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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 2, 2021 6:11:05 GMT -5
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 2, 2021 6:13:28 GMT -5
My first finished in 2021: 1. Here Comes the Bribe, Mary Daheim. Another very cozy mystery set in a B & B. This time one of the guests is convinced Judith is his mother, and another is a very odd clergyman.
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Post by snowwhite on Jan 2, 2021 9:51:17 GMT -5
Ha! Well I was part-way through The Long Cosmos, and then I got to about chapter 10 and realised I had read it before, a few years back. So it'll go back to the library and I'll read something else. Junior was given quite a few books for Christmas and he' not showing enthusiasm for reading them, so I might offer to read them aloud and see if I then want to read them for me anyway.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 2, 2021 13:01:04 GMT -5
Thank you ozzie!
Bookmarking, though I may not be back in this thread anytime soon because sometime in the past month I decided that I needed to be more up on 19th century American history and therefore am reading a 700-page-long book about the post Civil War period. And I'm only on p. 330-something.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jan 3, 2021 10:08:52 GMT -5
First whole book of 2021:
Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke I asked for this for Christmas, so obviously was looking forward to it and it did not disappoint! Much shorter than Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell... it's about a man known as Pranesi who is living in a sort of mysterious house, full of halls, statues and tides. But why is he there? And who is he? It's beautiful and quite gripping. REally liked it.
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Post by sophie on Jan 3, 2021 10:28:45 GMT -5
Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce. A very enjoyable read, recommended by someone (Hal?) on here a few months back. A woman who was a misfit in many ways decides to chuck it all in 1950 and follow her passion for beetles to New Caledonia with misadventures and true friendship in the process. This book made me realize the days when bribes could pass for passports and sneaking aboard ships was a possibility are truly gone!
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 4, 2021 2:44:50 GMT -5
sophie I’m not sure the bribes, etc have completely disappeared in Melanesia!
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 4, 2021 2:57:53 GMT -5
2. Silver, Chris Hammer. I’ve been enjoying quite a few books set in Australia this year. I went for a drive out to the Darling River Weir this morning, so I could finish this audiobook. I’ll start a new one when I start my road trip on Friday. Set in a growing North Coast seaside town, which appears to be a composite of several I know, this book has suspense, mystery and beautiful scenery. Well written and absorbing, it makes a great audiobook. There is good character development, starting with the new couple from his first novel, Scrublands. I’m looking forward to more in this series. Chris Hammer knows my home state well, and can imagine believable, but fictional, towns.
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Post by riverhorse on Jan 4, 2021 7:12:27 GMT -5
I'm not sure if I'm allowed to include cookbooks, but I've just flipped through James Martin's Complete Home Comforts and was rather underwhelmed. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that I was reading it on my phone, and have come to the realisation that cookbooks do not lend themselves to reading on a device - I need to have them in my hand, to flip through the recipes all on one page with the accompanying photos together.
But also a lot of the recipes used ingredients that are impossible to find here and would even be difficult to find in the UK, so I would not be inspired to make many anyway.
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Post by scrubb on Jan 6, 2021 22:34:14 GMT -5
Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce. A very enjoyable read, recommended by someone (Hal?) on here a few months back. A woman who was a misfit in many ways decides to chuck it all in 1950 and follow her passion for beetles to New Caledonia with misadventures and true friendship in the process. This book made me realize the days when bribes could pass for passports and sneaking aboard ships was a possibility are truly gone! Sounds like one for my list. So far I've read a couple escapist Dresden files books (PI who's a wizard, fighting the forces of darkness) but he's starting to go overboard with torture porn. I'm taking a break from them. I'm reading The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel and enjoying it quite a lot.
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Post by scrubb on Jan 8, 2021 11:54:14 GMT -5
The Cloud Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel. Set in a fictionalized version of the 2008 GFC and Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Unexpected characters, from the Madoff character to the junkie brother of his trophy wife, some of his ruined investors, his coworkers, and others.
It focuses on Vincent, the trophy wife, telling her story from age 13 when her mother disappeared/drowned. Jumps around in time. Touches some characters very lightly and others more deeply. I am not sure it is profound, but it is beautiful and interesting and I really liked it a lot.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 8, 2021 22:17:29 GMT -5
scrubb I read that last year and enjoyed it. Agree that it's not A Great Novel, but definitely kept me interested. (But I think it's "The Glass Hotel"?)
