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What have you just read? Opinions, recommendations, reviews Part 2
I finished reading a short and lovely story, Vi. I haven't read books by this author before and will be reading more.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My review of The Portrait of Molly Dean by Katherine Kovacic
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished two!
by J.D. Vance - 2 StarsNot as great as I had anticipated- My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
&
by Marissa Meyer - 3.5 StarsReally fun retelling of Cinderella as a cyborg! My Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished The House of Mirth. Didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Didn't feel any affinity for the protagonist or any of the other characters. 3.4 stars. Liked The Age of Innocence much better.My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
It is amazing what 13-year-old girls are capable of. Girls At Play is a short story by Celeste Ng and was shortlisted for an award> I'm not surprised. Girls can be scary creatures. My review (and links to read the story yourself) are here.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fish-Boy is a gorgeously illustrated Inuit folktale for children, with glossary and explanations by Vanita Oelschlager. More than a picture book (but the pictures are wonderful). My review with a couple of illustrations:
5★ Link to my review
My review of The Good Pilot, Peter Woodhouse by Alexander McCall Smith
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I just finished Moving the Palace by Charif Majdalani, a Lebanese author. The novel recounts the early 20th Century adventures of his grandfather traveling through the Sudan and Egypt while acting as a translator for the British. It is an absolute gem. I loved the narrator's dry sense of humor. This is one of the best books I've read all year.My review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My review of All I Ever Wanted by Lucy Dillon4 and a half stars
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Vanita Oelschlager's book Knees: The mixed up world of a boy with dyslexia uses simple cartoons and rhyming humour to show kids that dyslexia didn't stop lots of famous people from doing great things! 
4★ https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Chrissie, I am not at all surprised by your reaction to Moby Dick. I hope you make that your last attempt! If a books not for you, it's just not for you!
Pink, it is NOT for me and I will not be trying it again.
This is one I did not finish. Shining Sea By Anne Korkeakivi . 1 star
Apart from the opening chapter I found it never held my interest. I always felt I was sidelined and not involved. Others have liked it though, so maybe it was just not for me.
Popular Aussie news journalist (among other things) Tony Jones has successfully added thriller writer to his "among other things" with a great read, The Twentieth Man. It's based on true Aussie events, but there's plenty of artistic licence making for an exciting novel. Loved it!
4.5★ https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just finished Theory of Bastards by Audrey Schulman
My Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Not at all what I was expected - in a good way.
Read Joan Aiken's The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1389233539.
Read Our Lady of the Snow by Louise Cooper and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2394394064.
Read Waking Nightmares by Ramsey Campbell and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2394463640.
My reviews of One Kick by Chelsea Cain3 and a half stars
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and
Ridgeview Station by Michael Trant
4 stars
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Both are new authors to me
I have completed Emma. It gave me quite a surprise.My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
While I was reading Emma, I got a bit bored and needed a break. I stuck in a short story by W. Somerset Maugham--Up at the Villa. It's good. It makes you think. Here is my very short review of the story: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... There is a link in my review to the story free online.
Charging my Kindle before starting
The Retreat by Mark Edwards after finishing a delightful, heartwarming, happy/ sad and satisfying book
Cassandra's Secret: Sometimes the only way to move forward is to go back... by Frances Garrood. My spoiler free review can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
I read Silas Marner by George Eliot. I've read Middlemarch and The Mill on the Floss several times, but this was my first read of Silas Marner. I thought it was a charming little novel of life in a rural English village. And it has a happy ending to boot!My review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just read The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2394487674.
The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson is one of the finds of my tbr pile - a great read.
My Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
5/5 stars.
Despite being very busy, I couldn't stay away from The Kites by Romain Gary 4,5* but it could be also 5*.It's not easy to talk about this book: it's set in France, some years before WWII but above all the years during the war. There is Ludo, the main character, a boy we meet when he is 11 years old, and then we follow him when he felt in love with a Polish girl and his years during the war.
But there isn't only him, there are other wonderful depicted characters and it's impossible to don't fall in love with them. The author also helps us to understand the behavior of the "evil" characters. All of them are human, with their good and bad sides.
It isn't only a book about war. It is a book about love, hope, humanity, good and evil. It isn't like other books read till now about WWII. The more I think about it, the more it's a 5 stars.
If you have never read Romain Gary, then you have to try him. I have loved The Life Before Us and now I liked a lot also this one. Can't wait to read another book by him.
I recommend The Bookshop, A totally devastating book. I think better than Offshore.My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I just finished Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
All About Books
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Chrissie, I wasn't that keen on it, either. It was impressive as a debut novel, but there were just too many problematic issues with it for my taste.
My review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...