WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 5

Time for a new thread.

Come and share what you had been reading and what you are reading :)

I am reading The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie.

After a pause back at Hope Abandoned by Nadezhda Mandelstam. I've also picked up the hero with a thousand faces by Joseph Campbell and loving it.

I am reading The Feast of Love, really good so far.

I recently finished The Survivors by Jane Harper, her new mystery which I really liked. Now I'm reading Coming of Age in Mississippi, Anne Moody's memoir of growing up as a Black girl in the South through her young adulthood in the 1960s and involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.
And for fiction I'm reading Libertie, which I got as a Book of the Month club book.

I recently finished The Glimpses of the Moon which was lovely, even though I wanted more deviousness and The Artamonov Business which was fine, but I missed any kind of point to the story. I'm now reading Shit, Actually and Revenge.

I always forget to post anything here. I’ll try to be better at that. I just finished Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi, which I enjoyed. It has led me to add Homegoing to my own wishlist. I started a reread of Bring Up The Bodies, which I read when it first came out. I plan to read The Mirror and the Light at some point and wanted to reread the first two books as it was so long ago that they came out.

Have finished Charlotte McConaghy's novel Migrations and am continuing, when mood or opportunity allows, with Midden by Julia Bouwsma (poetry), The (Other) You: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates ...or How Iceland Changed the World: The Big History of a Small Island by Egill Bjarnason.

Our tenure as supervisors of our now 6-year old grandson's remote schooling has come to an end, so we look forward to having more time for ourselves again, which includes more reading.

Kinda basking in the world of three really rewarding books.

Yesterday I finished Pnin by Nabokov, which I found terrific, and it was especially nice for me since I had no idea what to expect. Pnin, the character, a Russian scholar and American immigrant, is both beautiful and an extreme epitome on loneliness.

This morning I started The Book of Not by Tsitsi Dangaremba and I’m quickly into it.

On audio is Begin Again by Eddie S. Glaude - in which he basically uses Baldwin’s essays to express his own disappointment in American racism - and it working because Baldwin was just so elegant and angry and brutally disappointed and what he said then is so applicable now, maybe more so now.

I've just started an omnibus - The Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count) Starter Pack by RJ Blain. Her stuff is a lot of fun - this is my first... well, OK, I read a novella in this series before, but this is the first novel (three novels, four novellas in the omnibus). Really good fluff. And seriously crazy families.

Just finished The Childrens Train for the RG Childhood theme. Still working on the june RT theme past history In An Antique Land and still plodding on with Schonfields Rise and Fall of Thomas Cromwell; still worth it for some interesting details, but having to skim to get there.

>7 NanaCC: be sure to pop in on the Wolf Hall discussion!

Finished The Baby Merchant by Kit Reed. Emotionally raw, but ultimately limited view of the black market adoption racket in a future world. All the men are exploitive, and all the women are insane with baby desire (or baby hatred). Misses an opportunity to get at the real problem, which is a society that views children as commodities or accessories.

Now on Getting Colder by Amanda Coe. Mom leaves kids for famous alcoholic writer. She dies and the kids have a reckoning about her. Generally not my cuppa, but I like what Amanda Coe did as a script writer for the miniseries adaptation of Black Narcissus, so decided to try one of her novels.

Just realized two novels about screwed up mothers back-to-back. Not sure that was a good idea ...

I’ve finished Bring Up The Bodies which I think I loved even more the second time around. I’m looking forward to reading The Mirror and the Light sometime soon. On audio, I finished listening to The Last Mrs Summers by Rhys Bowen, 14th in the Her Royal Spyness series. Pure silly fluff, but sometimes I just need that.

Next up on kindle, The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. And, on audio Telling Tales by Ann Cleeves.

I loved The Feast of Love and am sorry I left it on my shelf for so long. I'll comment more fully after my book club discussion tomorrow.

I am starting Unsettled Ground

>14 NanaCC: Oh Vanishing Half is wonderful! Another new young author of color getting lots of accolades for it. BTW do now watch the series until you've read the book; its really well done, but they change the ending. Not fun

Loved the third book in Mantels trilogy - its different and slower, but not nec in a bad way

Happened upon Silk Road:a new history of the world Ive learned a lot from reading about the places the road takes me, both fiction and none. Will be interesting how he puts this together.

I finished a debut collection of stories called The End of the World is a Cul de Sac (don't rush out to buy it, people). On now to Mr Mac and Me by Esther Freud - I think it was Jennifer's thread that reminded me I haven't read any Esther Freud for a while, and I usually really enjoy her writing.

>17 AlisonY: Yes! I haven't read Mr. Mac and Me yet, so I'll watch for your review!

I finished reading The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. Highly recommended. I’m going to read S is For Silence by Sue Grafton, before I tackle The Mirror and the Light.

>19 NanaCC: my only complaint of VH was the ending - I wanted a few loose ends tied together, or at the very least, a conversation between the two sisters, But its very good otherwise

I finished the wonderful Unsettled Ground and now will start the latest Mary Russell mystery, Castle Shade.

Another novel from 1951 and its William Styron's first novel Lie down in Darkness it is very depressing.

I just finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I feel like I enjoyed it more than I really should have somehow, but I enjoyed it to much too care. :)

Next up is Broken (in the best possible way) by the always hilarious and amazing Jenny Lawson.

On a William Golding jag. Re-reading The Inheritors and downloaded The Spire and three novellas in The Scorpion God collection

>23 bragan: Andy Weir is a good story-teller. I was hooked on The Martian, and I think I actually gasped "oh my god!" when the potatoes all died. Something to be said for those thrill-a-minute page-turners!

I finished The Best of It: New and Selected Poems by Kay Ryan. It was a book group read, and we had our meeting yesterday. I wasn't quite as enthralled with Ryan's poetry as most of the other fellows in the group, but I was very happy that someone chose a poetry collection for us to read. My wife and I are leaving on a 10-day camping trip very shortly. I'll post a longer review of the collection upon my return. Also, I'm still reading the fascinating We Band of Brothers, Edwin Guthman's memoir of his time working for Robert Kennedy during RFK's time as Attorney General and U.S. Senator. Cheers, all, and I'll see you when I get back.

