WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 4

The old thread is getting a bit long so time for a renewal (plus it is spring in the Northern hemisphere... on paper anyway).

With almost 1/3rd of the year gone, how is you reading year so far?

Come, sit down and tell us what you are reading :)

I'm reading Black Mamba Boy for the African Reading Challenge. This has been a slower reading month for me. Between Passover and the snow melting enough for me to start raking, it's been busy.

I am in a bit of a weird mood this week so mostly reading thrillers and crime novels for a bit - until something else catches my eye anyway. Just finished Brad Thor's State of the Union, next is The Lincoln Lawyer.

Ill have my review up for the wedding of zein soon, and one for the introduction to sallywhich actually is for Mays author read not April, but Ill be done with it long before the end of April!

the review for The wedding of Zien is here
https://www.librarything.com/topic/347243#

I think Wharton put me in a better reading place. I’m reading her 1922 novel The Glimpses of the Moon. Also an overly cooked Chaucer translation called Love Visions, a poetry anthology from the Academy of Poets, from 1996, and, on audio, Rachel Carson’s 3rd book, The Edge of the Sea.

I've got a small stack going, from Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih to The Laughter by Sonora Jha and Biography of X by Catherine Lacey. Sadly, I have not figured out how to read more than one book at a time.

I'm reading The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin. I am very late to this series, especially considering how much I've liked the other stuff of Jemisin's that I've read, but I'm glad to be correcting this particular gap in my reading now.

I finished Pandora, a historical mystery by Susan Stokes-Chapman and just started Music for Wartime by Rebecca Makkai

Review for the introduction to sally here

https://www.librarything.com/topic/349887#n8110960

Reading The Night Stages by Jane Urquhart (fiction, 2015, Canadian)
and...
Forgetting: The Benefits of Not Remembering by Scott A. Small (nonfiction, 2021)

Just finished The Glass Pearls by Emeric Pressburger

That's like asking a parent which is their favorite child... this was anniemodd answering my q on who was her favorite detective series’ author in part 3. I started to answer there but realized it would not be seen, but it interests me. Certainly many parents can have a favorite child but they just don’t say it for obvious reasons. But more to the point in LT context I do feel we can have favorite genres, books, authors or series.

We may have more than one but certainly not all detective series are of the same literary quality, and even if they are of similar quality, the detectives themselves can be a turnoff. I remember back in the day liking Ruth Rendell but couldn’t stand her detective Western, so avoided the series where he was the detective.

>13 kjuliff: Inability to chose one has nothing to do with thinking that they are all the same. I have multiple favorite detective series - but ask me to pick one and you can get a different answer every day - just like a parent with multiple children.

>14 AnnieMod: I wasn’t implying in my response that all were of similar quality. I don’t want to continue this much more as I think you are missing my intention in asking. A parent can have a favorite child and it does not vary on a daily basis. Parents are generally much more consistent with their feelings. And people rarely ask Who is your favorite child. One can’t compare books with child preferences.

When I asked for your favorite detective series I was genuinely interested as many a time I’ve knocked back a book by an author I liked because I don’t like detective series. As I usually like books you like I thought I might give a series a go and erroneously thought I might get some relevant guidance.
I will be more careful in future and preface my questions re your literary preferences with “upon this day, who is your favorite author/nove/series …”. Or I could ask, “what are your current favorites …” certainly I will bee cautious in my wording.

Not that I was asked but as of late Louise Penny is my current fav mystery writer. Her main character is a French Canadian police detective.

Previously it was Marcia Muller starting with Edwin of the Iron Shoes. Her main character, Sharon McCone is a feminist and lefty- at least in the beginning.

And I was also hooked on Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder series - the author and main character are alcoholics.

I'm 2/3 of the way through Retrospective by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, a fictionalized account of the life of the Colombian film director Sergio Cabrera, which won the Mario Vargas Llosa Prize in 2021. It continues to be very good, and I hope to finish it by Sunday evening.

I’m reading Queen Victoria by Lucy Worsley which is interesting and very readable.

I’ve also started Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes. I love a good myth retelling (this one is about Medusa) and this is on the Women’s Prize short list.

Hope it wins, its stunning

just realized I have a used copy of a tiny upward shove just perfect for a road trip

I'm reading The Ice Beneath Her and listenig Speaking In Bones.

I finished Demon Copperhead a few days ago, and started A Room of One's Own as it's a group read for April and at a manageable 100 pages I'm curious.

>23 lilisin:

So I ended up choosing Shirley as my next big book after having finished Anna Karenina and am now a quarter in. I think this will be only my second book by a Bronte sister having read Jane Eyre back in high school (but consequently remembering nothing of it).

I finished Brian Stone's translation of Chaucer's shorter long poems, called Love Visions. I thought the translation (from 1983) was too heavy handed, and some, or parts of some, dragged. Other parts were enjoyable, or at least, interesting. I'll try to explain when I review. Anyway, next up is Richard's Wright's 1945 classic autobiography, Black Boy. I'm pretty sure I've read parts of this back in high school.

I’m reading Drunk on All Your Strange New Words.

I’ve recently finished Orient Express by Graham Greene and am currently reading Chaim Potok’s My Name is Asher Lev and Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West.

Just finished an illustrated novel by Hayao Miyazaki - I'd never heard of it before (unless someone mentioned it here on LT...), Shuna's Journey. It's older than Studio Ghibli, and fascinatingly similar visually to Nausicaa. The story isn't similar - it's more like Princess Mononoke, and not exactly like anything else. Very enjoyable. There's not a lot of words to it (captions on watercolor pages), but a very rich story. It's also printed backward, manga-style, which got confusing at times (mostly for two-page spread panels, where you _do_ start on the left...).

