1Shrike58
I ought to wrap up Echo of Worlds on Saturday. Starting Moscow 1937 because it's a brick that's going to take a week or so. I'm also working The Settler Sea in there.
Tried to read Exadelic, but it turned out to be quite bad. About half-way through Warships after London.
Tried to read Exadelic, but it turned out to be quite bad. About half-way through Warships after London.
2rocketjk
I've just reached the halfway point of The Fortune of the Rougons by Emile Zola. I'm enjoying it so far.
3JulieLill
My Mama, Cass: A Memoir
Owen Elliot-Kugell
4/5 stars
Wonderful biography of Cass Eliot by her daughter. Definitely for fans of The Mamas and the Papas! One Last Ruth Reichl Book and 8 Biographies
Owen Elliot-Kugell
4/5 stars
Wonderful biography of Cass Eliot by her daughter. Definitely for fans of The Mamas and the Papas! One Last Ruth Reichl Book and 8 Biographies
4fredbacon
>1 Shrike58: I found Moscow 1937 to be a very interesting book even if a bit uneven. Some sections read more like notes for a chapter.
I finished Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire last weekend. It was a well-written history of Mesopotamian history from the Assyrian perspective. It's difficult to cover two or three millennia in four hundred pages.
This week I finished Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv by Andrej Kurkow. It was an engaging story of an odd group of characters living in Lviv, Ukraine in 2010. Written after the Orange Revolution of 2004 but before the Maidan Revolution of Dignity of 2013/2014, it depicts a nation in transition trying to shake off it's post-Soviet reality and trying to find a new, more western perspective. It's a charming story that I was sad to see end. I was having such a good time with everyone: aging hippies, an ex-KGB agent, a medical school dropout who makes a living driving kidney stone patients over the cobblestone streets of Lviv, a foreign currency exchange booth teller who is allergic to money, and a drunken sailor who may-or may not-have escaped from a writer's novel in progress after being cut from the story. Kurkov doesn't manage to tie up all of the loose ends, but I don't think that he wanted to. He wanted it to be as messy and varied as life. It's the loose threads that give life its texture.
Now I've started The Strategists by Phillips Payson O'Brien. It's a group portrait of how the big five leaders in WWII conceived and implemented their national strategies. It's looking interesting, but I'm still puzzled by his description of an "ostentatiously simple vegetarian meal".
I finished Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire last weekend. It was a well-written history of Mesopotamian history from the Assyrian perspective. It's difficult to cover two or three millennia in four hundred pages.
This week I finished Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv by Andrej Kurkow. It was an engaging story of an odd group of characters living in Lviv, Ukraine in 2010. Written after the Orange Revolution of 2004 but before the Maidan Revolution of Dignity of 2013/2014, it depicts a nation in transition trying to shake off it's post-Soviet reality and trying to find a new, more western perspective. It's a charming story that I was sad to see end. I was having such a good time with everyone: aging hippies, an ex-KGB agent, a medical school dropout who makes a living driving kidney stone patients over the cobblestone streets of Lviv, a foreign currency exchange booth teller who is allergic to money, and a drunken sailor who may-or may not-have escaped from a writer's novel in progress after being cut from the story. Kurkov doesn't manage to tie up all of the loose ends, but I don't think that he wanted to. He wanted it to be as messy and varied as life. It's the loose threads that give life its texture.
Now I've started The Strategists by Phillips Payson O'Brien. It's a group portrait of how the big five leaders in WWII conceived and implemented their national strategies. It's looking interesting, but I'm still puzzled by his description of an "ostentatiously simple vegetarian meal".
5PaperbackPirate
I'm reading Dust Child by Que Mai Phan Nguyen and so far I like it.
6ahef1963
I love the two books that I currently have on the go. Just today I started reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, and I'm enchanted. It's such a huge book, over 1000 pages and I'm notoriously bad at not finishing large tomes. I do hope I can stay interested for that long!
I'm listening to Peony by Pearl S. Buck. It's a lovely story, set in 1850s amongst the Kaifeng Jews.
I'm listening to Peony by Pearl S. Buck. It's a lovely story, set in 1850s amongst the Kaifeng Jews.
