WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 6

And time for a new thread :)

I seem to be in some weird mood so I somehow managed to go through the whole of August without reading any books (and that IS weird).

How is everyone doing? Are you looking forward to the change of seasons? Do you expect your reading to change when it starts getting colder and darker in the evenings?

Season change is very far away, hot swampy soup in Houston for many more weeks yet. So, not thinking of season changes... but still reading

started Paradiso. Add that to The Merchant of Venice, The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster, Over by the River : And Other Stories by William Maxwell, and, on audio, Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

seasons don't change here till maybe november if we are lucky. given how horrible our summer has been this year Im thinking we might just skip fall and winter all together. Anyway, weather really doesn't impact my reading much except during our spring (Feb to May) its nice enough to sit in my backyard and read.

trying to stick with tbr books, and noticed that I have Sula, a Morrison book I have not read. So starting that.

I really enjoyed the Hans Rosling Factfulness book. Back to fiction now with one off the Bowie list: The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima.

I'm reading Long Bright River and My Time Among the Whites, which should be required reading for all who work in student services at colleges and universities.

I like the autumn season and look forward to the trees changing colors and the cooler weather. We tend to hunker down in winter, but as things are now, we have been doing that since March. We read a lot, so that will stay the same. I do like to read Christmas stories in the holiday time, and already have a few from NetGalley awaiting me.

Just finished The Anchoress and The Fairacre Festival and considering the next read.

>2 dchaikin: >3 cindydavid4:

Not that the Valley of the Sun can really claim real seasons but if we assume that Autumn starts when we drop under 100 degrees, we also have at least a month or so to go until then (and if we wait to drop under 90, it may not happen until Christmas the way this year is going...). But in the more temperate zones, autumn/spring is supposed to be arriving... :)

>6 LadyoftheLodge: The colors is the only thing I miss from the weather... I love not needing to shovel snow or knowing where my coat is but I miss the colors of autumn... :(

>7 AnnieMod: Actually I have always said that the valley has two seasons: summer and not summer. Not summer has periods of fall and spring and winter, but since its still not summer, we are happy. Summer seems to last about 6 months or so; takes a long time to transition into that nice non summer people talk about when they move here...

Fortunately it is not a long way from the north and eastern mountain areas that actually have seasons!

>8 cindydavid4:

I call them summer and Arizona summer. :)

Here in my part of New Mexico, we have the very long season of Too Hot and the mercifully shorter season of Too Cold, with very fleeting periods of Actually Nice in between. Currently, we are still very much in Too Hot, but a couple of rather cool nights recently have at least reminded me of the fact that Actually Nice will eventually, briefly, come around again. Hypothetically, anyway. :)

Currently, I'm reading How The Post Office Created America by Winifred Gallagher which, y'know, seemed kind of topical.

It's summer in the San Francisco Bay Area - so I'm sleeping under only a light fleece blanket and wearing jeans and sandals. It's only a bit chilly during the day. Except when it's roasting - which is supposed to be this weekend (and lasted for almost a week two weeks ago, and so on).

Its taken me longer than I thought it would but I just finished stone sky It took rereading the last few sections a few times to totally get it, and still arent clear some things. But it didn't matter; in the end it really is a love story.

More than ready to start her Inheritance series, but not quite yet. Continuing Sula, then Im restarting Pull of the Stars

>10 bragan: I hope it's not an elegy.

I've added another book to my pile. At the author's request, I'm reading We Of The Forsaken World... (by Kiran Bhat)

>13 dchaikin: Yes, I am certainly hoping that, too.

I am reading Autour de la Lune by Jules Verne

After 'dabbling' in a book or two, I have settled into Olaf Olafsson's The Journey Home.

I’m halfway through three books, somehow: The virgin in the garden, from my Byatt read-through; Wallenstein (my fingers wanted to type “Wallander”...) in my Schiller campaign, and Artemio Cruz, who seems to be taking forever to die...

North American visitors laugh when we claim to have weather in the Netherlands (“cloudy with chance of sunny intervals and showers” covers it 90% of the time), but this year we did get quite a sharp transition from “summer” to “normal” weather a week before the end of August. That’s not to say that “summer” won’t come back unexpectedly halfway through October...

I've started Black and British. It's fairly chunky and I'm not sure how much I'm in the mood for full concentration on historical fact just at the moment, so I may end up dipping in and out of it. Glad to start it, though, as its been shouting at me from my wish list for quite a while.

I'm rereading Go, Went, Gone for my book club. I need to read more Erpenbeck; this is so good.

>16 avaland: Already captured by the Olafsson novel. Have also started Zadie Smith's little collection of essays Intimations.

Just finished Jeb's Wife for NetGalley. Currently I am reviewing textbooks for course syllabi I have been contracted to write for a Reading Specialization for Masters of Ed degree! Just started Mousse and Murder for MysteryKIT and AlphaKIT challenge groups.

Just finished The Red House Mystery - perfectly good English locked-room murder by A.A. Milne (not what I think of him as writing!). It was good, not fantastic but worth reading.

I finished Leaving Cheyenne last night by the author of Lonesome Dove. He has the most wonderful ability to create characters and to get you to feel like you've known them forever. It's amazing. This story wasn't as strong but still, his writing it just amazing.

