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This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

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    #4292
    IvyTheTerrible
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,949 ✭✭✭✭IvyTheTerrible


    Finished "Gone Girl".
    Great first half, had me guessing all the way. Second half though, just got more and more ridiculous. Disappointing finish.


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    #4293
    ivytwine
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,114 ✭✭✭ivytwine


    iwantmydinner wrote: »
    Jaysus, did not know that. I thought he was a serious, respected historian! Glad I decided against picking up his Michael Collins book a few days ago...

    I don't think the Michael Collins book is as bad, I remember my friend using it as a source for her LC project, and my teacher would definitely have directed us against it if she felt it inaccurate. She wasn't particularly nationalistic either. I think it is very anti-DeValera tho?

    I also used his 1916 Rising book for my LC project (I didn't do history-well Irish at least- in college I'm keen to stress) but it was most facts and pictures iirc.

    My mother would be very nationalist and she was a bit unimpressed with his famine book, she said it was poorly edited and even she felt he was a bit hard on the Brits :eek:

    I really enjoyed Skippy Dies, but I think it was the writing that carried through, plot was pretty thin. Some midlife crisis teacher comparing himself to the slaughtered of the trenches was a bit of a stretch too, especially knowing the Irish curriculum- you don't even do WW1 past primary school (a disgrace imo).


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    #4294
    minnow
    Registered Users Posts: 202 ✭✭minnow


    Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis. Read it for the first time 20 yrs ago, giving it another spin.


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    #4295
    Dial Hard
    Registered Users Posts: 13,451 ✭✭✭✭Dial Hard


    minnow wrote: »
    Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis. Read it for the first time 20 yrs ago, giving it another spin.

    I read it on holidays last year and was rather non-plussed. I find it very hard to warm to dithery, self-conscious, woe-is-me type main characters, though.

    Anyway, Never Let Me Go is on hold (was going to buy it today) because I needed something to read in the bath last night after finishing The Secret History, so I'm re-reading Nick Harkaway's The Gone-Away World.


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    #4296
    Callan57
    Registered Users Posts: 4,160 ✭✭✭Callan57


    The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd


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    #4297
    psychoniamh
    Registered Users Posts: 30 ✭psychoniamh


    Wanted to read a Maeve Binchy book, so I read Tara Road. I thought it was ok, very long though; as light as it is, it still took me a good while to make my way through it. Going to watch the film soon.

    Staring Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes, which I'm very excited about. "Berlin, Summer 2011. Adolf Hitler wakes up on a patch of open ground, alive and well".... sounds like it's gonna be a good'un!


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    #4298
    Dial Hard
    Registered Users Posts: 13,451 ✭✭✭✭Dial Hard


    psychoniamh wrote: »
    Staring Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes, which I'm very excited about. "Berlin, Summer 2011. Adolf Hitler wakes up on a patch of open ground, alive and well".... sounds like it's gonna be a good'un!

    Hopefully you'll end up disagreeing, but I thought that book was utterly, utterly dull. Maybe a lot of the humour got lost in translation from the German, but I kept waiting for it to get funny and it steadfastly refused to do so. I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.


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    #4299
    a0ifee
    Registered Users Posts: 574 ✭✭✭a0ifee


    currently flying through Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It's nothing like I expected really but it's really interesting and well written, can't put it down at all!


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    #4300
    iwantmydinner
    Registered Users Posts: 3,246 ✭✭✭iwantmydinner


    a0ifee wrote: »
    currently flying through Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It's nothing like I expected really but it's really interesting and well written, can't put it down at all!

    She's fantastic. She has done a brilliant Ted talk as well, if you're interested!


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    #4301
    Belle E. Flops
    Closed Accounts Posts: 747 ✭✭✭Belle E. Flops


    Read the 100 year old man... And the unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry lately. Not much to say on them really. Easy, entertaining reads that were perfect for holiday reading.

    Starting Tess of the D'Urberville's now.


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    #4302
    SarahBM
    Registered Users Posts: 4,906 ✭✭✭SarahBM


    Belle E. Flops wrote: »
    Read the 100 year old man... And the unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry lately. Not much to say on them really. Easy, entertaining reads that were perfect for holiday reading.

    Starting Tess of the D'Urberville's now.

    Tess - I have mixed views on it.
    I really enjoyed the one hundred year old man but the Girl who saved the King of Sweden is trying too hard to be like it. I'm about 3/4 way through and a little disappointed.


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    #4303
    Huzzah!
    Registered Users Posts: 1,799 ✭✭✭Huzzah!


    iwantmydinner wrote: »
    She's fantastic. She has done a brilliant Ted talk as well, if you're interested!

    Her Ted Talk was published as an essay/short ebook recently by Vintage Books


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    #4304
    Ice Storm
    Registered Users Posts: 938 ✭✭✭Ice Storm


    I'm reading The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Finding it hard to put down; it's gripping!


