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Post by Liiisa on Jun 23, 2018 5:33:47 GMT -5
Liiisa, perhaps it would work to have a short story collection alongside another book? I know what you mean about reading them one after the other, but I quite like it when commuting that I can read a complete story on one journey. Yes, that is a good feature of short stories. (But I've also already got a nonfiction book going, so then if I added a fiction to alternate with them then that would then be THREE books, and then I'd also have to carry two books in my backpack, so....)
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Post by lillielangtry on Jun 23, 2018 8:56:58 GMT -5
Ah yes. Sometimes I carry 2 books and it is annoying!
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Post by Liiisa on Jun 23, 2018 12:12:52 GMT -5
Especially when it's a big hardcover... I have to admit I sometimes choose books based on weight. After I'm done with the one that I'm about to start I'm going to read the new Alan Hollinghurst, who I love, but the damn thing must weigh about 10 pounds!
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Post by sprite on Jun 23, 2018 16:32:35 GMT -5
finished 'Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine' and really enjoyed it. i'd like to think i'd reach out to someone like her if we worked together, but more likely i'd just see her as odd but harmless and go my own way.
it's an interesting and mostly believable story about what could happen to someone who'd suffered a childhood trauma and was left to navigate life completely alone. her take on 'normal' was hilarious. she did seem to get over some of her deep-seated rituals and problems a little too easily, but the reason for her changes was logical.
if i hadn't known there was a twist, i might have been more surprised--i'd sort of suspected what happened, but that was mostly because i'd been told there was a twist and was eliminating possibilities. after a careful approach to the climax, it has a gentle denouement, but then wraps up quickly--almost too quickly. on the other hand, we could just assume that what looks like it's going to happen will in fact happen.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jun 26, 2018 4:54:12 GMT -5
I realised tonight while eating dinner that both the e-book and the audiobook I'm currently reading on my phone are set in small Australian towns. Quite appropriate on an overnight work trip from Bourke to Dubbo!
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Post by sophie on Jun 27, 2018 15:06:44 GMT -5
4321 by Paul Auster. This is a monster of a book, intimidating by its 865 pages and writing style (some sentences run on for 3/4 of a page or more. But it is a good book, well written.. a rather unusual coming of age kind of book if I was to put it into a category. Recommended but only if you have lots of time!
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Post by scrubb on Jun 27, 2018 17:55:18 GMT -5
Yesterday I finished "Brooklyn" by Colm Toibin. My first of his books, but won't be my last. I liked it a lot, but at the same time was never completely convinced by the voice of the main character. I think I'll try one with a male hero next time and see if I find it fits better.
Still, excellent book about a young girl leaving Ireland to start a new life in the USA in the early 1950s.
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Post by Liiisa on Jun 27, 2018 19:23:49 GMT -5
Thank you lillie - I'll get over my post-New York Trilogy issues with Auster and will pick that up when I'm feeling like carrying a large object around. (And scrubb, I remember liking "Brooklyn" - it was a couple years ago, though, so I have no memory of the details of the characters.)
I read another book:
31) Donald Glover, The Last Man in Europe
A fictionalized biography of George Orwell, which I quite liked, particularly since I've seen a theatrical version of 1984 quite recently, so it was fresh in my mind. Recommended.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jun 28, 2018 2:08:22 GMT -5
Ooh, that was Sophie, not me! Although I've quite enjoyed Auster in the past, I'm in no rush to read more of him, unless I feel the Need to do some weight-training on the commute ;-)
I read Pearl S Buck, The Good Earth - the US' first female Nobel prize winner. I really liked this. I think nowadays many people would be wary of a book about China by a white American, even one who spent years in the Country and spoke the language. I didn't object to that necessarily though. I think it's fine as Long as this is not your ONE book ever about such a huge and compex Country. It's the Story of a man's life in pre-revolutionary China and has quite a distinct style, as if written in Translation (speech very often starts with "Well, and" in a way that we wouldn't usually do, for example). I found it beautiful, but I would have loved to read the Story of Wang Lung's first wife, the taciturn and Long-suffering O-Lan.
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Post by Liiisa on Jun 28, 2018 4:47:07 GMT -5
Oops, sorry lillie & sophie! I got my b&w avatars scrambled in my head, or something.
Huh, I've never read The Good Earth - it's one of those famous books that's always been around but I've never gotten around to reading. Noted.
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Post by mei on Jun 28, 2018 6:16:30 GMT -5
will pick that up when I'm feeling like carrying a large object around. I never got to that point which is why it took me 4 months to read the book!
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Post by scrubb on Jun 28, 2018 11:24:01 GMT -5
I've always liked The Good Earth - read it first in my teens and re-read it a couple times in adulthood. Agree that it shouldn't be one's ONLY read about peasants in China but I think it's very good.
I'm currently reading James Michener's "The Bridge at Andau" which is supposed to be a novel about the Hungarian Revolution. Now, I read a lot of James Michener's books when I was a teenager and I remember enjoying them. THis one is of interest to me because I know so little about the Hungarian revolution. But this book is not a novel. There are no characters being followed; it's so far about 60 pages of facts about events. Maybe the individuals he's talking about (in a sort of interview style) are made up, or composites of real people; but there is no story. And although it's sort of interesting it's not engaging at all. Maybe the style will change and it will turn into a story, but I may not make it through the whole thing if it doesn't.
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Post by sprite on Jun 29, 2018 14:03:43 GMT -5
i remember loving 'the good earth' because up to then my sole points of reference for china had been persecuted christians and the royal family. it was refreshing to see ordinary chinese people.
i later read a biography of Buck, who apparently, as a child, was shocked to learn she wasn't actually chinese. she genuinely loved her life there and spent most of her life trying to dispel stereotypes about north east asians.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jun 29, 2018 20:28:56 GMT -5
50. The Dry, by Jane Harper. A good beginning of a series. The author knows rural Australia and depicts it well. One apparent murder suicide becomes two mysteries, one a cold case, and the conclusion is something of a surprise. A good Australian mystery.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jul 1, 2018 2:53:01 GMT -5
51. The Wurst is Yet to Come, Mary Daheim. Not my favourite book in the series. Maybe that's because the B&B and Joe only make a cameo appearance at the beginning of the story. This one is set in a small town with many convoluted relationships that are hard for both the sleuths and the reader to unravel. However, another enjoyable, funny read in the series.
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Post by Liiisa on Jul 1, 2018 7:04:09 GMT -5
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