This was my first read for the Schaumburg Library book club “Beyond the Book.” This was a great read for a book club because, well, this book was not beloved overall. There were 16 people in the club and I think 4 of us (self included) gave it a 4 out of 5, everyone else did a 3 or lower. But that made for a lively discussion. The Interestings follows a group of friends from when they meet, at an arts camp in the summer […]
CBR Fantasy Book Club – Bad book = good discussion
Oh boy. This book was not for me. I’ll start this review with some of my comments from the CBR book club, and expound a little from there. “I’m a little over halfway through and I will power through because I am a completist but I don’t like this book. It is a slog. I like plot and character development and I don’t see how this has either. We learn about the characters but they just “are.” The development happens as they slooowly reveal things […]
So I guess I need to work on my Icelandic…
I am continuing on my Icelandic murder reading spree, thanks to the great suggestion of some other Cannonballers, via the Cannonball Read Chat Facebook group. Thanks, peeps! This is book two of the “Erlendur series” that has been translated from Icelandic into English. I guess books one and two didn’t merit translation? For some reason, the English series started with book three. The completist in me is desperately trying to ignore that. Let’s move on. Inspector Erlendur is back, as he and his fellow detectives investigate a […]
The Anti-British Bake Off of Short Story Collections: sombering and heavy.
I have been a fan of T.C. Boyle for the past few years. I first read “Tortilla Curtain” in 2011, and followed that up a few years later with “Drop City.” Boyle has a distinctive voice, cutting and dour, but also reflective. His examination of topics through, and he tackles tough subjects and places characters into situations of existential crisis with almost a relish. His books cover hard topics and hardened people, often in hopeless situations, but his writing forgives him for taking you down […]
Fools in the Northeast: Round 2
Richard Russo is a masterful storyteller. I always enjoy falling into one of his novels, filled with a rich cast of characters. He manages to take the ordinary and make it extraordinary, as he examines common people in small town Americana. This book is a sequel to “Nobody’s Fool” that I read back in 2011. I took a look at that review to see what I had to say about it, as a precursor to this novel. “Russo is one of my favorite authors because […]
A rainy and murdery winter pick-me-up
In prepping for my move from the south to the Midwest in winter I asked some folks for reading suggestions in two categories: light fluffy happy things to cheer my spirits, and dark winter-y tales to remind me things could be worse, in a schadenfreude sort of way. This is the latter, and it definitely delivered. Set in rainy chilly Iceland, an old man is found murdered in his home. Motive unclear, and nothing too strange other than a note left on the body that […]
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