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Post by Liiisa on Apr 1, 2018 6:42:30 GMT -5
Yay books reading time!!! Wooooo Yesterday I started "The Essex Serpent," which is great so far. (Any book that has me doing a search for UK plate tectonics is going to be a good book.) Here's the link back to March.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Apr 1, 2018 7:06:59 GMT -5
Thank you Liiisa. I've already finished my first for the month. 34. Dying for a Daiquiri, by Candy Sample. Quite a good cosy mystery set in Hawaii. Makes me want to see the Big Island for myself. I'll look forward to the other books in the series I have downloaded.
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Post by Queen on Apr 1, 2018 14:53:18 GMT -5
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Post by scrubb on Apr 1, 2018 15:45:51 GMT -5
Ooh, Essex Serpent is really good - enjoy!
I just started "The Girls in the Show", about comedians and feminism. It might be slightly too ranty for me, but so far I don't disagree with anything she says.
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Post by Queen on Apr 1, 2018 18:35:52 GMT -5
I just started "The Girls in the Show", about comedians and feminism. It might be slightly too ranty for me, but so far I don't disagree with anything she says. I'm a feminist but... sometimes I have to read those books in short doses.
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Post by tzarine on Apr 1, 2018 18:37:38 GMT -5
yerma by garcia lorca
about a woman who can't conceive & the pressure surrounding her & what it drives her to
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Post by lillielangtry on Apr 2, 2018 4:35:52 GMT -5
Thanks Liisa!
I enjoyed The Essex Serpent (although I've heard dissenting voices too).
I have one for April already; Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine, by Gail Honeyman. The central character is a very lonely woman, until a few chance events serve to upset her rigid routine. We picked this for book club in an attempt to have something more uplifting after a run of rather heavy books. I wonder if the other members will think we succeeded. The book is definitely funny in places - very British - but with a dark backstory. I'm afraid I wasn't completely able to suspend disbelief - Eleanor's trajectory towards a happy ending was just too steep for me. I enjoyed it, I really did, but not a five-star read for me.
Eleanor Oliphant's central theme is that of loneliness, and how it affects not just older people but many, many people in today's world. It opens with a quote from Olivia Laing's non-fiction The Lonely City, and by pure coincidence I bought that book a few weeks ago, so I'm going to read that next.
Oh - and I did reread A Wrinkle in Time last night/this morning. I agree with webs that it doesn't quite stand the test of time. I liked the characters, but I found the style rather stilted (in contrast to Susan Cooper's fantasy children's book The Dark is Rising, for example, which I reread last year and found still wonderfully written). The odd mentions of God were rather jarring too.
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Post by tzarine on Apr 2, 2018 11:03:59 GMT -5
lillie
thanks for the wrinkle in time comments bc i adored meg as a child!
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Post by Liiisa on Apr 3, 2018 18:18:01 GMT -5
17) Sarah Perry, The Essex Serpent
Well! It took me two days to read this 400-page novel, so obviously I was having trouble putting it down. I can see how people might quibble with parts of it, but I really really liked it. I liked the way it didn't really end satisfyingly, and I loved the imagery - could really see the marshland as described. And Cora, the troublesome character at the center of the novel, reminded me a lot of myself, which I'm going to have to think about some since I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but anyway, I really liked it.
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Post by Liiisa on Apr 6, 2018 20:16:25 GMT -5
18) Catherynne Valente, The Refrigerator Monologues
A tiny, highly amusing and imaginative little book set in a bar in the underworld, in which the dead girlfriends of superheroes tell their stories (which in the superheroes' stories are of course just minor plot elements).
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Apr 7, 2018 4:41:45 GMT -5
35. Mary Daheim, The Alpine Fury. Another absorbing mystery, or rather, two entwined mysteries. Good development among the regular characters too. I like this cosy mystery author and both the series she has written are funny, deeper than many of the cheap kindle cosies. Set in Washington State, one of the few parts of the USA I have visited.
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Post by Liiisa on Apr 7, 2018 6:45:42 GMT -5
19) Howard Ensign Evans, Life on a Little-Known Planet (I didn't read this in an hour last night - it's the nonfiction book that I've been reading to put myself to sleep.) This is a book by an entomologist, in which he relates stories about various insects (an entomologist friend gave me his extra copy a couple months ago, and I've been reading a couple pages a night ever since). It's a great book if you have even the slightest interest in insects - the only catch is that it was written in the 1960s, so it's a little behind on some social and scientific trends, and he uses "he" to describe people in general, which was normal then but just sounds so weird now. But I enjoyed it - sadly the grim prognostications that he made about habitat loss and such are even more true now, and he didn't even mention climate change. Fun times! Oh, and this book is how I knew that all the descriptions of springtail behavior in "Reservoir 13" were accurate, lillielangtry!
