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Post by Webs on Jul 1, 2019 15:54:56 GMT -5
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Post by Liiisa on Jul 1, 2019 17:58:01 GMT -5
Ha, great subject line. Thank you Webs!
I've just started a new book (Fledgling, by Octavia E. Butler), but I imagine I'll have it read pretty quickly. It is very intense.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jul 2, 2019 3:32:59 GMT -5
Thanks webs! I've snuck a last few books into June.
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Post by sophie on Jul 2, 2019 11:37:55 GMT -5
I had checked out a stack of paperbacks for reading this past weekend in the hammock. Unfortunately, all but one were not worth the effort.. I read anywhere from the first to the third chapter then flipped to the end.. all but one bad literature and bad writing. The some exception was a collection of short stories.. The Sadness of Beautiful Things by Simon Van Booy. I don’t usually read short stories but these I loved (well mostly!) I had never heard of this writer but will now look out for any of his work.
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Post by scrubb on Jul 2, 2019 22:42:09 GMT -5
Finished a bookbub special - Turtles All the Way Down by John GReen. It's a young adult novel which I read because I really liked an earlier book of his.
The main character has OCD and it seemed to effectively get across what it's like to be trapped in your head that way. I think the author has OCD so he knew what he was talking about. It had a mediocre story line but a great set up/background, and great characters.
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Post by Liiisa on Jul 3, 2019 5:51:06 GMT -5
31. Octavia Butler, Fledgling
This is a vampire novel. But because it's by Octavia Butler, it's a good vampire novel with good characters and an interesting plotline that deals with issues of race and power.
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Post by sophie on Jul 3, 2019 10:13:33 GMT -5
I bought a copy of Kate Atkinson ‘s newest book, Big Sky, because I couldn’t wait for the library to get their copies. About a third of the way through and it is very good., won’t post any spoilers as I think someone else on here (Hal?) had a copy they were lucky enough to snag from the library.
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Post by Webs on Jul 4, 2019 11:18:27 GMT -5
Maeve Binchy's "A Week in Winter" - great writing, interesting characters and a fabulous story about lives intertwining and changing at all stages of life (including a few women and men over 40). I felt better for reading it.
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Post by Queen on Jul 8, 2019 2:52:37 GMT -5
full marks for the punny subject line...
The Liars' Gospel
Naomi Alderman
Stunning book, constructed as four chapters, reflecting the Gospels of the old testament. And like those Gospels these are all observers of Jesus, Jesus is a bit player, cast as a random crazy preacher in a time of war.
The four characters get a back story and an afterstory connected to their interaction with Jesus but Jesus isn't very present; Miryam (Mary), Iehuda of Qeriot (Judas), Caiaphas (High Priest of the great temple) and Bar-Avo (Barabbas)... and their stories add up to a very different Gospel to the one we know so who are the liars?
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Post by HalcyonDaze on Jul 8, 2019 3:04:27 GMT -5
I found a Dodie Smith novel at the library that I didn't know about so have been enjoying that.
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Post by snowwhite on Jul 8, 2019 6:17:58 GMT -5
I bought a copy of Kate Atkinson ‘s newest book, Big Sky, because I couldn’t wait for the library to get their copies. About a third of the way through and it is very good., won’t post any spoilers as I think someone else on here (Hal?) had a copy they were lucky enough to snag from the library. I'm waiting for my library copy too. Meantime I've been reading (also from the library) One Damn Thing After Another, which I enjoyed but found rather all over the place in terms of style / genre. They're billed as following disaster-prone historians as they investigate history in real time, which makes it sound a bit like Jasper Fforde, maybe - a bit madcap/funny, interesting ideas (if not fully worked through) colourful characters, and it *is* a bit like that, but various characters are killed off, and there are some disturbing scenes and sexual content (sometimes in combination) that mean you really wouldn't want to give it to a child. I sort of got the impression the author thoroughly enjoyed writing a combination of different styles she likes reading perhaps, but various technical things also got neglected along the way, like characterisation, so even near the end I was checking back to remember who was who (there's a list at the beginning) and also the events in the book are supposed to take place over several years, but there wasn't much sense of that much 'real' time passing. So it's a maybe like a less-well-done version of something like Discworld or Dirk Gently, which *do* manage to handle being funny as well as having emotional depth (and being child-friendly most of the time). |
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Post by Webs on Jul 8, 2019 15:57:50 GMT -5
That's one of my issues with it. It's very plot holey for something with so much complicated story line. There's no backstory to the main character, or if there is, it's horribly explained. The whole thing with her being thrown out with nothing and ending up almost homeless on the street was so far fetched. I was hoping she'd die on one of the missions. I decided not to read anymore of the series after finishing it.