>24 nohrt4me2: The Spire is one of my favourite books of all time.

>24 nohrt4me2: Yes, he really is a good storyteller! Which is something that's too often not at all true of people who write that kind of technically detailed SF, so it's extra exciting to encounter, maybe. Certainly for someone like me who likes both science and good storytelling, but too seldom encounters them together! I suppose I'm quite happy to forgive a heck of a lot for the fun of that combination.

I'm on vacation, reading a bit of everything: Shit, Actually, Minor Feelings, The Eighth Life, and Hadrian the Seventh and contemplating adding something else to the mix...

I'm starting No One Is Taking about This. Touchstones not working.

>29 BLBera: I wasnt sure about the format at first, but once I got going, this book blew me away. I’m still thinking about it weeks later.

>27 bragan: Hmm, I'll have to give that one a shot.

I whipped through Jane Harper's The Survivors, which was a good fun Aussie thriller. And then because I read a review of it somewhere and put a hold on it, I'm reading another thriller, Children of Chicago, which is not that great... the premise is interesting, though, so I'll probably stick with it. But where was the copy editor on this one? The theme turns on a dark version of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," but damn if Grimms' Fairy Tales isn't punctuated every which way.

Loved the first half of Samakland, then lost interest in the persian french comflict that really took away from the story. But it was worth the read just to learn about the history of Omar and of the book

Gave up on Schonfield book, too much trouble to get through it.

So Im at the beach and have paperback copies of the Welsh trilogy by Sharon Kay Penman; its been ages since I read them, looking forward to it!

I generally love anything by Jeffrey Lent, but I'm struggling to get through After You've Gone. Hating a main character (one that is supposed to be admirable as well as likable) isn't helping. I may end up abandoning it, although I'm almost 2/3 of the way through.

Not getting much reading done because of other things, but still read a bit at night. Abandoned the Ron Rash novel when there was a sudden POV change which took me a couple of pages to figure out, but then picked up Swedish author Linda Bostrom Knausgard's short novel Welcome to America which is interesting....

Finished The Mystery of the Blue Train and now continuing with Belle: An Amish Retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

I've been reading a couple of Daniel Pennac's non-fiction books about education, Comme un roman and Chagrin d'école. Harmless fun, since I'm neither a parent nor a teacher and thus don't have to have an informed opinion about them...

I've now moved on to a book that got stranded on the TBR for a long time for no very obvious reason, The Kellys and the O'Kellys.

I am just about to start Sir Thomas Moore, Anthony Munday in one of the revels plays editions. This Elizabethan play is now credited to Anthony Munday and others, but perhaps its main claim to fame is that the original manuscript contains three pages that many people believe were written in Shakespeare's own hand. The only pages in existence written by Shakespeare?

I am starting The Center of Everything.

Every year I promise myself and others I will finally read Moby Dick and this is the year. I am reading and reading and reading it. I have reached page 364, but the Great White One has not yet appeared. I decided I needed something more immersive while sailing the seas in search of the whale, and oddly discovered it in John Banville's Doctor Copernicus, an unexpected escape.

>39 SassyLassy: I decided I needed something more immersive while sailing the seas in search of the whale

Twenty thousand leagues under the sea?

I joined the local library today. It has been over 40 years since I was a library member. I was disappointed that they do not date stamp books for returning anymore. This used to be my favourite bit of the library experience.

The two books I have borrowed are:

La Maison des Anges by Pascal Bruckner
Nuit d'ivresse en Castille by Jean-Pierre Alaux et Noël Balen

>39 SassyLassy: hee, you can join us old Readerville folks who pledged they would not read Moby Dick or Ulysses over the summer. Just for fun

Finished in An Antique Land for the June theme, reading the Penman as mentioned above, but I find myself getting really distracted on the beach. Its just so lovelly I don't want to miss one moment. Ill get back to it once I arrive back in 110 degree phx and have no choice but to stay inside

Finished Children of Chicago, which wasn't very good.

Finished The Book of Not, on growing up during the Zimbabwe war of independence. I really enjoyed it. Next, started Hot Milk by Deborah Levy

>40 thorold: I thought I posted, but it seems to have disappeared.

I decided I needed something more immersive while sailing the seas in search of the whale was completed unconscious, but perhaps shows some of my dedication to this read!

The Verne is on the reread list - but probably not an immediate followup.

>42 cindydavid4: There must be a story behind that pledge?

while at the beach I noticed a little library with several books, including Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid. Ive read many of her short stories in the NYer, and Id read her small place that I really liked and looked forward to reading this on..The main character, a young adult that has gone through a lot has many emotional issues and comes across as very bitter, spiteful, and generally not a happy person, I understand why, but she is a nanny to four little girls and doesn't seem to like them. Her world view is so different from the families that I wondered if she'd grow. Got really tired of her complaining so went to the back of the book to see what happens, nope more of the same. I went back the next day and put in back in the library, along with a few others I dnf Hopefully someone else will enjoy them

whew looks like i read all my june books. Going to my TBR shelf and see what intrigues me next stay tuned

>45 SassyLassy: hee, its really a joke, Lisa Peet might remember how this started more than I, but someone wanted to know what they should read for the summer, naming the two mentioned above. Everyone says they will read then but most of us hadn't and rather than feel guilty, just said, I plan not to read these over the summer. We did it every year. I think some of us still do

I finished the wonderful The Center of Everything and am starting The Dictionary of Lost Words.

I moved on from Trollope to Plankton, the third instalment of JJ Voskuil’s carbon-paper and paperclip epic, Het Bureau. That should keep me busy for a day or two.

>49 thorold: How much Trollope did you get in? Weren't you trying to get through the Barchester chronicles?

>50 nohrt4me2: No, this time it was just a single novel that had got stuck on the TBR, The Kellys and the O'Kellys.

