What Are We Currently Reading?

[IWantCandy71]

A co worker has read most of, if not all, of the Inspector Gamache Series books. She said she really liked them, so I picked up  the first one, Still Life, and read it. 

I will say Ms. Penny can create some interesting characters, but that's the most positive thing I can say about the experience of just reading the first book. I thought Peter Morrow was fascinating, so much so that after I finished the book, I had to find out what became of him, because I knew I wouldn't be reading any more of these. And then I found out, and well. Now I know for sure I won't be reading any more. 

I just found her to not be that great of a writer. She tells far more than she shows, in fact, it was mostly telling. And a lot of the passages, it was like she was trying to be deep and introspective, but it made no sense.  I think pretentious would be a good description. Most of the characters, ,while some are  interesting, are truly unlikeable people, including Peter's wife Clara (and I doubt getting the reader to dislike Clara was the author's intention).  

Just an overall big fat no for me.  I understand these are best sellers. I just don't get WHY. Suffice it to say, if my co worker asks, I'll do the generic "eh, it was alright" and hope she doesn't ask again LOL.

[BlackberryJam]

Peter? Likable? That was totally different than my read, but then again, I don’t remember how far that relationship goes in the first book.

Spoiler

Peter actively undermines his wife’s confidence and discourages her in the most invidious ways. Clara is nothing great, but she doesn’t have the inherent ego-based cruelty of Peter.

My problem with the series was always the Surêté politics. Ugh. So torturous and dull.

[IWantCandy71]

12 hours ago, BlackberryJam said:

Peter? Likable? That was totally different than my read, but then again, I don’t remember how far that relationship goes in the first book.

  Hide contents

Peter actively undermines his wife’s confidence and discourages her in the most invidious ways. Clara is nothing great, but she doesn’t have the inherent ego-based cruelty of Peter.

My problem with the series was always the Surêté politics. Ugh. So torturous and dull.

I actually didn't say Peter was likeable, I said he was fascinating. Fascinating IMO usually doesn't translate to an easily likeable character. But then I guess I tend to latch onto the complex, damaged characters. "Likeable" doesn't' have to be a criteria for me to LOVE  a character.  I LOVE all four of the Musketeers, because Alexandre Dumas wrote them with life and color and human traits, up to and including them doing horrible things and making horrible mistakes. 

And I guess that's what I'm missing here-color and life in the characters. Except for Peter and maybe one or two others, they were all so....BLAND is the word I'm thinking of. Colorless. And for a series that is supposed to best sellers, I expect more. 

I was bored. I hate being bored reading a book, especially a mystery.

I do think most of her characters are either written with a heavy hand, and we're supposed to think they are awful, like Jane's niece, or we're supposed to love them and think they're the greatest thing ever.

Bottom line for me, I don't think most of them had much of a personality to speak of.  And isn't that the point in any story ? If you don't connect to, and care about, the people in the story, what's the point ? 

 

I have read that Peter might treat Clara not so great in the future books, but since I thought Clara was pretty smug and self righteous in her own right, I guess I just don't care ? I don't need my faves to be "likeable," but I do need them to be bearable. Clara wasn't for me, at all. And if she's one of the main characters going forward, no thanks. I'll save my money.

Edited February 14, 2020 by IWantCandy71

[BlackberryJam]

I think there are many reasons to dislike the books, the good angel Gamache being one of them.  I've read too many books about egotistical men who wear down their wives to find anything valuable in reading Peter Morrow. He's Mr. Repressed White Male Rage and so emotionally abusive. I am tired of those characters. So tired.

Jean Guy is much more interesting as the token damaged male.

[OtterMommy]

Currently working on Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (the other Booker Award Winner).  I'm really enjoying it but it is one of those books that takes a lot of brain power to read.  Evaristo doesn't seem to be a fan of punctuation.  Or Capital letters.  Or sentence structure.  I don't know much about her but I'm guessing she has a foot in poetry because I get that feeling here.  It is definitely a book that requires 100% of my attention.

[BlackberryJam]

On a super light note, I have listened to Richard E. Grant reading Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie and Grant is WONDERFUL. I normally love Hugh Fraser for the Christie’s but this is a delight.