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Post by sophie on Jan 9, 2021 0:27:05 GMT -5
Amor Towles, Rules of Civility. An excellent read, although I liked his second novel (A Gentleman in Moscow) better, but the writing and language is beautifully used. The characters give a vivid snapshot of New York life in the 30’s. The main character, Katey, is finding her way through the social strata while navigating life working in the publishing world. Recommended.
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Post by riverhorse on Jan 10, 2021 5:09:18 GMT -5
The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce. A gentle and slightly melancholy story of Frank, who owns a music shop in the 80s in a rundown corner of some drab Northern town, who refuses to get with the times and switch to CDs. The minor characters are also a bunch of misfits, who all struggle to keep their livelihoods going and fight off plans by Big Developers for their rundown shops.
Frank's life is changed when a mysterious woman crosses his path.
This could have been a slightly more depressing take on Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, but was less romantic-relationship heavy.
It seems that a lot of books I'm reading right now are by authors recommended here or elsewhere, but the actual books I can't find on Libby, so make do with some other title! I really struggle with finding books in English to download or buy on Amazon Kindle without breaking the bank!
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Post by scrubb on Jan 13, 2021 11:51:52 GMT -5
scrubb I read that last year and enjoyed it. Agree that it's not A Great Novel, but definitely kept me interested. (But I think it's "The Glass Hotel"?) Glass would make a lot more sense, since there is a glass hotel in the book!
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Post by scrubb on Jan 13, 2021 11:53:04 GMT -5
The Invisible Man, by HG Wells.
Eh.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 13, 2021 12:58:51 GMT -5
scrubb I read that last year and enjoyed it. Agree that it's not A Great Novel, but definitely kept me interested. (But I think it's "The Glass Hotel"?) Glass would make a lot more sense, since there is a glass hotel in the book! Plus I just noticed that you called it "The Glass Hotel" on January 6
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Post by lillielangtry on Jan 14, 2021 1:16:57 GMT -5
#2 Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Kintu (Uganda) An epic, multigenerational novel about a clan that carries a "curse". It's very complex but in a good way, weaving all the different stories and moving backwards and forwards in time. I will say that the partial character list and partial family tree at the beginning are necessary but not exhaustive, so it still takes some concentration to work out who is who and who is related to whom! It really brings together issues of Christianity, traditional religion and spirituality, HIV, family ties etc. Really good.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 14, 2021 4:16:27 GMT -5
I have finished two audiobooks so far on my road trip. I am alternating between fiction and non-fiction. 3. Paper, Scissors, Death, Joanna Campbell Slan. This book improved somewhat after the first chapter. I started out thinking the MC was an idiot, who kept her 11-year-old in a snobbish school, despite the fact that she was being bullied. I did manage to pick the murderer fairly early. 4. I am Malala, Malala Yousafzai. A brilliant book. I think what struck me most is how easily poorly educated people can be seduced by fundamentalism. Watching Malala in the future will be fascinating
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Post by Oweena on Jan 17, 2021 18:19:54 GMT -5
It's taken me 16 days to finish, all 700+ pages of it.
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
Lots of detail into his thought process along with background about the start of his political career, meeting Michelle, descriptions of meetings with other world leaders, and enough personal snippets to make up for some of the more dry policy parts.
This is described as volume one of his memoir, and it ends before the completion of his first term. So I'm guessing he's got at least two more volumes to go.
I enjoyed it, but I'm a sucker for foreign policy, politics, and of course, Obama.
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Post by scrubb on Jan 17, 2021 20:23:42 GMT -5
The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula K. LeGuin. Well done, as everything she writes is, but not great.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 18, 2021 13:37:50 GMT -5
I stillll haven't finished "Reconstruction."
When I actually get around to reading it I'm like "This is FANTASTIC!" but every night I think "shall I read 'Reconstruction' or random crap on the internet," and for the past week or so, the random crap has been winning.
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Post by Oweena on Jan 18, 2021 23:36:55 GMT -5
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Finished this in 24 hours. I think I was ready for some good fiction after making it through the Obama memoir, and this book hit the mark. It's about twin sisters born and raised in a small Louisiana town known for it's light skinned Blacks. The twins leave town at age 16 and one goes on to pass as white while the other doesn't. The rest of the book tells those parallel stories. It also tells the story of each of their daughters, one dark skinned and the other raised as white. Every character was interesting, even those on the periphery of the plot. It's about race and family and secrets, all pulled together in a way that kept me reading.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jan 19, 2021 1:08:01 GMT -5
Yes, worth the hype I think that one, Oweena
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 19, 2021 1:31:45 GMT -5
5. A real paperback from my favourite second hand book shop, and a Good Reads Cozy Mystery challenge. The Alpine Legacy, by Mary Daheim. I love this series, set in rural Washington state, as well as another by the same author set in a B&B in a fictional suburb of Seattle.