Oh I loved Lonesome Dove, never read his others but he's one of my husbands favorite authors. Read a story a while back about him opening up a bookstore in Texas. Wonder if thats still there

Ok heres a story from 2013 about him closing up two of the stores and keeping one open. Sad, but hopeful

Ah....A happy new beginning https://www.bookedupac.com

Started another book tonight (no haven’t finished anything) : Lucy Gayheart by Willa Cather, with a wonderful first 30 pages.

I finished Wallenstein on Sunday, and The virgin in the garden yesterday, both fun in their different ways even if it turns out that the Piccolominis are Soldiers, not cute cartoon characters. Señor Cruz continues alive and kicking...

Also started Bessie Head’s Serowe - village of the rain wind. For some reason I thought it was going to be a short story collection, but it turns out to be something much more interesting than that.

Finished and reviewed the Olafsson book (mentioned in #15) only to discover I read and reviewed it also back in 2008! It explains the sense of deja vu, ha ha. But I think, being twelve years older and having now read most of Olafsson's books made for a different reading experience.

I've recently finished Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, which was good, and I've now started The Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty, the final book in her Daevabad trilogy. I really liked the first two, so here's hoping it ends just as strong.

Reading Finnish author Rosa Liksom's The Colonel's Wife and also, in a quiet moment, Zadie Smith's small collection of essays Intimations

I finished my reread of Go, Went, Gone and loved it as much the second time. Now, for a change of pace, I'm reading The Lantern Men.

I am reading two mysteries: Dough or Die, which is moving slowly and seems to have lots of tangents, and Mousse and Murder, which I am enjoying because it is set in Alaska and reminds me of my visits there. Each of these is part of a series.

Flipping audiobooks. I finished Shuggie Bain - which was really long and slow, even if I did like it overall. I had to wait one day for my audible credits to annually renew, but after that painful experience (🙂) I picked up and started The Shadow King - which I like so far, but have some concerns early on.

I just started The Resisters.

I'm reading The Magic Mountain with a group read in the Category Challenge group and I'm really enjoying it, though expect to read slowly.

I also just got the much anticipated Hamnet from the library and I'm loving it as much as everyone else.

I've begun An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie which is just fantastic. The author, while recovering from a snake-assisted accident in Togo, finds a book about the Inuit of Greenland and decides to go to Greenland.

I'm still reading Ducks, Newburyport, but the end is in sight. Slightly peeved as a person on goodreads posted their review and I started reading it just to find out what they'd thought about it and it was full of spoilers, including for the final third of the novel. Guys, if an event happens late in a novel, don't put it in your review. Likewise, Kay, don't be reading reviews when you're still reading the book, you idiot.

The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish continues to delight me. What a well-written historical novel. And one of the few where the dual time-line between past and present works.

I just finished Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, the author of the wonderfully odd Convenience Store Woman. I'm not sure about this one. It's very grim.

And, finally, I'm reading The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. It's good so far.

>33 BLBera: I like that Gish Jen (actually, I've liked all of her books....)

>35 RidgewayGirl: Noting the Saykata Murata title.

>34 japaul22: The Magic Mountain, one of my favourite novels - perhaps time for a fourth re-read?

But before that I have got Gather Darkness to read on my kindle

>37 baswood: You should hop over and add to our discussion! It's my first time reading The Magic Mountain and I can tell it's a book that is meant to be reread.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/323700

>35 RidgewayGirl: Re Ducks - so spoiler warning? : ( At least it’s the kind of book where the end isn’t the purpose.

>35 RidgewayGirl: I'll watch for your comments on The Weight of Ink; I was disappointed when I read it. I loved Convenience Store Woman and have been waiting for her new one...

>36 avaland: I am only about 50 pages in, but I like it.

I finished Dough or Die by Winnie Archer--all the loose ends get tied up. I was not expecting that ending at all! Currently reading All Stirred Up (another culinary novel) and Mousse and Murder which is yet another culinary mystery. (Do I seem to be on a roll here? Ha, pun intended.)

Starting How Long till Black Future Month? and have Caste Isabel Wilkerson sitting and ready to start

>39 dchaikin: Call me a stickler, but if an event happens after page 600, keep it to yourself.

>40 BLBera: Beth, it's very different from Convenience Store Woman, although it begins in the same quirky voice. The sexual abuse of a child is not the hardest part to read. But some of the ideas brought up were interesting. I'll get a review up in a few days.

Finished reading The Invitation-Only Zone, a nonfiction about the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea. Fascinating, and mind-blogging subject, typical when learning anything about North Korea. I did feel the book could have benefited from a linear timeline instead of jumping back and forth between history lessons and personal accounts. But the story is just too crazy not too read.

>38 japaul22: Here are links to an earlier climb of The Magic Mountain
https://www.librarything.com/topic/125802
https://www.librarything.com/topic/127037

>45 baswood: thank you!

I (finally) finished The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, a very interesting panoramic picture of the pandemic that encompassed the history of immunology, virology, and medical education, as well as wartime politics and some great portraits of the scientists and doctors involved. Barry's rhetorically repetitive style was a bit much, but it was worth putting up with for the story and info. And honestly it's not the worst thing to hear a historian's voice underneath the facts, as long as he's accurate—and I get the feeling Barry's research was very thorough. And his afterword, which he wrote in I think 2018, is downright chilling—he essentially says that the biggest challenge to the next great pandemic will be governmental cooperation and the honest dissemination of accurate information. Granted, Trump was president when he wrote that so he may have had a better idea of possible scenarios than he would have in, say, 2015. But I imagine if he saw it coming with that kind of accuracy, so did a lot of medical folks, scientists, and policy people. And THAT is scary.

