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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Heaven: Lost in a Good Book: What are you reading in 2017?
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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
This is the thread for general discussion of any books you might be reading (as distinct from the specific Ship's Book Group discussions of particular books, which have their own threads). Feel free to talk about books you loved, hated, are curious about or mean to get around to reading in 2017.
Last year's book discussion has been moved to Limbo in case anyone wants to reference it.
[ 17. March 2018, 22:29: Message edited by: Alan Cresswell ]
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Books and things.
I lied. There are no things. Just books.
Posts: 7428 | From: Closer to Paris than I am to Vancouver | Registered: Mar 2004
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Avey
Apprentice
# 18701
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Posted
I just finished Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" which is about hiking the 2000+ mile Appalachian Trail (not that Bryson completed it or anywhere near)
I've always liked his wry humour and sharp observations and enjoyed the book greatly even though I have to say long-distance hiking does not appeal to me personally at all.
I use a Kindle and have a nasty habit of picking up on what Amazon recommends at the end of a book so was tempted to buy "Balancing on Blue" a book written by a guy who did hike the entire Appalachian trail. Looks promising and will report back when I finish it.
Posts: 15 | From: London UK | Registered: Dec 2016
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Tree Bee
Ship's tiller girl
# 4033
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Posted
Having just re read Kate Atkinson's fabulous Life After Life I'm now re reading the sort of follow up, A God in Ruins.
Both books stand up to a second read, in fact I may be getting more out of them this time.
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"Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple."
— Woody Guthrie
http://saysaysay54.wordpress.com
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Twilight
Puddleglum's sister
# 2832
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Posted
I read "Life after Life," and loved it, as I've loved all her books, but when I started reading, "A God in Ruins," I found myself getting depressed over revisiting characters I knew and loved, while fearing they would have more sad endings. I also felt confused because I remembered/didn't remember things. I don't know. It was just a step too far for me. I'm glad you enjoyed it Tree Bee, she's a wonderful warm hearted writer.
I also read the Bill Bryson. He and his friend had me in stitches.
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HCH
Shipmate
# 14313
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Posted
I am currently not far from the end of "Pigeon Pie" by Nancy Mitford.
Posts: 1540 | From: Illinois, USA | Registered: Nov 2008
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
I just read In the Unlikely Event.. by Judy Blume (One of her adult novels).
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Twilight:
I read "Life after Life," and loved it, as I've loved all her books, but when I started reading, "A God in Ruins," I found myself getting depressed over revisiting characters I knew and loved, while fearing they would have more sad endings. I also felt confused because I remembered/didn't remember things. I don't know. It was just a step too far for me. I'm glad you enjoyed it Tree Bee, she's a wonderful warm hearted writer.
I loved "Life After Life" and liked "A God in Ruins" quite a lot, but I could only fit the two together by thinking of "A God in Ruins" as one of the many possible timelines of "Life After Life," played out to its full extent (and of course focusing on Teddy not Ursula as the main character). And then the epilogue at the end reminds us that the story we've just read was only one possible outcome of Teddy's life. The two are very different books and I definitely see how it would be possible to love one and not get into the other.
I also enjoyed Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" -- did anyone see the Robert Redford/Nick Nolte movie? If so, what did you think of the adaptation? It was a difficult book to adapt to a movie and I felt they had to add quite a bit of plot, as the book didn't really have much.
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Books and things.
I lied. There are no things. Just books.
Posts: 7428 | From: Closer to Paris than I am to Vancouver | Registered: Mar 2004
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
I was eagerly awaiting Ben Aaronovich's latest book in The Rivers of London series last time I posted. I was bitterly disappointed when I read it. I remembered someone posting that they liked his books that were set in London best. This one is set in London, but I didn't really enjoy it.
I won't post any spoilers because I know others may be reading it, but all I will say is that, for me, it lacked some of the lightness that the others have.
The best part was the dedication to librarians, and it went downhill after that ![[Waterworks]](graemlins/bawling.gif)
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
I am, very slowly, re-reading Marvyn Peake's Titus Groan and reading other stuff between chapters. It's complex stuff but I am loving it.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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MaryLouise
Shipmate
# 18697
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Posted
The Guardian Books page has an online book club that I post on every now and again: we're busy with Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower (published in about 1995) and I am finding all kinds of 'insider' details and brilliant phrases that I missed when I first read it.
