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Post by Liiisa on Dec 29, 2019 17:23:04 GMT -5
Hmmm mei - that sounds like that strand of sci-fi that's 75% about how the spaceship works... zzzzz. But thank you for reminding me that I've only read the first book of the Three-Body Problem trilogy! BTW there's a new Kim Stanley Robinson book on the way....
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Post by mei on Dec 30, 2019 5:46:34 GMT -5
Hmmm mei - that sounds like that strand of sci-fi that's 75% about how the spaceship works... zzzzz. But thank you for reminding me that I've only read the first book of the Three-Body Problem trilogy! yup, that. So different from the Three-Body Problem. (admittedly, book 2 of that trilogy is harder to get through than book 1, but book 3 is so worth it to continue).
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Post by Queen on Dec 30, 2019 12:45:59 GMT -5
Travellers in the Third Reich
Utterly fascinating, liked that she had a range of nationalities and perspectives in there.
The Summer Country Lauren Willig Historical fiction, I wasn't gripped.
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Post by scrubb on Dec 30, 2019 17:08:36 GMT -5
Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor. About a community of on-the-rise black people in Georgia, but all the land is owned by a malevolent man who controls everything.
It's got poetry and metaphor and tragedy, and I liked it a lot, but from the-day-after-finishing perspective, I'm not convinced it knew what it wanted to be/say. Big picture, it's about pitfalls and dangers that blacks face when trying to get ahead. I think.
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Post by Oweena on Dec 30, 2019 21:48:23 GMT -5
Underground:A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet by Will Hunt
The author has been fascinated with tunnels and caves since he was a kid. His book delves into the draw for mankind to explore what lies beneath us. One chapter is on the excursion he and his friends went on underneath Paris via the sewers and catacombs which took several days. Other chapters detail visits to caves in Mexico, France, Australia and Turkey as well as his time exploring the underground world of the NYC subway system. The section about how we navigate above ground versus in the dark below ground and how our brain operates differently depending on what senses we can utilize made me realize I would lose my sh*t if lost in a cave system.
Recommend if you like learning about the natural world, our place in it, along with the added bonus of travel thrown in.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 31, 2019 2:02:31 GMT -5
81. All the Pretty Hearses, Mary Darheim. This is a particularly funny book in the B&B series, dealing with the ups and downs of family and parish relationships. Like some earlier ones, it is a good one to read when you already know the characters from earlier books in the series.
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Post by sprite on Jan 1, 2020 5:58:22 GMT -5
79. The 28-day Gout Diet Plan. The last of the unfinished books I was determined to finish before the end of the month. While I may need to modify some of this plan because I live in a fairly remote part of Australia, and for my own tastes, I think it could provide what I need to follow in the new year. I have learnt quite a bit about gout-friendly and unfriendly foods. While I knew about cherries, for example, I had no idea that sodium was a major problem I sometimes check sodium levels of food because partner has high blood pressure. I was shocked to realise that bread and potato chips often have similar levels of sodium.
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Post by sprite on Jan 1, 2020 6:05:41 GMT -5
Anansi's Boys, Neil Gaiman
Every once in a while, I read a badly written book and think, "if this can get published, I should write a book."
Then I read Gaiman and give up. In a good way! I always enjoy his stories, serious and funny at the same time. This one picks up the Anansi spider folklore, and transports it to modern day US/UK. Anansi has died, and his son Charles is convinced to attend the funeral. Charles has never really liked his father, who was always playing tricks or flirting with women. And after the funeral, people keep saying odd things about him.
A mysterious man appears in Charles' rather predictable London life, claims to be his brother, and it all gets very strange.
An easy read, much lighter than American Gods.
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Post by scrubb on Jan 1, 2020 13:48:57 GMT -5
Anansi's Boys, Neil Gaiman An easy read, much lighter than American Gods. I'm very happy you wrote this. Because I really, really liked American Gods, but still, it was so involved and dense - and long - that I have been putting off Anansi Boys, thinking it would be more of the same. Now that I know it's not, well, woohoo!