I am reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. It is a really fun sci-fi read.

I've just finished Doctor Who: The Androids of Tara by David Fisher, a new novelization of a classic DW episode. Now reading The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell, and I have no idea why I'm finding it as addictive as I am, but I'm definitely not complaining.

>28 avidmom: I loved that one.

I’ve finished My Name is Asher Lev and thought it very fine. This is my first novel by Chaim Potok, and I’m going to the library today to look for The Chosen. Thanks to Monthly Authors group for picking three novelists I’ve heard of but not read. It’s so rewarding to find an author new to me.

>31 dianelouise100: i reread Asher Lev a few years ago and was really pleased with how well it holds up. Potok was a nice writer.

I've started The House in the Cerulean Sea for my book club meeting Monday night. It's not a book I would have picked up otherwise. I'm about 140 pages in, easy reading.

I am struggling with mercury pictures presents, and really sad about it. Loved his last book, and this is all about the silent era of movies or at least starts that way. But I hate all the characters, no one has any redeeming qualities, their conversations are do not have any resemblance to real life. Im not far in to it, so if If anyone is reading it and can toss me a innertube of hope that it gets better, Idbe much appreciative

>31 dianelouise100: >32 dchaikin: Potok's The Chosen (the book and movie) and sequel will always be perennial favorites of mine. I have not read Asher Lev yet. It is certainly on my TBR list.

>35 avidmom: We are reading Potok this month over in the Monthly Author group so if you feel like pulling it out now, come join us. Or even if you just want to talk about what you had read before.

You never heard of the group? Come see what we are up to: https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/5825/Monthly-Author-Reads :)

I finished Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other, which I liked a lot—very of this time, vivid, and engaging. Our book club is talking about it on Tuesday—I should probably make some notes on the characters before the library grabs it back, although to her credit she did a great job of making each one memorable and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to keep them all straight for another few days, at least.

Now I'm reading Losing Music by my old Open Letters Monthly friend and colleague John Cotter, about losing his hearing to a disease that, at least almost halfway through the book, he hasn't been able to get a diagnosis for. That might change as I read on, but it's a very personal, attentive account of being stricken as an adult and how it affected his life, work, relationships. There's a lot of resonance there for me, living with a spouse who has a chronic illness. I owe John an email—hoping to get him for a Q&A for Bloom.

I'm nearly half way through The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason. Set in a remote village in Poland in WWI.

Finishing up Antarctica, a collection of short fiction by Claire Keegan

>39 avaland: I just bought that.

Saw a recommendation in the paper today about a girl in winter by Philip Larkin. Has anyone read it, or other of his books?comments?

>23 lilisin: lilisin:

So I ended up choosing Shirley as my next big book after having finished Anna Karenina and am now a quarter in. I think this will be only my second book by a Bronte sister having read Jane Eyre back in high school (but consequently remembering nothing of it). And am now seeing via touchstones that both Shirley and JE were written by Charlotte. Wait, is Wuthering Heights a Bronte because I've read that. Oh joy, it is. Emily! So this will be my THIRD Bronte book. :)

(I though I was replying to my own message in 23 but it turns out I actually edited the original comment that said I had finished AK.)

OK, a bit of quick catch-up from my recent vacation in San Francisco and Houston:

I've recently completed Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones, Hunting Badger by Tony Hillerman and Spring Sowing by Liam O'Flaherty. Reviews for all three are available for perusal, for anyone interested who hasn't seen them yet, on my Club Read thread.

I'm now reading Natchez Burning, the fourth book in Greg Iles' Penn Cage crime series.

>41 cindydavid4: I didn’t know he had written novels. I’m only familiar with his poetry.

The Winter Soldier was very good, then I read a short memoir by a WWII nurse, and now I'm reading Amazons and Swallows, written by Arthur Ransome for children in 1930. The first in a series of, I think, 12.

I’ve begun reading George Eliot’s Romola. We’re in 15th century Florence, and about 50 pages in, I’m not appreciating all the untranslated Latin. Otherwise, I’m already engaged with the characters and setting, and looking forward to an Eliot novel I’ve not read before.

I've finished two outstanding books within the past week, Retrospective by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, a fictional account of the extraordinary life of the acclaimed Colombian film director Sergio Cabrera, and All Else Failed: The Unlikely Volunteers at the Heart of the Migrant Aid Crisis by Dana Sachs, an eye opening work about the grassroot organizations and several remarkable individuals, both volunteers and refugees, who aided tens of thousands of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and other war torn countries who were stranded in Greece during the European migrant crisis that began in 2015.

Next up will be Boulder by Eva Baltasar, the first book I'll read from this year's International Booker Prize shortlist, and The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for People Who Have Alzheimer Disease and Other Dementias by Nancy L. Mace and Peter V. Rabins.

I read Drunk on All Your Strange New Words - it was awful. It sounds interesting but believe me - don’t read it.

Also read Across the Sand by Hugh Howey. It was 2nd in a series and I liked it.

I'm reading The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone - loving it. The story/plot is weird and complicated and magic (I think...); the writing is _amazing_, especially that in Myra's voice (she writes a blog about her miniature house). Saw it at the library but got the ebook rather than the paper one.

>45 labfs39: I love the Swallows and Amazons series, _except_ for Peter Duck and Missee Lee. All the rest are actual adventures of the actual children, figuring out how to handle the problems they run into; those two are stories told by adults _to_ the children, and are eerily reminiscent of those books you sometimes see, where they print thousands of copies with different children's names for the protagonist so you can read a book to your child that's "all about them". Yuck. My absolute favorite is We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea, with a rather larger-than-usual problem...but all of them are worth reading (skipping the two fictionals). (OK, they're all fictional. But some are more fictional than the rest).

