Ronne
Cathlete
Clare, I took your recommendation and tried Michael Robotham. Just finished Shatter. Good recommendation, I would never have found him otherwise. I'll be reading more of his. Thanks!
Books!!
- Thread starter tlc93
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Clare, I took your recommendation and tried Michael Robotham. Just finished Shatter. Good recommendation, I would never have found him otherwise. I'll be reading more of his. Thanks!
maddiesmum
Cathlete
Hi Ronne:
so glad you have discovered a new author, isn't that just the best?!!
I just discovered that David Mitchell will be in Ann Arbor,MI on 7th Nov giving a reading, answering qu's and signing his new book. I have to get a ticket to attend, which includes the cost of a hard back, signed copy of the book, which I think is a bit cheeky, actually. What if I want to attend and get his book from the library because I don't have the cash for book buying?!!! Is it just because he's a man, so he gets to charge for his time and expertise? After all, Alison Bechdel and Ruth Ozeki presented last academic season totally for free, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg came to town and presented and didn't charge a thing for her pearls of wisdom, and wisdom there truly was!
At the mo' I have just started "In a Dark, Dark Wood" by Ruth Ware: so far, so very good. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Clare
Oh my.....I now have over 100 books on my wish list at the library. Plus all the books I have at home.....many! Thank you Clare and everyone else who posted. I've said it before but feel compelled to repeat myself......I've become a fan of many different authors that I've thoroughly enjoyed because of threads like this!! Most of whom I might not have looked at twice. I so adore a great story! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
desertambrosia
Cathlete
I just bought "The Martian" last weekend. Now I can't wait to read it.
I just finished "Girl on a train" as recommended on this thread. Very good story! It kept me guessing the whole time. I became emotionally involved with the characters and could really feel for them. How many of us take the same route to work, the store etc. everyday and notice when something is amiss? How involved do you get?
desertambrosia
Cathlete
I agree, I enjoyed the story as well.
"The Last Anniversary" by Liane Moriarty. Just finished the book on cd. This was a nice story about generations of women who have a secret. It was a bit slow to get started but Liane does this so you become involved in the characters and get to know their idiosyncrasies and troubles. I enjoyed it! It's not my favorite of hers but she does manage to draw you in and tell a good story at the same time. Next up is James Patterson "Truth or die" and "By a spiders thread" by Laura Lippman, Then "In a dark, dark wood"......Claire.......review?
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maddiesmum
Cathlete
This one's for Peg!
I quite forgot I read "In a Dark, Dark Wood" by Ruth Ware!
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Wood-Rut...sr=8-1&keywords=in+a+dark+dark+wood+ruth+ware
It is similar in feel to 'The Girl on the Train' by Paula Hawkins in that your central protagonist is never entirely sure what is happening/has happened around her until late in the narrative, at which point she becomes under threat. There is a murder in each, and the narrative is constructed along two time lines: one proceeds in linear fashion narrating events over a sociable weekend of a gang of old university and childhood friends, and the other timeline informs us a death has occurred, the key characters are either answering questions or recovering in hospital. The protagonist is a person of interest, as she comes to realize, but is suffering temporary amnesia.
Of the two books, and unfortunately, comparison is inevitable, I much preferred "In a Dark, Dark Wood." In a sense, the alcoholic and down-on-her-luck nature of the protagonist of "Girl" made it hard for me to identify with her journey and feelings. I spent a lot of time wondering why she was still so unable to let her marriage go. Anyhoo! 'Dark, Dark Wood" creates a very sinister sense of the environment that the social weekend of the gang of friends 'endure.' The setting for the weekend, in a house in the woods made almost entirely of glass, simply assists this constant feeling of creepiness! Finally, the murder in "Dark' is more insidious, more cruel, more calculated than in "Girl," and this fits entirely with the location of the action and all that overwhelming creepy atmosphere.
I won't say anymore because I don't want to give too much away. At what point in the novel will you cop to who is really in control and the reasons for such murderous antipathy?
