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What have you just read? Opinions, recommendations & reviews
I finished Whisky Galore - hilarious plot but I dislike reading dialect so I ended up giving it 3.5*
Tweedledum wrote: "Just finished The Master and Margarita. I must say I was pretty confused for most of the book but now I've got to the end decided I need to get hold of the Russian serialisation. Foun..."I wish you had had an edition with extensive notes. I think you can read the book in two ways, either as a fantasy or carefully studying the background significance of every line. I flipped between both, when I got tired of studying the explanatory notes I just skipped them and absorbed what I could. I loved it, but I am sure I didn't understand everything.
I've just finished reading The Last Bell. I thought the title story was excellent, but I wasn't so taken with the 4 other stories.My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Chrissie wrote: "Tweedledum wrote: "Just finished The Master and Margarita. I must say I was pretty confused for most of the book but now I've got to the end decided I need to get hold of the Russian ..."Well the penguin notes helped me grasp some of the satire and the notes at the back of that edition were helpful but as you say the whole is so complex. You don't really want to keep flipping between notes and text. I found the ending very moving... The part where we see Pontious Pilate sitting on his chair still frozen in time and then being released by Margarita.
The notion too of "the greatest sin being cowardice " aren't we all guilty of that... The failure to speak up.... Turning a blind eye to injustice in so many forms. In the USSR it must have taken enormous bravery to speak out but now... In our affluent and apparently free societies we often choose to ignore or "forget" certain facts or information that doesn't suit us.... That's not about cowardice but inertia.... Or laziness....
Above all I think the book resonated with Russian citizens because of the anarchic chaos created in the midst of such a controlling society. The Lord of Misrule comes to Moscow and suddenly anything can and does happen.
Tweedledum wrote: "Just finished The Master and Margarita. I must say I was pretty confused for most of the book but now I've got to the end decided I need to get hold of the Russian serialisation. Foun..."Give a look to this site: http://cr.middlebury.edu/public/russi...
For me it has been very interesting when I finished The Master and Margarita. I could find a lot of explanations on things that I wasn't able to catch or understand while reading the book.
Raul wrote: "Finished the brilliant The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Gave it 4 Stars, but it is very close to 5. My review below.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show......"
Ah, you are on the same end as some of my long-time reading friends who loved this book. I was on the other end, but upped it one star due to the quality of writing (I have a difficult time giving one star to a well written book, because it has merit even if I don't like it.)
Tweedledum wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Tweedledum wrote: "Just finished The Master and Margarita. I must say I was pretty confused for most of the book but now I've got to the end decided I need to get hol..."It seems to me you got a lot out of it. It offers lots to think about. I was terribly surprised that I could so very much enjoy a book verging on fantasy. People flying in the air is not usually my cup of tea, but for me it had a lot to say. You noted that too.
dely wrote: "Tweedledum wrote: "Just finished The Master and Margarita. I must say I was pretty confused for most of the book but now I've got to the end decided I need to get hold of the Russian ..."Thanks @dely I will check that out.
Susan wrote: "Here's another great site about The Master and Margarita:http://www.masterandmargarita.eu/en/i..."
Thanks Susan! A wealth of information!
Just finished
Blackwater by James Henry, a very ordinary read. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
Looking forward to reading it myself Carrie!
Mod
My brief review here
A clear poem with no artifice whatsoever, but it's perhaps the most searing piece of writing I've ever read - an indictment of war itself but also more specifically, certain religious attitudes toward war that were prevalent in his time and unfortunately, still exist in many corners today. The straightforward way he whisks the veil off the too-easy hypocrisy is shockingly affecting. I feel a little stunned. Everyone should read this. I was tempted to give it 5★ based on sheer power alone, but I settled on 4★ in the end.
John Groth's ink drawings that accompany the poem are crudely drawn but appropriate. Like the poem itself, they're forceful, expressive, and unadorned.
Chrissie wrote: "Tweedledum wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Tweedledum wrote: "Just finished The Master and Margarita. I must say I was pretty confused for most of the book but now I've got to the end decide..."Here's my review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Tweedledum, my experience was similar to yours in that I knew nothing of the book and I wondered how I had missed it. A friend, NOT here at GR, told me I had to read it and I was super, super skeptical. I owe that friend a lot. My reading and loving the book, I gave it five stars too, proves that one has to be open-minded and test things outside of one's normal reading terrain. We readers are in the hands of the authors; an excellent author can make just about any genre marvelous. The book isn't JUST fantasy: it is fantasy and philosophy and historical fiction all rolled into one.
Chrissie wrote: "Tweedledum, my experience was similar to yours in that I knew nothing of the book and I wondered how I had missed it. A friend, NOT here at GR, told me I had to read it and I was super, super skept..."Yes you are right.
I aborted my journey through Time Travel: A History about a third of the way through. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished reviews for:Quiet Until the Thaw: A Novel
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...and Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Catherine Howard, Fifth Wife of King Henry VIII
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout. 5 stars. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished Suzy McKee Charnas' book, which is much better than the first: Motherlines and reviewed it https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1909068219Then finished The Pigman by Paul Zindel and reviewed it https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1883148433.
I have completed Night and Day by Virginia Woolf. I ended up loving the narration by Juliet Stevenson, even if I was put off at the beginning. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just finished Backman's And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Two more books down, and I thoroughly enjoyed both of them:
Lord of the Flies by William Golding. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Here's the link to my review of
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by author Bryn Greenwood:-https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I've just finished reading In Search of Mary: The Mother of all Journeys, which was well written. It was more interesting than I expected.Here's my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I have finally written my review of Sybil, or the Two Nations:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Leslie wrote: "I have finally written my review of Sybil, or the Two Nations:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."
Nice review. I think I will have to give this one a go.
Just finished my first ever by Chelsea Cain, Sweetheart
I am totally anamoured. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I've just finished reading The Custom of the Country, which was a very enjoyable read.Here's my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I very much enjoyed Crusoe's Daughter. This is an author to try.My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Tailor's Girlby Fiona McIntosh just read and reviewed herehttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished The Girl from the Metropol Hotel: Growing Up in Communist Russiahttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Sandy *The world could end while I was reading and I would never notice* wrote: "Just finished my first ever by Chelsea Cain, Sweetheart I am totally anamoured. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show......"I really enjoyed this series. It keeps getting better, too. Enjoy!
my review of The Martian Chronicles which I read as a Book of the Month in another GR group. It's one of my long time favorites.
Mod
Here's my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."
Oh my gosh though Gill, some of those characters were so infuriating I just wanted to wring their necks!! Realistically drawn though and definitely believable portraits of a certain class of the period. I definitely liked the book. A devastating piece of social criticism in addition to being well written!
Greg wrote: "Gill wrote: "I've just finished reading The Custom of the Country, which was a very enjoyable read.Here's my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."
Oh my gosh th..."
I agree, Greg. Talk about being blind to/ not caring about other people's needs,
I have finished A Room with a View. It is short and so is my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished The Furies, book 3 of the Holdfast series by Suzy McKee Charnas, and posted a review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1914468705.
My review of The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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All About Books
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