A Friday Reads for the End of November 2024

Рет қаралды 2,905

Steve Donoghue

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 34

@michaelk.vaughan8617 Ай бұрын

“A cat will not help you to solve a murder mystery. A cat is waiting to eat your tongue.” 🐈‍⬛ Classic.

@ASoron0424 Ай бұрын

"Yknow what else never appears in traditional bookstores? Customers." Man, this popped confetti in my heart..

@crypsid Ай бұрын

"A unified field theory of one volume history of things" on the substack would be amazing!

@GrammaticusBooks Ай бұрын

"Necrofiction"....I learned a new word today!

@arselanehadjslimane2582 Ай бұрын

I think so many of us are mood readers because work or school takes so much of our mental energy that it is difficult to test our comfort when we have me time. I try to read 100 pages a day but it is entirely dependent on my sleep that day, so usually I will usually fall short on that on work days. Right now I just finished Hiroshima by John Hersey and contemplating if I should continue with another nuclear bomb book or explore something else.

@bookishbridgers Ай бұрын

I would say the Miss Marple series by Agatha Christie is probably where cozy mystery started. Maybe there was something earlier, but thats my first thought.

@virginiafernandes336 Ай бұрын

Oh for sure. And it is quite obvious that the cozy mystery industrie tries to emulate the st mary mead magic (without success lol)

@jacquelinemcmenamin8204 Ай бұрын

“I don’t know what I read !” 🤣😂🤣😂

@scottjones8100 Ай бұрын

Oh, you're making plenty of sense in this Friday Reads, sir. I get the same sense of contempt for those authors whose tone or Byzantine composition asks, "Are you man enough? Are you intelligent/urbane/etc. enough to read my book?" My inner response is, "You can have nothing to say worth my attention if you're too undisciplined, or incapable of, writing intelligibly."

@capturedbyannamarie Ай бұрын

Agatha Christie is definitely the origin of the cozy mystery I think.

@dreamofempire2114 Ай бұрын

I’m mining a nautical vein this week: Saltblood, a novel following the adventures of real life 18th century female pirate, Mary Reid, and a biography of Admiral Nelson called Britannia’s God of War. I’m thoroughly enjoying both.

@scottjones8100 Ай бұрын

It seems to be all about short stories for me right now. I'm reading collections of Flannery O'Connor, Algernon Blackwood, and Agatha Christie. Since my reading happens stolen snatches of time, I get the satisfaction of finishing a whole piece with these. Also, the Christie collection is "Midwinter Murder," and it fits well with hot tea in this weather.

@Lokster71 Ай бұрын

I'm finishing off my Remembrance Reads. I finished my re-read of 'Bid Me To Live' by H.D. and I'll finish Richard Aldington's 'Death of a Hero' tomorrow, which is also a re-read. I wanted to re-read both of them together. I feel I've learned to read a little better since I first read them. I'm trying to read better. I think I've read broad but shallow for most of my life. And as a consequence I've not done anything with my reading except become good at Trivial Pursuit. (This may be an ongoing existential crisis that I'm currently having.) Next week I revert to general reading. I've got a huge pile of books from the library, which includes The Scourging Angel, by Benedict Gummer on The Black Death so your reference to the Philip Ziegler book on the Black Death piqued my interest.

@olofvs Ай бұрын

Great video as always Steve :) This weekend I'm looking forward to jumping around in my Norton Anthology of Poetry and perhaps also finishing The Secret Pilgrim by le Carré. Happy Reading!

@mdavidmullins Ай бұрын

Somtow is a a composer as well. At least a couple operas out. He makes the rounds artistically, a self-described Renaissance man.

@monaedoyle3631 Ай бұрын

Hello Steve. I am able to read a lot when I am off for the holidays. I also read on the weekends. I am a very huge mood reader. I am reading a book by Lyla Sage called Lost and Lassoed which I am enjoying.

