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What have you just read? Opinions, recommendations & reviews
Sounds great Leslie, I am hoping to read the majority of his work so will be glad to do a read along with you when you're ready. I was thinking of David Copperfield next so I'll give it a go :) thanks
I read that new Lisa Moore book yesterday:
. She's a good writer alright, but the whole thing was completely unrealistic. I would suggest readers pass it up.
Yes, Shirley! It was my 1st read and my third du Maurier. I love her, need to read her whole collection!
Heather wrote: "Yes, Shirley! It was my 1st read and my third du Maurier. I love her, need to read her whole collection!"I know, me too! I'm going to join in with as many of Jean's challenge as I can, although I have read Jamaica Inn already. Next up for me is The Scapegoat.
Hi Leslie it was time for a change :)
Tracey wrote: "Hi Leslie it was time for a change :)"I like it! But it is always a bit of a shock when someone changes their icon...
Definitely planning on reading Jamaica Inn. I only read my 1st with this group- The House on the Strand but I've wanted to read Rebecca for ages. Last year was the year of Margaret Atwood for me and this year it's Daphne du Maurier. Wonder who next years amazing female writer will be!
Will give warning in advance next time Leslie lol.
It's amazing how much chat you miss in this group if you just go away to do a bit of reading... LOL
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I "terribly" agree!!!!
I have finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and recommend it to everybody who loves books. It's a book that talks about books, words, friendship, death and WWII.
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My opinion exactly!
dely wrote: "I have finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and recommend it to everybody who loves books. It's a book that talks about books, words, friendship, death and WWII."It is just an amazing book, love it.
It seems like everyone is reading or re-reading The Book Thief at the moment. I haven't come across anyone who didn't love it.I have just finished And the Mountains Echoed It was something of a disappointment to me. It is a great book when you take it on its own. However in comparison to his other books it certainly didn't leave me with the same feeling of awe. Has anyone read it?
Hales wrote: "It seems like everyone is reading or re-reading The Book Thief at the moment. I haven't come across anyone who didn't love it.[Raises hand] Here's one. Well, I didn't love it or hate it. I thought it was okay. I personally wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
CandidePersonally, I freaking loved it. It was so over the top and ridiculous that I couldn't put it down, not to mention, it's a very short book. Satire at it's best. Would definitely recommend it.
I just wrote a review for the giver and I'm looking for feedback on it, so go check it out! Leave a like if you can :) (I really enjoyed it) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... Anyways how are you guys today?
I finished the YA book The Living by Matt de la Pena
I really enjoyed this, and I am usually not a big YA fan. I look forward to the second in the series! 4 stars.
This past week I finished 2 books:The Shoemaker's Wife, which I think is a wonderful beach read. I really liked the characters, especially Chiro, and the story is very warm. That said, the book is also overly sweet. People don't talk that lovingly or have that complete understanding ALL THE TIME. The book also makes Enza out to be a super-hero while she's single in America. There aren't enough hours in a day to get all the things done that she managed fairly effortlessly. It can be a bit over the top.....but not enough to take away from the warm story line.
I listened to the audio and what I didn't like on it was that the first half was narrated by a lovely lady with a musical, sing-song voice that went so well with the story. Then, this lady was gone and the author narrated it to the end. Her voice isn't as sing-song or lyrical and I missed that.
I read the paper copy of The Reader, which I enjoyed but wasn't blown away by. It's an interesting look at guilt.
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I've just finished The Night Rainbow by Claire King on my kindle, for my book club. I would recommend it, I gave it 3.5 stars.
Finished reading J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace. It is a small book packed with powerful themes. I would recommend it certainly......
LauraT wrote: "Just finishing The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England; nice way to get into history from a different point of view."This sounds interesting, Laura. Thanks!
I just finished An Unfinished Life, which I highly recommend. It's warm, touching and has wonderful characters, especially Griff, who will steal your heart. I recommend it for anyone who likes Kent Haruf's books, such as Plainsong and Eventide. An Unfinished Life is written in the same sparse, clear style.
I just finished an outstanding book of poetry New and Selected Poems by Dennis O'Driscoll. The poems are beautiful and timely and wonderful read aloud or read to oneself. I am so glad to have found this poet!
Terri, that sounds lovely. I'll look to see if the library has any of his poetry books. Thanks! I enjoy reading good poetry (and sometimes not-so-good poetry :D ).
Terri, I hadn't heard of Dennis O'Driscoll but just looked him and some of his poems up on the poetry foundation website. Thanks for mentioning him, another poetry discovery for me it seems ;)
Hales wrote: "It seems like everyone is reading or re-reading The Book Thief at the moment. I haven't come across anyone who didn't love it.I have just finished [book:And the Mountains Echoed|1611..."
I didn't love the book thief either. It was a good book but I wasn't too fascinated by it as other readers of this book are.