I read Moriarty's "Three Wishes" right after that and laughed a lot. Australian humour is a lot like British humour, so there were many moments where I pointed at the page and yelled, 'oh my god, yes!' or maybe it's that I also come from a large hectic, noisy, largely irreverent family too?!! Then I tried 'The Anniversary' and took it back to the library after a few chapters. Unconvinced by this book: dry, stilted, a clumsy set up at the start failed to get me hooked. Sorry!
I don't have a lot of patience, and I have no tolerance at all for bad writing, lazy plotting or lacklustre characters, so ... despite the rave reviews it received, I also gave up on "Among the Ten Thousand Things" by Julia Pierpont this week, even though I was half-way through and the writer Colm Toibin had loved it. According to Toibin, I was supposed to be enraptured by the 'gorgeous prose' but I just found it pared down to blandness. The main characters didn't seem to care about their lives, let alone each other, so why the heck should I?
I am now reading "Unbecoming" by Rebecca Scherm on the basis of the review in the blurb on the back cover of the novel, a review by probably my favourite author, Kate Atkinson, which ends thus: "and best of all I had no idea what was going to happen one page to the next." I'm in!
I have finally, also this week, started reading Swedish crime author Camilla Lackberg. Her novels all follow the sleuthing adventures of detective Patrick Hedström and, of all her many novels in the series, I am starting with "The Stranger" simply because the BOCD is read by Simon Vance and I adore this man's narration. Every so often I miss and need to hear a British accent other than my own! This man is gifted. He also read the Steig Larsson novels on BOCD: magic.
I also just finished "The Four Ms. Bradwells" by Meg Waite Clayton about the fortunes of 4 graduates from the University of Michigan Law School, especially now that one of them is up for a position on the Supreme Court and a blogger has just started asking questions about a suspicious event that happened many years ago, one summer weekend, when the four ladies were together with some male friends on an island. If you are someone interested in women's rights, the law, narratives of female friendships, this one s for you. A very good read and I enjoyed it.
I have also been reading many different books by Susan Isaacs. You can take your pick, she is widely published. I most particularly enjoyed "As Husbands Go" and "Goldberg Variations." Isaacs is a smart and funny writer, with smart, feisty female protagonists.
That's it for the news in books in my world for this week!
Clare
I quite forgot I read "In a Dark, Dark Wood" by Ruth Ware!
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Wood-Rut...sr=8-1&keywords=in+a+dark+dark+wood+ruth+ware
It is similar in feel to 'The Girl on the Train' by Paula Hawkins in that your central protagonist is never entirely sure what is happening/has happened around her until late in the narrative, at which point she becomes under threat. There is a murder in each, and the narrative is constructed along two time lines: one proceeds in linear fashion narrating events over a sociable weekend of a gang of old university and childhood friends, and the other timeline informs us a death has occurred, the key characters are either answering questions or recovering in hospital. The protagonist is a person of interest, as she comes to realize, but is suffering temporary amnesia.
Of the two books, and unfortunately, comparison is inevitable, I much preferred "In a Dark, Dark Wood." In a sense, the alcoholic and down-on-her-luck nature of the protagonist of "Girl" made it hard for me to identify with her journey and feelings. I spent a lot of time wondering why she was still so unable to let her marriage go. Anyhoo! 'Dark, Dark Wood" creates a very sinister sense of the environment that the social weekend of the gang of friends 'endure.' The setting for the weekend, in a house in the woods made almost entirely of glass, simply assists this constant feeling of creepiness! Finally, the murder in "Dark' is more insidious, more cruel, more calculated than in "Girl," and this fits entirely with the location of the action and all that overwhelming creepy atmosphere.
I won't say anymore because I don't want to give too much away. At what point in the novel will you cop to who is really in control and the reasons for such murderous antipathy?