[GaT]

I am reading Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L Sayers. I've already mentioned I'm rereading my Lord Peter books, & this is the latest & I don't know what happened. I am seriously wondering if Dorothy Sayers actually wrote this book, it's nothing like the previous ones. It's is overloaded with timetables & train schedules, & there's absolutely no way to follow & retain any of the information. In addition, there are other characters that seem to have bigger parts than Lord Peter & Bunter, & they all speak with a Scottish accent & I can't tell what they're saying half the time. I am not enjoying this book. 

Edited February 15, 2020 by GaT

[IWantCandy71]

Bought an old copy of "Sonnets from the Portuguese" today at a used book sale. I love the way it smells-that slightly musty paper smell that only an old, comfortable book can have. It's one of the reasons why I'll never  understand wanting an ebook or audio book over this. I haven't read EBB's poems in years and can't wait to read it this weekend !

[Melgaypet]

On 2/8/2020 at 4:32 PM, dubbel zout said:

I just started The Westing Game.

I LOVE The Westing Game! One of my favorite books ever. Not favorite YA, but books, full stop.

I just started Goblin Precinct, third in a series by Keith R.A. DeCandido. They're police/detective mysteries set in fantasy world of goblins, wizards, elves, etc. Nothing spectacular, but DeCandido has a snarky tone that's fun.

[Ohiopirate02]

On 2/14/2020 at 11:53 AM, OtterMommy said:

Currently working on Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (the other Booker Award Winner).  I'm really enjoying it but it is one of those books that takes a lot of brain power to read.  Evaristo doesn't seem to be a fan of punctuation.  Or Capital letters.  Or sentence structure.  I don't know much about her but I'm guessing she has a foot in poetry because I get that feeling here.  It is definitely a book that requires 100% of my attention.

That ended up being my favorite work of fiction published in 2019.  I am in awe of the way she crafted so many characters with their own voice.  And then the way she weaves together time and the characters connections was pure poetry.  A deserving Booker winner and IMHO better than the other Booker winner.

[Crs97]

 I am reading Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L Sayers. I've already mentioned I'm rereading my Lord Peter books, & this is the latest & I don't know what happened. I am seriously wondering if Dorothy Sayers actually wrote this book, it's nothing like the previous ones. It's is overloaded with timetables & train schedules, & there's absolutely no way to follow & retain any of the information. In addition, there are other characters that seem to have bigger parts than Lord Peter & Bunter, & they all speak with a Scottish accent & I can't tell what they're saying half the time. I am not enjoying this book.

So it isn’t just me!  The only one of her stories I cannot finish.

[starri]

I think all of the offbeat stuff I like as an adult can be traced to my childhood love of The Westing Game. I still want Turtle Wexler to be my best friend.

[dubbel zout]

I'm reading it at work when things are slow, and I'm wondering if it would be better to do it all at once instead of bits and pieces? It seems tricky enough to deserve that.

[GaT]

I am currently reading Toil and Trouble by Charlotte E. English, book 2 in the Modern Magick series. I took a big risk with this. I've mentioned somewhere in this thread that when I find a new series to try, I usually buy the first 3 books & then decide if I want to read further. I have been stuck with books I hate in the past when I bought more than 3 books, or bought a volume that had more than 1 story & it turned out I didn't like it. In this case, there are 10 books, but when I looked for them, I found there was a book with the first 3 stories (which was perfect), but then I saw there was also a volume 2 with 4-6, & volume 3 with 7-9. At the same time I had a 15% off coupon from Barnes & Noble, soooo, I bought all 3 books & hoped I wasn't going to get stuck with with 8 stories I hate. Luckily, I enjoyed the first one, so all is well LOL. They are an easy read, & they are also pretty short for novels, more short story-ish, which is probably why the only physical books seem to be the ones with the multi stories, all the individual books are in e form. Anyway, I am happy to have a bunch of stories to read.

[proserpina65]

On ‎02‎/‎14‎/‎2020 at 11:53 AM, OtterMommy said:

Currently working on Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (the other Booker Award Winner).  I'm really enjoying it but it is one of those books that takes a lot of brain power to read.  Evaristo doesn't seem to be a fan of punctuation.  Or Capital letters.  Or sentence structure.  I don't know much about her but I'm guessing she has a foot in poetry because I get that feeling here.  It is definitely a book that requires 100% of my attention.

