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Your Book Activity - January 2018


chesilbeach

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Enjoying The Kicking the Bucket List a lot so far, I'm about halfway done now. It's not a genre I read a lot as I seem to have focused a lot on fantasy and young adult in the recent years, but this has been a nice surprise :) 

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13 hours ago, anisia said:

Enjoying The Kicking the Bucket List a lot so far, I'm about halfway done now. It's not a genre I read a lot as I seem to have focused a lot on fantasy and young adult in the recent years, but this has been a nice surprise :) 

 

That's good to hear :). The book is on my TBR. I hope you enjoy the second half too!

 

I'm currently reading Wonderjaren by Pam van der Veen and Albert Wiglema. The book is about technology in the 1980s and 1990s and how it changed our daily life.

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I'm almost done with Roller Coaster.  It isn't particularly well written.

 

Looking at my shelf, I'm now dithering between Orlando by Virginia Woolf, or Skirt and the Fiddle by Tristan Egolf.  Orlando has been sitting there in a huff for YEARS, so it'll most likely be that one.

Edited by Onion Budgie
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So my no book buying rule is going really well ... just three bought today :doh: 

 

Found another Anita Brookner at the second hand shop today, so I now own a copy of The Bay of Angels.  The last book in the Beetle Boy trilogy is out in Waterstones and I wanted to get one of the limited editions with the sprayed edges, so I had to buy one of those, and then they had a buy one get one half price sticker on it, so I thought it would be rude not to, and chose Wed Rabbit by Lissa Evans to go with it. :giggle2: 

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Halfway through January I have read:

 

Jodi Picoult...

The Storyteller

Lone Wolf

Leaving Time

Salem Falls

Halfway Through House Rules

 

Jodi Picoult writes beautifully. She spins a good yarn, as they used to say. In fact, if you read just about any review of her work, you will find phrases like, "Natural Storyteller"; or, "Gripping Story."

 

In every book she addresses a topical issue. In The Storyteller she writes about the Holocaust.

 

In Leaving Time, a teenager searches for her mother who disappeared mysteriously. The girl enlists the help of a psychic who is genuinely psychic. Don't be surprised to find a little magic in Picoult's work. Not like a fantasy story -- just a bit here and there. Oh, and there are elephants in this one!

 

House Rules take us into the home of a family whose oldest son has Asperger's Syndrome. And there's a murder mystery, too. Anyway, the critics can't find enough good things to say about her. She writes of serious issues that compel strong emotions yet she's remarkably easy to read. (That's my opinion, not the critics'.)

 

When I finish House Rules I will start on Margaret Atwood books.

 

Happy reading, friends.

 

 

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15 hours ago, Litwitlou said:

Halfway through January I have read:

 

Jodi Picoult...

The Storyteller

Lone Wolf

Leaving Time

Salem Falls

Halfway Through House Rules

 

Wow, that's a LOT of Jodi Picoult books in one month! I couldn't do that, I need a break from an author's style after a while. But I'm happy you loved all of the books so far. I haven't read Salem Falls but I read the other ones you mention, and I liked them all (though not to the same extent).

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If I don't like a book or an author I toss the book in the library donation bin or put it on my shelf for another time. I have no problem disagreeing with book critics. They're right about Jodi Picoult -- though I think they rate her too high.  She is very PC, maybe that's why she's getting bonus points.

Edited by Litwitlou
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14 minutes ago, Athena said:

 

Wow, that's a LOT of Jodi Picoult books in one month! I couldn't do that, I need a break from an author's style after a while. But I'm happy you loved all of the books so far. I haven't read Salem Falls but I read the other ones you mention, and I liked them all (though not to the same extent).

 

 

The critics like her more than I do but she's good, no doubt

When I read fiction it seems I'm reading authors rather than books sometimes.

Next a few Margaret Atwood books; then Isabel Allende. After I catch up on my female authors a little I'm going to non-fiction.

