What Are We Currently Reading?

[GaT]

2 hours ago, AngelKitty said:

I just had to look this up. I didn't know this was in the Jane Yellowrock world, which I love, so I had to put it on my want to read list. Thank you.

Just remember to read the first 3 books first. Then come back here & tell me if you're confused LOL. Also, this book mentions things that apparently happened in the last Jane Yellowrock book, Dark Queen, so if you haven't read that one yet, read it first. I know I read the book, but I have no memory of it, & I keep reading things in this book & I keep thinking WHAT??? I wish I had known, I would have reread Dark Queen again first.

[Minneapple]

So I downloaded a few books for my upcoming trip, but now I'm watching the Notre Dame fire and my heart is aching for it and I kind of want to read The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Has anyone read it? Is it worthwhile?

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, Minneapple said:

So I downloaded a few books for my upcoming trip, but now I'm watching the Notre Dame fire and my heart is aching for it and I kind of want to read The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Has anyone read it? Is it worthwhile?

Yes, I have. I read it concurrently with Pillars of the Earth. Both excellent reads about the development of Gothic architecture. Have you been to Notre Dame? This fire is breaking my heart.

[Minneapple]

4 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Have you been to Notre Dame? This fire is breaking my heart.

I've not been. I've always wanted to visit Paris but the closest I've come is London. 

[Crs97]

The fire is breaking my heart.  I read it long ago and loved it.

[helenamonster]

3 hours ago, Minneapple said:

So I downloaded a few books for my upcoming trip, but now I'm watching the Notre Dame fire and my heart is aching for it and I kind of want to read The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Has anyone read it? Is it worthwhile?

What's funny is when I recommend Hunchback to people, I always encourage them to skip two chapters--the one that goes into minute detail about the layout of Paris, and the one that goes into minute detail about the architecture of Notre Dame. I'd still say feel free to skip the Paris one, but the Notre Dame one has become so much more valuable after today.

Other than those two chapters it's a great book and one of my favorites of the classics. It's wonderfully written and truly heartbreaking.

Not to get too off-topic, but Disney's adaptation (which takes a lot of liberties while still being their darkest, most mature entry in the canon) might be the most beautiful rendering of Notre Dame on film, even though it's animated. For anybody who hasn't seen it and is feeling a little down about today's events, I'd say watch it for that alone. It is stunning.

Edited April 16, 2019 by helenamonster

[Spartan Girl]

I've read the original novel, and it's a classic but every character was an asshole except for Quasimodo. Even Esmeralda was shallow and unlikable. Say what you want about the Disney version, but at least that Esmeralda was more kind and compassionate.

I hope they'll be able to rebuild it, but all those glass stained artwork are ruined. 😭😭😭😭 

Edited April 16, 2019 by Spartan Girl

[peacheslatour]

14 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

I've read the original novel, and it's a classic but every character was an asshole except for Quasimodo. Even Esmeralda was shallow and unlikable. Say what you want about the Disney version, but at least that Esmeralda was more kind and compassionate.

I hope they'll be able to rebuild it, but all those glass stained artwork are ruined. 😭😭😭😭 

The goat was alright. 😜

[Spartan Girl]

If anyone is searching for good historical fiction regarding Abraham Lincoln, check out Courting Mr. Lincoln by Louis Bayard! It's a great story not only about his relationship with Mary, but also his friendship with Joshua Speed!

[partofme]

I just finished reading a book called The Hunting Party.  I’ve read a lot of really bad books this year, this is the first I’ve read in a long time that I really loved.  

[helenamonster]

Just finished: Her One Mistake by Heidi Perks. Basic premise of the book is that one woman babysits the child of her friend, looks away for one second, and the child goes missing. Saw the big twist coming from a mile away and 

Spoiler

felt at parts that the author was making the point for, uh, not speaking up if you're in an abusive relationship? Like, maybe this was unintentional, but it felt like she was saying that Harriet wouldn't have eventually gotten the outcome she'd wanted if she'd been more open about her marriage with Charlotte in the first place. Again, I don't want to accuse somebody of implying that if they didn't mean to, but I got that vibe a couple of times and didn't care for it.