Thanks for saving me the time.  I hate writers like that.

I just finished reading the latest in Charles Todd's Bess Crawford mystery series, A Cruel Deception.  I've always liked the main character and the WWI setting, and this one was no exception.  I found the mystery itself quite involving as well, actually better than the previous book.  And while some of my guesses about the solution were right, enough were wrong that it kept me guessing.  But I did have one complaint:

Spoiler

There's absolutely no Simon Brandon in this one.  He's mentioned a few times, and that's it.  I need at least a moderate amount of Simon per book, damn it.

 

[Minneapple]

I finally read Ninth House. I thought it had a kind of potential that it never really lived up to? I don't know. Maybe because it's the first of a series and it seemed like the author was setting up a lot of stuff.

Anyway, after Ninth House I needed something to cleanse my palate, so to speak (because holy hell, Ninth House had some gratuituous stuff in it), so I picked up A Good Girl's Guide to Murder which is a super cute YA (yes, even though it's about a murder). It's like Veronica Mars in book form. Great female protagonist, solid supporting cast, good mystery.

[Black Knight]

On 2/17/2020 at 11:37 AM, dubbel zout said:

I'm reading it at work when things are slow, and I'm wondering if it would be better to do it all at once instead of bits and pieces? It seems tricky enough to deserve that.

You're going to want to re-read it anyway after you finish, to pick up on all the things that will take on new meaning after you know everything.

I just finished Come Tumbling Down, the fifth and latest novella in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series. This one continues the story of Jack and Jill, last seen in the second novella, although unlike that one we get to see a great deal of the other children, and I found it a satisfying installment. McGuire is just so inventive.

[dubbel zout]

11 hours ago, Black Knight said:

On 2/17/2020 at 2:37 PM, dubbel zout said:

I'm reading it at work when things are slow, and I'm wondering if it would be better to do it all at once instead of bits and pieces? It seems tricky enough to deserve that.

You're going to want to re-read it anyway after you finish, to pick up on all the things that will take on new meaning after you know everything.

Thanks, @Black Knight. I think I'll take it home and read it there.

[Danny Franks]

Blood & Sugar by Laura Shepherd-Robinson. A crime thriller set in late 1700s London, about the slave trade and the abolitionist movement. It's pretty decent and an easy read, although it seems to be the start of a 'detective' series, and I'm not sure I'm down for that.

[dubbel zout]

As I like having more than one book going at a time, I just started the third in Don Winslow's Power of the Dog trilogy, The Border. Sometimes the violence is really hard to read, but the trilogy is so, so good, as well as depressing. The War on Drugs is eternal. 

[alias1]

I read Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk.  Translated from the Polish. I highly recommend it.  Fabulous writing in my opinion.  Loved the main character.  The author won the 2019 Nobel Prize for literature.

[Mabinogia]

19 hours ago, Minneapple said:

I picked up A Good Girl's Guide to Murder which is a super cute YA (yes, even though it's about a murder). It's like Veronica Mars in book form. Great female protagonist, solid supporting cast, good mystery.

Thanks for mentioning this one. I just looked it up and put it in my Kindle wishlist. It sounds promising. 

[helenamonster]

Just finished: Conviction by Denise Mina, an early contender for the worst book I will read this year.

Where do I even start? The plot is completely nonsensical. Way too much going on. Secret identities, haunted yachts, crumbling marriages, gang rape, bankrupt sports franchises, anorexic rock stars, Russian hitmen, underwater snuff films...and, uh, Nazis, because sure why not. There was no cohesion to anything, and I couldn't spoil the ending if I wanted to because I truly don't understand what happened.

And ugh, the characters. Not a likable or interesting one among the bunch. Every choice any of them made was baffling, with no clear motivation. And they all had backstories that were five hundred miles long.

I don't think the book was edited. So many typos. I tried to be generous and assume they were just hyper local turns of phrase I was unfamiliar with (the main character is English living in Scotland) but I've read plenty of British authors and never had this problem. Some sentences were simply impenetrable. And the abundance of comma splices bordered on a hate crime.

