What Are We Currently Reading?

[Spartan Girl]

5 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

It dropped into my Kindle at midnight, but today, once I'm done with work, I'll be reading President Obama's memoir A Promised Land. Hearing his voice from some of the excerpts, I, who absolutely LOATHE audio books, am totally getting the audio of the book as well, since he's reading it. 

I am getting it from my library tomorrow! I put it on hold the minute it appeared on the card catalog!

[isalicat]

I just finished the most amazing good mystery (serial killer who dunnit) called "The Silence of the White City" by Eva Garcia Saenz. It was recently translated from the Spanish and there are two more books in the series that will be out next year, but the first book does not end on a cliffhanger the mystery is brilliantly resolved. I recommend this absolutely - brilliant writing, great characters and I learned a lot about a part of the world (the Basque territories of Spain) that was previously unknown to me.

[GaT]

I'm reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, & I'm enjoying it. I originally read the reviews & I wasn't sure, but I've just been buying whatever book I want because of quarantine, so I picked it up & I'm glad I did. Richard Osman is some kind of game show host (?) in England, & this is his first book, so I hope he writes more. It definitely falls into the amateur sleuths/cozy category, so if that's what you like, I highly recommend it. Another thing that's great about it is the chapters are all short, some are only one page, so I never have the problem of having to stop reading in the middle of a chapter because I have to do something, makes my reading life easier. 😁

[Mabinogia]

4 hours ago, GaT said:

I'm reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, & I'm enjoying it. I originally read the reviews & I wasn't sure, but I've just been buying whatever book I want because of quarantine, so I picked it up & I'm glad I did. Richard Osman is some kind of game show host (?) in England, & this is his first book, so I hope he writes more. It definitely falls into the amateur sleuths/cozy category, so if that's what you like, I highly recommend it. Another thing that's great about it is the chapters are all short, some are only one page, so I never have the problem of having to stop reading in the middle of a chapter because I have to do something, makes my reading life easier. 😁

Thank you for that. I have been eyeing that one for a while. Love Richard Osman on all the UK panel shows, very funny and extremely tall but you never know how that (the funny, not the tall) will translate into a story. I like a nice cozy mystery so I will move it up the list. 

[GaT]

4 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

Thank you for that. I have been eyeing that one for a while. Love Richard Osman on all the UK panel shows, very funny and extremely tall but you never know how that (the funny, not the tall) will translate into a story. I like a nice cozy mystery so I will move it up the list. 

Come back & post what you think of it. I didn't mention it, but I think the mystery is interesting too, I'm close to the end & have no idea who did it.

[Darian]

Just finished When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole, which was excellent. A few pages into Home Before Dark by Riley Sager and so far, so very, very good. 

[helenamonster]

Just finished: Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell. It took me awhile to get into it--I didn't really care about any of the characters and the way it was told just wasn't hooking me. A lot of very short "scenes" that made it hard for me to find my footing in the book's world. I became more gripped around the halfway point, and ultimately thought it stuck the landing, but I don't know if "I'd gone through 50% before it really got going for me" is a ringing endorsement.

Next up: The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle

[truthaboutluv]

Just completed The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls and while I enjoyed it well enough and it was a fairly quick and easy read, I couldn't help feeling like it was missing something. I just felt like there was more meat that could have been added to the story, if that makes sense. 

I'm almost done with The Heirs and that one is certainly interesting. I don't think I've ever read a book with so many people just claiming kids that aren't theirs or people lying about kids being other people's own - just one tangled mess of crazy. But I love the writing and the story is fascinating. 

[Minneapple]

21 hours ago, helenamonster said:

Just finished: Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell. It took me awhile to get into it--I didn't really care about any of the characters and the way it was told just wasn't hooking me. A lot of very short "scenes" that made it hard for me to find my footing in the book's world. I became more gripped around the halfway point, and ultimately thought it stuck the landing, but I don't know if "I'd gone through 50% before it really got going for me" is a ringing endorsement.

Next up: The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle

I just finished both of these exact two books! Invisible Girl was OK. It didn't really grip me either. The characters were just OK.

I really enjoyed The Girl in the Mirror. The plot is a little like that show Sarah Michelle did where she played twins, the one that was canceled quickly. Great characters (I loved Iris, the main POV character), fun setting, good twists.

 

I found one point of the ending a little absurd, when Ben just shoots one of the twins thinking he knows which one he's shooting. Like dude, make sure you know which twin you're shooting! The ending also upset me because I really grew to love Iris as a character and I wanted her to have everything, but Summer just waltzed away with it all.

