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Post by ozziegiraffe on Nov 15, 2019 10:05:44 GMT -5
70. The Castlemaine Murders, KerryGreenwood. A recent visit to Castlemaine prompted me to chose this particular Phryne Fisher mystery, and I was not disappointed. The gold rush and associated Chinese history is fascinating. The characters are both believable and fun, and as usual, Phryne shows her unusual skills.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 15, 2019 19:59:07 GMT -5
Bad NEws, by Edward St. Aubyn - second Patrick Melrose book. Reinforced that being a drug addict is incredibly tedious. If it had been the first book I'd read that showed addiction from the addict's point of view it would have blown me away. It was extremely well done.
I think I'll stop reading the series for a little while, although he's an excellent writer.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 15, 2019 20:05:47 GMT -5
Yep scrubb, I got through those two and was like "ok, that's enough for now."
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Post by Queen on Nov 16, 2019 5:35:19 GMT -5
I was the same with the Patrick Melrose books. I don't know if I read one or two but I had enough of the dysfunction and addiction and stopped reading the series.
The Late Monsieur Gallet - Georges Simenon very tricky case, very good story
Catch and Kill Ronan Farrow Really really good book. He's documenting the intimidation efforts made to silence him, other journalists and of course the women assaulted by Harvey Weinstein. Also Lisa Bloom is a C.U.N.T.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 16, 2019 7:15:19 GMT -5
I only know one person who's read them all, and he LOVED them! But he's had addiction issues and had a very abusive, dysfunctional upbringing, so maybe he felt seen in them.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 16, 2019 15:37:44 GMT -5
I skimmed the first few pages of the 3rd one and it seems it's set post-addict days, so I think I'll read it sometime. Just not right away.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 17, 2019 19:33:35 GMT -5
Finished my first ever Nero Wolfe mystery by Rex STout - The Doorbell Rang. It was okay, but I think I'll try to find a couple of the much earlier ones to get a feel for the series.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Nov 24, 2019 8:57:47 GMT -5
71. The Brutal Telling, Louise Penny. I’m loving this series, and this one may be my favourite so far. This story had so many wonderful qualities. I particularly loved the very sensitively written visit to Haida Gwaii. The outcome was shocking, but in a sense open ended. Where will the lives of the villagers of Three Pines go next?
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Post by Webs on Nov 24, 2019 11:23:45 GMT -5
Okay, my review of The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern:
For those who read her first book "The Night Circus" already know Morgenstern's style and this is consistent with that. It is non-linear, interweaving different voices telling parts of the story during different timelines in a world of this time and again not of this time. It is not romance heavy. It is story heavy. And it doesn't tie everything up in a nice bow at the end. Infact you'll be left with loads of questions, holes left unfilled, and that's okay, because this book is so the journey, and not the end.
It sits squarely in the fantasy novel realm, and the world it inhabits is huge and complex. And it requires more than one reading. I listened to the audiobook and did so carefully, going back over parts that I feel like I missed something in. I'm going to now read it.
As a frequent re-reader, I love a book that I can go back into and discover new parts. This is one of those.
So use this as a guide, and if you pick it up and put it down, and never pick it up again I get it.
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Post by sophie on Nov 24, 2019 11:48:39 GMT -5
The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan. Not light reading, this book recentres the Middle East (as opposed to Europe and North America) as the Center of what is happening based on history and speculates where we are heading. Good food for thought. Well written, brilliant research.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 24, 2019 18:19:38 GMT -5
Webs, that sounds like something I'd like - thanks for the review. I've put it on the library hold list on the off chance that I finish "Ducks, Newburyport" before the apocalypse....
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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 25, 2019 2:28:16 GMT -5
Webs, it sounds great. I would like to reread The Night Circus first, I think.
Olga Tokarczuk, Drive your plow over the bones of the dead (translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones) Tokarczuk won the (delayed) Nobel prize for literature 2018. I know a couple of us enjoyed her "Flights". This is more of a "straight" work of fiction than that - it's a Twist on a crime novel, very clever and witty. I saw the end coming but I think you are supposed to. Honestly, all respect to the Nobel but I find some of their choices are more "worthy" than readable - this one isn't. It's smart yet unpretentious and I'd recommend it to pretty much anyone.
Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran (Audio) A reread. I know a couple of People read this recently. I remembered having really enjoyed it, but I did find it a lot slower this time around. Nafisi reads the Audio book herself, an interesting choice because while her English is excellent, she does have a noticeable Accent and she pronounces very carefully, almost exaggeratedly so. You get used to it of course. On Goodreads I note that more recently, the book has attracted criticism for being, oh Neo-Orientalist I think was the word - ie it's claimed that Nafisi hates Iran, worships the US, and suggests that White, European/US literature is the Thing to save Iranians. Sigh. Pretty sure that's not what she's saying. And obviously, no ONE book can ever represent the culture of an entire Nation.
Andrea Camilleri, Der Dieb der süßen Dinge (The Snack Thief) Escapism - a crime plus a load of delicious Sicilian Food. Just what the doctor ordered.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 25, 2019 5:37:28 GMT -5
Honestly, all respect to the Nobel but I find some of their choices are more "worthy" than readable - this one isn't. It's smart yet unpretentious and I'd recommend it to pretty much anyone. Ha - yes, I read Nobel winners judiciously, with sort of a "this will be good for me" attitude. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised.
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Post by sprite on Nov 25, 2019 6:13:31 GMT -5
[quote author=" lillielangtry" source="/post/236945/thread" timestamp="1574666896" Andrea Camilleri, Der Dieb der süßen Dinge (The Snack Thief) Escapism - a crime plus a load of delicious Sicilian Food. Just what the doctor ordered. [/quote] his books leave me so hungry. i swear, if i ever make it to Sicily, i'm going to re-read all of them just to have a list of 'must eat' foods. off to see if there's a cookbook from these novels.
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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 25, 2019 6:21:36 GMT -5
The German translator leaves the names of dishes in the Italian (or Sicilian) and puts a glossary at the end explaining what they all are. Does the English one do that too?
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Post by sprite on Nov 25, 2019 6:48:27 GMT -5
Yes, the ones I've read do. i really should remember to take notes.
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Post by snowwhite on Nov 27, 2019 5:54:22 GMT -5
I finished 'All that Remains, a life in death' by Dame Professor Sue Black who is a forensic anthropologist.
I've heard/seen her several times on radio and television and always found it worth paying attention. Really interesting book and worth a read imo. It covers various aspects of her life and work - training in anatomy, the deaths of her parents, her work in Kosovo and after the Asian tsunami as well as the re-vamping of the morgue at Dundee University and explaining their 'new' embalming process. I found the beginning a bit slow, but worth sticking with.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Nov 29, 2019 10:23:18 GMT -5
72. The Good Daughter, Karin Slaughter. I nearly didn’t continue with this book because of the overly graphic detail in the beginning. However, the story grew on me, and the outcome was not what I expected. I still prefer less detail about violent crime in the actual text, but the characters were well drawn and likeable.
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Post by sophie on Nov 29, 2019 10:34:36 GMT -5
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. A fun read, with a great deal of irreverent and witty dialogue. While it is fantasy, it is not unbelievable. Recommended.
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Post by sprite on Nov 29, 2019 11:54:19 GMT -5
BBC sounds has a good radio adaptation of 'good omens.' i've just started 'To Calais in ordinary time' by james meek, which is interestin but has 3 different 'voices' telling the story, and each is wildly different. it's exhausting, which is good for a bedtime book, i suppose.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 29, 2019 20:41:38 GMT -5
58) Lucy Ellman, Ducks, Newburyport
I DID IT! I FINISHED THIS BOOK!! AAAAAAH
Yes, it's a 1000-page book written almost entirely in stream-of-consciousness prose, but it's compelling! It did take me over a month to read, but at no point did I even think for a moment of quitting it. It's great, well worth all the accolades it's received. But WOW it is long. There is a plot, which goes over a few months in early 2017, I think, of a woman who bakes pies for a living and has four children. At the same time there's a story of a local mountain lion. It all comes together at the end.
