Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
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I am incredibly impressed that you can listen in all those languages. I am pretty fluent in French and can read it well, but when listening to an audiobook, I have to pay very close attention. I have studied Spanish, German and Russian but never got to the level where I could follow an audiobook.
@Irene nah, wouldn't say I'm fully fluent, it's varied - Polish is my native language, German I've been studying since kindergarten, Swedish I picked up at the uni. The weirdest is Russian, because I've never properly studied it, but my husband is a native speaker and over the years I've picked up so much that I mostly understand it, now I'm trying to systematize my grammar.@Milena I'm lucky to have friends and family in all those places, but Audible has plenty.
@Robin P maybe I just have low expectations regarding understanding, as I'm missing out on a lot when I listen to books in my native language xD I recommend finding some youtubers to listen to - it's not as long as audiobook, so it's easier to focus. Theatre plays are good start too.
I read Furia by Yamile Saied Mendez for the summer reading challenge & another group challenge. 5 stars. I'm glad I accidentally found this book. It's YA contemporary,soccer, romance. Set in Rosario Argentina.
I finished Dim Sum of All Fears (A Noodle Shop Mystery #2) by Vivien Chien. This is a cozy mystery series. I gave it 4 stars because I enjoyed it so much. It was really 3 stars. I used it for #14 set in a made-up place. Ho-Lee Noodle House located in Asia Village.
Sherri wrote: "I finished Dim Sum of All Fears (A Noodle Shop Mystery #2) by Vivien Chien. This is a cozy mystery series. I gave it 4 stars because I enjoyed it so much. It was really 3 stars. I used it for #14 s..."When my son was in the hospital a couple years ago I started this series and consider it comfort reading. I enjoy reading the next in the series each time one is available.
I read The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention,Master Myself,and Win by Maria Konnikova. Not for this challenge. 4 stars. I learned a lot about poker.
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Emily wrote: "I've been on the couch recovering from sinus/allergy issues, so I got a good chunk of Strange the Dreamer knocked out. It is BEAUTIFUL. The worldbuilding in this novel is incredible."Emily I'm so glad to hear this because I'm about to start it!!! Also, I hope you're feeling better!!
I read Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart. 5 stars because of the writing. The story was a hard one to tell but the author wrote it so well I kept going. It wasn't for this challenge. I read it thinking it would fit a prompt in another challenge but it didn't. Also it was a book I wanted to read in 2020 & didn't.
I finished Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson. 5 stars. I used to for #44 title contains a negative. I really enjoyed the essays. Very funny.
I finished Midnight At The Barclay Hotel by Fleur Bradley, Illustrator Xavier Bonet. Not for this challenge. It's a middle grade mystery. 4 stars. I had a good memory reading this book. I remember reading other middle grade books a long time ago. I remembered holding the shape of the book & reading books with illustrations.
I finished Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell yesterday. Not for this challenge 5 stars. This book was beautiful. It took my breath away. The final words brought tears to my eyes. I told my husband,"I just finished my second best book of the year. I'm going to sit here & cry now"
For those of you watching LUPIN on tv these days… I picked up the first of the books of Arsene Lupin stories…they are very fun, lighthearted.
I finished Where the Grass Is Green and the Girls Are Pretty by Lauren Weisberger. I used it for 6+ words in the title. 3 stars. Enjoyable read. It is a summer or beach read. It could be used for a book you associate with a certain season or time of year. It's set in the summer.
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I've finished six books this month -- 3 in print and 3 on audio. We are traveling next week, so reading will be hit or miss... lots of hiking and adventuring means not a lot of time to read, but the plane ride will be long so I'm hoping to squeeze in at least one or two.
Emily wrote, Sherri, I'm impressed with all of your reading! Thank You Emily. Have a safe trip.
I finished One For The Blackbird,One For The Crow by Olivia Hawker. I used it for #9 a book you associate with a certain time of year. The book is about a lot of things but mainly about surviving winter on the prairie. It is historical fiction, western,magical realism. I gave it 3 stars.
Okay, I'm starting to feel weird about posting here. I finished The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder ( Translator), Markus Juslin (Translator). 3 stars. I used it for # 12 eligible For The Warwick Prize For Women in Translation. 3 stars. This is the second strangest book I've read in 2021. It is good & I liked it but really different. I read Science Fiction, Magical Realism, Dystopia but this book felt like it's on the outer edges of the genre's. I'm glad I read the author & I may one year read The Housekeeper and the Professor, but not this year.
