What Are We Currently Reading?

[BlackberryJam]

3 hours ago, MaggieG said:

I loved this book. 

Talking about The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. 

I would have enjoyed it more without the B-story of the reporter. I figured out the "twist" when a crucial event happened as Evelyn was telling her story and just wanted to roll my eyes at it. The story of Evelyn was strong enough on it's own.

[Mondrianyone]

3 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

I'm reading . . . John  Barry's The Great Influenza, a nonfictional account of the 1918 epidemic which provides a lot of uncomfortable parallels of where we are now

I was wondering when someone would get around to mentioning this. I was one of the editors on it, and that was enough of an ordeal in itself.  I admire your thirst for knowledge.  It's a very thorough source of information but absolutely the last thing I'd be reading at the moment. 

[nodorothyparker]

4 minutes ago, Mondrianyone said:

I was one of the editors on it, and that was enough of an ordeal in itself.  I admire your thirst for knowledge.  It's a very thorough source of information but absolutely the last thing I'd be reading at the moment. 

Kudos for that.  I won't deny that the beginning is kind of a long slog to get through, but I'm just like that in wanting to know everything about practically everything.  Being able to see how things got that way and that while it went badly for a lot of people a lot of other people did survive it is how I manage my own anxiety.

[Mondrianyone]

No, kudos to you!  You're doing for free what I got paid for.  I admire the impulse to go into the current battle fully armed with information about the past.  I just wouldn't have had the stomach for it.  When you're done with the Barry, I can recommend a little tome about SARS that I also somehow was involved with.  If you're in the market for some more light reading.  😷

[truthaboutluv]

Currently reading 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and Into the Water. I'm enjoying both books well enough but Into the Water is definitely the easier read. It's similar to Hawkins' previous bestseller The Girl on the Train, in that way.

The story isn't dragging, the chapters are all quick bite sizes that give you just enough to keep you reading, wanting to get to the next one and the next one. I only started this week but figure I'll be done by the weekend. 

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a little trickier. I'm enjoying the book and I'm finding it easier to follow along with because 

Spoiler

the narrator's voice remains consistent. I was concerned that every new host the character wakes up in, would take over narration and so everything would have to be recounted all over again. However Bishop is aware he's waking up in different people and so there is still some consistent thread throughout. 

However, what I'm struggling with is 

Spoiler

the main character's seeming passiveness. He talks about wanting to stop Evelyn's murder, then wanting to save Annie and all that but I'm past the half-way point and what I have yet to see the character attempt to do, is essentially work out all the information he has so far. In other words, I'm not getting the sense of his trying to solve the mystery, even though that's what's supposedly going to set him free.

Ravencourt was the closest it came to seeing something resembling detective work. But other than that, he simply lives the day, gets caught up in the specific host's drama or whatever but there's no consistent follow through of trying to piece the parts together. And that's frustrating me as a reader. 

All that said, I give the author points for coming up with something inventive and creative. And as a whole I am enjoying it. 

Edited April 16, 2020 by truthaboutluv

[TiffanyNichelle]

I just finished The Warmth of Other Suns. I'd meant to read it a lot sooner but never got around to it. So now with nothing but time I was able to sit down and go at it. I couldn't put it down. I stayed up to 4am the other night in order to finish it. It really was as good as people said and it made me sad and angry.

[Minneapple]

A couple I've read since lockdown started.

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi. About a henna artist in 1950s India who also provides her rich clients with herbal remedies to help them conceive and to have "natural" abortions. Such lovely, vivid descriptions of India. Good characters. Malik, Lakshmi's small child "assistant," is probably my favorite character. The only character the book missed on was Radha, Lakshmi's sister. I think the book could really have benefited from a POV chapter from her. But overall a very good read.

Thorn by intisar Khanani, a young adult Goose Girl retelling. I wasn't expecting a whole lot from this one but it's surprisingly pretty good. 