Also reading (for a writing project) the Moravian missionary Christian LaTrobe's 1816 account of a trip to the Cape of Good Hope and visits to the missions at Groenekloof (now Mamre), Elim and Genadendal. A fascinating mix of Pietist mysticism, practical details of travel, rapturous appreciation of landscape and shrewd comments on those he met.
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“As regards plots I find real life no help at all. Real life seems to have no plots.”
-- Ivy Compton-Burnett
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
<fails to resist temptation to lower tone of discussion> Yesterday I read a book I borrowed from the library because of its title: A cast of vultures by Judith Flanders. Fairly standard crime plot, but well-written and very funny - the bit that made me laugh out loud was the description of the meeting with the management consultants who have been brought in to "restructure" a publishing company.
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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Tobias
Shipmate
# 18613
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
I am, very slowly, re-reading Marvyn Peake's Titus Groan and reading other stuff between chapters. It's complex stuff but I am loving it.
I think Titus Groan is magnificent - and Gormenghast too. I first read them when I was fifteen, and, looking back now, I realise that that experience marked the beginning for me of a new way of reading, with real awareness and appreciation of the literary craft and skill that goes into writing good books.
I'm not so sure about Titus Alone - I've re-read the first two books several times over the years, but the third one just doesn't work for me.
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Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit.
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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
The Gormenghast trilogy is on my to-read pile, though there are more books on it than I think I can get through this year. Am trying to curtail my spending on books, and have thus far managed to refrain from buying any, in spite of a sale on at a well known christian bookshop that is walking distance from my office.
Am starting the year gently with my first foray into the work of Dorothy L Sayers. Am currently half way through Whose Body, the first of her Lord Peter Wimsey novels.
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I try to be self-deprecating; I'm just not very good at it.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheAlethiophile
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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sipech:
Am starting the year gently with my first foray into the work of Dorothy L Sayers. Am currently half way through Whose Body, the first of her Lord Peter Wimsey novels.
I am envious. I reread that whole series every few years, but would love to go back and read it again for the first time, ideally in order, as you are doing. Coming to it from Gaudy Night and reading backwards in bits and pieces, as I did, was a good experience, but different from seeing the character and series unfold as it was written.
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Books and things.
I lied. There are no things. Just books.
Posts: 7428 | From: Closer to Paris than I am to Vancouver | Registered: Mar 2004
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Barnabas Aus
Shipmate
# 15869
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Posted
After shedding several community organisational roles in late 2016, I am making progress through the pile of non-fiction which has been waiting beside my chair for many months. Since a week or so before Christmas I have read Paper - paging through history by Mark Kurlansky, Train by Tom Zoellner, At Home by Bill Bryson and Passionate Nomad - the life of Freya Stark by Jane Fletcher Geniesse.
I enjoyed Kurlansky's writing and want to read Salt which I understand takes a similar approach. I have followed it up by presently immersing myself in On Paper by Nicholas Basbanes which I have half-finished. This takes a different approach, drawing on the personalities who have made and used paper.
Bryson's work was intriguing, as he related the rooms of his residence - a former rectory- to the social history of houses before and since. As for the Stark biography, I have wanted to know more about her since I read a reference to her in one of Eric Newby's works many years ago.
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Just finished reading Unmentionable, an arch and rather snotty summary of Victorian private practices. Not very interesting.
I greatly enjoyed reading Wives and Daughters and also Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell over the holidays. These are grand books that you can really get your teeth into. A friend has described the latter as a Victorian Lake Wobegon, and she's right. I instantly went on to Gaskell's Ruth, which is somewhat more heavy-handed in moralizing (but that comes with the territory, in Victorian novels). And with any luck I will get to her North And South this year as well.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
I like Elizabeth Gaskell, but I never really got into Ruth - I suspect it was the moralising.
I've just read just read A Mind to Murder by P.D James. I wanted to read it as I had seen the DVD over Christmas but hadn't really heard it. For some reason the phrase S/He said without rancour leapt out at me 3 or 4 times, so I found myself both waiting for and being irritated by it. I don't really know why I keep reading PD James as Adam Dalgliesh (her detective) annoys me.
