What Are We Currently Reading?

[Melgaypet]

58 minutes ago, MikaelaArsenault said:

I haven't started this yet, but it's called Just As Long As We're Together by Judy Blume:

I loved that book back when I was in junior high!

[catlover79]

I've just started this, but it is about the adventures of a suffragette/journalist named Liberty in 1860s Nevada:

[Minneapple]

2 hours ago, MikaelaArsenault said:

I haven't started this yet, but it's called Just As Long As We're Together by Judy Blume:

Oh my God I loved this book! I read it in...fifth or sixth grade, I think.

Anyway, I finished Fountains of Silence. I would give it a solid four out of five stars. Great characters and setting, but I felt like the author didn't end the book very well. Some storylines were too neatly wrapped up, others were kind of left unwritten.

Gonna start The Family Upstairs next.

[DearEvette]

I decided to do a re-read of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series (in series chronology order).  I just finished Shards of Honor and am just starting Barrayar.  I haven't  read the first two books in almost 15 years and even though I remember a fair amount about those parts of the story, what always gets me is just Bujold's way with prose.

[TiffanyNichelle]

20 hours ago, MikaelaArsenault said:

I haven't started this yet, but it's called Just As Long As We're Together by Judy Blume:

I remember loving this book as a preteen.

[Haleth]

I just finished Make Me a City by Jonathan Carr, a fascinating story of 19th c Chicago that is part fiction against a largely historical background. The author tells the story of the birth and growth of the city in a unique way. In each chapter we are dropped into the day in the life of an ordinary person. One chapter will be straight prose, the next letters between characters, the next a first person recounting of an event, the next a newspaper article.  Near the end he writes a critique of his own book through the eyes of a pompous 19th reviewer.  Of course this episodic style does not let the reader get too comfortable with the characters, aside from a handful that weave in and out of the timeline. (I was constantly googling to see if the character was a real person or not. Many were real.) And often the chapter would end kind of abruptly without letting the reader know how something was resolved (although we'd find out from an offhand comment in a later chapter). I think the author did this to keep reminding the audience that the city itself is the thing that endures, not a particular person. This is a very enjoyable read for anyone who loves Chicago.  Maybe my second favorite book I've read this year.

[peacheslatour]

4 hours ago, Haleth said:

I just finished Make Me a City by Jonathan Carr, a fascinating story of 19th c Chicago that is part fiction against a largely historical background. The author tells the story of the birth and growth of the city in a unique way. In each chapter we are dropped into the day in the life of an ordinary person. One chapter will be straight prose, the next letters between characters, the next a first person recounting of an event, the next a newspaper article.  Near the end he writes a critique of his own book through the eyes of a pompous 19th reviewer.  Of course this episodic style does not let the reader get too comfortable with the characters, aside from a handful that weave in and out of the timeline. (I was constantly googling to see if the character was a real person or not. Many were real.) And often the chapter would end kind of abruptly without letting the reader know how something was resolved (although we'd find out from an offhand comment in a later chapter). I think the author did this to keep reminding the audience that the city itself is the thing that endures, not a particular person. This is a very enjoyable read for anyone who loves Chicago.  Maybe my second favorite book I've read this year.

Does the book get into H.H. Holmes at all? That case has always fascinated me.

[Haleth]

9 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Does the book get into H.H. Holmes at all? That case has always fascinated me.

No mention of Holmes. It’s more about lesser known stories and how common people were affected by corruption, working conditions, water quality, etc. He presents it as an “alternate history.”

[Black Knight]

I'm about a third of the way through Margaret Atwood's The Testaments. I didn't know going in who the narrators would be, and was pleasantly surprised. I'm quite absorbed so far.

[Ceindreadh]

Currently working my way through the Dubh Linn series by Ruth Frances Long and I'm kicking myself for not reading it sooner. 