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Post by mei on Jan 19, 2021 4:06:54 GMT -5
first book of the year, a collection of short stories by Lionel Shriver, 'Property'. I read it for my book club, though it's looking I might not be able to join after all.
anyway, apart from that, I was really looking forward to this book, it sounded very interesting - all stories that relate to property, things, stuff, in some way or another. I found it pretty boring. Yes, it's about stuff, but mostly the stories are about relationships, (and how an item or a house is an element of a relationship between two or more people). The characters are also totally self-involved, so there's often not much of a plot but a lot of thoughts, in complicated language (I haven't read a book that used so many words I had never seen before in a long time). So yeah, I never managed to get through We Need To Talk About Kevin, so maybe this being by the same author should've been an indication I wouldn't like it...
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Post by riverhorse on Jan 19, 2021 7:13:55 GMT -5
I finished "Me Before You" by JoJo Moyes in about 2 days, a very quick read. I have been a big fan of JoJo Moyes, my first and favourite book I read of hers was "Ship of Brides" which was a fascinating insight into the lives and fates of post-WWII war brides heading from Australia to the UK.
Anyhoo, Me Before You is a kind of romantic take on the story of the great French film "Intouchables" - a 27 year old girl with a very narrow life is sent by the Job Centre to be the companion (rather than carer) for a young guy who became a quadriplegic in an accident. The development of their relationship is quite nice, and quite a few interesting questions are raised about euthanasia, as the guy is determined to go to Dignitas in Switzerland to end his life, and everyone else in his life is trying to discourage him from it. However, it is very much a chick-lit book, unlike some of her earlier works, and even though I cried at the ending, and didn't mind it for a quick and easy read, it wasn't what I'd been expecting.
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Post by sophie on Jan 19, 2021 11:55:24 GMT -5
Preston and Childs, The Scorpion’s Tail. Good escapist action featuring an archeologist, a FBI agent, antiquities looters, treasure hunters, and the White Sands military base all set in New Mexico. I enjoyed it, especially given that I was in dire need of escapism.
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Post by scrubb on Jan 19, 2021 23:11:30 GMT -5
Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women, by Kate Moore. The story of the women who painted luminescent dials on clocks and watches in WWI, the 1920s, and the '30s, and their fight against the United States Radium Corporation (USRC) who refused to accept responsibility for the radium poisoning that many of them ended up suffering from.
It was reasonably well done. The writer's style occasionally annoyed me (she kept saying things like "they knew not what to do") but only occasionally. An interesting and horrible story, she didn't shy away from describing the awful infections that ate away at the women's jaws. (They used to dip their brushes in the radium paint, then use their lips to shape the brush into a point, so teeth and jaws were particularly badly affected.)
Their story and their eventual win in court (after years of fighting, after many of them were already dead) lead to changes in occupational health law and I think other books have been written that focus on that aspect. This one focused on the women's stories. At first there were too many names floating around to keep them straight, but then it narrowed in on a few.
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Post by sprite on Jan 20, 2021 11:52:15 GMT -5
3 historical ysteries; I went on a bit of a binge.
The Queen's Man A young man leaves the manor house he grew up in after the Bishop who owns it refuses to admit they are father and son. On his way to London, he witnesses a robbery and murder, discovering that the victim is carrying a letter for Queen Eleanor of Aquitane, which he delivers to her. He is then hired to find out who wanted the courier murdered. Enjoyable historical adventure, some great women interwoven into the story as more than love interests or vixens. This is the period in which John is plotting to somehow take over from his massively popular brother, Richard the Lionheart. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of Lond from that era.
Heresy (Giordano Bruno) Spoiler: the main character really existed, and 5 minutes ago, I learned taht he was burned at the stake for believing in an infinite Universe which did not revolve around our earth. A former monk, he joins Walsingham's network of spies, investigating secret Catholics in Oxford. Someone is killing members of Lincoln college, in the manner of Christian martyrs.
Scarlet Widow Set mainly in Pilgrim America, a young woman uses logic and chemistry to find out why terrible things are happening to people in her village. Partway through, it becomes obvious who is doing them, but why? It was alright, but I found myself skimming through to get to the end. I just felt the writing could be a little better.
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