All About Books discussion
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What have you just read? Opinions, recommendations & reviews
Loved Radio Silencehttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Loved Wedding Night
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished a book of short stories, Scouting for the Reaper.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Also finished Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
4 stars both.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Also finished Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
4 stars both.
I've just finished Dance on the Volcano. It was a very interesting story about life in late 18th century Haiti. I gave it 4.5 stars.My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I've also just added my review for Swing Time. I preferred the sections about the narrator's childhood, but thought it was fine overall. I gave it 3.5 stars.My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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...
Just finished Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
One of the smartest, most fun reads I've had in awhile.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Amazon Kindle has this book for free today: Laughs, Luck...and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time
If you have great memories of the old tv show I Love Lucy, you will really enjoy this book.
I have completed Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My review of Natural Flights Of The Human Mindis now up here
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
4 and a half stars
Aussie politics - Were the stakes too high for the Liberal Party's The Turnbull Gamble? Might they have shot themselves in the foot? Wayne Errington and Peter van Onselen (whom you might know from Sky News) have picked over the bones of the change of Prime Minister and the following campaign and election.
5★ - My review, with a bunch of quotes and anecdotes:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
Aboslutely to be recomended, as the whole saga of the Cazalet!
Just finished Heartless - 3.5 stars for me. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
And Red Rising - 4.5 stars for me
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I have completed Trials of the Earth: The True Story of a Pioneer Woman. My view of the book is kind of mixed, but I don't regret having chosen it. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished a really nice thriller, The Couple Next Door. My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished The Inheritance, a Victorian mystery that I quite enjoyed.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished a very good book yesterday -- Barbara Pym's Less Than Angels. A bit of a satire of British anthropologists of the 1940s but more a look at relationships between men and women.
Leslie, thanks for binging that one to my attention. Do you have a favorite by the author? I thought Less Than Angels looked a bit better than Excellent Women. Is there much about the anthropology world of the 40-50s? I read that she worked for the International African Institute in London so it looks like she is referring to what she has herself seen and experienced.
Chrissie wrote: "Leslie, thanks for binging that one to my attention. Do you have a favorite by the author? I thought Less Than Angels looked a bit better than Excellent Women. Is there ..."I have read both the 2 you mentioned and I think that Less Than Angels was a little better. It has a lot more about anthropologists but more as personalities than about the profession. After I finished, I looked at Pym's author profile here and guess that this is very much based upon her experiences.
Thanks, Leslie. I have noted your view.
Give me credit for at least trying I Am the Messenger. I preferred The Book Thief much more. My review of the former: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Chrrissie, I did wonder were you smoking weed when you picked I Am Messenger, lol:)
Bette, stupid me. What a mistake. How come everybody but me can figure out what will work and what will not? I am too gullible I guess. I read positive reviews and think, "Wouldn't it be nice to enjoy that book too?! I'll have to try it...." STUPID, stupid, stupid me.
B, too funny. I thought somewhat down the same line, such an atypical pick for you, Chrissie.Finished The Orphan Keeper
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Not so, Chrissie, you're not stupid! Occasionally I will choose a book because everyone else likes it or it's by an author I enjoy or have previously read, only to find it not suited to my tastes at all.
Finished Speaking from Among the Bones
which is a 4 star read. Enjoyed it, just had a few minor niggles so it doesn't quite get the 5 star.Now reading the latest Cotswolds volume and quite enjoying it - Guilt in the Cotswolds.
B the BookAddict wrote: "Not so, Chrissie, you're not stupid! Occasionally I will choose a book because everyone else likes it or it's by an author I enjoy or have previously read, only to find it not suited to my tastes a..."Well, I do make a lot of mistakes, but if you don't try stuff you will never run into happy surprises either.
I finished two books today - My Name is Red as an audiobook (narrated by John Lee, who sounds a lot like Sean Connery!) and Palace of Desire in print. Of these two, I preferred My Name is Red but both were very well written (as might be expected from 2 Nobel Laureates!).
Chrissie wrote: "Bette, stupid me. What a mistake. How come everybody but me can figure out what will work and what will not? I am too gullible I guess. I read positive reviews and think, "Wouldn't it be nice to en..."Chrissie, I think we all pick up books others have liked and recommended and then realise it is just not for us. Hope your next read is more to your liking.
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...
Dale wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Bette, stupid me. What a mistake. How come everybody but me can figure out what will work and what will not? I am too gullible I guess. I read positive reviews and think, "Wouldn't..."Yes, you are right.
Mod
Casting Off - to be recomended!
Finished the latest installment in the Cotswolds cosy crime series by Rebecca Tope, Guilt in the Cotswolds and a book for family historians, My Ancestor was in the British Army.
I've just finished The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World and gave it 4 stars. I thought it was well written and interesting.My very brief review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
PattyMacDotComma wrote: "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..."
Wonderful book! The sequel is good too though not as charming as this one.
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All About Books
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