WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 3

And time for a renewed thread. How is everyone's reading year going?

Come and tell us what you are reading.

In a special "it is good to learn new things" section: today is a traditional holiday in Bulgaria: Baba Marta Day (which translates as Granny March Day). We wear a red and white ornament (usually made from yarn) called martenitsa for most of the month starting today (in the past, you removed it when you saw your first stork; these days, it is the end of the month more often than not and most people wear them on their wrist. You are supposed to put it on a blooming tree when you remove it - so it is not uncommon to see some trees with hundreds of those at the end of the month). They are worn for health and as a symbol of the coming spring.

More details if you are interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Marta_Day

>1 AnnieMod: Very interesting. Thanks so much for this insight.
I've finished The Marrying of Chani Kaufman and have started with Le Clé USB. Which I like very much so far.

I'm just at the halfway point of Andrew Young's very long but very interesting memoir, An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America.

>all the Bulgarian dancers were handing those out last night at our international folk dance club
Was the first time I heard of it

Just about done with iron the joke starting first wife a tale of polygamy

I wish it felt more like spring here. Thanks for sharing the tradition, Annie.

I'm reading An Altered Light by the Danish author Jens Christian Grøndahl.

I am reading The Man Burned by Winter - a debut thriller (and it shows) which is readable if a bit clunky so far.

And I am slowly working on the criticism parts of In Memoriam (Norton Critical Edition, Third Edition) and on A History of the World in 100 Animals. Both of them are good - just not things you want to read quickly or too many parts in a row.

In the last week I’ve listened to two short audiobooks The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West and The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald. I had not read either author before. Will definitely read more of West, what a find she is. I didn’t quite know what to make of The Bookshop—think I should have been reading it, though the audiobook was a delight. I’ll read more of Fitzgerald, too, until I can get more of a feel for her as a writer.

Right now I’m reading Animals by Hebe Uhart and Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. I’m enjoying both.

I'm reading The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen. I've had mixed responses to Bowen - really enjoyed To the North and really didn't enjoy The Last September, so I'm interested to see where this one falls.

Review of In On the Joke here https://www.librarything.com/topic/347243#n8081498

Today I’m working through The Age of Innocence and listening to a new book on the Houston Astros cheating scam, Winning Fixes Everything.

Also on the go are Native Son and the collected poems on Donald Justice. And, patiently waiting, is The Romance of the Rose. I planned to start it today, but haven’t been able to yet.

>1 AnnieMod: cool tradition. Fun post, Annie.

I am reading Pastoralia by George Saunders. Actually I’m listening to the audiobook and he is the narrator. I can’t believe I’d not heard of this brilliant writer till this year, and thinking about it I think it’s because I’ve been mostly exposed to European and UK writers till very recently.

Reading a short story collection by Ian R. McLeod. Still occasionally working on content in the Audre Lorde collection

I have other thing I 'should' be reading this month, but instead I am reading the royal assassin and enjoying it quite abit. I could do worse, and I still have plenty of time this month to read the others..........

>14 avaland: I’m stuck with short stories for now. I can’t seem to get into a whole novel.
>11 dchaikin: I read Age of Innocence twice. The second time was when I’d moved to NYC. NYC has such magic, whatever the period, and Age of Innocence resonated all the more when I read it in its setting. I’m in need of a sturdy novel but can’t seem to settle on one. I haven’t quite been the same since my literary crush on George Saunders.

I've been sick and haven't much felt like anything and now I have a short time to finish Pandora's Jar (library book due back on Tuesday) and Deep Wheel Orcadia (bookclub on Tuesday).

I too can't seem to shake this cold which has been making me cranky with everything I read. Then this morning I started Purple Hibiscus, and I'm enthralled.

>18 labfs39: I haven't read Purple Hibiscus yet, so I'll try to get to it later this year.

I'm reading In the Ditch by Buchi Emecheta for the African Novel Challenge in the 75 Books group, along with South to a Very Old Place by Albert Murray.

Just finished and posted a review of A Tip for the Hangman by Allison Epstein. It's fiction based on the life of Christopher Marlowe, particularly his suspected work as an agent for Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I's notorious spymaster.

I've also been reading The Circus Train by Amita Parikh. It has its moments but seems a bit too YA-ish for my taste.

review for royal assassin here https://www.librarything.com/topic/347243#n8083433

>19 kidzdoc: I finished Purple Hibiscus this morning. It was excellent. I hope you get to it, as I think you will like it. I have been looking at Emecheta's books trying to decide which one I should try.

>22 labfs39: I keep seeing this book mentioned with glowing praise and finally decided to check it out. Apparently I also checked it out AND read it in 2013. Doh! 4 1/2 stars. I think it’s time for a reread.

I finished In the Ditch, Buchi Emecheta's debut novel, early this morning, and was quite impressed with it. Next up will probably be Soldiers' Pay by William Faulkner.

ETA: My LibraryThing Early Reviewers uncorrected proof of All Else Failed: The Unlikely Volunteers at the Heart of the Migrant Aid Crisis by Dana Sachs just arrived in the mail from Bellevue Literary Press, so I'll put everything aside and start reading it now.

I finished Joy Kogawa's Obasan, which was just a heartbreaker—but beautifully written, and such an eye-opener about how Canada treated its citizens of Japanese ancestry. Really horrifying—I knew about the U.S. and the internment camps, but this was a bit of a shock, with second and third generation Canadians forced to give up all their possessions and their homes and relocate to shantytowns and perform forced labor. Kogawa was originally a poet, though, and it shows. Recommended.

>16 kjuliff: It's not so bad being stuck with short stories. I have to remind myself that I need to make notes as I go along with them.

>24 kidzdoc: Not a Emecheta novel I have read! Will put it on the list (soooo many lists!)

>23 Yells: LOL. That sounds like something I would do, Danielle. I'm glad you liked it when you read it.

>26 avaland: I feel should be taking notes on them too. Because I can rarely remember the title of a story in a single-author compilation that I’ve read a while ago.
Is that the same reason for your need to take notes?

I’ve finished Olive Kitteridge which I liked a great deal. The short story set-up was enjoyable, but I read it in e-book format and preceding comments make me realize that notes about each story would be helpful as I think about a review.

>29 dianelouise100: I liked that one very much.

I've started Taken Captive: A Japanese POW's Story by Ooka Shohei, author of Fires on the Plain. He is such an amazing writer with very thoughtful reflections of a philosophical bent. For instance, when he talks about his decision not to shoot at an American GI who is heading toward him, he reflects on
-Stendahl quote
-enemy
-no real animosity
-innocent
-kill or be killed
-own death is inevitable
-ethics of avoiding killing
-love for humanity
-visceral instinct
-universal abhorrence of killing
-interest of individual vs interest of community
-acted alone, different decision if other soldiers had been present
-collective violence
-he remained unseen by GI
-lack of caution by GI
-beauty
-youth
-cowardice
-feelings as a father himself
-good deed

Fascinating stuff

>31 labfs39: these Shohei books sound terrific.
>26 avaland: >28 kjuliff: >29 dianelouise100: - I can get a little obsessed with notes, especially with short story collections - but not with audio.

I finished my audiobook, Winning Fixes Everything (on baseball's cheating scandal with the Houston Astros), and then hesitated before picking up Rachel Carson's first book, from 1941, Under the Sea Wind. (Another book, The Book of Eels, told me that Carson's first book got lost after the Bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and didn't sell. It became a classic once Carson became better known.)

