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What have you just read? Opinions, recommendations & reviews
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Chrissie
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Mar 13, 2016 06:54AM
Sure, Glad I could help, Jenny.
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hey ! do you have any idea regarding psychological disorder fiction ? please , reply me .
Just finished Cloudstreet over the weekend. It's a mixed bag of a book to me.Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Anny wrote: "hey ! do you have any idea regarding psychological disorder fiction ? please , reply me ."I am not sure what "psychological disorder fiction" is... do you mean fiction which features a person who is suffering from a psychological disorder such as schizophrenia? How about The Bird's Nest?
B the BookAddict wrote: "Alice wrote: "I wanted so much to like Fyodor Dostoyevsky, but he's making me depressed in Crime and Punishment."Keep going. I'm not saying your mood will change but ..."
Bette, thanks for the encouragement. I will keep going :)
Jenny wrote: "@Alice, I can see how Dostoyevsky can do that, though usually the high I get from his writing neutralizes the sometimes depression - inducing topics. Crime and Punishment is my favourite by him so ..."Jenny, some parts are especially hard for me to read for personal reasons (like the alcoholic's influence on his family - sounds familiar). But I do appreciate that D often asks interesting philosophical/religious questions. This is my first Dostoyevsky.
Anny wrote: "hey ! do you have any idea regarding psychological disorder fiction ? please , reply me ."There's Asylum by Patrick McGrath. I didn't like it that much because in my opinion the mental disorder wasn't depicted well and in a believable way, but a lot of people like it.
Anny wrote: "hey ! do you have any idea regarding psychological disorder fiction ? please , reply me ."What sort of psychological disorders do you have in mind?
These are a few books where the protagonist has a psychological condition but perhaps not the kind you're looking for:
Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls
Bad Monkeys
Amnesia Moon (there isn't any psychological condition but it is very hallucinogenic in many ways)
Finished Work Like Any Other: A Novel. 4 stars . My review : https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Anny wrote: "hey ! do you have any idea regarding psychological disorder fiction ? please , reply me ."I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
recent read was Blink of an EyeReview here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I was disappointed.
Angela M wrote: "Finished Work Like Any Other: A Novel. 4 stars . My review : https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."Angela, I agree with your review fully. I think she's an author I would like to read more of. Exceptionally well crafted in language and style for a debut novel.
Thanks , Jenny . I look forward to more from this author as well .
Just read, loved, browsed a photo-book called Elgin Park. Check the original photos at Flickr or get the book:Elgin Park: Visual Memories of Midcentury America at 1/24th scale
https://www.flickr.com/photos/2479674...
I kept wishing my dad was here looking at the pix with me, they are 1/24 hand made models of a town that lives in memory pre-1962. And the die-cast car models are better than the real thing.
Review soon.
Just finished Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan.It was so good! I gave it only 4 stars because one part was a bit dragging, but otherwise it is a "complete book". It means there is everything: historical background (China from 1950 to 2000) a family saga, wonderful prose, good description of characters and their emotions and feelings, it was also funny and I liked the idea of the reincarnations. The story is told by the reincarnations of a landowner who had been killed by communists and by another family member (I don't want to add too much spoilers). The funny thing is that his reincarnations were animals but he never lost his memories of his previous lives.
It's not easy to talk about the plot, it's a book that has to be read.
LauraT wrote: "Finished The Brutal Telling. Great great book; if you like mystery look for the whole series!"Wasn't it? Just wait for the next book, Laura.........
dely wrote: "Just finished Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan.It was so good! I gave it only 4 stars because one part was a bit dragging, but otherwise it is a "complete..."
@dely, I've read Frog by him last year and really liked it as well.
Mod
I felt the same Alice - the intellectual/philosophical questions he raises are somewhat fascinating, but the narrator is a dismal human specimen to be sure. And to be confined in his horrible head for so many pages was a squeamish experience for me. That's why I think Dostoyevsky is a writer I generally appreciate but not really enjoy at the time of reading.
It also seemed to me that the characters were more meant to demonstrate complex philosophical/intellectual/moral points more so than to evoke actual living people. I think I'm in the minority in that view however. Maybe I'm an optimist - I just don't think most people are that bad, other than the occasional sociopath.
I've finished Crime and Punishment. I'm giving it 3.5 stars. The novel is brilliantly written, but it's not exactly my cup of tea.My Review
I’ve just finished The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro — a beautifully written, poignant and thought-provoking novel. I know I’ll read it again, and I’m looking forward to reading more by Ishiguro.★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Greg wrote: "I felt the same Alice - the intellectual/philosophical questions he raises are somewhat fascinating, but the narrator is a dismal human specimen to be sure. And to be confined in his horrible head for so many pages was a squeamish experience for me. That's why I think Dostoyevsky is a writer I generally appreciate but not really enjoy at the time of reading. "I like the way you put that, Greg! Reading his work feels like a slog for me. I also agree with you about his characters; I think they’re intended as archetypes, rather than depictions of real people.
Jenny wrote: "@dely, I've read Frog by him last year and really liked it as well."He writes very well. Till now I had read only a collection of short stories and the prose and the descriptions of Chinese farmers were wonderful. They were sad and depressing stories, from one side I liked them but from the other I felt overwhelmed by all that sadness and desperation.
I'm glad I've read also Life and Death are Wearing Me Out because here the sad parts are softened by the funny parts. It's however a book that brings the reader to think about China's history, from communism to an economical power and how people switched from one ideal to the other following the moment, or others that were always faithful to Mao Zedong's policy.
Frog is very similar dely. Very political, exploring the impact of China's one-child policy on families and those that are held to accountable for the enforcement of the policy. Not void of humour at all, but overall quite tragic.
Jenny wrote: "Frog is very similar dely. Very political, exploring the impact of China's one-child policy on families and those that are held to accountable for the enforcement of the policy. Not void of humour ..."I'm pretty sure I will read other books by him because till now I've liked what I've read by him.
Hope to read Frog soon, I own it a signed copy but have not read it yet. Will also add the one you mentioned, Dely.
Mod
Wasn't it? Just wait for the next book, Laura........."
Breath taking Petra! I really didn't expect the outcame at all! Really looking forward the next ones
Mod
I loved it too Susan! :)
Greg wrote: "Alice wrote: "I wanted so much to like Fyodor Dostoyevsky, but he's making me depressed in Crime and Punishment."I felt the same Alice - the intellectual/philosophica..."
I do agree with your Greg! If I were to put it bluntly, I would say that Dostoyevsky writes with his head rather than with his heart.
Diane S ☔ wrote: "Hope to read Frog soon, I own it a signed copy but have not read it yet. Will also add the one you mentioned, Dely."Wow! Did you meet Mo Yan?
No, wish I had. Belong to a book store club run by Ann Patchett that sends a book a month signed by the author, kind of a cool thing but I have that and a few more sitting unread.Finished No Shred of Evidence
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jenny wrote: "dely wrote: "Just finished Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan.It was so good! I gave it only 4 stars because one part was a bit dragging, but otherwise it i..."
I've never read any works by Mo Yan and don't intend to, simply because I am highly skeptical of his moral values. Not a few have pointed out that he's a CCP apologist. Here's an interesting article about his acceptance speech at the Nobel Prize award ceremony:-
http://www.raggedbanner.com/Editorial...
I have read the penultimate book in the Martin Beck series, Cop Killer - very good but I found the social commentary a tad depressing. Partly because it's so spot on (and here we are 40+ years later and it is still so true!) and partly due to the fact that it is depressing all the characters that I like!
Alice wrote: "I've never read any works by Mo Yan and don't intend to, simply because I am highly skeptical of his moral values. Not a few have pointed out that he's a CCP apologist. Here's an interesting article about his acceptance speech at the Nobel Prize award ceremony:-"
I have read the article and I thought about it the whole morning, to see if I could find something in Mo Yan's books that lead to think that he is defending CCP. In the collection of short stories we read about the farmers and their hard life. In Life and Death are Wearing Me Out a landowner, all in all a nice and good person, dies and goes without a reason to hell and has to reincarnate 6 times as an animal before born again as a human being. There were people who blindly followed Mao Zedong's communist party, and only one person who followed Mao Zedong but in a different way. All of them had a hard life so I don't think that in his books Mo Yan is explict about what he thinks (though there were no reasons that the landowner had to go to hell, but then he had a hard life reincarnating as an animal). I had the impression that he was on the side of the poor and oppressed and that he was against corruption. By sure he loves farmers, their work, the soil, the importance of not forgetting our origins, Nature. Till now, in the two books I've read, I could understand that by sure he loves his country (he makes wonderful descriptions of nature and landscapes) and that he feels for who has a hard life.
I don't know on which side Mo Yan is and perhaps he is in the middle and doesn't want to take a final position or he doesn't care about it. I don't know and perhaps I didn't understand fully that article but it seems that they are only opinions by a common person.
I just finished Bird Box by Josh Malerman. Scary stuff indeed.Here is a review by Tracey: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Louise Penny's Gamache. What a great series. 12 so far, and another coming out in the summer. Numbers 10 and 11 are just superb, especially in the context of series development. Have been saving number 12 so there's something to look forward to!
Mod
I've just finished n 5 and gave it 5 stars - incredible fo my standards! I'm so sorry they're not transkated in Italian: almost all my friends, even if they can speak a fairly good English, are not so confident with reading in it, so they miss those great great books!!!
I've written to Penny through her web site suggesting she looks into the Italain market; hope she'll listen to me!
Mod
Finished Sweetland. Wasn't my cuppa java. The writing was good - just felt it went on for too long. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
dely wrote: "Alice wrote: "I've never read any works by Mo Yan and don't intend to, simply because I am highly skeptical of his moral values. Not a few have pointed out that he's a CCP apologist. Here's an inte..."dely, it's very hard for me to explain the political repression that has been the norm in Mainland China since the CCP took over. Anyway, heavy censorship in all written texts means that Mo Yan or any other writers' books cannot touch on subjects that are tabooed, which means anything that's slightly critical of the despotic government is banned. Writers can only grovel to the CCP. At the 2012 Nobel Prize ceremony, Mo Yan never showed the slightest support for Liu Xiaobo, a human rights activist and writer who has been imprisoned since 2008 and who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 but obviously couldn't accept the award and an empty chair was put in the ceremony function hall. Mo Yan, in his 2012 speech even made a snide comment about the empty chair and Liu because the media attention was focused on the latter (as implied in his second story in the article).
In recent years, lawyers, human rights activists, media professionals, writers and even feminists have been arrested for simply speaking their minds. The situation is getting worse and worse in China. Even in Hong Kong, booksellers who sell books that the CCP don't like have been kidnapped and sent back to the Mainland for so-called investigation. The usual charge they ascribe to the detainees is "inciting subversion of state power".
Alice wrote: "dely wrote: "Alice wrote: "I've never read any works by Mo Yan and don't intend to, simply because I am highly skeptical of his moral values. Not a few have pointed out that he's a CCP apologist. H..."I can understand your position, perhaps I would behave the same way if it would happen in my country and with an Italian author. I know about the situation in China, but of course what we know from here is never like living it on one's own skin. Whatever his political view is, I must however admit that he writes wonderfully.
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