Your Book Activity 2023

[France]

38 minutes ago, Madeleine said:

I've heard this is a good series, I have a couple of them on tbr piles.

We seem to have pretty similar tastes in historical novels!

[willoyd]

Finished Anna Keay's The Restless Republic, an account of the decade or so interregnum between the execution of Charles I and the Restoration.  Illuminating, not least because the detail is so often passed over, and engaging, focusing on key individuals to tell the story. 5 stars.

Moving on to Amy-Jane Beer's The Flow, a book group choice for this month (and on my TBR shelf).

Edited October 11, 2023 by willoyd

[lunababymoonchild]

Currently reading The Revels by Stacey Thomas. Seventeenth century England and witches!

Edited September 25, 2023 by lunababymoonchild

[Brian.]

I’m trying to work through some of my physical TBR at the moment so I’m just about to start The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I’m hoping it will offer me some respite from the studying I’m having to do at the moment. It feels like being back at the training college again. 

[Hayley]

On 9/25/2023 at 7:04 PM, Brian. said:

I’m hoping it will offer me some respite from the studying I’m having to do at the moment.

I hope it does! 

[willoyd]

Finished Minty Alley by CLR James, my book for Trinidad and Tobago in my Reading The World project.  The first book by a black Caribbean author published in England.  Very modern feel, in spite of being written in 1936. 5 stars: very good. Now moved on to another book in the Black Britain collection from Penguin (and curated by Bernardine Evaristo): Incomparable World by SI Martin - historical fiction set in late 18th century London, and focused on a group of black ex-slaves, ex-soldiers who fought on the British side in the American War of Independence. Already about halfway through - a gripping read.

Edited October 3, 2023 by willoyd

[lunababymoonchild]

Currently reading The Melancholy of Resistance by Laszlo Krasznahorkai

[willoyd]

Finished Incomparable World - a good, lively read if not quite fulfilling early promise plot-wise. Character and setting did a lot to make up though!

 

Then on to a complete contrast: See You In September by Joanne Teague. Family travelling round Europe on a once in a lifetime trip. Started off well, but once on travels became rather repetitive and lacking in any real insight or reason to read unless you knew the family. "And then we did this....". An account, straight and simple, and I didn't get beyond half way. 2 stars.

 

Now reading Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, as part of my American tour - book for Florida.

Edited October 3, 2023 by willoyd

[lunababymoonchild]

Just bought, The Melancholy of Resistance, Laszlo Krasznarhorkai, in paper back, Under Ground by E S Thomson and 

Letters from Life: Words to feed your heart and soul by Becky Hemsley. All paper this time.

[muggle not]

I have the Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros on hold at the library. The library has 32 copies of the kindle version but I am 92 on the list. The book has a 5 star rating on Amazon and the reviews are really good.

Has anyone read the book?

 

[poppy]

Just begun Family Ties by Celia Buckmaster, a Dean St Press reprint. The first paragraph leads me to expect I'm going to enjoy it. 😊

 

Mr. Monsoon was known in the village as "the old gentleman," and nobody minded when he said, "Amen, Amen, Amen," when the prayers got too long on Sunday morning; people knew he had rheumatism, and in any case the Vicar was apt to ramble on and on. He kept the sermons short too by sighing and clearing his throat after a certain time. But when the old Vicar died and a new one came, all this was changed. The old Vicar had always chosen something out of the Old Testament as a text for his sermon, and generally preached about woe and destruction. This was comforting for his congregation, who knew what to expect, and it had suited the tone of his voice, which had been low and quivering and full of poetic emotion. The new Vicar was quite different and spoke about "Conditions in the modern world" in his sermons (with a text taken from the New Testament) and nobody knew what he was driving at. Besides which, he used his normal everyday tone of voice in the pulpit and was apt to say—"And that means You and You and You" (pointing)—which made everyone nervous.

[willoyd]

Finished Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston for my tour of the States (Florida), and Chess Story by Stefan Zweig for Reading the World (Austria).  Both really good: 4 stars for the former and 5 stars for the latter.

[lunababymoonchild]

9 hours ago, willoyd said:

Finished Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston for my tour of the States (Florida), and Chess Story by Stefan Zweig for Reading the World (Austria).  Both really good: 4 stars for the former and 5 stars for the latter.

I read the Zweig and thought it was brilliant.

[Brian.]

Starting a new book tonight, Upgrade by Blake Crouch. If it’s anything like Dark Matter or Recursion then I’m in for a treat. 

[lunababymoonchild]

The Melancholy of Resistance has been parked for a while and I've started The Woman In Me by Britney Spears.

[willoyd]

A bit of a hiatus on my part here, and three books down since last posting: October Sky by Hiram Holkham (previously entitled Rocket Boys), The Meaning of Geese by Neil Ascherson, and, finished today, Mr Weston's Good Wine by TF Powys, in chrono order, but also in descending order of enjoyment.  Not sure what moving on to next.

[Brian.]

I finished Upgrade the other day so I made a start on my next book, Blood Meridian by Cormac Mccarthy. I'm not sure about the writing style at the moment but I'll stick with it as it gets such positive reviews.

[willoyd]

Have moved on to La Curee (The Kill) by Emile Zola. Ten pages in, and it's already easy to see why it's a classic.

[lunababymoonchild]

Lynn Shepherd, The London Vampire

Edited November 1, 2023 by lunababymoonchild

[lunababymoonchild]

Written In Bone: hidden stories in what we leave behind, Sue Black 

[willoyd]

Finished Emile Zola's La Curee (The Kill).  Excellent - 5 stars (out of 6).

Edited November 17, 2023 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Finished The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, the book for Nevada in my tour of the United States.  Far more than 'just' a Western!  5/6 stars.

[willoyd]

And now finished The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad, my book for Pakistan in Reading The World. Another 5/6 stars: short,vivid and gripping (only started 2 days ago).

[lunababymoonchild]

Juat bought My Name is Barbra:  Barbra Streisand . It's a long one!

[lunababymoonchild]

Found out yesterday that there really was a man in an iron mask kept in prison, for 34 years. So I'm now reading The Man in the Iron Mask, by Alexandre Dumas.