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Post by lillielangtry on Oct 26, 2022 9:05:22 GMT -5
I love the way that if someone has been murdered, Montalbano's reaction is first to go to a trattoria for a four course lunch.
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Post by Q-pee on Oct 26, 2022 11:22:31 GMT -5
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Very strange story of animal human hybrids, fascinating but failing any scientific test.
There's adventure and drama, strange characters and outcasts, oddness, and probably a whole lot of allegory.
Fairly easy read, a bit predictable, but if you like weird gothic stuff it could be your thing.
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Post by Q-pee on Oct 26, 2022 11:30:04 GMT -5
For mysteries for tucano Vera and Shetland by Ann Cleeves. Never too gory, never really violent, but good brain-teasers.
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Post by sprite on Oct 26, 2022 12:16:59 GMT -5
I like the TV adapations of Cleeves, and I like her story lines, but I'm finding I don't really like her writing style.
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Post by sophie on Oct 26, 2022 22:40:32 GMT -5
Angel Falls by Kristin Hannah. Chick lit. Formula. Mediocre writing. Enough said.
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Post by Liiisa on Oct 27, 2022 19:08:10 GMT -5
53) Mick Herron, Bad Actors
An absorbing but also rather funny spy novel set in London that just came out this year. I see now that it's part of a series about these incompetent spies who have been given crappy jobs in the Secret Service, and possibly also a TV show? Anyway, I was amused, and I would think anyone who's been following UK politics closely over the past couple of years would be even more amused. I'll read the rest of the series at some point. Kind of James Bond meets Douglas Adams.
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Post by scrubb on Oct 27, 2022 19:25:54 GMT -5
Keeper 'n Me, by Richard Wagamese.
A young First Nations man who was taken from his family as a young child and grew up in foster homes, ends up being reunited with his family 20 years later. Most of the book takes place after he's gone back to his reservation and started learning who he is and who his family is and what it means to be an Indian.
While it was informative and interesting, it felt a bit more like a lecture than a novel. The two narrators analyzed and explained everything. I would have enjoyed being shown some of it, rather than told everything.
I found myself thinking a lot of a high school friend (who I've re-met on Facebook) who was part of the '60s scoop. He was put into foster care at age 5, eventually adopted into a white family where he had a loving mother and sisters, but an abusive father; ran away and went through some rough times until he was 'discovered' and taken into a dance company... as far as I can tell he's an actor now, and happily married. But anyway, a few years ago his birth family managed to track him down and he met two of his brothers for the first time in 50 years. Also some of his other relatives but unfortunately his mother had died some years before.
The character in the book had nothing to sacrifice when he moved back to the reserve, and stays there and is obviously on a path to become a knowledge keeper. My friend was gone a lot longer and had 30 years of adult life behind him, and had built a good, happy life for himself. Although he's happy to have been reunited with his family, and to have learned more about his roots, it's all a lot more complicated than this book make it seem. He's gay and his brother is a born-again pastor who I expect considers homosexuality a sin, for example.
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Post by Liiisa on Oct 30, 2022 6:55:19 GMT -5
54) Benjamin Percy, The Ninth Metal
You may recall that I read a creepy sci-fi novel about fungus earlier this month, which turned out to be the second part of a 3-book series about what happened when the Earth passed through a comet's debris trail. Well I managed to find the first part, which was this. While alien fungus infected the Pacific Northwest in the second novel, this one involves a strange alien metal raining down on the upper Midwest, and associated weird events and violent clashes between two rival mining companies in northern Minnesota.
More violent and less gross than the second one was, again a lot like a comic book. Looking forward to the third one, whenever he comes out with it, to wrap up the story. I'm hoping the fungus protagonists from the second one will join up with the metal protagonists from the first one to save the world.
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Post by sophie on Oct 30, 2022 9:11:19 GMT -5
The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell. I think this is the novel by this author I’ve read. I see her stuff displayed all over the place so I thought I’d give a try. Better than the last book I read (a dismal chick lit), the plot is a bit too convenient and the characters are a bit precious but it is somewhat readable.
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Post by Liiisa on Oct 31, 2022 20:29:15 GMT -5
55) Elizabeth Strout, Oh William!
A short literary novel in which the protagonist, a writer, works things out, about her family, her ex, various other things about people. That doesn't sound all that interesting but it's so well done that I found it quite absorbing.
The tone reminded me a little of "Ducks, Newburyport" - not the stream-of-consciousness aspect of it, but the fact that it sounded like a conversation, like an internal conversation. It was shortlisted for the Booker this year.
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Post by scrubb on Oct 31, 2022 22:51:12 GMT -5
Just under the month end wire, Kate Atkinson, Shrines of Gaeity.
Set in London in 1926 with a cast of runaway girls, prostitutes (both with and without hearts of gold) a crime family, a librarian, the police, a mad woman, etc., it's fairly light (as light as Kate Atkinson gets) and enjoyable.
While I wouldn't rank it as a great novel, it's certainly worth reading.
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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 2, 2022 6:26:43 GMT -5
Andrea Camilleri, Das Ritual der Rache I finished this in October. In this one, Montalbano is having a tense situation with a close colleague. I still really enjoy this series and always look out for them in secondhand shops, free bookshelves etc.
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Post by sprite on Nov 2, 2022 10:18:00 GMT -5
Naomi Novik: The Last Graduate
second in the Scholomance series. Harry Potter meets Lord of the Flies. Galadriel starts her final year of school with an unexpected circle of friends and a boyfriend she doesn't want to admit that she has. Her school year starts wierdly, with all the monsters attacking her, but no other students. She gradually realises that the school is trying to tell her something, which could change everyone's lives.
I liked this; the heroine is self-sabotaging and knows it, but can't seem to stop herself from pre-emptively pushing people away from her before she can be rejected. The relationships between the teens seem realistic, and there's enough humour to keep it light despite everyone being convinced that some of them are going to die.
Looking forward to the third book, but the library doesn't have it yet.
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