|
Post by ozziegiraffe on Mar 13, 2018 1:37:49 GMT -5
I loved all the Wrinkle in Time books, and Picnic at Hanging Rock (book and movie).
|
|
|
Post by Liiisa on Mar 13, 2018 7:28:19 GMT -5
I've never seen the movie. When I saw the book there at the library I knew I'd heard of it somehow, but couldn't remember why, but then I read the cover blurb "inspiration for the iconic Peter Weir movie": aha.
I'm glad they left the explanatory last chapter out. I'm always advocating for leaving things hanging and making you think. Freaky about your watch stopping on the rock, Hal!!
|
|
|
Post by ozziegiraffe on Mar 15, 2018 6:31:36 GMT -5
26. The Wife Drought, Annabel Crabb. A brilliant outline of the dilemmas facing working women, especially working mothers, in the 21st century. Highly recommended. 27. Murder at the Clinic, Dianne Harman. Not bad for a short cozy mystery. Interesting characters, a different setting, in an acupuncture clinic, and some romance. More recipes!
|
|
|
Post by scrubb on Mar 15, 2018 22:29:13 GMT -5
#18 The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau: A Historical Thriller by Graeme Macrae Burnett.
Eh. Set in France at a sort of indeterminate time, it has a socially awkward, extremely self-conscious low-achiever main character, and an underachieving, more sympathetic policeman with a bad home life. Sort of a noir detective novel. I really disliked the author's "translator's note" at the end where he pretended that this book had been written in the '80s (to great acclaim, of course) but was only now being translated into English, and he provided a bunch of detail on the (fictional) real author.
I think it won an award for "first novel" and it wasn't bad, but it wasn't really good, either. It did have some interesting characters and it was pretty readable, but... eh.
|
|
|
Post by sophie on Mar 15, 2018 23:14:10 GMT -5
We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter. This novel based on a real family (the author ‘s own family) starts in Poland and France just before WW2 begins and traces the next few years for various family members. For me, this was a WOW. It traces some of the travels and travails my family had. Some of the chapters were very close to stories I heard from my parents and cousins. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea but for me it was excellent (and emotional).
|
|
|
Post by scrubb on Mar 19, 2018 22:45:53 GMT -5
The Conjurer's Bird, by Martin DAvies. Really enjoyed it. A taxidermist/ornithologist goes looking for the Mysterious Bird of Ulieta - a bird known only because of a single drawing made by a naturalist who travelled with Captain Cook. Well, he's looking for the only known speciman of it, brought back from that journey and preserved, only to disappear for all time a few years later.
The Mysterious Bird of Ulieta is a real thing - it truly is known only because of one drawing, and there truly was one speciman brought back. It was in Joseph Banks' (a very famous naturalist - dozens of things are named for him, including the flower Banksia) collection but disappeared. The story around it in this book is fictional but it's really well done. Alternate chapters are set back in the 1760s, with Joseph Banks and a woman as the main characters. The stories are complementary. Oh, it was all just lovely!
|
|
|
Post by HalcyonDaze on Mar 20, 2018 0:55:50 GMT -5
Oh, I love the sound of that.
|
|
|
Post by Liiisa on Mar 20, 2018 5:35:51 GMT -5
Ooooh scrubb I will definitely look for that.
Banks is an interesting character - I read something that included his biography a couple years ago (had to look it up - it was "The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science" by Richard Holmes).
|
|
|
Post by scrubb on Mar 20, 2018 20:10:44 GMT -5
I'd heard of Banks because he was discussed in one of the Aubry/Maturin sea books by Patrick O'Brian and I looked him up after reading that. I love the "naturalists" of that era. Being a naturalist on an expedition to some far flung part of the world - wish that job still existed.
|
|
|
Post by HalcyonDaze on Mar 20, 2018 20:48:16 GMT -5
ha, I forget that Banks may not be as well known everywhere else as he is in Oz!