>49 jjmcgaffey: Thanks for the heads up about the two outliers in the S&A series. I don't own either, so I'll focus on getting the others. Swallowdale is the next. I love the kids' independence and the adults' trust in them to handle things themselves. Lots of imaginary play in nature, a lost art it seems.

I finished John Cotter's Losing Music last night and thought it was really terrific. Great musings on the body and its frailties, illness, marriage, friends, hope and hopelessness, and what it means when the ways you move around in the world change—all with a gentle, philosophical touch. Highly recommended.

I just got my library hold of Magnificent Rebels, which I had to put down because the first hold ran out halfway through, so now I can finish it. It's to Wulf's credit that I remembered all the different Schellings and Schillers and Schlegels, most of whom are named Friedrich, after a month away from the book.

>50 labfs39: its never a lost art as long as kids are allowed to do it!

Losing Music sounds like a very familiar if heart breaking story. The fact that hearing aids are not covered by insurance is bad enough, but to feel like you are losing yourself and others is tragic. Helen Keller was once asked what shed rather be deaf or blind (who asks questions like this ?) she answered blindness takes you away from things, deafness takes you away from people very well said

I book I read last year for the asian challenge was about a girl in Iran going deaf. When her mom diees, she feels that she can still hear her name. When she can no longer recall the voice in her head she loses her all over again

Just finished the talented Mr Ripley I had already seen the movie and loved it; reading the book makes me appreciate how the movie was written, because it was a perfect match. Which meant I skimmed abit. But still an amazing book.

>54 cindydavid4: there’s an older French movie of the same book. The film is Purple Noon.

I finished my first book from this year's International Booker Prize shortlist this afternoon, Boulder by Eva Baltasar, which was okay but not particularly memorable. Tonight I'll start another shortlisted book, Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, which I obtained from the Free Library of Philadelphia yesterday.

Yesterday I read the short, but fantastic, semi-autobiographical novel, Ru, by Kim Thúy. This is her debut novel, and although I liked Em a smidge more (or perhaps only because I read Em first?), it was a wonderful experience. Her style is quite unique. Most chapters are on a single page, often a single paragraph, and it's like reading poetry. Both the stories and the writing is superb. Can't wait to read more by her. Thanks to Danielle/Yells for introducing this author to me.

Edited to fix typo

Currently reading The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey. I'm liking it so far.

>34 cindydavid4: I agree- I really wanted to like this novel more than I did. I did like the history of film in the story but I wanted to follow one major character!

I just finished All The Colour In the World and really liked the story and the style of writing.

>39 avaland: I've loved everything I've read by Claire Keegan, including this one.

I just finished an extraordinary short story collection, Music for Wartime: Stories by Rebecca Makkai, another author who has yet to disappoint me. I just started one of her older novels, The Hundred-Year House, which is wonderful so far, too.

I finished Dragon’s Island - not my cup of tea.

I started Place of No Return: How I Survived China's Uyghur Camps So far the author finished high school in China and is going to university in Egypt. She’s trying to find ways to not have to go back to China. She’s trying to make her father believe that she is marrying a Uyghur man in Egypt. Considering what’s in store for the Uyghur in China, this fake marriage stuff seems a little silly. Not sure if this will be a dnf or not.

Also just started All the Lovers in the Night. Heaven by the same author was so good - hoping this is too.

>60 Cariola: oh I like her as well, and just got her new book I have some questions will need to look for this as well

I finished two books today: Black Boy by Richard Wright, and edition that includes the originally unpublished part II (posthumously published as America Hunger). And The Glimpses of the Moon, a 1922 novel by Edith Wharton.

And I’m looking at starting two books next: - A Closed Eye by Anita Brookner and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.

I skipped through Paws of Courage and am halfway through The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree.

I was reading a book on Hoopla app and it just stopped working. What a pain.

KeithChafee introduced me to the world of Avram Davidson, sci fi writer from the 30s through his death in 1993. The 100th anniversary of his birth is this year, an a collection of his short stories have been collected and introduced by other sci fi writers in a work called the avram davidson treasury: a tribute collection. Im about half way through and have to say that his work equals what I have read from Bradbury and Clark. The short stories have read so far include what happens when dentists are the answer to saving earth, to let us sleep which packs a punch, and author author about the revenge of Butlers that had me howling with laughter. Ill review it when I finish, but its safe to say this is a keeper,(thanks Keith for introducing me to this author)

Thought I’d try a Penelope Lively as I haven’t read any of hers for a while. Reading How It All Began.

Gave up on my penelope Lively as the narrator was irritating. Reading now The Constant Gardener written and narrated by John le Carré .

>68 kjuliff: hope you have better luck with this one.

I finished All the Lovers in the Night. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this book but the last paragraph made up my mind. Mieko Kawakami is my new favorite.

Now I’m reading MONKEY New Writing From Japan Volume 2: TRAVEL. It’s an annual of Japanese literature. This issue is 2021

I'm now reading The Mad Feast: An Ecstatic Tour Through America's Food by Matthew Gavin Frank. The subject matter looked interesting, but the writing style is turning out to be a bit... much.

>70 dianeham: I often wonder what attracted people to certain books, especially books that are not well-known or that haven’t won a major prize.
What attracted you to All the Lovers in the Night for example? This novel looks very interesting but yet I would never had heard of it had I not read your post.

>72 kjuliff: I read her book Heaven and loved it. Now how did I hear about heaven? I think I read reviews. It was getting a lot of praise.

Speaking of Mieko Kawakami, I just started her novel Breasts and Eggs.

