|
Post by ozziegiraffe on May 4, 2022 7:08:59 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by ozziegiraffe on May 4, 2022 7:15:32 GMT -5
24. Aunt Bessie Likes, Diana Xarissa. Next instalment on the Isle of Man. 25. The Koala of Death, Betty Webb. Funny cozy mystery set in a zoo made even funnier by an Australian character who speaks very archaic Australian slang.
|
|
|
Post by scrubb on May 4, 2022 15:03:09 GMT -5
Thanks, ozzie. I'm about half way through a really good book set in Croatia, written by a Scottish/Senegalese author.
|
|
|
Post by Oweena on May 4, 2022 18:01:59 GMT -5
Yay, thanks ozzie!
The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters by Juliette Kayyem
A good read on dealing with the disasters around us seemingly everyday. And that's part of her point, disasters aren't one offs, they happen and will continue happening. From wildfires to pandemics, oil spills, hurricanes, floods, terrorism, etc. she touches on them all, using real life examples. It's not depressing though, she breaks down how both professionals in disaster management and us everyday folk should be looking at all these disasters.
I liked how her examples were relatable and even though she's a government wonk, she didn't write the book that way. It was accessible.
|
|
|
Post by Liiisa on May 4, 2022 20:33:57 GMT -5
Thank you ozzie!
I'm about an eighth of the way into an interesting (but long) history book about pre-medieval Europe; hopefully I'll be done with it sometime this month.
|
|
|
Post by ozziegiraffe on May 5, 2022 5:31:02 GMT -5
Oweena, that sounds interesting. I think it is media that make us so much more aware of them, in all parts of the world.
|
|
|
Post by Queen on May 5, 2022 10:08:51 GMT -5
Just finished
Before the Coffee Gets Cold Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Which I read on my coffee breaks in a lovely cafe very unlike the cafe in the book.
It involves time travel but it's actually about families and forgiveness. It's touching and gently funny. I read it thinking "this would make a great play", turns out, author is a playwright and this is based on a play he wrote.
Although it's an easy read it's thought provoking. I would recommend it.
|
|
|
Post by lillielangtry on May 6, 2022 1:05:15 GMT -5
I've heard a couple of recommendations for that now Q, it sounds sweet.
I have 3 books on the go...
|
|
|
Post by Liiisa on May 6, 2022 9:34:51 GMT -5
Yes Q, I enjoyed that book.
|
|
|
Post by sophie on May 6, 2022 10:40:17 GMT -5
Lucky Breaks by Yevgenia Belorusets. A strange little collection of stories (more like vignettes) about people mostly from the Donbas region of Ukraine with a feminist pov. The writer was first an activist, then a documentary photographer and that led her to writing. It’s not an uplifting book but I found it fascinating if nothing else. It was originally published in 2018, with some of the stories being written earlier. My favourite quote from the book: ‘Our real flag,’ she explained, ‘is the spot left in the wall by the hammer and sickle. Not the yellow-blue flag, but a white, empty flag showing only the shadow of the hammer and sickle, and of the wheat stalks tied with a red bandage, or else just the line dividing the yellow and the blue— a thin, barely discernible straight line.’
|
|
|
Post by scrubb on May 6, 2022 22:23:20 GMT -5
The Hired Man, by Aminatta Forna. Set in rural Croatia. An English woman buys a house there to be her family's holiday house. Duro, the narrator of the book, lives nearby and helps them restore their house. He also tells the reader the history of that house and of himself and the community, before, and during the Yugoslavian war - and how after the war, they are all living with the knowledge of what they did.
It is a multi-layered book with very dark underpinnings about what happens in war, and particularly in that war. It's also beautifully written with amazing characterization, and it creates a strong picture of place, too. I could so easily picture "The Blue House" and the woods and the fields and the mountains.
Highly recommended, but it's not easy - interspersed with the fairly idyllic day to day life are moments of fear, flashbacks of horror, and some violence.
|
|
|
Post by ozziegiraffe on May 7, 2022 6:15:45 GMT -5
26. Tart of Darkness, Denise Swanson. Start of a new cozy mystery series by the author of one of my favourite series, with some connections to that series.