Sherri, I will say something so you don't feel like you're talking to yourself. I very recently read The Housekeeper and the Professor. I loved it, and in fact have not met anyone who hasn't loved it. I have not read The Memory Police, but it sounds completely different.
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I recently found 4 Russian historical mystery books by Boris Akunin at Goodwill. Most of his books have not even been translated into English (from Russian) so I was really excited by this find! I read the first one, The Winter Queen, and really enjoyed it. I just started the 2nd in the series. I’m learning Russian and my library carries some of his books in Russian so that is a long-term goal for me to read one or more in Russian!
Pam wrote: "I recently found 4 Russian historical mystery books by Boris Akunin at Goodwill. Most of his books have not even been translated into English (from Russian) so I was really excited by this find! I ..."Pam, that is really exciting. I think I have 2 Akunin books that I got from either flea markets or when the library puts out free books. I haven't read them yet.
I liked The Winter Queen plot but marked it down a star as I thought there were too many Americanisms in it. Maybe that was down to the translator.The Memory Police was a real let down for me , having read The Housekeeper and the Professor which was great.
I have just finished two really good non-fiction books on audio. I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad
and
Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba & Then Lost it to the Revolution
Now I am not sure what to listen to next.
The Unexpected Waltz and Remote Control have both become available on my library hold list. I love Nnedi Okorafor's Binti books, so will probably start with that one. It is really short, only 4 hours, so am open to some suggestions.
Non-fiction audio would be good right now.
If you are looking for a fun summer read Escape from Fire Island! is a choose your own adventure for adults. It brought back some fond memories of laying on a blanket in the sun reading these books as a child. (Not ones like this though) LOL
I finished The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave for the second week of the past present future prompt. 5 stars. It has a past present time line. I have gotten into mysteries lately. I read it in a day.
June was a bit of a slower reading month for me, I seemed to be doing a lot more real life things, but I still finished 9 books and am past half way on both my main challenges.The Castaways by Lucy Clarke (set on an island)
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint (country I've never visited)
Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala
The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid
Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney (racism/race relations)
The Swallowed Man by Edward Carey (short book by a new to me author)
The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson (mystery/thriller)
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager
Sherri wrote: "I finished The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave for the second week of the past present future prompt. 5 stars. It has a past present time line. I have gotten into mysteries lately. I read it in..."I've been reading a lot more mysteries lately too.
Sherri wrote: "I finished The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave for the second week of the past present future prompt. 5 stars. It has a past present time line. I have gotten into mysteries lately. I read it in..."I really enjoyed this! I read Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave a few years ago, I recall it being more of a romance and only kind of liking it. I read a lot of mysteries so was a little concerned going into this one. But it was a fun ride and I appreciated the ending.
I finally have all my completed prompts properly updated in the various threads! For a couple months there I was reading, but only tracking prompts over on Storygraph as I went...Now I'm down to the last few prompts for this challenge, but of course they're mostly the more difficult ones, and I've been in a total fluffy/comfort reading sort of mood recently.
Right now I'm working through this series on kindle:
Fierce Heart
and this series on audio:
A Duty to the Dead
and thoroughly enjoying both! (Except for one of the Bess Crawford books that got extra disturbing...)
I finished the first book in the Walt Longmire series. The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson. 4 stars. I really liked it. I couldn't use it for this challenge. I started the Joe Pickett series by C.J.Box last year. These series are similar so if your reading one but not the other it gives you another series to check out.
I finished Instructions For Dancing by Nicola Yoon. 5 stars. It was very good. Not for this challenge.
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I did not realize Instructions For Dancing was a Nicola Yoon book and now I'm also having BOTM regret. My eyes immediately went to The Maidens and Malibu Rising so I didn't even check out the other options. Added to my TBR now though.
Karissa wrote: "I did not realize Instructions For Dancing was a Nicola Yoon book and now I'm also having BOTM regret. My eyes immediately went to The Maidens and Malibu Rising so I didn't even check out the other..."Ughhh same!! And I skipped. Now I'm going to see if I can unskip. It's been so long since Nicola was in my life!
