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Thread: What Was the Last Book You Read?

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    The Guest List by Lucy Foley, a British thriller writer, I could not recommend it highly enough, so atmospheric and beautifully written. Love the sub title, The Guest List, you would kill to be on it!

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    The World Gives Way by Marissa Levien. A post-apocalyptic novel set in a massive starship launched from the dying earth, that starts to crack and fail enroute. The focus is on a few characters, with narrow escapes and heaps of suspense. The ending is not happy, but is beautifully done.


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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    Coincidentally, I just finished reading This is the way the world ends by James Morrow. Going to add your book to my list as it looks very interesting.

    Now starting on Killing Commendatore by Haruki Marakami - I've read almost everything else by him!

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    I'm wrapping up with Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. The only reason I picked up this mammoth collection of 5 volumes containing dozens of books was because, amongst the reviewers, praising it were Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. My love for Tolstoy is great, and when he says a book is masterful, I had to read it.

    The book is miserable, but also one of the best things I have ever read, and probably ever will read. It's written for the common person, but the genius of Victor Hugo is too much to be masked. Unbelievable read and I highly recommend it to anyone.

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    Quote Originally Posted by adhoc View Post
    I'm wrapping up with Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. The only reason I picked up this mammoth collection of 5 volumes containing dozens of books was because, amongst the reviewers, praising it were Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. My love for Tolstoy is great, and when he says a book is masterful, I had to read it.

    The book is miserable, but also one of the best things I have ever read, and probably ever will read. It's written for the common person, but the genius of Victor Hugo is too much to be masked. Unbelievable read and I highly recommend it to anyone.
    I enjoyed reading this, but I agree about how it was written.

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    Just finished “what does this button do” an autobiography by Bruce Dickinson.

    Known for being lead singer and front man of heavy metal band Iron Maiden.

    Not so known for being a composer next to performer, an author of two novels, a UK national level fencer, a fully licensed commercial airline pilot with qualifications from 757 to 747, and, perhaps most important, a fighter and triumphant of two types of cancer.

    Very interesting homo universalis of sorts. A person with a variety of natural gifts who shows that having those gifts alone doesn’t cut it - discipline, perseverance and not giving up does.

    Well, all that and being part of a band that was pivotal in my musical formative years of early adolescence - i still listen to them very frequently some four decades later.

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    Just finished Killing Commendatore. Typical Murakami fare, which is fine by me!

    Next up on the bedside table is A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. I am at heart a massive sci-fi fan, especially if it is character centric.

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    The last book I read is called: "le plancher de Joachim" and is a french history book (which means: Joachim's planks)



    The book is about a sensational find in the French department "Hautes-Alpes". During restoration works in a castle (Chateau de Picomtal), writings were discovered on the underside of floor planks. After closer examination, it turned out that the writings were a kind of diary of the carpenter who built the floor about 150 years ago.

    The writer, a carpenter named Joachim Martin was aware that his writings would not be discovered in his lifetime. He did not mince words about politics, religion and life in the village. But also very personal and intimate things he brought to paper, ....ahem wood!

    Unfortunately, the book has not yet been translated into other languages, and is a challenging read. So reading this book took me a bit of time. Still, it was worth every minute.

    PS: The writings on the bottom of the wooden planks were written in pencil...
    Last edited by christof; September 23rd, 2021 at 10:02 PM.

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    Thanks for the write-up Christof. 150 years ago means around the time of the Franco-Prussian war and the Paris Commune, an interesting time. I will have to hunt down a copy on this side of the ocean.

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    I could send you my copy if you want. Just let me know.

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    Quote Originally Posted by Cookedj View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by adhoc View Post
    I'm wrapping up with Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. The only reason I picked up this mammoth collection of 5 volumes containing dozens of books was because, amongst the reviewers, praising it were Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. My love for Tolstoy is great, and when he says a book is masterful, I had to read it.

    The book is miserable, but also one of the best things I have ever read, and probably ever will read. It's written for the common person, but the genius of Victor Hugo is too much to be masked. Unbelievable read and I highly recommend it to anyone.
    I enjoyed reading this, but I agree about how it was written.
    I finished Les Misérables today. It's the best book I've ever read. I've gone through the best educational institutions my country has to offer without ever hearing about it and that's a tragedy. We were forced to read boring garbage like Madame Bovary, but not this?

    Better than even The Death of Ivan Ilyich.

