Drama-Lovers Book Club

 kura2ninja:

Not gonna lie, the first book in particular was a slog to read. Not because it's bad, but because it's rather challenging to follow

Thanks for pointing this out! I'm still on the first book.  There's just so much I've got to absorb and it's taking a lot of effort and energy to research everything.  Hopefully, I'll return to the Dune series and finish it soon.

Book Update for March-April:

This month I read three books and started a fourth one, yay!

I finished reading "People We Meet on Vacation", the 2nd book of Emily Henry recommended by my daughter, which I enjoyed more than the 1st, "Beach Read", read last month.

4/5 stars

3/5 stars

2/5 stars

currently reading

After that, I read a duology by Camilla Läckberg I bought recently: "The Golden Cage" and "Silver Tears", which I found disappointing, after having read some really good crime stories of hers.
This was supposed to be a women-centered revenge thriller, but I found the whole story rather impossible and the heroine a person and a woman I couldn't sympathize with.

Currently reading Sophia Nikolaidou's book "The Golden Bracelet", a collection of real stories about people who struggled to acquire a university diploma in order to be regarded as successful in life.

Next, I will probably return to  crime/mystery stories, or read one more of my daughters' recommendations!

Have a great reading month, dear Book Club family <3

Bullet Train was seriously fun to read. I loved it. The YouTube trailer doesn't do it serve. Read the book instead. It's suspenseful, cometic, and highly entertaining. 5/5

She Who Became the Sun - was good up until the end and then it wasn't. 3/5

 Fault Lines by Emily Itami - very interesting story, complex and looks at first generation immigrants and the traumas associated with immigration that affect the whole family. 4/5

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo. I'm not sure how to respond to this book. The ending left me confused. I think this book would be well suited for a study group. It is thought provoking.  Read the book first if you are going to see the movie. 4/5

Now for my March wrap-up. Unlike Jan and Feb, when I read lots of books, March was a total reversal. I was so distracted that while I read from (or more correctly, listened to) several books, I only completed two. The first one is The Inklings: C S Lewis, J R R Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Their Friends; everything to do with C S Lewis is fascinating to me, so I enjoyed this audiobook a lot, especially as quite a bit of it can be seen as mini bio of the man. I'd never heard of Charles Williams before but found him to be a very interesting personality. I see Delphi Classics will be putting out his collected works in their next series of public domain classics and I'm waiting to try him out.  (4/5 stars)

I also completed The Jane Austen Collection, a 45-hour Audible dramatization of JA's six novels. I'm cheating a bit by saying completed; I listened to everything except for Emma (I only listened to the first chapter). I read Emma years ago and enjoyed it for the most part but being quite older now I find I can't bear to read it again (based on my memories anyway). I consider Emma to be a busybody and, having had to deal with one at my workplace for the last few years, I was in no mood to subject myself to an account of her meddling. 

All the productions were excellent except for, ironically enough, Pride and Prejudice, my favorite Austen book. I found that the transitions were not smooth, the sound quality was not uniform (e.g. Darcy would always be so much louder than whoever he was speaking with); it's almost like they pieced bits of audio together. Other irritations were the fake -sounding laughs/giggles, heavy breathing (terrible!) and the 'clomping' noises from characters crossing the room to meet each other. I cringe just thinking about it :(

But the other 4 novels were excellently done. (4/5)

 penel:

Currently reading Sophia Nikolaidou's book "The Golden Bracelet", a collection of real stories about people who struggled to acquire a university diploma in order to be regarded as successful in life.

I'm interested in this one - do you know if there's an English translation?

 LucianYaz:

I'm interested in this one - do you know if there's an English translation?

Not that I know of. In fact, I tried to find one, just to link it in my post but couldn't. 

Ann Cleeves will probably be in my next month's post - I have 2 books of hers on my shelf waiting to be read :)

@MichaKu 

Following up on your recommendation, I read Human Acts by Han Kang. Thank you for the recommendation. I had seen the 2017 movie A Taxi Driver, so  I wasn't unfamiliar with the Gwangju uprising, but to read this book brought the horrors to the forefront. In many ways, the book is captivating until it is not. Then it's a difficult book to read.  But it's a history that should not be forgotten and it's a sad testimony to the cruelty of humans. 

 foxyjo:

~MARCH~

5/5	3/5	1/5
1/5	4/5	2.5/5

@foxyjo

ahh just letting you know, i saw u gave 5/5 for a good girls guide to murder so i decided to read it. I went to the library but someone already borrowed it ><, so i decided to read good girl bad blood instead :) I started reading it yesterday ^^