I re-read the Barchester novels some years ago; I think there are still a couple of the Pallisers that I haven’t read yet.

flipping audiobooks. I finished Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude jr, which was terrific, especially if you love James Baldwin. Tomorrow I will begin Who They Was by northwest London author Gabriel Krauze. The audiobook was just released June 22.

Currently reading Belle: An Amish Retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

I finished the very good Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward.

I am all over the place reading-wise at the moment which is an accurate reflection of my state of mind.

I'm still reading The Mirror and The Light - it's safe to say I won't be finishing this today. I am enjoying it, but it's (at the moment) 'quieter' than the other two and my reading pace reflects that.

I've also started but not yet finished By Force Alone, The Fall of Koli, The Salt Path, The Grandest Bookshop in the World, and The Vanished Birds.

The books I've managed to read through to the end are light/mass market/easy reads: Two Steps Onward, Legacy and Win.

Hot Milk was terrific and I will pursue more by Deborah Levy. About to start Pale Fire, a Nabokov novel that gets talked up a lot, setting uncomfortable expectations. But I don’t know anything about it.

I finished Mr Mac and Me by Esther Freud (beautiful writing as always, but what she was trying to do with the story felt a little confused).

Next up I'm reading Amo, Amas, Amat.. and All That: How to Become a Latin Lover by Harry Mount. Reading The Name of the Rose reminded me how much I've forgotten of the Latin I studied at school up to age 16, and gave me a hankering to delve into it again a little (with a light touch).

>57 dchaikin: Looking forward to your review, Dan. I too loved Hot Milk.

Reading Ariadne, which a friend sent me for my birthday. So far it's no Circe (what is?) but it's evocative, immersive, and fun.

Just got my hands on the entire Richard Blade Series from the 70s. 37 books in all. Gonna dive into them.

>61 JHemlock: That sounds about like what I need right now. I think I'm gonna trg The Bronze Axe when I get done with my somewhat disappointing Wm Golding reads. In my old age, I seem to be gravitating to more pulp fiction.

I am looking at Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche and Summer at Fairacre as my next reads.

I finished the very good historical novel The Dictionary of Lost Words and am starting my book club read, Night Waking

I'm reading an ER book: The Burning Blue: The Untold Story of Christa McAuliffe and NASA's Challenger Disaster by Kevin Cook, which I'm finding interesting even if it's a topic that always makes me sad. So far, there's been a lot of good background on the astronauts, the Teacher in Space program, what the mission was hoping to accomplish, etc., and I keep getting invested in it all on its own terms and then remembering all over again how it all ends...

After Plankton I polished off a short book from the TBR, Il ‰gioco della mosca by Andrea Camilleri, and then read a Brazilian children's book as a bridge between the Q2 and Q3 themes in Reading Globally: O gato malhado e a andorinha Sinhá: uma história de amor by Jorge Amado.

My first book of Q3 has been Journal d'un curé de campagne. I'm starting on Mia Couto's Terra sonâmbula, I'll see how far I get in Portuguese before I chicken out and switch to a translation...

Finished Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche and now reading The Amish Secret Wish.

I'm currently reading The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo by the Cabo Verdean author Germano Almeida, which I'm reading for the third quarter Reading Globally theme on The Lusophone World, along with my latest LT Early Reviewers book, The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam, and The Cause of Freedom: A Concise History of African Americans by Jonathan Scott Holloway, a former Professor of History at Northwestern and Yale, who last year became the first African American President in the 255 year history of Rutgers University, my undergraduate alma mater.

I waited very patiently for Hamnet to come out in paperback, so now it's my turn. I'm about 25 pages in and not sure what I think yet - the prose style is not what I expected.

keep reading! it was a little off for me when I first started, but it will rope you in soon!!

>70 cindydavid4: Same here. It took me a while to settle in to Hamnet but found it very much worthwhile in the long run.

>69 AlisonY: I also have Hamnet close to the top of the TBR.

Sick of William Golding--not sure why I was so entranced with him in my 20s and now I find him and his windy descriptions of terrain so annoying--so put The Spire on hold and went on to Jose Saramago's Blindness.

Mostly I am too jumpy to read. Two cousins have died in the last month, our old cat is fading fast, and my husband recently had a heart attack and is complaining about his beta blockers making him tired. I am still leery of socializing, so the only places I go are to funerals, the vet, and emergency rooms. Something tells me this might be why I can't settle with a reading programme.

>70 cindydavid4:, >71 rocketjk: That's what I was hoping someone would say!

>72 nohrt4me2: Wow - life's thrown a lot at you there - I'm not surprised your reading is taking a knock. I hope that your husband is recovering well. My sister's husband had a heart attack in his early 40s, and I remember she found him to be tired and quite emotionally detached in the months afterwards until he got weaned off some of the initial drugs he was put onto. He's vey much back to his normal self these days (minus the cigars he'd got into the habit of chomping on whilst he worked), so given a little time I'm sure your husband will be the same. Very frightening, though.

I'm also wary of socialising as my dad has a poor immune system (and also I don't fancy either COVID or long COVID). I'm finding this transition period tough - most friends are now back out socialising, whilst like you I only go places I really need to. In many ways this period could be harder for those of us who aren't quite ready to start taking more COVID risks. I already feel like a bit of a social pariah amongst my friends who are all back to their meals out and yoga classes.

>72 nohrt4me2: You really want to dive into Blindness? I love Saramago but this one ust was rough. Just saying you might want to get something lighter. Or not :) so sorry for all thats happening in your life! hope you have some good support around you

>73 AlisonY: many ways this period could be harder for those of us who aren't quite ready to start taking more COVID risks.

Oh I know, we also have friends in the same boat. We try to keep in touch with them by phone or social media. I doubt you are a piriah to your friends. Most people just do not know what is happening to people, and assume their friends in your place are ok by themselves. Please reach out to them so you can get some support!

>74 cindydavid4: >73 AlisonY: I'll consider myself warned abt Saramago. So far his narrative style takes an omniscient/distancing tone. I gather he is quite pessimistic re humankind. I doubt I will find that too off-putting. It is sometimes comforting to know that others see the same things you do.

