Sample Saturday – two thrillers and a spy story

Sample Saturday is when I wade through the eleventy billion samples I have downloaded on my Kindle. I’m slowly chipping away and deciding whether it’s buy or bye.

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Quick! I need to read a whole book.

Sometimes a very, very short book is just the ticket – reading slump, testing a new genre, choosing something for your book group (because you know they don’t have the stamina for anything over 200 pages), a long train ride…

Here’s a list of my favourite very short books.

My Best Books for 2016

A ‘classic’ was defined by Italian author Italo Calvino as “…a book that’s never finished saying what it has to say.”

Now, I’m not claiming that the books I truly loved this year are ‘classics’, however, I’m borrowing Calvino’s definition to guide my list of top picks for 2016. This year, I’m paying less attention to five-star ratings and more attention to the books that are still speaking to me.

Nutshell by Ian McEwan

I’ve talked about Ian McEwan and my reading previously. I know some think he writes only one character (that being himself) and that the ever-present moral twist in his stories is predictable – but I’m okay with that. And Nutshell goes on my list of McEwan Worth Reading*.

Top Books for Book Groups that Like Wine and Whining

Okay, today’s Top Ten topic is supposed to be serious – suggestions for book groups that are crazy for memoirs or going through a science-fiction phase or whatever whatever… I love my book group deeply. We’ve been together for 17 years and, to be honest, reading the book is optional. However, we are consistent when it comes to laughing, having a wine (and sometimes a whine).

Six Degrees of Separation – from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close to Royal Lists

It’s Grand Final day in Melbourne but it’s also #6Degrees day (am I stretching the friendship, saying that they compare?!). Anyway, three cheers for reading great books and three cheers for joining in!

We begin this month’s chain with Jonathan Safran Foer’s best-seller, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I was totally immersed in this book, to the detriment of what was going on around me… Which happened to be a holiday in Palm Cove.

Hurry and finish #ALLTHEBOOKS

I had to make an appointment this morning for about four weeks hence. And the date is in November. And I freaked out. Because after November comes December and then that’s the year, done and dusted. Good grief.

So, given that we’re getting to the pointy end of things, what’s my reading plan? I have some reading challenges to complete, a book club selection, a few ARCs and a couple of books that have been sitting next to my bed for far too long –

Snap, crackle, pffft

Three quick reviews. I wish it was ‘snap, crackle and pop’ but alas, one book in this trio fell short.

Six Degrees of Separation – From All the Light We Cannot See to Canada.

It’s six degrees of separation for books. Created by Emma Chapman and Annabel Smith. Check out the rules if you want to play along.

This month’s chain begins with Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See – it has lots of great themes that could be used as a starting point but I’m linking it to Foal’s Bread by Gillian Mears. Both were books that I read in the last few weeks of the year (2014 and 2012 respectively) – too late for me to push them on others as ‘my best book of the year’.

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

Well Mr. McEwan, you may have just won me back with Sweet Tooth.

3/5 Storytelling (minus the self-indulgence).