France
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Posts posted by France
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I read this last year and I don't think I'm clever enough for all the science that comes later in the book! I thought the beginning was fascinating as was the game, but I started to lose enthusiasm about half way though.
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Thankfully two really good reads for my next book group meetings (the last two were pretty dire).
My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite is more of a novella than a novel. Set in Lagos and narrated by Korode, a plain elder sister who is constantly being called on to help her younger, beautiful sister Ayoosha out of the messes she has got herself into, Ayoosha seems to be particularly prone to sticking knives into men she goes out with in "self-defence". With a subject like that it's going to be quite black, it's been described as blackly comic but apart from the odd line there isn't really anything very funny about it imo but it's certainly very readable.
The Bookseller of Inverness by S J Maclean is set 6 years after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 and is a splendid romp through a historical period I really didn't know much about. S J Maclean is excellent at making the reader feel immersed in the period without slipping into info dump and this is an excellent fast paced read.
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On 1/19/2024 at 6:08 PM, Hayley said:
I got The Winter Spirits: Ghostly Tales for Frosty Nights, so I’ll definitely be reading that collection as part of this challenge!
Thanks Hayley, just bought it!
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I really like detective fiction set in India particularly Abhir Mukherjee, which takes place in the 1920's, and have repeatedly come across comments about Vaseem Khan's Malabar House series being as good, if not better. No, it isn't if Midnight at Malabar House is anything to go by.
It starts in Bombay at New Year 1950, three years after the horror of Partition and Persis Walida, India's first female detective and a member of the team at Malabar House where the city's unwanted and most useless officers get dumped gets a call to investigate the murder of an important Englishman. The idea is quite good, the plot isn't bad but the writing is pedestrian to say the least, things keep being repeated as if the reader can't be trusted to assimilate simple facts (could be true with this one who was constantly wondering if she could be bothered to go on) but worst was Persis who was both unlikely and unlikable. Vaseem Khan is not one of those men who can write women it seems, his idea of a driven woman is to have her chippy and rude, she graduated at the top of her class in the police academy yet seems to be a bit vague about some of the basics of detecting. In general I felt it lacked a sense of period or what it would actually have been like for them if there had been women detectives in India in the 1950's - no sense of the gossip there would have been each time she went out on a case with a male officer for instance.
Three's much better out there, try Abir Mukherjee or Sujata Massey for a more believable female pioneer.
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I enjoyed this one more than Little Fires Everywhere though I get the feeling that I'm swimming against the tide there.
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6 hours ago, poppy said:
but humorous and satirical books I've also enjoyed are Three Men In a Boat by Jerome K Jerome; Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons; and EF Benson's Mapp and Lucia books.
😊
All regular comfort reads for me!
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Dogs, cats, coffee and books - defi_niitely some of my favourite thinngs!
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Rose Tremaine is one of those writers I'll read automatically without bothering to know what it's about, she doesn't always succeed but when she does it's sublime (The Gustave Sonata for instance). Absolutely and Forever is about first love, Marianne is 15 and the 60's are about to happen when she falls in love with Simon - she tells her mother who replies
'Nobody falls in love at your age, Marianne. What they get are "crushes" on people. You've just manufactured a little crush on Simon.'
It's a very short novel, almost a novella about Marianne's passion for Simon, disillusionment and finally growing up. As ever Tremaine's writing is fabulous, it might be about love but it's not in the least sentimental and it's very readable. There is one major drawback though, horses have a major role in the story, riding was one if the few times Marianne was content as a teenager but Rose Tremain doesn't appear to know much about them. There are a couple of 'this just wouldn't happen' incidents - for instance Marianne's friend Pet rides a stallion at the local riding school where they go for lessons from school. Apart from that it was excellent.
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I can remember a WTF reaction when I read this about 5 years ago and being rather disappointed too.
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I've got this on my wish list - it was in a round up of the best books of 2023 and sounded terrific.
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On 1/17/2024 at 10:19 AM, Chrissy said:
Now, if I can only find a Victorian novel based at sea in the winter, I will be able to do a complete catch up of the Book Club reads to date! 😉
Moby Dick?
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That's great! Rest and look after yourself.
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After a pretty epic (in my opinion) fail with her last book Robert Galbraith aka JK Rowling has bounced right back with The Running Grave, which, in my opinion, is the best of her Cormoran Strike books to date. This time Strike and Robin are asked to investigate a cult by the father of someone who vanished into it and so Robin joins the 'church', the UHC, and becomes an apparently dedicated cult member. The book has its faults, number one being that it really is far too long, JK is in love with words and it shows at times as does the sheer amount of research shes done but the sum of the parts really outweigh the lesser bits, making it a truly exciting read. I know a small amount about cults, when I was in my 20s there was a spate of 'self-improvement' seminars which were not unlike the UHC in the book though more openly about making money and nothing like so sinister. Rake in those who are feeling there's something missing from their life, make them feel they are being carefully selected and lucky to be allowed to join (they took anyone with a chequebook), exercise control by restricting access to the loo, to food, sleep and so on. There would even be a very pared version of the Revelation new recruits to the UHC have to go through which was not a pleasant experience. JK got the cult mentality absolutely on and it was spine chilling. There were a few places in the book that got so tense that I could feel my heart racing.