I'm also making an effort to have a more organized apartment (I have the control freaky personality necessary for being totally type A but completely lack the motivation) so I picked up The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin. I thought they had some good ideas for how to be organized in spaces without much storage (I live in a 400 square foot studio apartment, and am already looking for a nice hook to hang my everyday bag on in my entryway since I don't have room for a table) but I couldn't get into their enthusiasm for labeling everything. I like that it comes from the idea of "if everything has a place, you'll know where to put it" but, like, I don't live in a kindergarten classroom, you know? Also, their insistence that everything be sorted by ROYGBIV (rainbow order, basically) drove me nuts. Like, if I walked into somebody's house and they had, idk, their books or whatever sorted in rainbow order? On purpose? I think I'd leave.

Next up: Someone Knows by Lisa Scottoline.

[Black Knight]

I just finished Justina Ireland's Dread Nation. It's a YA novel and Hugo finalist this year that's a gripping read; I devoted all my free time the last couple of days to tearing through it. The premise is that at the battle of Gettysburg, the dead started to walk. (Yes, zombies.) It put a fast end to the Civil War, zombies overrunning the South, and slavery was technically ended as part of that, but it was of course decided that black people should take on the brunt of fighting the shamblers, while white people retreated behind newly walled cities in the Northeast. Taking inspiration from the historical, horrific boarding schools which Native Americans were forced to attend, young black teenagers are all sent to special boarding schools that focus on training them for fighting shamblers. The heroine of this book, Jane McKeene, is at one of these schools, and that's where the novel begins. The world expands quickly and with a number of twists.

It's really interesting world-building, and Jane's a great protagonist - brave and with a habit of leaping before she looks, smart enough to get herself out of fixes, ruthless when needed but with a kind heart at bottom. It's a pleasure being inside her head and her narration is often hilarious. Like practically all YA fantasy there is an obligatory love triangle, but Ireland doesn't care about it one bit and devotes a sentence or paragraph to it here and there, adding up to maybe 10 pages altogether of a 451-page book, so it's easily ignored. Far more time is devoted to the development of a female friendship that starts off quite prickly and antagonistic, and to Jane's relationship with her mother - those are the really important relationships in the book, and come with a few surprises.

Of course it turns out to be the start of a duology or perhaps trilogy and I had vowed not to start any more series before they're finished, but I'm not really annoyed in this case because the book works pretty well as a standalone, tying up all the major plot threads and ending with the surviving characters about to head off to a new adventure. I'm not going to have any trouble remembering the characters or the world while I wait for the sequel.

[helenamonster]

Just finished: Someone Knows by Lisa Scottoline, a very I Know What You Did Last Summer plot where a group of teenagers get into a sticky situation in high school and then have to deal with the fallout later in life. I kind of wish, like I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scottoline had

Spoiler

kept the stuff that happened in the past to a minimum and put the majority of the focus on the main characters as adults. I just felt like there was too much world-building for the 1999 stuff and it made the 2019 stuff feel too rushed. Like, the whole subplot of David's dad losing his business and having to ask Julian's dad for money went absolutely nowhere. He could have been homophobic towards David without that being his trigger. You know from the prologue that somebody dies playing Russian Roulette, and it's obvious very early on that that somebody is Kyle--she didn't need to take that long to get there, and she ended up short-changing the more interesting part of the book.

ALSO, that last-minute reveal that not only was it Allie's dad who had loaded the gun (I was expecting a twist in that department, though I was leaning towards it being David or Kyle actually loading the gun himself and trying to frame what actually was a suicide as Russian Roulette tomfoolery), but that Allie SAW HIM DO IT and then SUPPRESSED THE MEMORY thanks to tranquilizers and Kyle's death was fucking bananas. Like, what????? That came out of NOWHERE.

Next up: Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View. I used to watch The View during the summer when I was growing up because I found it so rivetingly ridiculous, and I love a book full of hot goss.

