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Post by tzarine on Jan 20, 2021 17:03:56 GMT -5
pinball 1973 haruki murakami early work a man obsessed w pinball, the student movement, his dead girlfriend & his mysterious uni friend, rat, who appears in a wild sheep chase he got a lot better
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Post by sprite on Jan 21, 2021 4:55:59 GMT -5
It's taken me 16 days to finish, all 700+ pages of it. A Promised Land by Barack Obama I enjoyed it, but I'm a sucker for foreign policy, politics, and of course, Obama. In case anyone is interested, this is available as an audiobook on BBC Radio at the moment--I'm pretty sure it's him reading it.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 21, 2021 17:52:44 GMT -5
Two more audiobooks finished on my journey home. 6. The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village, Joanna Nell. A gentle, uplifting story of friendship. Not as funny as Helen Ellis’s “What are Friends For”, but believable, with characters like many people I know. 7. The Roommate, Dervla McTiernan. A mystery suspense novella set in Dublin. Very well done.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jan 22, 2021 1:58:09 GMT -5
#3 Claudia Hernández, Slash and Burn (translated from the Spanish by Julia Sanches) This is a novel about the aftermath (mostly) of the civil war in El Salvador, told from the point of view of various women. The most striking feature is that no one is named and hardly any places are either. So it's all "the mother" (and whether someone is a mother or a grandmother obviously depends on who is speaking!), "the eldest daughter", "the littlest daughter", etc. Honestly you do have to focus sometimes to work out which perspective you're reading from and there is certainly a difference between the original Spanish - where pronouns can often be missed out - and English, where it piles up with "she, she, she". But the book is really beautiful despite the devastating subject matter. The central character's courage and determination to defend her family, while constantly calculating if they have enough money to get by, is just amazing. I wish I had read Anna Burns' Milkman, which I think uses a rather similar technique against the backdrop of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, because I think they would be great to compare.
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Post by scrubb on Jan 22, 2021 12:50:04 GMT -5
The Pull of the Stars, by Emma Donoghue. About 3 days in the life of a nurse in Ireland in late 1918. Deals with WW1, Irish home rule, the flu pandemic, and the horrible way unwed mothers and illegitimate children were treated.
Apparently she'd sent it to her publishers a month or so before Covid hit. They pushed to release it as quickly as possible. I think it could have been a much better book than it is. Perhaps had they taken time to rewrite a bit? But maybe not. It had themes to fill a very long book and it's short. Maybe she just didn't have enough of a vision to do them all justice.
It was a quick, gripping read, but just brushed on so many of the themes.
It has very graphic descriptions of childbirth that I found really interesting. The nurse is also a midwife. If you're not interested in that, the book would not be for you.
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Post by Oweena on Jan 22, 2021 19:27:35 GMT -5
The Pull of the Stars, by Emma Donoghue. About 3 days in the life of a nurse in Ireland in late 1918. Deals with WW1, Irish home rule, the flu pandemic, and the horrible way unwed mothers and illegitimate children were treated. Apparently she'd sent it to her publishers a month or so before Covid hit. They pushed to release it as quickly as possible. I think it could have been a much better book than it is. Perhaps had they taken time to rewrite a bit? But maybe not. It had themes to fill a very long book and it's short. Maybe she just didn't have enough of a vision to do them all justice. It was a quick, gripping read, but just brushed on so many of the themes. It has very graphic descriptions of childbirth that I found really interesting. The nurse is also a midwife. If you're not interested in that, the book would not be for you. This book is in my queue. Her novel, The Wonder is excellent.
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Post by Oweena on Jan 22, 2021 19:47:24 GMT -5
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell
Read this because I enjoyed Hamnet, her most recent novel.
This one is non-fiction, telling the story of the times she's nearly died. She writes with specificity and emotion while still being able to view these experiences almost as a bystander. A couple caused me to relive a couple of my near death experiences, especially her tale of nearly drowning in Sri Lanka, the same place I got swept out in a rip tide. Some of the experiences weren't truly near death, more the tale of an awareness of how sometimes who lives and dies is a crapshoot. It's possible I liked this memoir due to my fascination with death and how others view it, but she really does know how to write.
