All About Books discussion

Can't believe it's nearly August! What are you planning to read in August?

I hope to finish Fantasmi: Dispacci dalla Cambogia (no English edition) and then I would like to read another book always by the same author: In Asia.

This August I'm going to read https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... so as its a massive book I thought I'd read a couple of short story collections. I have Daphne du Mauriers The Birds and other stories and also Angela Carters The Bloody chamber and other stories to start me off. :)

Hopefully I will finish

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

And I hope to read:

All That She Can See by Carrie Hope Fletcher
A Time To Every Purpose by Ian Andrew
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Infinite Sacrifice by L.E. Waters
Lyrebird by Cecelia Ahern

Upcoming reads:

In the Penal Colony (a re-read)
Breakfast at Tiffany's
La sposa birmana (no English edition that I know of)
The Book of Strange New Things
La viaggiatrice (no English edition that I know of)
Moby-Dick or, The Whale (although I'm unsure I'll like it)
The Heaven of Animals: Stories (maybe)

And something else for sure.

To continue -
Sons and Lovers 5 stars
The Collected Dorothy Parker
Lincoln in the Bardo 1 star

Then -
The Iliad
Howards End currently reading
The Swimming-Pool Library
The Secret History

Library e-books -
Solar Bones 3 stars
Homegoing
Written on the Body

Possible group reads-
A Tale of Two Cities 2 stars
The Brothers Karamazov
The Grapes of Wrath
The Last of the Mohicans

Tracey wrote: "This August I'm going to read https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... so as its a massive book I thought I'd read a couple of short story collections. I have Daphne du Mauriers ..."

Tracey. I'm sure you will love it. It's a wonderful book. Grand and sweeping.

I'm up to page 68 already! I know, I know I said August but I've waited so long to read it and my edition is so lovely, so no slapped wrists please . :) And I love Bishop Bienvenu :) and the old dieing revolutionist he went to visit who was so eloquent.. and the writing is sublime...:) happy Tracey.

These are what I will be reading in August.
(2-iTunes library begins)

Fiction
1.Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome 3 stars read
2.The Words in My Hand by Guinevere Glasfurd 3 stars read
3.Leopard At The Door by Jennifer McVeigh 3 stars read
4.Staying On by Paul Scott 3 stars read
5.The Coal Tattoo by Silas House 3 stars read
6.A New Life by Bernard Malamud 3 stars read
7.Torrents of Spring by Ivan Turgenev 3 stars read
8.Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller finished in Sept
9.Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville 4 stars read
10. Ulysses by James Joyce 1 star read

Non-fiction
11.Reading with Patrick: A Teacher, a Student, and a Life-Changing Friendship 3 stars read
12.Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War by Lynne Olson 4 stars read
13.The Middle Parts of Fortune by Frederic Manning 2 stars read
14.War's Unwomanly Face by Svetlana Alexievich 5 stars read
15.The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain 3 stars read

I will soon finish The Essex Serpent and then
I will be reading Strangers on a Train and Life After Life for book clubs.
After that... who knows?

I would like to read A Tale of Two Cities and Life after Life this month. Other than that I'm free to pick what I fancy.

I began House of Spies by Daniel Silva today.
When I finish this book I hope to read the following titles:
The Duchess by Danielle Steel - this is my guilty pleasure
The new Luanne Rice book - it's a YA book but I don't remember the title right now.1

I've added three more to read this month:
Torrents of Spring
The Innocents Abroad
Norwegian by Night

What I don't have time with this month I will read in September.

August reads:
Finished:
Commonwealth
A Game of Thrones
Circling the Sun

To read:
Lilac Girls - finished
Breaking Point - finished
Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free
The House by the Lake: A Story of Germany
Little Wolves
The Book That Matters Most

I will copy Colleen and put down what I have finished & a few I hope to read before the month is out.

I started off the month with several rereads for various group BoTM:
The Case of the Gilded Fly, A Tale of Two Cities & A Caribbean Mystery. Other rereads were: Lucia In London, August Folly, Overture to Death
& One Man's Initiation: 1917. I seem to be doing a lot of rereading this year!

New to me books finished:
Oblomov
Fledgling
The Fifth Elephant
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
Olive Kitteridge
Goodbye to Berlin
Stick Fly
Night Watch
Heads You Lose
Black Money
The Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent
A Rare Book of Cunning Device
(though the last 2, both audiobook freebies, were quite short)

Currently reading:
Fragments of My Time by Geraldo Pereira
The Chimes
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared
Fat Angie

Want to read:
Appleby's Other Story
The Friendly Air (library book so pretty sure I will finish this one!)
Burning Bright
Free Fall in Crimson
Fool Errant
Flashman

I stuck in another audiobook:Bartleby the Scrivener. Marina recommended it to me.
It is free now (August 18, 2017) to all Audible.com members. Look on the Audible channel. I do not know how long it will be there.

Well, I have added another book and am reading it now: Ulysses.

Chrissie wrote: "I stuck in another audiobook:Bartleby the Scrivener. Marina recommended it to me.
It is free now (August 18, 2017) to all Audible.com members. Look on the Audible channel. I do not kn..."

Thanks for the heads up Chrissie - I decided to listen to this while it was available. Bartleby sure was a strange character!

Leslie re Bartleby the Scrivener:
Yes, exactly, why not while free?!

I had no trouble understanding and appreciated the characters, but it did take me a while to figure out Bartleby. You know me and my penchant for critical analysis of what could realistically explain his behavior. The motivations for his behavior can be multiple, some stronger than others, which adds to the intrigue of the story. Nevertheless, I do think (view spoiler)[depression or some other psychological disorder (hide spoiler)] must play in.

How many stars did you give it?

Leslie, I am currently struggling with Ulysses.......... I saw you gave it three stars. At least you continued to the end. I am wavering. I have listened to about 1/4.

Ulysses was a real struggle for me but I read it in a small readalong which kept me motivated. My rating is probably too high but the reputation of the book and my pleased feeling that I managed to finish made me give it the benefit of the doubt, a 2½ rounded up instead of down.

That said, I did like some sections very much. The problem was I could never tell which section! Some bored me to tears. I would say keep going, as you might also find sections ahead that you will like, even if you have not yet gotten to them.

Leslie, I don't know exactly why but something clicked in the last episode I listened to, the one with the unidentified "citizen". Where Bloom gets a cookie container thrown at his head. It was filled with so much. Somehow I felt like masses pf people were speaking to me and their voice together made an impression on me. I know now I will not stop. I will simply try and understand what I can. Did you listen to a narration by Jim Norton? He is totally fantastic, but the volume jumps from high to low too radically. I think it is a production fault. I agree, some sections (ETA in fact most of them) annoy me to pieces because they are so confusing. Some sections are better. You never know what the next episode will have in store....so I hesitate to quit.

I am struggling, but I will continue.

Esther wrote: "I will soon finish The Essex Serpent and then
I will be reading Strangers on a Train and Life After Life for book clubs.
After that... who knows?"

Amazingly I actually managed to read the books I said I would.
I am about 60% through Life After Life which is a bit of a brick but enjoyable so far.
And I finished The Essex Serpent and Strangers on a Train unfortunately both of them were slow and Strangers really dragged so I didn't get round to starting The Sport of Kings.