Impenitent wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 9:55 pm
One can only lend a book once, so you have to get it right the first time. When I tried to lend you a book, we got it wrong by using your regular email address and the whole thing failed.
This Amazon system whereby they lock reading rights is outrageous.
More than that, the books you've bought disappear into the ether when you pass on. We have hundreds of real books from my dad, including books that go back to the 17th century (he was quite the reader and collector) but all the ones he got for his kindle are gone for good.
Not entirely true...I back up all my kindle books to a hard drive.
When I'm retired and have oodles of time on my hands, I will convert these restricted kindle books to unlocked eBooks.
I've done it with a few books already...actually, not true, my husband has done it with a few books already, because he wanted to read them, or because our son wanted to read them.
The process works, but is a drag because each has to be converted individually. The software is freely (commercially) available, and entirely legal because we don't intend to distribute.
Mornings wouldn't suck so badly if they came later in the day.
If you like historical fiction, I highly recommend The Memory Box by Kathryn Hughes (did you recommend that one too Impy? )
This story, which begins with a 100th birthday party in 2019, weaves back & forth in time to the 1940's/World War II. As Jenny, the centenarian who wishes to come to terms with her past before she dies, tells her story to her young caregiver who finds some parallels to her own life. Lots of twists and turns as the story unfolds.
Jude, if I may ask, how did all of your father's kindle books go missing? Has anyone else here had issues with that? I've had iTunes content go missing.
Jude wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 5:14 pm
They must still exist in his Kindle account somehow, but it's too late for us to ask him for his password. So they're essentially gone.
I've finished Nathan Lowell's series, ""A Trader's Tale from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper" and have started in on another of his books, "The Wizard's Butler"
I don't really understand how this author manages to string together a good plot with little violence or mayhem, but he does it very well. I'm not the only one who thinks so, either: https://www.wired.com/2012/06/space-ope ... er-series/ Space Opera Without Explosions: Nathan Lowell's Solar Clipper Series
Jude wrote: ↑Sun Feb 06, 2022 11:01 pm
It's a political thriller, and very timely. Even though the names are changed, you'll know immediately who some of the characters are.
The warm, human writing of Penney compared with the insider knowledge of Clinton make a compelling alchemy. If you've read the Armand Gamache series (and you should!) you'll recognize the voice, but the subject matter is not her usual genre. As I said, it's hard to put down. Try to choose a weekend where you don't have any major commitments
I finished this this weekend. I agree that it is a page turner, though I found that some of it stretches the limits of credulity, particularly given that having Clinton as a co-author would suggest a level of verisimilitude. That having said, it is even more timely given the events of the past couple of weeks. I do recommend it, though perhaps not quite as highly as you.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
I'm listening to the audio book now, while wandering around Yosemite. I'm experiencing uncanny valley on so many levels. The narrator sounds almost, but not quite, like Clinton. The characters are pastiches of actual people. And the idea of Ms Clinton imagining herself in the role of an elaborate Mission Impossible plot seems a little far fetched. There are so many characters, I gave up trying to figure it out for myself, and just let it wash over me. That said, I am riveted.
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus
I finished Bujold's Shards of Honor today. I will cut her some slack because it was her first novel, but I must say I was frustrated by the series of vignettes (chases, tortures, conversations) with no discernable overall plot. Now I'm on to Barrayar, which was not the next book she wrote, but is the next, chronologically, within that universe. And since Barrayar won both Hugo and Locus awards, I'm looking forward to a better reading experience, and to the anticipation of reading two dozen more books in the series.
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus
narya wrote: ↑Wed Mar 02, 2022 4:02 am
(...) I was frustrated by the series of vignettes (chases, tortures, conversations) with no discernable overall plot.
I suspect when this happens an author writes imagined vignettes and then tries to piece them into a story rather than writing a linear story or at least writing from a good outline and then editing to properly fit these vignettes in. I suspected this was the case with Diana Gabaldon's works and I later read that is exactly what she does, especially with emotionally charged scenes. While I have enjoyed some of her books, there is often a chapter/scene or two which seem to be so out of character or come out of nowhere that it really takes away from the credibility/continuity of the story for me.
Shards of Honor and Barrayar are the only books that focus on Cordelia and Aral, so I love them for that reason.... but the best books are about Miles. Shards is obviously a first novel, but still- Bujold managed to surprise me many times in that book and I love it when an author does that. (surprises me, I mean)
Barrayar was much better than Shards of Honor, so I have the next book in my queue.
I just finished In the Name of Honor, by Richard North Patterson. The author was recommended by V. It was extremely well written, and the audio book version was well narrated, but it was also triggering and left me crying with my hands shaking at times, so I'm not sure I'll be reading any more of his books. As you know, I've volunteered on a crisis phone line for 16 years now. The calls can be troubling - especially the suicidal ones - but I have the strength and the tools to deal with the hard calls, and willingly come back for more each week, and the conviction that I'm doing something helpful. But about 5 years ago, our crisis line contracted to take overflow calls from the Veterans Administration mental health hotline. Rather than provide adequate services for veterans with severe PTSD and depression in a timely manner, close to home, the VA just put everyone on a wait list and referred them to the hotline. The calls were harrowing. Half the volunteer staff quit - unable to deal with the calls. I left each shift shaking, and dreading going back. Fortunately for us, the contract was canceled. This book dealt graphical with the horrors of war in Iraq, and the aftermath of PTSD, depression, suicide, and domestic violence. Having heard so many stories for real on the hotline, it was hard to hear them again in a fictionalized setting. I also discovered that I haven't fully processed the violence from my dad when I was a child, so that added to the impact. All in all, I'd say it was an excellent book that I never want to experience again. I'll stick with fantasy violence, thank you.
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus
narya, most of his other books are very different than In the Name of Honor, and I don't think that you would find them triggering.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
I just finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. All of his books are quite different but what they have in common is a deceptively simple story with simple language underpinned with very complex moral questions at their heart. This was not a 'fun' read and rather heartbreaking. Ishiguro's stories unfold very slowly, revealing ideas in a very subtle way. If the reader takes the story at face value they are really missing the author's point. I can't say much without giving the plot away, but it is a dystopian coming-of-age novel. I had a clue where it was going in the first page or so, but it held some surprises for me. As with the 3 of his books I've read, there are underlying themes of dignity, duty/calling, loss, memory and how time can change views of our memories &/or how fragile our memory can be.
Yes, Kazuo Ishiguro wrote The Buried Giant and The Remains of the Day which I've read and commented on earlier. There are also a few of his books I've not read.