Finally, the podcast framing was dumb. I don't think the author has ever listened to a podcast, but has maybe perhaps heard a person she shared an elevator with describe the concept to somebody else. You don't just...do a shitty voice memo on your iPhone, tweet it out, and call it a podcast episode.

0/10. Don't bother.

Next up: Mr. Nobody by Catherine Steadman

[Danny Franks]

20 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

As I like having more than one book going at a time, I just started the third in Don Winslow's Power of the Dog trilogy, The Border. Sometimes the violence is really hard to read, but the trilogy is so, so good, as well as depressing. The War on Drugs is eternal. 

I've looked at that trilogy several times, in bookshops, but feel like it's just going to be too bleak, similar to James Elroy.

[OtterMommy]

I finished Girl, Woman, Other last night and it was worth all the hard work to read it.  As I said in an earlier post, Evaristo has a very "non-standard" way of writing--minimal punctuation and capitalization and freeform paragraphs--which I find require a lot of effort to read.  But, man, that was an amazing book.  It actually made me angry again about the Booker Prize because this book, I feel, deserves all the awards and The Testaments just felt like a pandering choice ("We're going to pick a commercially successful book that rides on a current pop culture show to sound like we're hip!").

Such a Fun Age is waiting for me at the library, so that will be my next read.

[Minneapple]

Started Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes by Kathleen West and I love it so far. It perfectly captures the absurdity of helicopter parents and privileged kids in privileged schools. 

[dubbel zout]

2 hours ago, Danny Franks said:

22 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

As I like having more than one book going at a time, I just started the third in Don Winslow's Power of the Dog trilogy, The Border. Sometimes the violence is really hard to read, but the trilogy is so, so good, as well as depressing. The War on Drugs is eternal. 

I've looked at that trilogy several times, in bookshops, but feel like it's just going to be too bleak, similar to James Elroy.

It's intense, no doubt, but the main character has a basic optimism. He's fighting the good fight for the right reasons. One thing I appreciate is that not everyone is on the take. It's not all gloom and doom.

I totally get people not wanting to invest in it, though. 

[Spartan Girl]

2 hours ago, OtterMommy said:

Such a Fun Age is waiting for me at the library, so that will be my next read.

I read it, and it's really good!

[proserpina65]

16 hours ago, helenamonster said:

Just finished: Conviction by Denise Mina, an early contender for the worst book I will read this year.

Where do I even start? The plot is completely nonsensical. Way too much going on. Secret identities, haunted yachts, crumbling marriages, gang rape, bankrupt sports franchises, anorexic rock stars, Russian hitmen, underwater snuff films...and, uh, Nazis, because sure why not. There was no cohesion to anything, and I couldn't spoil the ending if I wanted to because I truly don't understand what happened.

And ugh, the characters. Not a likable or interesting one among the bunch. Every choice any of them made was baffling, with no clear motivation. And they all had backstories that were five hundred miles long.

I don't think the book was edited. So many typos. I tried to be generous and assume they were just hyper local turns of phrase I was unfamiliar with (the main character is English living in Scotland) but I've read plenty of British authors and never had this problem. Some sentences were simply impenetrable. And the abundance of comma splices bordered on a hate crime.

Finally, the podcast framing was dumb. I don't think the author has ever listened to a podcast, but has maybe perhaps heard a person she shared an elevator with describe the concept to somebody else. You don't just...do a shitty voice memo on your iPhone, tweet it out, and call it a podcast episode.

0/10. Don't bother.

Next up: Mr. Nobody by Catherine Steadman

I thought her first book, Garnet Hill, was interesting but not as great as the reviews indicated, and I found the second book to be poorly written and the plot to be outlandish.  So I'm not surprised that her most recent book is terrible.  From the start she tried to pack too damn much crap into the plot.

[surreysmum]

I just (accidentally) started two literary biographies at the same time.

One is Joanne Drayton's biography of Ngaio Marsh (Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime).  Drayton, a New Zealander herself, also and a bit more controversially, wrote a biography of Anne Perry.  I'm not expecting this one to be controversial, but I'm looking forward to getting a bit of theatre history, since theatre was a large part of Marsh's life, and I'll also probably have to end up dipping back in to some favourite Marsh mysteries - oh, the pain of it!

