Re: Current Reads

mokey75 Wed Oct 09, 2013 3:42 pm

I just started The Thorn Birds yesterday, and I am having a hell of a time trying to figure out how the author is going

Spoiler:

(That probably didn't need to be spoilered, but just in case.)

xyzzy Wed Oct 09, 2013 4:50 pm

I've always been of the opinion that The Thorn Birds is defined by the ick factor. :)

If you've read The Blue Castle you should check out The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough. It's the first time I ever encountered (allegedly unintentional) plagiarism and I had a surprisingly strong reaction to it.

Crowbridge Wed Oct 09, 2013 7:08 pm

Heh...I remember reading The Thorn Birds as a teenager and thinking it was the most romantic thing ever. I still enjoy the book a great deal, even if it is kind of icky.

I'm nearly finished with Rainbow Rowell's Attachments, and overall I think it's okay. Not as good as Eleanor & Park, but entertaining enough. Jennifer and Beth kind of annoy me, but I like Lincoln.

ulkis Thu Oct 10, 2013 9:12 pm

Xyzzy, just went to check out that book and ew, she even names one of the characters Una.

Haven't read it yet, but the third Gentlemen Bastards book by Scott Lynch is out. woo!

whatthedeuce Thu Oct 10, 2013 10:21 pm

I'm reading the latest by Jojo Moyes, The Girl You Left Behind, and though it hasn't captivated me or struck a chord like Me Before You did, it's a well-paced and beautifully written novel. The WWI segment was so fraught with danger though that the modern story taking place in 2006 seems a bit lacking in comparison. Plus, there's something I can't stand about the modern protagonist, Liv. I can't quite get myself to sympathize with her anywhere as much as I know I'm supposed to.

Kookla Fri Oct 11, 2013 12:13 am

I've always been of the opinion that The Thorn Birds is defined by the ick factor. :)

Heh. I have a friend who was named after Meg. Like, specifically her mother was watching The Thorn Birds on TV and thought, "oh, that's a nice name!" To be fair, I'm not sure if her mom saw the whole thing and knew what happened, but it's a bit of ick regardless. :)

I've always strongly disliked the The Thorn Birds, and have gotten into many an argument with my mother about it (who loves it). I'm not sure if it's even really the ick factor. It just happens to belong to one of my least favourite genres: Sweeping and Romantic Family Epics That Take Themselves Very Seriously.

mokey75 Fri Oct 11, 2013 1:18 pm

Yeah, I'm not so much loving TTB yet, but Just One Year showed up on my Kindle yesterday (YAY!), so I'm going to take a break.

choubetcha Fri Oct 11, 2013 1:26 pm

I just finished The Girl You Left Behind, whatthedeuce. I got it because I recognized the author but I didn't know anything about the plot so the time shift was really jarring. I thought it was really compelling until we got there and then I lost interest a little bit but overall I liked it. And now I'm on hold for Me Before You!

rivki8699 Fri Oct 11, 2013 4:18 pm

Kookla wrote:
I've always been of the opinion that The Thorn Birds is defined by the ick factor. :)
Heh. I have a friend who was named after Meg. Like, specifically her mother was watching The Thorn Birds on TV and thought, "oh, that's a nice name!" To be fair, I'm not sure if her mom saw the whole thing and knew what happened, but it's a bit of ick regardless. :)

I was named after the book Rebecca by Daphne De Maurier. I still have trouble believing that my mom didn't at least pretend she'd decided on a biblical name. I mean, it's a fun book, but the eponymous Rebecca is a terrible person.

draco vulgaris Fri Oct 11, 2013 9:35 pm

Just started The Republic of Thieves. I may or may not have said "Come to mama!" when I found it in the bookstore.

whatthedeuce Fri Oct 11, 2013 11:44 pm

choubetcha, prepare to have your heart ripped out. That book is beautiful and so painful.

Crowbridge Sat Oct 12, 2013 11:23 am

Well, I finished Attachments. It was okay. I thought

Spoiler:

but it was an enjoyable book. Even though it had some problems and the characters said things like "carpe cute guy", I liked it okay.

Next up is Fangirl. I'm only 50 pages in, but I kind of want to slap Cath in the face. Does that make me a bad person?

mayram Sat Oct 12, 2013 12:47 pm

I just finished Attachments too! Re: the spoilered part, I felt exactly the same way. For such a long lead-up, the ending fell a little flat.

Regarding JoJo Moyes, I've read Me Before You and am on the waiting list for The Girl You Left Behind, but I was wondering about the rest of the author's books? There are a few available at the library, has anyone read The Last Letter from Your Lover or Windfallen? Worth a read?

