All About Books discussion
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What have you just read? Opinions, recommendations & reviews
Just finished listening to Three Shots Rang Out: The JFK Assassination 50 Years.DO pick it up. It is free now at Audible.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My review has a link to it.
Greg I was disappointed by the characters decision, which really did happen. It is definitely worth a read.
Bette BookAddict wrote: "Thanks to Diane whose review of The Gravity of Birds by Tracy Guzeman lead me to reading this very readable novel. 4★"Glad you liked it Bette.
Have finished The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Have finished La vita perfetta di William Sidis by Morten Brask. I'm sorry, there isn't an English edition. 5 stars for me.It talks about the life of William Sidis, a child prodigy born at the end of the 19th century. The chapters jump from childhood to adulthood and it was an engrossing and enthralling read. It is fiction but all the events in the book are real and the author has done really a good job putting them together in this way. I couldn't stop reading!
I would recommend it to everyone if it would have been translated into English! Till now it's possible to find only the original Danish edition and a Greek and an Italian translation.
I have just read Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasai. I have a fascination with Ghana since spending 9 weeks there and falling in love with the country. The book was beautifully written if not a little over-written to start with and the story was interesting. 4* and I would recommend.
My review is on my page (will add a link when not on the ap)
My review is on my page (will add a link when not on the ap)
I just finished Hemingway's posthumously published novel The Garden of Eden. It was incomplete at his death. Unfortunately, this is very clear when you read the novel.My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
hell house, and zombie con are pretty good reads.
I just finished Discovering Daniel by Nadine Christian. This book is a hidden gem, and I can't wait for the next. You can read my review Here
:)
Petra wrote: "Nice review, Renato! I'm glad you enjoyed this book. It's one of my favorites, too. I read this translation: The Odyssey, and truly enjoyed it."Thank you! It's amazing, isn't it? I hope to read The Iliad soon!!
Ensoleillé wrote: "Greg the goldfinch is worth it :)"I agree!
I am reading Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett. The section where Kennedy has "supposed sex" with Maria reads like a trash book. I skimmed over and thus continued on. What do others think?
Just finished Across the River and into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway. This one I definitely liked. It was his last novel before his death, but he completed it. That is important.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Hemingway isn't for everyone. I like his style of writing...but not all his books!
Mod
I often find in Ken Follett's book these part really annoying. That's why he is not one of my favourite author, even if his historical novels are sometimes really good (like The Pillars of the Earth for istance)
I just finished Jane Slayre so here's my review for it, enjoy!https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
just read Halloween night on Shivermore street and it was a pretty good children's picture book. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Wendy wrote: "I am reading Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett. The section where Kennedy has "supposed sex" with Maria reads like a trash book. I skimmed over and thus continued on. What do others think?"I find Follett's books as dry as dust; not a smidgen of sex in the one's I have read, lol.
Chrissie wrote: "Ken Follett is not for me."Neither me. I read Fall of Giants; mediocre writing, I thought. Attempted then gave up on Winter of the World.
I did not like Winter of the World but I do enjoy his books. I have learned to skim when his writing looks like he just wanted to fill in pagers.
The most disturbing and well written book I ever read was "The Kindly Ones"
Mod
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Here are a couple fragments of his poems from the book to whet your appetite:
from "Almost Blue"
If Hart Crane played trumpet
he'd sound like you, your horn's dark city
miraculous and broken over and over,
scale shimmered, every harbor flung hour
and salt-span of cabled longing,
every waterfront, the night-lovers' rendezvous.
This is the entrance
to the city of you, sleep's hellgate,
and two weeks before the casual relinquishment
of your hold - light needling
on the canal's gleaming haze
and the buds blaring like horns -"
from "The Wings"
... The rule
of earth is attachment:
here what can't be held
is. You die by dying
into what matters, which will kill you,
but first it'll be enough. Or more than that:
your story, which you have worn away
as you shaped it,
which has become itself
as it has disappeared.
from "Difference"
The jellyfish
float in the bay shallows ...
This submarine opera's
all subterfuge and dusguise,
its plot a fabulous tangle
of hiding and recognition:
nothing but trope,
nothing but something
forming itself into figures
then refiguring,
sheer ectoplasm
recognizable only as the stuff
of metaphor. What can words do
but link what we know
to what we don't,
and so form a shape?
Love, loved, LOVED, the first two books of the Follet series. I read along with the audiobooks and it was quite the experience IMO. Can't wait to get the audiobook next week. I've been waiting two years for it!
Just finished The Drop by Dennis Lehane. It was okay, but I didn't think it was anywhere as good as the other stuff I've read by him. Would be interested in seeing the movie, though.
Just finished Orange Is the New Black. I enjoy the show and thought the book was quite good as well. Before that i recently finished Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises by Tim Geithner. I enjoyed that very much.
I've just finished Gone Girl. I see it has very mixed reviews from my friends on here but I loved it! I haven't done much if a review as it was too difficult to do without spoilers but I would recommend and gave it 5*
Mod
Finished Job by Joseph Roth and I would recommend it to everyone above people interested in human nature, faith, religion or people who like a wonderful writing style that makes everything seem real (landscapes, characters, their feelings and troubles...).
I recently read 2 Thomas Wolfe books that I found particularly wonderful. Although they were quite challenging, he won my heart with his style of writing. The books were Look Homeward, Angel, and You Can't Go Home Again. I have found that people either love him or hate him. For me, it was love/hate... until I kept pushing forward. Now I'm grateful to have read them.
As meat loves salt by Maria mccan
Mod
Did you like it Sonny?
Greg I loved it, I took my time reading it because I wanted to savour the novel. Yet again it's broken my heart and I've seen my self in the Jacobs behaviour which is quite shocking. Not the violence but the jealously. It's been a rather sad read.
I'd just finished A Canticle for Leibowitz and Rogue Moon. They're both books that really made me feel like I have to just sit quietly and think after I'd finished reading. Would recommend to anyone that's looking for a good soft scifi novel.
Mod
It's very violent but it befit then times Greg :)
I've recently read Finding Rebecca. Three stars but definitely recommended. My review : https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...Also read and advance copy of The Rosie Effect. Working on my review.
Evelyn wrote: "I have recently finished All Quiet on the Western Front"I'll be starting this soon on audiobook
Dhanaraj I gave it 5 stars. It was written in a narrative style so we were inside the main character's head. His thoughts were so real, the fear, the innocence lost, it was so insightful and heartbreaking.
Evelyn wrote: "Dhanaraj I gave it 5 stars. It was written in a narrative style so we were inside the main character's head. His thoughts were so real, the fear, the innocence lost, it was so insightful and heart..."Good to gear that. That is one of the important books that I have read. But I have also seen it getting mixed reviews. That is why I asked for your opinion.
I think it touched me so much because I have two boys in their mid-twenties and I kept thinking about them as I read.
I just finished 
Awakening Foster Kelly
The only thing that saved this book was the ending, you can read my review Here
Finished yesterday Diary of a Mad Old Man by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. Didn't like it at all, there was nothing interesting, it wasn't well written, didn't like the characters, I couldn't understand why it is considered an erotic and a psychological romance because there is not the one nor the other, not at the depths I like.
Dancer from the dance by Andre holleran
Finished Publishing: A Writer's Memoir an insider look at a long writing career and a look at the changing face of book publishing and editors. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
I still have to read the second!
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Nice review, Renato! I'm glad you enjoyed this book. It's one of my favorites, too. I read this translation: The Odyssey, and truly enjoyed it.