>49 jjmcgaffey: ; >45 labfs39: labfs39 Children's books with the name of the child...
I remember my father reading a book to me with my name when I was about 4. I was highly skeptical and really NOT amused.

I finished April with two evolution books (mammals and birds) but haven't yet reviewed them (garden activity intensifies in April-May). I've been reading A Room of One's Own in bits. The audio book for daily walks was Rush but I've temporarily set it aside incomplete and switched to Walk With Me which was reviewed by rocketjk a few months ago and I correctly expected that my RL book group would be interested so I now have to be done in three weeks.

I was going to read The Sea by John Banville because there's a group read in the 1001 books group, but I started it and absolutely hated the tone of the book and had no interest in the story after 50ish pages. I decided to DNF it.

Then I was sort of at a loss as to what to pick up next, but I finally settled on Pot Luck by Zola. I think it's my 6th novel by Zola and I've loved them all (despite the difficult topics).

>75 qebo: I'll be very interested to read what your book group thinks of Walk with Me.

Did I say I’m reading Breasts and Eggs? I am. It’s longer than her other books.

labfs39, I wanted to tell you that Mieko Kawakami’s book All the Lovers in the Night reminded me somewhat of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage - maybe the female version. I know Murakami and Kawakami have a sort of mutual admiration thing going. It’s a very quiet story about a woman who avoids introspection, decision making and other people. But by the end she begins to wake up to herself and others.

After finishing Rachel Carson's The Edge of the Sea, I took an audio break. But yesterday I started Africa Is Not a Country by Dipo Faloyin, which was discussed a little on Lisa's thread (Labfs39).

Also yesterday I picked up a free ebook copy of Walden and started it. Not sure how far I will go.

I started The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese.

>60 Cariola: That's good to know!

Reading another novel by Jane Urquhart, The Night Stages.

>78 dianeham: Thanks, Diane. I've been wanting to try Mieko Kawakami, maybe that's the place for me to start. I've see if the library can get a copy.

>79 dchaikin: Walden improves tremendously after the first long chapter on Economy (which I have no problem skipping whenever I reread). It’s a wonderful combination of nature writing and philosophizing.

>83 dianelouise100: oh, that’s helpful. Thanks! He’s so all over the place on these opening pages, I can’t help feeling a bit lost, as if I’m reading too fast and without giving it enough attention.

I needed something to lighten up my non fiction reads so I got.one damn thing after another which I'm liking rather well.

>85 cindydavid4: i read that. It was entertaining.

>86 dianeham: >85 cindydavid4:

I am up to the (checks again) 11th in the series - they are a lot of fun (although the first does have a very dark second half so heads up).

thanks. Kinda figured something untoward is about to happen, but I like it. Not sure if Ill make it that far, but so far I plan on reading the second one

Still reading The Hundred Year House and also started The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan, which has gotten mixed reviews.

Also finished an audio version of Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman Diaries. I was a huge fan--never saw a Harry Potter flick but loved everything else he did and also had the pleasure of seeing him in two plays at the Royal Shakespeare Company back in the 1980s. I can't recommend this to anyone, really. It reads more like a calendar than a diary--lists of names at events he attends, and the last third is mostly lists of people in hospital, people who died, and people at funerals. At times, Rickman comes off as a bit of a snob as well.

>58 bragan: The Echo Wife

Just ordered this through ILL as my Wish List Challenge book for May. Glad to hear you're enjoying it.

>80 dianeham: Keep us posted about The Covenant of Water. It is getting so much press right now, and when I get excited about a book on that account, I remember Where the Crawdads Sing and how intensely I disliked that one! However, I really enjoyed Verghese's Cutting for Stone, and remain hopeful this one is also good.

>92 tehsin: im lost, what post was this post referring to?

>91 LyndaInOregon: I feel the same, still don't get how that book was #1 for years! And like you I remember how m uch I enjoyed Cutting for Stone so hope always springs eternal :)

>93 cindydavid4: spam

>80 dianeham: I look forward to your review of The Covenant of Water, Diane! I received my copy of it on Monday, but I probably won't read it until next month.

>95 dianeham: got it thanks

Today I started Dennis Lehane’s Small Mercies. I’m reading The Covenant of Water and part 2 is about a Scottish surgeon in India. It’s unclear what his connection will be to the Indian family from part 1 but so far he just keeps operating on patient after patient. I needed a bit of a break from that. Everything I read about the Verghese book talks about all the unhappiness of the generations of the family in the book. I guess I’m getting a little apprehensive about what’s coming next.

I should have started a novel for the African Challenge, but instead I picked up Time Shelter, which is on the International Booker shortlist. I'm not that far in, but I think it's going to be a ride.

I just got a "skip the line" copy of Remarkably Bright Creatures from my library. I have a friend at work who loved this book, so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm afraid it might be a little too sentimental for me, but we'll see.

I finished Andrea Wulf's Magnificent Rebels, which was long but entertaining, with an Epilogue that was actually really interesting and provided pay dirt for everything. It made me want to reread Walden, speaking of which—a book I had and tried to read in my teens and, I suspect, got hung up on that first chapter. I may give it another go at some point, because Wulf's book gave such good context for the movements that came after, including the Transcendentalists in the U.S.

Now I'm reading Katy Hessel's The Story of Art Without Men for an LJ review. I've loved her podcast for a long time, and have really been looking forward to this book. Eagerly awaiting my review copy, because right now I'm reading it in awful PDF format, but it's still good.

>99 labfs39: I picked up Time Shelter, which is on the International Booker shortlist. I'm not that far in, but I think it's going to be a ride.

Ha! I couldn't agree with you more, Lisa.