The other is Peter Ackroyd's biography of Wilkie Collins for the "Brief Lives" series. Brief they may be, but Ackroyd's contributions to that series aren't dumbed down, and they leave a vivid impression, at least for me. I've read his Shakespeare, Chatterton and Poe. Still on my shelf, Chaucer, and the very un-brief biography, "Dickens", which is a doorstop of a thing that I plan to linger happily over. Ackroyd also has a good line in fiction based on writers' lives (I loved his "Last Testament of Oscar Wilde") so you have to keep that distinction firmly in mind when buying something with his name on it!

I'm reading the Collins biography because I've been reading a lot of Collins himself.  Just the other day I finished Blind Love, his very last novel; he died two-thirds of the way through the writing of it - and the serialization had already started in a magazine! - but fortunately he left very detailed notes for his friend and fellow author, Walter Besant, so the conclusion makes sense despite being in Besant's noticeably different style.

Also just finished, and still buzzing around in my brain, the complex and poetical novel about class warfare and public architecture (among other things) in 1920s and 30s Toronto, In The Skin of a Lion, by Michael Ondaatje.  So many pictures left in the mind: a nun falling off a half-finished bridge in the darkness; a convict escaping jail by being painted bright blue all over; subterranean tunnels below a marbled palace that is actually a water treatment plant - yes, that last one existed, still exists and is still very much in use.  A massively nebulous, dreamlike plot, each element of which is firmly nailed down to actual physical places and actual historical dates. I think more Ondaatje has to be in my future, though not till I've puzzled over this one some more.

[peacheslatour]

Quote

Ackroyd also has a good line in fiction based on writers' lives (I loved his "Last Testament of Oscar Wilde") so you have to keep that distinction firmly in mind when buying something with his name on it!

I have a book called Oscar Wilde and the Yellow Nineties. It doesn't explicitly say it's fictionalized but it pretty much depicts Wilde as being straight. It's evocative of the Belle Epoch but it ends up being very silly. Is the Akroyd book at least accurate?

[truthaboutluv]

Well I finally finished Ninth House. Admittedly things did pick up in the last 100 - 150 pages. None of the reveals were particularly surprising, just the specifics of them. 

Spoiler

For example, totally called Sandow and Belbum both being guilty but didn't suspect Belbum really being Daisy. 

Ultimately this book was a lot like The Magicians for me, which was also a chore to get through and that's because the author could have shaved off at least 200 pages and it would have been a much better book. Instead it was almost 200 pages of nothing happening but a lot of pretentious and tedious world building.

To the point that when the real action did start, I was already bored out of my mind that I could barely appreciate it. I have no interest in reading the sequel. I will say that the main character Alex isn't in any way as annoying as Quentin for The Magicians. Whose annoying personality was also a chief reason I had no interest in finishing that series. 

But while I didn't find Alex annoying, I could never fully connect with the character. Bardugo tried to make her interesting with the snark and really awful backstory and history but something just never clicked for me. I never found myself rooting for her character, empathizing, laughing with her character, etc. It was all just "okay, cool, that happened". Something was just missing for me to really have the character click. 

Also, I know it was meant to heighten the tension and danger of the story, but honestly, by the third graphic description of Alex getting the crap violently beaten out of her by a man, it became exhausting and uncomfortable to read. 

[Black Knight]

17 hours ago, truthaboutluv said:

To the point that when the real action did start, I was already bored out of my mind that I could barely appreciate it. I have no interest in reading the sequel. I will say that the main character Alex isn't in any way as annoying as Quentin for The Magicians. Whose annoying personality was also a chief reason I had no interest in finishing that series. 

Quentin changes a lot, for the better, after the events of the first book. Like you, I was incredibly annoyed by him in the first book and as a result wasn't enthused about continuing on with the trilogy. But I really love the second and third books.

[Minneapple]

I did get a sense that The Ninth House was a lot of worldbuilding because it was mostly a setup for the series. In that sense it was tough to get through because you're like, "when is something going to HAPPEN?".

Anyway, I finished Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes and it was so good! I highly recommend it. It so perfectly captures the absurdity of helicopter parenting and things like parent booster clubs while realizing that for kids, "minor dramas" in high school are a big deal. (This book is not a YA, btw, even though it's about a high school.) There's an interesting social media element that makes it sort of like Gossip Girl for high school drama. There are quite a few characters and POVs, but the characters don't run together like they often do with multiple POV books.

