It's sitting right here staring at me! Glad you loved it. I actually bought it for the title itself but you have inspired me to actually open the book. Thank you. |
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I just finished "The Wall" by Marlen Haushofer.
It was originally published in 1963 in Austria and I guess it was translated into English a few years ago. It is about a middle aged woman who suddenly and accidentally becomes perhaps the last human on earth. She goes off to spend the weekend with her cousin and the cousin's husband at their hunting lodge. After dropping off groceries and supplies, the husband and wife decide to go into town for a drink. They never return. The next morning the woman decides to go into town to see what happened, and discovers that there is an invisible wall around the land where the hunting lodge is. She explores the boundaries of the wall and notices a neighbor on the other side of the wall who is like a statue. She has her cousin's dog with her. After a couple days a cow shows up, desperate to be milked. A month later a cat shows up. There are plenty of deer to shoot for meat, and she grows potatoes and beans from the groceries they had brought. I downloaded the book from the library overdrive web site. I wanted to read this book for about a year. Ever since someone here on the DCUM book club site mentioned this book and described what it was about. I finally got around to reading it. I found it interesting. Thought provoking. |
A lot of people feel that the first 200 or so pages are slow. So keep at it. In my case, Dune was on my “to read” list for a long time but I didn’t want to commit to a series. Well, I recently watched Dune 1 when it was re-released on imax and was totally hooked, and read the book. So it set me up well. |
The nice thing about Dune is that it’s a fairly complete story- you can stop at the end. No need to go into the other ones. Or you can keep going in the series, where each successive book is also complete story. For me, I really liked the first few and then it kind of descends into weirdness beyond my preference and so I stopped, but I still really like the first few, and not finishing the series didn’t impact any enjoyment. (Also the last couple were published posthumously.) |
| The Hundred Years War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi |
Yeah, I definitely do plan to read more, but I am not a not a “I must read all the books in the series” type of person. Will see how far it takes me. I’ve a close friend whose interests align well with mine, and she thinks I will like books 1-3 |
Do you recommend? |
So far, yes! If you enjoy nonfiction/history. I’m about halfway through. |
Also really want to read this. |
| Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President by Allen Guelzo |
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Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera - It's a new thriller/mystery. A podcaster is reviewing a cold case of a woman (Lucy) who is found covered in blood, walking home from a wedding. Her best friend was murdered, the car they left in together was flooded out. Lucy doesn't remember what happened, she isn't charged, the town thinks she did it.
it's easy to read, and good thus far at 40% in... |
I read your post when you first posted and thought that the new book you mentioned by Rebecca Serle sounded interesting. But there was a waiting list the same day it became available at my library. So I suppose I will wait a bit to listen to it. Thanks for posting about the books you are reading. |
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I listened to 2 books by Nicholas Sparks. I liked one better than the other.
First I listened to "Dreamland". It was about young love. A 25 year old farmer from North Carolina goes on vacation to Florida. He meets a girl, they fall in love in just a few days time. They write songs together. He goes back to his farm, she goes off to Nashville and sings the songs they wrote together. She becomes an overnight sensation. Meanwhile there was a parallel story about a woman and her son on the run from her abusive husband. The two stories eventually tied in together but I found it annoying to have pretty much two stories in one book. The second book I listened to was called "Every Breath". It was about old love. A couple meet while they are around 40 years old. They have a romantic week together. They go their separate ways. They find each other again 24 years later. This one made me cry. I liked this one better than the other one. I downloaded both books from my library. |
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Elsey Come Home, by Susan Conley
Neither fast-paced nor particularly upbeat. But yet I’m loving it. This book is beautifully written (!), and the themes resonate deeply. In a nutshell, it’s about one woman’s midlife journey to understand herself and sort out the various parts of her identity (professional passion + motherhood + marriage + ghosts of childhood). Lots of interior aspects - her feelings and thought processes. Theres a plot involving other characters, but I wouldn’t say that’s the driver. Curious if anyone has read her other books? I may try another one after this. Her writing is fantastic. |
I expected “Spare” to be a great book. 📚 It was all hype in my opinion though. While Harry is very intelligent + articulate, I found his book to be extremely boring and quit reading it after the first 3-4 chapters. I have been getting into Suspense/Thriller novels this month. I read “The Housemaid” by Frieda McFadden & am now addicted to all of her books. I read “The Coworker,” “The Inmate,” etc. and am anxiously awaiting more! I love good suspense books that I actually skip eating, showers, etc. for!!! |