I'd bought all three books (A crack in everything, A hollow in the hills, A darkness at the end) when they were launched, but I was buying them as gifts for my sister who loves Ruth's work and i never thought to read them myself until I picked them up at a convention.

They're a young adult series (protagonist is a 16 year old Irish girl) but they read well for adults too.  Filled with faeries and demons and a Dubh Linn that's not quite the same as the Dublin the ordinary people see, it's an exciting read so far. 

[dubbel zout]

I finally finished Elvis Costello's doorstop of a memoir, and now I'm reading Monica Ali's Untold Story, about a Princess Diana–like character who decides to fake her death to get out of the "gilded cage" of the British royal family. I'm liking it so far.

After this I get to decide what books to order from my way-too-long Amazon list. One of my favorite things to do!

[Browncoat]

On 11/16/2019 at 4:39 PM, Black Knight said:

I'm about a third of the way through Margaret Atwood's The Testaments. I didn't know going in who the narrators would be, and was pleasantly surprised. I'm quite absorbed so far.

Should I re-read The Handmaid's Tale before I start on The Testaments?  It's been years since I read the first, and I only really remember the basics.  I have not watched the show.

[Black Knight]

30 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

Should I re-read The Handmaid's Tale before I start on The Testaments?  It's been years since I read the first, and I only really remember the basics.  I have not watched the show.

Heh. I had asked the same question here before I started - only, in my case, I have watched the show. Because of the show, I had a lot more than just the basics in my mind, so I felt reading Testaments worked fine for me. But I would definitely advise you to re-read the first book. You'll get more out of the sequel.

I finished yesterday, by the by. The final quarter page made me cry.

I'm now reading Maryanne Wolf's Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World. It started off a little dry, but picked up steam.

[Browncoat]

Thanks, @Black Knight!  I figured as much.  Just a little light reading over Thanksgiving break....  🙂

[The Solution]

Has anyone read any part of My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard? I just started it.

[Minneapple]

On 11/11/2019 at 6:38 PM, Dani-Ellie said:

Ooh, please let us know how The Family Upstairs is! I've read a few of Lisa Jewell's other books and enjoyed them, and I was eyeing that one in the store the other day.

OK so I finished The Family Upstairs and I really really liked it. Very creepy, very chilling. I figured out some of the twists, but I don't think they were really meant to be SHOCKING TWISTS.

I also read The Queen of Nothing, the third in the Folk of the Air trilogy by Holly Black. This one was a disappointing finish to an otherwise great trilogy. It felt rushed and predictable, and the characters felt flat and two-dimensional compared to the other two books.

[Anduin]

I'm listening to Gardens of the Moon, the first Malazan Book of the Fallen novel. It's mostly pretty good, apart from a couple of things.

First, the character of Kruppe. My god he's annoying. He's an egomaniac who talks about himself in the third person and really goes bloody on and on about everything. If there was ever a 'talking yourself up' competition, I would nominate him to compete.

It doesn't help that the narrator gives him a really silly voice. But that's a problem with audiobooks. Narrators can only do so many voices before either repeating themselves or getting into silly territory. I don't know why he went with silly so early.

And right now, it feels like every third character has access to a warren, a source of magical power, that is even more ancient and elder than the last. If this keeps up, the author is going to have a hard time coming up with synonyms and putting them in order.

Someone is going to control the really-really-ancient elder warren. Then twenty minutes later, there will be the really-really-really-ancient elder warren. Sure, power escalation happens in long-running series, but it shouldn't happen so often in one book!

[Dani-Ellie]

1 hour ago, Minneapple said:

OK so I finished The Family Upstairs and I really really liked it. Very creepy, very chilling. I figured out some of the twists, but I don't think they were really meant to be SHOCKING TWISTS.

Awesome, thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it; I will definitely put this one on my list.

[Black Knight]

10 hours ago, Anduin said:

And right now, it feels like every third character has access to a warren, a source of magical power, that is even more ancient and elder than the last. If this keeps up, the author is going to have a hard time coming up with synonyms and putting them in order.

