Reading Books For Pleasure

[FurryFury]

Adventures of a Vegan Vamp (Vegan Vamp, #1) by Cate Lawley 4/5

57 Scientifically-Proven Survival Foods to Stockpile: How to Maximize Your Health With Everyday Shelf-Stable Grocery Store Foods, Bulk Foods, And Superfoods
by Damian Brindle 2/5


Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist 4/5


To Night Owl from Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan 4/5


Sal and Gabi Break the Universe (Sal and Gabi, #1) by Carlos Hernandez 4/5


Your Perfect Year by Charlotte Lucas 4/5

I Can Make This Promise by Christine Day 4/5


Granny's Got a Gun (Secret Agent Granny #1) by Harper Lin 3/5

Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina 4/5


The Lemonade War (The Lemonade War, #1) by Jacqueline Davies 4/5

 

[FurryFury]

Convenience Store Woman: A Novel by Sayaka Murata 3/5

Crispin: The Cross of Lead (Crispin #1) by Avi 1/5 (Juvenile)


City of the Beasts (Eagle and Jaguar, #1) by Isabel Allende 4/5 (YA)


Imager's Intrigue (Imager Portfolio, #3) by L.E. Modesitt Jr. 4/4

 

[seela]

I'm reading an absolutely ridiculous chick lit book by a local author.

It's just so weird and it has me in stitches because of it. I can imagine the conversation between the author and the editor and the editor saying that the characters need to be a bit more fleshed out. So the end result is that every single minor character there has some weird quirk and/or ailment that is simply mentioned in passing and that's it.

The two main characters are paper thin, the dialog is like it's from the 1950s but the story is set in 2010s, and every single plot twist includes one or the main charaters' grandparents going to hospital. Oh, and someone is trying to scare one of the main characters with spooky lanterns carved out of a turnip.

It's insane and it keeps me thoroughly entertained. For the wrong reasons maybe, but I'll take it. I need to know how many of the grandparents end up in hospital! Three books to the series and I've now read #1, grandparents in hospital count is 3, plus one ex-employer of one of the main characters' who was like a grandmother to her. The author has to slow down the pace or there won't be enough grandparents left to last through the two remaining books! But at least there is no shortage of turnips to carve lanterns out of.

 

[seela]

So I'm reading the second book in the series I wrote about above. 44 pages in and two people have ended up in the hospital, the cases aren't connected in any way. Neither of them a grandparent though, so I predict there's a lot more hospital action left in the series!

Oh, and no turnip lanterns so far, but now she got a letter composed of cut out letters.

 

[FurryFury]

Apocalipstick by Sue Margolis 3/5

Edge of Collapse (Edge of Collapse #1) by Kyla Stone 5/5

Rock Chick (Rock Chick, #1) by Kristen Ashley 4/5

Broomsticks and Burials (Magic & Mystery #1) by Lily Webb 3/5

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1) by Becky Chambers 4/5

Six Feet Over It by Jennifer Longo 4/5

Edge of Madness (Edge of Collapse #2) by Kyla Stone 4/5

Edge of Darkness (Edge of Collapse #3) by Kyla Stone 4/5

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid 4/5

Sounds fun! What was that title again Seela?

So I'm reading the second book in the series I wrote about above. 44 pages in and two people have ended up in the hospital, the cases aren't connected in any way. Neither of them a grandparent though, so I predict there's a lot more hospital action left in the series!

Oh, and no turnip lanterns so far, but now she got a letter composed of cut out letters.

 

[seela]

^^Oh they were such bad books.

They haven't been translated into any language at all as far as I can tell, so I'm afraid nobody here will be able to witness the awfulness first hand. I picked them up because the title of the first book fit a category in my reading challenge. I didn't expect them to be amazing, but their level of mundanely boring bizarre was something else.

The books are written by an 85 year old lady, but the main characters in the books are in their 20s. This leads to some absolutely bizarre things in the books. The characters speak like they live in the 50s, they have phones but don't know how to use the internet, they go to a travel agent to pick up brochures to get ideas for where to travel for the weekend...

Now I kinda feel like I want to read more of that strange mindless drivel. Maybe she's written some other things.

 

[gracie920101]

Radium Girls by Kate Moore

The fascinating but depressing history of the girls who worked painting luminous watch and clock dials. The fact that radium was harmful was flagrantly ignored by the U.S. Radium Dial company (in search of the almighty dollar!) until most of the dial painters had died horrible deaths and the Dept of Labor finally took notice.

It took years, but the guidelines for workers handling dangerous compounds were finally changed because of these girls who were repeatedly reassured that radium was not only harmless but also beneficial. They were allowed to use excess paint as makeup, lips, eyelids, eyebrows, etc., before leaving each night to go to a party or speakeasy.

The young girls were taught to lick the point of a fine paintbrush, dip it into a paste of water and radium, paint, then lick, dip, paint, ad infinitum. When mixing the paste each morning, the dust would raise in clouds around them causing themselves and their clothes to become saturated so they would glow in the dark when they walked home at night. Even bathing didn't remove the glow!

