This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

Belle E. Flops · 09-09-2017 11:37AM

I'm just after starting 'The Snowman' by Jo Nesbo. It wouldn't be the usual type of book I'd go for but I've heard people raving about it and the film is coming out soon so I decided to give it a go.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 09-09-2017 11:48AM

I finally finished Villette and am now firmly of the opinion that Emily Brontë was the only talented Brontë.

quickbeam · 09-09-2017 11:51AM

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I finally finished Villette and am now firmly of the opinion that Emily Brontë was the only talented Brontë.

I'd somewhat agree. I do think Charlotte is overrated - Jane Eyre was a bit of a slog and Villette was VERY tedious.

But I have liked Anne's. The Tenant of Wildfel Hall was great and Agnes Grey was quite sweet and charming and much more readable than any of Charlotte's.

My favourite though still is Emily's Wuthering Heights.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 09-09-2017 12:45PM

quickbeam wrote: »

I'd somewhat agree. I do think Charlotte is overrated - Jane Eyre was a bit of a slog and Villette was VERY tedious.

But I have liked Anne's. The Tenant of Wildfel Hall was great and Agnes Grey was quite sweet and charming and much more readable than any of Charlotte's.

My favourite though still is Emily's Wuthering Heights.

I haven't read Jane Eyre yet, I might give it a go eventually. I only read Villette because I saw some reviews that said it was actually the best of her books. Wildfell Hall I thought was alright but none of them seem to come close to Wuthering Heights.

IvyTheTerrible · 09-09-2017 01:47PM

I found Villette tedious, but I LOVE Jane Eyre. (Perhaps because I read it when I was very very young and I found the first chapter in the red room very scary, it left a lasting impression on me as I understood why Jane was so disturbed to be locked in it).

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 09-09-2017 01:55PM

There was barely even any plot in Villette. I mean it was nearly 600 pages long and a few chapters from the end I was still waiting for something to actually happen.

Aenaes · 09-09-2017 02:25PM

I quite liked Villette even if it was slow and I didn't understand the French parts.

quickbeam · 09-09-2017 04:09PM

God yeah, I forgot about the long strings of French without translation!!!

Her love interest was just so odious. I couldn't believe at first it was being set up for them to end up together.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 09-09-2017 04:21PM

quickbeam wrote: »

God yeah, I forgot about the long strings of French without translation!!!

Her love interest was just so odious. I couldn't believe at first it was being set up for them to end up together.

Exactly! Until very near the end I was expecting some sort of showdown and thwarting of his evil ways. But no.

marienbad · 10-09-2017 12:07AM

The BFI guide to the 'Three Colours Trilogy' . If you like the films this is a very pleasant read , probably doesn't tell you that much you don't already know , but handy to have it all neatly summarised in less than 100 hundred pages .

Next up the guides to Chinatown , The Godfather , Last Year in Marienbad , and Vertigo

Kurtosis · 11-09-2017 01:07PM

Finished The Gunslinger by Stephen King yesterday, I enjoyed it. Have very little of King but will definitely return to read the other entries in the series.

Now reading Wind/Pinball by Haruki Murakami, flying through it so far. There's something about his books that I just find enthralling - have spent a lot of the morning thinking about how much I'm looking forward to getting back to it this evening!

Fathom · 11-09-2017 10:09PM

Y IS FOR YESTERDAY
by Sue Grafton

11-09-2017 10:41PM

Modern man in search of a soul..Carl Gustav Jung..

Xofpod · 12-09-2017 09:28AM

Live by Night, Denis Lehane.

Callan57 · 12-09-2017 10:13AM

The Girl From Venice by Martin Cruz Smith

Joe_ Public · 12-09-2017 12:46PM

Callan57 wrote: »

The Girl From Venice by Martin Cruz Smith

Haven't read this one yet but such an under-rated writer. My go-to guy for crime writing.

Fathom · 13-09-2017 04:35PM

Fathom wrote: »

Y IS FOR YESTERDAY
by Sue Grafton

Upon reflection. After reading. Asking myself "Y" I wasted my time reading this book? Not recommended.