It's hard work to maintain that relentless positivity Americans are always insisting on. It's why Americans are always talking up support systems but don't really have one; how can you tell people about the times when life is dark when you have to stay positive?

Plus, purge the negative people in your life, as my sister in law is always advocating, and no one will be left to tell you the truth.

Fortunately, I have a few cynical friends with a mordant sense of humor who can commiserate! And my husband is holding his own, but a little weepy. Trying not to exacerbate that, hence the negative outburst above.

>72 nohrt4me2: that's a lot. Wish you well and some reading peace (although, from what I know of Blindness...hmm)

>75 nohrt4me2: "It's hard work to maintain that relentless positivity Americans are always insisting on." - interesting comment

>75 nohrt4me2: It's hard work to maintain that relentless positivity Americans are always insisting on. It's why Americans are always talking up support systems but don't really have one; how can you tell people about the times when life is dark when you have to stay positive?

I have lived with depression since I was 15 or so. Wasnt till much later I went to therapy and given life saving meds. I still have bad days tho, and hate hate hate it wen peoplei i don't know say' smile!' ' or sometimes how are you is hard to answer. and I don't do small talk well at the best of times People here are overyl optimistic and think thats ok to a point. I never mind being friendly or responding to a friednly comment. but some people and think everyone is happy, well cared for and whole. I wish they would look around them and really see.

Then again there is always hope Pandora has always been my fav mythological creature. and that does help to keep my head on straight and actually sml

Now tho, because suicides have gone up rather dramatically, I will ask those questins - you ok, how you holding up etc. Making sure they are not alone. so my comment was just making sure . For me this is why books were so imporant to me. I never felt alone, was never hurt and could hide in a good story now and again. Hang in there :)

.

>75 nohrt4me2: Fortunately, I have a few cynical friends with a mordant sense of humor who can commiserate!

oh yes, indeed the best medicine even if its a dark humor and cynical as hell

>72 nohrt4me2:

Sorry that you are having such a hard go at it. I loved The Spire and the descriptions of the terrain are much needed for the plot so perhaps you can come back to it at a later time. I echo the sentiments and advice of others that you should probably Blindness at this time. I loved the book but it's very dark.

I recently finished Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, Quartet, and Piranesi and while done with the text of Cane (162 pages), have 70ish pages of afterword to read. I've started The Return of Philip Latinovicz, which I'll probably set aside, and Minor Detail.

>72 nohrt4me2: It never rains, huh? I had a year like that in 2019 and the first couple of months of 2020, and was just beginning to breathe a sigh of relief when COVID hit. I hope your husband gains some good ground, and peace to your old cat.

I'm about 3/4 through Ariadne and enjoying it a lot—it's a fun myth retelling, lots of good visual detail and it really does spirit one away.

>80 ELiz_M: Cane was one of the most interesting things I have ever read. A real work of art!

>81 lisapeet: Im wanting go read that, how would you compare it to Circe?

I am very excited about a book I'd been wanting for decades. in 2000 we took a month in italy. On the way I was reading sixteen pleasures about the flood of 1966 . This was all new to me, and I was fascinated and wanted to know more about the history. So when we were in Florence bookstores and museums asking for a book about this. No one had any idea what I was talking about (and my friend was fluent in Italian) fast forward to yesterday, was at my local indie looking the staff picks and saw dark waters: Art, Disaster, and Redemption in Florence. Unfortunatly they id not have it so I ordered it. I am soooo excited! Cant wait to read it

>75 nohrt4me2: I liked Blindness, so I'd say plough on!!

>72 nohrt4me2: I can understand where you are coming from. Sounds like 2014-2015 was for me, with too much crashing in at once. At least you have some friends here who understand and listen.

Thank you, everyone for the kind words, and apologies for "going off." I ranted at the poor cardio nurse the other day abt how much I hate retirement. I need to get a damn grip.

>86 nohrt4me2: Do not be too hard on yourself. During those rough times, just hanging on and surviving is the most important thing. As the grief counselor told us in the widow's group that I attended, "Just breathe." Sometimes that is all we can do.

So, Pale Fire is a really complicated difficult novel. I didn't know. Plodding through. Today I started two other books - All's Well That Ends Well, a Shakespeare "problem play" (that's a genre, not a flaw in the play), and The Touchstone by Edith Wharton. Both are for the Litsy group reads. The Touchstone is Wharton's first novella and marks the start of a new theme. We are planning to read through all Wharton's novels and novellas in publication order. (skipping the book she wrote at 15 for now...it was published last).

I finished both The Best of It: New and Selected Poems by Kay Ryan and We Band of Brothers: A Memoir of Robert Kennedy by Edwin Guthman. If interested, you can find my comments on my CR thread.

I'm now reading Glimpses, by Lewis Shriner, published in the early 1990s. The book is marketed as science fiction, but really it's (at just past the halfway point) a somewhat dark but very effective character study of a man in personal crisis, with some very well done magical realism thrown in. Sadly, I'm going to have to set this book aside temporarily as soon as my recently order copy of Barack Obama's recent 900-page memoir arrives, as I only have until July 18 to read as much as I can of it before my book group meets!

p.s. I've been trying to upload a few photos from my recent camping trip among the Redwoods of Del Norte County, CA, to my gallery, but they keep uploading upside down! Anyone have a clue what's happening? Thanks!

>89 rocketjk: I had a similar problem on another site. I just turned the photos upside down on paint and, voila, they uploaded right side up. There's probably some fixit Our Young People know, but, my method worked, and I am done learning new things.

>90 nohrt4me2: Thanks! I'll try that if nothing else gets revealed to me.

I’ve just finished Mia Couto’s Terra Sonâmbula and Stefan Zweig’s Magellan — reviews coming tomorrow, probably.

I’m going on in the spirit of the Lusophone theme with the other relevant book on the TBR, The book of disquiet, and I’ve also been inspired by all the talk of teachers and schools on the Questions thread to pick up Kate Clanchy’s Some kids I taught and what they taught me, last year’s Orwell Prize winner.

