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Alexi

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    Bobblybear's Book List - 2018

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    Hi BB! I haven't written a review since March so no way I can catch up either :D Ah well!

     

    Nice to see your belated book log and you've been reading an interesting selection. How was Nothing to Envy? I have it on my pile and have no conception at all about how it will go. Ominous that you also (as well as Willoyd) abandoned The Pilgrim - reckon I might leave that one languishing on the shelf a little longer...

    Your Book Activity - June 2018

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    7 hours ago, willoyd said:

    Just over a hundred pages in, and have come to a halt with The Paying Guests.  Nothing particularly wrong with the book, it just seems all a bit tedious and obvious.  Having said that, I am starting to think it may be more my mndset than the books, as that's the fourth in the past six that I've not finished, more than I usually fail to finish in a year, so setting some sort of not particularly welcome record.

     

    Oh dear! I was planning to read as part of the Round Robin challenge - let’s hope I have better luck with it and your luck turns rapidly!

    Willoyd's Reading 2018

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    Hi Willoyd, I find these stats really interesting :) 

     

    I too seem to have found myself reading bigger books this year - two 650 pagers done already and three more in the pipeline. Good to see your quality is also high as well as page count! 

     

    Your focus  us on non fiction is also encouraging me to pick up more from my own shelves and all your recently acquired sound intriguing! 

    Janet's Log - Stardate 2018

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    Wow Janet, what a terrible time you’ve had :( Glad to read you are on the mend and hope you are back to something resembling 100% very soon. 

     

    I rrad Noel Streatfeild’s books as a child and I was only thinking about a possible reread of them last week. The autobiography sounds great - like you I love social history - so I must look out for that one. 

     

    I am also impatiently waiting for the fourth Strike! The BBC adaptations have not made the wait easier :D 

    Your Book Activity - March 2018

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    17 hours ago, Janet said:

    I'm a quarter of the way through Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. I'm enjoying it so I have downloaded a copy from Audible so that I can whispersync them! 

     

    I'm currently having some highlights so have been listening here to stop anyone from talking to me as they invariably do when I'm reading!! :giggle2: (My hairdresser and her colleague are both lovely, I hasten to add, but I really want to devote time to the book!!). 

     

    This is brilliant, and an idea I am definitely stealing when I next go for highlights :D 

    Alex's Reading 2018

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    4 hours ago, Athena said:

    Good luck with your new job today :)! I hope you can get some reading done on your daily train journeys. I used to read quite a bit on the train when I went to university.

     

    Thanks Athena! :) I find I arrive at work much more relaxed after a period of reading rather than battling idiots on the motorway. 

     

    3 hours ago, Madeleine said:

    I've had the Bruno series for years as  well - good review Alexi, must get round to reading them sometime!

     

    Thanks Madeleine! I hope you enjoy them when your TBR allows you to ;) 

    Alex's Reading 2018

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    Heresy by S J Parris

     

    Synopsis: Giordano Bruno was a monk, poet, scientist, and magician on the run from the Roman Inquisition on charges of heresy for his belief that the Earth orbits the sun and that the universe is infinite. This alone could have got him burned at the stake, but he was also a student of occult philosophies and magic. 

    In S.J. Parris's gripping novel, Bruno's pursuit of this rare knowledge brings him to London, where he is unexpectedly recruited by Queen Elizabeth I and is sent undercover to Oxford University on the pretext of a royal visitation. Officially Bruno is to take part in a debate on the Copernican theory of the universe; unofficially, he is to find out whatever he can about a Catholic plot to overthrow the queen. 

    His mission is dramatically thrown off course by a series of grisly murders and a spirited and beautiful young woman. As Bruno begins to discover a pattern in these killings, he realizes that no one at Oxford is who he seems to be. Bruno must attempt to outwit a killer who appears obsessed with the boundary between truth and heresy.  (From Goodreads)

     

    Thoughts: This was my second book for the Round Robin Challenge and a great pick - this (and the sequel!) has been sat on my bookshelf for years. 