Ok I thought dear fahrenheit 451 would be a fun read; librarian writing letters to favorite books. While the concept was great, it turned into a memoir, which I was not expecting or wanting. Her letters are rather childish, and while we share a lot of books, her comments were so juvenile. And the fact that she did not like wicked puts me off.

If she had written essays about each that would have been much better. I see that the last part of the book are lists of books,and I suspect Ill enjoy that part. So Ill go to that section and see if its better

ETA she calls the ending of childhood end a utopia. Ok, Im done here (there were some books that looked interesting but I wish she had listed them instead of her juvenile comments)

I’ve begun The Return of Faraz Ali by Aamina Ahmad for a “Read the World” challenge. This is set in Pakistan, and so far it’s very enjoyable.

Im having fun with The Wonderful Adventure of Nils nice break from some of the more serious stuff ive been reading of late. This would be a great book to read to kids.

I just finished Elizabeth Bowen's In the Heat of the Night. I'm continuing to read the nonfiction book, The Lady Queen by Nancy Goldstone about Joanna I in the 1300s.

For fiction, I'm either going to start Eleanor Catton's new book, Birnam Wood, which I received today, or Trespasses by Louise Kennedy.

Decisions, decisions . . .

Just about finished with the bridge of san luis rey Really liking it; esp the story of Esteban. Im familiar with Wilders plays, we either did them or read them in school. After this I might find another one of his

I’ve been listening to an early Ian McEwan - Black Dogs novella. It’s interesting in that his style is almost embryonic McEwan. Also it’s from an old “talking book” that has been only recently been digitalized; the narrator sounds like an early eighties BBC news-reader, which is somewhat disconcerting.

To top it off, I recently went crazy listening to George Saunders reading his own short stories. I feel like I’m coming down from a high. McEwan’s darkness, evident in this early work, seems now so lame.

I've been having a very hard time reading - I've started literally a dozen books and none (except one pair) kept my interest long enough to actually finish them. The exceptions were A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy - Becky Chambers is really weird and I love her stuff. But I don't feel like reading any other series by her (there are a few books of hers I haven't read, but those two are the only ones in that world so far). So I gave up and started Stargazy Pie, which has been nagging at me for a long time - it's a reread (multiple re-read, actually), but maybe getting swept through the whole Greenwing & Dart series will revitalize my reading mojo. 'Cause there's no way I'll be stopping with one book...

>39 jjmcgaffey: I gather this is anew phenomenon for you. Can you think of a reason? Has this happened to you before?. Did anything triggered it.

I go through periods of being unable to immerse myself in a book. This usually happens when I am depressed, or when I’ve recently read some really good books and can’t find anything that meets their standard. I suspect it the latter might be the case with you.

Sometimes I find reading short stories by a favorite author helps me get back into being able to get interested enough to get my ability to concentrate on a whole novel.

No, just...lots going on, my concentration is scattered, I'm a little sick (pain in my jaw/neck/ear, doctors aren't sure why. Not debilitating, just annoying), I'm picking up books that I _should_ read rather than I _want_ to read (that's likely a lot of the problem). I've got a bunch of ER books I need to read and review, and they range from just OK to completely uninteresting. For instance. Usually when this happens I just need to find a really good book or two and immerse myself, but the Chambers books didn't do it this time (though I loved them). So keep trying to find the book that will draw me back in.

ETA and besides it gives me an excuse to read Greenwing & Dart again. Love me some Victoria Goddard...

>39 jjmcgaffey: That sounds good. I have duly added Stargazy Pie to my TBR ocean.

My hold on the 2nd book in Nora Robert's trilogy The Key of Knowledge came yesterday, and that gave me the excuse to DNF The Road Trip. It was last month's book club book, which I hadn't read because there was a long wait for the audiobook, and then I cancelled book club because of the weather last week. It was a twenty-something romcom, which really didn't have any appeal for me. Okay, I picked the book last year, based on reviews at the time, we usually read a "romance" in February, it fit my mini-theme of "transportation" for the group (we're reading The Lincoln Highway for March), and in general I like books set in Scotland. But what little I had listened to this week, sounded like it was going to be similar to Normal People which I really didn't care for last year. I almost NEVER abandon book club books, feeling some obligation to read them, but then I reminded myself I chose "Keeping it Light" as my overall theme this year, and there's a certain freedom in being able to say "No, this really isn't for me, and I'm not going to keep reading it."

Now I'm going to think about not finishing Clarissa, in fact, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to continue it either.

I need to focus on finishing The Dinner Lady Detectives which expires in two days, and if I don't finish it, it will be a long wait to get it again from Libby....

>41 jjmcgaffey: Thanks. I do that - pick up should-read too. And yes a really good book draws me back. I have to stop relying on my core authors. Some of them like ian Mcewan aren’t aging well. Like myself ;-)

Currently struggling to be engaged in any of my hobbies I finally finished the interesting Two Years in the Forbidden City, a book at only 236 pages that should have taken no more than three day to finish, but took me over a month but c'est la vie. The time it took me to read is no reflection on my enjoyment however. This was a great companion novel to the memoir I read last year about the Empress Dowager Cixi. Two Years follows a year out of the two spent by Princess Der Ling as Cixi's favorite lady-in-waiting.

Well I’ve decided to interrupt my old Ian McEwan novel to listen to Roddy Doyle’s The Deportees, as it just came of hold in my library. The old BBC audio of Black Dogs is just a bit too much for my soul right now. Did people really talk like that in the eighties in the UK?
>37 cindydavid4: - Have you read this Roddy Doyle ? It’s quite a different Ireland than that of his earlier stories.

Review for the bridge of san luis rey is here
https://www.librarything.com/topic/34724

>47 cindydavid4: I get a “this group has been deleted” from that link…

>48 kjuliff: https://www.librarything.com/topic/347243#8089023 - the last number of the topic got deleted by mistake above apparently. :)

>48 kjuliff: stay tune

>49 AnnieMod: yup, thanks Annie!

>46 kjuliff: Is that the one you messaged me about? no I havent. Interesting to write immigrant stories from a country that had so many emigrants. Let me know what you think about it

>52 cindydavid4: Yes, that’s the one. The Deportees. The first chapter details the reason behind Doyle writing the stories. He had some Somali friends and was persuaded to write the immigrant (to Ireland). The stories were published serially in Metro Éireann, a multicultural paper aimed at Ireland's population. It’s an interesting take on the immigrant experience as seen through the lens of a white Irish writer in Dublin

Sadly I gave up on Lincoln in the Bardo. Though I can see it’s a beautifully written novel, I could not get into the vibe, though I tried several times. Not really a review, more note here
https://www.librarything.com/work/17650010/reviews/236125005

I’m having trouble concentrating, and so needed something with a plot. It may seem a strange title to pick, but I noticed this novel in some similar-to-mine members’ libraries.
I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid. I’ve also got a few other titles in my queue, but will give Mr Reid a shot.

>54 kjuliff: For what it is worth I really disliked "I’m Thinking of Ending Things". Review here if you want it (no spoilers that are not on the cover as well): https://www.librarything.com/work/16856591/reviews/202312731 - the important line is "It was a gimmicky novel in a way that probably will work for some but I felt it too clever - it felt like the writer was more concerned with the puzzle and being clever than with the story."