Bad Username Sun Oct 13, 2013 5:36 am

This Is How You Lose Her, by Junot Diaz. I loved it. I enjoyed The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, but found it tedious in some places, mainly because a lot of events in the story were recounted from several characters' points of view (IIRC, it's been a year or so since I read it). This Is How You Lose Her still has a lot of detail while being more succinct, and I love Diaz's voice. The main character Yunior seems to be sympathetic and a complete bastard at the same time, considers himself blameless but reveals sometimes that he knows exactly what he is doing. It's great, and I really recommend it.

I'm now reading The Outlaw Viking by Sandra Hill. It's fun.

Kookla Sun Oct 13, 2013 2:08 pm

I just finished The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey, which is supposed to be like a super important book about the nature of truth and history-telling, but wrapped up in a detective fiction. It was interesting the way it unpacked the history of Richard III, though I think I liked it a lot more in theory than in the practice of actually reading it.

mokey75 Sun Oct 13, 2013 2:15 pm

mayram wrote:
Regarding JoJo Moyes, I've read Me Before You and am on the waiting list for The Girl You Left Behind, but I was wondering about the rest of the author's books? There are a few available at the library, has anyone read The Last Letter from Your Lover or Windfallen? Worth a read?

I read The Last Letter from Your Lover - I liked it, but it's another one of those dual narrator books of hers. I liked it slightly more than The Girl you Left Behind, but Me Before You is my favorite by her.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through Just One Year, but I got spoilered about the ending or

Spoiler:

and I'm annoyed. One of my friends on Goodreads posted that whole complaint as her review, and I kind of want to kick her for that. Grrrr...

particle_person Sun Oct 13, 2013 2:20 pm

Kookla wrote:I just finished The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey, which is supposed to be like a super important book about the nature of truth and history-telling, but wrapped up in a detective fiction. It was interesting the way it unpacked the history of Richard III, though I think I liked it a lot more in theory than in the practice of actually reading it.

Also, don't mistake that book for a work of historical scholarship — there has been a lot of criticism that it simply tells the story from a pro-Richard slant instead of anti-, and is just as biased. Alison Weir pointed out some issues (not all of which are Tey's fault). By the way, the late great Elizabeth Peters wrote an English house party mystery set around a meeting of the Richard III society that I enjoyed. It makes a lot of references to Daughter of Time.

Raksha Thu Oct 17, 2013 12:00 am

I just finished The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes and I'm still disturbed! I thought it was really well written and the lack of explanation for the time traveling didn't bother me. Sometimes trying to shoe horn in explanations for those kinds of things are beside the point of the story and can feel really out of place, so I'm glad Beukes didn't bother.

MaddyCat Fri Oct 18, 2013 3:04 am

Finished The 5th Wave and thoroughly enjoyed it. I like that it kept me guessing until the last third and then was just balls-out action. The characters were great and there were some nifty twists. Is it a planned trilogy or something though? I didn't realize that and there was a bit of a cliffhanger there. Oh well.

No clue what I'm onto next. Maybe the new Dave Eggers book The Circle.

Crowbridge Fri Oct 18, 2013 4:59 pm

Well, I finished Fangirl, and I was disappointed. I guess I liked it fine, but I felt no connection with the characters, and I am totally confused as to why so many people love it.

Oh, and I have a few nitpicks that I'll put in spoilers...

Spoiler:

Final word on Rainbow Rowell? I think she hit it out of the park with Eleanor & Park, but her other books fall flat. I think I liked Attachments more than Fangirl, but neither of them grabbed me the way E&P did. So, yeah, one out of three, IMO.

mokey75 Mon Oct 21, 2013 10:22 am

I was meh about Fangirl, too. And I had the same issues with your spoilers as you did, so yeah. I'm waiting for Attachments from the library, but I'm not expecting much.

I'm still slogging through The Thorn Birds, and I pretty much hate everyone in it. Meggie is a drip, Ralph is an asshole, and I wish the two of them would run away and never be heard from again. I keep thinking I'll just give up, but then I don't. But Allegiant comes out this week, so I'll take yet-another break from it to read that and see where I go from there.

Escape Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:04 pm

A copy of Allegiant leaked last week and it's all I can do to keep my big, fat mouth shut about it.

whatthedeuce Mon Oct 21, 2013 4:38 pm

I gotta get in the library queue ASAP for that one!

Crowbridge Mon Oct 21, 2013 7:20 pm

I started The Night Circus last night. It didn't sound like the type of thing I would normally like, but I'm really into it so far.

Unlucky Bear Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:21 pm

Our book club must be the last people on earth to read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, but we did, and it was delightful.

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