France
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Posts posted by France
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On 12/26/2024 at 3:19 AM, poppy said:
I don't remember any books that bored me as a child, not even the set books for English at school. Some books and stories I didn't like, but they didn't bore me. I disliked Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland and I hated Lord of the Flies but they're the only ones that stick out.
I loathed Alice in Wonderland which I read when I was 8.
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I went to Pompeii last moth so started reading Pompeii by Robert Harris. What a masterclass in making a fascinating background deadly dull Cardboard characters with each chapter headed by a little passage from a modern book on vulcanology outlining the development of the eruption, which even though the reader knows what happened took away the tension.
That was followed by another book about Pompeii recommended by a friend, A Day of Fire, a series of interlinked short stories by six authors, which hit the mark as an immersion of how strange and then terrifying it was.
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I use Thunderbird and have never had any problems before but yes, I tried C Cleaner browser and it worked perfectly. So thanks!
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And three very different good ones.
Killing Time by Jodie Taylor is the fifth in her Time Police series and just as good as the previous ones. Great fun and very funny.
. All The Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker is unusual to say the least. It's about the enduring relationship between two children, both outcasts in their own ways, from 1970's small town America to nearly the present day. Patch (he has only one eye) saves a schoolmate from abduction by a serial killer and is abducted himself. After he is rescued he becomes obsessed with finding the other missing girls and maybe even saving one or two. The plot dives all over the place, it lags occasionally but the last 20% is genuinely unputdownable.
The Offing by Benjamin Myers . Richard aged 16 leaves his Durham mining village just after the war to wander around for a few months, doing odd jobs to pay his way and sleeping in fields, comes across an elderly eccentric woman, totally unlike anyone he has ever met, and stays on to d this and that for her. I'd never come across Benjamin Myers before so this took me by surprise, his writing is exquisite, it's short, a very gentle book ( so not a huge amount happens) and completely mesmerising. Without doubt one of my books of the year .
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A quick catch up (yet again).
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefeteri. I'll have to put my cards on the table here and say that in general I really don't like books which aim to wring your emotions, especially when you can see it coming before you even start the first page, so I wouldn't have read a novel about refugees if it hadn't been a book club choice. The subject was very moving but the way in which it was written got between me and what was happening to the characters, especially the occasional way in which the last word in a chapter would be the heading for the next. It was a literary trick that added absolutely nothing to the story. So did it make me newly aware of the plight of refugees - to a limited extent, I was already pretty aware. Did I enjoy it? No. Would I recommend it? Probably not.
French Exit by Patrick Dewitt was another book club choice and another I didn't particularly enjoy though it was an interesting read. Frances a widow who has run through her money and her "toddler brained" son Malcolm (he's childish rather than impaired) decamp to Paris so she can spend everything she has left. Patrick Dewitt is an excellent writer and the novel is described as blackly funny, I didn't find anything funny about it but it's certainly black in places, the problem is that I found Frances and Malcolm so unappealing that I couldn't raise any interest in them. Not a waste of time though.
Day One by Abigail Dean started very well indeed with a school shooting and a witness who may or may not have been telling the truth. Then it went downhill, fast. The plot is driven by conspiracy theorists who claim among other things that it never happened that one if the victims never existed etc etc and you have to be a really good writer t make endless conspiracy theories interesting after the first one or two. Abigail Dean isn't. I won't bother with any more of her books.
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I can't seem t edit my posts. When I click on the three little dots nothing happens. Also if I receive a notification and click on the link nothing happens there either.
Is anyone else having problems or could it be because I've got a new laptop (though it seems to work on all other sites).
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Jane Casey's Maud Kerrigan series is excellent
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Mmm, I've got this one sitting in the bookcase and have never felt a great urge to pick it up.
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I've just finished listening to The Good and the History by Jodi Taylor (such fun) - does that count?
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3 hours ago, Hayley said:
The Victorian crime books would definitely still count though! (And what are they? I might need to add them to my list 😄).
I’m considering going for Doing Time by Jodi Taylor!
I'm saving that for when I go to Naples in two weeks.
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Many congratulations - on all your creations!
You get a lot of reading done during feeds, it doesn't take long to master holding a book in one hand and the baby in the other!
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I like that.
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On 9/28/2024 at 4:37 PM, lunababymoonchild said:
The Bookseller of Inverness, S G McLean. Superb!
Glad you liked it Luna! It was one of my stars of last year.
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22 hours ago, Hayley said:
Ive just started The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter by Rob Duncan. It features someone working as a private detective, who’s been given a case to find a missing person - but with a steampunk twist 😄.
This was one of the first audio books I listened to and I loved it. Different and a fresh approach.
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It's ages since I did any sort of reviewing of what I've read so here's a quick round up of a few:
The Wishing Game - Meg Shaffer Lucy, aged 26, and a kindergarten teacher is desperate to adopt a 7 year old orphaned boy but doesn't meet the financial requirements. Then she hears of a competition run by the reclusive author of a series that lighted up a grim childhood where the prize is to get what you wished for and she is one of 4 selected to compete. This took me by surprise, I thought it might be standard YA fare but it's whimsical, dark in places and utterly charming.
