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Fiction- What are you reading? Part 2
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Joan
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Apr 12, 2019 04:44PM
I’m listening to Breath, Eyes, Memory, some Tonton Macouts have showed up - the real thing was a truly evil gang - so the story is getting scary in a very bad but realistic way.
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Sophia wrote: "Does anyone have any recs for historical fiction?"If you like gothic historical fiction, The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell is really good and atmospheric.
I have moved on to Waiting for Bojangles. It is a book very popular in France now. I am wondering if it is a book that cannot easily be translated. Lines rhyme and the author plays with words. In translation the humor is not working for me. I am disappointed but will continue to its end. It is short.
I began this morning Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather. I like her descriptive writing of the Southwest. Does anybody know her view of the Catholic Church? I am getting the feeling she was rather critical.
Just started Girl Most Likely by Max Allan CollinsI won as a GoodReads giveaway. It has started out a thriller so far.
I’m enjoying the audiobook When All Is Said. Chapter 2 is a moving description of sibling affection and memory.
Joan wrote: "I’m enjoying the audiobook When All Is Said. Chapter 2 is a moving description of sibling affection and memory."So explain to me so I understand what you are liking, PLEASE! I gave it two stars.
Chrissie wrote: "Joan wrote: "I’m enjoying the audiobook When All Is Said. Chapter 2 is a moving description of sibling affection and memory."So explain to me so I understand what you are liking, ..."
Hannigan seems pitch perfect to me - like I’m listening to my Dad or one of my uncles (I never knew my grandparents). His combination of brusqueness and sensitivity is just like them. The tender affection between the brothers and the brave little boy who thought he was a eejit because he couldn’t learn to read touched my heart really. And then when he endured abuse for the sake of his family - well that is exactly what kids from disempowered families often have to do isn’t it?
For me the narrator is very easy to understand- his rough, warm voice suits the part and brings to mind the older men I’ve known.
I knew from your review that our reactions were very different, but I’m only on page 100. I wonder if I’ll lose my affection for Hannigan as I learn more about him. Also, I often enjoy novels that are internal monologues- as long as the writing is good and the author’s vocabulary broad.
Diane , can’t wait to see what you think of it .
Joan wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Joan wrote: "I’m enjoying the audiobook When All Is Said. Chapter 2 is a moving description of sibling affection and memory."So explain to me so I understand what..."
Thanks for really explaining what is going through your head. People's reactions are so darn different. Since I read it I have found others who reacted as I did. The problem is that those who do not like the book often just close the covers and write nothing.
I began yesterday The Confessions of Frances Godwin. I like this author--Robert Hellenga. I like the way he writes. I can elate to his characters. I have not read him in a while. He consistently takes the reader to Italy. That happens here too.
How many of us focus on what we have done, oblivious to the good that others see?Morris Hannigan in When All Is Said is like that. He is well aware of the wrong things he has said, the times he was too hard on his son or short-tempered. That he is blessed with a wonderful wife and smart son seems an unfathomable miracle to him. But clearly he was a good husband and loving father - he just can’t give himself credit for what he’s done right.
I have begun Canada by Richard Ford. I am excited about reading this book, but i was excited about the previous book too.
Chrissie wrote: "I have begun Canada by Richard Ford. I am excited about reading this book, but i was excited about the previous book too."I look forward to your thoughts, Chrissie. I have this book and am thinking that it would be a nice book to read outdoors (I have no reason for thinking that; just do) so was thinking it might make a good summer read.
Chrissie wrote: "I have begun Canada by Richard Ford. I am excited about reading this book, but i was excited about the previous book too."I found it on a free shelf but had forgotten which of my groups was going to read it and when. I've been remiss in all group reads in virtually everyone of my groups, some for longer than others, and particularly this year which is my Year of Rebellious Reading where, for the most part, I am doing mood reading--am I in the mood to read something or not? The only game or challenge I'm going involves series with fairly easy rules, so any book I feel like reading that happens to be in a series can be made to work.
So, now the question remains, will I read it? I tend to avoid any book with scenes in Canada written by Americans and most other international people, with a few exceptions. This is rather ironic since I have less of a problem with reading Canadian authors who set their novels in other countries and because I've been living in the States since I got married and also for a few bits prior growing up, etc.
Petra wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "I have begun Canada by Richard Ford. I am excited about reading this book, but i was excited about the previous book too."I look forward to your tho..."
I am liking if so far. Bette has recommended it and it was not available to me until recently!
I'm reading Fables and Reflections (would use link, but it's broken for whatever reason) from The Sandman series.
