As the Page Turns (the Book Thread)

[her grace]

Erin Morgenstern (Night Circus) has a new book coming out in November and this will be my most anticipated book purchase of the year.

I’m so excited, too. And I’m first in line on my library’s hold list.

 

[puglover]

I just downloaded "She Said: Breaking the sexual harassment story......". It may be just a rehash of details already public but the promos claim it goes into quite a bit of detail about the Weinstein company and how things went on for so long.

 

[genevieve]

I'm reading Magic for Liars - can't remember if I learned of it from someone here or elsewhere.

If you like Harry Potter (or especially if you find it all a bit too ), and enjoy the Kinsey Milhone series, but think both could use some serious cynicism, this may be right up your alley. I like it, although I do wish it went a tiny bit deeper. It reads a little like a 2nd or 3rd draft that could stand some fleshing out.

 

[MacMadame]

You think the Kinsey Milhone series needs more cynicism? I find Milhone to be fairly cynical and sometimes the endings aren't particularly satisfying in the way Harry Potter books are.

 

[PrincessLeppard]

I have to confess that I almost didn't finish the final book of the Unwind series, because I really did think

Spoiler

that Lev and Connor were dead, and holy shit was I angry.

I did like the series a great deal. I did skim parts of the fourth book that I felt were just padding, but for the most part, all four books hold up really well.

 

[genevieve]

You think the Kinsey Milhone series needs more cynicism? I find Milhone to be fairly cynical and sometimes the endings aren't particularly satisfying in the way Harry Potter books are.

I don't know, I found one of those books in a free library last year, and even though Kinsey is cynical, she's also so gosh darned down home about it all. Maybe the difference is that it's a more contemporary cynicism.

Anyway, I finished the book and really liked it. Then I went on a futile field trip to a library that allegedly had a copy of Colson Whitehead's latest in their Peak Picks section. By the time I got there is was gone. Got Where'd You Go Bernadette instead - I remember when it was all the rage but missed it 6 years ago.

 

[puglover]

I mentioned the "She Said......" earlier. Just so very disheartening to read of all the people who knew/should have known something was very wrong but money, fame, prestige got in the way.

 

[Erin]

I read The Wife this week, which the movie is based on. I had seen the movie already and the movie is generally a faithful adaptation (with some understandable changes like the movie changes the Helsinki prize to the Nobel prize, cuts one of the daughters and changes a bit about the couple’s son). Anyway, if you liked one, you will like the other. I liked the additional insight the book gave into why Joan does what she does and how their actions impacted their family. I would read more by the author.

 

[antmanb]

I’ve mentioned it in sekret sources but I second Prancer’s recommendation of How To Build A Girl by Caitlin Moran. I haven’t laughed so much reading a book in a long time. Moran is three years older than me so every single reference to cartoons, comics, tv shows and music speaks almost exactly to the things I watched, read and listened to.

Apparently a film has been made of the book and it was released last week. I’ll be interested to see if it’s as funny as the book.

 

[genevieve]

I’ve mentioned it in sekret sources but I second Prancer’s recommendation of How To Build A Girl by Caitlin Moran. I haven’t laughed so much reading a book in a long time. Moran is three years older than me so every single reference to cartoons, comics, tv shows and music speaks almost exactly to the things I watched, read and listened to.

Apparently a film has been made of the book and it was released last week. I’ll be interested to see if it’s as funny as the book.

So that's how that book made it on to my library list!

I really expected to love the book, as this type of story is right up my alley, but was really let down. Returned to the library about a third of the way in.

 

[Erin]

So that's how that book made it on to my library list!

I really expected to love the book, as this type of story is right up my alley, but was really let down. Returned to the library about a third of the way in.

Same here - basically an identical experience about a year or two ago. I’m glad to know I’m not the only person who didn’t click with this book.

 

[antmanb]

I read a lot of books on holiday but rapid reading on a kindle means I never really know the title or author of the book once I start reading it.

A couple that stood out and I can't remember if these were recommendations from elsewhere or here.

