What is the last book you read, and your rating?
- Rosemary Wright
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Re: What is the last book you read, and your rating?
- Gravy
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That sounds unique.Lincolnshirelass wrote: ↑20 Dec 2017, 05:03 @Gravy - that sounds fascinating - I've always thought there's something a bit potentially menacing about mermaids - once read something (can't remember title) that featured an 'upside down' mermaid - fish top, human bottom
It was quite a read, and she did a great job of making them horror-worthy! My favorite aspect is how she uses real science to build her worlds. Just makes it that much easier to buy into it.
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- Speedy_Reader
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I know it came out quite a while ago, but I was browsing in the library and I was just curious. I heard it was very popular and had really good ratings. I also never knew it was a romance novel.
The feedback on the books cover speaks for itself. The books has the classic romantic fight between two, who want the same thing, and only one can have it, if you know what I mean. The book has an amazing, yet easy to understand plot and has many characters that have distinct personalities. Yet, don't judge the book off the movies. It is completely different. I would rate this book a four and a half stars because of it's details that express such brilliant pictures, even though they are words.
- Redlegs
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Amis relates his tale through the voice of Charles Highway, a precociously intelligent but grossly naïve young man of 19. Charles despairs of turning 20, as he sees that as the end of irresponsible youth and a chronological marker for having to take life more seriously. One of his goals as a teenager is to sleep with an "older woman". Although not exactly what he had in mind, when he meets Rachel, who is 6 months older than Charles, he decides that conquest will fit his criteria.
Charles machinations and careful preparations to achieve the bedding of Rachel are complex to the point of fastidiousness, and are completely hilarious.
Amis has satirized his own generation with a wicked precision that can only come from direct experience. How much of Amis is there in his character Charles Highway?
I can imagine that some readers will not like the graphic descriptions of sexual activity and the frequent use of very coarse language. But it is always in context and written with a razor sharp wit.
Charles Highway is a wonderful character - anal, complex, literary and precocious - but he is all IQ and no EQ. Rachel is somewhat less well drawn, but her life story and insecurities are gradually revealed through interactions with Charles, until Charles ultimately recognises she is not perhaps the perfect goddess he first imagined. Her ordinary humanity became clear to him the day that he picked up a pair of her knickers from his bedroom floor, only to discover they contained stray pubic hairs and a prominent brown skid mark.
This is a book that has to be read as a comedy, realizing that Amis is really taking firm aim at the foibles and proclivities of his generation, including not just young people, but also their parents and dysfunctional family arrangements.
Wicked fun. 4 stars out of 5.
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As with all the best stories, this one is based on real events in the extraordinary life of Pino Lella. Pino in 1943 is a 17-year old longing for adventure, excitement & romance in the streets of Milan. In a story that proves "life is stranger than fiction" Pino finds himself leading fleeing Jews across the Alps to Switzerland and equally oddly becomes the driver and unofficial interpreter for Hitler's general in Northern Italy and is witness to some of the appalling events of WW11. Along the way being Italian Pino falls hopelessly and tragically in love.
This is an incredible & gripping story of courage, pain, revenge and regret worthy of grand opera.
Superb read and a 4/4 rating
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I haven't finished it yet but so far this is a great book. If you like romance thrillers this is one you should try. I am rating this book a 4/4 so far.
- Redlegs
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Sounds fascinating @Fran. I will add it to my list.Fran wrote: ↑22 Dec 2017, 12:00 Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark T Sullivan
As with all the best stories, this one is based on real events in the extraordinary life of Pino Lella. Pino in 1943 is a 17-year old longing for adventure, excitement & romance in the streets of Milan. In a story that proves "life is stranger than fiction" Pino finds himself leading fleeing Jews across the Alps to Switzerland and equally oddly becomes the driver and unofficial interpreter for Hitler's general in Northern Italy and is witness to some of the appalling events of WW11. Along the way being Italian Pino falls hopelessly and tragically in love.
This is an incredible & gripping story of courage, pain, revenge and regret worthy of grand opera.
Superb read and a 4/4 rating
The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
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I am almost at the halfway point. It is still as good as I remember and luckily for me I do not remember how it ends so it should be exciting all over again!
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- Fran
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@RedlegsRedlegs wrote: ↑22 Dec 2017, 16:33Sounds fascinating @Fran. I will add it to my list.Fran wrote: ↑22 Dec 2017, 12:00 Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark T Sullivan
As with all the best stories, this one is based on real events in the extraordinary life of Pino Lella. Pino in 1943 is a 17-year old longing for adventure, excitement & romance in the streets of Milan. In a story that proves "life is stranger than fiction" Pino finds himself leading fleeing Jews across the Alps to Switzerland and equally oddly becomes the driver and unofficial interpreter for Hitler's general in Northern Italy and is witness to some of the appalling events of WW11. Along the way being Italian Pino falls hopelessly and tragically in love.
This is an incredible & gripping story of courage, pain, revenge and regret worthy of grand opera.
Superb read and a 4/4 rating
I think you will like it. You know the saying "he who lives more lives than one more deaths than one must die" well Pino Lella certainly lived enough for a couple of lifetimes.
If you decide to read it I will look forward to your opinion.
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- Redlegs
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Brunner is a British author, but he sets his novel in an isolationist America whose citizens are increasingly ill, suppressed by authority and becoming rebellious.
Denied access to clean air and water, healthy food and effective medicines, the population is succumbing to disease and infection and dying in vast numbers.
The prime sources of the many evils confronting the American population are greedy corporations, corrupt politicians and officials, and a half-wit President, all determined to cover up their massive messes and crimes.
Does any of this sound vaguely familiar?
Leading the resistance are the Trainites, followers of Austin Train, an eco-warrior and environmentalist, who understands the problems and is able to propose viable solutions.
Naturally, the Trainites are dismissed by officials as being dangerous and subversive left-wing revolutionaries, and are persecuted accordingly.
On a slightly down side, the novel is written in an unusual style, in fragments of narrative, interspersed with brief excerpts from radio and television broadcasts as well as from newspapers and official reports. I found this choppy style to be irritating at times, as it disrupted the flow of the narrative and, even more so, made it hard to get to know and empathise with the key characters.
It was a little heavy handed at times, but, despite being now more than 40 years old, the novel is still relevant with important things to say.
4 stars out of 5
The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
- Lg_99
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- Redlegs
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@gali, you got that done pretty fast. Thanks for your wonderful review. I will make sure I get to this one soon in 2018.gali wrote: ↑24 Dec 2017, 12:03 "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston, 4 stars out of 4! A powerful tale narrating the life of Janie Crawford, an African-American woman in her early forties who wants more than life has to offer her. One can find some parallels between the life of the author and her heroine. The book was written in 1937, but its themes are universal and relevant even today. On the surface of it, the story appears quite simple, the life of Janie through the men in her life, but it is anything but. It paints a powerful picture of Janie's life during the early 20th century, while exploring issues of gender, race, and equality. The author does a great job setting the scene from the very first page and the book made an impact on me. It is a book that keeps you thinking about it long after the last page has been turned. A beautiful story which shouldn't be missed!
The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald