Two 5's and a DNF

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Two 5's and a DNF

1Tess_W
aug 28, 2021, 2:26 am

Please tell us about two 5-star reads you've experienced and one DNF (did not finish)

2Tess_W
aug 30, 2021, 3:36 am

The latest round

5 star reads
Wuthering Heights --(a re-read of many times)
The Lioness of Morocco

DNF
Fantomas: Fantomas Detective Tales 1 (1001 book)

3LyndaInOregon
sep 1, 2021, 11:30 pm

Last two 5-star reads were A Country Called Home, by Kim Barnes, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by V.E. Schwab.

I also picked up two DNFs in a row in August Victoria & Abdul, by Stephen Frears, and Ghost on the Throne, by James Romm.

Victoria & Abdul was given to me by a friend, and I'm not sure exactly why she thought I would enjoy it. I got Ghost on the Throne through an ILL, and for some reason thought it was going to be fiction. Just didn't have the energy for heavy-duty nonfiction that week. (In fact, I ended up in the hospital.) Luck of the draw, I guess, that I should pick them up one after the other, and at a time when I wasn't really up for a challenge of any kind.

4Tess_W
sep 2, 2021, 8:06 am

>3 LyndaInOregon: I saw the movie about Victoria and Abdul ( I think the title was something else...?) and surprisingly, I liked it--even though I found parts of it unbelievable.

5terriks
sep 10, 2021, 5:04 pm

My latest "new to me" 5-star is Passing by Nella Larsen. More of a novella in length, but the writing is skillful and, since I was immediately drawn in, it felt longer than it is. With a top-notch cast of characters and a surprise ending, I couldn't help but wish someone like Alfred Hitchcock had gotten his hands on it (it was written in 1929.) It would make fabulous film noir.

My second 5-star is one I am currently re-reading after many years - The Women's Room by Marilyn French. It was published back in the 1980's (or was it the late 1970's?) and considered quite groundbreaking in its day as a modern feminist tale. I enjoyed it a lot at the time, but somehow it got lost during my several moves. I could have loaned it to someone, too, who never returned it - so long ago and I just can't recall. I picked up a paperback for $1.95 and it's been fun seeing what has stood the test of time and what now might seem dated.

A DNF is Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Science fiction, this is a sequel to Children of Time, which I barely got through as I found it overly wordy. But it was still entertaining and my dear husband urged me to try the next one. Couldn't do it.

This author is in sore need of a more relentless editor, maybe? This guy writes like he's paid by the word.

6Tess_W
sep 24, 2021, 6:54 am

The Radetsky March by Joseph Roth. This is going to be a "5", based on my completion of 65% thus far. To be honest, if I wait for another 5 and a DNF, I might never post again....I will forget! This is a good piece of historical fiction about the decline of the Hapsburg Empire pre WWI. Before I read, of course, I had to go down the rabbit hole of what the Radetsky March was and listened to it on youtube. I had heard it before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMl3KzthCyo