What Are We Currently Reading?

[Caoimhe]

Thank you to @Elizabeth Anne for mentioning the Cadell books in Kindle Unlimited! My free subscription is expiring in two weeks so I’ve borrowed everything I can and am reading my second one now.  I’m really enjoying them.

 

[Bethany]

3 hours ago, Caoimhe said:

 I’m really enjoying them.

There were a few titles available that I had never read before (until they got released on kindle some were very hard to find) and it was such a treat to find them!  With regard to her titles not on kindle unlimited, I don't know if this is the case outside Canada, but all the titles are priced in the $4.00 range right now so not too expensive.  I really recommend My Dear Aunt Flora and Language of the Heart!

[Caoimhe]

2 hours ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

I don't know if this is the case outside Canada, but all the titles are priced in the $4.00 range right now so not too expensive.  I really recommend My Dear Aunt Flora and Language of the Heart!

At US$2.99 I have purchased both! I may get more but will first read the ones I’ve borrowed before I lose them.

[SusieQ]

Just finished John Boyne's newest book, "All the Broken Places". Compelling book, compelling premise, difficult subject. Protagonist is the daughter of a high ranking Nazi. It's a companion to his young adult novel "The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas". I would highly recommend if you can stand the subject.

He is a wonderful writer. I might have mentioned his book "The Hearts Invisible Furies". One of my all time favorites. And his book "A Ladder to the Sky" is wild. It has the most evil character that I've ever read. But it was like a train wreck, you couldn't stop reading!

All this to say John Boyne has become one of my favorites.

[Bethany]

On 4/26/2023 at 12:58 PM, Caoimhe said:

At US$2.99 I have purchased both! I may get more but will first read the ones I’ve borrowed before I lose them.

I just finished two that I got at those bargain prices.  Titles I had never come across before so that was sweet.  The Golden Collar and Consider the Lilies.  Classic Cadells.   The Golden Collar in particular was one I am definitely putting on my comfort food re-read list.

[JAYJAY1979]

I actually recently read Colleen Hoover's Layla.. and I have to say it was a page turner.  I figured out the main twist of the book, and it really gave me whip lash over how I felt about the lead character Leeds.  Alternating between liking him, side eyeing him, hating him, and then finally coming to a place of acceptance that he wasn't all bad nor all good.

And I like that Colleen Hoover has both toxic male and female lead characters (I've only read Verity and Layla).   I'm all about that equality.

[Bethany]

I came across a few books set in a pre-fab village during the '50s in Britain.  There was so much need for rehousing after the war that a lot of these communities were built and meant be short term (if you call 10 yrs short term!) accomodation. Anyway I liked the premise, I like many of the characters, but oh my, the writing is just...well,  not good.

It could have been so interesting in more capable hands.  A real missed opportunity.

[bmasters9]

Now onto A Slaying In Savannah, another in the Murder, She Wrote book series-- have now finished 30 in that series, and they are remarkable page-turners (have 33 now in that series in total; when I got my first one in Alabama, A Deadly Judgment, and enjoyed it, I was sure I'd found a book series I would truly appreciate).

[Rushmoras]

Today, completed volume one of Tolstoy's War and Peace 🥳. Three volumes left, but I don't think that I'm interested in reading them further. For one thing, the book is very slow burn, which would be fine, however, I just can't stand how Tolstoy depicts some events, for example, Part 3 of volume one, revolved around Piotr, who just became the richest man in Tsar Russia, trying to find himself a wife (or more rather, local nobility trying to find him one). And just reading though his internal monologue while being alone with his soon to be wife was painful. I mean, I get what Tolstoy was going for (Piotr is an inexperienced virgin, who gets tongue-tied around women), but to read it for the whole chapter and each paragraph begins with: "But Piotr thought...". God damn. I found the parts about the Battle of Austerlitz interesting (would be Part 2 and Part 4 of volume one), but only because, as I've mentioned in my previous comments, that something else was going on other than boring intrigues of nobility. 

