The Mock Turtle

I’ve just read Little Fires Everywhere for my book club and School For Good Mothers was recommended by Amazon as an ‘if you enjoyed that you might like this’ suggestion, and that, combined with this thread persuaded me to get it on Kindle. The next book club read is the Hilary Mantel autobiography. I’m not a lover of biographies and I’m not sure I can make the next book club, but I think hers might be interesting.

I heard this story this morning on the radio and immediately thought of this thread.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/ ... etail-year

I am trying to talk my friend into opening a bookshop/cafe in her village in Essex. They don’t have one and it would be perfect for her (and there).

Little Fires Everywhere was so good, I loved it.

Like Flora, I felt that the SFGM was so negative that I stopped believing it. Every other page was "phone privileges suspended".

The early Adam Dalgleish novels were so good. And you can see the influence of the Inspector Alleyn novels on the character of Dalgleish.

I’m starting the year with a reread of the above-mentioned Alleyn novels.

I had a first reads email from Amazon offering me two free titles and I wasn’t really struck by any of them, but I chose The Direction of The Wind by Mansi Shah and Night Angels by Weina Dai Randel.

I forgot to take my Kindle away this weekend, so I have most recently (re) read Superfudge by Judy Blume which I borrowed from S

Ah, see, I thought the bleakness was believable. They obviously wanted to punish the mothers from the beginning.

I finished Life After Life and adored every page. Now I'm reading The Passenger but I think it's going to depress the hell out of me.

lazzbo wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2023 7:38 pm Ah, see, I thought the bleakness was believable. They obviously wanted to punish the mothers from the beginning.

Oh for sure, and the way the fathers were treated was depressingly believable.

Yes, wasn’t it! 100% what would happen.

It's just made me think of the times we'd get referrals asking for two years of a particular type of therapy for a woman (never a man), and then she might have a chance of getting her kids back. Might.

It was often a therapy we didn't offer, and we never were able to offer two years. And like fuck was it going to end up with them getting their kids back.

I managed to blitz through Carrie Soto is Back, and did enjoy it. Much like all of your earlier reviews, the tennis is quite thickly laid on, but you can’t really complain too much about that given the theme. I guess that means maybe the balance could have been better struck in terms of the events and character development but it still worked for an easy read.

Not sure what to start next! I am tempted to get hold of Out of Africa given my current location. Don’t think I’ve ever read it!

I’ve finished Again, Rachel. I did enjoy it but Marian Keyes’ habit of describing how wonderful each character was when they were introduced did start to get a bit annoying, especially in the midst of an upsetting life event. I thought her descriptions of men & relationships was a bit teenage too.

I finished School for Good Mothers and I agree it wasn't great. It had a promising start/concept but it became very tiresome as it went along.
I have a trial with kindle unlimited so testing it out. I have started His and Hers by Alice Feeny, so far so good.

I'll probably give SFGM a miss.

The Invisible Man - HG Wells
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hide

Both I really enjoyed. The themes of descent into madness was really interesting.

I finished The Overnight Guest, which was quite good. I may read some more Heather Gudenkauf. I was commenting on FB how well its blizzards and power cuts were fitting in with real life at the time, which she spotted and liked.

Also jumping on the bandwagon, I got SFGM and am only a few pages in. I may well hate it and am toying with switching to something else.

Estrella wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2023 8:21 am I forgot to take my Kindle away this weekend, so I have most recently (re) read Superfudge by Judy Blume which I borrowed from S

I’ve just finished Burning Man, and which was the biography of DH Lawrence I started before New Year. I did learn new things from it. I think it’s the third or fourth biography I’ve read on him now. I reckon I could live without another, but might reread a novel of his at some point.

I've finished:

Beyond Black - HIlary Mantel. It was just so bleak, beautifully written but bleak
Treasure Island - Robert L S - a cracking adventure with a few social commentaries thrown in.

Tons on my to read list.

I've just finished I'm Sorry You Feel That Way by Rebecca Wait and really, really enjoyed it. I've not read anything else by her before, but a quick search says I should

It's about a dysfunctional family and mental health and was excellent - similar but not similar to Sorrow & Bliss.

Ooh, I might like it, in that case. Thanks!

Has anyone read The Island Of Missing Trees? A friend wants me to go to her book club meeting a week on Friday, and that's the book. It has 345 pages and I haven't got it yet. I can kindle it, but if it's going to be a dense read there is no way I'll finish it in time. According to the reviews, some of it is in the voice of a fig tree, so I'm not sure it's likely to be the sort of thing I'd skip through easily.