This Week I'm Mostly Reading General Chat Golden Threads

[Katy]

I just finished Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult which has been sitting on my shelf since at least 2018.

I don't know whether I would recommend this book. The premise of the story is fine, but I always have a problem when every character is just a walking stereotype, like a really extreme version of that type of person. It also has no business being 500 pages, it could have been at least 100 pages shorter.

It earns some bonus points because it did somewhat attempt to tackle racism, especially towards the end during the trial there were some passages about race relations in America that I really liked.

Overall, it was just okay.

 

[Talia]

The Ratline by Philippe Sands.

I've just started listening to this on Audible. Very intriguing, it has me hooked.

 

[Franco Pinion]

Halfway through Peter James, "Find Them Dead", latest in the Roy Grace series.

Think I might give up on this series after this one, its become very tired, wish he'd drop the nonsense about his long lost son that adds nothing to the character. Also, the main plot so far is so cliched, just hoping he pulls it out of the bag before the end with some sort of twist (which doesn't seem likely)

 

[Deleted member 63]

This week, I am mostly reading stories on Social network for writers, authors, readers, and all story lovers. We are having three concurrent competitions in honour of the site's 10th anniversary. I have a poem and two stories entered myself.

 

[Tom]

Just started "Utopia Avenue" by David Mitchell

 

[Dylan]

Just started "Utopia Avenue" by David Mitchell

Oooh, I'm so envious!!

 

[Jess]

Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh.

The stop start feel to the book as a result of an excessive number of really short chapters did not go down well with me. A lot of two-page long chapters.

 

[Mouth]

Finished Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury the other day, on a lockdown reading splurge. It's OK, 1950s/60s dystopian future novels are interesting, but for how much the book is celebrated, the plotline is pretty thin when you get beyond the themes of censorship, dumbed-down society and the greyness of authoritarianism.

The wall to wall live screening interactive media, reality TV and drones are, obviously, concepts well ahead of their time, but Montag is a somewhat frustrating protagonist and there is little depth to any of the characters (fine that's arguably part of society's problem) and the plot beyond the need to unquestioningly preserve the wisdom held within books.

Reading the afterword, Bradbury said it was originally a much short story that he had to basically double on its word count to make it a novel and it shows tbh.

 

[Katy]

Finally got around to starting The Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. Enjoying it so far, though admittedly I'm not yet that far in (around 50 pages).

 

[Mouth]

Started reading Man's Search for Meaning the other day. Seems quite ridiculous to say, but god the holocaust is a grim read. But still, a very interesting book.