All Your Twisted Secrets by Diana Urban. Teens get locked together in a room, forced to reveal secrets, blah blah blah. The characters are archetypes. The plot is decent, flashing back and forth between present and past. There's a twist that I didn't like or buy. This one was just ok.

 

Edited April 17, 2020 by Minneapple

[OtterMommy]

I finished my book club-induced jaunt through the Holocaust with The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Maus II (I read Maus I a few weeks ago).  One of them (the one with the mice!) was far, far better than the other.  The Maus books are classics and really should be required reading but The Tattooist of Auschwitz didn't work for me.  I know it was based on a true story but I feel like she shouldn't have tried to make it into a novel.  It lacked any strong plot and even the love story was underwhelming.  I may read the second book, Cilka's Journey, only because Cilka's story as related in the end notes of this book sounded more interesting.

Now I'm reading The Windfall by Diksha Basu.  I don't know what I think about it yet...I'm only about 40 pages in and it seems kind of like an Indian Beverly Hillbillies so far.  I'm not sure if it will work for me, but I needed something completely different from the Holocaust books as a palate cleanser!

[Constant Viewer]

On 4/16/2020 at 11:51 AM, nodorothyparker said:

Because my brain is a weird place, I'm reading both John  Barry's The Great Influenza, a nonfictional account of the 1918 epidemic which provides a lot of uncomfortable parallels of where we are now,

I've had that on my shelf for ages, but have not gotten to it yet! Someone recommended a book called Pox Americana about a smallpox epidemic which I may begin. I am reading the 2nd Outlander book which I like, but it is taking forever to finish.

[nodorothyparker]

10 hours ago, Constant Viewer said:

I've had that on my shelf for ages, but have not gotten to it yet!

Same. I picked it up at one of our public library sales where everything's 50 cents so you end up with bags of stuff you might get around to eventually and if not hey, at least you benefited the library sometime in the last couple of years. It's been taking up shelf space ever since until the mood was right to tackle it, which now it is.

[Ailianna]

A series I have become obsessed with is Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January books.  They are set in New Orleans in the 1840s, and the main character is Benjamin January (shock!) who is a black man working as a musician, but who was trained as a surgeon in France before returning home.  The setting is powerfully depicted, with racial and social and cultural attitudes of the day.  Ben ends up accidentally involved in the investigation of a murder at a Blue Ribbon ball (an event for the mixed race mistresses of white men to mingle with their protectors while the white women are dancing in the building next door).  

Making it more timely, the second book, Fever Season, takes place during a yellow fever epidemic.  The series moves throughout the area, including in different novels plantations, runaway slave communities, and more.  It's somewhat dark, because Ben sees and experiences the racism of the time, and sees things he can and cannot help with, and is an intelligent, compassionate person who is sometimes twisted by the world he lives in.  There are 17 now, so it definitely would be a series to take up some free time, and they are very good. 

[MargeGunderson]

On 4/16/2020 at 4:26 PM, Mondrianyone said:

No, kudos to you!  You're doing for free what I got paid for.  I admire the impulse to go into the current battle fully armed with information about the past.  I just wouldn't have had the stomach for it.  When you're done with the Barry, I can recommend a little tome about SARS that I also somehow was involved with.  If you're in the market for some more light reading.  😷

I would be interested in that recommendation! I read the Barry book when it came out, and have been thinking about re-reading it now. Although science is not my forte at all, I find that part of the story so compelling.

[DearEvette]

I am reading The Brides of Prairie Gold by Maggie Osborne.  It is an historical fiction/historical romance about 12 women who are mail order brides and who go on a wagon train across the country to meet their un-met grooms.

The women are all very different and have different reasons for deciding to go west.  The detail of the whole wagon train and the ordeal is pretty well done.  The women were required to drive their own wagons, set up and dismantle their own tents, cook their own food, and take care of their own livestock. And some of them are pampered with no clue.

Also, I think  the author does a bang up job of making you feel the true arduousness of the journey. The descriptions of the rain, the dust, the disease, and the endless exhaustion.  And not all the women will make it to the end.

