Onion Budgie Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 It's December already! What's everyone reading? I'll be finishing Agatha Christie's The Sittaford Mystery later today. A very intriguing mystery. I've no idea whodunnit. Next up is A Christmas Malice by John Bainbridge. I've not read anything by this author before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 I'm currently reading Snow in Love: Four Stories by Melissa de la Cruz, Nic Stone, Aimee Friedman and Kasie West. Today it's 5 December, which is Sinterklaas in the Netherlands. We don't celebrate it anymore, but in honour of it I am planning on reading a Sinterklaas-themed children's book later after I finish reading the first short story in Snow in Love. I hope you enjoy your mystery and your Christmas themed book . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willoyd Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 (edited) Have just finished East West Street by Philippe Sands, an absolutely phenomenal piece of writing/history, one of the most powerful books I've read in a very long while. It may seem odd, but I hesitate to give it 6 stars, i.e. 'favourite' status, simply because I'm not sure I can regard it as a 'favourite', mainly because I doubt I'll bring myself to read it again; it's not traumatic, just demanding (in a good way!), and I'm not sure it'll carry quite the same weight another time around. Needs sitting on, as it's not often that a book is almost 'too good' to be a favourite. Whatever, what a book! Edited December 6, 2018 by willoyd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willoyd Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 (edited) Finished off Antoine Laurain's shortie, The President's Hat this morning. I've been reading it on the Kindle at bedtime, but got to the point where I wanted a good run at it to finish off. Lightweight, very easy read, gently inconsequential, a nice counterpoint to my other reading lately. The reading club questions provided at the back seem a bit pretentious for what seems to be a pretty straightforward tale. Fun though. 3 stars. Edited December 6, 2018 by willoyd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 Picked up Artemis by Andy Weir last night. I never read The Martian but I have seen the movie which I thought was pretty good. Quite a few people I know really enjoyed reading The Martian so I thought id give Weir a go. I'm about 100 pages into it and its ok but nothing special so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willoyd Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 9 hours ago, Brian. said: I never read The Martian but I have seen the movie which I thought was pretty good. We went to see it with offspring, a physicist, who was quite impressed with the accuracy of the science. Just one dodgy moment, but, even then, possible. Unlike Gravity which he said was good fun, but totally implausible! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 Yeah Gravity was fairly bonkers. I finished Artemis, I'll do a proper review in a few days but to sum it up. Meh! It was a quick read and I got on with it fine but it was pretty unremarkable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onion Budgie Posted December 8, 2018 Author Share Posted December 8, 2018 I've just finished A Christmas Malice. The festive atmosphere and the characters were great; the punctuation, not so much. It needed more commas. Still, for a self-published work it was a fine read. I'm just about to start Jerusalem Inn by Martha Grimes; the last of my Christmas-themed reads for the year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 On 12/7/2018 at 12:04 PM, Brian. said: Picked up Artemis by Andy Weir last night. I never read The Martian but I have seen the movie which I thought was pretty good. Quite a few people I know really enjoyed reading The Martian so I thought id give Weir a go. I'm about 100 pages into it and its ok but nothing special so far. I haven't read Artemis but from what I've seen, people (the ones I follow/watch online) really liked The Martian but they liked Artemis not as much. I really liked The Martian, both the book and the movie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissy Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 I am still reading my way through Justin Cronin's 'The Passage' . It is a long ol' journey, but I am enjoying the ride. Looking forward to going forward with the two further books of the trilogy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 I finished XPD by Len Deighton yesterday. I picked up Nudge by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein on the way out the house this morning but I haven't had a chance to start it yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna Begins Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 Hi!! I have missed everyone- I have recently adjusted my schedule and have more time in the mornings and afternoons now, I thought I'd see what is going on on BCF and say Hi. I read a modest amount this year, I just finished the 23rd Jack Reacher book, Past Tense. This month I also read Hunger by Roxane Gay. There is a local book club that meets at the library downtown that I want to join, they are reading Love In The Time of Cholera. I've always wanted to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but it's slow going and I'm only at 8%. They read The Underground Railroad by Colton Whitehead last month, I read that earlier this year and it was a favorite of mine. On 12/7/2018 at 2:17 PM, Brian. said: Yeah Gravity was fairly bonkers. I finished Artemis, I'll do a proper review in a few days but to sum it up. Meh! It was a quick read and I got on with it fine but it was pretty unremarkable. I couldn't agree with this more! I LOVED The Martian and Andy Weir has some great free short stories on his website that I liked a lot too. But I gave Artemis a shot twice and I abandoned it. My new thinking on abandoning book, is there are just too many other books I'd like to read Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
