Bron’s Comments (group member since Apr 25, 2011)

Bron’s comments from the Aussie Readers group.

Yes please , count me in. I was just checking when this was running as I thought I might have missed it last weekend. Better go check what I still need to read on some of my challenge lists.

After a much busier than anticipated weekend I have a very modest total this time round (but enjoyed a great weekend!)

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - 35 pages
Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie - 136 pages

Total - 171 pages

Count me in too please!

This is a gob-smackingly beautiful piece of work! I slurped up the last third of the book last night in one delicious hit (alongside my new T2 hot jam brownie tea with a bit of dark chocolate from Haighs, both of which I also highly recommend!) I agree with Carolyn that at the start I was a bit unsure about getting into this book but what a joy it turned out to be. I loved the idea of planting an ocean and how it became a way of brining the Willa's together. I love how the magical and reality are intertwined in this book. I thought this was a really original work and a beautiful way of dealing with very issues of childhood trauma, what it is like to experience such things and how it continues to impact someone long after the events have happened that carries it with deep understanding, respect and hope that healing can happen.

I was somewhere in the middle of the book when I though that this is a writer that really knows about childhood trauma (and that being a field I work with all the time this is not a thought I often have reading fiction). Having read a little about the author I am not surprised that she wrote this while working through her own trauma. Actually I am more impressed as I would have thought to produce this she would have been further towards her own healing than she seems to have been at the time. But then I also think that just reflects one of the themes in this book, that stories have the power to heal!

My only quibbles with this book was how her father died. There was something with this scene that didn't quite work as well for me. But it's a small thing. My only other negative about this book would be that I worry about reading anything else by Ms Bird. I fear that she has set the bar so high the next wont be able to live up to the standard she has set. ( A good problem to have maybe?!)

I don't often give five stars to books (in fact I have given less than 50 in my whole reading history I have on GR - I checked!) but this I unhesitatingly and unstintingly give five stars! An absolute joy!

OK here's my total for the weekend:

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami - 64 pages
See What You Made Me Do: Power, Control and Domestic Violence by Jess Hill - 148 pages
And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready by Meaghan O'Connell - 58 pages
The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan - 260 pages

Weekend Total - 530 pages

Yes please, I love a good readathon!

I haven't been part of a seasonal challenge for a while so I am in please! I am going for the easy level and just doing the tasks.

4/6

A colour - Khaki Townby Judy Nunn (AA) - 2.5 stars

A number - Slaughterhouse-Fiveby Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - 4 Stars

A first name - The Truth About Melody Browne by Lisa Jewell - 3 stars.

A Place - The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris (AA)

A form of water - A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende - 4 stars

A day, month or season - In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende


I have two Allende books as I have one form the library and one sitting on my shelf waiting to be read that fit. I may swap out the second Allende book for an AA if I can find one for the last category that I want to read.

I have 13 books listed as currently reading that I have started at some point over the past years that I have put down and not gone back to due to lack of time rather than interest. So this year my challenge is to finish one of these off per month. Some of these are chunksters (I'm half way though Les Mis and only very early on in The Cairo Trilogy) so this is no easy feat necessarily for me along with everythintg else I already want to read, let alone what gets added to the list as I go.

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk / Palace of Desire / Sugar Street by Naguib Mahfouz
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God by Gordon D. Fee
The Giving Gift: The Holy Spirit in Person by Thomas Allan Smail
Ask for the Rain: Receiving Your Inheritance of Revival Outpouring by Larry Sparks
No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison by Behrouz Boochani
A Quiet Belief in Angels by R.J. Ellory
Light in August by William Faulkner
The Plague by Albert Camus
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

Ok, I am in for this one again. I'll fill this in later and as I go. I will have to see if I can improve on how far I got through my list compared to last year!

