You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
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Chit Chat About Books
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What Are You Reading and Why? 2015 second half
@Kristie - I've been prioritising them this last couple of months - trying to do at least one a month.
Sarah - I do the same thing, but every time I finish one I request another! I'll never be caught up at this speed. I figure if I can convince myself not to request more, I can get caught up in about a year and a half. Lol
Sarah wrote: "That's great Sandra! I know you were looking for those to read in their original language. I would imagine they are even more beautifully written in it's intended language. Enjoy! ..."I agree. I am so loving The Angel's Game. The narration by Dan Stevens is fantastic and it is wonderful how he pronounces all of the Spanish names and streets. I am a little over half way through. The author's ability to describe things so vividly is such a beautiful part of the story. "rain falling like daggers. "Number 21 was a modest property squeezed between two buildings that held it together like pincers." "an alleyway - ran for about fifty meters toward some dark iron railings that formed a crest of spears atop a stone wall...the branches of a eucalyptus tree passed through the spearheads like the arms of prisoners pleading through the bars of a cell". Oh, and the story is darn good too!
Rusalka - I hope you get out of your reading slump with your fluf books. I think I hit a wall last year about this time and I could not get into anything for a while. Maybe we can send you on a reading vacation with our book choices. You decide what genre we should read and we will get you over the top with our book choices and reports.
@Sarah and Cherie, This trilogy has been in my list for the Series Challenge since the beginning of the year, and I have been trying all this time to find it in Spanish at a reasonable price. Never crossed my mind my mother in law could have them. It's not what she usually reads. Not at all. (She said she enjoyed it, though). She happens to have Marina too; just in time for next month read. (I actually nominated and voted We Need to Talk About Kevin, so I'll try to read both). I hope I don't end with an overdose of Ruiz Safron!! :)ETA: We need to talk about Kevin is last in the poll, so no pressure.
I'm reading three books right now, waiting for my next series book that has to come to the library... I'm reading Capturing Angels by V.C. Andrews, Tully by Paullina Simons and The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks
Sandra wrote: "@Sarah and Cherie, This trilogy has been in my list for the Series Challenge since the beginning of the year, and I have been trying all this time to find it in Spanish at a reasonable price. Never..."Oh, is always very good to read the book in the original language!
Just finished Uprooted, and really enjoyed this story. It falls somewhere between a fairytale and an epic. Wonderful heroine. At first I was worried I was tricked into reading a romance novel, but in the end it was well balanced, and didn't dominate the story. Beautiful writing, I'm going to have to check out The Temeraire series...just what I need another series to read!Will start The Ask and the Answer tomorrow, I'm a little ahead of my reading schedule this month!
I finished Church Of Marvels which I rated 5 stars. I knew very little about it going in but I ended up loving everything about it. The writing is wonderful, the plot has plenty of twists and turns and the characters are memorable and have a lot of depth. It's quite a dark, sad story at times and it is a bit of a slow burner initially but once I got into it, I found it difficult to put down. Highly recommended.
Lisa wrote: "I finished Church Of Marvels which I rated 5 stars. I knew very little about it going in but I ended up loving everything about it. The writing is wonderful, the plot has plenty of ..."Really enjoyed Church of Marvels too. Great book.
Dem wrote: "Lisa wrote: "I finished Church Of Marvels which I rated 5 stars. I knew very little about it going in but I ended up loving everything about it. The writing is wonderful, the plot h..."It was your review that got me interested in reading it Dem :)
Janice wrote: "I finished the Charley Davidson series, at least until the next book is published in Jan 2016. Silly thing ended on a cliffhanger! Grrr.I've started A Clash of Kings. I'm having a..."
I still have 2 left to go in the Charlie Davidson series. I am hold for the 7th book at the library and am next in line. It is kind of good that I have to wait given that this series has highjacked all my others.
I just finished The Magician's Land which is the last in the trilogy for the series killer challenge. I just started Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail for the monthly challenge.