 

[seela]

Radium Girls by Kate Moore

The fascinating but depressing history of the girls who worked painting luminous watch and clock dials. The fact that radium was harmful was flagrantly ignored by the U.S. Radium Dial company (in search of the almighty dollar!) until most of the dial painters had died horrible deaths and the Dept of Labor finally took notice.

It took years, but the guidelines for workers handling dangerous compounds were finally changed because of these girls who were repeatedly reassured that radium was not only harmless but also beneficial. They were allowed to use excess paint as makeup, lips, eyelids, eyebrows, etc., before leaving each night to go to a party or speakeasy.

The young girls were taught to lick the point of a fine paintbrush, dip it into a paste of water and radium, paint, then lick, dip, paint, ad infinitum. When mixing the paste each morning, the dust would raise in clouds around them causing themselves and their clothes to become saturated so they would glow in the dark when they walked home at night. Even bathing didn't remove the glow!

Fascinating but depressing sounds right. Interesting!

It's available in my library, I'll put it on my reading list. Thank you!

 

[soltiera]

The Small Boat of Great Sorrows by Dan Fesperman

 

[gracie920101]

This sounds great. It’s nonfiction?

Yep. Turns out, they've already made it into a movie and I just now stumbled across the book.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6317180/

 

[FurryFury]

The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman 2/5

Officer Clemmons by François S. Clemmons 4/5

Alienated (Alienated, #1) by Melissa Landers 3/5

Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl by Stacey O'Brien 4/5

 

[twister947]

Barkskins by Annie Proulx

 

[twister947]

Rin Tin Tin by Susan Orlean

The author of The Orchid Thief delivers again.

 

[seela]

Radium Girls by Kate Moore

The fascinating but depressing history of the girls who worked painting luminous watch and clock dials. The fact that radium was harmful was flagrantly ignored by the U.S. Radium Dial company (in search of the almighty dollar!) until most of the dial painters had died horrible deaths and the Dept of Labor finally took notice.

It took years, but the guidelines for workers handling dangerous compounds were finally changed because of these girls who were repeatedly reassured that radium was not only harmless but also beneficial. They were allowed to use excess paint as makeup, lips, eyelids, eyebrows, etc., before leaving each night to go to a party or speakeasy.

The young girls were taught to lick the point of a fine paintbrush, dip it into a paste of water and radium, paint, then lick, dip, paint, ad infinitum. When mixing the paste each morning, the dust would raise in clouds around them causing themselves and their clothes to become saturated so they would glow in the dark when they walked home at night. Even bathing didn't remove the glow!

Fascinating but depressing sounds right. Interesting!

It's available in my library, I'll put it on my reading list. Thank you!

I'll pick this up in the library today and hopefully start it tomorrow. I still have a few chapters left in the book I'm currently reading, which is a highly depressing book about our civil war, so I'll finish that first. I hope the Radium Girls will be a step up from that.

Thank you for the recommendation, gracie.

 

[FurryFury]

Kaspar the Titanic Cat by Michael Morpurgo 4/5 Juvenile

Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat by Jonathan Kauffman 3/5 Non fiction

Scythe (Arc of a Scythe #1 )by Neal Shusterman YA 5/5

Edge of Anarchy(Edge of Collapse #4) by Kyla Stone 5/5

Invasion(Alien Invasion #1) by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant 4/5

Contact (Alien Invasion #2) by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant 4/5

Apocalypse Mom: Diary of an Ordinary Woman in a Not So Ordinary World (Apocalypse Mom Series #1) by Elizabeth L. Jones 5/5

The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector's Story by Hyeonseo Lee 5/5

Apocalypse Road Trip (Apocalypse Mom Series #2) by Elizabeth L. Jones 4/5

Home Sweet Apocalypse: An Apocalypse Mom Story (Apocalypse Mom Series #3) by Elizabeth L. Jones 4/5

The Rift Uprising (The Rift Uprising Trilogy #1) by Amy S. Foster 4/5

Nobody Is Ever Missing by Catherine Lacey 3/5 GBLT


Hostage by Guy Delisle 3/5 Graphic Novel

The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery 4/5 Non fiction

Travels of Thelonious (Thelonius große Reise #1) by Susan Schade 3/5 Juvenile graphic novel

The Adventures of Holly Hobbie by Richard S. Dubelman 3/5 Juvenile

The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day by Christopher Edge 2/5 Juvenile

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer 4/5 Non fiction

X (Kinsey Millhone, #24) by Sue Grafton 4/5

The Witch With No Name (The Hollows, #13) by Kim Harrison 4/5

Monster Hunter Legion (Monster Hunter International, #4) by Larry Correia 4/5

 

[soltiera]

Det tyska huset by Arnaldur Indriðason the English name is The Shadow Killer.

It's an Icelandic mystery novel (that I read in the Swedish translation) taking place during World War II. It's a decent story, but not the best by Arnaldur. Still a pretty good read.

I'm getting pretty close to finishing my reading challenge for the year, which was to read a book in every language I can comfortably read a book in.

