Monthly Group Reads: Reading the Poll Losers Instead?

[Lia]

@Terri: I also did not like the second half of the book. Somewhat boring. :)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Lia wrote: "@Terri: I also did not like the second half of the book. Somewhat boring. :)"

Apparently he follows the same format in the follow up book to Imperium. And the second story is more boring than the first in that one also. :)

[Chris]

Terri wrote: "Lia wrote: "@Terri: I also did not like the second half of the book. Somewhat boring. :)"

Apparently he follows the same format in the follow up book to Imperium. And the second story is more bori..."

Sorry, can't agree with that. I loved both novels and found that they really brought the period, Cicero's slightly pompous nature, and the political infighting alive. Enjoyed them so much that I even read a 400+ plus biography of Cicero to see how well they matched what is actually known. I think this one is a question of taste, what some find boring others find interesting.

[Monica]

Chris F wrote:I loved both novels and found that they really brought the period, Cicero's slightly pompous nature, and the political infighting alive."

I also loved these books. The author's use of dividing each book into "parts" reflected in storyline...one was generally more enjoyable to me than the other, but I did not find any of it boring. I'm looking forward to Cicero 3!

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Chris F wrote: "I think this one is a question of taste, what some find boring others find interesting. ..."

Just as I always say. Everyone likes different things.

But you and I mostly agree about the first book, so you aren't talking to me are you? My name was in the quoted reply.

I found the second part of book #1 boring compared to part one, but I still enjoyed the book and gave it 4 stars.

[Lia]

Terri, I think Chris responding to my commend about the book. :)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

haha. He must have been. :)

That's why I hate the GR reply thing that has Terri wrote: Terri wrote: Lia wrote

Sometimes you don't know if someone is talking to you, or someone else who is in the clutch of 'reply quotes'.
It has happened to me plenty of times.

I think GR needs to work it out so that if you hit reply on a post that already contains "quoted replies", that it only selects the non quoted text.
If that makes sense. :)

edit; reading that back it sounds confusing, but I think you all know what I mean??

[Darcy]

I received Ratcatcher in the post today. I'm hoping to get to this one before the end of the year as well. The downside is that it is 500 pages but the font is large. I prefer smaller fonts, but since I've been wanting to read this since I heard about it, I'm not going to let it bother me. :)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I have been wanting to read it since i first saw it too.
Maybe we can read it together *holds D's hand* at some stage?

[Darcy]

Absolutely, we can read it together. Just let me know when it suits :)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Cool. Not this month. Late May or June?

[Darcy]

Either of those work for me. :)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

June then. In May I have the two A&M group reads, then I am reading We Were Soldiers Once...and Young: Ia Drang - The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam with a buddy, and something else...can't recall what. So June would be better.

After the June group reads?

[Darcy]

Perfect!

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Good. I am pleased to have that locked in. I have wanted to read it and it keeps slipping away from me.
A buddy read is always a good incentive.

[Bryn]

For my lighter read -- I tend to need one of those after work -- I'm going to take up our loser of the month, A Morbid Taste for Bones

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Still have that out form the library, but I will have to send it back. Won't be able to get to it for a couple months maybe.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

D,
Looks like I can't do our buddy read of Ratcatcher.

I went to reserve it at my library and they don t have book #1. They have the rest if the series but not book one. Then I remembered that I knew that. I had asked Dawn a while back if I could come into the series at book #2.

I looked at The Book Depository and it isn't even for sale anymore.
How bizarre that the first book in this series would no longer be published.

[Darcy]

Huhn. Well. Did I buy the last one from TBD then? Whoopsie.
No worries, I'll read it anyway, and maybe I'll comment a lot for you :)
I think it's silly your library system hasn't got the first book of a series. I can see not continuing with one, but to not have the first doesn't make sense. Unless, someone nicked it

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I am guessing some little thieving b#&$%$d stole it. :-)

[Keith]

Did you try Betterworldbooks? They have a lot of used books for sale at a reduced cost. They have free shipping in the USA, but I don't know about international shipping fees. Here is the link www.betterworldbooks.com.

[Dawn]

It says free shipping worldwide on the website and I found a used copy of Ratcatcher for $6.48 US. Unless Terri was looking for a new book which could be the case.

I think I might have to add this site to my bookmarks for future perusal though. :)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I tried Betterworld once and had bad luck with them. The book was supposed to be new and was clearly not.

I do check them every now and then if I am desperate. They have one copy of Ratcatcher and it is $10 (approx $11 in USD). Too much for a used copy that I cannot see the condition of.

I am just going to have to start the series at book #2 at some stage.

[Darcy]

Finally finished The Hippopotamus Marsh. It finally got good in the last 60 pages or so then "must read next book to find out what happens". I don't generally like books that aren't of themselves, even of its a trilogy. I think someone more familiar with Egypt might fare better than I. There's a lot of small ceremonial stuff and thinking. Way too much thinking, not enough doing is probably the best to sum it up.