>90 nohrt4me2: Nope - that is the fastest way indeed.

New cameras and formats have "orientation" coded into the images. Some sites can use those; most cannot (including LT). So even if your computer/phone shows it in the correct way, it saves it in its own way. When you edit the image, the save fixes that orientation - so what you see is what the file thinks it is. :)

>93 AnnieMod: " . . . so what you see is what the file thinks it is."

Somewhere, Douglas Adams is smiling, I think. :)

Thanks, Annie!

I'm enjoying Bitter Orange, by Claire Fuller. It has a great summery atmosphere that's perfect for my mood.

I grew up in Philadelphia - it is not relentlessly positive. Philadelphians boo their own sports teams. I think East coast cities are exempt from the relentless positivity.

>96 dianeham: Philadelhians boo their own sports teams.

Haha! Maybe I need to live there.

I don't think most Americans are, by nature, relentlessly positive. It's the worst sort of cynics who try to sell people on the notion that positivity will help them achieve wealth, fame, unconditional love, or a cure for their cancer. Sadly, I think that snake oil has filtered into legitimate streams of thought so that suddenly everybody from your priest to your doctor is telling you to maintain a positive outlook. It was in the info my husband brought home from the hospital after his heart attack.

Barbara Ehrenreich's Bright Sided pretty much gets it right.

>62 nohrt4me2: The Blade books are rather surprising when it comes to pulp. The writing is not half bad. Of course the storyline is juvenile, but they are tons of fun and not as corny as Doc Savage.

Finished Olive again and have mixed feelings about it. There were some great moments that reminded me how much I loved the original book, but others that just felt disjointed. And the end felt like a long slow crawl to the obvious conclusion. Yet there were moments of brilliance, in how other characters some how brought Olivia to a place of trust and acceptance of others. It will be an interesting discussion in our book group later on coz right now Im not sure how to rate it

Now reading an absolutely remarkable thing for my sci fi group and already loving it! Will be easy to finish by tomorrow. (been distracted from reading for a month or so due to the NBA finals and last nights game was amazing! Been a long time since I got excited about this team , for good reasn. Go suns!!!)

Currently reading The Mousse Wonderful Time of the Year which is an Oxford Tea Room Mystery, (Christmas in July, anyone?) and Summer at Fairacre by Miss Read.

Finished Jennifer Saint's Ariadne, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Not sure what's up next, so until I decide I'll just read some back issues of all my piled up periodicals.

I finished up the surprisingly excellent novel Glimpses, by Lewis Shiner. It's a story of a character wrestling with his own present and past, with magical realism visits with 60s counter culture icons. My more in-depth comments are on my CR thread.

Next, I have 10 days to read Barack Obama's 900-page memoir of his presidency, A Promised Land, before my book group meets. Wish me luck!

I finished reading The Mirror and the Light the last book in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy. Just terrific. The entire trilogy is highly recommended.

I’m starting Proof of Guilt by Charles Todd.

Today I'll resume reading two books that I barely started on Tuesday, the novel Good Morning Comrades by Ondjaki (Angola), and Anos Ku Ta Manda, a poetry collection by Yasmina Nuny (Guinea-Bissau), both for the Lusophone World theme in the Reading Globally group.

Some kids I taught and what they taught me was really excellent, very interesting. (And that’s coming from someone who hasn’t seen the inside of a school in the last forty years…)

I’m still dipping into The book of disquiet, which doesn’t want to be rushed, and I’ve started Dubravka Ugrešić’s Karaoke culture.

>103 NanaCC: come join the discussion!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/331797#n7492798

>105 thorold: Definitely don't rush it! And thanks for the reminder that I meant to get to The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis last fall, after I finished The Book of Disquiet.

I just started Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, which an old Readerville friend sent me last year. It's been sitting here on my desk with its gorgeous cover for a while, and then a couple of weeks ago I had dinner with a friend who was in the middle of it and LOVED it and said I had to read it immediately. And I am nothing if not suggestible. I'm just in the Introduction but I can see already that Sheldrake has a nice style—it's very readable.

I finished the novel Good Morning Comrade by the Angolan author Ondjaki this morning, which is narrated by a schoolboy in Angola just before the initial and very temporary end of the Angolan Civil War in May 1991. Next up will be the latest book by one of my favorite physician authors, Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History by Dr Paul Farmer, the chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Partners in Health.

Finished and loved Night Waking. Just the kind of novel I love, lots of ideas and great characters.

I've just started In the Company of Men. I've heard nothing about it, but it was on the new book rack at my library, and I thought it sounded interesting.

eagerly awaiting my copy of McCaffery's Freedoms Land for the july theme. In the meantime I have all the way to the tigers and ariadne for this weekend. And a little basketball as well (go suns!)

I read The War That Saved My Life in one sitting and am now eagerly awaiting notice from the library about the sequel. Thanks Beth (BLBera) for the BB!

I'm reading This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger - I'll probably finish today. And I've started Vesper Flights, a collection of nature essays by Helen MacDonald.

Once again, I am reading too many books: I am thoroughly enjoying Vipers' Tangle, but it is an abused library book, so not good for when I'm out and about; the slight and portable but brutal Minor Detail; Sin in the Second City for book club, and my morning quiet book, for which I misguidedly went down the path of attempting to record all the authors/books mentioned, Bartleby & Co.

>112 rhian_of_oz: I'm glad you liked it, Rhian!

Nearly done with Saramago's Blindness. There might be something seriously wrong with my mental wiring. Yes, it's a horrifying story, but I have found it one of the most thought-provoking and rewarding things I have read in a long time.

>116 nohrt4me2: You and me both then. I loved Blindness. It was a horrifying situation, but Saramago managed to dig deep into the psychology of it. He has a way with words.

>116 nohrt4me2: Hmm, now you've got me wanting to read it. I think that combination, when it's done well, packs a huge punch.

I finished Strange Flowers, Donal Ryan's latest. It's quite wonderful, his best to date. The Independent dubbed it one of the greatest Irish novels of the century.