Not exactly what I was expecting in a romance novel but I am enjoying it quite a bit.

[Danny Franks]

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. I've had it on my bookshelf for a while, but want to read it before I watch the miniseries. It's interesting and well written, but the characters are all rather thin and it's more humdrum in its subject matter so far than I expected.

 

[Mondrianyone]

18 hours ago, MargeGunderson said:

I would be interested in that recommendation!

It's called China Syndrome, by Karl Taro Greenfeld, and it really does read like a thriller. 

Don't skip the acknowledgments--there's an extra tidbit about how not to give up when things go very badly.  I think this stayed with me because my husband once drove off to deliver a manuscript of his to his editor, and after a few blocks another car pulled up alongside to tell him there was a box on the roof of his car.  It was the manuscript he was delivering, and this was back in the days before digital files and backups. 

[MargeGunderson]

4 hours ago, Mondrianyone said:

It's called China Syndrome, by Karl Taro Greenfeld, and it really does read like a thriller. 

Don't skip the acknowledgments--there's an extra tidbit about how not to give up when things go very badly.  I think this stayed with me because my husband once drove off to deliver a manuscript of his to his editor, and after a few blocks another car pulled up alongside to tell him there was a box on the roof of his car.  It was the manuscript he was delivering, and this was back in the days before digital files and backups. 

Thank you! I just bought the Kindle version on Amazon. 

[Mondrianyone]

You're most welcome.  I hope you enjoy it--if that's the right word.

[truthaboutluv]

Just finished The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and while I liked it, I didn't love it. I thought it was a bit longer than it needed it be and about the 80% mark, it felt like a chore for me to make it to the end, even though I wanted to know how it all wrapped up. 

Spoiler

• My theory was that BlackHeath was essentially a purgatory and that everyone there was dead and the "freedom" Aidan was seeking, was really the chance to move on completely to the other side. In other words, to have his soul released. And basically everything was tied to Evelyn's murder which wasn't solved and because of that, kept them all trapped in that never-ending loop, unable to move on to the afterlife. Clearly I was wrong. 
• That said, because of that theory, the reveal that BlackHeath was actually a prison was pretty much an "eh" to me because it was so obvious there was something more happening there and these events couldn't be completely real. 
• I actually found the multiple hosts not as confusing as I've read from many other people's reviews, especially because Aidan always remembered the previous day when he woke up in the next body. So that made it easier to follow the plot.
• Also, seeing the day through the different characters, understanding their motivations and all the secrets, lies, issues, etc they all carried, made the story more compelling. 
• Did not suspect Evelyn was not really Evelyn and instead was pretending to be her maid. The author definitely got me with that reveal. 
• I did assume that Evelyn staged her suicide and later suspected Michael of taking out his family to be the sole inheritor. So I assumed he killed Thomas, which was wrong but I knew it was one of the kids. 
• Finally, my biggest struggle with the book was the Anna angle. I think I understand the message/theme the author was going for there - the age old argument of whether or not prison truly reforms and helps or does it just make bad people worse and turn them all into monsters. And if it's the latter, then what purpose does it serve? And after all, that's why parole exists. Still I don't know that I believe that everyone can be rehabilitated.
• More than that, I just didn't feel like the author did enough to build the relationship between Aidan and Anna to justify the ending. Basically it didn't feel earned. Anna was fairly absent for much of the book, even though she was always a shadowy presence. But there were huge chunks where she was merely just a thought in Aidan's mind, but with no real presence. And so the whole thing just fell a bit flat and essentially felt unearned. And that was the major factor in preventing me from loving the book. 
• So like I said, okay book, inventive premise but yeah didn't love it. 

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by truthaboutluv

[Starleigh]

On 4/19/2020 at 10:24 PM, DearEvette said:

I am reading The Brides of Prairie Gold by Maggie Osborne.  It is an historical fiction/historical romance about 12 women who are mail order brides and who go on a wagon train across the country to meet their un-met grooms.

