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Your Book Activity - August 2015


frankie

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Finally finished New York by Edward Rutherfurd. What an absorbing read, that flew along for 500 years of rich history. Wonderful stuff, that has left me chomping at the bit for my flight to JFK in 2 weeks.

I'm glad you enjoyed New York so much :)! I have it on my shelf (unread).

 

I'm currently reading Herman Koch - Geachte Heer M. (Dear Mister M. in the English translation), which is good so far. It took a bit of time for me to get interested in it, but then some interesting revelations happened. I'm also reading the Mistborn Trilogy Annotations and Deleted Scenes by Brandon Sanderson (posted for free on his website), which is interesting.

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Have started reading Small Steps by Louis Sachar (I'd forgotten that it's a sequel to Holes! :D Yay!) and this one I'm really enjoying :)

 

I read that, but I can't remember anything about it. :doh:  Glad you are enjoying it.

 

I finished The Curse of the House of Foskett yesterday.  I did enjoy it, but I'm not as enamoured of the series as I was hoping to be.  There's something about both March and Sidney that doesn't quite ring true for me, but I'm not quite sure why.  I might read the next one and see how it goes, but I've got plenty of other books to read as well as on my wish list that I'd want to read more that the third book of the series, so it might be a while before I think about it.

 

I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first book, which is why I'm not in a huge rush to read Death Descends On Saturn Villa. I do enjoy March and Sidney's relationship though. For me it was the plot of The Curse of the House of Foskett that didn't grab me.

 

 

As I have not long moved house and all my books are stored in boxes in the garage :o, I've been limited to Kindle, where I decided to go for an old classic - The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I also picked up a book from the shops the other day - Mr Mercedes by Stephen King to read alongside that, as GoW seems a bit heavy going for me at the mo. :D

 

The Grapes of Wrath is such a good book. I was blown away when I read it last year. But I still haven't picked up any more Steinbeck since then, even though that was my intention. :doh:Mr Mercedes was a decent read, not one of Stephen King's best though. 

 

Finally finished New York by Edward Rutherfurd. What an absorbing read, that flew along for 500 years of rich history. Wonderful stuff, that has left me chomping at the bit for my flight to JFK in 2 weeks.

 

I thought I had New York on my bookshelf, but I don't. I have London and Sarum. I've had them both for about 10+ years but just haven't felt like reading them. Glad you enjoyed it. :smile:

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It's getting close to the end of the time period on the Kindle summer sale, and there were some bargains there that couldn't been resisted, so I bought a handful of books yesterday:

The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris by Jenny Colgan
The Inn at the Top by Neil Hanson
Stung by Joss Stirling
Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor
The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

It was also the first birthday of my local bookshop, so thought it only polite to pop in and buy a book, and came out with a complete impulse buy, The Giraffe's Neck by Judith Schalansky, never heard of it before but it looked a bit different, so thought I'd give it a go. :)

 

I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first book, which is why I'm not in a huge rush to read Death Descends On Saturn Villa. I do enjoy March and Sidney's relationship though. For me it was the plot of The Curse of the House of Foskett that didn't grab me.


It's not so much their relationship, but each of them as individual characters that didn't quite convince me.

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The Grapes of Wrath is such a good book. I was blown away when I read it last year. But I still haven't picked up any more Steinbeck since then, even though that was my intention. :doh:Mr Mercedes was a decent read, not one of Stephen King's best though. 

 

The only other Steinbeck I've read is 'Of Mice & Men', which is fantastic but GoW hasn't grabbed me in the same way. Maybe it's cos I'm a bit sleep deprived! :lol: I am nearly halfway though and I will persist, in the hope that I soon get into it more.

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I finished Chitty Chitty Bang Bang yesterday and started The Letter by Kathryn 'somebody'. It's not terribly well-written - it was cheap on Kindle and I suspect it might have been self-published but it's quite an interesting premise so I shall persevere.

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I'm not enjoying Geachte Heer M. as much as I liked Het Diner (both by Herman Koch). It's a bit of a slow story and I don't really like the characters. I will finish it because I feel too far in to stop, and I do like the writing style, and the parts about books and writing and authors, those are the best bits for me. But so far it's a rather 'meh' read :shrug:.

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That's interesting! I was intrigued by the ones he's done on Ireland but maybe Sarum is the one to go for.