Now, on to Vlad: The Last Confession. I have high hopes for this one.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Sounds like it might nowt have made a very exciting group read. :-)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Bryn, or anyone, are you reading or about to read

A Morbid Taste for Bones

I have postponed the book I was on and am starting this one.
Putting a call out to anyone who wants to read it with me....

[Darcy]

It's not even 200 pages long. I could squeeze that in.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

My edition is about 260 pgs.
Good and small to fit in before next months group reads.

Welcome aboard. :D

[Bryn]

Great guys. I'm at p. 92. Of only 197 in my copy.

[Mark]

Starting it in about a hour got housework to do first. Lol.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I double checked mine. 295 pages, not 260. :-)
Have this edition out from the library.


Experiencing the same thing as I did when I read my first Ellis Peters/Edith Pargeter. Such a lovely writer, but it is classic in style and takes some adjustment at first.

A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury

[Darcy]

I quite like Brother John. I've liked him from the beginning but on p.81/82 (near the end of chapter 5) he won my heart.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

You know what I am noticing...the authors links with her books under her pseudonym, Edith Pargeter.
This has been set around Shrewsbury and she has spoken early of the Brothers Gwynedd.
A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury
The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet: Comprising Sunrise in the West, The Dragon at Noonday, The Hounds of Sunset, Afterglow and Nightfall

[Bryn]

It's as if she uses the research she had on hand, which is sensible. Agree with D on John's moment. That's about when I got into the story, too... I wasn't for the 1st 60 pages.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I am about page 55 now and I am disoriented. I don't know if it is the writing is disorienting or I am just relaxed and not concentrating.
Perhpas, going off what you guys have said, it is a little of both.
As mentioned a few posts back, I had this same problem with A Blood Field so i was kind of expecting that I would start to undertsand what was going on soon. :)

[Bryn]

Wait for the murder, Terri. :)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Oh, hasn't it happened yet? I thought I'd missed it in my confusion. :D

[Darcy]

Up until the murder the only dead person they talk about is that Winifred that they're after. I think she does a lot of character description and setting the scene for the first 60 or so pages (maybe a few extra in your copy Terri), but then the story starts.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Bring on page 60! :)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

90 pages and I still haven't gotten to a murder yet. :(
I figure if you guys say page 60 and have editions under 200 pages, then in my nearly 300 pages I must be getting close to the books getting better....

Edit: no, not 295 pages, only 263. The other 30 pages are chapters on of the next book. So I must be really close to the murder mystery starting,

[Bryn]

If you like I can tell you on what page of our edition that murder happens. Don't worry I won't, but you can't be far off.

Meanwhile I'm at p. 134 -- only 60 pages to go -- and... look, I'm not thrilled. But I'm not a mystery reader. I'm better off, being a fan of Bloody Field, chasing up her similar hist fics. I do like her writing, but here that hasn't got everything her writing had in her straight or major hist fic. To be specific, less insight into people's heads which was a big thing for me in Bloody Field.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Bryn wrote: "If you like I can tell you on what page of our edition that murder happens. Don't worry I won't, but you can't be far off.

Meanwhile I'm at p. 134 -- only 60 pages to go -- and... look, I'm not t..."

I wholeheartedly agree with your opinion of this book. The writing is good, but I am not engaged in the characters at all. Can barely tell them apart. They all seem like the same person. Of course, not as far in as all you guys. :-) Things may improve.

[Bryn]

It certainly gets better, for me.

[Bryn]

...finished A Morbid Taste for Bones... lukewarm.

[Mark]

This has been a reread for me, I read this over 20 years ago I gave it 4stars when I was looking for books I had before.

After this reread I have found it very slow and ponderous, I am wondering if I have spoiled it by watching the TV series, I have enjoyed watching the series which is very good.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I want to watch the tv series. Or at least the first episode to go with this book. I feel it would translate well to a visual medium ie tv, play.. it is indeed too ponderous for me as a mystery book.

[Darcy]

Derek Jacobi is a great Cadfael, but that might just be me.

[Chris]

Interesting to see your responses to this one, like Mark I read it over 20 years ago and loved it, but I'm not surprised that some find it too slow now. I think it is at least partly that styles of writing and tastes in reading change over time and some of her works had been around for sometime already when I read the paperback versions. So she was really writing for a different audience than exists today and very few authors, especially those writing popular fiction, produce works that are still popular 30 or more years later.

On the TV series of them, Derrick Jacobi is great in anything, but the pace for me also seems a little slow.

[Bryn]

I'm one who likes old, and slow, and raved about her A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury. No doubt she put more or less of herself and her talents into her dozens of books, and this was too standard and too cosy to do much for me.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

iBryn wrote: "I'm one who likes old, and slow, and raved about her A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury. No doubt she put more or less of herself and her talents into her dozens of books, and this was too standard and t..."

Agree 100%.
It was the slow and old of the writing that made me fall in love with A bloody Field by Shrewsbury. The writing was exquisitely done 95% of the time and I loved it.
I don't think she has done it as well here. I'll be giving it 3 stars. Not really a hugely interesting story going on and the writing quality is excellent (Shakespearean in nature sometimes) but it isn't enough to make the story interesting.
I kind of don't/didn't care who killed 'person X'.