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What have you just read? Opinions, recommendations, reviews Part 2
My review of The Northern Lights Lodge by Julie Caplin
3 stars
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My review of The Semester of Our Discontent by Cynthia Kuhn:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
4 stars
Olav Audunssøn: I. Vows takes place in Norway in the 1200s. This translated edition was released just this month. Author Sigrid Undset won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. This has all the feuds, arranged marriages, hard times, difficult romancing you'd expect from such a cold place so very long ago, but I think some of her other writing must have been what earned her the Nobel.
3★ Link to my review of Olav Audunssøn
Finished two books over the weekend: ⭐⭐⭐.7
Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippmanhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
And ⭐⭐⭐⭐.2
Three Women and a Boat by Anne Youngson https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I read Bird Summons by Leila Aboulela. About three Muslim women living in Scotland who make a road trip to visit the grave of Lady Evelyn Cobbold, a Scottish convert to Islam and the first British woman to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca. I didn't think the novel was as good as any of her other books. Her plunge into magical realism didn't work for me.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro - 4 stars - My ReviewI found this book intense, disturbing, and thought-provoking.
Finished the ⭐⭐⭐.6 suspense anthology
Nothing Good Happens After Midnight: A Suspense Magazine Anthology collated by Jeffery Deaverhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My review of How to Raise an Elephant by Alexander McCall Smith
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A Chorus of Innocents (Sir Robert Carey #7) by P.F. Chisholm was another entertaining instalment in this historical fiction mystery series set in 1592 on the English/Scottish borderlands. Ah, the intrigue! Such a great way to soak up a bit of history. But mind the bloodshed!
4.5★ Link to my Innocents review
Dale wrote: "Giving up on this one so no rating. My thoughts about why.Safeby S.K. Barnett
"The link goes to the book page Dale, not your review which sounded intriguing.
Maxine Hong Kingston wrote the classic The Woman Warrior, about the impact of her Chinese-American culture growing up in California. It gives a wonderful insight into particularly female experiences of that culture, and there is a lesser-known sequel, China Men, which describes the male experience. Both are magical!My China Men review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Read Anthony Masters' The Natural History of the Vampire and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3643555955
Seem to have forgotten to post this earlier:Read H is for Hawk and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1391772779
Finished ⭐⭐⭐.2
Finding Love at the Christmas Market by Jo Thomashttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished this fable of good and evil about the Holocaust:The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne - 4 stars - My Review
My review of American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodardhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I have been doing a lot of rereading this month. It started with The Nine Tailors followed by The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, a couple of P.G. Wodehouse books and several Georgette Heyer romances. They have been great stress relief!I have also read some library books - The Radetzky March and The Giver in particular. I managed to squeeze in some already owned books - Nothing Can Rescue Me: Henry Gamadge #6 & When Dimple Met Rishi.
It looks like my reading slump is over!
Mod
I'd say it is!!!!
My read this month are, up to now, these:
Eleanor H. Porter book:Mary Marie|11226004]
Paola Masino Nascita e morte della massaia
Ernest Hemingway The Sun Also Rises
Bruno Gambarotta La confraternita dell'asino
Tiffany McDaniel The Summer That Melted Everything
Nicola Lagioia La città dei vivi
And these I'm reading/listening at the moment:
Michael Ende La storia infinita
Elisabeth Jane Howard Falling
Renata Viganò L'Agnese va a morire
Rebecca Kauffman The Gunners
Finished reading The Gilda Stories by Jewelle L. GómezMy review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I read Iceland's Bell by Halldór Laxness. I absolutely loved his Independent People and was really looking forward to this. But I found it to be a bit unwieldy and difficult to follow.My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Two more read. I am making the most of my time before I have to start back to work. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Her by Garry Disher Dark. Unsettling. Heartbreaking. This will put paid to any romantic notions you may harbour about the 'good old days.' https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths. A must read for fans of Agatha Christie. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
I am one of the many who are enjoying Graham Brack's Christmas gift to readers of In Dulci Jubilo, a free, charming, short Christmas mystery for Master Mercurius to solve. 
5★ Link to my In Dulci Jubilo review
When Darwin Sailed the Sea: Uncover how Darwin's revolutionary ideas helped change the world by David Long is a great little book that should be in all school libraries. Attractive and informative, even for old folks like me. :)
5★ Link to my 'Darwin' review with several illustrations
Mod
One is Italian, L'Agnese va a morire - on the Resistenza to the Fascist regime and Nazi occupation in WWII - that it seems has not been translated into English; pity.
The second is The Gunners; really interesting view of how children ca grow up as friends, not undestarding the inner feelings of each other. Still, if they're really friends, sooner or later, they...catch up.
Here's mt review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My review of The Family Holiday by Elizabeth Noble
4 and a half stars
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez - 4 stars - My Review