|
Post by Webs on Sept 20, 2019 15:04:34 GMT -5
Not easy with an audio book
|
|
|
Post by Liiisa on Sept 21, 2019 5:58:41 GMT -5
53) Han Kang, The Vegetarian
I'd heard great things about this book so I bought a copy a while ago and it sat on my to-read shelf because I was thinking it might have cannibals in it. It does not, however, and it was good/intense! Pretty hard to put down.
The story of a young Korean woman who decides to stop eating meat because of a terrifying dream she had. Her family is unsympathetic, and things get stranger. The writing style reminded me a bit of Murakami.
|
|
|
Post by sophie on Sept 21, 2019 9:35:57 GMT -5
Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese. Fabulous novel written by one of Canada’s best indigenous writers.. story of a 16 year old boy who accompanies his dying alcoholic father (who he barely knows) on one last journey through the backcountry. Have Kleenex nearby while reading.
|
|
|
Post by ozziegiraffe on Sept 21, 2019 10:16:15 GMT -5
58. Murder on the Orient SS. C.A. Larmer. The author managed to describe the cruise ship and its passengers well. The mystery was quite well done, and some of the regular characters in the series had significant issues in their personal lives. I thought the disguised detective was pretty obvious from the start.
|
|
|
Post by scrubb on Sept 21, 2019 23:22:47 GMT -5
Edmund Hillary - A Biography: The Extraordinary Life of the Beekeeper who Climbed Everest, by Michael Gill. The author worked with Sir Edmund on expeditions as both a doctor and a cameraman, and they were friends for 50 years.
It was an easy-to-read story, covering Hillary's entire life and some extra history of Everest. I didn't know anything about Hillary before (aside from: Kiwi, first to climb Everest, and "gave back" to the Khumbu region through establishing charities, etc.), so it was quite interesting. I had no idea that he had driven a farm tractor to the south pole, for example.
It made me want to read the books he wrote, too.
|
|
|
Post by sprite on Sept 22, 2019 15:36:21 GMT -5
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. By Gail Honeyman. I found it very readable, and liked it a lot. i really enjoyed this novel. I liked how everything didn't become perfect.
|
|
|
Post by sprite on Sept 22, 2019 15:42:41 GMT -5
In Other Lands, Sarah Rees Brennan. Young adult fantasy.
Finished this, and would highly recommend it. It is young adult fiction, and I did find it odd that 15 yr olds were cheerfully having sex and not thinking themselves too young or being surprised that they were already at it. When I was 15, not many of us were having sex (those who i knew for certain were, were often from a background where you sort of expect them to end up with kids before they graduate), and I'm pretty sure that hasn't much changed.
aside from that, a light approach to presenting gender equality, racism, as well as the values of diversity and peace.
and very, very, very funny.
|
|
|
Post by sprite on Sept 23, 2019 4:21:16 GMT -5
The Testaments is available on BBC Sounds as a podcast, but not downloadable. I haven't listened, so can't comment on quality. Link here
|
|
|
Post by ozziegiraffe on Sept 23, 2019 6:36:17 GMT -5
59. Christmas Present, Jodi Taylor. More a short story than a book, and I’m still loving the Chronicles of St Mary’s. Short audiobook, but great for a road trip. Three members of St Mary’s go on a rescue mission, and manage to meet Boudicca. Lots of fun, as usual.
|
|
|
Post by Oweena on Sept 24, 2019 13:25:24 GMT -5
Another Brooklyn by Jaqueline Woodson (author of Brown Girl Dreaming)
Really liked this one. The nearly lyrical writing, the way she brings her characters to life in snippets.
Recommend it, the book goes quickly because of her style.
|
|
|
Post by sprite on Sept 24, 2019 15:42:57 GMT -5
Not easy with an audio book is there not a slider thing? can't remember the controls on the last audiobook i had.
|
|
|
Post by Webs on Sept 24, 2019 21:02:37 GMT -5
I physically can skip to the end but I don't think that's going to help.
|
|
|
Post by scrubb on Sept 27, 2019 13:34:07 GMT -5
I'm more or less finished a book called "A Letter to Normal Mailer... From Jail to Yale".
In 1985, in London, I had a flatmate from NYC who had just graduated from Yale. Her boyfriend came over for a visit. He was a med student at Yale at the time, and she told me that 10 years earlier he'd been a heroin addict in jail, but there'd been some kind of excellent rehab program with group therapy, etc., and he'd kicked drugs and turned his life around to be accepted into Yale.
She told me he was writing a book about it. A few weeks ago I suddenly thought of that, and googled, and found it! It was published in 1999. The intro says he planned 3 books, so this one doesn't have his full story.
