What is the last book you read, and your rating?

[intelligentsiagirl]

Read ...

HACKER, HOAXER, WHISTLEBLOWER, SPY
THE MANY FACES OF ANONYMOUS
Gabriella Coleman
Verso, Published 2014

5/10

What was really interesting with Anonymous, that the author said there are more women within the group than men. In fact, her argument is, the majority of the internet trolls are female. They just pose as being male when in real life they are female. That was a interesting argument she was making.

[jamethereader_]

I recently finished “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens. It was amazing and it give it 5/5 stars (which is rare coming from me). It had every aspect of a great novel; mystery, romance, intrigue, discovery, adventure and more!

[Mandi Palfreyman]

I recently finished "The Library of Lost and Found" by Phaedra Patrick. I really enjoyed the book. One of the major themes was how experiences in our childhood influence the adults we become. The story has a magical quality and a bit of mystery. I believe that the writer is from Emgland so there will be some English phrases with which some readers may be unfamiliar. Overall, I recommend the story.

[Mandi Palfreyman]

Our book club just finished "The Girl with Seven Names" by Hyeonseo Lee. It is a true story of a young girl who left North Korea for China when she was 17. The book traces her life through her escape from North Korea. The book is fascinating. The chapters are short but the type is tiny. If you look the author up on Youtube, she tells about some of her experiences. Overall rating is 4 out of 4.

[Redlegs]

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke (1910) - elegant prose, dull narrative. 3 stars out of 5

[gali]

Dead Voices (Small Spaces #2) by Katherine Arden - 4 out of 4 stars!

[Stephanie Runyon]

A Second, Less Capable, Head and other Rogue Stories. I was disappointed by it and only ranked it a 2 out of 4.

[intelligentsiagirl]

Read ...

FIRE AND FORTITUDE
THE US ARMY IN THE PACIFIC WAR, 1941 - 1943
John C McManus
Caliber, Published 2019

7 out of 10

[Redlegs]

My Beautiful Enemy by Cory Taylor (shortlisted for the 2014 Miles Franklin Award) is a sensitive, beautifully rendered tale of a love that could not be.

Arthur Wheeler is a young guard in a Victorian internment camp for Japanese aliens during World War II. Arthur's natural inclination is to despise the Japanese internees, of the view that they are genuine enemies of Australia, representing a threat in a time of war. But when he meets young Stanley (Ueno Saburo-san) for the first time, he is immediately smitten, 'blinded by his beauty'.

Arthur had to pretend that he was a straight man, keen for sexual relations with women, just like his co-workers. He met May at a local dance, and she, attracted by his handsome looks, set about seducing him. She fell pregnant, and despite some initial reluctance from her family, they were married.

But as soon as Arthur became aware that Stanley and his family were about to be deported to Japan after the war, he deserted his wife and son, never to return to his marriage, and set out in search of Stanley.

Taylor relates this heartbreaking narrative in a style that is simple and effective. In Arthur and Stanley, she has created two wonderful characters and a forbidden relationship that is complex and enigmatic. She has quite deliberately not overplayed the emotion or tied to moralize too much.

4.5 stars out of 5

[intelligentsiagirl]

Read ...

THE MINISTRY OF TRUTH
THE BIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE ORWELL'S 1984
Dorian Lynskey
Doubleday, Published 2019

7/10

[intelligentsiagirl]

Stopped reading ...

THE HOUSE OF THE GOVERNMENT
A SAGA OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
Yuri Slezkine
Princeton University Press / Princeton and Oxford, Published 2017

Rating 1/10

The problem with the book, it is a word salad. I stopped reading the book on page 296 and it has 980 pages for reading. It skipped from one idea to the next. It skipped from one person to the next. It was talking about Russia, than it was talking about America. It talked about the Russian Revolution, than it talked about American religion. For some reason, the author does not want to stick with one subject. I do not understand how you can write about the Russian Revolution and talk about the Christian arguments about the end times.

[Redlegs]

Lady Audley's Secret (1861/62) by Mary Elizabeth Braddon is a very fine example of the Sensation novel that was extremely popular for a relatively brief period in the 19th century.

Published not long after Wilkie Collins' The Woman In White, it is a similar type of investigative mystery and every bit as good as Collins work, including The Moonstone.

But just what is Lady Audley's secret? Is Lady Audley a bigamist? Is she an evil murderess? Is she, perhaps, insane and not responsible for her actions? Or is she a victim of womanhood, in a society where women are forced to adapt to a society where they are subservient to the attitudes and actions of the the men in their lives?

The novel is beautifully plotted and well written, with a wonderful cast of characters, lucid and colorful descriptive prose, smart dialogue, clever investigations that gradually reveal information and thicken the plot and, eventually, a more than satisfactory resolution.

Definitely worth checking out - it can be downloaded for free. 5 stars out of 5

[intelligentsiagirl]

Read ...

THE MOON
A HISTORY FOR THE FUTURE
Oliver Morton
Public Affairs, Published 2019

6/10

[Moella1]

I read Heartaches!!! A super interesting novel by H.M. Irwring.. For all romance lovers I suggest you read it.. I rated it 3 out of 4 stars... Check out my review on it..

[Emily_Savage]

The last book I read was The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le guin. It is an excellent book, very well written and in fact I plan to read it again very soon.