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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 24, 2021 13:32:15 GMT -5
Another one I haven't finished yet, but am still happy to recommend. The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix. "This is the sort of how my housewife mom went up against Dracula. So, you can see, it wasn't a fair fight." Funny. Funny, funny, funny. And gross--I had to skim through a section with rats. A group of 1980/90s housewives have a true crime book club. And then, a real life vampire moves to the burbs. An Instagram contact of mine recommended this recently and I checked out the goodreads reviews. They were mixed, to say the least!
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 25, 2021 21:09:34 GMT -5
43) Ada Palmer, Perhaps the Stars
WOW WOW WOW this is the fourth and final novel in her series "Terra Ignota" - and wow wow wow did she tie it all together and blow my mind in a beautiful way. If you like really complicated kind of political sci-fi novels then I really really recommend these. I'm going to reread them all in sequence, probably will wait a bit to allow myself to get a little distance and then dive back in.
And omg omg omg I said something nice about this on Twitter and she retweeted it, I'm really going to have to lie down for a bit now.
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Post by Oweena on Nov 25, 2021 22:07:57 GMT -5
Tudors: The History of England from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I by Peter Ackroyd
Finished the 2nd volume in this series of 6 books. Lots of burning at the stake and palace intrigue. Much switching between Catholicism and Protestantism. All melded with Henry VIII marrying too many times, and Elizabeth I refusing to marry.
I'll take a break and read something different before starting on volume 3 but I am learning a lot. Most of which I won't be able to recall in any detail in a month.
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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 26, 2021 2:09:05 GMT -5
I've never even heard of her, Liiisa, I'm going to look her up.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 26, 2021 7:27:57 GMT -5
lillie, she's a professor of history at the University of Chicago, specializing in the Renaissance, and she also writes these books! Her characters and vision of the 25th century are unlike any other sci-fi I've read. It's convoluted but very good.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Nov 26, 2021 18:46:06 GMT -5
74. S’more Murders, Maya Corrigan. A cozy mystery better than the corny title would suggest. 75. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig. I loved it, but I wish he’d researched Australian geography better.
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Post by mei on Nov 27, 2021 7:02:45 GMT -5
That sounds really interesting Liiisa.
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Post by mei on Nov 27, 2021 10:27:54 GMT -5
#20 Loved Clothes Last by Orsola de Castro. A really interesting book about sustainable fashion, from the perspective that the best way to contribute is making your current clothes last longer (through mending, swapping, etc) but it also talks about everything else that's important in the industry. It's really well done.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 27, 2021 11:24:20 GMT -5
#20 Loved Clothes Last by Orsola de Castro. A really interesting book about sustainable fashion, from the perspective that the best way to contribute is making your current clothes last longer (through mending, swapping, etc) but it also talks about everything else that's important in the industry. It's really well done. Heh. I am pretty good at making my clothes last... I frequently realize I'm wearing 15 year old pants or a 25 year old shirt. And my "new" clothes are all second hand from a friend who cleaned out her extensive wardrobe a couple years ago.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Nov 28, 2021 6:13:12 GMT -5
#20 Loved Clothes Last by Orsola de Castro. A really interesting book about sustainable fashion, from the perspective that the best way to contribute is making your current clothes last longer (through mending, swapping, etc) but it also talks about everything else that's important in the industry. It's really well done. Most of my summer clothes go to Solomon Islands, where a local friend who is larger than average is delighted to get them. Anything she wouldn’t wear goes to our local “op shop”. Usually it is very hard to buy anything second hand in my size, so both recipients are happy when I pass my stuff on. But I often keep favourite items for years.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 28, 2021 7:02:14 GMT -5
That's great, mei; I'll look for that book.
I'm wearing new pajamas, but my bathrobe is from the 1990s.
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Post by Oweena on Nov 28, 2021 8:59:16 GMT -5
#20 Loved Clothes Last by Orsola de Castro. A really interesting book about sustainable fashion, from the perspective that the best way to contribute is making your current clothes last longer (through mending, swapping, etc) but it also talks about everything else that's important in the industry. It's really well done. Heh. I am pretty good at making my clothes last... I frequently realize I'm wearing 15 year old pants or a 25 year old shirt. And my "new" clothes are all second hand from a friend who cleaned out her extensive wardrobe a couple years ago. Same here, yesterday I realized the Adidas track pants I had on were at least 25 years old. Does that make them vintage?
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Post by Oweena on Nov 28, 2021 9:02:03 GMT -5
Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence by Anita Hill
As depressing a read as you would expect. Hill tries to be hopeful and put a good spin on advancements in getting a handle on gender violence, but when she contrasts the Kavanaugh hearings with her own experience in 1991 with the Thomas hearings it's hard to see that we've made any progress.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 29, 2021 16:41:39 GMT -5
That does seem... disheartening.
