Zaz’s Comments (group member since Dec 27, 2014)

Zaz’s comments from the 2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] group.

During 2 weeks, as I finished the week 3 books earlier this year, I read 3 books for this week. Lock In and Hollow World were for 2014 and The Girl on the Train for 2015.

Lock In was the december book in a group I follow and is part of the Goodreads Choice Awards, so it was in my to-read list. I found Hollow World on Goodreads Choice Awards and The Girl is a "reading challenge" discovery. All about Goodreads here :p

I enjoyed all of them with high ratings for the 2014 books, better than expected, and a medium rating for The Girl because I didn't like the atmosphere at all (but the thriller part was a page turner).

I'm spamming everyone with Hollow World because of its lovely characters (time travelling story), I recommend Lock In as a good mystery book (similar to a detective tv show, in a dystopian context) and I can't recommend The Girl as there are lots of better thrillers out there.

I was looking forward to this week and I think I will have difficulties to read better books this year! The Choice Awards seem a really interesting way to find books I could like, so I'll dig a little more in the list.

Week 4 of our challenge is almost over! It was all about discovering new books published the year before this week.
This discussion thread is solely for your progress. (Book discussions go in individual threads.)


What did you read this week?

How did you choose this book? (trends, 2014 best of, recommendation...)

Did you enjoy it? (feel free to link to your book review)

Would you recommend this title?

Ah, I've this problem too, but not in this way. When I have few time to read or when a chapter is a little boring, I like to look at how many pages I've to read to reach the chapter end. It's not accurate on the kindle ink reader, because you can easily lose your current page!
On iPad (with the Kindle app), there is a chapter list in the menu (epub format) or you can open a popup with all the pages and slide between them without changing your current page (pdf format). It's way easier like this :)

Yes, more Cha!

For the "him", I've to discuss this with my friends who are reading or will read the book, it's an interesting topic. I suppose my choice takes its roots in two different things.
The 1st is cultural, as I'm french and our language is fully gender based (everything is a he or she, even objects). Our brain learns to put everything in gender boxes and it's uneasy to think otherwise. For animals, when you don't know if they are males or females, you use the gender pronoun of the specie. Like a magpie is a "she" and a cat is a "he". "Human" is male, so the default setting is "he" and, as Pax is neutral, my brain put him in the male box. Ellis gives a gender to Sol, so in my mind, she's definitively a female.
I don't know how neutral characters are approached by translators as even if you don't use pronouns, you have to use gender for verbs and adjectives. What would be your choice for Pax in a translation?

The 2nd is more personal. Pax's reactions are girly for me, but I hope in some centuries, men could cry and women could be strong without it feels a little weird (this is cultural too and culture evolves). So I can think "Pax behaves like a sensitive person" and not "like a woman". It's not decisive for me in the gender choice but I suppose it is for many people.
My first neutral gender encounter was with the "aliens" in the tv show Earth Final Conflict (they were bald and without gender). They were totally male in my mind (maybe a translation effect as they used the male pronouns), which was pretty strange because the characters were played by... women! I was surprised when I discovered it (SFX are obviously pretty effective), but I'd no problem to deal with it. So now by inference, if you're bald with no gender, you're a man!

I read 13 books which are in your list, so I felt at home looking at your plan :D
Interesting choices so far :)

Welcome :)

Lora > *whisper* add Hollow World to your list :p

Maria > there is already a thread for the "laggers anonymous", but I read a lot more with this challenge, so maybe you'll do the same and reach the 70 books ;)

I found them depressing all along :p
Most of the time in thrillers, the mystery and danger are suffocating but not the characters. Here, the mystery is not suffocating at all but you go deep with the protagonists. I'm not sure it's a good thing, as I tend to be involved with the characters, so it has more effect on my mood.

TJ > I didn't find them really similar, but well, they are both depressed so there is some pattern. Megan has a storyline more time based (from her youth to the present), Rachel is all about "wife / ex-wife" so it doesn't evolve a lot.