[GaT]

I'm reading The Savior by J.R. Ward, the 17th book in The Black Dagger Brotherhood series. I was worried I wasn't going to like this one, because the previous two or three books were not so great in my opinion. She's been focusing on a couple of characters that hold absolutely no interest for me, & I am sick of them, but so far neither has made an appearance in this book, & I like the story.

[starri]

While I confess that I'm doing it in audiobook format, I have started, at last, NK Jemisin's Hugo-winning Fifth Season.  It has been a very, very long time since a fantasy novel grabbed me this quickly.  I can see why each of the books in the series ended up winning the Hugo.

I wish it had been HBO, Netflix, or Amazon who had ended up grabbing the TV rights, but TNT did a nice job with The Alienist, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.

[blackwing]

I am reading Wolf Pack, the latest book by C.J. Box about his Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett.  This is a great series.  Always well written and I love the setting.

[Black Knight]

I just finished Alma Katsu's The Hunger. It's a retelling of the Donner Party with a supernatural twist. Good read and quite creepy at times.

[ccphilly]

On 4/23/2019 at 8:30 PM, Black Knight said:

I just finished Alma Katsu's The Hunger. It's a retelling of the Donner Party with a supernatural twist. Good read and quite creepy at times.

I loved this book.  I'm facinated by the Donner party and I thought this was great.  

[shapeshifter]

I just read Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover and would love to discuss it online, but I can't find any sites that discuss books to the degree that we discuss TV shows on this forum.

About the book: tarawestover.com

[peacheslatour]

31 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

I just read Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover and would love to discuss it online, but I can't find any sites that discuss books to the degree that we discuss TV shows on this forum.

About the book: tarawestover.com

Try Reddit. they have a Books sub. and they discuss books at great length.

[shapeshifter]

24 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Try Reddit. they have a Books sub. and they discuss books at great length.

Thanks, but unfortunately the Reddit discussion for Educated was more of a battle of the trolls over how accurate the author's memory was.

Anyone else have any other suggestions?

[Black Knight]

7 hours ago, ccphilly said:

I loved this book.  I'm facinated by the Donner party and I thought this was great.  

I had a feeling while reading it that, as good as I found it, I would have enjoyed it even more if I'd known anything about the Donner party beforehand other than the one fact everyone knows the party for.

I read the Wikipedia article afterwards and it was cool to match up the people with the characters and the real-life events with what the author came up with to explain them in the novel. (And to realize where the "Never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can" advice originated!)

shapeshifter - try GoodReads.

Edited April 25, 2019 by Black Knight

[shapeshifter]

50 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

shapeshifter - try GoodReads.

Thanks, found it: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/19288629-educated-a-memoir-april-2018

[peacheslatour]

21 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Thanks, but unfortunately the Reddit discussion for Educated was more of a battle of the trolls over how accurate the author's memory was.

Anyone else have any other suggestions?

I'm sorry that that was your experience. I've never found the books sub to be trolly.

[Oosala]

On ‎1‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 1:32 PM, MaggieG said:

I just finished Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and I loved it. 

I just LOVED this book.  It's been at the top of the best seller list that appears in the L.A. Times for several weeks I think.  The ending is perfection.

[Oosala]

On ‎3‎/‎3‎/‎2019 at 1:50 PM, peacheslatour said:

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Cries.  I'm recovering from a major depression and I've stopped crying every day but I did cry this day.  Turns out many parts of the cathedral were saved, including FLYING BUTTRESSES.  I always like saying that because it sounds like "flying butts" and I'm 12 years old.

[Ceindreadh]

Ireland Awakening by Edward Rutherfurd, his sequel to Dublin. 

It’s the story of Dublin city (Ireland) as told through a number of fictional Irish families whose lives intertwine over the generations. The first book went from 430 AD to the 1530s and this book picks up in the same century and goes on to the present day.  

It’s fascinating to see how the major historical events of the country affect all the various different social and religious groups and it really brings to life what I’d previously studied in history classes. 

