karen.d
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Posts posted by karen.d
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On 4/3/2020 at 10:06 PM, Hayley said:
That’s exactly how I felt about it at first too. Very different atmosphere isn’t it? When I read the next book though I was like ‘wow, that was really clever’.
I finished Murder on the the Orient Express and I really enjoyed it! I know it’s about a murder but I actually found it quite relaxing! I definitely want to read more Agatha Christie.
It doesn't really seem a continuation of the last book. Apart from having two characters from the first book (so far!), it could be a stand alone. It's definitely has some very abstract bits in it. I am enjoying this though. I managed to read 142 pages over the weekend. It's not as many pages as I would have liked to have read, but it's helping me get my reading mojo back.
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21 hours ago, Hayley said:
That’s exactly how I felt about it at first too. Very different atmosphere isn’t it? When I read the next book though I was like ‘wow, that was really clever’.
This book is growing on me now!
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7 hours ago, Hayley said:
I forgot the read-a-thon was this weekend too! I'm very time / date confused at the moment.
I'm definitely going to finish Murder on the Orient Express today and then I might start Things in Jars by Jess Kidd but I'll see how I feel!
How are you finding it!?
Now I've got into it, it's good. Not as good as the first book in the series 'The Shadow of the Wind' but that might change the more I read. How are getting on with your read?
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I'm just about to start continuing 'The Angel's Gane' by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. I still haven't finished this from the last read-a-thon!
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Spoiler
Hi! I hope everyone is keeping safe and well during lockdown. Is the read-a-thon still going ahead this weekend? I'd be glad for the distraction to be honest.
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On 3/8/2020 at 8:13 AM, Athena said:
On Saturday I read:
71 pages of The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials 2 by Philip Pullman) (buddy read), finishing it
136 pages of Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper, finishing it
194 pages of Moederen met autisme by Sigrid Landman, finishing it
These were all books I started to read a while ago. I still have more books that I started 3 weeks ago and haven't finished yet, I hope to make some progress on some of them today. I do want to read my usual read-a-thon reads at some point, but I'd rather finish off some more books that I already started, first.
I hope @Hayley and @karen.d that your weekend is going well also
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I had a good time this weekend reading! Here's my progress:
Friday: 'Harbour Street'- Ann Cleeves 103 pages
Saturday:'Harbour Street' 16 Pages
'Notes on a Nervous Planet'- Matt Haig: 186 pages (I finished this book)
Sunday: 'Harbour Street' 26 pages
Total Pages Read: 331 Pages
I decided to mix up my reads this read-a-thon and really enjoyed both books for different reasons.
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1 hour ago, Athena said:
Yay! I hope you enjoy Harbour Street
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Thank you! I'm enjoying it so far.
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15 hours ago, Hayley said:
Me too! It took me ages to finish my last book (The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock - it took me so long I was reading it during the last read-a-thon!) but I finally finished it yesterday so I'm looking forward to getting stuck into some new things. I'm hoping I can finish False Value, the new Ben Aaronovitch book
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Was 'The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock' good? Have a good read-a-thon!
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On 3/3/2020 at 7:05 AM, Athena said:
The upcoming March read-a-thon takes place next weekend (6, 7, 8 March). I'm still in the middle of reading a number of books, and for the read-a-thon I would like to at least read the next Fruits Basket CE volume, the next Komi Can't Communicate volume and the next Deathnote volume.
Count me in for the read-a-thon! I've just started 'Harbour Street' by Ann Cleeves, which I am reading as a buddy read. This weekend I can dedicate to reading that.
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On 2/19/2020 at 10:45 AM, Chrissy said:
I am yet to watch ANY of the new series, and I have to wonder if my lack of enthusiasm to do so is fair or not. It doesn't help that husband isn't a Whovian, so I have to time when I watch them!.
Glad to read that the new series appears better, I enjoyed the last series, but felt it lacked a non specific 'something', and the referencing (to my mind) of the Doctor's gender was starting to grate.
I'm still enjoying this series, to be confusing and not as powerful as previous conclusions to other series.
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5 hours ago, Athena said:
I hadn't thought of it that way.
I'm glad re-reading Sourcery was great! I really liked it when I read it.
I'm sorry you've been feeling under the weather. I'm glad you're enjoying your book though! I hope you feel better soon
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Thank you! I am feeling much better
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2 hours ago, Hayley said:
I'm glad you're enjoying The Coffin Dancer (I just looked it up and it does sound good!) and I hope you feel better soon!
Thank you! I LOVED the first book on this series 'The Bone Collector' and wanted to give this one a try. It's good so far.
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Here's my update for this weekend's read-a-thin. I managed to read 127 pages of 'The Coffin Dancer' by Jeffery Deaver. It's not as many pages as I would have liked to have read, but I was a bit under the weather. I still really enjoyed (and am still really enjoying) this book.
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25 minutes ago, Athena said:
Happy read(-a-thon-)ing to all of you who read in a book this weekend
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You too!
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Looking forward to it! I haven't decided what I will be reading yet. I've got about 100ish pages left of 'Little Women', so hopefully I would have finished that before the read-a-thon, so I can choose a new book.
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On 1/30/2020 at 12:33 AM, Raven said:
Well, this has moved on a bit.