Now on to reading a bunch of short story collections for LJ's Best Books 2020 judging. I'll probably stick with my personal thread for those.

>45 baswood: that was a great experience.

>47 lisapeet: interesting about the prediction. There’s also the 2015 government study that concluded a covid-like virus is coming at some point in the foreseeable future. Question was not if, but when.

Started Paul Yoon's collection of short stories, Once the Shore.

I've also started some nonfiction: White Flights: Race, Fiction, and the American Imagination by Jess Row. From reading tine intro, I expect it to be dense, thoughtful, and likely worthy of my complete attention but...will my attention cooperate?

The next one along my bookshelf is The Blue Afternoon by William Boyd.

I spent yesterday reading The geography of bliss — disappointingly slight, but I shouldn't complain, I didn't pay for it...

Otherwise I've got up to Possession in my Byatt read-through — probably the fifth or sixth time, but I'm enjoying it (I see I read it last in 2009). Maria Stuart will be next on the Schiller list, and I'm dipping into Scottish love poems as selected by the lovely Mrs Pinter.

>34 japaul22: (etc.) The magic mountain deserves a re-read, but I last read it for my thousandth LT review, so I can't very well come back to it before the count gets up to 1999!

Must be a good day for starting books. I have started three.....

Roger Nimier - Les Enfants Tristes

Ian Watt - The Rise of the Novel

Rick Harsch The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas

I am reading All Stirred Up which is a fun read so far, also Living with the Monks.

I just finished the wonderful The Resisters and am starting Girl, Woman, Other.

Oh I really liked GWO! My only complaint was that I needed a family tree to keep the moms and daughters together in my head!

Just finished this is how you lose the time war, Wow, seems like Ive been batting 100 the last 3 or 4 books have all been 5 stars for me. Soooo, now Im not sure what I read next...

I'm reading The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared and it's been a week and I'm only at page 60. Someone tell me how good it gets. I want to read a Swedish novel this year, but it's just a bunch of guys doing stuff . . . . the problem is that someone put it in my hands and said "Read this!" and they like all the books I push on them, so I'd like to want to read this

I finished up Jen Fawkes's Mannequin and Wife: Stories, which was a very good debut collection—dark and offbeat—and now on to Randall Kenan's If I Had Two Wings. Kenan just died a few weeks ago, and this one is a National Book Awards finalist.

I've just finished Hamnet which was just as wonderful as everyone has said. I'm still reading The Magic Mountain - slowly, but I'm enjoying it.

And I've started a biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I'm so sad to hear of her death. Many of the books about her are sold out currently which I actually love to see. I bought this one for my kindle, Free to be Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Not satisfied with reading The Book of Disquiet, The Magic Mountain, and How to Be an Antiracist, I've also started The Member of the Wedding.

>58 japaul22: till you can get the books, Watch “Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” was published in 2015 by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik, the law student who started the blog.I had not read the book, but I suspect the doc hits all the right notes. Three years later, the documentary “RBG” became a summer hit and earned an Oscar nomination. Later made into a movie On th Basis of Sex. Id be interested in the bio you are reading

I am currently reading Living with the Monks by Jesse Itzler.

I finished Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery by Leon F. Litwack. Checking in at 556 pages, Been in the Storm So Long constitutes a commitment of time and energy, but an extremely worthwhile commitment. I was under the impression that the book would provide an overview of the Reconstruction Era, but in fact Litwack stops right as Radical Reconstruction get going. Instead, the book starts with a description of the conditions endured by the prisoners of slavery as the Civil War neared, continues on to describe conditions and events during the war years, and then covers the first few years after Emancipation. Litwack makes detailed use of letters, diaries, newspaper articles and interviews. He lays on example after example after example of each condition and development he describes. At times it seems like perhaps he's still doing that even after the points been effectively made. However, at all times I felt like the effect created with this tactic was an important one. Because it made each element not just something to be told and then to be moved on from, but instead something to consider over and over again until something like knowledge perhaps had seeped in. I've written a bit more on my own CR thread about this essential history. Most important point: Emancipation did not mean equal rights. Or any rights.

Next up for me will be The Hucksters by Frederic Wakeman, a satiric novel first published in 1946 (and a best seller that year) about the world of advertising. Sort of a Mad Men prequel, I guess.

I'm about half-way through Capital and Ideology by Thomas Piketty. I started off reading the copy I borrowed from the library, then realised I wouldn't be able to finish it on time (my OCD won't let me return a library book late), so bought my own copy to finish those 1200 pages at my leisure... Which means I now have time to alternate between this and novels. I have therefore started Cœur tambour, Scholastique Mukasonga's latest.

Starting Hamnet and Pull of the stars.

I'm reading What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton. I figured I ought to read about what happened last time before whatever happens this time.

I'm getting a bit behind, but I finished Maria Stuart and two more Byatt re-reads, Possession and Angels & Insects.

I've just started an East German novel from the TBR shelf, Das Windhahn-Syndrom.

