France
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Posts posted by France
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delicately through a straw
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12 hours ago, friendofbooks said:
How do you do it? Every time I walk into a bookstore, I feel like buying everything at once!
Living in France helps as there are far fewer bookshops with less choice! When I visit the UK it's a different story though. I could literally barely lift my case for books last time and that was before I'd got airside at Gatwick and a look at the large airport only paperbacks!
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her sister was coming
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I think you're being a bit harsh on the members of my book group Kev!
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Most of the books covering the walls upstairs! Basically if I don't want to reread it or keep it for the children or my husband then it goes to the charity sale, but that still leaves several hundred. There are some books I loved but know I'll never reread - War and Peace being one, and others that get picked up regularly, Mapp and Lucia, Cold Comfort Farm, P & P, Dorothy L Sayers, Diana Wynne Jones to name but a few.
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I seem to be on a roll with good books at the moment (long may it continue!)
The House of Lamentations by Shona Maclean is the fifth in her series about Cromwell's agent Damien Seeker and is as good as the previous ones. She is so good at imbuing her stories with a sense of place.
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros is the sequel to Fourth Wing and is very good indeed, the sort of good where you ignore everyone in the room while you get on with the next few chapters. What's not to like about dragons, especially adolescent dragons with attitude? My only criticism is the sex scenes, I may be old and stuffy but my daughters are anything but and they agree, what Violet and Xaden get up to between the sheets does not need to be described in that detail and interrupts the flow of the story which is about dragons , their riders, other magical creatures and battles against evil.
Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin is a cosyish mystery written by a TV chef. It's light, well written, well plotted and great fun, prefect for the shift I was on yesterday which was lots of waiting around interspersed with short bursts of activity. One to look out for and I'll be reading his next one.
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1 hour ago, lunababymoonchild said:
Currently reading 'Salem's Lot, Stephen King
I think that's probably the best vampire story I've ever read and I've read quite a few.
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You obviously like Iain Banks. Have you read Espadair Street? I really enjoyed that one.
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On 2/18/2024 at 4:25 PM, muggle not said:
3. Iron Flame ( Book2 of the Empyrean series) - Rebecca Yarros - 4/5 -Iron Flame was every bit as good as Book 1, Fourth Wing. I hope that Rebecca Yarros continues the series. I believe the ending of Iron Flame leaves open the possibility of future books. The Riders of Dragons battle the bad guys in the exciting finish of book 2 but it appears that one of the main characters is gone, but maybe not. The personality of the dragons is interesting and a good part of the books. I recommend both Fourth Wing and iron Flame.
I've just started Iron Flame. I'm not talking to anyone.
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Kobo are launching two colour e-readers this month, one with a 6 inch screen, the other the Libra which is 7 inches. Both are waterproof. Apparently Amazon will be launching colour versions of Kindle next year.
Is colour important to you? I miss it in my Kobo Libra, particularly when I'm reading something with illustrations though I'm not so desperate for it that I'll buy a new Libra before my existing one gives up the ghost. I daresay I'll be playing with the demostration models in Fnac in Bordeaux when it comes out though.
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Yes, this one had a lot of plot similarities to one I'd read before (the first they wrote I think) and ridiculously useless police, both in 1990 and 2020.
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Another good run;
The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton , this is a real page turner, not quite her best but still very good.
Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo is the follow up to Ninth House and suffers a bit by comparison, that was so good and so different that it was always going to be a hard act to follow. This one wanders a bit in the first half but the last quarter is epic stuff. Definitely worth reading.
I tried Nicci French a couple of times and always found her a bit lacking,her plot lines had 'that really couldn't happen' elements - a girl disappearing, presumed murdered, last seen at a party of her parents. Turned out her best friend who was at the party had the same coloured hair so everyone presumed she was the daughter... Anyway Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter had such rave reviews that I bought it as an ebook special. It's certainly very readable, I finished it in 24 hours - being stuck in a car that had slid into a ditch for over two hours got me off to a good start, but afterwards I got that unsatisfied feeling you get from too many sweets. A really good mystery leaves you savouring things, this didn't.
