Talk @ Books! discussion
Reading Plans? Tell us what's upcoming on your list.
Colleen wrote: "@Sandra - I loved Great Expectations overall, it was just difficult to get into b..."I'm enjoying the humor, but definitely not that easy to get into.
Just finished The Outsider not my favorite genre but wanted to read one of his books. Just started The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story I am excited to read this one.
Not what I would have recommended, Eileen. But if you don't like horror, a more mild book.
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.3.5 stars rounded up . My favorite review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."
Nice review Angela - and I like how you rounded up. :) I feel we totally need half stars on GR!
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Colleen, I would like half stars , too.
I've read one so far this year So B. It which I really liked. Currently reading Dance Hall of the Dead, The Covenant & The Man Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson's Lost Files and the Hunt for an Assassin. I have others that I'm reading, but these are the main ones right now.
I just finished Against the Loveless World which was great. Next up, The Paper Daughters of Chinatown. Looking forward to it!
I read The Nature of Fragile Things
. 5 stars . My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...Started The Forgotten Daughter
Colleen wrote: "@Libby - Ken Follett is great isn't he? I've only started a couple in his various series & should move on to #2s. @Sandra - I loved Great Expectations overall, it was just difficult to get into b..."
Yes, Colleen, Follett is great. I love how he takes the reader right into the heart of a historical setting. My favorite way to learn history...with some great characters that I care what happens to them.
I finished Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents and rated it 5 stars. It is a MUST read, in my opinion.I will start today The Glass Woman. I'm in love with the cover of the edition I'm reading.
I finished The Sin Eater's Daughter and gave it a resounding 2 stars which was generous of me. I definitely won't be reading the other books in the trilogy.I've started a light romance, The Next Always.
Just finished Jo Nesbo's Police. Will probably try to squeeze in one or 2, finishing the series, but work overloads me.
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She's a great writer isn't she? I'm being enthralled with Warmth of Other Suns and our book group likely will read Caste as well.
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Sandra wrote: "I finished Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents and rated it 5 stars. It is a MUST read, in my opinion.I will start today The Glass Woman. I'm in love with the co..."
Sandra, agree with you. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents was one of the most impactful books I read in 2020 and so important for our times.
I just finished Transcendence: How Humans Evolved through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time
by Gaia Vince. The author's background in science writing made this one more interesting.
Libby wrote: "I just finished Transcendence: How Humans Evolved through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time [bookcover:Transcendence: How Humans Evolved through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time|4352..."Just added it to my bookshelf.
I'm ticked off at one of my libraries -- they have a brand new library branch which I wanted to check out. They wouldn't let me in, even though I was wearing a face shield (I can't wear a mask). So I'm stuck with a very old, tired library which is way out of my way.
Parker wrote: "Libby wrote: "I just finished Transcendence: How Humans Evolved through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time [bookcover:Transcendence: How Humans Evolved through Fire, Language, Beauty,..."Parker, I'm sorry to hear you couldn't get into your library. My local library has been physically closed every since the pandemic began, but they offer curbside service. I'm able to place books on hold from any library within my state's interloan library system. I'm able to place up to ten books at a time on hold. I've gotten new books on loan this way. Does your new library offer anything like this? There is a new library one county over from me where I would love to go, but they charge $50 for out of county folks. Good luck! I know how important it is to be able to have access to good books.
I'm out of county for this particular library. They do have curbside service, but I really love to browse (I've found some of my favourite books that way). The sign outside the library says only that face coverings must be worn. I was wearing a face covering, so it's very much an issue of mistreatment. We do have a library in the county where I live, so it's not like I'm libraryless (I had severe withdrawal symptoms when the libraries were closed 😉)
Today I’ll be starting The Children's Blizzard
.I just finished
Landslide. 4 stars . My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finishing The Chicken Sisters and Fortune and GloryNext up.......
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - The House in the Cerulean Sea
I finished The Glass Woman yesterday and gave it 3 stars.I started A Prayer for Owen Meany. It has been in my TBR for ages. My book club will be discussing it on February.
