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This book I read

Thought we might use a thread about what we're reading.
I've just reaxhed the end of a book which contained a convent. Six of the nuns were named, and four of those had similar names - Sisters Marie-Paul, Marie-Pierre, Marie-Marc & Marie-Michel. I do wish àuthors wouldn't do that!

Comments

  • I've just finished reading a three-book series involving magic, witches, Ireland, a demon and an ancient curse. There's horses, dogs and Falcons too. 
  • I started a thread like this one once...
    No idea what happened to it. I was the only one to leave reviews!

    Just finished The Foundling by Stacey Halls.

    Not my usual reading fodder, but I enjoyed it.
  • Re listening to the Harry Dresden books by Jim Butcher. Reading a book about forensic science.
  • I'm busy studying the memoir genre to find competitive titles for my submissions to agents. Not an easy task!! There are a lot of crappy self-pubbed travel memoirs which are no use to me. In sticking to trad published books, so far I've read: The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, I Am An Island by Tamsin Calidas and The Puma Years by Laura Coleman. Currently reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed. 
  • Strayed is too apt a name not to be fake, surely?
  • Lizy said:
    Strayed is too apt a name not to be fake, surely?
    It's not her original name. She explains in the book how she changed it to Strayed after her divorce. 
  • Just finished Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, which won the Orange Prize for fiction in 2002.

    The story of a mass kidnapping, mainly from the point of view of the hostages. Once I became accustomed to the slow pace at which the plot unfolded, I enjoyed it very much. We were given insights into the thoughts and back-stories of a cross-section of the cast of characters, and how the weeks of imprisonment affected them in different ways.
    After the leisurely pace of almost the entire book, the abrupt ending was a shock, and the epilogue seemed to me very strange and illogical. 
    I'd give it 8/10.
  • Last week I read Life Of Pi. Fascinating concept, though of course I'd heard it was about a boy and a tiger on a lifeboat, but the detail of the author's knowledge - or research- of the lives of various zoo animals was extraordinary. Somehow he managed to make the implausible sound plausible, though I found the island episode a stretch too far.
    Has anyone else read the book?
  • Yes, I read Life of Pi years ago. I loved the book, but like you, I thought the island chapter/s didn't seem to fit. Strange how we can suspend disbelief for an allegorical story and then say, 'oh now this is too much of a stretch.' :)
  • Glad it isn't just me!
  • What does 'Le Coup de Vague' mean? I've translated most of all but the last few pages of Simenon's book; yet the title escapes me.
  • What does 'Le Coup de Vague' mean? I've translated most of all but the last few pages of Simenon's book; yet the title escapes me.
    According to google translate it means The Wave Kick, but you can't always trust google translate! :)
  • edited July 2022
    Coup means cut, surely, as in coup de grace. What's the book about? Any clue in the subject matter?

    Could it actually mean 'vague' as in imprecise?
  • I presume it's poetic in some way, how a wave cuts the surface of the sea, perhaps, or slices land from ocean, or maybe the thrash of salt water on skin... I suppose interpretation depends on the subject matter.
  • Thanks for the memory jogging comments. They're all relevant. Coupe ( with an acute accent on the e ) is also a ballet term meaning jump if I remember rightly. So Le Coup de Vague emphasizes the seaside setting of the book.  
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