I have read "and the mountains echoed" and I was disappointed by the author as well. I was expecting a lot from this book. The other two books are amazing and they had set a standard that Khaleed Hussaini novels always leave you in awe. But with this one I just wanted it to end so I could shut it and keep it aside.
I have finished a mystery by an Italian emergent writer, Nebbia by Ivano Mingotti. There isn't an English edition but I don't recommend it to the Italian members of the group. It was hard to get through the strange writing style.
I have finished reading A treatise concerning the principles of human knowledge by George Berkeley. I quite enjoyed the read even though I am not much of a fan of Immaterialism. I rated it with 2 stars quite unfairly and I am reconsidering my decision. I was angry at the end of the book because of certain details and gave it only 2 stars. I liked the philosopher's voice concerning his certainty towards the things he claimed. I prefer Locke, but I'd still recommend Berkley. At least to seize up his ideas/criticism towards Materialism.
I had tried reading Berkeley once. He is very tough with his language. I think, that also might have played its part in your deciding for two stars.
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Ok. Signed as a NOT to look book
Petra wrote: "I just finished An Unfinished Life, which I highly recommend. It's warm, touching and has wonderful characters, especially Griff, who will steal your heart. I recommend it for anyone..."
I really liked An Unfinished Life, Petra. Did you know that there is a movie? I remember liking it enough. For some reason, I didn't enjoy Plainsong. I'm not sure why anymore...
Dahnaraj Rajan : I did not find Berkeley's style as being difficult, neither the language tough or hard to understand. On the contrary, I shall note that his claim of writing under the pretenses of clarity and simplicity is quite fair. I found his book easy to follow and the concepts easy to summarize/understand. However, the reason I rated the book with only two stars was quite a personal one, given the fact that I did not agree with his ideas. If I had to choose, I should perhaps choose Materialism over Immaterialism, not that I want to choose anyway. I liked his confidence over the ideas he claimed. However, what I truly and deeply disliked was his argument in favor of God's existence and his religious pretenses underlined in a so called philosophical work. This is something that usually annoys me in earlier or present philosophical books. Giving serious arguments is a challenging job, but bringing in some for God too isn't that interesting. I do understand the context in which the book was written and I am not completely against it. I gave it two stars almost on an annoyance whim.
Rahat wrote: I have read "and the mountains echoed" and I was disappointed by the author as well. I was expecting a lot from this book. The other two books are amazing and they had set a standard that Khaleed Hussaini novels always leave you in awe. But with this one I just wanted it to end so I could shut it and keep it aside. I felt the same way about this book and Kite Runner is one of my all time favorites. I was so disappointed in this one. It was just confusing and not such a great story.
I still haven't read A Thousand Splendid Suns but I plan to do so this year.
Ramona wrote: "Dahnaraj Rajan : I did not find Berkeley's style as being difficult, neither the language tough or hard to understand. On the contrary, I shall note that his claim of writing under the pretenses of..."That explains many everything clearly. And may be I had tried him when I was not prepared enough to read him. If I try him now he might speak to me better, I hope. Thanks for the opinions.
I just finished Eleanor & Park and Up Jumps the Devil. I'm not sure how I feel about either of them...they are worth reading but I didn't love them.
It is classified as historical fiction and is very new. Here is alink to my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...It was very good.
Diane S. wrote: "It is classified as historical fiction and is very new. Here is alink to my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...It was very good."
Thanks for the link -- I like historical fiction so I will keep this in mind.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was definitely worth reading. I preferred it over other books (for example Invisible Man) which I have been reading about the racial injustice found in the South during the first half of the 20th Century. Good writing. Although the beginning is hard to get into, by the end you cannot put it down and you come to care for several of the characters in the small mill town in the South where the book is set. I have written a review if you are curious about more of the book's content. For me the book description emphasized the wrong elements of the book. For me it was both about the racial divide and the responsibility each of us carry for other human beings. I am very restrictive with my stars, and yet this I almost gave five.
Just finished Code Name Verity, a book about World War II intrigue, and I liked it very much. The 2 main protagonists were strong women, and I'm always happy to see that.
Beth do read A thousand splendid suns, you will really like it.
Chrissie wrote: "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was definitely worth reading. I preferred it over other books (for example Invisible Man) which I have been reading about the racial injustice..."Need to re-read that one. Read it so long ago that I don't remember if I liked it or not.
I read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter when I was a freshman in high school, which now I find unbelievable. I was so not ready for it. I reread it about 2 years ago and absolutely loved it. Now it's one of my favorites and I've gone on to explore some of her other work.
Diane and Terri, I had never read McCullers! What a miss. I also want to reread something by Richard Wright.
Terri wrote: "Just finished Code Name Verity, a book about World War II intrigue, and I liked it very much. The 2 main protagonists were strong women, and I'm always happy to see that."This is on my TBR.
Just finished Death of a Salesman. Was ok, a bit too slow for me. 3.25 Stars.
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