Your Book Activity 2023

[Hayley]

5 hours ago, timebug said:

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!

I’m adding it to my ‘to-read’ list! 

[Brian.]

I've currently got 3 books on the go. I've almost finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir which has been a decent read. I'm working my way through Play Winning Chess by Yasser Seirawan which is a much more basic book that I had initially thought. Finally, The Woman Who Fooled the World by Beau Donelly & Nick Toscano which I only started the other night.

[willoyd]

Finished Black England.  A good read (4 stars), although I would have liked more on the lives of black people in England (as in the first half), rather than much of the last third of the book being taken up with potential immigrants being shipped off to Sierra Leone (with some obvious parallels with the current government's efforts to ship people off to Rwanda!) - very similar ground to Simon Schama's Rough Crossings if I remember correctly.  It was still very interesting!

Moved on to a book group choice: Less by Andrew Sean Gear, the Pulitzer Fiction prize winner from 2018 (and of which I've never heard before).

Edited January 18, 2023 by willoyd

[poppy]

Picked up a secondhand copy of Laurie Lee's Illustrated Cider With Rosie today.

[muggle not]

1 hour ago, poppy said:

Picked up a secondhand copy of Laurie Lee's Illustrated Cider With Rosie today.

 

The book sounds good and I think I will put it on my list. I have a bunch of books coming available at the library so it will have to be later, especially since it is a Trilogy. 

[poppy]

22 hours ago, muggle not said:

 

The book sounds good and I think I will put it on my list. I have a bunch of books coming available at the library so it will have to be later, especially since it is a Trilogy. 

 

You can certainly read Cider With Rosie by itself, but I enjoyed the more serious sequels as well.

[lunababymoonchild]

Currently reading The Bone Collector by Jeffrey Deaver.

[Brian.]

After about 40 pages I have put The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu aside again. For some reason this one just isn't clicking with me. I know they changed the translator for this one so that may be part of it but it just feels very different from the first book.

[muggle not]

I am on page 310 of Fairy Tale by Stephen King and have about 300 pages to go. I am enjoying the book so far. The title is appropriate to the book.

[Hayley]

On 1/18/2023 at 1:41 AM, poppy said:

Picked up a secondhand copy of Laurie Lee's Illustrated Cider With Rosie today

That’s a beautiful edition! Is the tassel from your bookmark or is that attached to the book?

 

3 hours ago, muggle not said:

I am on page 310 of Fairy Tale by Stephen King and have about 300 pages to go. I am enjoying the book so far. The title is appropriate to the book.

Fairy Tale is on my wish list  

 

 

I’m currently reading the last Frey & McGray book, The Sign of the Devil. As expected, I’m really enjoying it 😄 (although I’m still sad that it’s the last one…).

[lunababymoonchild]

I'm on page 168 of The Bone Collector by Jeffrey Deaver and it has not disappointed, I'm glad to say.

[willoyd]

Completed Less by Andrew Sean Gear - it may be a Pulitizer winner, but for me the title was more apposite.  2 stars (out of 6). 

Then moved on to Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid, my first Caribbean novel (for Antigua and Barbuda)  on my world tour.  As with my previous world book, Black Moses, a bildungsroman, if rather different.  A very easy read, a mere but very full 150 pages.  Might be very different to Black Moses, but worthy of a similar rating: 4 stars.

[Hux]

Started 'Snow' by Orhan Pamuk.

[poppy]

On 1/22/2023 at 7:25 AM, Hayley said:

That’s a beautiful edition! Is the tassel from your bookmark or is that attached to the book?

 

It must be a bookmark, it's not my photo although that's the edition I have 🙂

[poppy]

Reading 'Mrs Lorimer's Quiet Summer' by Molly Clavering, a semi-autobiographical book about D.E. Stevenson and the author who were close neighbours and friends.

[Madeleine]

On 1/21/2023 at 6:25 PM, Hayley said:

I’m currently reading the last Frey & McGray book, The Sign of the Devil. As expected, I’m really enjoying it 😄 (although I’m still sad that it’s the last one…).

I'm currently on the 4th Frey and McGray book, The Loch of the Dead, and I think it may be the best one yet.  Yes it's a shame the series is ending, after only 7 books.