That reminds me of something else I noticed with that book - it's been a few years, so I may not have the details completely right, but there's an unseen god that occasionally interferes with mortal affairs by flipping a coin. When the coin flipping is introduced, it's made to sound really rare. Ha! It happens so many times you could make a drinking game out of it.

I didn't like Gardens of the Moon well enough to press on with the series, even though I understand from other people that the sequels aren't straightforward continuations - they follow different characters, etc. But the world just left me cold.

[Anduin]

12 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

That reminds me of something else I noticed with that book - it's been a few years, so I may not have the details completely right, but there's an unseen god that occasionally interferes with mortal affairs by flipping a coin. When the coin flipping is introduced, it's made to sound really rare. Ha! It happens so many times you could make a drinking game out of it.

Yep, Oponn, the god of luck, pops up all over the bloody place in this book.

[GaT]

I'm currently reading Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers. I decided to re-read my Lord Peter Wimsey books. 

[OtterMommy]

I just finished Ribbons of Scarlet by a whole load of female historical fiction authors (Kate Quinn is the headliner on it).  It follows 5 women during the Reign of Terror.  They were all real people

Spoiler

and all but one gets sent to the guillotine.

It was good...and not.  The problem is that, with 6 different authors, it is made up of 6 novellas and, frankly, not all are created equal.  I think that Quinn earned top billing, not just because she is probably the best known of the authors, but also because her contribution to the book is definitely the best.  The problem is that the better novellas sort of amplify the problems with the lesser novellas.

I'll be starting Erin Morgenstern's The Starless Sea tonight.

[Constant Viewer]

1 hour ago, OtterMommy said:

I'll be starting Erin Morgenstern's The Starless Sea tonight.

Please tell if this is good. I really loved Night Circus

[Haleth]

10 hours ago, OtterMommy said:

I'll be starting Erin Morgenstern's The Starless Sea tonight.

I'm about 100 pages into it and am loving it so far.

[catlover79]

This is the story of a nurse/suffragette in 1885 Nevada who butts heads with a swaggering cowboy:

[BlackberryJam]

1 hour ago, catlover79 said:

This is the story of a nurse/suffragette in 1885 Nevada who butts heads with a swaggering cowboy:

Is it any good? Is it well written? Are you enjoying it?

[catlover79]

14 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:

Is it any good? Is it well written? Are you enjoying it?

So far, so good! I'm still in the first chapter. ☺ I'm a sucker for historical Christian romances, and so far this book is right up my alley!! ❤

[truthaboutluv]

On 11/20/2019 at 7:31 AM, Minneapple said:

OK so I finished The Family Upstairs and I really really liked it. Very creepy, very chilling. I figured out some of the twists, but I don't think they were really meant to be SHOCKING TWISTS.

Just finished and to be honest, while I really enjoyed it and it was a pretty quick read, it didn't wow me. I didn't really think there were any real twists, since you kind of knew where the story was going barely a third of the way into the story. 

I guess the only real "twist", depending on how one defines a twist, is 

Spoiler

the disturbing obsession Henry had with Phin, that was revealed towards the end of the story. And the not so subtle suggestion of his being a borderline psycho. To be honest, I was a bit torn on this. On the one hand, I guess it kind of makes sense for all they had been through that one ended up so fucked up.

But at the same time, I hated it because they'd all been through so much. And so it kind of sucked that in the end he was essentially framed as this obsessed psychopath who will likely go murder poor Phin who did everything he could to get away from his past. 

Also, the main character Libby was kind of dull. Girl seemed very passive and simply reactive to everything. 

[Constant Viewer]

23 hours ago, catlover79 said:

I'm a sucker for historical Christian romances, and so far this book is right up my alley!! ❤

Have you ever read anything by Bodie and Brock Thoene? I used to love the Zion Covenant series and the Shiloh Legacy books. Francine Rivers' mark of the Lion series is really good as well.