 

Wave when I'm in San Francisco the following week - I will be closer ;)

I heard the Ireland ones are good as well- it seemed the only ones that didn't get a good review or were barely mentioned were Paris and Russka.

 

Will happily wave when you are in SF, nearly my backyard :)  :006:

 

Actually I had no idea it was a trilogy. I have no idea what it's even about. I just picked it up cos I like Stephen King. :lol:

I liked it, how's it going?

 

^ Yes, I read the review. Scathing indeed. :giggle2:

:lol: Lee Child can write some great Reacher, but when he writes bad, it's bad!

 

I'm not enjoying Geachte Heer M. as much as I liked Het Diner (both by Herman Koch). It's a bit of a slow story and I don't really like the characters. I will finish it because I feel too far in to stop, and I do like the writing style, and the parts about books and writing and authors, those are the best bits for me. But so far it's a rather 'meh' read :shrug:.

That's too bad.  I have never read any Koch, but it seems he stirs up people, whether good or bad!

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That's interesting! I was intrigued by the ones he's done on Ireland but maybe Sarum is the one to go for.

 

 

Did someone mention Ireland?

 

I heard the Ireland ones are good as well- it seemed the only ones that didn't get a good review or were barely mentioned were Paris and Russka.

 

Yes, two someones did!I looked these up... they sound daunting, particularly the first of the two Ireland ones, but I'm intrigued!

 

Today I bought two books in Waterstones - Asking For It by Louise O'Neill and The Enemy by Charlie Higson.

 

Currently reading Creepy and Maud which I bought on my tablet as hardcopies are nearly £20 on Amazon for some reason... Started another book called Weightless but it's really not roping me in at all. And I still need to finish The Phantom Tollbooth.

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Today I bought two books in Waterstones - Asking For It by Louise O'Neill and The Enemy by Charlie Higson.

 

Currently reading Creepy and Maud which I bought on my tablet as hardcopies are nearly £20 on Amazon for some reason... Started another book called Weightless but it's really not roping me in at all. And I still need to finish The Phantom Tollbooth.

 

I didn't enjoy The Enemy at all. In fact, re-reading my review here, it's fair to say I hated it. I gave it 1/6. :D Hope you get on with it better than I did.

 

I really hope Asking For It is as good as Only Ever Yours, although with the subject matter, I don't think it's the kind of book one can "enjoy".

 

I have Weightless on my wishlist because someone here gave it a glowing review. I'm just waiting for it to come down a bit in price.

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I didn't enjoy The Enemy at all. In fact, re-reading my review here, it's fair to say I hated it. I gave it 1/6. :D Hope you get on with it better than I did.

 

I really hope Asking For It is as good as Only Ever Yours, although with the subject matter, I don't think it's the kind of book one can "enjoy".

 

I have Weightless on my wishlist because someone here gave it a glowing review. I'm just waiting for it to come down a bit in price.

 

Oh no! I had heard really good things... sugar I'll be really annoyed if it turns out to be bad now :lol:

 

Asking For it.. 100 pages in I hate every single character, they're all dull, pointless, and in a couple of cases quite hateful people. So we'll see. Very glad to see that it in no way reflects the kind of people I knew (closely or vaguely) growing up in Ireland.

 

Weightless... is incredibly dull. Everyone is described as being a human barbie and again I don't care about any of the characters. I've heard it takes a while to get going though, so we'll see.

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I liked it, how's it going?

Actually I only just started Mr Mercedes last night, so I can't really comment yet! :lol:

 

Incredibly though, within the prelude, it has a direct reference to The Grapes of Wrath! :o What are the odds of that, that I would be reading both of those books at the same time? :unsure:

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Asking For it.. 100 pages in I hate every single character, they're all dull, pointless, and in a couple of cases quite hateful people. So we'll see. Very glad to see that it in no way reflects the kind of people I knew (closely or vaguely) growing up in Ireland.

 

Oh dear! But are they meant to be that way - ie. not likeable?

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Oh dear! But are they meant to be that way - ie. not likeable?

 

There's no way these people could be intended as likeable. They have no personalities (except one, who runs around trying to please the ones with no personalities), and all they care about is looking pretty and social success. The two most popular ones are constantly passive aggressive to each other. To be fair, I'm not reading it to like the characters, I'm reading it to see how O'Neill handles the fallout of what happens.

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