What Are We Currently Reading?

[peacheslatour]

27 minutes ago, Crs97 said:

It’s phrases like those that make me stop, shut the book, close my eyes, and ponder.  Then I find my poor husband (or sometimes wake him up) and read it to him.  Since he loves me beyond reason, he always responds appropriately. 😌

I do that too. Hehe.

[surreysmum]

11 hours ago, LucindaWalsh said:

@surreysmum I keep dancing around downloading Dear Committee Members so a review after you finish will be appreciated. 

I was pleasantly surprised to be somewhat moved by the ending - it's not super-dramatic, but there are definitely developments. I think you'll enjoy it if you decide to go ahead.

[Haleth]

I absolutely adore A Gentleman in Moscow.  Such a sweet story about generally kind people and finding a family under difficult circumstances.  I also enjoyed The Rules of Civility but wouldn't list it as one of my top 10 favorites ever as I do Gentleman.  

[OtterMommy]

Finished You Were There Too and, unpopular opinion according to the reviews I've read, I found it schmaltzy and eye-rolly.  I mean, it wasn't bad, it just was kind of ridiculous.

Now I am finally reading Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl.  I adore her writing!

[dubbel zout]

1 hour ago, OtterMommy said:

Now I am finally reading Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl.  I adore her writing!

I can't wait to read this, because she spills the tea on how great/horrible things at Condé Nast were. I'm all for as much dirt as she wants to dish.

[tres bien]

Just started The Library Book by Susan Orlean. 

For lovers of books and libraries, this is a fascinating and sad story of the devastating fire at The Los Angels Public Library on April 28, 1986.

[Vanderboom]

20 hours ago, OtterMommy said:

Now I am finally reading Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl.  I adore her writing!

Thanks for the recommendation. After I read this and @dubbel zout's post,  I borrowed the e-book from the library. I am loving this book so far! 

[Hanahope]

Finished The Guardians by John Grisham.  Turns out, there were a couple if little twists in the drug cartel frames black man for murder of white lawyer, but those twists weren't explored too much, or really explained as to why one of the primary players chose to try and stop the exonneration when i'm sure absolutely nothing would have happened to that player if he had just ignored it all.  and really, none of the other primary players should have cared either.  as the protagonist kept saying, it was over 20 years ago, those involved are long gone in some sense one way or another, why care?  but sure, it sounds nice when those that did it get caught.

 

[BlackberryJam]

Just finished Where the Crawdads Sing. Big sigh.

There are certain tropes I hate, and one is the child raised alone in the wild who grows up to be both brilliant and beautiful. The use of the trope had some giant plot holes for me. The first is basic: dental hygiene. The author deals briefly with an infection issue, slightly with puberty but totally ignores dental hygiene. No discussion of toothbrushes. Or floss. Raised as she was, Kya would have had horrible teeth. And yes, my standards of beauty require at least decent teeth. 

The second was her brilliance. I get that Tate taught her how to read and sound out words, but we are talking Latin here. And English is a hot mess when it comes to pronunciation matching spelling. I needed Kya to mispronounce a few words because she’d never heard them spoken.

My third big problem was the POV structure. When Kya is six, in her thoughts, she identifies the make and model of the car that brings the truant officer to her door. She can neither spell nor does she have experience with cars. There were dozens of things like that which kept pulling me out of the story.

Next comes Kya’s ability to go to a library, check out books, be aware of back taxes and real estate but that she apparently doesn’t even know how a court room is set up and her lawyer has to draw her stick figures. That was an insulting pile of nonsense.

I also found the ending predictable. Of course that’s what happened. Of COURSE.

As I read back over this, it makes it seem like I didn’t enjoy the book. I did enjoy it. I just didn’t think it was very good. I felt the potential in the author, but this book seemed underbaked. 

[OtterMommy]

50 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:

Just finished Where the Crawdads Sing. Big sigh.

 

My book club decided to read this this year...I had already planned to skip that meeting.  Everything I've heard about this book from bloggers I respect say pretty much what you said here and that is a big NOPE for me.

