Books, books and more books

Zora1 said:
I used to have this problem, too, but then I discovered Goodreads and it's been so incredibly helpful. I can keep track of what I've read, how I rated each book, lists of books I want to read, etc. That's the forum my online book group uses to discuss our books and it's so user-friendly. Highly recommend!
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I'll have to check this out! Thanks, @Zora1 :)
 
I love hearing all these recommendations. I'll be trying quite a few of these in the coming months.

Recently I've read the follow on to life after life by Kate Atkinson, called A God in Ruins. I loved it, although I was a little confused at first, since the characters were the same as those in life after life, but the story lines were different again.
I'm currently reading a trilogy by Peter May, which starts with The Black House. They are reasonably well written, with a decent, if slightly stretched plot, but with fantastic descriptions of the Isles of Lewis and Harris. The history, local knowledge and evocative prose make the books worth reading.

Clare, I agree with those who think you could make a career out of critiquing.
 
Zora1 said:
Recent books that I've enjoyed:

Fates and Furies - for the same reasons as Clare (and Mathilde is such a badass character!)
The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North (it reminded me a lot of Kate Atkinson's Life After Life, except Harry does remember everything, whereas Ursula always forgot her previous lives)
Lexicon by Max Barry (literary thriller for people who like words)
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

And I'm currently rereading one of my all-time favorites, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, for one of my classes. Love his writing!!
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Yes! I am all over this "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North (it reminded me a lot of Kate Atkinson's Life After Life, except Harry does remember everything, whereas Ursula always forgot her previous lives)"

Thanks for the suggestion!

Clare
 
Justinef said:
I love hearing all these recommendations. I'll be trying quite a few of these in the coming months.

Recently I've read the follow on to life after life by Kate Atkinson, called A God in Ruins. I loved it, although I was a little confused at first, since the characters were the same as those in life after life, but the story lines were different again.
I'm currently reading a trilogy by Peter May, which starts with The Black House. They are reasonably well written, with a decent, if slightly stretched plot, but with fantastic descriptions of the Isles of Lewis and Harris. The history, local knowledge and evocative prose make the books worth reading.

Clare, I agree with those who think you could make a career out of critiquing.
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'A God in Ruins' was excellent. Read that also this February, walking through the cold Michigan roads in the dark: it seemed a fitting time and climate to be reading about the pitiless deaths of men at war, scenes of the airships nonsensically ordered to fly under a full moon to drop bombs over Germany and literally being picked off one by one by the Ack-Ack guns. So much loss and have people, has Teddy, made the most of life, freedom and liberty since the sacrifice of the men who gave their lives? The abuse Teddy's grandson goes through at the hands of his paternal grandmother made me cry as I walked along. Such a complicated relationship between mother and son, that clueless woman. But Teddy's genuine affection for the boy and tenderhearted relationship with the granddaughter also. I can't remember their names!!

Kate Atkinson can't churn them out fast enough for me.

If you like Kate, you must also like Maggie O'Farrell. I am re-reading her "Instructions for a Heatwave" before the new one is released. Reading her while living in the US, I am constantly struck by cultural recognition: personalities, actions, language. Her characters in this one are negligent of each other's emotional life. They strive and don't quite reach each other, cause harm without realizing they do so, or do realize it but cannot seem to stop themselves. It's unlike her previous novels in that it cries out for a sequel. Worth it.

Clare
 
I've been reading big books and long series so haven't got a lot to contribute. I finished the final Elena Ferrante Sicily book (four in total). Clare, I remember discussing them with you. I would say go for it, in many ways, I found the first book the hardest but I had to go back and read on. I do think the four books taken together are some of the most true and honest books I've ever read.
The way she writes about women's lives I've not seen before. Her characters are complete people, inconsistent, with good and bad traits. I felt that her real story was how little we can really know the people around us. We are all mysteries to each other.
Then for light relief I moved on to War and Peace! I've got about 200 pages to go. There was a fabulous BBC adaptation of it earlier this year and that prompted me to have a go. I'm not sure I would have got through it without that first. I'm glad I've read it but I do prefer Eliot and Dickens.
 
My library list is growing! Thanks everyone. I tried a Louise Penny novel hoping for creepy. I love a psychological thriller. Unfortunately it didn't click with me. I'm waiting for a few from my library that were suggested here. Some of my favorites were due to last year's thread! "Whered you go Bernadette", "The vacationers", "Big little lies" and anything else by Lianne Moriarty, "In a dark, dark wood" and so on. Keep the stories coming! It's fun.
 