You may like Landfalls, a fictional account of the Lapérouse expedition.
|
|
|
Post by ozziegiraffe on Mar 21, 2018 3:58:10 GMT -5
If anyone hasn’t read A Wrinkle in Time, I got a very cheap kindle version this week.
|
|
|
Post by Liiisa on Mar 21, 2018 5:42:59 GMT -5
I'd heard of Banks because he was discussed in one of the Aubry/Maturin sea books by Patrick O'Brian and I looked him up after reading that. I love the "naturalists" of that era. Being a naturalist on an expedition to some far flung part of the world - wish that job still existed. If you're a biologist then you sort of get to do that, if your fieldwork takes you to exotic locales. (Or you can do it the easy way like I do and sign up for tropical birding tours.)
|
|
|
Post by scrubb on Mar 21, 2018 13:34:26 GMT -5
Yeah, sure - I was thinking more specifically of multi-year long ship journeys to parts of the world not yet explored by the western world. The days of Darwin and earlier. Agree that tropical birding tours are a decent alternative - usually your guides can give you info about the bugs and plants too.
Just finished "The Successor" by Ismail Kadare. A fictionalized story about the death of the appointed successor to the dictator of Albania.
Here's the blurb from Goodreads:
I'd say it wasn't exactly a page-turning mystery - it's a political novel, but mostly it's a psychological one. The psychology of dictatorship - that of the dictator, and of how a family at the top of politics is affected by it (the Trumps break the mold there, of course), and the psychology of guilt. In terms of the mystery, I think I'd have preferred it if we didn't find out, at the very end, how the Successor died. It was better when there were myriad possibilities and the feeling that nothing could be certain.
I really do have some problems with translated books, it seems. So hard to know if the occasional awkward wording is what the author intended or not. But overall it was good, and I think it got better as it went on. (Though it's short overall.)
|
|
|
Post by Liiisa on Mar 21, 2018 14:01:48 GMT -5
Ah yes, sadly the world is smaller now, so it's all about studying the evolution of leg structures on a particular genus of tropical moth rather than Exploring The Untamed Jungle.
|
|
|
Post by weeg on Mar 21, 2018 14:28:56 GMT -5
I don't normally wander into book threads, because I don't make enough time to read. But I took a day off last week and read all of Want You Gone by Chris Brookmyre last tuesday- mostly in a series of pubs.
I've read all of his books and I like this one, but it's not his best.
|
|
|
Post by HalcyonDaze on Mar 21, 2018 19:04:54 GMT -5
I like the sound of reading in a series of pubs!
|
|
|
Post by shilgia on Mar 21, 2018 19:17:34 GMT -5
5. Andrew Solomon - Far and Away.
It's a compilation of his travel writing. He's such a good writer. If he wrote a book about hole punchers it'd be riveting.
|
|
|
Post by lillielangtry on Mar 22, 2018 4:13:49 GMT -5
I've been away, so I've got a bit to catch up on.
Jon McGregor, Reservoir 13 - better late than never! Wonderful, absorbingly written. Loved every bit of it. If you haven't read this, don't be misled by the description on the back about the missing Girl; it's not a whodunnit or a thriller, but a slow report on the life of an English village and its inhabitants over several years. The Details of nature, the ongoing relationships, not every question is answered - it's not a novel with a traditional plotline, but really good.
Joanna Cannon, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep - pleasant for a relaxing read, but I wasn't totally convinced.
Hikayat: Short Stories by Lebanese Women ed. Roseanne Saad Khalaf - like most anthologies, this was a bit hit and miss, but there were some strong stories.
