Which LIST book did you just finish? Showing 2,751-2,800 of 10,245

[Karina]

Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett. Really great story and I do look forward to reading his others.

[Bob]

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. Not at all what I was expecting. A very interesting story, good characters, and a nice twist toward the end. Ms. Wharton fit a lot of emotion into a short book.

[George P.]

Katherine wrote: "The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields - I went in with zero expectations and found myself enthralled by this book. I've had trouble with list books from the 1990s to presen..."

I read it about a year ago, Katherine, and liked it very much also. At first I thought "I don't know about this one", but by halfway, I was very impressed.

[Tyler]

I finished Under the Net by Iris Murdoch. It was slow going at first, but it turned into an amusing and thought provoking book.

[Diane]

Michael Kohlhaas by Heinrich von Kleist and An Ethiopian Romance by Heliodorus of Emesa.

[Elizabeth]

The Nose Still funny after all those years. I've been avoiding the older books on the list but enjoyed this one. It read like a modern story; good translator I suppose.

[George P.]

The Third Policeman by Irish author Flann O'Brien. A mixture of easy-reading 1st-person narrative and short dialogs with metaphysics and surrealistic events. Lots about policemen and bicycles!

[Diane]

Deep Rivers by José María Arguedas. Beautiful descriptions of the Peruvian landscape. It's almost like being there. I highly recommend it.

[Diane]

A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift. Bored me to tears. Thankfully it was short. I enjoyed his other books, especially A Modest Proposal.

[Nicola]

Beloved - It was a slow start but I eventually got into the flow of the book. It takes a long time for the threads to come together in this one but it does get there in the end.

3 stars

[Kirsten]

I haven't had the nerve to try a Toni Morrison yet.

[George P.]

Nicola wrote: "Beloved - It was a slow start but I eventually got into the flow of...
3 stars"

Morrison is a Nobel laureate, won a Pulitzer for it, and it's on the Feminista list of best books by women writers, so you would think it must be pretty good. [In my to-read list, near the top. I read [book:Song of Solomon|11334] but didn't love it]

[Meg]

Finished Thoreau's 'Walden' last night, my 100th from the 2012 list and 117th overall.

[Ed]

Since my last post in January....I have read
-The Lover by Marguerite Duras
-Princesse de Cleves by Madame de Lafayette
- Billy Liar
- Death in Venice
- Northanger Abbey
- The Sorrows of Young Werther
-The Brothers Karamazov
- I, Robot
- The Color Purple

bringing me to 151

[Dree]

The Castle of Otranto. Dated since it is from 1765. Styles have changed. Yet it was so bad it was kind of good.

[Amber]

I finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt last weekend. Meh, could have lived without it.

[Diane]

Vernon God Little by D.B.C. Pierre. Seriously weird book full of unlikable characters.

[Laura]

Just finished The Picture of Dorian Gray- 4 stars, looking forward to the next list book

[Diane]

Nowhere Man by Aleksandar Hemon

[Nicola]

George wrote: "Nicola wrote: "Beloved - It was a slow start but I eventually got into the flow of...
3 stars"

Morrison is a Nobel laureate, won a Pulitzer for it, and it's on the Feminista list of be..."

Yes I was aware of all those awards before I read it, but you can't just like a book because it's won a lot of awards. Not all books suit all tastes regardless of how many plaudits it has to its name.

P.S. I will say though that it's the sort of book which does win awards. It's complex, jumps all over the place both in time and in peoples heads and deals with dark topics like slavery. Book critics seem to like that sort of thing - it makes a book 'gritty'...

[Nicola]

Kirsten *Dogs Welcome - People Tolerated" wrote: "I haven't had the nerve to try a Toni Morrison yet."

I've read 3 now and my favourite so far is Sula which was my first.

They are all good but she has rather a 'samey' style and I wouldn't have read Beloved so soon after reading Sula and Jazz but it came up as a group read so I gave it a go. It was definitely the most difficult of the 3 and it has all of the complexity and dark themes which make literary critics salivate :-)

[Nicola]

Dree wrote: "The Castle of Otranto. Dated since it is from 1765. Styles have changed. Yet it was so bad it was kind of good."

Dog yes! It was soooo dreadful! I started laughing while reading it; I just couldn't believe how dreadful it was :-)

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

[Ed]

Finished Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe...liked it but didn't love it.
#152

[Ellinor]

Finished The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna. Not my cup of tea.

[Diane]

Finished The River Between by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. Good book.

[George P.]

Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges of Argentina. It was in the '06 list but dropped by '12. A collection of stories, some of them quite short. Some are very intellectual and a lot of obscure words- glad I had it on Kindle. 4 stars. My #186.

[Ida]

I finished Oranges are not the only fruit by Jeanette Winterson a couple of days ago and I really enjoyed it. Witty and good written.

