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Post by lillielangtry on Aug 13, 2018 6:31:22 GMT -5
I have to reread The Power for book Club in a couple of months. It will be interesting to see how it stands up to a second read. I think I rushed through the second half of it to get to the end.
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Post by sprite on Aug 13, 2018 15:15:32 GMT -5
isle of man? does it feature tax-dodging celebrities buying helicopters?
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Aug 14, 2018 2:18:02 GMT -5
No tax-dodging celebrities or helicopters in the one I read. May need to read more of the series.
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Post by sprite on Aug 14, 2018 12:05:46 GMT -5
The isle of man has a special tax dodge for buying helicopters, weirdly.
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Post by Liiisa on Aug 16, 2018 20:36:10 GMT -5
37) Ada Palmer, Seven Surrenders
This is the second book in a series the first of which I read last year. It's set in the 25th century, where the world has known unprecedented peace, ostensibly because of the elimination of gender roles, religion, and countries - people are organized into interest-based Hives. In this book you discover that things aren't quite as they seemed in the first book.
And I really enjoyed it; the ideas behind the story are very interesting (and well informed by research), and the characters are fully realized. I mean, not 100% perfect, but really engaging; looking forward to reading the third (and final, I think) part.
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Post by sophie on Aug 16, 2018 22:45:07 GMT -5
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. Contemporary fantasy.. not usually the genre I read but I liked this one. I was talked into reading it by a friend (challenged, actually!) and while I am not running out to buy more fantasy novels, I won’t rule them out.
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Post by scrubb on Aug 17, 2018 19:29:30 GMT -5
Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian. Set in WW2, the main characters are a German family escaping from their farm (estate?) in the east in front of the Russians in early 1945.
It also follows a French Jewish woman in a camp, first, and then on a forced march west, and a Jewish man who escaped from a trainto Auschwitz in 1943 and spent 2 years hiding out in the German army, also now escaping westward.
It was quite well done and an interesting perspective, but the German main characters bothered me a bit. He set them up to be virtually blameless- they were beet farmers who lived out of the way in the east (an area that had been German, then Polish after WW1, so they were happy to be part of Germany again) and had Jewish friends who they tried to help early in the war. But then they just kind of ignored/'didn't really know' what was happening in the camps ('and what could we do about it anyway?') He showed them sort of face the fact that the Germans had done terrible things and brought horrific retribution onto themselves, but still made them just a little too unblemished.
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Post by sprite on Aug 19, 2018 16:09:48 GMT -5
i've started 'sacred hunger' which i think might be difficult, centering as it does around the transatlantic slave trade. meanwhile, my partner is reading 'prisoners of geography which looks fascinating, but he's a slow reader so it'll be at least a month before i can crack into it.
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Post by lillielangtry on Aug 22, 2018 2:30:52 GMT -5
I'm having a bit of an odd reading month, finding it a bit difficult to concentrate and turning to old BBC Radio adaptations of Agatha Christie instead. But having said that, I have read or listened to a few books!
Alicia Kopf, Brother in Ice (translated from the Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem) I don't know what this is but it's not a novel... a series of fragmented sections about polar Exploration, the author's autistic brother, and other things. I also don't know why this works, but it does. I really enjoyed it. Beautifully written/translated.
Nicholas Laughlin (ed.) So Many Islands: Stories from the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Indian and Pacific Oceans As with most anthologies, I liked some of these stories more than others. But there were a few really good ones, particularly The Plundering by Heather Barker (Barbados) and Granny Dead by Melanie Schwapp (Jamaica).
Susana Moreira Marques, Now and at the Hour of our Death (translated from the Portuguese by Julia Sanches) Non-fiction. The author followed some medical professionals doing a hospice at home System in rural northern Portugal. It's not as gloomy as that sounds. It's short and rather good.
Michael Palin, Full Circle The audiobook based on Palin's journey around the Pacific rim, which you may remember the TV series of. It's over 20 years old now! He's amusing and compassionate; this has aged well, apart from the odd mention of "Eskimos" and even "Red Indians" which we wouldn't expect now.