Some people liked it so try of course but...

>55 AnnieMod: Thanks Annie. I’ll persevere for now, given that I’ve recently put a few novels that I think I normally like on the back-burner. I appreciate you letting me know your opinion, as I think I’ve always agreed with your take on fiction.

Well it took me close to three weeks, but it was a worthwhile journey as today I finished An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America by Andrew Young. Andrew Young's memoir of his life and, most importantly, his experiences working alongside Martin Luther King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, is extremely detailed and, at 531 pages, takes a while to get through. However, the journey is very much worthwhile for anyone interested in reading a comprehensive history of the Civil Rights Movement in America. The rise and fall of the SCLC, SNCC and other organizations, and the Civil Rights Movement itself, all placed firmly within the context of a broad range of cultural, historical, political and economic factors, makes for very enlightening reading. Since this is a memoir rather than a straight history, Young is able to provide, also, a personal dimension that frames the events extremely well. You can find my in-depth review on the book's work page or on my Club Read thread..

Next up for me will be something lighter (I think!), The River of Dancing Gods by Jack L. Chalker. This is a science fiction novel published in 1984 and the first of a series. We'll see if I like this first book well enough to continue on.

>54 kjuliff: Were you listen to the audiobook of Lincoln in the Bardo?

>58 dianeham: Yes I listened to the audiobook. It was well read, good cast of narrators - Ben Stiller …And well-written. I I think I had the problem with the novel because I wasn’t born or educated in America and know little of that period of American history. I didn’t get the cultural references.

gardens of light very interesting historic fiction of a time (mesopotamia 3rd century CE) that Im not that familiar with.

>59 kjuliff: yes, that’s why I didn’t suggest it when you were talking about Saunders. I thought it would be different for some who didn’t grow up here.

>41 jjmcgaffey: Hope things are a bit better now. You know what they say: "Don't 'should' all over yourself". When I have problems I will usually switch to something different (genres, differently weighted, other literary forms like short stories...etc) but I also will give reading a bit of a rest and go sew, garden or clean....

And I have lots of chores to do - growing starts for two different garden clubs, and i really need to get them started! Then just cleaning. And baking/cooking, I've got quite a few things I want to make. And...But I finished the second Greenwing & Dart last night and have set up but not started the third. As expected, I'm being swept through the series. Now as long as the momentum lasts...(I should set up what I'll read when I finish the last one (so far, the series is nowhere near done)).

>55 AnnieMod: well. I’m a few chapters in and your review is spot on. I had previously tried Foe by Iain Reid and discarded it, but in that case it was because of the narration. I will persevere for a bit as I’m distracted lately and really need to settle on something.

I get difficult to please whenever I have discovered and read several works by a new (to me) writer. It happened after I read my first Jenny Erpenbecks and this time I can firmly blame George Saunders.
Hard acts to follow.

>61 dianeham: Agreed. I had wondered why you hadn’t suggested it at the time. I’m beginning to realize I’ve missed out a lot of good American fiction because of my Australian background.

>66 kjuliff: I do recommend Tenth of December.

I just finished Eleanor Catton’s new book Birnam Wood and I have no idea what to think! Review on my thread.

review of gardens of light here https://www.librarything.com/topic/347243#n8091323

I will be spending most of the year with Clarissa. I am also slowly reading The Rainbow, interspersing shorter books with it: The Silence and the Roar, Elena Knows, and currently A World of Love.

review for first wife a tale of polygamy is here https://www.librarything.com/topic/347243#n8091621

I finished Andrea Barrett's latest, Natural History—good stuff, as all her work is, with that intersection of 19th-century science and the personalities woven through it that always gets me going. I don't think this is one of her strongest, but that's a high bar and this was still totally worthwhile.

Now reading Andrea Wulf's Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self—early in, but so far it's fascinating. It's 500+ pages and I hope I can finish before my library hold is up. I'm reading extra slowly these days, even for me—long, long workdays and then I tend to pass out after a few pages. I surely don't miss commuting two hours a day, but it was good for my reading life.

Adding Tangible Things: Making History through Objects by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich er al. (2015) to my current reading.

For nonfiction, I've started American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation by Eric Rutkow. I hope it lives up to its premise, because it sounds fascinating.

For fiction I'm reading The Mercies, historical fiction about a remote Norwegian fishing village in the 1600s when virtually all the men are killed on a fishing trip.

I’ve finished Animals by Hebe Uhart and The War that Ended Peace by Margaret MacMillan. And I’m very close to the end of The Return of Faraz Ali. Then I’ll have to decide what to read next…not much inspiration at the moment, too many possibilities.

>74 japaul22: The Mercies looks interesting. I’m still unable to get immersed in a novel,due to eternal distractions. Doe it dem like a novel that would hold the reader’s attention from the beginning? I’m in desperate need for well-/written novel with a plot.

>76 kjuliff: Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner - a great novel with a plot.

>76 kjuliff: The Bell in the Lake by Lars Mytting is well written with strong characters and plot. And it drew me in quickly. Good luck with your search.

>76 kjuliff: The Mercies has definitely drawn me in. It's a great story, strong characters, etc. Not high-brow writing, though. The kind of story that just pulls you along and is sort of familiar, but not particularly new or forward thinking. So it depends on what you want. I'm enjoying it, but picked it for a lighter read.

>77 dianeham: >78 dianelouise100: >79 japaul22: Thank you. These all look good. But I think The Mercies will fit my mood. I recently had trouble with Lincoln in the Bardo largely because of my lack of knowledge of US history, so going for the Norwegians. I don’t have any Norwegian history either, but I do need something to “pull me along”. I liked the description of The Bell in the Lake as well. It was a toss up.

light housekeeping cant find the author, its jeanette winterson. Not sure who recommended it,but I finished it in afew hours and now I want to know what I should read of hers next!

>82 cindydavid4: touchstone

I seem to be discarding rather than reading! I just gave up on Roddy Doyle’s The Deportees which was disappointing. Short review here.
https://www.librarything.com/work/3142406/reviews/236402930
Also discarded Milkman. I was feeling disappointed and so started reading reviews. The NY Times reviewer, Dwight Garner, felt the same way.

At least I have a few more on my tbr list … thanks to >77 dianeham:, >78 dianelouise100: and >79 japaul22:

>83 dianeham: haaaaa! will fix it!

wonder if it would have been better reading it instead of listenening

>86 cindydavid4: I have to listen. My eyesight is failing me. So yes, it really restricts my range.

>87 kjuliff: oh didn't realize that (think you mentioned it before) sorry thats happening.

Have finished The Return of Faraz Ali which I liked, though it wasn’t the story I expected. Now to write some reviews and decide on something else to read. I know I will continue with The Song of the Cell which I want to reread immediately. This book for me will take actual study, but it would be worth it for better understanding.

>84 kjuliff: too bad Milkman didn’t work for you.

now reading the necessary beggar and loving it.

review of Lighthousekeeping is here https://www.librarything.com/topic/347243#

I've just started Upgrade by Blake Crouch. Crouch writes what I can only think of as good airplane books. My plans for this month originally involved an airplane trip, so I thought I'd save this one for that. Then said plans changed, but I figured I'd go ahead and read it, anyway. It might be the right sort of thing for my mood this week. We'll see.