Languages read this year: 4 (FI, EN, PL, SV)

I just finished reading all the English translations of Arnaldur Indriðason's books. You are absolutely correct that some were better than others, but they were all definitely interesting! I read Radium Girls when it was published a few years ago. It's a fascinating story. Not particularly light reading though.
Languages read this year, only 3: French, English, German.

 

[Miss_Sasha_P]

Just started reading the 'Warrior Nun' collection of Manga, after enjoying the series on Netflix. Although the comics were very different.

Also just read a biography of Rothko.

 

[seela]

I just finished reading all the English translations of Arnaldur Indriðaso's books. You are absolutely correct that some were better than others, but they were all definitely interesting! I read Radium Girls when it was published a few years ago. It's a fascinating story. Not particularly light reading though.
Languages read this year, only 3: French, English, German.

Yay someone else who knows Arnaldur! Which one was your favorite? Not that it's exactly in the same vein except that he's another Nordic writer, but I recently reread everything by Stefan Ahnhem. I think his stuff has been translated, too.

I'm about half way through Radium Girls now, and while the subject matter isn't light, it reads light and fast.

Some heavy subject matter books tend to be written somehow morosely and heavily. It takes a lot to finish them, but with this one the story and the writing sucks you in. The horrors of it all aren't too underlined all the time.

Radium Girls is too big a book to squeeze into my purse, so I'm also reading a horror book by a local author (hasn't been translated into English which is truly a shame) and it's truly horrific. I can't read it in the evenings because my sleeping suffers enough from other things already.

My languages read this year count is now at 6 (FI, EN, PL, SV, SK, DE) and I think this is where I'll stop. I could squeeze in a couple more, but I'm not sure it's be enjoyable. I'm worried too much effort and attention would go into the language itself and leave too little capacity to truly enjoy the story. I'll have to see.

 

[soltiera]

Yay someone else who knows Arnaldur! Which one was your favorite?

That's hard to say! I think that Silence of the Grave and Jar City were probably my favourites. But I enjoyed all of them because they each had interesting details about history that I didn't know.

Not that it's exactly in the same vein except that he's another Nordic writer, but I recently reread everything by Stefan Ahnhem. I think his stuff has been translated, too.

Funny you mentioned him! I have Victim Without a Face in my reading que! Now I'm looking forward to reading it.

I'm about half way through Radium Girls now, and while the subject matter isn't light, it reads light and fast. Some heavy subject matter books tend to be written somehow morosely and heavily. It takes a lot to finish them, but with this one the story and the writing sucks you in. The horrors of it all aren't too underlined all the time.

Yes, I know what you mean! I enjoyed the writing style in Radium Girls because it wasn't morose.

My languages read this year count is now at 6 (FI, EN, PL, SV, SK, DE) and I think this is where I'll stop. I could squeeze in a couple more, but I'm not sure it's be enjoyable. I'm worried too much effort and attention would go into the language itself and leave too little capacity to truly enjoy the story. I'll have to see.

I can read fairly well in French so I don't have to do a lot of translation. German is a bit harder but I can do it. It can be enjoyable, just a bit more work. Sometimes I don't feel like working that hard!

 

[Dreamliner]

Never Split the Difference, Chris Voss. [2nd time around after a few years.]

 

[soltiera]

Never Split the Difference, Chris Voss. [2nd time around after a few years.]

Ooooh! I haven't read this yet! It sounds like something I'll enjoy. I'll add it to my list!

 

[seela]

That's hard to say! I think that Silence of the Grave and Jar City were probably my favourites. But I enjoyed all of them because they each had interesting details about history that I didn't know.



Funny you mentioned him! I have Victim Without a Face in my reading que! Now I'm looking forward to reading it.




Yes, I know what you mean! I enjoyed the writing style in Radium Girls because it wasn't morose.



I can read fairly well in French so I don't have to do a lot of translation. German is a bit harder but I can do it. It can be enjoyable, just a bit more work. Sometimes I don't feel like working that hard!

If you're into eerie, scary, and very morose Nordic books, I might have suggestions to you if you ever run out of things to read. Or even just Nordic writers in general, not necessarily that genre.

 

[soltiera]

If you're into eerie, scary, and very morose Nordic books, I might have suggestions to you if you ever run out of things to read. Or even just Nordic writers in general, not necessarily that genre.

I'm always looking for the next book to read! Suggestions are welcome.

 

[seela]

A few suggestions from the Nordics off the top of my head and that I could easily find have been translated into English (at least I hope so..). A wide range of genres.

Jussi Valtonen - They Know Not What They Do
Pajtim Statovci - Crossing and My Cat Yugoslavia
Sofi Oksanen - Purge and Stalin's Cows
Antti Tuomainen - The Man Who Died
Riikka Pulkkinen - True
Jonas Gardell - Don't Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves
Erik Axl Sund - Victoria Bergman trilogy
Sjón - Moonstone
Jussi Adler-Olsen - The Department Q series
Camilla Läckberg - The Patrick Hedström series

 

[Dreamliner]