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Post by bjd on Sept 8, 2017 10:55:54 GMT
About reading "good books". I read a lot of detective stories, the Elizabeth George I mentioned just above is one author I like. Not serious stuff at all. I also have read books by C.J. Sansom, the latest being "A Winter in Madrid", although I confess I stopped halfway-through but will continue it at some point.
I have never heard of Chris Ryan. But then, I don't have a Kindle. I don't want to be limited to what Amazon offers, so of course, I limit myself to what I find at the library or the used books at the junk shop on the coast, or borrowing from people.
I tend not to read candy floss because I find it's often badly-written and I can't be bothered. And I do try to stop my brain from turning to mush by reading travel, history and politics from time to time, but I will read lots of different things, depending on my mood, and what is available. And I like Bill Bryson.
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Post by mossie on Sept 8, 2017 15:37:06 GMT
A recent charity shop find that I just had to have
SUEZ de Lesseps Canal
published in 1969 and tells how de Lesseps charmed all the right people to get his great dream dug opened and run. A very determined man.
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Post by questa on Sept 9, 2017 13:19:23 GMT
What am I reading right now?
Weather maps.
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Post by Kimby on Sept 9, 2017 14:36:27 GMT
What am I reading right now? Weather maps. Hurricane advisories AND fire incident updates. And airline scedules for flights to Illinois for an unplanned funeral trip. 2017 just continues to Suck. Big. Time.
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Post by questa on Sept 9, 2017 23:41:20 GMT
Hang in there, Kimby. your friends here are sharing with you as much as we can.
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Post by Kimby on Sept 10, 2017 0:25:03 GMT
Not sure I understand your remark questa, but appreciate the encouragement.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 10, 2017 3:21:27 GMT
I started a book by Zadie Smith, N-W (for North West London) but I just find it boring and annoying so probably won't finish it. Amen. I remember liking White Teeth, even though I now can't remember anything about it; found Autograph Man slight; and absolutely hated On Beauty to the point I decided I didn't need to read any more Zadie Smith. a general question for anyone - do you always read "good" books? Meaning, doesn't anyone read those candy floss type books? Those that are there to pass the time without needing too much brain power. There is a lot of leeway between good books & fluff books! With novels, I want something well written that pulls me in. But I can also be engaged by lighter stuff, as long as the writing is pretty decent. That would certainly include some chick lit, as I've enjoyed Jennifer Weiner and you could make a case for Bridget Jones being the ultimate chick lit. The writing rule isn't absolutely rigid. I recently gave my mother five books, for which Amazon rewarded me by presenting me with the Kindle edition of one of them. It was a subject that interested me (Jane Boleyn) and the author did a good job of creating a plot from the few facts available. Her writing isn't terrible, but is stilted, somewhat romance-y, and occasionally foolish because of using words for what she thought they meant, rather than their true meanings. That said, the plot and the structure still made it worthwhile. I do get the free ones for the Kindle too and some of them are really good. I love that they have free books, but usually get bogged down by all the junk you have to wade through to find something good. As far as Kindle cheapies, I have been frustrated by the long run of pitiful offerings on the "Kindle Firsts", but scored this past month with a book called All the Little Children. What a surprise -- extremely well-written and very real characters. I will read lots of different things, depending on my mood, and what is available. And I like Bill Bryson. That could be my answer, but much more succinct! I do tend to have more than one -- often several -- books going at the same time. A recent charity shop find that I just had to have Finding great books in charity shops feels like winning the lottery!
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Post by lagatta on Sept 10, 2017 22:01:22 GMT
I have given many of my books to charity shops recently. Obviously not the ones given to me by author friends, some deceased now alas, or the "Ethnic Paris Cookbook", a treasured gift from an anyporter. Nor the ones bearing on my current translating and editing task. Also few in languages other than French or English, as they are so much harder to find at the libraries here (though not always impossible - I found a Collected Works of Primo Levi in our library system, in the original version.
I wasn't fond of Elsa Ferrante, though I read one of her first books in French; logically I would have read it in Italian, but it was too much trouble to track it down. Bixa, if you are at all interested in her, try reading her in Spanish. I don't like reading Germanic language books in Latin languages or vice-versa. But I didn't find it particularly interesting except for the observations about Southern Italian society.
I have a great and difficult love for Italy; on some levels, I'm happier there than anywhere else. My friends welcomed me there after 20 years away as if I'd never left. However, that would never make me deny either the corruption, the bureaucracy or the nepotism and sponsorship. If my thesis adviser (and close friend, but never lover or anything similar) hadn't died when he did, I'd be a university professor by now and not a struggling freelancer). Despite stellar marks, one is nothing there without a "recommendation". I suppose people like fantasy worlds, like Amélie in Montmartre.
Lissagary is interesting as a protagonist, but that is a very different type of read than a professional historian who has examined her or his sources. Both are necessary, but the eyewitnesses are a difficult slag, unless they are great writers like Victor Hugo.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2017 19:37:24 GMT
(We have a thread on here called "Difficult Writers" which when I reread it found that many agreed on several authors).
