What Are We Currently Reading?

[Athena]

This year has probably been one of my worse reading years, but I'm hoping to end on a strong note with the holidays coming up. 

Currently in the stacks:

Vacationland by John Hodgman - Absolutely love Hodgman. I'll probably listen to audiobook at some point too even though I can already hear him when I read it.

Smitten Kitchen Every Day by Deb Perelman - I collect cookbooks. I must read more of my cookbooks. 

[hendersonrocks]

Update, upon completion: I *loved* Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. I'm now about a quarter into Mudbound by Hillary Jordan and it's just not catching me yet. Once I pick it up it's okay, but it's been less than I expected thus far. 

[Qoass]

I also enjoyed Little Fires Everywhere although I thought the plot depended too much on coincidence and people not telling each other obvious stuff. I really liked how the author presented every character's gifts and flaws.

If anyone is into poetry, I inhaled The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur this weekend. The book is organized into chapters about love, loss and family and I just want to take it door to door and shove it into people's hands.

I'm now on to Joyce Maynard's The Best of Us. Back when her first memoir came out, I thought she was writing my story. Since then I've come to understand that if I were to meet her in person, I would probably not feel that way but I do love her voice.

@Athena, I have Smitten Kitchen Every Day on hold at the library. Meanwhile, I checked out Yotam Ottolengi's Sweet and much as I hate to admit it, it was too grown up for me. Lots of booze and fruit whereas I want chocolate and sugar.

[Mabinogia]

I just finished The Girl with All the Gifts. It was one of the best books I've read in a long time. Fascinating premise, taut suspense, engaging characters. it had everything I look for in a book. Funny thing is, I was going to give it up in the first chapter (they use an alternate name for a creature that I found kind of silly and made me think the story was going to be kind of silly,) but I am very glad I stuck with it. Very thought provoking.

[Athena]

2 hours ago, Qoass said:

@Athena, I have Smitten Kitchen Every Day on hold at the library. Meanwhile, I checked out Yotam Ottolengi's Sweet and much as I hate to admit it, it was too grown up for me. Lots of booze and fruit whereas I want chocolate and sugar.

Have you checked out Ottolengi's other books? The photography is great but I haven't properly bought one or tried any of his recipes. I am not sure if I want to to commit.

I love Smitten Kitchen the blog but the books are alright. I'm about halfway through SKED and like the first SK book, I don't find myself being wowed. However, I do like Perelman's style of writing and book design.

[Qoass]

I have checked each of Ottolengi's books out of the library because a friend of mine raved. I had the same response to them you did:  pretty to look at but not practical for my tastes and skills. I have also found that many artsy cookbooks like these have such big beautiful pictures that the ingredients end up on one page while the instructions end up on another. That's irritating if you are guilty of not doing mise en place. I know it's poor form to some but I tend to grab and measure as I go.

Edited November 13, 2017 by Qoass

[alias1]

I'm often at odds with what the the critics deem to be the best books of the year.  My latest read is no exception.  I just finished Little Fires Everywhere (Celeste Ng) and I don't know, it was interesting until the end.  Most of the characters seemed two dimensional (I was willing to overlook that) but the main character became more and more unbelievable as the story progressed.  I actually found the book depressing.

[GaT]

I'm reading Betrayal in Death by J.D. Robb, # 12 in the "In Death" series. Only 32 more books to go!

[Epeolatrix]

The one I just finished is "Brolliology: A History of the Umbrella in Life and Literature" by Marion Rankine, purchase as a companion to a book I already owned called "Rain: A Natural and Cultural History" by Cynthia Barnett. I picked it the rain book because I am a Seattle native and wanted to see how much of a mention we received, as we have an undeserved rep for having more rain than a human should have to deal with. I accidentally opened it to the chapter on petrichor (the word for a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather) and I started reading. I have a custom that if I am in a bookstore and I read more than ten pages of something, I have to buy it because clearly I am that engaged. Anyway, Barnett also talks about umbrellas and it was interesting.

