What Are We Currently Reading?

[partofme]

Has anyone read A Simple Favor by Darcy Bell?  I started it yesterday and just finished it.  It is a fast paced twisty read and appparently they're making a movie out of it due to come out next year.

Edited July 17, 2017 by partofme

[luna1122]

I mentioned A Simple Favor awhile back...I did like it, it's twisty fun. I didn't know about a film...I see that now Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively are attached. I can see Blake as the 'perfect' wife, but Anna seems way too savvy and smart to play the mommy-blogger, who is bascially a ninny. I also see Paul Feig is now attached as director...so hopefully that means this will be a dark comedy, which, really, it is.

Finished Commonwealth, I just loved it. Patchett uses language like a paintbrush, she's a true artist, and I'm a sucker for interwoven, interconnected, multi-character sagas. Her style reminds me of Gail Godwin, another fave.

Now reading Homework by Margaret Livesey, and just want to be done with it. I hate pretty much everyone in this book, and the protagonist is unbearably annoying, the kind of woman who, when her boyfriend compliments her, says things like "But I'm so plain looking!" Ugh, shut up. The writing is fine enough and I do want to see where the story winds up, but I'm beginnning to skim and scan to get through it.

[Qoass]

I just finished Al Franken Giant of the Senate and really enjoyed it. It's a memoir so it starts back in his childhood but it wraps up post inaugural so it feels like the ink is barely dry on the page.

[littlewonder]

I'm making my way through Alice Munro's Friend of My Youth having having just finished Edith Warton's The House Of Mirth.  I like them both but will need something light up next.

[Lugal]

Tim Power's On Stranger Tides.  It's one of his best, I think.  Disney brought the rights to it and only used the title, Blackbeard and the Fountain of Youth for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but the book is much better.

[Zola]

Strictly speaking not novels as such, but I fancied something light and extremely funny during these hot sunny weeks. So am now wading my way through the marvellous comic-strip books of Gary Larson and his "The Far Side" universe starting with "The Far Side Gallery" (1982)

Totally "out there" at times, very surreal, but incredibly funny!

 

"Cow Tools" rock :)

Edited July 18, 2017 by Only Zola

[topanga]

I've started "Almost Sisters" by Joshilyn Jackson. Very good so far. I don't think anything can ever surpass gods in alabama, but I'm really enjoying these current characters. 

[Mindthinkr]

Don't judge. I just finished A Paris Apartment by Michelle Gable. It was a wonderful look at antige furniture, architecture, behind the scenes action houses workings (lite). Art  and the Belle Epoch era of Paris. I enjoyed it. 

 

$6.48 at Sam's Club.    Will pass it forward through my girlfriend circle. 

[Qoass]

I just started Roxane Gay's Hunger. I'm only about 40 pages in but so far it's not grabbing me as much as her previous books have.

[Lugal]

On 7/18/2017 at 0:14 AM, Only Zola said:

Strictly speaking not novels as such, but I fancied something light and extremely funny during these hot sunny weeks. So am now wading my way through the marvellous comic-strip books of Gary Larson and his "The Far Side" universe starting with "The Far Side Gallery" (1982)

Totally "out there" at times, very surreal, but incredibly funny!

 

"Cow Tools" rock :)

If you ever get the chance check out the Prehistory of the Far Side, Gary Larson's own history of the strip.

He describes "Cow Tools" in particular as an episode that will haunt him for the rest of his life.He says: "So in summary, I drew a really weird, obtuse cartoon that no one understood and wasn't funny and therefore I went on to even greater success and recognition."

[Zola]

37 minutes ago, Lugal said:

If you ever get the chance check out the Prehistory of the Far Side, Gary Larson's own history of the strip.

He describes "Cow Tools" in particular as an episode that will haunt him for the rest of his life.He says: "So in summary, I drew a really weird, obtuse cartoon that no one understood and wasn't funny and therefore I went on to even greater success and recognition."

I do have most of his books in my bookcase, including "Prehistory....", so it's definitely on my "next book to read" list!

And the "Cow Tools" sketch is really weird, yet somewhat familiar ... but not quite! And that's the beauty of Larson's Far Side world, and I love it because you sometimes have to do a double-take at either the one-liner joke, and/or the cartoon itself

[luna1122]

Most recently: Finished Homework by Margaret Livesy, which was already bugging me and then she had to go

Spoiler

and KILL THE CAT. and not just kill it, but tragically, graphically, in a fire, when it was already hammered home to us that the cat Tobias, who is the best character in the book, was terrified of fire. And that the annoying protagonist opened the door where Tobias was not once but TWICE but didn't realize he was there, and shut him inside. And that he was lying right by the door, and his beautiful fur was scorched...it was all too much for me. And then the end was inconclusive and unsatisfying on top of it all.

