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No March thread yet?

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 5:22 am
by Sílvia
I finished One of Us is Lying. Sigh. I'm getting really fed up with current fiction's far-fetched-ness. It was all going well until close to the end, when the mystery was revealed. It was so ridiculous, so unbelievable. But never mind me, the book's got a 4+ average rating on goodreads.

Then, since I needed a change of scenery, I read Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan, a short novel written in 1954 when the author was only 17 or 18. It was a reread, actually, but I didn't remember ANYTHING from the first time I read it (in 1986!) Only that I'd liked it. The writing was good, the scenery was different from my usual choices (French Riviera), the characters were rich and spoiled and not particularly fascinating, but the good points made up for it. Plus the book's more like a novella, at only 108 pages. Then I read a Brazilian play based on the life of a famous Brazilian painter from the 1920s, Tarsila do Amaral. The play's name's Tarsila. She painted this: https://www.google.com.br/search?q=abap ... 80&bih=579 She was married to a famous writer and friends with other famous painters and writers. I enjoyed it much more than I expected and finished it in a couple of hours (again, very short).

Not sure what's next.

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 10:18 pm
by Blush
I finished Catalina. I liked the writing style but man, it was depressing. Every page, (spoiler alert) the main character was numbing herself with pills and booze. EVERY page.

Now I have This Could Hurt by Jillian Medoff. I'm a little over 10% in and so far it's good.

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 12:59 pm
by Rowan
I finished Before We Were Yours by Lisa(?) Wingate. I liked it. It was a little hard to get into in the beginning but it does get easier. I really would have liked to see her flush out the characters a bit more so the ending was a little meh.

I also read The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve this weekend. Again I really liked the story but was the ending just fizzled out for me.

I have The Ship of Brides by JoJo Moyes on my desk right now.

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 1:14 pm
by mellenhead
Finished Fire and Fury - Inside the Trump White House. It was about what you would expect - basically the White House is a hot mess.

I'm almost done with The Last Mrs Parrish by Liv Constantine. It's OK. The writing is annoying me a little bit.

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 3:26 pm
by Spudd
I finished "The Burgess Boys" by Elizabeth Strout (sp?). It was just OK.

Now I'm reading "Pretty Girls" by Karin Slaughter, so far I'm not that into it, but I'm only like 2 chapters in so far.

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 5:33 am
by Sílvia
I'm reading Still Me, the third in the Me Before You trilogy by Jojo Moyes. I'm only on page 100, but I like it. I'm not sure where it's headed yet, so far Louisa has been in New York for a month and is being her usual self.

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 10:11 am
by mellenhead
Finished The Last Mrs Parrish by Liv Constantine. The writing was just cringe inducing at times. Wouldn't really recommend, can't figure out how it's on so many must read lists.

I think I'm starting One of us is Lying at lunch. I'll let you know my thoughts, Sil. :lol

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 12:19 pm
by Blush
I finished This Could Hurt. It was good; I liked how the stories of the different characters were linked.

Next up is the Little Book of Lykke. I have to finish it by Saturday. I remember the Little Book of Hygge was a quick read so I'm expecting something similar.

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 1:34 pm
by Sílvia
Mellen, I liked most of One of us is Lying. I even gave it 3 stars! I just thought the resolution was stupid. Which is the way I feel about most mysteries/thrillers these days.

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 8:16 pm
by Rowan
I started The Ship of Brides by JoJo Moyes today.

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 10:18 pm
by Blush
I just finished the Little Book of Lykke. It was uplifting.

Then I was going to start a chick lit type book until I realized it was the eighth in a series so I'll have to go back and start from the beginning.

Instead I will start The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman.

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 1:20 am
by mellenhead
Finished One of Us is Lying. I liked it ok. I kind of figured out what was going like halfway through though.

Next up is Need to Know which is a spy thriller.

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 9:34 am
by Blush
Last night I finished The Light Between Oceans. It was really good; I can see why they wanted to turn it into a movie.

Next up is Still Me by Jojo Moyes.

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2018 8:45 pm
by Rowan
I'm reading Mrs by Caitlin Macy. It's just ok. I'm far enough in that I'm committed but I'm not sure what the buzz is about. It's frankly hard to follow.

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2018 7:09 am
by Sílvia
I finally finished Still Me by Jojo Moyes. I found it readable, but totally unnecessary. Characters and situations that were not well developed, too much boring drama between Lou and her boyfriend... ugh. I wish she'd stopped after After You.

I'm reading a Brazilian book of... chronicles, I think. Not sure of the term in English. I also have The Orphan's Tale from the library, but I'm not sure I'm in the mood for nazi horror.

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2018 8:33 am
by Blush
Sílvia wrote: Tue Mar 20, 2018 7:09 am I finally finished Still Me by Jojo Moyes. I found it readable, but totally unnecessary. Characters and situations that were not well developed, too much boring drama between Lou and her boyfriend... ugh. I wish she'd stopped after After You.
I'm about 2/3 through Still Me and so far I feel the same. (She's home at Christmas where I am in the book and I'm questioning her decisions).

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2018 5:19 pm
by Sílvia
Glad I'm not alone! I see all the 4 and 5-star ratings and think "wtf? have we read different books?". People are totally projecting their love for Me Before You and Jojo on this latest work.

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2018 7:00 pm
by Blush
I have also noticed another annoyance: American characters using British words. Someone American said "rose coloured spectacles". A person from North America would say glasses, not spectacles. There are others but I can't think of them right now. An editor should have caught them.

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2018 8:32 am
by Blush
Ok, I finished Still Me. I don't think it was really necessary and (SPOILER ALERT) I couldn't believe that Margot didn't fight to take Dean Martin with her . That whole section was weird. But I was ok with the ending.

Next up: The Power by Naomi Alderman.

Re: No March thread yet?

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2018 8:45 am
by Rowan
See I loved Me Before You but didn't really like After You. I'm not even planning on reading this new one.

I finished Mrs. which was a bit of a slog. Definitely disappointed as it's getting a lot of buzz.

Next up is An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. I only have 2 days before it's due back at the library so I have to speed through it. It's so popular it will be months before I get it again.