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Post by Kimby on Jan 17, 2022 4:46:24 GMT
I’m reading Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty who also wrote Nine Perfect Strangers (now a TV series starring Nicole Kidman). Apples is a good read, especially if like me you enjoy books that delve into sibling relationships and family dynamics. The family at the center of the tale ran a tennis academy and all 4 kids played, were coached by their parents and competed well. They are adults now and each dealing with “adulting” in their own unique way. The parents are empty nesters and recently retired after selling the tennis academy. One night there’s a knock on their door and a bloodied young woman standing on their porch. They let her in, patch her wounds and set her up in one of their daughter’s bedrooms. Things get mysterious after that….
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jan 27, 2022 22:20:15 GMT
I'm on the 23rd Inspector Wexford novel by Ruth Rendell! Well I'm sewing a lot (little dresses for Lorelei) and plugging into an audiobook keeps me company. The early ones are set in the 60s and 70s..and subsquent books follow the timeline....we are in the 2000s atm. Very gentle and not very challenging...but enough to keep me interested. The added advantage being that with Kindle plus all of these audiobooks were 'free'.
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Post by rikita on Jan 27, 2022 22:45:46 GMT
a. and i recently read the first book of the "how to train your dragon" series, which is quite different from the movies, we are also continuing in "school of magical animals" (about to start book 11 or 12 or something like that), and now are continuing the sixth harry potter book, from which we did take a lengthy break right in the middle, because she got more interested in "school of magical animals" (which i guess is also more age appropriate), but she wanted to return to it now.
as for reading without agnes ... well, just an article in a magazine now and then ...
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 28, 2022 0:39:48 GMT
Cheery, I recently posted about audio books over in the Digital Reading & Listening thread. I don't know if what I posted is pertinent to the UK or not, but you could check, if interested. anyportinastorm.proboards.com/post/381431/thread (Reply #241) Rikita, were you a reader of fantasy novels before Agnes? I do find that many fantasy books for kids can have appeal for adults as well.
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Post by rikita on Jan 28, 2022 21:42:18 GMT
yes, i like fantasy, or at least some kinds, like harry potter ...
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 29, 2022 18:04:08 GMT
I almost bought two more books today but since I have three in progress and four more waiting their turn, I was able to restrain myself. Why three books? One is for the toilet, one is for reading in bed and one is for the metro. Normally the toilet book would take the longest, but I make a point of choosing shorter easier books for reading there. I don't know if my brother has changed but he was one of those people who could spend an hour on the toilet because he was reading.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 29, 2022 23:13:42 GMT
yes, i like fantasy, or at least some kinds, like harry potter ... The book-before-last that I read was fantasy. I liked it so much that I immediately bought the sequel. The last book I read was The Missing, by Tim Gautreaux. When I bought the ebook for myself, I also sent a physical copy to my mother, who read it first & raved about it. Not only is it one of those "cinematic" books -- the kind you can easily imagine being made into a movie, parts of it take place in the part of Louisiana where I'm from, with the place names disguised enough that it was fun trying to place the action. The plot & the writing are good & the moral ambiguities and decisions add an extra dimension. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/58773/the-missing-by-tim-gautreaux/I've just barely started Summer Light, and Then Comes the Night, by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, but was quickly pulled into the account of life in a small Icelandic town. www.hachette.co.uk/titles/jón-kalman-stefánsson/summer-light-and-then-comes-the-night/9780857059772/When I was looking for a short review to include (see above), I found that the book has been made into a movie: www.imdb.com/title/tt9315684/ Even though there is a pronunciation guide in the back of the novel, the names have defeated me. The movie might help!
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Post by Kimby on Feb 2, 2022 0:59:10 GMT
Just finished Louise Erdrich’s THE SENTENCE. Very good. Haunting, actually. ;-)
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 2, 2022 1:20:53 GMT
ha ha!
Thanks for the comment on it. I usually like Erdrich very much, but feared that The Sentence would be too fey, so to speak.
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Post by whatagain on Feb 2, 2022 2:25:14 GMT
I finished a book from Mark Billingham, an author i quite like. This one, In the dark, was disappointing. It gave me the impression the book really started at page 353.
Now i am into Valmy, by JL Ancely. It actually covers the years 1774 to Valmy battle, the first of the french Republic. It is fascinating.
Am i lost or misplaced a Hercule Poirot by S. Hannah, so I started the Monogram murders. I am a fan of Hercule.
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Post by questa on Feb 2, 2022 7:42:56 GMT
I would expect nothing else, whatagain! Does your little waxed moustache bother you in hot weather?
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Post by whatagain on Feb 2, 2022 9:15:34 GMT
I would expect nothing else, whatagain! Does your little waxed moustache bother you in hot weather? Hot weather ? In Belgium ? An unknown concept.
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Post by bjd on Feb 2, 2022 9:15:36 GMT
I am continuing my re-reading of Jane Austen. I'm about 3/4 of the way through Mansfield Park, which is one I probably never reread. I see why -- the heroine, Fanny Price, really annoys me.
I also read two graphic novels, one about Gavrilo Princip -- the Serb nationalist who assassinated the Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914, and another that takes place on a flight from Algeria to France in 1962, with the pieds noirs being brought to France after Algerian independence.
