February Book Thread

[Jalapeñomel]

Feb 5, 2023 11:15:23 GMT -5 1yeartogo said:

Best book I read in January was There There by Tommy Orange. Really really powerful, highly recommend.

I read this a couple years ago and really liked it.

[eb777888]

Feb 4, 2023 1:10:57 GMT -5 al dente said:

Feb 2, 2023 17:05:24 GMT -5 eb777888 said:

My sister and my niece (she's 27) wanted to start a little book club between the three of us. Cool. The book my niece picked, which I don't think she realized at the time, was SO sexually graphic, like in a really vulgar way. And the writing was so bad and cheesy, which made the horrible vulgar sex parts even worse. I was laughing so hard in bed reading some of these lines. I have never read something so terrible in my life. I can't believe Goodreads rated it so high, like over 4* with like 200,000 reviews.

Anyway, when we finished the book, it was an awkward "um.... so what did you guys think of the book...." lolol

oh no is this mother daughter (your sister and niece)? Or also an aunt? I would prob feign illness on bookclub night if I recommend a sex book to my mom lol

Oh, they live in California. We don't get together or anything, just a group chain text. We hardly talked about this book because it was so bad. I just joked there were a couple of terms from the book I'd be happy to never hear again in my life and we laughed. The end. 

For the person who asked, the book is called Things We Never Got Over and it is literally the worst book I've ever read. 

[HoneySpider]

Recently finished The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer and LOVED it!

I started trying out audiobooks this year, finished my second one which was Bossypants by Tina Fey. It was funny and I enjoyed it, but some parts seemed...repetitive? Not sure if that is the right word. I don't know if it was because I was listening and not reading.

[hannahgruen]

ssmjlm I'm also reading Spare. What do you think? I'm not a royal follower, but I'm curious about his life.

[scm1011]

I just finished reading Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng which I really liked but didn’t love if that makes sense.

I’m listening to Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult on audible and enjoying it. Her books are very same-y for me, but good commuting / running books To listen to.

[ssmjlm]

Feb 10, 2023 15:31:54 GMT -5 hannahgruen said:

ssmjlm I'm also reading Spare. What do you think? I'm not a royal follower, but I'm curious about his life.

I think if people can't separate that he's a royal from the issues he has with his family, then people will think he's whining about being a prince.

If you can see that the death of his mother and the treatment of him by his father and brother led to his adulthood and wanting to protect his family at any cost, then it's a fascinating book.

The middle gets a little slow with his military time, but I think it's key to how it shaped when he had to be tactical with his relationships and eventual marriage.

[ny96]

I started Mickey 7 today by Edward Ashton. It’s an interplanetary sci fi novel which is not usually my genre, but I like Andy Weir. So far it’s pretty good. Lately most of the books I have been reading (including this one) have been recommendations from the NPR Books We Love page apps.npr.org/best-books/#view=covers&year=2022 and I haven’t had a bad read yet.

[eb777888]

I'm finishing up One Of The Girls by Lucy Clarke. I'm loving it. For anyone who's read The Hunting Party or The Guest List , it has that same feel. I love these mindless thrillers- a group of friends who are trapped in an isolated area and one is not who they seem to be...dun dun dun. It would be a really good vacation beach read.

[Jalapeñomel]

Feb 12, 2023 15:55:40 GMT -5 ny96 said:

I started Mickey 7 today by Edward Ashton. It’s an interplanetary sci fi novel which is not usually my genre, but I like Andy Weir. So far it’s pretty good. Lately most of the books I have been reading (including this one) have been recommendations from the NPR Books We Love page apps.npr.org/best-books/#view=covers&year=2022 and I haven’t had a bad read yet.

Oh this looks like a fabulous list!

[turbo]

I just finished Shantaram. Read it in five days and bought the sequel. I never thought I’d enjoy it that much, and it dragged at times, but overall it was great. Unfortunately my H read it so long ago that he doesn’t remember much of it, so I have no one to discuss it with…. 🤣

[CrazyLucky]

I love these threads. I always get a few good recommendations.

I read Personal, which is another Jack Reacher book. I like Jack Reacher books because I like mysteries and they are quick easy reads. But are there any Jack Reacher books where the twist is something besides there's a good guy who is actually bad?

I also read We Are the Light by Matthew Quick. I knew the author growing up and really liked Silver Lining Playbook, so I wanted to like this, but I did not.

[rupertpenny]

I recently finished The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras. It is a memoir, but more a memoir of a whole family than of just the author. She is a Colombian-American woman who comes from a line of curanderos. The whole thing was fascinating and the writing was great.

[bears]

Feb 5, 2023 9:03:54 GMT -5 mcppalmbeach said:

Feb 3, 2023 9:15:36 GMT -5 bears said:

mcppalmbeach , I just finished The Candy House. It was really well written, but I didn't like it--it was one of those books I figured out I didn't like too far in to stop reading. I felt like the vignettes were too loosely related and I wish it got more into the meat of the collective unconscious. I felt like Lincoln's chapter would have been more effective (and interesting) later on in the book.

I started Cloud Cuckoo Land last night. It seems interesting so far and I liked All the Light We Cannot See, but I was emotionally spent after reading that book. Wondering if this one will do the same.

I just finished a re-read of two books in the Oxford Time Travel Series, Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis. The book centers around historians who time travele to WW2 England on assignment and get stranded in the Blitz. I think this was my third read and every time I read more details reveal themselves to me.

bears I feel you on The Candy House. It’s one of those books that I wish someone I knew who was really good with analysis would have read with me. I think there’s something really interesting there about human connections and our collective need to know “everything” in the age of social media and some other really good topics, but I need a leader to help me flesh them out. My brain is kaput.

Cloud Cuckoo Land was one of my favorite books last year. It is amazing. However, it’s one of the hardest books I’ve read in a while. Another one that needs some really detailed unraveling. Did you stick with it or move on?

I don't think there's anything with your brain with not making connectsion with The Candy House. I thought it was well written, maybe not well edited, and I didn't like it. It reminded me a bit of Don Delillo/White Noise in that the stories were too loosely connected for me to get very much out of them. 

I liked Cloud Cuckoo Land, but I felt like the book never really connected deeply enough with the 5(?) characters in the arcs. Zeno was my favorite character in the book, and probably the one we got to know the "best," but I don't think it was quite enough for me.  I thought Seymour's character very cliche and the connections with Konstance were a bit tentative. It was good, but flawed. Not nearly as heavy as All the Light we Cannot See.