Callan57 · 16-09-2017 12:11AM

Finished The Girl from Venice ... a quick & enjoyable read.

Next Defectors by Joseph Kanon

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 16-09-2017 12:24AM

Just starting The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Fingers crossed it lives up to the hype.

marienbad · 16-09-2017 09:13PM

For Lust Of Knowing -The Orientalists and their Enemies .

A ragbag collection of spoofers,charlatans and the occasional scholar all paraded out just to refute Edward Said , or so it seems so far .

marienbad · 18-09-2017 01:41AM

The Argonauts - Maggie Nelson

Callan57 · 18-09-2017 09:09AM

Finished Defectors .. very convoluted espionage tale.

God Help The Child by Toni Morrison

Fathom · 18-09-2017 08:55PM

The Shell Seekers
by Rosamunde Pilcher

Callan57 · 19-09-2017 03:49PM

Finished God Help the Child ... superb but disturbing read centering on the incidious nature of racism and the scars children carry into adulthood. As always with Ms Morrison truly brilliant.

Next & could hardly be more different Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling by Emer McLysaght & Sarah Breen. I don't do Facebook so I'm not familiar with the site but my niece tells me it's legend! I've often said "I'll read just about anything" but this may be a trial ... we shall see.

miamee · 19-09-2017 04:03PM

Fathom wrote: »

Upon reflection. After reading. Asking myself "Y" I wasted my time reading this book? Not recommended.

I'm currently reading A is for Alibi and it is also a bit dire. I can't get into it at all and what's worse is I think I might have read it, or some of it, before. I shall not be proceeding to B or any other letters of the alphabet.

marienbad · 19-09-2017 10:51PM

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot

The story of a poor black tobacco farmer and how her cancerous cells ,taken without her knowledge , became a multimillion dollar industry and revolutionised aspects of science and medicine to this day.

Xofpod · 20-09-2017 09:47AM

Dead Man's Blues, by Ray Celestin.

Detective story set in prohibition Chicago. Picked it up on a whim but am increasingly enjoying it.

Callan57 · 21-09-2017 09:25AM

Lolly Willowes or The Loving Huntsman by Sylvia Townsend Warner

marienbad · 21-09-2017 07:58PM

Savage Continent Keith Lowe . How WW2 did not end in 1945 ,but continued on for years , particularly in Eastern Europe , Greece , the Baltic states . And revenge expulsion and ethnic cleansing occurred on an unprecedented way . Despite the catalogue of horrors it makes the vision of men like Schumann, Monet etc even more remarkable .

The Late Show - Michael Connolly . Introducing Renee Ballard prowling the same haunts that Harry Bosch has made so familiar . The first in a new series .

bnt · 24-09-2017 07:01PM

Just finished A Cantilcle For Leibowitz - here's a review with some spoilers for the first part. It's one of those books that has been enormously influential on other writers yet is not well known among general readers. It's post-apocalyptic SF, set 600, 1200 and 1800 years in the future, but it's also literature of a very personal kind. The author was in the US Air Force during WW2 and was one of those who bombed the abbey at Monte Cassino in Italy, yet only realised the connection between his life and his book as he was nearly finished writing the last part.

It was said that God, in order to test mankind which had become swelled with pride as in the time of Noah, had commanded the wise men of that age, among them the Blessed Leibowitz, to devise great engines of war such as had never before been upon the Earth, weapons of such might that they contained the very fires of Hell, and that God had suffered these magi to place the weapons in the hands of princes, and to say to each prince: "Only because the enemies have such a thing have we devised this for thee, in order that they may know that thou hast it also, and fear to strike. See to it, m'Lord, that thou fearest them as much as they shall now fear thee, that none may unleash this dread thing which we have wrought." But the princes, putting the words of their wise men to naught, thought each to himself: If I but strike quickly enough, and in secret, I shall destroy these others in their sleep, and there will be none to fight back; the earth shall be mine.
Such was the folly of princes, and there followed the Flame Deluge.

This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

Comments