Coincidentally, I follow the Twitter account for the publisher Melville House, Twitter-famed for having had an amusing online altercation with Penguin Random House a couple of years ago. They started tweeting about their new book about umbrellas. I thought it sounded funny and probably English, since my life with pop culture has taught me to associate umbrellas with England, much the same way I think about tea. When it came out, I picked it up, and... ten page rule. Rankine (a Londoner) talks about not just the technological development of the umbrella over centuries and cultures, she talks about the use of umbrellas in fiction, and the real-life gender / class / social distinctions on display through the kind of umbrella one carries. (My primary one is a black pagoda-style because goth.) The weaponized umbrella as assassination tool comes up as well, which was a fun bit. To sum up, if you like this sort of thing, this is a thing you will like.

Caveat: I strongly recommend you purchase the ebook version of Brolliology, if you can. The hardcover is afflicted with a really weird typo problem involving hyphens that makes the book harder to read.

Edited November 14, 2017 by Violet Impulse
to fix a link

[surreysmum]

On 11/6/2017 at 7:49 PM, starri said:

Apparently, PD James has a posthumous short story collection being published next week.  I know what my Thanksgiving Day is going to be spent doing.

Just finished it on the weekend. It's called Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales, and it was lovely. Several of the tales are set in WWII, only one of them (IMO) is really dark, and most of the characters have that nice Jamesian moral ambiguity to them. If the estate insists on going back to the well every Christmas, I'm glad they're still coming up with decent stuff (looks like all of these were previously anthologized or in periodicals).  

[GaT]

1 hour ago, surreysmum said:

(looks like all of these were previously anthologized or in periodicals).  

Crap, I just bought this, I hope it doesn't turn out to be a bunch of stuff I've already read.

[DearEvette]

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson came out today.  I am strapped in and ready for 55 hours (that is not a typo) of listening time.  *Austen Powers voice* Yeah, baby, Yeah! *Austen Powers voice*

[Deanie87]

On 10/18/2017 at 10:39 AM, luna1122 said:

Next, finally read Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, which had been on my 'to read' list forever. It's gorgeous and troubling, tho those who find lavishly descriptive pagesful of paragraphs and stream of consciousness dull or irritating will throw the book out of the window. I love that shit, so I was fairly riveted. I found the ending very disquieting and haunting.

Gilead is one of my all time favorite books, I literally start tearing up when I recite some of the passages, and I read it when I was a much more ambitious/patient reader.  I suggested it to my book club (it was my first selection) and I thought they would never speak to me again.  But the format lends itself to rambling, so is Housekeeping also along those lines? Is there any plot to speak of? I keep picking up Lila as well, and putting it down in favor of a British mystery where someone gets killed in manor house.  

[Joe]

49 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson came out today.  I am strapped in and ready for 55 hours (that is not a typo) of listening time.  *Austen Powers voice* Yeah, baby, Yeah! *Austen Powers voice*

Wow. I had a look at the Malazan books running times once. IIRC the longest was around 43 hours. So 55 is quite the achievement.

[SmithW6079]

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu). I recently "discovered" Chinese science-fiction with another Ken Liu translation, Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation. 

The Three-Body Problem is a "first contact" novel about an alien civilization contact humans via a video game. The writing is beautiful.  

[Athena]

3 hours ago, Deanie87 said:

Gilead is one of my all time favorite books, I literally start tearing up when I recite some of the passages, and I read it when I was a much more ambitious/patient reader.  I suggested it to my book club (it was my first selection) and I thought they would never speak to me again.  But the format lends itself to rambling, so is Housekeeping also along those lines? Is there any plot to speak of? I keep picking up Lila as well, and putting it down in favor of a British mystery where someone gets killed in manor house.  

Hehe. I still haven't picked up Lila and I think we discussed this a couple years on these very forums.

