May: What are you reading?

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mellenhead
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May: What are you reading?

Post by mellenhead »

Read The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel. It was decent. Wouldn't necessarily recommend it. Too much of the book was the author trying to weave hermit folklore into the story which just didn't work.
Last edited by mellenhead on Mon May 01, 2017 4:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: May: What are you reading?

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Finished The Upside of Unrequited. It was cute, and not much more than that. Chubby insecure 17-year-old girls will always have a place in my heart, but this book just didn't have enough of a plot.

Then I started Luckiest Girl Alive. It had such harsh reviews, because the main character is a shallow bitch, but so far I like it. She's a well-written shallow bitch.

Still reading Voices from Chernobyl, which is horrifying and fascinating, but non-fiction is always slower going than fiction for me, so it'll be a while.
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Re: May: What are you reading?

Post by Blush »

I just finished reading A Necessary End by Holly Brown. It started out well but by the endI hated it. Suspense shouldn't be boring.

Now I have Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney.
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Re: May: What are you reading?

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Finished Luckiest Girl Alive. It was much better than I expected, I can't believe all the harsh reviews.

Still slogging through Voices from Cernobyl. I'm finding the second half repetitive. I think the author should have guided the testimonials, sometimes the people digress too much.

I have The Sun is Also a Star now.
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Re: May: What are you reading?

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We had a summer student working for our company back in 2008 who had been born near Chernobyl around the time it happened. Her family got assistance to move to Canada because of it but I don't know how long it took to set those wheels in motion.
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Re: May: What are you reading?

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I read "The Start-Up" which I think was a novella that later got combined with other novellas into a novel. It was truly awful. The writing was sophomoric with typos (he peddled his bike, UGH). And it didn't have an ending, presumably because the author planned additional novellas. Maybe if you read the whole final novel, it would be good, but I doubt it. I don't know where I got it from, maybe it was an impulse library withdrawal.

Next up is "The Silent Sister" by Diane Chamberlain. I hope it'll be good.
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Re: May: What are you reading?

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Spudd, I'm afraid Diane Chamberlain might be too cheesy for you. I mean, I loved The Silent Sister. In a guilty pleasure kind of way.

Edited because I missed Blush's comment before: see, that's the kind of thing I'd rather read about. The book is pretty much the people's unedited monologues. Which gets tiring and confusing sometimes. This amazon reviewer put it well: "The monologues themselves were fabulous, but (and this is the only time I have ever said this about a book) -- it needs more of an editorial voice. Some stories would have made a lot more sense if we'd been given a date. An age. There were terms sprinkled throughout that I had to Google and still couldn't find a good explanation for. Some chapters included discrete monologues from lots of people, but they don't clearly separate them from each other - so you'd be confused as to whether this was a new story or just a single disjointed story. It was poorly organized in that respect." But most people have given it 5 stars :dunno I think people feel like jerks for giving fewer stars to a book that talks about one of humankind's worst tragedies. Because of course you feel awful for those people. But that alone is not making this compelling reading material for me.
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Re: May: What are you reading?

Post by Spudd »

I like the occasional cheese! Like Nicholas Sparks etc. I'm glad to hear it's cheesy, actually, from the cover it looked very serious and literary. :lol
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Re: May: What are you reading?

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I think it's less cheesy than some of her other books, but still :lol Anyway, I was entertained and surprised. I actually still remember how it turned out, which is more than I can say about most books. Soap-opera-ish. That's how I'd describe her. Like Kristin Hannah.

I've never read Nicholas Sparks. But I'm tempted to try some Nora Roberts one of these days. My mom read a few of her books and was hooked :lol
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Re: May: What are you reading?

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Finished Voices from Chernobyl.

Ugh. Couldn't get into The Sun is Also a Star. Then I tried 3 or 4 more books before I committed to one. I don't know if it's old age, but these days if I'm not totally hooked until page 10 at the most, the book's history. So that happened with Shtum by Jem Lester. On Blush's recommendation :awesome Loved the sample, hope I continue to love it :?
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Re: May: What are you reading?

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I finished Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk. It started out promisingly but I got annoyed after a while.

Next: The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson.
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Re: May: What are you reading?

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Finished Shtum. Loved it, thanks for the recommendation, Blush. It was a lot more depressing than I was expecting, but so good.

Now I want to read all the books about autistic kids out there. Apparently I'm one of the few who haven't read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, and has anyone read this Marcelo in the Real World?
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Re: May: What are you reading?

Post by Rowan »

I"m reading the latest J Courtney Sullivan...Saints for All Occasions. I'm loving it. I love her writing.

I finished The Marriage Lie on Friday but while I liked the story, I felt the writing was a bit of a slog. Not sure why but now reading Saints it's really apparent how easy it is to read a good writer.
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Re: May: What are you reading?

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Couldn't get into The Curious Incident... would someone be kind enough to pm me and tell me who killed the dog? Thanks!

Then I started the Widow by Fiona Barton. It's decent so far.
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Re: May: What are you reading?

Post by mellenhead »

Finished Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition by Paul Watson. It was excellent if you are in to these type of books.

I started Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki last night. I really liked her last book, California, hoping this one is just as good.
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Re: May: What are you reading?

Post by Rowan »

mellen, I have that requested at the library. You'll have to let me know what you think.
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Re: May: What are you reading?

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Finished The Widow. Eh, it was readable. I liked it until about the 40% mark, then it got repetitive, and the ending held no surprises. Plus I read it in Portuguese because it was less than half the price of the English edition, and the translation SUCKED. So much that I had to write to the publisher to complain.

Not sure what's next. Contenders are I Let You Go, which thankfully is cheaper in English, The Shining (not so sure because I've seen the movie and I like to be surprised by books), The Shadow of the Wind (which would be a third reread, but I loved it so much the first 2 times.) We'll see.
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Re: May: What are you reading?

Post by Blush »

Glad you liked Shtum, Sílvia! Not that uplifting, no. But good.

I finished The Most Dangerous Place on Earth. It was good but the ending seemed a little rushed.

Then I started a Joshilyn Jackson book but the first few pages were horrible so I erased it from Goodreads. It was supposedly about ghosts so I would have been annoyed anyway, probably. Pfft. Ghosts.

Now I have Setting Free the Kites by Alex George.
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Re: May: What are you reading?

Post by mellenhead »

I loved Woman No. 17. In all fairness, all of the characters were fairly screwed up and unlikable but I loved the writing and the story.

Just started Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's doomed campaign. It's a long book - I'm on Chapter 8 and it's already getting a bit repetitive so I have a feeling I'll be skimming some of the chapters.
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Re: May: What are you reading?

Post by Spudd »

I finished The Silent Sister and enjoyed it. It was a good beach novel.

Then I thought I should read something more literary so I started The Book Thief. It's weird, but I'm getting into it.

LOL, the ratings from my friends on it are hilarious:

Blush: 5 stars
Bugsy: 3 stars
Silvia: 1 star

Apparently opinions vary!

And my fourth non-TH friend who's read it gave it 4 stars.
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