The first one was Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan. I really enjoyed this book it was well thought out, I liked the descriptions of the entitled privately educated Oxford Uni bound set. I was reminded that during the time this was set was about 3 years before I went to Uni and the fact that despite being at a fairly good but state Grammar School we were basically told we'd never get accepted to Oxford or Cambridge even if we had straight As on our UCAS applications because we weren't at the right kind of school which seemed to be true and despite 5 or 6 guys that went to my school coming out with straight As none were accept by either uni. I'd also forgotten that at the time women were not allowed apply to certain colleges at Oxford or Cambridge (I haven't checked but surely that has changed now?). I liked the writing and story line and the not so veiled descriptions of the Bullingdon Club but I thought the big reveal of what the Prime Minster had done back in his Oxford days was a little anticlimactic. It just didn't seem to be the same kind of direct culpability as the

Spoiler

two rapes committed by the PMs friend

that are the centre of the main storylines. Anyway I did really enjoy the book.

The Caitlin Moran book I mentioned as I read it (and probably was my favourite read of the whole holiday).

The other book worth mentioning, mostly because I thought it was just awful was Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman. When I started it, it seemed harmless enough, but honestly the only character that was really developed was the main narrator, every other character in the story, especially the husband who is a pretty key character in the book, was really half baked and not fleshed out enough for there to be much ability to take the story anywhere given the lack of depth of characters. The main narrative became annoying and the erratic behaviour of the main character had me hoping that she would end up being killed because, by three quarters of the way through, I just thought the denouement would be that she'd gone completely crazy and would live out her days in psychiatric unit...but that didn't happen. Many unbelievable parts that are probably spoilers so hidden below.

Spoiler

The whole documentary film maker doing a documentary about prisoners seemed so forced and made no sense. The completely throwaway storyline of the first in-mate turning into an Islamist extremist who sets off a bomb on Oxford Road on Christmas Eve - what was the point? We never got to know that character anyway and it seemed like a rushed way to tie up that loose end which was presumably only used to advance the plot by having the police be interested in the main character and potentially be investigating her.

The prisoner who was in for assisted suicide was also such an underdeveloped storyline that was so clearly just shoe-horned in as something that can be morally excused and we can be outraged at her sentence and its' all OK because she was a rich corporate lawyer who didn't have to work again anyway so she can go and get IVF and live happily ever after

But the hands-down worst storyline of all was that we are supposed to believe that an East End Gangster of Kray Twins notoriety who has controlled south London for 40+ years and is only in jail because tax evasion, who has refused interviews and documentaries with anyone and everyone, chose to go ahead with it just because he would ask the lead character to talk to his daughter and try to re-establish a relationship with her?? And just for that he's more than happy to talk on his prison burner phone and give his wide and criminal consulting services to a hapless crazy woman who commits crime after crime...and that's fine there will be no repercussions later?

And we're somehow supposed to be ok with the main character at the end?

I only finished that book because I was stuck on a plane but I do not recommend it at all!

 

[PrincessLeppard]

I think that series I liked with the East German police officer (David Young's Stasi Child series) has ended. I thought it was going to go to crap once she had kids, but the author managed to make it work. Until now.

Spoiler

She handed in her resignation to spend more time with the kids.

I have found some other books that take place in East Germany, so I hope those can take its place.

Oh, and I have struck out with the last two books I tried to read. The Librarian of Auschwitz just didn't work for me and I didn't get very far, and then I tried a book where Christopher Marlowe was a detective, and that was....not good. I gave up on like page eight. Oh, well. At least they were both from the library.

 

[nlloyd]

Have you read The Promise Girls by Marie Bostwick? I thought it might be of interest to figure skating fans in general as it is a fictional account of the adult life of three child prodigies -- sisters -- and their relationship with their mother, with some flashbacks to their childhood. I was reminded of it by the non-fiction account of the mother of an Indiana child prodigy, a son, The Spark: A mother's story of nurturing genius. The parents were in the news recently after a darker, sadder side of that story came to light.

