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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jul 16, 2022 6:10:34 GMT -5
44. The Alpine Pursuit, Mary Daheim. Cozy mystery set in Washington state, one of the few US states I have visited.
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Post by Oweena on Jul 16, 2022 22:05:45 GMT -5
Tell Everyone on This Train I Love Them by Maeve Higgins
Book of essays by Higgins, an Irish comedian who came to the the US in 2014. She writes of her love for NYC and the US and the many ways both haven't lived up to their best intentions. Along the way are chapters on taking too many edibles, visiting Texas to try to sort out of the truth about our border security, how our immigration system is broken, her mental health struggles, and living away from her large Irish family.
Overall enjoyable read with some laughs and some pointed political commentary. A good read for my camping trip.
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Post by scrubb on Jul 17, 2022 19:12:34 GMT -5
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. For pure, unadulterated sentimental schlock, I really enjoyed it. Old, rigid, lonely widower finds new family.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jul 18, 2022 7:19:56 GMT -5
45. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Holly Ringland. An Australian book about women, family and coercive control, set in beautiful coastal, rural and outback settings. Bittersweet.
46. The Battersea Barricades, Jodi Taylor. A short story set in the alternate England of the St Mary’s historians.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jul 18, 2022 8:35:37 GMT -5
Ahdaf Soueif, The Map of Love
I had never heard of Soueif, although this was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize, but I picked this up off the free bookshelf and really enjoyed it.
It's basically two interlinked stories set (mostly) in Egypt, one in the early years of the 20th century and the other in the last years of it. There's a lot about the movement for Egyptian independence and some about the history of Palestine/Israel in here, as well as 2 love stories. And a family tree in the front and a glossary of Arabic words at the back - both things I like! It's quite a long book but I just wanted to keep reading it. Is it perfect? No, there are a couple of odd bits (most notably, a possible case of incest that is never really resolved?!). But on the whole really enjoyable.
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Post by Liiisa on Jul 18, 2022 20:25:16 GMT -5
30) Olga Ravn, The Employees
This is a short sci-fi novel that consists of 125 short statements made to administrative staff by the human and humanoid staff of a long-range spaceship. At first it's a little disorienting, but eventually you see the thread of the thing and then realize what's really going on by the end. I took this out of the library but think I will buy a copy so I can read it again.
Translated from Danish.
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Post by Liiisa on Jul 22, 2022 20:21:38 GMT -5
31) Audrey Schulman, Theory of Bastards
I'd noted this book in my to read list several years ago and somehow had convinced myself that it was about a stock market crash, so I never quite got around to finding a copy until now.
Well it wasn't even remotely about a stock market crash - it's set in the near future, about a biologist who studies bonobos and ends up doing research at a center housing a number of ape species. That sounds kind of routine, but it's actually quite funny and observant, both about primates and about what reliance on the internet of things can look like when things go wrong. Very much enjoyed.
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Post by sophie on Jul 22, 2022 20:48:36 GMT -5
The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci. An easy to enjoy murder mystery set within the world of investment firms in New York. Probably a start of another line by this author, as he has several different ones happening. Not too intellectually demanding but interesting.
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Post by tzarine on Jul 23, 2022 20:48:18 GMT -5
did not like none to accompany me
nadine gordimer's tale of 2 couples in the post apartheid south africa
i didn't really like the character
the mix of relationships & politics felt strained
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Post by sophie on Jul 23, 2022 23:27:42 GMT -5
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I liked this novel. The format was original, with the story being wrapped in the process of the main character (Evelyn Hugo) being interviewed for a book about her life. I liked the way the characters were portrayed and the Hollywood bits. A good summer read.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jul 24, 2022 0:47:18 GMT -5
Ah Sophie, I picked a copy of that off the free bookshelf the other day...
Paulina Flores, Humiliation
Short stories by a Chilean writer, I bought these because I really enjoyed a story by her in an anthology. Unfortunately I found this collection only ok.
Garth Nix, The Left-handed Booksellers of London
This was on offer on Kindle and I thought I'd get myself a light treat for my holiday. It is fun urban fantasy, I enjoyed it, although it's not really much about books and I did think it dragged a tiny bit towards the end.