I'm pleased you are enjoying the novel, Chrissie.Esther, I do see your point. I dislike people from other countries writing about Australia. Nevertheless, I'm a great fan of Richard Ford. I don't think he could ever mess up writing about another country but that is my opinion.
I’m reading Heartstone, #5 in the Matthew Shardlake series, by C. J. Sansom. It’s really good! My first in the series.
I'm reading Battle Cries and Lullabies: Women in War from Prehistory to the Present by Linda Grant De Pauw. It's about the role of women in war. I'm only a few chapters in so far. The chapter on Pre-History was fascinating.
Bette, Richard Ford throws lines into a story that make you think. Just while I was eating breakfast there were at least two. One was that "life is passed to us empty", but it is up to us to make something of it. The other one I am thinking of was that we end up in a place because we have left another rather than going to that place to be there. There is a difference!You get very much into Dell's head, what it was like for him to be the son of bank robbers. I like how he points out that this is his story and if his parents had told i, it would be different. I like how he shows us how "ordinary" the family was before the robbery and yet at the same time how complicated all the family relationships were.
That the police in Great Falls sent no one to care for the kids, I was a bit skeptical of. The author then uses this to emphasize what a teeny little place it was. Had Ford left this unexplained, I would have had a more critical view.
A lot remains to be tied up. The book is a slow burner.
Bette, have you read Between Them: Remembering My Parents? There are nixed views.
Karin and Bette, while I do see your point, the thing is that in this story they are right at the border in southern Saskatchewan and there are characters living there that are American. The respective views of Canadians and Americans and of each other will perhaps be a topic of the book. Different opinions are voiced. Anyhow, the book isn't about Canada per se. Dell is there because he had to leave America, so he wold bot be put in an orphanage. This is not a spoiler.
Furthermore. isn't it kind of good to promote rather than restrict an exchange of ideas about different countries' views and lifestyles?!
No, Chrissie, I haven't. I think I would if it was about Ford himself. Maybe one day. It is still Ford writing so there is that attraction for me.
Chrissie wrote: "Bette, Richard Ford throws lines into a story that make you think. Just while I was eating breakfast there were at least two. One was that "life is passed to us empty", but it is up t..."Between Them: Remembering My Parents looked interesting to me. The lower ratings I was able to see were not written in English - perhaps it is more suited to readers who know that era in the U.S.?
It’s now on my TBR, thank you.
Chrissie wrote: "Bette, Richard Ford throws lines into a story that make you think. Just while I was eating breakfast there were at least two. One was that "life is passed to us empty", but it is up t..."Great lines Chrissie! I read Canada last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. I live in Saskatchewan and am very familiar with the area depicted, Ford did a fantastic job with the setting.
Joan wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Bette, Richard Ford throws lines into a story that make you think. Just while I was eating breakfast there were at least two. One was that "life is passed to us empty..."@Joan and Bette,
That is interesting what you point out, Joan. I will read t because Ford wrote it. I am thinking as Bette is, but half-way!
Evelyn wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Bette, Richard Ford throws lines into a story that make you think. Just while I was eating breakfast there were at least two. One was that "life is passed to us empty..."Evelyn, THANK YO! Hearing a view from a person who lives in Saskatchewan is important.
I've just finished
and contrary to popular opinion I like it even more than the Dublin Murder Squad books that I've read.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Chrissie wrote: "Karin and Bette, while I do see your point, the thing is that in this story they are right at the border in southern Saskatchewan and there are characters living there that are American. The respective views of Canadians and Americans and of each other will perhaps be a topic of the book. Different opinions are voiced. Anyhow, the book isn't about Canada per se. Dell is there because he had to leave America, so he wold bot be put in an orphanage. This is not a spoiler.Furthermore. isn't it kind of good to promote rather than restrict an exchange of ideas about different countries' views and lifestyles?!"
I should mention that I am also sensitive to things like American spelling in a British or Canadian novel or vice versa (Canadian spelling is NOT exactly like British) because the spelling doesn't match the syntax. I can't tell you what a relief it is that the American edition of McCall Smith's latest novel uses UK spelling so it matches how he writes, for example. For any other spelling geeks like me who are curious about Canadian spelling, the only truly Canadian spelling source I know is here http://www.luther.ca/~dave7cnv/cdnspe... but he forgot to include whisky/whiskey--the latter being American. On the website for the liquor store in my hometown they actually put whisky/whiskey just like I did, which tells me Canadians spell it the British way (Americans added the e).
Having lived on both sides of the border and listening to the myths that abound on both sides of it about each other, first hearing the terms hoser and beer store on a Bob and Doug McKenzie video and sure they were pure fiction (turns out they are Ontario, Canada terms) and various and sundry other things, I'm more sensitive.
