You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
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February 2018 - Twins be CONJOINED (report thread)
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Here is my overall review: Beautiful, devastating, ultimately hopeful. This book follows two connected families through the last century of China's history. I thought the section in the middle about the cultural revolution was particularly powerful.
And here is what I said in that powerful part: "I can't breathe. This book is so powerful, so heart-rending. I think I should read this, especially this part of it, every year. it makes me want to sit at the feet of the Dalaï lama until my whole soul is transformed, and I cannot be a conduit of anything harsh. I probably actually need to read it every week..."

How does this book have a 4.14 average?! It slowly went from pretty decent to terribly bad. The war-story was okay, definitely not the best I ever read but it was engaging and I wanted to know what happened. Unfortunately, there was also a present day story that took up around 65% of the book, and that was one of the most irrelevant, toe-curling, predictable, annoying, overly dramatic stories I ever read, with characters that annoyed the hell out of me and I just wanted to slap in the face. I just couldn't wait to get it over and done with. There was so much wrong with it that I don't even know where to start and how to explain it all, so I'm going to save my breath and focus on something nice.

Gave this book a solid 5 stars.
The story is about Marie and Ai-Ling, daughters of two friends Kai and Sparrow who lived through the cultural revolution in China and how their freedom of how they lived, what they wore and their thoughts were taken away from them. The choices they had to make to survive and some consequences changed the course of their lives and not for the better.
This book was incredible, sad, sometimes brutal. Made me learn more about what was happening during the revolution, the denouncing and brutality they suffered. Beautifully written, a part of history that needs to be learned.

How does this book have a 4.14 average?! It slowly went from pretty decent to terribly bad. The war-story was okay, definitely not t..."
ROFL! I gave this 4 stars. I don't recall the present day story at all, though I do recall the story set during WWII.

Yes very happy we chose a book we both came to love.

The 1942 time line was strong, interesting, touching and a great premise. The 2002 was weak, even stupid, and unfortunately ended taking more than half of the book. I feel like I don't know enough about 1942 and its people, and know more than I would have liked of the 2002's. The writing was very poor, too.
I any case I enjoyed as usual to share a buddy read with Peggy.

This book had the best opening sentence ever...”If I’d know how the week was going to turn out I would have sent it back first thing Monday and asked for a refund.” It made me laugh so hard since I have felt that more than my share of times.
I loved the characters. China is so fun and Ruby is very eccentric. The author did a great job developing the characters and not revealing much. It was a web of twists and turns.
I have one less physical book on my bookshelf and that always is a good thing!

While it is a relatively easy read, when I finished the book, I realized that I am deeply touched by a sub-plot. (view spoiler) I enjoyed the read, and would recommend the book to anyone who fancies detective stories.

I loved the book.A ☆☆☆☆☆ read for me.
Love the tone,the flow of the book.Her descriptions are beautiful too.It does have a Montgomery touch.For me it was magic.The MCs both were both lovely.It was about the h undergoing some major changes in life as a result of a life altering diagnosis .Her growth and her acceptance of herself is beautiful. And the sarcastic rendition of her relatives reminded me of The Mill on the Floss,albiet a bit more milder and softer.The coming of age was beautiful to watch...it is an easy read.And am glad to jave found it.




I really enjoyed it, especially the second half. The writing is beautiful, the characters real, the story funny yet believable. It is so different from the YA we read these days, all beautiful persons falling in insta-love. I loved the book for its real depiction of people and the world. Of course, the plot was good as well. :) I gave it 4 stars.

I'd been wanting to read this book for a while as I'd heard good things about the series, and while this isn't typically my kind of mystery, I thought it was a fun read. There were some great humorous moments and there were definitely some plot twists I didn't see coming! And I didn't guess who the murderer was, which in my opinion is kind of a good thing because it means it wasn't too obvious. I ended up rating it 3 stars. I agree with Jannene that there were loose ends- though I think it was a different loose end that bothered me!


It was published last year and for some reason I had put it on my to read list. Lara had it on her list as well and my library had the book available so this is what we settled on at Lara's suggestion. The mystery part had some twists that were revealed at the end in the form of the motive of the killer. I guessed the murderer but his motive was not on my radar. There was a second mystery as to why a customer of the bookstore hung himself. That mystery ended up being tied into the first in a round-about way that a character had to explain toward the end of the book. I rated it 3 stars. It was a fast read for me once I remembered to bring the book home from work!


