Book a Week 2016 - BW23: Think about it fiction

[Lady Florida.]

I keep getting farther behind on this thread, and tomorrow will start a new one.

 

I finished The Ghost Bride. Book club was supposed to meet this past Tuesday but we rescheduled to this coming Monday. I also finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on audible, which I don't count for my goal. I could probably recite every book in that series word for word.

 

After The Ghost Bride I couldn't decide what to read, so I went with Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse. I can always read Christie. Well, almost always. I'm back in the not knowing what I want to read next mindset but don't want to read another Christie.

 

Some of my choices are - one of three different Michael Crummey novels, Tender is the NIght, The Stranger, or The Quiet American. None are calling to me right now. I might have to go with another fluff mystery.

 

Stacia - An Unattractive Vampire looks like fun. I placed a hold at my library.

Kareni - Three Bags Full also looks like fun and it was cheap, so I bought it. I haven't started it though.

 

Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World became available again and I picked it up the other day. I thought I knew where I left off when I had to return it, but I can't remember. I plan to browse through each chapter until I reach a part I don't recognize. :)

 

 

[Stacia]

Some of my choices are - one of three different Michael Crummey novels, Tender is the NIght, The Stranger, or The Quiet American. None are calling to me right now. I might have to go with another fluff mystery.

 

I'll have to look for those. I loved his novel Galore. Thought his writing was absolutely beautiful.

 

Stacia - An Unattractive Vampire looks like fun. I placed a hold at my library.

 

Hope you enjoy it. It is by no means a perfect book, but I found it fun.

 

I tried starting Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot (originally titled The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan) & got about 50 pages in before returning it to the library today. It was ok but it jumped around a lot. And, it seemed like most of what I read was actually (surprisingly) covered in the movie which I saw earlier this year. Imo, this is one time where I might recommend the movie instead of the book. (Of course, I didn't read the entire book, so who knows if my advice is accurate in this case.) FYI, the trailer kind of makes it look like a comedy but it's not, imo. It's a war reporter story with some humorous situations (but also serious ones too).

 

https://youtu.be/-AJivhl4uYA

[Shawneinfl]

I'll have to look for those. I loved his novel Galore. Thought his writing was absolutely beautiful.

 

 

Hope you enjoy it. It is by no means a perfect book, but I found it fun.

 

I tried starting Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot (originally titled The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan) & got about 50 pages in before returning it to the library today. It was ok but it jumped around a lot. And, it seemed like most of what I read was actually (surprisingly) covered in the movie which I saw earlier this year. Imo, this is one time where I might recommend the movie instead of the book. (Of course, I didn't read the entire book, so who knows if my advice is accurate in this case.) FYI, the trailer kind of makes it look like a comedy but it's not, imo. It's a war reporter story with some humorous situations (but also serious ones too).

 

https://youtu.be/-AJivhl4uYA

 

Thanks for your review of WTF. I had seen that preview at the movie theater and definitely thought it was a comedy. I hate when they do that with movie trailers. I was thinking of looking for the book at the library since non-fiction, real-life narratives are right up my alley.

[Stacia]

Thanks for your review of WTF. I had seen that preview at the movie theater and definitely thought it was a comedy. I hate when they do that with movie trailers. I was thinking of looking for the book at the library since non-fiction, real-life narratives are right up my alley.

 

You might like the book, esp. if you haven't already seen the movie.

 

Even though the movie was not a comedy, I did enjoy seeing it.

 

ETA: Shawne, did you ever read Pink Boots and a Machete? It was an interesting & totally fun book, imo. And West with the Night (which I read earlier this year) was amazing.

Edited June 11, 2016 by Stacia

[Butter]

I haven't had much free (on-line) time lately so it's been a few books since I last posted.

 

#51: The Man They Killed on Christmas Day by Catalin Gruia.  I had high hopes for this book.  It promised to examine the background of and why Nicolae Caeusescu ended up doing what he did.  It really didn't do either.  It really didn't explain why the people of Timisoara rebelled or what they were actually rebelling against and how that led to the execution of the Caeusescus.  It also repeated itself a ridiculous amount of times and spent a weirdly long time describing the house where Caeusescu lived as president of Romania.

 

#52: The Valley of the Lost by Emily Rodda.  Of course I loved it.  That's the seventh book of Deltora Quest.

 

#53: The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff.  I liked it a whole lot better than the first book in the series (The Eagle).

 

#54: Parvana's Journey by Deborah Ellis.  The second Breadwinner book.  I loved it.  I read it out loud to my 9 year old.  It was hard to get through the last couple chapters.  Just thinking about these children living in the shadow of war and under the Taliban and what they have to go through is just heartwrenching.

 

#55: Return to Del by Emily Rodda.  Last Deltora Quest book.  Love, love, love, love, love it.  That's the third time I've read the series and every time I just wish Lief, Barda, and Jasmine were real and could be my actual real life friends.

 

#56: Mud City by Emily Rodda.  The third Breadwinner book.  It wasn't as good as the first two, but still well written.  Again, it's just so sad to think kids are really living what is described in the book.

 

#57: The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum.  The sixth Oz book.  Lots of delightful wordplay.  I loved it.  It's interesting that he intended for this one to be the last.  Three years later the seventh book came out and then he published one a year until there were 14 (which was published after his death).

 

#58: My Name is Parvana by Deborah Ellis.  The fourth and last Breadwinner book.  When I finished reading it, my 9 year old said the only problem with it is that it ended.  It was so good.  In this one Parvana is captured by the American Army and accused of being a terrorist.  It really demonstrates how in Afghanistan it's impossible to know who to trust and that lack of trust can lead to more trouble.

[Angelaboord]

And here's another intriguing post from Tor.com's "Five Books About" series. I hadn't heard of most of these titles which is unusual for me. Some of the books listed might interest you, Stacia.

Five Books That Have Just Enough Magic to Screw Everything Up by Lindsay Ribar

 

"You know the kind of book I mean. You find it in the “Fiction & Literature†section of Barnes & Noble, and you’re confused because, hey, isn’t that a fantasy novel? Or you find it in the “Fantasy†section—except isn’t it a little too grounded in the real world to really be fantasy?

 

Of course, spotting these books is easier now that we can order everything online, but you still run into the problem of how to describe them. They’re fantasy, but not! They’re realistic, but only kind of! They’re urban fantasy, but don’t those usually have magical creatures of some kind—vampires or werewolves or witches or ghosts? They’re magical realism, except, let’s be honest here, magical realism is a very specific genre, and most of what we call magical realism nowadays isn’t that at all...."

 

 

As is generally the case with the Tor.com website, the comments are worth reading.

 

 

Regards,

Kareni

Jumping in here before I read the rest of the thread...

That was an interesting list! I read Landline last year and enjoyed it, but I'd never heard of the others. I just put all but one of them on my Goodreads To Read shelf. I have a large stack of books beside my chair to work through, but I think the steampunk-ish Frankenstein novel may have to be worked into my next stack.

 

Still reading The Emperor of All Maladies. Took some time out this week to read The Homegrown Preschooler by Kathy Lee and Lesli Richards to get some ideas for my 3 and soon-to-be 6 year old.

 

--Angela

 

 

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[Kathleen.]

I read "1215: Year of the Magna Carta" by Danny Danziger - this book was just as good the second time around. My 10yo really enjoyed reading "Mogo, The Third Warthog" by Donna Jo Napoli.

☺

[Robin M]

Link to week 24 - please continue conversation in new thread