I am reading one “serious” book, but it’s been slow going. The cozies are ebooks for bedtime or audiobooks for the drive to and from work
|
|
|
Post by lillielangtry on May 8, 2022 9:06:00 GMT -5
Lucky Breaks by Yevgenia Belorusets. A strange little collection of stories (more like vignettes) about people mostly from the Donbas region of Ukraine with a feminist pov. The writer was first an activist, then a documentary photographer and that led her to writing. It’s not an uplifting book but I found it fascinating if nothing else. It was originally published in 2018, with some of the stories being written earlier. My favourite quote from the book: ‘Our real flag,’ she explained, ‘is the spot left in the wall by the hammer and sickle. Not the yellow-blue flag, but a white, empty flag showing only the shadow of the hammer and sickle, and of the wheat stalks tied with a red bandage, or else just the line dividing the yellow and the blue— a thin, barely discernible straight line.’ I have downloaded that one! Was waiting to start it as I thought my book club might pick it or one by Andrey Kurkov for next month, but they didn't.
|
|
|
Post by lisamnz on May 8, 2022 20:57:04 GMT -5
Lisa Scottoline, What Happened to the Bennetts. Dire. Fern Michaels, the guest list. SUPER dire.
Did I add the latest Jack REacher to April? I will have to check.
|
|
|
Post by Oweena on May 10, 2022 8:49:18 GMT -5
Dominion: The History of England from the Battle of Waterloo to Victoria's Diamond Jubilee by Peter Ackroyd Book 5 of 6 in the history of England series.
Let's just call this one Victoria and the Victorians plus a bunch of old men as the rotating cast of her Prime Ministers. I was bored by the machinations of all the different political groups (kind of like I am in the current times) fighting to be the top dogs. The more interesting bits were on what life was like for the regular folk.
Now I'm on to the final book in the series which was published in 2021 so should bring me almost up to the current time.
|
|
|
Post by sophie on May 10, 2022 8:56:24 GMT -5
Give unto Others by Donna Leon. Newest novel on the author’s wonderful series which has the backdrop of Venice. No murder in this book but plenty of moral dilemmas and white collar style crime. Easy read and engrossing.
|
|
|
Post by lillielangtry on May 10, 2022 10:46:04 GMT -5
Bernardine Evaristo, Manifesto A non-fiction book/memoir by the Booker prize winner - the first black women to win it. She comes across as a very strong character who had a clear sense of social justice from an early age and who also had to work in the background for a long time before she became well-known with her winning of a major prize. Interesting.
Helene Cooper, Madame President: The Extraordinary Story of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf My read for Liberia. To be honest, political biographies are not really my thing. I didn't have a huge range to choose from for this country. But if you do like them, the life of the first female elected head of state in Africa is an interesting one.
|
|
|
Post by scrubb on May 10, 2022 16:22:08 GMT -5
That last book makes me think of the author I just read, Amanatta Forna. Senegalese father, Scottish mother. Her father was in the government of Senegal and ended up being killed for political reasons.
After reading her fiction I'd like to read her autobiography, which has good reviews.
|
|
|
Post by sophie on May 10, 2022 19:21:10 GMT -5
Scrubb, she’s half Sierra Leone.. her novel ‘Memory of Love’ is beautifully written.. I loved it!
|
|
|
Post by scrubb on May 10, 2022 21:21:38 GMT -5
Oops, right, Sierra Leone, not Senegal. Not sure how I mixed those up! Anyway, I love her writing and will read more when I get the chance!
|
|
|
Post by lillielangtry on May 11, 2022 2:25:42 GMT -5
Yes, scrubb, I read her book about her father, The Devil that Danced on the Water, a few years ago and was reminded of it several times too. Also because the end of the Liberian book deals with the 2014 ebola epidemic, which also affected Sierra Leone.
|
|
|
Post by sophie on May 11, 2022 23:43:26 GMT -5
The Investigator by John Sandford. A good thriller by a seasoned author of the genre. Main character is a 20 something smart woman who has been present in his other novels as the adopted daughter of the main character (Paul Davenport) in those novels. Texas, militia folks, homeland security..easy and fun read.
|
|
|
Post by sophie on May 12, 2022 22:28:38 GMT -5
John Le Carre, Silverview. The last novel written written by him and published after his death. A swan song situation of old and dying agents, loyalties and relationships. It’s short but succinct about the story line. If you liked any of his books, you’d like this one. I enjoyed it.
|
|
|
Post by scrubb on May 14, 2022 17:03:37 GMT -5
The Wrong Way Home by Peter Moore.