>91 cindydavid4: Ooh, so happy to hear it! That's one of my favorite books.

oh that was you! thanks; liking it; its odd because its an immigrant story we all know, but its very specific to who this family is,apart from others,kwim? Love the description of the necessay beggar what it means to the family. Too bad we cant do something like that

My one beef, and its the language teacher in me, is that while Z is learning English quickly, the amount of translation she is doing I think would be way past her comprehenstion? Im thinking about her discussion with the family and the lawyer. Shes only 6; then again I know children of deaf parents called on to interpret for their family about that age, so mayb? Still good tho

>95 cindydavid4: Yes, she is being asked to translate stuff that's beyond her age, but that is not uncommon in immigrant families.

>90 dchaikin: Thanks. Yes it’s a pity but I think it was because the technique of repetitive prose - the word-upon-word building - just didn’t work for me in audio. There were times in the novel when it did work. There’s a striking passage early in in the novel where in what’s probably a paragraph, Burns’s narrative voice describes the nuances of the tribalism of the Irish along the border. Now if I could read print I’d be able to find the place quickly. I should have made an audio clip of it at the time. I was transfixed and thought I was hooked. But as I listened on further, the use of impression by repetition, the piling of words upon words, the circling/re-circling of subject matter, lost its punch for me.

>93 bragan: I might give Upgrade a go. I need to get out of Ireland.

>97 kjuliff: “the use of impression by repetition, the piling of words upon words, the circling/re-circling of subject” - that’s a pretty good characterization of the text.

>96 KeithChaffee: yeah I know. and in this case its impossible to find someone who speaks the language. We should all have Babelfish inour ears(cf douglas adams)

>99 dchaikin: Thanks. I went back and fixed a couple of typos so it reads better now. I think Burn’s narrative stream-of-conscience word-building style is quite effective, but I just wasn’t up to a whole novel of it.

>46 kjuliff: I LOVED The Deportees; one of my favorite short story collections! Listened to it on audio when it first came out.

>54 kjuliff: I also loved Lincoln in the Bardo, but I agree that it takes a lot of concentration. The form--the way things are depicted on the page--is a large part of the story. That's why I never bothered with the audio version, which lot of people loved.

>84 kjuliff: Oh, no! So sorry the Doyle didn't cut it for you. If you want to read more short stories, you ight try Florida by Lauren Groff. Or if you want to try something short, Irish and wonderful, try either Small Things Like These or Foster buy Claire Keegan.

I had the same reaction to Milkman; the reviews I read really turned me off.

I finished The Circus Train, which was a waste of time and has made me determined to be a lot more particular in choosing historical fiction.

So I moved on to something contemporary, Our Missing Heart by Celeste Ng. I'm usually not into apocalyptic novels, but this one is quietly terrifying, mainly because it depicts what I'm seeing happening all around me every day as Christian nationalism and racial tribalism are on the rise in the US.

>105 Cariola: This The Circus Train? (your touchstone leads to a picture book) :)

>84 kjuliff: & >104 Cariola:

I found Milkman especially powerful. Above and beyond anything else, I thought, it's a novel about what it's like to be a young woman being sexually harassed by a man of unassailable power and having no place to turn for help. The context of the Troubles, seemingly the core of the narrative, worked for me more as a vehicle for amping up the threat, as that societal context adds so many additional ways that the title character can do harm to both the narrator and those she loves. That's just me. To each his/her/their own, certainly.

>105 Cariola: Ive loved everything Ng has written and that one is no exception, I had the same reaction; seeing whats happening now being mirrored, yet in different rays, a bit of hope at the end

>104 Cariola: I have read and.loved Claire Keega’s work. As well as Small Things Like These and Foster I read her short story collection, Antarctica. The stories in Antarctica are edgier and the settings span the Antarctic from Ireland to the southern USA. The first story in the collection was a real surprise.

Re the Roddy Doyle The Deportees stories, I usually enjoy his work but this later book is softer and tamer and didn’t have the same punch as his earlier works.

I am sure you’ll enjoy Keegan’s Antarctica if you haven’t already.

I just finished Donal Ryan’s latest novel, Queen of Dirt Island. Disappointing novel, Review here https://www.librarything.com/work/28701251/reviews/235509370
I’m now going for an old favorite Patricia Highsmith. Deep Water which I somehow missed. I thought I’d read everything she’d written. I’m pretty sure I won’t be disappointed.

I finished up The River of Dancing Gods by Jack L. Chalker, a so-so fantasy novel that is the first entry to Chalker's Dancing Gods series, which I will not be taking the time to continue. Joe and Marge are brought to an alternate world where they train to become strong and adept at magic and then take part in an epic battle between good and evil (on the side of the good guys, natch). It was a semi-enjoyable light read with about a B- writing style, though I'll say that there is some nice cleverness and a bit of humor, as well. I've written about the book a bit more on my Club Read thread.

Next up for me will be a reread of the very powerful short story collection, A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin. It's my turn to select a book for my monthly reading group and this is what I chose. The rule is that you have to pick something you've already read, so that you know it's good and not just being hyped. Most of my group mates pick books they've read recently and can recall well enough to discuss, but I like to pick books I've read a while ago and am interested in reading again. We've read novels, memoirs, biographies, histories and a poetry collection for the group, but never a short story collection.

>110 kjuliff: I saw an article yesterday about Highsmith’s books. Think it was the nyt. I’ll go look.

ETA: https://www.nytimes.com/article/best-patricia-highsmith-books.html?unlocked_arti...

Thanks. I see Deep Water gets a mention. I’ve bookmarked The NY Times article. I am surprised there’s more Highsmith for me to read as I had believed I had read everything she’d written.

She had an interesting life, much of it out of the USA where she never felt at home. I recently saw a documentary of her life. Sadly she became quite bitter in her final years.

In an interview recorded when she was about 60 I think, she was asked why, as a feminist and a lesbian, her main characters were mostly men. Her answer was along the lines that men had the power and women liked novels about men. I’m simplifying her answer. It was more nuanced but I can’t remember the details.

I’ve only just started the novel. It’s vintage Highsmith so sure to be enjoyable.

>113 kjuliff: you might be interested in The Crime Writer by Jill Dawson. It’s a novel with Highsmith as the main character. I enjoyed it.

>114 dianeham: Thanks. It looks interesting. I ve put it on my t r list.

I took a break from the brothers ashkenazifor a bit, but been reading it again the last few days. Later been thinking how I want to light the shabbat candles on Fridays like we used to; got out the habit. Might get into it again

>116 cindydavid4: That reminds me of when I was a little girl in Melbourne. I found out later in life I had been a Shabbos goy. I had no idea of any religious practices as a child, and just thought I was being helpful to the immigrants in my area. My parents had explained why there were so many immigrants from Europe arriving. My trip home from school on Fridays took forever as my list of families grew.
I have a strong interest in immigration to this day, which can be seen in my choice of books. And now I myself an immigrant. Early experiences shape every aspect of one’s life.

I’m reading An Unkindness of Ghosts science fiction.

oops I have removed this post because I did not check the touch stone and did not know that Check it out was a childrens book, the one I wanted wascheck these out about a library with books lists. I will write a review of this second one when I am finished. Im sorry for any confusion you might have thank you for your patience

>119 cindydavid4: Are you sure you've got the right touchstone? The one that links to certainly looks like a children's book - and more about libraries than about books. The one you're reading sounds interesting; this one does too but less so.

stumbling along lately, but I finished Age of Innocence, Native Son and, on audio, Rachel Carson's first book from 1941, Under the Sea Wind. And I started After Sappho (which is much better than I expected), and on audio, I started Rachel Carson's second book, The Sea Around Us from 1951. Carson's second book includes long discussions on the science of sea floor geography and geology as understood in 1951, which is after early remote sea floor sensing and sampling, but before plate tectonics was worked out (in the 1960s), and before a lot of other stuff too.