More reading time required Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 I hadn't read anything for weeks apart from technical books (and just about managing to get through Dark Tower book 8), as I've been preparing for an exam I did this morning, which I'm happy to say I passed! So I'm looking forward to being able to get back into reading for pleasure again. I've picked up Ken Follet's A column of fire this evening. Although it's lengthy it will hopefully be a bit addictive and get me back into the reading spirit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted December 14, 2018 Share Posted December 14, 2018 20 hours ago, Anna Begins said: My new thinking on abandoning book, is there are just too many other books I'd like to read Agree 100%. I used to struggle through books I wasn't getting on with but now if a book hasn't grabbed me within 50-60 pages it gets abandoned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onion Budgie Posted December 14, 2018 Author Share Posted December 14, 2018 I still struggle through, no matter what. I guess I'm a bit of a masochist. There haven't been many clunkers this year, though, fortunately. I'm a third of the way through Jerusalem Inn, and am having fun with it. It's a slow burn mystery; no idea where it's headed yet. Congrats on your exam success, @More reading time required ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 I decided to abandon Nudge for the time being as I just can’t seem to get in to it right now. I read The Tattooist of Auschwitz in pretty much one sitting today after reading a few pages a couple of days ago. I really enjoyed it and I can see why it has become such a success. As Christmas is not too far away I have started The Long Shadow by Celia Femlin this evening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kafka On The Shore Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 Just finished Ali Smith's Winter. Infuriatingly terrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willoyd Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 Have just finished Churchill, a biography of the great man by Roy Jenkins. It's an excellent example of the proverbial tome, just over 900 dense pages, which I started back in September, although there have been quite a few breaks or periods of slow reading. It's been much more pleasurable and interesting to read than all this might imply, but it is certainly not a light read! 4 stars, review to follow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 On 12/13/2018 at 11:46 PM, More reading time required said: I hadn't read anything for weeks apart from technical books (and just about managing to get through Dark Tower book 8), as I've been preparing for an exam I did this morning, which I'm happy to say I passed! So I'm looking forward to being able to get back into reading for pleasure again. Congratulations !! On 12/13/2018 at 11:46 PM, More reading time required said: I've picked up Ken Follet's A column of fire this evening. Although it's lengthy it will hopefully be a bit addictive and get me back into the reading spirit! I hope it's good! I really liked the first two in the series but I haven't started the third one yet (I do own it). Yesterday I finished E. J. Copperman and Jeff Cohen - An Asperger's Mystery 3: The Question of the Felonious Friend, which I read together with Sarah. I really liked the book ! I started reading two YA contemporary fiction books (Dress Codes for Small Towns by Courtney Stevens and American Panda by Gloria Chao), but I'm not sure yet how I'll continue, because I find it hard to read more than one book at once. Yet my brain (my ADD to be more precise) seems to want to do that. But usually I find it hard to tell the books apart then and to divide my focus. We'll see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 I finished The Tattooist of Auschwitz a few days ago and since I'm pretty much confined to the sofa at the moment I made a start on Stoner by John Williams yesterday afternoon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onion Budgie Posted December 20, 2018 Author Share Posted December 20, 2018 1 hour ago, Brian. said: I made a start on Stoner by John Williams yesterday afternoon. I'll be interested to know what you think of it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willoyd Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 Crashed through 3 books in the past 4 days: Where The Wild Winds Are by Nick Hunt (4 walks in different European locations following four of the continent's better known winds), The Judge's House by Georges Simenon (a classic Maigret), and The Lighthouse by Alison Moore, a reread for my book group. 4 stars for the first two, and 2 stars for the last, a book which I originally gave 3 stars to, but which now feels like a toss-up for 1! How it was thought to be worth short-listing for the Man Booker, and how various reviewers could rave about it is beyond me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 On 12/20/2018 at 12:00 PM, Onion Budgie said: I'll be interested to know what you think of it! I finished it this morning and although it started slowly I loved it. I'll do a proper post of my thoughts in my book thread shortly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bookmonkey Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 Should finish A Surfeit of Lampreys by Ngaio Marsh tonight. I really enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone who likes Agatha Christie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 Time for a new book this afternoon and I am going for Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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