I've also read Housekeeping and it doesn't have much in a way of plot. Maybe a tiny bit more than Gilead which has none but I loved Gilead more. I think with Housekeeping you can see the Marilynne Robinson style of beautiful introspection and quiet settings.

[luna1122]

13 hours ago, Deanie87 said:

Gilead is one of my all time favorite books, I literally start tearing up when I recite some of the passages, and I read it when I was a much more ambitious/patient reader.  I suggested it to my book club (it was my first selection) and I thought they would never speak to me again.  But the format lends itself to rambling, so is Housekeeping also along those lines? Is there any plot to speak of? I keep picking up Lila as well, and putting it down in favor of a British mystery where someone gets killed in manor house.  

I haven't read Gilead, but it's on my list. Housekeeping is rambling and beautiful and meandering. There's a plot, but it's slim, and often sort of lost in all the lovely prose and descriptions and metaphors. But if you like that sort of thing (I do), I think you'll love it.

[BlackberryJam]

I'm reading the Liz Talbott Lowcountry mystery series by Susan M. Boyer. They are interesting with a mild supernatural element that doesn't overpower the books. In fact, the ghost character could be eliminated and it would be fine. The mysteries are intriguing and the characters generally all have their weak points and their strong points. Not a ton of "I don't need help, I can do this all myself and therefore I constantly put myself in danger" stuff from the main character. I recommend as light, fun reads.

[scarynikki12]

I randomly decided to reread a book I don't particularly like: Born In Shame by Nora Roberts.  The only time I read it I was in high school so maybe I thought it would be better now that I'm an adult?  Yeah, it still sucks.  I really want to punch Murphy.  He sees Shannon and decides it's love at first sight.  I don't personally believe in that but, fine, it's not exactly an offense.  He then proceeds to stare at her like a creeper, which she comments on.  Fast forward a couple weeks in story and he's saying 'I love you', proposing, inviting his family to come meet her, and actively describing her as his future wife to them.  Meanwhile Shannon is having the natural "boundary issues much?" reaction anyone would have to a stranger acting this way but, because this is a Nora Roberts romance novel, she's secretly falling for him, being told by her sisters that "you wouldn't get this worked up over the things he says and does if you weren't fighting feelings for him", and giving in to destiny (because OF COURSE there's a mystical element that means they were together in a previous life and have been dreaming about each other that proves they're fated).  Shannon of course gives in and throws away the red flag behavior he's exhibited and they live happily ever after.

One of my biggest issues in any story, but the romance genre in particular, is when one character (usually female) is resisting the Designated Love Interest (in word or deed) and a third party acts like having any kind of emotional response, even if negative, means that character is totally into the other.  Um, if a stranger is ignoring boundaries and only thinking about what he wants, then I'm going to get upset.  It doesn't mean I'm secretly in love, like the attention, or am being unreasonable.  It means that guy needs to back the fuck off.  Nora Roberts leans on this trope a lot but she's not the only one.  I need to read a book that sets up this kind of thing but then subverts the trope by having the woman be all "fuck this, I'm going home.  Friends/family X who I came to visit/get to know, we'll maintain our relationship over the phone or you can visit me.  I am not spending the rest of my life with a stranger who can't take a hint". 

I remember liking the first two books in the series so maybe I'll reread those.

[Mystery]

Once I started noticing how very often Nora Roberts uses the word "pretty," I find her stuff almost unreadable. Oddly enough, she doesn't do it in her J.D. Robb books, which I love. 

[GaT]

2 minutes ago, Mystery said:

Once I started noticing how very often Nora Roberts uses the word "pretty," I find her stuff almost unreadable. Oddly enough, she doesn't do it in her J.D. Robb books, which I love. 