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Post by bjd on Feb 5, 2022 18:49:04 GMT
Huckle, perhaps Snyder covers the famine more in his book, Bloodlands?
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Post by bjd on Feb 6, 2022 7:05:20 GMT
Yes, Snyder writes well. He collaborated a lot with Tony Judt who was an extremely good writer as well.
An editor friend of mine in Toronto receives books from various publishers. Last time I stayed at his place, I had a look through Bloodlands. It's probably more technical than Applebaum, who is a journalist rather than a historian.
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Post by Kimby on Feb 7, 2022 13:55:46 GMT
(Accidentally double posted, fixed.)
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Post by Kimby on Feb 7, 2022 13:56:46 GMT
A really funny book by actor/humorist Nick Offerman called: WHERE the DEER and the ANTELOPE PLAY; The PASTORAL OBSERVATIONS of ONE IGNORANT AMERICAN WHO LOVES to WALK OUTSIDE
I’m loving it. The whole first section involves a week of hiking and rafting in Glacier National Park, all hikes the Kimbys have actually done. The next section will deal with Aldo Leopold, the seminal American conservationist and author of one of my favorite books, A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC. I expect to love that, too.
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Post by whatagain on Feb 7, 2022 15:23:44 GMT
No h at almanach in english ? Seems you put it at the en of verandah...
I rediscovered a book of Bernard Cornwell that i have only started some time ago.
I will follow Uthred of Bebbamburgh in his battles...
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Post by mossie on Feb 7, 2022 15:42:44 GMT
Currently just finished "The Blitz of Canterbury", by Paul Cranpton. It is a slim large format paperback era well illustrated with contemporary photos, of one of the Nazis Baedecker raids. I have a very strong memory of that night, of my mother taking us into the back garden to see the red glow of Canterbury burning some 10 miles from us. We had been kept awake by the aircraft and the guns anyway. Little did I realise that I was to go to school thee some 15 months later, to a school that had been over half destroyed , and from which the girls portion had been evacuated down to Dorset. I am afraid my memories of the war will never leave me, and I will always resent the jerries for what they did.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 7, 2022 18:08:09 GMT
Goodness, Mossie -- the illustrations in that book must have taken you right back to your childhood back garden! What a remarkable and vivid memory of a shocking event. my memories of the war will never leave me Habitués of anyport have often been the beneficiaries of Mossie's great talent in writing down his memories of WWII. Those memories are to be found in various places around the forum, but an excellent concentrated account is in his stellar thread, Elham, Kent, England.
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Post by whatagain on Feb 7, 2022 18:09:59 GMT
Of course such memories will never leave you. How could they.
My own father has some memories from bombings in 44.
The bombers were Lancasters at night and B17's during daylight. He remembers the noise at night and the trembling of the house. And he remembets the panic one day when the nearby (strategic) railstation was bombed and his mother came home quite late and covered with dust...
And he was only 4. And they were the Allied, with each bomb accepted as a necessary step towards liberation.
You can't forget such things you have been through Mossie. Of course tou can't.
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Post by questa on Feb 19, 2022 10:14:40 GMT
ATM we have tanks, and all the whiz bang weapons sitting on the border to Ukraine, while 2 old men decide whether to set the fires across Europe once again.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 19, 2022 16:44:32 GMT
Just finished a novel about growing up in Marseille and being disillusioned that it has become a cultural suburb of Paris.
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Post by whatagain on Feb 20, 2022 13:49:32 GMT
When asked what first african city is visited by the Rally Paris Dakar, the right answer is expected to be 'Marseille'.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Feb 20, 2022 16:30:14 GMT
Having another bash at The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. I rarely get more than a couple of chapters in but I would like to finish it this time..
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Post by bjd on Feb 20, 2022 17:42:18 GMT
Speaking of genes, I am reading a book about ancient DNA research. In French and called L'ADN Fossile. It talks about going back in time when scientists manage to find very old DNA in bones or fossils and the great advances with contemporary gene sequencing machines (since 2010). They have studied the development of horses and dogs, as well as finding relations between homo sapiens and Neanderthals, Denisovians, etc.
I have Dawkins' book on a shelf somewhere but I have not read it yet.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 20, 2022 21:24:43 GMT
I'm about 500 pages into my sex book with another 1800 pages to go. I rather doubt that I will make it to the end. Guess what? Sex gets repetitive after awhile. What keeps me going are the descriptions of the various people which are often interesting.
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Post by bjd on Mar 18, 2022 16:21:17 GMT
I am reading Mary Beard's book about Pompeii. She is interesting and there are lots of information and illustrations, but for some reason the book puts me to sleep within about 3 pages so it's taking me a long time. I actually watched one of her videos about Pompeii, which did not put me to sleep since she is quite amusing and of course, actually seeing what she is talking about is different than reading, where there is a lot more detail I don't necessarily need.
Only a few books have had this effect on me -- one on the French revolution some years ago.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 18, 2022 17:06:34 GMT
When I was working Mary Beard was my client. I stalked her after hearing her on the radio. First time we met she got out a bottle of wine which went down too easily.
Lovely person to deal with.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 18, 2022 17:53:06 GMT
How delightful!
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