Still continuing with the Paul Yoon short story collection, have picked up some poetry, an anthology, Joy:100 Poems, and a reissue of an older collection from Natasha Trethewey.

I was just looking at the list of books I've read...is it just me or does Quarter 1 seem soooo long ago?

>1 AnnieMod: yeah! i love to read books which support my mood
when ever i feel sad or angry, i read some books which are short compared to others from comedy genre which lightens up the mood

>68 gayathrivadlamani: Welcome to LibraryThing!

I have started Les Jango by Sudanese author Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin. It's looking promising.
And of course, I'm still reading Capital and Ideology...

Thankfully I am finished with Living with the Monks which was not what I expected. I did finish it though. I am reading Wartime with the Cornish Girls for NetGalley.

Hamnet may be up at the top of my list this year (man I have a bunch vying for that privledge )I alway amazed how an author can get me to grieve for fictional characters from 400 years ago!

I wasn't disappointed in Sarah Shun-lien's Likes—these are lovely, well plotted and well told human-scale stories, all of them with little kernels of hard truths at their centers to be discovered. Pacing varies, but not a true dud in the bunch.

Reading Tom Bissell's Creative Types: And Other Stories now.

I'm reading Lisa Jewell's The Family Upstairs. I'm enjoying it so far.

now rereading The Dutch House for a book group

I've finished but am still pondering much over Black and British: A Forgotten History.

Next up I think will be The Bird Artist by Howard Norman, another title off Bowie's 100 list.

I just read Wartime with the Cornish Girls and How to Astronaut for NetGalley. Not sure yet what to read next.

I finished The Hucksters by Frederic Wakeman, a satiric, mostly sharply written novel about the world of advertising that was a best seller in 1946. My review is on my own CR thread. Tonight I'll be starting Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, a memoir about life and culture in the Appalachian Mountains that was very popular when it came out a year or so ago but which, I've noted, received somewhat uneven reviews here on LT. I received it as a gift, though, and I make a generally rule to read relatively quickly books that friends go out on a limb to send me in that manner.

I am reading The Lost Diary of Venice in which the action alternates between a Venice of the past and the present day. A young man arrives at the bookshop of Rose, who restores old books. It is a palimpsest, one work written on top of the other. She is tasked with restoring the book, and through it learning about Chiara and Giovanni of the past Venice. The descriptions so far are lush and beautiful, particularly as seen through the eyes of Giovanni, the artist.

I finished the wonderful Girl, Woman, Other and am starting Tar Baby, one of Morrison's that I haven't read.

After finishing Rick Harsch's very contemporary The manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas I am having trouble wrapping my head round a collection of Elizabethan love sonnets - Diana by Henry Constable.

I have also started a book of Poems by W H Auden Nones published in 1951.

I've picked up the latest Sarah Moss (again, tried earlier)

I just finished the rest of The Lost Diary of Venice and I have not started anything else yet.

>81 avaland: I've picked up the latest Sarah Moss

And I'm reading the earlier Sarah Moss, Ghost Wall. Hope to spend some time with it later tonight.

Last night I finished The Country Where No One Dies, which is about growing up in communist Albania.

I enjoyed but wasn't wowed by her Cold Earth which was the first of hers i read. But then I really liked her Bodies of Light in 2018 and the book you are reading now in 2019. I have her The Tidal Zone and Night Waking in the pile. For me, I refer to read her work without too many distractions....

> 83 I've read three of hers, now this one (I hope, I need minimal distractions to read her) and have two earlier ones in the TBR pile (really the word "pile" is a misnomer, it's more like a mountain)

I motored through a couple more short story collections: Tom Bissell's Creative Types, which was intent on exploring all the different ways to be uncomfortable as an adult. Well done, but be forewarned that it's not super cheerful; and Souvankham Thammavongsa's How to Pronounce Knife, which was very good but also somber—tales of Laotian immigrants in the U.S. that are spare and sad without being bleak—little elegies for what is given up, and the stories we tell ourselves and each other, in order to get along.

Now I'm reading Daniel Mason's A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, which I'm loving—many of the stories are set in the 19th century, and many revolve around science or medicine, so that hits a bunch of sweet spots for me. Plus he's a really fine writer.

I've nearly finished my latest Byatt re-read, Babel Tower, and I've been goaded into starting Isaiah Berlin's Russian thinkers as a warm-up for the RG Russian theme.

Planning to spend the weekend reading One for the Blackbird one for the crow Im not a huge fan of pioneer stories, but this story intrigued me, esp since it comes from her own family history. My first impression is that she is a good writer, does dialogue well and knows how to set up a scene. More later

>84 avaland:
I enjoyed but wasn't wowed by her Cold Earth which was the first of hers i read. But then I really liked her Bodies of Light in 2018 and the book you are reading now in 2019. I have her The Tidal Zone and Night Waking in the pile. For me, I refer to read her work without too many distractions....

I went back to look at what I said about Cold Earth when I read it back in 2016. I gave it 4 stars and liked more than I disliked. I remember that she used an epistolary format that seemed contrived. That said, it is a novel that I remember positively 4.5 years later. At the time I wasn't ready to rush out to read more by her, but now that I've read half of Ghost Wall, I'm definitely plan to read more Sarah Moss

I finished Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance, which I thought was flawed but worth reading. My full review is on my CR thread. Next up will be the second book from my friend Kim Nalley's list of books about African American history and racism in America: Capitalism & Slavery by Eric Williams.

