Satsuki that made me laugh so much!

So Satsuki, are you saying we should avoid The Name of the Wind then?

Just caught up and also splashed the cash for the Janissary Tree. I don't want to miss out!

26. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
This was fun and I'm glad to have read it. I loved all the 80s references and found the OASIS and the state of the USA in 2045 to be believable. I rooted for Wade all the way through! Go Wade. Looking forward to the film now.

27. Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman
I read this to see how it compared to the A.S Byatt version. There's more detail here in these retellings but to be honest I prefer Byatt. I think she's just a better writer, and while this was a perfectly decent retelling, I did find that some of the language he uses jarred somewhat e.g 'let's check it out'. Too modern sounding for me.

Onwards and upwards...

cote - I'd say that Satsuki absoLUTEly adored it (do you see what I did there?!)

ROAR @ that review Satsuki.

So, you liked it?

13. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

This is the first in a proposed trilogy called the Brainkiller Kingkiller Chronicles. This first one was nearly 700 pages and no Kings are yet dead. I have NO IDEA why this book is so popular. It is irritating as hell.

When you get to 80 per cent of a really long book and come across the phrase "her smile was like the sun peeping from behind a cloud" honestly you want to inflict some pain on the guy.

He invents a whole new religion and has everyone using oaths like "Tehlu blacken!" and you go along with it, but then after 600 pages of this he suddenly has someone say "it's a goddamn dragon", making an utter waste of time of the whole enterprise and your life and time.

At every point where something should happen, or something significant should be said, it is clear he does not actually have the writing skills to tackle it, so he just glosses over things. "I won't tell you what our conversation was, but it was earth shattering and deep" "I won't tell you the song she sang, it's not your business but it was so wonderful" and "I don't know what I'm going to do next so I'm just going to pawn something/sell something/buy something/borrow money/buy a lute/break lute/buy new lute/break that lute/borrow money"AAAARGGGGH.

The main character comes from a tribe of people that are apparently alternatively known for both lying and honesty, depending on the requirements of the story. It has some good writing and turns of phrase, but it all amounted to unforgivable smartarsery in the face of so much smug dullness and stupidity.

I finished it but I felt like giving myself a sharp slap at the end. I did at first enjoy the promise of a rich fantasy world with an intriguing story, but he abruptly abandoned the kernel of an idea he had and embarked on a long willy-waving coming of age tale that was Harry Potter-esque with a lute in place of a plot, and instead of any believable female characters, a lute, and in place of Quidditch, a lute-off, and in place of adventure, losing a lute, playing a lute, buying a lute, losing a lute.

I apologise, no one needs to read all that, it's sent me a little crazy, and I'm just getting it out. I have so much more I could rant about too! Did I mention it was nearly 700 pages? The sequel is around 1100 pages long. I mean come on, you're not bloody Tolstoy. But I need to move on. On now to Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers.

How are you getting on with Jackal's 1st chapter, Remus?

I'm really enjoying it but then again, I also enjoy Charles Cummings's spy books which you were scathing not terribly positive about

fatowl

Oh my days! An entire thread has been and gone in the time it took me to read my last book!

12. The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks. Typical love story from Sparks. I really enjoyed this and teared up at the end a bit

Cote grin - but wouldn't it be wonderful if it turned out to be yet another of those wonderful but rare occasions when we agree on a novel?

Oh God, you're going to hate it

Crossed posts, Best. Great minds!

Cote - but wouldn't it be wonderful if it turned out to be yet another of those wonderful but rare occasions when we agree on a novel?

I've ordered the sample as a starting point.

Go for a sample Remus and see how you get on.

Not sure Remus. I loved it 30 years ago and enjoying it now but am only a couple of chapters in. I think you'd like it.

Remus - I would have said "Yay" but don't dare, as I've been hurt too many times before

FatOwl

Those of you who've read Day of the Jackal and know my taste. Yay or nay?

I agree Wilting

15. Old Filth Jane Gardam - the eponymous Old Filth looks back on his life following the death of his wife. He's a very dry and correct former judge with little warmth in his life, and the book reveals how he wound up that way. The book was very readable, but I couldn't get a handle on a number of the characters which I found frustrating.

Fatowl so sorry to learn of your losses

Day of the jack is one of my top thrillers ever

Second Odessa Files also

Rest of his books pretty rubbish tho.

I'm also reading The Day of The Jackal Cote in tandem with a Poirot. From distant memory, The Odessa Files was also good.

Fatowl

Tips on getting your reading mojo back? I was doing so well at the beginning of the year but am definitely falling behind :(

Am still reading Lolita which im gripped by even if i have to reread parts due to the language its written in.

Just checking in to say I'be put aside Keith Richards' autobiography (yes, my life is so exciting that his looks boring in comparison ) and started Day Of The Jackal. It's fantastic. I can't believe I've never read it before!

Condolences, Fatowl

Sorry to hear about your loss, fatowl

26. Nora Webster by Colm Toibin Thankyou for recommending this, HappyFlappy! I very much enjoyed this, it is wonderfully written and compelling, following Nora who is grieving her husband at the early age of 40 and raising four children in 1960's Ireland in a small village where everybody knows each others' business. It reminded me a little of Olive Kitteridge, with its flawed, strong, likeable, and somehow resonating as very real main female characters.

27. The Men Who Stare At Goats by Jon Ronson : fascinating journalism, alternately amusing and deeply disturbing. Jon Ronson describes the US military's attempts to use psychological warfare including trying to stop a goats heart by staring at it, psychic spying and the use of subliminal messages. As with his book on extremism, Them, I kept stopping reading to Google the bizarre people being interviewed and events described, I found it very interesting, despite not yet having made up my mind how big a pinch of salt I should take it with!