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Post by mei on Aug 22, 2018 3:43:44 GMT -5
finished a book last night that I've been reading very irregularly when bored with other things: "A good man sometimes beats his wife" by Joris Luyendijk, in Dutch, non-fiction about daily life in Egypt 20 years ago as seen through a (now) journalist who studied there at the time. Very interesting, as it really shows the huge differences in people, in how they interpret religion, politics, etc etc. It doesn't talk about Egypt politics, and this was long before the Tahrir Square revolution, but it stands up to time well.
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Post by tzarine on Aug 22, 2018 21:43:59 GMT -5
waiting for the barbarians
by the brilliant jm coetzee dark tale of the colonialists & their cruelty to the indigenous people
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Aug 24, 2018 7:02:21 GMT -5
64. The Narrow Road to the Deep North. A Man Booker winner. A brilliant story of the life of a doctor who was a prisoner of war in World War II. Beautifully written, but at times, for me, the depiction of brutality was far too graphic. This book did nothing to improve my view of Japanese culture.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Aug 26, 2018 3:59:18 GMT -5
65. Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg, The Job. Janet Evanovich tends to be my go to when I want to escape into a book. Her characters and storylines are larger than life and this book is no exception. Fox and o'Hare can get themselves into and out of the most bizarre situations,and the rest of the characters, including in this case the ship that isn't what it seems, are a hilarious bunch of misfits. Great fun! 66. Donna Leon, By its Cover. Another excellent Brunetti mystery, this time in the world of antique books. Interesting twists along the way, and again, the city of Venice is a beautifully drawn character in the drama.
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Post by sophie on Aug 26, 2018 10:36:40 GMT -5
I really like that Donna Leon series!
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Aug 26, 2018 18:38:31 GMT -5
So do I. Venice is another important character in the series, and each of the regulars gives insight into that society.
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Post by scrubb on Aug 27, 2018 12:43:13 GMT -5
Finished "In the Valley of the Kings: Howard Carter and the Mystery of King Tutankhamun's Tomb" by Daniel Meyerson. It was ok - gave some background on Carter, and the politics of the time. Could have been better organized, though.
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Post by Liiisa on Aug 27, 2018 20:44:48 GMT -5
38. Nathaniel Brodie, Charles Goodrich, and Frederick J. Swanson, eds. Forest Under Story
Wow!, I loved this book. This is an anthology of work done by poets and other creative writers as part of a long-term project being done in an old-growth forest in the US Pacific Northwest. The writers accompany the scientists, learning about the forest, and then write these pieces. Things I loved about it: the fact that there is so much science in it, so it talks about disturbance and decay as much as growth and light, and the fact that it's basically the same story being told by different people, so I feel like it's almost like a people's myth cycle, the tales told over and over of Douglas-fir and Spotted-owl and Lobaria-lichen. The closing essay made me cry. I'm certain it will be my favorite book of the year, which is saying something since I've read a lot of good books this year.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Aug 28, 2018 6:29:44 GMT -5
67. Hazardous Duty by Christi Barritt. A Good Reads cozy mystery of the month. The premise of the book is good. A young woman studying to be a forensic scientist, forced to leave college when her mother dies, starting a business cleaning crime scenes. But the MC is a bit lacking in discernment where the two lead males are concerned, and the attempts to convert her become a bit annoying.
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Post by scrubb on Aug 29, 2018 19:32:13 GMT -5
The Hunter and the Whale, by Laurens Van der Post. He's a Sth African writer from the early part of this century, and apparently this book is a fictionalized account of the 4 summers he spent on a whaling ship in his youth.
It's an interesting view of race relations at the time and the author clearly sees the coming struggle. His character - who may well be the author, really - respects the Africans, but at the same time is somewhat patronizing.
I definitely enjoyed it.
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Post by Queen on Aug 30, 2018 15:55:49 GMT -5
The Essex Serpent Sarah Perry
Good writing, but oddly unsatisfying.
I think because the climax was so massively foreshadowed that it lost it's impact and the characters seemed to retreat to their original selves rather than be transformed.