[lunababymoonchild]

 Currently reading Interim by Dorothy Richardson

[timebug]

Re-reading 'Hungry As The Sea' by Wilbur Smith. I  like this one; cliched steely jawed hero and beautiful sidekick, the story of a man who once ran a huge shipping corporation, lost it, and is fighting for financial survival by running a rescue/salvage ship.Starts in the Antarctic when a massive liner is holed by an iceberg, abd continues around the seas until the dramatic climax in much  hotter waters. Strictly 'boys own' stuff but I first read it as a youg man and it has always held a small niche in my affections!

[Brian.]

On 1/22/2023 at 11:58 AM, Hux said:

Started 'Snow' by Orhan Pamuk.

 

I read this just over 10 years ago and it changed the way I thought about literature from countries other than my own.

 

I've got 4 books on the go in varying degrees of progress.

 

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert, I'm about 70% of the way through this and although very different from Dune I am enjoying it.

 

Titan Sinking, a non-fiction book about the slump in fortunes of WWF (now WWE) in 1995. This was the period where the likes of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage had left but before the attitude era stars like Steve Austin. Vince McMahon was also getting sued for just about everything which really hurt the company. A bit of a niche book but one that brings back fond memories from watching WWF during my adolescent years. I'm also reading this on the Kindle and it tells me I'm 12% through the book.

 

Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason. I am only one chapter into this so I don't have anything to say about it yet. It's based in Reykjavik and part of series of crime novels. This appears to be the third in the series but the first one translated into English.

 

Play Winning Chess by Yasser Seirawan. I've covered another 10 pages this week. I'm working through this one slowly as I'm making sure I go through the examples and quizes properly.

 

 

[Chrissy]

I completed my re reading of Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven, and enjoyed it enormously. It is a strangely compelling book. If I were to try and describe it would make it sound such a dud, but somehow the story works. 

 

Virginia Woolf is calling me for the Stream of Consciousness Challenge, but I've had such a busy old time of it, my brain hasn't felt settled enough to read, so I hope to get to reading the books I have lined up for myself soon. 

[lunababymoonchild]

1 hour ago, Chrissy said:

Virginia Woolf is calling me for the Stream of Consciousness Challenge, but I've had such a busy old time of it, my brain hasn't felt settled enough to read, so I hope to get to reading the books I have lined up for myself soon. 

Please don't feel any pressure to read anything for the Stream of Consciousness Challenge, stream of consciousness is a difficult thing to read and if you're not ready for it that just makes it so much harder. I am currently struggling with my Dorothy Richardson (it's called Interim and is part 5 of her opus) for my own Stream of Consciousness Challenge. It's been at least 2 years since I read her so I expected to struggle, however I enjoy struggling with my fiction so will continue to do so and glad that I picked it up at last. It's an e-book from Project Gutenberg.

[poppy]

On 1/27/2023 at 10:00 PM, timebug said:

Re-reading 'Hungry As The Sea' by Wilbur Smith. I  like this one; cliched steely jawed hero and beautiful sidekick, the story of a man who once ran a huge shipping corporation, lost it, and is fighting for financial survival by running a rescue/salvage ship.Starts in the Antarctic when a massive liner is holed by an iceberg, abd continues around the seas until the dramatic climax in much  hotter waters. Strictly 'boys own' stuff but I first read it as a youg man and it has always held a small niche in my affections!

 

I read several Wilbur Smith books years ago and really enjoyed them ( I must be an exception to the 'boys own' rule 😉). The title sounds familiar but I don't remember the story. 

Eagle in the Sky is the only one I can recall anything about, I think I've read it twice. 

Have you read Night Crossing by Robert Ryan, timebug? It possibly falls into the same category. I'd like to read more by this author.

[willoyd]

Two books completed over the weekend. Firstly The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk, for one of my book groups.  Very readable historical fiction, set in my favourite eighteenth century.  Then The  Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna, my book for Finland in my Read Around the World.  Whilst reviews are very varied, and I hadn't really expected to gel with it given it's style etc, I actually found it a thoroughly thought provoking and interesting read - even if I didn't find it as funny as it's meant to be (actually not funny at all IMO). Both books 4 stars out of 6, going on 5.

[Hux]

Started reading The Slaves of Solitude' by Patrick Hamilton. 

[Brian.]

I'm still reading Titan Sinking and Jar City but I have finished Dune Messiah. I'll post more thoughts in my book log soon but after a promising start the book tailed off for me. Last night I made a start on The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris.