Bred Any Good Rooks Lately?

Grant87

Kurben said:

Grant87 said:

cat said:

Haven't contributed in a while. Here's a few of what I've read this year. 

The Dismembered Jonathan Janz Cemetery Dance. Gothic horror, had some Frankenstein flavors. Pretty good.

The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro First book for me by this author and I loved it. 


*Water For Elephants Sara Gruen 
Have had this one forever, and have watched the movie. Some slight differences but this one was really good. 

*Where They Wait Scott Carson 
Liked this a lot, had me thinking about vivid dreams and insomnia, which I suffer from a lot. 

*Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing Matthew Perry 
I was excited to read this. Am glad I did but it did change my opinion of MP overall, which makes me sad. I don't like knowing he was so unhappy, so high, during filming of Friends so often. Chandler was always my favorite. 


*The Maid Anita Prose 
Pretty great little who-dun-it. I enjoyed it a lot. 

Goblin Josh Malerman 
Short stories that all connect to one town. I admire the effort but only really liked a couple of the stories. 

I really want to check out some of Ishiguro's work. Justin Cronin talked about how Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go was a big influence on The Ferryman, so I have it on my TBR.

I didn't like Goblin at all. My favorite part was the introduction "story." It was a big letdown for me, because it has one of the best covers I've seen in a while. Malerman is very hit or miss for me, and it seems like that's how it is for a lot of people. I really liked his newest novel, Daphne. I'd recommend giving that one a read. Bird Box is really good too.

I can recommend Ishiguro. His novels often cross boundaries. There is often an aspect of SF or fantasy, alternate history to them. I have only read three of his, Never Let Me Go, The Remains Of The Day and The Buried Giant, but he hasn't let me down yet.

That's great to hear. All three of those sound intriguing. I've seen the movie adaptation of Never Let Me Go, but we all know the book is almost always better. 

cat

Started The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks. I very much enjoyed his first book of short stories. The first 15 or so pages of this one had me wondering a bit but then it switched gears and I am fully interested now. Only 56 pages in, though. (Of 499) Will report back when I'm done! 

Hedda Gabler

Cat, did you read tj klune’s follow up books?

cat

Hedda Gabler said:

Cat, did you read tj klune’s follow up books?

I haven't read any TJ Klune, sorry! On my list but haven't gotten there. Must be thinking of someone else? 

Grant87

cat said:

Started The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks. I very much enjoyed his first book of short stories. The first 15 or so pages of this one had me wondering a bit but then it switched gears and I am fully interested now. Only 56 pages in, though. (Of 499) Will report back when I'm done! 

I'm curious about this one. Looking forward to your thoughts on it.

Kurben

When i ended my time at the Court of Appeal in Stockholm they gave my a parting gift, some credit in a book store. I used it today and got Night, Sleep, Death, The Stars by Joyce Carol Oates and Never, a thriller by Ken Follett. In my experience you very seldom go wrong with Oates. You may or may not like her subjects but her writing is top notch. A Follett thriller is a kind of hit or miss for me. I hope this one is a hit. If not, it  did not cost anything so what does it matter. Now i just need to wait a bit for the mood you need to sink into an Oates novel. 

Hedda Gabler

cat said:

Hedda Gabler said:

Cat, did you read tj klune’s follow up books?

I haven't read any TJ Klune, sorry! On my list but haven't gotten there. Must be thinking of someone else? 

I would have bet my life it was you! Good thing I didn’t have to actually bet my life or I’d be so very,  very dead. 

Who the heck recommended that to me?

Kurben

Finished Never by Ken Follett. One of his thrillers. Kept me reading and is good enough but not really memorable. I think i prefer his historical novels. They have better atmosphere and the characters somehow feel more alive. One good thing about is that this is not one of the usual hero thrillers but here a lot of people of very different nationalities are struggling to avoid war. The scenario painted out in the book is sadly not unrealistic.

Lou_Sytsma

Finished Hell Bent, the second book in the Galaxy - Alex - Stern books. Takes awhile to get going but the last third is a runaway freight train. Stayed up till 3am to finish reading it. Been awhile since that's happened to me.

Hedda Gabler

I’ve got so many books going. I need to dedicate myself.  The one I am trying to steadily work through is:

Don Quixote. 

I really am enjoying it but it is a very focus driven book so it is making me work my focus muscle — hard. 

Kurben

Read Night Soldiers by Alan Furst. Supposed to be very good in spy kind a novels set in the 30,s and 40,s. He is a bit different from the others in the foeld in that he focus many of his characters on communist side. In this book the main character is a bulgarian fisherboy that is recruited and trained to be a spy for the sovjets. In spite of the difference it doesnt make the book really good, readable, yes but not good. Oh, and this is not the thriller kind of spy novel its more of the novel kind of spy novel. I guess a model could have been Graham Greene. Perhaps i am unjust towards him, this is his first book after all, but it did not leave me aching for more of his work. But perhaps the others are better??

