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Post by bixaorellana on May 17, 2023 18:44:18 GMT
Ahhh ~ thanks for that, Bjd. I knew that Robert Galbraith was Rowling, but have not yet read one of "his" books. Now I'll be looking out for one of the R.Galbraith books. I am trudging through a book I initially loved. This was featured in one of those Amazon kindle flash sales which neatly came right after I'd read the author's obituary in the NYTimes. That described Helen Barolini as ... a novelist, essayist and poet who explored the challenges of assimilation, as well as the hard-won victories of feminist emancipation experienced by Italian American women ...The book is Umbertina, published in 1979, is described by Wikipedia as ...a feminist novel by Helen Barolini. It tells the story of four generations of women in one Italian-American family. It is the first novel by an Italian-American woman which explores, in depth, the connected themes of gender and ethnicity.I was completely enthralled by the section on the woman who immigrated from Calabria at the end of the 19th century and who was the mother, grandmother, & great-grandmother of the other women in the book. There was an unsentimental naturalness to the writing which made each character in that section really come to life for me and I found it illuminating and moving. It's been downhill from there, or maybe I should say uphill, as in a slog. The writing is very much a product of the '70s, with lots of self-absorbpion by characters who are not particularly interesting and lots of writing which includes the fashions of the times and sexual scenes which carry the mixed ennui and eroticism of movies of that period. I'm not dismissing it and will finish it. But I have to question if someone who did not have the same motivation to read it as I, that of gaining insight into the life of ones own great-grandmother -- would enjoy even the first section as much as I did.
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Post by htmb on May 18, 2023 9:23:58 GMT
I am also reading Umbertina, after receiving some information from Bixa, and my experience has been similar. The book is 500 pages long (in my kindle app anyway), so it’s not a small, short book. I’ve managed to make it to the great-granddaughter’s story. I am hoping for a more interesting read at this point, but it’s hard to be optimistic. I’ll finish the book, only because my other reading material is still my granddaughter’s dystopian novel, of which I can only absorb a few chapters at a time before I need a break.
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Post by whatagain on May 18, 2023 9:30:33 GMT
I found a book of Conn Iggulden about Rome, Gods of War. Caesar taking power whilst Pompey flees to Greece to gather troops and fight him. Well written, fast paced, historically reasonably accurate and depicting some scenes of the roman life before christ. Entertaining and also educative. And lots of fighting. 💪💪💪
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Post by Kimby on May 18, 2023 14:32:05 GMT
I saw a blurb on Facebook about death and grief (a relevant topic for me lately) and it led me to OBSERVER by (scientist) Robert Lanza and (author) Nancy Kress.
It’s a novel based on the science of the multiverse. The science is pretty dense though it tries to explain really complex ideas in graspable language. The novel part is interesting enough to keep me reading.
Is it a coincidence that the Academy Award winning film we just watched - Everything, Everywhere, All at Once - is also about the multiverse?
And I recently had a dream in which my sister came back after dying three years ago and when I asked where she’d been, she said she wasn’t sure, but maybe on a parallel track…
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Post by whatagain on Jun 9, 2023 19:01:42 GMT
Reading the last Fred Vargas. Not her best. But a Fred Vargas.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 9, 2023 21:02:24 GMT
Just finished Winter's Gifts the latest novella from Ben Aaronovitch such fun
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 10, 2023 4:36:52 GMT
That's a wonderful dream about your sister, Kimby.
Still haven't read Fred Vargas. That's probably because I've been off mysteries for quite a while, although not sure why.
Haven't read any of those Rivers of London books, either. Just looked up Winter's Gifts & it does sound fun, but also scary.
I am reading a book I totally love, The End of Drum-Time, which is a novel by Hanna Pylväinen. It begins in 1851 in remote northern Scandinavia, at the convergence of Sweden, Finland, and Russia. This was the time when the Sámi were increasingly enduring Scandinavization policies aimed at forced assimilation. The writing vividly brings to life the terrain and the traditional way of reindeer herding, along with religious rigidity and cultural clashes.
Pylväinen's writing is unforcedly beautiful and evocative and her characters come fully to life.
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Post by Kimby on Jun 14, 2023 17:23:33 GMT
A rare non-fiction read for Ms. Kimby, though the Mister reads non-fiction almost exclusively.
