The Bookworm's Thread 2016

VfM4meplse

pollypenny wrote: »

Book group on Go Set a Watchman last week. Our latest member, who hasn't been all summer, hadn't finished it - again! She's so half-hearted, as well as bloody miserable, I'd love to get rid of her. But how?

Surely it's her loss, that's enough of a sanction?

Let me know how you find Go Set A Watchman, it's amongst hundreds of others in my bookshelf that need to be read.

Wednesday2000

I've been reading quite a bit now the weather is getting a bit chillier.

Jennifer McMahon (New York Times best-selling author)- The Winter People. I have another of her books lined up to read called The Night Sister.

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes - David Grann.

Gwendolyn

I am a huge bookworm - on a good week I'll read 5 books and sometimes it takes a fortnight to finish one.


In order to broaden my horizons and stop spending so much I've joined the library. It's a small local one with limited choice although you can order in books - you have to pay fees.


As I've read over 15 books in the last month, I'll start with a truly great one - My Grandmother sends her regards and apologies by Fredrick Backman. One I'm glad I bought in paperback as I'll be returning to re-read.

missbiggles1

pollypenny wrote: »

I love Amy Tan, too. Not read any for a while, but I kept her books when I had my major clear-out.

I'm plodding through a boring thriller - oxymoron, I know. The Black Echo by Michael Connelly. It was passed on by a lovely woman from my tai chi class, so I will read it.

Book group on Go Set a Watchman last week. Our latest member, who hasn't been all summer, hadn't finished it - again! She's so half-hearted, as well as bloody miserable, I'd love to get rid of her. But how?

I'm supposed to be reading "Goodnight Mr Tom" by Friday. Not my sort of thing but fortunately I have an iron clad excuse for not going.:D

Hopefully your uncommitted member is drifting away from the group - those are the usual signs that this is what is happening IME.

missbiggles1

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I've read a lot of stuff for work recently.

Fiction-wise I'm stuck on this one:



I love the author, but I'm struggling with how horrible the narrator is to her own sister, even as an adult. I'm not sure I'm going to get very far with it

Does it actually matter?

Literature is full of characters who are horrible - you aren't going to have to go for a meal with them IRL.

Gwendolyn

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I'm supposed to be reading "Goodnight Mr Tom" by Friday. Not my sort of thing but fortunately I have an iron clad excuse for not going.:D

Hopefully your uncommitted member is drifting away from the group - those are the usual signs that this is what is happening IME.

Goodnight Mr Tom is one of my all time favourite books.


That's the thing with book clubs - it makes me read books that I would never choose myself and sometimes I am happily surprised. Sometimes I have to struggle through the book though! One person's idea of a great book is another's nightmare!


I am supposed to be reading Burial Rites by Hannah Kent for mine and I really can't get on with historical novels.

Hobsons_Choice

Husband has bought me the latest Jilly Cooper book "Mount" (£7.99 from Sainsbugs).
A heavy tome, so won't be carting about, but now half-way through and I'm really enjoying a comic 'romp' instead of my usual crime/adventure novels.
Love Jilly Cooper and have read all of her previous books.

missbiggles1

Gwendolyn wrote: »

Goodnight Mr Tom is one of my all time favourite books.


That's the thing with book clubs - it makes me read books that I would never choose myself and sometimes I am happily surprised. Sometimes I have to struggle through the book though! One person's idea of a great book is another's nightmare!


I am supposed to be reading Burial Rites by Hannah Kent for mine and I really can't get on with historical novels.

I always said that at the start - I never realised there were so many books in the world that I didn't want to read.:(

I've been a member for over 8 years and so must have read over 70 books chosen by others (probably about 65 novelists, allowing for doubling up). I've gone on to read other books by about 10% of the writers and reasonably enjoyed about another 10% or so, making around 50 books I haven't really thought worth reading.

I have quite eclectic tastes but we have one member who won't read sci fi or historical novels and a couple of people who dislike reading books written in the 19th century because (and I quote) "they're written in olde worlde English" so we read an enormously disproportionate selection of run of the mill modern novels.

Apologies for the mini rant - it really pees me off!

VfM4meplse

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Does it actually matter?

Literature is full of characters who are horrible - you aren't going to have to go for a meal with them IRL.

Lol :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

There is a childlike innocence about this adult character, what is captured is the reality of life of those born and raised in other counties, in this case China. When she is called a retard (a word I find particularly hateful) by her younger siblings friends for not understanding English she is puzzled by the word and asks in her broken vernacular "what is lee-tard?". I found that so poignant and sad in combination with what had already occurred in the book, it was there that I stopped reading.

I was walking through the West End one aftenoon last week at around 4.30pm, after school finished for the day. The privately educated kids I saw gathered in bunches on street corners were in high spirits, and the word "retard" was bandied about like nobody's business amongst each other. Their parents must be so proud.

pollypenny

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Surely it's her loss, that's enough of a sanction?

Let me know how you find Go Set A Watchman, it's amongst hundreds of others in my bookshelf that need to be read.

I love it! I bought, in Manchester Airport, on the day it was published last year, as I love To Kill a Mockingbird.

It needs more careful reading in the latter part, as there is much discussion of the Black fight for equality and resistance it met in the south.