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Post by mod on Feb 2, 2020 14:28:29 GMT -5
Here's January BooksI stopped into a small independent near the studio and picked up "A Long Petal of the Sea" by Isabel Allende (autographed no less) so I willingly paid full price. Shocking. |
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Post by Liiisa on Feb 2, 2020 18:26:48 GMT -5
Thank you mod!!
I'm currently about halfway through "This is How You Lose the Time War," which I already know will be on my top 10 list for this year; love it sooo much.
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Post by Liiisa on Feb 2, 2020 19:50:06 GMT -5
Oops, and then I finished it (it's a short book):
6) Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladwell, This is How You Lose the Time War
!!! To discuss the plot of this is to take away the pleasure of finding out how the plot develops, so I'll just say that it's about two enemies who fight on opposite sides of a battle between the technical and the natural, which is fought up and down the strands of time. And it's beautiful and poetic, and there's also a love story, and it's very surprising and wonderful. And there are damselflies! Definitely my favorite book so far this year.
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Post by HalcyonDaze on Feb 3, 2020 3:25:43 GMT -5
Thank you mod!! I'm currently about halfway through "This is How You Lose the Time War," which I already know will be on my top 10 list for this year; love it sooo much. I've had that sitting in the pile by my bed for ages (think I may have used up maximum number of renewals at the library) but as I've read a load of other time travel books in a short period of time I needed a break. |
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Feb 3, 2020 5:31:15 GMT -5
Thank you Mod. Bookmarking.
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Post by Liiisa on Feb 3, 2020 5:49:34 GMT -5
I've had that sitting in the pile by my bed for ages (think I may have used up maximum number of renewals at the library) but as I've read a load of other time travel books in a short period of time I needed a break. I think you'll enjoy it if you do finally get to it! |
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Feb 4, 2020 9:16:44 GMT -5
16. The Sky is Crazy. Tales from a Trolley Dolly. Yvonne Lee. A light read. Stories from the life of an airline stewardess. I’m glad I haven’t yet encountered some of the passengers she’s had to deal with!
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Post by Queen on Feb 5, 2020 3:10:26 GMT -5
The Crow Trap
Ann Cleeves
Loved it!
Really like that the author doesn't introduce her lead detective until halfway through the book. I partially guessed the solution but the book was still good. Crowded with interesting and complex women, which is a welcome change. Good writing - I could picture the geography of the story. I've downloaded the next two in the series.
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Post by mei on Feb 5, 2020 5:30:23 GMT -5
I'm currently trying to get through a book for Saturday's book club. I don't think I'll get it done in time! It's well written but not a real plot, it centers on the relationship between two women. I read bits on the train and in the evening in bed but it puts me to sleep!
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Post by tucano on Feb 5, 2020 15:22:52 GMT -5
Where the Crawdads Sing. I finished it in a day and found it really absorbing, although the last bit felt like trying to wrap up loose ends too quickly.
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Post by scrubb on Feb 5, 2020 20:59:40 GMT -5
I've been reading "The War at the End of the World" by Mario Vargos Llosa for a while now. I'm finally over half done, after a very slow start, but not sure when I'll finally finish it.
Also, I started "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" a few days ago, but then I went back to Llosa and am trying to finish that first.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Feb 6, 2020 10:32:25 GMT -5
17. From Garden to Grave, Rickie Blair. Quite a good story set in a Canadian village, and with its own Canadian linguistic quirks. Who knew the Canadian nicknames for coins? At least I know Tim Horton’s.
Some quirky characters, and an underlying mystery not yet solved in the first book.
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Post by Liiisa on Feb 7, 2020 18:35:44 GMT -5
7) Kevin Wilson, Nothing to See Here
!!! Thank you for reminding me to read this - absolutely loved loved it. (This is the one about the children who catch on fire.) I particularly loved how there was an undercurrent of antiauthoritarianism, in terms of parenting and politics alike. It made me giggle out loud on an airplane.
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Post by HalcyonDaze on Feb 7, 2020 21:49:16 GMT -5
12. The Grace Year - Kim Liggett
YA
A dystopian feminist novel that is a bit Handmaid's Tale, a bit Lord of the Flies and a sprinkling of The Beach.