Ronne said:
I've been reading big books and long series so haven't got a lot to contribute. I finished the final Elena Ferrante Sicily book (four in total). Clare, I remember discussing them with you. I would say go for it, in many ways, I found the first book the hardest but I had to go back and read on. I do think the four books taken together are some of the most true and honest books I've ever read.
The way she writes about women's lives I've not seen before. Her characters are complete people, inconsistent, with good and bad traits. I felt that her real story was how little we can really know the people around us. We are all mysteries to each other.
Then for light relief I moved on to War and Peace! I've got about 200 pages to go. There was a fabulous BBC adaptation of it earlier this year and that prompted me to have a go. I'm not sure I would have got through it without that first. I'm glad I've read it but I do prefer Eliot and Dickens.
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Ronne:

War and Peace for light relief!! Thanks for reminding me about the mini-series. I need to get to that immediately, along with Wolf hall with Damien Lewis and Mark Rylance.

Good to hear you liked, in its totality, the trilogy by Ferrante. Now I feels safer going into it, 'because Ronne said it is worth the journey and there will be a big pay off for such dedication!' OK< she is now BACK on my reading ambitions list. I dunno about W&P yet tho ...

What's your favourite Dickens?

Clare
 
Wolf hall was so much better to watch than to (attempt) to read. The book was hard going!

Hats off to anyone who makes it through war and peace.

Dickens? Too many memories of being forced into reading them at school. Too young to enjoy them, to carefree to study them. Too light hearted to picture them.

Now dh Lawrence.....a different thing altogether !
 
Yes, I'm sure you'll love it. And Wolf Hall was the best thing I watched last year. Mark Rylance is just fabulous. So still and clear. I enjoyed the books as well.

Hard to pick my favourite, Bleak House probably but I also like David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby and Martin Chuzzlewit, oh and Our Mutual Friend. So quite a lot, really!
 
I have to watch Wolf Hall...I think it's available on Amazon? I haven't read any of the books, but the current Poldark series on Masterpiece theater piqued my curiosity....
For Dickens, I loved Great Expectations...I named my cat Pip!
I absolutely LOVED Ken Follet's Century Trilogy. Anyone going through Downton Abbey withdrawal will enjoy the first book of that series.
 
Read Wolf Hall and loved it. Didn't enjoy the TV series because I couldn't understand a word they were saying. But I plan on watching it again.
Love Dickens, War and Peace. And really all the classics. You can just disappear into these books. Love a good English/Irish mystery too.
 
I just finished "Touch and go" by Lisa Gardner. ItS about a wealthy but fractured family that gets kidnapped. Husband, Wife and teenage daughter all taken abruptly to a prison that is currently empty. As the family tries to figure out what to do they are also dealing with their own personal issues and problems. Very, very good suspense. A bit of violence but nothing horrible. I was often trying to figure out who was responsible. I love that!
 
Orphan Train is on my list! I'm just finishing 2 different stories and will come back to post my thoughts as I feel they are both decent enough to share. Anyone have ideas for creepy, psychological suspense? Or a great biography?
 
tlc93 said:
Anyone have ideas for creepy, psychological suspense? Or a great biography?
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Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes was creepy and suspenseful.

Here are a couple of selections for biographies:

Marathon Woman: Running the Race to Revolutionize Women's Sport by Kathrine Switzer.
She ran the Boston Marathon in 1967 when it was an all-male event and she was attacked by one of the event's directors who wanted to pull her off the course.

Sum It Up: 1,098 Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective by Pat Summit, Sally Jenkins.
Pat Summit, past coach of the Tennessee Vols women's basketball team. This is her biography from her childhood, through her coaching years and then facing early-onset of Alzheimer's disease.

Johnny Cash: The Life by Robert Hilburn
 
Jane, YES! I read "Into the darkest corner". Great suggestion as it was suspenseful and disturbing. It's one of those stories that still creeps into my thoughts once in a while.
 
I read most of Harlen Coben's books, and I read The Woods several times. I also enjoy all five long novels of the Game ofThrones series by George R. R. Martin. Preston and Child wrote a book called The Relic, and they make Michael Crichton look like Mickey Mouse. You can also look at their website: PrestonChild.com, and their hero is A. X. L. Pendergast. I read all the time, and I have all my life, and I have a useless MA in British literature from NYU. The only thing I can do it teach high school, and I would rather be a personal trainer.

I also like Joe Hart a great deal and J. F. Gonzalez; I recently reread To Kill a Mockingbird, and I also read her new novel, Go Set a Watch.
 
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