Books #28

[Caffeine Fiend]

I'm also currently reading Tomorrow x 3. I don't usually like romance and I enjoy playing games but I'm not super into it. I'm only about a tenth of the way through but I think it's well written.

Its definitely not about romantic relationships which I thought was quite refreshing

 

[chickhicks86]

Why does Feyre hiss so much? Is she ok?

 

[cill2019]

Been to a few charity shops to today (even though I don't need anymore books on my TBR list! )
Found Where the Crawdads Sing and Blood Orange for 50p each. Don't know if I will enjoy them, but for 50p I thought I may as well try them

I LOVED Blood Orange. I read it a couple of years ago on Boxing Day, don’t think I moved off the sofa all day. Kids were feral but book was great

 

[Mooordgirl]

I pre-ordered Marian Keyes new book (release day today) and the potsman has been and gone ... no sign

 

[Marylou]

April reads round up. They're all through Kindle Unlimited, and I'm glad it's free until the middle of the month because I'm struggling to find some good reads this time.

 

[inksmear]

I finished A Little Life and omg wtf. I feel like I spent the last 3rd of the book

Spoiler: Spoiler

waiting for Jude to kill himself. Horrifying all the way through.
it was beautifully written BUT perhaps got a little cartoonish - I could have lived without the Dr Traylor storyline, or it could have been written slightly differently? It just seemed a bit far-fetched at that point. And the brutality of the relationship with Caleb was also sort of silly. It just felt like it was adding to the pile on of misery, but there was none of the heart that made us understand the relationship. It was too one dimensional. I enjoyed how the friendships were depicted and I loved Harold.

4 out of 5.

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

Love this so so much.

Thank you lovely. I hope you are doing better?
---

Thank you for your honesty.
It seems so hard to put yourself first in life. There's always someone there to criticise your life choices. I don't seem to know any other bookworms. It's like being a social pariah to mention it. So refreshing to sink into this forum like a warm bath.
Honestly, sometimes I feel like saying "why don't you stfu and read/watch/listen to this rather than droning on and not letting me get a word in!"
Actually, if I'm being honest I have slipped up and said it to one person. I'm turning into a badass bitch!!
But getting back to your post. Simplification is the best. Fighting against influence. Just have/do what makes you happy and stuff what anyone else thinks!
Sorry for any derail guys. Just fed up with people criticising my liking for books and what I'm doing with my time not being "productive!"

We dont need to be productive 24/7. Also how much time does the average person (myself included) spend scrolling.

Time enjoyed isnt wasted I dont enjoy doing sports or video games but Id never be so bold to suggest to those who do that the time they spend is unproductive or wasteful/pointless.

 

[SaintLeo]

I Who Have Never Known Men is a Kindle Daily Deal today. It was on my Wishlist thanks to some good reviews here so sure there will be others who fancy it!

 

[Squittel]

I feel like I opened a can of worms with the Freida McFadden talk I just enjoy a bit of easy reading which is exactly what her books are. I’ll have to read some of the books she plagiarised!
---

Started Verity last night and just finished. That was....intense! I need to start a nice, easy read now

Did you enjoy it? I read it very quickly too but wasn’t sure I actually thought it was a good book, just a page turner.

 

[SaintLeo]

Finished This Family by Kate Sawyer last night and loved it. It took a few chapters to get used to the timeline shifts but it’s a really good multiple character family drama story. My only criticism would be that the Epilogue felt a bit throw away - it didn’t really show where the characters all ended up. Other than that I think she is definitely someone I’ll be reading more from.

 

[mindlessness]

I 'accidentally' ended up in Waterstones this morning and bought 4 books.

The Familliar - Leigh Bardugo (bought after mentions in the thread, I've not read any Bardugo before as I don't normally read fantasy but I do love historical fiction)
Stone Yard Devotional - Charlotte Wood (Lit Fic novel about a woman who returns to the religious community in the Australian outback she grew up in)
The Book of Days - Francesca Kay (Historical fiction set in Reformation England. Which is probably not everyone's cup of tea but is mine )
This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things - Naomi Wood (A short story collection which per the blurb 'illuminates the lives of malicious, subversive and untamed women.')

 

[SaintLeo]

GBM is incredibly cruel. Most people don't survive 1 year of it, and even less survive 2. Hopefully the chemo and RT has worked for her though and gives her more time.

It really is. I lost a close friend to it and it’s brutal, both the disease and the treatment. Wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. I hope the support I’ve seen on Sophie’s social media this afternoon brings some comfort as her and her family go through this awful time.