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11 hours ago, Litwitlou said:

 

 

The critics like her more than I do but she's good, no doubt

When I read fiction it seems I'm reading authors rather than books sometimes.

Next a few Margaret Atwood books; then Isabel Allende. After I catch up on my female authors a little I'm going to non-fiction.

 

I'm the opposite - unless I'm reading a series, I have a general rule not to read the same author twice in a row. I do that because I want to avoid comparing two very different books, which I tend to do less if I read a different book in between. For example, I've just read Misery by Stephen King. I want to read 11/22/1963 by Stephen King, but took Tess Gerritsen's The Bone Garden in between to avoid reading two Kings in a row.

 

My plan has been sidetracked somewhat, though. Today, I fell into the Library Trap. I had to bring books back this week and I've finished them all last week, but haven't had time yet to bring them back. Knowing I wouldn't get a chance later this week either, I went now. I swore not to take any books. Then I allowed myself just one. I ended up going home with five library books - leaving only 11/22/1963 in the library because I own a copy, or I'd have taken six. 

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14 hours ago, Litwitlou said:

 

 

The critics like her more than I do but she's good, no doubt

When I read fiction it seems I'm reading authors rather than books sometimes.

Next a few Margaret Atwood books; then Isabel Allende. After I catch up on my female authors a little I'm going to non-fiction.

I hope you enjoy Isabel Allende. I attended a (fairly small in attendance) "session" with Allende at the University of Virginia where she discussed her life and her books. Allende has led a very interesting life. 

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I am off to a slow start in 2018 with my reading. Possibly because the books are very long. Sleeping Beauty was 700+ pages long and the current book, A Column of Fire, is 900+ pages long. I give Sleeping Beauty a 8/10. A pretty good book but it takes a disciplined reader in the first part of the book to stay with it and then you realize that King is setting you up for the remainder of the book. I liked it and probably respect King even more now after reading this book. He has always been one of my favorite authors.

 

I am about 48% into A Column of Fire by Ken Follett and at this point give it a 9/10. I always learn a lot by reading Follett.

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I'm reading 'The Lost Heart of Asia' by Colin Thubron. I've never really read a travel book before but I'm heading that way in April so thought I ought to gen up. Thubron is very good - highly recommended. He drifts smoothly into being lyrical and focuses on people and emotions, so much so you hardly notice the historic details.

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10 hours ago, muggle not said:

I hope you enjoy Isabel Allende. I attended a (fairly small in attendance) "session" with Allende at the University of Virginia where she discussed her life and her books. Allende has led a very interesting life. 

 

Wow. Isabel Allende told you about her life and work. I envy you.

Me? While writing for the college paper I covered a Louis Farrakhan speech he gave on campus. He speaks well but to this day I have no idea what his point was most of the time. 

 

 

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9 hours ago, Litwitlou said:

 

Wow. Isabel Allende told you about her life and work. I envy you.

Me? While writing for the college paper I covered a Louis Farrakhan speech he gave on campus. He speaks well but to this day I have no idea what his point was most of the time. 

 

 

Yu may want to look at this conversation that was held in 2006 on

Allende.

http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/428-isabel-allende/&tab=comments#comment-5231

 

Edited by muggle not
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Just finished Roger Knight's The Pursuit of Victory, his biography of Nelson.  At 577 densely printed pages, it's a chunky read, I think the commonly used word is 'magisterial', and has taken me, on and off, over three weeks to read, but it's been fully worth it. No hagiography, it reveals a thoroughly complex character who, whilst brilliant in many aspects and a genius as a leader, seems to only really come to full maturity in the final years of his life.  Genuinely fascinating.  5* (excellent, if not quite a favourite).

 

I need to read Sebastian Faulks's Where My Heart Used To Beat for one of my reading groups.  Have read the first few pages, and it feels rather pale and woolly after the previous book, but hopefully I will warm to it as I adjust.

 

Edited by willoyd
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