I'm going to start reading The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker today. I've been looking forward to this one, so hope it doesn't disappoint.
I'm reading Agent 6 to finish off a series. It's really good. I'm glad I finally got to it. I'm listening to In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette which is also really good.
I just finished The Angel's Game for my series challenge. It was beautiful, and sad and awful, and wonderful. Wow!If you have never listened to an audio book narrated by Dan Stevens, this is the one I will tell everyone to start with, since so many people dislike Frankenstein. His narration was incredible.
Kristie wrote: "I'm listening to The House of Hades for the series challenge and reading The Light Between Oceans for the this or that challenge."I love all of the Percy Jackson books! I have considered rereading them for the series challenge. But there are so many new things I want to read. Like the The Sword of Summer due in October!!
Caitlin wrote: "Kristie wrote: "I'm listening to The House of Hades for the series challenge and reading The Light Between Oceans for the this or that challenge."I love all of the..."
I haven't read the Percy Jackson series yet. I started with the Heroes of Olympus series. I didn't even know he had a new series coming out. Looks good.
Kristie wrote: "Caitlin wrote: "Kristie wrote: "I'm listening to The House of Hades for the series challenge and reading The Light Between Oceans for the this or that challenge."I..."
He also wrote the The Red Pyramid which is the Kane Chronicles. A trilogy along the same lines involving Egyptian Mythology.
Oh, thanks for reminding me, Caitlin. I read the first Kane Chronicle book. I need to add it to my series challenge to finish up the other two.
I'm reading The Rose and the Thorn, the second book in the Riyria Chronicles. Can't wait for the third to come out in November!
Peggy wrote: "I'm reading The Rose and the Thorn, the second book in the Riyria Chronicles. Can't wait for the third to come out in November!"Enjoy Peggy! I still need to read both of them. My Hadrian and Royce withdrawal is getting pretty bad now though so I don't think it will be too much longer before I pick them up.
Cherie wrote: "Oh, thanks for reminding me, Caitlin. I read the first Kane Chronicle book. I need to add it to my series challenge to finish up the other two."No problem! My series challenge isn't going well only because all series that I am working on, I just started. I didn't have any one offs to finish things off or even half way done. But more reading right?! I should finish a trilogy this weekend at least!
I finally finished The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; I've been reading it off an on over breakfast since May, woke up at 4am unable to sleep and read the last two stories. I think the last story, The Case of the Copper Beeches was my favorite of the bunch. Now on to The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
I finished All the Beauty of the Sun for the Serial Killer challenge. It was a really quick read and I enjoyed it just as much, if not a bit more, than the first book in the trilogy. I gave it 4 stars.I am now going to move straight on and start Paper Moon which is the last book in the trilogy. Level 2 will finally be killed off once I have finished it. As you can probably tell, my challenge has come to a juddering halt these past few months!
Just finished A Radiant Sky and finished a series! Not enough points for a level yet though. Looks as though time is not on my side however. I will be returning The English Teacher for the monthly challenge as I know I will be unable to finish it. I am going to renew A Game of Thrones and keep working on it. And due to a little bit of work stress I may try to knock out The Indigo Spell this weekend as a light fluffy read for fun. So I will work on those two books for now!
Lisa, I'm catching up on thes challenge as well. I'm working on level 3 so not much more ahead of you. ;)
Funny, Lynda, but The Copper Beeches has always been my least favorite of those stories, except for the beginning where Holmes is complaining that his career was over and all of the good cases were behind him because of the girl's letter. I may be biased because of the Jeremy Brett TV series. I did not like the girl at all!
Finished a bunch:The Nightingale - listened to it. Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Death at La Fenice - Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World - Loved! Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Go Set a Watchman - Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just finished Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume II. Loved it.And I just started Moby-Dick; or, The Whale.