I am now reading The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and their race to save the world's most precious manuscripts by Joshua Hammer. This is a true story and I'm finding it riveting - the library will only get it back because I have a strong conscience about returning books, besides which I couldn't deprive others of the pleasure of reading it.
A fascinating glimpse of the history of the area too.
Huia
[ 10. January 2017, 05:11: Message edited by: Huia ]
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
'Murder in Advent' by David Williams. Well I did buy it in Advent...
I knew I had to read it when the opening paragraph read: "'The Lord be with you', chanted Minor Canon Twist on B flat, unaccompanied and perfectly pitched. He allowed the last vowel to linger, then to dissolve in a refined diminuendo. The effect was nearly as pleasing to his hearers - and possibly even to God - as it was to Minor Canon Twist himself."
Personally, I suspect the Organist...
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
I saw the movie "Hidden Figures" last night (about the little-known history of African-American women who worked on the US space program in th 1960s) and immediately came home and downloaded the book on which it was based. I often do that with movies based on a book if I haven't already read it, because I'm curious to know (if it's a true story) how much was real and how much dramatized for the movie.
Also still finishing up "How the Scots Invented the Modern World," which I discovered over Christmas. I say "discovered" because I'd known the book existed for years and thought it sounded interesting but never actually (to my knowledge) picked up a copy. Then when moving a rarely-used bookcase to do some pre-holiday painting, lo and behold, a virgin copy of that very book fell out of the back of the bookcase. Obviously I either purchased or was given it at some point in the past, and promptly forgot I had it. It's quite good though.
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Books and things.
I lied. There are no things. Just books.
Posts: 7428 | From: Closer to Paris than I am to Vancouver | Registered: Mar 2004
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
"Marianne in Chains", which is about the occupation of France by Germany during WW2. It paints a picture of a much more cooperative relationship between the occupiers and the occupied, particularly in the free zone controlled by France in the south. It made me reflect on the 'new normal' and ways of adapting to absurd and atrocious things, where values and ideals morph and change. The French were far more congenial and affiliative with the Germans than is commonly held, with fewer heroically resisting and more cooperating. I reflected on the normalization of incoming administration for our American neighbours as an ethics and psychological parallel.
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Huia:
I've just read just read A Mind to Murder by P.D James. I wanted to read it as I had seen the DVD over Christmas but hadn't really heard it. For some reason the phrase S/He said without rancour leapt out at me 3 or 4 times, so I found myself both waiting for and being irritated by it. I don't really know why I keep reading PD James as Adam Dalgliesh (her detective) annoys me.
On a recommendation, I tried the first of the Adam Dalgliesh novels a year or two ago, but really didn't like it. The solution was rather like a deus ex machina, with no clues given in the book that would allow the reader to possibly deduce it. I remember feeling quite cheated and angry at the end of it. It put me right off reading another P.D. James book.
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I try to be self-deprecating; I'm just not very good at it.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheAlethiophile
Posts: 3791 | From: On the corporate ladder | Registered: Jan 2012
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betjemaniac
Shipmate
# 17618
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Posted
Currently The Deceivers by John Masters - I read book 2 of the trilogy (Nightrunners of Bengal) a couple of years ago and was by turns exhilarated and traumatised. He knew what he was doing as a storyteller did Mr Masters.
Over Christmas I demolished Orley Farm, which I quite enjoyed but have read better Trollopes.
Slwoly more Francis Brett Young is making it onto Kindle, which is not good for my bank balance but he deserves a new audience.
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And is it true? For if it is....
Posts: 1481 | From: behind the dreaming spires | Registered: Mar 2013
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MaryLouise
Shipmate
# 18697
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by betjemaniac:
Currently The Deceivers by John Masters - I read book 2 of the trilogy (Nightrunners of Bengal) a couple of years ago and was by turns exhilarated and traumatised. He knew what he was doing as a storyteller did Mr Masters.
That's a name I haven't seen in years, John Masters. I read his Bhowani Junction at school while we were studying EM Forster's Passage to India, and found Masters' Anglo-Indian (as it was then termed) railway culture gritty and authentic, no romanticising of the last of the Raj.
