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[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Natasha wrote: "Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "Ooh, I'm debating whether to buy Sharp Objects"

I was expecting it to be like Gone Girl, Desley. It is not. Am 27% in and not yet sure how I feel about it."

Thanks, I enjoyed Gone Girl which is why i was debating about it

[David]

Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "Natasha wrote:

I was expecting it to be like Gone Girl, Desley. It is not. Am 27% in and not yet sure how I feel abou..."

"Thanks, I enjoyed Gone Girl which is why i was debating about it"

I didn't like it as much as Gone Girl and nearly gave up on it a couple of times, but it does get better as it goes on.

[Natasha]

David wrote: "I didn't like it as much as Gone Girl and nearly gave up on it a couple of times, but it does get better as it goes on."

I don't like the voice of the first person narrator. The young female reporter somehow sounds like a middle-aged male cop. However, I'm 55% through now, and I definitely am intrigued to find out what happens.

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Finished A Painted House, just about to start Cold Case this is the 6th paperback I've picked up this month, all have had over 400 pages! Would be nice to keep this up, might have to increase my challenge

[Will]

Just started The Bone Ships So far, so good

[Jim]

Looks an interesting writer

[Will]

About 80% in, and enjoying it. The descriptions are good, but the lack of explanation of some of the fantasy elements is beginning to annoy me, although I suspect many would be less interested in 'yes, but how does that work?' than I am.

The one real annoyance is that I got accused of trying to be Hornblower, when this is clearly a better comparison to Forrester!

[Jim]

Will wrote: "About 80% in, and enjoying it. The descriptions are good, but the lack of explanation of some of the fantasy elements is beginning to annoy me, although I suspect many would be less interested in '..."

explanation is always tricky

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

I finished Cold Case and going to start The Skeleton Road

[Natasha]

Finished Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. It's nothing like Gone Girl!

Am currently reading World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler. Post-apocalyptic fiction in which people are dying of the flu. ... Am enjoying it.

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Finished A Time of Torment and started And So It Begins

[Will]

Bit of comfort reading after some dodgy historical mysteries. Tudor England is obviously a thing at the moment, and people are getting silly trying to find plot lines with characters someone else hasn't used.. so I'm back to some Stephen King Needful Things

[Jim]

Will wrote: "Bit of comfort reading after some dodgy historical mysteries. Tudor England is obviously a thing at the moment, and people are getting silly trying to find plot lines with characters someone else h..."

I found the Shardlake series good, and of course there's Mantel, but I've not bothered with any of the others.
Have you read any of the Cadfael Chronicles?
Obviously they're set earlier (Stephen and Matilda)
They started bringing the novels out, three novels bound into one thick paperback and I would buy the next one for my father every birthday/Christmas. He liked them, I liked them
When I had my gallbladder op I decided I would re-read the series which I did in chronological order and found that I read them all without them getting stale or too much the same

[Will]

I started on Cadfael years ago. Those 3 book omnibus editions were brilliant. Then moved on to Lindsay Davis, as The Roman Empire has always been my preferred historical period

It's an increasingly popular genre now

[Jim]

Will wrote: "I started on Cadfael years ago. Those 3 book omnibus editions were brilliant. Then moved on to Lindsay Davis, as The Roman Empire has always been my preferred historical period

It's an increasingl..."

yes I read the entire Lindsay Davis set, but as you say there's a lot of books about on it now, some of them very good.

[Karen]

Jim wrote: "Will wrote: "I started on Cadfael years ago. Those 3 book omnibus editions were brilliant. Then moved on to Lindsay Davis, as The Roman Empire has always been my preferred historical period

It's a..."

And her Flavia Alba ones are good too, a little different (Falco's daughter).

[Karen]

Have just finished rereading The Pastoral Symphony as I wasn't sure whether to include it in my favourite 100 books (currently 112...) - I'm making a quilt of them... Sadly it hadn't stood the test of time, but then I did read it in French originally so think I was seduced by the language! I also reread Edna O'Brien's The Country Girls recently and that was even better than I remembered, so it stays on the list. Next up, Kirsten Ekman's Blackwater which I loved from pre kindle days but now can't remember.

[Pam]

Catching up:

The Coming Plague - Newly Emerging Diseases In A World Out Of Balance by Laurie Garrett - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3340242064

House of Echoes by Barbara Erskine - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1399414446

Ray Bradbury - Death Is A Lonely Business - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3374259155.

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Finished And So It Begins and just about to start Shots Fired: Stories from Joe Pickett Country

[Kath]

Read the first Flavia Albia. Much less keen. Maybe if I'd not read and loved the Falco novels I might have viewed it differently. It suffered by comparison.

