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  • badger
    badger Member Posts: 34,614
    edited February 2018

    re: Karen Memory - Minus, your description of "steampunk" was right on. The setting was Victorian but there were fantastic futuristic machines. One was a mind-control device operated by the villain, and another was a sewing machine contraption big enough for the heroine to get into and operate. I didn't quite visualize that one but it was a rousing yarn and a quick read.

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  • LilacBlue
    LilacBlue Member Posts: 1,636
    edited February 2018

    Was on a break with DH to Venice last week. In the room, only english language book, 3rd Degree by James Patterson (Women's Murder Club #3). Have never read Patterson, so tucked into reading, set in SF (where I went to university/grad school - looking forward to the memories). What a wast of time. A shallow, boring, lazy formulaic book and can't understand why he is so popular.

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  • voraciousreader
    voraciousreader Member Posts: 7,496
    edited February 2018

    lilac....I have always wondered too! It isn’t just him! I will not name some other authors who fall into that category for fear of offending some of our other book loving friends...but I did ask that question once to our library director and he said to me, “I would love to introduce our patrons to a quarter of the authors you enjoy, but it just wouldn’t work. We have to give them those authors otherwise they will vote down the library budget.”

    I fear we aren’t just book lovers or book worms...perhaps we are book snobs! Mon Dieu! C’est la vie

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  • ruthbru
    ruthbru Member Posts: 57,235
    edited February 2018

    Patterson doesn't trip my trigger either......but of course, I have (what I imagine is) a rather odd taste in books myself. Right now, I'm reading a book about the 1960 presidential campaign, and have Robert Kennedy on the docket, with biographies of William Seward and Edwin Stanton (Abraham Lincoln's Secretaries of State & War) waiting their turns after that.....

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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited February 2018

    I agree about Patterson, but I do think that he was better when he was actually writing the books himself than all the newer things with ghost writers or co-writers. So that's a hard judgement!!!

    I'm reading Steinbeck's East of Eden again.

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  • kathindc
    kathindc Member Posts: 2,042
    edited February 2018

    There is an author that I stopped reading because his description of his main characters was obviously done by copying and pasting. Cannot bring myself to read his last two books. Plus, he was painfully dragging out one of his storylines.

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  • pat01
    pat01 Member Posts: 1,005
    edited February 2018

    I also find that authors I used to like in the 80's and 90's, if I pick up one of their books now I don't care for them anymore. Luckily there are so many new authors with great reads!

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  • badger
    badger Member Posts: 34,614
    edited February 2018

    Picked up an old Marion Zimmer Bradley (1984) anthology for a buck ninety-nine at the bargain book store. Titled Sword and Sorceress, it's fifteen stories of "warrior women and mistresses of magic." Started it while waiting for a friend for dinner last night and already a thumbs up.

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  • M0mmyof3
    M0mmyof3 Member Posts: 9,696
    edited February 2018

    Got my signed copy of my favorite former English professor's 2nd book, The Precious Dreadful. Haven't started it yet, but will start it at treatment this week.

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  • grandma3X
    grandma3X Member Posts: 759
    edited February 2018

    I just finished Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler - very good! It's about a young woman who lives with her father, who is a researcher at Johns Hopkins. Her father's assistant is hereon a visa that is about to run out, so her father asks her to marry the assistant so that he can stay in the US.

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  • badger
    badger Member Posts: 34,614
    edited February 2018

    Vinegar Girl sounds interesting, I'll look for it at the library. Thanks for the rec!

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  • Henrietta405
    Henrietta405 Member Posts: 69
    edited February 2018

    I like steam punk so I’ll check out Karen Memory. My favorite steam punk book is Un Lun Dun by China Mieville. I struggle to get through his other books as they are quite dense but Un Lun Dun is a good read.

    I read Vinegar Girl and liked it ok, but I think I would have liked it better if I were more familiar with the Taming of the Shrew. There are several other books in the Hogarth Skakespeare series where current authors write retellings of Shakespeare plays. I also read Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood and liked it a lot.


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  • carolehalston
    carolehalston Member Posts: 6,887
    edited February 2018

    This thread is educational. I had not heard of steam punk. It's an odd term.

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  • M0mmyof3
    M0mmyof3 Member Posts: 9,696
    edited February 2018

    Started The Precious Dreadful today. Already halfway into the book.


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  • LilacBlue
    LilacBlue Member Posts: 1,636
    edited February 2018

    Women better represented in Victorian novels than modern, finds study: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/19/women-better-represented-in-victorian-novels-than-modern-finds-study?CMP=share_btn_tw

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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited February 2018

    Lilac - that is a fascinating & thought provoking article. Thanks for sending the link.

