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Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 2 days ago)
35,605 posts, read 17,927,273 times
Reputation: 50626
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mayvenne
I finished Such a Fun Age and thought it was ok but I had to really push myself at points. It wasn't a very big book so it worked. ( Had it been much bigger I probably wouldn't have finished). I gave it between 2 and 3 stars and am amazed at the very good ratings it has on goodreads. It was a very current book but it just seemed like the author was trying too hard to be really cool and savvy. It just didn't work for me.
I am going to start The Guncle next.
I had the same experience with Such a Fun Age. I stopped reading after a short while, and couldn't understand the positive ratings. It just seemed self-congratulatory, with the author appearing to create a character similar to herself, and then shallow people were just falling all over themselves in awe of her for no discernible reason. I do agree that the author was trying too hard to have others think she was cool and sassy. Kind of made me uncomfortable, the way seeing someone wearing a t-shirt that says "So Perfect It Hurts" makes you wince.
Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 2 days ago)
35,605 posts, read 17,927,273 times
Reputation: 50626
Just finished "Whistling in the Dark" by Lesley Kagen. About two sisters in a small town, and an eventful summer. The book opens with a neighbor girl found molested and killed, and no one knows who did it, so there are dark themes, but there are parts that people who grew up in the 1960's will fondly remember.
Narrated through the eyes of 10 year old Sally O'Malley.
I loved it. If you like Calla Lily Ponder, and Swan from The Homecoming of Samuel Lake, and Junie B Jones, you'll like this girl too.
I just finished "We Own the Sky," by Luke Allnutt.
I highly recommend it. The theme is sad and may be hard for some - childhood cancer - but i think the author wrote beautifully (it's fiction, though he did deal with cancer in his life) about it.
"Rob Coates feels like he’s won the lottery of life. There is Anna, his incredible wife, their London town house and, most precious of all, Jack, their son, who makes every day an extraordinary adventure. But when a devastating illness befalls his family, Rob’s world begins to unravel.
'We Own the Sky' is a tender, heartrending, but ultimately life-affirming novel that will resonate deeply with anyone who has suffered loss or experienced great love. With stunning eloquence and acumen, Luke Allnutt has penned a soaring debut and a true testament to the power of love, showing how even the most thoroughly broken heart can learn to beat again."
Also - i cry really easily, and have had a few big losses in the last year - and i didnt sob from this one. I did cry a bit. Just to let you know that i don't believe it's written in a purposely sad way - if that makes sense. I really liked the book.
I just started The House With a Clock in its Walls. I got in on kindle from the library, so not sure if it was Young Adult or Children's or Adult. It's so easy peasy getting ebooks from the library.
Thanks for the suggestion. I will update when I have an opinion on it.
I just finished "We Own the Sky," by Luke Allnutt.
I highly recommend it. The theme is sad and may be hard for some - childhood cancer - but i think the author wrote beautifully (it's fiction, though he did deal with cancer in his life) about it.
"Rob Coates feels like he’s won the lottery of life. There is Anna, his incredible wife, their London town house and, most precious of all, Jack, their son, who makes every day an extraordinary adventure. But when a devastating illness befalls his family, Rob’s world begins to unravel.
'We Own the Sky' is a tender, heartrending, but ultimately life-affirming novel that will resonate deeply with anyone who has suffered loss or experienced great love. With stunning eloquence and acumen, Luke Allnutt has penned a soaring debut and a true testament to the power of love, showing how even the most thoroughly broken heart can learn to beat again."
Also - i cry really easily, and have had a few big losses in the last year - and i didnt sob from this one. I did cry a bit. Just to let you know that i don't believe it's written in a purposely sad way - if that makes sense. I really liked the book.
Thanks for the suggestion. I just ordered the book on Amazon for my father. He will get it next week and by the time I get to California in a few weeks he will have polished it off and then he can give it to me to read!
After loving "My Brilliant Friend" by Elena Ferrante, I finally have gotten around to reading the next two in the series...
"The Story of a New Name" and "Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay" I loved them both and looking forward to the final one in the series "The Story of a Lost Child".
"She said she knew only the workers, men and women, in the factory where she worked, people from whom there was absolutely nothing to learn except wretchedness. Can you imagine, she asked, what it means to spend eight hours a day standing up to your waist in the mortadella cooking water? Can you imagine what it means to have your fingers covered with cuts from slicing the meat off animal bones? Can you imagine what it means to go in and out of refrigerated rooms at twenty degrees below zero, and get ten lire more an hour--ten lire--for cold compensation? If you imagine this, what do you think you can learn from people who are forced to live like that?"
"Become. It was a verb that had always obsessed me, but I realized it for the first time only in that situation. I wanted to become, even though I had never known what. And I had become, that was certain, but without an object, without a real passion, without a determined ambition. I had wanted to become something--here was the point--only because I was afraid that Lila would become someone and I would stay behind. My becoming was a becoming in her wake. I had to start again to become, but for myself, as an adult, outside of her."
Hardback - it sits on the coffee table and I read it in the evenings since I don't want to lug it around. I backtracked a couple of books in the Outlander series and am re-reading An Echo in the Bone, I'll then go on to Written In My Own Heart's Blood before I start her latest Go Tell The Bee's That I Am Gone.
Kindle - The Last to Know by Jo Furniss. "A family’s past pursues them like a shadow in this riveting and emotional novel of psychological suspense by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of All the Little Children." I get a ton of Kindle Unlimited free books because I read so much and get through things pretty quickly. I also get library books on my Kindle.
Audio book - I have a 30-minute each way commute for work. I get all of my audio books from the library system through Overdrive. I'm currently listening to The Exorcist narrated by author William Peter Blatty. Suggested by someone in City-Data who said he does an excellent job, and he does!
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