7BookConcierge
Instructions For Dancing – Nicola Yoon
3***
Evie doesn’t believe in love anymore. Not after she found her father in the arms of his lover, and her parents subsequently divorced. But then on a trip to a little free library, she comes across an unusual volume – “Instructions for Dancing.” It’s a manual and the flyleaf says it’s the property of a dance studio, so she decides to return it to the studio. The next thing she knows, Evie is paired with a boy named X, learning to waltz, fox-trot and tango. Oh, and she’s acquired an unusual ability to see a couple’s love story just by witnessing them kissing.
This is a charming YA romance with a young couple who have multiple family issues they have to navigate. I like that Yoon gives us reasons why Evie is so reluctant to give herself over to the potential of falling in love. I also really liked X. He’s a steady presence and a genuinely lovely young man – tender, accomplished, forward thinking, a gentleman. These two young people really shine.
However, I think Yoon could have left out the “visions” that Evie has when she spots a couple kissing. They just didn’t really support the story, in my opinion. Although, I suppose I understand the message of enjoying the moment and not over-thinking the future.
8Molly3028
started this eBook via Libby ~
A Spinster's Guide to Danger and Dukes
by Manda Collins
(Ladies Most Scandalous, #3)
A Spinster's Guide to Danger and Dukes
by Manda Collins
(Ladies Most Scandalous, #3)
9JulieLill
Shift Happens: The History of Labor in the United States
J. Albert Mann
4/5 stars
This was a fascinating book about the history of labor in the United States. It discusses exploitation of workers including child workers, miners who wanted to unionize, textile workers wanting wages that would cover their expenses and have left over money and organizing Uber drivers. Non-Fiction
J. Albert Mann
4/5 stars
This was a fascinating book about the history of labor in the United States. It discusses exploitation of workers including child workers, miners who wanted to unionize, textile workers wanting wages that would cover their expenses and have left over money and organizing Uber drivers. Non-Fiction
10rocketjk
I finished up the very enjoyable The Fortune of the Rougons, the first book in Emile Zola's 20-book Les Rougon-Macquart series about life in France during the Second Empire. I've posted a review on my Club Read thread.
I've decided to stick with my classic French series, moving back into Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time with the third book in the series, The Guermantes Way. This is another doorstop, of course, checking in a 595 pages in my 2005 Penguin Classics edition (with a modern translation by Mark Treharne). The book is comprised of Part I, Part II: Chapter 1 and Part II: Chapter 2. Given that Proust's prose is does not always provide the swiftest reading, and given how long it took me to read through the series' second entry, I think I'm going to break this book up and read it one of those three sections at a time. So I'll start with the 300 pages of Part I and then break things up with something else, and so on. I knew you'd all find this fascinating. :)
I've decided to stick with my classic French series, moving back into Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time with the third book in the series, The Guermantes Way. This is another doorstop, of course, checking in a 595 pages in my 2005 Penguin Classics edition (with a modern translation by Mark Treharne). The book is comprised of Part I, Part II: Chapter 1 and Part II: Chapter 2. Given that Proust's prose is does not always provide the swiftest reading, and given how long it took me to read through the series' second entry, I think I'm going to break this book up and read it one of those three sections at a time. So I'll start with the 300 pages of Part I and then break things up with something else, and so on. I knew you'd all find this fascinating. :)
11JulieLill
White House Wild Child: How Alice Roosevelt Broke All the Rules and Won the Heart of America
by Shelley Fraser Mickle
4/5 star
Interesting biography of Alice Roosevelt, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt!
by Shelley Fraser Mickle
4/5 star
Interesting biography of Alice Roosevelt, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt!
12BookConcierge
A Fatal Thaw – Dana Stabenow
Book on CD narrated by Marguerite Gavin.
3***
Book number two in the mystery series featuring Aleut private investigator Kate Shugak. This one starts with a bang, as a deranged serial killer goes on a rampage killing people at random. Kate (along with her trusty wolf-Husky mix, Mutt) stops the guy. Case solved. Or is it?
Stabenow writes a great thriller/mystery. I love the setting in a very rural part of Alaska, and the way she incorporates some Aleut culture into the mix. Kate is a very strong woman and a marvelous lead character. She’s intelligent, resourceful, determined, observant, and kind, but she does not hold back when toughness is required. It’s no wonder she’s earned the trust of not only the authorities, but also the village residents and tribal elders. And I just love Mutt!
Marguerite Gavin does a great job of performing the audiobook. Her diction is clear and she sets a good pace.
