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Fiction- What are you reading? Part 2
Believe it or not I get nervous when you do too! Lol!!
Esther - the shellfish was described as a family treat - matriarch & patriarch included- just after a description of a solemn Sabbath - a surprise but I guess it is a challenge for authors to write about what they don’t know first hand. Nicholson didn’t know to ask.
Joan wrote: "Esther - the shellfish was described as a family treat - matriarch & patriarch included- just after a description of a solemn Sabbath - a surprise but I guess it is a challenge for authors to writ..."
She was writing about a Jewish family and didn't think to ask basic questions about kashrut? - that sounds like a complete lack of research.
Diane S ☔ wrote: "Believe it or not I get nervous when you do too! Lol!!"Did you love it from the start? I don't. It is a bit of a monologue.
No I didn't and yes it is I guess kind of a monologue, though I didn't look at that way. No, but I was slowly drawn into the life of this man.
Diane, re When All Is SaidI am trying to figure out what is bothering me. I know the hullabaloo about the coin doesn't do much for me. There is humor, but I feel I ought to be laughing more than I am. I have two toasts more.
Also, at the beginning, it seems obvious what Maurice is planning. Must wait to the end too see if I have guessed right. Maybe that the book is laid out as a mystery, to be figured out, is another problem for me.
At least figuring ut what is bothering me keeps me thinking.
I think the gold coin represents how one thing, one act can change things for so many. See what you think when you finish.
Diane S ☔ wrote: "I think the gold coin represents how one thing, one act can change things for so many. See what you think when you finish."OK.
Chrissie wrote: "Diane S ☔ wrote: "Believe it or not I get nervous when you do too! Lol!!"Did you love it from the start? I don't. It is a bit of a monologue."
I’m intrigued by the comments of Chrissie & Diane S. so I’ve joined my library waiting list for When All Is Said
Thanks for asking Chrissie- I’m doing well, settling back into routine, feeling peaceful.
One of my friends warned me about what she calls STUGS, sudden, transient upwelling of grief - a universal experience I’m sure.
Joan, it is after all has been taken care of that the death of a loved one can really hit you.
Just when I was getting bored with Abdication the author gets back to fundamental questions:“Did his newspaper not honor the people’s democratic right to know what went on in their” government?
Hmm...do people really believe that citizens have the right to know?
I have begun Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote. I want to read it because Capote's Idabel Thompkins, a character in this semi-autobiographical novel, is said to be young Harper Lee, just as Lee's Dill is young Capote in To Kill a Mockingbird. The bad thing is that I know I do not like the audiobook's narrator, Cody Roberts. He uses a ridiculous Southern accent.
Starting Flush , a biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel by Virginia Woolf.I’ve owned 3 springer spaniels and they have all been strong characters.
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I’ve owned 3 springer spaniels and they have all been strong..."
Read for the second time last year. Loved it!!! After having finished it I went with my husband on Elisabeth Barrett Browinig Tomb. Fascinating
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Thanks, Laura! We have similar..."
Finished yesterday and I can confirm my first impression: really a great book. And I don't think that anything is needed there. A very dry style, for a subject that needed nothing more ...
Petra wrote: "LauraT wrote: "Up to now I'm liking it quite; it is true that the prose is flat, but I don't find it a drawback. To many "flowers" in books are not to my taste! ..."Thanks, Laura! We have similar..."
Funny how we all like different things and describe things differently- I guess I like “flowery” prose. William F. Buckley Jr. wrote funny spy novels that always sent me to the dictionary because he used obscure adjectives that seemed just right. And I love the way Marcel Proust envelopes the reader with his descriptions of smells/sounds/textures.
LauraT wrote: "Joan wrote: "Starting Flush , a biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel by Virginia Woolf.I’ve owned 3 springer spaniels and they have al..."
Good to hear from someone else who enjoyed it. I’ll binge on Elizabeth Barrett Browning next.
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And I love the way Marcel Proust envelopes the reader with his descriptions of smells/sounds/textures."
But I DO love Proust Style! Or Dicken's, Trollope's or Tolstoi's. I worship almost all South American literature, where authors usemore words you can possibly think of: Gabo, Allende, Amado .... I love long books where I can loose myself in the too many words that lull me.