I am starting The Second Scroll by A. M. Klein

I just started Yaa Gyasi's new one, Transcendent Kingdom.

>89 Nickelini: Yeah, I just went back and looked at my review of Cold Earth. I had forgotten that the explorers were desperate to know how their loved ones were doing back home because of a pandemic there!

I really enjoyed Howard Norman's The Bird Artist. Bowie's 100 list is proving to be a great source of new authors for me.

Later tonight I'm going to start The Russian Affair: The True Story of the Couple Who Uncovered the Greatest Sporting Scandal by David Walsh. This is the last of my birthday wish list books from a couple of months ago. A new publication this year, it's an account of the brave (crazy brave, considering this is Russia) uncovering of Russia's doping scandal by an anti-doping official and his Olympic doping wife.

>92 BLBera: I just finished Transcendent Kingdom. I'll be curious to hear what you think!

I am continuing with The Magic Mountain - I'm about halfway through. And I'm starting Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid.

I'm in another book slump, but I'm currently reading two novels from this year's Booker Prize longlist, Apeirogon by Colum McCann, and Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi.

I am reading Under Scottish Stars and The Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking.

I finished A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, which I loved—it had a very cabinet-of-curiosities feel, and the author's curiosity was palpable. The stories were mostly set in the 19th century, with a couple before and after, and one contemporary piece that had enough echoes of the past not to feel out of place. I'm sad to see it didn't get more attention, though maybe the subject matter is especially offbeat these days, when close first-person contemporary short stories really dominate the market. Fans of Andrea Barrett, I think you'd like this.

Also read Benjamin Nugent's Fraternity, short stories revolving around—you got it—a set of fraternity brothers (and some sorority sisters) at UMass. It wasn't as one-note as that sounds, and there's some good offbeat POVs and more than a few surprises, but people's enjoyment of this one will probably have a lot to do with how much they can tolerate the setting/milieu. I liked it well enough, but it didn't knock me out.

Those were all my library checkouts, so now I'm back to Emma Cline's Daddy.

<93 I just went back and looked at my review of Cold Earth. I had forgotten that the explorers were desperate to know how their loved ones were doing back home because of a pandemic there!

Right? I'm not sure if I kept my copy or not, but I' thinking I'd like to reread it.

I've read a bunch of stuff since I last checked in here, but rather than go over it all, I'll just mention that I finished The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018, edited by N. K. Jemisin, yesterday and was pretty impressed by it, and that I've now just started Worlds Collide by Chris Colfer, the final book in his Land of Stories series of kids' novels. I've been a little surprised by how much fun that series was, so I might be a little sorry to finally nearly be done with it now.

My next book is a science fiction classic The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester

>101 baswood: that was one of those sci fi books I loved early in my reading. Haven't read it in ages

Now reading In the Night of the Lonesome October for a book group; its fun esp when you come up with who the different creatures are.

nvm

I finished Babel Tower and read another Schiller play on Sunday, Die Jungfrau Von Orleans (I don’t know how Sunday became Schiller-day...). Also another of my East German paperbacks, the Spanish Civil War memoir The volunteers.

I still have to post reviews for Russian thinkers and my next Byatt, The biographer’s tale.

Just started Rose Macaulay’s historical novel They were defeated which has been on my TBR pile since 1932 far too long.

I recognized Rose Macaulay but couldn't think of why;aha, bought A Casual Commentary ages ago, have it on my shelf but don't think I ever read it. Need to, and then read They Were Defeated, She also apparently wrote Non Combatants and Others that looks intriguing as well.

>105 cindydavid4: The Towers of Trebizond is the really famous one — I've read that and Potterism before. Hard to find any common thread between the three, so far!

I finished Transcendent Kingdom, which I loved, even more than Homegoing, though I might be in the minority here, but that's OK.

I'm starting Sigrid Nunez's new one What Are You Going Through.

I am finishing Thread and Dead for NetGalley and also still reading Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking.

>106 thorold: Oh I have Towers on my list. Love the cover on my edition (FSG Classics)

My next book is The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir

Moving ahead with the Joan London novel but did some poetry shopping (not an easy task) a while back, which is starting to show up in my mailbox, so will continue reading poetry probably for a few weeks.

ETA I've picked up The Road Not Taken: Finding America in the Poem Everyone Loves and Almost Everyone Gets Wrong by David Orr.

Finished reading People who eat Darkness last night about the disappearance of a British girl in Tokyo and what happened to her. I was absorbed for three days reading this and just had to read till the last page yesterday. Have been on a huge nonfiction kick lately.

I'm reading The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell, having had my curiosity piqued by several comments here in CR over the years. I am completely immersed in it, and yet reluctant to rush through it. I'm also halfway through Larry Watson's The Lives of Edie Pritchard, one of the very few books by a male author I've read this year (not intentionally).

I finished Capitalism and Slavery by Eric Williams. Williams was prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago from 1961 until his death in 1981. Before that, he was a professor of political and social science at Howard University. In this history, which deals primarily with slavery in the British Empire and more specifically in the West Indies, Williams' highly believable thesis is that slavery ended in the British Empire not primarily due to the work of humanitarians and abolitionists (although Williams doe credit their work) but because the economic system which made slavery "necessary" to English merchants because unprofitable to English industrialists once the Industrial Revolution was on. You can read my longer review on my own CR thread or on the book's work page.