[surreysmum]

On 2/21/2020 at 1:00 PM, peacheslatour said:

I have a book called Oscar Wilde and the Yellow Nineties. It doesn't explicitly say it's fictionalized but it pretty much depicts Wilde as being straight. It's evocative of the Belle Epoch but it ends up being very silly. Is the Akroyd book at least accurate?

It's been 32 years since I read it! So I'll refer you to my 1988 review (now dumped into Goodreads) for the details.  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/103848380

But in general, yes, I think Ackroyd caught both the facts and the personality in a way that seemed consistent with what I've read in biographies and Wilde's letters.

Another fictionalized Wilde is the one in Gyles Brandreth's "Oscar Wilde and..." murder mystery series.  That one's intriguing because the basic premise (Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle as a sleuthing partnership) is obviously fictional, but it is grounded in an absolutely encyclopedic knowledge of Wilde and his works that shines through with every piece of (fictional) action and dialogue.

Making Wilde straight (or straight-ish) is daft, but I think possibly in our day he might have self-identified as bi, since he maintained an affectionate relationship with his wife (until all hell broke loose), and they produced two sons together. Don't you think?

[peacheslatour]

Quote

Making Wilde straight (or straight-ish) is daft, but I think possibly in our day he might have self-identified as bi, since he maintained an affectionate relationship with his wife (until all hell broke loose), and they produced two sons together. Don't you think?

I do. Wilde was a very complex man. He was brilliant and too unconventional for his time. I think he loved Constance in his way and he obviously loved his children very much. But settling down for a traditional married life was just not in him. He chafed at the restrictions. I see him as being very comfortable living a life much like Mick Jagger's or David Bowie's.

[Danny Franks]

I just finished America City by Chris Beckett. Set in the future, in an America that is losing habitable territory to desert expansion in the south and super storms ravaging the coast, a charismatic populist starts to campaign for mass resettlement in the northern states. It's an interesting take on how nationalists create external enemies to unite their people and stoke hatred and vitriol, with the intention of riding it to power.

Edited March 1, 2020 by Danny Franks

[OperaLover1229]

Just finished reading HANNAH’S WAR by Jan Eliasbe. The book concerns the creation of the atom bomb at Los Alamos and the search for a possible spy among the scientists working there. The main character, Hannah, is based on Dr. Lise Meitner who discovered nuclear fission. It is an interesting book, occasionally sinks into “word salad” sentences, but a good look into the WWII mind set. 

[statsgirl]

On 2/21/2020 at 11:08 AM, surreysmum said:

Also just finished, and still buzzing around in my brain, the complex and poetical novel about class warfare and public architecture (among other things) in 1920s and 30s Toronto, In The Skin of a Lion, by Michael Ondaatje.  So many pictures left in the mind: a nun falling off a half-finished bridge in the darkness; a convict escaping jail by being painted bright blue all over; subterranean tunnels below a marbled palace that is actually a water treatment plant - yes, that last one existed, still exists and is still very much in use.  A massively nebulous, dreamlike plot, each element of which is firmly nailed down to actual physical places and actual historical dates. I think more Ondaatje has to be in my future, though not till I've puzzled over this one some more.

If you are in Toronto on May 23 -24, you can most likely tour the water filtration plant during Doors Open, although I can't find the final list of buildings. It's a beautiful art deco building. Harris was a thinker far ahead of his time.

[dubbel zout]

I finished The Westing Game, and I figured it out before the end, which was sort of disappointing. Though I did like the character wrap-ups after the reveal. I'm someone who doesn't really care whodunit—I read mysteries for the story rather than the mystery itself. But it was a fun read up to that point, and I don't feel like I wasted my time as I sometimes do when I guess the ending.

Now I'm working my way through the third and final installment of Don Winslow's Power of the Dog trilogy. I've really liked it so far, but wow, it can be a tough read. Violent, depressing, all that stuff.

[helenamonster]

Just finished: Mr. Nobody by Catherine Steadman. Much better than her debut novel, Something in the Water. I was thoroughly invested the whole time, and thought the whole thing wrapped up quite nicely. I got a little confused when the final parts of the mystery were being laid out, but I don't think I needed a firm grasp of the details to appreciate the ending.