[EtheltoTillie]

I've resigned myself that I will never read War and Peace.  It's too convoluted and lengthy.  I tried it and gave up years ago. 

[Zella]

My possibly heretical opinion on Russian literature is that I'd 10 to 1 rather read the stuff from the first half of the 20th century than the 19th century classics. Mikhail Bulgakov and Leonid Andreyev is where it's at, IMHO. 

[akiss]

Well, I do love War and Peace. I remember asking it as a Christmas gift from my parents when I was in highschool and read it non stop in the weeks that followed. I haven't read it as a whole for a long time but sometimes I pick up the last volume and read experts of it. I did not love Anna Karenina as much, though. I've read it just the once and never looked back. The heroine did so many stupid choices imo.

[grommit2]

Hmm...literature.
The absolute best is the re-interpretation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice".
The re-interpretation was "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies".
Not a book, just a movie. Classic! 😉

[sugarbaker design]

21 hours ago, akiss said:

I did not love Anna Karenina as much, though. I've read it just the once and never looked back. The heroine did so many stupid choices imo.

I agree about AK's choices, I still don't believe Tolstoy intended her to be a sympathetic heroine as much as a symbol of what is wrong in Russia.  When I read it I was surprised to find Anna doesn't make an appearance until a 100 pages in, I was also surprised that the book heavily featured the real protagonist Konstantin Levin, who is immensely likable and the real hero of the book.

I only keep three paperback novels on my nightstand at all times.  AK, Middlemarch and The Age of Innocence.  I can pick up any of these three, just open anywhere and start reading.

[akiss]

5 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

I agree about AK's choices, I still don't believe Tolstoy intended her to be a sympathetic heroine as much as a symbol of what is wrong in Russia.  When I read it I was surprised to find Anna doesn't make an appearance until a 100 pages in, I was also surprised that the book heavily featured the real protagonist Konstantin Levin, who is immensely likable and the real hero of the book.

I only keep three paperback novels on my nightstand at all times.  AK, Middlemarch and The Age of Innocence.  I can pick up any of these three, just open anywhere and start reading.

Oh, sure. Levin is likeable and maybe he's the real protagonist. I did expect to like or just understand Anna, though. The book is named after her! I read it as a teenager, maybe I should go back and see if I view it differently now.

[Rushmoras]

From historical fiction to science fiction. A couple of days ago began reading Christopher Paolini's To Sleep in A Sea of Stars. And for a 900+ pages novel, which I picked up for ~5 EUR at an annual book fare market, it's pretty good. For now, at least, it's way better than Dune. So far, I've read 4 chapters, which introduced maybe a main plot, I don't know, about some sort of alien virus

Spoiler

[the four chapters talked about a team of xeno-biologists researching planets for future colonists (whether the planets are viable to live in), and during one expedition, a xeno-biologist named Kira, while investigating a site where an unmanned drone crashed, accidentally fell down a crevice in to a artificially constructed structure, which, I'd say, defence mechanisms began attacking her (some sort of black goo). About a month later, she wakes up in her ship's infirmary; her mates tell her that she's been in cryo-sleep and what not, and now the military is quarantining the whole space sector due to this event. In the end, the black goo re-emerges and kills everyone].

So, yeah, interesting so far.

Edited May 22, 2023 by Rushmoras

[blackwing]

I finished James Rollins' The Cradle of Ice.  Rollins typically writes action-adventure thrillers with science and archaeology thrown in, his long running series is the Sigma Force series.  This book is the second book in his Moonfall fantasy series.  The moon is about to crash into and destroy the world.  The group of characters from the first book are trying to prevent it.

I didn't really enjoy the first book, and my complaints are repeated in the second book.  Too many characters, different groups doing different things, some of which may or may not affect the other group.  Too many storylines and book just drags.  Some of the characters I couldn't even remember from the first book who they were and why they were doing what they were doing.  After a while, I just didn't care, I just wanted to slog through and finish the book.

I'm assuming there is at least one more book in the series.  I love James Rollins and eagerly look forward to each Sigma Force book, but I really did not enjoy this Moonfall series.

