Your Book Activity 2023

[lunababymoonchild]

Currently reading Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut

[Hux]

Started 'The Wasp Factory' by Iain Banks.

[Brian.]

I’ve picked my second book of 2023, The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. 

[willoyd]

First book of the year completed: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissina by Samuel Johnson.  Reviewed on my book blog thread - but a solid 4 star start to the year.

[muggle not]

I finished reading The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy is the greatest living American writer IMO. His writing is brilliant even though it frequently makes you do some hard thinking. I think he at least is on a level with William Faulkner and may even surpass Faulkner. His dialogue is unsurpassed by any current writer. I am not rating The Passenger however until I read Stella Maris, the 2nd book in the 2 book series. I will re-read this book at some point to fully grasp the point McCarthy is attempting to get across in this deep story.

[Brian.]

I’m blazing through the books at the moment. Next up is The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. 

[lunababymoonchild]

On 1/4/2023 at 1:47 AM, muggle not said:

I finished reading The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy is the greatest living American writer IMO. His writing is brilliant even though it frequently makes you do some hard thinking. I think he at least is on a level with William Faulkner and may even surpass Faulkner. His dialogue is unsurpassed by any current writer. I am not rating The Passenger however until I read Stella Maris, the 2nd book in the 2 book series. I will re-read this book at some point to fully grasp the point McCarthy is attempting to get across in this deep story.

What!!!!!? Surpass Faulkner? Surely you jest! Never read McCarthy but do have some in the house, I'll need to bump it up the list. My father read No Country For Old Men and then watched the film. Since my father reads Lee Child, Jeffrey Deaver and Harlan Coben I did not give McCarthy a second look (oddly). Oooooh food for thought.

[muggle not]

I started reading Stella Maris (btw, Stella Maris is a mental institution) by Cormac McCarthy last night. McCarthy is brilliant!. I am anxious to see where the book leads and how it ends. I suspect that I will have to re-read the 2 books to get a better understanding of McCarthy's superb writing.

 

Luna - I thought that my mention of Faulkner might get your attention. 🙂

Edited January 6, 2023 by muggle not

[lunababymoonchild]

1 hour ago, muggle not said:

I started reading Stella Maris (btw, Stella Maris is a mental institution) by Cormac McCarthy last night. McCarthy is brilliant!. I am anxious to see where the book leads and how it ends. I suspect that I will have to re-read the 2 books to get a better understanding of McCarthy's superb writing.

 

Luna - I thought that my mention of Faulkner might get your attention. 🙂

In a good way. I'm going to see if my father still has No Country For Old Men and I possess The Border Trilogy (free from Waterstones with my points). At least McCarthy is still alive, I'm rationing out the Faulkners because there will be no more.

Edited January 6, 2023 by lunababymoonchild

[Brian.]

I finished The Haunting of Hill House earlier today during a quiet period at work. I’ll post my thoughts soon in my thread. Up next is The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. 

[lunababymoonchild]

Currently reading The Stranger from the Sea, Winston Graham, Poldark 8 in my annual visit to Cornwall.

[Madeleine]

sorry to say it, but this was my least favourite of the Poldark books!

[lunababymoonchild]

1 hour ago, Madeleine said:

sorry to say it, but this was my least favourite of the Poldark books!

Oh that's a shame, I'm only 20 something pages in. It does seem to be quite a thick book given that it only covers a year.

[Madeleine]

See how you get on, it's set quite a while after the end of the last book, and apparently Winston Graham left quite a gap between writing the previous book and this one.  Obviously I can't say too much as I don't want to give any spoilers!

Edited January 8, 2023 by Madeleine

[willoyd]

On 1/5/2023 at 10:34 PM, lunababymoonchild said:

What!!!!!? Surpass Faulkner? Surely you jest! Never read McCarthy but do have some in the house, I'll need to bump it up the list. My father read No Country For Old Men and then watched the film. Since my father reads Lee Child, Jeffrey Deaver and Harlan Coben I did not give McCarthy a second look (oddly). Oooooh food for thought.

 

From what I've read, no he doesn't.  McCarthy is good, very good, but of the two I'd rate Faulkner higher.  As to who might be the best American writer, that's a whole different discussion!

