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Post by lillielangtry on Oct 1, 2023 10:59:25 GMT -5
It's a new month and here's the thread for all your October reading.
I just finished Matrix by Lauren Groff
I read the 20 pages of this and thought, wow, let's settle in because I am going to love this one! The style, the main character, it was such a strong start.
It did not quite live up to that promise. The story didn't really develop in the way I expected. So, four stars rather than five. But still a richly atmospheric story of life at a 12th century English convent inspired (very loosely) by the life of mediaeval poet Marie de France - and with some lesbian themes. I have no idea how realistic it is, and not totally sure if that's the point.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Oct 1, 2023 20:26:20 GMT -5
Sounds interesting, Lillie.
Bookmarking, thank you.
I’ve just started 3 new books, but expect to finish a couple of audiobooks at least on my trip to Port Macquarie. And given the lack of wifi or phone reception where I’m staying, I might read more down there when I’m not seeing friends.
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Post by Liiisa on Oct 1, 2023 20:50:53 GMT -5
Thank you lillie! I've got Groff's new book on my library hold list based on an interview with her, so it looks like I'll be working back through her catalog as well.
Right now about halfway through an Erik Larson book about hurricane prediction.
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Post by scrubb on Oct 2, 2023 2:12:18 GMT -5
Fresh Water for Flowers, by Valérie Perrin. I think I saw the author mentioned on here, and got it from the library.
Too complicated to synopsize, but the main character is a woman who has had a very difficult life, but has met the right people to help her grow.
It's really well done and I enjoyed it a lot, though I'm not sure it's great art. I'll look for her other books.
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Post by Liiisa on Oct 2, 2023 20:39:40 GMT -5
72) Erik Larson, Isaac's Storm
The catastrophic hurricane that devastated Galveston, Texas in September 1900, and its cultural and political context, described in Larson's usual richly illustrated, suspenseful style. Couldn't put it down.
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Post by scrubb on Oct 3, 2023 11:33:06 GMT -5
Lonely Castle in the Mirror, by Mizuki Tsujimura
About a group of 7 middle school children in Japan who don't go to school for various reasons (mostly anxiety, unhappy homelife, bullying, generally being misfits) and who travel through mirrors into a castle where there is a hidden key that can give one of them a wish.
It seemed that it might end up being predictable, and I did figure out one or two of the twusts early on, but overall it went in a somewhat unexpected direction and kept me curious. I thought the translation had a couple weak spots, but there ended up being an explanation for odd language choices.
Like most Japanese books, there were parts where I couldn't really understand what the narrators were thinking/saying, but I'm pretty sure that is due to the cultural divide and it would be perfectly obvious to a Japanese reader.
Overall, I really liked it quite a bit. It might be aimed at YA, but was a best seller in Japan.
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Post by lillielangtry on Oct 3, 2023 12:33:34 GMT -5
That sounds really interesting, scrubb.
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Post by sophie on Oct 3, 2023 23:41:16 GMT -5
The island of missing trees by Elif Shafak. Very well written, beautifully presented.. the book is excellent. A story of a Greek Cypriot in love with a Turkish Cypriot.. and the fallout from their love. It’s also about trees and birds and insects and the voice of nature which observed and records but has no power to change anything. I loved this novel. Highly recommended.
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Post by Liiisa on Oct 4, 2023 14:47:25 GMT -5
Ooh sophie I nearly took that out of the library today, but chose “Foster” instead. Soon though
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Oct 5, 2023 3:13:11 GMT -5
70. Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan. A short book that my friend’s book club was to discuss this week. In the end I didn’t go, as it was the only time another friend here was available for lunch.
About a man brought up by a single mother in post-war Ireland, thanks to her compassionate employer, and his encounter as a married father of 5 with the Magdalen laundries.
I think if I had attended the meeting I might have upset the apple cart, as I have personal history with post-war attitudes to single mothers.
Interesting book.
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Post by lillielangtry on Oct 5, 2023 3:55:09 GMT -5
People's different perspectives make book club discussions interesting!
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Post by scrubb on Oct 5, 2023 20:06:22 GMT -5
Earthlings, by Sayaka Murata.
The book has a toy on the cover and the blurb says the character has trouble fitting in; her toy tells her that he's an alien come to earth to help her. She decides she must be an alien too, explaining why she can't seem to fit into society. "Later, as a grown woman, living a quiet life with her asexual husband, Natsuki is still pursued by dark shadows from her childhood, and decides to flee the “baby factory” of society for good, searching for answers about the vast and frightening mysteries of the universe"
None of which prepares the reader for the child abuse she undergoes and how twisted and damaged she is, nor the bizarre and dark direction of the last 50 pages or so.
The first half or 2/3 gripped me, but after that there was no connection with the characters as it descended into what was almost surrealism. Really awful surrealism.
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Post by Liiisa on Oct 7, 2023 6:44:43 GMT -5
scrubb I've had that on my to read list for a while... not sure if your review has convinced me to take it off or leave it on. Sounds unpleasant but interesting. 73) David Duncan, Beyond Eden 1955 scifi paperback. Scientists using atomic energy to purify salt water to boost global agriculture/create world peace discover a substance in the water related to early evolution of life. But it has good and bad effects. Science! Political controversy! Enjoyed
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Post by Liiisa on Oct 7, 2023 12:19:16 GMT -5
74) Claire Keegan, Foster
A short novella, so I basically read it over breakfast and lunch. A young girl in Ireland is fostered out to relatives while her mom has yet another baby. I thought this was marvelous - not a word out of place, exactingly told from the child's perspective.
I remember someone saying they didn't like it as much as "Such Small Things," but I think I liked it better - but then I can never remember details of things I read more than say 48 hours ago, so who knows.