 

I also finished Stone Cross, the second book in Marc Cameron's Arliss Cutter series.  Cutter is a deputy U.S. marshal who has moved to Alaska to take care of his dead brother's wife and children.  He's assigned to protect a federal judge who travels around hearing cases in rural Alaska.  In the native community of Stone Cross, a couple disappeared and a man has been found dead.

I enjoyed this book and the character, but I keep expecting him to be a lot like CJ Box's Joe Pickett, who lives in Wyoming.  I don't think Cameron is as good of a writer as Box, but still decent.

[Minneapple]

Just finished Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. It's good, but I honestly have a feeling that this might be one of those rare cases where the movie is actually better than the book, which is written in a very straightforward style, almost like an extended newspaper article.

[tres bien]

On 5/3/2023 at 7:47 PM, SusieQ said:

Just finished John Boyne's newest book, "All the Broken Places". Compelling book, compelling premise, difficult subject. Protagonist is the daughter of a high ranking Nazi. It's a companion to his young adult novel "The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas". I would highly recommend if you can stand the subject.

He is a wonderful writer. I might have mentioned his book "The Hearts Invisible Furies". One of my all time favorites. And his book "A Ladder to the Sky" is wild. It has the most evil character that I've ever read. But it was like a train wreck, you couldn't stop reading!

All this to say John Boyne has become one of my favorites.

I'm a big fan of John Boyne too.

Currently reading This House is Haunted (2013) and recently read his version of Mutiny on the Bounty (2009)

[Bookish Jen]

I'm in the middle of Jeremy Hawkin's "The Last Days of Video" and I really like it. I can totally see it being made into a movie.

[proserpina65]

On 5/26/2023 at 10:46 AM, Minneapple said:

Just finished Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. It's good, but I honestly have a feeling that this might be one of those rare cases where the movie is actually better than the book, which is written in a very straightforward style, almost like an extended newspaper article.

That's actually part of why I enjoyed it so much.  Not looking forward to the movie at all since I can't stand Leonardo di Caprio.

[Zella]

I'm looking forward to the movie, though I think both DeNiro and DiCaprio are likely miscast. It's been several years since I read the book. I am hoping to read it again before the movie is released in October, but I thought it was superb when I did read it. I also liked Grann's The Lost City of Z and am on the wait list for his newest book The Wager at the library. The film adaptation of Lost City of Z was a mess, though. 

[sugarbaker design]

On 5/26/2023 at 10:46 AM, Minneapple said:

Just finished Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. It's good, but I honestly have a feeling that this might be one of those rare cases where the movie is actually better than the book, which is written in a very straightforward style, almost like an extended newspaper article.

I loved the simple, yet elegant prose style of Killers of The Flower Moon.

Edited May 31, 2023 by sugarbaker design

[tres bien]

On 4/10/2023 at 6:25 AM, Haleth said:

I finally jumped on board the William Kent Krueger train and read This Tender Land.  What a sweet, lovely book!  The ending was a bit rushed but I enjoyed the journey of the four children as they escaped the hardships of the orphan school.  I'm new to a book club and may suggest this one if it hasn't already been done.  Lots of material to discuss wrt the narrator, Odysseus, and his geographical and emotional voyage.  Big thumbs up for this one.

William Kent Krueger 's Ordinary Grace is also very good 

[Scatterbrained]

I just finished On Fire Island by Jane L. Rosen.  In my mind, it is a bit like the play “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder; a modern day, upper middle class New Yorker, intellectual version.  It should be noted (trigger warning!) that the main character/narrator is recently deceased due to cancer.  She tells a bit about her life and the lives of her family, neighbors and friends before she succumbed to cancer, but the primary story (or stories) are about what happens after.  The way it is presented, I think of it as “life after life” vs. life after death.  
 

The way the book is structured, most chapters read like a short story, with an overall theme, usually signified by the chapter title, and a definitive conclusion.  For this reason, I think it makes a good book to have on hand when you want to have something to read to stave off momentary boredom.  You can read it in bits and pieces.  It’s a Reader’s Digest of a novel!  :)

I did not zip through this one, but I enjoyed reading it, and laughed out loud in some parts.  I recommend it.