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

I just realised that the same topics come up regularly here; best Kindles, how to get into audio books, Kindle vs real books etc. On any other thread on here people would be like “we’ve already talked about this!”, “read the wiki”, “just search for what you want” etc. But us lot are always just so happy someone’s talking about books that we rehash the same conversations to welcome someone in and make them included. What a lovely bunch we are

I honestly dont mind answering but I have wild paranoia that others are sick to death of hearing me say the same things.

Whole heartedly agree with you though
---

You know how much I love a visual, so here is todays charity shop buy

I was so tempted to buy it from Asda yesterday too! I did end up buying The List of Suspicious Things in hardback. I thought it was really well priced at £6.

View attachment 2887354

I read this last week. I really enjoyed it, at the time I marked it down from a 4 to a 3.75 due to the ending but on reflecting I think the ending was probably fitting for the message the author was trying to convey.

 

[BWGossip]

Stayed up late to finish my 30th book of the month! It was a silly challenge but I actually took some 'lessons' from it, so all in all a pretty fun experience. Unfortunately, my overall rating went from 3.3 to 2.71 Only 2 five stars books with Notre-Dame de Paris and Eugene Onegin. The rest were historical romance novels written by MC Beaton: they are mostly entertaining but forgettable (but don't read them if you don't like 35 years old rich dick-ish men marrying 18 years old pennyless girls as it's that storyline 99% of the time )

May will be heavy on non-fiction/academia books, so won't read as much fiction or for fun Reading Middlemarch is the only goal I'm setting.

 

[twilightgarden]

2024 has been such a slumpy reading year for me so far I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been busy or just not picking up books that grab me but I’m raging about it. I love sitting with a book and reading for hours.
---

Prima Facie… 5 stars easily. Jodie Comer is just incredible.

I feel so incredibly sad. There is so much more that can be said but I feel like I need to take it all in.

This is on my audible wishlist and I have a credit

 

[AllieBee]

Has anyone read The Gilded Cage by Camilla Lackberg? I really enjoyed it, I do love the 'strong, intelligent woman gets revenge on man who thinks with his dick' genre! Actually I'm not sure that is actually a genre but it is now!

 

[Ginnyjo]

Has anyone any tips on how to stick with audiobooks?

I am trying to read A Court of Silver Flames (my first audiobook) and I am struggling. My attention wanders and I end up rewinding. I feel like I would have read the book by now. I have downloaded it to my kindle and half planning on giving up on audiobooks. I tried to listen when cleaning and driving and when doing mundane tasks. When reading I have been dying to finish work to read a few chapters but the audiobook hasnt got me as gripped.

So I always had this issue, I read a tip the other day about checking the speed, if you're a fast reader, and you find your mind wandering in audiobooks, it's probably too slow for you. I've changed mine to 1.25 and it made a massive difference, got through half of Anna O yesterday.

I've slowly been getting my reading mojo back this year, so far have read:
Silence of the Girls
Women of Troy
A Lethal Legacy
Though the bodies fall
Hearts and Bones
The Girls who disappeared
Caraval
The only one left behind
Home before dark
Gild
and I'm currently halfway through Legendary, Caravals sequel, I also have the 3rd book Finale ready to go, Glint, Gilds follow on, Black Sun, and Once Upon a Broken Heart, all sitting here waiting to be read.
Not going to lie, I'd be lost without my library now

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

I'm still in a reading slump. I was on a roll in Jan -Feb but now I'm like ughhhhh. My attention span is shot to pieces.

Honestly modern life wrecks your attention span. I also have neurodiversity in my corner where I do 5 things at once but I cant even watch TV anymore. I dont have the attention span to do it

 

[QueenBW]

Happy Place is the pits. That's the end of my review Terrible characters who don't even seem to like each other so why would we like them? It fully relied on the miscommunication trope both for the romance conflict and the friendship conflict. And at the end it was all brushed under the rug. And yes. It should have been called Sucky Place.

But! @slugella , I say you give Funny Story a try. The chemistry is much better. I don't fully remember why you don't like Book Lovers but I think you disliked the sister and thought Nora and Charlie were snobbish wankers? Well Daphne and Miles have great chemistry, are very down to earth, no snobbery in sight, and no sister. If after that you still hate EmHen I'll accept it

 

[LaBlonde]

i didn't know i think i read it about colleen hoover on here, but didn't know about her. i guess i'll crawl into a hole now

girl, don’t you dare; get out of that hole! it’s okay

i know nothing about frieda mcfadden and haven’t read anything by her but the audacity! but i remember reading a romance novel ages ago that had the whole benny and jets scene from 27 dresses straight up implanted into it and i wondered how the author got away with THAT too