I finally finished Natchez Burning, the fourth book in Greg Iles' Penn Cage series. This is certainly the strongest so far of the series (although I remember the first book in the series, which I read several years ago, as being pretty good as well). Natchez Burning delves into several Civil Rights Era murders and the ways in which the harms done in those times are still poisoning lives in modern day America. The villains were a bit over the top for me, but otherwise the storyline was strong and the writing mostly tight. However, 800 pages is just too long a time commitment for me for a crime novel. This is the first book of a trilogy-with-the-series, and as such left a few loose ends at the end. That didn't bother me, as the conclusion we do get is quite satisfying enough. However, due to the length of the two subsequent books, which are at least as long as this one, I won't be continuing on. However, if the length is not a stumbling block for you, you might well enjoy the entire endeavor. I've posted a bit longer review on my Club Read thread.

Next up for me will be On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin, which I'm very much looking forward to.

I'm now returning to N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth series with The Obelisk Gate.

Almost 200 pages into The Water Dancer and still not sure where he's going with this.

review of just one damned thing after another here https://www.librarything.com/topic/349922#n8135130

review of avram davidson treasury tribute collection is here https://www.librarything.com/topic/349922#

I finished Small Mercies. It’s about South Boston in 1974. It was very good in the beginning but got very unbelievable later on. I gave it 4 stars because it is well written but thinking I should change it to 3.5 stars.

>107 cindydavid4: Okay, you talked me into it! I just bought the Kindle edition of the Avram Davidson treasury. I chose the Kindle edition for a couple of reasons -- price (!), and because as a collection of short stories, it's the kind of thing I want to dip into rather than read cover-to-cover. I'm hoping that by seeing the icon every time I open my Kindle, I won't get sidetracked and forget that I have it!

Have read the first two stories and am restraining myself from gorging down the whole collection at once.

>107 cindydavid4: he died 5/8/1993. Was on my lt front page today.

Finished (and reviewed) A Closed Eye by Anita Brookner yesterday. And I’m starting Invisible Man, the 1952 classic by Ralph Ellison.

>110 LyndaInOregon: hee I did the same thing! Hard to do but I did need to sleep and eat at some point :)

>111 dianeham: Interestingly I found a copy of 'everybody has somebody in heaven: essential Jewish tales of the spirit"The book is a complete collection of his Jewish works. Some were never published before. It also includes memories of sci fi writers who tell about his life and their relationship with him. Looks interesting in terms of Jewish writing, and of his life but after spending so much time on his short stories, I;ll take a break. But it might be an interesting look at him and his life and Ill get to it at some point

I’m reading Chaucer: His Life His Works His World by Donald Howard, a wonderful study of Geoffrey Chaucer. It should be an excellent review for me before beginning some rereading of Chaucer’s works.

I finished Jane Eyre last weekend, and am still pondering what I thought about it before I write my review.

Also reading A Northern Light - very good so far. And As Kingfishers Catch Fire. It is overdue and I need to return it. It was an ILL and I'll have to either buy it or re-request it.

Still need to finish (currently paused) The Nutmeg's Curse.

Need to start: The Forest Unseen - book club is next Tuesday and I haven't gotten to it yet.

Changing audiobooks. I finished Africa is Not a Country, which is fun and nicely read by the author. And this morning I started Stay True by Hua Hsu, a memoir of the son of Taiwanese immigrants to the US (The author is near-ish my age). Stay True won the Pulitzer Prize for memoirs (announced this week). It’s also read by the author.

>117 dchaikin: just finished Africa is Not a Country and thouht it excellent Review upcoming

Went to my RL group to talk about Horse which I hadnt read but was interested in their ratings and they were rather high so Ill get to it.While I was there the Library had some copies for give away. I came away with

liberation day

the best strangers in the world

dust child

Not sure when I am actually going toread them but probably start with Saunders

I haven’t been reading at all. I’ve been watching Picard on my ipad.

Just finished The Echo Wife, which I did not so much read as was absorbed by. My review is over here, but if you want the TV Guide synopsis, it's Dr. Frankenstein Meets the Stepford Wives by way of The Trouble With Harry. Only scarier.

>118 cindydavid4: it put me in a good mood.

>119 cindydavid4: I enjoyed Dust Child. Have you read her first book, The Mountains Sing?

>122 dchaikin: Not what I was expecting you to say about it. Does it give a decent overview of history or is it more autobiographical?

>123 labfs39: He does give a decent overview in Africa is Not a Country. Fayolin is an editor at Vice magazine and it sort of reads like a social-media savvy magazine article, or like a series of linked better quality magazine articles. It’s reads nicely and is really pleasant to listen to (even when he’s covering terrible things).

>122 dchaikin: it certainly made me more hopeful than when I started reading it. A book everyone should read.

>123 labfs39: no I havent should I read that first?

>124 dchaikin: Sounds good. I want to get to it soonerish.

>126 cindydavid4: Not at all, I was just curious. Dust Child hasn't been as popular as her first book, and I was curious how you happened upon it.

Did you know that Michael Chabon created Star Trek: Picard? I was surprised.

>127 labfs39: in answer to your question >119 cindydavid4: "went to my RL library book group to talk about Horse which I hadnt read but was interested in their ratings and they were rather high so Ill get to it. While I was there the Library had some proofs for give away. I came away with

liberation day

the best strangers in the world

dust child

Not sure when I am actually going to read them but probably start with Saunders"

>123 labfs39: definitely not autobiographical,in fact I was pleased that he focused on the history and events he was writing about without including himself in it.

Says Patrick Stewart created it, unless Im missing something. Do love Chabon.

NYT has an essay in the book review on Nancy Hale. Like the writer, Id never heard of her which is a shame prodigal woman sounds interesting. Anyone read it? Or any of her other work?