FLIGHT PATHS subtitled: How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird Migration.
Each chapter explores a different scientist or group of scientists and the methods they used to see the unseeable: the millions of feathered creatures that make biannual flights of thousands of miles between their winter retreats and summer breeding grounds.
Lots of serendipity in discovering that radar could track birds (and weather!) in addition to warplanes, and that pointing a telescope at the moon could allow bird counters to record numbers of birds flying past that small part of the sky and extrapolate to come up with numbers flying over a whole region.
I had recently installed Merlin’s Bird ID app on my iPhone - what a great tool! - and found it most interesting to learn that what is used to ID bird sounds is actually PICTURES of the sound made by birds, i.e. sonographs!
Computers have a much harder time learning to match sounds to species, but the visual representation of a bird’s call is easily matched to the sonagraphs in the data banks.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 15, 2023 1:34:29 GMT
Sounds utterly absorbing & surprising!
Finished The End of Drum Time & recommend it to the skies -- it's a novel loosely built around a real person & real events, and has all the tension, all the what-happens-next?, and all the limpidly good writing anyone could want in a book.
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Post by bjd on Jun 15, 2023 5:15:11 GMT
You both sound more ambitious than me. I have a hard time finding joy at the library these days so am relying on what I have on my own shelves or else books either my daughter or I find in Bayonne book boxes. I just re-read The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, after a recent re-reading of The Moonstone. I had completely forgotten both so enjoyed them tremendously.
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Post by Kimby on Jun 15, 2023 15:34:16 GMT
Finished The End of Drum Time & recommend it to the skies -- it's a novel loosely built around a real person & real events, and has all the tension, all the what-happens-next?, and all the limpidly good writing anyone could want in a book. Bixa, what is it about? Where is it set? When is it set? Your review is entirely free of details I would use to decide whether to read a book. Spill!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 15, 2023 15:48:42 GMT
Kimby! Ya gotta read further up the page! This is from reply #2258 I am reading a book I totally love, The End of Drum-Time, which is a novel by Hanna Pylväinen. It begins in 1851 in remote northern Scandinavia, at the convergence of Sweden, Finland, and Russia. This was the time when the Sámi were increasingly enduring Scandinavization policies aimed at forced assimilation. The writing vividly brings to life the terrain and the traditional way of reindeer herding, along with religious rigidity and cultural clashes. Pylväinen's writing is unforcedly beautiful and evocative and her characters come fully to life.
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Post by Kimby on Jun 15, 2023 19:56:37 GMT
Thanks, Bixa, for not making me go back looking for it. BTW post numbers do not show on a phone, so if you’re directing me back to a previous post, please let me know what the current post number is. (Helps to know if I’m going back a half-dozen replies of a half-dozen pages!)
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 15, 2023 23:26:43 GMT
But reply numbers do show on a phone!
When I look at anyport on my phone, it looks exactly like it does on my laptop, only smaller, of course.
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Post by Kimby on Jun 16, 2023 4:17:54 GMT
But reply numbers do show on a phone! When I look at anyport on my phone, it looks exactly like it does on my laptop, only smaller, of course. Only if you switch from mobile version to desktop version. Which is too tiny to read without zooming and panning. I use the desktop version only for adding images to posts. Otherwise mobile version is the way to go as it’s far more readable.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 16, 2023 4:28:19 GMT
Desktop is fine if you hold it in landscape position.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 25, 2023 15:48:27 GMT
Over the years, like most people I suppose, I have taken piles of books to charity shops after reading them. They were/are almost all paperbacks..I only keep 'special' books, mostly cookbooks, reference books and novels by my favourite authors. A few are books that belonged to my Dad or my sister so I can't part with them! If I kept ALL the books that I buy we'd have to move to a bigger house. I go through the book shelves every year or so and decide what to keep. But. All of a sudden I've a yen to reread some of the books that I gave away...now I find that audible and kindle dont have them...amazon marketplace is useful sometimes but basically I'm trawling charity shops looking...I cant remember useful information like the author's name or the title....but I do remember book covers I've even charged up my ancient kindle to look for clues as often if I like an author I'll look for other things that he/she has written... Odd.
