NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jun 18, 2021 15:40:18 GMT -5
Almost finished with Devolution by Max Brooks. The same author who wrote World War Z. It's good but I think that WWZ was better. This one I've struggled with getting through due to lack of interest or getting so annoyed at the characters. It feels like they spend way too much time going against their own best interests and surely nobody is that stupid. Then again people die regularly falling off the Grand Canyon taking selfies. People ask the RMNP rangers when are they going to release the elk into Estes. At least one person has been eaten trying to take a selfie with a bear. Not to mention all of 2020/COVID. So maybe the book pisses me off because it hits TOO close to home.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2021 16:40:37 GMT -5
The Hive by Gregg Olsen. I'm only on Chapter 18 but it's basically about a detective investigating murders that may (or may not) be linked to a sort of cult-based influencer, entrepreneur woman who founded an online retail empire and a guru-type colony on the claim that she was taken aloft by a bee swarm as a child so she and her products are linked to divine creation and fulfillment. It grabbed my attention from the 1st page because of good character development.
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Artemis Windsong
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The love in me salutes the love in you. M. Williamson
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Post by Artemis Windsong on Jun 19, 2021 15:06:07 GMT -5
My daughter and her best friend recommend The Murdered Family by Vernon Keel. It's about true life ND event and the murderer has never been caught. She said it's not graphic.
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happyhoix
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Post by happyhoix on Jun 20, 2021 21:36:47 GMT -5
Got to spend a wonderful noon visit to Barnes and noble to browse fir books. It was delightful. Got James McBrides book Deacon King Kong - he is so great at character development and is so funny. Good Lord Bird was also funny but different timeframe and style. We noyba few chapters in but it’s great so far.
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Artemis Windsong
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The love in me salutes the love in you. M. Williamson
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Post by Artemis Windsong on Jun 29, 2021 7:57:31 GMT -5
Book group outdid itself in choosing a book very inappropriate for me. Psychological drama. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaeladis.
The twist at the end just floored me. I don't know if the psychobabble in it is true such as an abuser was an abused child. Another, murderous rage, homicidal rage is not born in the present. It originates in the land before memory. The passage continues on how a mother comforts and guides babies through their frustrations of helplessness, dependence on feedings and cleaned after elimination.
And more.
"Love is deep, calm and constant." Cheater betrayers lack empathy, integrity, kindness. They are damaged. A childhood dynamic replaying. Pain of not being loved.
Taking all the psychobabble together, it explains why there is so much violence happening now.
My take away was I was able to read about frail mental psch, destroyed mental health and related topics.
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Artemis Windsong
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The love in me salutes the love in you. M. Williamson
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Post by Artemis Windsong on Jul 4, 2021 18:22:42 GMT -5
The Book Of Two Ways by Jody Picoult. The book I'm reading now is about a death doula. Then switches to an Egyptian tomb dig she was on in college then returned to 15 years later. It does have some information on reading hieroglyphs that I will not remember.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jul 4, 2021 18:55:22 GMT -5
Finished Ariadne by Jennifer Saint. It's a feminist take on the myth of Theseus and Dioynious.
I enjoyed it but liked Circe better. I felt this one beat you too much over the head with the "men are pieces of crap" troupe. I enjoyed the spin but still felt like too much focus was on the men because to drive home the theme it had to be.
Which is why I liked Circe better. It had the same underlying themes without taking so much focus away from Circe. Circe drove the plot. I feel there wasn't enough to Ariadne to drive an entire book so I still spent a ton of time with the male characters.
Not sure if I'm interested in more books along this line will continue to check out the others instead of buying.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Jul 4, 2021 19:06:37 GMT -5
My beach reading now is a Robin Cook on organ regeneration. Good plot, but the science he writes always pisses me off. I should know better.
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Artemis Windsong
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The love in me salutes the love in you. M. Williamson
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Post by Artemis Windsong on Aug 2, 2021 13:30:04 GMT -5
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah.
Bittersweet. It has great descriptions of living in Alaska but also has family abuse in those living conditions.
Andrea Bartz, The Herd.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2021 14:56:31 GMT -5
I'm about 1/2 way through Forget the Alamo and love it! Very readable, well-researched and documented, not the least bit dry.
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happyhoix
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Post by happyhoix on Aug 7, 2021 18:25:29 GMT -5
I had to read The Giver if Stars for our book club.
Let me say up front I hate the romance genre. Add to that, I thought this was a historical fiction book about the saddlebag libraries in the Appalachians. This was not only not historical, it had a lot of historical inaccuracies. Plus all the characters were 1 dimensional- either progressive, fabulous heros or sneering villains, with the main bad guy a malignant foghorn leghorn. Plus some covert homophobia thrown in.
I kept reading it because I thought surely it would improve. It did not.
I need to research these book club books before I buy them. Life is too short to waste time on bad books.