Edited June 7, 2023 by Scatterbrained

[Bethany]

On 4/26/2023 at 12:58 PM, Caoimhe said:

At US$2.99 I have purchased both! I may get more but will first read the ones I’ve borrowed before I lose them.

I wondered if you enjoyed them?  I waited 20 years to read one of her lesser known titles and realize it wasn't worth my investment of $4.00 or my time.  Spring Green - didn't even finish it.

[Crs97]

I really enjoyed A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.  I then tried The Perfect Marriage but quickly abandoned it.  I just finished Brooke Shield’s memoir of her mother There Was a Little Girl.  Those stories seemed best left at the therapist’s office IMO.

[Zella]

I've been reading David Grann's new book The Wager. About 100 pages in or so, and it is fantastic. I don't want to spoil too much, but it's about a ship involved in a British naval expedition in the 1740s that tries to round Cape Good Horn. Things go very wrong. 

[Crs97]

I’ve heard nothing but good things about The Wager.  It’s on my TBR list.

[Zella]

2 minutes ago, Crs97 said:

I’ve heard nothing but good things about The Wager.  It’s on my TBR list.

Yeah I must confess the historical incident it's about isn't one I am familiar with. So, I read it just because I like his books, but as soon as I read the prologue and the intro, which sketch out the high (or maybe low) points that happen, I realized I was in for a really wild but fascinating ride. 

[Spartan Girl]

Just finished All the Broken Places by John Boyne, the sequel to Boy in the Striped Pajamas I literally had no idea existed until I saw it at the library today. Basically, it’s what happened to Bruno’s sister. While I don’t know if the valid criticisms of the predecessor still apply here, it is a pretty good look at the complicity of Nazi families and doesn’t let the characters off the hook for their actions (and inactions). Definitely worth reading.

Edited June 10, 2023 by Spartan Girl

[Caoimhe]

17 hours ago, Bethany said:

I wondered if you enjoyed them?  I waited 20 years to read one of her lesser known titles and realize it wasn't worth my investment of $4.00 or my time.  Spring Green - didn't even finish it.

I haven’t read them yet!  After reading the ones I borrowed from Kindle Unlimited I was in the mood for something different so I read Antonia Fraser’s (long) Marie Antoinette and am now reading Donna Leon’s latest.  

[Spartan Girl]

Has anybody read Yellowface by RF Kuang? Holy. Shit. I can’t put it out. When the writer’s strike is over, this better get optioned because damn. 

[isalicat]

Any book written by China Mieville. Really. Was absolutely gobsmacked by Perdido Street Station and now just finishing The City & The City (which is an entirely different genre of writing - that is just how great this author is...). Can't wait to read all his other stuff.

[Crs97]

Just finished Jeff Zentner’s Goodbye Days, and his writing is sublime:

“I think if what you’d do for your last day on Earth doesn’t look like a pretty normal day for you, you probably need to reexamine your life.”

That sentence alone stopped me in my tracks.  I’ll be contemplating it for days.

His In the Wild Light was my favorite book last year with a paragraph on grief that still makes me cry.  He’s the real deal.

[Haleth]

4 hours ago, isalicat said:

Any book written by China Mieville. Really. Was absolutely gobsmacked by Perdido Street Station and now just finishing The City & The City (which is an entirely different genre of writing - that is just how great this author is...). Can't wait to read all his other stuff.

I know, right?  I was gobsmacked when I caught on in The City and the City.  Different genres - Embassytown is an original sci fi/space story and Unlundun is (could be) a children's story similar to The Wizard of Oz.

On 6/9/2023 at 8:33 PM, Zella said:

I've been reading David Grann's new book The Wager. About 100 pages in or so, and it is fantastic. I don't want to spoil too much, but it's about a ship involved in a British naval expedition in the 1740s that tries to round Cape Good Horn. Things go very wrong. 

I'm on a wait list for this.  Everyone raves about how good it is.

