You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
Group Themed Reads: Discussions
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October 2019 - City name in title
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I have Honolulu on my TBR too, Peggy. I think I have it planned for the mm challenge at some point though the end of the year is quickly sneaking up on me. I'll be interested to read your thoughts on it if you read it.
I thought I owned the other group read book, A Gentleman in Moscow, but it turns out that I actually own The Man From Bejing. My library copy of A Study in Charlotte is supposed to be "in transit", so I might start the Mankell book tonight or not. I really should read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I have too many choices, and none of them really call to me.
Haha lol, I can see why you would mix those two up Cherie ;-)I could use both for the mm challenge Kristie. I *have* to read Honolulu for it at some point this year as I have one movie where it's my only fitting book.
I am starting 'Salem's Lot. I'm guessing it will be another case of not finishing it by the end of the month, but we'll see.
I still haven't read that one, Sarah. I think it's perfect for the month. I hope to read it eventually and will be interested to see your thoughts on it.
I've been away from Goodreads for a handful of years, but I'm back and ready to jump back in! Unfortunately I won't be able to get either of the selected books from my library for awhile, so I will be listening to the Midnight in Chernobyl audiobook.
Welcome back, Lucy. I just realized that I have your audiobook book available to listen to too. My daughter must have chosen it. It was her month to pick a book on our Audible account.I have more titles with city names in them than I know what to do with.
Kristie wrote: "I still haven't read that one, Sarah. I think it's perfect for the month. I hope to read it eventually and will be interested to see your thoughts on it."I've heard lots of good things about this one.
Lucy wrote: "I've been away from Goodreads for a handful of years, but I'm back and ready to jump back in! Unfortunately I won't be able to get either of the selected books from my library for awhile, so I will..."Welcome back Lucy!
Thanks Cherie & Sarah! Yes, it is hard to choose from all of the available options, Cherie!
Sarah wrote: "I am starting 'Salem's Lot. I'm guessing it will be another case of not finishing it by the end of the month, but we'll see."I read Salem's Lot when the buddy read for The Dark Tower was going on. It's one of the connecting books. This was a reread for me and I enjoyed it the second time around. It's amazing how much I'd forgotten. I hope you enjoy it.
I finished listening to Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster today. My review can be found here.Definitely a five star listen in my opinion. No matter how much I read or watch about Chernobyl, I always seem to learn something new (which is great, but also horrible when you think about it!) This time around I learned about the planning and building of the plant and the surrounding city, something I was actually surprised I hadn't learned this yet.
I've always been fascinated by the pictures that come out of the exclusion zone and the plant itself and even though this audiobook didn't come with pictures, the descriptions of things like the Elephant's Foot (google it!), the robots that ventured into the plant and the building of the sarcophagus to contain the radiation put vivid images in my head.
I appreciate the fact that the book really hammers home the idea that, while the plant operators should take their fair share of the blame for this incident, that the real blame should be put in the lap of a corrupt Soviet government willing to cut corners, no matter what, and then hide their failures when they come to the surface.
There are a lot of "characters" to this story and lots of view points that makes for an interesting and well rounded read that should be enjoyable for someone interested in Chernobyl and quite informative for the younger generations who know less about it.
I had no idea that Chernobyl was the name of a city. I always thought it was only the name of the nuclear power plant. I absolutely can tell you where I was that day when we heard about the disaster. It was all we talked about at work, for days and days. We listened to the radio reports at lunch time. It was one of the few times I can remember, them ever letting us have a radio at work.
Yep, it is about 10 miles away from the power plant, the official plant name is the Vladimir Lenin Nuclear Power Plant, or something to that effect, but it was typically referred to as the Chernobyl Power Plant because of proximity. And just to complicate matters a little further, the plant is actually located in the city of Pripyat which was built specifically for the workers.
I actually have Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster available from Audible. I just have not felt like listening to it yet.
Hi so I was going to borrow A Gentleman in Moscow for this challenge, but read Five Days in Paris for the toppler. Can I use this book for the challenge?
Hi Tasha. The group read books or alternates are not for challenges, but can be “used” for either topplers, the monthly challenge or yearly challenge tasks. Your book can be reported in the October Group Read Reporting thread and earn you an alternate badge, called a group read stamp. If you read the rules, you will see the requirements for the reporting.One of my toppler books will fit too. I am listening to Four Seasons in Rome. I cannot link it here because I am in the mobile app, but I will update the title and link when I get on-line on Monday.
Tasha☺ wrote: "Hi so I was going to borrow A Gentleman in Moscow for this challenge, but read Five Days in Paris for the toppler. Can I use this book for the challenge?"As Cherie said, you can use any book that fits the theme as an alternate book and receive a stamp. You need to discuss it though, so just put another post in this thread stating what you of thought of it, what you did or didn't like, and/or anything you feel like discussing about it.
Cherie wrote: "Hi Tasha. The group read books or alternates are not for challenges, but can be “used” for either topplers, the monthly challenge or yearly challenge tasks. Your book can be reported in the October..."Thanks Cherie
Kristie wrote: "Tasha☺ wrote: "Hi so I was going to borrow A Gentleman in Moscow for this challenge, but read Five Days in Paris for the toppler. Can I use this book for the challenge..."Thanks Kristie
For this challenge I read Five Days in Paris by Danielle Steel. I am a big fan of Danielle Steel mostly because my mom owns almost all of them. This book let me down. I only gave it 2 stars. The plot in this book was love at first site, which is tricky for me to like since I would like to root for the characters. This book I found I hated the characters. I felt the book was pushing too hard for me to like them, but the more I read I disliked them.What I did like was that most of the book was portrayed by a man but that was about all.
I liked he had an interesting job but the job interested me more then the story, I also found she based the book around the job alot more then the characters.
The story was very predictable and just not my cup of tea.
I finished listening to Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World yesterday. In all honesty, I only chose this book because I was gophering for books with numbers in the title for the toppler and it was available from my library. The author narrated it himself, and he did such a great job. I cannot imagine anyone else saying the Italian words now. It was a wonderful story of the year he spent in Rome with his wife and his twin boys, Owen and Henry. The boys were just 3 months old when the author and Shawna packed up their things and moved from small town Idaho to Rome where he was to serve a literature fellowship for a year. Listening to him talk about his family and their struggles with the boys (sleeping, not sleeping, bottles, finding babysitters, etc) and his struggles to write, what he was reading and what he observed in the city was an amazing experience. I finally had to break down and look up the date they were there, when he talked about Pope John Paul 23 and his funeral and electing a new Pope. It was in 2005. It was eloquent and heartfelt and full of awe at being in a place that had so much history and dirt and people. I highly recommend the book, and especially the audiobook version. Truly 5 stars!
Peggy wrote: "I'm going to start The Cellist of Sarajevo tomorrow."Looking forward to hearing what you think.
I've read about 1/3 of The Cellist. I like that it has the 3 different views and how these people experienced the war. (view spoiler)
Well, I won't be finishing anything for the theme. Again. The months are just too short for me at the moment.
Don't forget to report if you haven't done so yet!
You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
Books mentioned in this topic
The Last Days of New Paris (other topics)The Cellist of Sarajevo (other topics)
Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World (other topics)
The Cellist of Sarajevo (other topics)
Five Days in Paris (other topics)
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Happy reading!