 

[genevieve]

I was in a book store a couple of weeks ago and saw a staff recommendation - so I got it from the library : So Much Blue by Percival Everett. I hadn't read any of his works before, although I've heard of I'm Not Sidney Poitier.

This was an interesting book with 3 different timelines intertwined. I saw some reviews where people really care for that. The 3 timelines all move forward in a linear fashion, so I didn't find it distracting, and felt it worked in the context of the story.

It's not a feel-good book but has been lingering in my brain since I finished it. I'll be interested to check out some of his other works.

The other book I brought with me on holiday is The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson. I loooooved Alif the Unseen so have high hopes for this.

 

[Japanfan]

I went to the library to pick up Taylor Jenkins Reid' 'Daisy Jones & The Six' and Margaret Atwood's 'The Testaments' was also ready for me. Double score.

I hadn't expected it to be ready so soon as I was a fair ways down on the waiting list, but I guess the library purchased a lot of copies, given that she's a renowned Canadian writer in the spotlight at the moment.

Not worried about how I'll cope with insomnia tonight.

 

[Cachoo]

I usually don't talk about books until I've finished them, but I really needed a good laugh and How to Build a Girl is killing me .

How I loved her story: I stayed in England with Sue Perkins book "Spectacles." I'm a fan "The Supersizers" and "The Great British Baking Show" and I enjoyed her droll humor both on screen and in her book.

Next up is "Evvie Drake Starts Over" by Linda Holmes.

 

[lmarie086]

The other book I brought with me on holiday is The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson. I loooooved Alif the Unseen so have high hopes for this.

I don't post in here a lot but I read The Bird King back in June and it's still one of my favorite new books I've read this year. I loved it from start to finish.

 

[Peaches LaTour]

I just finished, "The Other Mrs. Miller" which I enjoyed a great deal.

 

[PrincessLeppard]

So I'm reading Stasi Vice by Max Hertzberg. The good: the protagonist is kind of anti-hero. Loves his Stasi job, but also handles people with a rather delicate touch. The mystery is compelling.

The bad: It's written like 50s pulp fiction. Cigarettes are "coffin nails." Large men are "brick shit houses." Women flash their "décolletage."

I'll finish this book, but I don't think I'll stick with the series.

 

[puglover]

I have been sick and miserable all week and just noticed the new Virgil Flowers book by John Sanford has been released.

 

[missing]

I just finished reading Ann Patchett's new novel The Dutch House. I liked it a lot. It's one part Flowers In The Attic (although nowhere near as melodramatic) and one part old school soap opera (although a lot more fast moving), but it was also very intelligently focused on family, spouses, parents, siblings, extended family (I recognized a bit of my sister-in-law's and my dynamic), stepfamilies, servants who are strong secondary families, and the way children reflect and learn from their parents. All in 337 pages with a lot of focus on a house. So I definitely recommend it.

 

[nlloyd]

I just finished reading Ann Patchett's new novel The Dutch House. I liked it a lot. It's one part Flowers In The Attic (although nowhere near as melodramatic) and one part old school soap opera (although a lot more fast moving), but it was also very intelligently focused on family, spouses, parents, siblings, extended family (I recognized a bit of my sister-in-law's and my dynamic), stepfamilies, servants who are strong secondary families, and the way children reflect and learn from their parents. All in 337 pages with a lot of focus on a house. So I definitely recommend it.

Interesting to read that Patchett is the daughter of Jeanne Ray, also a novelist, and one who wrote her first novel at 60. I've enjoyed Ray's novels, and am looking forward to trying this one, even though it seems a little darker. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[Susan1]

I just finished the new Elevator Pitch by Lynwood Barclay that had several veiled insults to trump sprinkled through it. One of the main characters is a mayor who used to help his slumlord father mistreat his tenants in New York. In one place a random person was talking about “that woman who almost became president”. And said she even won the popular vote.

But I'm glad I don't have live anywhere around elevators. The only time for years was at the retina specialist and that was just up two floors.

 

[puglover]

"The Institute" by Stephen King also takes aim at Trump - I thought anyway.