It feels like the author is trying too hard to write a complex world but really, I just don't care and hope they all die.
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Post by Webs on Jul 8, 2019 16:00:34 GMT -5
Have started "Bowlaway" which is about this woman of indeterminate age being found lying on a grave in a cemetery and she opens her own Candlepin bowling alley, which no one in the Massachusetts town seems to have heard of.
So far, very interesting characters, well written.
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Post by snowwhite on Jul 8, 2019 16:32:16 GMT -5
That's one of my issues with it. It's very plot holey for something with so much complicated story line. There's no backstory to the main character, or if there is, it's horribly explained. The whole thing with her being thrown out with nothing and ending up almost homeless on the street was so far fetched. I was hoping she'd die on one of the missions. I decided not to read anymore of the series after finishing it. It feels like the author is trying too hard to write a complex world but really, I just don't care and hope they all die. Yep, plot-holey and also not very believable in terms of her reactions to some stuff. Someone attempts to kill her (following other deeply unpleasant behaviour) and she still wants the resulting joint work dedicated to his memory? Unless we're supposed to believe she has a Rimmer-like self-loathing/martyr streak? Maybe? |
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Post by HalcyonDaze on Jul 8, 2019 19:02:13 GMT -5
I gave up on that series very quickly.
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Post by sophie on Jul 8, 2019 19:15:41 GMT -5
Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis by Jared Diamond. About halfway through, this non fiction is a bit academic but I am finding it easy to read. He examines 6 countries, 5 of which he has spent time in and speaks the language (Finnish!!! I was impressed!) and the last he has family connections .. all of these countries had major crisis and changed their trajectory through various means. Like his other works, his point of view is interesting and different from other academic works.
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Post by mei on Jul 9, 2019 3:24:21 GMT -5
Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis by Jared Diamond. About halfway through, this non fiction is a bit academic but I am finding it easy to read. He examines 6 countries, 5 of which he has spent time in and speaks the language (Finnish!!! I was impressed!) and the last he has family connections .. all of these countries had major crisis and changed their trajectory through various means. Like his other works, his point of view is interesting and different from other academic works. I really liked Diamond's other books Collapse and Guns, Germs and Steel so was very curious about this one too. Until I read this scathing review in the New York Times about it: www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/books/review/upheaval-jared-diamond.htmlInterested what your final review will be, sophie! It's still on my list, but admittedly there with a ton of other books so not very high priority anymore. |
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Post by Liiisa on Jul 9, 2019 4:36:24 GMT -5
I read that terrible NYT review too, mei, and what I took from it was that I wanted to read the Jill Lepore book that he cites at the end. Glad to hear that it's readable, sophie! |
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Post by sophie on Jul 9, 2019 20:32:29 GMT -5
I am almost done the book and having read the review, I don’t agree with it. The author made it clear the countries he selected were based on personal experiences in those countries. In many ways, it is a personal account of his experiences and personal knowledge superimposed on academic/historical information. Yes, he is 82.. and I think the reviewer took full advantage of using that as a target. I still enjoyed reading the book, but the last part, focussing on the United States, is the weakest and, for me, the least interesting.
Edited to add that now that I finished this book, it is not as strong or as well written as his other books. Still a relatively easy and interesting book; a narrative style is so much easier to read than an academic text with tables and diagrams and charts.
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Post by mei on Jul 12, 2019 16:10:38 GMT -5
#13 of the year. a recent Dutch novel that won a major literary award
"The Good Son" by Rob van Essen.
It's described as slightly dystopian, with robots and a basic income for everyone. It follows one man on a quite bizarre trip during which bits and pieces are highlighted. It's pretty good, I enjoyed it.
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Post by scrubb on Jul 15, 2019 21:39:46 GMT -5
I FINALLY finished "The Far Pavillions" by M.M. Kaye. I used to see this book in the school library, but never read it. Had heard about it for eons, and finally picked it up last month. It's a 900 page behemoth, set in India under the Raj, in the 1850s - 1870s.
It follows a boy born there of English parents (academics/adventurers) who die when he's a small child and ends up being taken in by his nurse, a Hindu. When he's about 11 he finds out he's actually English and is sent back for his schooling, but returns as a young man to be part of the Raj.
