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What Are You Reading - Part Deux
message 3201:
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Angela M
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Nov 09, 2016 09:51AM
Sharon, hope you enjoy it .
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I have been reading A Gentleman in Moscow and it is splendid! but had to return it to the library, so while I wait for it to be available again, I have started The House at the Edge of Night
Robert , I thoroughly enjoyed both of those . Hope you get to finish Towles' book . Definitely worth it.
Karen M wrote: "Started Razor Girl. Perfect read for today since it's absolutely dismal outside. 
"I really enjoyed that one. So funny and well-written. Just a lot of fun.
Angela M wrote: "Robert , I thoroughly enjoyed both of those . Hope you get to finish Towles' book . Definitely worth it."Angela, I really loved Towles debut novel Rules of Civility and was a little apprehensive that his 2nd book wouldn't live up, but it equally, if not even better.
Robert, I loved Rules of Civility also . While the two books are different kinds of stories, Towles does such a great job of depicting time and place on both of them .
Robert wrote: "Angela M wrote: "Robert , I thoroughly enjoyed both of those . Hope you get to finish Towles' book . Definitely worth it."Angela, I really loved Towles debut novel [book:Rules of Civility|1005433..."
I loved the Rules of Civility too and look forward to A Gentleman in Moscow.
In fact, I've suggested it to my physical book club — one of about eight suggestions that I gave yesterday to the moderator and asked her to have the group actually review and rank so that we can get a sense of what others may be interested in reading ... more like the Goodreads book clubs would be nice. This fall has been rough because several of our members have not been able to make the monthly meetings, so we may have to consider meeting another time. I'm also wondering if we should have some messaging in between meetings to keep interest up ...
Make Way For Ducklings
– Robert McCloskey – 5***** and a ❤ Mr and Mrs Mallard search for a good home in which to raise their brood. This is a perennial favorite for children and their parents. Oh, how I loved the story of how Policeman Michael and the other people ensured the safety of Mrs Mallard and her brood: Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack, as they crossed busy streets, waddled past coffee shops and book stores, and finally made their way to the Public Gardens, for a reunion with Mr Mallard who waited patiently on the little island in the pond. It’s an absolute delight to revisit this story and I marvel at the wonderfully detailed illustrations.
LINK to my review
The Girl Who Played Go
– Shan Sa – 4**** Set in Manchuria circa 1931, the novel is told in alternating points of view: a 16-year-old Chinese girl who has mastered the game of go, and a Japanese soldier in disguise to challenges her to a game. I’m glad that Shan Sa included footnotes on the Japanese and Chinese history, because my own education in this is woefully lacking. What really shines in the novel, however, is how the characters come to life. . I was engrossed in their lives, and completely stunned by the ending.
LINK to my review
I've made a start on I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh.
Jackie wrote: "I've made a start on I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh."I really liked that one Jackie, hope you will.
Tad wrote: "Karen M wrote: "Started Razor Girl. Perfect read for today since it's absolutely dismal outside. "I really enjoyed that one. So funny and well-writt..."
Well, I thought it was okay but I didn't fall in love with it. I will give Hiaasen another try since I already have Skinny Dip on the shelf. Maybe it was me.
I'm reading Venom & Vanilla for a complete change from anything else I've read recently.
Thanks, Paula. I like what I've read so far! :)
Mrs. Mike
– Benjamin and Nancy Freedman – 4**** This is a novel, but it is based on the real life story of Katherine Mary O’Fallon. It’s a great adventure story, love story, and pioneer story. The young couple endure several misadventures and tragedies, including wildfires, floods, and epidemics of diphtheria and influenza. It is their deep love for one another that sees them through, as well as their willingness to understand the cultural mores of the Indians and adapt to, or at least tolerate, their differences.
LINK to my review
Finished Venom & Vanilla which was a light fantasy with lots of supernatural beings. Really liked it.Next up Deceptive Practices
I will be starting Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein later today. It's the follow up to Code Name Verity, which I absolutely loved.
I started Dark Matter a few days ago as audio book - finding it ever so creepy now nearly halfway in. Set in the Arctic before WW1, where a rational guy sets off to escape the soul-numbing existence of his daily life, and ends up with having to confront himself, not to mention certain dark things that lurk in the snowy wasteland... Just the thing for bleak winter afternoons, though maybe a little too atmospheric for my overactive imagination. BTW it's the book by Michelle Paver not Blake Crouch.
I finished Judas. 3.5 stars . My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... I'm not sure I really got the intellectual side of this book but I was moved by the connection between the characters.
Emily and Einstein
– Linda Francis Lee – 3*** Alexander “Sandy” Portman dies in a tragic accident, but comes back as an old dog, which his widow, Emily, adopts and names Einstein. Interesting premise, mediocre execution. Much of the drama was over-the-top ridiculous, including the tortured memories and soul-searching. On the plus side, it was an entertaining and quick read. I was captured by the story and enjoyed it as a kind of break from more serious reading.
LINK to my review
I finished The Winter in Anna: A Novel. 5 stars. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... An affecting story , beautifully written.
