What are you reading the week of October 17, 2020?

New thread for the new week...

Finished Dead Man in a Ditch by Luke Arnold. Liked it but not as much as the first book.

Added The Thirst by Jo Nesbø to my reading rotation.

Just finished the wonderfully written collection of short stories, Close Range: Wyoming Stories.

Next up for listening is Earthlings by Sayaka Murata.

I had to put my other book aside for a bit to start A Burning by Megha Majumdar for book club next Saturday. So far it's enjoyable and going quickly.

Greetings! I'm about a third of the way through The New Men, the 6th book in C.P. Snow's Strangers and Brothers series. We're in England during World War II and the scientists and civil servants are trying to wrap their brains around the process of trying to create an atom bomb while at the same time thinking about their own careers and reputations. Snow's observations about human nature are acute and very rewarding. Low-key, very British writing. Just the calming ticket for me write now.

I'm very slowly moving through The Invention of the White Race: Volume 1.

Estou lendo lentamente, quase parando, mas não desisto: Ansiedade, 2. E também Agatha Christie, Nêmesis, mais rapidamente, afinal, Agatha é Agatha...

Reading Into the Void when I can but listening to Ragnarok when I'm in the car

Hello!
This week I finished listening to the audiobook Wish You Were Here, a true crime story about a man whose older sister was murdered near her college in Quebec's Eastern Townships in 1978, and his determination to find out who killed her and why. The case was never investigated by local or provincial police as it was assumed that the death was drug-related, and therefore not worth their time. It was very good listening. I started a new audiobook yesterday: Killers of the Flower Moon, about the murders of Osage people in northern Oklahoma in the 1920s. It's really interesting.

I tried to read The Sisters Brothers but couldn't get into it despite the fact that it was critically acclaimed by reviewers both professional and amateur. I have left the bookmark in it and will probably give it another go. Instead I'm reading Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman, and am thorougly wrapped up in it.

None of my touchstones are showing up in my comment above. Is that something to do with the new format?

Finished Battle Ground by Jim Butcher. A little too much death and destruction for me at the moment.

I finished reading Bless Me, Ultima, New Mexico's answer to To Kill A Mockingbird. Marvelous!

Next, I plan to finish reading Plexus, the 2nd volume of The Rosy Crucifixion by Henry Miller.

Also, finished listening to the disturbing &thought-provoking Earthlings. I am goingbto listen next to a short story, Yard Work by David Koepp.

Finished listening to the intense short story, Yard Work.

Next up for listening is Vesper Flights by Helen MacDonald.

>8 ahef1963: 'Killers of the Flower Moon' was terrific. If you are listening to the audiobook, I hope it includes the end material from Chapter 26 of the paper book -- a chapter entitled "Blood Cries Out". Without going into a lot of detail, Grann got access to additional archival material after the main body of his book was finished. He discovered even more cases similar to the ones he chronicled in the main book. (I've been trying to get our book club liaison to bring this to our club but for some reason he's dragging his feet. First, it wasn't available in paperback and when it was it was "too old". Grrrrrrrr!)

Took a break with a fun little cozy mystery called The Vampire Knitting Club, which is the setup for a new series.

Working now on City of Girls, which is set in New York City during WWII and centers around an off-Broadway theater and the troupe of actors who put on shows there.

Rereading Anna of Kleve: the Princess in the Portrait by Alison Weir in paperback.
It's #4 in her "Six Tudor Queens" series. I don't "get" the story line between Anna and her cousin.

I already read the #5 installment Katheryn Howard: Scandalous Queen from the library.

The #6 novel and finale Katharine Parr: the Sixth Wife will be released next year.

Vanish
Tess Gerritsen
4/5 stars
Jane Rizzoli is a homicide detective and is on the verge of having her first child at the hospital when she is entrapped into a hostage situation with a woman who was brought into the hospital in a body bag but still alive. Gerritsen weaves a tale of desperation that keeps you reading on to find out what is going on!

Finished The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware, a fast-paced psychological thriller which totally had me reading for hours uninterrupted. A real page-turner.

>14 princessgarnet: When Im looking for some Tudor history, I find Norah Lofthas some of the best historic fiction. the king's pleasure is an excellent example. Its the story of Katherine of Aragon, from her time growing up the beloved princess of Isabelle and Ferdinan, and to her marriage to Arthur Tudor, his subsequent death, and her abuse by Henry VII
You come away with a much more well rounded history of her than is usually found with books about her. . Her marriage to Henry VIII was one of love and respect, which changed when she didn't bear a son. Once Henry starts to divorce her, she was moved from house to house, in limited conditions But rather than portray her as an old clinging hag, was a person of strength, intelligence and perserverance despite it all. (incidentally her sister is the 'Mad Queen' of Spain who really wasn't but thats another tale) Anyway Lofts other books about the tudors, as well as the plantagenets are well worth seeking out

Now reading The Writer's Library Nancy Pearlwhich I eagerly awaited, but after reading a few of the interviews, feeling very disappointed. the interviews are not flowing in conversations, but keep jumping from question to question (almost like New york times By The Book interviews)I probably need to just read one interview at a time and then move to another read just to give it more of a chance to sit better with me. so stay tuned (loved Susan Orleans intro where she talks about how books make a person, and watching her mother in demential losing parts of herself, like a burning library)

Finished The Thirst by Jo Nesbø. Liked this one muchly.

Added Bad Memory by Lisa Gray to my rotation.

Just finished City of Girls, by Elizabeth Gilbert, and enjoyed it very much.

Normally, I have very little patience with books that are "framed" -- "I was sitting in a bar and this guy sat down beside me and told me the wildest story I've ever heard". I always wonder why the author didn't get the "I" out of the way and just tell the other guy's story straight up.

It takes a long time -- most of the book, in fact, for the reader to understand just why Gilbert chose this form -- and it works spectacularly well. Along the way, we get not so much the "coming of age" tale one might have expected, but a much more nuanced "coming of character" story that stretches over three-plus decades of the narrator's life.

New thread:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/325731