[BlackberryJam]

7 hours ago, OtterMommy said:

My book club decided to read this this year...I had already planned to skip that meeting.  Everything I've heard about this book from bloggers I respect say pretty much what you said here and that is a big NOPE for me.

 I went to Goodreads to look for some other reviews to see if I was alone. I'm not. Someone described it as Manic Pixie Marsh Girl and that the main character is a Mary Sue. Totally on point descriptions.

 It's a soft easy read, but that doesn't make it a great book.

I've just started "All the Real Indians Died Off" by Ruth Dunbar Ortiz. So far it's… OK. It's apparently not written for anyone who knows anything about Native American heritage.

[BlackberryJam]

On 1/23/2020 at 7:39 AM, BlackberryJam said:

I've just started "All the Real Indians Died Off" by Ruth Dunbar Ortiz. So far it's… OK. It's apparently not written for anyone who knows anything about Native American heritage.

Quoting myself. I found this book disappointing. Some of the myths she was debunking seemed silly, juvenile and obvious, like "Thanksgiving proves that the Indians and settlers got along," or some similarly worded nonsense. The fact that Thanksgiving wasn't a fun love fest and that the settlers were atrocious to the Indians was even part of a silly film like Addams' Family Values. Yet the author of this book approaches it as if people actually believe that Thanksgiving was wonder for the Indians. I mean..what?

I did some further research after finishing and there was apparently some statistical manipulation. That doesn't necessarily bother me. I mean, whites have been doing it for decades.

On the other hand, I felt like this book was an airing of grievances with no guidance on how to move forward. 

[helenamonster]

Just finished: Run Away by Harlan Coben. I like books with seemingly unconnected plots that eventually find their way to each other, and I enjoyed it here too. I got nervous towards the end that a lot of questions would remain unanswered, but things wrapped up nicely with at least a few surprises (I predicted a few things, though).

One thing that kind of drove me crazy (not really a spoiler since it concerns the beginning but putting behind tags just in case):

Spoiler

The book's "cold open" as it were, where Simon finds Paige at the park and gets arrested for beating up Aaron, the whole thing going viral, etc....didn't feel like it had anything to do with anything. Yes, it sets up the main players and their relationships/backstory, but it's such a big way to start a narrative that it feels strange that it has no connection to the actual main plot of the book.

Also, the book takes place in New York, where I live, and it can be fun for locations you know to show up in a work of fiction (I used to walk down the street that the Greene family lived on to get to work every day, so I could picture it perfectly). But at a certain point it got to be too much, especially when the geography of New York doesn't really factor that much into the plot. Like, we don't need multiple passages of Simon doing the math on how long a subway vs. Uber will take him, complete with turn by turn directions. It was wholly unnecessary.

Next up: Conviction by Denise Mina

[truthaboutluv]

Just completed One of Us is Next. It was okay but definitely not as good as One of Us is Lying. The biggest issue is that the main characters in One of Us is Next weren't nearly as interesting as the main characters in One of Us is Lying. Bronwyn, Nate, Addy and Cooper were all awesome, which is one of the things that made the book so good. Because by the middle of the book, you didn't want any of them to be guilty. 

Phoebe and Knox were okay but Maeve was really disappointing for me, especially as she was kind of awesome in her very small presence in One of Us is Lying. Her romance was meh and I just didn't find her that interesting. 

I figured out the main twist/mystery a lot quicker in this one than the first book. The only thing I didn't see coming was 

Spoiler

the brother being involved. It's like gee, way to make that whole family fucked up. As if the dad dying and the sister becoming an alcoholic who tried to get a guy killed wasn't bad enough. 

Currently reading Ninth House. *sigh* Once again, my streak of being meh about super popular, hyped books continues. It's not a bad book and I can tell the author put in a lot of work and research for the whole world building she's created in the story. 

And maybe things will be more interesting in the sequels, where she's not bogged down by having to set up the whole backstory/history for everything, since it's obvious this is not going to be a one-off. But for this first one, man it's rough. 

But the main thing making the book a struggle for me is the main character. I'm more than 1/3 of the way through the book and my feelings about Alex is general indifference. That is not a good thing for a main character because it means that I have no investment in the story, no investment in where it's going, what's going to happen, etc. 