Just finished "Hummingbird Salamander" by Jeff Vandermeer. It's an odd book. The barrista at the narrator's regular coffee shop hands her a letter one day that says only "hummingbird ... salamander. Silvina" plus maybe some numbers or something, and she sets off to track down a mystery. It's all vague much of the time. The letter led her to a box with a stuffed hummingbird in it. She works at a security firm (as in internet/technology security) and uses her assistant and a co-worker's computer to try to figure out what the hummingbird and the name are about. She's concerned that there's danger attached, for no reason the reader can see. But she's right - she finds she's being watched, and followed. And the guy whose computer she used is runover and seriously injured. More of the people around her are hurt later.
She ends up travelling, finding things from her past, and then it's about eco-terrorism, endangered species smuggling, corruption, vengeance, etc. Nothing is ever really explained and it's like watching the character travel blindly. While I enjoyed it on some levels, one thing that was really, really annoying was how the narrator kept saying stuff like "I should have seen it then" or "I almost said X and maybe I should have - maybe everything would have been different" or "The answer was there but I just couldn't see it" or "I knew I was missing something". I don't mind that once or twice in a book, but it was CONSTANT. And of course, nothing ever comes clear enough to confirm that one of those earlier moments could ever have made sense of everything.
Overall ok, even good, not great. Kept me reading but wasn't fully satisfying.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 29, 2021 17:35:01 GMT -5
scrubb yeah, I think his Area X books are the best... his books are all pretty much heavy on atmosphere and light on any sort of plot that you can follow. So maybe you just need to be in the mood for something arty and mystifying.
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Post by Oweena on Nov 29, 2021 17:39:54 GMT -5
Afterparties: Stories by Anthony Veasna So
Small book of short stories that focus primarily around Cambodian refugees who fled to Southern California after escaping Pol Pot and the genocide there. The stories show how the trauma is generational, passed to the children who never stepped foot in Cambodia. The author died of a drug OD near the time of the book being published, after he'd signed a big $$ two-book deal. The author is queer, and many of his stories have queer characters. All of the stories have heart, and you can see why he was getting good press as a new and fresh voice. Good book written from a POV that isn't often represented in N. American writing.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 29, 2021 17:52:56 GMT -5
scrubb yeah, I think his Area X books are the best... his books are all pretty much heavy on atmosphere and light on any sort of plot that you can follow. So maybe you just need to be in the mood for something arty and mystifying. That sounds about right. Like I said, I mostly liked it - it kept me reading. If not for the constant "If only I'd known..." "I was missing something", I would have really liked it. Well, plus, this very determined, strong minded woman kept suddenly going weak and fuzzy-brained at the oddest times. Sounds kind of devastating.
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Post by Oweena on Nov 29, 2021 18:47:34 GMT -5
Actually scrubb the longest story in the book titled Afterparties is pretty funny. It's the party after a relatives wedding and all the younger Cambodian-Americans are getting sloppy drunk in an aunt's rental house. Two brothers are plotting to figure out how much a cousin gave to the bride and groom as a cash gift because their mother really wants to know if the cousin is a lying cheapskate. The descriptions of the party and how they end up finding out are fun and the descriptions of the partying is well-done. You know the author has actually attended plenty of these afterparties before.
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Post by sophie on Nov 29, 2021 23:14:33 GMT -5
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. Actually, a re-read. This is our book club’s pick this month. I read it years ago but couldn’t remember many of the details. A bit shmaltzy but an enjoyable read. She also write Miss Benson’s Beetle which I enjoyed a while back.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 30, 2021 21:48:10 GMT -5
44) Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land
I really enjoyed this!
At first all the disparate threads are a little distracting, like how is this all going to pull together? But it does eventually. I actually liked it more than "All the Light You Cannot See."
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Post by Oweena on Dec 1, 2021 10:06:20 GMT -5
44) Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land I really enjoyed this! At first all the disparate threads are a little distracting, like how is this all going to pull together? But it does eventually. I actually liked it more than "All the Light You Cannot See." Everyone is liking this book, I'm going to have to end up reading it, aren't I?
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Post by mei on Dec 1, 2021 11:11:50 GMT -5
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Post by sprite on Dec 1, 2021 13:07:56 GMT -5
44) Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land I really enjoyed this! At first all the disparate threads are a little distracting, like how is this all going to pull together? But it does eventually. I actually liked it more than "All the Light You Cannot See." Everyone is liking this book, I'm going to have to end up reading it, aren't I? i think I have a hold on it through the library, but it's weeks away!
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