Both of them. And virtual ones too :p
I like a beautiful book but, well, what matters for me is what is inside. And I have to say that I'm a carefree reader so the only way for books to survive is to stay on my shelves :D

Added to my to-read list. It sounds a little heavy on the romance side, but the summary is unusual and is definitively something I can enjoy.

Another fan of Nick Hornby here! About a Boy is not my favorite, but I read almost all the books by this author and enjoyed them. His last one is in my reading challenge list :)

I've never seen the movie nor the tv show!

Great topic :)

I've no idea if some books changed my life, I don't think so but maybe it's not enough obvious for me. It's more that readings reinforce what I think or how I see life.
However, some movies changed my way to see the society, learnt me values and I'm pretty sure I would never be who/where I am now if I didn't see some of them.

The Ellis' references are interesting because some are "old" (well, I know Fred Astaire but actually never saw anything with him) and other are pretty new/geek (the grammar thought made me laugh). It shows that he's not frozen in time and succeeds to learn new things (so, yes, he tends to cling to "old familiar" stuff but not too much).

I had guessed for Vin, as it's a little obvious with his work and personality. No idea for Ved and Yal. Nice to learn the origin of Cha's name, I'm curious about this character, I expected to see him more.

Ah. I understand what you're saying for the "bad guy". He got on my nerves when I listened him talking about people, because I disagree with almost all his way to see the society. Pax is really open and tolerant, values I praise, so I was at home with him.
As there are several society models tackled in the book and as each of them has some positive and negative points, I found more difficult to choose a side and could understand well the different points of view. I suppose the book is a very different reading for someone very conservative.

Thanks for the answers, it's great to have the possibility to speak with an author about how he sees his book :)

Ok, some questions :)

1. There are many references to books and movies in Hollow World. Do you do it in all your books or was it a first because of the contemporary story? It was a nice and funny surprise :)

2. For some characters, it's easy to imagine the origin of their names (Geo, Pol or Pax for example). I've no clue for some others. So, are they all related to something/someone or did you choose them randomly?

3. Ellis has not an average age for a hero, most of the main characters in my readings are near 30 years old (or are teens in most of the YA books). Is there a particular reason for this choice?

I really liked all the characters, except the "bad guy" (no spoils) who was pretty annoying and a little cliché (so he was a good bad guy, you just want to throw him by the window each time he opens his mouth). Vin was not the most likable person but all the drama and gothic stuff was great. I hope we'll discover more characters like him in the sequels.

That's a good summary :D
You can choose a modern romance, you'll find something with more drama and action and no "my father said no to the poor man, so I'll be single for the rest of my life, doing nothing all the day because I'm a woman (x300 pages)".

Books banned once, somewhere, so you'll have plenty of choice ;)
I'll read a Roald Dahl book which was banned once in a US state if I remember well.

Of course I prefer when I understand everything, so soft sci-fi is ok. I'm more fantasy than SF but I enjoy the 2 genres ;)
I've no problems with character development if it's well done (and without too much self-pity). I've to try to see if I like how he writes people.

I think some books want to be re-read. They are whispering in my ears: "Reaaad us again, we were so awesome" :p

Never go against what a book wants :D

The only one I can remember is Le miroir de Cassandre. The story was pretty dull and even if I like the author I never finished it.
There are some series which disappointed me a lot and I regret deeply spending money for the box sets (Narnia Chronicles and A Song of Ice and Fire). Because of them, boxes are a no way for me now and I'm really careful with authors I don't know.

Sounds interesting :D I'll add it in my to-read.
I don't think I know the author, so it's a good way to start.

I'll read it too (as a 2nd book, I've another creepy one for this week).
I never tried creepy graphic novels (except Batman :p) so I'm not sure what to expect. It will be an interesting read for sure as I won't be in my comfort zone, I hope I'll enjoy it :)