Edited November 20, 2020 by Minneapple

[proserpina65]

I recently finished reading "The Lantern Men", the latest Ruth Galloway mystery by Elly Griffiths.  It was a vast improvement on her previous two Ruth Galloway novels, which were utter crap.  The mystery in this one was really intriguing, and although I did figure out who didn't commit all the murders, the ending still managed to surprise me.  Mind you, there's still way too much Nelson melodrama (God, I loathe that character and would love it if he died), and I felt at least one character was treated very shabbily in order to service that increasingly ridiculous story line.  But overall, I'm glad I didn't abandon the series after the last two dreadful books.

Plus I did love that

Spoiler

Nelson was wrong about Ivor being a serial killer.  I was hoping he'd be wrong about that, and I wasn't disappointed.

 

[Madding crowd]

I am reading the non fiction book Radium Girls by Kate Moore. The subject matter is fascinating ( women during WWI who painted dials with radium) but the writing isn’t the greatest. I will still finish because I want to find out the endings to these poor women.

[blackwing]

I just finished Jeffrey Archer's latest book, Hidden in Plain Sight, which is his second book featuring Detective William Warwick, the character created by his author character Harry Clifton from his "Clifton Chronicles" series.  I enjoyed it, although my complaint about Archer's books lately is that with both the Clifton Chronicles and this Warwick series, the books are clearly intended to be part of a series and I feel like there isn't the closure and satisfaction of a standalone novel.  Some of his recent books have literally ended on a cliffhanger, which is frustrating because then there is a year long wait to find out what happened.  And with this latest Warwick book, we literally are dropped into the middle of the story.  I had forgotten everything that happened in the first Warwick book and I couldn't even remember who some of the characters were.  

I was happy to see that Archer has also just released a short story compendium, The Short, the Long and the Tall and am picking up from the library this week.  But then I found out it's just a repackaging of some of his previously published short stories, but with illustrations.  I'm sure I won't remember the stories since it's probably been 30 years since I read some of them, so I hope to enjoy it as new.

Based on a recommendation upthread, I'm currently reading Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty, which is the book that was characterised as "Agatha Christie in space".  I'm not far in but it's already riveting.

Edited November 22, 2020 by blackwing

[Rushmoras]

A week-ago finished Yuval Harari "SAPIENS: A Brief History of Humankind". It was a really easy read, the author really had in mind an average layperson while writing it. Some of the things he wrote we already discussed in school/university, other things were quite interesting to read (like that majority of our constructs, like money, political factions etc. are just only the products of our imagination). 

Now, I'm re-reading Herodotus "Historiae". And... I don't know, now I know, why I did not remember much of what I've read from this book many years ago, because the ancient historian's writing is all over the place (from one thing to the other, and then back again). I finished the first chapter, and I think I have to re-read it again, read the footnotes and in my own personal notebook write down the sequence from A to Z of the events, which he depicts, in order to fully understand what has happened. Also, what's interesting, that he attributes much of the stuff that has happened to the will of the Gods, just like Homerus.

Edited November 24, 2020 by Rushmoras

[Haleth]

1 hour ago, Rushmoras said:

A week-ago finished Yuval Harari "SAPIENS: A Brief History of Humankind". It was a really easy read, the author really had in mind an average layperson while writing it. Some of the things he wrote we already discussed in school/university, other things were quite interesting to read (like that majority of our constructs, like money, political factions etc. are just only the products of our imagination). 

I suggested this book to one of my kids who was looking for a Christmas present for dad.  I haven't read it but have heard such good things about it.

[BlackberryJam]

Sapiens was fantastic. It's so refreshing to take a purely scientific look at things.

[Mindthinkr]

I have yet to get to Winds of War because I’ve had so much to do in the kitchen. Even without having a group eating it, it takes so much time to shop, bake pies and get ready for Thanksgiving. A local Fresh Market offered it all done to be picked up, but my Covid partner wouldn’t go for that. Grrr.  So I belong to a book club and for it I read The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell. It was a bit to learn who the characters were as it jumped a lot between past and present, but once it got going it was interesting with some twists at the end. 

[Spartan Girl]

Reading Obama’s A Promised Land and ohhhh I wish I could get into specifics but it’s great so far.

[Browncoat]

7 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

Reading Obama’s A Promised Land and ohhhh I wish I could get into specifics but it’s great so far.