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Post by scrubb on Apr 7, 2018 12:12:56 GMT -5
"The Girl in the SHow: 3 Generations of Comedy, Culture, and Feminism" by Anna Fields.
I thought it was ok with some major detractions. One of the reviews on Goodreads encapsulates it perfectly:
This book will excite and appeal to readers who are just getting into the topics of comedy and feminism. It is earnest in its pursuit and thorough in its analysis. Although not written for an academic audience, its tone suggests a desire to be taken very seriously as a scholar, which in all fairness, the author deserves to be. I enjoyed reading the perspective of so many living and passed "comedienne-ballerinas", and my sympathies are firmly aligned with all who seek to find their place in the male-dominated world of comedy.
However, this book also has the potential to bore those who have been gnawing at these bones for much of their adult lives. The takes aren't all that fresh and in many instances, the analyses feel over-wrought and tiresome. Further, the author's writing style distinguishes itself by its lack of discipline.
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Post by lillielangtry on Apr 8, 2018 12:20:50 GMT -5
I didn't even know what springtails were, Liisa!
I have some non-fiction to add:
Olivia Laing, The Lonely City - a meditation on modern loneliness, particularly in urban life, through the works of various New York artists, mostly famously Edward Hopper. Loved this, it's well-written, interesting (particularly on the AIDS crisis and its connection to isolation in NYC) and relevant.
Andrea Wulf, The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World - also very good, although my favourite part was Humboldt's trip to South America and that came right at the start. My only problem was I listened to this on audiobook and the reader wasn't very strong on the foreign words and place names.
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Post by scrubb on Apr 9, 2018 0:58:31 GMT -5
Just looked up REservoir 13 - the kindle edition is $20!!!!
I'm definitely interested in the one about Humboldt. I assume he's the Humboldt that the current was named after?
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Post by lillielangtry on Apr 9, 2018 2:41:16 GMT -5
Just looked up REservoir 13 - the kindle edition is $20!!!! I'm definitely interested in the one about Humboldt. I assume he's the Humboldt that the current was named after? That's the one. (He also had a famous brother who the university in Berlin is named after!). He was absolutely indefatigable and published almost until his death aged 89. He came very close to identifying evolution - Darwin was hugely influenced by him - and man-made climate change. Amazing.
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Post by Liiisa on Apr 9, 2018 4:39:18 GMT -5
I want to read the one about Humboldt too.
Wow, $20 is steep for a slim little book like that, but it's good!
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Apr 9, 2018 7:48:06 GMT -5
36. Murder at the Maples, Joanne Phillips. Surprisingly good for an Audible bargain (the previous one was dreadful). I know the city, Shrewsbury, where it is set, and the characters are interesting and believable. Several threads to a mystery, well-resolved. My other current audible book is a non-fiction about brain plasticity, a bit too serious after a long day at work, or towards the end of a road trip, so I've downloaded some lighter books for late driving. The serious ones are great for the first few hours.
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Post by Queen on Apr 10, 2018 0:40:40 GMT -5
Haven't logged my reading so no idea what number this is.
#x The Shadow Queen Anne O'Brien
Historical novel - think Philippa Gregory.
All about Joan of Kent who was married, married bigamously, had second marriage annulled, widowed, married for a thrid time to the Prince of Wales, that marriage wasn't recognised - so had a full wedding to the Prince of Wales.... widowed again and became regent for her son Richard !!
I suspect most of the novel is pure invention with few contemporary sources available but it was a good train read.
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Post by Liiisa on Apr 10, 2018 4:39:32 GMT -5
Wow Joan, you do you!
Was all that her idea, or was it about political machinations?
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Post by tzarine on Apr 10, 2018 18:40:55 GMT -5
graham greene
our man in havana
so fun esp having been there & all the locations of the book have become real
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Post by Queen on Apr 11, 2018 1:09:57 GMT -5
Wow Joan, you do you! Was all that her idea, or was it about political machinations? Well... probably a bit of both This is historical fiction but it seems the first marriage was a love match, and the vows were made privately (but correctly witnessed), so it was a bit of a problem when her family (including the king) tried to marry her off as a political match. But husband one was off at war and she was only 13. So the family got their way. Husband #1 came back and fought to get her back. Causing big headaches all round, but eventually he got the pope to rule that his marriage was legit. Second marriage was annulled. Husband #3 was a political marriage, she was a Plantagenet princess... but it was unpopular with the King since the Prince of Wales should have married a foreign princess because diplomacy. This book gives her some credit for various political steps but who knows how much truth is in there... reading historical fiction often makes me want to go and read a "real" biography.