Speaking of charity shops, while I was in North Carolina I found two books that were real "scores". One was a medicinal plant guide to the S.E. U. S. The best though was a Margaret Atwood collection of short fiction of which she has only written three. Wilderness Tips published in 1989. If you come across it, grab it!!!
As an aside, should you enjoy poetry, Atwood has published 11 books. I rarely see them available and I do look. I have 3 and so love her poetry. Not a venue she would likely be associated with.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 16, 2017 18:20:32 GMT
Just bought The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry....but reading Sins of Empire by Brian McClellan (the latter being a jolly good fantasy novel) If a book is badly written I don't buy it, I always dip into a book before I buy ..I love Fantasy and Science fiction (altho some may sneer at the genre) there are some perfectly good authors turning out this sort of fiction...
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 16, 2017 18:33:29 GMT
Read Wilderness Tips years ago & loved it. So true about many fantasy & science fiction authors being quite good. Anyway, all novels are a sort of fantasy, right? I haven't read Sarah Perry yet, but just looked up The Essex Serpent & the Guardian review convinced me I must read it. (I only skimmed the review with one eye closed, as I've been betrayed by Amazon reviews too many times, with their zeal for giving away plots.) For quite a while I've been resistant to starting books that are parts of series, without quite knowing why I'm resistant. Is this your first Brian McClellan, or just the first in this series?
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 16, 2017 20:15:35 GMT
The Brian McClellan is my first....I see he's written a load more and that this one is the first in a series....not a problem. I read sooooo many books....
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Post by bjd on Oct 15, 2017 14:34:29 GMT
I finally got the 3rd Elena Ferrante book from the library yesterday. It had to be reserved because it's not out in paperback yet. Well, it's quite different from the first two books of the trilogy. The same annoying narrator for the first part of the book, then she recounts what happened to her friend who worked in a meat-packing factory in Naples during the 1960s. Lots of politics, fascists, communists, students, workers, etc.
It's quite interesting although I don't think I would have been pleased to have bought it.
I also finished Paula by Isabel Allende.It took me a while since I read it in Spanish. And I read a few detective novels in the meantime, but nothing memorable.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 15, 2017 17:10:06 GMT
You are such a committed reader, Bjd, for which I greatly admire you. I have bunches of books started all over my house. One I recently finished was The Wordy Shipmates, by the always entertaining and informative Sarah Vowell. In this book she takes on the Puritan antecedents of the United States and the frequently surprising real history combined with her insight and humorous style makes for a good enriching read. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/300726/the-wordy-shipmates-by-sarah-vowell/9781594484001/Right now I'm reading The Ancient Minstrel, by Jim Harrison, who is enshrined in my heart on the Favorite Authors altar. It's three highly autobiographical novellas, and I'm in the middle of the second. If you've never read Harrison, do what you can to remedy that as soon as you can. www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/apr/14/book-review-the-ancient-minstrel/I'm also reading The Sunlight Dialogues, by John Gardner. A friend gave me this for my birthday, with the comment that she could remember loving it years ago. I can remember reading Gardner in my youth, but I'm sure whichever book I read was over my head at the time. The Sunlight Dialogues is quite long, partly because there are some actual long dialogues in it which, frankly, I sometimes skim over. However the book itself is enormously worthwhile literature, although difficult to describe. What strikes me most about it is the author's close analysis of each well-drawn character without planting a judgment of the character within that analysis. Really, it's imbued with a truly beautiful universal compassion which alone would make it worth reading. Along with that is the reader's desire to see how everything plays out. www.goodreads.com/book/show/52609.The_Sunlight_Dialogues
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Post by bjd on Oct 15, 2017 18:47:05 GMT
Oh, I have started books lying around too. For some reason, there are a couple of books that I read about half of, then put them down and just can't be bothered picking them up again. The great advantage of library books is that you can just take them back and not see them lying around, waiting to be finished. What is annoying is when I actually buy them and still can't get around to finishing them.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Oct 15, 2017 18:58:40 GMT
Out of my comfort zone really but I'm reading Hillary Clinton's What Happened. Curiosity really, the Clintons have been in and out of popularity here, and Hillary is a good speaker...she certainly came across well when interviewed over here recently. I'm only a little way into the book and she's trying REALLY hard not to come across as bitter...and I share her opinion of Trumpzilla. I wish I hadn't got the audiobook (I listen wilst drawing) though.
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Post by Kimby on Oct 15, 2017 19:38:17 GMT
Just read a WSJ book review of “The Genius Plague” by David Walton. The review appeals to my love of science, science fiction and human nature. Has anyone read this yet?
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Post by fumobici on Oct 16, 2017 4:35:13 GMT
Just got and have tipped into La Coscienza di Zeno by Italo Svevo. So far, so good. Hilarious, in fact. I tend to buy Italian language fiction so I can enjoy a read and improve my Italian all at once. Some rather odd dialetto triestino, but nothing indecipherable.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 16, 2017 13:10:47 GMT
I finally finished the book I was reading by David Sedaris, Theft by Finding. I had never read anything by him before and may not ever do so again, for multiple reasons, but I suppose the principal one is that I did not find it very funny.