Kurben

Reading Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas. The third part in the five part series of books in Three Musketeer series. This is a complete english translation. The one i had, in swedish, was rather heavily abridged. Have just started but i see, just about ten chapters in, that several chapters has been totally dismissed in my translation. I plan to continue with book 4 and 5, Louise de la Valliere and The Man In the Iron Mask. In these books our heroes are older, about 50 for D'Artagnan and a few more years for the other three. They are not as impulsive as they once was and the differences between them is wider now than in their youth. But Dumas never loses his grasp over his many major and minor characters many of whom are historical. It will take some time for each book is about 650 pages long. So i have 2000 pages of reading before me!!

GNTLGNT

...so you'll be done in like 3 hours and 20 minutes....

Hedda Gabler

Kurben is a speed reader who also retains what he reads. 

I read a page and realize, wait, what did I just read?

GNTLGNT

....I retain fluid.....

Hedda Gabler

GNTLGNT said:

....I retain fluid.....

Oh my gawdddd I laughed. 

Hedda Gabler

Hopefully ALL of you are aware of Caitlin Doughty from her Ask A Mortician youtube channel. She is smart and hilarious. Demystifying death with such interesting topics with respect to all aspects and the people she learned from — the dead. Okay, some living people taught her stuff too. 
Anyway, she is an author and I am just finishing up — Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big questions from tiny mortals about death. 

Yes. She is answering questions she has gotten from children, but in no way does she talk down to her target audience with the answers. And kids questions are honest with no shame or embarrassment in asking. I have seriously enjoyed this book. 

Did you know, when Paris was under siege in the late 16th century everyone was starving. After all the animals were gone, including cats, dogs, rats, birds etc. , they dug up bodies from the mass graves, took the bones and ground into flour to make Madame de Montpensier’s bread. As Caitlin says, “bone appetit!” This was in the chapter— Why Don’t Bugs Eat People’s Bones?

Quick read with other great resources listed in the back. 

cat

Been a very busy few weeks but I did finish The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks. 

Overall I very much enjoyed it. I did not care so much for the behind-the-scenes movie making parts in the beginning. But it all came together nicely. 

I have to say, Mr Hanks is absolutely wonderful at bringing his characters to life. They are what kept me reading. I loved them all. I suppose as an actor, he has a special insight into making characters on the page believable. And he does so, seemingly effortlessly. I would not hesitate to read another in this vein, that's how much I loved the people populating the pages. They were simply wonderful. I would recommend, absolutely. 

BevVincent

cat said:

*Follow the Crumbs by our Marsha DeFilippo
I really enjoyed it, the mystery was solid, the characters real and relatable. Check it out when it comes available!  

Stephen King shares his excitement at discovering if the student is ready to supplant the master

FlakeNoir

BevVincent said:

cat said:

*Follow the Crumbs by our Marsha DeFilippo
I really enjoyed it, the mystery was solid, the characters real and relatable. Check it out when it comes available!  

Stephen King shares his excitement at discovering if the student is ready to supplant the master

Currently reading this. 🙂

GNTLGNT

...not to sound trite, but she deserves the kudos and nice to see he has her six....

Lou_Sytsma

Finished - This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. It's a time travel war romance novella told from two viewpoints - Red & Blue. It's an amazing novella that alternates chapters between the two characters as they come to know each other, respect and appreciate their respective efforts to win the war, and come to fall in love with each other.

I've never read anything like it before. 

Kurben

I just got myself My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones. Is it any good?? Havent really dipped my feet in his output yet.

Lou_Sytsma

Kurben said:

I just got myself My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones. Is it any good?? Havent really dipped my feet in his output yet.

He has a unique writing style. You will either like it or not.

Kurben

Decided i need a little update on the subject of mammal evolution so i bought myself Rise and Reign of the Mammals by Steve Brusatte. Written this year. Humans has from the beginning of science been a bit dividing different eras into popular names like the age of Reptiles, The age of Mammals or even the age of Humans which i always have found a bit arrogant. More describing of our obsession with size than anything else. Not really about how sucessful they are. Counted in number of species today we're far down the ladder, Dinosaurs (or Birds) 10.000 species, Fishes about 18.000 soecies and insects perhaps 150.000 species. Very successful animal groups. Mammals? 5.500 species and many are endangered. But they do have both the biggest landanimal (the Elephant) and the biggest seaanimal (the Bluewhale) so Age of Mammals it is. But their evolutionary history is very interesting and often overshadowed by dinosaurs in popularity so while most people today know what a T. Rex is not so many would know what the really fascinating, and much older, creature Dimetrodon was. Probably the best known of these early animals that would become mammals in due time.
I've read a few books on the subject before but this was on sale....