Bear in mind that when I was 10 and in the midst of a two years stay in San Francisco a friend's mother made me feel terrible by telling me that the US is the only truly free country in the world or something equally false, and having my classmates all gang up against me because I didn't recite the pledge of allegiance--my parents suggested I write the Canadian consulate to get an official answer on why people who aren't Americans don't have to say the pledge of Allegiance (I'm now a dual citizen), and many other things, I get antsy when people from other countries set books in them because sometimes those mistakes come through.
So, just one example of a popular myth about Canada here in the States is that Canada is a socialist country--it's no more socialist than is Massachusetts! Another is that Canada has national, socialized medicine, when it doesn't--England does. Canada has provincial plans and in some provinces you pay premiums.
But it's also slang and terminology, which even in the States can be done wrong if a writer lives on the other side of the country.
So, for example, if a novelist in California sets a novel partly in Massachusetts and has a MA resident asking where they can find a water fountain to drink from--bad! Or if someone from back east is acting onscreen or in a play as though they lived in Oregon and they pronounce it "ora gone" iit's just so wrong.
But it goes even more so for Canada, which as a large country has many regional variations in slang, etc.
Karin,Because I am born & raised in the USA, at 10 years old I asserted my right to not say the Pledge of Allegiance - triggered quite a brouhaha in my classroom. Luckily my principal and parents knew constitutional law. I still don’t salute the flag.
Joan wrote: "Karin,Because I am born & raised in the USA, at 10 years old I asserted my right to not say the Pledge of Allegiance - triggered quite a brouhaha in my classroom. Luckily my principal and parents ..."
Interesting! As a now naturalized citizen (I've been a dual citizen for over 20 years because I had no desire to have to deal with the INS every 10 years once I got my green card and my husband is American and has no desire to live elsewhere) I will never get the point of pledging allegiance to a flag even as a symbol. I have no idea when you were 10, so have no idea just how shocking it was (I realize it wasn't in the past handful of years!) when and where you did that.
That said, at least one of my children thinks it's very important to say the pledge when it's done as does my husband.
Just finished The Night Manager by John Le Carre - either I’ve missed something or the ending was very anti-climactic and the ‘bad guys ‘ got away? I must have missed something surely?
I have started another book as well, The Man Without Qualities, which will take me months since my Kindle says that at my speed it should take me 66 hours to complete. I don't know if I can do this.
_jo.85_ wrote: "Just finished The Night Manager by John Le Carre - either I’ve missed something or the ending was very anti-climactic and the ‘bad guys ‘ got away? I must have missed something surely?"This was on TV as a mini series a few years ago. The Bad guy - played by Hugh Laurie - definitely did not get away! But I have not read the book so do not know how true the TV adaptation is to the original
Marina (Sonnenbarke) wrote: "I have started another book as well, The Man Without Qualities, which will take me months since my Kindle says that at my speed it should take me 66 hours to complete. I don't know if..."I read this last year and while the beginning was promising I did not end up liking it much. On the one hand it really depicts the period, but on the other--well, I won't say before you finish or give it up. The English translation I read was quite good, too, not the first one done, but it looks to me like you are reading it in German.
Marina (Sonnenbarke) wrote: "I have started another book as well, The Man Without Qualities, which will take me months since my Kindle says that at my speed it should take me 66 hours to complete. I don't know if..."I have had The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil staring me in the face for several years waiting to be read, but something always comes along to take its place. It is supposed to be a wonderful book, so let us know what you think of it and I might dive in after all.
Karin, yes, I'm reading it in German, and I can assure you it is rather complicated, despite my very good knowledge of the language! I can't say I'm impressed so far, but I'm only a few chapters in, so it wouldn't be fair to judge as yet. Big books always intimidate me, but I hope that reading it a little at a time over the course of a few months will help me get through it.
Marina (Sonnenbarke) wrote: "Karin, yes, I'm reading it in German, and I can assure you it is rather complicated, despite my very good knowledge of the language! I can't say I'm impressed so far, but I'm only a few chapters in..."Keep us posted and happy reading!
Marina (Sonnenbarke) wrote: "Karin, yes, I'm reading it in German, and I can assure you it is rather complicated, despite my very good knowledge of the language! I can't say I'm impressed so far, but I'm only a few chapters in..."I'm not surprised that you find it complicated because the entire book is complicated, dark, political and philosophical even in a good translation into your own language!
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Great read, but it needs its time! I read it some years ago, but together with other books!!!
@Trish - I’ve started to watch the TV series but wanted to read the book first. I’m hoping I’ve just missed a point but if not I’m seriously puzzled!
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