[Nicola]

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Utter madness but funny in an outrageous way.

3 1/2 stars

[Bob]

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It was very interesting how he turned what seemed to be a story about kids growing up in a typical English boarding school into something so much more.

[George P.]

Bob wrote: "Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It was very interesting how he turned what seemed to be a story about kids growing up in a typical English boarding school into somethin..."
That was the June book for the "Classics Without all the Class" group; we had an interesting discussion of it.

[Diane]

Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas.

[Diane]

Oh, wow. Nobody has posted since my last book. I am in a bit of a 1001 marathon, trying to catch up to a former goal. I have actually read two more short books in the meantime:

Amok by Stefan Zweig (amazing)
and
Quicksand by Nella Larsen (very good)

[Wendy]

With the completion of Mansfield Park I have now read all the Austen novels. My favorite was Persuasion, and I found I gravited to her later books (Persuasion and Mansfield Park). I know Fanny Price is not the most popular heroine, but I saw (entirely too much of) myself in her and could understand her introversion and unwillingness to rock the boat. Plus, she gets points from me for seeing through the "wickham-like" character in an instant. She's quiet, but observant and smart.

[George P.]

Diane wrote: "Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas."

I saw that you gave it 3 stars. I'm planning to read it in 2 or 3 months. I haven't read a book by a Cuban author before- hope I like it.

[Nicola]

Cain - Funny and blasphemous. Jose is lucky the Jewish and Christian religions don't do whatever their equivalents would be of a fatwa. However othing he talks about is new or groundbreaking; if you've read Genesis from the old testament or are at least familiar with the stories contained in it you'll very likely have had the same sort of thoughts at some point even if you conclude 'God Moves In Mysterious Ways'.

4 stars

In a Glass Darkly - Five short stories of very unequal worth as far as I'm concerned. The 3 shortest are just bland - neither good nor bad. Camilla is interesting, even if just for the fact that it is the granddaddy of vampire fiction. My favourite was 'The Room at the Dragon Volant' which was wonderful and establishes the fact that, male or female, de Fanu characters are so stupid and obtuse they shouldn't be left alone around sharp pointy objects.

3 stars because I averaged out the 5 stories.

[George P.]

Luís wrote: "I consider that "Invisible Cities" is from a Cuban Author - Italo Calvino. ..."
I haven't read any Calvino yet but plan to. Although born in Cuba his parents were from Italy and the family moved permanently to Italy before he was 2 yrs old. So I would say he was a lot more Italian than Cuban.

[Diane]

George wrote: "Diane wrote: "Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas."

I saw that you gave it 3 stars. I'm planning to read it in 2 or 3 months. I haven't read a book by a Cuban author ..."

He is an amazing writer, and the book definitely has a lot of merit. The (very) frequent graphic descriptions of his sexual escapades made me uncomfortable, however. Hence the lower star rating.

[Diane]

Finished The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Bashevis Singer.

[Diane]

Luís wrote: "George wrote: "Diane wrote: "Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas."

I saw that you gave it 3 stars. I'm planning to read it in 2 or 3 months. I haven't read a book by ..."

Invisible Cities is amazing.

[Tyler]

Bleak House was an amazing novel if you have the endurance to finish it and I highly recommend you build up your endurance. It is my favorite Dickens novel so far. He is writing at the height of his powers.

[Ellen]

Both started and finished on the same day: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.

Wonderful book. Had me thinking about it for hours after I finished.

[Diane]

Finished Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth.

[Diane]

Three Lives by Gertrude Stein. Awfulness.

[James]

Diane wrote: "Three Lives by Gertrude Stein. Awfulness."

Then you better skip The Making of Americans by the same writer!!!
OMG I would cut my throat if I had to read one more word of that trite BS

[Diane]

James wrote: "Diane wrote: "Three Lives by Gertrude Stein. Awfulness."

Then you better skip The Making of Americans by the same writer!!!
OMG I would cut my throat if I had to read o..."

lol. At least Three Lives was short. Bummer about Making of Americans, since it is a long book. I was hoping her writing skills would have improved in her later books. She actually has a third book on the list: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.

[James]

I enjoyed the autobiography of her lover.

[James]

Or rather the biography of her lover

[Cataluna6]

Wendy wrote: "With the completion of Mansfield Park I have now read all the Austen novels. My favorite was Persuasion, and I found I gravited to her later books (Persuasion and Mansfield..."

Persuasion is my favourite of her novels as well. I love the idea of second chances :) The recent adaptation with Sally Hawkins Rupert Penry-Jones is brilliant.

[Ed]

Finished I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (Why is this on the list? It's an autobiography.) #153

and Lord of the Flies by William Golding- #154

[Diane]

James wrote: "Or rather the biography of her lover"

That's good. I only have one of her books to dread reading instead of two.