A travel book from the '90s - he went from London to Australia overland (well, almost). REasonably funny guy, and good at sneering at the hippie-wannabees while being a hippie wannabee himself. Not too obnoxious, pleasingly self-deprecating. Felt nostalgic for me, as it was around the time I was in many of the same places - although he took more risks than I did in those days. Possibly in part because it was a lot more difficult for women, especially solo-travellers, to even consider some of it - but also I was just more law abiding and didn't tend to lie.
At first I thought I was going to dislike him strongly - he decided to go through Croatia and Bosnia during the war, basically because it sounded cool and exciting and would give him great traveller cred. No thought at all that this was a deadly serious thing for millions of people and gawping at war zones was maybe not very classy. Luckily, what he experienced gave him some pause and he realized he had no business being there. That part really hit home, as I was working in Switzerland at the time, and my fellow staff at the hotel was almost all Croats and Serbs. Seeing what they were going through, losing friends and family, having their homes bombed, etc., made it very real.
|
|
|
Post by Oweena on May 15, 2022 8:19:41 GMT -5
The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl
Grohl is the founder/lead singer of the Foo Fighters and has always seemed like one of the more normal rock stars of my generation. Of course lots of people know him as the drummer for Nirvana, but I wasn't a big Nirvana fan even though I was here in Seattle through the explosion of grunge.
It's a good book and I enjoyed every chapter. It starts with his childhood in Virginia, his struggles in school, discovering punk music, and dropping out of high school to tour with a band. He's a great storyteller, and he seems to truly appreciate all of the experiences he's had in life.
|
|
|
Post by ozziegiraffe on May 16, 2022 7:00:50 GMT -5
27. Hildegard of Bingen: A Visionary Life. I found Hildegard’s writings, as quoted in this biography, quite disappointing, given she was probably the first recognised woman theologian since the first century AD. However, I need to remember she was a woman of her time. I was really interested in the hypothesis that her visions were caused by migraines. Some years ago I did a course on the Psychology of Religious Experience, and this resonates with what I learnt then.
|
|
|
Post by ozziegiraffe on May 17, 2022 23:43:40 GMT -5
Finished two cozy mysteries on audio. My next audiobook is in quite a different category, and much longer. 28. A Very English Murder, Verity Bright. Somewhat absurd, set in England in the same era as Phryne Fisher. Another independent woman sleuth, but quite different in tone. Purists think it is quite historically inaccurate. 29. Leave No Scone Unturned, Denise Swanson. I like references to characters in another favourite series by the same author, but there is a bit too much reference to cooking and admiring bodies of the opposite sex for my taste. I guess I prefer the references to school psychology in the other series, The main character in this series is a chef.
|
|
|
Post by scrubb on May 20, 2022 21:20:43 GMT -5
The Double, by Jose Saramago.
Saramago is an undeniably great writer and I've enjoyed everything of his that I've read, but this was probably my least favourite. A quiet history teacher sees an actor in a video who looks just like him. He finds it very disturbing. Tracks down the actor.
Knowing Saramago, probably the concept of someone being a duplicate is some kind of allegory, but it came across as a psychological thriller that didn't make a lot of sense.
|
|
|
Post by sophie on May 20, 2022 22:45:30 GMT -5
The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn. A novel based on a real person, a female sniper fighting for the USSR against the Nazis. Definitely embellished with some weird US anti Roosevelt plot which didn’t ever happen, the main story line about the main character was good. Easy ready although I found some weird details which better editing would have helped. Example: writer is describing a fall scene in the Ukraine which included tulips.
|
|
|
Post by sophie on May 20, 2022 22:51:59 GMT -5
The Circus Train by Amita Parikh. Set before WW2, the story follows a young girl being raised by a single father, who is a master illusionist working for a high end circus. The girl had contracted polio at an early age, and the novel is centred on her development and discovering her independence. There is a family secret, romance and a bit of suspense but overall it was a bit of a dud. Only recommended if you have nothing better to do!
|
|