 

[rfisher]

I have been sick and miserable all week and just noticed the new Virgil Flowers book by John Sanford has been released.

Have you read it yet? Not as much humor as the Virgie books typically have. I had the feeling Sanford is trying to figure out where to go with the books since Virgil is about to become a father. He's shifted Davenport to the US Marshalls to broaden his horizons, but Lucas is aging. I'm wondering if Sanford is ready to quit both series. I felt tying Virgil and Frankie together was going to be a problem for continuing the series.

 

[Susan1]

"The Institute" by Stephen King also takes aim at Trump - I thought anyway.

I saw that on the 7 day shelf today. I don't read Stephen King anymore, but I'll see what it is about.
Edited to add - I just remembered after I closed this that yeah, I've seen quite a few Stephen King anti-trump memes on FB.

And, obviously, James Patterson is not a fan of trump.

Harlan Coben was a good friend of the Bushes, so he probably not a trump fan either...

(Wait - I just looked this up):
From 2016 -
" "I try not to talk politics because I don't want anyone to think, 'He's a right wing nut' or 'He's a left wing kook," he says—but he has clear opinions on one candidate in particular: Donald Trump.

"In past [U.S. presidential] elections, I had preferences but I never thought if the other guy won the country would be in shambles.
(me - isn't that we've been saying for three years? Smart guy! )
I just thought, here's the far right, here's the far left and we operate in the middle. Now for the first time I could see democracy going. I can see fascism... I never imagined my country would have to [experience that]."

Does that mean he's voting for Hillary Clinton? "I'm not saying anything like that. But of the candidates running, she's the best read," he says, pointing out that the Democratic candidate is a noted fan. "
(me - apparently he was trying not to alienate any "right wing nuts".)

 

[puglover]

Have you read it yet? Not as much humor as the Virgie books typically have. I had the feeling Sanford is trying to figure out where to go with the books since Virgil is about to become a father. He's shifted Davenport to the US Marshalls to broaden his horizons, but Lucas is aging. I'm wondering if Sanford is ready to quit both series. I felt tying Virgil and Frankie together was going to be a problem for continuing the series.

Just part way through. Lucas clearly seems done - unless he finds a way to bring him back to health and glory. I agree with you about Virgil and Frankie - she is way too likable to be an addition to his failed marriages and not sure there is a way for him to keep up his sort of adorable "bad boy' ways with a wife and two kids. I had thought it was genius to allow Lucas to age, mature and take on a more adult lifestyle and then introduce Virgil - not the same as a younger Lucas but similar enough and endearing on his own. We shall see. Maybe the adopted daughter - her name escapes me - could become a major character. Wasn't she at one point going into law enforcement?

 

[rfisher]

Just part way through. Lucas clearly seems done - unless he finds a way to bring him back to health and glory. I agree with you about Virgil and Frankie - she is way too likable to be an addition to his failed marriages and not sure there is a way for him to keep up his sort of adorable "bad boy' ways with a wife and two kids. I had thought it was genius to allow Lucas to age, mature and take on a more adult lifestyle and then introduce Virgil - not the same as a younger Lucas but similar enough and endearing on his own. We shall see. Maybe the adopted daughter - her name escapes me - could become a major character. Wasn't she at one point going into law enforcement?

Lettie and yes, she wanted to follow Lucas. Sandford hinted at putting she and Virgil together as a foil for Lucas, but that went out the window when he decided to get Frankie pregnant. There is a Prey book due for release in the spring so we'll see then what the plan for Lucas will be. I love Jenkins and Shrake, but they can't carry a book by themselves.

 

[Bunny Hop]

Can anybody recommend some decent science fiction novels? I browsed the options in a bookshop but because the section was 'Sci-fi and Fantasy' had trouble quickly identifying the actual science fiction (I don't get on with fantasy). I came away with 'The Martian' by Andy Weir as I liked the film, but would like a few more options, and I long ago stopped reading the never ending parade of pastiches of TV shows.

Not that I need to add any more to my pile of un-read books, but I'm looking to vary my fiction reading a bit.