Starting/joining in with buddy reads Showing 51-100 of 1,317

[Pamela]

Susan wrote: "Is anyone else planning on joining in with Hamlet, Revenge? I am about a third of the way in and enjoying it very much."

I just read it while I was waiting for 4:50 from Paddington to come in at the library. I enjoyed it much more than the first one and am looking forward to the discussion.

[Susan]

I am enjoying it more than the first book too, Pamela. Good to hear you will be joining in :)

[Judy]

The threads for Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes are now up - here is a link to the general thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Judy]

Just to remind people that we have a buddy read of Heads You Lose by Christianna Brand coming up in August - who is up for that one? I think it will start some time into the month again to let the group reads get under way first.

[Susan]

I will certainly be joining in, Judy. I love Christianna Brand. Thanks for the reminder.

[Susan]

Just downloaded this to my kindle so I remember it is on my TBR fairly soon list. Interested to see how many books were written during, and set in, WWII; including the Gilded Fly, next months group read. I know Brand was told that the best thing she could do for the war effort was to write and so I am interested in looking, as a re-read, to see how much propaganda may be included.

[Jill]

I will be joining in, but have got a bit behind with my reading lately.

[Susan]

I sympathise, Jill. Sometimes, it just feels like I am always catching up with group reads and reviews. Luckily, I read quickly under pressure :)

[Marcus]

Besides, a little pressure is always good to enhance our readings:)

[Susan]

Good point, Marcus.

[Brina]

I'll be gone the first 2 weeks of August so I don't want to bring too many books with me. Maybe during the second half of the month.

[Susan]

I'll be away then too, Brina. Maybe we can start this mid-August? Is everyone OK with that?

[Sandy]

I'll be joining in but am very glad it is not until the middle of the month. I visited one of the main libraries a couple of weeks ago, overdid it seeing all those available books, and they are coming due.

[Susan]

We all face too many temptations, Sandy :)

[Sandy]

Susan wrote: "We all face too many temptations, Sandy :)"

Some are better at resisting than others ...

[Susan]

I am useless. I have just been approved for 2 NetGalley books too, sigh!

[Judy]

Mid August sounds great. Susan and Sandy, giving into temptation is just so tempting!

[Sandra]

I would like to join in too. I'll see if I can reserve it at the library.

[Susan]

Great to hear, Sandra :)

[Abbey]

Susan wrote: "We all face too many temptations, Sandy :)"
then Sandy wrote: Some are better at resisting than others ..."

yes. Put me in the Good Intentions camp, or the "My (reading) Eyes Are bigger than My Belly!" camp. -sigh-

Love Christianna Brand, read HEADS YOU LOSE a while back, enjoyed it, review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Hope to participate in discussion.
it's available free via Hoopla btw.

[Sandy]

Re: too many books from the library

I was back to the big library today and, horrors, returned three books unread! Took out a couple of others, and have a few from my local branch, but I feel a bit more relaxed.

[Brina]

Sandra I know that feeling all too well. I usually request all my books for the month on the 1st so I can read through the pile one at a time. Sometimes that works, and sometimes I return a few.

[Susan]

I am a great lover of libraries. My daughter is excited to be signing up for the Summer Reading Challenge, which our libraries run every year, this weekend.

[Judy]

I've just discovered that there is an Audible Studios recording of our forthcoming buddy read, Heads You Lose by Christianna Brand. For some reason it isn't available from the audible site in the usual way but only as a CD!

However, the good news is that the CD is much cheaper than some (£6.66 from Abebooks.co.uk) and has an excellent reader, Derek Perkins, so I have just treated myself.

[Susan]

Good to hear, Judy. I wonder why it is not actually 'on' Audible?

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

I own a copy of Heads You Lose & am intending to buddy read with you! :) If it starts on the first I will be a few days late though.

[Judy]

We're not starting until the middle of August, Carol, so you will be fine! Great that you can join in.

[Judy]

Susan wrote: "Good to hear, Judy. I wonder why it is not actually 'on' Audible?"

I wonder why too - maybe there is some kind of rights issue with this book? It looks as if the CD has only been issued in the US, but is available on import in the UK (though it is quite expensive from Amazon).

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Judy wrote: "Susan wrote: "Good to hear, Judy. I wonder why it is not actually 'on' Audible?"

I wonder why too - maybe there is some kind of rights issue with this book? It looks as if the CD has only been iss..."

FWIW I normally can get the same prices as you can in the UK (I'm in NZ) but not for this author. Most of her titles were showing as unavailable. The copy I have of Heads You Lose is a battered old library copy that turned up at my work.

[Judy]

Carol, glad to hear you managed to pick up that battered copy! I think this one is only in a print on demand edition in the UK at the moment and annoyingly not on Kindle, but there are a lot of old paperbacks around here. I just fancy listening to it while knitting. :)

[Susan]

It is weird that Christianna Brand (at least most of her books) appeared on kindle for quite a few months and now you can't get them in print on either kindle or in paperback. However, as a long time reader of GA mysteries I have become used to the 'hunt' for missing books in a series. Once, on holiday in the States, I drove for three hours to locate a missing Brand novel from my collection, which I had tracked to a particular second hand bookshop. Kindle has, usually, made this much easier :)

[Judy]

I've just received my audio book of Heads You Lose, and have managed to download it to my phone and started listening. I'm not very far in yet but enjoyable so far - a witty writing style.

[Susan]

Heads You Lose is not really her best and is very politically incorrect. Her second Inspector Cockrill mystery, Green for Danger, is, though, one of her best known and a really good book. Hopefully, there will be some of us who want to read on.

