Bookworms 2020

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Here is the 2020 thread

gettingtheresometime

Well I finished The Career of Evil as well as Lethal White & Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) & must admit I throughly enjoyed them.

I'm now listening to The Glass House by Eve Chase. 

elsien

Just finished The Girls by Emma Cline
Allegedly a fictionalised account of life with the Manson cult.
It really didn't do it for me at all. Too slow, couldn't really get interested in the main character and her teenage angst, her older self was just boring, not what I was expecting and doesn't merit the 4 stars it's given on the review sites.
I would give it a resounding "don't  bother. "

pollypenny

I've read Metropolis by Philip Kerr, a Bernie Gunther crime book. However, this one is set before the war, with the growth of the Nazis and Berlin's decadence.  Very good. 

I eventually started The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, which my friend lent me last March, but I couldn't face another dystopian novel in our situation.  I cannot put it down. Excellent stuff from Atwood, as usual, with echoes of the simplistic religious nuts we see in Trumps America. 

Wednesday2000

elsien said:

Just finished The Girls by Emma Cline
Allegedly a fictionalised account of life with the Manson cult.
It really didn't do it for me at all. Too slow, couldn't really get interested in the main character and her teenage angst, her older self was just boring, not what I was expecting and doesn't merit the 4 stars it's given on the review sites.
I would give it a resounding "don't  bother. "

I had that book on my kindle for ages and I couldn't get into it so I deleted it. It did get really good reviews and that was what made me buy it.

Next up for me is The Sanitorium by Sarah Pearse.

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

ruby_eskimo

@pollypenny I love the Bernie Gunther books, I think Metropolis is the only one I haven't read yet but is on the list when I'm allowing myself to buy books again.  Also loved The Testaments but wish I'd re-read The Handmaid's tale before because I couldn't remember half the things that happened!

Finished Dark Tides by Philippa Gregory over the weekend and was definitely not as good as Tidelands - the ending was a bit open ended so I'm sure there will probably be a third in the series.

On to The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, another one on the 1001 list - it's only 200 pages so should finish it quite quickly.  It's a man's life story recounted in the first person to an unknown stranger he meets at a café and seems to be rather engaging so far.

pollypenny

Ruby, I'm not keen on Philippa Gregory, but I liked The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Thought-provoking. 

dolly84

I've just finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  I never read it as a child but it is quite something that despite that I knew pretty much the whole story, some books are just that well known I suppose.  My copy is from the 1960's and also has Through the Looking Glass which I will read later.

Wednesday2000

I finally read The Sanatorium yesterday, it was "The spine-tingling Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick" but I thought it was fairly boring. I did read to the end just to see who the killer was. I didn't understand something about the ending either, which was annoying!   

I am about to start The Guest List - Lucy Foley.

On an island off the windswept Irish coast, guests gather for the wedding of the year – the marriage of Jules Keegan and Will Slater. Old friends. Past grudges. Happy families. Hidden jealousies. Thirteen guests. One body.
 The wedding cake has barely been cut when one of the guests is found dead. And as a storm unleashes its fury on the island, everyone is trapped.

ruby_eskimo

pollypenny I only started reading Philippa Gregory last year and kind of like it - not amazing but I find them easy reads.  Also really enjoyed The Reluctant Fundamentalist, can see why it's on the 1001 list.

dolly84, I've had Alice on my bookshelf for years and never read it because I think I just know the story but I'm sure there's things I've forgotten.  You've made me determined to actually read it this year.

Since then I've also read:

- Rosewater Insurrection by Tade Thompson, a follow up to Rosewater and really enjoyed getting to know more about the characters in the first novel
- The Home Edit and The Home Edit Life as I enjoyed watching the series on Netflix.  Gave me a couple more ideas of things to do to help organise my home a little better but really glad I got both from the library and didn't actually purchase them
- Walden by Henry David Thoreau which I waited so long for from the library, I completely forgot why I wanted to read it.  Must admit I skimmed a large portion of the beginning because it wasn't really interesting to me, but once he started talking more about his experiences of living in the wilderness, I found it more enjoyable
- Rosewater Redemption by Tade Thompson, which was the final in the Rosewater trilogy and not that good really, as often happens with some modern trilogies I find.  Still, a nice ending but could have happened a lot quicker in a less confusing way.
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a re-read for bookclub and one of my favourite books
- Falling Man by Don DeLillo, another 1001 list book and set in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks.  Really interesting take on the whole thing from multiple perspectives and I really liked that you didn't get to hear the whole story of the main character until the very end, which helped put some of his behaviour and thoughts into perspective a little more.

Now I'm reading Eat a Peach by David Chang, which is his memoir of how he got into cooking and became a successful chef, which may sound boring but he's had a very interesting and unconventional journey to get to where he is and it's told with a lot of humour and honesty which I like.