Which LIST book did you just finish? Showing 2,051-2,100 of 10,319

[Katherine]

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri - I listened to this one and found it a pleasant experience. While not a heavy book, there is something endearing about it. However, as many others have said, it just falls a little flat somehow. Maybe it is the third person present-tense narration.

[J_BlueFlower]

The Yellow Wall-Paper A fine little story. Goodread has it at 64 pages, but it is really more like 20 pages of text. The story is very condensed. The women relation to her husband, her child and her new situation in life as a mother (yes, I am trying hard not to spoil the story...) it could easily take other writers 100 pages to tell the same story. 4 stars

[Bob]

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

[Nathan]

Just finished Cane Toomer, Jean Jun-13-2011 Paperback by Jean Toomer. I finished the book itself a few days ago, but the edition I was reading had a long biographical section exploring Toomer's struggle with race identification. Fascinating read. The book itself was decent with some wonderful imagery. After reading the section about the author, the final story of the book, titled Kabnis, makes more sense. That story was definitely drawn by Toomer's experience living in both the black and white world but not able to identify as either.

[Winter]

Jean wrote: "Just finished The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima"

Good? It's on my read list this year..

[Jean]

Winter wrote: "Jean wrote: "Just finished The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima"

Good? It's on my read list this year.."

Young love that seem impossible to come to fruition. I really enjoyed it.

[Bob]

Reasons to Live by Amy Hempel

[Diane]

Finished Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry.

[Nicola]

The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis - This was beautifully written and bored me senseless. I was a third of the way through the book and realised that the protagonist had arrived in Portugal, checked into his hotel and wandered around the city for a bit. Action packed it was not.

I'll probably re-read it again at some point but it's a one star for now.

[Nicola]

Independent People - Magnificent. One of those 'sweeping epics' that aren't written very often. It's a bit grim in places I suppose and the main character isn't very likable. But, on the positive side it's got mythology and poetry woven into the prose and it works wonderfully well.

4 stars

[Nicola]

Silence - A very quick read, both because it was quite short and because it was easily digestible. However considering it dealt with the torture of catholics by the Japanese it might be considered quite disturbing by some readers.

3 1/2 stars

[Nicola]

The Awakening - Exquisite writing; it reminded me a great deal of works by Katherine Mansfield and Emily Wharton.

3 1/2 stars

[Diane]

Nicola wrote: "Independent People - Magnificent. One of those 'sweeping epics' that aren't written very often. It's a bit grim in places I suppose and the main character isn't very likable. But,..."

I loved that book. Another similar one to it on the list is Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun.

[Diane]

Just finished The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith. A much welcome light and humorous read that comes so infrequently on this list, IMHO.

[Elizabeth]

The Garden Party and Other Stories

[Diane]

Finished The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan.

[Nathan]

Cannery Row. I loved the characters, deeply flawed as they are. My one issue was that there were a couple minor plot points that were never resolved, or completely abandoned, never to be mentioned again.

[Carol]

Since my last comment I have read Crime and Punishment, Pere Goriot, and Fathers and Sons, whew! Need a modern book break.

[Winter]

Carol wrote: "Since my last comment I have read Crime and Punishment, Pere Goriot, and Fathers and Sons, whew! Need a modern book break."

Wow great work! Pere Goriot, was it good?

[Nicola]

The 13 Clocks - Rather disturbing due to the whole 'sex slavish' thing. It certainly didn't lack for imagination but I found it too distasteful to really enjoy it.

2 stars

[Nicola]

Sexing The Cherry - An entertaining read. Just weird enough to be quirky not incomprehensible.

3 stars

[Jonpaul]

The Savage Detectives, which took a while to get into but eventually rewards patience tenfold. I ended up loving it.

Also, Almost Transparent Blue by Ryū Murakami. Short but felt like a grind to get through. A much better novel on the list about similar subject matter-junkies-was Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. Trainspotting felt like a breeze, in comparison, despite being twice the length. And I haven't loved Welsh in the past but Trainspotting is a masterpiece.

[J_BlueFlower]

Little Women When I bit into over sweet things some of my teeth hurt. Little Women is like that. Like syrupy in far too large quantities. At least I read it along side Borges, not to acquire mental diabetes.

Some girl has something destroyed by some other girl, something replaceable she has been working on for years. A day later they hug “...and all was forgiven and forgotten”. Forgotten? If her memory fails so badly, maybe she should seek medical help?!

I considered abandoning the book many times. But it kept me going that it is so highly placed on the 1001 listopia list and the BCC 100 books list.

There are a funny funny/interesting historical things sprinkled out. The relation between the English and American youth. The mention “a merry little quadroon, who could not be taken in elsewhere, …. some people predicted that his admission would ruin the …”

a quadroon that can ruin? I had to look that up. Apparently it is a mixed-race child. So here we are on the north side of the American civil war.... and a child of mixed-race can ruin something. What I find most interesting is that the writer though it was so self-evident that no explanation was needed.

[Nicola]

The Kindly Ones - Two months behind schedule but never mind... In #6 the spectre of the next world war hangs oppressively over the entire book and it affects it in a myriad of subtle ways. Fantastic writing by Powell.

