Constant Reader discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Short Form
>
What I'm Reading DECEMBER 2014
date
newest »
newest »
message 101:
by
Sheila
(last edited Dec 22, 2014 05:44AM)
(new)
Dec 22, 2014 05:43AM
Finished Ismail Kadare's The Fall of the Stone City - an interesting blend of historical fact and folkloric tales in a political satire see My Review. It has set me up nicely for my annual great Christmas read-in. Next up is Jessie Burton's The Miniaturist which looks set to be a rich tapestry hopefully something like Girl With a Pearl Earring.
reply
|
flag
tx Ann, Love to have your take on it if you get round to reading it
I just added the book, Sheila. It looks very interesting. I've been meaning to read something by Kadare.
Sheila wrote: "This past week I finished Carlos Fuentes's short novel Inez which I summarised as Fuentes does Faust . If anyone knows the classical piece "The Damnation of Faust" by ..."I absolutely adore "Damnation of Faust" so this prods me to read this novel and see how it fits in.
Sue, Jane look forward to hearing your views on it and Jane do let me know what you make of the music connection
I'm really enjoying Gwenaelle Aubry's No One--another great recommendation from Shannon Cain.
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld – 4**** I was expecting a somewhat light look at a fictional first lady. What I got was a nuanced, complex portrait of a woman who found herself in a very public position. I liked that Sittenfeld takes the reader back to Alice’s childhood and introduces us to this young, quiet but inquisitive girl. While her life takes some unexpected turns, Alice remains true to herself, confident in her opinions, compassionate and thoughtful. She is no less strong because she is quiet. Kimberly Farr does a fine job performing the audio version. She has good pacing and really brought Alice to life for me.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I brought Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley along on my Christmas trip to Asheville, NC, and hope to start reading it soon,.Since my hotel is adjacent to the Thomas Wolfe Memorial House, perhaps I should have brought Look Homeward, Angel along as well.
I started and then ended up staying up into the wee hours to finish The Devotion of Suspect X yesterday. A very thoughtfully constructed page turner! (But it made me wonder if the criminal system in Japan was less sympathetic about a self defense killing by a woman than the US, as there is an assumption by the main character that what to me seems to be possibly this would be looked on as a murder, and all of the action in the book rests on this early decision). I loved the character of Ishigami. Also read Hiaason's Nature Girl recently on my Kindle, thinking for awhile that I hadn't read it because on the Library2Go site it had a 2014 release date (I guess this was an ebook release date; the book was finished in 2006 and I read it soon thereafter in print, I now remember). This is not the first time I've reread a book and not realized it until halfway through!
Philip wrote: "I brought Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley along on my Christmas trip to Asheville, NC, and hope to start reading it soon,.Since my hotel is adjacent to the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Hous..."
I love all Highsmith's Ripley books. She's one of a kind.
This conversation reminds me I promised myself to read some Highsmith, so I have put The Two Faces of January on order from the Library.I have just finished Jessie Burton's The Miniaturist. It is a first novel, set in 17th century Amsterdam's merchants classes. It won Waterstone's Book of 2014 so I suppose I was hoping for something along the lines of Girl With a Pearl Earring. That didn't happen but it was an enjoyable enough read. It has flaws, but both the author and the book have potential and I am certainly encouraged enough to try anythingelse she writes. My Review gives more details.
Came to the end of Love Me Back last night - not ready yet to say it is finished with me. Everything you've heard about this book is true: it is unflinching, raw, devastating. "Tierce's prose possesses the force, bluntness and surprise of a sucker punch." Absolutely. But stopping was impossible. It is about Marie, a young wife and mother who works her way up thru Olive Garden, Chili's, etc., to server at The Restaurant (Nick & Sam's, for those of you not in the area), leaving her husband and daughter along the way. She is so frustrating and heart-wrenching I think I will never forget her. Tierce's writing leave's you no doubt that she belonged in 2013's 5 under 35 authors.
Shaila has a body to break your mind. You scan it once expecting a flaw, twice not believing there isn't one, three times for the exhilaration. The way her legs are tan, a real brown sugar tan, her calves all cut up and high, her toes manicured but in that simple nude style, her ass so round, so beautiful. Her slender waist, her perfect all-real breasts floating and pulling the world to her, nipples often showing - just a bit, if she turns - through whatever silk dress she's wearing. She has long straight dirty blond hair that falls over her face when she checks her phone. She's gorgeous but in a porchy Alabama way, not the way women in Dallas usually look if they're trying. Like you look at her and think that must be about how she looked before she went into her big bathroom to get ready.
I'm good enough to get the once-over in the bar at The Restaurant, I see them thinking my smallness is appealing, my ass and face are cute enough, I see them thinking that short haircut might be sexy. I'm always in a backless cocktail dress and heels, I'm flat chested and a tad muscular so they ask me if I'm a dancer and say Call me sometime, let's have a drink. It took me a while to understand you're supposed to work that for your money but you can let the willingness fall right off your face when you turn around. It took me a while to understand that of course men fling their entreaties out in swarms, like schools of sperm, hoping one will stick. They're expecting to be turned down so you shouldn't feel any obligation.