Today I started Born on the Fourth of July by Ron Kovic. Hard to believe I've never read this, but it's been on my shelves since around 1989, so it's high time to finally get to it.

>114 rocketjk: The Williams book sounds interesting. I may have to jot that down. I've read books, nothing terribly strenuous, on the Triangle trade which New England was involved in. Hmm, I'd be inclined to agree with his thesis. It's amazing how much is driven by industry and money, and fascinating to see the movements of people accordingly.

115> It is definitely interesting, although, as per the longer review in my CR thread, the middle chapters do get a bit bogged down in details and numbers. Nothing Williams could do about that, though. He had to make the case with that sort of evidence.

Just finished Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions by Nancy Atkinson, because I will apparently never reach the limit on the number of books about the Apollo space program I am capable of reading.

And I've just started Nothing to See Here by Keven Wilson. I gather later there will be exploding children or something, which I have no problem with, but I fear it already completely lost my suspension of disbelief in the first paragraph, because I can accept all kinds of crazy things but I apparently cannot believe in a woman named Madison who was born before 1984. Well, I will try very hard not to let that put me off too much.

I just started and am half way through The Amish Midwife by Patricia Davids. The story describes the plight of a bachelor who suddenly acquires care of his infant niece. He enlists the help of his (unmarried) neighbor who is a midwife, in exchange for helping her with repairs at her home and produce stand. I am learning a lot about goat farming! It is a fun and easy read, although I sense trouble looming on the horizon.

I finished two books that have been hanging around far too long half-read, La muerte de Artemio Cruz (off the TBR) and Swimming in the dark (audio).

Also finished They were defeated — a feast of 17th century language, but not an earth-shattering story — and another Schiller play, The bride of Messina, and another Byatt novel, A whistling woman.

I've started a recent Italian novel, Giulia 1300 e altri miracoli which someone else mentioned here a while back.

>116 rocketjk: I have it coming, although who knows when I will get to it (and I might even have to—gasp—skim)

I finished Joan London's The Good Parents and it stayed in my head for some time after. Trying to finish up the book on Frost's poem "The Road Less Traveled" ...

ETA: A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) just arrived and I couldn't resist starting it (ah, stories of my fellow New Hampshirites)

>119 thorold:
I've started a recent Italian novel, Giulia 1300 e altri miracoli which someone else mentioned here a while back.

It might have been me because I recently bought it and had a conversation with someone about it (don't have time to look it up). Are you reading it in Italian or English?

>121 Nickelini: Yes, that was probably it — I was intrigued by the title because I have a friend who drives (or repairs...) an elderly Alfa sports car. I’m trying to read it in Italian, partial compensation for my cancelled October holiday!

I just finished The Amish Midwife by Patricia Davids, and I am now reading The Amish Newcomer which is about a woman in the witness protection program who goes to live in an Amish community.

>120 avaland: There are definitely sections of the Capitalism and Slavery that can be skimmed, once you take Williams' word that his thesis is sound or at least reasonable. Williams didn't have the luxury of assuming people would do that, of course. He had to make his case with numerous examples.

>122 thorold: I’m trying to read it in Italian, partial compensation for my cancelled October holiday!j

You're my new hero! I was making good progress with my Italian lessons, but I just chucked it all when COVID hit and my May Italian holiday was cancelled. I know COVID is no excuse for not working on my Italian, but it just slaughtered my mojo. I'm so impressed that you can tackle something at that level. My reading was definitely at the A-2 level and now I feel like it's probably A-0

I just finished Your House Is On Fire, Your Children All Gone, by Stefan Kiesbye. The ratings on this here at LT are all over the place, but the people who actually wrote reviews all seem to hate it. Conversely, I'm considering giving it my rare 5-star review. When there is such a discrepancy, I wonder if I've just perceived things weirdly, or missed something, but in this case, so far I think the people who have dropped reviews (overall) missed its treasures. It's an extremely DARK book, so "treasures" might be not be the best word. I have to think about this one a bit more before I write my comments. I usually don't post them to the book's page, but in this case I feel I need to defend this one from all the detractors

I'm rereading The Handmaid's Tale and starting Memorial Drive, Natasha Trethewey's memoir.

Oh I am having fun geeking out on Games of Thrones. James Hibbered who did most of the articles about the show on EW, wrote a book called fire cannot kill a dragon He goes through the seasons of the show and includes interviews with cast, crew and producers. Some of it Ive heard before but there are lots of tidbits I did not know.

>123 LadyoftheLodge: Thanks for the info!

>127 BLBera: I've been dallying with a 2007 Trethewey volume

I finished Born on the Fourth of July by Ron Kovic, which I found to be very powerful. There's nothing dated about it now, and it's easy to see why it gained such attention then. The memoir begins with the moment Kovic is wounded during a firefight and immediately loses all feeling from the middle of his chest downward. Kovic details his life for the first decade after his wound, including his evolution into a strong anti-Vietnam War activist, in often compelling fashion as well. As an anti-war statement and a chronicle of personal darkness and perseverance, this memoir stands up very well. My longer review is on the book's work page and also on my CR thread.