The word she uses in the In Depth series is "clever", as in "clever hands", " clever mouth", etc

[Mystery]

On 11/3/2017 at 10:11 AM, DearEvette said:

This is the same discussion had about Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series.  The author recommends reading them in internal chronology, I read them that way by default because that is how I am.  But I almost kinda wish I had read Barrayar where it fell in publication order because I kind a would have liked to meet older Miles first, get all the cryptic references and then go back and read that pivotal book about his childhood and how he became the manic genius he is.

I was going on a two-week trip to Europe when the paperback of A Civil Campaign caught my eye at the library, so I grabbed it and loved it. Then I thought, since these people I like got together, I might as well read Komarr, where they met, so I read that one. Only after that did I go back and read the books in chronological order. Crazy, for me; usually I have to read things in chronological order. Mostly, authors aren't skipping back and forth. I guess if they did, I'd read in published order, so I'd know what the author knew when they wrote the book (if that makes any sense). 

3 minutes ago, GaT said:

The word she uses in the In Depth series is "clever", as in "clever hands", " clever mouth", etc

Oh, man. Now that'll bug me.  :-) 

For Anne Perry it's "profound." And that is not a word that should be used as often  as she uses it. 

Edited November 16, 2017 by Mystery

[Crs97]

5 hours ago, scarynikki12 said:

Nora Roberts leans on this trope a lot but she's not the only one.  I need to read a book that sets up this kind of thing but then subverts the trope by having the woman be all "fuck this, I'm going home. 

The other trope she uses a lot is (1)the man ask the woman to do something that will cause them to spend time together, (2) she says no, (3) he replies that she must be a coward or secretly have feelings for him because she can't handle being near him, (4) she changes her mind and goes with him to prove him wrong.

This drives me crazy, and I wish someone would write so that when they get to (3), woman laughs in his face and says no again.

[Qoass]

I'm reading Liane Moriarty's Three Wishes and given how much I enjoyed her three most recent titles, I am surprised at how uninspiring I'm finding this one.

[OtterMommy]

49 minutes ago, Qoass said:

I'm reading Liane Moriarty's Three Wishes and given how much I enjoyed her three most recent titles, I am surprised at how uninspiring I'm finding this one.

Interesting...I actually had the reverse reaction.  I was bored to death by Truly, Madly, Guilty and was on the warm side of lukewarm with Big Little Lies,  but I actually really enjoyed Three Wishes.  However, the difference might be that I read Three Wishes before the latter books.  Sometimes that makes a big difference, for me at least (as I had to explain to my teenaged niece when I said that I wasn't the biggest John Green fan, "Your first John Green is always your favorite John Green."  I probably would have liked x book if I had read it before y book.....)

[buffynut]

Just lurking here and thought I'd pop in with my comments, as I just recently read Three Wishes, and enjoyed it.

I read Big Little Lies probably a year ago, and think I enjoyed it, though it must not have left much of an impression, as I just had to read the blurb about it so I'd recall which book it was.  And even so, I don't remember much about it. 

I haven't read Truly, Madly, Guilty yet. 

I'm currently reading, in fact almost finished, John Grisham's The Rooster Bar. I don't hate it, and it's a fast read, but I'm not sure if I like it or not. 

[rmcrae]

On ‎11‎/‎6‎/‎2017 at 7:46 AM, Rio said:

I tried something new. I normally love fictional or romantic story lines but i decided to try out something new- I'm reading The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.

Which edition are you reading?

[rmcrae]

On ‎10‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 9:50 PM, bubbls said:

I'm now reading Ravensbruk: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp For Women by Sarah Helm. It's meticulously researched and fascinating, although it's a slow read for me due to the subject matter being so disturbing. I'm surprised by some of the information such as the Jehovah's Witnesses continually refusing to work on anything promoting the war and driving the commandant mad. 

I've read that book twice and like you said, it's depressing as hell, but also chronicles a part of the Holocaust that was left out for too long.

