The Book Vipers discussion

Finished The Old Straight Track by Alfred Watkins with a substantial introduction by Robert Macfarlane. Not a bad book overall, and an interesting historical document in its own right. My review is here here

Wuthering Heights. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Just finished Amy Snow which I quite enjoyed. It was elegant and cleverly woven, and the portrayal of the friendship between Aurelia and Amy was very good. The "mystery" though, and the unravelling/revealing of Amy's love life was a bit staid and predictable.

Captured the period very well.

Finished reading The Cuckoo's Calling. Really enjoyed it. Loved the writing and will read the others in the series.

Finished The Watch. An updating of Sophocles' Antigone set in an isolated American base in Afghanistan:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Just re-read Therapy for probably the fourth time and enjoyed it as much as ever. David Lodge is an excellent author.

Why Nations Fail, by Acemoglu and Robinson. Truly incredible, 5 stars without a doubt. Covers economic history and the reasons they succeed as well as why some fail. Review later.

Frankenstein, and I can't believe I hadn't read it before now! I guess it's because I grew up watching the movie and assumed the book would be the same story. Boy, they sure fooled me! Also, just finished Seriously... I'm Kidding for another challenge. 3 stars. It was like bread pudding with no raisins.

Finished The Lie by C.L. Taylor. A quick read but not one I'd particularly recommend. Found it a bit, I dunno..."trashy".

Finished A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler. Absolutely terrific. Five star review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Richard wrote: "Finished A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler. Absolutely terrific. Five star review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

It's not far from the top of my TBR, really looking forward to it as I've never read Anne Tyler before.

A niece gave me Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation a few years ago. I finally read it this week (I need to go ahead and make a Dusty Bookshelf). I'm a self-professed grammar nerd so I loved the book. Last night, my daughter-in-law asked me if I had started Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (my son loaned it to me and she was next to read it). I eagerly turned to her and said "No, I started a different book, It's so good!" She asked what the book was about, and I eagerly exclaimed "Punctuation!" Grimaces all around--haha! I guess not everyone gets as excited about punctuation and grammar.

Jo wrote: "Richard wrote: "Finished A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler. Absolutely terrific. Five star review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

It's not far from the t..."

I hadn't read her before either Jo. For some reason, even though I knew her reputation, I hadn't picked up one of her books. Will be seeking out more now. Hope you enjoy it.

Richard wrote: "Jo wrote: "Richard wrote: "Finished A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler. Absolutely terrific. Five star review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

It's not far..."

My favourite Anne Tyler's areThe Accidental Tourist and Saint Maybe.

Joy wrote: "Richard wrote: "Jo wrote: "Richard wrote: "Finished A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler. Absolutely terrific. Five star review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show......"

Thanks Joy, will seek both those out.

I've finished A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler too. I gave it 4 stars, really enjoyed it. Great writing.

Just finished No Way But Gentlenesse: A Memoir of How Kes, My Kestrel, Changed My Life. a lovely memoir of a boy and his kestrels, who was the inspiration for the film Kes. My review is here

Finished The Four-Dimensional Human: Ways of Being in the Digital World a day or so ago. Not a bad summary of our new digital lives, and how much we interact with people in cyberspace. My review is here

Finished the short story collection, Pastoralia. I liked it, but it's probably not for everyone. Saunders is a satirist and his stories are often bizarre and freakish. For example, the title story is a corporate satire that takes place in an amusement park where employees play act in historical dioramas. The two employees in the story live in a cave pretending to be neanderthals and every morning a fresh goat is delivered to them and they spend the day skinning, cooking, and eating it for the amusement of the park goers. Unfortunately, park attendance is down and rumors of restructuring are rampant:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I just finished The Girl in the Jitterbug Dress by Tam Francis, a local author. Doesn't fit any categories for any of my reading lists but it was delightful! I love swing dance so I enjoyed the dance descriptions thoroughly. The dancers really came to life for me. Not a romance fan but the coming-of-age teen romance was kept to a tolerable amount so it didn't detract from the story lines. Two eras--1940s and 1990s--were depicted through history and dance. A fun read if you like swing dance!

Finished An Octopus in My Ouzo: Loving Life on a Greek Island yesterday. Serena in the series of Jennifer Barclay's books set in Greece. The sign of a good travel book is that you want to go there after reading it, and this one did that. My review is here

Paul wrote: "The sign of a good travel book is that you want to for there after reading it"

That may be the biggest reason why I don't really want to read them...

Fair enough

Ready Player One. What a fun book. Sort of like going to a Super Hero movie in your head. You don't have to think too hard and can just enjoy the ride.

I really enjoyed it too Kevin. I have his second book, Armada, but have not read it yet.

Finished & gave 4 stars to City of Women by David Gillham. Bit of a different side to Berlin in WWII. I'd definitely read more by this author.