And I'm whizzing through How to Pronounce Knife--it's that good. Each of the stories is unique, and each is surprising, in a good way.

Currently moving between three books:

The Archaeology of America Cemeteries and Gravemarkers by Sherene Baugher and Richard F. Viet. Can't seem to link it to the book's page (https://www.librarything.com/work/18436079/book/195101219) )

Deadlock by Sarah Paretsky (crime novel, 2011, bk 2) I never thought I'd enjoy "private eye" crime novel in 1st person narration and around financial crimes, but this is wonderfully diverting right now.

How Iceland Changed the World: The Big History of a Small Island by Egill Bjarnson (2021, nonfiction), wonderfully readable nonfiction.

I am starting How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House.

I finished a very good poetry collection yesterday, Anos Ku Ta Manda by the Guinea-Bissauan author Yasmina Nuny yesterday. Today I'll start reading The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat, a novel about the 1937 parsley massacre of roughly 20,000 Haitians who were living in the Dominican Republic.

>119 Cariola: And I'm whizzing through How to Pronounce Knife--it's that good. Each of the stories is unique, and each is surprising, in a good way. Oh, good to hear! I have to fit in a read of that one.

>120 avaland: How Iceland Changed the World: The Big History of a Small Island I've been resisting this one, but I'm sure resistance is futile. I'm drawn to these sorts of books, but I currently own unread similarly-themed books about Switzerland, Italy, England, the Netherlands, and Finland. I'm also eyeing on about Germany. So many books . . . !

I'm savoring Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller, and skipping through Imaginary Homelands by Salman Rushdie

I'm still reading away through Barack Obama's recent memoir, A Promised Land. I'm close to a quarter of the way through and finding the book increasingly interesting as Obama gets closer the presidency.

Also, for anyone interested, I've posted a few photos of my recent camping trip among the redwoods of far northern California on my CR thread. Cheers!

I just finished Summer at Fairacre by Miss Read, still reading The Mousse Wonderful Time of the Year which is an Oxford Tearoom Mystery.

>116 nohrt4me2:

I was concerned with your previous post that it wouldn't be the best reading at the time so I'm glad you have ended up enjoying Blindness. It truly is a remarkable, albeit very dark, book.

I agree - its an amazing book. So glad it worked for you!

>126 lilisin: >127 cindydavid4: Thanks for worrying about me. Things are dark in my life right now, but I felt that despite the horrors in the novel, there was also great insight and compassion.

>110 BLBera: Is this related to that notorious movie of the same name? (In the Company of Men)... looks like it isn't. I think what you're reading is a recent novel. The movie dates to 1997.

>129 dchaikin: The novel is recent and about the ebola virus, so I would guess not.

I picked up Warlight from the library last week and started it this evening. So far, so intriguing.

well Mary Morris did not come through with her memoir All the Way to the Tigers which I did not finish. It started out good, but there were so many pages of her waiting for paperwork, of her constant illness,and way too little of the tigers themselves. I guess I was looking for a travel narrative as well as a story of coming back from a fall and of course the tigers. ah well, more books out there

Stumbled along through the end of Pale Fire. It requires a lot of re-reading. I had to do some just to follow along the basic story, but I'm leaving N's poem/story-citing-but-not-really-referencing-the-poem novel as done, for now. I started This Mournable Body this morning.

My favourite book dealer asked me to review Meet Me In Another Life so I've added that to the evergrowing pile of books I'm currently reading.

I finished Hamnet (probably out on my own on that one in that I found it horribly sorrowful to read), and am on now to some non-fiction - The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. So far I'm finding it excellent.

Finished ariadne and wow, really liked it! Its very different from Circe, and I liked it just as much!

Starting Journey to Portugal: In Pursuit of Portugal's History and Culture for the Reading Globally Lusaphon group (Portugese speaking countries) Funn, Ive had this book for years and forgot about it till someone mentioned it. Perfect time to read it (plus i have three months!)

Finished Mrs. Caliban, short sci-fi-ish novella you can read in a day. Lady falls in love with ocean creature (similar to movie The Shape of Water). Ending was a bit precipitous and did not exploit the "otherness" of their relationship as much as it might have, but generally compelling and nicely written.

Just downloaded a collection of Saramago's novels, so more of that coming

>137 cindydavid4: Excellent! I'll also read Journey to Portugal this quarter, but I'll wait until my trip to Lisbon in late September to do so. (Hopefully the rise of COVID-19 cases in Portugal won't prohibit me from traveling there.)

I finished two books today. First was The Cause of Freedom: A Concise History of African Americans by Jonathan Scott Holloway, the recently installed president of Rutgers University, my undergraduate alma mater, and the first African American to serve in that capacity in the school's 255 year history, which was a superbly written work from the beginning of slavery to the Black Lives Matter movement that, at 120 pages in length, would be a great primer for high school and college students and anyone else interested in learning more about this timely topic. I also read the poetry collection Cape Verdean Blues by Shauna Barbosa, which was a bit of a disappointment. I'll review both books tomorrow.

I'll start Monument: Poems New and Selected by Natasha Trethewey, the former Poet Laureate of the United States, and resume reading Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History by Dr Paul Farmer, and The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat.

Sigh. Is there a name for someone who continues to start new books without finishing the ones they're already reading? I picked up The War I Finally Won from the library, intending to save it for the weekend. What's that saying about the road to hell?

a name for most readers?? perhaps same old same old :)

>140 rhian_of_oz: Is there a name for someone who continues to start new books without finishing the ones they're already reading?

“A Club Read member”?

I finished Paulina Chiziane’s Niketche (The first wife), which was just as good as I was hoping; I’m still reading The book of disquiet on and off, and I’ve started Helen of Four Gates and the Saramago short story collection The lives of things. And possibly something else as well — I forget…

Is there a name for someone who continues to start new books without finishing the ones they're already reading?

Yes. Members of Library Thing.

>140 rhian_of_oz: Is there a name for someone who continues to start new books without finishing the ones they're already reading?

A normal person? :)

>140 rhian_of_oz: : ) enjoy.

