Dainey’s Comments (group member since Dec 11, 2017)

Dainey’s comments from the 2022 ONTD Reading Challenge group.

I read Beer in the Snooker Club, to a very mixed review.

There were some great themes in there and dichotomies explored in this coming of age tale, but that meant having to put up with the main character, who needed to grow the eff up.

I read Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead and ended up loving it.

It took me a while to get used to the narration, but once the story picked up this character and their own special world just drew me in!

Half mystery and half odd stream-of-consciousness, I can see why this got all the accolades it did!

I can also see how someone might absolutely hate it if this istyle isn't their cup of tea.

I'll go with Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, since I got it last year for the month that ended up having its theme changed.

I readShahnameh: The Epic of Kings.

It's pretty standard for a (translated) poem epic, lots of who begat whom and who slew whom and names you've seen in mangled contexts in pop culture.

If that's your cup of tea, it's an entertaining read. If that sort of thing bores you to tears, this one isn't gonna change your mind.

I just spent almost half an hour going through all those lists, only to find my library has none of those books as ebooks. disappointed-but-not-surprised.gif

The good news is that Shahnameh: The Epic of Kings is going for spare change on kindle since I don't need any fancy Publisher's Classics Edition! So going with that one.

Ugh, seems the only Irish things my UK library has as ebooks are things about people being miserable and grudgingly admitted classics.

So I'll be going with The Picture of Dorian Gray, it's due a proper adult read since the last time I touched it I was but a rebellious baby queer...

I read The Library of the Dead and it was entertaining enough. A bit slow to get going, but I enjoyed the characters and the world-building (sidenote, I saw so much criticism complaining about how there's too much worldbuilding, and how things are both too weird and not weird enough).

Honestly, I'm all for it. It took the more tedious aspects from the Dresden Files and improved them by turning them sideways into Dresden Files In Scotland With A Young WoC.

I'll not hold my breath waiting for the sequel, but I'll be pleasantly surprised to pick it up once I realise it's out some months after release.

I'm going with The Library of the Dead. I was pleasantly surprised to see it already available in the UK.

I read The Bat and it was ok? It was a nice enough ride, but as the plot went on, it felt more and more like it was on rails.

Also ha-bloody-ha at the "trick" of getting the Australians to pronounce Harry's last name as "Holy", they must be a lot more considerate than English speakers everywhere else... I say as someone whose last name can be pronounced in a very rude way in English.

I'm going to embrace the nordic noir and go with The Bat. I've read a few books in the series, out of order and varying times in between, so going to the beginning should be the smart thing to do.

Oh, goodness. I went with Idle Days in Patagonia, and heartily do not recommend it to anyone born in the current or previous century.

I went in, curious to read about the nature and especially birds of Patagonia. I was lulled in by the delightfully old fashioned use of language. And then was faced with our intrepid ornithologist shooting every bird he came across, and of course his honest racism, sexism, ableism, classism... Like, no. This is actually just a stream-of-conciousness of a Good Old Boy From The Right Boarding School.

Aesha wrote: "This challenge is really that! How can the Chicago Public Library mot have ebook versions of any of these available? Annoying. I’d like to read Hopscotch, if I can find it, because it sounds fascin..."

I knew my local library doesn't branch (hah!) out, much, either, but I wasn't prepared to not find a single ebook for any of the names in all of those lists! Ended up grabbing Idle Days in Patagonia because it was the only reasonably priced of the very, very few available on kindle in English in my region. Clearly Argentina needs this challenge so we can become literature ambassadors!

I read Pachinko: The New York Times Bestseller. It was an entertaining read, I can definitely see what all the fuss is about, but just not my cup of tea.

Going to go with Pachinko: The New York Times Bestseller. I normally prefer genre fiction, but I'll take this as an opportunity to improve myself, since this seems to be one of those "must read" books.

I read Mexican Gothic, the winner of the horror category in this year's goodreads awards.

That book has some serious mood whiplash, like the first and second half of it are completely different books. It starts by introducing the main character as self-absorbed and mild degree of unlikeable, then the first half is a slow paced slog of everyone being horrible (except the poor, ill cousin) in a very fine gothic horror tradition, then at 50% or so it steps up, and by 60% it's a break-neck thriller.

It was an okay book, and I actually really liked the horror element of it, but the pacing was unbalanced.

Gonna go with Mexican Gothic, since it just won the horror category in Goodreads awards, and has been sitting in my kindle for months.

I went with The Girl on the Train. Some mixed feelings for me there; I can see how the extremely unreliable narrator makes for a gripping read, and you want to cheer her on, but... My family tree has far too many fermented apples for me to enjoy this book, because so many bad decisions by the main character just took me back to awful moments and interactions. Plus, for anyone familiar with the genre, the villain is extremely quickly figured out, to the point where it almost becomes its own red herring, because surely it can't be this obvious?

I'm gonna go with We Have Always Lived in the Castle, sincce somehow I've managed to never read it before.

I picked up A Man Called Ove. That sort of contemporary fiction without a clear genre isn't my usual cup of tea, but it was entertaining enough, a nice and fast read.

I suspect the appeal is that most of us nordics can still have someone in our lives who is exactly like Ove (although he's a good deal more virtuous than his irl counterparts). The fact that this sourpuss got a heartwarming redemption arc is definitely what makes this book so popular.

I did pull a cowardly move and read this as an english translation, instead of relying on my rusty swedish and going for the original.

I'm gonna go with yet another Pratchett, this time my absolute favourite: Night Watch.

To me, this is where he reached his peak. The humour was so on point, the characters so deep and human, and that righteous anger at injustice burning so brightly.