75 Books...More or Less! discussion
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Alecias 2018 Challenge
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This book gets 4.5/5 stars...a tiny book that packs a big wallop. Back when I was in college, I read Johnny Got ..."
Congrats on surpassing 75! In your thread at the top where it says "Alecias 2018 Challenge," next to it says Edit. Click that and then click Folder - "2018 GR COMPLETED Challenge" and Save! This can't be done on the app.
Thank you, Elyse! Every year I forget 😉
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No problem! :)
Book # 77 Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes's Hollywood 4/5 starsWell, Howard Hughes was a bigger piece of work than most of us might have thought. In this exhaustively researched book, the author (the creator and host of the podcast You Must Remember This) tells what it was like to be a woman in Hollywood during the time of Howard Hughes. Such stellar luminaries, including Katharine Hepburn, Jean Harlow, Ava Gardner, Jane Russell and Ginger Rogers are intermingled with young starlets to tell a tale of exploitation, misogyny and manipulation.
Looking back at these times through the lens of the recent #MeToo movement, we can see the movie business with our current perspective and understand a bit more how it led to Harvey Weinstein and others. Howard Hughes was clearly wounded himself, and was an expert liar. "Howard Hughes would move from pursuing top female stars to pursuing young (sometimes very young) women whose careers had not yet gotten very far off the ground. More than ever, he would become obsessed with controlling these women, seeking to tie them up via marriage proposals or long-term contracts-or both-and taking ownership over their bodies and how they were presented to the public-or weren't."
For anyone with an interest in this detailed, sometimes gossipy book, it is worth the time. It is a long book, but it held my interest as the research was good, the writing was good, and, of course, the subject was very compelling and disturbing at the same time.
Book # 78 Virgil Wander 2.5/5 starsI will give this book that I struggled to finish a 2.5 for some good writing like " Adam Leer's famous visitor swirled into Greenstone on a hard-core North Shore day-twigs snatching in the gale, black filth at the storm drains, the sea hissing in dismay". There are a lot of quirky characters with quirky names populating this book, including the main character, Virgil Wander. In some ways the writing felt a bit reminiscent to me of John Irving.
When the novel begins, Virgil is recuperating mentally and physically from an accident where he flies off a bridge in his car into the icy depths of Lake Superior. He runs a local movie theatre and, while he tries to piece his life back together, we meet a lot of locals and hear their stories. Unfortunately for me, this book dragged and I really had to force myself to finish. I felt a lack of motivation from the characters, and quirky oddities were not enough to engage me. There are a lot of good reviews out there, so I am in the minority.
Mod
I will give this book that I struggled to finish a 2.5 for some good writing like " Adam Leer's famous visitor swirled into Greenstone on a hard..."
Yes, I also compared it to John Irving! lol. It was a sloooooow book. I completely agree with your review.
Thank you, Elyse. I was tempted not to finish it, but I forged ahead (and skimmed at the end). So many good reviews, it boggles my mind.
Mod
Ditto, I skimmed the end as well. Some books just drag, even if they don't actually have a lot of pages!
And this was one of those really draggy books!
Book # 79 Gone So Long 3/5 starsI absolutely loved The House Of Sand And Fog. And I liked Townie, his memoir. So I went into reading this book predisposed to really enjoy it. But I found it overlong and full of unrelenting angst. The House of Sand and Fog was also full of angst, but somehow (in my memory at least), it moved faster towards the tragic denouement.
Dubus is a good writer, but in this case, the repetition of misery was too much. The length allows the characters to develop, and the situation he sets up is certainly a dire one; Daniel kills his young, beautiful wife, Linda, and is sent to prison for 15 years. His three year-old daughter, Susan, a witness to the murder of her mother, is brought up by her maternal grandmother, Lois. When Daniel, who is very ill, decides to try and find his daughter, it sets off a roiling pot of emotion for all three characters.
I found the second half of the book better than the first, but even so, I felt it would never end. That is not the feeling I like when reading a book. I think perhaps some better editing might have helped.
Book # 80 Wrong light 4/5 starsThis is the first book by Matt Coyle that I have read in the Rick Cahill series. Although one of the storyline threads refers to something that happened in a previous book, I had no problem starting with this book. I really enjoyed the writing and the pacing, but I did suspect whodunit before the reveal.
Rick Cahill is hired by a radio station to protect Naomi, a sexy-voiced DJ, from a stalker. Naomi will not allow Rick to reveal certain secrets from her past that might help him solve the case and work with the police. At the same time he is working on her case, he is forcibly pulled into a case involving the Russian mob. So he is barely sleeping and calling in the few friends he has left on the police force and the FBI to help him.
This was an above-average noir-tinged mystery, and I would read other books by Coyle.
Book # 81 An Unwanted Guest 3/5 starsThis is a very quick read, an Agatha Christie type mystery, with lots of possible suspects. The writing is pretty good, and, if it wasn't winter time, I'd label this a beach read...or an airport book.
It's winter time in the book's setting, and the different guests are arriving at this Catskill mountain resort for a week end away. All the guests come with different backstories, of course. And of course the weather turns into a blizzard and then an ice storm. So, without power or internet, these people are stuck together in the hotel with no escape. And then the first murder occurs.
The ending was not bad, and it was a decent, entertaining read.
Book # 82 Watching You 4/5 starsI thought this was a very entertaining whodunit with red herrings and sketchy characters populating the book. The author tries to bring resolution to the book with several extra chapters and an epilogue. I'm not sure they were effective, but the whole book was a good read.
Set in the English town of Melville Heights, the story stars several of the neighbors. They include Tom Fitzwilliam, a headmaster who apparently is irresistible to both students and older women alike. He is married with one rather quirky pre-teen son, Freddie, who has a habit of watching and photographing young girls and other neighbors around him. And there is Joey, who is a young recently married woman, who finds herself incredibly attracted to Tom Fitzwilliam. These characters and others keep the book moving along at a good pace with alternating chapters.
Mod
I thought this was a very entertaining whodunit with red herrings and sketchy characters populating the book. The author tries to bring resolution ..."
I will be reading this one soon! I haven't read any Lisa Jewell yet.
75 Books...More or Less!
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This book gets 4.5/5 stars...a tiny book that packs a big wallop. Back when I was in college, I read Johnny Got His gun by Dal..."
BTW, can you guide me (once again!) on how to transfer my 2018 books to the finished goal category? TY!