It's interesting, but really disappointing at the same time. It has 3 sections - early 1970s, when he's a junkie robbing drugstores, and then in jail; then 1984 when he's in med school at Yale and heading up the "Boston AIDS Brigade" needle exchange program and dating my friend; and then 1994 when he's still working for the Brigade, setting up a program in Thailand. There's no segue between sections, nothing to explain how he got from jail to Yale, he's just there.
His writing style is disjointed and ambiguous and not very gripping. The later sections are just journal entries and he didn't edit out his mentions of jerking off, and of watching guys at the sauna and commenting on their "snakes".
In the "Yale" section, it's clear that although he's not on heroin anymore, he has issues - poor memory, some impulse control problems, unbelievable disorganization, etc. He loses stuff ALL THE TIME. His needle exchange program is illegal and he's arrested over and over. Admirable, he does it to make a point and try to change the laws, but makes his life utterly chaotic. He boxes, which he sees as a form of therapy, but the reader has to wonder if either the drugs, or the punches, or a combo, have somewhat damaged his brain. At one point his girlfriend (my ex-roommate) and he are driving to a protest and are stopped for speeding. She says "hey, things have gotten so much better, haven't they? In the old days you wouldn't have had a licence and the car would have been unregistered!". And he doesn't tell her that his licence has been suspended, and the car registration has lapsed because he couldn't afford the payments... He also doesn't admit to her every time he gets a needle stick, which happens over and over because he's always grabbing bags of needles without checking for points, or putting on gloves.
Anyway, I'm guessing that since it took him 15 years to write the first book, he's never going to write the follow ups that describe how he got off drugs and into Yale.
Glad I read it, but really only because I was interested in reading about my old friend!
|
|
|
Post by sprite on Sept 28, 2019 15:16:25 GMT -5
Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell. I'm sure I've read it, but it bears re-reading.
Just more evidence that self-made people aren't. We owe so much, good or bad, to our history, family, time and place of birth, environment...
|
|
|
Post by Oweena on Sept 29, 2019 19:51:44 GMT -5
The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer (it was published way back in 2005)
His memoir of growing up on Long Island and Arizona, being raised by a single mom, and a dad who is absent but ever present in his head. The story covers from around age 7 to his mid-twenties and centers around a bar in his hometown that pulls him in for years due to the men who act as surrogate fathers and brothers. He can bring these characters to life, where you feel you would know who is who if you walked into the bar yourself. It was equal parts funny, depressing, and encouraging. He deals with lots of self-doubt and worry, and is able to frame those emotions well from the point of view of a child as well as through his teen years and early adult years.
I liked the book for the way he tells the story.
|
|
|
Post by Oweena on Sept 29, 2019 19:53:10 GMT -5
I'm more or less finished a book called "A Letter to Normal Mailer... From Jail to Yale". scrubb the book sounds awful.
|
|
|
Post by scrubb on Sept 29, 2019 22:15:08 GMT -5
Yeah, it was pretty bad, to be honest. Which is too bad, because he has an interesting story, but wow, he didn't know how to write it.
|
|
|
Post by ozziegiraffe on Sept 30, 2019 4:17:42 GMT -5
60. An Invitation to Murder, Leigh Ann Dobbs and Harmony Williams. Audiobook finished on today’s road trip. My new one is much better. This one was a bit bleah. A few errors in context, such as calling a duke Lord X. But mostly I think I’ve grown out of Regency romances, and I picked the villain fairly early.
|
|
|
Post by Oweena on Sept 30, 2019 22:23:25 GMT -5
D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II by Sarah Rose
This book tells the stories of some of the women who were trained by the British as spies and who were then parachuted into occupied France to assist the French Resistance.
I had never heard of these women and the stories of what they did to assist the Allies in the year or two before D-Day. Their activities acting as couriers, forgers, helping downed pilots to escape, and occasionally blowing up Nazi targets are impressive. Definitely a part of WWII history I had no clue about. The records of their activities were only declassified in 2003, so that may explain part of why this was all news to me.
While the narrative was a bit disjointed, in the end it was all wrapped up.
|
|
|
Post by ozziegiraffe on Oct 1, 2019 7:06:46 GMT -5
61. Death Mask. Kathryn Fox. Excellent forensic mystery. I prefer this series to either Patricia Cornwall or Kathy Reichs, as there is no sinister undercurrent. The topics dealt with this time include gang rape and footballers’ head injuries. They are dealt with sensitively, but openly, despite some of the characters trying to hide reality.
|
|
|
Post by ozziegiraffe on Oct 2, 2019 20:39:04 GMT -5
62. Uniform Justice, Donna Leon. An excellent mystery set in Venice, as the best Brunetti stories are, and dealing with a particularly esoteric group of young men, who attend a privately-owned military academy. As usual, corruption and underhanded dealings are exposed at the highest levels of Venetian society, and not always dealt with appropriately by those with the power to do so.
|
|
|
Post by ozziegiraffe on Oct 4, 2019 8:08:47 GMT -5
|
|