I finish my audiobook book, Who They Was, from the Booker 2020 longlist. I have issues with the book that I still need to work out, but it was riveting to listen to and i got really into it. That’s great but also means the next book might be a big letdown in comparison. So i fretted over what to read next. Searching, I found Penelope Lively on my list of authors to check out. (I forgot to credit who inspired that). So I looked her up on audible and found Moon Tiger, the 1987 Booker prize winner. I checked out a sample, and it started roughly “My John Aubrey is not your Joh Aubrey”…and i was sold. So I started this morning and had a terrific first 15 minutes. Feels like a moment of personal discovery.

I am rereading God Help the Child.

I finished The Mousse Wonderful Time of the Year (Oxford Tearoom Mysteries) by H.Y. Hanna. This was a locked room mystery that took place in a mansion during a snowstorm. The final reveal scene was worthy of Poirot himself, very craftily done. The epilogue seemed rather pointless and silly other than to inject some slapstick humor into the story, as it described the highlights of a family Christmas celebration gone awry. It served to tie together all the characters who were introduced earlier in the story as guests at the celebration, but added nothing to the mystery aspect.

I just started Debts of Dishonor which is an academic mystery by Jill Paton Walsh.

Along with other aforementioned books, I have picked up and am reading a 2019 poetry collection by Sandra Gilbert, best known to me for her collaborations on feminist literary criticism i. e. The Madwoman in the Attic. I don't remember reading any of her poetry so ....

Reading Saramago's book on Portuga reminded me that I hadn't read the best american travel writing 2020 that I picked up in Dec. Very interesting introduction, both from the main editor Jason Wilson and the guest editor Robert Macfarlane/ The selections are really from 2019, and the book was put together during the lock down. Very interesting comments about the nature of travel writing and the virus was very apparent in the selections. Just started reading it.

>147 LadyoftheLodge: Have you read the earlier ones in the Imogene Quy series? I liked the first two a lot, but this one and the next were too depressing for me. Apparently I read the first three before I was on LT, or at least before I was reviewing here.

>150 jjmcgaffey: I have not read the first ones. I read a sample of Debts of Dishonor and decided to read it in its entirety.

Well, I found the first two excellent - if you like Debts, you should check out the rest.

>152 jjmcgaffey: Thanks, I will try them!

It's been long enough since the last time I visited this thread that I don't remember what all I read between then and now. But I'm currently reading The Magic of Terry Pratchett by Marc Burrows. It's a biography, and so far it's good. God, I still miss Terry Pratchett.

Oh didn't know that was out! I agree, I still miss Terry Pratchett, and Douglas Adams both gone way too young

The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley from the TBR virtual pile. So far, Plain Jane on the Prairie in Kansas Territory, loves horse, endures cold winter, witnesses violent clashes between New England and Missouri slavery. Seems like really well-researched historical fiction, which, personally, I can only take in small doses, and this is a long book, so it will take awhile to get through it.

In between, reading some short stories.

>155 cindydavid4: Yes, it came out last year!

I finished A Promised Land by Barack Obama. I found Obama's memoir of his early political career and, especially, the first term of his presidency to be interesting indeed, and quite well written. In particular, I found the memoir to be a useful trip back through the events and issues of those years (2009-2013). My somewhat more in-depth comments are on my CR thread.

Next up, I will finally be reading Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.

I finished The Mournable Body, an uncomfortable novel. Next I'm going to read Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler. This is the last available book for the 2020 Booker longlist that I haven't read. (the word "available" should be in quotes, as Love and Other Thought Experiments is available used, but will not be officially released in the US until September 28. I would like the author to gain something from my purchase, so I will wait till then.)

I am starting A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor from my 1951 reading list.

I am reading Magpie Lane.

I am completely absorbed in The Archaeology of American Cemeteries and Gravemarkers written together by an archaeologist and an anthropologist. Above and below ground stuff. Some of it is fascinating.

that does look like it would be up my alley. D and I spent quite a bit of time in cemeteries while traveling through europe. Fascinating stuff

Now reading Dark Water which is everything I expected back when I was first asking questions about the flood. Very well written with some historical context that I appreciated

>162 avaland: I love cemeteries! Will check that one out!

>159 dchaikin: I liked Redhead by the Side of the Road. I think most people complained that it was too short.

I’m a little stressed. I am reading Star Trek books like potato chips. They aren’t particularly good.

hee, no but the shows were great (back then anyway)

So just finished ordinary princess which I discovered in the Childhood theme. The author is one of my faves, and she does a lovely job with this story.

Also received Freedom Landing for the July's theme of We Are Free. Will finish it before the month is out

>166 dianeham: Now you're making me nostalgic for my younger days! I still have shelves full of old Star Trek books. I suspect I'd find most of them worse than I remember them being, though. :)

LT is just not at all a priority or me these days, is it. Here is an update on what I've read so far this month.

Aki Shimazaki : Azami
Aki Shimazaki : Hozuki
Dave Cullen : Columbine
Philip K. Dick : The Man Who Japed
Soji Shimada : Tokyo Zodiac Murders

>166 dianeham: There are a lot of really bad Star Trek books - and a few really good ones. Though I'm not reading anything recent - most of mine are TOS and a few TNG, published in the 80s. I was reading them steadily then, but some really c*ppy ones convinced me to be pickier - then I started looking at the author more than the book. Diane Duane, Barbara Hambly, Janet Kagan, Peter David...

>170 jjmcgaffey: Thanks for the tip. I’m tng a series of books concerning Q

>166 dianeham: Not much nutrition in potato chips...

>165 dianeham: I think it’s a little limited in content. Not sure it’s length or just style - the style felt simple to me, compared with what else I read. I didn’t mind it, though. (Redhead by the Side of the Road)

Anyway, finished that one and this morning I’m starting a long neglected Terry Pratchett Discworld novel - Pyramids (purchased in 2007).

I've lost track again of when I last posted here, but I've been taking advantage of a string of balcony-reading days to finish off a whole string of pending books, most recently the new Icelandic novel Magma — which was not much fun, but very nicely written.