Annual A-Z Author Challenge
Duration: 1/1/20 - 31/12/20
11/26

A - The Testaments by Margaret Atwood - 4 stars
B - An Anomalous Jew: Paul among Jews, Greeks, and Romans by Michael F. Bird (AA) - 3 stars
C - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
D - The Perfect Wife by J.P. Delaney - 4 stars
E - The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
F - In the Woods by Tana French
G
H
I - A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende - 4 Stars
J - See What You Made Me Do: Power, Control and Domestic Violence by Jess Hill (AA) - 4.5 stars
K - Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - 4 Stars
L - Any Ordinary Day: Blindsides, Resilience and What Happens After the Worst Day of Your Life by Leigh Sales (AA) - 3 Stars
M - 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
N -
O - Becoming by Michelle Obama - 4Stars
P - The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - 4 stars
Q - Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living by Shauna Niequist - 5 stars
R - Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham (AA)
S
T - Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton (AA) - 4.5 Stars
U
V
W - The Wife and the Widow by Christian White (AA)
X - Solitaryby Albert Woodfox
Y - The Night Tigerby Yangsze Choo
Z

I'm in for the easy level please. I'll come back and fill in when I have worked out my books. Thanks.

3/12

3 x Male Authors
1 Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham
2 Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton 4 Stars
3 Scrublands by Chris Hammer

3 x Female Authors
1 The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna
2 The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser
3 The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

3 x 2020 New Release
1 Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer
2 All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton
3 The Light After the War by Anita Abriel - 4 stars

3 x Favourite genre - Non Fiction
1 - See What You Made Me Do: Power, Control and Domestic Violence by Jess Hill - 4 stars but really bordering on five stars
2 - A Stolen Life: The Bruce Trevorrow Caseby Antonio Buti
3 - A Sceptic's Search for Meaning] by Mike Willesee

Count me in please. I'll come back over the next few days and fill in as I work out my list. Cheers.

7/26

A-Aomame - 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
B- Billy Pilgrim - Slaughterhouse-Fiveby Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - 4 stars
C- Cyrus Haven - Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham (AA)
D- Sean Duffy - The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty - 3.5 stars
E-Eli Bell - Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton (AA) -Read 4Stars
F- - Fiona Maye - The Children Actby Ian McEwan
G- Esther (Elle) Greenwood - The Bell Jarby Sylvia Plath - Read 4 stars
H-
I-
J-
K-
L- Libby Jones - The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell Read 4 Stars
M- Martin Scarsden - Scrublands by Chris Hammer (AA)
N- Nat - Agent Running in the Fieldby John le Carré
O- Olive Kitteridge - Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 3 stars
P-
Q- Harry Quebert - The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker
R- Rob Ryan - In the Woods by Tana French
S- Colter Shaw - The Goodbye Man by Jeffery Deaver
T-
U-
V- Victor Dalmau - A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende - 4 stars
W- Louis Waters - Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
X-
Y-
Z- Zachary Rawlins - The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

I've really enjoyed the books I was reading this weekend.
Hangman by Jack Heath 218 pages.
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty 83 pages
Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center 217 pages

Total 518 pages.

Readathon - The most wonderful time of the year! I'm in!

I never would have read this book if it wasn't that we were reading it here and I'm really glad I did. I thought this was quite funny and thoughtful about aging without taking itself too seriously. Yes, there are far fetched moments but something about the charm of this book allows me to overlook that, where I might not if there weren't other good features in a book.

Sorry for the late check in. After a completely crazy weekend I only managed 151 pages

The Chain by Adrian McKinty

Loving this book so far!

You Beauty! That time again already. I'm in too, thanks.

I finally got back to this challenge. I read The Color Purple by Alice Walker. This was a great book, though pretty gritty, especially in the first chunk of the book. Having seen the movie years ago (which I thought was very good) I was surprised by how much there was in the book about Nettie in Africa but loved the use of the letters between the two. Heartbreaking story, beautifully executed.

My total for the weekend:

The Giving Gift by Thomas A. Smail 74 pages
Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God by Gordon D. Fee 62 pages
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovichby Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 17 pages
The Local Wildlife by Robert Drewe 81 pages
The Color Purple by Alice Walker 164 pages

Weekend total: 398 pages.

Yay, it's Readathon time again already! I'm in too thanks.

Just finished my third book for this challenge The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire by Chloe Hooper. It was really well researched and written book on the Black Saturday bushfires and the man who lit them. I have given it 5 stars (I don't often give five stars). I was going to give it 4 as I ended the book feeling like I didn't really know too much about the Mind on Fire referred to in the title. However thinking about it, it was not a lack form the author that caused this but a reflection of how the arsonist is seemingly unable to engage with others in a coherent way, which reflects his mental limitations.