Book Group

131 watchers

Little Nemo Nov 2023 12:37pm, 17 Nov 2023 14,126 posts	0 Little Nemo No problem Night-owl! I also watched the TV series and really enjoyed it. I think there's going to be a second series.
Night-owl Nov 2023 11:28pm, 19 Nov 2023 44,157 posts	0 Night-owl Margaret Atwood on BBC4
Little Nemo Nov 2023 5:21pm, 20 Nov 2023 14,129 posts	0 Little Nemo Read the 1st of the Inspector Grant novels by Josephine Tey and really enjoyed it. Had a few dated opinions (stabbing someone with a stiletto blad would never be done by an Englishman!) but overall it was well written and quite gripping. Definitely 99p well-spent
McGoohan Nov 2023 10:22am, 21 Nov 2023 53,355 posts	0 McGoohan One advantage of being off sick is that you can catch up with your reading. Actually this shows, I suspect, that I'm not as sick with this dose of Covid as I was in 2022. Couldn't get past the fuzzy head to read back then. This time, whizzing through. I started Watling Street yesterday lunchtime and finished it today about ten minutes ago. I'll collect my thoughts later.
McGoohan Nov 2023 10:24am, 21 Nov 2023 53,356 posts	0 McGoohan Oh and you may all be astounded to learn that I also picked up the less than half-read Babel over the weekend - the book I thought I was going to abandon - and finished that too in a couple of sittings. That's such an odd book, both really well-written and really badly-written. Very hard to quantify.
LindsD Nov 2023 11:49am, 21 Nov 2023 65,100 posts	0 LindsD Totally agree. This was my 'review' on the bookometer. I really liked this at the beginning. Set in Oxford, about translation, written by someone who understands translation. Anti colonialist. Lost its way a bit towards the end. Like she had a great idea but didn't know where to go with it.
McGoohan Nov 2023 12:04pm, 21 Nov 2023 53,362 posts	0 McGoohan Yes, she's highly scholarly, really well-researched and knows how to turn a good phrase... but the ending is just so beige, so well-we've-run-out-of-pages-now-so-I-guess-that's-it. And the anti-colonial message needed a lot more subtlety than she uses. Portraying every single white character as essentially a wrong un' and every person of colour as almost saintly? Well, it's got all the subtlety of her bashing the reader over the head with a half-brick labelled 'racism is bad'. I KNOW IT'S BAD. How how about writing some characters with a little depth?
LindsD Nov 2023 12:09pm, 21 Nov 2023 65,101 posts	0 LindsD Totally agree. So disappointing, although I kinda realised she'd backed herself in a corner before the end. And yes - a pick 'n' mix of gender/skin colour/heritage and a posh white girl.
McGoohan Nov 2023 12:12pm, 21 Nov 2023 53,363 posts	0 McGoohan Oh, one other thing. Though it's set in an alternate Oxford, I was less reminded of Philip Pullman than of Harry Potter. The main character is an orphan taken from poverty to a fancy education. They have 'silver' instead of 'magic' but Robin/Harry basiaclly gets set up with a Ron and two Hermiones in Oxford/Hogwarts. And the lessons/professors and setting are very Hogwartsy. They even get an invisibility cloak!
Hanneke Nov 2023 12:13pm, 21 Nov 2023 114,838 posts	0 Hanneke I am still relishing in being able to read again. So glad I decided enough is enough and am still waiting for a 2nd opinion re more chemo, as the oncologist suggested... I have my brain back!