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Post by bjd on Oct 16, 2017 14:17:04 GMT
I don't find David Sedaris funny either. I was handed a book by him some years ago and told it was hilarious -- it wasn't and I didn't read most of it.
Meanwhile, I finished the Elena Ferrante book today. I can't say I really recommend it because through the 3 books, I found the narrator really annoying, but it was still quite interesting, the third volume being set against the political disturbances of Italy in the early 1970s.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 16, 2017 15:49:55 GMT
The first David Sedaris book I read was "Me Talk Pretty One Day", which everyone I knew seemed to be reading at that time. I did find it screamingly funny, but don't think I've read another by him which was so consistently good throughout. But he can still have me in stitches with the occasional article. You deserve a gold star for getting through all three of those books, Bjd! I do understand your point about the cultural and political history being interesting enough to keep you going. Of course I'm already impressed enough that you are willing to read entire novels in Spanish that the three-volume feat is just icing on the cake.
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Post by bjd on Oct 16, 2017 16:28:35 GMT
Huckle, have you tried Ishiguro's "When We Were Young"? That's the one I liked best if it's the title of the book that partly takes place in Shanghai in the 1930s. Some of the others are a bit slow, although I liked both the book and film of "Remains of the Day".
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Oct 16, 2017 16:53:19 GMT
I've only listened to David Sedaris on his BBC Radio 4 show where he reads stories from his diaries and books to a live audience. My OH and I love them. I've seen his books but as we've heard so many of his readings there doesn't seem much point in purchasing any. Looking at the Booker Prize nominees for 2017...I usually read at least one or two off the list.
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Post by mickthecactus on Oct 16, 2017 17:13:05 GMT
As I was on holiday I read lots.
The Secret Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. Excellent and just my sort of thing as you might guess.
The End of the World Running Club by Adrian J Walker. Awful. Gave up on third chapter.
A Kilo of String by Rob Johnson. Easy reading about starting up again in Greece. Very enjoyable.
Driving over Lemons by Chris Stewart . Again, easy reading about moving all to Andalusia to take up a farm and dilapidated house.
Postcards from a Stranger by Imogen Clark. Again, not bad about finding her mother was still alive after being told she had died when she was 2. Bit of a hasty ending.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Oct 16, 2017 17:18:19 GMT
Man Booker Prize Shortlist
4321 by Paul Auster (US) (Faber & Faber)
History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund (US) (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (UK-Pakistan) (Hamish Hamilton)
Elmet by Fiona Mozley (UK) (JM Originals)
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (US) (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Autumn by Ali Smith (UK) (Hamish Hamilton)
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Post by bjd on Oct 16, 2017 18:57:40 GMT
Of course, you are right, Huckle. That was the title.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 16, 2017 20:07:53 GMT
I like to read in Italian, although my favorite Svevo is The Perfect Hoax, which I picked up in English in a Lisbon book store. Currently, I'm reading Anne Sinclair's (The ex Mme DS Kahn) 21 rue La Boetie. I tried Ishiguro again, after his Nobel and just couldn't. Oh gosh, now I am impressed all over again by both Huckle and Fumobici reading in Italian! Thanks to Bjd for mentioning When We Were Orphans, which I have not read yet. Also thanks to Huckle for the iteresting take on it. I loved The Remains of the Day (never saw the movie), although it's immensely melancholy. I also thought Never Let Me Go was an absolutely brilliant feat, even though it left me sad for at least a month afterward. Thanks for telling about The Hidden Life of Trees, Mick. I looked it up & it sounds fascinating. I have to disagree with you, though, about The End of the World Running Club, which I loved. Ahhh ~ my favorite short list di tutti short lists, Cheery! I haven't read any of those yet. I'm a big Paul Auster fan, although he is not infallible. I was reading about Lincoln in the Bardo yesterday & am quite intrigued by it. Saunders can be wonderful. Must look up the rest of them!
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 16, 2017 21:33:33 GMT
The first David Sedaris book I read was "Me Talk Pretty One Day", which everyone I knew seemed to be reading at that time. I did find it screamingly funny, but don't think I've read another by him which was so consistently good throughout. But he can still have me in stitches with the occasional article. Well, that one did remain on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year, so it would appear to validate that he is a writer of interest. He is just not for everyone. Regarding what he has written about France, it is quite possible that those of us who live here find many of his observations completely off base, so they are not funny to us.
As for the book I just finished reading, the whole first half is mostly devoted to his drug addiction and then to his alcoholism, and it is pretty difficult to be consistently funny about those subjects. Much of it was extremely depressing.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 16, 2017 21:39:48 GMT
I admit I have not been tempted to read the diary book.
What I've gotten out of things he's written about France is that he is making fun of himself for missing cultural or language cues --things that people who've thrown themselves into a foreign country &/or language as adults can ruefully identify with.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 16, 2017 21:41:05 GMT
Well, that one did remain on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year, so it would appear to validate that he is a writer of interest. PEE ESS ~ the fact that I said I liked it validates him as a writer of interest.
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