But I've lost my reading momentum. Trying to recover some. A non-injury car accident, 3 days of jury duty and the stakes around an orange bouncy ball on tv haven't helped.

>121 dchaikin: Goodness, Dan. And I thought I was in a slump. Take care.

After reading the first three Cherry Ames books, written in 1943 and 1944, I have resurfaced and have started The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta for the African Novel Challenge.

>120 jjmcgaffey: see my edited post, >119 cindydavid4: its not the right book, but the two titles sound alike. It is a very interesting book and Ill be writing a review soon thanks

>122 labfs39: >121 dchaikin: “I’ve lost my reading momentum”
I hope things look up for us soon.

External factors, health of self or family member, accidents, civic duties, general malaise, March has not been good for many of us.

Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith is managing to help me on my road to recovery. A dark novel centering upon several unlikable men and one unbelievably nasty women, living their dull Silent Generation lives in a small town in New England. Their paths cross as they interact with Vic, a snail collector who runs a niche publishing company that puts out two books a year, sustained by inherited wealth and the American work ethic. This may seem a strange novel to help anyone get on track.

I find Highsmith fascinating. She somehow manages to reel us into a world so different to our own, an unlikable unattractive place populated by men who are either immoral, unimaginative or indifferent. Despite or because of this, Highsmith’s magic never fails to bring me back from whatever doldrums I manage to find myself in.

>122 labfs39: I’m not caught up on your thread but i saw you have a stuff going on. Wish you well

>105 Cariola: I feel apocalyptic novels are a bit too close to home. It’s truly frightening. I’m too old and sick to deal with seeing the dystopian world of the imagined apocalypse, and am choosing novels as far away from our troubled times as possible. I am finding the 1950s as an interesting period in fiction. This dull period produced some fabulous writers.

This month has been especially hard for me as I fight a number of chronic conditions. I can deal with the pain, but the progressive vision loss has recently stepped up and is scaring me. Thank goodness for modern technology that allows me to listen to novels, and to listen and to dictate posts now that I can no longer read what I am typing.

>126 kjuliff: I also stay away from the dystopian, they are truly frightening. Its hard not to think about it,but imporant for your state of mind to have some hope

>126 kjuliff: and to listen and to dictate posts now that I can no longer read what I am typing.

Ive heard about this, and thinking for my husband.What is this tech called,how does it work, and where would you get it?

wishing you painfree days and hugs

>127 cindydavid4: Thanks for your kind wishes.

There are a number of aids for people with limited vision. iOS has excellent assessibility features built in. There are also devices apart from PCs and IPad/phones that allow for voice input. I can for example, say to Alexa, “read me The NY Times review of books podcast” Many magazines. Such as The New Yorker “speak” some articles using a human narrator. There is also the computer-generated speech but it’s not easy to enjoy.

Please feel free to ask specific questions or for details about posting and messaging.

A number or organizations provide free training, but it’s at a very basic level. I started finding out what was available before my vision declined. Also I have the advantage as my profession was in IT.

Also the tech. Gets better every few months.

A lot also depends on the type of vision loss. I have an inherited retinal disease so parts of my vision are missing. I can see a person but no detail, so I can’t see faces. When I type I see every second letter only. Hence the constant edits and typos!

>123 cindydavid4: Thanks! I picked it up from the library, I'll see what it's got (almost wrote my usual "check it out"...).

Just finished Key of Knowledge. I'm not a huge romance fan but this series has been light and fun. Currently reading The Nutmeg's Curse for my church book club. Daytimers next book is The Lincoln Highway so will start that on audio soon. Also reading The Cat Who Saved Books for another book club.

I am currently reading The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman and love it so far! I'm also listening to Spare by Prince Harry and reading a collection of poems by Johannes Bobrowski. I realized that he fits Reading Globally's Baltic Theme perfectly and hope to finish in time for the quarterly read - it is a good incentive to finally read more poetry.

Finished The Joys of Motherhood by Emecheta. So much to think about in this one. Contemplating what I feel up to next...

review of the brothers ashkenazi is here https://www.librarything.com/topic/347243#8098633

review of the brothers ashkenazi is here https://www.librarything.com/topic/347243#8098633

I am back to writing reviews so if someone is interested, these are over in my thread (and in their respective works):

Middlemarch by George Eliot - Pre-Victorian England in all its glory written by one of the best Victorian novelists. Plus it makes you care about the characters.

Women Crime Writers: Four Suspense Novels of the 1940s: Laura / The Horizontal Man / In a Lonely Place / The Blank Wall by Vera Caspary, Helen Eustis, Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, Dorothy B. Hughes - some surprises here

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson - a children graphic novel that takes all conventions of the fairy tales genre and turns them on their heads (and then tosses them in the mixer).

Doctored Evidence by Donna Leon (Commissario Brunetti 13) - if you are reading the series, that's a good one. Not sure if it works as a standalone as well - part of the story relies on knowing who is who in the office (and how people handle things).

Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini - 100 years (101 really) later and the adventure novel set just before the Glorious Revolution is as much fun as it appeared to have been when it came out.

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix - in an IKEA rip-off store, something weird seems to be happening and not only in the heads of the executives. Mix of humor and horror that probably won't work in either category but works as a mix.

I am off to write more reviews. Meanwhile I am reading Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes: The Official Biography

I’ve recently finished Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, a very sweet story that goes by quickly. I’ve now started reading Angela Thirkell’s High Rising, the first of her 21 Barsettshire stories. I love the writers of the 1920’s and ‘30’s and will enjoy reading from those decades for next quarter’s RTT focus.

>135 AnnieMod: cant wait to read what you thought of the sir terry book!

>137 cindydavid4: I am taking my time with it (plus there is a backlog of missing reviews) so the review will probably not make it before some time next week. So far I am enjoying it (but I am only a few chapters in) and I will post first impressions when I finish it.

Meanwhile more reviews from today: wrapping up January: Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews (first in an urban fantasy series I had been planning to read for more than a decade) and a satirical absurdist politically incorrect historical novel by the Serbian Svetislav Basara in which the assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria dictates his memoirs, almost 100 years after he dies (while having spent the time monitoring Europe of course) - sorry, not translated into English as far as I know but other books from Basara had been...

Then to start February: Complete Short Stories. Vol. 1. The Christmas Stories by Anthony Trollope.

More reviews tomorrow. Now I am off to see how the boy who did not like reading became the best storyteller of a generation (hint: it was a book that changed it all).

>106 AnnieMod: Thanks, changed the touchstone. I hate when that happens!

>109 kjuliff: I've read Antarctica and another of Keegan's short story collections, Walk the Blue Fields. I just read that Cillian Murphy is currently filming Small Things Like These; he's producing and starring.

Just finished The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - oh, that's _wonderful_. It's a good story (fun little adventure), with fantastic underlayment on trauma and love and belonging and having a passion... Love the universe, too, I'd be very happy with more stories in that setting. But in any case, I'll be reading more by this author.

