January Book Log - open to all

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just finished Chris Pavone's "Two Nights in Lisbon." 7/10 - a tightly written engaging thriller set in Portugal's capital city about a wife whose husband goes missing while on a business trip. This was the first book I've read by Pavone and I will definitely return for more. It also made me want to visit Lisbon; Pavone's a great descriptive writer.

I read this one also and enjoyed it. I've read a couple others by Pavone and those were good too.

Thanks for the rec! Heading to Portugal for spring break and will put this one in my carryon.

[Anonymous]

Late in the Day - Tessa Hadley
Kim - Rudyard Kipling
Trashy romance novel

[Anonymous]

I just finished The Henna Artist. I loved the book. 9/10 i've already downloaded the 2nd book of the trilogy to listen to.
Before that I read Project Hail Mary 8/10
Started reading, but I have not finished the Hearts Invisible Furies I am enjoying it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just got a copy of Eileen Myles' AFTERGLow. Genius. Expect to read it in about 3 days. 10/10 already

oh wow do you have to like dogs?

I am fascinated by Eileen Myles ever since I saw the character inspired by her on Transparent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just got a copy of Eileen Myles' AFTERGLow. Genius. Expect to read it in about 3 days. 10/10 already

oh wow do you have to like dogs?

I am fascinated by Eileen Myles ever since I saw the character inspired by her on Transparent

You have to be sympathetic towards dogs, minimum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

This one is taking me forever to get through. I'm just past the halfway point, and I keep wanting to be done with it. I've read other Lisa Jewell books that held my interest, but I'm struggling with this one.

Feel free to DNF. It's not that great.

I finally finished this last night. In the acknowledgments the author thanks someone for helping her fix some things that were not working. Yeah, no, he/she did not fix a major thing that didn't work: the last couple chapters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

This one is taking me forever to get through. I'm just past the halfway point, and I keep wanting to be done with it. I've read other Lisa Jewell books that held my interest, but I'm struggling with this one.

Feel free to DNF. It's not that great.

I finally finished this last night. In the acknowledgments the author thanks someone for helping her fix some things that were not working. Yeah, no, he/she did not fix a major thing that didn't work: the last couple chapters.

I read a similar thing in the acknowledgments of Anthony Horowitz's latest murder mystery, A Twist of the Knife. He thanked the editor for spotting all the terrible mistakes he'd left in it - yet they'd left some real clangers which all got mentioned in Amazon reviews. It was disappointing.

[Anonymous]

2 autobiographies down, working on a third
2 fiction as well, 1 good and 1 bad (meh).

[Anonymous]

I just finished the latest Louise Penny, A World of Curiosities. I'd give it a 6/10.

Main issues:
- the set up that draws Gamache into an investigation is ludicrous
- There's very little of the Three Pines vibe / characters that I usually enjoy
- The crimes mentioned throughout are very dark. Not a deal-breaker, but here it made the book all that much harder to enjoy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

This one is taking me forever to get through. I'm just past the halfway point, and I keep wanting to be done with it. I've read other Lisa Jewell books that held my interest, but I'm struggling with this one.

Feel free to DNF. It's not that great.

I finally finished this last night. In the acknowledgments the author thanks someone for helping her fix some things that were not working. Yeah, no, he/she did not fix a major thing that didn't work: the last couple chapters.

I read a similar thing in the acknowledgments of Anthony Horowitz's latest murder mystery, A Twist of the Knife. He thanked the editor for spotting all the terrible mistakes he'd left in it - yet they'd left some real clangers which all got mentioned in Amazon reviews. It was disappointing.

Twist of the Knife was so disappointing. I'll keep reading future books in this series (if there are any) but I truly hope they aren't so focused on the author himself, it was a real slog compared to the other books (which I mostly loved).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

This one is taking me forever to get through. I'm just past the halfway point, and I keep wanting to be done with it. I've read other Lisa Jewell books that held my interest, but I'm struggling with this one.

Feel free to DNF. It's not that great.

I finally finished this last night. In the acknowledgments the author thanks someone for helping her fix some things that were not working. Yeah, no, he/she did not fix a major thing that didn't work: the last couple chapters.

I read a similar thing in the acknowledgments of Anthony Horowitz's latest murder mystery, A Twist of the Knife. He thanked the editor for spotting all the terrible mistakes he'd left in it - yet they'd left some real clangers which all got mentioned in Amazon reviews. It was disappointing.

Twist of the Knife was so disappointing. I'll keep reading future books in this series (if there are any) but I truly hope they aren't so focused on the author himself, it was a real slog compared to the other books (which I mostly loved).

Me too. I loved the cleverness and the humor in the earlier books which seemed totally absent from this one. All I can think is he's spreading himself too thin with all the other projects, the Alex Rider series and the other books he's been working on.

[Anonymous]

^^ I mean writing for the Alex Rider TV series

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2 autobiographies down, working on a third
2 fiction as well, 1 good and 1 bad (meh).

Do you remember any of these titles?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just finished the latest Louise Penny, A World of Curiosities. I'd give it a 6/10.

Main issues:
- the set up that draws Gamache into an investigation is ludicrous
- There's very little of the Three Pines vibe / characters that I usually enjoy
- The crimes mentioned throughout are very dark. Not a deal-breaker, but here it made the book all that much harder to enjoy.

I haven't read this one yet, but to your first point, there's a major storyline in this series that stems from Gamache and his team doing field work that I always thought "why would they even be doing this?".

I have been a huge Louise Penny fan, but I read a comment on GoodReads about how she overuses incomplete sentences and now I can't unsee it in her books.

[Anonymous]

I just finished Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (wrote All The Light We Cannot See). I'd give it a 8/10. The storylines are pretty complex, but satisfying, minus one. I could read an entire novella about the one character we end with.