The Next Best Book Club discussion

Amrit wrote: "I just finished a marathon read of Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov

Tackling the complications of both truth and reality by means of great philosophical deliberation, Dostoyevsky suggests that..."

Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment is one of my favorite books, and a primary reason I decided to major in psychology when I went to college. However, I could not get through The Brother's Karamazov. I think he just got too wordy and I finally gave up about 600 pages in.

One thing I find particularly fascinating about his writing is how he explores the psychological workings of the mind .... and he was writing decades before Freud even went to school!

Book Concierge wrote: "Amrit wrote: "I just finished a marathon read of Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov

Tackling the complications of both truth and reality by means of great philosophical deliberation, Dostoyevsky..."

You are so right that it's a bit wordy and sort of lacks the flow of contemporary fiction :). Despite that, he does indeed offer fabulous insight in his exploration of human psychology/spirituality. Thanks for the thoughts!

Now reading (Jack Reacher #1 by Lee Child

I'm reading Zoo by James Patterson. It's a simple read, quick-paced and a bit quirky. but it's perfect because I've been reading a lot of fantasy books with hundreds of characters in, fancy names and tangling plots...sometimes you just need a simple read to pass the time on a train/plane/travels.

Just starting to read Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson.

Jackie wrote: "Just starting to read Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson." I hope you like it - I loved it!

I'm reading Backlash by Lynda La Plante and listening to The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie.

I'm reading Tearstone which is a horror story. On page 60 and so far there is a hint of something not being right. Love it!

Just finished Five Quarters of the Orange. It is a good story. I'm glad I read it. I'll certainly try more Joanne Harris' novels.
Now starting The Almond Tree by Michelle Cohen Corasanti

Jackie wrote: "Just starting to read Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson."

I loved this book! Hope you enjoy it ...

Finished reading The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart – 3.5***
Balthazar Jones, his wife, Hebe, and their pet tortoise have lived in the Tower of London since he became a Beefeater. The central story revolves around their struggle to cope with the loss of their son. We come to know these two wounded souls by watching them at work. Interspersed with their stories we have tidbits of Tower factoids, and a reverend with a secret secular life. The result is a quirky love story, a mini-lesson in history, and a whimsical social commentary all rolled into one. Some of the scenarios were a little too over-the-top, but I was interested from beginning to end and enjoyed it overall.
Book Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

My latest ambitious read, that I expect to have on the go for months, is The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis. Fantastic promise in book one. It begins rather along the lines of Tennyson's 'Ulysses' -- as the introduction says. Great English translation, he spent years in close work with Kazantzakis.

Hi Lorraine & Book Concierge

I'm about 3/4 of the way through Major Pettigrew's Last Stand now. I'm not enjoying it that much but will finish it as I haven't abandoned many books. I'm really disappointed with this one. I thought it was going to be more about his relationship with Mrs Ali than duck shoots and golf club dinners lol. Definitely not a book I would recommend to anyone.

People of the Book

Just finished reading the new book by Howard G. Buffet called 40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World. Buffet draws on his 25+ years of humanitarian and philanthropy work (and 30+ years in farming) to detail what does and does not work in the effort to fight global poverty and hunger. This is a very enlightening look at the fight against hunger, and a must read for anyone interested in making the world a better place for everyone. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/11/19...

Finished reading Love Kills by Edna Buchanan – 2**
Two plot lines in one book and both stories suffer from a lack of full attention. A skull is discovered at a building site and a honeymoon couple meets with disaster at sea with only the groom surviving. The Cold Case Squad takes on the first case; Britt Montero investigates the second story. The action is fast-paced and Buchanan builds suspense and keeps the reader turning pages. Until the last fifty pages, when we’re hit with plot twists that strain credulity and the cold case is solved in an unbelievable (and too convenient) way. The first 85% of the book gets 2 stars. The last 15% was a total disappointment.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Finally finished A Journey to the Center of the Earth this evening, which I was the monthly group read for a GR classics group. It was...meh. Being science fiction, it's not a genre I tend to read, but aside from that...there were times when the action really seemed to stall and I had to push myself to finish. I also difficulty suspending my disbelief, particularly towards the end.