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Post by scrubb on Jul 24, 2022 15:06:36 GMT -5
David Mitchell, Utopia Avenue. enjoyed it very much - but then, I've loved everything he's written.
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Post by tzarine on Jul 25, 2022 12:48:02 GMT -5
picked up the passenger
more weimar republic
really enjoying the story of a jewish man during the rise of nazism
guess berlin stories set me in the mood
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Post by sophie on Jul 25, 2022 21:28:32 GMT -5
The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray. A rift on the characters and sensibility of Jane Austen, the author uses this novel to set a murder at a house party and consequently the results. Clever use of Austen’s work. If you like Austen, good chance you’ll like this novel. Good summer read.
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Post by Queen on Jul 26, 2022 13:22:40 GMT -5
Klara and the Sun
Kazuo Ishiguro
Intriguing and thought-provoking.
It's about love in a dystopian future, but because of how it's told you don't fully understand the dystopian future, just glimpses of it because the narrator's point of view is limited.
Oh and there are robots, when one annoys a human she comes with my new favourite insult. "I'll come and dismantle you"
SPOILER ALERT: IMO the character who most demonstrates love isn't one of the humans.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jul 28, 2022 19:54:23 GMT -5
47. The Alpine Quilt, Mary Daheim. Continuation of a favourite cozy mystery series.
48. Death in Damascus, Karen Baugh Menuhin. Absurd historical mystery with bumbling white people and mysterious Arabs.
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Post by sophie on Jul 29, 2022 0:10:34 GMT -5
The Murders at Fleat House by Lucinda Riley. A decent murder mystery with interesting characters set in a boarding school in Norfolk. A quick summer read .. perfect for that.
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Post by Oweena on Jul 29, 2022 11:04:41 GMT -5
Had a few long flights and I'm back now.
The World of Tomorrow by Brendan Mathews
Covers 7 days in 1939 in New York City with the World's Fair as a backdrop. Follows the stories of 3 brothers, each of whom has an issue in their life coming to a head at the same time. Even though it's a short time frame the narrative shifts back in time to explain how each ended up where they did. Each brothers story is well-developed and interesting on it's own and even the peripheral people are well-written. It's over 500 pages, but worth it.
Rough Draft by Katy Tur
Tur, a reporter for MSNBC, is mostly known as the reporter The Orange Menace used to mock regularly. This memoir doesn't touch much on that period (she wrote a book on covering his 1st campaign), instead concentrating on her crazy childhood with parents who were the first ever to do breaking news in LA from a helicopter. She grew up going on many of these stories with the backdrop being her fraught relationship with her dad, who was abusive. The poor relationship continues through adulthood and becomes even worse when her dad transitions to female. The book didn't do much for me, and it seemed like maybe she was looking for something to do during lockdown and decided to pull this together.
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Post by scrubb on Jul 30, 2022 12:51:42 GMT -5
Louise Penny, Where the Ligt Gets In. Another in the Armand Gamache mystery series. It was fine, but I found her style starting to grate.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jul 31, 2022 12:52:19 GMT -5
I read just one more book on holiday: Khadija Abdalla Bajaber, The House of Rust
A very weird, half-fantastical coming-of-age story following a young girl in Kenya who sets out to find her father, a fisherman who has gone missing at sea. And featuring various talking animals, yet combined with social realism such as the pressure on Aisha to marry. A bit difficult to get into, but good.
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Post by scrubb on Jul 31, 2022 15:31:56 GMT -5
And I've started Ducks, Newburyport, so I won't be posting for a while!
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Post by mei on Aug 7, 2022 16:05:31 GMT -5
I think I forgot to list a book here, #12 "Fly, already!" by Etgar Keret. Short stories by an Israeli author. A bit surrealistic, with unexpected twists to the stories. I liked some but overall it was a bit meh I think. (it was a bookclub read).
I'm still trying to spend time on a non-fiction book which is very interesting but also very dense in information and I have Ishiguro's latest for the next week of holiday. Hope to find time to start reading!
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