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Post by Moe on Jan 26, 2020 19:43:55 GMT -5
I haven't read them all (yet), but it's quite an eclectic list! I'm going to try to read a few more modern fiction books and force myself out of my preferred rut of mysteries and sci-fi and fantasy...it's just that most of them are so damned depressing. I've about given up on anything written by men. I don't WANT to read about rape, warfare, drug/alcohol situations, child abuse, cops and crime, etc. The evening news is awful enough. Alexander McCall Smith, the Number 1 Ladies Detective Series, but you need to read them in order. His writing is a balm for our daily traumas. (and this series is on that list #456)
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Post by Riene on Jan 26, 2020 21:37:20 GMT -5
I'm going to try to read a few more modern fiction books and force myself out of my preferred rut of mysteries and sci-fi and fantasy...it's just that most of them are so damned depressing. I've about given up on anything written by men. I don't WANT to read about rape, warfare, drug/alcohol situations, child abuse, cops and crime, etc. The evening news is awful enough. Alexander McCall Smith, the Number 1 Ladies Detective Series, but you need to read them in order. His writing is a balm for our daily traumas. (and this series is on that list #456)
I've actually read several in that series, after you recommended them years ago.
Made a trip to Half-Price Books today, so there will be other reading reports in a bit.
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Post by Riene on Jan 27, 2020 9:48:32 GMT -5
I'm going to try to read a few more modern fiction books and force myself out of my preferred rut of mysteries and sci-fi and fantasy...it's just that most of them are so damned depressing. I've about given up on anything written by men. I don't WANT to read about rape, warfare, drug/alcohol situations, child abuse, cops and crime, etc. The evening news is awful enough. Millennium series (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) written by journalist Stieg Larsson (a man) is a good example of modern fiction with crimes. The two primary characters in the saga are Lisbeth Salander, a woman in her twenties with a photographic memory and poor social skills, and Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist and publisher of a magazine called Millennium. Yes, it is gruesome but I like a wide variety / different genres of books with good character development. But if Stieg Larsson's books are too violent...try Nicholas Sparks' (also a man) romantic-drama novels...Several of his novels have become international bestsellers, and eleven of his romantic-drama novels have been adapted to film. (The Notebook, Dear John, The Best of Me...) I've tried "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" three or four times on the recommendations of friends and just can't get into it. Not sure why.
It's not that books in general are too violent...I've reached the point that I am tired of male writers using dead or sexually assaulted women as plot points. So many of them can't seem to write female characters without violence occurring to them, often repeatedly. She can't exist as a character with hobbies and interests, a productive career...she's the dead *expletive* who "asked for it" by going again whatever the male bad guy demanded. The older I get the more I notice it in books and films.
Nicholas Sparks is fine. I enjoy Dan Brown's books. Sherlock Homes, "The Cat Who" series, Lord of the Rings, the series Kerry mentions...to name a few--there ARE male writers who aren't violence obsessed. I've become a lot more picky about what I allow into my mind's eye and memory these days.
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Post by Riene on Jan 29, 2020 23:30:49 GMT -5
Educated, by Tara Westover. Autobiography. I found this difficult to put down. The author was raised in a rural Mormon compound of survivalist father who was probably schizophrenic, believing in demons and that the government would come kill them, and a faith-healer mother. She and her six siblings did not attend school nor were the schooled at home, having to work on the farm and scrap business. No one intervenes when an older brother becomes violent and sadistic, after multiple accidents and near-fatal injuries. She finally escapes and eventually goes to university, learning just how bizarre her upbringing was, and having a very difficult time learning to adapt. The author eventually earns her freedom and education, but at a terrible personal cost.
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Post by bigwiglaf on Feb 2, 2020 20:38:39 GMT -5
I'm reading this thread...
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Post by Riene on Feb 8, 2020 11:49:51 GMT -5
January total: 12 books
I spend far too much time on the internet, even though a fair amount of it is reading (news, fanfiction, etc). One of the goals for the year is more real books.
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Post by Moe on Feb 8, 2020 14:20:27 GMT -5
Given the weather, I've been reading a lot of books, but the one I just finished (about 30 minutes ago) was the best:
Warlight, by Michael Ondaatje
About WWII in England and post-war England, as a young man tries to decipher who his mother really was.
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Post by Riene on Feb 11, 2020 11:03:56 GMT -5
Starting A Room With A View. I think I've seen the movie but if so, it was a long time ago.
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Post by Moe on Feb 23, 2020 12:06:06 GMT -5
After reading a dud last week, I have devoured a really good book, finished this morning:
Chloe Benjamin: The Immortalists
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Post by bigwiglaf on Feb 23, 2020 18:34:48 GMT -5
After reading a dud last week, I have devoured a really good book, finished this morning: Chloe Benjamin: The Immortalists How tasty was the book, since you devoured it... *sticks out tongue*
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Post by Riene on Feb 24, 2020 23:32:58 GMT -5
Currently reading "Becoming Jane Eyre" by Sheila Kohler, a semi-biography of Charlotte Bronte.
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Post by Riene on Mar 30, 2020 20:52:19 GMT -5
In March, so far I've read eight murder mysteries--my brain seems to want candy--and one 460 page modern fairy tale, which I adored.
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Post by Riene on Apr 2, 2020 11:50:09 GMT -5
Starting Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamont, a book about writers and writing. Maybe it will motivate me!
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Post by Moe on Apr 8, 2020 12:56:53 GMT -5
I've found a young writer (two books published to date) whose writing is beautiful and whose plots are excellent, so here's a plug for: Emily St John Mandel I just finished her latest "The Glass Hotel," and first read her in "Station Eleven." Both fine books
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Post by Riene on Apr 10, 2020 12:45:22 GMT -5
Finished Bone by Bone last night, a murder mystery, and found it frustrating. Too many character POVs, too few clues dropped, and up untii the last twenty pages or so (of a 400+ page book) I really didn't have a clue what had happened or why.
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