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Post by scrubb on Jan 22, 2021 21:14:18 GMT -5
The Pull of the Stars, by Emma Donoghue. About 3 days in the life of a nurse in Ireland in late 1918. Deals with WW1, Irish home rule, the flu pandemic, and the horrible way unwed mothers and illegitimate children were treated. Apparently she'd sent it to her publishers a month or so before Covid hit. They pushed to release it as quickly as possible. I think it could have been a much better book than it is. Perhaps had they taken time to rewrite a bit? But maybe not. It had themes to fill a very long book and it's short. Maybe she just didn't have enough of a vision to do them all justice. It was a quick, gripping read, but just brushed on so many of the themes. It has very graphic descriptions of childbirth that I found really interesting. The nurse is also a midwife. If you're not interested in that, the book would not be for you. This book is in my queue. Her novel, The Wonder is excellent. I really liked The Wonder a lot. This one is very enjoyable but very superficial.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jan 23, 2021 8:11:00 GMT -5
I enjoyed I Am, I Am, I Am as well, in fact I keep meaning to reread it. Some of the "brushes with death" were not really that at all, it's true, but I was brought to tears a couple of times. I was so angry on her behalf when she was dismissed by doctors!
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Post by scrubb on Jan 23, 2021 23:59:56 GMT -5
Because it was there, I read one of Lee Child's Jack Reacher books over the last few days. Never Go Back. I didn't mind it - I don't like the graphic violence, but it was fairly minimal in this one and I just skipped those bits. Enough of a plot to keep me reading though it was only due to circumstance (only book around) that I picked it up.
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Post by shilgia on Jan 25, 2021 20:05:35 GMT -5
I'm reading two books at the moment (and I think if we're counting they're 4 and 5 for the year), and I love them both so far:
4. Barack Obama - The Promised Land. The first volume of his two-volume presidential autobiography. Really enjoying it so far, about 200 pages in. But it's got 700 pages.
5. Charles Yu - Interior Chinatown. Just started this last night, so I'm not far along yet, but so far this is blowing me away. Hard to describe; basically satire about the marginal role that Asian actors (literally) play in Hollywood. Written (in part) in the form of a movie script but also in other forms, including second-person narrative, which is unusual but somehow really works here. Again, hard to describe but the form and the substance essentially work together. It's sharp and funny and sad, and the form is very unusual. Only about 20% in so far, but so far I highly recommend this.
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Post by scrubb on Jan 26, 2021 0:40:06 GMT -5
D is for Deadbeat - Sue Grafton. Second of this series that I've read, and I think the last. It's just not great writing.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. A coffee shop where you can travel in time, though with many rules that make it less useful than one would think. I liked it quite a bit. Plus, I now understand one of the clues for the "find the book titles" contest this year.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 26, 2021 6:04:30 GMT -5
shilgia - great to hear that "Interior Chinatown" is so good. It's on my list because I liked his earlier "How to survive in a science fictional universe," but I just hadn't gotten to it yet.
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Post by mei on Jan 26, 2021 7:22:28 GMT -5
oooh that second book sounds very interesting shilgia.
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Post by shilgia on Jan 26, 2021 9:05:07 GMT -5
Liiisa, I'm curious about his other books now!
And mei, I hope I'm not over-selling it. I'm really enjoying it, though.
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Post by riverhorse on Jan 26, 2021 14:56:15 GMT -5
It's taken me 16 days to finish, all 700+ pages of it. A Promised Land by Barack Obama I enjoyed it, but I'm a sucker for foreign policy, politics, and of course, Obama. In case anyone is interested, this is available as an audiobook on BBC Radio at the moment--I'm pretty sure it's him reading it. OMG Sprite, I had NO idea about BBC Radio Audio books, nor that I can access them from outside the UK! Thank you thank you thank you! (although, coming late to this thread, the episodes are only available for another 4 days! I'd better get cracking!)
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Post by riverhorse on Jan 26, 2021 16:11:31 GMT -5
Well, I'm 4 episodes in now!
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Post by mei on Jan 27, 2021 5:39:47 GMT -5
I'm now also listening... I'm not sure if I want to tackle such a big book so this is a good way of trying it out before I get hold of the actual book!
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Post by Oweena on Jan 28, 2021 11:46:59 GMT -5
RE: BBC Audio Books: It's excerpts of the book or the entire thing?
Casting Off by Elizabeth Jane Howard This is from a series of books that I've never heard of, and I'm not much on series (too much commitment) but I do have a fondness for Brit WWII era fiction. I enjoyed the descriptions of what life was like, and it didn't seem to be an issue that I hadn't read the previous books. It went quickly, you rooted for or against the different characters from the extended family, and as a filler book between the books I'm waiting for to come available it was a good one.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jan 28, 2021 12:44:02 GMT -5
RE: BBC Audio Books: It's excerpts of the book or the entire thing? They're generally abridged. Certainly in the case of Obama it must be, as his book is very long. It is usually well enough done to give you a real feel of the book - I still remember listening to Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie's Purple Hibiscus - but not the full thing. I just finished a long audiobook, 20 hours: #4 My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad, translated by Dick Davis This was recommended by my Iranian boyfriend and when I checked, it was available on Audible and apparently one of the best-known Iranian novels of the 20th century, so I gave it a go. I would never have picked it otherwise, honestly, but I enjoyed it. It's a comic novel set in the 40s in a traditional extended family, where three brothers and their families all live in the same courtyard. The narrator, a teenage boy, is in love with his cousin, but his cousin's father, the head of the family, is paranoid and believes the English are out to get him. Much hilarity ensues, including several people confessing to a murder that hasn't been committed, a lot of mild sexual innuendo, someone getting shot in the buttocks, and several chapters centred on a stray fart. It could have been a little shorter, honestly. But some parts are genuinely funny and it's very far from the stereotype of Iran as dour and religious.
