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Post by sophie on Dec 10, 2021 0:33:16 GMT -5
Bonny Jack by Ian Hamilton. Hamilton is the author of a whole series of books featuring Ava Lee. This one is totally different. It’s a novel (loosely based on events in the author’s own life) about a boy who was abandoned by his mother in Glasgow, adopted by an American couple and became extremely successful. He is nearing retirement and decides to discover more about his Scottish roots. I enjoyed it.. an easy read.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 11, 2021 5:54:32 GMT -5
78. Aunt Bessie Invites, Diana Xarissa.. One of my current favourite cozy mystery series. This one is set around an American style Thanksgiving celebration on the Isle of Man.
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Post by scrubb on Dec 11, 2021 11:41:54 GMT -5
#21 La Belle Sauvage (volume 1 of The Book of Dust) by Philip Pullman. When Mei reminded me I had this, it inspired me to read it. Agree with her, it was very good YA fiction and a good read. I'll look for the rest of the series too.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 12, 2021 6:53:11 GMT -5
79. Mystery at Apple Tree Cottage, Clare Chase. English village cozy mystery.
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Post by scrubb on Dec 12, 2021 17:21:45 GMT -5
I see there's a sequel to "Before the coffee gets cold" on bookbub today. I did enjoy the first one, but sequels are rarely as good...
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Post by Oweena on Dec 12, 2021 20:51:47 GMT -5
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers It's an interesting novel that sucked me in, chock full of characters you'll care about. Yes it's a hefty book, just under 800 pages, and yes the topics are heavy, and yes it's a time commitment. The narrative is multi-generational, non-chronological, and shows the effects of shared trauma over decades. The main character is Ailey, who tells her story in first person over the course of her lifetime. While the narrative spins mainly around Ailey, it also tells the story of her relatives going back to the earliest days of slavery in the US and even further back, including a section on her ancestors time in Africa before they were kidnapped and brought to the US as slaves. Can recommend with no reservation. It was one of those novels where I was thinking about it when I was doing other things. Bless the 24 hour power outage where I'm staying--it allowed me to finish it sooner than I thought. I hope the author, who before this book was apparently known for her poetry, writes another novel. PS I've been drinking too much beer this evening, so this may be even more nonsensical than my usual reviews which are created while I'm stone cold sober.
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Post by sophie on Dec 12, 2021 23:18:43 GMT -5
Oweena, I will have to put that book on my list to get out of the library!
I just finished ‘Taste: My Life Through Food’ by Stanley Tucci. After seeing his CNN series about food in Italy, this book looked interesting. It is a bit of an autobiography as well as a bit of a good memoir with some recipes thrown in for good measure. Well written in a breezy style, fun to read. I enjoyed it.
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Post by lillielangtry on Dec 13, 2021 2:07:11 GMT -5
That sounds great, Oweena.
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 13, 2021 5:47:49 GMT -5
OH yeah, the WEB Du Bois book is already on my list - thanks for the reinforcement, Oweena.
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Post by lillielangtry on Dec 13, 2021 11:30:21 GMT -5
Margaret Atwood, Dearly A poetry volume. I loved one of the poems "At the translation conference", but was sadly underwhelmed by most of the rest.
Neil Gaiman, American Gods I listened to this and it was a good audiobook. However, I think I've given Gaiman a good go and he's not really for me. I did enjoy this, but it's over-long and has an oddly emotionless quality that made it just a three-star read for me.
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Post by sprite on Dec 13, 2021 14:58:51 GMT -5
Isn't that interesting? I found American Gods really compelling, and kept meaning to watch the series.
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Post by lillielangtry on Dec 13, 2021 15:20:04 GMT -5
I considered giving up several times in the first half but around the halfway mark I was invested enough to carry on. And I appreciate why many people like it, it's very well done, I just wasn't really feeling it.
As for the series - I watched part of the first episode. I seem to remember it was very violent. I was then interrupted by a phone call and I just... never went back. I'm not good with violence on screen though (written description is fine!), I tried to watch The Underground Railroad, I was really enjoying the storyline, but every episide just had something stomach-churning.
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Post by scrubb on Dec 14, 2021 22:04:40 GMT -5
I just finished "Taken" by Robert Crais. Apparently it's one of a series with two private detectives named Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. Very standard fare with invincible, ruthless heroes, but the setting was interesting, about people being smuggled over the border into the US and the terrible things that can happen to them. Of course the bad guys were pure evil so it was fine that the "good guys" killed them all.
It was a quick ok read.
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Post by Oweena on Dec 15, 2021 23:22:13 GMT -5
Matrix by Lauren Groff
This novel ended up on several 'best of' lists for 2021. Loosely based on Marie de France, a poet who lived in the 12th century. Very little is known about her other than the writings she left behind, even her real name isn't known. So Groff has imagined Marie's life and put her in an abbey, running the place, having visions, and wishing she could be reunited with Eleanor of Aquitaine. There are numerous characters coming and going, all of them female, and most of them broken in spirit or health. It never really grabbed me, I admittedly speed read through some parts that seemed to be repetitive.
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Post by sophie on Dec 16, 2021 0:13:09 GMT -5
Thick as Thieves by Sandra Brown. One of her regular big of mystery, bit of sex, bit of chick lit. Meh. But in self defence, I wanted an easy mindless read.
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Post by scrubb on Dec 16, 2021 16:24:33 GMT -5
Mary Jane, by Jessica Anya Blau. A coming of age story about a 14 year old girl with very repressed (pretty stereotyped) parents in 1970s Baltimore, who gets a summer job as a nanny for a doctor's family. The doc works with recovering addicts, including a rockstar and his movie star wife. The hippie life there contrasts with her extremely proper, critical, controlling mother and silent, uninvolved father.