 

So, in conclusion, fuck that book.

Next read Fractured by Catherine Mckenzie, which is very twisty and page turner-y, with not one but TWO unreliable narrators and a mystery that I didn't figure out before the reveal in the final pages. The ending was a bit of a letdown, but I still enjoyed it. It's a binge read, a beach read, nothing wrong with that. And it's set in Cincinnati's Mount Eden area, which i'm very familiar with and love for its San Francisco like hills and homes, so that was fun.
I'm reading Winter town by Stephen Edmond now. So far, it's just not grabbing me. It might be just a little TOO YA for me.

[Qoass]

I just finished Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give by Ada Calhoun after hearing a spoken excerpt from it on the Modern Love podcast, It's a collection of essays on the ups and downs of marriage and I would seriously consider giving it as a wedding gift.

[OtterMommy]

3 hours ago, luna1122 said:

Next read Fractured by Catherine Mckenzie, which is very twisty and page turner-y, with not one but TWO unreliable narrators and a mystery that I didn't figure out before the reveal in the final pages. The ending was a bit of a letdown, but I still enjoyed it. It's a binge read, a beach read, nothing wrong with 

I enjoyed Fractured as well, probably more than I would have because I didn't particularly like the other books by the author that I've read.

I haven't read this yet (it is sitting on my kindle), but there is another book, written by Catherine McKenzie, under the name Julie Apple, called The Murder Game, which is the book Julie Prentice was writing in Fractured.

[luna1122]

7 minutes ago, OtterMommy said:

I enjoyed Fractured as well, probably more than I would have because I didn't particularly like the other books by the author that I've read.

I haven't read this yet (it is sitting on my kindle), but there is another book, written by Catherine McKenzie, under the name Julie Apple, called The Murder Game, which is the book Julie Prentice was writing in Fractured.

I saw that she did that, and I'm intrigued enough by the idea that it's on my to read list now.

[Mindthinkr]

Just finished Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. It was a very descriptive tale of woods, flora and fauna with special attention on moths, coyotes and bird life. 

[luna1122]

I love all things Barbara Kingsolver.

[Athena]

1 hour ago, Mindthinkr said:

Just finished Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. It was a very descriptive tale of woods, flora and fauna with special attention on moths, coyotes and bird life. 

My favourite Kingsolver novel. I love her memoirs Animal, Vegetable, Miracle the most. I love her writing in general, but surprisingly, I found the much lauded The Poisonwood Bible to be my least favourite of her works.

[Mindthinkr]

1 hour ago, luna1122 said:

I love all things Barbara Kingsolver.

This was my first time reading her and I wouldn't have even minded if it went on for another couple hundred pages as I became so enamored of the characters and the woodsy settings. I will have to hit the library.

@Athena just responded with some titles! Yea...thank you. 

[Zola]

"Seriously.... I'm Kidding!" - Ellen Degeneres

There is something hugely comforting about Degeneres' books. I never tire of them, and always find them hugely funny, informative and enlightening. However, even though I am still only a couple of chapters into this book, there seems to be a lack of spark here; some of the material feels strangely familiar and the laughs no longer come thick and fast.

But as I say, am only a few pages in, so perhaps it will build to an earth-shattering climax if I tinker with it long enough. 

 

Only Kidding, Ellen!

Edited July 26, 2017 by Only Zola

[Qoass]

I'm reading Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America. It covers a lot of the same ground as Michael Pollan's work but is an enjoyable read. That said, I've been doing a lot of memoirs and other non-fictions stuff lately so I'm ready for a novel.

[bubbls]

I've got my reading bug back, so I'm reading The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston on the discovery of the remains of a massive ancient civilization deep in the jungles of Honduras using LIDAR, a remote mapping technique using lasers. They then are helicoptered in for on-ground exploration. I'm an armchair adventurer and love archeology, so this is right up my ally. It's fascinating. 

[Mindthinkr]

25 minutes ago, bubbls said:

I've got my reading bug back, so I'm reading The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston on the discovery of the remains of a massive ancient civilization deep in the jungles of Honduras using LIDAR, a remote mapping technique using lasers. They then are helicoptered in for on-ground exploration. I'm an armchair adventurer and love archeology, so this is right up my ally. It's fascinating. 