Just finished Fireflies by Shiva Naipaul. The story of a Hindu family in Trinidad, funny and very sad. Really enjoyed it.

Just finished John Lewis-Stempel's latest book, The Running Hare: The secret life of farmland. I really liked Meadowland: The Private Life of an English Field the first of his that I had read, but this was better still. It is also quite scary with the effect that big farms have had on the countryside. Brilliant writing and quite scary. My review is here

Two recent reads -

The good: Blockbuster: How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Summer by Tom Shone. Enjoyable and provocative analysis of what happened to Hollywood after Jaws. Four star review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

The bad: The Moonlit Cage by Linda Holeman. Must be me, but can't believe how well-rated this book and author is. Lucky to get two stars: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Richard wrote: "The bad: The Moonlit Cage by Linda Holeman. Must be me, but can't believe how well-rated this book and author is."

There was a clue in the shelvings, romance, they always get high ratings. I don't know what it is about women and romance novels, luckily they are not that popular in Finland. Maybe I am a bit sexist (though I AM female) but I rarely want to read historical fiction written by (foreign) women because they are often just romances in disquise. I like a bit of romance as much as the next person but I prefer the "slow burning" type between two people who have a mutual respect towards one another and are maybe friends or colleagues.

You might like the Shardlake series the Tytti. There is almost no romance in that.

I've read the first one and own the second. You are right, that's my kind of reading. Though I think of them as historical mysteries and not really "fiction" (for the lack of the better word) and I read them "too much" anyway. I would like to enjoy just reading about people in a historical setting, without the mystery. It would be a bit different when the characters themselves are important, not the crime committed. I wonder if I make sense...

Finished A Darkling Sea. A good, first contact novel with an interesting setting:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Tytti wrote: "I've read the first one and own the second. You are right, that's my kind of reading. Though I think of them as historical mysteries and not really "fiction" (for the lack of the better word) and I..."

Makes sense to me.

I've read two books by Peter James Dead Simple and Dead Man's Footsteps. The first one was an excellent thriller, just not quite 5 stars because it's also a police procedural and the amount of detail given about how the police operate slows the action. Second book was OK but I think I need a break before reading more in the series.

Interesting. When I read The Crossing by McCarthy, I found the detail a bit off-putting (although I think it a magnificent novel). For instance when he describes in detail how he captures the wolf or how the protagonist's brother is treated for his bullet-wound. But then, in The Revenant, all the details of survival were not so for me at all. Hmmm...

Recently finished Family Life by Akhil Sharma. Intelligent and quietly devastating account of what happens when a disaster hits your family. Four star review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Finished Dreamstreets: A Journey Through Britain’s Village Utopias a couple of days ago. It was not bad overall, but jumped about too much. My review is here

Just finished The Remains of the Day. It blew me away; I thought it was wonderful. It is one of those books that requires a short pause to enjoy the afterglow, so I'll be catching up on Guardian magazines/short reads for a day or two now before launching into the next book.

a short pause to enjoy the afterglow

That's it exactly! Some books I finish and just pick up another, but I know a book is really good when I take that "short pause" and continue to enjoy the book after I'm done reading.

Glad its not only me then Patricia and Lisa

Finished Weatherland: Writers & Artists Under English Skies. It is a beautifully book to hold and look at. More than that is is an evocative record of the artistic response to the weather in England. My review is here

Just finished Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard. It's a non-fiction account of the assassination of the 20th US President James Garfield.

Fascinating, surprising, entertaining, but at times gruelling. Four star review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I've just read The Versions of Us whcih I liked very much. It's an 'alternative lives' story and at first is a bit confusing as there are three versions of the two main characters' lives, told in alternate chapters, but I became absorbed and enjoyed it. Think 'One Day' meets 'Harry August'!

Read Grief Is the Thing with Feathers at the weekend. Short, spiky and deals with a subject that many authors won't touch. My review is here

I finished Climbing Days at the end of May as I was fortunate enough to recevie a review copy. It is a really good blend of family story, memoir and travel as he follows his great great aunts climbing expeditions. My review is here

Just finished H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man. I felt the need for a little 19th century sci-fi. The only part that was sort of glossed over is why Griffin went psychotic.

Just finished The Improbability of Love, a romp of a story about a long lost Watteau painting. Mixed feelings about it. There were so many different threads - art history, looted Nazi art, celebrity culture, romance - and so many characters that many of them were completely one-dimensional. A good idea, and giving the painting a voice of its own was interesting, but so much of the book and characters were like something out of Hello magazine. Was hoping for more, having read good reviews.

Recently finished The Green Road by Anne Enright. Four star review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Plus King of the Badgers by Philip Hensher. After a shaky start, very enjoyable, Four star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Nice review Richard. I liked the Green Road, really beautifully written, but just didn't have much in the way of plot.

Just finished On the Road... with Kids: One Family's Life-Changing Gap Year, a amusing account of an Australian families trip around Europe with two small children. My review is here