bobblybear

I recently finished Picture Perfect and was a bit disappointed. It won't stop me from reading her other books though, as I have always found them enjoyable.

Started Night Waking by Sarah Moss, but am going to have to give up on it. I'm finding it very difficult to read, and it's actually irritating me. Something about the style and main character.

I finished Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult. I enjoyed the first half, but the second half was a bit difficult. They almost read like two different books. No idea what to read next, but I'm sure I'll find something.

Thanks. Hope you enjoy it/them when you get to it/them. Thanks. I would start with either Gone Girl or Dark Places, but they are all readable. I've heard a few people say it's her best. I have enjoyed her other books (Girl With A Pearl Earring and Remarkable Creatures), so am sure I will like this one. Thanks. As much as I liked Sharp Objects, if it had been the first book of hers I'd read, I probably wouldn't have bought her other ones. It was just quite ordinary, whereas I think her other two had a certain distinctive feel about them.

Did you enjoy it? I'm about 50% through Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult. It's good, up to her usual standards.

Just finished it - thought it was pretty good! The story went in a different direction than I was expecting , but I was glad for that. I wouldn't say it was scary, but like Pontalba says there is a lot of tension. It's a pretty riveting read and hard to put down - I finished it in less than a day. Not sure what to read next.

Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn Camille Parker is a reporter for a small paper in Chicago. She learns of the recent abduction of a young girl in her home town of Wind Gap. Several months earlier another young girl from Wind Gap was found murdered, and her boss believes that a serial killer is on the loose. He sends her back to Wind Gap, with the hopes of getting a story which will raise the profile of his paper. Back in Wind Gap, Camille has to stay with her mother and her step-father, both of whom she has a very fractured relationship with. The longer she stays in Wind Gap, the more bad memories threaten to overcome her and it soon becomes evident that Camille has secrets of her own that she is hiding from. This is my third book by the author and while I enjoyed it I don’t think it was quite as good as the others. It's very dark, probably her darkest novel with some very disturbing characters. The story felt a bit disjointed throughout, and I didn't really appreciate the book until the ending, when all the pieces were put together. Having said that, the ending wasn't a surprise at all, but it just tied the whole story together. Camille was a bit of a cold character as well, and while you can see why she was the way she was, she was sometimes hard to have as the narrator. I'm glad this wasn't the first Gillian Flynn that I read, as her later two books are a bit more well-rounded. This one somehow left me cold but that could have just been the characters. 4/6

Hello Colunio, and welcome to the forum.

Reading The Martian by Andy Weir now. I went through my outstanding books from 2011 and 2012 but none of them appealed to me, so I picked one from 2013.

The only one I have read is I Am Pilgrim and thought it was absolutely brilliant.

Nice purchases! I read The Grapes of Wrath last year (or maybe it was this year!) and really enjoyed it. Glad you liked The Sisters Brothers. I wasn't sure I would enjoy it, being a western, so I was pleasantly surprised.

Frankie, do you mean The Beach by Alex Garland? I got quite excited at the thought of another Alex Garland book, but can't find anything on Amazon about it.

I finished The Maze Runner, but I wasn't that impressed with it. I'm not a huge fan of Young Adult fiction, but I found this one very poorly written, and the characters were one-dimensional. I did a fair amount of skimming towards the end, and the premise just seems so far fetched and silly. Needless to say, I won't be reading the sequels.

Great review. I have never read a James Clavell book (also found them quite daunting because of their size), but I may give this one a go.

I finished The Maze Runner. Thought the story was ok, but I don't think it was written particularly well. Now I'm reading Broadmoor Revealed: Victorian Crime and the Lunatic Asylum. I bought this back in 2011, so it's high time I started reading it.

Glad you enjoyed The Humans. Interesting cover, which I haven't seen before.

I didn't enjoy Sharp Objects as much as I liked Gone Girl and Dark Places. Having said that, it was still pretty good.

Thanks, Athena. I've read 58 books this year, but that is including ones that I have given up on. That's the most I've read in year so far. Still, my TBR pile just gets bigger and bigger. Oh well, there are plenty worse things to worry about in life.

Just bought it as I've heard a few people say it's their favourite of hers. I've enjoyed all her others, so hopefully I'll like this one.

It's been a while since I read A Time To Kill, but I don't recall it being too heavy with the courtroom scenes. I hope you enjoy it; I think it's a pretty good choice for a first Grisham.

Thanks, Pontalba. Gillian Flynn is very good if you are in the mood for something dark and thriller-like. I'm nearly caught up on my reviews. I only have two to go and they are roughly done, just need a few bits adding and changing. I just bought Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier, which is one of the Kindle Daily Deals. That brings my purchases to 67 this year, which is more than I have read. That's not the way it's supposed to go.

Pretty Woman. It's a bit cheesy, it must be said.

Of those you mentioned, I've only read The Shining. What about Gillian Flynn (who I have just read)? Or how about some true-crime, as that can certainly mess with your perception.

I had no idea they were making this into a film (or maybe I did, but have forgotten). I hope they do it justice!

Dark Places - Gillian Flynn Libby Day is the lone survivor of an attack which left her mother and two sisters butchered. Her brother Ben was charged and imprisoned for the crime. Some twenty years later, the charitable funds have run out, as have the earnings from her book about the crime. Fortuitously, she is contacted by a group who is fascinated by gruesome true crimes and is wiling to pay her for mementos and inside information. With very few alternatives, she accepts and soon realises that these people think Ben is innocent and have spent a lot of time in constructing alternate theories. At first she is angered, but having her interest piqued she begins an investigation of her own. At the start Libby wasn’t a likeable character, but I guess that can be explained by her past. Anyway, she did slowly start to grow on me as she became a bit less one-dimensional as the story moved on and more was revealed. The chapters alternate between present time with Libby conducting research into what happened, and the day of the mass-murder. The chapters telling the story of the murders increment forward in hours, which is pretty effective as you feel a bit angsty knowing that soon the truth will be revealed. I have to say I’m very impressed with the authors way of telling what could be a very standard thriller in such an interesting way, with quite a few twists and turns towards the end. I've now read all of Gillian Flynn's novels and she's an author that I will keep an eye out for. A must read if you are into crime/mystery thrillers. 5/6