Monthly Group Reads: MARCH 2013 (Group Read 2): The Coffee Trader by David Liss

[Anne]

I am on pg. 200. I find it more interesting as i go.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

That's good, Anne. Keep on keeping us posted. :)

[Monica]

Anne wrote: "I am on pg. 200. I find it more interesting as i go."

Anne, I had a similar experience...thought it got better as it went along.

[Daniel]

Damn Book Poachers :P

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Daniel wrote: "Damn Book Poachers :P"

Yes, $#@^%$# %$#^# book poachers. I curse them. :\

[Anne]

Terri wrote: "Daniel wrote: "Damn Book Poachers :P"

Yes, $#@^%$# %$#^# book poachers. I curse them. :\"
OK, here is the dumb Little Old Lady once more. I assume by "Poachers" you do not mean those little cup thimgys whereby you can poach an egg?

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Hi Anne,
No, poachers, like illegal hunters. eg people who go on government land to shoot deer out of season.

Or, in my case, someone came into the library and took my copy of The Coffee Trader.

[Anne]

Oh, a Rat Fink!

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Welll, maybe not that bad. :)
The person would not have known that the book was reserved. It was more an accidental poaching event.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I still curse them though. :) For accidentally ruining my March Group Read 'read'.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I have The Coffee Trader in my hot little hands! At last!

[Mark]

Good news Terri.

[Daniel]

Terri wrote: "I still curse them though. :) For accidentally ruining my March Group Read 'read'."

Awesome, make sure you brew a pot and enjoy.

[Monica]

Terri wrote: "I have The Coffee Trader in my hot little hands! At last!"

That was nearly 10 hours ago...haven't you finished reading it yet? Perhaps more coffee would help... ;-)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I am brewing a pot as we speak, Daniel! :)

I will be cracking the book this morning (Aussie time).
So not finished yet, not even started. lol

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I don't know...I just don't know....:|
I am 50 pages in and waiting for something to happen.

******spoiler up to page 50******
Just when I start getting into the story, one of those darn memoirs of Alfonso Alferondo sections gets in my way. I do not like them. They are ruining things for me.

Did anyone else find that? (I have not gone back to check peoples spoilers yet)

[Darcy]

I preferred those to the actual story, probably because of the type of humour used. They do eventually start to make sense, sort of, but he reveals little.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Hope you are right. :) At the moment it feels like I am reading two books in one and I never like that style of book.

[Monica]

Terri wrote: "I don't know...I just don't know....:|
I am 50 pages in and waiting for something to happen.

******spoiler up to page 50******
Just when I start getting into the story, one of those darn memoirs ..."

Heya (Are we there yet?) Oh sorry, wrong book!

I liked the addition of Alfonso's notes...a look inside his head so to speak.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

LOOK! Coffee and The Coffee Trader in my reading nook. :)

[Mark]

i have to agree with monica and D about alfonso that's what kept me interested.

[Linda]

Alfonso's memoirs kept me on point. At first they got in my way, then I began to depend on them. THE COFFEE TRADER is one of those books that gets in my head and gets better the more I think about it.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

See, this is why I go on so much about how people are entitled to different opinions on books. Why we can have a group read and have some giving a book 1 star and some giving it 5 stars.
Because we all read in our own way and like & dislike different things. :)

My feeling on the book so far is it will probably be a 3 star book for me I think. Early days though.

[Crystal]

I agree with Linda about Alfonso's memoirs. The first one threw me, though I did appreciate the style of it, it was just so unexpected, all of a sudden, another book! The second time, I got it and from there out I found they revealed some interesting facts the MC didn't know.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Hoping they will grow on me then. If you guys got used to memoirs popping up at regular intervals.

[Anne]

Posted my review today. 3.5 stars.

[Daniel]

yes, I found the memoirs grew on me

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Up to page 100. Still not feeling anything for the book or the characters yet. Maybe soon?

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I have been so busy on GR since yesterday trying to stay abreast of the Amazon/Goodreads merger that I haven't really had time to comment here on The Coffee Trader.
Sorry guys.

I am about to finish. I struggled to maintain interest in this book. I could have even given it 2 stars to be honest (I will be giving it 3).
I am not sure if feeling rushed to finish it before the end of the month had anything to do with that. It might have. I hate my reading schedule being thrown out. :)

[Linda]

Am I the only one to really like The Coffee Trader? The similarity between human behavior and the market behavior was one aspect of the book that I thought was well done by Mr. Liss.

[Monica]

I also liked the book for much the same reason as Linda. The characters themselves became merely 'tools'. The parallel with modern-day market frenzy and underhanded business dealings struck me as another interesting 'meme'.

[Linda]

Thank you. That was well said!

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Ani wrote: "I found it hard to love - but did go back to the authors other work, just to check on my overall relationship with him as a writer. The earlier books had more people power - so I think his intelle..."

