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If you like Arthurian sagas, I'd highly recommend 'The Mists of Avalon' by Marion Bradley. One of my all time favourite books from the past. It's the story told through the females perspective.
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What book(s) are you reading or listening to at the moment?
- Thread starter ForestWomble
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I’ve just gone back to re-read the Cormorant Strike series by John Galbraith ( aka J K Rowling).
What a joy to read a story with no grammatical errors, no typos, no annoying ambiguous sentences.
What a joy to read a story with no grammatical errors, no typos, no annoying ambiguous sentences.
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Im reading one of the Nikki French novels,Ive read it before but I didnt realise that when I picked it up. Thats the downside of reading in two languages sometimes the titles dont translate very well..lol.
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Don't keep us hanging! You've got to share (I'm imagining things like Korean car manufacturers who called their cars names that are rude words in English lol).
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Nothing as fun as that. I read Dutch fluently a little German and Danish but not for fun.
But obviously to make sense to the native reader the titles do get changed a bit.
Strangely it does matter who does the translation. Early Nikki French books are great the later ones have very heavy handed unnatural translation that make the books almost a chore to read..
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Oh my gosh, so frustrated. SO FRUSTRATED! Another stack of library books, another stack of books written in that stupid horrible unreadable self indulgent present tense style of writing.
I was so angry about it this morning I actually wrote to one of the authors, because I keep having people tell me how good her books are and I cannot get past the first page because of that horrible present tense writing.
Grump grump grumble. Stack of new books, but nothing to read. Back to the old falling apart Anne McCaffrey.
I was so angry about it this morning I actually wrote to one of the authors, because I keep having people tell me how good her books are and I cannot get past the first page because of that horrible present tense writing.
Grump grump grumble. Stack of new books, but nothing to read. Back to the old falling apart Anne McCaffrey.
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I've read a few book written in the present tense and don't have a problem with it - maybe it seems a little off at the start, but I adapt. We're all different though. I'm more distracted by incorrect use of colons and semi-colons.
I've just finished A Knock at the Door by Rob Parsons, and true memoir. When Rob was 27, back in the mid-70s, Robbie, a man Rob used to know from Sunday School, knocked on his door. Robbie had larning disabilities, had been brought up in care, then pretty much abandoned and ended up homeless. Rob and his wife let him stay overnight. But it was then Xmas Eve, and they could hardly turf him out then, so he stayed over Xmas. And then it was agreed he could stay for a fortnight while they worked out where he could go. And then found he couldn't be homed without a job, and couldn't get a job without a permanent address, so they let him stay till he found a job as a dustbinman. But... this man had never been loved in his life, and being told he had to move away would just seem like one more abandonment. Fifty years later... well, you'll have to read the book.
Rob and his wife are very involved in their church, and (being an athiest) I was worried the book would dwell on their 'Christian values'. But no, they were just two lovely, good, caring souls. If you want heartwarming, this is the book to read.
I've just finished A Knock at the Door by Rob Parsons, and true memoir. When Rob was 27, back in the mid-70s, Robbie, a man Rob used to know from Sunday School, knocked on his door. Robbie had larning disabilities, had been brought up in care, then pretty much abandoned and ended up homeless. Rob and his wife let him stay overnight. But it was then Xmas Eve, and they could hardly turf him out then, so he stayed over Xmas. And then it was agreed he could stay for a fortnight while they worked out where he could go. And then found he couldn't be homed without a job, and couldn't get a job without a permanent address, so they let him stay till he found a job as a dustbinman. But... this man had never been loved in his life, and being told he had to move away would just seem like one more abandonment. Fifty years later... well, you'll have to read the book.
Rob and his wife are very involved in their church, and (being an athiest) I was worried the book would dwell on their 'Christian values'. But no, they were just two lovely, good, caring souls. If you want heartwarming, this is the book to read.
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I've just finished listening to the third of the Sugar Shack Witch Mysteries (I got the first five books as a set). Feel I'd like to listen to something different before finishing the set, not sure what though.
Still reading Fat dogs and French estates part 5 and enjoying it.
Still reading Fat dogs and French estates part 5 and enjoying it.
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I read the book and thought exactly the same as you!
I'm currently reading A witch's guide to magical innkeeping. I can't seem to get stuck into it like I normally do with a book, I mainly got it because it's set in Lancashire and I've not read any set here before. Hopefully it gets more interesting!
