Bookworms 2020

elsien

Cocketts said:

Just found this thread - it's wonderful. I have already ordered a fair few from my library!
Can anybody recommend any dystopian-type books.  I loved 'Last Light' (or was it First Light?) and the follow-on book where they were all living on the oil rig out at sea......

Not sure if this is what you have in mind, but have you read
When the floods came - Clare Morrall 
The Last of Us - Rob Ewing
The Louise Welsh - a lovely way to burn series.
There's another one in similar vein which I enjoyed as well, but don't remember the title at the moment. 

Then of course there's the Margaret Atwood Maddadam series. 

Flat_Eric

In my local library today, they had books wrapped in newspaper with a quote on the front.  So you picked a book blind. Such a great idea.

dolly84

Rosa - I quite like reading books aimed at kids from time to time.  Goodnight Mr Tom is a favourite of mine which I re-read often but I never read it as a child.  I blooming love foxes so I may keep an eye out for that.

Wednesday2000

Talking of children's books - I felt like rereading the Malory Towers books and I have put them on my kindle but not got around to reading them yet! I used to love them as a kid.

I did see that there is a Peter Pan book on audible that looked worth listening to as well.

Rupert Everett (The Happy Prince, My Best Friend's Wedding) stars as Captain Hook alongside Adeel Akhtar (Four Lions, Killing Eve) as Smee, Gerran Howell (Catch-22, Emerald City) as Peter Pan and Eleanor Worthington Cox (Maleficent, Britannia) as Wendy alongside a full cast.

To mark the launch of this drama, Audible will be donating to Great Ormond Street Hospital, to whom J.M. Barrie unexpectedly and generously gifted his copyright of Peter Pan.

Rosa_Damascena

Book 9: 9/10, I'm not going to name it as it may antagonise some, but it's a book written by the academic historian Schlomo Sand, and translated into English. It popped out at me from its place on the library shelf, and I read it feeling that I need my views to be challenged - and this book did that in spades in just 113 pages. It went from examining issues of identity to history to genocide, to the thorny politics of Israel. It's the kind of book that you need to make constant references to other sources to fully appreciate and deconstruct the arguments made, but it was worth it.

Btw elsien - I read Washington Black last year and loved it.

Wednesday2000

I only just finished that Comfy Morning Routine book just now.

I'm going to start 10% Happier - Dan Harris today

Dan Harris always believed the restless, relentless, impossible-to-satisfy voice in his head was one of his greatest assets. How else can you climb the ladder in an ultra-competitive field like TV news except through nonstop hand-wringing and hyper vigilance? For a while, his strategy worked. Harris anchored national broadcasts and he covered wars. Then he hit the brakes, and had a full-blown panic attack live on the air. What happened next was completely unforeseen. Through a bizarre series of events - involving a disgraced evangelical pastor, a mysterious self-help guru and a fateful gift from his wife - Harris stumbled upon something that helped him tame the voice in his head: meditation. 

betasam

10. Finally finished The Secret Barrister - I don't think that it is a book that you're supposed to enjoy but it was eye-opening! It has been passed on to my niece who is studying Law at A-Level.
I often read children's/YA books - I'm fairly sure there will be some on my 2020 read list!

Rosa_Damascena

VfM4meplse said:

Book 5:



7/10. Another quick read for me, but a very poignant one telling the story of Asia Bibi charting her first two years in jail (you may remember, she and her family finally found safety in Canada last year after being sentenced to death for drinking from a well in the middle of June). She herself is illiterate, so the book was written by an interested journalist from verbal accounts via her husband, in response to her questions - the pair have never actually met. It describes a different world: one where people have very little materially, but a lot of love for their families and a great deal of dignity. Its not however the place to attempt a theological conversation as there is a lot of prejudice and spite. Despite all this, her faith remained strong. Inspiring.

Is anyone watching BBC4 atm? There is a Storyville documentary featuring this case. This is a dreadful state of affairs, we may as well have wound the clock back 500 years.

Rosa_Damascena

Book 10:

7/10. Great personal stories from some very prominent people as well as everyday folk who had faced tough times and come through the other side. It made me think that I needed to re-read Bob Geldof's autobiography, bits of which I remember from 30 years ago, as well as Clive Stafford-Smith's book on Guantanamo.  What really took the edge off the book for me was labouring under the false impression that the author's two children had died. Reading the introduction at a later stage, it was clear that it was not her, but a close friend had lost her children. That really skewed my opinion of her.

dolly84

I have finished 'The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle' by Stuart Turton.  This was really, really good.  The author describes it as a time travelling, body hopping, Agatha Christie locked room mystery, it must have taken one heck of a lot of organisation on his part to keep track of the story.  It is about a party at a once fine but now decrepit country pile, there is a murder which must be solved, the person tasked with solving it wakes up in a different guests body each day for 8 days, there are so many twists and turns and if you decide to read it just keep reading and enjoying it rather than trying to make sense of it as it all unfolds and becomes clear as it progresses.

Have now started reading The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber, this over 800 pages long - that should keep me quiet for a bit.