You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
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Chit Chat About Books
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What are you reading? - 2020
I dnf We, the Drowned. I started and finished The Red. Now, I'm stumped for what to read for a print edition. I had planned on reading I Was Anastasia. But to my surprise, I own it on audiobook. For some reason, I thought I had the Kindle edition. I'm half way through Jane Eyre on audiobook so that won't work.
The First Stone: Some Questions About Sex and Power is by one of my favourite Aussie authors, Helen Garner. Men AND women; men VS women? This 25th anniversary edition includes other writings about Garner and the lively controversy over the indecent assault scandal.
5★ My review of The First Stone
I'm going to start The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived The Holocaust for the November themed read.
Finished America for Beginners - caustic comments in my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...Started listening to The Survivors and continuing with A Killer's Mind for the yearly challenge, and with massive tome The Eighth Life, which I’ll probably be with the rest of my life - lol, but enjoying it.
I just finished Written in Red. It was a fun fantasy read, the first in a series that I plan to continue. The world building was really good . It was like urban fantasy but set in a fantasy world - not sure if the definition of urban stretches to fanasy cities or if the location must be rooted in reality 🤔 The narration wasn't perfect. One scene tended to run into another now and again but overall it was pleasant. I highly recommend the book to fantasy fans who don't want a taxing story.I am listening to another installment of the Tudor saga, The Virgin's Lover and I've just started City of Dragons.
Thanks to other GR readers for sharing this - I love short stories! Here's my take on Death By Scrabble by Charlie Fish. Good fun and very, very short.
4★ My "Death by Scrabble" review with a link to the story
This is another cute cartoon biography for kids of Steve Jobs by Mª Isabel Sánchez Vegara. All libraries should have collections of this Little People BIG DREAMS series to inspire kids' curiosity. I always learn something from them and end up looking for more details!
4★ My review of "Steve Jobs"
The Kopp Sisters are as entertaining as ever in Amy Stewart's third in this historical mystery series, Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions. New Jersey just before America's entry into World War One makes a great setting.
4★ My review of "Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions"
I was planning to read The Hunting Party for the Trivia Challenge but it wasn't available for Kindle through my library so I've switched to Hunted. If anyone needs a retelling of a fairy tale, this one is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I'm liking it so far.
My library hold for The Relentless Moon just came through. I have been waiting for the ebook for weeks and weeks. Now, I have too many books up in the air again. I am currently reading The Trials of Koli and Baker's Blues - just because. I started The Gap of Time for the monthly challenge. I started The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts for one of the group read books. I started Murdering the President: Alexander Graham Bell and the Race to Save James Garfield for my yearly challenge. I have two other library books that I have not started yet.
How fast do you read, Cherie? That's like, 6, 8 books at once. : p
Roz wrote: "How fast do you read, Cherie? That's like, 6, 8 books at once. : p"LOL! Not fast enough!
I finished The Survivors - review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... I started listening to The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women for the November read.
I finished reading Hunted, a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I really enjoyed it. Just a sucker for a good fairy tale.
I finished The Trials of Koli. If you like dystopia, this trilogy is for you, but book #3 will not be out until March 2021. Five stars, even though it ended in a cliff hanger.
Lara Hawthorne has produced the loveliest Christmas book I've seen in a long time. The Twelve Days of Christmas is beautiful and has a lot of interesting details kids (and grown-ups) will love. Great gift!
5★ My review of The 12 Days of Christmas
On a different note, The Night Whistler by Greg Woodland is an Aussie rural crime story that features a young boy who refuses to give up and a disgracefully demoted detective who believes him.
3.5★ My review of The Night Whistler
I started The Tower of Fools idk title caught my eye on new releases list and I saw Joe Abercrombie said it's a good yarn. I didn't even read the summary of the book lol. See what it is I'm reading now
Cherie wrote: "My library hold for The Relentless Moon just came through. I have been waiting for the ebook for weeks and weeks. Now, I have too many books up in the air again. I am currently read..."I have a similar issue. I have two book that were on hold that popped in, the monthly read here, I started a novel in Spanish (very slow reading for me) so I had started a anthology for when I am half awake. And I had totally forgotten the book club at work that started this week.
I've got 3 going now,
(own it), The Child On Platform One: Inspired by the children who escaped the Holocaust (own it) and The Secret Chord. And my new Kindle was delivered today! Yay!
I’m down one more today, but picked another library book - I honestly had forgotten that I had requested it. I requested Pony on the Twelfth Floor by Poly Fabre because I thought I might read it for my yearly challenge task - it has a horse on the cover! (Sandra made me do it!). Then, I went and read Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith, and used up the spot. I’m still going to read it. I can’t resist “a heartwarming story about following your dreams - no matter how far - fetched they seem.” Anyway, I finished Baker’s Blues by Judith Ryan Hendricks. This was #3 in her Bread Alone trilogy. All three books were good reads!
Lol, Cherie. I hope you enjoy the pony.
I ended up putting Range Of Motion aside. It's just not my type of book. It reminds me of the books I've read by Elisabeth Strout where you are sort of in the MC's head and you hear her thoughts and observations about everything. I find it quite boring to listen to someone's mundane thoughts and can not get engaged in those types of stories. I know they are quite popular with others though, so it is definitely not the book and just not a match for me.
I am starting Paris Never Leaves You and The Upside of Stress. I am also finishing up I Hunt Killers. I think it's good, but not a favorite for me.