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saveinla
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Post by saveinla on Aug 7, 2021 19:52:37 GMT -5
I had to read The Giver if Stars for our book club. Let me say up front I hate the romance genre. Add to that, I thought this was a historical fiction book about the saddlebag libraries in the Appalachians. This was not only not historical, it had a lot of historical inaccuracies. Plus all the characters were 1 dimensional- either progressive, fabulous heros or sneering villains, with the main bad guy a malignant foghorn leghorn. Plus some covert homophobia thrown in. I kept reading it because I thought surely it would improve. It did not. I need to research these book club books before I buy them. Life is too short to waste time on bad books. Thanks for the review. I have been waffling on it for a while now - but somehow it did not appeal to me
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happyhoix
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Post by happyhoix on Aug 7, 2021 20:34:34 GMT -5
I had to read The Giver if Stars for our book club. Let me say up front I hate the romance genre. Add to that, I thought this was a historical fiction book about the saddlebag libraries in the Appalachians. This was not only not historical, it had a lot of historical inaccuracies. Plus all the characters were 1 dimensional- either progressive, fabulous heros or sneering villains, with the main bad guy a malignant foghorn leghorn. Plus some covert homophobia thrown in. I kept reading it because I thought surely it would improve. It did not. I need to research these book club books before I buy them. Life is too short to waste time on bad books. Thanks for the review. I have been waffling on it for a while now - but somehow it did not appeal to me Don’t get me wrong, fans of romance would love it. I’ve only ever liked one romance, Jane Eyre, and that’s because it had a crazy bitch trying to burn the house down. 😉
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Knee Deep in Water Chloe
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Post by Knee Deep in Water Chloe on Aug 8, 2021 10:44:25 GMT -5
I think I've already posted that I've started this, but I'm still reading Inside, Outside by Herman Wouk. It's brilliant writing, entertaining, plus slightly historical fiction. It's just 600 pages and not a quick read.
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steph08
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Post by steph08 on Aug 9, 2021 4:40:38 GMT -5
I fell off the reading wagon in April, which is unusual for me. However, I was super stressed with work, selling our old house, getting our builder to finish our new house, etc. I just didn't have the bandwidth for books, and I love books.
Back at it now and just finished "How to Find Love in a Bookshop." I enjoyed it, but with so many different characters, it didn't go too in-depth and it jumped back and forth a lot. It also wrapped up too tidily at the end.
I think I'm going to re-read Harry Potter next for probably the 18th or 20th time. We just rewatched all the movies (cable at new house didn't get hooked up until this past Friday), and I'm Jonesing to read the books again.
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azucena
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Post by azucena on Aug 9, 2021 16:49:48 GMT -5
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Artemis Windsong
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The love in me salutes the love in you. M. Williamson
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Post by Artemis Windsong on Aug 11, 2021 8:19:35 GMT -5
Julie Clark, The Last Flight. Interesting twists.
I did not finish The Lost Night by Andrea Bartz. There was too much 20 something conversations like we were at this party, wore this, this person said this and that. I did read the last half of the last chapter to see who did the murder.
The Boy From the Woods by Harlan Coben. I'm just starting it.
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snapdragon
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Post by snapdragon on Aug 12, 2021 11:48:45 GMT -5
Almost finished with Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet: Boundless. This whole series has been a good read.
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azucena
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Post by azucena on Aug 20, 2021 11:11:47 GMT -5
DD13, DD9, and I have read 4,215 books from the St. Louis County Library since 7/1/2010. That's 383/yr or roughly one per day. I figure we've save about $60,000 at $15/book. Compare that to the occasional late fee, DH.
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Artemis Windsong
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The love in me salutes the love in you. M. Williamson
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Post by Artemis Windsong on Aug 31, 2021 11:24:47 GMT -5
Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan.
"Based on a true story of a forgotten hero . . .".
Based in Italy during the Nazi occupation.
---------- The book is one chosen by a library book group. It's very well written with a lot of twists and turns.
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gs11rmb
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Post by gs11rmb on Aug 31, 2021 11:49:15 GMT -5
The most recent mysteries I've read/listened to have been a bit of a mixed bag: "Mayflower Murders" by Anthony Horowitz was really disappointing. I've read and enjoyed his books before so was shocked that this was just sooooo boring. I just didn't care who committed either murder (it's a book within a book) and his attempts at recreating an Agatha Christie-like mystery fell flat. "The Plot" by Jean Hanff Korelitz was just OK. A failed author steals a plot from a student and someone finds out and starts tormenting him. The stolen plot is billed as one that's never been written about before but it wasn't actually anything original. Also, the tormentor is so glaringly obvious that I kept thinking it had to be red herring. It was not. Finally, it kind of reminded me of "The Lost Apothecary" where the protagonist doesn't tell the police, who have arrested her for attempted murder, her alibi because she was actually committing... trespass . All the writer needed to do was have a foreword to his book stating that the plot idea came from a student who died and didn't have the opportunity to actually write the book. It just felt very contrived although I did like the ending. "Troubled Blood" by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling's pseudonym) was very good but at almost 1,000 pages I opted for the audiobook! There's too much 'navel gazing' by the protagonists who are trying to sort out all of their feelings about life in general but the mystery is excellent. I didn't guess the killer!