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    #4305
    Callan57
    Registered Users Posts: 4,160 ✭✭✭Callan57


    Ice Storm wrote: »
    I'm reading The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Finding it hard to put down; it's gripping!

    I've read that book don't know how many times ... absolutely love it, gripping is certainly the word. Enjoy


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    #4306
    Wyldwood
    Registered Users Posts: 1,162 ✭✭✭Wyldwood


    Finished Smith's Child 44 and must say it's a great read. Had me gripped form the start.

    It's set in the last days of Stalin's rule in Russia and really shows the fear and distrust that simmered amongst the people. Leo Demidov is a ruthless MGB Agent - the State is always right- who has a serious awakening to the failures of the system. When a series of apparently linked child murders are dismissed as accidents by the powers that be Leo decides that maybe the State isn't always right.


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    #4307
    Callan57
    Registered Users Posts: 4,160 ✭✭✭Callan57


    Cold Sea Stories by Pawet Huelle (translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones


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    #4308
    SarahBM
    Registered Users Posts: 4,906 ✭✭✭SarahBM


    Finished the Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden, I was a bit disappointed.

    On to Tuesday's With Morrie.


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    #4309
    a0ifee
    Registered Users Posts: 574 ✭✭✭a0ifee


    Finished Americanah, really enjoyed it, must get my hands on Half of A Yellow Sun! Onto A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing now, and I'm already entranced by the writing style.


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    #4310
    MagicMarker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 32,865 ✭✭✭✭MagicMarker


    Half way through the first of the 'Wool Trilogy', really enjoying it thus far.


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    #4311
    SarahBM
    Registered Users Posts: 4,906 ✭✭✭SarahBM


    Tuesday's With Morrie is a wonderful book.

    Artemis Fowel next.


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    #4312
    Wyldwood
    Registered Users Posts: 1,162 ✭✭✭Wyldwood


    Got half way through The Twelve Tribes of Hattie and am not enthralled. It's ok but going nowhere. It's like a series of short stories with each one describing one of Hattie's many dysfunctional children.
    Going to put it aside for the moment as I got The Death of Bees from the library today based on reviews here.


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    #4313
    abutler101
    Closed Accounts Posts: 77 ✭✭abutler101


    Tis' by Frank McCourt, pretty good so far


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    #4314
    crustybla
    Registered Users Posts: 922 ✭✭✭crustybla


    I read The Passage ages ago and I've only found out reading the last couple of pages here that it's the first in a trilogy! Can't wait to get my hands on The Twelve!! I may have to reread it though as I remember the first ended with a question or two, but I don't remember the details.
    Meanwhile, I've just started A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing. Wasn't too sure at first but I think I'm going to like it.


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    #4315
    TICKLE_ME_ELMO
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 23,929 Mod ✭✭✭✭TICKLE_ME_ELMO


    Closed Doors by Lisa O'Donnell. I read her first book, The Death of Bees, a few months ago and loved it. This one isn't quite as good so far but I'm still enjoying it.

    It's about a young boy in a small Scottish village, the kind where everyone knows everyone's business. Like most kids he listens at doors when he's not supposed to and then he hears something he doesn't quite understand which seems to have changed his whole family.

    Like I said, not quite as gripping as DoB but still a decent read.


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    #4316
    SarahBM
    Registered Users Posts: 4,906 ✭✭✭SarahBM


    Loved Tuesday's With Morrie.

    Finally getting to read Artemis Fowel. I know they are kids books but so far Im half way through the first and I like it. I have read Eoin Colfer's adult book Unplugged and really like his style.


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    #4317
    Callan57
    Registered Users Posts: 4,160 ✭✭✭Callan57


    Starting Conversations in Sicily by Elio Vittorini


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    #4318
    eire4
    Registered Users Posts: 6,642 ✭✭✭eire4


    Finished a re read of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho.


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    #4319
    Swiper the fox
    Registered Users Posts: 6,745 ✭✭✭Swiper the fox


    I hardly ever reread books but I'm currently at it with Star of the Sea. I cannot stress enough what a great book this is, quite possibly one of the best I've ever read. Essential reading.


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    #4320
    ivytwine
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,114 ✭✭✭ivytwine


    On a Stephen King kick at the moment- working nights it's the only way I can stay awake :D I avoided reading his stuff for years, even though I enjoyed it, because I am such a coward. I think I'm getting better tho!

    Anyway I finished 'Salems Lot this morning, great book. Got Joyland from the library so that's up next. Also reading Terry Pratchett's Nation, love it so far.


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    #4321
    TICKLE_ME_ELMO
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 23,929 Mod ✭✭✭✭TICKLE_ME_ELMO


    Swiper the fox wrote: »
    I hardly ever reread books but I'm currently at it with Star of the Sea. I cannot stress enough what a great book this is, quite possibly one of the best I've ever read. Essential reading.

    Have you read Redemption Falls, it's kind of a sequel but only in the loosest sense of the word. Very good too.


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