All in all an excellent read.
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He's got a new book coming out this spring.
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Oh goodness! You really are going through the wringer! So glad that the sepsis was recognised in time.
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1. The Black Friar S J Maclean ++++1/2
2. The Running Grave - Robert Galbraith +++++
3. Absolutely and Forever - Rose Tremain ++++1/2
4. Yarned and dangerous - Sadie Hartwell +++1/2
5. The Last Devil to Die - Richard Osman ++++
6. The Bookseller of Inverness - S J Maclean +++++
7. Midnight at Malabar House - Vasheem Khan ++
8. My Sister the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite ++++1/2
9. The Broken Afternoon - Simon Mason +++1/2
10. Grave Expectations - Alice Bell - lost interest at 50%
11. The Secret Hours - Mick Herron +++++
12. Cover the Bones - Chris Hammer +++++
13. The Red Notebook - Antoine Laurian +++++
14. The Wedding Dress Repair Shop - Trisha Ashley ++
15. Fairy Tale - Stephen King °°°°1/2
16. Iron Lake - William Kent Kreuger ++++
17. The Frequency of Us - Keith Stuart ++++1/2
18. The House of Special Purpose - John Boyne ++
19. Everyone Here is Lying - Shari Lapena ++++
20. Destroying Angel - S J Maclean +++++
21. Recipe for a Perfect Wife - Karma Brown ++++
22. Fatal Legacy - Lindsay Davies +++1/2
23. Ink Black Heart - Robert Galbraith +++++
24. A Stranger in the family - Jane Casey +++++
25. Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros +++++
26. The Fake Wife - Sharon Bolton ++++1/2
27. Hell Bent - Leigh Bardugo ++++
28. Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter - Nicci French ++++
29. The House of Lamentations - S J Maclean ++++1/2
30. Iron Flame - Rebecca Yarros ++++1/2
31. Knife Skills for Beginners - Orlando Murrin ++++1/2
32. Slow Horses - Mick Herron ****1/2
33. Red Side Story - Jasper fforde *****
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37 minutes ago, Madeleine said:
David Soul- best known as Hutch in the original Starsky and Hutch series - a part of my early teens!
I'm that much older than you, my early 20's for me!
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I presume you're comparing The Monk to the Mysteries of Udolpho? I quite agree with you, it's a long time since I read Udolpho but I remember it as a rollicking good read, The Monk along with Vathek and The Castle of Otranto was an A level book (our English mistress selected our books on the basis we'd never read them from choice - she was certainly right there).
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I like both of those!
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For the record I've added to my wish list:
The Mars House - Natasha Pulley
The Familiar - Leigh Bardugo
Long Island - Colm Toibin
The Warm Hands of Ghosts - Katherine Arden (I should think Luna will be falling on this too!)
The Last Murder at the End of the World - Stuart Turton
The City of Stardust - Georgia Summers
The Ministry of Time _ Kaliane Bradley
Table for Two - Amor Towles
And of course Jasper fforde is finally publishing Red Side Story next month
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A few lists of books being published in 2024 - my can't-wait-to-read list has just grown considerably!
Has anyone found other really good lists? These ones are fairly random and usually have just one or two that I'm interested in though the BBC one is packed with goodies.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-67646676
https://www.stylist.co.uk/books/best-fiction-2024/849482
https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2023/12/discover-the-must-read-books-of-2024
https://www.ft.com/content/e7aa3d18-6ed3-44c6-8fae-76cdf3165765
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I've read ,it twice, once when I was about 18 then about 7 years ago for a book club and enjoyed it enormously. I must admit though that having an incredibly well-read Russian leading the book club discussion was a huge bonus as she could explain the background to the satire etc.
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What was The River We Remember like? Apart from you obviously enjoying it. It's on my wish list.
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On 11/30/2023 at 4:29 PM, ash said:
I've never tried this before so I am a bit lost, I've figured out the one with the "day after today" books but can someone please explain how the clues work?
Just like the day after today clue. They are pictorial hints, some a lot more obscure than others. You can go online to get some hints, I think I'm up to 7 now, I've been away so will get back and see if I can get some more.
What are your top three classics?
in The Classics
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Top three classics as in the best you've ever read or classics you'd be happy to read again or already have?
Dracula, War and Peace and The Three Musketeers are definitely up in the best stories I've read but I have no inclination to pick them up again.
But these I'd be happy to read again, (in fact Bleak House is the only one I haven't).
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Persuasion - Jane again
Bleak House - Charles Dickens