4 stars

[Diana]

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

I gave this one a 3-star which surprised me. I liked the movie and i thought this would be a quick read for me. Although I like the book, it was just so hard for me to get into. Took me over 2 weeks to read because i would only read a couple of pages and put it down. The start was a little slow and I guess I gave up getting attached to it... oh well, can't win them all.

[Diane]

Happy to have finally finished my last book on the list by James Joyce with Finnegans Wake. I just don't love him like I should.

[Lizzy]

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. So very, very disappointed.

[Ginny]

Finally done with Mason and Dixon. I also finished Of Human Bondage and The Razor's Edge.

[Tyler]

I just finished Frankenstein. A wonderfully written novel by a master writer. I loved it

[Becky]

La Brava by Elmore Leonard. Seriously, a list book? The structure of the story is interesting enough but I was put off by the one-dimensionality of the characters. Good beach read but I would RIP without having read it.

[Amanda]

Diane wrote: "Happy to have finally finished my last book on the list by James Joyce with Finnegans Wake. I just don't love him like I should."

Ugh. I can't wait until I am done with him. I read Ulysses and I shall be recovering from that for the next five years or so.

I just finished The Old Man and the Sea. I usually really like Hemingway, but I found this to be exceedingly dull.

[Kirsten]

I still haven't tried Joyce.

I've read only one Hemingway - the one about the ambulance driver and the nurse and I liked it.

[Winter]

Finished two books today! Summer by Edith Wharton which was okay, but nothing too special.
3 stars.

And The Secret History by Donna Tartt which was my second read through and as haunting as the first time ten years ago.
My third 5 star this year of the list I believe

The other two were The Yellow Wallpaper and Never Let Me Go.

[Linda]

I just finished Of Human Bondage. A quick read and I couldn't put it down with the anticipation of what the main character was going to do or be thrown into next. 3 stars throughout with 4 or 5 star moments of philosophical reflections. The ending made me round up to 4 stars overall.

[Craig]

Winter wrote: And The Secret History by Donna Tartt which was my second read through and as haunting as the ..."

I loved The Secret History the first time I read it years ago. Maybe it is time for a second read through for me as well.

[Diane]

Amanda wrote: "Ugh. I can't wait until until I am done with him. I read Ulysses and I shall be recovering from that for the next five years or so...."

Ha! I feel the same way :)

[Linda]

Amanda wrote: "Ugh. I can't wait until I am done with him. I read Ulysses and I shall be recovering from that for the next five years or so."

I read Ulysses earlier this year and am also still recovering from it. I didn't realize Joyce had two other books on the list. So, an ugh from me as well!

[Winter]

Linda wrote: "Amanda wrote: "Ugh. I can't wait until I am done with him. I read Ulysses and I shall be recovering from that for the next five years or so."

I read Ulysses earlier this year and am also still rec..."

I'm recovering from his so called easy book: Portrait of an Artist... not likely to read him the next two years..

[Winter]

Craig wrote: "Winter wrote: And The Secret History by Donna Tartt which was my second read through and as haunting as the ..."

I loved The Secret History the first time I read it years ago. Maybe it is time fo..."

I think it is :-D

[Kim]

Vanity Fair and I loved it!

[Dree]

I finished The Vicar of Wakefield today. I did not like it, at all. A slog that is under 200 pages--it took me 2 weeks. I will be adding a full review once I can coherently explain why I didn't like it.

[Kirsten]

I finished #32 (on the 13th): The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. One of the few books I wouldn't mind having my own copy of.

Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Maureen]

I just finished The Bonfire of the Vanities and really loved it. Could not put it down.

[Diane]

Luís wrote: "Winter wrote: "Linda wrote: "Amanda wrote: "Ugh. I can't wait until I am done with him. I read Ulysses and I shall be recovering from that for the next five years or so."

I read Ulysses earlier th..."

I liked Portrait less than Ulysses. The saving grace of the book is that it is significantly shorter than the other two.

[Diane]

Finished The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and loved it. Very thought provoking and disturbing. It has been on my tbr list forever. I am glad that I finally read it.

[Nicola]

The Valley of Bones - #7 and almost entirely filled with Manly Men doing Manly Things! Or rather, it's a quite farcical book filled with the absurdities of bureaucrats and war.

3 stars

[Nicola]

White Teeth - A startlingly impressive book especially for a first novel. Zadie Smith deserves all of the praise she got for writing this as far as I'm concerned.

4 stars

[Nicola]

The Turn of the Screw - Short, weird, ultimately unsatisfying.

2 1/2 stars

[J_BlueFlower]

Ficciones I did not understand a lot of it. I read it too fast. The stories are very abstract. I would have liked them a bit more explained. I want to be sure that I have figured out what a story is about. I do not believe that it is all in the mind of the reader. However the bits I did understand where great. 4 stars. A re-read some day (in there far, far future) may place it at 5 stars – if I just understood some more.

[Diane]

Just finished The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson. It started out great but then it got really weird. Just too weird for me.