I've put aside Song of Achilles for the moment. it just doesn't have the momentum to pull me through right now. Now I'm reading The Bullet that Missed, the third in Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club series. I loved the first two, and I'm really enjoying this one, so far, as well.

>140 Cariola: Just looked at your best books of the past years and see you have listed The Wonder by Emma Donahue. I see a large number of your bests are the same as mine, so I’m hoping there are a few unread gems in your lists.

I’ve not been at all well lately so an fussier than normal. Plus I need something that’s in audio due to vision problems. So I’ve been re-reading old favorites.

More reviews from the last few days on my thread (since the last update in >138 AnnieMod: :

- The last 5 novels and the followup novella of the Alex Verus urban fantasy series - I will miss Alex. Jacka had become one of my favorite authors lately so now he needs to go write some more (and I plan to pick up his earlier 2 novels)

- Picture You Dead by Peter James - the 18th Roy Grace police procedural. Not bad for the series despite somewhat of a shift in the style which I hope does not become permanent.

Bannock Beans and Black Tea: Memories of a Prince Edward Island Childhood in the Great Depression by John Gallant and Seth - the memoir/stories of a forgotten era by the father of the cartoonist Seth.

Whistling Psyche / Fred and Jane by Sebastian Barry - two plays by Barry which were not exactly what I expected - both dealing with 2 women, one of them with imaginary ones (which may or may not tie to his other works) and one of them with actual historical characters (one very well known, the other not so much but not less interesting). He is experimenting with the format of a play in both and I suspect both work even better on stage but they are also worth reading.

- Bound by Mystery: Celebrating 20 Years of Poisoned Pen Press - an anthology of 34 short mystery/crime stories by the Poisoned Pen Press authors. Not bad for an anthology (and way too many new authors for me to explore - but that is a good problem to have).

More to follow (and I know you can just go to my thread (come over, it is fun) but that way it may be easier to know what is in there :)

Enjoying Sanctuary Line by Canadian author Jane Urquhart. She was a favorite author years ago and got left behind when all the shiny new authors introduced themselves. She and a few other 'lost authors' came to mind recently so I chased down a few of her recent books.

I’m reading Invasion of the Spirit People by Juan Pablo Villalobos. And Girls Who Lie by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir.

Reading Four Soldiers. Hubert Mingarelli - a bit of a change and wondering what I will make of it.

Have finished the very enjoyable High Rising by Angela Thirkell and look forward to more of this series. Now reading Daphne DuMaurier’s My Cousin Rachel.

Still reading and enjoying Andrea Wulf's Magnificent Rebels... no way I'm going to finish it before NYPL sucks it back into the ether of libraryland in six days, but I'll just put another hold on it and hope I remember the first half of the book by the time it comes back in again. E- is such a good option for these doorstoppers, and the library such a good option for not wanting to pay $15 for an ebook, but I always chafe at having to wait for the hold to come back around on a popular or new book.

Will have to pause Taken Captive and switch to a reread of Moon in Full, my bookclub selection for Monday's meeting, and then A Room of One's Own for the group read.

>150 labfs39: The Woolf is short so you should be back in captivity very soon...:-)

I finished up my reread of A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin. This is a wonderful collection of short stories, full of writing that manages to be heartbreaking and life affirming at the same time. The tales are loosely interconnected and reflective of Berlin's own life. Teaching, single parenthood, childhood time spent in South America, dealing with the grim lifestyle of the alcoholic and the relative peace of recovery, odd jobs, teaching, lovers and marriages, loneliness, spending time in Mexico City with her sister who is dying of cancer . . . the stories in this collection circle back around to these themes, inspecting them from a variety of perspectives. The observations are acute and Berlin's sentence-and paragraph-level writing often made me stop and reread. The title story is a tour de force, the building of a life on the page, minute detail by detail.

Next up for me will be The Lady from Zagreb, the 10th book in Philip Kerr's brilliant Bernie Gunther noir series of novels set mostly in Germany just before, during and after World War 2.

My brother gave me a copy of Retrospective, the latest novel by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, one of my two favorite South American authors, and after I read two pages of it I was hooked. I'm also reading the second of my two LT Early Reviewer wins from February, All Else Failed: The Unlikely Volunteers at the Heart of the Migrant Aid Crisis by Dana Sachs, which was published by Bellevue Literary Press this past Tuesday.

Last week I couldn't read a lot because of migraines, so I am still in the middle of The Golden Compass, but I am enjoying it a lot. I have also started Die Straßen von Wilna by Czesław Miłosz. I finished the first part, which describes the history of Vilnius, and hope to read the remaining two parts next week.

As I finished Spare two days ago, I also started a new audiobook: The Autumn Bride by Anne Gracie, and I like it so far, the story is improbable, but it is entertaining and written well.

Today I also finished Gedichte - Eine Auswahl, a collection of poems by Johannes Bobrowski. I am still undecided about which poetry collection to choose after this and will probably wait a few days.

I have finished the following two books but am quite busy so my progress with Anna Karenina has stopped and I haven't been able to write down my comments on these two read books.

John Wyndham : The Midwich Cuckoos
Jules Verne : Le phare du bout du monde (Lighthouse at the End of the World)

And more reviews since >144 AnnieMod: (and I am up to February 17. Progress! Yeah, I know what date it is today. Still...)

Three war novels:
Die Around Sundown by Mark Pryor - set in the early days of the Occupation in Paris but spending a lot of time on a secondary story set during WWI (that was actually up on Friday in case it sounds familiar; the rest are from today)
Tonight is Already Tomorrow by Lia Levi - set before and during the first years of WWII in Genoa, Italy (and some other Italian locales later on)
A Long, Long Way by Sebastian Barry - WWI and the Irish Independence struggle with a character who has to deal with both. One of the best WWI novels I had ever read.

Two Simenon novels, none of them a Maigret story: Three Bedrooms in Manhattan (not a crime story and a very weird one) and The Strangers in the House - a crime one and done in a weird way.

Another crime novel set in 1989 in England, Germany and Poland (which also manages to tie to one of the world wars): 1989 by Val McDermid, the second in the Allie Burns series but can be read as a standalone

And a comics collection: 32 Stories: The Complete Optic Nerve Mini-Comics by Adrian Tomine which is cute and interesting if you know the author and not something you should even look at if you don't (it is his first published work, unedited and just put together later - and it is rough).

Meanwhile, I am still reading Sir Terry's biography - which is both very good and very sad (I managed to squeeze a few fiction books in between because I just need to stop now and then - but more about them when I get to their reviews).

wow am I behind here! read in my fathers court , fair play, Madame veronica comes down the hill

currently reading memory road trip: a retrospective travel journey

I'm currently reading A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest by William DeBuys. Fairly interesting, but depressing. Especially as someone who lives in the American Southwest...

scratch memory road trip. It was a DNF, and if it wasnt on kindle I would have slammed it against the wall

Now greatly enjoying another Penelopy Lively the road to Lichfield

>158 bragan: yup. I remember talking about a water shortage back in the 70s, yet we keep building more, assuming there will be enough water to meet the demands.

>160 cindydavid4: Yes, I'm in the middle of a chapter right now that is just really hammering this point home. Depressing, indeed.

Just finished Four Soldiers by Hubert Mingarelli.
An exceptional story of four uneducated soldiers on their way to defeat. Set in Eastern Europe WWII, these men suffer extreme hardship over a number of days. Their simple friendships are forged around a numbers of simple experiences.

