June & July 2020 Group Read - Beach Reads

[Agnieszka]

Sarah wrote: "I think there are different ways to look at Animal Farm. First is the way it is in the book...it's about the farm animals chasing the humans away and ruling themselves. That's what it is on the surface. It sounds like a nice idea, huh? Animals being free... But they are not really free.
I hope this might help you understand the book even if you didn't like it.

Today so far I have read part of the Iliad. I now have the main characters down and understand how they are all related to each other. I had to look one name up on YouTube as to how you say it but the others I already knew. I guess right now I'm about 20 % through the book? I'll read more later tonight. Parts of it are a little dull but not too bad. It's written in a poem like format.

I'm glad you really liked the book It's Okay.. hopefully you will find parts of it useful.

I have never actually seen the Forest Gump movie. Maybe someday I'll read the book..I must be one of the few people who have never actually seen it.

Yes the political situation here can get bad. Things are even worse now because of that virus. Like I read today on the news that like 25,000 people have applied for rent assistance in my city but they only are able to help a small number of those people. So many businesses are closed (some permanent) and others are struggling and so many lost their jobs. Landlords want to kick people out on to the street as they can't pay rent because they lost the jobs because of the shutdown from the virus. It just turned into a huge mess!
Obama was a great president. But he faced many problems in office, like others would not cooperate with him and put roadblocks in his way..

I'm not too sure if I've ever read 1984 before but I usually find those distopian books interesting.."

The part you explained about Aminal Farm I understood. I only remember our teacher said there were several other parts I didn't understand and that frustrated me very much. I noticed I don't like those books very much where the actual story is only a little part but not the most important one plus it's too fantastic - I even struggle with most fairy tales, fables and other forms of allegories so it's this genre itself I'm not keen on and not the actual authors/books. The same goes for me with dystropian books. I think saying 'I don't understand' this kind of books is not quite correct. I get the content and in most cases what the author tries to say behind the obvious primary story it's more that's so outside of my capability of imagination and emotional understanding/comprehension (in German there are two so different verbs for this distinction it's immediately obvious what's meant I think English in this point much more difficult) and it leaves me so baffled and frustrated so I gave up on this kind of books. Life's usually way too dificult for me as it is I don't see a point to struggle with books as well - this doen't mean I only read books inside my comfort zone only that I'm no more willing to go beyond some boundaries in fiction. Non-fiction especially the kind of books like It's Okay Not to Be Okay: Moving Forward One Day at a Time is a very different story. Those books are very helpful it's only difficult to look the truth in the face and tackle it head on (at least for me). I'd rather put my head in the sand and hope all the trouble, conflict, problems and other life issues will dissapear - unfortunatelly it's not working the way I'd love to so I keep working on my issues.

Wow Illiad that's ambitious and I'm glad you start to enjoy it.

Until I stumbled on the (very soaked) copy of this book in our little library I wasn't aware the movies was based on a book as well and there's no way you can know everything.

I'm so glad in Germany there's such a great social care system and one of the first new laws after lockdown was that landlords can't kick out anybody if they are behind with rent due to Corona. I'm sure there're way too many people who took advantage of it but for some that must've been such a huge help.
The speaches during Obama's presidency didn't mention the issue with the Republican roadblocks but the one I read yesterday morning did - as I mentioned it was the most open one and addressed some of the troubling parts he left out before. To me it shows even more his character and why he was the first president I became more interested in the more I heard and read about and I wished for you all he could've stayed longer. On the other hand looking at the craziness now I'm glad even if the current one by a cruel miracle makes it another four years he can't stay any longer than that.

[Agnieszka]

So I started Granny's Got a Gun and already read a third of it & enjoy it so far very much. It's fun, the style is well flowing and still includes many glimpses of her former life as an CIA operative. She was forced into retirement three years earlier at the age of 67 and living since a year in a quiet small town in New England near her only son and grandson. By now she's bored out of her mind and not unhappy when one of the participants of her book club is poisoned.

Edit: I finished it the same day and enjoyed this light and fun cozy mystery. Now I'll be on the hunt for deals on the other books in this series :-)

[Agnieszka]

I read a great book the last two days: Seaver's Seven by Norma Dean and if it were not for the many typos and incorrect or missing words it would've been perfect. One of the few great finds between the rubish of the freebies :-)

This was a fun romantic suspense story about a woman with seven children (all adopted while her late husband was still alive) and a rescue 125-pound-puppy (showed at her remote home one day a few weeks earlier) facing inexplicable series of attacks on her life. When she speaks with her best friend and her husband about it they send her a security consultant and the husband's former partner from the time he worked for the DEA.

Today I started Supergute Tage oder die sonderbare Welt des Christopher Boone=The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon a book with an autist-MC. So far I enjoy it very much.

[Agnieszka]

I finished tonight one of my started books Wicked Deceit an action adventure thriller and it started out quite well and interesting but got unnecessary violent and complicated where the stright approach would've been enough and make more sense.
After reading the so called prequel which became now #1.5 in series I bought almost all of the books in series and now regrett this decision. Since Amazon cut down the period you can return books from four to two weeks I can't give them back :-(
I'll see if I can at least use these books for some challenges but otherwise they moved pretty much down my reading list.

[Agnieszka]

I finished last night Supergute Tage oder die sonderbare Welt des Christopher Boone=The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon and liked it very much. It's not a book you get most out of it first time reading so I'm already looking forward to re-read it in the future.

Today I conituned and unfortunatelly disliked it so much I gave up after chapter 5 (15% into it). Since I already have the next one in series on my Kindle that's double unfortunate but will help to reduce my TBR by 3 books in one go.

To counterbalance the MCs with Asperger's syndrome I started today = about an erotica author with writer's block coming back to her home town and the man of her past looking for inspiration. This sounds like a light and fun romance with a sprincle of mystery and so the right thing for me right now.

[Agnieszka]

Last night I read a surprisingly enjoyable cozy mystery and the prequel to a series.

Since it looks like I was the only one left here for the last days. I declare this thread done for me and move it to archives.