Currently reading & Last read books

[Maddie]

Oooh I think I've read The Turn of the Screw before because it sounds familiar! MK, your post made me long for a nice ghostly story so instead of my light romantic read I am going to tackle This House is Haunted by John Boyne first.

[MK]

ooooo that sounds fabulously creepily mysteriously scary! Looking forward to hearing how you like it.

I'm on the last chapter (or maybe second to last) of The Turn of the Screw .... I know what's going to happen, and yet ... I can't read it! Nooooo, don't DO it! I want to tell the characters :-p .

[Cheryl]

I just read OF MICE AND MEN, A FAREWELL TO ARMS, A TALE OF TWO CITIES )Saw the old Ronald Coleman film also-fantastic) and GREAT EXPECTATIONS. I am also reading THE WHITE PRINCESS.

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Nice list, Cheryl!

[Sara]

I just finished
I'm currently reading
I'm feeling weary of novels right now.

[MK]

Sara wrote: "I'm feeling weary of novels right now..."

Sara, are those graphic novels?

A group I joined, Literary Exploration, has their year-long group challenge focused on genres. The idea is to try out books in new genres. One of the genres is graphic novels. I've never read any (although my daughter was a huge fan of manga, when she was in high school).

Do you have any recommendations for a graphic novels newbie to try out? :)

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Hi there Amber. Glad to have you here at Catching Up on Classics! Bookworm is a great nickname and perfect for this group. I've read Les Misérables and enjoyed it. I do like big historical fiction (or long reads) but I space them out over a few months and read other books in between when I take a bit of a break from the big reads. This doesn't work for everyone though.

Here is the link to our Les Mis threads: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

by Victor Hugo

[[deleted user]]

Hi folks
I just finished and rated it 5/5 . Excellent book .

I'm currently trying to read 2 at once, which is never good news for me. I usually only read one at a time ,so will probably put one aside for now ,so let's say I'm reading and will put aside Goldfinch for another time .

[Sara]

MK wrote: "Sara wrote: "I'm feeling weary of novels right now..."

Sara, are those graphic novels?

A group I joined, Literary Exploration, has their year-long group challenge focused on genres. The idea is ..."

I'm actually fairly new to graphic newbie too so I can't give you the best advice. I will say that you should find a genre that you like in novels and transfer it to graphic novels.

[MK]

Thanks, Sara. That sounds like pretty good advice, actually.

[Tytti]

I have started reading Sinuhe, the Egyptian but haven't felt like reading anything for a while (for various reasons, it happens). Also I think I will enjoy it so I want to be able to concentrate properly.

I did read a nice historical mystery set in 1796 a while back ("The Cellar, or a story of those exceptional and shocking events that in their time draw great attention in the town of Turku in the Kingdom of Sweden"). Of course it will never be translated but...

The author (a professor in biochemistry in real life) apparently knows the history of the town and it felt very real. Some reviewers think there were too many historical details in the book but I, of course, liked them. That time period was interesting and that was part of the plot, too. King Gustav III had been just murdered, the officers had rebelled just before that, there had been revolutions in USA and France, there was a prohibition of coffee and of course it was smuggled into the country. (Elsewhere Georg Magnus Sprengtporten had many discussions with Casanova. Yes, THE Casanova. I should read the book about their correspondence one day...) But I liked how the author poked fun at people of Turku and the students and other university people. Probably nothing has changed since then. And there was a mention of "sittning"! (An academic student dinner with rules, and with singing and drinking. I can thank "sitsit" for the fact that I can now sing the national anthem of the Soviet Union in Finnish, with the old lyrics that mention Stalin. Guess what I was thinking during the Opening Ceremonies today? :-P )

Also the Swedish classic The Queen's Diadem that I just "found" sounds interesting. It's set in 1792 and around the murder of the King. Apparently Tintomara, the main protagonist of the story, is modelled after the daughter of ballerina Giovanna Bassi, her father was probably Finnish nobleman, Count Adolf Fredrik Munck, who may or may not have been also the father of the future King Gustaf IV Adolf. It was already well known at the time that he had "helped" the royal couple. The author himself had guite an interesting life.

[Daisy]

Tytti wrote: "Also the Swedish classic The Queen's Diadem that I just "found" sounds interesting."

This book looks great. A perfect book for the Never-ending world challenge that I have set for myself of reading world classics. And, it has ties to the Verdi opera "Un ballo in maschera." Nice.

[Daisy]

@Tytti,

Oh, how are you enjoying The Egyptian?

[Tytti]

Daisy wrote: "@Tytti,
Oh, how are you enjoying The Egyptian?"

Well I haven't really started it yet. Just read the part that I have read already before. It brings back memories so that makes it a bit different than other books and it's difficult to concentrate.

[Daisy]

Tytti wrote: "Well I haven't really started it yet."

Well, it will be nice to hear your impression.

One of the books I'm reading at the moment is The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker. It is sometimes a little difficult to read some of the portions about violence and I find that my mind wants to wander during these parts. But, this has become an important book for me in that I'm coming to have a more objective view on many events, attitudes and behaviors about which I previously held perhaps unfounded fear.

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Thanks Daisy. I've been interested in that book, but haven't picked it up yet.

[Daisy]

Kathy wrote: "I've been interested in that book, but haven't picked it up yet."

There are about 80 pages left to read. The reading is not difficult. But just a heads-up, it is a hefty book (700 pages, not counting notes at the end, and small print), but I think it's worth it.

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

^^Nice.

[[deleted user]]

I just finished Twelve Years a Slave and I'm reading Brideshead Revisited now.