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Post by shilgia on Jan 28, 2021 13:08:04 GMT -5
Try your local library as well for audiobooks! At my local library you often have to wait a bit, but full-length audiobooks are available for pretty much any popular, recent book. I think the same is true for many libraries, not just here.
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Post by riverhorse on Jan 28, 2021 14:10:11 GMT -5
If Obama's book is only abridged as an audio book, I certainly don't feel like I'm missing put on anything! I might try and read it after I've finished listening, to compare.
I've just finished reading Code to Zero by Ken Follett. I'm a huge fan of Ken Follett's sweeping historical sagas, I can't remener how many times I've read Pillars of the Earth, but I was a bit disappointed in Code to Zero. It plays during the space race of the early 1960s, with flashbacks to wartime events, and the story revolves around the main character Luke, who wakes up in a public toilet one morning with no memory, dressed like a tramp. Gradually he pieces his old life together and it turns out he's a rocket scientist (!) with the CIA on his trail - are they trying to kill him and if so why?
This was a little formulaic for my liking although it was still an entertaining read. What I DID find out, when looking up something about the book, is that there's a third book in the Pillars of The Earth series that came out in 2017 that I hadn't known about so I've downloaded it now too.
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Post by shilgia on Jan 28, 2021 17:01:16 GMT -5
FWIW, the unabridged version of the Obama book as an audio book is 29 hours and 10 minutes long. If that's what you have then it's unabridged.
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Post by scrubb on Jan 28, 2021 21:21:18 GMT -5
11. The Gift of Rain, by Tan Twan Eng.
Mostly a WW2 story set in Penang. I'm not sure, but maybe if I'd read this book more quickly (I spread it out over nearly a whole month), or at a different time, I would have liked it more. I loved his other book (The Garden of Evening Mists) and expected to really love this one, too. But it just didn't quite work for me. I couldn't understand the choices the main character made, and it made it hard to be sympathetic to him.
It was beautifully written and very, very sad. That might have been part of my problem with it - I was already sad for real life reasons and didn't need the book's tragedies too. I kept finding myself reluctant to pick it up because I didn't want to be immersed in more unhappiness.
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Post by riverhorse on Jan 29, 2021 2:47:55 GMT -5
I've finished listening to the Promised Land episodes so it is definitely the abridged version, it was certainly NOT 29 hours, but I really enjoyed it (and could listen to Barack Obama recite from the Yellow Pages...!).
Am about to make a start on the 3rd Pillars book from Ken Follett. I'm really pleased with myself for having got so much reading (or listening!) in so far this year - I am deliberately making time for reading and am very much enjoying it. Once again, Hal putting me onto a Libby account has been a godsend!
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Post by mei on Jan 29, 2021 4:32:55 GMT -5
I finished the second book of the year a few days ago: The White Book by Han Kang.
I really liked The Vegetarian last year, and this was mentioned as one of her other books. I coincidentally noticed it in a friend's book case recently so took it home :-) It's really unique and quite special I found. A novel, of sorts, but built up of very short 'chapters' or 'stories' (mostly no more than one page) which center on white things. Slowly, there's a story about loss, grief, love, sadness. Very beautifully done.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 29, 2021 6:20:57 GMT -5
I love those kinds of books that have short short chapters, mei! If I ever finish "Reconstruction," I'll look for that.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jan 30, 2021 2:29:14 GMT -5
The first in the Dresden Files series was just 0.99 for the Kindle on Amazon.de, so I bought that for some time when I'm looking for another urban fantasy!
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 30, 2021 7:07:05 GMT -5
8. A Day Like Any Other, Isla Dewar. A gentle story of friendship set in Edinburgh. This was a Secret Santa gift, that I’d probably never have found otherwise. I loved it. It has some similarity to Alexander McCall Smith’s Edinburgh books, and I can see these characters befriending his. I should look for more Scottish authors.
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Post by sprite on Jan 30, 2021 15:20:45 GMT -5
I should point out that those are 'proofs' and so legally can't be sold, even in charity shops. (We got a massive donation of them, and got around the legal problem by volunteers making donations if they want to buy any. I got about 15!)
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