Later when I read Paul Scott's Jewel in the Crown quartet, I wondered if Paul Scott had based the character of Rodney Merrick on Masters' Rodney Savage in Bhowani Junction.
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“As regards plots I find real life no help at all. Real life seems to have no plots.”
-- Ivy Compton-Burnett
Posts: 646 | From: Cape Town | Registered: Nov 2016
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sipech:
On a recommendation, I tried the first of the Adam Dalgliesh novels a year or two ago, but really didn't like it. The solution was rather like a deus ex machina, with no clues given in the book that would allow the reader to possibly deduce it. I remember feeling quite cheated and angry at the end of it. It put me right off reading another P.D. James book.
Thanks for that comment. I couldn't put my finger on why else PD James style annoyed me - and you've hit it fair and square. I feel cheated too.
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by no prophet's flag is set so...:
"Marianne in Chains", which is about the occupation of France by Germany during WW2. ...
I've not seen this book, but have recently finished 'When Paris Went Dark,' which covers the entire German occupation of Paris. I thought i knew quite a bit about this era, but learned a LOT here. Well-written, with a lot of vignettes of individuals, both famous and not-famous-at-all.
Highly recommend.
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
The Kate Charles Book of Psalms series has been reissued (we tried to read one as a Book Club book a couple of years ago and struggled to get our hands on them), and they are currently very cheap on Kindle (£0.99, £1.49 or £1.99). I am pretty sure I never read the first one, A Drink of Deadly Wine, when it was first released 25 plus years ago, and really enjoyed the story set in an Anglo-Catholic London parish, which still had many relevant issues underlying the story - the Church of England attitude to homosexuality. I have the next two on Kindle, which is almost certainly going to distract me from the current book club book.
I also found and read Unseen Things Above the next book following Acts and Omissions by Catherine Fox over Christmas, months after the rest of you. (I know the third is being serialised on her blog, but I've missed most of it.)
This is mixed in with Eva Dolan's DI Zigic and DS Ferreira series - set in Peterborough, detective stories from the hate crimes unit. I can't read more than one of these at a time, but find them fascinating, the Ann Cleeves Jimmy Perez series after getting as far north as Orkney last year and discovering Georgette Heyer on Kindle.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
I love Kate Charles and have read each book as soon as it comes out! I've also had the pleasure of meeting her at book signing parties at our local mystery bookstore, which is now also her publisher in the U.S. (Poisoned Pen Press). I just wish she'd write more books!
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
I just finished Fate of the Tearling, which is the third in a trilogy, all excellent. Very anti-organized religion though. I have been simultaniously reading Breakdown by Jonathan Kellerman, an Alex Delaware book. I love that series.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
Ooh I'd forgotten about the Jonathan Kellerman books. I liked both his hero Alex Delaware and Faye Kellerman's Pete Decker series. But I stopped finding them in the library.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
CK, the third of the Catherine Fox Lindchester books, Realms of Glory, is finished on her blog now and will be out as a book sometime this year. I may or may not have cried a bit reading the final chapter.
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Books and things.
I lied. There are no things. Just books.
Posts: 7428 | From: Closer to Paris than I am to Vancouver | Registered: Mar 2004
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
Thanks for that Trudy. After Catherine Fox was mentioned on here I downloaded all that were available onto my kindle. This time I may be more frugal and borrow the latest from the library when it comes out.
I finally bought a tablet so I can borrow ebooks from the library. The first one I borrowed to read (rather than as an exercise in discovering how to borrow*) was The House at the End of hope St by Menna van Praag which I have just finished. The house is a refuge for women who have run out of hope. "It may not give you what you want, but it gives you what you need".
A light read with a touch of magic., quotes from famous women, - I loved it.
*The exercises weren't that successful - I somehow borrowed this book without it showing on my tablet in the obvious place. Not only am I a technopeasant, I am a creative one.
Huia ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
[ 14. January 2017, 20:16: Message edited by: Huia ]
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Twilight
Puddleglum's sister
# 2832
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
I greatly enjoyed reading Wives and Daughters and also Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell over the holidays. These are grand books that you can really get your teeth into. A friend has described the latter as a Victorian Lake Wobegon, and she's right. I instantly went on to Gaskell's Ruth, which is somewhat more heavy-handed in moralizing (but that comes with the territory, in Victorian novels). And with any luck I will get to her North And South this year as well.