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steph08
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Post by steph08 on Aug 31, 2021 18:08:24 GMT -5
I really enjoy the Cormoran Strike series, but they are getting so long!
I'm almost done with Woman in the Window right now - I already guessed one plot twist. I think I know the other but have about an hour's worth of reading to find out if I'm right!
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saveinla
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Post by saveinla on Aug 31, 2021 22:46:21 GMT -5
The most recent mysteries I've read/listened to have been a bit of a mixed bag: " Mayflower Murders" by Anthony Horowitz was really disappointing. I've read and enjoyed his books before so was shocked that this was just sooooo boring. I just didn't care who committed either murder (it's a book within a book) and his attempts at recreating an Agatha Christie-like mystery fell flat.
"The Plot" by Jean Hanff Korelitz was just OK. A failed author steals a plot from a student and someone finds out and starts tormenting him. The stolen plot is billed as one that's never been written about before but it wasn't actually anything original. Also, the tormentor is so glaringly obvious that I kept thinking it had to be red herring. It was not. Finally, it kind of reminded me of "The Lost Apothecary" where the protagonist doesn't tell the police, who have arrested her for attempted murder, her alibi because she was actually committing... trespass . All the writer needed to do was have a foreword to his book stating that the plot idea came from a student who died and didn't have the opportunity to actually write the book. It just felt very contrived although I did like the ending. "Troubled Blood" by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling's pseudonym) was very good but at almost 1,000 pages I opted for the audiobook! There's too much 'navel gazing' by the protagonists who are trying to sort out all of their feelings about life in general but the mystery is excellent. I didn't guess the killer! Totally agree on the Mayflower Murders - It took me a while to finish it.
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gs11rmb
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Post by gs11rmb on Sept 1, 2021 8:10:37 GMT -5
I really enjoy the Cormoran Strike series, but they are getting so long! I'm almost done with Woman in the Window right now - I already guessed one plot twist. I think I know the other but have about an hour's worth of reading to find out if I'm right! I stopped reading the "Woman in the Window" but think I'll go back and finish. It was interesting enough but wasn't really holding my attention. I agree with you on the length of the Strike series! I only read in bed now and I'm tired so I rarely get to read more than 30 minutes at a time. I'm also not the fastest reader so a thousand page book would take forever.
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Artemis Windsong
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The love in me salutes the love in you. M. Williamson
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Post by Artemis Windsong on Sept 4, 2021 17:21:26 GMT -5
Stranger by Harlan Coben
16 Lighthouse Road by Debbie Macomber
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich - decided not to read this one.
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snapdragon
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Post by snapdragon on Sept 9, 2021 10:31:19 GMT -5
I am re-reading the Guild Hunters Series by Nalini Singh and am on book 3 brushing up for the next book in the series coming out later this year.
Also had a very enjoyable read of Breaking Badger by Shelly Laurenston. She can make me crack up laughing for no real reason so I will take it.
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movingforward
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Post by movingforward on Sept 13, 2021 13:36:53 GMT -5
Just finished The Party by Robyn Harding
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Sept 13, 2021 14:49:48 GMT -5
I'm reading one of the Disney Twisted fairy tales. This one is called Go the Distance which involves Meg and Hercules.
Given what a huge Percy fan I am it seemed like a no brainer.
I am really enjoying this one. I didn't care for the beauty and the beast one. I got bored with the Frozen one.
I might try the Rapunzel one and the Ariel one.
I am also reading The Girl who circumvented fairyland in a ship of her own making.
I found it in a second hand store in Nederland. The narrative feels like a cross between Tim Burton and Pans Labyrinth. I am going to try to find the second book after I finish.
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Artemis Windsong
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The love in me salutes the love in you. M. Williamson
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Post by Artemis Windsong on Sept 13, 2021 18:43:35 GMT -5
The Clover Girls by Viola Shipman. It's about 4 friends who meet at girls camp and then the friendship gets broken. One of the 4 dies bringing the girls together to scatter her ashes at the camp lake. A lot of hurts from girl hood are being healed as adults.
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azucena
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Post by azucena on Sept 14, 2021 7:38:42 GMT -5
Just started Fast, Feast, Repeat and got about a third thru last night. Everything the author says makes so much sense in part because she does a great job explaining just enough of the science. Started the morning with black coffee and have set my eating window from 12 to six. I need to make changes for weight loss and health, and this seems doable.
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