I really enjoy Preston! I also enjoy the Pendergast series that he writes with Lincoln Child. 

[GaT]

I'm reading Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. This is a "book within a book" story which I knew when I bought it, but I didn't realize just how much of a "book within a book" it is, you literally read a whole (sort of) story before you get to the part the book is about which happens about half way through. I have no idea how it will turn out.

[Haleth]

22 hours ago, bubbls said:

I've got my reading bug back, so I'm reading The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston on the discovery of the remains of a massive ancient civilization deep in the jungles of Honduras using LIDAR, a remote mapping technique using lasers. They then are helicoptered in for on-ground exploration. I'm an armchair adventurer and love archeology, so this is right up my ally. It's fascinating. 

That's next on my list.  I've been wanting to read it for a while.

I'm about 2/3 through The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and really enjoying it.  It's the story of a modern day David Copperfield, an orphaned teen who is kind of shuffled around in less than ideal circumstances.  I've just gotten to the fast forward to his adult life.  Has anyone else read it?

[Qoass]

Yes, I really enjoyed The Goldfinch although the part set in Vegas was a real slog for me. There's a treatise on the nature of art towards the end that I found very meaningful.

I'm struggling through Beartown even though it's by Fredrik Backman (Man Called Ove) and it was recommended to me by a friend who knows my taste. Unlike previous novels by this author, it's not a fish out of water story. It's a lets repeat the same things over and over and over and over story. If if were by anyone else, I'd have given up by now but I'm holding onto faith that the next 150 pages will be better than the first 150.

[Zola]

Lee Harper's classic novel "To Kill A Mocking Bird"

Haven't read this since my schooldays; really enjoyed the film adaptation though.

[Mabinogia]

I never had the chance to read "To Kill a Mocking Bird" in school. I never read any of the classics in school, but I did read it a couple years ago and it was such a fabulous book. So beautifully written. I kind of wish I had read it sooner.

[Qoass]

I too was supposed to read it in middle school and well, didn't. As with many things in life, I find I enjoy books more when I read them of my own volition rather than as an assignment so I'm okay with having waited until adulthood to finish it. I thought the same about The Great Gatsby although I hereby apologize to my English teacher for that bullshit answer I made up about the significance of the green light.

[alias1]

On 8/1/2017 at 11:58 PM, GaT said:

I'm reading Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. This is a "book within a book" story which I knew when I bought it, but I didn't realize just how much of a "book within a book" it is, you literally read a whole (sort of) story before you get to the part the book is about which happens about half way through. I have no idea how it will turn out.

I just finished this and really enjoyed the story within a story.  It was very clever, and I loved all the references to other mystery works that he sprinkled throughout the book.

Edited August 4, 2017 by SierraMist

[GaT]

1 hour ago, SierraMist said:

I just finished this and really enjoyed the story within a story.  It was very clever, and I loved all the references to other mystery works that he sprinkled throughout the book.

I thought it was OK, but it seemed obvious who did it to me, so at the end I was getting annoyed by Susan's stupidity in not seeing where things were going. If there was a dark basement, I'm sure she would have gone down into it by herself.

[alias1]

9 hours ago, GaT said:

I thought it was OK, but it seemed obvious who did it to me, so at the end I was getting annoyed by Susan's stupidity in not seeing where things were going. If there was a dark basement, I'm sure she would have gone down into it by herself.

@GaT  I agree with you about Susan's stupidity at the end (and yes, it was pretty obvious).  I enjoyed the style of the book.  He wrote another book (Moriarty) where I also thought the solution was obvious.  And he mentions Moriarty (and many other works) in this book.  I liked the "fictional" part of the story more than the "real" events and I thought it was clever how he connected them.

[helenamonster]

On 8/2/2017 at 8:01 AM, Haleth said:

That's next on my list.  I've been wanting to read it for a while.

I'm about 2/3 through The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and really enjoying it.  It's the story of a modern day David Copperfield, an orphaned teen who is kind of shuffled around in less than ideal circumstances.  I've just gotten to the fast forward to his adult life.  Has anyone else read it?

I have! And I really enjoyed it. It was definitely long (I read it on my Kindle and I didn't realize exactly how long it was until I saw someone with a hardcopy) but I think the length worked. Every new space that Theo occupies is completely foreign to me (and, I assume, to most people) so I enjoyed really getting the feel for these locations and the kind of people that live in them. I like any work of fiction that makes its setting(s) as much of a character as its actual characters, which I think Tartt did really well.