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
– Tom Robbins – 2** Entertained as I was by the occasional wild description and laugh-out-loud moment, however, in general I was bored by the book. All those interludes to wax poetic about this or that philosophy seemed nothing but an attempt to distract the reader from the lack of a story. Clearly, Robbins is not the writer for me.
LINK to my review
I finished The Waiting Room. 4+ stars. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... A story of the holocaust through the eyes of the daughter of survivors and life in present day Israel .
Signs and Wonders
– Philip Gulley – 3*** Book three in the Harmony series looks at a year in the life of the Quaker community’s residents. I just love this series. Each book gives us a glimpse of all the good – and not so good – in human nature, but with the hope that the good will outweigh the bad. They are a perfect break from the stresses of life, and a reminder that there is much good in this world.
LINK to my review
What a story! Imagine being STUCK in a girl's body with boobs and periods when you're really a guy! YIKES!5★ for Balls: It Takes Some to Get Some, the memoir by Chris Edwards about how he changed his life.
My review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
On a completely different note from my previous post is this one I read recently.Absolutely ADORED 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff.
It's another well-known book about books (and about letters) and is just the most charming, short collection of correspondence between US writer Helene and the book shop she 'befriends' in England post-WWII. They do their darndest to find what she's looking for CHEAP.
Touching and funny and real.
It's a hoot!
My review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I just started The Help by Kathryn Stockett this morning
I really liked that book, Marisa. Hope you do too!I'm starting Waiting for Wednesday by Nicci French today. The third in the Frieda Klein series.
Enjoyed this one a lot - The Easy Way Out by Steven Amsterdam, a good author and a Melbourne palliative care nurse, which makes this story even more believable.The proposition is that assisted suicide (for painful terminal cancer and the like) is legal, and Evan is an assistant.
Good story, colourful people and more to the story than that.
My review (4.5★)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Hi! I'm reading Crooked Kingdom and Dreams From My Father. I always like to read two very different kinds of books so gain very different perspectives.
Wow! Great bunch of books, guys! I'm reading The Queen of Last Hopes: The Story of Margaret of Anjou
by Susan Higginbotham.I understand that she's written a pretty sympathetic book about Margaret of Anjou , wife of England's mentally unstable Henry VI, from her marriage at 14 (by proxy) through the Wars of the Roses and her exile to Anjou and death in 1482.
PattyMacDotComma wrote: "On a completely different note from my previous post is this one I read recently.Absolutely ADORED 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff.
It's another well-known b..."
One of my favorite re-reads. The movie follows the book fairly well so it's equally as enjoyable.
I've finished Michelle Paver's Dark Matter which I wanted to read for ages. Beautiful writing and a seriously chilling story. My 5-star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Homemade Sin
– Kathy Hogan Trochek – 3*** This is a pretty good series. I like the premise of the House Mouse cleaning service for these cozy mysteries; Trochek gives the reader a nice cast of colorful supporting characters who work for the heroine. Callahan Garrity is a strong, intelligent, resourceful woman. It’s a speedy read, the action is fast-paced, and I like the characters. I’ll read more of the series.
LINK to my review
This year's Man Booker Prize winner, The Sellout by American Paul Beatty is certainly one from left field. I started it, got stuck, quit. Started it again and loved it.4.5★
You've got to appreciate both the absurd story and the even more absurd situation the world finds itself in which makes this story necessary.
Is apartheid a cure for racism? WHAT!? (It IS satire, after all.)
My review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Another book that touches on racism, where the whites are getting more and more uncomfortable in South Africa.
Summertime
It's a fictionalised biography of the supposedly 'late' John Coetzee, written by Nobel Prize-winning and twice Booker winner J.M. Coetzee, formerly South African, now Aussie and very much alive in South Australia, as far as I know.
My review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just started
today!
Redwall
– Brian Jacques – 5***** What a wonderful story; I was engaged from beginning to end. Every mouse of Redwall Abbey has taken a solemn oath to never harm another living creature, unless it is an enemy seeking to harm the Order by violence. I love this message of peaceful coexistence and tolerance. The mice are willing to live-and-let-live, but they will defend to the death against those who seek to overtake their peaceable kingdom. Jacques filled the book with detailed descriptions which serve to really put the reader right into Mossflower County. It’s entertaining, scary, exciting, and inspiring. I think I’ll read more of this middle-grade series for the sheer joy of it.
LINK to my review
I'm going to start reading Old Filth by Jane Gardam later today.
Finished Good Time Coming: A Sweeping Saga Set During the American Civil War. 4 stars. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Black Beauty
– Anna Sewell – 4**** I had a copy of this book when I was a child, but for some reason I never read it, even during my “horse crazy” phase. I’m so glad I finally got to it. It’s a timeless tale with a simple message: Be kind to everyone (and everything). Sewell manages to convey this through Beauty’s experiences, both good and bad. The hardcover text edition I got from the library was also beautifully illustrated by Lucy Kemp-Welch.
LINK to my review
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