It’s probably been recommended already, but I loved “The Martian.” Really loved it! It was so much more detailed than the movie, of course, but also excelled in character development, plot development, and humor.
Sequel is Me After You and I agree–it was a disappointment.
Well I am sure I will get through it quickly and since it as an ebook from the library, not too invested.
I also enjoyed “The Martian”, not my usual type of book but my older daughter’s boyfriend had a copy and he is a big fan so I read it. It was very fast, maybe because I had seen the movie I felt as if Matt Damon was narrating it for me. The movie was pretty true to the book with one major difference in terms of the rescue mission and of course the added-on coda in the movie. All the math in the book is readable but would be tedious to show in a film.
I read The Martian last week, and really enjoyed it. A fun read.
For those interested in books set in Europe during WWII, I highly recommend the novels of Alan Furst. I can’t really recommend one over another: they’re all intensely absorbing, well written, with a remarkably strong sense of time and place. Here’s a link to a list (the brief descriptions in no way convey how…well, I have to repeat “absorbing” these books are):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/R2LX7VHAL5ZXMX
On another note, I just finished reading Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend. I was wondering if anyone else had thoughts about the way it ended and the–trying to to insert a spoiler here–way the central mystery was ultimately handled.
I would just like to say that while “A Brief History of Seven Killings” (Marlon James, 2015 Man Booker prize winner for best fiction) was very well written and gripping – it wasn’t brief enough! Another contemporary novel that should have been 30% shorter. Significant editing is a thing of the past, I guess.
I am finally reading A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. Talk about long!
^Hooray, mathmom! A Suitable Boy is long, but it’s so, so wonderful.
My mother gave it to me years ago. I’m sort of reading it in memory of her. Sorry I didn’t do it while she was still with us so we could have talked about it.
@Consolation Thanks for providing the list of Furst books. I’ve read Night Soldiers and enjoyed it so a good reminder to check out his other work.
I’ve FINALLY finished the Ferrante series. I read all 4 books back to back and it wound up taking me longer than it should/typically does to read them. I started to grow tired of them. IMO, they needed a MAJOR editing job. A third could have been cut out with no loss of storyline or impact. There are certain elements I liked about the books but I found them too plodding. I kind of wish I could get back the time I invested in them. :-<
Gilles Chatelet - To Live and Think Like Pigs. Viciously funny, insightful, brilliant at times. Stylish throughout. Really a page-turner.
Just fnished “The Little Paris Bookshop” by Nina George…totally recommend it.
I just finished Belgravia by Julian Fellows (of Downton Abbey fame) and found it to be a pretty good read. Worth taking to a late summer weekend at the beach.
I got about halfway through The Little Paris Bookshop, put it down, and returned it to the library. It ticked all the boxes, France, books, quirky, but it just didn’t do anything for me. It has gotten a number of rave reviews, though.
@doschicos --I need to acquire and read Number Four, but I just haven’t been motivated to. I totally agree on the “needs editing” comment. I felt like I was reading the same anecdotes over and over in some place–as I think I said above, usually in the first half of each book (esp. in 2 and 3).
I’m another who read The Little Paris Bookshop and found it “meh” at best. The title misleads as most of the narrative takes place outside of Paris and the floating bookshop gets abandoned midway. (It does start on a bookshop in Paris though, so whatever.)
I just finished reading Some Luck by Jane Smiley, which is the first book in her new trilogy about (surprise) a farm family. Found it in a Little Library. Just found the second one as an e-book for my Kindle at the regular library. But probably the best book I have read in the last 6 months is the biography of Johnny Cash by Robert Hilburn.
I can see where the title might be misleading, I was a bit surprised myself. It did take a while for this book to really click but then I thoroughly enjoyed it. As far as the Ferrante novels, I am waiting for my older do to finish Book IV so we can discuss.I am curious to see what she thought about some of the political discussion and of course some of actions of the characters, are they believable or not, and if so are they believable within the context of the times the novel is set in.
@CheddarcheeseMN --I enjoyed Smiley’s trilogy.
Oh my goodness, I just finished Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi. An incredible story that spans several hundred years from the slave traders in Ghana to the present. Easy to read but epic in impact. Anyone who liked The Invention of Wings will love this, and will be deeply moved.
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