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Your Book Activity - June 2018


frankie

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Hey everyone, what's your bookish activity today? :smile2:

 

I'm currently reading Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella - the first English non-fiction book in months! I'm enjoying it :)

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This evening I started Tamagotchi Diary: Requiem for a Digital Egg by Joe Hutsko.  It's a short non-fiction about the author's first experience with hatching and looking after a Tamagotchi virtual pet.  It's a charming read.  (I have a large Tamagotchi collection of my own, so this book is hitting all the right spots, and making me smile. :D )

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I have a couple of books I want to get finsished up. I am quite in the mood for classics at the moment but I want to try a new author. So shall have to have a dive into my books. I am also considering joining my local library. My sister-in-law has always said how she feels keeping libraries going and supporting them is important. Plus BOOKS! :D

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10 hours ago, Onion Budgie said:

This evening I started Tamagotchi Diary: Requiem for a Digital Egg by Joe Hutsko.  It's a short non-fiction about the author's first experience with hatching and looking after a Tamagotchi virtual pet.  It's a charming read.  (I have a large Tamagotchi collection of my own, so this book is hitting all the right spots, and making me smile. :D )

 

I had two Tamagotchi's when I was a child or young teenager, I still have them in a box somewhere but their batteries have long since run out (no way I'm getting rid of them though). I hope the book is good :)!

 

7 hours ago, Lau_Lou said:

I have a couple of books I want to get finsished up. I am quite in the mood for classics at the moment but I want to try a new author. So shall have to have a dive into my books. I am also considering joining my local library. My sister-in-law has always said how she feels keeping libraries going and supporting them is important. Plus BOOKS! :D

 

I love going to my local library! I agree, I think it's important to support them, but I also know not everyone feels that way. If you do decide to join I wish you a lot of fun :).

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19 hours ago, Athena said:

I hope you enjoy the whole book :)!

 

I've read about 150 pages now and I'm enjoying it! I hope it gets a bit deeper though, at some point. And look, I said non-fiction again, re: the Kinsella book :D  I meant my first non- non-fiction book :D 

 

8 hours ago, Lau_Lou said:

I have a couple of books I want to get finsished up. I am quite in the mood for classics at the moment but I want to try a new author. So shall have to have a dive into my books. I am also considering joining my local library. My sister-in-law has always said how she feels keeping libraries going and supporting them is important. Plus BOOKS! :D

 

Supporting libraries is very important, I'm with your sister-in-law :D  Do join!!

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2 hours ago, Athena said:

 

I had two Tamagotchi's when I was a child or young teenager, I still have them in a box somewhere but their batteries have long since run out (no way I'm getting rid of them though). I hope the book is good :)!

 

I finished it last night.  :)  I loved the nostalgia factor, but there were way too many grammatical and spelling errors. 

 

Back to Rogue Male.  I WILL finish it soon!

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2 hours ago, Onion Budgie said:

I finished it last night.  :)  I loved the nostalgia factor, but there were way too many grammatical and spelling errors.

 

That's such a shame! I hate it when a book has so many errors. I'm glad the nostalgia factor was great at least :).

 

My book activity today will probably consist of doing statistics and reviews of the books I read for the read-a-thon these past few days. I don't know if I'll start another book today, I think I feel too tired to read in a book.

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I have just finished Eleanor of Aquitaine: By The Wrath Of God Queen Of England by Alison Weir. Despite the title, Eleanor herself takes to the sidelines, and you learn more of her husbands and sons. However, the book held my interest and is worthy of 3 stars. It was good! My first Alison Weir book and I look forward to reading more. 

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I am currently reading The Young World by Chris Weitz. It's a post-apocalyptic novel about teenagers - the only survivors of a disease that kills all children and all adults. These teenagers must survive in New York City as they travel through the city to attempt to find out what happened and why the disease killed everyone else. I'm almost done, but I would already recommend it to fellow YA readers. 

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Finished with Farewell to the Horse by Ulrich Raulff.  It may have been Sunday Times History Book of the Year (as it claims on the front cover) but after an excellent start, this slid away into a very poorly structured and verbose  mishmash.   Really, really disappointing after so much promise.Only managed 220 of 370 pages, but just couldn't face any more.  2 stars.

