|
Post by mom2luke on Sept 15, 2014 18:32:03 GMT
Not much reading time for me - I am still working on The Goldfinch.I read The Goldfinch fairly recently. I liked it but did not love it. I liked the first half much better than the second half of the book. It took me forever to get through it.
|
|
|
Post by kckckc on Sept 15, 2014 19:27:59 GMT
I had lots of reading time this week and finished 4 books.
California by Edan Lepucki. I heard about this one on the Colbert Report. It was published by Hachette and thus was caught in the Hachette-Amazon fight. It was a good, not great, dystopian novel. It was the author's first book and I think that shows. It really fell off at the end - it made me wonder if a sequel is in the works. 4/5
China Dolls by Lisa See. I had high expectations for this one and was disappointed. It's the story of three Asian showgirls during WWII. It should have been an interesting story, but I didn't really care what happened - I was rather bored. 3/5
The Days of Awe by Hugh Nissenson. A story of love and death. Set in NYC around the time of 9/11 although the 9/11 events were really pretty peripheral to the story. I didn't like this one much. 2/5
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. A quick read. The government of a fictional island gradually bans the use of different letters of the alphabet. This one is written in the form of letters and as the book goes on the banned letters of the alphabet are not used in the writing. Toward the end of the book, I found that very irritating. 3/5
|
|
|
Post by heartland on Sept 15, 2014 19:30:31 GMT
I finally finished up the audio version of Rapture which is the final book in the Fallen Series by Lauren Kate. YA para/sci-fi. I really wanted to like these books, but I would spend most of my listening time criticizing the authors choices...if its a good story I don't have the time/energy to do that, I'm too involved in the story. I really only kept on with this series because they were all available at my library - and despite my lack of appreciation for the story lol, I had to find out what happened. Also finished up Fire in the Sky and Savage Drift , plus a couple of short stories in the Monument 14 series by Emmy Laybourne. YA post-apocolypse story. These were the exact opposite of Rapture, they kept me highly involved and were really great stories. They stuck with me and made me think about them awhile. Great books! Up next was Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen for book club. Not something I normally would have picked up on my own - which is one of the things I love about book club, being exposed to different books. I just started To Live and Die in Dixie by Kathy Hogan Trocheck, aka Mary Kay Andrews. 2nd story in the Callahan Garrity mystery series. Former cop turned private eye/house cleaner in Atlanta in the early/mid nineties. She released these under the Trocheck name at the time, and they've recently been re-released with both the Andrews/Trocheck names. So for me it was a no-brainer to pick up a new book by Andrews and check it out. These are cute, cozy type mysteries. I got to the point of the dead body at lunch , so I'm looking forward to seeing who did it!
|
|
|
Post by lynnek on Sept 15, 2014 19:34:30 GMT
I had lots of reading time this week and finished 4 books. California by Edan Lepuck i. I heard about this one on the Colbert Report. It was published by Hachette and thus was caught in the Hachette-Amazon fight. It was a good, not great, dystopian novel. It was the author's first book and I think that shows. It really fell off at the end - it made me wonder if a sequel is in the works. 4/5 China Dolls by Lisa See. I had high expectations for this one and was disappointed. It's the story of three Asian showgirls during WWII. It should have been an interesting story, but I didn't really care what happened - I was rather bored. 3/5 The Days of Awe by Hugh Nissenson. A story of love and death. Set in NYC around the time of 9/11 although the 9/11 events were really pretty peripheral to the story. I didn't like this one much. 2/5 Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. A quick read. The government of a fictional island gradually bans the use of different letters of the alphabet. This one is written in the form of letters and as the book goes on the banned letters of the alphabet are not used in the writing. Toward the end of the book, I found that very irritating. 3/5 I am finishing China Dolls right now and I totally agree with you about it. I read Ella Minnow Pea years ago and remember enjoying it but the whole letter thing did make it difficult.
|
|
mimima
Drama Llama
Stay Gold, Ponyboy
Posts: 5,022
Jun 25, 2014 19:25:50 GMT
|
Post by mimima on Sept 15, 2014 21:04:18 GMT
I read Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen for our book club here. I didn't love it, and will expand my thoughts in those threads, but I struggle a lot with a set up of extra-marital affairs, whether they happened in real life or not.
I then read The Giver by Lois Lowry. I was worried about reading it - I am not a fan of dystopian books, and was worried that it would be unsettling. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would, and picked up the next two for my "to read" pile.
|
|
mimima
Drama Llama
Stay Gold, Ponyboy
Posts: 5,022
Jun 25, 2014 19:25:50 GMT
|
Post by mimima on Sept 15, 2014 21:07:48 GMT
Not much reading time for me - I am still working on The Goldfinch.I read The Goldfinch fairly recently. I liked it but did not love it. I liked the first half much better than the second half of the book. It took me forever to get through it. I finished it last week, and I agree. The first 500 or so pages were much better than the last bit. Which is a bummer when you put that much effort into a story.
|
|
|
Post by Erica on Sept 15, 2014 22:28:27 GMT
I just finished one this week, but I have four going right now, so I will eventually finish a few up. All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner. This was my first book by her. It might well be my last. It's not that the book was that bad. It was a decent journey into the terrible addiction to pain pills by a suburban mom. But the book was just meh. It's like nothing really happened. It was a quick read, but I just could not get excited about it. [HASH]Erica, I have two that I would recommend. 1. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd 2. We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride. I thought both were exceptional! HTH! [HASH]honeyb, don't rush through Defending Jacob too quickly or you will go back and reread sections. If you like it, you can follow up with The Dinner by Koch, which I thought was almost as good. Lisa [b Thanks for the recommendation!
|
|
|
Post by Erica on Sept 15, 2014 22:32:50 GMT
I had lots of reading time this week and finished 4 books. California by Edan Lepucki. I heard about this one on the Colbert Report. It was published by Hachette and thus was caught in the Hachette-Amazon fight. It was a good, not great, dystopian novel. It was the author's first book and I think that shows. It really fell off at the end - it made me wonder if a sequel is in the works. 4/5 China Dolls by Lisa See. I had high expectations for this one and was disappointed. It's the story of three Asian showgirls during WWII. It should have been an interesting story, but I didn't really care what happened - I was rather bored. 3/5 The Days of Awe by Hugh Nissenson. A story of love and death. Set in NYC around the time of 9/11 although the 9/11 events were really pretty peripheral to the story. I didn't like this one much. 2/5 Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. A quick read. The government of a fictional island gradually bans the use of different letters of the alphabet. This one is written in the form of letters and as the book goes on the banned letters of the alphabet are not used in the writing. Toward the end of the book, I found that very irritating. 3/5 I agree with your opinion about China Dolls. I don't know what chapter I'm on, but I dislike it.
|
|