Gwen > Recent Status Updates

I’m struggling with this book. I’ve very much enjoyed Lucinda Riley’s writing up till now but this book isn’t the same quality.
I note that her son Harry has extensively reworked this from a book she previously wrote & I’m wondering if that’s the problem. Her early books were successful so why rewrite them?
What I’m reading is twee & sounds like some trying to write like Lucinda but not succeeding.

I’m currently about 1/2 way through this book & have stopped several times to reflect back on the years being discussed. When I was young, the SNP seemed an irrelevant fringe party. I only, as with much of the country, began to take note once Nicola Sturgeon became First Minister.
So far, all the SNP history Nicola describes perfectly informs what I always felt, especially about Alex Salmond. Numpties abounded!

I’m struggling with this author’s style- or the bad editing- I’m not sure which. Unnecessarily verbose descriptions which slow down the narrative, very odd grammar & syntax, as if this was a poor translation into English.
It’s also overly sentimental. I’ve read so many better authors of this genre. Unsure if I’ll be able to finish…

Finished Books I & II

I’ve finished Book I of the Trilogy

Finished Book I

I’m feeling a bit cheated with this book... I had expected a proper novel, not a collection of short stories very loosely linked by a travelling character. Particularly as I’m not a great fan of short stories... I prefer to get engrossed with a long book.
And while I’m having a grump, what is with all the French?! It’s a book about Greece so why not use the Greek for “postcard” since France in no way features?!

Not my kind of thing.

Reading the English translation: The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair It takes a looooong time to get going!!

It's hard to believe this is the abridged version!! It sorely needs a good editor to reduce the endless, mind-numbing details. It is a factual account of the minutia of daily life while lacking any emotional impact. Over 300 pages to go... Not sure if I care enough...

The way she describes his behaviour, from a young age, along with his undeniable genius, do make me wonder... It sounds rather Aspergery to me. It's not an easy read due to her wordy, over-intellectualised style of writing, but it's a memoir & I'm assuming it's her voice. Plodding on.

She is writing, in VERY great detail, about a kind of middle class, highly academic, terribly English way of life that is foreign to me & sounds awfully parochial & dull. This life framed both her & Stephen but, even within that, he sounds like a misfit. I'm already wondering why I've never heard it questioned if Stephen Hawking is on the Autistic Spectrum.

Notes to my Mother-in-Law is an absolute delight! I have laughed so much while reading ever!

Finding this a bit of a slog. It's meant to be a satire but I just find it a depressingly accurate portrait of everything I hate about London.