 

In the meantime: two books finished in the past 24 hours:  first was The Diet Whisperer by Paul Barrington Chell and Monique Hope-Ross.  As apparent from title, a diet/nutrition book.  Some good material in it, but gets too much into fad style diet writing (rigid rules, do it by the book plans, invented jargon names for processes etc), which ultimately disappointed. It's all been said elsewhere, and far better written (try Tim Spector for instance).  2 stars.

Next was Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou, my book for Republic of Congo.  Picaresque story of boy growing up in orphanage and on streets of Pointe-Noire in 70s and 80s.  Very readable, more thoughts to come on my blog thread. 4 stars (out of 6 as ever)

Edited January 10, 2023 by willoyd

[Chrissy]

I opted for a super easy read for a day or two, based on a tv series I enjoyed, Warehouse 13. The book was called A Touch Of Fever and was written by Greg Cox, an author who has written a number of tv tie-in books. An agreeable story with the characters well captured. 

 

After this I had an urge to re read Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. I could only remember parts of it, and I wanted to reacquaint myself with the story. I am enjoying the experience so far. 

[Hayley]

You all seem to be flying through books so far this year 😄. 
 

I’ve started with The Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold.

[willoyd]

Currently reading Black England by Gretchen Gerzina, a recently published updated edition of a book originally brought out in 1995, a history of black people in Georgian England. 

[timebug]

Currently re-reading 'The Watcher' by Charles Maclean. I have read it three or four times, it is (IMO) wrongly described/classified as a 'Horror' story. It is a disturbing story no doubt about it, but the 'horror' tag may lead new readers to expect ghosts/vampires/undead etc which it certainly is NOT about. Rather it is the tale of a man who has a 'mid life crisis' that leads the reader to wonder; is he having some kind of psychotic breakdown, or is he in fact, a sane and rational man who has been given an unexpected ability to lift the veil on... something 'other'? A terriffic book (IMO!) that everyone should at least check out!

[lunababymoonchild]

Just bought The Bone Collector, Jeffrey Deaver in paperback. I remembered the film with Denzel Washington (and have bought the DVD) so decided to buy the book. All to entertain my father - I will, no doubt, end up watching the film and reading the book. I'm hoping that Deaver will surprise me like Lee Child did and not be as horrendously bad as I thought he would be.

[lunababymoonchild]

On 1/8/2023 at 3:36 PM, Madeleine said:

See how you get on, it's set quite a while after the end of the last book, and apparently Winston Graham left quite a gap between writing the previous book and this one.  Obviously I can't say too much as I don't want to give any spoilers!

I'm 200 odd pages in now and see exactly what you mean, it's not as compelling as the previous books. It's not that I want to give up it's just not as urgent that I find out what happens next, as I normally do with the Poldark series. Still I can forgive Winston Graham for that, he probably wanted to write something different and got stuck with this and a deadline to meet. 

[lunababymoonchild]

1 hour ago, timebug said:

Currently re-reading 'The Watcher' by Charles Maclean. I have read it three or four times, it is (IMO) wrongly described/classified as a 'Horror' story. It is a disturbing story no doubt about it, but the 'horror' tag may lead new readers to expect ghosts/vampires/undead etc which it certainly is NOT about. Rather it is the tale of a man who has a 'mid life crisis' that leads the reader to wonder; is he having some kind of psychotic breakdown, or is he in fact, a sane and rational man who has been given an unexpected ability to lift the veil on... something 'other'? A terriffic book (IMO!) that everyone should at least check out!

Intriguing. Just bought this, although I'm not sure when I'll read it.

[Hux]

Currently reading 'The Silent Cry' by Kenzaburo Oe.

[Madeleine]

1 hour ago, lunababymoonchild said:

I'm 200 odd pages in now and see exactly what you mean, it's not as compelling as the previous books. It's not that I want to give up it's just not as urgent that I find out what happens next, as I normally do with the Poldark series. Still I can forgive Winston Graham for that, he probably wanted to write something different and got stuck with this and a deadline to meet. 

The next one is much better!

[lunababymoonchild]

39 minutes ago, Madeleine said:

The next one is much better!

Oh, good!