Book Club

[Yahooey]

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@skyblue wrote:

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@sunala wrote:

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@skyblue wrote:

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@Yahooey wrote:

I just finished ME BEFORE YOU BY JOJO MOYES - I enjoyed it but probably will not see the movie.

I'm starting MY GRANDMOTHER TOLD ME TO TELL YOU SHE'S SORRY BY FREDRIK BACKMAN. I don't know how I feel about it yet. I loved A man called Ove and it doesn't and I heard it doesn't compare

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@Yahooey Try Britt-Marie Was Here. You might like this one more.

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@skyblue I loved A Man Called Ove too but I just couldn't get into Britt-Marie Was Here. I didn't remove the title from my list, but I can't see myself going back to it anytime in the near future. I couldn't warm up to her personality, and all her strange character-friends confused me with their dialect. They all seemed a bit insane. I did read that it gets better, but I'm not sure I'm ready for that. There are too many excellent books to read without trying to like a book. Life's too short for that!

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Yes, @sunala, it is a jumble of offbeat characters, and the beginning was slow, but it came together beautifully with a redeeming conclusion. I'm glad I stuck with it, but certainly understand if it's not your cup of tea. 

Happy reading!📚

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I finished the book a week ago and did enjoy GRANDMOTHER - I must say I skimmed the parts when she went on and on about the kingdoms. Not as good as OVE but I'm glad I finished. I will pick up the next one Britte - Marie. She isn't a likable character, so we'lll see.

[Yahooey]

I'm currently 1/3 into THE JAPANESE LOVER by ISABEL ALLENDE. I'm not engrossed and rather bored. I liked the storyline but it is slow slow moving. I don't hate it, I'm just indifferent to it. Thinking of PTB.

I have THE LAKE HOUSE by KATE MORTON and MY BRILLIANT FRIEND by ELENA FERRANTE (heard great things) already on my device.

[smoky22]

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@Yahooey wrote:

I'm currently 1/3 into THE JAPANESE LOVER by ISABEL ALLENDE. I'm not engrossed and rather bored. I liked the storyline but it is slow slow moving. I don't hate it, I'm just indifferent to it. Thinking of PTB.

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I did a review of The Japanese Lover a while back and, despite the title, I found it lacking in passion and boring.  Some of it was not even believable.  The part about the Japanese internment camp was the most interesting to me.

[smoky22]

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@MrsSweetieBear wrote:
 

I finished The Passenger last night and thought it was quite.  Fast and entertaining to say the least.

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@MrsSweetieBear This just became available on my kindle and I can't stop reading it.  What a wild ride! 

[chihuahuamom]

I just finished Circling the Sun by Paula McLain.  First book I have read by her.  I thought it was ok, not great. Before reading it, the synopsis drew me in, and I thought I would want to read more of her books, but in the end, I doubt it.  I know many of you liked The Paris Wife, but unless it is better than this one, I won't waste my time. 

[MrsSweetieBear]

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@smoky22 wrote:

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@MrsSweetieBear wrote:
 

I finished The Passenger last night and thought it was quite good.  Fast and entertaining to say the least.

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@MrsSweetieBear This just became available on my kindle and I can't stop reading it.  What a wild ride! 

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That's just how I felt about it too.  And I even liked the ending.  So often, I do not...even in books I otherwise enjoy.

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[MrsSweetieBear]

I've finished Brit-Marie Was Here.   Rather low mark from me.  Way too much about soccer and a bunch of nonsense about a rat.  The ending went on and on and on and it seems strange to complain about that when so many complain (including me) about books that feel rushed at the end. This was the opposite problem, IMO. The redeeming thing about it is there's a lot of character growth in the protagonist and that was nice to observe. 

Then I read Elly Griffith latest, The Woman in Blue.  This was also a bit of a disappointment.  I didn't think it was on a par with any of the others in the series. 

Now I'm reading a new Elizabeth Berg, one of my very favorite authors.  I relate so to her time settings.  Even when they are set in current time, she usually does a lot of reminiscing about the 50s and 60s.  I think she was born in my year or a year later.  Tapestry of Fortunes is the title.

[smoky22]

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@chihuahuamom wrote:

I just finished Circling the Sun by Paula McLain.  First book I have read by her.  I thought it was ok, not great. Before reading it, the synopsis drew me in, and I thought I would want to read more of her books, but in the end, I doubt it.  I know many of you liked The Paris Wife, but unless it is better than this one, I won't waste my time. 

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@chihuahuamom I felt the same way about this book.  And because it was so uninspiring, I decided to read Beryl Markham's own autobiography, West With the Night, which was fantastic.  I didn't like The Paris Wife, either.  I think Paula Mclain just likes to cash in on writing fictional biographies of famous people.   

[DiAnne]

I just finished Rise of the Rocket Girls by Nathalia Holt.   Very interesting book about women's contribution to the space program starting with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.  I know that does not sound thrilling but it is very interesting how they moved from JPL to NASA before computers - in fact these women's job title was computers.  It was a worth while read.  

[smoky22]

I finally finished Britt-Marie Was Here.  I didn't completely love the book, but I did come to love Britt-Marie.  Her obsession with order was so great that she wanted the rat who lived in the building with her to come to dinner every night at exactly 6pm because that's when civilized people have their dinner.  I thought her conversations with the rat conveyed her loneliness. 

I wasn't happy with an event later in the book that seemed like it was introduced just to provide some artificial chaos.  And calling a character "Somebody" through the entire book was a bit of a contrivance.  Otherwise, I found the book ultimately very moving.