That is high on my list -- I'm planning on buying the hardcover soon.

[Haleth]

1 hour ago, Spartan Girl said:

Reading Obama’s A Promised Land and ohhhh I wish I could get into specifics but it’s great so far.

I’m #10 on the wait list. Can’t wait!

[Anduin]

Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards! I've been meaning to reread the guards books for a while, because I'm writing something in the fantasy police vein. While I read them a dozen times each way back in the 90s and 2000s, it's best to check in now. Make sure I'm not accidentally doing something he made fun of. Deliberately is fine, of course. I can always choose to lean into a bit of Pratchett. But I expect my hypothetical readers to be aware of the difference.

I actually stopped reading Pratchett a few years ago. I'd read him so much I'd got sick of his writing style. Tolkien is in the same boat. But now is the time.

[DearEvette]

I just read Sidney Sheldon's The Other Side of Midnight.  I had read it way back when in the late 80s when I devoured a bunch of his books. I had vaguely remembered I enjoyed his stuff, but the details why are hazy. Not sure why I decided to re-read this, but I did and it was hella entertaining.  Probably one of the best books in recent memory that I read that showcases a perfectly executed and rather diabolical revenge plot. 

[dubbel zout]

Sidney Sheldon is an excellent trashy-book writer. I write this with greatest respect.

[proserpina65]

1 hour ago, dubbel zout said:

Sidney Sheldon is an excellent trashy-book writer. I write this with greatest respect.

Indeed.  Well-written trash can be a thing of beauty, and he was among the very best at that.  I've never read anything of his which wasn't very entertaining.

[isalicat]

Last evening I finished the third book of the three book "Helen" series by Preston & Child (the third book is entitled Two Graves). More of an action thriller series than any sort of mystery but it was amazingly inventive and moved along very, very quickly with lots of interesting characters. Somewhat gruesome in parts (so not for those averse to gory murders or hand-to-hand combat) and there was a bit of repetition in the descriptive passages but I would still recommend if you are looking for something entirely escapist in our too real times.

[GHScorpiosRule]

9 hours ago, DearEvette said:

I just read Sidney Sheldon's The Other Side of Midnight.  I had read it way back when in the late 80s when I devoured a bunch of his books. I had vaguely remembered I enjoyed his stuff, but the details why are hazy. Not sure why I decided to re-read this, but I did and it was hella entertaining.  Probably one of the best books in recent memory that I read that showcases a perfectly executed and rather diabolical revenge plot. 

Oh lord, I DEVOURED all his books! I think my first one was Rage of Angels. And isn't Memories of Midnight the sequel to The Other Side of Midnight? The Naked Face, Master of the Game...

Edited November 26, 2020 by GHScorpiosRule

[DearEvette]

My strongest memories of his stuff is The Master of The Game which I remember had a really strong matriarch figure as a central character and the book I have next on deck, If Tomorrow Comes, which was about a female burglar and that I recall was probably along the more light-hearted of his books.

[Luckylyn]

I’m starting The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory.  I have been really enjoying her Wedding Date series of books.  This one is a hate to love story.   

[tres bien]

About half way into A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne. I have mixed feelings about this book.

Earlier this year I read his book The Heart's Invisible Furies, which has been my favorite book of 2020.

[Browncoat]

I picked up A Promised Land at the bookstore yesterday.  I'll start it as soon as I've finished my library books, so sometime this week.  

[SusieQ]

4 hours ago, tres bien said:

About half way into A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne. I have mixed feelings about this book.

Earlier this year I read his book The Heart's Invisible Furies, which has been my favorite book of 2020.

I love, love, love Heart's Invisible Furies. Ladder to the Sky was an interesting read, almost like a train wreck you couldn't turn away from. Probably the most horrible protagonist I've ever come across. 

[helenamonster]

Just finished: The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle, about identical (mirror image) twins and their inheritance, which gets left in full to the first sibling who produces a legitimate heir. My only real complaint was that the pacing felt a little off--long stretches devoted to things that didn't seem important while scenes I wanted to spend more time with were rushed through, and I thought the flashbacks could have been woven in a little more neatly. But overall found it a very gripping story until the last page. Some reviews I read thought there was too much boat jargon (a good portion of the book takes place on a yacht), but as somebody with zero sailing experience it didn't bother me. I was always able to follow what was happening.

Next up: The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate.

[MsNewsradio]

On 11/28/2020 at 9:28 AM, Luckylyn said:

I’m starting The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory.  I have been really enjoying her Wedding Date series of books.  This one is a hate to love story.   