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  • JuliaJazz
    JuliaJazz Member Posts: 246
    edited February 2018

    Just finished This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell. Loved it but it helps to keep a list of characters as it shifts between different perspectives and times. A popular technique these days.

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  • LilacBlue
    LilacBlue Member Posts: 1,636
    edited February 2018

    MinusTwo, you are welcome and I agree with you, the results are fascinating.

    Also, thank you everyone who responded of my questioning of James Patterson (why is ad man-turned-author so popular?) and apparently he is unapologetic about this collaborative process, saying it's completely normal in most other art forms.

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  • M0mmyof3
    M0mmyof3 Member Posts: 9,696
    edited February 2018

    Almost done with The Precious Dreadful

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  • kathindc
    kathindc Member Posts: 2,042
    edited February 2018

    Lilac, I have steered clear of Patterson’s collaborative books for two reasons. First is doubts he did any of the writing. Felt he probably lent his talents to proofing for continuity of content and advice. Secondly, I feel the other authors are riding his coattails for profit.

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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited February 2018

    Agreed!!!

    Too many books too little time. I do read frivilous things sometimes, but not Patterson anymore.

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  • M0mmyof3
    M0mmyof3 Member Posts: 9,696
    edited February 2018

    Just got my copy of Alex Haley's "Roots" in the mail

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  • badger
    badger Member Posts: 34,614
    edited February 2018

    Vinegar Girl was a quick, fun read. Way easier to get through than Shakespeare!

    Next up: the new Harry Bosch Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly and The Silent Corner by Dean Koontz.

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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited February 2018

    Still working on Steinbeck's East of Eden. I expect I'll be awhile. Too many interesting thoughts to digest to rush though and the book is 601 pages.

    Badger, looking forward to your review of Two Kinds of Truth.

    My indie mystery book store usually has two authors a week speaking or reading. I want to make time next month for John Lescroart, John Hart, Elizabeth George, CA Box, and Susan Wittig Albert. Lots of others I'd enjoy meeting, but the bookstore is 40 minutes from my home and week day early evening talks mean navigating the rush hour traffic. For weekend speakers you have to get there at least an hour ahead of time to get a seat, and that's if you can find a place to park 4-5 block away.

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  • carolehalston
    carolehalston Member Posts: 6,887
    edited February 2018

    I have enjoyed several Elizabeth George books. After reading the first book, I was surprised to learn she was American. She seems to know London and Scotland Yard so well and her English characters are convincing. At least to me. Obviously she spends/has spent a lot of time in London.

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  • badger
    badger Member Posts: 34,614
    edited March 2018

    Two Kinds of Truth - good book. Harry handles two cases simultaneously: murders at a local pharmacy lead him undercover to investigate a drug ring, and an old foe tries to besmirch him with "new" evidence. He gets help from his half-brother Mickey Haller, the Lincoln Lawyer, another character I like.

    Already halfway through Silent Corner. Dean Koontz can write! This one's not spooky but very suspenseful.

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  • ruthbru
    ruthbru Member Posts: 57,235
    edited March 2018

    Jefferson's Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America by Catherine Kerrison. It tells the story of Thomas Jefferson's three daughters, two by his wife and one by his slave, Sally Hemings (who was the half sister of his beloved deceased wife). The author, who is a scholar of early American and women's history, has done a lot of research and tells a very interesting and thought provoking story of these three women in particular and the life of women in general during this period of time.

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  • ruthbru
    ruthbru Member Posts: 57,235
    edited March 2018

    Another good read: The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers. It is inspired by a true incident and tells the story of a young southern girl who marries a southern soldier and she is left with the responsiblity of caring for his farm and infant son (his first wife died) in the chaotic days near and after the end of the Civil War. The story is told primarily through diary entries and correspondances between the main character and her cousin. The story goes back and forth in time, when after the death of both parents, their now adult children try to unravel a terrible secret from those Civil Wars days.

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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited March 2018

    Ruth - Jefferson's Daughters will go on my list.

    I've been trying to catch up on magazines again - Smithsonian, National Parks, The Atlantic, Bookmarks, etc. I hadn't subscribed to any for years, but found with BC active treatment books were too long & too heavy & too involved, and magazines were the best way to keep reading. I've cut back a few, however they do pile up when I'm deep into a book (or books). Still, I can't resist the book aisle at Costco (even though Sams has better choices). Picked up two paperbacks of author's I particularly like. J.A.Jance - Man Overboard (2017) and The Late Show - Michael Connelly (2017).

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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited March 2018

    VR - we miss you. Hope you and DH are OK.

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