     

    Our hero, Bruno, actually did exist, and his journey from Italy to Oxford fleeing persecution is one of the more interesting aspects of the story. I don't know a good deal about continental Europe  in this period so I can't speak to the accuracy of how Bruno is portrayed, but this historical novel is written in a very modern style and clearly designed to give the gore modern readers have come to expect from these types of novels. 

     

    However, It is rather slow in places and there is a lot of religion involved (as to be expected, given he is visiting religious college in Oxford). The murders don't start til quite a way in, but I actually found the scene setting one of the more interesting parts of the book. The dinner conversations revealing the thoughts (and ignorance) of the era were very well done. 

     

    In fact, the murder-solving is the less interesting part for me, with the context and tensions between Catholics and Protestants the really interesting thread. However, solve the mystery Bruno does (of course) and it's a satisfying enough ending. I am intrigued enough to read the second in this series and see how amateur detective Bruno gets on. 

     

    3.5/5 

    Alex's Reading 2018

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    Well, my plan to keep this better updated is not going well so far :lol:

     

    Thank you for all your comments, interesting to read thoughts on Stephen King especially. I came to him via 11.22.63, because I am fascinated by American history and love books on time travel - which is a bit weird because I hate most traditional sci-fi and fantasy novels! 

     

    I absolutely loved that and as a result tried some of his others, even though like Janet I am not a big fan of horror. I really enjoyed The Shining and Different Seasons is very interesting. It's a collection of four novellas - including Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption and The Body (made into the movie Stand By Me). Only one of those is really crime ridden, although that one is a bit disturbing! I intend to read The Stand at some point...

     

    I am six books behind in terms of reviews, although I think only four will actually end up getting full reviews. 

     

    I think the weekly reading reviews are definitely the way to go! 

     

    In life related news, I start a new job next week. It's in the city centre, which means I am back on the train rather than driving. I've really missed that 30 minute each way read before work. It's been two and a half years of driving and I am ready to kiss that goodbye. More reading time is always good! 

    Your Book Activity - February 2018

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    On 03/02/2018 at 7:54 PM, bookmonkey said:

    It was.  I was a bit disappointed about the coverage of the 20th century though.  I've also read Paris and New York.  So far New York is my favourite.

     

    New York was excellent, I thought! I didn’t like Paris so much, but I have Sarum on my TBR which comes highly recommended. I keep looking at the others too... 

     

    Had an ok January and start of February of reading. I’m now a few days into Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It comes in at 650 pages so I might be a while :D 

    Alex's Reading 2018

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    Joyland by Stephen King

     

    Synopsis: Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever. (From Goodreads) 

     

    Thoughts: This was the first of my round robin books and I was thrilled it was chosen. I have read three books by King and enjoyed them all - and the material is all so varied. This one is certainly very different from the others again. 

     

    I rattled through the first 100 pages. Devin is a likeable character, even if he is so lovesick over a girl we rarely meet but seems rather average! The setting of a 1970s amusement park feels delightfully nostalgic - although the idea that the park would be non-smoking in the 70s doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny. 

     

    The problem is this book doesn’t know what it is. It’s written for the hard case crime line but it isn’t really crime. It’s a coming of age tale, featuring Devin, a disabled child and the child’s mother. 

     

    My edition was 283 pages long. I reckon you could fit the crime/supernatural element into 50 of those pages. Because it is labelled as crime the book feels like it’s hurtling towards a big denouement that never quite arrives. 

     

    It is extremely difficult to get any tension when a character is telling you about his fight with a man holding a gun when the narrator is the person themselves telling the story 40 years later.

     

    I did enjoy the first 3/4 of this book immensely, but the ending let it down. I felt it should have stayed as a coming of age tale rather than throwing in a bit of crime that just detracts from that. But King tells a good yarn and it was an enjoyable, easy read. I have three more Kings on my pile and I will continue to look forward to all three immensely. 

     

    3/5 (I liked it) 

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