[truthaboutluv]

Just completed Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart. In general I enjoyed it a lot more than We Were Liars, which was hailed by so many. While the big twist in We Were Liars was good, I didn't feel like Lockhart developed the characters well enough for me to truly care about them.

And so the twist didn't have the emotional impact I think she expected it to have. I think she did a far better job of developing the characters and the story this time. And I was all set to give the book high marks for that at least, until 

Spoiler

the ending. What in the hell was that? That was Gone Girl levels of stupidity and asking the reader to buy some complete bullshit, just so the author can have the "bad guy" win in the end.

And just so we're clear, I don't have any issues reading stories where the bad guy/evil person comes out on top. But it has to make sense. There's no way that I buy that the police looked into the case and concluded that Imogen faked her death with her friend and then killed said friend and was using her name. 

If Forrest was the one who kept pressing them to look into things, Forrest would point out his suspicions over the guy calling Jule Imogen. All they'd have to do is get in touch with Paolo to realize who he thought Imogen was, wasn't her.

A simple chat with the mother would bring up the old school friends story, except a quick check would prove there was no Jule Williams at Greenbriar with Imogen. Like the whole thing just made no sense. And so that ending alone made me dislike the book and be annoyed, because I'd enjoyed it so much up to that point. 

I wonder if Lockhart pulled this this crap so as to avoid going full rip off of Talented Mr. Ripley (since she already came very close and is one of the biggest criticisms many have of the book). So rather than have Jule get away with everything by having the investigators think Imogen murdered Brooke and then killed herself, a la Talented Mr. Ripley, she comes up with this nonsense that they think Imogen murdered Jule and pretended to be Jule. Except for how a thing called DNA exists. 

Before this, I completed Two Can Keep A Secret by Karen McManus and The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. 

I liked but didn't love Two Can Keep A Secret. I think McManus' previous book, One Of Us Is Lying was WAY better. Honestly, there were times in the first chapters of the book,  I almost felt like this was a different writer.

One of Us Is Lying had the intensity of a thriller right from the start. But Two Can Keep A Secret read a bit weirdly at first. Like the mystery/thriller wasn't really real. I think a big reason for this was the main character who just didn't really grab me. She was okay but kind of annoying at various points. 

The Raven Boys was very disappointing. The synopsis made it sound far more exciting than it turned out to be. I swear it felt like nothing really happened in the story for at least the first 200 pages. And that in itself was a problem - the length of this book. There was absolutely no reason for the book to be almost 400 pages, especially as it was part of a series. I finished it but had zero desire to complete the series. I checked out comments and reviews of the remaining three books and I felt even more certain of my decision to skip the other three books. 

I'm currently reading Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen and this one is kicking my butt because man Cohen is thematic and poetic in his writing. I feel like I have to read every line multiple times sometimes to understand what the hell he's talking about. But a fascinating story, I'll say that. 

Edited May 3, 2019 by truthaboutluv

[GaT]

I just finished Dead Hunt by Beverly Connor, it's the 5th book in the Diane Fallon Forensic Investigations series. I really like this series, & I plan on reading her Lindsay Chamberlain series next.

[Katy M]

I'm reading Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley. I don't like it as much as I thought I would.

[dubbel zout]

I just finished The Cartel, by Don Winslow, the second in his Power of the Dog narco trilogy. Tough stuff, but a really good read.

Now I'm cleansing the palate with The Last Houseparty, by Peter Dickinson.

[Browncoat]

I just started The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin.

[dubbel zout]

19 hours ago, truthaboutluv said:

Just completed Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart. In general I enjoyed it a lot more than We Were Liars, which was hailed by so many. While the big twist in We Were Liars was good, I didn't feel like Lockhart developed the characters well enough for me to truly care about them.

I didn't think We Were Liars quite worked, either. I appreciate Lockhart was trying something different, but it needed more work, IMO. I'm anxious to read Genuine Fraud.

I have a bunch of E. Lockhart books that I'm dying to give to my book-crazy niece in a year or two. She's old enough to read them now, but I think she'll enjoy them even more when she's the same age as Ruby Oliver, for instance. And I can't wait until she reads The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. I reread that every so often. I love it.