Also, no spoilers, but the twist that happens about 3/4 of the way through was excellent. I'm actually a little mad at myself for not seeing it coming.

[Haleth]

On August 4, 2017 at 11:24 AM, helenamonster said:

Also, no spoilers, but the twist that happens about 3/4 of the way through was excellent. I'm actually a little mad at myself for not seeing it coming.

Ok, now I'm really curious!  (Not asking for spoilers, just anxious to read it.)

(Just came to it.  I burst out laughing.)

Edited August 6, 2017 by Haleth

[bmasters9]

1962 book based on the hit 1957-60 NBC police series w/the late Lee Marvin

Edited August 5, 2017 by bmasters9

[Qoass]

I'm midway through Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud by Anne Helen Petersen. It's ten essays on notable women who are successful yet criticized for their image i.e. Hillary Clinton: Too Shrill. I like it in concept more than in execution. The author writes for Buzzfeed and  her prose comes off as aggregated rather than original: pretty much every point is attributed to an article or interview by someone else. Also, she seems to have some strange obsession with the word "abject". It's not that common a word and yet it shows up here in every chapter, sometimes more than once in the same paragraph.

By the way, I ended up really drawn to the story in Beartown which I mentioned upthread but I still didn't care for the writing style.

[Crs97]

I don't know why I do this, but when a book gets rave reviews I tend to find the author's debut novel and read it first.  I just finished Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.  It was absolutely wonderful, and I now cannot wait to dive into A Gentleman in Moscow!

[bmasters9]

Growing Up Fundamentalist by Stefan Ulstein

[Haleth]

19 hours ago, Crs97 said:

I don't know why I do this, but when a book gets rave reviews I tend to find the author's debut novel and read it first.  I just finished Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.  It was absolutely wonderful, and I now cannot wait to dive into A Gentleman in Moscow!

I read them in the opposite order.  Loved both, especially Gentleman.  

[luna1122]

I liked The Goldfinch, tho Tartt notoriously overwrites, and I'm generally just RELIEVED to be finished with her books. And I usually actually love overwritten stuff. I loathed her The Little Friend, but loved The Secret History. I will definitely look for whatever she writes next.

Finished Wintertown. wound up finding it fairly endearing---it was described as a cross between Garden State and Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, both of which I'm really fond of, and it didn't reach either of those levels, for me, but I did end up liking it more than I thought I did at the beginning. I could completely see it as a film, especially the last scene. But ultimately it was a little TOO much emo teen angst for me, and I was a angsty emo teen myself. We're exhausting.

Next read Ann Patchett's Taft, as I make my wake thru her bibliography. The writing is beautiful, as always, and it's definitely either brave or shortsighted or both for her to take on the voice of a black southern jazz musician falling for a teenaged white girl, but it's compelling, as everything she writes is. Then read The Memory Box by Eva Lesko Natiello, another one of those Gone Girl wannabes that doesn't quite work and tries to out crazy Amy Dunne. It's not especially well written or memorable, but it DID keep me turning pages. A true beach read, while I was actually at the beach.

Then read Lucky You by Erika Carter. The writing and the language is gorgeous and lyrical and raw. I loved it, but it's one of those books in which the characters are not very pleasant or likable and not a great deal happens, while everything happens, like life. It's my favorite kind of book, and I'll read anything else she does, but it's not for everyone.

Now reading All is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker.  So far, finding it pretty fascinating.

Edited August 8, 2017 by luna1122

[nodorothyparker]

Donna Tartt writes great characters but she is definitely an overwriter.  That's probably at least part of why I've had The Goldfinch on my to read pile for the last year but haven't felt any real enthusiasm toward moving it up in that pile   I loved The Secret History and The Little Friend too for its characterizations and sense of place but it most certainly needed a strong editor to pare it down and shore up the ending.  With the latter, you can see that as a native Mississippian she must have felt like she had at least one effort to emulate Faulkner in her.

I feel like I've wasted half the summer fixating on and revisiting classics because they don't require the same level of concentration as new reads when I've got lots of kids' summer activities to distract but we're finally hitting a lull now in the last couple of weeks before school starts.  That gives me the opportunity to finally settle in with Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad.  So far it's an uncomfortable read, as it probably should be.

[Zola]

"Foster Child: Intimate Biography of Jodie Foster" - by Buddy Foster, Leon Wagener.

