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What have you just read? Opinions, recommendations, reviews Part 2
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Angela M
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Jul 10, 2018 06:10PM
I read The Dying of the Light. 3+ stars . My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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A bright red cover for an equally colourful history/mystery! I recommend Susan Orlean’s The Library Book to all book lovers. 
5★ Link to my review
Finished two duds
by Alice FeeneyMy Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
by Stephanie Powell WattsMy Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Britany wrote: "Finished two duds by Alice FeeneyMy Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
[bookcover:No One Is Coming to Save Us|306539..."
Hope you next read is brilliant Britany.
My review of Good News, Bad News by Maggie Groff3 and a half stars
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer. I know it got some mixed reviews, but I loved it. It's about an affluent white South African woman who finds home and family in an Arab village. Just beautifully done.My five star review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My review of The Bone and Sinew of the Land: America's Forgotten Black Pioneers and the Struggle for Equality by Anna-Lisa Cox:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I enjoyed Family Linen. It has a very good title. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I stuck in a short story today: The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away.My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Since the death of my mother last week, I have found myself unable to concentrate on reading but since I now find driving without an audiobook uncomfortable, I have been rereading via audiobook some old favorites:The Hobbit, narrated by Rob Inglis
Right Ho, Jeeves, narrated by Jonathan Cecil
and not a reread but light books not requiring much attention, from the library:
The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla, narrated by Kate Reading
Eggs, Beans And Crumpets, narrated by Jonathan Cecil
As you can see, I have been spending a lot of time driving back and forth lately!
Mod
Driving back and forth after my dad's passing, I believe I listened to Right Ho, Jeeves as well - there's nothing to say, but my heart goes out to you Leslie
Just reviewed renowned Aussie mystery writer Michael Robotham's psychological thriller The Secrets She Keeps. It's a good stand-alone read!
4★ Link to my review
I have completed On A Chinese Screenby W. Somerset Maugham and The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick. Both are worth reading. My review of the first: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My review of the latter: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The latter is available free online and as an audiobook.It is a short story. I have provided a link to it in my review. Everyone should read this in some format.
Mod
My review of the firs..."
I remember that short story Chrissie - very moving!
Greg wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "I have completed On A Chinese Screenby W. Somerset Maugham and The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick. Both are worth reading. My r..."
Extremely. I have been tasting lately some really good short stories. I cannot read a book of short stories, a stream of them wrecks them for me, but a really good one now and then is totally wonderful.
Another VERY good short story, this time Alice Walker's Everyday Use.My very, very short review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
As usual, I put a link to the story free online in my review.
Mod
My very, very short review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
As usual, I put a lin..."
I liked that one a lot too
I finished listening to The Windfall by Diksha Basu today. I liked this family. They were warm and friendly. The story is relaxed and easy going; a good summer read.Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
My very, very short review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
As usual, I put a lin..."
I liked that one a lot too
Greg wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Another VERY good short story, this time Alice Walker's Everyday Use.My very, very short review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
As u..."
Which do you like better, the story or The Color Purple? Is there another story you particularly think is good by Walker? Some authors are better with novels, others with short stories, which would you choose for Walker?
Mod
My very, very short review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show......"
It's hard to comment because I've only read The Color Purple and Everyday Use - I haven't read her other novels or stories.
I do very much like both of those I read. I think the writing is more lyrical and beautiful at times in The Color Purple than in the short story, but the impressive thing about Everyday Use is that in just a few pages, she handles some complex and seldom treated topics with much subtlety and grace!
Greg, I have hesitated in reading The Color Purple because in this she seems to have an agenda. This would annoy me.
Mod
Hmm, I am not sure. Certainly Walker has beliefs, but I didn't think her agenda was much more prominent than Hurston's in Their Eyes Were Watching God, certainly less so than Wright's in Native Son. I didn't see The Color Purple as propaganda.
For me, propaganda is where the idea comes first, and everything else is malformed in an effort to demonstate that preconceived idea. Propaganda annoys me too, but there are some things I see as pure propaganda that others really like and consider quality fiction. Sometimes I think it partly depends on expectation and experience. Things farther afield from our own beliefs can be forced to pass a higher bar; that's just natural I guess.