Most of the novel is about their days “at rest” during a break of hostilities in mid winter. The four are grouped together and support each other physically and mentally. The simplicity of the four men, their limited life experiences, their innate kindness, evokes an interlude of quiet tranquility in the midst of the harsh reality of war.

There’s a dream-like quality and I read it at a time of personal distress. Yet it was soothing and a joy to read.

The interlude was bound to end. The men know this, as does the reader. The end is violent, sad and yet humanity manages to shine through.

Woohoo! I finished Taken Captive: A Japanese POW's Story. It was very good, especially the first half, but took me almost all month to read for various reasons having little to do with the book.

Next up: Room of One's Own

I finished After Sappho, Treacle Walker and Small Things Like These, which completed the 2022 Booker longlist. I also finished The Photograph, 2003 novel by Penelope Lively.

I have Romance of the Rose ongoing along with The Collected Poems of Donald Justice, and, on audio, The Sea Around Us, Rachel Carson’s 1951 summary of the oceans - life, bathymetry, geology, chemistry, etc.

I started Beneath the Lion's Gaze this morning and am half way through already. Crazy good writing, but tough subject matter (the 1974 Ethiopian revolution and subsequent Derg regime).

As I predicted, my checkout period for Magnificent Rebels ran out when I was halfway through, so the library suuuuucked it back into its electronic maw and I had to put another hold on it. And yes, I could just spend $18 and get the ebook myself, but I'm trying to buy fewer books and a little hiatus from those pompous Germans won't hurt me. Now I'm reading Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other for my book club, and it's rolling right along.

>166 lisapeet: Are you reading on a reader or via an app somewhere (tablet, phone, computer)? If it is a reader (where you download it as opposed to actually connecting to read every time), if you turn off the WiFi/other networking connection, the library cannot suck it back until you get back online. :)

PS: works on kindle anyway. Not sure if it will work on ePub based devices.

Continuing with audio books on science/medicine, I started Rush about Benjamin Rush and it's long so likely to occupy the entire month or more. Continuing with books on evolution, about 2/3 through Taking Wing about dinosaur-bird evolution. I'd started Demon Copperhead in February and stalled at 100/600 pages because it was so bleak, picked it up again last week and am now about halfway through, invested enough in the characters to keep going.

>167 AnnieMod: I'm pretty sure that doesn't work for the NYPL SimplyE app on my iPad. The book refreshes between chapters—very sly, SimplyE!—so away it goes. At any rate, I never remember be proactive and turn off the connection. That's OK, give someone else who reads faster a shot at it.

>169 lisapeet: No, probably won’t work with an app - the library app connects every time to the source. :(

Technically the book gets returned when your time is done, it just does not disappear from the kindle until you reconnect. It is technically cheating so I try not to use that but ever since I discovered it by chance with an old kindle, I may have done it once or twice when I have a few chapters left. :)

Just finished road to litchfield and liked it very much. I really liked how she ended it, not something you see today. Need to read more of her work. Review coming soon

I'm now reading Ariadne by Jennifer Saint. Saint is no Madeline Miller, but I'm enjoying it, regardless.

It is a good story. I didn't know much about the original story,she did an excellent job explaining it

review for Road to Lichfield here https://www.librarything.com/topic/347243#n8109044

I've gotten back into (another) Victoria Goddard reread - her stuff is _so_ rich. Started with the (a) prequel, Petty Treasons, then finished The Hands of the Emperor yesterday. I'm going to read a few of the short bits and omitted scenes, then go on to At the Feet of the Sun. I'd forgotten how epic things got in HOTE...AtFotS is much more so and had subsumed it in my memory.

I've finished A Lady from Zagreb, the 10th entry in Philip Kerr's excellent Bernie Gunther noir series taking place in and around Nazi Germany. The novel is not quite up to the standards of the previous Gunther books, but still very entertaining. My full review is available on my CR thread.

I'm now already almost halfway through Heroes and Villains: The True Story of The Beach Boys by Steven Gaines.

More reviews over on my thread and I am almost done with February (only 5 books left) - and yes, I know it is already April and there is a whole missing month between the two of these...

Two non-fiction books: People of the Blue Water : A Record of Life Among the Walapai and Havasupai Indians by Flora Gregg Iliff and The Last Lions of Africa: Stories from the Frontline in the Battle to Save a Species by Anthony Ham. Both of them very good.

And 5 novels:
Treasure State by C. J. Box -- the fifth/sixth in the Cassie Dewell series (the numbering is a bit confused because the series technically started in a novel she was not in) - the latest novel in the smaller of Box's series - a crime novel set in Montana where Cassie is a PI and goes after some bad people again. Not the strongest in the series but good enough to entertain.

Manam by Rima Elkouri, translated from French by Howard Scott and Phyllis Aronoff - a Canadian woman of Armenian descent goes back to Turkey to find the truth about her own family.

Thumbprint by Friedrich Glauser, translated from German by Mike Mitchell - the first Sergeant Studer crime novel, a vintage Swiss novel from the 1930s. Won't work for everyone but I liked it enough.

Laidlaw by William McIlvanney - the first DI Jack Laidlaw and the start of the tartan noir genre. Enjoyable if a bit problematic linguistically (dialects and local speech may make books more authentic but it also make them harder to read). It suffers a bit in comparison simply because a lot of modern authors lifted a lot of topics and style from it and I am used to theirs and not this one. But that is inevitable for any trail-blazer.

A Robot in the Garden by Deborah Install - a cute SF novel about a robot, a man and an adventure (it also can be seen as a metaphor for parenthood for the most part). It is readable but it also feels a bit too light.

I finished the Forbidden Iceland series of 3 books. The 3rd was the worst so that was disappointing.

I've started Geoffrey Chaucer: Love Visions, a Penguin edition with four of Chaucer's poetic works: The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Parliament of Birds (or Foules), and The Legend of Good Women.

And wrapping up February: a graphic novel (Clyde Fans by Seth - go read it!), a spy novel (China Hand by Scott Spacek - needed a good editor but the Chinese parts of it were actually good), a fantasy novella (Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo - really like the series and reviews for all 3 books are now in the thread), a somewhat classical novel (Lolly Willowes, or The Loving Huntsman by Sylvia Townsend Warner - meh...) and a novel set in Northern Cameroon by a Cameroonian author (The Impatient by Djaïli Amadou Amal - flawed but interesting).

Meanwhile, I am reading a SF collection of stories (The Adventurists and Other Stories by Richard Butner (after I finally found it - it is an ER book I had misplaced)) when I do not get distracted by another book... :)

Review of in my fathers court here https://www.librarything.com/topic/349922#n8110959

Review of in my fathers court here https://www.librarything.com/topic/349922#n8110959

Now reading the adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen and the gates of november for the monthly author reads and reaper man Discworld Death Series

I’m reading Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon.

I finished Heroes and Villains: the True Story of The Beach Boys by Steven Gaines. This group bio provides a detailed account of the individuals' troubles with drugs, bad business decisions, bad romances and each other, with special emphasis on the damage wrought by the Wilson Brothers' father, Murray. It's a well-written narrative, but while this book is a good place to go to learn about the group's lives, the discussion of their music and creative processes is cursory. I've posted a longer review on my Club Read thread.