The women are all very different and have different reasons for deciding to go west.  The detail of the whole wagon train and the ordeal is pretty well done.  The women were required to drive their own wagons, set up and dismantle their own tents, cook their own food, and take care of their own livestock. And some of them are pampered with no clue.

Also, I think  the author does a bang up job of making you feel the true arduousness of the journey. The descriptions of the rain, the dust, the disease, and the endless exhaustion.  And not all the women will make it to the end.

Not exactly what I was expecting in a romance novel but I am enjoying it quite a bit.

This sounds good! I just ordered a used copy. Apparently it's out of print. The mass market paperbacks are quite affordable, but the regular pb and hc editions are priced at about $800?! But I take that as a sign of it's popularity, lol.

[Ailianna]

Interestingly, although this book and another (a Harlequin from the 1980s that is listed for over $1000) aren't available in Kindle, several other of her books are, and I think $4.99 wa the most expensive.  I wonder why some books made the format switch and the ones listed (not necessarily sold...) for hundreds of dollars, don't.  You'd think if they were that popular that the publisher would want to make money off the ebook.

[DearEvette]

That hardcover looks to be a first edition rare book and it is listed as 'new' and not used.  It was rare for a novel of this type for a mid-list author to be produced in hardcover.  So probably being sold as a collectible.

10 minutes ago, Ailianna said:

I wonder why some books made the format switch and the ones listed (not necessarily sold...) for hundreds of dollars, don't.  You'd think if they were that popular that the publisher would want to make money off the ebook.

In some cases, esp with out-of-print books, some of their rights might revert back to the author and they will convert them to kindle to garner new sales and interests.  I am seeing this with the back list of some romance authors whose books date back to the 80s.  

The publisher will do it if the author is still prolific and there is ongoing interest in their backlist. 

In a lot of cases the demand just isn't there and/or it just isn't cost effectve to revert the books to e-format.

[Lovecat]

On 4/17/2020 at 11:40 PM, Constant Viewer said:

I've had that on my shelf for ages, but have not gotten to it yet! Someone recommended a book called Pox Americana about a smallpox epidemic which I may begin.

Ah-hahahaha!  I have Pox Americana on *my* bookshelf!  I picked it up the other day and went, "Uhhhhh...maybe not right now..." 🙂

[GaT]

I just finished The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers & at this point I have decided that I don't like the Lord Peter Wimsey books as much as I thought I did.  Sayers spends way too much time on complicated train schedules, or tides, or in this case, the math involved in bell ringing. She is really padding out the stories with them & it's just boring.  

[OtterMommy]

I tried reading The Windfall by Diksha Basu.  Every time I tried to read it, I'd be asleep in about 5 minutes--which is fine when you are reading it at bedtime.  It's not so fine when you are reading it at 4pm.  Finally, I gave up on that and started Universe of Two by Stephen P. Kiernan, which I won in a Goodreads giveaway.  So far, I've stayed awake!  It's a historical about a man working on the Manhattan Project but seems to be told from his wife's point of view.

[Crs97]

3 hours ago, GaT said:

 

I just finished The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers & at this point I have decided that I don't like the Lord Peter Wimsey books as much as I thought I did.  Sayers spends way too much time on complicated train schedules, or tides, or in this case, the math involved in bell ringing. She is really padding out the stories with them & it's just boring.  

 

That is definitely the worst of the lot.  Her short stories are best, though I did love Peter in Busman’s Holiday.

[Starleigh]

4 hours ago, GaT said:

I just finished The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers & at this point I have decided that I don't like the Lord Peter Wimsey books as much as I thought I did.  Sayers spends way too much time on complicated train schedules, or tides, or in this case, the math involved in bell ringing. She is really padding out the stories with them & it's just boring.  