>131 cindydavid4: Chabon was the showrunner and a producer. The idea didn’t originate with Stewart. Here’s an article about Chabon and Picard.
https://www.npr.org/2020/01/23/798883122/first-last-and-always-i-am-a-fan-michae...

ok thanks for that info and article!

nvm found it

review for Africa is not a Country is here https://www.librarything.com/topic/349922#n8141416

A Shout in the Ruins by Kevin Powers while waiting in anticipation for his next novel A Line in the Sand to come out in audio. Powers is a new discovery for me. How could I have missed him?

Im also reading Binstead's Safari by Rachel Ingalls . I’d never heard of this writer and find her quite delightful. There’s little mention of her on LT either. Came across her from a John Self review.

Apparently the book was published in 1987 which might be why its not well known, but the author has written several other books. Would very much like getting more information from you, it sounds really interesting!

Just finished Mary Roach's My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places, which was okay but lacks the zany zing of her pop-science books. This one is a collection of columns originally written for The Reader's Digest, and it shows. There are a few grins here, but no LOLs.

Will be starting Mary Kay Andrews' Sunset Beach. I felt the need for something light after a couple of heavy-duty reads earlier this month. And I'm still dipping into the Avram Davidson Treasury every few days.

>138 cindydavid4: you can read Self’s review in The Guardian in the link below. She has a quaint way of writing. Mostly short stories varying in quality. But the good ones are good.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/23/no-love-lost-the-selected-novellas...

Now reading The Wishing Pool and Other Stories by Tananarive Due, which I got as an ER book and have taken longer to get around to than I'd intended. As with most story collections, I find some appeal to me a lot more than others, and I'm having trouble deciding what I think of it as a whole. The title story is a standout, though.

I'm in one of my phases where I am reading several books at once. I am still working on a yearlong read of Clarissa more or less by the dates of the letters.

I recently finished The Hidden Palace, a fun read for my bookclub. I am also reading Doctor Thorne and when the Victorian sentences are too much, dipping into The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. I inexplicably picked up Three Lives and also, because the library hold became available, Baba Yaga Laid an Egg.

I’m reading Donald Howard’s biography of Geoffrey Chaucer in the mornings now when I have better ability to concentrate and retain. And when I feel like reading more in evenings, I’ll be reading some shorter and lighter novels that fit the quarterly theme for RTT, the 1920’s and 30’s: The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford and A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey. Just finished an audio version of Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon—my first by Simenon, and the first in his Maigret series. I enjoyed this novel very much and will probably read more in this series. Anyone have Maigret favorites?

I’m also enjoying the Chaucer biography. I’m considering how best to review this very informative work, and think I may, on my own thread,of course, decide to review the three sections separately, as I complete them.

I'm reading What Matters in Jane Austen which made me want a reread of one of her novels, so I picked Persuasion.

>142 ELiz_M: oh my god Hidden Palace has been on my tbr shelf for ages. I read the first one and was eagerly waiting for this one but too many shiny covers got in the way. going right now to put it on my end table to remind me. Hope it was as good as the first!!

>144 japaul22: Persuasion is my least favorite Jane Austen novel. I just didn’t take to it. My tongue-in-cheeek review can be found HERE

>144 japaul22: >146 kjuliff: I read Persuasion for the first time last year, and embraced it. Austen’s only truly mature novel (she most wrote in her youth and published later).

The History of Literature podcast recently covered Persuasion, in two parts. I’d like to tell you it was brilliant. It was a little annoying, but i still liked thinking about the book again.

So I was slugging through Invisible Man yesterday. It’s a terrific novel, so far. My struggling saying more about me. I thought about another novel i had that I expect is very good, and felt my energy collapse under the weight of the idea of it. Ok, maybe something lighter. So i picked up A Sense of Where You Are, John McPhee’s 1965 (!) book gushing about Bill Bradley (Who had just finished his college basketball career at Princeton. After the book, Bradley went to the nba and won championships, and later became a US senator and, in 2000, a major presidential candidate. I liked him). Anyway, i got really into it…

Extra side-note: i was at the library Friday and saw this McPhee book on the $1 donation stacks. I only had a $5 bill. So picked up this along with 3 other McPhee books, and one other novel. ☺️

(Someone tell Nickelini that McPhee has an old book on Switzerland.)

>146 kjuliff: Ah, I'm sorry Persuasion wasn't for you. I love it and have read it (and all of Austen's novels) many times each.

I finished Bruce Chatwin's On the Black Hill, which is about two-thirds an historical novel, as it follows a Welsh farming family, and particularly a pair of twin brothers, from the turn of the 20th century into the 1980s. Lovely writing with lots of acute insight into human nature, but also the psychological dangers of living too insular a life. I found it to be a very enjoyable book in many ways, but not a relaxing novel. Chatwin was born in England rather than Wales, but he seems to have had a strong if somewhat romanticized grasp of Welsh farm life through the 20th century. My moderately longer review is posted on my Club Read thread.

Next up, I'll finally be taking on The Decameron. I have a 1931 Modern Library edition with the original English translation, completed in the 1880s I believe, by John Payne. 800 pages of small print and Victorian Era English. What could go wrong? Seriously, though, I'm looking forward to it all and not planning to rush. So I'll be a while.

Continuing on with my newly-discovered novelist Kevin Powers, have just started A Line in the Sand. Hopeful. Straight upon finishing his A Shout in the Ruins which got me back from my reading block, but. Was not as good as his Yellow Birds

Juggling several books at the same time (not as easy as it used to be). Latest is Worn: A People's History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser

I’ve finished A Shilling for Candles, which was a thoroughly entertaining read, but not one of Tey’s best. I started The Pursuit of Love last night and am loving it. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, much of the humor depending on Mitford’s even-handed, dead pan tone.