I gave the book 4, would have been 4.5 if I could :)
I really enjoyed the book and by the end was definitely hooked. At times I found Mara's age, and her "voice" almost felt a bit unreal to me (hence not 5*) but on the whole the political intrigue and drama was really well written and thought out.
I was surprised at the "fantasy" level as I would have expected more of it, but I think this was more me rather than the book.
I have to say though - I have never even tried a buddy read before, or having to quantify my feelings or thoughts about a book while reading. That process has been a real learning curve for me, and to put my thoughts out there, and my imaginings of where I think the book could go, was quite difficult! Laura you were awesome, so thanks for being my first ;)

I think part of the problem, for me, was that I found the characters all annoying in the beginning, so I never had that really caring feeling towards them. Towards the end of the book, I felt a bit more engaged, but it didn't last to the end. Oh well.

I thought Underdown did a really good job showing how fear seemed to be the undercurrent of life in the 1600's especially for women. My problem with the story was that Alice just really frustrated me. There were so many times she could have escaped that I found the ending a bit far-fetched. I did find the character of Matthew Hopkins fascinating and spent a bit of time searching the internet about the "real" witchfinder Matthew Hopkins - creepy dude.

I gave this book 3 stars. I was disappointed in that it wasn't horror, and that it didn't seem to completely flesh the story out. It appeared that the author (who I generally enjoy) had an new idea about the nature of ghosts and quickly jotted her ideas into a novella instead of developing it into a full story. Some characters could have used some development.

I really liked it. The story is told from two POV's is alternate chapters. It was well paced and really held my interest. There was an amazing twist to the tale! It is a "love it or hate it" type twist. It is hard to talk about the story without giving anything away.
I rated it 5 star. Usually a good thriller is a solid 4 star for me. It is a long time since a book has surprised me so much. This is a must read!!


Like Naomi, I gave it 3 stars. One of the elements that raised the book up for me was the independent bookstore where the heroine works. It is almost a character itself.

I gave the book 3 stars but if I could I would have give it 2.5.
I liked the fact that it was an origin story for Captain Hook. The horror was not as present as i would have liked even though it pricked up a bit in the second half.
Some characters seemed to be here for the sole purpose of creating conflict and were not develop enough whereas other were more complex. Seeing the growth of those relations was very interesting.
Concerning the ending, even though it was already established since it the story of Captain Hook, I liked the way it was presented. I could feel the emotions of the characters.
I am still discussing it with the others since Carla was added at a later date.

How do you review a book that is almost impossible to review? I have the feeling that every atempt will do no good to this fantastic book, but I'll try.
It has been a long time that I enjoyed a fantasy book so mush as 'Gardens of the moon' and I can already say that I'm buying the whole serie.
One of the strongest points of this book, is it's strong writing style. It reads very easy and the jumps betwen the different characters are not so big, so that you can follow almost without a problem.
There wasn't a single character that I disliked and like every reader I had my favorite ones: Tattersail, Paran and at the end I was surprised by Kruppe. I knew what he was almost at the start, but still I was a bit surprised of his role in the story.
In the beginning it was a bit difficult to follow, because of everything that I looked up in the Dramatis Personae, but the Malazan Wiki helped a lot with a summary of each chapter.
There were a few things that I didn't understand, but I wouldn't mind for a re - read. I think when you re - read the book, that you'll see different plots and things that you missed the previous read.
I didn't know what to expect from the book, but it was one of the most complexed and layered books. All I can add to that, is that I'm blown away by this.

This book was a mixed bag for me. I thought it was well researched and I also thought the author, Beth Underdown, did a good job of bringing the atmosphere of underlying tension and fear in 17th century England to life. Some parts of it were genuinely chilling and the storyline raised plenty of questions along the way. It also prompted me to go and research the real life Matthew Hopkins so that was another mark in its favour. However, characterisation was not its strong point. None of the characters were developed properly and as a result I found that I just did not care about them because it was as if I was just standing in a corner watching these paper thin people through a haze as they went about their lives and got caught up in witch hunts along the way. I also had some issues with the pacing, some parts being gripping and relatively fast moving whilst other parts dragged on at a snail's pace, and there were several plot threads that didn't really go anywhere. It's a shame as it had the potential to be a really great book, built as it is around a notorious, real-life witch finder, but it never fully lived up to said potential. I gave it a low 3 stars.