I just blew through all her books this week...really enjoy her writing style. 

[Minneapple]

The Ravens by Kass Morgan and Danielle Page. I was excited when I saw this. A YA sorority of witches! And it wasn't bad by any means. But maybe I should have expected this since Morgan wrote The 100 series that became the CW show, but...it felt like a Charmed reboot. I wanted it to be darker, and while the plot did in retrospect become quite dark, the treatment of it was not. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone. It was like "OH MY GOD THIS HORRIBLE THING HAPPENED...let me redo my makeup and put on my pretty dress and angst over my boyfriend!"  

 

[Minneapple]

Big day for me as a YA fan! Karen McManus' new one, The Cousins, is out, and so is A Sky Beyond the Storm, the final installment of Sabaa Tahir's An Ember in the Ashes series! Can't wait to get started on these.

[Anduin]

I finished Guards! Guards! . Turns out I didn't accidentlaly rip anything from it, which is nice. It's still a very good book. Yeah, not surprising to anyone, I know. However, I noticed something this time. The exact moment that Carrot properly becomes an Ankh-Morpork citizen. He complains about the price of the armour polish that Errol ate. Nearly a whole dollar for the tin. He doesn't think about money before that. Just an interesting discovery.

I also drifted back to another of my favourites. Fellowship of the Ring. Funny thing, it's a decent enough size, but by modern fantasy standards, it's actually only medium-size. All the popular ones these days go 700 pages or more per volume, and there's usually more than three in the series. If you can comfortably hold it in one hand, it's too small. But as for the story itself, it's still good. But I haven't left it long enough. I didn't enjoy it as much as I used to. I need to read more and different things. Also, I couldn't help but hear the Prancing Pony Podcast in the back of my mind, making fun of Lothlorien as a crap holiday location. The peril of seeking out interesting takes is what happens when the annoying ones stick in your mind. I dropped that podcast soon afterwards.

To get away from fantasy, I picked up Peter F Hamilton's Reality Disfunction. Space opera! I read this maybe 20 years ago, only I didn't go on to the sequel. Will I this time? I dunno. But here's the funny thing. Right this moment, someone in my apartment block is giving away books. Putting them out in public for others to take. This is one of them. But it's so battered that I just don't want that copy. Anyway, like I said. I need to stop thinking about horses and swords for a while. Instead I want to think about spaceships and lasers. Distances should be measured in lightyears, not miles. Also I think I nicked a couple of writing ideas from this one too. It never hurts to go back and check your sources.

[Crs97]

I just finished  A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter by William Deresiewicz.  If you are a Jane Austen fan, this is a wonderful book!  His analysis of her work and how it influenced his life was very engaging.

[Rushmoras]

Eh, decided to ditch Herodotus "History" (maybe gonna get back to it once I retire lol) and picked up from my home library Leningrad: Tragedy of a City Under Siege by Anna Reid, A foreword and introduction in, and it's already a much more enjoyable read than Herodotus.

[grommit2]

Ok...my 2 cents: Kochland by Chris Leonard.
Tells the story of Koch Industries, the largest (in terms of revenue) privately held corporation in America.
Detailed, well-structured, fact-based.
Describes how they applied consistent principles to expanding their business using Porter's competitive analysis techniques and an aggressive data collection and information gathering operation.
Gets into how they got into trouble with environmental pollution, their fervent attempts at keeping their various businesses walled-off and protected.
The best part is how they developed a political influence operation, including endowing university chairs in exchange for climate-denial professors.

 

[Minneapple]

I finished A Sky Beyond the Storm. It was so good! Honestly I was a bit worried because No. 3 in the series was kind of uneven, and a lot of YA fantasy series start out strong and then finish in a disappointing way (looking at you, Holly Black). But in this case the finale really delivered in a big way. Lots of action, character development, angst, romance, all of it. I highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys YA fantasy.

I had started this series a few years ago when I made a New Year's resolution to read more books by non-white authors centered on non-white characters, and it's amazing how the landscape of fiction has changed since then, for the better!

Hoping to start The Cousins tonight! I also realized that Admissions, the fictionalized story of the USC admissions scandal featuring Aunt Becky has come out, so that's also on my list.

[Spartan Girl]

20 hours ago, Minneapple said:

I also realized that Admissions, the fictionalized story of the USC admissions scandal featuring Aunt Becky has come out, so that's also on my list.

Reading that right now and I love it so far!