I've finished the audiobook of A Northern Light and started The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. It's a reread, but I want to read The Book Woman's Daughter and decided I needed to refresh my memory first.

Had to turn in As Kingfishers Catch Fire, but requested it and it came yesterday. Don't think it even got sent back... So I will finish that in the next couple of weeks. I also still need to finish The Nutmeg's Curse and Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey.

Oh yes, on my iPad I'm finishing Murder at Honeychurch Hall - it's expired on Libby, but as long as I don't turn on the Wifi I can finish reading it.

That would be a remarkable 9 books for May if I actually finish them all... So we shall see.

Finished the pursuit of love which I was reading for the betwwen wars and classics June Humor.. Not sure how funny it was, but I liked it enough to try another of hers.

has anyone read the mezzanine? this was mentioned in the NYT book review and it looks really interesting: a young man riding an escalator meditates on the familiar objects arond us. This sounds like it could be a real bore, but some of the reviews here have been great. Love this one: "Actually, in addition to 1) and 2) above, he values: 3) the social benefit of being seen by others as a man who has retained a kid’s aliveness and freshness when interacting with the world. For me, this is so charming- a simple happening providing our narrator with triple-decker pleasure as if savoring a slice of triple-decker strawberry cake." any thoughts?

Finally reading the hidden palace a sequel to one of my fav books the golem and the jinni Took the author almost a decade to finish it, and Ive had it sitting on my tbr stack; forgot about it till someone mentioned it here. So not surprisingly I am loving it

This morning I audio-sampled the Pulitzer Prize winner G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century by Beverly Gage and it opens really nicely. So now I‘m 36 minutes into a 36-hour audiobook, and I‘m fascinated. (I hadn‘t really processed that J Edgar Hoover was a Roosevelt big government guy before he went all COINTELPRO. Didn‘t know he was gay, or anti-right wing. But, of course, he was racist and anti-liberal, and powerful enough (for 48 yrs) to be really destructive. Anyway, I‘m all-in so far.)

If you get a chance, watch the movie Edgar with a marvelous Leonardo de Caprio. Excellent and eye opening movie

>151 kjuliff: having trouble getting into Kevin Powers A Line in the Sand as I have the audio version and the chapters are all out of kilter. So when you go to chapter x it takes you to chapter y. Im currently on physical chaperone 6 but it displays as cheaper 2. So I’m constantly getting lost. The confusion Carrie’s into bookmarks, so if I bookmark 23 secs into chapter 6 it displays the bookmark as 23 secs into chapter 3!

So far I’ve read and reread about the dead body in the sand 6 times. I get to that point, bookmark it, listen for about an hour and it starts displaying chapter x - 1.

Every now and then I jump to my learning Spanish app, DuaLingo. It’s easier…

Buenos noches.i

>156 cindydavid4: I just found it in the NY Talking books library. Doesn’t seem to be available in audio commercially. It looks good.

Not that y'all are keeping score, but I've decided to postpone my reading of The Decameron for a while. I tried the first few pages but the 1880s translation/Victorian language was making the reading too much of a rough sledding proposition for me. In a few days my wife and I (and Rosie, the German shepherd) push off for our cross-country drive to begin our year's adventure in New York City. So when we get to New York I'll look around for a more modern translation. I wish I had the band width for the older version, but think I'll look for something more accessible.

Not that I've settled on light reading, however. I went instead to my history shelves and decided to read Mission to Moscow by Joseph Edward Davies. Davies was FDR's ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1936 through 1938, and the book is his memoir, complete with diary entries, from those years. The book was published in 1941. (I'm reading a first edition that I got at a thrift store, antique store or yard sale goodness knows where.) It's a fascinating time and place, and remembering to utilize the proverbial grain of salt in regards to Davies' point of view and objectivity, I expect to find this an interesting look inside the Russian regime from the point of view of an American diplomat written before the U.S. entry into WW2.

After I finished Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov yesterday I'll continue working my way through this year's International Booker Prize shortlist by reading Standing Heavy by GauZ', the pen name of Armand Patrick Gbaka-Brédé, which is a short novel about a group of undocumented immigrant men from Côte d'Ivoire who are living in Paris and employed as security guards, who observe the changing view of Parisians and the French toward citizens from their former colonies.

SCORE!!! Found a like new hardback copy of the Harcourt revised Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg in a thrift shop for ... fifty cents! Cover price is forty bucks. I am so chuffed!

>164 LyndaInOregon: I always liked Sandberg.

>163 kidzdoc: I think I might like to read Standing Heavy.

I just finished The Covenant of Water. I was trying to decide between 4.5 and 5 stars. I decided it’s silly to withhold 1/2 a star because I didn’t love everything to and 800 page book. I felt it got melodramatic at the end but the end also tied everything together. So 5 stars it is because it really is a great book although overwhelming in its scope.

My high school after school book club is reading Everybody But Us by Ben Rose. It's gritty and raw. It's well written but ever so tragic.

On my own I am reading The Reacher Series by Lee Child and a classic author named Konigsberg and a book called Cheaper by the Dozen which is nothing like the Steve Martin movie.

I'm finally finishing out N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy with The Stone Sky. Definitely enjoying this series, although, honestly, despite the multiple Hugo wins for this one, I think I might like the other series of hers that I've read even better.

I didn't care for the inheritance trilogy as much as the stone sky series but its still worth reading. I really liked the killing moon duology, esp the world building that I found really interesting.

I finished The Story of Art Without Men and really enjoyed it. The book is a terrific look at women in art from the 16th century to the present, very accessible—she has a great podcast, The Great Women Artists, and draws a lot off of it and that conversational energy. Recommended for anyone with an interest in art history and/or feminism or beauty in the world in general.