Edited January 26, 2020 by truthaboutluv

[GaT]

5 hours ago, truthaboutluv said:

Currently reading Ninth House. *sigh* Once again, my streak of being meh about super popular, hyped books continue. It's not a bad book and I can tell the author put in a lot of work and research for the whole world building she's created in the story. 

And maybe things will be more interesting in the sequels, where she's not bogged down by setting the whole backstory/history for everything, since it's obvious this is not going to be a one-off. But for this first one, man it's rough. 

And the most important thing making the book a struggle for me is the main character. I'm more than 1/3 through the book and my feelings about Alex is general indifference. That is not a good thing for a main character because it means that I have no investment in the story, no investment in where it's going, what's going to happen, etc. 

That pretty much sums it up for me. I read the book a couple of months ago & recently tried to recall the plot & couldn't remember a thing about it. I had to look it up on Amazon to see what it was about, & I'm pretty sure I've forgotten most of it again.

[dubbel zout]

17 hours ago, truthaboutluv said:

One of Us is Next

The office where I freelance had a copy of this in the freebie pile as well as a book called Who Is Next, so of course I put them together. Hee.

[Crs97]

Just finished 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and it was a ride.  And odd.  And not a favorite.

[Black Knight]

I loved 95% of 7 1/2 Deaths, but the ending is such a letdown.

(I'm still not sorry that I read it, though, and I'll read it again for the brilliance of the first 95%.)

[Crs97]

I told my kids halfway through that the book is a high wire act that absolutely, positively HAS to stick the landing.  I’m glad you can go back and enjoy the 95% because, for me, the 5% just left me hanging and completely meh.

[OtterMommy]

I finished Save Me the Plums today and loved it.   Reichl is far and away my favorite food writer and I'm now sorry I didn't read Gourmet when it was in business.

I was planning on starting Cilka's Journey tonight (which would have been appropriate as it is Holocaust Remembrance Day), but then I discovered that it is a follow-up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz, which I have not read but will do soon when my book club does it.  So, instead I think I'm going to start American Royals instead and revisit Cilka's Journey in a few months.

[Hanahope]

Just finished Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.  recommended on another forum site in honor of the coronavirus.  its a story about another flu bug that killed 99.9% of the population.   definitely makes you want to stock up on water and nonperishable food and hope you don't need electricity and medicine to survive.  but even then hard life.  but the theme,  survival is insufficient, comes through.

 

[BlackberryJam]

Just started Know My Name by Chanel Miller. I have it on audio and she has such a powerful delivery and her words are gut wrenching. I am done with chapter one and feel just as raw and exposed.

[Black Knight]

10 hours ago, Hanahope said:

but the theme,  survival is insufficient, comes through.

I really liked that about Station Eleven. I read it the year it came out, and I've been thinking of giving it a re-read this year, particularly for one of the scenes near the end.

[GaT]

I just finished Many Rivers to Cross by Peter Robinson, the 26th book in the Inspector Banks series. Didn't really enjoy it. The story is a continuation of the previous book, CareLess Love, & I'm bored, Also, after 26 books, I'm tired of hearing about Alan Banks' musical, food, & alcohol choices. It may be time to wrap this series up, especially since it seems like the next book is going to be another continuation.

[Haleth]

20 hours ago, Hanahope said:

Just finished Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.  recommended on another forum site in honor of the coronavirus.  its a story about another flu bug that killed 99.9% of the population.   definitely makes you want to stock up on water and nonperishable food and hope you don't need electricity and medicine to survive.  but even then hard life.  but the theme,  survival is insufficient, comes through.

 

Good book.  I'm still waiting for her to write a sequel.

[Hanahope]

12 hours ago, Black Knight said:

I really liked that about Station Eleven. I read it the year it came out, and I've been thinking of giving it a re-read this year, particularly for one of the scenes near the end.

I could totally see this being made into a TV show/movie with future episodes on the adventures of the Traveling Symphony.

[OtterMommy]

1 hour ago, Hanahope said:

I could totally see this being made into a TV show/movie with future episodes on the adventures of the Traveling Symphony.

It is being made into a TV show, although I think it will be limited to the story of the book.