A large part of it is a very improbable romance with a Hindu princess, but there's a lot of history and interesting background throughout the book. Then the romance resolves with nearly 300 pages to go - and it's all about the Afghan war of 1876 and how misguided it was. IT's very interesting, that way.
I didn't like the hero for a lot of the time. The romance part was actually pretty lame - if there hadn't been a good setting to the whole story I don't think I'd have stuck with it. But overall, definitely worth the read even though I did spend some time wondering why it hadn't gripped me just a bit more.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jul 17, 2019 3:23:19 GMT -5
#49 Martin Suter, Allmen und die Erotik
Next installment of a gentle Swiss crime series I like. This time, Allmen gets blackmailed into stealing some mildly p*rnographic porcelain.
#50 Laura Ingalls Wilder, These Happy Golden Years
Aw, that's the end of my re-listens of the classic series. Bit of a lump in my throat when Laura refused to "obey" her husband in the marriage ceremony!
#51 Deborah Levy, Hot Milk
Short novel about a woman who is looking after her mother, whose health Problems may or may not be psychological. It's reallly good.
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Post by Queen on Jul 18, 2019 16:46:30 GMT -5
The Pleasures of Eliza Lynch
Anne Enright
fictionalised history of the lover of a Paraguayan dictator.
It's bit of an odd style, sort of trying to be Louis de Bernieres, no magical realism in it, but that sort of epic feel to the writing, and lots of different perspectives that got a bit muddled, but certain unlikely events (that might turn out to be true) described in detail.
I was fascinated for the first bit but once the pov moved away from Eliza I got a bit annoyed.
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Post by sophie on Jul 18, 2019 17:07:18 GMT -5
The Overstory by Richard Powers. About half way through it.. fantastic. I love how the trees are so central to this novel. I will write more about it when I finish it.
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Post by Liiisa on Jul 18, 2019 17:55:18 GMT -5
I loved that one, sophie - glad you're enjoying it.
Yesterday I finished:
32) Robert MacFarlane, Underland
Nonfiction, an account of the author's investigation of a series of places that are underground, or under ice: a cave system in England, an underground nuclear fuel storage place being constructed in Finland, moraines and crevasses in a glacier in Greenland, places like that. I thought it was great - his narrative is wide ranging, with both beautiful descriptions of the landscape and also discussions of how the places relate to various social and ecological issues. There were a few tense moments because he climbed down into some scary places. But it's refreshingly un-macho - he admits to being afraid quite a few times. But he pushes past it.
Recommended, though if you read books on public transportation maybe get the Kindle edition because the library hardcover weighed about 10 pounds.
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Post by scrubb on Jul 18, 2019 21:49:20 GMT -5
Truman Capote - Other Voices, Other Rooms. Impressive first novel - southern coming of age novel with some very odd characters and a sort of ethereal voice.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jul 19, 2019 1:22:29 GMT -5
sophie that's on my list! Liiisa you follow MacFarlane on Twitter I assume? If not, you must!
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Post by Liiisa on Jul 19, 2019 4:54:41 GMT -5
sophie that's on my list! Liiisa you follow MacFarlane on Twitter I assume? If not, you must! I don't! I'll look him up. |
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Post by Webs on Jul 19, 2019 9:58:50 GMT -5
I just finished Bowlaway. It takes place over a long stretch of time through generations but there might be time travel involved. Or not.
It's a very New England book, and not that it mostly takes place in New England, specifically the town of Salford Massachusetts (a fictional outlying part of Boston). It starts with a woman awaking on grave in cemetery and how she goes on to start a candlepin bowling alley and all that ensues from there.
The first part, everything that takes place up to the great Molasses flood of 1919 is compelling and draws you in. Then you just keep going because you want to know what the hell the back story really is. None of the characters are one dimensional and the author keeps adding generations of them, often leaving out little tidbits of their story so you have questions.
It's a longer read than I thought and at one point I couldn't remember who went where. Things are done and you never find out why because the characters either disappear or die.
It does not resolve in a nice tidy bow though and I liked that.
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Post by Liiisa on Jul 19, 2019 20:46:08 GMT -5
33) Mark Haddon, The Porpoise
You can probably tell that I liked this book, since it took me less than 24 hours to read it (and I have a full-time job).
It's not straightforward - it starts with a disturbing contemporary story, and then suddenly shifts into a retelling of Shakespeare's play "Pericles, Prince of Tyre," with more shifts and references to the present and back again. So, occasionally confusing, but definitely compelling.
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