4.08.2018

books books books

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Today's prompt: A book you love and one you didn't.

From this year's crop of books: A book I loved (and didn't expect to) is The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne. It was a book group selection and clocked in at 21 hours 19 minutes/582 pages and I both listened and read it.
From my review:
I LOVE THIS BOOK! It begins with the birth in 1945 and advances by sevens through the years of Cyril Avery's life. I laughed. I cried. I was outraged at the intolerance of society. I was drawn into the story. A theme of the novel is Cyril's homosexuality. A theme of the novel is love--family, friends, and romantic. It's a poignant and somewhat intense look at man's hidden desires, and in this case, the man is Cyril. And I would add that Ireland is as much a character as any person in the book. The evolution of Cyril is the evolution of Ireland.

A book I didn't love (and expected to love) is Tangerine by Christine Mangan. I admit I chose it for the cover, as well as the rave reviews. It clocked in at 9 hours and 28 minutes and I listened to it.
From my review:
I wanted to love this book. It's got a noir-ish, Hitchcockian feel. But it just didn't work for me. The claustrophobic feeling is well done. But the cliched characters just didn't quite click for me.

2 comments:

2 gators said...

I enjoy reading romance novels as well, funny how we actually feel
the emotions as we are reading. happy Sunday

The Gal Herself said...

How cool that your club introduced you to a book that will stay with you forever.