I only made it a handful of pages into American Royals before DNF'ing it.  However, this truly was a case of "It's not you, it's me."  I think it is an inventive premise and the writing was good, but my mind was just not going there with the alternate history so contrary to reality.  Even in those few pages, my mind kept going through things like "What about slavery?  What about the Civil War?"  

Instead, I picked up What the Wind Knows which a number of friends rated highly on Goodreads.  I wasn't so sure about it when I started, but now it is starting to work for me.

[Minneapple]

My biggest problem with American Royals is that I didn't find any of the characters particularly likeable. They were kind of flat and dull except for maybe Daphne, who is about the only one who made anything happen. I would have appreciated more scheming and Gossip Girl-style plots. 

[Haleth]

19 hours ago, OtterMommy said:

It is being made into a TV show,

Huh.  Well, whadda you know.  I'm definitely going to have to do a reread.

Edited January 30, 2020 by Haleth

[tres bien]

PBI  if you liked Save Me the Plums, you might enjoy two books by Laurie Colwin.

Home Cooking and More Home Cooking.  I was introduced to her  as a reader of Gourmet Magazine.  She was an occasional columnist. 

Edited January 30, 2020 by tres bien

[OtterMommy]

12 hours ago, Minneapple said:

My biggest problem with American Royals is that I didn't find any of the characters particularly likeable. They were kind of flat and dull except for maybe Daphne, who is about the only one who made anything happen. I would have appreciated more scheming and Gossip Girl-style plots. 

Good to know.  I didn't get far enough in to form any opinions about the characters, but this would have really bugged me. 

[alias1]

On 1/28/2020 at 10:08 AM, Hanahope said:

Just finished Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.  recommended on another forum site in honor of the coronavirus.  its a story about another flu bug that killed 99.9% of the population.   definitely makes you want to stock up on water and nonperishable food and hope you don't need electricity and medicine to survive.  but even then hard life.  but the theme,  survival is insufficient, comes through.

 

I can't believe it's been five years since Station Eleven came out.  I really enjoyed it.  I don't think she would ever do a sequel.  It stands alone.   Emily St John Mandel has a new book coming out in March, The Glass Hotel.  It sounds good.  

[proserpina65]

I finished reading In The Woods by Tana French last night - yeah, I know it's been out for years, but I only just got around to it.  I mostly enjoyed it, up until the end, but there were a few things which bugged me:

Spoiler

First - unlike the narrator, I suspected that Rosalind was involved, at least with poisoning Katy, from the moment the ballet teacher talked about her getting ill frequently and then suddenly not getting ill.  And I knew Rosalind's helpless act was just that, an act meant to keep him from suspecting her.

Second - what kind of allegedly crack homicide detectives would not think of trowels or some kind of digging implements when told by the coroner that the murder victim had been raped with something similar to a broom handle after the body had been found at a freaking archeological site?

And third, and by far the most serious - although I realized about halfway through the book that what had happened to Adam and his friends was not connected to Katy's murder except by coincidence, I still wanted some answers to that mystery.  It did rather spoil the book for me that no resolution was ever forthcoming.

 

[Black Knight]

I love Tana French's Dublin Murder series, and I'm looking forward to watching the TV adaptation, but I find it so random how some of the books have supernatural elements, which aren't ever explained, and others don't. I'm also wondering when she's going to release another installment. She's been pretty consistent in publishing a book every two years, but for 2018 it was a standalone (which I haven't read yet).

[proserpina65]

Just now, Black Knight said:

I love Tana French's Dublin Murder series, and I'm looking forward to watching the TV adaptation, but I find it so random how some of the books have supernatural elements, which aren't ever explained, and others don't. I'm also wondering when she's going to release another installment. She's been pretty consistent in publishing a book every two years, but for 2018 it was a standalone (which I haven't read yet).

I saw part of the series, which is what made me read the book.  Maybe the series corrects the biggest flaw of the book, but combining both books seemed to be a huge mistake to me.

I doubt I'd bother with any more of French's books since this was decently written, and did keep me reading, but ultimately fell flat.

