What are you reading?

[MDPhDWife]

I had quite a bit of time to read this week, yay! I read Tempting Fate by Jane Green as well as Molly Bloom's memoir Molly's Game. Took me back to the days when I was really into poker.

I really like Gillian Flynn, so people kept recommending Tara French and I tried one of her books but couldn't really get into it. Should I try The Likeness?

[MAPPLEBUM]

I'm reading Murakami's new one, Colorless Tsukuru, partially enjoying it but also remember why I got tired of his books. Looks like Banville has a new one out or else maybe next I'll go back to Margaret Atwood.

Also started a book on UBD if anyone wants to recommend further reading (mostly interested in inquiry based teaching but thought this would be a good starting point) ?

[WolfpackWife]

Started and finished "White Oleander" this weekend. I have mixed feelings about it. Parts of it were beautifully written, haunting, sad. Other parts were soooo overwrought - I kept thinking "okay, okay, GET ON WITH IT."

As an audiobook, I wasn't crazy about it. First of all, Oprah was the narrator and let's just say narrating audiobooks isn't her strong suit. Also - I realized this was a seriously abridged version and that explains the feeling I got about halfway through that the story seemed spotty and not well formed.

"In The Woods" is still good, it is dense in parts so that's slowing me down a bit. I'm hoping it picks up soon. I definitely will read through "The Likeness" because that seems to be the one that wows everyone.

[Sheherezade]

Tana French is not really like Gillian Flynn. Gillian's tighter and a bit more flashy and trendy I think. Tana is a good plotter, but there is a lot of character and setting development that takes time. The basic plot of the likeness is that a detective is called to the scene of a crime because one of her ex bosses is stunned that the victim looks just like her. They hatch a plan to say that the victim didn't die, and that she's recovered. Then, they put the detective in her place in the house of friends she lived in with the intent to discover who killed her. It's an interesting set up.


Angie

[niener]

So I started reading Divergent last night. 2AM rolls around and I have to force myself to put it down so lack of sleep won't trigger a migraine today. It is SO addicting. I waited so long to pick it up because I wasn't a huge fan of Hunger Games and people kept telling me how similar the two were, but OMG I'm obsessed. I'll probably finish it off tonight and start Insurgent tomorrow.

[MrsK]

I just finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

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[spotty_dog]

In the past few months I've read some of Ursula Le Guin's sci fi and it really reawakened me to that genre. The two books I enjoyed were both set in the "Hainish Cycle" series, which explores human culture and society by presenting alien civilizations made up of people with mostly-human biology but thousands of years of divergent evolution. Yesterday I picked up Book #1 of the series, The Dispossessed. So far I'm enjoying it! It's good to sink into a book that has some tooth to it but is still just good fun.

[MsSassyBaskets]

Tana French is not really like Gillian Flynn. Gillian's tighter and a bit more flashy and trendy I think. Tana is a good plotter, but there is a lot of character and setting development that takes time. The basic plot of the likeness is that a detective is called to the scene of a crime because one of her ex bosses is stunned that the victim looks just like her. They hatch a plan to say that the victim didn't die, and that she's recovered. Then, they put the detective in her place in the house of friends she lived in with the intent to discover who killed her. It's an interesting set up.


Angie

Just getting back to this. I would agree that Tana French and Gillian Flynn are not alike, although they may appeal to the same readers. I think Tana French is much more lyrical and atmospheric, and her characters tend to be fairly likable and flawed in that they get too emotionally invested. Of all her books I would recommend In The Woods for the first read, both because it's the first in the series, and because its characters are more likable than Broken Harbor or Faithful Place, while being less weird than The Likeness.

I enjoy reading Gillian Flynn but I think she's much more of a shock artist. You don't have to like her characters, you can absolutely hate them. She tries to gross you out at every turn and make you squirm with how awful people are. Tana French is a softer touch, and I like that better. Her finales always slay me, with the main character's heartbreak when they fail or are surprised by the outcome. I like the emotion of it, but some people probably like Gillian Flynn better for the shock value and rougher ride.

[Sheherezade]

ITA. Gillian is a one night stand for me. French is a keeper.


Angie

[MAPPLEBUM]

I just finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

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What did you think? You read Goldfinch too, right?

[MrsK]

What did you think? You read Goldfinch too, right?

I'm still digesting it. Interesting that there is an ancient writing called The Secret History that chronicles corruption among the emperor's inner circle during the byzantine empire. I wish I knew more about Greek and ancient literature. I wish I could spend time doing a more academic analysis of the book.

On a superficial level, I enjoyed it. As with The Goldfinch, I thought the characters were well developed and the narrator sufficiently unreliable. It was exciting to see the characters transform, turn on one another, and see how slippery morality can be. I think I enjoyed it more than I did Goldfinch.

I see the parallel with Eugenides' Marriage Plot....which I disliked. And Middlesex was one of my favorite books.

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[WolfpackWife]

Just finished the Cheryl Strayed memoir "Wild".



#unimpressed

[diggitydot]

Are you stoked about it being made into a movie?

[WolfpackWife]

Are you stoked about it being made into a movie?

Ugh...to me, it had the same self-serving tone that "Eat, Pray, Love" did. It was interesting to hear about *some* of the events leading up to her journey, but I really thought - and maybe this is my fault - that it would be MUCH more about the hardships she endured on the trail, how her time on the trail allowed her to work through her grief and teach her something about herself, the physical and mental hardships she worked through and became physically and mentally stronger and more emotionally whole. Like as in ACTUAL accounts of what happened, mile by mile. It just...didn't. For me, at least. This review from a Goodreads user really summed up exactly how I felt:

A self-absorbed, ill-prepared woman, 26 years old, leaves her husband (a decent guy) for no good reason, mucks her life up even further with drugs and reckless sex, then engages in some vacuous navel-gazing on the Pacific Crest Trail. As a woman hiking alone she gets all kinds of special treatment and help from fellow hikers. She loses a few pounds, gets some muscles and some sun-bleached hair and calls her work done.

[diggitydot]

Hahaha! That's a hilarious review.

I know nothing of the book or movie, just that the filming has been all around where I grew up and not far from where we currently live. If I see it, it will be for the views of the mountains I grew up near.