Brenda, I would recommend watching
North and South on YouTube, rather than reading it, because words could not describe how handsome this actor is.
Re: PD James. It irritates me that she is so often compared to Ruth Rendell, who I think can right circles around her.
Posts: 6817 | Registered: May 2002
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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Twilight:
Brenda, I would recommend watching
North and South on YouTube, rather than reading it, because words could not describe how handsome this actor is.
Although two words that might help describe it are "Richard Armitage," or, if that doesn't ring a bell, "Thorin Oakenshield" (or as I called him throughout The Hobbit movies, "Unexpectedly Hot Dwarf").
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Books and things.
I lied. There are no things. Just books.
Posts: 7428 | From: Closer to Paris than I am to Vancouver | Registered: Mar 2004
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Tubbs
Miss Congeniality
# 440
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Trudy Scrumptious:
quote:
Originally posted by Twilight:
Brenda, I would recommend watching
North and South on YouTube, rather than reading it, because words could not describe how handsome this actor is.
Although two words that might help describe it are "Richard Armitage," or, if that doesn't ring a bell, "Thorin Oakenshield" (or as I called him throughout The Hobbit movies, "Unexpectedly Hot Dwarf").
![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif) One of the few redeeming features of the most recent TV series on Robin Hood.
Tubbs
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"It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than open it up and remove all doubt" - Dennis Thatcher. My blog. Decide for yourself which I am
Posts: 12701 | From: Someplace strange | Registered: Jun 2001
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
I'm currently reading "Lingo" by Gaston Dorren, which is a whistlestop tour of 60 European languages. I'm alternately loving it and finding it a bit frustrating. I really like that he introduces a particular feature or quirk of a language to discuss (as obviously one short chapter isn't going to do an entire language any justice), and also how he often relates them to other languages that wouldn't at a first glance be related - I was really interested for example in his take on grammar which meant that all languages in the Balkans, not just the Slavic ones, but also the outliers like Albanian and Romanian, have particular grammatical similarities which the outliers don't necessarily share with their more related languages (for example, Romanian using a suffix to denote the definite article rather than having any words for 'the', unlike the other latin languages). But I've found some chapters a bit frustrating in that whilst he talks about the languages, he doesn't always give lots of examples. The chapter on Scottish gaelic spelling was good, because it had lots of examples, but other chapters hardly featured any words or examples at all. I like to see how a language looks, as well as what it means.
I'm also planning on starting E. Nesbit's "The Railway Children". I think I must be about the only Brit in the world who has never seen the film (although I've caught the odd clip, so at the relevant points I will no doubt be imagining Bernard Cribbins and Jenny Agutter in my head as I read).
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"My body is a temple - it's big and doesn't move." (Jo Brand)
wiblog blipfoto blog
Posts: 5767 | From: the land of the deep-fried Mars Bar | Registered: Oct 2002
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I needed something to read on the us while going to collect my car from its MOT, and grabbed the nearest thing to hand, which was Michael Innes' "The Secret Vanguard". I suspect its echoes of "The Thirty-nine Steps" are deliberate. (Possibly "The Riddle of the Sands" is in there, too.) Nice to have a female protagonist. Published in 1940, but set a year before, before the war started. I have read it before, as a ripping yarn, but am seeing more in it this time.
I like the way the protagonist, as a child, had expected the train to go over the Forth Bridge up and down the curves, like a scenic railway she had seen at a fair (?) - roller coaster, and had been disappointed.
[ 20. January 2017, 15:07: Message edited by: Penny S ]
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Trudy Scrumptious:
quote:
Originally posted by Twilight:
Brenda, I would recommend watching
North and South on YouTube, rather than reading it, because words could not describe how handsome this actor is.
Although two words that might help describe it are "Richard Armitage," or, if that doesn't ring a bell, "Thorin Oakenshield" (or as I called him throughout The Hobbit movies, "Unexpectedly Hot Dwarf").
Oooh, definitely!! Many a Victorian triple-decker goes down better via BBC dramatizations. I adored Trollope's The Way We Live Now on the screen.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Caissa
Shipmate
# 16710
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Posted
I am just finishing up Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier. A good piece on the eve of WWII.