I'm rereading another WWII memoir The Flamboya Tree by Clara Olink Kelly. She and her family spent four years imprisoned on the island of Java by the Japanese. Her mother was a strong woman and how she got her children through that hell was inspiring. It should be a movie. Like Paradise Road.

[Crs97]

I just finished Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng.  I enjoyed her first novel and was excited for this one, but man it ran off the rails and left such a bad taste in my mouth I doubt I will try a third.

[Sharpie66]

I am trying to get back to reading more, even though I am also working on stitching Xmas presents. But, the 3 books on my to be finished/to be reread pile are Mockingjay,  Hidden Figures (both are about half finished) and then The Alienist to be reread before the tv miniseries starts in late January. 

Edited November 19, 2017 by Sharpie66

[JAYJAY1979]

On 10/18/2017 at 9:39 AM, luna1122 said:

 

Next, finally read Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, which had been on my 'to read' list forever. It's gorgeous and troubling, tho those who find lavishly descriptive pagesful of paragraphs and stream of consciousness dull or irritating will throw the book out of the window. I love that shit, so I was fairly riveted. I found the ending very disquieting and haunting.

Loved that book!  I watched the movie version first when I was 8 and loved it.  My parents were concerned that I loved it as well as being a kinship with Sylvie lol. In college, I purchased the book and read it three times since then. 

 

I am also rereading Tales of the City by Armistad M.  Such an epic book and not so fictional because since the books release...soime if the events have come to pass in real life. 

[Danny Franks]

I finished The Buried Giant a few days ago, and have to recommend it. Yes, it's slow and the dialogue is stilted, and the prose does meander all over the place. But the central story is powerful, both on the level of depicting marital love, and on the level of exploring the idea of whether it's better to remember hurts and grievances, and work towards forgiveness, or whether you should try to forget and move on anew. I don't know which side of things Ishiguro comes down on, nor which side I do.

The book feels very heavily influenced by old folklore like the Arthurian tales, Beowulf, even Don Quixote and The Canterbury Tales. Encounters on the road, friends met, little self contained moral stories spinning out into the larger narrative. It's certainly one to keep you thinking about it, long after finishing.

And after that, I went to the other end of the spectrum, and read Nomad by James Swallow. An action thriller that finally lives up to the "unputdownable" billing. It's really good. Electric pace, sympathetic characters, genuinely threatening villains and a really good story. Again, highly recommended for fans of the genre.

[Constant Viewer]

On 11/17/2017 at 11:15 PM, rmcrae said:

I'm rereading another WWII memoir The Flamboya Tree by Clara Olink Kelly. She and her family spent four years imprisoned on the island of Java by the Japanese. Her mother was a strong woman and how she got her children through that hell was inspiring. It should be a movie. Like Paradise Road.

This sounds like something I would enjoy, thanks for sharing. I've been on a WWII kick lately, I've re-read Elizabeth Norman's We Band of Angels about US nurses in the Philippines during the war and Don Miller's Masters of the Air.

[Haleth]

18 hours ago, Sharpie66 said:

and then The Alienist to be reread before the tv miniseries starts in late January

I know people rave about how great this book is but it was so disturbing to me that I had to put it down.  I do intend to watch the show so maybe if I know what's coming I'll be able to try to read it again.

[Qoass]

@JAYJAY1979, I have Maupin's Logical Family: A Memoir on my bedside table. I haven't started it yet but I'll be interested in finding out whether it covers how he came to be such good friends with Judd and Pam from MTV's The Real World: San Francisco.

[rmcrae]

On ‎11‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 7:14 PM, Constant Viewer said:

This sounds like something I would enjoy, thanks for sharing. I've been on a WWII kick lately, I've re-read Elizabeth Norman's We Band of Angels about US nurses in the Philippines during the war and Don Miller's Masters of the Air.

I highly recommend it! And thanks for your recommendations. It's about time I get something new to read.

