Book Loving Kiwis discussion
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Jun-Jul Book Pool Challenge
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PARTICIPANTS:
Erica - 6
Sharlene - 2
Ella's Gran - 6
**Carol** - 2
Darkpool - 6
Kathleen - 10
Sweetp-1 - 1
P.d.r
Andrea - 4
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Example:
#1 Looking for Alaska finished 1/06
4 stars - loved the characters. Story was a little outrageous.
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My three books are:
All the Bright Places
At Home: A Short History of Private Life
The Bees
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I'm adding
and still thinking about the 3rd.
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The Ringmaster by NZ writer Vanda Symon.& I've had another change of mind for my second!
Devil Water by Anya Seton
The Clock Strikes 12 by Patricia Wentworth.
two of my three books are...A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff
Dauntless by Jack Campbell (recommended to me by a young English teacher at our school).
Still considering possibilities for my 3rd
Darkpool (protesting GR censorship) wrote: "two of my three books are...A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff
Dauntless by Jack Campbell (recommended to me by a young English teacher at our school).
Still considering..."
I'm putting my name down for A Vintage Affair.
HAh! Thank you. Now I know.1 Room
2 The Laundry Room
3Assassins of Alamut: A Novel of Persia and Palestine in the Time of the Crusades
I have to review them so this is a good chance to chat to you nice kind people and do my work!
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Now I am in a pickle. Thought I had my third choice sorted but I've just been browsing through a list sent by one of our vendors and now have too many choices!!Can't decide between
by Patricia Wentworth
by Menna van Praag
by Liza Klaussmannand
by Leslie ParryThank goodness Erica has chosen The Bees or that would have been another title to add to the problem.
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***Carol*** wrote: "EG, if it is makes it easier for you, I can add the Wentworth. :)"Yeah, do that Carol. It was your pick for the other read and I was planning on reading it too. Just hadn't voiced my thoughts over there (bad).
Now, if anyone has further suggestions on the other three ...??!!
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Still waiting for Ella's Gran & Sweetp-1 to add their 3rd and final to the book pool :)
If you want to make changes to your nominated books, please leave a new comment (instead of editing your original entry)
Well, now I'm going to surprise everyone. Here is my final (I hope) decision on my three books for the pool.
by Paul Thomas
by Fredrik Backman
by William Kamkwamba(I need a yellow cover for my rainbow!:))
Since the 'yellow' book came in at the library 10 days ago and I've read it, I'm changing my selection again.
Sorry I'm doing it at the eleventh hour Sharlene, but I've only just got my computer back. I'm making a new post of my absolutely, finally final selections.
Gah. Still need to figure out book #3. Will be back before the 31st Sharlene!
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Ok. Dithered on this too long.1. The girl who circumnavigated fairyland
2. Edge of eternity
3. Warrior princess by Barbara Erskine.
Sorry on iPad it won't give me the option to link titles
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I'm itching to get started too.I've got two of the books from the library and just been notified there are two more waiting for me! Not to mention the long list I have to request.
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I'm definitely planning to read my 3 plus Fallout, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland & the Last Queen.
Read
1 The Ringmaster by Vanda Symon. Finished 13/6. 3.5* instead of 4 because 70 chapters in a 308 page book was just too many. If that sounds like nitpicking - wait till you read it. It completely disrupts the flow.
2 The Clock Strikes Twelve by Patricia Wentworth. Finished 19/06/15. 4*. My first read of this Golden Age Mystery writer. Book improved considerably when her female gumshoe Miss Silver entered the book. Will be happy to read more by this writer.
Currently Reading
Devil Water
I have An Abundance of Katherines in transit from the library (audiobook). Also keen for The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland, Fallout, At Home, The Ringmaster.... plus my own 3 of course. Sigh, and I've had a book I've been waiting for turn up at the library this week,so I have to read that before anything else!!! Arrgh!
You'll love An Abundance of Katherine's! A lovely lovely book!
Looking forward to it - it's my 3rd John Green, and he's not disappointed me yet.
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Ok, I'm going to make this my results post (and my keeping track of which books I want to read post)Completed:
1. An Abundance of Katherines (audiobook) finished 18/6. Also got the paperback out of the library for the diagrams and footnotes. Also the audiobook excluded the appendix by the mathematician that contributed The Formula to the book, so really pleased I got the written format as well as the spoken.
2. A Vintage Affair finished 28/6. An easy read that one could probably knock off in an afternoon (took me 2 weeks). Some aspects of the writing style annoyed me greatly however, and I'm not sure that I'd go out of my way to read any more from this author. Do love a book with a bibliography tho!
3. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (audiobook). I actually started this in ebook format and struggled to get more than a couple of pages read. The language flows far more comfortably in audio, especially as it is read by the author. Loved the story and the world the author created, and will definitely seek out the rest of the series (eventually)
4. Magonia. completed 12/7. Listened to this in the car on the way to New Plymouth and back this week. Thought it original and interesting, if a little melodramatic in places. Putting the next one on the To Read list.
5. Dauntless. finished 14/7. Reminiscent of a sci-fi tv series, some strange blend of Babylon 5, Star Trek: Voyager, Battlestar Galactica (the original version) and I'm not sure what. very much my cuppa.
6. The Last Queen. Completed 31/7. Enjoyed this a lot, tho it was hard to finish as things were not going well for poor Juana.
Currently reading:
1.At Home: A Short History of Private Life Audiobook. Really enjoying this very much. Have procured the illustrated version from the library, and at the end of each chapter of audio I go back and look at the photos for that chapter in the book. As of August 1st I'm only up to "The Stairs", so won't be able to count this for the official challenge. Big thanks to Erica for nominating this one I'm really really enjoying it.
Still want to read:
Fallout
The Ringmaster
The Warrior's Princess
and maybe some others.
Doing the same Darkpool ☺Done:
1. A Man Called Ove finished 06/06 ★★★★
A simply written character study told in short chapters each representing a story in Ove’s life, filled with humour and sadness. I did not particularly like Ove when I began reading the book, but you come to understand what made Ove the man he is. I wept for Ove towards the end.
2.Church of Marvels finished 13/06
★★★★
I really enjoyed this book. The writing drew me in right from the first couple of pages and that coupled with the storyline kept calling me back. It told the stories of an eclectic group of people who all had a certain similarity, and whose stories all came together as one at the end.
Sound a familiar story construction? It reminded me a lot of The Luminaries in the story construction, lots of characters, how it begun with detailed longish chapters, and as it reached the end climax the chapters became shorter creating that exciting build. The difference was the story moved along faster and was a little less confusing - in fact it was quite exciting in an odd sort of way.
This book was the author's debut novel, and I would look out for the next hoping for it to be as good.
3. The Clock Strikes Twelve finished 20 June. ★★★★
An old school English mystery from the Golden Age. Wentworth and Christie both created their female amatuer sleuths within months of each other. Miss Silver is similar to Christie's Miss Marple - even down to her knitting! The difference in their method is Silver overtly investigates, while Marple is more a fluffy little old lady observing. I don't recall having read any of Wentworth's mysteries before. I enjoyed the mystery and felt it picked up when Miss Silver entered the story. I liked the nice little twist toward the end. I'll read more of her books.
4.A Vintage Affair Finished 10 July. ★★★★
Categorised as romance by the library, but it more about people with stories, their relationships with each other, and how those stories contributed to forming their relationships - or not. I got really involved with the characters, so I guess that's why I had a couple of tissue moments. I'll be keeping an eye out at the library for more books by this author.
5. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly finished 13 July. I thought this was worth more than 3 stars yet not quite 4, but having only whole star options the 3.5 became ★★★★ stars awarded.
His story intrigued and amazed, the writing style was very readable with the story movingly heroic. For me though, I think this could be one of those rare books where the film would do better justice to the story than text narration.
6. Fallout by Paul Thomas Finished 30 June. ★★★★ stars.
Tito Ihaka's character is aggressive, defiant, insubordinate, irreverent, and yet fair and just where it comes to victims. That coupled with the action packed story lines makes for compulsive reading. Looking forward to another in the series?!
Reading plan: (in no particular order)
The Ringmaster
The Night Watch
The Last Queen
Room
and maybe others depending on whether I can get them in time.
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I have caught up on the list so the BOOKPOOL is as it stands now for the rest of the month.
If you would like to take part and haven't signed up, you can do so until the end of the month.
The pool has a range of genre and colored covers, so if you are trying to finish other challenges, these could be the books for you!
Let's Get Crazy!
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1. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
2. An Abundance of Katherines finished 31/7, rated 5 stars. John Green's writing is different to other YA books which is why I think they're so interesting to read.
Reading plan:
All the Bright Places
Magonia
Middlesex
The Warrior's Princess
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1. The Last Queen (Darkpool's suggestion)
2. The Bees
3. All the Bright Places
4. At Home: A Short History of Private Life
5. A Man Called Ove
6. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Currently reading:
Middlesex
Want to read:
An Abundance of Katherines
The Night Watch
I'm about halfway through A Man Called Ove and , while I wasn't too enamoured with Ove at the start, I'm finding myself coming to understand and even beginning to like him.