Posts: 972 | From: Saint John, N.B. | Registered: Oct 2011
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Huia:
I was eagerly awaiting Ben Aaronovich's latest book in The Rivers of London series last time I posted. I was bitterly disappointed when I read it. I remembered someone posting that they liked his books that were set in London best. This one is set in London, but I didn't really enjoy it.
I won't post any spoilers because I know others may be reading it, but all I will say is that, for me, it lacked some of the lightness that the others have.
The best part was the dedication to librarians, and it went downhill after that
Huia
I've just read The Hanging Tree and enjoyed the settings as being very familiar. I know these places and they ring true.
I think those books are going to have to have a dark edge because this magic does have the same problem.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271
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Posted
I still enjoy Ben Aaronovich's writing but I thought The Hanging Tree didn't really go anywhere. It seemed like a series of scenes building up to soemthing that is going to happen a book or two down the line. I'll keep reading the series but I do wish he'd think about plot as well as characters and action.
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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.
Posts: 2035 | From: London | Registered: Jan 2007
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Jemima the 9th
Shipmate
# 15106
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Posted
Love for the Lost by Catherine Fox. It's the only one of her books I haven't read so far, and I'm thrilled to hear there'll be a new book out later this year. I do so wish she'd write faster... ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
The books are getting passed round at church like Judy Blume books did when I was at school!
Posts: 801 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2009
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
The Hanging Tree was finally released in America and I'm reading it now. I'll post my opinion when I'm done, but so far I'm loving it.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
A new Catherine Fox coming out? I must find out the title so I can request that the library buy it. They will of course, with or without my request, but the action of putting in the request means going to the top of the reserves list ![[Yipee]](graemlins/spin.gif)
(Mind you I did that with The Hanging Tree so it doesn't guarantee enjoyment )
Speaking of books to come - I read a hint that a new book in CJ Sansom's Matthew Shardlake
series may be coming out this year. Has anyone heard or read this?
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Doone
Shipmate
# 18470
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Posted
No, but a new Shardlake would be awesome!
Has anyone read The Essex Serpent? I was going to buy it but the reviews on Amazon were not as good as I expected.
Posts: 2208 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2015
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
OK, so I finished The Hanging tree and I have too say, yes, it was darker than the others but I don't see that as a flaw, I see that as a necessary development from the overall design of the series. I do agree that it seemed to have less of a single book coherent plot than the others, it was more obviously part of an arc in a series, but I enjoyed it enough overall to ignore that. I am looking forward to the next one.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
I just read Doesn't She Look Natural? by Angela Hunt. When I started reading it, I wasn't sure I wanted to finish. So, following my general "give it a chance and finish three chapters" habit, the book ended up being pretty enjoyable. There are two other books in the series, and I may buy them later. (This was a free Nook Book.)
This is definitely a Christian novel, which I didn't know when I ordered it, and most of the story takes place in a small Florida town funeral parlor housed in an old Victorian home. Surprise!
Here is a review if you're interested.
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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M.
Ship's Spare Part
# 3291
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Posted
I came across a time travel romp called One damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor, who I'd never heard of. It seems there's a whole series, all written or at least published very very quickly (there seem to be 8 or 9, with short stories in between, all published since about 2013). It is a fun enough premise - an offshoot of a university history department which travels in time to check out what really happened - and fun enough to read one, but I won't bother with any more. I found the story a bit all over the place and there were too many characters, I found it difficult to remember who was who. It was meant to be funny but I thought it was a very self conscious humour- you know, 'look at me, I'm crazy!', which put me off.
But she seems to have quite a following. Has anyone come across her?
M.
Posts: 2303 | From: Lurking in Surrey | Registered: Sep 2002
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Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271
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Posted
I've read One Damn Thing After Another on the recommnedation of a friend. There were bits that I thought were really good, but it was in desperate need of a lot of severe editing. Like you, M., I don't think I'll bother to read another.
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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.
Posts: 2035 | From: London | Registered: Jan 2007
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
That premise of the history department going back in time to investigate a period is the subject of one of those Connie Willis short stories, Fire Watch, in Time is the Fire.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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