Next up for me will be Dream Team by Lewis Cole. For basketball fans of a "particular age," this is the history of the iconic 1969/1970 New York Knicks team led by Willis Reed and Walt Frazier. Those were the days!

>143 kjuliff: I, too, hope you find some books on my lists that you will enjoy. I just finished two terrific recently released books that I'm sure are available on audio: Our Missing Heart by Celeste Ng and Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro. Reviews have been posted on the books' pages and on my thread in this group.

I finally read Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine on a spring break vacation. I really enjoyed it! I also started Jane Harper's newest mystery, Exiles, on vacation, which is fine so far, but nothing earth-shattering.

For nonfiction, I just started Queen Victoria: Twenty Four Days that Changed her Life by Lucy Worsley. I really enjoyed her book about Jane Austen, so I'm looking forward to this one.

>152 rocketjk: I couldn't finish A Manual for Cleaning Women. It was one of the most depressing short story collections that I have ever read.

>166 lisapeet:, >167 AnnieMod: I just learned that trick after having a book taken off my kindle the day BEFORE it was due. Amazon sent me an email dated March 23, stating that the book had expired on March 24! I had about 20 pages to go and had planned to finish it up before going to bed. I went to put it on hold and was now 8th on the Wait List. Thankfully, my library helped and bumped me back to #1, so I was able to finish the book 3-4 days later. Like you, I don't want to "cheat," but after this experience, if I'm almost done with a book a couple of days before expiration, I will be putting my kindle on airplane mode.

>172 bragan: I had the same reaction to Ariadne.

After finishing two terrific novels set in contemporary times, Our Missing Hearts and Signal Fires, I'm back to historical fiction, reading Pandora by Susan Stokes Chapman. It's just OK so far.

I’m reading Stories I only Tell my Friends by Rob Lowe.

>187 Cariola: That’s timezones coming to bite you - the last day can always be weird that way.

My kindle is permanently on airplane mode unless I am downloading a book - it uses a lot less battery that way. :)

>189 AnnieMod: Shouldn't be, since I am in the Eastern US time zone. Not sure where Libby/Overdrive originates, but I believe Amazon's main HQ is in Pacific. This has never happened to me before. Good tip on the battery usage!

If anyone is interested, I FINALLY got around to posting thread toppers here and in the 75 Books Challenge. Instead of a theme, I went with a genre this year: the miniature portrait.

>190 Cariola: It’s sometimes more complicated than that - some clocks are set on GMT with no reason whatsoever. So I’ve learned not to expect the last day to be viable - saves you from being disappointed.

I’m reading Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling. Wasn’t someone asking about climate fiction? This is climate fiction.

Somehow I finished three books over the last three days - The Romance of the Rose, The Collected Poems of Donald Justice, and, on audio, The Sea Around Us, Rachel Carson's 1951 overview.

For another poetry book, I dusted of a book I've been carrying around since 2001: Sixty Years of American Poetry: Celebrating the Anniversary of the Academy of American Poets (published 1996). It's a little worrisome when the introduction says the academy give the word "stodginess" a "lively ring". But I'll plan to slowly work through it's 368 pages.

Not sure what I'll do next on audio.

Reading a short fiction collection, Dark Paradise by Finnish author by Rosa Liksom

Well, I've DNF-ed a book called Dream Team, a book about the great 1969/1970 New York Knicks team that won the NBA Championship. I was 15 that year, and a huge fan, and I was looking forward to the time travel, but the writer, Lewis Cole, publishing in 1981, manages to be irritatingly pretentious. Also, he seems to assume the reader needs to have basketball explained. Well, who else is going to be reading this book? Anyway, I gave up after about 75 page. Someday I'll find some better history about this team.

I'm visiting San Francisco, now. On my first day in town, of course, I hit City Lights Bookstore. On a whim, I picked up, among other books, a horror book about werewolves called Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones. I enjoying it in a "fine for vacation reading" sort of way.

Finished the Rosa Liksom collection of (very) short fiction. Previously, I read her Compartment No. 6: A Novel and The Colonel's Wife: A Novel and rated both highly (translated from the Finnish).

I’m reading The Glimpses of the Moon, Edith Wharton’s next novel after The Age of Innocence.

And I’m listening to The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson.

Im reading italian Shoes about a old man alone on an island, his daily tasks and his introspections. It’s a novel about insights and aging, of thoughts of his past lives, but why I’m mentioning it is that it’s so similar and at the same time so different to it’s geographical polar (pun intended) opposite An Island by Karen Jennings.

The similarities/differences go further. Henning Mankel in his island story is writing in quite a different genre than the one he is known for Crime) and Karen Jennings is mainly known for her children’s books. Both writers are writing outside there genre zone.

The islands are far apart geographically. italian Shoes is set in far north Sweden whereas An Island is set in an island south of Africa.

I haven’t finished Italian Shoes but I think I’m going to really like it. It doesn’t seem to have gained popularity in the. US. I’d never even heard of Henner Mankell. It was recommended to me by a friend, and at first I thought it wouldn’t be my type of novel. Even the title gave no glimpse into the subject of this beautiful novel.

I’ll write more when I’ve finished it. Are there any Mankell fans out there?

>198 kjuliff: Mankell had been on my never ending list of authors to get to one of these days for a long time....

>198 kjuliff: i was a big Mankel fan. I read his Kurt Wallander series which was a tv show featuring Kenneth Branagh. The books and the show are excellent.

ETA: There is a sequel to Italian Shoes, After the Fire which was Mankell’s last book.

Introducing sally for the author group Elizabeth von amin
Read alot ofher books and this might become my fav

>200 dianeham: >199 AnnieMod:
And there I was thinking I’d discovered a hidden gem ;-) I most likely had not come across Markell as I’m not a big fan of serialized detective novels.. I also avoided the craze for the spate of Norwegian noir novels of a few years ago. I don’t know why I avoid the popular. I don’t trust New York Times best sellers either.

>200 dianeham: thanks for the update. I’ll definitely be reading After the Fire

>202 kjuliff: I am a series junkie, detective series junkie and Scandinavian crime junkie... not even in recovery for either. :)

>203 AnnieMod: what’s your favorite detective series?

>198 kjuliff: I read and loved Mankell long ago when it was really difficult to find his books in the US. Watched and enjoyed both movie/television dramatization, maybe one episode of the young Wallander.

>205 avaland: I had trouble finding Italian Shoe as I need to read with audio. Then I discovered it in the free section of Audible!

>204 kjuliff: That's like asking a parent which is their favorite child...

Rankin's Inspector Rebus if I must chose one (under strong protest!) :)

>207 AnnieMod: I loved Rebus, too....except that last one where he was no longer officially a cop....

>208 avaland: I haven't gotten to the latest ones - that series (and some others I like) suffers from my "I know I will like that so I am keeping it for later" tendency which I am working on to break out of :)

>207 AnnieMod: I disagree. Many parents have a favorite child. They don’t say itt but they do. As for boos and authors, many have favorites. Fuller answer in part 4
https://www.librarything.com/topic/350067

>210 kjuliff: I think she was being very facitious, with tongue firmly in cheek. Thats how I got it any way

>211 cindydavid4: Thanks; you are probably right. I perhaps overreacted. But I really disagree with the favorite children analogy, and in future will bear in mind the possibility of facetious replies. I really am interested in trying out s detective series but wanted to start with a series by an author liked by a person with similar tastes as my own and who is a self-confessed detective series addict.