Jean Rhys, Till September Petronella - one of the new Penguin moderns that cost 1 pound, this contains the title story, which is a longish short story, and 3 other short shorts. I love Rhys' style and this was classic Rhys - some colonial background, young women who drink too much and rely on men to get by.
|
|
|
Post by sprite on Mar 22, 2018 6:30:40 GMT -5
Elena Ferrante talking about language and national identity, with a big shout out to translators.
|
|
|
Post by lillielangtry on Mar 22, 2018 6:48:58 GMT -5
Elena Ferrante talking about language and national identity, with a big shout out to translators. Ha! She's a translator herself, in her day Job (from the German)! :-)
|
|
|
Post by Liiisa on Mar 22, 2018 11:37:35 GMT -5
Ooh lillie- I’ve got “Reservoir 13” on my to-read shelf.
|
|
|
Post by ozziegiraffe on Mar 23, 2018 3:15:50 GMT -5
28. Precious and Grace, Alexander McCall Smith. Another excellent, gentle mystery from the Number One Ladies. This author, and his main character, deal with important issues with such gentleness and tact.
|
|
|
Post by scrubb on Mar 23, 2018 13:51:10 GMT -5
21. Prayers for the Stolen, by Jennifer Clement. In Guerrero, Mexico, drug lords come and steal all the pretty girls. All the men go to the US to work. Every time a child is born the mother announces it was a boy, and brings up a boy until they reach puberty and turn into girls. Then the mother makes their girls ugly.
This book had some great characters and a great setting, and the story was not bad, and it provided insight to that world. But it didn't blow me away. Worth reading, but good, not great.
|
|
|
Post by shilgia on Mar 23, 2018 15:12:19 GMT -5
6. Irin Carmon - Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Kind of a crappy book, made up of good stories about an interesting person (the most senior current sitting member of the US Supreme Court, and the second woman ever to serve on the court). Just so badly written and structured. Not thorough enough to be a serious biography; not funny enough to be comedy. A quick read, but a thorough "meh."
BTW, Scrubb, I'm not sure I've come back before to say that BookBub is a great source of ebooks, so a belated thank you. I remember being skeptical when you were raving about it - thinking that finding good reads would require sorting through piles of self-published or otherwise unsellable books (the way it is with the Kindle Daily Deals, from which I've unsubscribed), but it's only a short list of offerings per day, and it pretty regularly has interesting options.
If you haven't discovered it yet, Goodreads has a similar daily "deals" email that's also good. It sometimes partially overlaps with BookBub, but the selections are generally different.
|
|
|
Post by scrubb on Mar 23, 2018 17:25:13 GMT -5
Glad you're finding it worthwhile. Last week was especially good (or bad, maybe?) - I think I bought 7 books. And thanks for the goodreads tip.
ETA: just checked, and the goodreads deal is only available in the US right now. I'll try to remember to check it now and then as they say they're planning to expand it.
|
|
|
Post by sophie on Mar 23, 2018 23:04:55 GMT -5
I bought a few books last week.. as if I needed them!! Anyways, finished the first of the lot. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal. This is her first book, well written with great characters which I thought were one of the strengths of the book.
|
|
|
Post by ozziegiraffe on Mar 24, 2018 7:00:12 GMT -5
29. The Skeleton Paints a Picture, Leigh Perry. Another very funny cozy mystery from this author. The characters are believable and intelligent, even Sid the Skeleton.
|
|
|
Post by scrubb on Mar 24, 2018 17:45:00 GMT -5
Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline. I think maybe it's a YA book (or should be). About an Irish immigrant girl whose family dies in New York and she's put on the 'orphan train' that carried kids out to the midwest for adoption (or to be taken in as a worker), back in the '20s and '30s. And there's also the modern day story of an orphan girl in foster care who meets the old woman who used to be that young Irish girl, and how their stories have much in common.
It's a good story, well done, but I think more suited for young readers.
|
|
|
Post by tzarine on Mar 24, 2018 23:12:05 GMT -5
i have abandoned pearl buck's pavilion of women too dated for me
|
|
|
Post by ozziegiraffe on Mar 25, 2018 5:40:18 GMT -5
30. The Heiress of Linn Hagh, Karen Charlton. This book disappointed me. I was expecting less Gothic and more Jane Austen combined with Agatha Christie from a mystery set in the Regency period. The first few chapters in particular were far too graphic, and I was seriously tempted to stop reading. It was also historically inaccurate, as the Prince George, later George IV, was not regent in 1809. Definitely nowhere near Christie, as claimed on the cover.
|
|