Twin: Lanelle
Genre: Urban fantasy
Review: This is a reread for my twin, but was a new book for me. I really liked this book and will continue the series afterwards. The main character is feisty and strong. However, she is also flawed which makes her interesting.


I rated the book 4 stars. It was funny, engaging, and had a talking dog named Oberon! The best part, besides Oberon, was the interesting mix of so many strong characters and different mythologies. Like Sue mentioned in our chat about the book, any one of the side characters could have told this story just as interestingly as Atticus. But the Druid made one heck of a great main character. I love his sense of humor and take on the world. I can't wait to continue the series!

This is the second in a series of archaeological cozy mysteries featuring Amelia Peabody and Radcliffe Emerson. I enjoy the couple as they tease and lovingly bicker through Egypt's ancient mysteries and a modern mystery as well. A light and easy read.
Will be continuing the series.


When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro, which is set in mostly in China and a little in London. Christopher Banks is the protagoni..."
(view spoiler)
Sorry, Paakhi. I've copied and added spoiler tags. Discussing the ending of a book may be construed as a spoiler.

Interestingly, both Lexx and Peter has read it before and enjoyed the series. However, Casceil and I seem to be on the same page instead. Enjoyable elements of the book, but overall not fantastic. I agree, the discussion about the book we had was the most enjoyable part of the read. My main problem was there was a lot of foreshadowing, and hinting at lore or backstory, and none of this was delivered on.
I will probably read the second, as I want to see if this is delivered on. Also as Lexx wanted to buy the whole series. But if the second is like this one, I'll be passing it up. And I may save the second book until it meets the criteria of another challenge or a toppler.
Thanks for the challenge, Janice. I really enjoyed chatting with my twin about our read. Thanks Casceil for being a twin I wanted to keep chatting too!
As mentioned by Margo, we read Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough. Most of our discussions took place via PM whilst I was sunning myself in Meeru!
This was a fast paced, well written thriller with a very interesting twist. To be honest, I wasn't 100% sure I liked the twist, however I mulled over this book long after I finished and would definitely like to re-read in the future.
The chapters are quite short and the story is told in multiple points of view. This works extremely well and both Margo and I were of the opinion that if the story had only been told by one person, it would not have worked as well.
I was definitely invested in the characters and found myself on more than one occasion speaking out, especially during Louisa's chapters; she frustrated me but I couldn't help but like her.
I will be giving this 5*s.
This was a fast paced, well written thriller with a very interesting twist. To be honest, I wasn't 100% sure I liked the twist, however I mulled over this book long after I finished and would definitely like to re-read in the future.
The chapters are quite short and the story is told in multiple points of view. This works extremely well and both Margo and I were of the opinion that if the story had only been told by one person, it would not have worked as well.
I was definitely invested in the characters and found myself on more than one occasion speaking out, especially during Louisa's chapters; she frustrated me but I couldn't help but like her.
I will be giving this 5*s.

The book was ok for me. Almost 3 stars
We both did found the 1st half somewaht lacking.
And we have had the same view about the main theme of the book: dont look behind in your life: make, try, do. Life is accept that there are risks to take and the only think you can do is your best; don´t waste time in regrets

This book was not an easy read; at times it was pretty depressing. I really disliked the main character for the first half of the book. But when it picked up at the halfway point, it got a lot more enjoyable and the main character became much more relateable. Still heavy and depressing, but a better story. I wish the author hadn't thrown on the epilogue - it felt unneeded, like an afterthought.

After not being sure at the start I really enjoyed this book. I think because Peter Pan is not my favourite story I was a bit biased in the beginning. The second half becomes much more interesting and exciting. The way the story twists the events and ties up at the end made it a much more satisfying ending than Alice which I read for the monthly read.
I'm not sure I would label this book horror though as I feel some elements of horror just weren't there. I noticed my library labelled it scifi/fantasy which I only partially agree with.

