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Mac

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Everything posted by Mac

  1. Saturday and I have some time to myself!!! Whoop!

    1. Eleonora
    2. wordsgood

      wordsgood

      Hello all!

       

      Hope everyone's been behaving themselves and getting lots of reading in! Hugs all around!

       

  2. Saturday and I have some time to myself!!! Whoop!

  3. Friday. Yep.

  4. Deeply Odd by Dean Koontz Coming across a sinister truck driver in the quiet Californian coastal town where he lives, Odd has a vision of three innocent children who will be horribly slaughtered by this man. Realising that his intent is now known, the truckie tries to kill Odd, but fails and flees. Odd takes pursuit, and soon discovers that he's up against not a single twisted murderer, but a network of evil men and women whose identities and motivations are mysterious and whose resources seem almost supernatural. (Courtesy of Goodreads). I've been a loyal fan of Dean Koontz since I was a teenager and have found his novels reasonably consistent in their ability to keep me turning the pages. Granted, an author as prolific as Koontz must surely have his ups and downs, but this novel kept me glued throughout. The pace is good and the character development of the protagonist (Odd Thomas) is nicely shaped. I do like the way Dean Koontz views the world and his moral take on it. It's worth reading purely for that, really, although the series of books featuring Odd Thomas are worth reading from the start - beginning with Odd Thomas - as they follow the memoirs of the chap over the course of around 18 months of his rather turbulent life. 7/10 - another well sculptured book.
  5. I've read some Kelley Armstrong, some Sophie Hannah and all of Ian McEwan's novels (Enduring Love is a superb one to start with - wonderful stuff). In terms of the amount of time you're able to give to reading: who needs work and relationships anyway...?!? (So you know, I'm kidding about the "who needs work and relationships" bit...)
  6. Nice reviews, Brian. The Hesse, in particular, intrigues me.
  7. Whenever I say to the kids I teach "Oh, I lolled out loud!" they just look at me as though I'm mental. This, in turn, makes me rofl on the floor laughing...
  8. Clear sky, washing out and pancakes on the horizon...

  9. Hey there. Just so you know, in no way, shape or form, was this topic meant as a dig at Americans. So sorry if it came across as otherwise. I'm from the North of England, so my own grasp of language is poor at the best of times!
  10. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 'What are you thinking, Amy? The question I've asked most often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not to the person who could answer. I suppose these questions stormcloud over every marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?' Just how well can you ever know the person you love? This is the question that Nick Dunne must ask himself on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police immediately suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they aren't his. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what did really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife? And what was left in that half-wrapped box left so casually on their marital bed? In this novel, marriage truly is the art of war... Wow. What a terrific book. Characterisation is unbelievably good, pulling you through huge ambiguity throughout the entire novel. I found it challenging in a very good way, and it made me question a lot of how I felt about the characters, all the while thinking what an incredibly talented author Flynn is. I can't describe a lot of what cracks off in this novel for fear of spoiling it. My advice? Read it, and read it when you don't have a lot else on, for it will eat your time. 10/10 A real, proper belter!
  11. This is becoming commonplace, particularly in coffee shops. I make a very grumpy point of asking "May I please have a doobriewhatsit?" in polite earshot of the muppet who said "Can I get a Frappalappadingdong?" I find this really annoying, too? The raised inflection? At, like, the end of every, like, sentence? What? I'm, like, what, like, massively irritating? Exactly! If one could care less about something, it therefore indicates that one actually has a definable level of care about that something. If one could not care less about something, it illustrates the point that one couldn't give two hoots about it. I see it quite a lot in thriller/crime novels and I get terribly annoyed with myself for getting annoyed by...oh, you get the picture...
  12. Here's a thing. Surely when a character (and, in my experience, generally an American character, which might be important) says "I could care less about blah blah waffle..." it means that they have a modicum of care about blah blah waffle. This does make sense, doesn't it? It's always in a context of them really not giving a monkey's whatsit about blah blah waffle, yet my logical, rational brain will not let me breeze over this. I also struggle with the word "gotten", particularly if it's written by a British author. Does anyone else have pet peeves about particular foibles in novels? Should I be taken out into a lonely field to be shot?
  13. I thought I'd let folks know that I am really, really enjoying Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. It is superbly well written and utterly gripping. There you go.
  14. I saw Zombie Apocalypse in the shop when I picked Jo up the other day and wondered about picking it up. I may well do so, now!
  15. Yes, I have, and it's a belter! Do it, Cookie. You know you want to...!
  16. The Savage Altar by Asa Larsson On the floor of a church in northern Sweden, the body of a man lies mutilated and defiled–and in the night sky, the aurora borealis dances as the snow begins to fall....So begins Åsa Larsson’s spellbinding thriller, winner of Sweden’s Best First Crime Novel Award and an international literary sensation. Rebecka Martinsson is heading home to Kiruna, the town she’d left in disgrace years before. A Stockholm attorney, Rebecka has a good reason to return: her friend Sanna, whose brother has been horrifically murdered in the revivalist church his charisma helped create. Beautiful and fragile, Sanna needs someone like Rebecka to remove the shadow of guilt that is engulfing her, to forestall an ambitious prosecutor and a dogged policewoman. But to help her friend, and to find the real killer of a man she once adored and is now not sure she ever knew, Rebecka must relive the darkness she left behind in Kiruna, delve into a sordid conspiracy of deceit, and confront a killer whose motives are dark, wrenching, and impossible to guess....(courtesy of Goodreads) This is the first of Asa Larsson's novels I've read, and it didn't disappoint. I found the setting very atmospheric and the pace was perfectly set. I get somewhat irritated by the tag "If you like Stieg Larsson, then you'll love Asa Larsson" because they are nothing alike at all, apart from the fact that it's set in Sweden and the authors share a (common) surname. Saying that, the characters are flawed and well realised, making one's investment worthwhile, because it's all so much more believable. I will happily move on to the next book. If you enjoy Scandicrime, give this lady a go, because it's worth the time. 8/10
  17. Definitely go for War of the Worlds - you couldn't get more classic (nor Victorian!) than that. It's brilliant.
  18. Wells is great reading. I first read his work when I was in my early teens and I yummed them up. Hope you enjoy the others!
  19. I absolutely cannot wait to see this film! Star Trek was THE film of 2009 for me.
  20. I'm planning on having a couple of hours later this afternoon, once I've finished cleaning the house (which I'm currently not doing, obviously). I get so easily distracted!
  21. See, here's another book to add to my TBR shelf. This isn't healthy...
  22. I'm liking it. There's a tag on the front which says "If you like Stieg Larsson, you'll love Asa Larsson" which is misleading, because there two are incomparable. This is more of a thriller-by-numbers, but I'm quite busy at the moment and enjoy the fact that I can pick it up, read a few chapters (they're all quite short) and then maybe not pick it up again for a couple of days. I'll write my thoughts on this book in my Mac Reads thread.
  23. Aching a little after walking 19 miles yesterday...

    1. Chrissy

      Chrissy

      You are going to have to walk further than that to become a proper Proclaimer!

    2. Mac

      Mac

      I'm walking from my front door to Scotland, which is 300 miles, in July. Does that get me any closer...?

    3. Chrissy

      Chrissy

      Oh, alright then. :)

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