Now what the hell do you read after that - !?!
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Post by sophie on Nov 30, 2019 12:27:59 GMT -5
I saw that book in a bookstore the other day and its size is VERY intimidating. I am impressed!
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Post by mei on Nov 30, 2019 12:54:03 GMT -5
#20 for the year: Mo Yan - The Republic of Wine.
What a strange book. I'm happy I read it, but I'm not sure if I liked it. Although I guess I enjoyed reading it, also for the weirdness of it. Mo Yan is a Chinese Nobel Prize winner so I have wanted to read something by him for a while (and have 1 or 2 titles somewhere in a box in the attic...).
This is a story about a police officer who goes to investigate rumours of cannibalism. It remains unclear if that is actually true or not. That plot is interrupted every chapter with a correspondence between the author and a major fan of his who also writes stories which are also part of the book. They're all connected, so it makes for confused reading.
Apparently I read a translation of the censured edition. The original was published in Taiwan in 1992, a few years after Tiananmen square. This edition was published in 1999 and Mo Yan had to change some things, especially the ending, to get it published in China. It's a book club read, so I'm looking forward to the discussion on Monday. It has lots to talk about.
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Post by mei on Nov 30, 2019 15:26:08 GMT -5
and #21: The Great Empires of Asia, edited by Jim Masselos.
A history book. A collection of chapters describing 7 great Asian empires (the Khmer, the Ottomans, the Japanese, and several in between). I bought it for the Japan chapter which is near-perfect for a course I thought I was teaching, but when I started on the rest of the book (due to extra time, because a non-working entertainment system on a recent flight), it turned out the rest was also pretty interesting so I've been reading it on and off.
Interesting read. I hardly know anything about any of the other empires discussed, even if they've had a big impact on Asia (and the world) today.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 30, 2019 16:41:44 GMT -5
I saw that book in a bookstore the other day and its size is VERY intimidating. I am impressed! I'll admit I read it on the Kindle - if I'd had to schlep that huge brick around it probably would have taken me TWO months to read it!
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Post by sprite on Nov 30, 2019 17:31:41 GMT -5
But think of the muscles you'd have...
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 1, 2019 9:42:11 GMT -5
73. Her Royal Spyness, Rhys Bowen. Quite an interesting little mystery, with some insight into the Royal Family and its doings in the 1930s. I’m not sure how accurately the doings of the heroine would be in the real 1930s, as she did take some risks a woman of her class probably wouldn’t have dared at the time.
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Post by Queen on Dec 2, 2019 17:03:25 GMT -5
The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan. Not light reading, this book recentres the Middle East (as opposed to Europe and North America) as the Center of what is happening based on history and speculates where we are heading. Good food for thought. Well written, brilliant research. this has been on my wish list for ages... I gave my Dad a copy for Christmas a few years ago and did a free read of the first couple of chapters. He's a fascinating guy, he played cricket for Croatia, is faculty at Oxford, and owns a chain of boutique hotels.
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Post by Queen on Dec 2, 2019 17:04:57 GMT -5
A Single Thread Tracey Chevalier
Rather disappointing.
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Post by scrubb on Dec 4, 2019 5:39:36 GMT -5
Catching up on holidays:
Literary Occasions, by V.S. Naipaul. A collection of essays, autobiographical, looking at his family history and upbringing in Trinidad. They got a bit repetitive, and it was a bit too much musing for me, but it was ok.
Some Hope, the 3rd Patrick Melrose book by Edward St. Aubyn. Not as compelling as the first 2, but worth reading. It's similar to the first book in a way - the setting is the day and evening of a big party with many of the same people who attended the party in the first book - but the people are older and not, in general, as horrible. Patrick is trying to find a life and makes some progress.
The Lost Girls of Paris, by Pam Jenoff. An ok story about English women who worked as operatives in occupied France in WW2. Not as good as it could have been with a more compelling heroine, and without the kind of stupid love story, and with more realistic dialogue, but knowing it was based on actual history to some extent kept me reading.
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