In general I don't mind books that don't tie up all the loose ends but this just sort of wafted in an ebbing tide. Well, perhaps an estuary.
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Post by scrubb on Aug 31, 2018 18:25:40 GMT -5
I finally read the children's classic, "Little Lord Fauntleroy". Pretty syrupy.
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Post by sophie on Aug 31, 2018 19:41:09 GMT -5
Storm in a Teacup by Helen Czerski. Subtitled as ‘The physics of everyday life’. That sums it up pretty well. Interesting but unless you are a closet scientist, probably not enthralling.
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Post by Liiisa on Aug 31, 2018 20:03:13 GMT -5
39. Madeline Miller, Circe
Oooh, I really liked this. It's the life of the mythological character Circe, told from her perspective. One thing I love is how the gods are portrayed, and the divinity/immortality of Circe herself. Some of it made me puzzled, like "I don't remember reading THAT about Circe," by I am far from an expert in ancient mythology so who knows. But, recommended.
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Post by Queen on Sept 2, 2018 11:12:58 GMT -5
Blue Midnight Simone van der Vlugt
I like a bit of historical fiction to read on my commute but this was a bit meh.
Catrin manages to meet every famous person and start the Delft Blue tradition
She's widowed, married, widowed again and about to remarry 3 months after that... like love is a tap you can turn on and off (to be fair first marriage wasn't a love thing).
It's all a bit fantastical and shallow... it's dotted with real characters and I suspect I'd prefer reading about them
Just started reading Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead - it's brutal and brilliant.
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Post by sophie on Sept 2, 2018 15:12:30 GMT -5
Hello from the Gillespies by Monica McInerney. A light, fun chicklit book, total contrast to what I have been reading this past month. Set in Australia, it goes through a series of (unfortunate) events triggered by an annual Christmas letter which was not supposed be sent, as it was a vent telling the truth of what was happening as opposed to a 'happy all is well' type of Christmas letter.
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Post by Queen on Sept 3, 2018 1:00:56 GMT -5
Hello from the Gillespies by Monica McInerney. A light, fun chicklit book, total contrast to what I have been reading this past month. Set in Australia, it goes through a series of (unfortunate) events triggered by an annual Christmas letter which was not supposed be sent, as it was a vent telling the truth of what was happening as opposed to a 'happy all is well' type of Christmas letter. One group of parental's friends used to send these, one year they got one addressed to "Dear Ann and Ernie" ... not my parent's names. One year another friend sent on satirising the form - another piece of genius comedy writing lost to the world.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Sept 3, 2018 7:06:48 GMT -5
Hello from the Gillespies by Monica McInerney. A light, fun chicklit book, total contrast to what I have been reading this past month. Set in Australia, it goes through a series of (unfortunate) events triggered by an annual Christmas letter which was not supposed be sent, as it was a vent telling the truth of what was happening as opposed to a 'happy all is well' type of Christmas letter. Sounds like fun. I've heard of her, but not sure I've read anything by her.
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Post by lillielangtry on Sept 3, 2018 11:40:14 GMT -5
39. Madeline Miller, Circe Oooh, I really liked this. It's the life of the mythological character Circe, told from her perspective. One thing I love is how the gods are portrayed, and the divinity/immortality of Circe herself. Some of it made me puzzled, like "I don't remember reading THAT about Circe," by I am far from an expert in ancient mythology so who knows. But, recommended. Have you read her first book, The Song of Achilles? I really liked it.
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Post by lillielangtry on Sept 3, 2018 11:41:20 GMT -5
The Essex Serpent Sarah Perry Good writing, but oddly unsatisfying. I think because the climax was so massively foreshadowed that it lost it's impact and the characters seemed to retreat to their original selves rather than be transformed. In general I don't mind books that don't tie up all the loose ends but this just sort of wafted in an ebbing tide. Well, perhaps an estuary. Interesting. I really enjoyed it but I'd like to read it again sometime and see how it is second time round.
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Post by Liiisa on Sept 3, 2018 12:36:16 GMT -5
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