The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands - Sarah Books A closed train runs a regular service through Siberia to Moscow, blinds drawn so no one can look out and be affected by what lies outside in the magical and very strange wastelands. On board is a motley group of passengers, not all of them who they say they are. And things start of happen. I bought this because of the title and I had a gift token to use, I did enjoy it but not as much as I hoped, the setting is great, the characterisation a little static, but still a good read.
Venetian Legacy - Philip Gwynne Jones This series of mysteries featuring Nathan Sutherland, an honorary consul, in Venice is not top notch thriller writing but that doesn't matter, the plotting is good enough, and the setting and sense of place in Venice is absolutely sublime.
The Last Murder at the End of the World - Stuart Turton A mysterious fog has killed off nearly everyone on the planet except those on a small island where scientists have discovered a way to keep the fog at bay. The three scientists rule a small, highly structured society, then one of them is murdered, the systems start to break down and the fog begins to move in. There's a race against time to find the culprit and fix the problem before the fog takes everyone. All Stuarts Turton's books are different, this one was a bit of a slow starter but really got going as the clues to what was gong on began to drop. I loved it.
Clara Reads Proust - Stephane Cartier I couldn't resist the title of this book about a hairdresser who picks up a copy of Proust that has been left behind by a client and begins to read it. It's a very French book, a lot of them are short and whimsical but have serious messages as well - this one is how good literature can enrich your life (particularly Proust!). I can't say that it's prompted to go back and try to read Proust again but I did enjoy it.
Walking the Night - Kate Ellis I read this, obviously to the end as I gave it three stars and can remember practically nothing about it at all. Enough said, I think.
Bonjour Sophie - Elizabeth Buchan A "wonderful coming of age" story according to the reviews. No it wasn't. It's dire. Preposterous and dull.
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Navy blue eyes are such a cliche too! Just like violet eyes which often pop up in romantic fiction. And I've never seen anyone with eyes of either colour unless they're wearing coloured contacts.
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18 hours ago, Brian. said:
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The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett (4/5)
My second Pratchett book set in Discworld and featuring Rincewind and Twoflower. This book is much better than the first in my opinion. It feels tighter, the plot is much better constructed, and it helps that we get some more distinct characters. In particular, I really liked Cohen the Barbarian and Bethan, such a good duo.
I'm particularly fond of the luggage.
I've always found Terry Pratchett a bit uneven, I started with The Colour of Magic when it came out and have read most of his books, some of them are very, very good indeed (like these two, the ones with the witches, the one with the vampires), others like Going Postal I thought dragged on a bit.
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This is our new friend Ragnar (Rags to his friends) whom we adopted a couple of months ago. Strangely enough it turns out he's the 5 X great-grandson of our Jez whom we adopted in 2001!
We needn't have worried about how Dino, our senior Spotty would react, there was an instant Bromance and they adore each other, Your Ball, No, it's My Ball is the very best game!
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As I've never studied it I'm not sure but the reasoning behind it being in the curriculum for everyone, including the scientists, is that it teaches critical thinking.
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I would disagree with you utterly about the lack of need to teach literature or history Kev (my daughters all did bacs here in France so i do know a little about them).
We need to go on teaching literature because no matter what is in bookshops or libraries children or young adults are not likely to go far out of their comfort zone if they aren't guided. How many people would bother to read Shakespeare or go to one of his plays if they hadn't been introduced to it in class? Yes, it leaves loads of people cold but there's also a lot who have had their horizons broadened by a decent teacher. Also, middle class children might not suffer much if they aren't taught literature, their parents can introduce them to authors and can afford buy them books (libraries aren't what they used to be) but what about those who grow up where there are practically no books with no encouragement to read?
Likewise with history, it's not the battles that are so important as knowing the events and attitudes that shaped them. Particularly in the country that you're living in. The present becomes a bit of a vacuum when you don't know how you got to this point.
The whole point of the bac is that you get a broad spectrum of education with a certain amount of specialisation depending on wich bac you're doing (here you do more Science and maths if you're doing the science bac) and everyone studies Philosophy!
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We read this for our book group an few months ago, one of our members is French, married to a Scot and they split their time between here and where he comes from near Inverness. She said this book has had a huge effect on their Scots friends who feel that the book encapsulates what it means to be Scots, both the quixotic yearning and the pragmatism of getting on and living a life.
It isn't surprising she knows how to tell a good story - it's in the genes, Alistair Maclean was her uncle.
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I've been forgetting to post mine! Here gooes -
The Last Murder at the End of the Word -Stuart Turton (terrific!)
The Cautious Traveler's Guide to the Wastelands - Sarah Brooksn (I really enjoyed this though I don't think it's everyone's cup of tea)
Killing with Confetti - Peter Lovesey (As ever, a smooth enjoyable read)
One Good Turn - Kate Atkinson, (Just as good second time round, especially as I'd forgotten the very last surprise.
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On 8/19/2024 at 12:00 PM, Madeleine said:
I enjoyed that one as well, just seen that there's a new Jackson Brodie book coming out.
That's what prompted me to do some re-reading!
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A lot of the books I read fall loosely into this category! I'm near the end of One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson which describes itself on the cover as a 'Jolly Murder Mystery'. I read when it first came out (nearly 20 years ago) and am happy to say that it's every bit as enjoyable the second time around - good writing usually is.
How many books have you read this year?
in General Book Discussions
Posted
I'm currently on 86, not counting all the audio books I listen to while cooking or doing knitting that involves looking at the stitches all the time.