I finished City of Dragons for our buddy read. I can hardly wait to red the last book in the series next month.I started my monthly challenge read, Romeo And Juliet. It's a retelling of the original story.
I finished The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust for the group themed read. I've had it slotted into the twisted trivia challenge since I first started gophering for it. Only now did I realize that it is not HF about the genocide of the Jews during WWII. It was a memoir, so it doesn't count. LOL! Silly me. Oh well, I get to count it for the themed read.I will start Wicked Bite tonight. I don't think I can count it for any challenges.
I finished City of Dragons which was a bit disappointing and You which exceeded expectations so all things balance in the end!Continuing The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women and just started The Girl in the Tower. Again trying for balance - very grim reality plus a Russian fairytale :-)
I have my 2nd DNF of the month. I was listening to Long Road to Mercy and decided to give up at 23%. The narration is really strange. They have a woman doing the main narration and she is doing a fine job, but every time a man speaks they have inserted a male narrator. I'm not sure if they thought she wasn't doing well with the male voices and dubbed it over or if they just thought having a man do those parts would be more natural or appropriate. I have no idea, but it is really distracting. I'm not engaged with the book and getting a bit bored, so I figured I'd better stop now. I'm not sure if it's the narration that is pulling me out of the story, the story itself, my mood, or or maybe some combination, but I'm putting it aside for now. I'm moving on to Exit, Pursued by a Bear for the monthly challenge.
Kristie wrote: "I have my 2nd DNF of the month. I was listening to Long Road to Mercy and decided to give up at 23%. The narration is really strange. They have a woman doing the main narration and ..."I have Long Road to Mercy on paperback. Maybe that is fortuitous.
Janice wrote: "I have Long Road to Mercy on paperback. Maybe that is fortuitous."I think so. If I try again, I will go for a physical copy.
The dialogue sections almost sounded like a dramatized audio. So, you are jumping from narrated to dramatized and back every so often. They weren't even blended in well so it was pretty jarring every time a man spoke.
Have you ever seen a movie where they substitute in words for curse words or something like that? Usually this would happen for a rated R movie that the TV stations wanted to play during the day. In the original movie the actor curses, but in the clean version they just sub something like, "Oh, darn," over it? (I am really dating myself here. lol) Anyway, it was something like that. It just didn't fit.
It's rare that I really dislike an audio version, but this was was really bad.
I do recall them dubbing out swear words on TV movies. You could see that the mouth didn't match up with the words.
I finished Wicked Bite. It doesn't fit any challenges. It's a "just because" for plain wicked fun. The final book in the trilogy doesn't come out until February of 2021.I will start Serena later today. I don't think it fits anything either. Maybe I can sneak it into something once I'm finished reading it.
I am struggling with The Dark Forest for some reason. I think the structure and the complexity means I read it slower and it's a long book as it is. I'm worried at thisrate I won't finish badge 2. I feel like i'm falling into a slump. So i figure, read the shorter fluffier books I have lined up for the challenge to knock them out quicj (hopefully) then come back to that one. Maybe i'll get Alexa to read it to me in the car. I decided to start The Future Chronicles: Special Edition as they are short stories and i can fit them around other books.
I finished Exit, Pursued by a Bear. I thought it was really good. There were a couple of parts that didn't ring true, but overall it was really well done. I am going to listen to the orphan x short stories next - Buy a Bullet, The Intern, & The List. I have Prodigal Son to read next month, so I figured the short stories will be a fun way to get me back into it.
I did a quick read of Buy a Bullet & The Intern. They were good for short stories. I will probably read The List tomorrow. I'm going to get back to my nonfiction read, The Upside of Stress, now.
Just finished The Guest List and love it. I fits for the monthly challenge but I'll put it as a back up in case I can't finish my other book.
I finished Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race for the group theme read and twisted trivia. It was a good read. I've done some rejigging of which books I was going to read to finish off the yearly challenge, trying to reduce the number of pages. I'm starting Snowblind for it. I'm currently reading 3 books for the challenge. I hope my strategy works. Eek!
Finished The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women for the group read. The subject matter was heart breaking but the tenacity and spirit of those women was inspirational. This one was an author narration that worked very well.I'm really struggling with The Girl in the Tower with means I'm at odds with most readers! I will finish it as it is challenge book but only for that it would be a definite DNF.
Currently listening to Sheepish: Two Women, Fifty Sheep, and Enough Wool to Save the Planet and The King Must Die.
I finished Simon the Fiddler and found it to be slow and rather uninteresting. I'm disappointed.I started I Was Anastasia on audiobook.
I listened to The List today. For a short story it was excellent. I'm looking forward to reading Prodigal Son soon. I will be starting Tuesdays with Morrie tomorrow.
I'm reading Sheepish: Two Women, Fifty Sheep, and Enough Wool to Save the Planet and having some good laughs. When I finish it, I'll move on to The Storm King. I also have Migrations and The Girl in the Tower waiting in the wings.
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You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
Books mentioned in this topic
The Fantastic Fable of Peter Able (other topics)Stuart Little (other topics)
The Woman in Blue (other topics)
The Outcast Dead (other topics)
Heartbreak Bay (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Mª Isabel Sánchez Vegara (other topics)Jefferson Miller (other topics)
James Mark Miller (other topics)
Jane Harper (other topics)
Jane Harper (other topics)
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I finished it today!"
Glad you got that one behind you - I see it was a two-star read...not enticing me to get out of my reading slump. I haven’t been making much progress on my books lately.