Sitting next month's read out for that group, because who has time for a 1000+ page book (Don Quixote) in December? Well, maybe if I planned to read nothing else that month, but I actually do have a short stack of seasonal reads already lined up. We're also starting a quarterly read next month, War and Peace, but we have until end of February to read that, so who knows -- might give it a try after the holidays.

For now, I am already about a third of the way into an older 3-in-1 romance I plucked out of Mount TBR, Born on the 4th of July (Includes: Men Out of Uniform, #6.5).

I have finished Never Again Good-bye, and I am reading What is Mine

Heather, Don Quixote is a great book. It worth the 1000+ pages. I loved it. I have to paused it a couple of times (due exam periods and other stuff). I stopped for almost a month between the first and second part, but I'm glad I read it.

I'm reading Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes.

Sandra wrote: "Heather, Don Quixote is a great book. It worth the 1000+ pages. I loved it. I have to paused it a couple of times (due exam periods and other stuff). I stopped for almost a month between the first ..."

Hi Sandra!
I don't doubt that it's a great book, I just don't want to spend all of December on it. There's too much going on that month, not to mention that I'm still eight books shy of meeting this year's reading goal as is (and I've exceeded my goal the last three years). If it had been chosen any other month, I'd be willing to give it a try.

Heather L wrote: "Sandra wrote: "Heather, Don Quixote is a great book. It worth the 1000+ pages. I loved it. I have to paused it a couple of times (due exam periods and other stuff). I stopped for almost a month bet..."

Yes, December is a crazy month. Just don't forget to try it in other moment! I'm sure you'll love it since you are a classics reader.

The Summer I Found You by Jolene Perry

just finished The Silent Wife and The Light Between Oceans Loved them both!! starting the Book Thief and then the Summer We Read Gatsby.

Reading The Book Thief and Doctor Sleep

Amrit wrote: "I just finished a marathon read of Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov

Tackling the complications of both truth and reality by means of great philosophical deliberation, Dostoyevsky suggests that..."

I really liked TBK when I read it a few years back!


I'm currently reading 8-Bit Christmas - I know, I know, it's not even thanksgiving yet! - but I just couldn't wait to get it started. It's really a fun light read that puts me in the mind of A Christmas Story.

Told from the adult perspective of a nine year old, it's chock full of 80's references. I'm really getting sucked in!

I just started The Benefits of Line Dancing. Needed something light after reading a horror story.

I just started Bend of the Snake, the old western which the film Bend of the River with James Stewart was based on.

Just starting Veronika Decides to Die by Paul Coelho.

Amrit,

Karamazov is my favorite novel. If we relax into the expansiveness of it (and skip the Grand Inquisitor section, which I think is the low point, not the high point, of the book)--then I think it's alive and lively.

Shelley
http://dustbowlstory.wordpress.com

Finished reading My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor – 4****
The first Latina Supreme Court Justice chronicles her childhood, youth, training and experience on the road to becoming a federal judge. I found it interesting and I was captivated from the beginning. Rita Moreno does a wonderful job of narrating the audio version. She has an enthusiasm that is infectious and really brings life to the text.
Book Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

After Eden by Helen Douglas

Finished reading How to Save Your Own Life by Michael Gates Gill – 2**
The subtitle of this book says it all: 15 Lessons on Finding Hope in Unexpected Places. This is a follow-up to Gill’s memoir How Starbucks Saved My Life. I think there are some valuable lessons to be learned from his experience, but he is incredibly repetitive. It’s a slim volume and a quick read, but it could have been said in three pages.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Finished reading Veronika Decides to Die (short book only couple hundred pages). Now reading The Cruellest Game by Hilary Bonner.

I am reading the library book...Wicked Autumn. This is a new author for me.

Finished the audiobook version of Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters – 2** (Audiobook read by Susan O’Malley)
Amelia Peabody does not suffer fools gladly. Independently wealthy and feeling constrained by the rules of Victorian society, she decides to travel to Egypt. Along the way she encounters a lovely young woman who becomes her companion and two brothers who are dedicated archeologists in need of funding. I had heard great things about the series and was looking forward to it, but found myself bored. I think Peters was trying too hard to be clever and failed. Susan O’Malley does a good job of the audio, however.
Book Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Just starting The Stonecutter by Camilla Lackberg.

