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Post by windysisters on Jan 21, 2024 21:57:57 GMT
I finished Fearless last night. Very different from Craven's British detective books, this is US action hero. Still very readable.
I've now started Fouth Wing by Rebecca Yarros which, as Nat said, is very like Hunget Games with dragons.
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Post by eightlegs on Jan 21, 2024 22:16:51 GMT
I'm starting Little Boy Blue - M J Arlidge tonight, number five in the Helen Grace series
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Post by adelynechan on Jan 22, 2024 10:36:43 GMT
Changed my mind about my next read as I wanted something with a bit more humour/sarcasm, so over the weekend I read How to Kill Men and Get Away With It by Katy Brent. I liked the writing style (more than the likes of My Sister the Serial Killer, which is the book that I think this is the closest to), the dark humour was well-done. Story-wise didn't work so well for me, I found the main character and her clan a bit irritating.
Then I went back to the one I'd planned to read next, Now You See Me by S.J. Bolton. Just under 100 pages in, it's a bit slow-moving but I've found this several times with Sharon Bolton's books and have ended up really enjoying it once the plot gets moving, so definitely sticking to it. Also, this is the first of a series so probably to be expected anyway that there is a bit more ground-laying when it comes to characters and the like.
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Post by sarita on Jan 22, 2024 13:51:07 GMT
Finished Dictionnaire amoureux du polar by Pierre Lemaître. 800 pages of information relating to authors, characters, publishers and techniques of noir and crime novels. Learned a lot but worked hard for it. I feel like cramming before sitting exams. 5*. Rich but at times quite heavy.
Also finished Sly Company of People Who Care by Rahul Bhattacharya. Very good except the last 20%, I ddon’t understand why the author changed the theme from describing the country to a blotched drug traffic ending. 3*.
Now I need easy! Still have 3 Louise Penny Gamache books on TBR. Was disappointed with the latest one. Skipping 2 books in the series, I’m starting All the Devils Are Here #16. If I don’t like it after 50 pages, I’ll DNF and drop #17 and #18.
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Post by froglady on Jan 23, 2024 9:03:54 GMT
Murder Among the Roses by Liz Fielding - first book in a series in Maybridge.
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Post by sarita on Jan 23, 2024 11:38:00 GMT
Finished All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny. Set in Paris, not Three Pines. Fast moving story focusing on dodgy corporate secrets and shortcomings. Liked it better than the repetitive Three Pines books but the ending is a total let down. I suspended disbelief through the book but there's a limit. And the pontificating is back! 3,5 rounded up.
Started my San Marino book. Secrets of the Seven Smallest States of Europe. Only a few pages for San Marino, it's all I could find.
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Post by froglady on Jan 23, 2024 16:12:55 GMT
Just starting Murder Under the Mistletoe by Liz Fielding - the second book in her Maybridge murder mystery series.
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Post by sarita on Jan 23, 2024 16:50:32 GMT
Finished San Marino. 2*. Only a few pages of generic information. I could have looked it up on the net. The book did cover 7 countries, I only needed one.
Starting The Sand Fish by Maha Gargash, my book fot UAE as tree book and Horse by Geraldine Brooks on Kindle.