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Post by whatagain on Jun 25, 2023 16:42:01 GMT
We keep.too many books too. Being the only one reading in English i give all those books away, just keeping a few that have a special meaning to me.
I sell some back but the guy who buys them is so unfriendly that i prefer giving them in book boxes or like i did some time ago i gave 2 large bags to a guy selling them at a market in SE France. He was quite surprised actually...
I finished a book on Verdun, but without much interest 'general xxx took his functions at xx date he commanded 1, 5, 67 div that pushed towards...' instead of wjat hapoened, why it happened and how thd soldiers could go through it.
So i found an old Conn Iggulden - The Gods of War about the civil war between Caesar and Pompey. Fascinating.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 25, 2023 17:47:38 GMT
Well! I found one of the books...just a fantasy novel. It was on my kindle bought YEARS ago when they first came out. When I looked through the 200 books on there I recognised the cover...it's by Juliet E McKenna. Also on there are all my Katherine Kerr ebooks, Ian Irvinne, Raymond Fiest and loads more old friends. I'm happy as a happy thing. I have started reading books again after a few years of just listening to audiobooks.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 25, 2023 18:22:21 GMT
I culled ruthlessly when I moved, and now don't have even a full bookcase of books. Cheery, what about the library? Looking at the books there might either jog your memory or surprise you by offering up the very book(s) you were looking for. That was nice that you gave those books to the market guy, Whatagain. You know that there are people who will come across them there & treasure them. I just finished reading Machines Like Me, by Ian McEwan, about a man who buys an AI android in 1982. It's an alternate reality 1982, a conceit I don't usually like. But it's handled well, with the alternate elements parceled out as needed instead of being endlessly paraded to show the author's cleverness. There is enough plot to keep the reader turning the pages to see what happens, but at heart this is a meditation on the nature of consciousness and all that entails. The only real criticism I have of the book was McEwan's fondness for lists, as when he talks about modern life and wants to list every aspect of that. Other than that, I was engaged throughout and recommend this book. The book I'm now reading is An Island, by Karen Jennings. For whatever reason, The Guardian published two reviews of this book, less than a month apart. One is by Catherine Taylor and the other by Hephzibah Anderson. I confess I barely skimmed either of those in order to post them here -- skimmed because of my fear of spoilers. Karen Jennings creates worlds, scenes, and characters with such assurance and economy that the reader is immediately drawn in. Hers is the kind of accomplished, unstrained writing that is beautiful in its restraint. The plot concerns an elderly lighthouse keeper off the coast of an unnamed African country. Except for the occasional supply boat, he is alone with his garden, his lighthouse duties, and the burying of whatever bodies drift ashore -- alone until one of those bodies turns out to still have life. I just looked & Amazon still has the ebook available in the US at the reduced price of $4.99: www.amazon.com/Island-Novel-Karen-Jennings/dp/0593446526 or for £2.99 in the UK: www.amazon.co.uk/Island-Karen-Jennings-ebook/dp/B09B5KTDY3 or for 3,56 € in France (English edition): www.amazon.fr/Island-English-Karen-Jennings-ebook/dp/B09B5KTDY3
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Post by bjd on Jun 25, 2023 18:51:07 GMT
I mentioned reading the Ian McEwan's book on March 8th (I just looked back). Like you, Bixa, I thought it was quite good even though I had to read it in French.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 25, 2023 19:35:24 GMT
So you did! I either missed seeing it or somehow spaced it out. I wish I had remembered your comments about it -- I kind of dithered over getting it because of the wishy-washy reviews on Amazon. Here is your capsule review, which captures the book beautifully ~ I just finished a book by Ian MacEwan, Machines Like Me and People Like You. In French, of course, but it's quite good. Set in 1982 but not quite -- the Beatles are still around, Alan Turing is still working, Argentina won the Falklands War and Thatcher has been replaced by Denis Healey. The main character in the book has just bought a robot that looks human. Lots of questions about morality, being human.