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 1, 2020 17:04:02 GMT -5
On the other hand, I liked Anansi Boys, but really liked American Gods better! But then I've done lots of reading about various mythologies, so I enjoyed trying to guess which mythos he was referring to in each section. But anyway, the reason I came in here was to say: lillielangtry, my mom loves the Traveling in the Third Reich book, so thanks again for the review!
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Post by sprite on Jan 1, 2020 18:03:09 GMT -5
I loved both books, but yes, Anansi is a more rollicking adventure, slightly bromance, good comedy. And it's rare to see African or Carribbean mythology in mainstream English novels.
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Post by scrubb on Jan 1, 2020 19:23:14 GMT -5
On the other hand, I liked Anansi Boys, but really liked American Gods better! But then I've done lots of reading about various mythologies, so I enjoyed trying to guess which mythos he was referring to in each section. Oh, I'm not saying that I think I'll prefer Anansi boys. I thought American Gods was fantastic. I just couldn't seem to bring myself to pick up another very long book as intricate as American Gods was, even though I assumed I'd really like it when I finally did. I guess it also had a further hesitation-factor in that I know almost nothing about the Anansi mythology. I know a LOT about some other mythologies, which was part of what I enjoyed in American Gods. I thought Anansi Boys wouldn't have that same part of the attraction.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jan 2, 2020 13:27:38 GMT -5
Happy that the people reading Travellers in the Third Reich have enjoyed it! It's so good, isn't it?!
OK final books of 2019:
Margarete Stokowski, Untenrum frei - non-fiction by a young German feminist. It's quite good but I think I'm a bit older than the target audience.
Zahra Hankir (ed), Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women reporting from the Arab World - interesting but mixed, as most edited volumes are.
Mary Morris (ed), The Virago Book of Women Travellers - I particularly loved some of the older contributions in this. Such incredibly brave, physically tough women! The collection itself is from 1994 though... surely time for an update.
Ann Cleeves, The Crow Trap - some people may know the TV detective series "Vera", featuring Inspector Vera Stanhope and set in the North-east of England. Well this is the first book with Vera. It's subtly done, interesting and not too gory, and with a beautiful landscape as backdrop. I would pick up another of Cleeves if I felt like a crime break.
Monique Roffey, The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (Trinidad and Tobago) - I listened to this as an audiobook, although I don't always do well with novels on audio. It's about a European couple who move to Trinidad and their different reactions to it. It's good.
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Post by sprite on Jan 2, 2020 17:14:08 GMT -5
I can recommend the Shetland series from Cleeves. She's a one-woman tourism promoter for the north of the UK.
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Post by Queen on Jan 2, 2020 19:03:58 GMT -5
I can recommend the Shetland series from Cleeves. She's a one-woman tourism promoter for the north of the UK. It was adapted to a tv series, or at least some of the books were. Didn’t realise she was the author - it was a great series, properly suspenseful.
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Post by sprite on Jan 3, 2020 11:15:17 GMT -5
She has some earlier novels about a former Home Office guy and his wife, which always centre around bird watchers. I'm now worried about ever joining a bird watching group.
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Post by Queen on Jan 3, 2020 17:13:53 GMT -5
She has some earlier novels about a former Home Office guy and his wife, which always centre around bird watchers. I'm now worried about ever joining a bird watching group. As long as they don't meet in Midsommer you should be fine!
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 3, 2020 21:44:14 GMT -5
She has some earlier novels about a former Home Office guy and his wife, which always centre around bird watchers. I'm now worried about ever joining a bird watching group. We are all perfectly normal
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Post by scrubb on Jan 3, 2020 22:25:42 GMT -5
Yes. We are perfectly normal.
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Post by Queen on Jan 4, 2020 3:44:33 GMT -5
We are all perfectly normal Pretty sure that's not completely true
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Post by sprite on Jan 5, 2020 11:53:30 GMT -5
yeah, it'll be a long time before i stick Scrubb and Liiisa in the normal box!
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Post by scrubb on Jan 5, 2020 13:17:03 GMT -5
yeah, it'll be a long time before i stick Scrubb and Liiisa in the normal box!
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 5, 2020 17:01:17 GMT -5
yeah, it'll be a long time before i stick Scrubb and Liiisa in the normal box! I'm taking that as a compliment
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