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Post by Liiisa on Apr 11, 2018 4:52:47 GMT -5
Huh! I just read her wiki, and the facts you relate seem to track real events, at least. She sounds like quite a person.
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Post by scrubb on Apr 12, 2018 11:09:42 GMT -5
Dragon Springs Road, by Janie Chang. Started out promising, with a young girl in SHanghai in the very early 1900s, who lives with her mother in an abandoned building attached to a big family home. A fox spirit watches over her.
But by about 1/2 way through it went from being a reasonably convincing picture of Chinese society to a sort of schlocky story that wasn't particularly realistic, from what I know. It was ok, still kind of entertaining, but this young orphan ended up with a lot more opportunity than I think could be genuinely expected in that time and place. Though I am not sure, of course. Other books that I've read that were set in that time were set in rural CHina so maybe the city really was that much less traditional.
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Post by Webs on Apr 12, 2018 13:50:30 GMT -5
Just finished Voyage into Darkness by Jean Rhys. I knew where this was going after about 15 pages and sure enough...
I guess after reading many stories of the "demi-monde" I am just tired of how similar they are despite the skill of the writer. I am guessing this is close to auto-biographical and one of her first so I should cut her some slack. I just couldn't be motivated to read more of her work.
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Post by scrubb on Apr 13, 2018 11:07:32 GMT -5
Fragments of Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz, by Isabella Leitner.
A short but devastating memoir of a woman and her family who were deported to Auschwitz in May, 1944. It's a series of short scenes - fragments - from the day they were deported, on her birthday, through the hell of 9 months in camps until she and 2 of her sisters escaped during a forced march, and were liberated by the Russians a few days later, and then on to her personal victory of having her own family to continue her line and defeat Hitler (who she calls "the housepainter" rather than naming).
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Post by scrubb on Apr 15, 2018 14:18:02 GMT -5
Spring Flowers, Spring Frost by ISmail Kadare. It won the International Man Booker prize. It certainly had a lot of interesting elements and the style was likely very good in the original, but the translation seemed sooooo stilted and unclear. I'd actually be interested in trying to find a different translation and rereading it to see if it's easier to follow. (Not the story - that's supposed to be a bit opaque, with lots of allegory and so on. But the main character's thoughts and feelings seem to jump out of nowhere via awkward comments by the narrator, instead of clearly flowing.)
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Post by scrubb on Apr 15, 2018 16:49:25 GMT -5
Just read the "mini" book - Babette's Feast, by Isak Dinesen. One of those things that's been on my list forever and given that it's only about 40 pages long I don't know why I didn't read it years ago! It was a good concept - think it could have actually made a decent full novel, but it works as a novella, too.
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Post by lillielangtry on Apr 16, 2018 2:39:29 GMT -5
Just finished Voyage into Darkness by Jean Rhys. I knew where this was going after about 15 pages and sure enough... I guess after reading many stories of the "demi-monde" I am just tired of how similar they are despite the skill of the writer. I am guessing this is close to auto-biographical and one of her first so I should cut her some slack. I just couldn't be motivated to read more of her work. They're all semi-autobiographical except for Wide Sargasso Sea, so if that one wasn't for you, probably don't bother with any more. Except if you like Jane Eyre and haven't read Wide Sargasso Sea (which is the Story of the first wife in JE), that is completely different and very good.
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Post by lillielangtry on Apr 16, 2018 2:44:53 GMT -5
Olga Tokarczuk, Flights (translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft) This is shortlisted for the Man Booker International. I believe it's supposed to be a novel, although I really wonder whether it would have got the category "novel" if it had been written in English - or if it would even have been published at all. I can imagine that an Editor might have suggested working it into a book of interlinked short stories instead. Anyway, this is a great meandering work ranging from a 17th century anatomist to a young man in the 21st century whose wife and child disappear while they're on holiday. It's all on the themes of travel, time and the body. There are no distinct chapters but lots of different sections, and maps and diagrams inserted into the text as well (a la Sebald). It's beautifully translated and I found it really good - but not one for you if you're looking for a coherent plot.
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