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Post by bjd on Jun 27, 2023 6:27:23 GMT
I started one of my better book box finds, People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. The story of the Sarajevo Haggadah, a medieval Jewish book, being restored by an Australian conservator and the history of the book over the centuries.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 27, 2023 7:22:34 GMT
I'm very curious to hear how you wind up liking that book -- or not. I've only read one of her books, Caleb's Crossing, & found it somewhat of a chore. It did have a good premise, as all her books seem to have, but I could never care about the characters as much as one should to be really carried away. Tonight I started Rose Nicolson, a novel by Andrew Grieg and was pulled in immediately. It begins towards the end of the 1540s, after the deaths of the Scottish Reformation martyrs, after Mary Queen of Scots flees the country, and shortly before the death of John Knox. Fortunately for me, this is an area of history I know a little about, thanks to having read The Castilians, by V.E.H. Masters. That book (the first in an excellent series) relates the events leading up to the time period and opening scenes in Grieg's book. Rose Nicolson is the first book I've read by Grieg and, though only a couple of chapters in so far, I'm already turning into a real fan. I see that this ebook is still at the very attractive price of $4.99US at Amazon and at Barnes & Noble, so presumably the other ebook outlets as well. It's even cheaper in the UK, at £0.99, and for a very attractive 1,19€ in France for the English-language edition.
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Post by bjd on Jun 28, 2023 5:51:29 GMT
I'm very curious to hear how you wind up liking that book -- or not. I've only read one of her books, Caleb's Crossing, & found it somewhat of a chore. It did have a good premise, as all her books seem to have, but I could never care about the characters as much as one should to be really carried away. So far it's okay. I can't say any character is carrying me away but I'm more than halfway through and keep reading instead of putting down the book and doing something else. My daughter also read it and thought it pretty good.
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Post by bjd on Jun 29, 2023 6:40:42 GMT
I finished People of the Book. It's pretty good and with a twist at the end.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 29, 2023 15:23:58 GMT
Thanks, Bjd. Your recommendation will overturn my reluctance to read Geraldine Brooks after Caleb's Crossing. I'm having the reaction you had -- that of wanting to keep reading instead of doing other things -- with Rose Nicolson. Besides telling a good story, Andrew Grieg has a way of seamlessly working solid historical background into the story. His writing is poetic yet down to earth and his settings and characters come cinematically alive.
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Post by bjd on Jun 29, 2023 17:03:31 GMT
I went to the library this afternoon and found a new book by Kate Morton. She is Australian and her books are always set in England & Australia. They also always have similar themes: family secrets, big old houses, secret passages, lost family members -- all tied up neatly at the end. But I have read a few of her books and they are all readable, and quite popular if you see her sales figures. I am, of course, reading in French but the fact that the book came out in 2023 and was immediately translated means there is an audience. Not great literature but not too bad. This book is called Homecoming in English and has a typically lousy French title: Les Ombres d'Adelaide Hills.
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Post by bjd on Aug 14, 2023 18:13:30 GMT
This thread seems to have dried up some!
Anyway, I have been reading a fair amount these days, mostly library books or else bookbox finds. A detective story set in Greenland -- the policeman sent from Copenhagen is of Inuit origin and was adopted in Denmark as a child so cut off totally from Inuit culture: Qaanaaq by Mo Malø, the pseudonym of a French writer. It's pretty interesting but certainly I wouldn't choose to holiday in Greenland especially during the polar night.
Also read La Daronne, a French detective story that was made into a movie that Kerouac probably wrote about, about a woman who becomes a drug dealer to pay for her mother's retirement home.
And a bookbox find, Nowhere to Rest My Head (my translation) by a Polish Jewish woman who studied in France in the 1920s, opened a French language bookstore in Berlin and had to close down in 1938, then came to France and had to go into hiding in Paris, Nice and Annecy before managing to get into Switzerland. Her name was Françoise Frenkel. Not a novel.
And today I finished a book by Peter May, a Scot who lives in France. Some of his books take place in France, some in Scotland and there is a series that take place in China, including the one I read, The Runner.
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Post by Kimby on Aug 20, 2023 1:24:16 GMT
TRUST, by Hernan Diaz, a book that I think I saw listed in an article about Barack Obama’s best reads of 2022.
It’s actually 4 books within the book, purportedly by 4 different authors, but all telling the story of a fictionalized NYC financier who became fabulously wealthy by making shrewd investments in the 1920’s and even wealthier by shorting the market just before the 1929 crash. Each retelling of the story is different enough and revealing enough to make it interesting.
Pretty darn good.
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