I started a Prayer for Owen Meany a few years back and it wasn't grabbing me.. I had all plans to go back and try again. (sometimes you're just not in the right genre mood at the time) and I must have gotten rid of it. I'll have to reorder LOL
I’m reading Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, becuz it’s only taking me a thousand years to finish this series🙄. I’m also reading New Suns....an anthropology by Nisi Shawl. A book my book club picked on Book Riots.
Finished The Midnight Library
by Matt HaigI have started
Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators by William Stolzenburg
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So sorry to hear of your troubles Parker :( seems this will never end.
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Next up.......
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - [book:The House in the Cerulean Sea|4..."
Please let me know how House in the Cerulean Sea goes - I've seen so much love about it and placed a (long) hold on the library. I'm very excited to read it.
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My neighborhood book club read A Prayer for Owen Meany last year and it was my chance to read it (was confused if I had actually read this a long time ago, but after listening in to the discussion I decided I hadn't actually read it, just had heard of it and wanted to) but who knew, the library hold list for the book was way too long and I didn't get to it in time. Then other books I *had* to read got in the way. I've been meaning to get to it anyway since it sounds like a worthy read. Who knows, maybe after I start it I'll decide after all I have read it! But then obviously will need a re-read, lol. #fail
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This series went quick for me, but I listened to them on audio and was really into it. I think the narrator helped a lot adding to the whole storytelling. I haven't seen all the movies yet, maybe bits and parts.
I read The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
. 5 stars !Just a to start The Prophets
Finished Strike Your Heart
4 starsI'm currently reading
Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory
Raul wrote: "I'm almost done reading Housekeeping which I'm now reading very slowly to squeeze out the pleasure of the read from every word. Also reading The Gilda Stories which is a..."I like this author too. I didn't real Housekeeping yet. I'm not done with the Gilead related books. My first book was Gilead which I adored. It's painful and wonderful. I liked Home also, even though I couldn't quite finish it. It was really intense for me because I was going through something similar with my brother at the time. I knew what would happen next because of Gilead. I need to read it again during a time when I'm not preoccupied with challenges or outside events (e.g. covid). I might read her new book Jack before rereading Home. I'd like to learn Jack's story directly from him, rather than through other characters.
I'm late to the party, but I'd like to mention a few of my December and January favorites.December -
Lab Girl - I loved this book! It's part memoir, part nature (how trees communicate), with big dollops of friendship, mental health issues, and the political realities of a life in academia.
Convenience Store Woman - (Women in translation.) Japanese story about a young woman pressured by family and friends toward the kind of life they think she should have. It's short and quirky, and I loved it. I liked the focus on work. (It fits in with things I used to teach.)
January
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy. My first book of 2021 might end up being my favorite of the year. Alt history about climate change leading to the extinction of many wild animals. Includes an ocean trip from Greenland to Antarctica to try to track the Arctic Terns (birds). It's wonderful on audio. Intense, atmospheric, passionate, thrilling, thought provoking. I already reread most of it. That's how much I liked it.
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell - Family of William Shakespeare (though he's never mentioned by name). Great writing, interesting story, a little depressing, must read.
Mrs. Dalloway by VIrginia Woolf. I finally read it and I loved it. I probably would have been bored with it when was younger, but I really love her writing now.
Oops - I misread the intention of this thread.Coming up:
A Tale for the Time Being
Girl, Woman, Other
Atonement
I finished A Prayer for Owen Meany and gave it 4 stars.I am rereading The Shadow of the Wind because I plan to keep going with the series now that I own the 4 books.
Sandra, that's one of mt favorite books!
Linda Abhors the New GR Design wrote: "Sandra, that's one of mt favorite books!"It was a reread for me and I gave it 5 stars again! I hope to read the next in the series in March.
Talk @ Books!
Books mentioned in this topic
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The Good Lie (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
John Ehle (other topics)William Faulkner (other topics)
Sue Grafton (other topics)
Simon Jimenez (other topics)
Catherine Ryan Howard (other topics)
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@Sandra - I loved Great Expectations overall, it was just difficult to get into but I think I "got" most of it.