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Post by roverpup on Mar 20, 2018 20:27:44 GMT
Had to come up for air after reading the first 90 pages of At Last! It is so harrowing (and at times very comic) and raw in its exploration of Patrick’s terrible, terrible life at the hands of his father (and complicit mother) that you do seem (at least I do) to need a break once in a while just to breathe again. It is achingly good. So many emotions (sometimes all jumbled on top of one another). Just loving this last one for sure!
:-))
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Post by mllemass on Mar 20, 2018 21:05:19 GMT
I bought the book months ago and read the first few chapters right away, but then I didn't go back to it again until last week. It's so good, and I can't help but picture Benedict as Patrick! I just began Mother's Milk, but I'm going to take a break until tomorrow. Patrick's life is exhausting!
I think the reason the novels seem to be written in different styles is that they were written years apart:
1992 - Never Mind and Bad News
1994 - Some Hope
2006 - Mother's Milk
2011 - At Last
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Post by roverpup on Mar 21, 2018 3:49:55 GMT
Patrick’s life is exhausting, isn’t it?
What I like is that each style of writing suit each stage in his life so well. So far my favourite books are Bad News and the one I am currently reading At Last. Bad News was such a frenzy and everything just seemed to whirl like a tornado around the reader.
And At Last has (so far) such a sadness to it (even the more comic parts). There is such introspection in the language and form of the writing.
EStA is such a master of making you feel so many multiple feelings all layers over one another with his prose!
When he wants to crush you - he can be totally devestating!
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Post by sgev1977 on Apr 14, 2018 3:44:47 GMT
I am reading a few biographies about prominent Mexican women from the 1920’s and 1930’s I finished “Nahum Olin” by Adriana Malvido about this extremely beautiful woman whose real name was Carmen Mondragón. Just look at her: (BEWARE: Nudity!) culturacolectiva.com/historia/carmen-mondragon-la-musa-que-murio-de-amor/She was a painter and a poet but it seems she was more famous for her scandals and for being model to other much more recognizable artists and TBH the book doesn’t make a great case for her. It’s full of poetic language and long and sometimes contradictory quotes. The author wants to present her as a feminist and revolutionary judged as crazy but she actually kind of sounded very unstable and difficult! I actually felt more curiosity for other characters as his first husband Manuel Rodriguez Lozano, a gay painter who was sure she killed their only son and who created his own style of painting very different to contemporary muralists; her famous lover, Dr. Atl, also a painter and vulcanologist who participate in the Revolution but ended defending Nazi ideas; and Antonieta Rivas Mercado. I am reading a much better book about her called just Antonieta (1900-1931) by Fabienne Bradu. Yes, she had a very short life. She was an arts patron, a writer and a feminist who was very active in the cultural life of the time and dramatically killled herself at the Cathedral in Notre Dame. This book is so great. Intelligent, incisive, well-written and very informative about her and her fascinating family: she was daughter of famous architect Antonio Rivas Mercado. It also it’s great describing the life of the elites before and after the Revolution. The author doesn’t glamorize her suicide nor try to make her look like a misunderstood heroic case. She describes her as a complex human being with strengths and faults and just that it makes the book much more interesting than the other. I was so excited that I bought another biography about her called In the Shadow of the Angel by an American writer. The title sounds a little melodramatic (it makes reference to the statue made by her father for the centenary of Mexican Independence). We will see! |
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Post by mllemass on May 29, 2019 6:18:38 GMT
I just stayed up late to finish Graham Norton’s “A Keeper”. I had ordered the book last October and I finally got it last week. It’s a very easy read, as was his first book “Holding”.
I really enjoyed it! GN can be laugh-out-loud funny in his writing, even when the subject matter is rather disturbing. I really like his style and I look forward to reading any future novels he writes.
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Post by mllemass on Jan 6, 2021 0:25:27 GMT
I finally finished reading Stephen King’s The Institute! It feels like such a weight off my shoulders - literally, actually, because the book is 561 pages. I started it more than a year ago, but couldn’t get through it. This past week, I decided to stop putting it off. I had more than half the book still to go, but I did it. Yay!
The problem with reading this book was that I hated it. Ha! It had a promising start, and the ending was fine - typical SK stuff. But it had 200-300 pages in the middle that could have been removed and it would have been so much better. Everything that happened in that part of the story was repetitive and tedious. And I disliked the main character, too, which made it hard for me to care what happened to him.
There are at least 3 other books that I read while reading The Institute, including another Stephen King book! I am now so excited to get started on a new pile of books that have been sitting there waiting for me.
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Post by surprisinglyokay69 on Feb 3, 2022 9:24:40 GMT
I don't know if anybody's checking this thread but I am a big fan of jodie picoult. Does anybody know her? I just read 'a spark of life'. She always writes if different POVs and also in the most black and white settings you get every position of everybody...
And I had to tell you about a very erotic book a friend published on amazon. It's a story about a happily married woman who gets to know her celebriry crush. Unnecessary to say she is a hard core benedict fan and even if the celeb in the book is called Blake you know it is about Ben because you will find everything we know about him in the book. But first of all it's one of the hottest things I've ever read!
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Post by jbc12 on Apr 19, 2023 17:07:41 GMT
I decided to re-read The Forsyte Saga today and am now regretting it, lol! I'd read the trilogy as a teenager and remember loving it then but, I'm only 50 pages into it now and it's such a hard slog! I may put it aside for another time.
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