Next up: Open Book, Jessica Simpson's memoir.

[AncientNewbie]

On 12/3/2019 at 1:34 PM, DearEvette said:

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.”

 

I reread this not too long ago, while going through a rough bit, because the whole arc with Miles finding himself and the loyalty of his family/found family really resonates with me. There's one line I always misquote but it stays with me, something about "adulthood isn't a reward you get for being a good kid long enough."

Late to the party but just finished Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. It was a lot more fun to read than the cover blurb and quotes would have made me believe. 

Edited March 10, 2020 by AncientNewbie
added content

[topazann]

I recently finished All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and someone else. Can’t remember their name. It’s a Young Adult book that takes the same event and writes alternating chapters from a Black teen’s and white teen’s perspective. It was great and I think it’s one I’m going to look to buy a few of for 8th grade book clubs.
Also finished the book about East German punks (Burning Down the Haus by Tim Mohr. Highly recommend.)

Regards, onplanners

Edited March 12, 2020 by topazann

[OtterMommy]

Currently pushing through Little Fires Everywhere so that I have it finished before the TV series starts next week. I wish I had read it before the series was announced, because I keep trying to see Reese Witherspoon as Elena and it just doesn't work for me.  Oh well...

Also still listening to A Very Stable Genius in fits and starts...and I have Ovidia Yu's The Paper Bark Tree Mystery going as well, which I am quite enjoying.  I don't know if it is the last in the series, but I hope not.  I quite like the heroine of these books.

[Danny Franks]

I just finished Sword of Justice by Christian Cameron. The fourth in his series about William Gold, a commoner in 15th century London who Forrest Gumps his way to becoming a prominent knight in Medieval Europe.

It's such a good series, because Cameron deliberately veers off the well-trodden path of historical fiction. He starts with the Battle of Crecy but then delves into the politics of the Papacy, Italian city states and the last remaining Christian outposts in the Holy Lands. I've learned so much reading these books, which are packed with real events and historical figures.

Now I'm starting The Binding by Bridget Collins. Not sure what to expect of this one.

[catlover79]

On 3/9/2020 at 8:33 PM, helenamonster said:

Next up: Open Book, Jessica Simpson's memoir.

I found it surprisingly good. Especially well-written were her years growing up in Texas.

[Spartan Girl]

My Dark Vanessa. HOLY. SHIT.

Could NOT put it down.

[Minneapple]

5 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

My Dark Vanessa. HOLY. SHIT.

Could NOT put it down.

This is HUGELY hyped but I don't think I could read it because it sounds, well, dark. And really disturbing. 

[Black Knight]

I'm troubled by My Dark Vanessa because the author has admitted that she read a memoir that covered this territory. But the writer of that memoir, Wendy C. Ortiz, had a lot of trouble getting a publisher, and when she did, well, it was a small press and the memoir didn't become a blockbuster. Now a white woman who read that memoir turns it into a fictional story and reaps a 7-figure deal from a major publisher. If I ever feel like reading this story, I'm going to go get Ortiz's memoir.

At least when EL James ripped off Stephenie Meyer, she was ripping off someone who had gotten rich herself off her story. James got even richer, but I understood there why Meyer just laughed it off.

I've just started Erin Morgenstern's The Starless Sea. I believe it's been recommended by a couple of people here.

[Haleth]

10 hours ago, Black Knight said:

I've just started Erin Morgenstern's The Starless Sea. I believe it's been recommended by a couple of people here.

I loved it, one of my favs ever.  Savor the imagery.

The other day I finished A Door in the Earth by Amy Waldman.  It's about a recent college grad, Afghan born but raised in the US, who decides to go to a remote village in Afghanistan.  She was inspired by a book written by an American doctor who build a clinic for women there after a patient dies unnecessarily.  The girl arrives only to find things aren't nearly as she imagined and she isn't greeted as a savior.  I hated it.  While the glimpse of life and culture in a remote Afghan village are interesting, the main character's naivete and complete cluelessness are annoying.  Even on the very last page she is still having delusions of heroism, proving she learned nothing.  People died because of her.  The book made me angry.