Next up, The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths by Brad Fox. I'm in a nonfiction mood, I guess.

>167 TracieMac: I love Cheaper by the Dozen and it is so much better than the movie...which is cute but not nearly as interesting. There's another book I read about the same time, unfortunately not as well known - The Family Nobody Wanted. It's about a couple who adopt a lot of kids - I don't think they get up to a dozen but it's not far off, and it's even more fun and interesting than Cheaper. If you can find it you might enjoy it.

Just started Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler.

Just finished The Tenth Gift. ~meh~

Next up is The Accidental Further Adventures of the 100-Year-Old Man. I enjoyed the original and hope this one is as good. Also still dipping into the Avram Davidson Treasury, which is pure delight and deserves to be savored slowly.

>169 cindydavid4: The Killing Moon was the first thing of Jemisin's that I've read, and I think it's still probably my favorite.

>174 bragan: have you read her short stories? she has a story about that world that really helps explain its organization and is quite a lovely piece

Review of Hidden Palace is here https://www.librarything.com/topic/349922#n8151373

>175 cindydavid4: I haven't but I might need to.

>171 jjmcgaffey: I'll check it out

I whipped through Persuasion and will now return to Time Shelter.

Just finished Moby Dick by Herman Melville and I Know You Al by Constance C Greene

Both are great

I just finished some Jane Austen reading, and I'm still listening to Northanger Abbey (Austen's novels work really well for me on audio.

I also just finished Hijab Butch Blues, a memoir by a young women who is a non-binary, Muslim immigrant to the U.S. Interesting perspective, though the writing and trajectory of the book didn't work very well for me.

Now I'm reading A Dream in Polar Fog by Yuri Rytkheu, about an American who gets stranded in a remote area of Russia, and is adopted by the Chukotka people. I'm really enjoying it.

I'm also about to start The Bandit Queens.

>181 japaul22: I enjoyed Dream in Polar Fog too, Jennifer. I have another of Rytkheu's works that I've been meaning to get to.

I’m 90% done Saint Maybe. Not liking it as much as other Anne Tyler books. People in her books are generally people who things happen to - life happens to them. They don’t make things happen. But the main character in this book seems particularly passive.

>183 dianeham: I gave up on her years ago when her books started sounding alike, with similar characters and locations. Loved her first ones

For the RTT June theme "the fifties" Im reading Nancy Mitfords bio of Fredrick the Great. He was ruling during the seven year war, which started in 1757 which was two hundred years before I was born :) i know about the French Indian 7 year war, but didn't know about the European, and finiding it very interesting

>184 cindydavid4: I’ve read mostly her more recent books and am now reading earlier ones.

The Accidental Tourist and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant were my favs; also liked Breathing Lessons, Back When We Were Grownups and Digging to America

>187 cindydavid4: I think I only read a couple of Anne Tyler’s books after The Accidental Tourist and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant , both of which I really liked. The following books seemed the same and maybe she’s branched out and when I get back to my normal reading self I’ll try some of her later work.

lemme know how that goes, perhaps you'll find something good!

Just saw this: Anne Patchett has a new book Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Shes one of those few authors whose books I buy sight unseen. coming out Aug 1.

Finally after years of putting it off, I finished things fall apartNot sure why I was avoiding it, because it really was stunning . Thanks to the African Author Challenge for the encouragement! Review upcoming

>190 cindydavid4: I loved Things Fall Apart and I too put of reading it. For some reason I didn’t think it could live up to Half of a Yellow Sun. I am still waiting to be in the mood for Americanah. Have you read it?

Yes and loved it, better than all her other works; It was so different for me to learn about the experience of African migrants coming to live in America. Fascinating very thought provoking

Now reading afterlife (have read a couple of his books now, really like his style) and the bookwoman of troublesome creek which a few people hereabouts mentioned liking it

Yes and loved it, better than all her other works; It was so different for me to learn about the experience of African migrants coming to live in America. Fascinating very thought provoking

Now reading afterlives by abdulrazak gurnah (have read a couple of his books now, really like his style) and the bookwoman of troublesome creek which a few people hereabouts mentioned liking it

I’m an abdulrazak gurnah fan too. Last year most books I read were about the immigrant experience. There are so many good novelists writing about it. I suppose im drawn to such books partly also because I’m an immigrant, though I’m not perceived as being one - being a white Australian,and it was pure accident that I became one. And though I don’t have the negative experiences of those immigrant escaping conflicts, I still connect to the problems of being away from home. As a writer whose name I’ve forgotten put it, “I haven’t always swum in this water”.

Have you read Caryl Phillips A Distant Shore? He doesn’t seem to get a lot of press, I think because his novels on the immigrant experience came out a lot earlier than those of newer writers.

>1 AnnieMod: I was in the mood for some Pride and Prejudice patische, so I picked up Darcy and Fitzwilliam by Karen V Waylowski. After an okay beginning, at the 26% mark, it’s just awful. But it’s a quick read and I’m going to finish. Check out my 1 star review on my personal thread later this week. I do love to write a good hate-review every so often

I’m reading The Crane Husband. So far so good.

>196 dianeham: Id been wanting to read that (really loved when women were dragons curious on your thoughts

Working on the LTER, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future. Science fiction/fantasy short stories. I picked up several volumes from my TBR stack and nothing appealed, so I might as well get to this review. Always interesting entries in this series.

Started liberation day and finished the first story; this is my first by this author, and if this story is indicatie of his talent it wont be my last!

>199 cindydavid4: I only discovered George Saunders last year.I absolutely love all his work. The man’s a genius. I’m sure you will enjoy all his stories.