Edit: I have to wait till August. Cruel world.
I read Migrations for the ATY books of the month prompt and you were all right. It's so beautiful and melancholy. Definitely reading her wolf book next year.
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Ellie, Migrations is so high on my TBR but library holds and shiny new books keep getting in the way. Maybe I'll just buy it so it will stare at me until I read it lol
Ellie wrote: "I read Migrations for the ATY books of the month prompt and you were all right. It's so beautiful and melancholy. Definitely reading her wolf book next year."I just checked it out of the library last week so I'm hoping I can get to it this summer! I plan to use it for the Books of the Month prompt, too.
I read Queen Bee (Lowcountry Tales #12) by Dorothea Benton. Not for this challenge. 3 stars. It was fine but this is a case where I read any book that fits the prompt. It was for pop sugar.
I read Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner. 3 stars. I needed a fat positive romance for a different challenge & thought it looked like a good beach read book. I have read Jennifer Weiner before & there are spots in the book where I loose interest but by the end I like the book alright. Same experience.
I just finished my 2nd Boris Akunin book, The Turkish Gambit, and am starting my 3rd, Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog. I really struggled with understanding who was who in The Turkish Gambit. I think this was because there were a lot of male characters. The author switches between referring to them by: their nickname, first name & patronymic, full name, or just a title. I found it really confusing. Also, I was not familiar with the the historic context (Russo-Turkish War). I do like books, though, that result in my doing research about the history and learning something! This one had a decent ending but the story was too convoluted to me. With the 3rd book (different series), I made a list of the characters, with their full names and titles to avoid this confusion. (Here is an example of one name- Matvei Bentsionvich Berdichevsky.) The names are also tricky to pronounce! I am enjoying this historical mystery now that I have the characters figured out.I also just started Troubles by J.G. Farrell, a group read in another GR group. I thought this would be a difficult literary read but, so far, it hasn't been that way and I am enjoying it. I am very interested in this time period in Ireland since I know little about it.
I read Starfish by Lisa Fipps, not for this challenge. It's a middle grade,poetry,fiction. 5 stars. So good. Very well done. It's quick. I read it in a day. I read it for a book that discusses the body positively. It also discusses bullying at home & school.
I just finished Vanity Fair, which I had never read before. I think it's the first time that I truly love all the movies/mini-series way more than I liked the book. Has anyone had the same experience with this book? I felt guilty thinking that while I was reading it.
Alicia- I enjoyed Vanity Fair (my husband loved it and pushed me to read it) but haven’t seen any of the adaptations other than part of the 2004 movie with Reese Witherspoon. She felt really miscast to me! I just found the 2018 TV series on Amazon Prime Video so I’ll have to watch it!
Pam wrote: "Alicia- I enjoyed Vanity Fair (my husband loved it and pushed me to read it) but haven’t seen any of the adaptations other than part of the 2004 movie with Reese Witherspoon. She felt really miscas..."Oh the 2018 mini-series is really good!
My family has a deep love of PBS and Masterpiece Theater, so I grew up with the BBC one from the 80s. Maybe it was because I was so used to the series, that it felt like the book had so much extra detail that wasn't needed. Although I love the when the narrator pops in to give his thoughts.
Also, agree Reese Witherspoon has too much of an American Sweetheart vibe to be Becky Sharpe.
I finished The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America by Eric Cervini. 4 stars. Not for this challenge. It is basically a history book of the struggle for gay rights in America & especially with the United States Government. Well written & researched. Very dry & tedious.
I finished American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson. 4 stars. Not for this challenge. I enjoyed it.
I finished Red,White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. 4 stars. I loved this book. Not for this challenge.
I finished The Art of Theft (Lady Sherlock,#4) by Sherry Thomas. 4 stars. Not for this challenge. I like this series.
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Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Stay Another Day (other topics)The Kite Runner (other topics)
Cloud Cuckoo Land (other topics)
Roadside Picnic (other topics)
The Lincoln Highway (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Simone Zelitch (other topics)Ken Liu (other topics)
J.G. Farrell (other topics)
Nnedi Okorafor (other topics)
Ralph Ellison (other topics)
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That's great that you have access to audiobooks in all those languages. I would love to listen to books in original Russian, but I don't know that we have access to much in the US.