[GaT]

10 hours ago, Haleth said:

Huh.  Well, whadda you know.  I'm definitely going to have to do a reread.

I only have vague recollections of this book, but I remember not liking it. It seemed like it was mostly about an actor in the current timeline if I remember correctly.

1 hour ago, proserpina65 said:

I finished reading In The Woods by Tana French last night - yeah, I know it's been out for years, but I only just got around to it.  I mostly enjoyed it, up until the end, but there were a few things which bugged me:

  Hide contents

First - unlike the narrator, I suspected that Rosalind was involved, at least with poisoning Katy, from the moment the ballet teacher talked about her getting ill frequently and then suddenly not getting ill.  And I knew Rosalind's helpless act was just that, an act meant to keep him from suspecting her.

Second - what kind of allegedly crack homicide detectives would not think of trowels or some kind of digging implements when told by the coroner that the murder victim had been raped with something similar to a broom handle after the body had been found at a freaking archeological site?

And third, and by far the most serious - although I realized about halfway through the book that what had happened to Adam and his friends was not connected to Katy's murder except by coincidence, I still wanted some answers to that mystery.  It did rather spoil the book for me that no resolution was ever forthcoming.

 

I really, really, really wanted to like this series, but I read 2 or 3 books & I was done. The third thing in your spoiler is one of the big problems I had with this book, you can't make a big deal out of something like that & not finish it.

[Dani-Ellie]

22 minutes ago, GaT said:

I really, really, really wanted to like this series, but I read 2 or 3 books & I was done. The third thing in your spoiler is one of the big problems I had with this book, you can't make a big deal out of something like that & not finish it.

In the Woods is the only book I've legitimately wanted to throw across the room when I was finished with it. I was so disappointed in it that I never read any of her other books.

ITA on the unfinished ending.

 

The past mystery was the one I was most invested in and what, to me, elevated this particular book beyond your standard whodunit. For her to take that much time up with it, to the point of Rob essentially destroying his credibility/career, and then not resolve it at all made me furious.

Edited January 30, 2020 by Dani-Ellie

[BlackberryJam]

I slogged through the first three Dublin Murder books, decently interested but not enamoured. Then I got to Broken Harbour. It was so...boring. 

 

Spoiler

The interrogation of the Wife/Mother/Murderer should have been riveting, but I kept yawning, or putting it down to go do something else. And it seemed to last for 900 pages. Dull.

Once I figured out that she was going to leave so many things unresolved in the books, I began to see how weak the stories that would be resolved were. She uses these backstories to create tension because the main stories aren't interesting...or aren't written in an interesting way.

[Katy M]

16 hours ago, Dani-Ellie said:

In the Woods is the only book I've legitimately wanted to throw across the room when I was finished with it. I was so disappointed in it that I never read any of her other books.

ITA on the unfinished ending.

  Hide contents

The past mystery was the one I was most invested in and what, to me, elevated this particular book beyond your standard whodunit. For her to take that much time up with it, to the point of Rob essentially destroying his credibility/career, and then not resolve it at all made me furious.

Spoiler

I agree with your spoiler.  I felt like Rob killed his friends.  I gave my mom the book when I was done and asked her what she thought about that. She said "Of course not."  And it's just annoying to never know.  Even if it was possible to catch/punish the killer, Rob just remembering the holes would have worked for me.  If he had remembered doing it and kept quiet, fine, I would have known.  If he had remembered it was a stranger that he'd never be able to identify this far down the road, again, fine.  We'd know.

 

[proserpina65]

42 minutes ago, Katy M said:

  Reveal spoiler

I agree with your spoiler.  I felt like Rob killed his friends.  I gave my mom the book when I was done and asked her what she thought about that. She said "Of course not."  And it's just annoying to never know.  Even if it was possible to catch/punish the killer, Rob just remembering the holes would have worked for me.  If he had remembered doing it and kept quiet, fine, I would have known.  If he had remembered it was a stranger that he'd never be able to identify this far down the road, again, fine.  We'd know.