@deselby6669 Ай бұрын

The Gertrude Himmelfarb work was a memory jolt Steve..The wife of NeoCon Irving Kristol and mummy to Bill..Gordon Brown,upon its release ,spoke glowingly of this book and with no small irony worshipped lady Himmelfarb..The review stuck with me from that time..

@josephhix1034 Ай бұрын

Steve, I'm currently reading Delivered from Evil by Robert Leckie (thanks for the recommendation on this author!) and The Lord of the Rings. Slowly reading multiple books at once is usually not possible for me but I am somehow having no problem with this now. I read Fellowship and The Two Towers in high school and did not enjoy them enough to finish The Return of the King. I'm seeing them in a completely different light now as an adult and I have been completely swept away by the Tolkien's Middle-Earth and his beautiful prose. I'm also reading a very trashy self published Sword & Sorcery novel on my Kindle. I'm too embarrassed to even mention the title! It's a total male fantasy featuring an overpowered main character and his rapidly growing band of exotic female lovers. I was trying to find either a historical or fantasy romance to broaden my horizons, but I was lured in by this male power trip!

@virginiafernandes336 Ай бұрын

I just finished reading The Other Side of Midnight from Sidney Sheldon because of christmas quest of 12 mysteries. Was not expecting to laugh so much with certain dialogues. Really liked how fun it was.

@gaildoughty6799 Ай бұрын

An “antic, comic note” for the last book in the long-running Diamond series would be perfect from this author. Some of Lovesey’s independent books are hilarious. Dark but oh so funny.

@Unpotted Ай бұрын

Any time two or more felines are together they should be called a plague of cats. That’s both inspired and accurate. 😺✌️

@virginiafernandes336 Ай бұрын

From Peter Lovesey I have read The False Inspector Dew, such a fun book. I will read more from him for sure.

@timg2414 Ай бұрын

Thank you steve.i was wondering why a guy so well read would read some of the books you do. I was reading some books and half way in ive forgotten whats going on and not really enjoying them. I tried a couple of thrillers,and had great fun and actually remembered the whole story.

@constancecampbell4610 Ай бұрын

I enjoyed this Murakami novel. Why have they changed the title? I recall it as Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Is that a consequence of a new translator?

@carolinasiqueira752 Ай бұрын

I also don't get cozy murder mysteries. I saw a few episodes of Only Murders on the Building and there seemed to be something sociopathic about it. Two people and a cat were dead and the show didn't really care.

@carolinasiqueira752 Ай бұрын

I finished Olav Audunsoon by Sigrid Undset and Gliff by Ali Smith this week. I am reading The Children of Ash and Elm by Neil Price and deeping in and out of the Penguin book of the Literature of Japanese American Incarceration

@michaellombardo9266 Ай бұрын

reading 100 pages in 2 hours!? HA I wish! that's borderline Kryptonian!

@Unpotted Ай бұрын

Cool, I always suspected I was extraterrestrial in origin. 😺✌️

@hazyhillsblue Ай бұрын

I'm trying to slow-read a French novel I bought a long while back. It's called Tsubaki by Aki Shimazaki and it's about a survivor of the Nagasaki bombing. I'm only getting through a few pages a day and I have to stop to look up words, but I'm enjoying the experience.

@anthonyruggier7029 Ай бұрын

I liked Himmelfarb's book on the Enlightenment but it perhaps over-corrects too much in favor of the English and Scottish Enlightenment vs the Continent. I agree that in parts she seemed more sure-footed and at home with the sources.

@LouiseReader Ай бұрын

Oh that dog graphic memoir can't come soon enough! Sadly 29/4/25 is quite far away. And that is US publication date, I can't find an Australian release date. I'm still going strong on nonfiction november. I just finished listening to Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks, which I really enjoyed, and will likely buy a physical copy and relisten to it. There was a lot in there for me. I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'm doing a slow audio/read combo of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Which is extraordinary of course. I'm sorry that I left it so long. I was keen on it from it's release way back when. She's making the history of cell culture fascinating! And of course it's a great memoir of a woman and a family too.