[Judy]

Early days for me yet, Susan, but I do like the way she writes so far, so I could possibly be up for more.

I'm impressed by your hunt for missing books in a series - I've done this in the past too, though no 3-hour drives! I do remember once going to a farm in the middle of nowhere to pick up a second-hand book. :)

[Judy]

Just wanted to warn anyone planning to join in on the buddy read of Heads You Lose not to take a general browse through Goodreads reviews before you finish - unfortunately there is one with an open spoiler which gives away a lot of the ending! I came across this while still reading the book and it ruined the ending for me.

I have flagged it, but I don't know how quickly the Goodreads powers-that-be deal with such things.

I don't think it was done deliberately, looks as if it was someone who didn't understand how to use the spoiler tags which can be quite confusing.

[Susan]

I will post a link to my review, in case anyone is interested:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Open spoilers are very annoying, I agree, Judy!

[Jill]

I started it last night and am enjoying so much, that I am over half way through.

[Abbey]

Judy wrote: "Just wanted to warn anyone planning to join in on the buddy read of Heads You Lose not to take a general browse through Goodreads reviews before you finish - unfortunately there is one with an open..."

I flagged it too - maybe if there's several it will get fixed quickly (it's the short one that ends with "geesh!", right?

[Judy]

Abbey wrote: "I flagged it too - maybe if there's several it will get fixed quickly (it's the short one that ends with "geesh!", right? ..."

Yes, that's the one, Abbey - thank you.

I will try to avoid looking at reviews of a book I'm reading until I finish it in future, except for ones by reviewers I know.

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Judy wrote: "Just wanted to warn anyone planning to join in on the buddy read of Heads You Lose not to take a general browse through Goodreads reviews before you finish - unfortunately there is one with an open..."

This is probably teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, since you have been a GR member since December 2007, but I think spoiler tags on GR are a relatively recent innovation.

[Judy]

Carol ♔Type, Oh Queen!♕ wrote: "This is probably teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, since you have been a GR member since December 2007, but I think spoiler tags on GR are a relatively recent innovation. ."

Thanks Carol, I'd forgotten this - and I can't believe I've been a member since 2007! I just checked and spoiler tags were introduced in 2011, so any reviews older than that didn't have that option.

Even now that we do have them, I think they can be very difficult to use, especially for people who are typing on phones and tablets - I don't think I have the right characters for them on my phone.

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Well its good to know the date. I know now never to look at older reviews before I've completed the book. I still flag the occasional spoiler laden older review.

[Abbey]

Judy wrote: "I just checked and spoiler tags were introduced in 2011, so any reviews older than that didn't have that option. "

um, yes, BUT the one we meant was from 2014.

and, you know, even "in general", IMO (and there ain't anything Humble about it!) I have always believed that a GOOD review *never* gives The Good Bits away! And while I'm ranting -grin-, I think it's down-right mean-spirited to deliberately spoil things for a reader who (and don't most readers?) is likely reading a review BEFORE they read a book, to get an *idea* of the book?

or am I terminally old-fashioned?

[Susan]

Someone (Mark) has made the excellent suggestion of The Life And Times Of Miss Jane Marple as part of the Miss Marple challenge.

However, as we already have an extra December book, I thought perhaps we could do it as a buddy read at the end of the year, after the Brand and There's Trouble Brewing (the third Nicholas Blake).

Let me know if anyone is interested?

By the way, if anyone wants to join in with the Nicholas Blake, but hasn't read the previous books, they can be read as stand alone stories. They are also fairly short, so you could read the other two and catch up: A Question of Proof and Thou Shell of Death

I would also like to propose a Christmas buddy read. Not necessarily a Golden Age mystery, although it has a lot of the same kind of atmosphere. Not a Creature was Stirring by Jane Haddam is the first in the Gregor Demarkian series now available, again, on kindle in the UK.

That would mean, if anyone is interested:

August/Sept: Heads You Lose: Christianna Brand
September/Oct: There's Trouble Brewing
Oct/Nov: The Life and Times of Miss Jane Marple
Nov/Dec: Not a Creature was Stirring

Thoughts please?

[Judy]

Abbey wrote: "Judy wrote: "I just checked and spoiler tags were introduced in 2011, so any reviews older than that didn't have that option. "

um, yes, BUT the one we meant was from 2014.

and, you know, even "i..."

Yes, I noticed that one was more recent, Abbey - it did say 'spoiler alert' though, so I thought it might be someone who didn't know how to use the tags. Hopefully the GR staff will add the tags in soon to avoid anyone else being 'spoiled'!

[Judy]

Susan wrote: "Someone (Mark) has made the excellent suggestion of The Life And Times Of Miss Jane Marple as part of the Miss Marple challenge..."

This sounds like a great idea, Mark and Susan - I would love to join in on this one as a buddy read, and later in the year sounds like great timing.

Anyone else fancy joining in on the biography of Miss Marple?

[Judy]

Susan wrote: "August/Sept: Heads You Lose: Christianna Brand
September/Oct: There's Trouble Brewing
Oct/Nov: The Life and Times of Miss Jane Marple
Nov/Dec: Not a Creature was Stirring..."

What a great line-up. I'd be happy to join in on all of these - who else is interested in them?

I've been meaning to try Jane Haddam forever, so this would spur me on to do so!

[Susan]

Good to hear, Judy. I am already thinking ahead to 2018 with Green for Danger for all those Christianna Brand fans among us :) Jan/Feb

[Brina]

I would join in the Marple "biography" but would need a reminder.

[Marcus]

I'm pretending to join this buddy read (The Life and ...).