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Post by sprite on Jul 20, 2019 8:16:07 GMT -5
A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue. Mackenzi Lee
A fun novel about a young bisexual Lord heading off for his European Grand Tour in the mid-18th century. With him are his biracial best friend (who he secretly loves) and his sister (who is desperate to become a doctor). He accidentally gets them involved in a fairly dangerous plot concerning ruling families and alchemy, along with highwaymen and pirates.
it's definitely anachronistic--several of the characters appear aware of white male privelege in a way that i don't think the Georgians could have been able to articulte. But it is fun. I'm looking foward to reading the second in the series, about the sister's attempts to get into a medical school.
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Post by Liiisa on Jul 21, 2019 9:25:31 GMT -5
34) John Reilly, The Ascent of Birds
I also just finished this nonfiction book that I've been reading a couple of pages of each night for a while now. This is an interestingly written account of bird evolution by an author who has a scientific background but isn't an ornithologist. The book is both informative and quite readable; I enjoyed it.
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Post by Liiisa on Jul 23, 2019 5:02:11 GMT -5
It's been too hot out to do anything but sit in the a/c and read, so:
35) Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Moon
It's the 2040s, and the moon is mostly occupied by Chinese scientists and other people; there's one or two American bases, but you can tell in this novel that China is in better shape than the US. The plot centers both on Chinese politics, with different factions competing for control, and on two young people, an American physicist and a rather pregnant Chinese dissident, who are in legal trouble on the moon.
There are some plot holes and places where I thought it was kind of implausible, but on the whole it was well done with Robinson's usual astute political take. There were interesting characters, and it kept me turning the pages to find out if Qi and Fred are going to be ok, and will she end up having the baby on the moon.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jul 23, 2019 9:05:30 GMT -5
I have several books read on holiday to post, which I’ll do on the weekend. I really enjoyed Just One Damn Thing After Another as an audiobook, which was how it was recommended to me. Great for listening to on long road trips. Maybe the flaws others have picked up aren’t as obvious that way.
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Post by scrubb on Jul 23, 2019 22:16:47 GMT -5
Post Office, by Charles Bukowski - first thing I've read by him, and I liked it. Funny and enjoyable. The tale of Hank, his women, his booze, and his job at the post office.
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Post by mei on Jul 24, 2019 3:36:56 GMT -5
reading a lot since I'm part time on holiday (and because I keep telling myself that the things I'm currently reading are part of professional development so can count as 'work'). Anyway, it's the best way to survive a heat wave.
#14 From Global To Local: the making of things and the end of globalization by Finbarr Livesey
Pretty interesting book, that's been on my shelf for too long. His argument is that industry will become more localized (and/or regionalized) again after increasing globalization for the past decades. Mostly due to new technological developments (robots, 3D-printing), environmental constraints, geopolitical constraints. It's conceptually interesting, but not very strong analytically. Often he posits a question which he then doesn't really answer ('It depends') and then a few paragraphs along he asks the same question, which was annoying. It's very much US, UK, China focused and only looks at industry so doesn't go into changes in eg agriculture where buying local is much more an early trend already, I think.
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Post by sophie on Jul 26, 2019 1:12:08 GMT -5
Delia Owens, ‘Where the Crawdads Sing.’ Oh, what a good book! A girl, the youngest in her family, is abandoned as various family members leave. She is left alone in a shack dwelling on the North Carolina coast. She survives and learns how to live by herself. Part of this story is also a murder mystery and I don’t want to drop any spoilers, but it is a very well written book. Highly recommended.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jul 26, 2019 23:49:55 GMT -5
That sounds good, Sophie. Books read on holiday: 38. Dead in the Water, Denise Swanson. A revival of a series that I enjoy, with the main character an American small town school psychologist. 39. Posies and Poison and 40. Dead in Bed, Wendy Meadows. My Goodreads Cozy Mystery challenge for the month. Very light, so good holiday reading. 41. Trust Can be Deadly and 42. Ties Can be Deadly, Cindy Bell. A cozy series set in a retirement village, but the female characters don’t resemble any retirement village residents I’ve ever met! Too young and feisty. 43. Alpine Hero, Mary Daheim. Another old favourite series.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jul 28, 2019 1:14:37 GMT -5
44. Bundle of Trouble, Diana Orgain. Not as cozy a mystery as I was expecting, given the main character is a new mum, and she gets involved in situations that most women would not attempt. Quite well written.
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Post by sophie on Jul 28, 2019 18:38:07 GMT -5
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert. An interesting novel about a affluent young woman who moves to NYC just before WW2 and discovers life, theatres, men and all that. The novel takes the reader to her old age and how life has turned out. The novel is actually written as a memoir for the daughter of her most loved (but asexual) male companion. Enjoyable read, good characters and well paced.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jul 29, 2019 1:31:57 GMT -5
#52 Benjamin Dreyer, Dreyer's English style guide from the copy chief of Random House. You can actually read this from cover to cover, it's very entertainingly written. American, of course, so not completely relevant to my own writing (although he does cover some British English).
#53 Nawal El Sadaawi, Woman at Point Zero (Egypt; translated from the Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette) I listened to this as an Audio book. It's very short and was apparently inspired by a Story the author heard of when she was working as a pyschologist in a prison. It's mostly told in first Person by Firdaus, a woman who is mistreated by every man she Encounters until she finally kills one of them and is sentenced to death (we know that right from the beginning). It's not cheerful, as you can imagine, but absorbing.
#54 Andrea Camilleri, Die Nacht des einsamen Träumers I can't find the title of this in English, but it's a volume of short stories by the great Sicilian crime writer, who recently died at the Age of 93 (with another book forthcoming, I believe!). These were great, I think I enjoyed them even more than his novels.
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Post by sophie on Jul 31, 2019 9:54:12 GMT -5
Under Currents by Nora Roberts. A bit of a pot boiler, with generous amounts of suspense, family drama, sex, and satisfactory resolutions.. my idea of a good bathtub read. Decent writing, but it’s not Pulitzer Prize stuff. Just a decent story!
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Post by tzarine on Jul 31, 2019 13:32:21 GMT -5
bedsit disco queen tracey thorne's memoir really captures the era
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Post by Liiisa on Jul 31, 2019 17:30:14 GMT -5
Huh tzarine. I was never really into Everything But the Girl, but maybe I should read that anyway?
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Post by mei on Aug 1, 2019 3:11:18 GMT -5
my last of the month, finished right on time: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (#15 for me).
Really enjoyed this, it follows the life of a young Korean girl who fall pregnant and then moves to Japan in the mid-1930s. The book ends in 1989, she is still alive and still in Japan and with her family she's gone through WW2, and everything that follows. It's a really good illustration of the place of Koreans in Japan (and other misfits), the subtle place of yakuza, and so much more in Japan. Some things are a little bit annoying (I wonder how some of the Japanese words in the book translate to someone who doesn't know Japanese - they're not explained, but actually do contribute to the style / and sometimes there are some mistakes, on purpose?). Overall, very nice read. Recommended.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Aug 1, 2019 8:27:23 GMT -5
45. Death by Cashmere, Sally Goldenbaum. Audiobook finished on two road trips this week. A good start to a series set in a yarn shop. I like the descriptions of both the setting and the knitting projects, and the cast of characters are believable and appealing. I find some cozy mysteries make good audiobooks for road trips as they are generally fast moving and engaging, but not too deep.
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Post by tzarine on Aug 3, 2019 13:19:46 GMT -5
liisa
it's interesting bc of her tales of her suburban childhood, her graduate studies, her relationships, motherhood in addition to the parts about the band
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