What have you read lately?

[hmaria1609]

After 1.5 years of slowly reading The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt) on the side, I have finally finished it.  I went to my Goodreads account to mark it done and give it three stars and read some of the reviews.  A little tidbit of information mentioned in some of the reviews is that the book is 771 pages, which is probably one reason it took so darn long.  I am used to reading 1000-page books (in much less time!) but had no idea this one was actually fairly long and thought it just felt that way and was not very engaging.  This is one thing I do not enjoy about ebooks, not having as much of an idea of what progress has been made! In any case, some other reviewers seemed to agree with my general take but expressed it better.  The book was intriguing at times, informative (e.g., art), and certainly action-packed in places.  However, it also seemed very disjointed, incoherent, and unbelievable.  The vast majority of characters were unlikable (which is fine, but when the story isn't great it's nice to have someone to root for or care about).  I didn't think the ending was satisfying at all.  But, there were some glimmers of pretty good writing (I say eloquently... hey, I'm just the reader).  A shorter and more focused version probably would have been a solid improvement.  There are a bunch of twists and turns, so it's hard to decide how to describe the book without giving some of those away.  Spouse and I are still reading Cryptonomicon, but at least I finally finished this (actually not so little) side hustle and can check that off my holiday time-off task list.

The novel was adapted for a movie, and it's now available on DVD and Blu-Ray.

[nescafe]

This week it's been Flea's memoir, Acid for the Children. Picked it up in an airport, expecting it to me meh. But it's really entertaining!
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/flea-red-hot-chili-peppers-book-acid-for-the-children-908218/

[nebo113]

I finally read all of The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, after many years of reading bits and pieces of it.  A classic religious allegory that's also a leading contender for the first fantasy novel in English, depending on how one defines the genre.  As allegory a great deal of it still rings true.

WOW!!!

[Anselm]

Santa gave me a book I put on my wish list, Bullsh*t Jobs by David Graeber.  He is the same author of Debt: The First 5000 years.   I am just getting into it now.

[ergative]

Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey. For a book about a magic academy, it was a very adult story, told from the perspective of a non-magical PI hired to investigate a murder there. It had all sorts of thinky thoughts about responsibility, about adolescence from the perspective of an adult, about nostalgia and identity, and about family. It took the trope of a dark, brooding PI and gave it depth and meaning beyond simply trying to add a Mood to a murder mystery.

[nebo113]

Where the Crawdads Sing

[onthefringe]

Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey. For a book about a magic academy, it was a very adult story, told from the perspective of a non-magical PI hired to investigate a murder there. It had all sorts of thinky thoughts about responsibility, about adolescence from the perspective of an adult, about nostalgia and identity, and about family. It took the trope of a dark, brooding PI and gave it depth and meaning beyond simply trying to add a Mood to a murder mystery.

I have that on hold at my library after reading Hippo River by the same author. Similar themes about identity and family, set in an alternate US where Frederick Russell Burnham's proposal to farm Hippos for meat actually was accepted.

[apl68]

Where the Crawdads Sing

In the months since our library got its copies they've been continually checked out or on hold.  Only yesterday did I actually see a copy on the shelf!

[nebo113]

I download from my library and was surprised at how quickly I got it.  I prefer paper but ......

[archaeo42]

Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak. It's his first book in awhile so I'd forgotten what his writing style was like. I quite enjoyed it once I got into it.

[statsgeek]

I loved The Book Thief, but could not get into this one.  Maybe during the next vacation when I can read more than a page in a sitting. 

[archaeo42]

I loved The Book Thief, but could not get into this one.  Maybe during the next vacation when I can read more than a page in a sitting.

It definitely took a minute to get into it but I was glad I stuck with it.

I wanted to come post here because I started Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan and wanted to thank whoever recommended her. I'm finding it utterly charming and have stayed up waaaay too late reading the past 2 nights because of it.

[ab_grp]

I wanted to come post here because I started Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan and wanted to thank whoever recommended her. I'm finding it utterly charming and have stayed up waaaay too late reading the past 2 nights because of it.

Thanks for bringing this up.  I don't think I had seen the initial recommendation (or maybe it just hadn't stuck with me) but looked the book up just now.  Sounds great!

[0susanna]

I wanted to come post here because I started Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan and wanted to thank whoever recommended her. I'm finding it utterly charming and have stayed up waaaay too late reading the past 2 nights because of it.

Thanks for bringing this up.  I don't think I had seen the initial recommendation (or maybe it just hadn't stuck with me) but looked the book up just now.  Sounds great!

I wasn't the one who recommended Jenny Colgan, but I would have. She is reliably delightful when you need a break.

Recently finished Once Upon a River, by Diane Setterfield (The Thirteenth Tale) and found it engaging magical realism.

[larryc]

Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad.

Meh. The first third is a dark slog through plantation slavery. The last third is a dark, emotionally manipulative slog where the protagonist goes through a cycle of finding hope and getting crushed. By the last time it is so formulaic.

The middle third is FUCKING BRILLIANT. Whitehead creates an alternative history where the technology of the 1840s is more advanced than it was, powered by dark experiments on black bodies. Whitehead echoes various classic documents and important episodes in African American history. It is fucking brilliant.

Then he wimps out and writes the predictable, meandering, and emotionally manipulative last third. Honestly, the brilliance of the middle part of the book makes me resent the whole so very much.