I cannot honestly say I was a huge fan of the last series; from a production point of view it was fantastic, but the writing seemed very flat after the sparkle Steven Moffat bough in both ideas and colourful dialogue, and I still wasn't sure about Whittaker come the end of the series.
Since then I have re-watched the first half of the series and warmed to it a little more, but then series two started on New Years Day and the first two episodes were a marked improvement over anything they did last year.
Then, after two not so great episodes, came last weeks effort!
To be honest, I'm still not sure what to make of it - I certainly wasn't expecting the episode we got!
Is anyone else watching?
I'm still watching and think that this series has been a lot better than the last one. It has had a good mix of fun episodes and teaching viewers about history. I almost spilt my tea after the surprise appearance in the last episode, I wasn't expecting that, but I'm very excited for future episodes.
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On 1/24/2020 at 7:33 PM, vodkafan said:
I felt the same way about Normal People and agreed with a lot of your review , but I still felt a little bad for Marianne at the end.
I think the ended reflected the sort of people that they were.
SpoilerI think they were never going to get their 'Happily Ever After' because they both had so many issues. I would love to find out more about what happened to them! Or do you think there could be a sequel?
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5 hours ago, Lau_Lou said:
Sorry you didn't enjoy The Couple Next Door. I gave it 2 stars too. I just found it irritating that we the reader found out what had happened then the main character did and we had to go through it all again. Very repetitive. Also the ending if I remember correctly was not at all good and a complete cop out.
Glad you enjoyed your latest book though
It wasn't for me unfortunately. Thank you!
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13 hours ago, Athena said:
Happy Birthday Karen!!
I hope you have a wonderful day!
Thank you! I've had a nice day
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I was given this as a Christmas present, because my friend knows that I like quirky books.
‘The Lost Thing’ is a book aimed at predominately 6-11 year olds, but, after reading this, I felt like this book would be suitable for anyone, as the message of book is a very important one.
The writing style of this book was humorous and intelligent. It didn’t talk down to its readers and I loved the way this book played with words. I loved the flow of the story too, I wanted to know what was going to happen.
One of the most striking things about this book, were the illustrations. I loved the industrial look of the illustrations and the little hidden details within each picture, which keep you looking at them for a long time.
The message of this story was very poignant, particularly in society today. At first, I wasn’t exactly sure what the overall message of the story was, to be honest, but then I could apply many things to this story, individuality, selfishness and the fear of the ‘other’. So I think that this story is diverse in its message.
Not only was ‘The Lost Thing’ a fun book to read, but it was also very thought provoking.
I’d recommend this, to both children and adults.
My Rating: *****
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1 hour ago, Athena said:
Personal update:
The weekend for the next read-a-thon (7, 8, 9 February) and a lot of the weekends after that, for the next few months, my family and I will be busy working on our new house. So.. I'm honestly not sure how much reading I'll be able to do. Maybe further down the line, sure, but the upcoming weekend in February (7, 8, 9 Feb), will be the first weekend that we have the keys to the house (I'm super excited!), so I'll probably not be getting much reading done. The weekend of 14-15-16 February I may have more time, as my parents will not be available then, but I'm not sure yet. I still want to read the books I usually read for the read-a-thons, the Fruits Basket series I'm reading and the Death Note series I just started. But I may do it during another time in the month, or maybe I'll read on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday prior to the read-a-thons (however, like I said, we're only just getting the key in the beginning of February, so the first week of Feb I'll be busy with the house for sure and I doubt there'll be much reading going on for me).
Wow, the month has gone so quickly! I'll be taking part in the read-a-thon as much as I can. I'm not sure what I will be reading. It's my birthday next Wednesday, so I suspect that I might be receiving a few new books! So we will see
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7 hours ago, bookmonkey said:
I read the Couple Next Door last year and didn't think much of it either. I figured it out early on and only kept reading because I thought there must be some really good twist coming, but there wasn't.
I'm glad i'm not the only one who had problems with this book. I didn't guess the ending, because it seemed so silly,
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5 hours ago, Athena said:
I hope the next thriller you read, will be more enjoyable for you!
Thank you! Me too!
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'The Couple Next Door'- Shari Lapena
I read another of Shari Lapena’s novels, ‘An Unwanted Guest’ last year and had very mixed feelings about it. However, I’m all for giving authors at least two novels, before I make a final decision on their writing. So I gave ‘The Couple Next Door’ a try.
Unfortunately, I found the exact same problems with this book, as I had with ‘An Unwanted Guest’.
The premise of this novel sounded good and at first, it intrigued me. It built up a lot of suspense and I wanted to know what was going to happen.
However I felt that, because Shari Lapena wrote the story in almost all narrative and did not have much speech, I felt detached from the story, rather than drawn into it. I also found that the writing was rather clumsy and uninspiring.
I also had a problem with the plot too. The story started off in a strong way and I wanted to know what was going to happen, but everything slowly unraveled and the story became almost implausible. Then, the end, for me, was sloppy and ridiculous.
One of the problems with Shari Lapena’s novels, in my opinion, is that they haven’t been thought through properly. If the writer had had a tighter plot worked out, then this could have been a stronger, more successful read. However, ‘The Couple Next Door’ wasn’t a book for me unfortunately.
My Rating: **
Read-a-thon 2020
in Group Reads
Posted
Ohh sounds interesting!