March book club - open to all!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tried to read Spare, and it's so awful I'm still trying to get through it. I hate not finishing books! But the writing is so self-indulgent, and just over-the-top ridiculous (they don't leave, they "flee", nobody just cries, they "sob on the floor", etc.) I'm finding it a very bad reading experience. I wanted to read it because it's such a point of popular discussion, but my God it's bad. SO BAD.

+100 its so whiny and self indulgent- I DNF

[Anonymous]

Last night I finished London Rules the 5th book in the Mick Herron Slow Horses series (TV version with Gary Oldman).

It was a stunning book, not only does he have the pace and intrigue of all the earlier installments but he manages somehow to integrate beautiful writing into this one. Page 286 is a chapter opening that describes London. It is very like the first page of Dickens' Bleak House, but in a nod to it way, not a plagiaristic way. And towards the end of the book he personifies "Dusk" so beautifully I could have wept.

10/10 (I'd give it 12 if I could...)

So of course I then immediately started book 6 in the series, Joe Country which I will come back to report on.

[Anonymous]

Finished two this week that I really enjoyed:

How Lucky - 9/10. It's a relatively quick read but very engaging

Song of Achilles - 8/10. Mostly, I loved it, but it's a bit tricky to keep the thread going over the backdrop of the Trojan War. Just really ambitious and mostly successful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Finished two this week that I really enjoyed:

How Lucky - 9/10. It's a relatively quick read but very engaging

Song of Achilles - 8/10. Mostly, I loved it, but it's a bit tricky to keep the thread going over the backdrop of the Trojan War. Just really ambitious and mostly successful.

My DD is reading this one. Pretty much agrees with your assessment.

[Anonymous]

Just finished Counting by Sevens, at the recommendation of my DD. It's a middle-grade book, and I loved it. 10/10. It really just hit me the right way - I think anyone who has experienced a significant loss will be incredibly moved. I listened to about 90% on audio and read the rest - I prefered the audio.

I've been trying to make my way through Hollow Kingdom. Anyone read it? I like it, but it feels a bit repetitive and I may DNF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is what I read in Feb. but I have to stick to GoodReads 1-5 ratings. I actually gave all of these 4s!

The Unsinkable Greta James - I like to travel and in this book they are on an Alaskan cruise.
Outer Order, Inner Calm by Gretchen Rubin - about home organizing. Very fast read - I got some tips.
The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku - again, very fast read - story of a Holocaust survivor.
Salt to the Sea - continuing my WWII "unit" - about WWII but related to German citizens, Prussians, Poles, and Lithuanians that I hadn't really known about. My 8th grader read this book in school and I never read it, so I read it too.
Part of Your World - cute rom com.

I am reading the Great Alone right now, and liking it so far.

I like part of your world as well. The main male character was so likable.