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Post by eightlegs on Jan 23, 2024 21:19:09 GMT
On my kindle I've also started When Breath becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi, a non fiction book by a neurosurgeon in his mid 30's diagnosed with terminal cancer
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Post by adelynechan on Jan 24, 2024 17:13:57 GMT
I really need to stop starting new books while I have others on-the-go! At the weekend I wasn't in the mood for the Sharon Bolton that I'm reading (as our Zoom buddy read is quite dark and I fancied something a bit different), so instead I read How to Kill Men and Get Away With It by Katy Brent. It's dark humour, written to be a bit tongue-in-cheek, and although it was overall a fun read equally I didn't love it. I felt that the plot wasn't as clever as the title implies, that rather than actually getting away with things, our protagonist got lucky on most of the occasions. And then I read the NF Emotional Ignorance by Dean Burnett, a well-written popular science on how emotions work. I read a lot of scientific literature so my bar is quite high for popular science, and the author did well here. A lot of the narrative is grounded on the death of his father during the pandemic, which I thought worked well, but at the same time I also see how it may be too much for some. On audio, my reserve of Enid Blyton's The Enchanted Wood came through, and I've been so excited to listen to this (based on geminii's glowing recommendation of Kate Winslet's narration) that I started right away. A very productive batch cooking session later I finished it, and loved being transported back into one of my favourite childhood fictional worlds again. It was just as magical to experience the tree and its worlds as an adult, and now I am back to playing the waiting game as I wait for Book #2 to become available to borrow. Not starting anything new just yet, I'm going back to the many that I had on-the-go when I started these ones!
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Post by adelynechan on Jan 25, 2024 11:09:07 GMT
Finished listening to Between Us by Clare Atkins, one that I have very mixed feelings about. It's structured brilliantly and I thought the three different narrators were well-chosen and profiled to send a message about refugee status. However, the purported romance was so unconvincing, and as it is supposed to be the major plot driver the rest of the story seemed to just collapse around it. And Ana's depiction as a stereotypical ungrateful refugee really irritated me, though I loved both Jono and Kenny, which partly made up for that.
Up next will be another trip to the Faraway Tree universe with Adventure of the Goblin Dog by Enid Blyton. This is not one that I read as a child, and I'm so excited to find out what a goblin dog is!
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Post by adelynechan on Jan 27, 2024 11:00:20 GMT
Trundled to the end of Show Me the Bodies by Peter Apps, a NF about the Grenfell fire that has been on my currently reading for almost 3 months now. It's received glowing reviews, primarily because of the sheer amount of research that's gone into it (this much is apparent), but at least for me the writing did not even come close to doing this justice. The author went for an odd strategy of interspersing survivor accounts / backstories with investigation of the what-went-wrong, coupled with the use of niche terminology I found was confusing in parts and over-repetitive in others as some concepts are explained over and over and over and over again. 3*.
Then I started my next NF, Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall, which I'm finding infinitely more interesting and readable!
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Post by windysisters on Jan 27, 2024 14:58:36 GMT
I've just finished Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros and it was excellent. Could hardly put it down.
Next is The Moon Sister by Lucinda Riley
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Post by sarita on Jan 28, 2024 12:47:34 GMT
Finished The Sand Fish by Maha Gargash. Disappointing. All the clichés of life of women in 1950s Dubai combined with all the clichés of a coming of age chick lit book. Perhaps my expectations were too high...2* and dnf.
Also finished Horse by Geraldine Brooks. Unfortunately I have little interest in horses and horse racing. Or in horse anatomy and equestrian paintings. Three timelines make the story hard to follow. Add implausible coincidences. And difficult racist situations are described with no subtlety. 2,5 rounded up because of the amount research and the original topic.
Starting Last Friends by Jane Gardam, last of the Old Filth trilogy. I loved the first two books.
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Post by adelynechan on Jan 28, 2024 14:43:42 GMT
Finished Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall, very well written, I can see why it is so popular. It covers all the regions of the world very briefly, as I guess there's only so much you can fit into 300 pages broken down into 10 chapters each covering a different region. He's generally good at maintaining an objective tone that I like, but this broke down in several chapters - it was apparent so I dropped some points. Still a solid 4*.
I've done well recently with getting through NF, probably partly due to me doing up my annual reading stats spreadsheet for 2023 last weekend and realising that I only read 39 NF last year. It was a reading/writing-heavy year at work so I guess it is understandable that I often came home not in the mood to read NF, and I'm fast realising that my "50% NF" goal is totally unrealistic regardless, but still am hoping to get a slightly higher number these year.
Up next will be The Wager by David Grann, but I think I'm going to read some fiction first
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