[scarynikki12]

I loved Evelyn Hardcastle! 

11 minutes ago, LucindaWalsh said:

Is it creepy, gory, or sad?

Is there a bunch of non essential sex scenes?

Is it  young adult?

There are deaths but I wouldn't describe the book as gory. It does have its moments where it's creepy and sad but those aren't the overall tone of the book.

There's a morning after scene but otherwise no sex at all. There's flirting and attraction between some characters but there's generally just no time since he's on a deadline to solve the mystery.

I'd place the book as adult but with the the easy read of a young adult novel. The hardest part is getting used to the story format but that wasn't so difficult that I had to force myself.

I haven't seen Russian Doll yet (I'm seriously slacking on my Netflix queue) so I can't compare.

[Black Knight]

I just finished Jacqueline Winspear's The American Agent, the eleventy-billionth installment of her Maisie Dobbs mystery series. The last book covered Dunkirk; this one covers the Blitz. Technically there's a mystery too, but it's really just an afterthought, as the mysteries have generally been ever since the series finally reached WWII. I don't mind because Winspear's writing of these historical events and atmosphere is interesting as always and I'm quite attached to the cast of characters - including Maisie herself, who once annoyed me but has grown as a person over the many years the series has covered.

[Jenniferbug]

@LucindaWalsh, I'm actually rereading Evelyn Hardcastle for my book club right now!

[Black Knight]

I had pre-ordered Evelyn Hardcastle back when I first heard about it, and received a notification earlier that it'll be delivered this Tuesday!

[Danny Franks]

I just started Circe by Madeline Miller. I'm only three chapters in, but the writing is certainly very good, so far.

I'm a sucker for Greek mythology, and the utterly bizarre leaps of logic the stories often seem to take, so it should be fun to see what Miller does with the story of Odysseus.

[Haleth]

I'm reading Lincoln in the Bardo.  Holy moley, this is probably the strangest book I've ever read.  I am enjoying it, the ghosts are pretty funny, but I had no idea it was such an odd book.  It sort of reminds me of the bickering ghost brothers in Stardust.  It's a quick read.

[partofme]

I guess a lot of people are currently reading The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, I've been reading it since Thursday.  I'm about 200 pages in and my ipad says there are 800 pages.  So far the book isn't really what I was expecting.  I'm not sure yet if that's a good or bad thing.

[blackwing]

I am just finishing up Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.  Because of the movie, I always thought this was a Young Adult book (that is where I found it in my library) but it's decidedly an adult book.  Has anyone read his follow up, Armada, which also is video game based?

On 5/6/2019 at 8:36 AM, LucindaWalsh said:

I downloaded The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle over the weekend and have started it  between chores. The good news for me is I am actively thinking about it when I am not reading it, which has been something that hasn't been happening lately. I started An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena and got about one third in of the dreck before skipping to the where it was obvious the ending would start and I just glossed over it. I then deleted my hold for another of her books because she is just not a good story teller. 

On 5/6/2019 at 1:15 PM, partofme said:

I guess a lot of people are currently reading The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, I've been reading it since Thursday.  I'm about 200 pages in and my ipad says there are 800 pages.  So far the book isn't really what I was expecting.  I'm not sure yet if that's a good or bad thing.

Yeah, "Evelyn Hardcastle" was an interesting book.  Great concept, but just a bit confusing.  Now that I know what happened, I would think I would want to re-read it and see if there was anything I should have picked up on, but I don't think I have any interest in doing so.

I actually enjoyed "An Unwanted Guest" only because it reminded me a little of an Agatha Christie... people snowed in at a remote house, people start dying.  However, I do agree that the author isn't the best writer and I found myself not caring all that much about some of the characters.

[partofme]

I read An Unwanted Guest back in November, it wasn't good, I gave it 2 stars on goodreads.  I agree with the sentiment that the author isn't a good writer, and yet I've read 3 of her books.  I remember  hating The Couple Next Door and for some reason I still gave it 3 stars.  

[GaT]

3 hours ago, blackwing said:

I am just finishing up Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.  Because of the movie, I always thought this was a Young Adult book (that is where I found it in my library) but it's decidedly an adult book.  Has anyone read his follow up, Armada, which also is video game based?

I loved Ready Player One (thought the movie sucked) so I was really excited for Armada and......not so good. I can't even remember the plot, but I was so disappointed by it, I sold it to a used book store.

[Katy M]

45 minutes ago, GaT said:

I loved Ready Player One

I loved it, too.  I only read it because I'm doing the Pop Sugar Readign Challenge and I had to read a LitRPG book.  I thought I was going to absolutely hate it, so imagine my surprise when I loved it.  All the '80s references were great.  There were a few parts that I thought were corny, and they didn't really sell me on a world that had a food shortage since our main character never seem to have any food anxiety, but overall, it was great.

[Darian]

8 hours ago, partofme said:

I read An Unwanted Guest back in November, it wasn't good, I gave it 2 stars on goodreads.  I agree with the sentiment that the author isn't a good writer, and yet I've read 3 of her books.  I remember  hating The Couple Next Door and for some reason I still gave it 3 stars.  

I read The Couple Next Door when I was in the hospital for a long stretch and for various reasons unable to concentrate on anything or follow anything too complex of literary. Some of those "twists and turns" thrillers can work, so I tried it (luckily I had an e-reader and wifi so I had a lot of books loaded and I could buy or check out more).  It was not good. I finished it and was mad with myself for not bailing. I added An Unwanted Guest to my Kindle library wish list, figuring I might give it a chance, but if you gave it a lower rating, I'll probably skip it. 

Then I picked up Three Graves Full and it was the kind of witty, twisty crime novel that I needed. A fun, easy read, but also well-written. 

I just read and loved Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield. It really snuck up on me. 

[Black Knight]

I agree with the sentiment that Armada isn't as good as Ready Player One.

I didn't find The Couple Next Door to be terrible, but it was just something to while away a plane ride. Nothing memorable. (I fly somewhat often and I tend to save thrillers for then, as I can't concentrate on anything too heavy while on a plane and I won't really be disappointed if a thriller turns out to be so-so.)

[Rosenrot]

Just wrapped up Tolkien's Silmarillion FINALLY, took me like two months. I loved it, but man it's a slow read. 

Decided I need something lighter for a change, so yesterday I started out King's second volume of the Bill Hodges trilogy, Finders Keepers.

Edited May 9, 2019 by Rosenrot

[HazelEyes4325]

I have waaaay too many books going at once (again):

• Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield.  I'm really enjoying this one.  The Thirteenth Tale is my favorite novel, but I heard her second book was terrible, so I was nervous about this one.
• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.  This one (and the entire series!) has been sitting on my kindle for too long!
• Faith Unraveled by Rachel Held Evans.  I interrupted my reading of the Flavia de Luce novel above for this one once I learned of RHE's death.  
• Becoming by Michelle Obama.  I started reading this one, but then switched to audio.  It wasn't that the book wasn't working for me, but it is exactly the kind of audiobook that I like.
• Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver.  Another "I need to read this now that they are dead" book.  It's also my toilet book, so it's a few poems a day sort of thing.
• Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks.  Since this is a short story collection, it's easy for me to pick this one up now and then.  I started it at Christmas and am still chipping away at it.

[Black Knight]

3 minutes ago, HazelEyes4325 said:

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.  This one (and the entire series!) has been sitting on my kindle for too long!

Oh, I have loved those. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the direction of the series after the latest book, but Bradley does keep changing things up, so maybe I don't need to be concerned.

[starri]

On 5/8/2019 at 3:15 PM, GaT said:

I loved Ready Player One (thought the movie sucked) so I was really excited for Armada and......not so good. I can't even remember the plot

Spoiler

Have you see The Last Starfighter?  It's the exact same plot with 1000% more pop-culture references.