I have always had a warm affection and respect for Ms Foster, and not just for her acting roles in the cinema. I even had a schoolgirl crush of her during my impressionable teen years.

Despite her numerous films, both in terms of acting and directing, trying to find a decent biography of her is a bit of a challenge. But this book, written by her brother, Buddy, offers something far more enlightening and personal than some books I have read about her. That said, even this book is something like 20 years old, and therefore is far from complete. But there doesn't appear to be anything more contemporary around just yet.

[helenamonster]

Donna Tartt is definitely an overwriter, but I think I enjoy her because I'm an overwriter too (I once had a professor tell me that the page limit that they assigned to every other student as a minimum, I should think of as a maximum). Send all the purpliest, most unnecessary prose my way! Editors be damned! But only if it's done correctly. And no, I can't explain the difference between purple prose I enjoy and purple prose I don't. I know it when I see it.

[OtterMommy]

I'm currently doing the listening/reading thing with Daniel H. Wilson's The Clockwork Dynasty.  It has 2 narrators--one is excellent and one is...not.  I finally got fed up with the other narrator and downloaded the Kindle version to read her chapters myself and then I listen to the chapters read by the other narrator.  It isn't really my sort of book, but it's a local author (and, really, that one narrator is amazing), so I'm giving it a try.  

I also started Full of Life by John Fante.  I had never heard of this book before it showed up in my mailbox through one of my postal book club.  But it's short and I'm using it as my bathroom book, so we'll see how it goes.

I'm about to start Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong.  This was one of my books from my Book of the Month Club last month and I've heard nothing but good things about it, so I'm excited to get going on it.

[Haleth]

On 8/8/2017 at 9:34 AM, nodorothyparker said:

That gives me the opportunity to finally settle in with Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad.  So far it's an uncomfortable read, as it probably should be.

It really is.  I had to skip parts of it because I found it so upsetting.

[nodorothyparker]

52 minutes ago, Haleth said:

Quote

That gives me the opportunity to finally settle in with Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad.  So far it's an uncomfortable read, as it probably should be.

It really is.  I had to skip parts of it because I found it so upsetting.

The casual brutality and horrificness (not sure that's even a word but it fits) of the first third of the book so far has had me putting it down and walking away at points too.  It's really making me consider how the slave system has been portrayed in various other books I've read over the past 20 or so years.

[Haleth]

On 8/8/2017 at 9:03 AM, luna1122 said:

I liked The Goldfinch, tho Tartt notoriously overwrites, and I'm generally just RELIEVED to be finished with her books.

I have a handful of pages left and I know what you mean.  That last section was a chore to get through.

[SmithW6079]

"Invisible Planets: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese SF in Translation," edited and translated by Ken Liu. I forget where I read about it, but wow! I'm about halfway through the book, and the stories are just beautiful: lyrical and mystical and fantastical. Some of them remind me of the movie "Spirited Away" by Hayao Miyazaki.

[helenamonster]

Just finished: Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy. Meh. For a book about something incredibly terrifying (six children getting separated from their parents on a cruise excursion in a foreign country), it was quite bland. Meloy writes with zero urgency even in scenes that demand it (there's a scene in the middle of the book that is exceptionally horrifying and she might as well have been writing about someone buying bread at the supermarket). That sort of beige, no nonsense-prose can be effective in moments of high drama when done correctly but with Meloy it just comes off as her trying to move things along and get to the next story beat. A lot of the book's big moments don't make a damn lick of sense (character motivations are desperately lacking) and seem to just be put in because they're dramatic. Meloy attempts to make things interesting by occasionally checking in on a seemingly unrelated narrative but when the two stories finally cross paths it's incredibly anticlimactic. The book does pick up in the last 25%, but by that point I just did not care what happened to any of these people, kids included. I think it would have been a better book if it hadn't actually been about the kids getting lost, but about the families recovering from the experience. The parts where the parents and older children mediate on what they're going through were the only highlights.

Next up: The Lying Game by Ruth Ware. I enjoyed The Woman in Cabin 10 and the premise for this one seems interesting.

[hendersonrocks]

I am midway through The Underground Railroad and it is awful and amazing all at once. I had to catch my breath last night when I got to one of the bounty notices for escaped slaves that start the chapters told from Cora's perspective - it was for a girl who was believed to be in or around Henderson, NC. That is the town where my username comes from. It made me stop and think how far removed I get to be while reading so many horrible things, but every once in a while something can still slice through my white lady bubble...and more of us need to feel and understand the proximity to this kind of horror if we're ever going to find a way through it.