Tonya, wondering how many Dallasites have begun claiming they ate at Nick & Sam's when Tierce worked there, and remember her.
Wow, Tonya, that sounds compelling.
Finished Daniel DaSilva's The English Girl, the 13th of his Gabriel Allon stories. I wanted a fun read and a good spy story was just right.
Bones of Betrayal by Jefferson Bass – 3*** Book # 4 in the Body Farm series is a solid mystery thriller, with a back story that involves the Manhattan Project in World War II, particularly the work done in Oak Ridge Tennessee. It’s fast-paced, informative and has interesting characters. I did think the plot got a little too complicated and perhaps there was one body too many, but I was still entertained and engaged from beginning to end.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Tonya wrote: "Came to the end of Love Me Back last night - not ready yet to say it is finished with me. Everything you've heard about this book is true: it is unflinching, raw, devastating. "Tier..."Wow. I wish we were there while Tierce was there and I haven't read the book yet. Seems like I should put it on my TBR list.
Finished Testament of Youth A compelling memoir of the period prior to and during WW I by Brittain, then a student at Oxford and later an army nurse. Her life was devastated by the loss of first, her fiancé, later two close friends, and finally her beloved brother to the War which as she notes spelled the end of innocence to a generation, introduced a note of disillusionment, transformed the roles of women, disabled the British class system and much more. Brittain’s writing is intelligent, drawing on her journals and poems both by her, her fiancé, and writers of the era such as Rupert Brooke. Any reader interested in WWI would find this book fascinating.
Read the short story collection Lovely, Dark, Deep by Joyce Carol Oates. It was not bad, but for many of the stories I did yawn or feel they were over-wrought. The story I became most involved in was "Patricide," where there was an unexpected turning of relationship.
Joan wrote: "Finished Testament of Youth A compelling memoir of the period prior to and during WW I by Brittain, then a student at Oxford and later an army nurse. Her life was devastated by the lo..."Putting it on the TBR.
Ruth wrote: "Joan wrote: "Finished Testament of Youth A compelling memoir of the period prior to and during WW I by Brittain, then a student at Oxford and later an army nurse. Her life was devasta..."I read it quite a while ago (there was a very good BBC production at the time) but it has stayed with me--very good.
Ruth wrote: "Joan wrote: "Finished Testament of Youth A compelling memoir of the period prior to and during WW I by Brittain, then a student at Oxford and later an army nurse. Her life was devasta..."I should mention that Brittain became a leading feminist after finishing university once the war was over; that she wrote about 30 books including novels, poetry and non-fiction, and went on to marry (though almost nothing is said about the husband referred to simply as G. and had two children. I left this out of my review because it didn't capture my interest nearly as much as her account of the war years.
Sheila wrote: "This conversation reminds me I promised myself to read some Highsmith, so I have put The Two Faces of January on order from the Library.I have just finished [author:Jessie Burton|71..."
I agree with you. The writing style shows a lot of promise, so I will buy her next novel, but I hope it is better than the first.
I guessed the husband as you did, but I also clued onto Marin as well; so there were no surprises for me. But the book is well written and the author shows great promise.
Rebecca, I always like to spot a new good novelist :) The past few days I have been reading Michel Faber's The Book of Strange New Things and am completely spellbound. Has anyone else read this one? The only other one of his I have read was The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps which I loved. That one was a historical -cum - ghost story and a short tome, this one is different genre and much larger work. The Book of Strange New Things is the name given to the Bible by the local population to whom Peter is visiting pastor. I'll not give away where or who they are, as I am sure many other CRs will want to read this book knowing how much you all enjoyed his The Crimson Petal and the White which sadly I have still to read. It is a slow paced read so far, I am about half way through its 500 or so pages, but it is griping. A great study of a person adapting to a culture way outside of his experience and in many places recalling to my mind my VSO experience both in terms of the interviews I went through - very similar to those Peter goes through when being recruited for this work - and in terms of adjusting to experiencing a new culture when you understand and speak very little of their language, and in terms about the developing rift between yourself and those you left behind at home, in this story told through the email epistles back and forth to his wife. Will post more later.
Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad, the main interest in which is seeing just how racist and xenophobic Twain will let himself be. (And also how funny, admittedly, how brilliantly expressive.) There's a lot of "These people are dirty and talk funny. Gosh, America is great."
Book Concierge wrote: " American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld – 4**** I was expecting a somewhat light look at a fictional first lady. What I got was a nuanced, complex portrait of a wom..."
I really liked this novel also. Like you, I was surprised. I keep meaning to read more Sittenfeld.
Ann wrote: "The Book of Strange New ThingsIt's definitely on my list, Sheila. It's received excellent reviews."
I'm interested in this one, too.
Joan wrote: "Finished Testament of Youth A compelling memoir of the period prior to and during WW I by Brittain, then a student at Oxford and later an army nurse. Her life was devastated by the lo..."I ran across this some years back but don't think I ever read it, maybe now's the time. Your comment about Brittain's treatment of the disabling of the British class system interests me and makes me think of Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger. In the CR discussion I remember that many readers were most interested in the ghost aspects of it, but for me it was all about the changing class system in the wake of WWI.
