All About Books discussion
General Archive
>
What have you just read? Opinions, recommendations, reviews Part 2
Finally managed to review the last book I read in 2019 - Other Dimensions volume 2 by Clark Ashton Smith - reviewed here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2998994965
I have just finished rereading Graham Greene's thriller This Gun for Hire aka "A Gun for Sale". What a magnificent writer Greene was! 5*
I did a mad dash of reading at the end of the year, and here are my last reviews.The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories by Penelope Lively. These stories were great, even for folks like me who don't read stories regularly. Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Read one I think is not well-known, The Dialogue of the Dogs by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Short and great fun! Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
And ended the year with a very enjoyable Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance. Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Here's my review of the reading year: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami.A very tender love story that builds up gradually between a thirty-something woman and her seventy-something former professor.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
I'm glad you enjoyed Raffles Laura!I am finished with The Wings of the Dove - ugh! I gave the audiobook 3* because Juliet Stevenson did such a good narration but only 2.5* to the book itself.
Mod
The comparison between the Spanish Civil War and the Chile Golpe is farly easy, still impressing, also considering the latest happenings in South America
I have finished a very short novella by Balzac (really a long short story) - At the Sign of the Cat and Racket. I like Balzac's prose and really felt for Augustine. 3.5* (which might have been higher with a more modern translation)I also finished a collection of odd & humorous short stories in audiobook - More Bedtime Stories for Cynics. This was an Audible original freebie last spring & I am glad that I picked it up. 3*
My review of Into the Fire: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just finished The HypnotistVery enjoyable: 4 STARS
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
While nervously awaiting regular alerts about the Aussie bushfires, I've been reading the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Overstory by Richard Powers. A good readable mix of characters, history, and tree info, as well.
4.5★ Link to my review
Finished reading Our Share of Time by Yves NavarreIt was a tough read, here's my review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just finished The Third Daughter. A good one for those historical fiction lovers. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Will and Testament by Vigdis Hjorth (Norway).An exploration of the impact of childhood trauma on a family. There were a lot of grammatical errors (fused sentences, comma splices, etc.) which I found bothersome. I don't know if it is because of the translation or because the author was trying to capture the fractured life and attitude of the victim. Either way, it didn't work well for me. But it may not bother others as much.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jen wrote: "Just finished The Third Daughter. A good one for those historical fiction lovers. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."I like historical fiction... I'll consider this for my teetering TBR mountain!
PattyMacDotComma wrote: "While nervously awaiting regular alerts about the Aussie bushfires..."Keeping you and our other Aussie members in my thoughts Patty!
Read The Rats, old school British horror, by James Herbert, certainly packs a punch, highly recommended, here is a link to my reviewhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I reread "Sanditon" in my edition of Sanditon And Other Stories by Jane Austen.I am looking forward to the upcoming PBS dramatization of this unfinished novel. Austen has barely set the stage in the 11 chapters she completed! I wavered between 3.5 and 4 stars and in the end gave it 4* because the characters are wonderful & seem to me quite different from those in her finished novels.
Mod
LauraT wrote: "Never read this by Jane Austen; I'll have to mend it"You can download a free copy from GirleBooks.com:
http://girlebooks.com/ebook-catalog/j...
Read and enjoyed the WWII fiction The Fortunate Ones
To be released on January 20th
My 4⭐ review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
You can download a free copy from GirleBooks.com:
http://girlebooks.com/ebook-catalog/j..."
Thanks; done now ;)!
Recently finished A Feast For Crows, good read. Here is a link to my reviewhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Prettiest Horse in the Glue Factory is the wonderful title of popular Aussie comedian Corey White's unique memoir. He is one of those kids who fell through the cracks of "the system" and landed in some inexcusably bad foster care. It's a terrific read!
5★ Link to my review
I have just finished the second in the Sean Duffy series
I Hear the Sirens in the Street by Adrian McKinty. My spoiler free review can be found at my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/... and https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
I finished reading the first book of the USA Trilogy by John Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel. I really enjoyed this. It was an interesting look at the USA at the beginning of the 1900s, to the USA's involvement in WWI.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Petra wrote: "I finished reading the first book of the USA Trilogy by John Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel. I really enjoyed this. It was an interesting look at the USA at the beginning of the 1900s, ..."
I loved that trilogy when I read it back in my college days!
I finished Red Mars. I am not sure what to say about this book. I felt simultaneously that it had too much detail and not enough! Certain scenes in which lists of things where given (e.g. types of lichen or fungus) were boring to me but overall the book held my interest. Indeed, I liked it well enough that I am planning on reading the next book in the trilogy sometime soon. 3.5*
I really liked Evelyn Waugh's Men at Arms! The dark humor of this novel, the first in Waugh's Sword of Honor trilogy, struck me as quite similar to that in M*A*S*H. The eccentricities of Guy's fellow officers, the stupidities of some aspects of military life, etc. In some ways, this is the first of Waugh's books I have read that successfully combined his satire with his more serious thoughts about life as a Catholic Englishman. I gave it 4* but might change that to 4.5*!
Leslie wrote: "Jen wrote: "Just finished The Third Daughter. A good one for those historical fiction lovers. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."I like historical fiction..."
I think you'll enjoy this one, Leslie
Finished Hoover's It Ends with Us. Naked truth: I was totally taken by surprise by this one. Can't wait for her new release.My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
I really enjoyed this. It was an interesting look at the USA at the beginning of the 1900s, ..."
I should read it sooner or later; on of my father favovurite
All About Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Dark Mode (other topics)Critical Mass (other topics)
The Go-Between (other topics)
One, Two ... He Is Coming for You (other topics)
Death at Hungerford Stairs (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Ashley Kalagian Blunt (other topics)Daniel Suarez (other topics)
Willow Rose (other topics)
L.P. Hartley (other topics)
Luis Alberto Urrea (other topics)
More...
3 stars
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...