Heena’s Comments (group member since Oct 13, 2014)

Heena’s comments from the RMFAO (Reading My Frigging A** Off) group.

Hello everyone,

August is here (and the year is fast approaching the end already!!) And finally, we have a genre that makes it easy for everyone to participate - Contemporary Fiction. As always, you can join anytime during the entire month and read as many (or as less) books as you can manage, no restrictions whatsoever!

Here is the DEFINITION for this month's genre:

Contemporary Fiction Contemporary Fiction is literature with its setting generally after World War II. We're doing Contemporary Fiction, so everything post-WWII is counted except for non-fiction.
So yes, almost everything you read is Contemporary Fiction unless, of course, it is Historical Fiction or Non-Fiction.

-->>Please Note: There are absolutely no limits so you can interpret this genre in its broader sense and include other similar genres and/or subgenres that you feel might have a wee bit of similarity with the main genre. You can also include books that are not particularly centered around the main genre but has its components or elements somewhere in the story.

Here's a quick summary of the levels:

Level 1: Casual Reader: 1 book (easy)
Level 2: Frequent Reader: 2 books (moderate)
Level 3: Bookworm: 3 books (mildly strenuous)
Level 4: Bibliophile: 4 books (strenuous)
Level 5: Bookiopath: 5 books or more (challenging)

Please mention what type of books you'd be reading:

PB: Paperbacks
HB: Hardback
EB: E-Books
AB: Audio Books

Please feel free to announce your to-read books along with the level you are targeting for below.

PLEASE READ (for new members):
1. You can read any number of books for the respective genre each month in one particular month.
2. Take your time and go through your entire TBR-list before deciding the books to read.
3. You can join the challenge at any stage (in any month.)
4. You can drop out of the challenge any time you like.
5. You can select different levels every month.
6. Use this discussion board to share your reads with other members of the group.
7. Please be active and don't hesitate to ask questions or recommend books.

Note: The main intent of this challenge is to incorporate different kinds of books and genres in our normal reading routine to make the experience more fun and entertaining. Please do not lose yourself in the technicalities as we all know how literary genres can be confusing.

If you have any doubts or questions, then post them below and we'll be happy to answer/discuss them.
Happy reading!

I've been missing this since starting it seems... but I do have one for this month:
It has an illustration on the cover! I'm so glad I have this otherwise I would've missed this month too.
Anyway, it's a dark comedy and I'm looking forward to read it!

Dagny wrote: "Try this one at LibriVox, Heena:
https://librivox.org/collected-public...
It won't have all the stories either, but hopefully some of the ones you're looking for. "

It has quite a lot of stories! Thanks a lot, Dagny.

I hope Netflix picks it up (the way they did Mist.) It would be pretty cool to watch it as a series.

Yes... it was more of a fairytail than anything else. I guess a screen adaptation would be very interesting. What do you think?

Cheryl - No easy answers indeed. I did skim after the first half as it was too "Under The Dome" politics. Even some of the characters felt the same.

I did like the characterization, like you said, in the first half. Lila and Clint were good leads and I enjoyed reading Jared's part as well as Frank's story, but when all the other storylines came in, again, it felt like Under The Dome.

What are your thoughts on Evie? I am, for some reason, not able to form a solid opinion about her (especially after the stunt she pulled towards the end.)

I'm done with this book... finally!

Unfortunately, I did not like this book as much as I wanted to. I didn't read any reviews before starting this one because the ratings alone suggested that the reviews were extremely polarizing. So basically I read the book with an open mind trying not to have any pre-conceived notions regarding either the writing nor the theme. But the theme... well, it was just so evident. I mean, I did enjoy the story and it made for an okay read (nothing spectacular, but of course better than a lot of other books) I did not care a lot about the theme. In fact, I honestly feel that this book was simply a means for SK and OK to raise an issue which is presently pretty hot in the press not only in the US but all around the world.

I, for one, do not agree that if women lived alone in the world, it would be like heaven. For one, I strongly believe that human emotions are not subject to gender but to individuals themselves. in my family, my husband is the one who is calm and quiet and I am the one who gets upset fast and always act irrationally. I have anger issues, but I am a woman, so I'm pretty sure that if I lived in a world full of women only even then I'd have same anger issues as I have now.