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Scott is definitely a Marmite author. I used to love his books, less so now. He was a great storyteller but I think of his time, some of his attitudes stick in the modern craw particularly where Jews are concerned.
My book group read Ivanhoe a few years ago and two people said that if a book by Sir Walter Scott was ever chosen again they were leaving the group!
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On 3/30/2024 at 11:09 PM, muggle not said:
How did you like the big surprise at the end of Fourth Wing? It took me completely by surprise. Iron Flame is equally as good.
I really didn't expect that!
And yes, I've ordered Iron Flame...
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Oh goodness, how often do you read three books you can't put down in succession?
The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith is a prime example that certain books are definitely better suited to paper. I had it on my Kobo and gave up on it twice, long before I got to the infamous pages of tweets. Then on urging from another online book group I got a real book and was hooked, the tweets are easy to read on a proper page and do add a lot. Yes, it's too long and should have been edited but it's still very good indeed.
A Stranger in the Family by Jane Casey is the 11th in her Maeve Kerrigan series and the standard is keeping up. You need to start at the beginning for these books as the characters develop and change.
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros For once the sort of facile comparisons to other books on the jacket are pretty close to the bone - this is The Hunger Games with dragons (and I loved the Hunger Games). It really is unputtdownable, I got up at 6 which is very unlike me just so I could fit in some intensive reading. The pace doesn't let up and there is a totally unexpected ending.
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3 hours ago, muggle not said:
Have you read the WinterNight Trilogy by Katherine Arden?
Yes, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Btw, just finished Fourth Wing. Wow!
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This is another one I really, really want to read!
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15 hours ago, muggle not said:
When are you going to read "Fourth Wing"?
Just given in and pre-ordered it!
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13 hours ago, muggle not said:
When are you going to read "Fourth Wing"?
I'm trying to be restrained about buying books! It comes out in paperback here next week.
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A very quick catch up:
Just like the curate's egg part of The House of Special Purpose by John Boyne are very good, others bits not so much. 80 year old Georgy, a Russian exile, looks back to when he was pitchforked out of his peasant upbringing into the middle of the Tsar's family in the years just before the Revolution. The early bits were wonderful then the plot line gradually got sillier and sillier. The last scene in Russia was just ridiculous. John Boyne has written some grat books but this isn't one of them, imo.
Everyone Here is Lying - Shari Lapena A decent thriller with one or two seriously unbelievable plot twists but that isn't unusual with this sort of book!
Destroying Angel - S J Maclean Excellent historical fiction set in Cromwellian times, the 3rd in her series about Damien Seeker.
Recipe for a Perfect Wife - Karma Brown A Kobo cheapie which turned out to be much better than I thought it would be, not profound but easy reading and enjoyable.
Fatal Legacy - Lindsay Davies I think I've come to the end of reading about Flavia Albia, I love the Falco books, both in print and on audio but this series about his adopted daughter, also a private investigator in Ancient Rome, lacks the humour and lightness of touch that Falco has.
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1 minute ago, lunababymoonchild said:
Currently reading The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on that.
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I'd never heard of Ian Marchant but thanks to you I've gone beetling off to look up his books and add a couple to the wishlist. He sounds very much my cup of tea.
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19 hours ago, muggle not said:
France - I see that you have read Iron Lake. I have read all of the books by William Kent Krueger and continually keep on the lookout for his next release. Some books though are better than others. I hope you enjoyed Iron Lake. I recommend though that his books be read in sequence.
Thanks, we've got the first 4 in the series which my husband read many years ago and I thought I had, but I have absolutely no memory of them which is strange because if I have read a book before I almost always find that the plot starts becoming familiar. So I got to read Iron Lake fresh which was a pleasure!
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22 hours ago, lunababymoonchild said:
These are amazing, Kev.
And a bit creepy too. Especially the tall ones rising up out of their pits!
Books containing good analyses of music pieces
in Book Search and Reading Recommendations
Posted
Do you mean actually analysing note by note or books which describe the effect of music? I don't play any instruments but the novel which got me making a huge listen-to list is Trio by Sue Gee. It's a terrific book too.