The Book Thread Book • Page 82

picked up The Robot Novels (just has the first two) from Asimov, and Cloud Atlas from a coworker over the winter.

enjoying Caves of Steel, although I took a little break in the middle. from the titles and jacket descriptions, I thought the sci-fi aspects would feel a little dated, but this is holding up pretty well so far.

 

Has anyone read Big Little Lies? I got absolutely hooked on the show after two episodes and of course someone I know told me the book is better.

The cast and production of the show is really top notch.

 

Yeah it’s a good read. Definitely recommend picking up if you like the show. I wouldn’t say it was dramatically better but that’s just because I loved the show

 

I listened to True Grit and it was really great. Love the narrative voice in that

I just checked out Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles as I was at a loss for what audiobook to choose next. I only just listened to Fahrenheit 451 earlier this year. Hope this ones good

 

Don't know if murder mysteries are technically crime fiction but I feel like Anthony Horowitz's newest couple of books are very readable. The Word Is Murder especially is easy to read and fairly different for a murder mystery.

 

Haven't had too much of a chance to read my actual book lately, because I've been busy reading peoples' unpublished stories. I wrote a novella myself and need feedback before submitting, so I've just been swapping my story with other aspiring authors in a facebook Beta Reading group. Some of what I've read are pretty interesting, others are downright disasters.

Pre-ordered Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous to have something to look forward to after this process. It's his debut novel and seems to be getting extremely high praise. I love his poetry so I'm really excited for it. The goodreads page - On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

 

Jurassic Park has got to be one of my favorite books now. It was so good, I couldn’t stop reading it.


Time for The Lost World.

 

Been reading lots of thrillers in the last month or so:

Death of Mrs. Westaway - Ruth Ware
Final Girls - Riley Sager
Anonymous Girl - Greer Hendricks
Sycamore - Bryn Chancellor
The Couple Next Door & An Unwanted Guest - Shari Lapena

Now digging into the other Riley Sager book: The Last Time I Lied.

 

What did you think of An Anonymous Girl? I keep seeing that as a recommendation.

 

I would say 3/3.5 stars. Nothing special or mind blowing, but enjoyable. It’s certainly slow moving for pretty much the majority. Also one of those books where all the characters possess unlikable qualities through poor actions and you don’t really know who to trust.

The plot, at points, is hard to recall every conversation and remembering every point of view of who knows what, but is still easy to read and follow!

 

I've read/listened to all of these except Sycamore.

I'm interested in your thoughts besides An Anonymous Girl obviously.

I liked it much more than I expected tbh. Was different than what I was expecting it to be.

I thought the ending was pretty interesting

 

Death of Mrs. Westaway: I loved this book. It was my first time reading Ruth Ware and I found the plot very easy to get into. The suspense and mystery kept me engaged and the twists/turns were rewarding. Excited to read The Woman In Cabin 10!

Final Girls: I think I recall seeing some “meh” reviews but I loved this one. I picked up the latest Riley Sager novel cause I wanted more of this style writing. I loved really the whole thing. The ending was a bit ... forced maybe is the word? In terms of what went down in the past and why. Just seemed like we were doing a final twist for the sake of it. But in terms of the gruesome murders, the media trying to create an “image” out of these girls, trying to cope and move on from tragedy, and the overall suspense of “what the hell are you doing here?” I was engaged through out.

Couple Next Door: Lapena’s writing is literally so simple. If you want a quick thriller with some good twists, she’s great for that. Enjoyed this because you literally had no idea who to trust, and found the ending twists very rewarding.

An Unwanted Guest: Good, not great. Probably my least favorite of the three novels by Lapena. It was slow which is totally fine if we are building the characters. However, I feel like we didn’t get to know ALL of them enough for me to really have an invested reaction when the ending happened.

 

I've said it in here before but I'm a big fan of Ruth Ware. Read through all her books in order last year. Cabin I think is my favorite with Westaway being #2 probably. She just released 2 short stories via her newsletter too. Excited for Turn of The Key.

Riley Sager- here's the thing I love the concept of the story of Final Girls, thought it was super fresh and different. The story itself I kinda just read through it hoping that it would be different and really by the end I was just flat out annoyed by the main character and agree with your assessment of the ending, just kinda lame. I won't ruin Last Time You Lied so I'll wait till you're finished with that.

I listened to both Shari Lapena novels and definitely enjoyed the craziness of Couple Next Door. An Unwanted Guest reminded me alot of Clue/Agatha Christie and made me want to actually read it to see what else I may pick up on by actually reading it.

 

Finished The Last Time I Lied just now! What did you think of it?

 

I thought more highly of it then Final Girls but thought the ending was kinda dumb.

You?

 

Literally same!

I felt the ending was pretty underwhelming. It was like just like .... oh, okay? And then that final little twist was just there for the sake of it. I still enjoy the writing and both plots were intriguing enough to be excited for the next novel released by the author!

 

So, I'm almost done reading the Cemetery of Forgotten Books quartet by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and while I'm in Barcelona next week I'm doing a walking tour with a literature professor who visits a lot of the key locations and I'm beginning to work on this idea for an essay about what those books mean to me.

Which is to say: READ SHADOW OF THE WIND THANKS

 

Haha pretty much! There's definitely something about his writing that I enjoy and will keep giving a chance even if I don't necessarily care for the stories he tells if that makes sense. The more I think about Final Girls the more I kinda start to hate it even though in the end I really did enjoy it, it just frustrates me.


I'm a little annoyed that Riley's and Ruth Ware's new books have very similar plots and names. I'm still totally gonna read them though haha

 

Okay fine.

 

That golden state killer book I’ll Be Gone In The dark was so so good. Devoured it in two days by the pool. Highly recommend

 

Currently reading Paul takes the form of a mortal girl by Andrea Lawlor. It's radically sensual gender-bending punk rock madness. I love it.

 

Just started Sing, Unburied, Sing and it’s making me forget how garbage A Visit from the Goon Squad turned out to be.

 

I loved Sing, Unburied, Sing! The ending is incredible, even though I kind of saw it coming

 

Since I’m still waiting on The Word is Murder. I’ve decided to read The Girl On The Train to pass the time.

 

Started Lincoln in the Bardo tonight.