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Post by mei on Dec 20, 2020 10:18:38 GMT -5
#30 A Burning by Megha Majumdar.
Debut novel published this summer by an Indian author living in NY. I read it for a book club where we read Asian authors.
I enjoyed this. It's a story about a young woman who is arrested after a terrorist attack close to her house, and is told by three different narrators (herself and two others that are somehow connected to the main character). Mostly it's an interesting insight in modern day India, and themes such as religious nationalism, inequality, poverty, corruption are very obviously discussed through the story.
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Post by Oweena on Dec 20, 2020 23:08:41 GMT -5
If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future by Jill Lepore
Non-fiction: The saga of a group of data scientists and hangers-on who were nerds convinced of the role computers could play in politics, advertising, news, etc. Starting in the late 1950s and using early computers they started a company called Simulmatics which held itself out as having the ability to predict how voters would vote, how consumers could be manipulated, and all the other bad stuff the internet has wrought in our world. They had various contracts with politicians, news organizations, and the defense department through the 1960s until it all flamed out. But what they started is very much with us today.
Lepore is always an interesting read, lots of side stories, layers of history, and bios of the main people involved.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 21, 2020 4:12:51 GMT -5
67. Death at the Dance, Verity Bright. An interesting mystery in a vintage setting. The MC is a liberated young lady who has inherited a title, with her butler as sidekick. The whole story is a bit absurd, but lots of fun.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 21, 2020 19:42:22 GMT -5
68. Clam Wake, Judith Durheim. Another funny contribution to one of my favourite cozy mystery series, this time on an island in the Pacific Northwest of the USA.
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Post by scrubb on Dec 23, 2020 0:40:51 GMT -5
ANother Harry DResden - still enjoying them - and a reread of DAvid Sedaris' Calypso. Mr_S is reading it right now and I wanted to remember it well enough for us to talk about it.
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Post by scrubb on Dec 25, 2020 17:21:22 GMT -5
Finished "Limitations" by Scott Turow. He writes legal thrillers - one was made into a movie several years ago. This one would have been topical recently as there's a case of a woman being gang raped by frat boys while passed out drunk, and the main character, a respected judge, remembers that he basically did the same thing back in his first year of university - it was how he lost his virginity.
There's a little soul searching; a little bit of thinking he could let the boys off as there's a technicality he could use; a little bit of wondering if he'd helped to ruin the girl's life back 40 years earlier. But mostly there's no real resolution for him aside from his wife telling him he's a good person so he forgives himself, I guess.
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Post by riverhorse on Dec 26, 2020 5:05:08 GMT -5
I just finished "The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper" by Phaedra Patrick. I'd originally gone hunting online for another of her novels that a former TTer has posted about on FB, but could only find this one.
It's a gentle tale about a lonely widower who stumbles across a charm bracelet that belonged to his wife, and as he tracks down the origins and stories behind each charm, he finds out more about his wife's life before they met, questions their relationship and ultimately makes peace with the past.
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Post by sophie on Dec 27, 2020 10:31:43 GMT -5
Hamnet and Judith by Maggie O’Farrell (sold as ‘Hamnet’ in some places). A very gentle and beautifully written novel about Shakespeare’s marriage and children ending with the death of his son just as Shakespeare was hitting the big time with his plays. No plot surprises but good detail based on research rather than on sparse historical facts about Shakespeare’s family.
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Post by Oweena on Dec 27, 2020 19:12:16 GMT -5
The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design by Kurt Kohlstedt and Roman Mars
From the same people who bring you the awesome podcast "99% Invisible" is this book about what we often miss about the world around us. The short chapters tell the story behind why things are designed the way they are. It covers urban design, architecture, automotive design, etc. If you're the type of person who stops to read the historical markers or plaques you'll like this book.
And if you've never listened to the podcast I highly recommend it.
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Post by Oweena on Jan 1, 2021 15:43:17 GMT -5
Last book of 2020, finished last night.
Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby
A series of essays. Irby is a queer Black blogger (bitches gotta eat), comedy writer, and author. She holds nothing back about living with Crohn's, growing up dirt poor with a sick mother, depression, and her sex life.
Lots of it is funny and it was a good book to end the year with.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 1, 2021 23:41:15 GMT -5
I have two books almost finished. They’ll have to wait for January.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 2, 2021 6:18:15 GMT -5
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Post by snowwhite on Jan 2, 2021 9:49:25 GMT -5
I finished The Switch (by Beth O'Leary, whose first novel was The Flat Share) on NYE.
I enjoyed it, although probably not as good as her first novel, often the way...
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Post by lillielangtry on Jan 2, 2021 10:38:38 GMT -5
Oh, December books and a couple that I am going to count for December even though I was still reading them yesterday :-)
Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree
Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising - reread of the children's classic (which is set around Christmas)
Gabriela Cabezon Camara, The Adventures of China Iron (translated by Fiona Macintosh and Iona Macintyre) - a feminist retelling of the Argentinian classic, Martín Fierro (which I admit I haven't read though I had a glance at the Wikipedia article!). Honestly that might make it sound a bit niche, but it's not really, it's a sort of on-the-road narrative through rural Argentina, with queer sex. Quite beautifully translated.
Cate Hamilton (ed), Multilingual is Normal - an anthology. My bad, I thought this was going to be proper essays about speaking multiple languages. It's not, it's a lot of snapshots of people's stories of growing up multilingual or learning languages. Not a bad idea, but rather superficial and gets samey. I didn't actually read them all.
Ann Patchett, The Dutch House - lots of people here must have read this right? It's a book club pick and I feel like it's not quite the book for me, but it is very good. And Tom Hanks reads the audiobook!
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Post by scrubb on Jan 3, 2021 12:30:46 GMT -5
I finished the year with another of the Dresden Files, with the PI who is a wizard fighting the forces of darkness. It made #102 for the year.
I have been enjoying that series and it's been nice easy reading while going through a very rough patch with my parents' health over the past couple weeks. But I'm starting to notice there's a lot of torture happening, and I'm not in to torture porn, even in reading, so I will probably pause with the series when I finish the one I'm currently on.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 4, 2021 3:12:57 GMT -5
Looks like I missed a book or a number somewhere. Goodreads says I’ve read 69 this year.
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