What are you reading the week of February 3, 2024?

I'm about halfway through 1984 by George Orwell. Such a relevant book for the current times, but very depressing.

Wrapping up War, Revolution, and Nation-Making in Lithuania, 1914-1923. Continuing with Menewood. Starting Warship 2022. Looking forward to System Collapse.

Now about a third of the way into Assyria.

I'm halfway through Gangsters Don't Die by Tod Goldberg. I hope I can finish this weekend because I have to find out how it ends for Sal!

I've been reading Endgame by Omid Scobie, his latest scurrilous book about the British Royals. I am enjoying it, whilst feeling guilty about enjoying it.

I just started reading The Grapes of Wrath. I have no comment yet - I'm only on the second chapter.

Last night I finished The Island at the Center of the World, Russell Shorto's excellent and enjoyable history of Dutch Manhattan and New Amersterdam. My review is up on my 50-Book Challenge thread.

Next up for me will be The Ploughmen by Kim Zupan, a crime novel set in Montana.

I'm reading two large books that are engaging for my brain, Pan: The Great God's Modern Return and Last Train from Atlanta. I also just started The Once and Future King again as a re-read.

>5 rocketjk: I read The Island at the Center of the World several years ago. Not only did I enjoy it but I actually remember quite a bit of it.

I finished James McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store yesterday and started The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly.

>7 snash: Yes! At my age "how much I'm likely to remember much of this" is a key component of how highly I regard a book.

I finished Midnight's Children a few days ago. I took a couple of days to process that one, and wished I'd read it as a group read. I think a discussion would have been fun.

I just started A Town Like Alice and am enjoying it so far. Two very different writing styles, that's for sure.

The Edge of Nowhere
Elizabeth George
4/5 stars
This is the story of Becca, who's on the run from her stepfather and ends up with a family friend who knows what is going on. In the meantime, she meets a nice, young man, Derric from Uganda. Unfortunately, he is found at the bottom of a hill and is in a coma. There is a suspect, but Becca is not sure that he was the culprit.

I reading The Ballad Of Songbirds and Snakes

A Useful Woman by Darcie Wilde
The 1st installment in the "Rosalind Thorne Mystery" series

I'm about halfway through Pet Sematary by Stephen King.
I'm also just starting The Trials of Empire by Richard Swan.

Small Things Like These – Claire Keegan
5*****

Bill Furlong is a coal merchant in an Irish town, and busier than ever as the Christmas season approaches and the weather gets colder. Furlong‘s teenaged mother was a servant at the home of a wealthy widow. When she became pregnant, Mrs Wilson kept her on in her position and encouraged her to keep the child at the manor as well. Now a married man with children of his own, Furlong had a great appreciation for the start he had thanks to the kindness of one person. So, when he discovers something disturbing when he goes to deliver coal at the local convent school, he struggles with whether to intervene, especially given the power the Church wields in this community.

Gosh but Keegan packs a lot into a small volume! There is not a wasted word or extraneous thought. Furlong’s inner struggle is evident in the way he behaves and the things he thinks about as he walks the streets of town on a snowy evening. When he makes his decision, he acts on it, deliberately, quietly, resolutely. He is confident he is in the right, and that gives him some comfort despite the possible (probable) consequences.

A Curious Beginning – Deanna Raybourn
Digital audio performed by Angèle Masters
4****

Book number one in the Veronica Speedwell mystery series, set in Victorian England.

Veronica is quite the heroine! An independent woman with a healthy appetite (and attitude) regarding her own “physical needs” and a no-nonsense approach to solving problems. When the novel opens, she has just buried her spinster aunt and is looking forward to going on an expedition to further her butterfly collection. She thwarts a kidnapping attempt with the help of a mysterious German baron, and then the fun really begins.

This was recommended for my F2F book club by a member who doesn’t usually like mysteries, so that caught my attention right away. Veronica doesn’t need much but her wits, her butterfly net, and a sharp hatpin, but she is assisted by the enigmatic “Stoker” to whom the baron entrusted her care. They form quite the partnership and I look forward to more books in the series to see how their relationship fares.

Angèle Masters does a fine job of performing the audiobook. There were many characters, with a variety of nationalities, and Masters was up to the task. Brava.

The new thread is up over here.