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    Last read was Harbour Street by Ann Cleeves. Now reading Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line.
    Lady Onogaro

    "Be yourself--everybody else is already taken." --Oscar Wilde

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    My Brother’s Destroyer by Clayton Lindemuth. Moonshiners, magical realism, creative revenge. Not for the faint of heart.
    "Nolo esse salus sine vobis ...” —St. Augustine

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    This book was a delightful find for the year and, being a nominee for 2021’s Bram Stoker Award, an unforgettable “Halloween” read:

    Wintersett Hollow by Jonathan Durham

    Fans of a charming cult novel get a chance to visit the deceased author’s ancestral home. They’re met at the door by one of the book’s characters, a genteel talking rabbit with a wooden leg. It seems they’ve arrived in time to celebrate the central holiday in the novel. It’s Barley Day. It’s time to run.
    "Nolo esse salus sine vobis ...” —St. Augustine

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    Quote Originally Posted by adhoc View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Cookedj View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by adhoc View Post
    I'm wrapping up with Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. The only reason I picked up this mammoth collection of 5 volumes containing dozens of books was because, amongst the reviewers, praising it were Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. My love for Tolstoy is great, and when he says a book is masterful, I had to read it.

    The book is miserable, but also one of the best things I have ever read, and probably ever will read. It's written for the common person, but the genius of Victor Hugo is too much to be masked. Unbelievable read and I highly recommend it to anyone.
    I enjoyed reading this, but I agree about how it was written.
    I finished Les Misérables today. It's the best book I've ever read. I've gone through the best educational institutions my country has to offer without ever hearing about it and that's a tragedy. We were forced to read boring garbage like Madame Bovary, but not this?

    Better than even The Death of Ivan Ilyich.
    If you mean that high school teachers should have taught you it, let me say that I would not have assigned it either. It's just too long. I take 5 weeks to cover The Odyssey (best tale ever composed in the West), 5 weeks for Jane Eyre, and sometimes 6 weeks when I assign the Grapes of Wrath. But Les Miserables? I can't imagine how many weeks...15? ...and that would be just too long. I've taught Moby Dick and Crime and Punishment and Tess...but that Hugo Magnus opus? I would take a pass.

    But glad you loved it!

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    Quote Originally Posted by adhoc View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Cookedj View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by adhoc View Post
    I'm wrapping up with Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. The only reason I picked up this mammoth collection of 5 volumes containing dozens of books was because, amongst the reviewers, praising it were Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. My love for Tolstoy is great, and when he says a book is masterful, I had to read it.

    The book is miserable, but also one of the best things I have ever read, and probably ever will read. It's written for the common person, but the genius of Victor Hugo is too much to be masked. Unbelievable read and I highly recommend it to anyone.
    I enjoyed reading this, but I agree about how it was written.
    I finished Les Misérables today. It's the best book I've ever read. I've gone through the best educational institutions my country has to offer without ever hearing about it and that's a tragedy. We were forced to read boring garbage like Madame Bovary, but not this?

    Better than even The Death of Ivan Ilyich.
    Madame Bovary isn’t boring! The plot is conventional, but there’s plenty of satire if you’re paying attention. Charles is such a dope! Much of the humor is on the subtle/deadpan side maybe, and it’s perhaps easy to miss if you’re not up on 19th c France. I would never take anything Flaubert wrote or said at face value, especially “Madame Bovary c’est moi.”

    Besides, compared to À la recherche du temps perdu of which the first 50 or so pages are about (at one level) the narrator going to bed, Madame Bovary is a real thriller.

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    I just finished On All Fronts by Clarissa Ward (excellent, BTW) and now reading Nomadland by Jessica Bruder (also excellent)

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    I'm currently reading Crisis in the Red Zone by Richard Preston. Pretty horrifying
    https://richard-preston.net/book/cri...-the-red-zone/

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    Ordinary Heroes: A Memoir of 9/11, by Joseph Pfeifer.

    The story of the first NY Fire Dept battalion chief to respond to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.
    Bob

    Making the world a more peaceful place, one fine art print and one handwritten letter at a time.

    Paper cuts through the noise – Richard Moross, MOO CEO

    Indiana Jones used a notebook in the map room, not an app.

    www.bobsoltys.net/fountainpens

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    Default Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?

    Quote Originally Posted by BlkWhiteFilmPix View Post
    Ordinary Heroes: A Memoir of 9/11, by Joseph Pfeifer.

    The story of the first NY Fire Dept battalion chief to respond to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.
    You are a better man I am, I lost too many friends that day, the wounds are still there and all too easily re-opened by reading such a detailed account.
    Last edited by Fermata; October 22nd, 2021 at 12:09 PM.

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