Leif, in a moment of desperation, I'm sure, mined the NYT best seller list for my xmas gifts. Big mistake. I now own Leaving Time by Jody Picoult, and (egad) Gray Mountain by John Grisham. I read the Picoult in an afternoon. Not too absolutely awful until it went all silly at the end. Wild horses couldn't drive me to the Grisham. I'll consider it an Amazon gift certificate.
Geoff, I tried to read Innocents Abroad a while ago when I was traveling in some of the places he had been and couldn't finish it. I just lost patience with him. I liked Dickens' book about his travels in Italy much more.
Barbara wrote: "Geoff, I tried to read Innocents Abroad a while ago when I was traveling in some of the places he had been and couldn't finish it. I just lost patience with him. I liked Dickens' book about his tra..."Would that be Pictures from Italy?
Barbara wrote: "Geoff, I tried to read Innocents Abroad a while ago when I was traveling in some of the places he had been and couldn't finish it. I just lost patience with him. I liked Dickens' book about his tra..."Yes, at some point it just starts to feel like a grumpy, nasty guide book. I was hoping for more on-ship stuff, less commentary on how the people in the Constantinople bazaar smell bad.
Yes, Kat, Pictures from Italy was the Dickens book. I was too lazy to look up the title when I was writing the note.
It's now on my "read before the trip to Italy" list, which is much longer than I'll be able to get through. In spite of that I'm keeping an eye out for recommendations. Favorite Italian novelists, anyone? Or favorite English novels set in Italy? Of course it doesn't HAVE to be a novel, but I'm much more likely to read a novel than any other arrangement of words.
I finished Malice: A Mystery. As with The Devotion of Suspect X, it was admirable for its meticulous construction. I was not as involved, though, as the mystery was all about figuring out something that had already happened. But I found it interesting that the resolution lay in realizing that people's core personalities often don't change too terribly much from when they were a youngster.
Lyn wrote: "I finished Malice: A Mystery. As with The Devotion of Suspect X, it was admirable for its meticulous construction. I was not as involved, though, as the mystery was all about figu..."Yes. :)
This one was my least favorite of the three of his I've read. The Devotion of Suspect X probably being the best but Salvation of a Saint being excellent as well.
Higashino makes the reader, at least this one, almost want the perpetrator to get off.
Edit: I almost forgot about Naoko. Very different, but a mystery in it's own way. When I say very different I mean both in the sense of different from the other stories mentioned above and different from most any other book I've read. Intriguing.
Ann wrote: "The Book of Strange New ThingsIt's definitely on my list, Sheila. It's received excellent reviews."
Just finish it - my last read of 2014 and what a high to end on! Well worth those excellent reviews - I was lucky enough to pick this one up without having read any of the reviews so I didn't know where Peter the pastor in the story is being sent as a missionary, which made the first chapter grab me. I loved the writing, the storyline and the structure - the use of mails back and forth between Peter and his wife - these really put you in the situation of not knowing the full story behind what his wife wrote as her situation changed whilst at the same time seeing how inadequate his missives to her were at describing what was happening at his end. My review. Bring it up you must read list Ann and Kat.
Happy New Year to everyone!
I finished Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind about a week ago. I put off starting the sequel for a few days but am deep into the second book of the trilogy now. This is The Wise Man's Fear. Maybe it's not the best fantasy series I've read over the last 50 years ... but it's the one that I've enjoyed the most. I can hardly wait for the third book to be published.Between the first and second Rothfuss book, I read John Grisham's Gray Mountain. Billed as his first book with a female protagonist, there is a lot to like about this book. He reveals a lot about the environmental (and human) problems connected with the mountaintop leveling method of coal mining in Appalachia. It's a good book in several ways, but it just felt that it was rushed to publication. I admire how Grisham has improved over the years, but he could do better. If you like Grisham a lot, you'll probably like this book.
I'm also reading Cary Elwes's memoir about the filming of the movie, THE PRINCESS BRIDE. Elwes played Westley (His name wasn't Inigo Montoya, so you don't have to prepare to die). I'm about 50 pages into this one, and it's a fun read ... a very fun read.
Happy New Year to one and all!
Larry wrote: "I finished Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind about a week ago. I put off starting the sequel for a few days but am deep into the second book of the trilogy now. This is [book:Th..."Larry, I listened to Audible versions of both his books in the past couple of years and like you am waiting for the third. Have you been tempted by his side story of Auri , The Slow Regard of Silent Things (apologies, for some reason I can't get the link to post correctly)
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
Constant Reader
Books mentioned in this topic
The Name of the Wind (other topics)Gray Mountain (other topics)
The Name of the Wind (other topics)
The Wise Man's Fear (other topics)
The Book of Strange New Things (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Michel Faber (other topics)Jessie Burton (other topics)
Carlos Fuentes (other topics)
Jessie Burton (other topics)
Ismail Kadare (other topics)
More...