 

Exactly.  I didn't need all the answers and some neat, tidy wrap-up, but just some solid possibilities would've sufficed.  As it was, I ended up being disappointed enough to not want to read anything else by the author.  Which is kind of a shame, because up until Rob did that really stupid thing involving his partner, I was enjoying the book.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

For anyone who likes historical fiction, I strongly recommend reading The Hunger by Alma Katsu, a fictionalized retelling of the Donner expedition. I read the whole thing over the weekend, barely put it down. Can't really encapsulate it, but I very much suggest folks check it out.

[Danny Franks]

21 Lessons for the 21st Century, by Yuval Noah Harari. It's interesting how prevalent these ideas are becoming, among academics - universal income, data as the main economic driver, the idea of happiness and satisfaction becoming more of a signifier of societal and economic success, the collapse of liberal ideology and how we replace it. Harari seems very much in line with the likes of Rutger Bregman and Paul Mason, when he talks about how we may need to address these issues.

But it does feel more like an update to his earlier work, rather than anything brand new.

[Hanahope]

Just finished the latest Jack Reacher novel, Blue Moon.  Fits pretty well with the usual plotlines.  By chance, helping an old man, Reacher gets drawn into a war with two crime gangs and nearly single-handidly takes both gangs out.  Its stories like these that totally make the case that Tom Cruise, for all his acting talent, just can't act his way into a 6'2" 250 pound body, which is such a key point in so many of these stories.

Almost too bad that someone like Reacher doesn't exist.  I guess that's why I like these stories, the good guys always win and the bad guys never do, a good feeling fantasy (it seems).  I particularly liked it when Reacher made his own decision about a certain bad guy at the end.

 

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, Hanahope said:

Just finished the latest Jack Reacher novel, Blue Moon.  Fits pretty well with the usual plotlines.  By chance, helping an old man, Reacher gets drawn into a war with two crime gangs and nearly single-handidly takes both gangs out.  Its stories like these that totally make the case that Tom Cruise, for all his acting talent, just can't act his way into a 6'2" 250 pound body, which is such a key point in so many of these stories.

Almost too bad that someone like Reacher doesn't exist.  I guess that's why I like these stories, the good guys always win and the bad guys never do, a good feeling fantasy (it seems).  I particularly liked it when Reacher made his own decision about a certain bad guy at the end.

 

This is why fairy tales are so important to human development.

“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”

― G.K. Chesterton

[rove4]

Recently reread David Baldacci's The Innocent (Will Robie #1) and am now rereading The Hit, second in that series, as a refresher in advance of finally getting around to reading the rest of the series.  I also read the start to Baldacci's Atlee Pine series, Long Road to Mercy. 

I also just started The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time #1) by Robert Jordan

Oh! I also just finished book one in Linwood Barclay's Promise Falls trilogy, Broken Promise.  

Edited February 6, 2020 by rove4

[starri]

I was recommended Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts.  It's either The Westing Game For Grownups or Ready Player One Without the Gatekeeping, but I'm really enjoying it.

[dubbel zout]

I just started The Westing Game.

[truthaboutluv]

Almost done with Long Black Veil. This one was a very pleasant surprise. I found it only because of my Popsugar Reading Challenge category and I really enjoyed it. 

As for Ninth House...well, it's still going. 

[Darian]

On 2/8/2020 at 6:04 PM, starri said:

I was recommended Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts.  It's either The Westing Game For Grownups or Ready Player One Without the Gatekeeping, but I'm really enjoying it.

I read Tuesday Mooney and I liked it at first, but it did not hold up for me. I didn't hate it, but I was starting to rush through it to be done. And it's set in my city (well, I live in a Boston suburb), so that was fun.  hope you keep enjoying it. I loved Bellweather Rhapsody by the same author.

Starting Jami Attenberg's All This Could be Yours. I have liked her other books. And Weather by Jenny Offill dropped today, so I must snap that up. Offill's Dept. of Speculation was polarizing, but I loved it. 

[GaT]

I'm reading Cast in Wisdom by Michelle Sagara, the 15th book in the Chronicles of Elantra Series. I keep reading this series, & I'm not sure why because there's very little character progression, & they drag. There's a lot of talk about true names & true words (as usual), & they seem to be spending most of the book wandering a sentient building. After 15 books I expect more.