Gone Girl.
I started that Wolf Hall book a few days ago and canât decide whether or not I am enjoying it. I normally would enjoy that kind of book but so far it just isnât grabbing me.
I also have Gone Girl on my kindle and am thinking perhaps I picked the wrong book to start next.
Of Gillian Flynnâs 3 books, I like Dark Places best.
Loved âThe Casual Vacancyâ by J.K. Rowling. Could not put it down.
This is just superb. It was in one of our moving boxes. Believe we acquired it decades ago and never got around to reading it. I am already starting a re-read. I think itâs wonderful.
[National</a> Book Critics Circle: A Look Back at Shirley Hazzardâs The Transit of Venus - Critical Mass Blog](<a href=âNews & Notes - National Book Critics Circleâ>News & Notes - National Book Critics Circle)
The Plague of Doves and The Round House by Louise Erdrich. I had not read any Erdrich in years, although I was a great admirer of Love Medicine. These two books were both terrific.
Le Grand Meaulnes by Henri Alain-Fournier, translated by R.B. Russell. This is a book I became interested in recently when its name came up on the book club thread. Thereâs a nice review of it here: [Rereading:</a> Le Grand Meaulnes revisited | Books | The Guardian](<a href=âhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/13/grand-meaulnes-wanderer-julian-barnes]Rereading:â>Le Grand Meaulnes revisited | Fiction | The Guardian)
Finally got my hands on Back to Blood, by Tom Wolfe. Fiction set in Miami.
I read the Bernie Gunther novels by Philip Kerr. Theyâre nominally detective stories but begin in pre-WWII Nazi Germany. Bernie is, of course, a detective and, of course, used to be a police officer. In this case, he is out because of Nazi politics.
The first book March Violets is set around the 1936 Olympics and refers to late-comers to the Nazi Party. It is tough and somewhat hideous in its portrayal of Berlin as it was being reshaped into Nazi ideology.
The next book The Pale Criminal takes place 2 years later. It involves Bernie with some disgusting figures, notably Richard Heydrich and Goering.
The newest book, Prague Fatale, is actually the 3rd in chronology. It is set during the War and involves rather close portraits of Heydrich and people high up in the SS.
A couple of reading notes. First, these novels arenât for everyone. The author spent a lot of time invested in the minds of some truly disgusting human beings in order to render them as human beings. Bernie likes Arthur Nebe. (Look him up.) He gets along with other truly awful people, which means you see them in some ways as sympathetic. Not Heydrich. Not Himmler. But other extremely culpable murderders. And Bernie is not blameless. He did time in the East and was reassigned because of his political reluctance to participate in the mass murders, not because he absolutely refused.
Second, the violence level is not ordinary. You are taken in the first novel into Dachau and get a sense of hell before the extermination camps were set up. A torture scene in Prague Fatale is hard to take. You are dragged into a truly degraded world in which it is taken for granted that human life is nothing and where murderous reprisal is the mindset.
Third, the novels are worth reading partly because you get a sense of the âgood Germanâ and how the state forced some and co-opted others and lured others into evil. But you also see and feel and know that they were in fact evil, that they did this great wrong and that Bernie is not innocent. Iâm not giving away much to say that his solace, which isnât much, which is more punishment than succor, is that he can picture one face of the millions killed at Auschwitz.
But these books are significantly easier to read than Vasily Grossmanâs A Writer At War which pictures the Germans in the light they deserved. In scale, they are somewhat harder to read than Gabriel Temkinâs memoir of living through the war in the Red Army (mostly) called My Just War, even though what he personally experienced is terrifying.
Buddha in the Attic
The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Unbroken
Salvage the Bone
Gone Girl started GREAT but ended with a thud⊠Disappointed.
50 Shades of Gray trilogy - nice âquickieâ read. Nuf said.
I love all of Tana Frenchâs books - particularly The Likeness.
The Glass Castle is true and both riveted and haunted me.
Oh, I loved Unbroken. Thatâs going to be a movie.
For the Bujold fans. Just got the latest (Captain Vorpatrilâs Alliance) and she is back in form, funny and fast paced.
Yes! I LOVED âCaptain Vorpatrilâs Allianceâ, mathmom! I managed to wrangle an early (signed) copy because she lives in our city, and provided some to the âUncle Hugoâsâ Science Fiction bookstore prior to the actual release. Although it was also available online a few weeks before the book was released, so D1 & D2 had already gulped it down before I got hold of it. Just hope she keeps writing these and not going back to fantasyâŠ
Just finished readingâThe Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. Story revolves around a young woman whoâs been through hell in the foster care system and finds a life that revolves around flowers. Big part of the book deals with the Victorian language of flowersâwhich was a way one sent secret messages and expressed feelings using flower arrangements. Red roses meant passion, etc. Fascinating.
Also recommend, William Landry, Defending Jacob. Itâs a legal thriller. Critics have compared Landry to Scott Turow, since both were former prosecutors who became novelists. Landryâs main character is a prosecutor whose 14-year-old son is accused of murdering a classmate. Father gets involved in investigating the murder. Story focuses on a family in crisis and on the relationships between the husband and wife in the wake of the murder and on the parents and their sonâparents realize they donât really know their son. Interesting part dealing with the idea of a murder geneâthis comes up when itâs revealed that the fatherâs father as well as his grandfather were murderers. Thereâs a surprise ending, which works.
Just read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, on my daughterâs reccomendation. Enjoyed it very much.
Then I read You Are Not Like Other Mothers by Angelika Schrobsdorff. Itâs autobiographical and pretty depressing. (Look her up on Wikipedia)
Another Best Books of 2012 list:
[Publishers</a> Weekly Best Books of 2012](<a href=âBest Books of 2012 | Publishers Weekly : Publishers Weeklyâ>Best Books of 2012 | Publishers Weekly : Publishers Weekly)
I just finished The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin - listed by PW as one of the best in fiction - really good.
Iâve read fewer of the books listed this year than usual - not sure what happened. I usually read a good smattering across multiple genres. I see some titles previously recommended here on our own âbest booksâ thread.
Just finished âThe Light Between Oceansâ by ML Stedman- great exploration of making impossible choices, moral dilemma. âThe Dovekeepersâ by Alice Hoffman is a recent favorite. I think I need to read âThe Yellow BirdsââŠ
Recently finished The Tigerâs Wife by Tea Obrecht.. beautifully written, I recommend.
Piemom posted:
Yup. Agree. Donât get all the hoopla.
Bromifield,
Have read * Language of Flowers * and liked. The Landry thriller sounds very interesting.