[catlover79]

1 hour ago, Constant Viewer said:

Have you ever read anything by Bodie and Brock Thoene? I used to love the Zion Covenant series and the Shiloh Legacy books. Francine Rivers' mark of the Lion series is really good as well.

I haven't, but I will check them out. Thanks for the suggestion. Francine Rivers definitely has written awesome books. ☺

[Spartan Girl]

Finally read Know My Name by Chanel Miller.  Brock Turner, his family, his lawyer, and that judge can all rot in hell.

[peacheslatour]

4 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Finally read Know My Name by Chanel Miller.  Brock Turner, his family, his lawyer, and that judge can all rot in hell.

You mean convicted rapist Brock Turner?

[Black Knight]

And the recalled judge? (Who was then strangely hired to coach girls' high school JV tennis, and summarily fired once people pointed out that he might not be an ideal choice for that role.)

[GaT]

1 hour ago, Black Knight said:

And the recalled judge? (Who was then strangely hired to coach girls' high school JV tennis, and summarily fired once people pointed out that he might not be an ideal choice for that role.)

Wait, somebody actually thought having this guy (who goes from a judge to a high school tennis coach?) being in a position of power over young girls was a good idea & hired him?

[Haleth]

Finished The Starless Sea last night.  It takes me breath away how beautiful the writing is.  It certainly lives up to they hype.  Brilliant book.

[Black Knight]

6 hours ago, GaT said:

Wait, somebody actually thought having this guy (who goes from a judge to a high school tennis coach?) being in a position of power over young girls was a good idea & hired him?

Mind-boggling, isn't it? If you wrote a book with that plot point, it'd be derided as requiring too much of a suspension of disbelief. The high school wasn't even far across the country where maybe the case wasn't as publicized - it's located right here in northern California where the uproar over Brock Turner and the subsequent recall went down. Very, very heavily reported.

I'm currently reading Gabrielle Moss's Paperback Crush, recommended by several others here. It's a blast tripping down memory lane of YA 80s and 90s books! I'm impressed by the extent of Moss's coverage and am also enjoying the way she balances her clear fondness with righteous snark.

[Spartan Girl]

19 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

You mean convicted rapist Brock Turner?

11 hours ago, Black Knight said:

And the recalled judge? (Who was then strangely hired to coach girls' high school JV tennis, and summarily fired once people pointed out that he might not be an ideal choice for that role.)

My mistake.  I should have given them their proper titles.

It gave me a rage stroke reading about how Turner's family apparently gave her dirty looks after the sentence was read.  You know, I'm pretty sure it IS possible to emotionally support your son while acknowledging his wrongdoing and giving proper sympathy/apology to the person he wronged.  No wonder the asshole was so entitled, all he really apologized for was getting drunk.  "Shown remorse" MY ASS.

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, Spartan Girl said:

My mistake.  I should have given them their proper titles.

It gave me a rage stroke reading about how Turner's family apparently gave her dirty looks after the sentence was read.  You know, I'm pretty sure it IS possible to emotionally support your son while acknowledging his wrongdoing and giving proper sympathy/apology to the person he wronged.  No wonder the asshole was so entitled, all he really apologized for was getting drunk.  "Shown remorse" MY ASS.

It was that "20 minutes of action" remark his father made in his defense that made me lose my shit.

[TiffanyNichelle]

I finally finished When Brooklyn Was Queer and I really reccomend it so much. 

[catlover79]

This isn't an autobiography, but more a collection of behind the scenes stories of how some of the most famous records in pop history were made. The late Mr. Ramone also went into great detail about what a music producer's job entails - and how to deal with egos of famous musicians. I recommend it to fans of pop and musicals from the 1960s on, and especially fans of Billy Joel and Paul Simon (whose work he is probably best known for).