I really don't know what your reaction to The Color Purple would be Chrissie. We do sometimes agree on books, but other times, our approach is different.
I would say though that The Color Purple is quite different than Everyday Use.
Thanks for you thoughts, Greg. After reading many reviews one gets a feel for whether a book will fit....or not. I am guessing that The Color Purple will get no more than three stars from me. I was impressed by Walker's ability to pack such a punch in her short story Everyday Use.
I tested Alice Munro with her short story The Shining Houses.My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I will try one more; if that fails me, I will call it quits.
A cute book that encourages a bit of scrounging for rocket parts!Astromouse by Steve Smallman will send kids to the kitchen looking for a funnel.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A catchup on my recent reads:volume 2 of the Louise Cooper series, Inferno, and my review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2449661955.
volume 3 of the Indigo series by Louise Cooper - Infanta - and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2456839594.
volume 4 Nocturne which was a lot better than the others to date - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2456857195.
and a break from the Indigo series, Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2449554413.
Greg, I liked what you say above about whether you feel a book is propoganda or not. I've struggled with a few books lately, such as Red Clocks or When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife, where I've liked the premise, but they seem to be written with the intention of making you think and feel about a certain topic, rather than focus on the story or characters. Even with topics when I'm completely in line with the authors thinking, it feels a bit manipulative and I can't quite get lost in the story the way I'd like to. Chrissie, I did feel this way at times with The Color Purple. Though maybe my expectations were just too high with that book, or I was reading it extra critically at the time.
I haven't been writing reviews lately, but I'd like to mention a couple of books that I have really enjoyed recently. Another Country by James Baldwin which I thought was a fantastic read. It had a similarity to Giovanni's Room, in its intensity and exceptional writing, but I think this was even better. It took me quite a long while to read, as each page was so intense I found myself only reading it for short periods at a time. So many of the sentences were exquisitely written, I could have highlighted half of the book.
I've also read Tin Man by Sarah Winman. I was worried that this wouldn't be for me and I thought it might feel like the homosexuality had been included as a diversity box check. I couldn't have been more wrong, it was well written and the characters were so well drawn that I was completely invested in their stories and swept away with it all. I haven't read anything else by her, but might go back and check out her earlier stories. Has anyone here read When God Was a Rabbit?
Pink wrote: "Even with topics when I'm completely in line with the authors thinking, it feels a bit manipulative and I can't quite get lost in the story the way I'd like to. Chrissie, I did feel this way at times with The Color Purple. Though maybe my expectations were just too high with that book, or I was reading it extra critically at the time. ."
I feel as you about books that push an idea on to a reader, even if I happen to agree! I am not for now going to read A Color Purple.
Pink, Tin Man is one of my favorites for the year so far . Glad you loved it .
Finally I've finished a book. It took me nearly one month to read it. Not only because it was very long and with a tiny font, but also because I've been too busy.
L'anello forte. La donna: storie di vita contadina by Nuto Revelli 3*There isn't an English translation. This books contains interviews, done in the eighties, to peasant women that live in Piedmont. There were elderly women but also young ones.
It was an interesting book, to read how they lived and how hard life was for them, but it was also too repetitive and also too long. The interviews were similar to each other so I think that the author should have added less stories.
The structure of the book was similar to Svetlana Alexievich's War's Unwomanly Face, but the topic was different. Sadly in these stories about Italian peasant women I could feel the presence of the author, and the stories were so similar to each other, that after a while my level of interest decreased.
Only Italian review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Now I need something funny, easy and light. Don't know what I could pick up.
Loved The Tin Man too, but that is the only book I have read by her. Would like to read more, if I can find a space in my resding schedule for it.
Mod
I liked [book:Another Country Pink, but you're right - it was extremely intense. The writing in the last part of the book was my favorite.
Mod
Hope you find something good dely! :)
Greg wrote: "Hope you find something good dely! :)"I decided for something short and by an author I love, to be sure I will like also this one. And it's also a story I wanted to read since a long time: Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffmann.
I have completed Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger.My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
I decided for something short and by an author I love, to be sure I will like also this one. And it's also a story I wanted to read since a long..."
Hope you enjoy it!
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