Have you read...can you recommend...

Post by **Inanna** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 1:22 am

Ah - someone who agrees with me.

And yes, I agree Jude, you can see the deterioration as the story progresses. At one time, it was so bad.... I can’t imagine rereading it (my litmus test).

Post by **Impenitent** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 1:30 am

From about the middle, it reads like bad fan fiction. And such dismissive treatment of the bit characters!

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Post by **Inanna** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 1:39 am

I seem to have blocked it all out. Happily.

Post by **Jude** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 2:05 am

Perversely, this discussion is making me feel I should reread it to see if my initial impressions hold up. But I've got a huge stack of to-read books I before I'll get to that.

In other news, has anyone else read the Isabel Dalhousie series by Alexander McCall Smith? I'm loving them.

Post by **Impenitent** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 4:48 am

Nope, haven't come across them Jude.

I've got a substantial to-read pile on my (virtual) bedside table (virtual because kindle), including Full Disclosure.

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Post by **Inanna** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 5:20 am

I’ve read them all, Jude. I love them too.

I’m often fascinated by how He manages to write very differently for his Scotland series vs his Tanzania series. And they are both, well written.

Post by **samaranth** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:36 pm

Ooooh. Book recommendations! I haven't read the Isabel Dalhousie series, though I have read (and loved) the Scotland Street series. Thanks Jude! I'd also like to read Full Disclosure, but it doesn't seem to be available through the Australian Kindle Store. (I'm very much a Kindle reader these days. No room for hard copy books, not the number of books that I have queued up to read.)

Post by **Impenitent** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 2:58 pm

I'm on tenterhooks worrying about whether Amazon is going to kick me off the US site at the end of July. Up to now, I've been able to maintain my US registration by using a friend's address in the US, but that is at risk with the new Aus Amazon store.

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Post by **Jude** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 10:20 pm

I have an account with amazon.ca, amazon.com, and amazon.co.uk. Why would they kick you off?

Post by **Impenitent** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 11:36 pm

Aus govt has introduced a new law requiring all online stores to impose and deliver GST (goods and services tax), coinciding with Amazon opening its Aus store.

Amazon is now diverting Aus customers who log onto the US store to the Aus store, bith to comply with the new tax requirements and to push custom to its Aus store.

So far, my kindle purchases have slipped bw the cracks, but I live in apprehension.

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Post by **samaranth** » Fri Jul 20, 2018 4:20 am

Fingers crossed, Imp. I won't say another word...

Post by **Inanna** » Sun Sep 02, 2018 12:55 am

Looking for something to read, I decided to explore Good Read’s top 50 sci-fi & fantasy lists. I downloaded a few from the fantasy list which were available in the library and really liked:

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wacker
Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman)

The first was a really pleasant surprise. Very well written, real characters, historical NYC (always a draw for me).

And Neverwhere was amazing too. It did not grate on me as some of Gaiman’s books have previously done. Either this one is better or I can deal with his kind of gore better. It was always the unnecessary violence in his books that turned me off; maybe in Neverwhere it didn’t seem unnecessary.

Post by **Alatar** » Sun Sep 02, 2018 9:19 am

I love Neverwhere. Its unusual in that it started life as a TV Series and the book came after, much like Hitchhikers Guide was a Radio drama first. The BBC Radio adaptation of Neverwhere is suberb, unsurprisingly!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r522y

Just check out this cast:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profile ... characters

Post by **Frelga** » Sun Sep 02, 2018 3:47 pm

Wow, what a cast! I liked Neverwhere. It is possibly the most Tolkienesque of all the Gaiman books I read.

Post by **Inanna** » Mon Sep 03, 2018 3:27 am

I’m glad to hear you say that, Frelga. It explains why I loved it so. At my doddering age, I can’t be going around changing reading interests, now, can I? (I can’t decide in which accent I should speak this sentence).

I might check out that adaptation. Although, I love h2g2, but didn’t get into the radio series much. (Same start as Neverwhere, too)

Post by **Smaug's voice** » Fri Sep 07, 2018 2:51 pm

Ten thousand splendid suns and The Kite Runner. I cannot remember the last time my heart was so devastated while reading a book. Khaled Hosseini has a way with words that simultaneously finds the epic and the intimate. And despite the bleak settings of the books, what stood out more than anything was hope. I have rarely felt so much for fictional characters. Suffices to say, that the books made me weep. Which is a rarity.

Post by **Impenitent** » Thu Oct 04, 2018 12:45 am

Ten thousand splendid suns, Khaled Hosseini.

Deeply moving. The sophisticated culture of pre-war Afghanistan, and the beauty of Khabul, green and bustling, is delicately drawn in all its complexity, so its destruction hits you with the same emotional devastation experienced by the two central characters. Laila and Maryam are of different generations and contrasting upbringing and through their eyes we see the tragedy of all of Afghanistan's losses.

This must be read by those who talk of refugees as ragheads and uncivilised terrorists. It must be in schools. If only it were so.

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Post by **Frelga** » Sun Oct 14, 2018 11:03 pm

I started on the Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski. As fantasy goes, it's more Game of Thrones (which it predates by a few years) than LOTR - multiple competing factions rather than a Dark Lord. Not as gory, thank Eru. Not as well developed, either, but a good start and an interesting world.

There's a video game, I understand, and I think a Netflix series is coming soon. Probably a better bet, TBH, than one based on the barely sketched out Tolkien's ideas.

Post by **elengil** » Sun Oct 14, 2018 11:31 pm

Frelga wrote:I started on the Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski. As fantasy goes, it's more Game of Thrones (which it predates by a few years) than LOTR - multiple competing factions rather than a Dark Lord. Not as gory, thank Eru. Not as well developed, either, but a good start and an interesting world.

There's a video game, I understand, and I think a Netflix series is coming soon. Probably a better bet, TBH, than one based on the barely sketched out Tolkien's ideas.

There's a guy who did (or does maybe?) video game reviews. They're pretty funny mostly, though he does swear an awful lot. This is the one he did for The Witcher

Post by **Frelga** » Sun Oct 14, 2018 11:50 pm

Lol! Yeah, the book is not like that. I was very pleased with how it treats female characters. There are many of them, in various roles, from a powerful enchantress to a medical student, and of course there's the lost princess (well, more like hidden) that the plot revolves around. They interact with each other, have personal goals that may or may not include having (off-page) sex, and occasionally have to deal with crap from men in a realistic fashion.

The Hall of Fire