I finished Flat Out Love this week, it was a great book in my opinion. while it was emotional in some places, it wasn't a depressing book and was much more humorous than anything. I loved Julie's personality and bright outlook on life. After finishing that one I saw there was a sequel called Flat Out Matt which I immediately downloaded. It was a short book with some prequel chapters and retellings of some scenes from an alternative POV. I enjoyed it.
I also downloaded Flat Out Celeste but don't plan on starting it for a while.
I'm listening to Nora Roberts' Blood Brothers, the first in the Sign of Seven series. So far it is interesting and much spookier than a typical NR book.
I finished Death Masks last night, just in time for the library deadline. I'll start The Nightingale this afternoon on the way back from dropping my niece off at the airport.
Cherie wrote: "Funny, Lynda, but The Copper Beeches has always been my least favorite of those stories, except for the beginning where Holmes is complaining that his career was over and all of the good cases were..."Well, I'm a sucker for (view spoiler) I never saw the series you mentioned, but I did like the girl, I liked how Watson hoped there would be a romantic connection for Sherlock...alas, not so much!
Finished The Ask and the Answer and I'm moving right on to Monsters of Men. I'm really liking these books, though there aren't a lot of victories in them, I'm anxious to finish the series...really hoping it ends on an up-note!
Sandra wrote: "For the Sherlokians:http://www.theguardian.com/books/gall..."
That was a pretty nice read. Thx for sharing.
Thanks, Sandra. I have seen the link before but the data is still interesting.I saw the movie, Mr. Homes last night.
The one with Ian McKellen. It was sad.
I finally finished slogging my way through The Book of Salt tonight and will be glad to send it back to the library. I had to renew it two more times to finally make it through. To quote Dawn, "it was interminable."@Almeta-My advice is don't waste your time. There are much better stories out there. Maybe the limited inside observations of GertrudeStein and Alice B. Toklas are worth it if you are really, really curious. Maybe you can explain some of the stuff about Binh to me.
@JMom-if you haven't finished yet, it doesn't get any better from wherever you are!
The most interesting thing I found out was about Pre-sale (the e's have that little mark over them) lamb in chapter 17. The lambs are raised on the coast of northern France. They graze on the marsh grass and herbs flooded in seawater. That said, "they are salted and seasoned from the raw beginning."
I love those sheep! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agneau_...There is a monastery on a rock off the coast of France (Mont Saint-Michel) and is only accessible at low tide when the tide recedes from the salt marshes enough in order to cross. These sheep eat the grass in the salt marshes and get all salty tasting.
Interesting link, Sandra. Thank you. Cherie, I want to see that movie too, but it;s not playing near me now. I'll probably have to wait for the dvd.
I'm still reading The Light Between Oceans. I was hoping to finish it for this month's challenge, but I'm not making much progress. I finally have a day off to read and I have a migraine.
I finished The Indigo Spell last night after some marathon reading the last two days. I think I may take a break the rest of the weekend to get some much needed cleaning, organizing, and planning done while I wait for some books to arrive at the Library this Tuesday. I still have A Game of Thrones if I feel the itch to pick up a book.
I finished reading Defending Jacob a couple of days ago. 5 stars. I still can't stop thinking about it. I guess I won't be going back to read The Book of Salt. Thanks for the heads up, Cherie. The title was so intriguing, too, but I just couldn't get into it.
I've been neglecting my series challenge, so I started Tripwire last night. So far so good.
Defending Jacob sounds interesting, it's now on my TBR pile!
It's a good one, Lynda. It's a page turning mystery and very emotional at the same time. Like Roz said, I couldn't stop thinking about it for a long time.
I've been wanting a mystery lately, I don't read them too often (I read them a lot when I was in high school). I think with the weather so moody this weekend, and with a touch of fall in the air, it's putting me in the mood for it.
Defending Jacob, was also a five-star read for me, and wow did it make you think!
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You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
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I've started A Clash of Kings. I'm having a bit of a time concentrating on it, but at least it's working as a sleep inducer. Books have many uses.