Completed: Edge of Eternity. The third book in the Century trilogy. I really enjoyed the first two books in this series but overall just felt a bit disappointed by this one. Lots of awkward dialogue,and too much coverage of US political events (coloured by the authors political leanings)
COMPLETED:1. Pretties
This series for me is vey reminiscent of the issues I have with Divergent. Really fantastic worlds that make the mind run wild with the themes that could be experimented with. Instead its mostly terrible empty romance storylines. Uglies/Pretties is nowhere as bad but I feel like they are missing all of the potential that the world/ideas have.
★★★ 3 Stars (Won't be rushing to the library anytime soon to grab the next book)
2. The Rats
James Herbert is probably one of those authors that I should have already read but this was my first book. Loved it. Scenes are described with visceral writing, rather than fluffy padded prose that others use to show off their knowledge of thesarus and metaphor. Visually provoking. Enjoyed being introduced to characters who then promptly died, however they were successfully fleshed out throughout a single chapter for me to feel the significance.
★★★★★5 Stars
3. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
It was difficult to get into the book to begin with, it does feel at times the author is flexing her knowledge of the dictionary and thesaurus to the extreme but I guess in a way it's exposing younger readers to a plethora of new adjectives. The universe reminded me of a modern blend of Alice in Wonderland with inspirations from Narnia and Labyrinth.
★★★ 3 Stars
4. The Bees
While at some parts it did feel rather monotonous due to the lack of characterisation which wasn't as in depth as it would have been with human characters I did overall really enjoy the universe. I think this might be the first book that I've read purely from the perspective of a inhuman character and The Bees has got me intrested in other novels in the same genre.
★★★★4 Stars
5. All the Bright Places
Fantastic writing, it read real and fluid and not at all an over the top characterisation of the weird or different teens in a school setting. The representation of depression was one of the better ones I've read especially given the ending which was not at all what I expected from a YA book. No sunshine and fluffy bunnies, just stark realism. I also steer clear of romance genres, but this book actually made me grin.
★★★★★ 5 Stars
CURRENTLY READING:
Gone
READING PLAN:
Room
I've got The Diving Bell and the Butterfly on my shelf along with The Vintage Affair, but I'm having to read Church of Marvels before anything else since it's got a swag of reserves on it so not able to renew. I'm somewhere around page 84 and finding it good so far. The writing drew me in from page one. So far it seems a bit historical fiction/fantasy/magical realism made up of stories about several very different characters which I imagine all converge at some point. Anyway, even though it has that element of fantasy/magic (not usually my first love) I'm very much enjoying it. Hope that continues.
So, I started listening to the audiobook of "an abundance of Katherines", but I've realised that it's not really satisfactory. The narrator was describing diagrams, and I figured the actual diagrams were in the actual book. And sometimes the prose seemed a bit odd, like I couldn't quite work out who was speaking or something... so I got the paperback version out of the library too and now I can see how the graphs look, and understand that the lumpy bits of prose were actually footnotes! I'm going to continue to listen to the audiobook, but now I also have the printed version to check up on later.
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Kathleen wrote: "I've started a couple from the pool that I've decided not to continue with - just not ringing my bells. Greatly enjoyed 'The Girl Who Circumnavigated... etc'."What are the ones you've not continued with Kathleen?
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Two of Carol's picks (nothing personal!) - Devil Water, and The Clock Strikes Twelve."
Oh dear, I hope I enjoy them!
I've just started The Clock Strikes 12 & its OK so far - very Christie. Another one with short chapters though.
I've just started that one Kathleen. Just saw your 4 stars so looking forward to it
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We are over halfway through JUNE. Remember this Challenge is going to the end of JULY. Tallies are being updated.
Kathleen is in the lead with 3 books. Congrats!
I wonder if we have any keen readers who will attempt to read the entire pool :)
Keep up the great reading!
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Book Loving Kiwis
Books mentioned in this topic
All the Bright Places (other topics)The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (other topics)
Fallout (other topics)
An Abundance of Katherines (other topics)
All the Bright Places (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Paul Thomas (other topics)Paul Thomas (other topics)
Leslie Parry (other topics)
Fredrik Backman (other topics)
William Kamkwamba (other topics)
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Here's what you need to do:
1. When you sign up pick 3 books you want to be included in the "book pool." PLEASE link the book cover or title!
2. You can pick any book as long as they've been released before the challenge has started. Please no duplicates.
3. Once the challenge starts you will read books from the "pool."
4. At the end of the month whoever read the most books from the pool is the champion of that month!
Have fun!
The challenge begins on June 1st.
Please don't start your books from the pool until then!
You can sign up and add books until May 31st. After that, you can join in anytime (just without adding books).