Karen’s Comments (group member since Nov 23, 2019)

Karen’s comments from the VIRTUAL Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2020 group.

MARCH

Total books read in March: 21
Total qualifying for this challenge: 9

Happy with that. 39 to go.

21. The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner.

5 stars. I picked this up at the start of the month and was not overly impressed. I then tried again two days ago. I was halfway through before I realised that I was totally immersed in the world Kushner had created and that this book was wonderful. A great Bildungsroman set in Nevada, New York and Italy, mainly in the 1970s but with some flashbacks. A woman with a passivity and lack of confidence in her relationships with others but with the spirit to ride fast motorbikes and make her own art, becomes stronger, in a world where everyone underestimates her. Highly recommended.

Borrowed from the library.

19. The Terracotta Dog by Andrea Camilleri.

4 stars. I read this before 18 but forgot to update it. This is the second book in his Inspector Montalbano series and it is a huge improvement on the first in the series. The plot was fascinating, the Sicilian setting was well described, and I liked the linkage between the storylines set in the past and present.

Borrowed from the library.

20. Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery.

4 stars. I really enjoyed this. I cannot believe I never read this series as a child.

Borrowed from the library.

18. Age of Consent by Marti Leimbach.

3 stars. This was a good book but not as good as I was hoping for.

Borrowed from the library.

17. The Lantern Men by Elly Griffith. .

5 stars. I love Elly Griffith. I highly recommend her books to anyone who likes mystery novels that focus on the characters as much as the plot. Some of her recent books have not been quite up to par but this was wonderful. Freakily the book mentioned Tuesday Market Place in Kings Lynn and I walked through there on Friday! I had never actually been to Kings Lynn before and I will definitely be going back.

Borrowed from the library.

16. A Brooklands Ghost by James McCarraher.

3 stars. A very short account of the writer's encounter with a mysterious figure - possibly the ghost of motor-racing hero Percy Lambert - in the loading bay of Marks and Spencer on the Brooklands site.

Borrowed from my boyfriend.

15. Those Without Shadows by Françoise Sagan. although the library had taken the jacket off of the copy I read.

4 stars. More of Sagan's trademark characters. Purposeless, bored, seeking meaning through love affairs with other characters. Again, much as I wrote for a previous entry, I rarely identify with her characters but I find her writing compelling. I preferred Aimez-vous Brahms though.

Borrowed from the library.

13. Passing by Nella Larsen.

4 stars. A thoughtful novella about a subject I had never really read about before. Two childhood friends reconnect; but tensions are highlighted because one is trying to "pass" in White society, while one has stayed with her Black identity. Made me think.

Borrowed from my boyfriend.

14. Girl Up by Laura Bates.

4 stars. This would have been incredibly useful to me as a teenager. I was not part of the target audience but it was still interesting to read.

Borrowed from the library.

FEBRUARY

Total books read in February: 24
Total qualifying for this challenge: 7

Happy with that. 48 to go.

11. One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus.

4 stars. I loved this. I have had it out from the library since around Christmas time waiting for the library to get the sequel and I was not the most patient person waiting for it. I loved this book so much. I loved how the author set up these stereotypes and then undermined them. My favourite character was Nate but Addy had the best character arc. And most importantly, I guessed the end which I hardly ever do.

12. One of Us Is Next by Karen M. McManus.

4 stars. Not quite as good as its predecessor. I was not quite as engaged with the characters although I did grow to appreciate them more towards the end of the book, especially Knox. I totally think the ending was set up for another sequel if the author wants to write it. But it was still a good book. It is a solid 4 stars whereas One of Us is Lying almost made 5 stars. And it was nice to see the characters from the first book again.

Both books borrowed from the library.

10. After Ever Happy by Anna Todd.

3 stars. This entire series has been too long and repetitive. Book two was bad and book three was terrible. This was better. The heroine randomly decides to move to another city without telling Hardin for the SECOND time in the series and Hardin burns his mother's house down but stops randomly hitting people and makes lots of money selling their story. Not the most coherent plot, but it could have been worse.

Borrowed from the library.

8. The Death of Faith by Donna Leon.

2 stars. I cannot believe I am giving a Donna Leon book 2 stars! There were things I loved - her descriptions of life in Venice, Brunetti's views about exercise (I agree) - but what knocked the stars off for me was the atheistic rant about the Catholic Church. I am not a Catholic and I am certainly not going to deny that the Catholic Church has much to apologise for, but this is a horrendously unbalanced portrayal and the author is so busy attacking the Church that she does not wrap up all the storylines either. We never find out exactly what happened to all the people who passed away in the care home. Let's hope the next volume is a return to form.

PS Has anyone heard of a care home run by an atheist charity? Just saying.

9. Aimez-vous Brahms by Françoise Sagan. .

4 stars. This has aged quite badly in some respects. The 39 year old main character feels so old! She is at a critical point in her life where she is in a relationship with Roger, who cheats on her, and feels dissatisfied with her life and so for several weeks she accepts the love of 25 year-old Simon, who loves her. As ever with Sagan, this is beautifully written. I always struggle to identify with her characters but still love her work. This is a sad book. Someone was always going to get hurt.

Both books were borrowed from the library.

7. The Burning by Laura Bates.

4 stars. A novel about bullying and revenge porn by one of Britain's leading feminist writers. I particularly liked the historical context as Laura Bates introduces Maggie, an executed seventeenth century witch, whom Anna (the lead character) is writing a history project on. It is powerful stuff, but some of the characters are not developed enough and the ending is perhaps too optimistic. Also, has nobody heard of the police?

Borrowed from the library.

6. The Mage in Black by Jaye Wells.

3 stars. The second in the Sabina Kane series. I was on a Paranormal kick late last year and read the first in this series. It is interesting but not particularly original. Interested to see where it is going.

Borrowed from the library.

JANUARY

Total books read in January: 17
Total qualifying for this challenge: 5

Happy with that. 55 to go!

5. Acqua Alta by Donna Leon.

4 stars. Book 5 of her Commissario Brunetti series. I am terrible at continuing to read series I start but I have enjoyed this series so far and am so far behind (she has published 28 books so far) that I want to try to read one of these a month. This one presents a darker Venice with flooding and mafia violence.

Borrowed from the library.

4. Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind by Tom Holland.

4 stars. I loved this book. I love big, ambitious books and this one sought to trace the influence of Christianity on the development of the Western "mind". Interesting.

Borrowed from the library.

3. In Paris With You by Clémentine Beauvais.

4 stars. To the best of my knowledge, I had never read a verse novel before this book, and I was really intrigued. It surpassed all my expectations and was very emotional.

Borrowed from the library.

2. Girl by Edna O'Brien.

3 stars. An author I had heard a lot about, writing about Boko Haram and the stolen girls; I thought this book was going to blow me away, and I am sad to say it did not. I am struggling to say why. On the plus side the prose was never over the top (which would be disastrous for a book on such a serious topic as this), but it was maybe too sparse. But I am definitely glad I read it.

Borrowed from the library.

1. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern.

3 stars. I really enjoyed the Night Circus and while I enjoyed this book I did not like it as much. I found it a little confusing. The world building was good but there was not a huge amount of plot and I found the characters quite passive and they didn't really develop, which is a problem in a nearly 500 page book.

Borrowed from the library.