Good but not great.
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Post by lillielangtry on Feb 8, 2020 5:44:05 GMT -5
#4 Peter Fiennes, Footnotes: A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers
So as the title suggests, Fiennes makes a trip around Britain discussing writers who also travelled to that area. Some of the writers will be familiar to just about everyone - Enid Blyton, Charles Dickens - others are less well-known. I mean, this was generally fine but I didn't feel like it really hangs together particularly well.
#5 Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
A reread in preparation for the third part of the trilogy coming out in March. Honestly, I think Mantel is a genius and one of the greatest writers living today. It takes a long time to get through this book, it's over 650 pages and very dense with a large cast of characters, but I actually missed it once I was done. A Nobel for Mantel, please.
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Post by scrubb on Feb 8, 2020 20:15:44 GMT -5
Finished The War of the End of the World, by Mario Vargas Llosa. At last.
Once I got into it, it was very good. But also, really horrible things happen, to everyone, and you kind of have to dissociate from it.
It will stick with me for a while. The bizarre cast of characters, the grotesque and the absurd, and trying to figure out what the author was saying about faith, politics, and humanity.
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Post by sophie on Feb 9, 2020 16:10:59 GMT -5
Scrubb, I think I read that book in university, and purposefully blocked it as I didn’t like a lot of what was being depicted. Not sure I would want to try it again.
Rhys Bowen’s Above the Bay of Angels. Apparently this author has written many novels.. this the first one by her i have read. It is a rather clever mystery set during queen Victoria’s reign and features a main character who is a young woman working in her service. I liked it as an enjoyable quick read.
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Post by mei on Feb 10, 2020 5:40:02 GMT -5
only #2 so far: The Door by Magda Szabo. A bookclub read, by an Hungarian author. She passed away in 2007 already but this book has apparently become very popular again as an outstanding read over the last few years.
I think the English translation would have been better to read, instead of the Dutch translation (the English translation has won awards for its high quality translation), maybe then I would have enjoyed the book more. Partly it also didn't really get to me because I read it in small bits and pieces, so when I finally finished the final 60 pages in one go yesterday I got more in to the book.
The book describes the relationship between two women, a writer and her cleaning lady. Apparently it's very autobiographical. It's written in a very 'observing' style and not much happens except that bit by bit the secrets from the cleaning lady's life become clear.
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Post by Queen on Feb 12, 2020 3:36:23 GMT -5
#3 The conviction of Cora Burns
Caroline Kirby
Cora Burns is born in a prison in 1865, but no-one is entirely sure why her mother is in prison. She is eventually released to work in the laundry of an asylum, commits a crime and finds her self back in prison. Once she serves her time she gets the opportunity to work in a house as a "tweeny" (a maid between upstairs and downstairs, basically someone who does all the shit work no-one else wants to do) in the house of someone researching whether it's nature or nurture.
The book more or less proves it's nurture.
But there are some weird Victorian Gothic touches and a fight with a black berry bush along the way. A good read - and this is the writer's first published novel. The ends were tied up a little too neatly but I will keep an eye out for the next book by her.
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Post by treehugger on Feb 13, 2020 4:54:46 GMT -5
#3 The conviction of Cora Burns Caroline Kirby Cora Burns is born in a prison in 1865, but no-one is entirely sure why her mother is in prison. She is eventually released to work in the laundry of an asylum, commits a crime and finds her self back in prison. Once she serves her time she gets the opportunity to work in a house as a "tweeny" (a maid between upstairs and downstairs, basically someone who does all the shit work no-one else wants to do) in the house of someone researching whether it's nature or nurture. The book more or less proves it's nurture. But there are some weird Victorian Gothic touches and a fight with a black berry bush along the way. A good read - and this is the writer's first published novel. The ends were tied up a little too neatly but I will keep an eye out for the next book by her. That sounds excellent. |
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Post by scrubb on Feb 14, 2020 8:50:08 GMT -5
Taft, by Anne Patchett. I really like most of her books, and this one is no exception. About relationships, and fathers and sons.
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Post by lillielangtry on Feb 14, 2020 13:07:27 GMT -5
#6 Sally Rooney, Normal People
I almost wanted not to like this because it's been so hyped and it's supposed to be very "millennial", but you know what, I did like it. It's extremely readable - I got through it in 2 days. We had a lively discussion at book club though, with some people disturbed by the female character, in particular.