I'm part way through In Tearing Haste: Letters between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor, which is great fun, but for some reason had become one of the oldest books on my TBR. I think I must have been setting it aside for reading on a long journey that never came...

I recently finished How to Pronounce Knife, a pretty remarkable short story collection focusing on Laotian immigrants. 4.5 stars.

And I just started reading The Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead. this wasn't a book I thought I was interested in, but I downloaded the sample on Amazon and didn't want to put it down, so I indulged and paid the full price.

>174 thorold: I've been looking at In Tearing Haste. I read Devonshire's autobiography several years ago and really enjoyed it.

>174 thorold: I read that, liked it but I like this better patrick leigh fermor: a life in letters

Tearing haste just kept sounding alike after a while, but the life in letters because it covers so many people places and events. Liked it better than the bio that came out before his death

Just finished Debts of Dishonor and starting The Geometry of Holding Hands which is not cutting it for me at the moment. The beginning seems incomprehensible to me.

I always forget to post here..

I’m waiting on three books from the library, but I’ve finished a few since I last posted here. All mysteries (surprise, surprise). I enjoyed all of them.

Proof of Guilt by Charles Todd - the timeframe is 1919.
The Leper of Saint Giles by Ellis Peters- the year is 1139.
Whose Body by Dorothy L. Sayers - this is a re-read of the first book in the Lord Peter Wimsey series.
Telling Tales by Ann Cleeves, narrated by Julia Franklin - the second book in the Vera mystery series.
The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan, narrated by Aoife McMahon - this is the second book in this series. The author is new to me.

I think I’ll read the next Sue Grafton book, while I’m waiting on the library. U is For Undertow. I’m listening to the latest book in the Ruth Galloway series, The Night Hawks.

I'm starting my reread of Autumn, so I can read through Ali Smith's quartet with all of the books fresh in my mind.

Finished The All True Travels and Adventures of Lydie Newton. Rereading The Feminine Mystique. Interesting experience ...

Rather frustrated with Dark Water; the beginning as he talks about the many floods of the Arno was excellent as well as summaries of artists whose works were damaged in the 1966 flood. Rather then talk more about that, he spend several chapters on a professional forger I have no idea what this accomplishs, nor how the different books he lists pertain to this flood. He is a good writer and I probably will skim some of his digressions to get to the meat of the book. But really not what I was looking for

How dangerous are libraries - dropped off two books, picked up three. I read The Rose Code in one sitting.

>182 cindydavid4: Ok, now we are in the meat of the book, hour and hour and day to day what happened. Its riviting powerful and can't put it down.
too bad that so many pages were wasted but maybe he had a page minimum. anyway, enjoying this! (and it is raining has been all day and its supposed to rain all week. Not sure this is the best time to read about the flood in florence!)

>184 cindydavid4: Well, it is monsoon season technically but it was weird to both go to bed and then wake up to rain and thunderstorms indeed...

>163 cindydavid4:, >164 nohrt4me2: We be everywhere....

I have started Un jardin pour L'Éternel by Jean Carrière

>185 AnnieMod: yes indeed! and its still coming down. Perfect reading weather, esp sitting in my az room listening to it on the sky lights above.

Perfect Saturday afternoon read - Redhead by the Side of the Road.

I've read my 6th book for the month which is exciting. Granted I've been reading some shorter books this month but it feels good to burn through some reads, especially since I've been enjoying them. The 6th book in question is Pauvre Chose by Risa Wataya which I enjoyed for its humor and it's look at Japanese vs. Japanese-American ways of being.

Still reading Star Trek books - Deep Space 9 now.

Two good books in a row: Merlin Sheldrake's Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Future, which is a super engaging and fascinating soft science book, and Fiona Benson's Vertigo & Ghost, which was both amazing and totally harrowing. There's a good amount of violence against women and children and even some animals here—none of it gratuitous, either—and it's hard reading. But incredibly rewarding, if you can handle it. She's a fantastic poet.

I didn't feel like reading any of the books I have on the go so I started The Consequences of Fear.

Finished The Geometry of Holding Hands. This series has run its course and it is time to end it, in my opinion, although the ending contained a set-up for the next one.

Now reading An Amish Barn Raising which is a series of short stories by some of my fave authors.

I finished Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. I'm sorry it took me so long to finally read this sad, poetic wonderful novel. My further review can be found on my CR thread.

I've added Selected Essays of William Carlos Williams to my "between book" stack, and I'll soon be starting Scoundrel Time, Lillian Hellman's memoir of her run ins with HUAC and subsequent blacklisting.

Currently reading After Hannibal by Barry Unsworth and my non-fiction is an old book of essays by Salman Rushdie

I finished In tearing haste (slowly, naturally…) — nice to have some of those extra bits and pieces of PLF’s ad hoc travel writing, but I found myself quite interested in the Duchess as well, maybe I’ll have a look at her memoir (mentioned by >176 Cariola:). But Mitford-related books are a bottomless rabbit-hole to go down…

Also finished Adam Mars-Jones’s Box Hill — he seems to manage almost PLF-sized gaps between books, I last read one of his novels in 1993!

Otherwise, I’m working my way through a collection of Adalbert Stifter’s novellas, and I’ve got an epistolary novel called The night visitors on the go, not quite sure where that came from. I think Scribd may have recommended it to me because it’s got railway tracks in the cover design…

>196 Nickelini: Love Unsworth,and thats one of my favs. Think Morality Play is my favorite tho

Finally reading The Goblin Emperor for my book group next month loving it

Pushed through Terry Pratchett's Pyramids, which has fun ideas but terrible pacing. I've started Speak, Memory, Nabokov's 1966 version of his autobiography.

Needed another short read for my train ride to and from the beach and thus started and finished Slow Boat by Hideo Furukawa. I didn't hate this but it's easily skippable, I'd say.

I started a new job today so I am now commuting and expect to be doing lots more reading. I started (another) book today for bookclub - Replay which I read 30-odd years ago.

The Darkening Age.....Catherine Nixey