Edited June 11, 2023 by Haleth

[EtheltoTillie]

I just read a new (to me) author, Jane L. Rosen.  Nine Women, One Dress was a very entertaining page turner:  Judith Krantz meets Elinor Lipman meets The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.  I will be seeking out more by her.  She's got a new summer read out, On Fire Island.  And others to track down. 

[DearEvette]

Do a re-read of select books in Steve Miller and Sharon Lee's Liaden Universe which I haven't read in years so they are like new.

I enjoyed  Local Custom which as I was reading I was impressed all over again how the authors use language and linguistics as a major part of their world building.

Just finished Scout's Progress which I had remembered was about domestic violence.  But had forgotten about the found family aspect and camaraderie between pilots.  The DV stuff was worse than I remembered but the basic story is great and pretty triumphant.  I loved the fact that the main character, Aelliana, was a brilliant (and famous) mathematician who won a spaceship in a card game and was using that as her exit strategy to get away from her abusive older brother.  The DV stuff was heartbreaking because it shows that no matter how well respected and thought of and , yes, even revered amongst the pilots Aelliana was, her own self esteem had been worn away by years of abuse.  Luckily the actual parts showing her awful brother were brief.

[proserpina65]

On 6/11/2023 at 7:33 AM, Crs97 said:

“I think if what you’d do for your last day on Earth doesn’t look like a pretty normal day for you, you probably need to reexamine your life.”

Eh, I think that sentiment is horseshit.  If I knew today was my last day on Earth, I wouldn't be at work and I wouldn't clean my house and a thousand other things which one absolutely has to do on a normal day.  I'd be lying on a beach, probably reading a book which I'd never need to return to the library.

Very few people can get away with not paying bills, but most of us wouldn't care about them if we knew there was no tomorrow.

Edited June 12, 2023 by proserpina65

[Ohiopirate02]

On 6/10/2023 at 2:10 PM, Spartan Girl said:

Has anybody read Yellowface by RF Kuang? Holy. Shit. I can’t put it out. When the writer’s strike is over, this better get optioned because damn. 

I inhaled that one over Memorial Day weekend.  I absolutely loved it and how it skewered the publishing industry.  I also loved the fact that there were no heroes in the book, everyone was an asshole in his/her/their own way, but June was still the worst.  I was glad I was home alone when reading the one paragraph talking about Jenna Bush Haeger's Read With Jenna Book Club.  That may go down as the best paragraph I read all year.  

[Crs97]

5 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

On 6/11/2023 at 7:33 AM, Crs97 said:

“I think if what you’d do for your last day on Earth doesn’t look like a pretty normal day for you, you probably need to reexamine your life.”

Eh, I think that sentiment is horseshit.  If I knew today was my last day on Earth, I wouldn't be at work and I wouldn't clean my house and a thousand other things which one absolutely has to do on a normal day.  I'd be lying on a beach, probably reading a book which I'd never need to return to the library.

Very few people can get away with not paying bills, but most of us wouldn't care about them if we knew there was no tomorrow.

I chose not to take it that literally.  YMMV.

[Spartan Girl]

5 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

I inhaled that one over Memorial Day weekend.  I absolutely loved it and how it skewered the publishing industry.  I also loved the fact that there were no heroes in the book, everyone was an asshole in his/her/their own way, but June was still the worst.  I was glad I was home alone when reading the one paragraph talking about Jenna Bush Haeger's Read With Jenna Book Club.  That may go down as the best paragraph I read all year.  

Yes!!! Everyone was an asshole, it was so much like Gone Girl that way! Even when June was at her most reprehensible, there was a sliver of me that agreed with her about certain things, like how insufferable the Twitterati can be, even when they’re right. It wasn’t until the confrontation at the end that the mask was REALLY off and you could see what a racist piece of shit she was.

[Starleigh]

My reading from this past weekend:

I read Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum--it was sort of the anti sappy beach read-it had a kind of dark undertone to it which reminded me a bit of Big Little Lies, just with a beach/summer season setting. It was a good read.