#7 Jojo Moyes, The Giver of Stars
I've never read Jojo Moyes, but I was lent this one, which is a historical novel focused on the WPA Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky in the 1930s. It's very neat - most of main strands of the story were fairly obvious from the start and all ends are tied up. But it's a very pleasant, easy read about a very interesting historical context.
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Post by Queen on Feb 14, 2020 17:06:22 GMT -5
Monogram Murders - Sophie Hannah
A murder mystery with Hercule Poirot as the detective, done with the consent of the family.
Meh.
They shouldn't have done it. I started reading with great enthusiasm, but Hercule is all wrong.
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Post by mei on Feb 16, 2020 6:07:01 GMT -5
#3 Craft of Use by Kate Fletcher.
Really amazing (non-fiction) book on sustainability in fashion and clothing. I love this author's work, especially after I saw her speak a few months ago. Her look at fashion is (for me) really innovative and system changing. Whereas a lot of books on sustainability in fashion look at the production process, materials, etc (basically everything up to the moment that a piece is bought), this book explores what happens then and is a collection of user stories. Items passed on through several generations in a family, mending items, unwashed items to make them last, items with strong memories and emotional value etc etc. Really well done.
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Post by sprite on Feb 16, 2020 16:12:55 GMT -5
ann cleeves was apparently turned down by a publisher who refused to believe her name was real.
I enjoy most of her books, and the TV series for both Vera and Shetland are good (although a blonde playing Jimmy Perez? really?)
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
I enjoyed this. It was engaging and poetic. she captures the shift from socialism to capitalism in tiny ways, her main character is both bonkers and ultra-lucid. It is a sort of murder mystery, but while it didn't take long to work out who the murderer was, there was still enough in the reveal that i didn't know.
she describes weather in ways that resonate--i wonder what the book is like for someone who hasn't grown up with snowy winters.
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Post by HalcyonDaze on Feb 16, 2020 22:19:38 GMT -5
ann cleeves was apparently turned down by a publisher who refused to believe her name was real. I Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk I enjoyed this. It was engaging and poetic. she captures the shift from socialism to capitalism in tiny ways, her main character is both bonkers and ultra-lucid. It is a sort of murder mystery, but while it didn't take long to work out who the murderer was, there was still enough in the reveal that i didn't know. she describes weather in ways that resonate--i wonder what the book is like for someone who hasn't grown up with snowy winters. I can read it and let you know?  |
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Post by mei on Feb 17, 2020 3:16:38 GMT -5
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk I enjoyed this. It was engaging and poetic. she captures the shift from socialism to capitalism in tiny ways, her main character is both bonkers and ultra-lucid. It is a sort of murder mystery, but while it didn't take long to work out who the murderer was, there was still enough in the reveal that i didn't know. she describes weather in ways that resonate--i wonder what the book is like for someone who hasn't grown up with snowy winters. This is probably my next fiction read... looking forward to it. |
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Post by sprite on Feb 17, 2020 9:24:33 GMT -5
I had started 'flights' but the loan ran out before i finished, and i'm still waiting. I found 'Drive your Plow' easier to read in that it's a more traditional narrative, but I didn't warm to the main character the way i like the 'flights' narrator.
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Post by scrubb on Feb 19, 2020 15:23:46 GMT -5
The White Bone, by Barbara Gowdy. Told from the point of view of various elephants which means creating a version of their thinking that includes clear communication, mythology, etc.
I'm good with magic realism and I like Watership Down, and this is kind of an interesting take, but I can't say I find it compelling or "realistic". I mean, I don't think it's very likely that it is even close to how elephants think and/or communicate. Even though I accept that they do both those things.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Feb 20, 2020 2:57:44 GMT -5
18. Scrublands, by Chris Hammer. Brilliant Australian mystery/thriller, and ideal as an audiobook for long road trips in the Western Plains of NSW.
The mystery was complex and well-crafted, and the characters well-drawn and believable. The only question I’d have for the author is, where are the aboriginal members of the community? They live in and are part of practically every town and hamlet in the western half of the state.
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