I read Moriarty's "Three Wishes" right after that and laughed a lot. Australian humour is a lot like British humour, so there were many moments where I pointed at the page and yelled, 'oh my god, yes!' or maybe it's that I also come from a large hectic, noisy, largely irreverent family too?!! Then I tried 'The Anniversary' and took it back to the library after a few chapters. Unconvinced by this book: dry, stilted, a clumsy set up at the start failed to get me hooked. Sorry!
I don't have a lot of patience, and I have no tolerance at all for bad writing, lazy plotting or lacklustre characters, so ... despite the rave reviews it received, I also gave up on "Among the Ten Thousand Things" by Julia Pierpont this week, even though I was half-way through and the writer Colm Toibin had loved it. According to Toibin, I was supposed to be enraptured by the 'gorgeous prose' but I just found it pared down to blandness. The main characters didn't seem to care about their lives, let alone each other, so why the heck should I?
I am now reading "Unbecoming" by Rebecca Scherm on the basis of the review in the blurb on the back cover of the novel, a review by probably my favourite author, Kate Atkinson, which ends thus: "and best of all I had no idea what was going to happen one page to the next." I'm in!
I have finally, also this week, started reading Swedish crime author Camilla Lackberg. Her novels all follow the sleuthing adventures of detective Patrick Hedström and, of all her many novels in the series, I am starting with "The Stranger" simply because the BOCD is read by Simon Vance and I adore this man's narration. Every so often I miss and need to hear a British accent other than my own! This man is gifted. He also read the Steig Larsson novels on BOCD: magic.
I also just finished "The Four Ms. Bradwells" by Meg Waite Clayton about the fortunes of 4 graduates from the University of Michigan Law School, especially now that one of them is up for a position on the Supreme Court and a blogger has just started asking questions about a suspicious event that happened many years ago, one summer weekend, when the four ladies were together with some male friends on an island. If you are someone interested in women's rights, the law, narratives of female friendships, this one s for you. A very good read and I enjoyed it.
I have also been reading many different books by Susan Isaacs. You can take your pick, she is widely published. I most particularly enjoyed "As Husbands Go" and "Goldberg Variations." Isaacs is a smart and funny writer, with smart, feisty female protagonists.
That's it for the news in books in my world for this week!
Clare
Wow! Thanks for that Clare!! I enjoyed 3 wishes also. The girls were very cute & funny! It brought back memories for me when they read the letters they wrote as teenagers and are now adults. Nice story! Yes I have siblings too and giggled like a school girl at some of these characters behavior.
desertambrosia
Cathlete
Oh damn, I just bought this book last weekend, because it had such great reviews. When, and if, you finish it, please leave a review. I would love to know what you think.
maddiesmum
Cathlete
Read it, agreed! Right after that, I read "The Dinner" by Herman Koch, similar in theme, and liked that one perhaps more.
http://www.amazon.com/Dinner-Herman...TF8&qid=1443728964&sr=8-1&keywords=the+dinner
Clare
maddiesmum
Cathlete
I started this book, got to the end of chapter 1 and thought, "nope," and took it back to the library. At this point, I find ww2 narratives a little tired, so it has to be unique and exceptional for me to read it. I couldn't get interested in this one, despite the hype. Sometimes, because of it! That doesn't mean YOU won't thrill to it, however, so ... onwards!
Clare
fox2star
Cathlete
I really enjoyed this one too.
marazoe
Cathlete
I just finished All the light we cannot see. I would give it 2 stars. I liked how each chapter was 3 pages. It was confusing because it seems to back and forth in time. I am getting tired of WW11 books that we always seem to read in book club. I am not a sophisticated reader. I just like to read. So you might like it. I normally like Non-fiction . I am now starting "Room". Has anyone read that? It is coming out as a movie on the 16th so I would like to finish it by then.
Ronne
Cathlete
I read Room a few years ago. I've never forgotten it - it was a hard read for me, I found it disturbing and upsetting. This is praise, by the way! I would recommend it! The way the author manages to present things from the view of a 5 year old child I thought was incredible. Probably the only way you can tell the story without it being exploitative. Not sure I want to see a film of it ...