I also read Two Wars and a Wedding by Lauren Willig. It was set during the Spanish-American war, which is a bit different from the typical historical setting for war novels published these days. It was also a good read. 

I am waiting on quite a pile of new books, but my library is super slow at processing new books for some reason. I did get notified that the newest Sally Hepworth that I had requested just came in, so I'll have that to read this upcoming weekend.

[Zella]

I've added Yellowface to my TBR list based on this thread!

[proserpina65]

17 hours ago, Crs97 said:

I chose not to take it that literally.  YMMV.

Not sure what other way one could take it, but as you say, mileage varies.

[Bookish Jen]

On 6/10/2023 at 1:10 PM, Spartan Girl said:

Has anybody read Yellowface by RF Kuang? Holy. Shit. I can’t put it out. When the writer’s strike is over, this better get optioned because damn. 

I so want to read this book!

[Anduin]

Winter's Gifts, the new Ben Aaronvitch book. Bought and finished in the same day. Its page count is only 200 or so, but I paid $35 anyway. That's hardcovers for you.

Anyway, it stars Kimberly Reynolds, the FBI agent from some of his other books. She has to venture up to Wisconsin in winter. I had a lot of yikes moments while reading, because it's winter here. While I don't live in snow country, it's still cold enough for me to relate.

Reading pretty fast, I probably sort of skipped over a few details. How did X discover the situation? What happened to them? Part of me wants to read it again tomorrow, part of me wants to wait for summer. Anyway, it was as good as normal, if light on the usual pop culture references.

Anyone else read this? Because I'm wondering, was

Spoiler

a Calvin and Hobbes story arc an inspiration? I've only read that arc once several years ago, maybe I should do so again.

 

[Haleth]

Ugh, my book club has done three books in a row with whiny, annoying female protagonists.  Each one has gotten progressively less enjoyable: Wrong Place, Wrong Time, then State of Wonder, next is The Midnight Library.  I read TML some time ago and hated it and don't plan on reading it again for discussion so I guess I'm free for the month of July.

I suggested a couple different books to the book club administrator. LOL

[Zella]

4 hours ago, Haleth said:

Ugh, my book club has done three books in a row with whiny, annoying female protagonists.  Each one has gotten progressively less enjoyable: Wrong Place, Wrong Time, then State of Wonder, next is The Midnight Library.  I read TML some time ago and hated it and don't plan on reading it again for discussion so I guess I'm free for the month of July.

I suggested a couple different books to the book club administrator. LOL

How do they usually choose them?

I'm not part of it because I work at the time and expected to be at the circ desk, but the library where I work has a pretty interesting book club and I enjoy overhearing their conversations. They get books from the state library book club program. So, every year they get to pick what they'd like to read, but it's entirely up to the state what is sent and when. It usually seems to work okay for them. Though one time, they went through a slate of the world's most twee but depressing books. I think they were all on the verge of snapping, but eventually the books started varying a bit more. Mentioning one of the book titles to this day will still cause the entire group to burst out into uncontrollable laughter. LOL 

[GHScorpiosRule]

Now that I'm back and mostly recovered from the work trial from HELL, I'm finishing up Nora's Horror Trilogy, which I remember not liking the first time I read it; Gage was my favorite, and by the time we got to his story, I was very disappointed. Re-reading it again since it first came out, I'm not sure why. I think I was more about--where is the romance? It's just sex, none of the tender emotions, but I was wrong. Feelings are there-from both Cybill and Gage. So, I'm just about done with Pagan Stone. While the first, Blood Brothers (Cal and Quinn) is my favorite, the second, The Hollow (Fox and Layla) comes real close, because I love Fox the best. I really don't care for any of the heroines. Which is odd. BUT, I love how Nora writes boys and men. Boys, because they are SO relatable and sound like, well, 10-year old boys sound and act like! And since she's the youngest of five, and had four older brothers, and two sons--she likes men; understands them, and writes them well.

Anyhoo, once I'm done with Pagan Stone, I'll start on her new one, Identity. 

Once I start something, I have to finish it, like this trilogy. I'm anal like that.