at a bookstore and remembered that I'd been wanting to read it for several months, so....
This was a great novel: it's on my faves of the year list. It's set in rural Mississippi and told alternately from the perspective of a 13-year-old boy, his mother, and a ghost of someone who'd been in prison with the boy's grandfather. The boy and his mother live with the mother's parents, and so while the story of the novel centers on a bad situation, there's this sense of strength of the African-American rural traditions that will be handed down from the grandparents to this boy and his little sister and keep them strong despite the considerable challenges of their environment. The grandfather is a wonderful character.
Now I'm going to read Rachel Cusk.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 9, 2017 21:27:04 GMT -5
69. Dead Creek, by Victoria Houston. This book starts with a fishing expedition, but becomes a complex and fascinating mystery. Some fairly deep issues are dealt with, and there is a level of suspense. This series is worth continuing.
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 10, 2017 13:11:32 GMT -5
50) Rachel Cusk, Outline
I had no idea that this vague novel was the first of a trilogy featuring the other vague novel of hers, "Transit," that I read back in June. In fact they're both so vague that it was only on reading the back cover after finishing this novel that I realized that.
Despite all this I really love her work. She just describes ordinary situations where people have conversations, and those situations and conversations feel incredibly real. That's all - but somehow it's insightful, reading her work. But you can't say that anything happens, really, except that people talk to each other and eat in restaurants. It's like a French film, one of those films where people sit around and talk to each other and it's really great for some reason you can't really put your finger on.
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Post by sophie on Dec 10, 2017 22:37:52 GMT -5
In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende. I loved this novel.. a good plot, several strong and believable characters and her strong writing. Set in New York, with some events from the past taking place in Guatemala, Brazil and Chile, the whole story is a very contemporary view on karma and redemption. Loved it.
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Post by sprite on Dec 12, 2017 4:29:15 GMT -5
My reading has slowed down because it's too cold at night to have my arms outside of the duvet. must get my kindle up and running.
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Post by lillielangtry on Dec 12, 2017 15:50:15 GMT -5
My reading has slowed down because it's too cold at night to have my arms outside of the duvet. must get my kindle up and running. I notice this sometimes. There must be a gap in the market for a fleecy arm warmer...
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Post by mei on Dec 12, 2017 16:13:11 GMT -5
My reading has slowed down because it's too cold at night to have my arms outside of the duvet. must get my kindle up and running. I notice this sometimes. There must be a gap in the market for a fleecy arm warmer... here you go
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Post by mei on Dec 12, 2017 16:15:04 GMT -5
but I came in to say: I have to do an English language course in the new year. had an intake meeting today where I heard there will also be 2-4 hours a week of homework. but! much of the homework will be reading books! (as in, the type of books that are part of my regular reading anyway, but I haven't had much time for lately). I think I can deal with this type of homework...
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