Still this book, with this story and this terrible background I think was rightly written that way.
Laura - I get it - the author needs to know when to turn off flow, has to be appropriate.
B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton. I just finished the 1st book in the series A is for Alibi. I'm loving it!!
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I have begun the very short Audible Original freebie--A Mind of Her Own by Paula McLain, about Marie Curie.
Almost finished with Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. Just barely started these 3: Harry's Trees (audiobook), Where the Crawdads Sing, and Who Slays the Wicked (ARC). Still trying to get through A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, reading the occasional chapter here and there.
I've started The Marvelous Village Veiled in Mist, which was the inspiration for the movie "Spirited Away" by Hayao Miyazaki.
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It is the last chapter of The Family Moskat, present only in the Yiddish original, never translated in English - and considering that all other translations were taken from the English one, never translated. Erri De Luca, an Italian writer, has translated it from Yiddish. It seems that somehow it reverses the tragic ending of teh masterpiece. I'm really interested
I just started Yugoslavia, My Fatherland by Goran Vojnović. I had requested my library purchase the book (and of course I forgot about it) and they bought it and checked it out to me! I was really trying to focus on reading books that I own this month but I will make the exception. I think it will be really interesting (and counts for 4 of my challenges, always an important consideration!)
I've now started Americanah. The only other book I've read (many years ago) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was Purple Hibiscus, which I loved.
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Never read anything by her. I'll give a look at her then
LauraT wrote: "Never read anything by her. I'll give a look at her then"Do, Laura. As I said, I loved Purple Hibiscus, and I'm really enjoying Americanah. I hope you'll like her books.
I began yesterday a mystery, which is unusual for me. In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien. I have enjoyed another book by the author so I thought I would give it a try. I have been told it is very good.
Sounds good Chrissie! I just downloaded the ebook from my library.
Pam wrote: "Sounds good Chrissie! I just downloaded the ebook from my library."I liked the first chapter a lot. You start in the woods and there is a beautiful lake and I liked the thoughts of Kathy, who you know is going to disappear....... . The second or third chapter chapter or something like that irritated me because you get quotes and don't know who is saying what until after--because I am listening. Also you get statements and opinions from assorted people whom you do not yet know. How can I evaluate their statements if I do not know them? I am a manic for needing to understand every bit of information given to me--which is stupid. I am telling myself to just cool it and see what the book offers.
Have you started?
Sandy recommended the book to me!
No, Chrissie, I haven’t started it yet. I downloaded it after I read your comment. I struggle w audiobooks in general so I understand your comment! I’ll let you know what I think as soon as I get into it.
Nichole wrote: "I just started The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak."I've got that on my TBR. Let us know what you think of it.
I've read her The Bastard of Istanbul, which I enjoyed; her Three Daughters of Eve, not so much; and The Architect's Apprentice, which I thought was her best book.
Tamara wrote: "Nichole wrote: "I just started The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak."I've got that on my TBR. Let us know what you think of it.
I've read her [book:The Bastar..."
Thanks. I will try to post updates.
Looking forward to goosebumps (or what a Ukrainian friend translated as chicken-skin) reading This House is Haunted
Pam wrote: "No, Chrissie, I haven’t started it yet. I downloaded it after I read your comment. I struggle w audiobooks in general so I understand your comment! I’ll let you know what I think as soon as I get i..."I see what the author is getting said but still not sure what I think of the book. Mysteries are not usually my thing and how he spies on her gives me the creeps. People should talk and play straight with each other.
Christie - the second chapter was kind of weird. It was a flash forward - evidence and statements from the trial for which the crime hasn’t even been committed yet! I’m not sure if I like the book. I’ll give it a few more chapters.
Pam, I finished it a few minutes ago. The book is put together in a fashion to keep you guessing--it is a mystery! I like the ending and I have nothing against its message, but how it is put together is not to my taste. For me it was OK, so I am giving it two stars. I will write a review as soon as I have a chance--today or tomorrow.
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Have to admit to being very curious about your reception myself."
I get nervous when everybody loves a book and then comes picky old me........ I dread having to be the one to say it didn't work for me. I just hope I love it as everyone else has.