I'm not sure if it was intended to be YA, but it would be great YA for mature kids. It does have some mature themes but nothing too concerning. I enjoyed it a lot.
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Post by lillielangtry on Dec 17, 2021 2:07:01 GMT -5
Oweena, I have bought Matrix as a gift for a friend who likes Lauren Groff, but have also heard very mixed reviews of it, so we'll see which camp my friend falls into.
The President, Miguel Angel Asturias (translated by Frances Partridge) The "dictator" novel by Guatemalan Nobel prize winner Asturias. It was started in the 20s, although not published until the 40s and is based in an unnamed Central American country, presumably Guatemala. It's not an easy read in terms of either language or content, but I've been meaning to read it for ages so glad I did.
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Post by sprite on Dec 17, 2021 6:55:21 GMT -5
Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson I'm still slogging through this, but it's interesting and a good read. I wonder if Isaac Newton was as odd as portrayed. THere's quite a bit of discussion around physics and mathematics, which I admit I skim over. The story itself, of two men who meet as students at Cambridge and go on to great things, is interesting. It's told from the perspective of Daniel, supposedly the founder of MIT--although, when I checked, nope, this was all fiction. so disappointing. It gives a great window into the rebuilding of London both physically after the fire of 1666, and politically/economically/religiously, after Cromwell dies and the monarchy is restored.
I'm enjoying it, but I'm not sure I'll read the next two books in the trilogy. THey're long. Very long. So long.
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Post by riverhorse on Dec 18, 2021 2:29:37 GMT -5
The Spare Room by Helen Garner, an award-winning Australian novelist.
A short read but full of thought-provoking themes. The story of a retired woman who takes in a similarly aged female friend for 3 weeks while said friend subjects herself to very expensive quackery in a bid to turn around the rapidly advancing and terminal cancer she is still in desperate denial about.
Whilst it sounds grim, and is in parts, it is more an exploration of female friendships, especially in this era where many of us will be without traditional family support systems in our dotage, and it got me to thinking quite a bit about how we on here and elsewhere often joke about buying a rundown village in Italy for €1 and all living in a commune together in our twilight years!
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 18, 2021 3:20:36 GMT -5
80. The Secluded Village Murders, by Shelly Frome. Dreadful Audible narration of a too long and convoluted mystery. NOT recommended.
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Post by Oweena on Dec 18, 2021 8:44:45 GMT -5
Palace of the Drowned by Christine Mangan
Set in 1966 London and Venice. The main character, Frances, is a novelist hiding in Venice after her 3rd book received poor reviews. The author repeats how this character is strong, can take care of herself, is single by choice, and has lived alone for decades. Yet the moment a strange young woman shows up with a dodgy story about knowing Frances she somehow becomes indecisive, a drunk, and most important to me as the reader, boring as hell. There is a lot of discussion of rain, and fog, and the depressing feeling of Venice in the winter. Overall unexciting, with implausible plot points. Certainly doesn't make me ever want to visit Venice.
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 18, 2021 18:11:36 GMT -5
Yeah that one'll be a miss for me
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Post by sophie on Dec 18, 2021 23:44:21 GMT -5
Better off Dead by Lee Child and Andrew Child. Another in the Jack Reacher series. It’s nothing special but good action and an interesting plot. Good escapist fiction.
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Post by snowwhite on Dec 19, 2021 14:03:51 GMT -5
Just zoomed through The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman - enjoyable and fairly well-plotted, but I wasn't very convinced by the ending somehow.
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Post by scrubb on Dec 19, 2021 17:02:40 GMT -5
Just had a quickish re-read of Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch (first Rivers of London book). I think I liked it even more this time - am more inspired to go get the rest of the series.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 19, 2021 23:16:18 GMT -5
Thank you for the reminder to look at the Rivers of London books, Scrubb.
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Post by sophie on Dec 20, 2021 1:45:08 GMT -5
A Gambling Man by David Baldacci. Action packed shades of 40’s hardboiled detective type of novel, but with a twist of humour. A fun rainy cold winter’s day read.
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Post by lillielangtry on Dec 20, 2021 2:07:10 GMT -5
Just had a quickish re-read of Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch (first Rivers of London book). I think I liked it even more this time - am more inspired to go get the rest of the series. I've read them all twice and got a lot out of them both times. There's a new one coming out in April, I think.
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Post by Oweena on Dec 20, 2021 10:08:16 GMT -5
Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks: 1941-1995 edited by Anna Von Planta
A behemoth of a book, since Highsmith left behind over 8,000 pages of diaries and notebooks. This book condensed those down to a mere 956 pages. Admittedly I skipped over many entries, especially her entries from her 20s where she wrote down short blurbs which were mostly lists of of people she met. I found the intros of each chapter most interesting where the editor summed up Highsmith's life for a particular time period before the entries started. I think if you are a big Highsmith fan this is a good read. The entries show how she fleshed out her narratives and developed new ideas for her novels and short stories. Since I've only ever read The Price of Salt I didn't understand many of her references to her novels. She wrote The Price of Salt under a pseudonym due to the lesbian content and didn't claim it as her own writing for 40 years. When published in 1952 a lesbian romance wasn't allowed to have a happy ending.
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 20, 2021 12:53:29 GMT -5
46) Arthur V. Evans, Beetles of the Northeastern US
OK I'll admit I didn't read every single word of this book, since each chapter had a number of very detailed species descriptions and even I'm not THAT into beetles. But the general text and the family descriptions were really interesting, and the photos are gorgeous.
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