Next up for me will The New Men, the sixth book in C.P. Snow's "Strangers and Brothers" series.

I have just finished the excellent The Mandarins by Simone De Beauvoir and I am still struggling through Les enfants tristes by Roger Nimier.

I am starting another novel published in 1951 School for Love by Olivia Manning

Now reading Peace Talks by Jim Butcher, one of the two of his Dresden Files books released this year.

Finished Emma Cline's Daddy, which is a good collection if you're in the mood for that sort of thing—stories of people misbehaving, testing boundaries, and making poor choices, with (predictably) bad results. But super readable, and fun even though it's discomfiting.

Also read large chunks of: Danielle Evans's The Office of Historical Corrections (VERY good), Nicole Krauss's To Be a Man (also very good), Jasmon Drain's Stateway's Garden (fresh and affecting, but I didn't find the writing beautiful), and Francesca Marciano's Animal Spirit (a bit arm's-length in that way translations can be, but good). I'll probably return to all these partially-read books, even the ones I was iffy about, but I need to forge ahead for now...

My current non-fiction book is The Devil's Picnic by Taras Grescoe and my novel is The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham. I'm enjoying both.

I just finished and reviewed The Amish Newcomer which is about a journalist who takes refuge in an Amish community as part of the witness protection program after she witnesses a crime. I am just starting Christmas at the Lock Keeper's Cottage.

I started the month with a couple of novellas, The Turn of the Screw and The Lifted Veil, and then read, and loved, The Overstory. Now I've got to get back to The Magic Mountain.

>133 lisapeet: office of historical corrections sounds very good! Not out for a few weeks, eager to take a peek at it

I just finished the wonderful Memorial Drive and have started the much lighter The Eighth Detective, which is pretty interesting. I have no idea where it is going.

I started Graham Green 's The End of the Affair this evening. This has been on my shelf for far too long.

I'm reading an Anita Brookner novel, Leaving Home and, as a treat after having a tough week at work, I bought Tana French's new mystery, The Searcher. It has grabbed me right away.

I also just finished The Magic Mountain, which I had been reading for about 6 weeks.

>140 japaul22: That's not a Brookner I've read. Will look forward to hearing about it in your review.

It took me a few days to get through Giulia 1300 — good Italian-practice, but a pretty lightweight sort of book, really. In the meantime I also read the excellent Hangsaman on a tip from baswood, and I had a William Tell day with Schiller, Rossini and P G Wodehouse (now, that would be an interesting dinner-party combination!).

I've started Natasha's dance, and I'm also having a second run-through of Ali Smith's Seasonal quartet, on audio this time.

>140 japaul22: Congratulations on Magic mountain! A frustrating book, though, because almost everyone gets to the end of the 1000 pages thinking "I really must re-read that soon"...

I am reading The Haunter of the Dark and other tales of terror by H P Lovecraft.
His last story was the haunter in the Dark published in 1936, but this collection published with an introduction by August Derleth was published in 1951. I have not previously read any of H P Lovecraft's tales but they are now all on my kindle.

I just started Empire of Wild, which I think I heard about here.

I'm getting towards the end of The Sparrow, which I'm really enjoying and have been taking very slowly, and I've started Circe by Madeline Miller, which I've been looking forward to for ages.

>145 rachbxl: I had problems with the ending of Sparrow, but cannot argue with the discussion my group had about the book. Shes a good writer, still dock her a star for the mess at the end

Oh I hope you love Circe as much as I did (and continue to have each time I reread it!) Cant wait for her to come out with a new book! anyway, enjoy!

More science fiction: this one is from the masterwork series The Stars Like Dust by Isaac Asimov

I've picked up Suite Francaise which has been on my shelf for a while. Nemirovsky's The Wine of Solitude left me a bit cold a few years ago but I remember many of you told me to still give Suite Francaise a go, so here I am (at last).

I'm slowly making my way through the Booker Prize longlist. I finished Apeirogon by Colum McCann last week, which should have made the shortlist IMO, and I'm now reading Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi, which is okay so far.

Making my way through the back half of a long overdue Confederates in the Attic, sparking my interest in the American Civil War again.

I finished, and relished, The New Men, the 6th book in C.P. Snow's Strangers and Brothers series about English life, politics and society from the mid-1920s through the mid-60s. I love Snow's writing style and acute observations about human nature and relationships. You'll find a longer review on my CR thread.

I'm now back to my exploration of my friend Kim's recommended list of books on African-American history, as I've started Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow by Leon F. Litwack. This book isn't actually on the list, but it's Litwack's follow up to Been in the Storm So Long: the Aftermath of Slavery about the years during and immediately after the Civil War. Trouble in Mind if anything is even bleaker than Storm. My wife, because she loves me, wants to know why I have to read something so depressing and disturbing in the middle of a pandemic and a demoralizing political season. She's right, and yet I feel like I need to read this. I knew things were bad for my black countrymen and women, but I never really grasped the breadth of the oppression and the depth of the anguish. I wish I had read this 30 years ago. At any rate, I only have about 450 pages to go.

I read a bunch of half collections to finish up my Best Books judging, and kept going all the way to the end with my final book, Asako Serizawa's Inheritors. And—wow. It's a series of linked stories about the Japanese experience of WWII and its aftermath, and not always easy but really a knockout.