[helenamonster]

Just finished: The Whisper Man by Alex North. Easily one of the best books I read this year. Creepy, compelling, a mystery that (for the most part) made sense with twists that came organically. A lot of the reviews I read compared it to Stephen King at his best, which I think is fair. North is apparently a pseudonym for an already established writer, so maybe it is King haha (unlikely--the book would have been twice as long if it was him).

The part that ended up being my favorite was

Spoiler

how all the seemingly supernatural elements--Jake's imaginary friend, his knowledge of the boy in the floor and the butterflies, Carter knowing everything--ended up having explanations. Anytime something that felt not quite grounded in reality came up, I thought it was getting in the way of what was otherwise a good story that was grounded in very real horrors. To have it all those elements explained was a huge relief, and was done in a way that answered a lot of other seemingly unrelated questions.

The only part that I thought could have been done better was

Spoiler

establishing George the teacher's assistant. I don't even remember him being mentioned until it was suspected that he and Francis Carter were one in the same. I think a good way to have done it would have been to have Francis and George as the two main suspects, with the reveal being that they were the same person.

Also, what ever came of the house that Amanda found with the painted bedroom right before Jake was kidnapped? Was that where Francis had kept Neil, or was it just a decoy? Either way, what was its purpose, and why did Francis decide to keep Jake at his house?

Next up: The Great Pretender by Susannah Cahalan, an investigation into the details surrounding the Rosenhan experiment (a psychological study in the '70s that was a huge factor in eradicating mental institutions and asylums from the US).

[BlackberryJam]

I’m listening to She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. It’s riveting. The fear of reporting sexual harassment and going ‘on the record’ is so real.

[Spartan Girl]

So after reading and watching Doctor Sleep, I finally read the original novel of The Shining, and wow, did Kubrick screw the pooch with Jack Torrance.  He's definitely a more complex and sympathetic character than he ever was in the movie.

Now I'm going to reread Misery to remind myself how much worse toxic fandom can get.

[peacheslatour]

4 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

So after reading and watching Doctor Sleep, I finally read the original novel of The Shining, and wow, did Kubrick screw the pooch with Jack Torrance.  He's definitely a more complex and sympathetic character than he ever was in the movie.

Now I'm going to reread Misery to remind myself how much worse toxic fandom can get.

I think he is an unsympathetic character. But Stephen King was very fond of him. He remade the Shining with a much more likable actor.and he still came off as a jerk.

[AgentRXS]

I just finished Robyn Crawford's book A Song for You, detailing her life with Whitney Houston. I am a huge fan of Whitney's music, so I brought this book almost shamefully, because I thought it was going to be a bitter tell-all.

It was actually an interesting read, and Crawford reveals just enough of Whitney's life to give us an idea of what went on behind the scenes but you could tell she was holding back a lot. From the bits she revealed, she could have written 2 or 3 more books on the Houston/Drinkard family dynamics alone. Whitney's marriage to Bobby Brown (and the way she allowed men to treat her before him) is not surprising at all once you realize the household she grew up in. I never paid much attention to Whit's family so that was all news to me. Overall, it made me sad that Whitney did not seem to realize her self-worth.

[dubbel zout]

I got a review copy of Joseph Kanon's latest, The Accomplice, from the freebie pile at work, and I'm starting that. 

[Hanahope]

So I recently finished Educated by Tara Westover.  I read it because others on this forum mentioned it and it sounded interesting.  

Well, I found it disturbing that there are people living like that, who completely believe that the government is evil, that medicine is evil, that education is evil.  yet they find a way to tap into enough people with similar mindset that they end up making millions off of "essential oils" and telling people to ignore conventional medicine, "they'll be fine."

I did have to wonder how Tara actually got the bulk of her education.  Sure at first she's struggling to make money to go to BYU, and gets a $4,000 grant and half tuition, and still finds a way to somehow make enough money for the rest with jobs, but can study enough to earn A's and totally blow her professors away with apparently her genius.  But somehow she manages enough money for all her traveling, graduate and phd school (did she get full scholarships, huge grants?) 