 

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I've finished six books so far this month (some were already in progress before the start of the month, so not as many as it sounds ;) ):

 

A Shadow Above by Joe Shute - brilliant, absolutely loved it (gutted it hasn't made the Wainwright longlist)

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - re-read for book group

The End We Start From by Megan Hunter - unusual style but enjoyable 

Heartburn by Nora Ephron - funny, but a bit sad too, although gorgeous new edition from Virago to celebrate their 40th anniversary

The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson - quick, fun middle grade read. I love a good heist story!

Reader, I Married Him by Tracy Chevalier (Editor) - collection of short stories inspired by Jane Eyre.  Mixed bag, most very good, a couple excellent, and a couple I either disliked or have forgotten.

 

I've been buying the books from the 2018 longlist for the Wainwright Prize for the best UK nature and travel writing which was announced this week.  Of the thirteen books on the list, I've already read six and owned one more (which I'm reading now), so my forward planning has paid off, and I've bought another five this week already, with one left to get which wasn't in stock otherwise I'd probably have bought that one too!  Seven books to read over the next two months is eminently more achievable than the whole list which is what I've tried to do for the last couple of years. :D 

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Started A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland.  Hope it does better than some of my recent books - I've only managed to finish one of the last four!  That's not happened before.

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I've read the first two books of Gerald Durrell's Corfu trilogy recently - I'd read My Family and Other Animals before, but Birds, Beasts and Relatives was new to me.  I really enjoyed both of them!  I have watched and enjoyed The Durrells on TV, but didn't know how close to the books it was and was pleasantly surprised to see that so many of the characters and incidents *are* in the books, albeit in a different chronological order! 

 

I have Garden of the Gods to read too - I will probably read that next but have stopped to read my Book Club book, which is The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris - I'm storming through it - it's a compelling read so far!

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Completed A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland, a bit of a curate's egg (but at least I finished it, as only done so with 1 of the last 4 books!).  3 stars (OK, but not unputdownable). Moved on to Sarah Waters' novel The Paying Guests, surprisingly my first go at one of her books.

 

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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.

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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!

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13 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.

If you can face trying another, I think you'd enjoy Fingersmith.  It has a similar feel to The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber, which I think you liked (?) about it.  :)

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21 hours ago, Alexi said:

 

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!

 

I wouldn't take my feelings about it as any guide, just the wrong book at the wrong time.  As well, I think I prefer my fiction a bit 'denser' (meatier?) than most modern day fiction, so I don't think that helped.  As Janet says, I really enjoyed The Crimson Petal and the White, but whilst modern, very much a throwback in style.  The Essex Serpent was another one, thinking of recent modern fiction that I've particularly enjoyed.

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I finally finished Rogue Male.  The latter third (in the tiny earth-hole) felt so claustrophobic that I was almost gasping for air along with the protagonist!  Physically uncomfortable reading.  The ending had a small twist that I wasn't expecting.  4/5

 

Now on to Unfinished Business by James Van Praagh.

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Just finished Prince Caspian, the fourth book in the Chronicles Of Narnia series by C S Lewis. I do claim that young adult, fantasy and adventure books are amongst my least favourite genres, but I always love these so much. I was on the verge between a 4 and 5 star but the ending, whether it was meant to be taken as such, I don’t know, I found so comical it went to a serious 5 star! My 6th Of the year so far! :)

 

 

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Really enjoying Unfinished Business; I'm a third of the way through it.  The subject of the afterlife fascinates me.

 

I'm about to start Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins by Rupert Everett.  I watched a BBC documentary on him recently, and was so charmed by his wit and candour.  It reminded me that I had this book sitting unread on my shelf, and gave me a virtual dig in the ribs that I NEED to read it! 

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I'm just over half way through The Walworth Beauty by Michèle Roberts. Two parallel narratives, one set in the Victorian era and one set 'now'. It's my first experience of this author but I'm really enjoying it. 🙂

 

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Splitting my reading across two books currently:  on the non-fiction front, I'm rapidly up to about half way through Patrick Barkham's Islanders, the story of a journey around some of the islands in the British-Irish archipelago.  I've also started Joseph Roth's The Radetzky March

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