Much of my reading these days is fantasy. I just finished Hedesa, which is the latest in Rachel Neumeier's Tuyo series. (Side note: Neumeier is a spaniel breeder. No spaniels in the series, but there is the occasional sled dog.) Really good world building; Neumeier establishes a sound foundation in ecology, economics, religion, and anthropology. The world in the series is basically flat and divided into stripes. Each stripe has its own climate and falls under the auspices of a celestial body. The first book, Tuyo, is about a conflict between the peoples of the winter lands (who follow the moon) and the summer lands (who follow the sun.) A custom among the winter people is that, when one side in a conflict is about to suffer a calamitous loss, they can hand over a captive, a tuyo, to be executed however the winning side chooses. This sacrifice ends the conflict with no further bloodshed or reprisals against the losers. This is not the way the summer people conduct warfare. Therefore, it's a bit of an "erm, what do we do now" situation when the summer people in this conflict find themselves presented with a tuyo. The war leader of the summer people declines to kill the captive. Ultimately the captive and the war leader establish a working relationship and figure out who has been stirring up the trouble between their peoples. Further books in the series concern the adventures of these and other characters, sometimes in further lands. Hedesa occurs in the starlit lands, where the weather is alway like mild spring, and the sun never enters the sky at all.
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I've just started listening to 'Over Sea, Under Stone' - the first book in The Dark is Rising series, only listened to 3 chapters so far, but am hooked, I'm loving it.
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Im reading a Karen Slaughter book.
But at a market on Saturday I saw an old copy of the secret diary of Eva Braun. Opening it at a random page it read ' the Führer does not like to bathe'
But at a market on Saturday I saw an old copy of the secret diary of Eva Braun. Opening it at a random page it read ' the Führer does not like to bathe'
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I've just started reading 'Circe' by Madeline Miller which is based on Greek myths. 'Stone Blind' by Natalie Haynes is really good as well if you like that sort of thing.
And 'Piranesi' by Susanna Clarke if you like mysteries and fantasies and having your brain worked.
I'm always looking for recommendations.
And 'Piranesi' by Susanna Clarke if you like mysteries and fantasies and having your brain worked.
I'm always looking for recommendations.
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Oh I'm so glad! I do love the series, I've read it a few times
I really enjoyed Circe, I read her other one too, the one about Achilles, can't remember the name anymore. I do like her style of retelling those Greek myths.
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So many of my friends have read and loved this one! I've just started Nothing But Blue Sky by Kathleen MacMahon.
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Just finished it, I loved it and am looking forward to the second book.
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It's really good and a nice brain tickler. It's going to be made into a stop-motion animated film by the same studio that did 'Coraline' and 'Kubo and the 2 strings'. I think that'll be the perfect way to bring it to life.
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I've just finished Ubac and Me: A Life of Love and Adventure With a French Mountain Dog by Cédric Sapin-Defour.
This is the memoir of a man and his Bernese Mountain dog, Ubac. It was a big hit in France, where it was first published. It is very much a meditation on love and grief, and even when Ubac is a puppy, and then full of the vitality of youth, each vet visit that ended with smiles and conformation that everything is fine and he's in perfect health, there is the shadow of knowledge that this will always be the case.
This is a beautiful book, but not one to read if you have recently lost a loved one of any species. I could only read it when there were a few distractions around, no way could I read it tucked up in bed when my own memories would creep in. Sentences like '...it all boils down to me wth a gnarl of Gruyere rind in my hand, devastated that I don't know what to do with it' resonated so much.
Whether this review is a recommendation or a warning, I'm not sure - it's up to you! But you will need a hanky...
This is the memoir of a man and his Bernese Mountain dog, Ubac. It was a big hit in France, where it was first published. It is very much a meditation on love and grief, and even when Ubac is a puppy, and then full of the vitality of youth, each vet visit that ended with smiles and conformation that everything is fine and he's in perfect health, there is the shadow of knowledge that this will always be the case.
This is a beautiful book, but not one to read if you have recently lost a loved one of any species. I could only read it when there were a few distractions around, no way could I read it tucked up in bed when my own memories would creep in. Sentences like '...it all boils down to me wth a gnarl of Gruyere rind in my hand, devastated that I don't know what to do with it' resonated so much.
Whether this review is a recommendation or a warning, I'm not sure - it's up to you! But you will need a hanky...
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