Also just finished The Black Friend by Frederick Joseph. I highly recommend it.

[Luckylyn]

Starting The Husband Hunters: The American Heiresses who Married into the British Aristocracy  today.
 

editing to add:  enjoying the first 50 pages.  It makes me want to read The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton .  Adding that to my queue 

Edited December 6, 2020 by Luckylyn

[Madding crowd]

Just finished two books by Matthew Haig: Reasons to Stay Alive (a memoir) and The Midnight Library (fiction). I liked the premise of the library one and it did have an uplifting message, but the execution of the story fell flat. The memoir is about the author's bought with depression and how he doesn't believe in medication or therapy which is kind of controversial. 

[grommit2]

Currently: The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn.
I decided to follow the review comments and try this one. 
After all, a "#1 New York Times Bestseller", and many more raves, implies this is a compelling read.

"Soon to be a Major Motion Picture"...was it released in May 2020?

Half way through the book and the action has switched from a picture of the lead as a troubled, alcoholic, medicated psychologist....to the actual events happening across the way.
Geez...this is difficult. Does it get any better?
 

[Irlandesa]

43 minutes ago, grommit2 said:

"Soon to be a Major Motion Picture"...was it released in May 2020?

Very little was released in 2020.  May might've been the original release date but it now doesn't have an official release date, I don't think.

46 minutes ago, grommit2 said:

Geez...this is difficult. Does it get any better?

It basically is what it is. 

[truthaboutluv]

Just completed The Grace Year and my general reaction is meh. I think part of my disappointment is I was expecting something completely different than what the book turned out to be. 

Spoiler

I was expecting some pseduo-dystopian novel where the lead character drives some major uprising and instead I got 300 pages of a bunch of girls drinking bad water and acting nutty, with the cliche mean girl being a bitch to the main character. And then throw in some equally corny, cliche "love story" between the two people from opposite sides of the world and then apparently, despite the also cliche driving home of how unremarkable the main character supposedly is in looks, every guy is seemingly in love with her. Even to the point of one accepting a kid that's not his despite the fact this girl who was his best friend, forget the romance part, essentially had a "fuck Michael" attitude about him. I just...yeah no. 

 

[Spartan Girl]

Been rereading The Princess Diaries series. I still think Lilly was a crappy friend to Mia, and nothing Mia did (or thought Mia did) justified her publicly humiliating her on the internet like that.

Yeah JP was a liar and a scumbag and how he used Lilly to get to Mia was disgusting. I can understand why Lilly didn’t want to admit she lost her virginity to him, but I feel like all that mess could have been prevented had she just told Mia that JP was after her, and Mia would have been on her side no questions asked. But she didn’t and JP was able to manipulate things to his advantage. At the end of the day all Mia was really guilty of was being gullible

[peacheslatour]

My DIL sent me All The Ugly And Wonderful Things by Bryn Grrenwood. I started it last night and I can tell it's one of those books I'm going to devour.

[Minneapple]

OK so I read Admission by Julie Buxbaum, the fictionalized novel about the college admissions scandal, and mostly I thought it was good. My main issue was the main character. She (and she said this in the book, so maybe it was deliberate) was boring as fuck. She had no agency, weirdly because she chose not to have any agency. She had zero passions or interests. She had no motivation to do anything. Even Lori Loughlin's daughter had her Youtube channel and enjoyed talking about fashion and makeup.

Anyway. The best character in the book is probably Chloe's sister Isla. I liked their mom as well. I haven't read anything else by the author but I probably will check out her other books since I did like the writing.

[Spartan Girl]

Finally reading Mariah Carey’s memoir because I keep listening to “All I Want for Christmas”. Man, her family is messed up.And all the racism she encountered as a biracial child was infuriating.

[grommit2]

On 12/8/2020 at 1:04 PM, grommit2 said:

Currently: The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn.
I decided to follow the review comments and try this one. 
After all, a "#1 New York Times Bestseller", and many more raves, implies this is a compelling read.

"Soon to be a Major Motion Picture"...was it released in May 2020?

Half way through the book and the action has switched from a picture of the lead as a troubled, alcoholic, medicated psychologist....to the actual events happening across the way.
Geez...this is difficult. Does it get any better?
 

And now I'm done.  
Story drags for the first 180+ pages (wine, prescription drugs, and that bath robe she could never keep closed). 
And then the action picks up, the plot twists, until eventually all is explained.
If you can tolerate those first 180 pages, you will be treated to a rousing second half.