Agree. For my tastes, I found it hard to love also.
In fact, I found it quite flat.

[Patrick]

I gave it 2 stars. I read about a quarter and was poised to put it back on the shelf before giving it another chance. I ended up reading half of it and then skimming the end to wrap everything up. I'm not really sure why it didn't engage me, perhaps it was just a bit too flat or I wasn't moved by the subject matter? I wouldn't begrudge the book, it just wasn't for me.

[Dawn]

My impressions of the book from reading all the comments has been a bit more on the negative side so I thought I would see what the group in general thought. Here's the star breakdown:
5 star - 3
4 star - 8
3 star - 8
2 star - 2
1 star - 2

[Patrick]

That doesn't really suggest a bad book. Maybe not a great book, but not bad.

[Dawn]

Definitely doesn't, which is good for me as I still have it on my TBR list. :)

Though I am inclined, from the nature of the posts, to think it might be a book I really like anyway.

[Daniel]

Monica wrote: "I also liked the book for much the same reason as Linda. The characters themselves became merely 'tools'. The parallel with modern-day market frenzy and underhanded business dealings struck me as ..."

agreed. Well said ( I gave it 4)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Patrick wrote: "I gave it 2 stars. I read about a quarter and was poised to put it back on the shelf before giving it another chance. I ended up reading half of it and then skimming the end to wrap everything up. ..."

Precisely my thoughts. I gave it 3 stars (as mentioned earlier) but I could have easily given it 2. Like you Patrick, there was something about the book that i couldn't connect with.

[Laura]

Linda wrote: "Am I the only one to really like The Coffee Trader? The similarity between human behavior and the market behavior was one aspect of the book that I thought was well done by Mr. Liss."

It is really interesting to see the different opinions. I love his writing style. I also read the Whiskey Rebels, had a bit of a problem with it, I don't even know what anymore, and I never finished it.

But I loved this book and gave it five stars. I did have a problem with Alfonso's bits in the beginning and it was only when I read it a second time that I understood what they were good for. Thanks for a really interesting and eye-opening discussion!

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Laura wrote: " Thanks for a really interesting and eye-opening discussion! ...."

I really enjoy the group reads that are this mixed. It was disappointing for me not to read it at the same time as you all, but I still made me marvel, as I read the book, how individuals read and see writing differently.

I have changed as a reader thanks to our group reads. Changed in a good way that is. Once upon a time I used to feel like I 'should' like a book because others are liking it, or, I 'should' dislike a book because the majority dislike it, but my outlook changed some time ago. With each group read we have done.

Thanks to all our group readers for respecting everyone's differences and enjoying open and friendly discussions.
Most people who do our group reads are happy to share opinions in a friendly discussion, whether they agree with each other or not. :-) I am very appreciative of that.

[Laura]

And, too, I really connected with Miguel's character. Maybe there's a problem with my taste in men... ;-)

I'm hoping to get to read The Hangman's Daughter with you all in May. I've read it in German (and didn't finish it, either---I'm really bad at that)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

You are calling hangman's Daughter as the winner already?
10 votes in front...I think you will be right.

I voted for The Religion. :(

[Anne]

I just read it last week-LOL. "The Hangman's Daughter."

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

So I realised...when it was too late to send you a message to say stop! That it is going to be in the polls. :-)

[Darcy]

Right. Finished this book. I did not enjoy it, I did not like the characters and possibly my disinterest in the stock market and in coffee might have played a part in my inability to enjoy.

Kind of like The King's Spy, I tune out completely when it comes to anything that requires maths or calculations. But I found that in the Swanston book there was at least a great story being told in a nice fluid way. This one seemed like the author was trying to hard to make things fit the ending. I could be wrong, but och well.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Well, I would have to agree with you. I think we had a similar experience with the book. It is why I struggled to decide whether I wanted to give it 2 or 3 stars.

[Darcy]

A modern look at some of the places mentioned in this book, particularly the Dutch East India Company

http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/...

[Dawn]

I'm listening to this story and hope to finish it before the end of the year.
It is a bit slow at the moment, I hope it picks up. I do like the descriptions of the stock exchange though. The crooks that tried to sway prices by rumor in order to make a lot of money is interesting. I think we forget that all the crooked things that happen in current times have a long history!

[Dawn]

In the interest of full disclosure, I did listen to an abridged version of this story. In was in no way on purpose, there was nothing on the CD's or box that said it was abridged. Nothing until the end of the last CD actually. Highly annoying, I should have paid more attention.

I think I may have enjoyed the story more if I had the full version but as it was I only thought it okay (2 star).
It was a whole lot of boring (which is saying something as I obviously got all the exciting parts) and then the end just left me thinking he was an idiot. Maybe if he'd come across as purposefully successful instead of mean and petty.....

The few items that made this an okay instead of hated it book were the second story, told by Alfonso (I hope that's how it's spelt) and the stock market. Both aspects of the story that I found quite interesting.