Evie tried to give women a choice, but then towards the end, she tried to manipulate that choice by provoking Frank to kill her. Now that's exactly what she or the theme fo the book show men to be doing to women.
I understand and agree that women are treated badly at a lot of places, but for that, we don't have to eliminate men from the society but need to get rid of the thinking that's plaguing most of the men and a lot of women.
I know one thing very nicely - women do not get along very well, specially strong-minded women, so even if we get rid of the men, what about this problem? There will still be murders, aggression, fights, violence, etc. So then what's the point? And maybe, as I'm beginning to realize while writing this, that's what the authors are trying to say?
I'm just glad that I read this book without giving up on it during the boring bits.

Another reason why I didn't like the book as much is King's direct political jubes. (Note: I am neither a Trump fan nor interested in politics of other countries) I used to follow SK on Twitter and used to receive a notification every time he tweeted something, but lately, his tweets have been so political that I had to unfollow him because I followed him to stay updated about his works and books and stuff and not sole political views. He can tweet about whatever he wants, his wish of course, but I hated to see the same thing int he book too.

An afterthought: What exactly defined 'women'? Genitals? Hormones? Hair? Body? Then what about people who are of the third gender?

This book felt like it was written solely for selling. I'm a little disappointed. :(

I'm done with the first Robert Langdon book - Angels & Demons - 3/5

Having read Inferno and Lost Key already, I feel like this book was a bit on the amateurish side, which is understandable, as this is the debut novel. Lots of unnecessary elaborate descriptions and lots of random scenes and anecdotes. But I'm looking forward to the next one! Will be starting it today.

Dagny wrote: "Finished Inferno
Great read! Non-stop action and I never saw that coming, or that, or that, lol. There are descriptive passages to give us a chance to catch our breath, but they're ..."

It is a beautiful book! I loved it too and gave it 5/5 :D
It is one of the most memorable Brown books I've ever read.

7. Seven H P Lovecraft Stories - 3/5

As I said in the other thread, it wasn't his best collection.

6. Manga Classics: Romeo and Juliet - 1/5 - DNF

I never admitted it till now but I'm kind of not into Shakespeare. I had a horrible incident in the 7th standard where, in spite of my stage fright, I was made to read a character from Hamlet during class reading and I got so nervous during that play that I ended up hating it for being so lengthy and for, of course, having so many characters.
Since then I've had trouble even reading, let alone liking, any of his works. And as it turns out, I can't even stand the Mango of his works. So maybe I'm not into his style of writing or storytelling.

5. Manga Classics: The Count of Monte Cristo - 3/5

I like reading revenge dramas, but this one was way too elaborate. I started having trouble remembering all the twisty French names somewhere around the middle of the book and then it kind of turned into a nightmare keeping track of all the names of (so many!) characters.
But of course, I'm glad I read this as a Manga because I'm sure my patience would have worn out after a couple hundred pages otherwise.

7. Dead of Night - 5/5

A wonderful collection! Very creepy and scary. The narration was good too. A must for all horror enthusiasts :)

6. Seven H P Lovecraft Stories - 3/5

This collection is good to listen but it doesn't include a lot of stories that I wanted to read (the more popular and, apparently, better ones.)

5. The Golden Wizard - 2/5

I' done with almost 100 pages and so far I like the story. I might not be impressed by the feminist theme (and I'm sure by the time I finish the book I'll have a lot to say about it), but I am loving the storytelling. Lila is a superb lead (and I hope she doesn't die!) and I like her husband Clint. There are a couple more characters that I like, but as I haven't read a book in the last 2 days I'm not able to remember the names.
Even I am going to start using the list of names because it is getting hard to remember the names especially when a lot of them start with 'E'.
It is proving to be a quick read, though I'm still struggling to find the time to just sit and read it. Maybe I'll do it tonight.

Cheryl wrote: "I finished it. I gave it 3 stars: good but not great. A very quick read, for the size of the book. This makes me want to read the books that Owen King has written."

I was worried that I would not be able to finish it in time. Now I'm so relieved!
I'll be posting the discussion questions and topics after I finish the book, in the meantime, feel free to post anything you have in mind :)

I'm (finally) done with another book by SK, so now I can start with this one. The other one I read was a collection of short stories and the first couple of stories were a bit meh... totally not worth the time I spent reading them, so I'm glad to hear that this book is not mostly SK's writing (contrary to what I believed.)
I've also never read any books by Owen King, so this would be my first too.

Hello all,

Here's the link to next month's thread: July - Apocalyptic/Dystopian Fiction: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Hello all,

Here's the link to next month's thread: July - Apocalyptic/Dystopian Fiction: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...