[unicorn23]

I just finished The Alice Network by Kate Quinn and it's probably going to end up as the best book I've read this year. Now I'm reading Aly Raisman's book. Gonna be interesting to read what she has to say about the whole thing about the doctor, but I already am aware that she's not going to focus too much on that - which, good for her.

[alias1]

1 hour ago, unicorn23 said:

I just finished The Alice Network by Kate Quinn and it's probably going to end up as the best book I've read this year. Now I'm reading Aly Raisman's book. Gonna be interesting to read what she has to say about the whole thing about the doctor, but I already am aware that she's not going to focus too much on that - which, good for her.

I'm on waitlist for The Alice Network through my library and I'm #152.  Looks like I'll have quite a wait, even with 29 copies..

[hendersonrocks]

I just put in a request for The Alice Network too - thanks for the recommendation! I'm about to do a re-read of one of my favorite books from a few years back, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, and of one of my all-time favorites from the olden days, Tiger Eyes. Judy Blume Forever!

[rmcrae]

On ‎11‎/‎29‎/‎2017 at 4:42 PM, hendersonrocks said:

I just put in a request for The Alice Network too - thanks for the recommendation! I'm about to do a re-read of one of my favorite books from a few years back, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, and of one of my all-time favorites from the olden days, Tiger Eyes. Judy Blume Forever!

I loved Judy Blume growing up. I never read Tiger Eyes, but loved the Fudge series, Iggie's House, Blubber and of course Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret.

Right now I'm reading Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals about her experience as one of the Little Rock Nine. I don't know how they made it through that hell of bigotry and violence and I couldn't imagine going through it as a teenager or an adult.

[hendersonrocks]

Quote

I loved Judy Blume growing up. I never read Tiger Eyes, but loved the Fudge series, Iggie's House, Blubber and of course Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret.

Get thee to the library - you will LOVE Tiger Eyes if you loved all these others!

[Mindthinkr]

Just finished The Monster of Florence  by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi. It was non-fiction and I learned a lot about the legal system in Italy. The movie rights have been purchased by George Clooney and he will be playing the part of one of the authors...Douglas Preston. I can't wait  

I'm about to start From Scratch---Inside the Food Network 

[Sharpie66]

I just downloaded a boxed set of the first 6 books of the Dresden Files from Amazon for only $6.99. I have been wanting to read these since one of my favorite podcasters has been covering them (Unspoiled!, FYI), so when I saw the sale, I jumped on it.

[MargeGunderson]

On 12/1/2017 at 2:24 PM, Mindthinkr said:

Just finished The Monster of Florence  by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi. It was non-fiction and I learned a lot about the legal system in Italy. The movie rights have been purchased by George Clooney and he will be playing the part of one of the authors...Douglas Preston. I can't wait  

Oh, that should be good! I read it when it came out - boy, the legal system in Italy is crazy!

[Qoass]

I'm 100 or so pages into Philip Pullman's first The Book of Dust entry La Belle Sauvage and it's very promising.

[luna1122]

Read Laura Dave's Hello Sunshine a few weeks ago, and I liked it, but already can't remember much of it. I liked it fine, apparently, gave it three stars on Goodreads, which is a middling, sure, go ahead and read it, I guess, kind of rating.

As opposed to The Girl Who Lied, by Sue Fortin. Extremely underwhelmed. Didn't outright hate, and I finished it, but it is not a good book, imo. 1 star. Just blah and weird.

So I was ready to love the next book I read, and I did: Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich's Fact of a Body. Gorgeously written, evocative, haunting, compelling, a sort of true crime/memoir hybrid. Her 'smash up' of the two genres and tales don't always necessarily dovetail--she might just struggle a bit to find her thesis statement, so to speak ,if she has one, linking the two, but her prose was so beautiful to me that I never minded that. A five star read, for me.

Now onto Gail Godwin (always a fave) and Grief Cottage.