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Post by lillielangtry on Oct 7, 2023 12:29:22 GMT -5
That was me - but if I'd read them the other way around, maybe I would have had a different opinion. I was just blown away by my first Keegan and the second time, I already had expectations. Both are excellent, certainly.
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Post by Liiisa on Oct 7, 2023 12:45:18 GMT -5
And if I had any memory of the other one beyond "wow, that was amazing" then I might feel differently too; this one gets a "wow that was amazing AND I just finished reading it 10 minutes ago so I am still capable of remembering why I'm saying that."
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Post by scrubb on Oct 7, 2023 20:23:17 GMT -5
scrubb I've had that on my to read list for a while... not sure if your review has convinced me to take it off or leave it on. Sounds unpleasant but interesting I don't want to give too much away, but it includes a theme I know you don't like. Phlebas. |
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Post by Liiisa on Oct 7, 2023 21:19:21 GMT -5
THANK YOU SCRUBB, deleted from list (and lol I love that you remembered that detail)
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Post by sprite on Oct 8, 2023 12:25:53 GMT -5
"She is a Haunting" by Trang Thanh Tran.
Confession: it's not really my sort of book and I was running close to the return date, so I skipped a lot of the middle. A good book, just not my thing.
it's an interesting combo of horror and history. An American high school grad, Jade, and her little sister go to Vietnam to help their father prepare a historical house for tourists. His grandmother was a servant to the French family who built it. His business partner is an American history prof obsessed with the wife of the first owner. Jade begins to have dreams of this owner, who was a bit of a racist psychopath. Strange things happen in the house, and it seems to possess the humans.
Colonialism and modern-day racial bias are a major part of the story, as is the conflict between a family where one parent has left the others, how refugee parents struggle to share their culture with their children in a new country, and what it's like for those children to feel that they are neither fully from their parent's culture or the one they have been born to.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Oct 8, 2023 20:22:56 GMT -5
71. Chaotic Corgis, Mildred Abbott. A fun cozy mystery series for those who like quirky people and dogs.
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Post by lillielangtry on Oct 9, 2023 13:01:13 GMT -5
Agatha Christie, Sad Cypress
Yep, it's Poirot again, this time saving someone who has been framed for murder.
Patricia Glinton-Meicholas, An Evening in Guanima
A collection of folk tales from the Bahamas - some of these were quite fun, and share some themes with other traditional stories possibly arising from the fact that many people in the Bahamas were of west African heritage.
Nilima Rao, A Disappearance in Fiji
A (fairly cosy) mystery by an Indian Fijian Australian writer. I had previously read a short story by a Fijian woman writer but had not found a whole novel, so I was happy to see this recommended on Youtube and even happier that it was a really enjoyable read. The year is 1914 and Akal Singh has been sent in disgrace from Hong Kong to join the police force on Fiji and is assigned to investigate the disappearance of an indentured worker from India. An engaging story and a period of the world/history I knew nothing about.
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Post by sprite on Oct 9, 2023 15:18:21 GMT -5
I'll look for that last one, I like international mysteries!
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Oct 9, 2023 22:42:57 GMT -5
That Fijian one sounds interesting.
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Post by Liiisa on Oct 10, 2023 5:25:51 GMT -5
75) David Diop, Beyond the Door of No Return
The novel is a memoir of an 18th-century French botanist who did research in Senegal when he was young, telling the story of a young woman from the Senegalese community he was living in who had disappeared and who he went to find, which showed him the reality of the slave trade that he was indirectly involved in.
Excellent - vividly described and engaging. I'm usually very tired of books where men become obsessed with a young woman, but this guy wasn't as creepy as the rest of them.
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Post by Webs on Oct 11, 2023 7:59:57 GMT -5
On a recommendation from Hal, "No Two Persons" by Erica Bauermeister
It's about a writer, and the book she writes, and people who read the book, and well, it's a book.
It's all very meta, reading about about people reading a book, without actually reading a book.
I think Hal should have a specific instagram page that just shows what she's reading on the balcony. Hal, what do you think?
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Post by sprite on Oct 11, 2023 12:11:15 GMT -5
booksock. I like it.
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Post by Liiisa on Oct 12, 2023 20:54:25 GMT -5
76) Alexandra Petri, Alexandra Petri's US History: Important American Documents (That I Made Up)
A group of parodies of famous American poems, books, historical documents, etc. written by Petri, a smart, funny columnist for the Washington Post. Probably mostly for an American audience, but definitely amusing. I think I liked the "Sesame Street" D-day script the best. Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" as written by a dog was actually quite touching.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Oct 13, 2023 4:20:56 GMT -5
72. Quarrelsome Quartz. Another cozy mystery in Estes Park.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Oct 13, 2023 5:40:41 GMT -5
Somehow, I’ve remembered to post the audiobooks, but not the two ebooks I’ve read so far this month. 73. Murder on Bainbridge Island, Dianne Harman. Mystery set in Seattle. 74. A Sip of Murder, Blythe Baker, cozy mystery set in a Japanese tea garden |
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Post by lillielangtry on Oct 13, 2023 6:36:55 GMT -5
Balli Kaur Jaswal, The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters
Balli Kaur Jaswal is an entertaining writer who can draw a good scene, but I didn't enjoy this book as much as the two others I've read by her. It was obvious that the three sisters needed to talk to each other and be honest, and it was clear that their doing so would be the climax of the book, so the length of time they took to get there was a bit frustrating.
Also, while this kind of light novel is not supposed to be gritty realism, there were a couple of bit that really stretched credibility.
Still, not a bad book (even if the American narrator mispronounced a few British words!)
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