[Jim]

Kath wrote: "Read the first Flavia Albia. Much less keen. Maybe if I'd not read and loved the Falco novels I might have viewed it differently. It suffered by comparison."

I did wonder which is why I don't think I've tackled any of the Flavia Albia stories
It's one of these things, I could have started on them and something else cropped up and my reading went in another direction

[Pam]

Finally finished Philip K Dick's VALIS and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3134096657.

[Pam]

Latest read - Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis. Found this one rather disappointing sadly - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3381646037.

[Pam]

Read volume 1 of a collection by Clark Ashton Smith - Out Of Space And Time Volume 1 - and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3384351702.

[Natasha]

Just finished World Made by Hand James Howard Kunstler, which was a good read.

Just started Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, which I'm really enjoying.

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

I finished Gallows View and started Quantum which I'm finding quite slow

[Pam]

Read Cyrion by Tanith Lee and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3386882779.

[Jim]

Pam wrote: "Read volume 1 of a collection by Clark Ashton Smith - Out Of Space And Time Volume 1 - and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...."

It has occurred to me before that with authors like him, we often read him 'out of order'
So whereas his contemporaries might have seen the evolution and could have 'grown' in their tastes as he developed.
We can read an early tale, see it as derivative or a pale shadow of later work, and not realise how breathtaking it might have been at the time.

It doesn't make the work any better, but might explain why it was rated to highly at the time

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Finished Quantum only finished it because I'm ahead of my challenge, gave it 2* and despite ending on a cliffhanger, no interest in finding oyt what happens. Just started As the Crow Flies starting off well.

[Patti (baconater)]

I'm still finding settling to read very challenging but I'm slogging through a few pages before sleep and when I wake in the night.

I found The Chameleon's Shadow
on my kindle a few days ago and started it. I thought I'd read all her stuff, so was pleased to find one I hadn't.
I enjoy her writing style and expect I'd have gobbled through it in other circumstances.

I miss my book brain.

[Jim]

I suspect it might be stress, Patti.
I know that during the FMD outbreak I reverted to reading Asterix Books and then progressed to Pratchett

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Sorry you are still struggling reading Patti, I know a few people who are

[Patti (baconater)]

I'm hoping I'll be able to settle into reading again from next monday.

[Pam]

I had problems reading books in the first weeks of lockdown and ploughed through a magazine backlog instead. Gradually the concentration for book reading came back.

[Rosemary (grooving with the Picts)]

I haven't read anything for weeks. Nothing seems to appeal and if I do try then I find I can't be bothered with it in short order

[Natasha]

Just finished Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, which I really enjoyed.

Just started Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, which I came across when googling 'books like Ready Player One.'

[Kath]

Loved The Crawdads and Dark Matter. Never read Player One.

[Pam]

Read a couple of books and reviewed them:

Tanith Lee's The Blood of Roses - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3396615673
and
Tom Holt's The Good, the Bad and the Smug - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3407339435.

[Natasha]

Kath wrote: "Never read Player One."

Shocking news, Kath. Ready Player One is unsurpassable. Never will I find anything like it again.

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

I finished As the Crow Flies yesterday, 790 pages in less than a week, so thought I'd give it 5*! Now reading Pretending to Dance
I've also never read Ready Player One! Fairly sure I bought Dark Matter though

[Kath]

Natasha wrote: "Kath wrote: "Never read Player One."

Shocking news, Kath. Ready Player One is unsurpassable. Never will I find anything like it again."

Maybe one day, when I've nothing else to do - HAHAHA! Who am I kidding? Just never fancied it.

[Natasha]

Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "I've also never read Ready Player One"

Decided to dodge it, or not got round to it yet, Desley?

[Pam]

Read and reviewed A Fair Maiden by Joyce Carol Oates - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3407365043.

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Natasha wrote: "Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "I've also never read Ready Player One"

Decided to dodge it, or not got round to it yet, Desley?"

Dont really know anything about it

[Natasha]

Ready Player One

[Kath]

Hmm. Don't like gaming or popular culture. This must be why I've consistently said 'pass'.

[Jim]

Kath wrote: "Hmm. Don't like gaming or popular culture. This must be why I've consistently said 'pass'."

I googled it to see whether give it a try,
The fact that I've never taken part in an online game rather put me off

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

I'd possibly give it a go if I came across a copy, but doesn't sound like the thing I'd go out of my way to try - is there a film based on it?

[Jim]

Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "I'd possibly give it a go if I came across a copy, but doesn't sound like the thing I'd go out of my way to try - is there a film based on it?"

I got the feeling the film was 'more important'

[Pam]

Read a couple of books - the first in a series by S J Parris - Heresy - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3410726027
and a large coffee table type book, Barbie: Her Life & Times by Billy Boy - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3396612488.