[Mindthinkr]

@luna1122 You are very descriptive when reviewing books. Based on what you stated I think that I'll put Faith of a Body on my list. Thank you. I appreciate it when people post about what they're reading/have read as y'all sometimes come up with titles and authors I wouldn't have heard of before. 

[truthaboutluv]

It's been awhile since I've posted in here but I've definitely been reading multiple books constantly, so this post might be a little long.

I just finished The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda and I really enjoyed it. It was an easy read, with a nice amount of suspense. That said, I think depending on the person and the kind of intrigue they were looking for, I can see someone being disappointed with the ending. To not give too much away, I'll put this behind spoiler bars.

 

Basically, I think if you were hoping for a twisted psychological thriller, then you were likely disappointed that Emmy really did exist and essentially the story was just about a con artist who manipulated the main character. However, if you were fine with a resolution that made logical sense, you'd be fine with how the story ended. Personally, I would have been okay with both but I have to say, I actually think having Emmy be real and it all just a set up was actually more of a twist than if she had only been in Leah's mind and was some alternate personality of hers, since I think most people jumped to that assumption at the start of the book.

Before that, I completed Liars Inc. by Paula Stokes. Decent read for a young adult suspense thriller. No real surprise with the twist at the end, except I do find the motivation for the actions a little weak and I was also a little disappointed

 

that the girlfriend wasn't involved since I really didn't like her and still didn't by the end of the book.

I also read Delirium by Lauren Oliver and while it was okay, I didn't love it enough to have any interest in reading the rest of the trilogy. It doesn't help that based on some reviews I read, seems fans of the book hated the ending as much as some hated the end of the Divergent trilogy. The main character, Lena, just never interested me that much and the love story was just okay. 

I also recently read Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist and really enjoyed it. It was pretty dark with very little light but I thought it was one of the most well written and realistic books I've ever read, based on an unrealistic theme and topic. This wasn't Twilight with its fanciful notions of vampires. Let the Right One In read in such a way that you could conceivably believe vampires existed, albeit in a very dark and gloomy world. 

Finally, a few months back I read The Leaving by Tara Altebrando. I like to describe this one as "when good story ideas happen to average writers". Basically, the premise of this book was very interesting, which is the reason I wanted to read it. But I came away feeling like the author just didn't have the skill set and/or ability to pull off the concept and idea she had in mind. So by the end, the whole thing just felt a bit meh. I mean it was an easy enough and quick read but nothing particularly impressive. 

And now to what I'm reading right now - The Magus by John Fowles. Full disclosure, this one is slow going for me. I like it so far and am interested in where the story's going but it's your quintessential classic novel where there is a lot of exposition and physical descriptions before you get to any real action. And that makes for a very slow and long drawn out pace. I'm sticking with it though because in my experience, most books like that, once the action picks up, it ends up being amazing. So fingers crossed.

Edited December 6, 2017 by truthaboutluv

[OtterMommy]

I just started The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens.  It came to me through my postal book group and it is really not a book I would have picked up on its own.  I'm not far into yet, but I'm surprisingly held by it.  Of course, so far it has been pretty tame and I fear that it's going to get rough soon.  It's about a college student who interviews a man who had been convicted of raping a 14 year old and then killing her and burning her body and I'm not sure how it can avoid some pretty tough stuff with that premise.

[Mindthinkr]

3 hours ago, truthaboutluv said:

 

And now to what I'm reading right now - The Magus by John Fowles. Full disclosure, this one is slow going for me. I like it so far and am interested in where the story's going but it's your quintessential classic novel where there is a lot of exposition and physical descriptions before you get to any real action. And that makes for a very slow and long drawn out pace. I'm sticking with it though because in my experience, most books like that, once the action picks up, it ends up being amazing. So fingers crossed.

Edited 2 hours ago by truthaboutluv.

I've read it twice at different times of my life. Please give me a message when you are done as I have always had a burning question about it but to put it here right now might spoil something for you. Thank you.