And is her "genius" simply because she grew up with a completely different outlook on life given her lack of formal education and her professors were enamoured with her different point of view on various subjects?  Idk, I guess I'm just a little skeptical that someone with no real education is somehow able to so "wow" her college professors that she gets essentially a free education all the way up through phd from Cambridge.

[DearEvette]

I just completed Memory, in my epic re-read of the Mile Vorkosigan series.  This is a five star read for me and continues to be excellent every time I read it.  It has one of my favorite lines :

“Some prices are just too high, no matter how much you may want the prize. The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart.”

And the denouement of the mystery plot is *chef's kiss* perfection.

Took a detour before that and read Rise of Magicks by Nora Roberts, the finale of her post-apocalyptic Year One Trilogy.  Guh.  She did not stick the landing, imo.  The book squandered all the great set up and groundwork of the first two books.  I had to soldier on to finish it.

[Haleth]

18 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Took a detour before that and read Rise of Magicks by Nora Roberts, the finale of her post-apocalyptic Year One Trilogy.  Guh.  She did not stick the landing, imo.  The book squandered all the great set up and groundwork of the first two books.  I had to soldier on to finish it.

I had to talk myself into reading the second book since I thought the first was a rather pedestrian dystopian novel.  The second one was better although not earth shattering or original.  Maybe I'll skip the third.

[katha]

Just read "Slightly Dangerous" by Mary Balogh. It's the last in a series of historical romances focused on the Bedwyn family, a wild and fierce aristocratic family clan (of course, what else? 😉). The last part focuses on the imperious oldest brother Wulfric (I know...), the head of the family.

The series was wildly uneven IMO. Wulfric was a super interesting character throughout the other novels and I was kinda dreading his installment, because oftentimes this happens in Romancelandia: Once interesting characters are the focus, they get flattened to make them more palatable as heroes. So I feared he'd either turn into a secret big ole softie with a heart of gold, or there'd be some reveal about his Tragic!Past! that would turn him into a misunderstood woobie.

Miraculously, nothing of the sort happened. He stayed the imperious, rather chilly character he'd always been. He fell in love and opened up somewhat, but didn't have a personality transplant. He also wasn't fundamentally changed by Twue! Wuv! Yay for sensible writing!

As for the heroine, at the beginning I was scared she'd turn into the sort of Disney heroine that sometimes pops up in romance novels: The hero gets to be flawed, difficult and complex while the heroine is hyper competent, the most generous, selfless, kindest person ever who never does anything wrong and never even thinks anything slightly questionable and is there to show the hero THE TRUE MEANING OF LOVE.

I sometimes really think that authors get so scared of negative reactions to any perceived flaw in their heroines that they produce these cardboard cutouts in reaction. And Christine didn't start out well IMO. There was really heavy-handed effort by the text to signal she is a Spunky!Heroine! (tm). And it was so unnecessary, since it was perfectly obvious in the quieter moments that she's a warm and open character. She didn't need to roll down hills, climb trees and be incredibly clumsy (Bella Swann alert!) to prove that. It was just ridiculous and way too try-hard.

But then a wonderful thing happened: She became just as stubborn and deluded and irritating as Wulfric and half the time I wanted both of them to step on a lego because they frustrated me so much. But I was riveted by their story. Because both of them were allowed to be flawed human beings who made mistakes and then learned from them. Funny how that works out, isn’t it?

I also really liked that it started out with the classic "vivacious heroine thaws closed up hero", but then in the second half Wulf was actually the more self-aware character and he helped Christine deal with her low self-esteem, insecurities and exposed a malicious relative of hers who was gaslighting and manipulating her (really well written that part, the quiet destruction of her life that person's actions wrought). So it wasn't just the heroine having to do all the emotional work in the relationship.

So yeah, I thought that was romance and opposites attract done really well by Balogh. Very pleasantly surprised.