Currently reading a few things.. is awesome; , I'm having a hard time getting into; and which I've just got from the library and have only read a few chapters, but sounds great:)

Finished We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oats

During the first half or so of We Were the Mulvaneys, not naming the tragic event around which the entire novel spins was one of the most intriguing elements of this story, the elephant in the room around which everything disintegrated. Oates makes wide arcs around this event, taking lengthy detours so as to sketch out the happy Mulvaney existence in the days before humiliation and hardship, sketches which spoke to the obvious withering and decaying to come.

And then Oates names it, and a story that characterized an almost ideal life began to follow the course of the family’s downfall in ways that were entirely anticipated and without surprise. I seemed to know the story before reading it and found myself hoping for the unexpected. Patrick was the only one of the Mulvaneys who caught me off guard, actively seeking closure and peace, frowning upon the hopeless inertia of his family by taking drastic action. He collided against the Mulvaney darkness rather than passively waiting (as did all the others) for some resolution, some sense of release.

While each Mulvaney spiraled downward, the lack of empathy the characters had for each other was bewildering. They were maddening in their denial of reality and responsibility to each other, in their narrow views, in the way they victimized themselves, even Corrine, the seeming paragon of faith. I found myself unsympathetic to most of them, and the payoff at the end was so slight because of this. Although the core of the story was enjoyable, overall it did not resonate.

About the start The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

Going to start Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma by Kerry Hudson.

I'm about half way through Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson - I'm enjoying it more and more.

I am currently reading prada plan 3. Leah is back 2 her old tricks of trying 2 destroy disaya's life. She has tricked every one into believing that she is disaya's, while in the mean time the real disaya's is recovering from the fire as well as Leah far away from her trickery. Stay tune.

I've started A Cure to Die For: A Medical Thriller. I haven't read a thriller in a quite a while so I am enjoying this one.

I am reading The Secret History by Donna Tart and listening to Havisham. I finished Defending Jacob and enjoyed it.

Hi Lorraine! I like Kate Atkinson. I really enjoyed her Case Histories book, have you read that?

I am reading the shining by Stephen king, virus on orbis 1, and Orleans.

Finished listening to the audiobook Bossypants by Tina Fey – 4****
We know her as an incredibly talented comedian, actress, and producer of the Emmy-winning 30 Rock. Well, Tina Fey is also a pretty good writer. In this memoir she recounts her childhood in Pennsylvania, her start as a member of The Second City, her years at Saturday Night Live and her rise to creating and producing her hit TV show. I’m very glad that Fey is narrating the audiobook herself. I can’t imagine anyone else being able to do justice to it.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I just finished The Almond Tree by Michelle Cohen Corasanti. This was my little review:

"You cannot go back and make a new start, but you can start now and make a new ending."

This quote brought tear to my eyes. The Almond Tree is a story of sacrifice and perseverance. But first of all is a story of belief, hope and love. Is Ichmad Hamid's travel from poverty and necessity in a Palestinian village to his dream of become not only a great scientist but an example of tolerance and forgiveness.
Michelle Cohen Corasanti's novel lead us through Ichmad's thoughts, his struggles, his sorrows, and let us see how his fruitful outcome comes from his denial to see enemies in the people surrounding him, and the conviction that the only way is build together.

I'm starting now To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

Finished reading Dear Family by Camilla Bittle –4****
Opening lines: In the desperate days of the Depression there was one constant that most people could count on – family. The novel tells the story of one family’s survival from 1935 to 1945. The situations and reactions of the characters are understandable and relatable. They struggle with moral decisions, guilt, grief, and deprivation, and support one another through tragedies. But they also celebrate small victories, and find strength in loving relationships.
Book Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Finished reading Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest – 3.5***
This is a dark fantasy and a Southern gothic mystery. Totally not my usual reading fare, but I have to say I was captivated by the story and it held my attention. Some of the plot twists seemed too far-fetched. I did like that for the most part Eden gets herself out of any jam she gets into. She’s strong, intelligent, resourceful, and determined. For a genre of which I am not a fan, this was a pretty good read.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...