My twin was Tejas Janet.
The book was a memoir written by Lev Golinkin about him and his family and their experience Immigrating from the Russian Ukraine in 1990. Basically, they were fleeing as political refugees to Vienna as Russian Jews. Lev was 10 years old at the time. His story talks about the police and political attitudes of the Communist government towards the Russian Jews and how they lived in constant terror of their house being raided and any one of his parents being hauled away to prison for just about anything. His mother was a Doctor and his father was a Turbine Engineer. His sister was 15 at the time. His story talked about the organizations that had been created to help Jews get out of Russia and Immigrate to the US or Israel. The groups were called HIAS and Joint. There was so much information about the Russian Jews as an ethnic group vs a Religion that I never knew/understood, until I read his story.
It was well written - eloquent at times and very well documented. It was an incredible journey. The story was mosty well organized. There were a few times he went back to past time line after he had been in his future space that were a little disjointed after he was telling of his experiences in the United States. His own personal story of his experiences was honest, and really amazing, throughout college and after. I really liked and admired him at the end.

Twin: Amanda (Mandy)
Genre: Urban fantasy
I got to read a great book with my twin, Amanda. In my opinion, the author does a wonderful job of creating a world for her characters. In fact, that might my favorite part of the story. I like how her characters have flaws and potential for growth. The dialog between the characters was realistic (and entertaining!). I highly recommend this series. A solid 4 star book.

This was a fun, quick read that I enjoyed and gave 4 stars. I like the main characters and how they interact with each other. I love how Amelia Peabody is such a strong woman and knows her own mind, especially in the era in which these books are set. I also enjoy the witty dialogue and how the author has Amelia address the readers. It makes me feel like part of the story. Almeta tells me this is called the fourth wall, so our discussion was not only interesting but informative. I appreciated having someone to discuss this with, it was fun seeing this book from another perspective. (Thanks Almeta!) There was of course, a good mystery which kept me guessing till the end, just the way I like it.
I will definitely continue the series.

Hats off to Cherie, my twin, for a fantastic recap of the book. Reading and discussing the book together heightened my attention to detail. Makes me consider doing more buddy reads.
Rating this book posed a dilemma. My feelings about it evolved significantly over the course of reading it. At first, it felt like there was something missing, some level of emotional connection that the author was holding back. But that changed completely by book's end. If the book had continued in its earlier vein, I would have given it 3 to 3.5 stars.
By book's end, however, my rating had risen to 5 stars. Normally, I'd compromise and give a 4 star rating. So I did that, but it's really bothering me to not have given 5 stars. It's kind of a "catch 22" situation that the author is in. He tells his story the way it must be told so it doesn't feel right to hold back on my 5 stars if that's how I feel. Yes! Off to revise rating : )
Thank you for an excellent challenge. I'm very glad to have read this book. Don't know when I would have gotten around to it otherwise.

You also have time to report your book and get a badge if you finished the book and discussed it with your twin in February.

Books mentioned in this topic
A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir (other topics)The Curse of the Pharaohs (other topics)
Magic Bites (other topics)
A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir (other topics)
Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Ilona Andrews (other topics)Lev Golinkin (other topics)
Sarah Pinborough (other topics)
Beth Underdown (other topics)
Christina Henry (other topics)
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Discussion has an analytical component, and you will be required to state what you liked, disliked, favourite characters, etc. You may hold your discussions in private messages, YLTO Member Zone, Buddy Reads, or you may set up a thread in the Challenges folder.
Reporting:
When you finish the book, head over to the reporting thread.
1. State the book you read.
2. State who your twin was. Each person has to report separately. It will not count if one of the twins reports on behalf of the pair.
3. Write a short summary of your assessment of the book.
General Rules:
1. The book may be in any format – hardcover, paperback, ebook, or audiobook.
2. The book may NOT be combined with the Year Long Zany Zodiac Challenge.
3. The book must be read between February 1 to February 28, 2018 (based on your own time zone).
4. The challenge is for one book. You may read more books if you chose, but only the highest scoring book will apply.
5. The book must be 175 pages or more determined by the issue you read. If reading eBook or audiobook page numbers will be determined by the issue that comes up on a Goodreads search.