>150 stretch: Thats the first book I read by him, and his books proved to be among my favorites. He has a background in journalism, a curiousity about the world, and a very dry sense of humor. He passed away last year, which is very sad.

Just finished Finding Dorothy and starting Late Migrations

Just finished Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year for NetGalley, and I am reading Peace in the Valley which is about an Amish settlement set in Montana.

My next book from my shelves to read is Water Music, T C Boyle

Sorry to hijack this thread but I don't think we have an active message thread anymore (or maybe I've missed it).

I noticed that a few people that I follow have gone quiet on my 'starred topics' page that I use as my mainstay for CR, and when I did some digging I notice that when people have continued their thread in a new topic page it's not carrying the star with them as it used to before the revamp. Just flagging in case anyone else is oblivious to this as well. Also, annoyingly you can't star a topic within the topic anymore - you have to go back to the CR group feed.

I noticed this too.

I finished a very good Empire of Wild and have just started Hieroglyphics.

>156 AlisonY: I have an option to "Star this thread" It is in the top right corner, above the group name/photo.

>159 ELiz_M: I'm not seeing it. Will have to figure it out when I'm back on my laptop.

>160 AlisonY:

If you’re in mobile the starring a thread option is at the very bottom of the page after the comment field.

Oh thanks - see it now.....

>156 AlisonY: Oh I hadn't noticed that. That will be annoying for people who I follow that are in groups I wouldn't otherwise visit. Thanks for the heads up and I hope they fix that soon!

Reading The Fifth Element, By Jørgen Brekke, 3rd book in his Odd Singsaker series, also continuing with the rather amusing nonfiction A Libertarian Walks into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (and some Bears). Will probably alternate with finishing some of the short story collection I'm in the middle of....

>163 japaul22: Apparently they're working on it. New release teething problems.

And I just found the stars within threads on web too - it's moved to the RHS. I hadn't noticed and was still looking for it at the top of the thread.

Just finished Peace in the Valley and currently reading An Amish Singing which is a series of four short stories.

I finished up Danielle Evans's The Office of Historical Corrections, which was excellent—it's out next month and I highly recommend if you're a fan of contemporary short fiction.

Now reading a memoir of an artist who was born with spina bifida, Golem Girl, by Riva Lehrer.

I look forward to your thoughts about Golem Girl, Lisa.

Just happened upon this book at my local used and had to get it a life like other people's I love any thing by Alan Bennet the madness of king george the clothes they stood up in and common reader among my favs. This is a memoir, and its really quite a lovely telling of his childhood and mental illness, and being different.

Also still reading late migrations which because of the poetic language, its going slower than I expected but still likeing it

also still reading the writer's library which I'll be reading for a while because I enjoy just reading a few of these at a time.

I needed a quick read for some longer train rides so read Amelie Nothomb's Riquet a la houppe, one of her better ones sitting at a middle grade of 3/5.

I’ve finished Schiller’s dramas, and am starting on the lyrics now. I’m about halfway through Natasha’s Dance and also reading Le Clézio’s The Prospector.

At the weekend I read another Byatt short story collection The little black book of stories and re-read Julian Barnes’s Cross channel for book-club.

>155 baswood: I’ve been hoping for nearly forty years that Boyle will write another book as good as Water music. No luck yet...

Back to the Elizabethans for Gabriel Harveys - 4 letters and certain sonnets (hope the letters are not too long)

I've picked up The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, which has been on my TBR pile for too long.

>173 AlisonY: One of my longtime favorites, which I've been meaning to reread—the friend who bought an old hardcover copy for for me years ago "borrowed" and never returned it, so a couple of years ago I bought the NYRB reissue. I'm looking forward to hearing what you think.

I keep some paper tags near where I read so I can mark fav phrases or pages in the book . I started to do so in Late Migrations but after 20, gave up. This book is a love letter to observing nature, to families, to loss and love. Not a wrong move, just me sighing at the end of each piece. Not usually a fan of poetry prose, but she knocks it out of park. Want more of her writing!!!!!!

touch stones not working

Late Migrations

>174 lisapeet: I've kept going past it on my TBR, Lisa. Now I'm running out of fresh books so I've no excuse!

Seems this is my first update since Sep 12. Flipping audiobooks, both on the Booker longlist - I finished Apeirogon (good, important, but not really amazing literature) and started The New Wilderness which seems to open as a post-apocalyptic thing, something like The Road.

So far 3 Booker long list books down and I'm not loving them. Last year at this point I was impressed with how dynamic and interesting these books were that I otherwise would not have read. So far these have been three monotone books - all one voice, all one thing told at length. I honestly can't say my life is better for having read these. But...that is interesting in its own light.

In actually reading I'm still working through Paradiso, nearing completion. My Shakespeare group is reading Henry V (not getting me excited). And I finally cracked open another Nabokov - Invitation to a Beheading, which happens to have a wonderful opening - best sustained prose I've experienced with Nabokov. But I haven't been able to spend time with it.

I have started Night at the Vulcan by Ngaio Marsh

Finished the exhaustive history of China's revolutions in Jonathan Spence's The Gate of Heavenly Peace. What a wonderful history that I know I'll have to visit again as there is just so much in there. I knew China went through a chaotic period but wow!

Just stared Such a Fun Age for my book club

New thread is up - probably the last for the year. :)