I think, if I had first read these when I was much younger, I would have loved them then (then would still like them out of nostalgia). But I didn't come across them till a few years ago, and by that point, I think they were just too dated for me to really enjoy reading for the first time as an adult. It's funny how some vintage books are still quite readable and fresh to a first time reader,  and others just seem way too old-fashioned.

[GaT]

6 minutes ago, Starleigh said:

I think, if I had first read these when I was much younger, I would have loved them then (then would still like them out of nostalgia). But I didn't come across them till a few years ago, and by that point, I think they were just too dated for me to really enjoy reading for the first time as an adult. It's funny how some vintage books are still quite readable and fresh to a first time reader,  and others just seem way too old-fashioned.

I think I was in grade school or junior high when I first read them, & I remember they felt dated then. 

[Starleigh]

Could be I'd have thought that, too. Hard to tell, because I did like a lot of dated books that I read as a teen (though I have a hard time rereading them now). 

 

[blackwing]

Well, being stuck at home during this extended period, I thought about trying to conquer one of those classics of literature that I feel like I "have" to read.  I slogged through "Bleak House" and "Middlemarch" years ago and was quite proud of myself.  I thought long and hard about "Moby Dick" or "Anna Karenina" but just couldn't bring myself to do it. 

I settled on Gone With the Wind.  Took it on a vacation to Hawaii last summer and was surprised at how much plot there was and how readable and exciting it was (for some reason I had prepared myself for something akin to "Pride and Prejudice" or something that was more about one character's particular development as a person as opposed to developments in plot).  Got home, set it down, and it's sat there for months.  Until now!  Picked it up again and am nearly halfway through.  Hope I can finish it before lockdown is lifted!

[Starleigh]

 

Lol, I forced myself to slog my way through Anna Karenina a few years ago, I bribed myself by buying the edition with the gorgeous cover from the Keira Knightley movie. It's not that it was hard to read, I just didn't like it. The characters and their passions just never seemed real to me. 

I love Middlemarch, though. Sorry, I'm a George Eliot geeky fan girl, what can I say??

Gone With the Wind is a very readable book...The official "sequel" is pretty bad, though.

 

[Haleth]

13 hours ago, blackwing said:

Well, being stuck at home during this extended period, I thought about trying to conquer one of those classics of literature that I feel like I "have" to read.  I slogged through "Bleak House" and "Middlemarch" years ago and was quite proud of myself.  I thought long and hard about "Moby Dick" or "Anna Karenina" but just couldn't bring myself to do it. 

I ended up skimming the last 100 or so pages of Middlemarch just to finish and couldn't even do that with Bleak House.  (I'd enjoyed the miniseries and so picked up the book, but manoman, it was just so.damned.dull.)  There is about a 100 page great short story woven through Moby Dick, if you can get through all the tedious information about whaling and ships.  

[dubbel zout]

6 hours ago, Haleth said:

There is about a 100 page great short story woven through Moby Dick, if you can get through all the tedious information about whaling and ships.

That's Melville for you. Billy Budd is the same way: the majority of the book is all background, and the final three chapters are the actual story.

[GaT]

I am currently reading The Sinner by J. R. Ward, the 18th book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. It's dragging a little right now, because the main character is new, & there's a subplot involving a character from another series that I'm not loving. At 18 books, I think Ward is struggling to find a plot.

[sugarbaker design]

On 4/16/2020 at 1:28 PM, Haleth said:

I read that and the sequel not long ago. They are entertaining, along the lines of Pillars of the Earth. 

I'm a big fan of Walters' previous novels.  Would you characterize the The Black Plague novels as mysteries?

[sugarbaker design]

On 4/5/2020 at 11:29 PM, isalicat said:

I am on the 22nd book in Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks series (Children of the Revolution) with I think four or so more to go...yes, I have been binge-reading these in order, why do you ask? 🙂

So, soon enough I will need to find a new series in this style/mode and am open to all recommendations. I have already read all the Martha Grimes, Donna Leon, Elizabeth George, P.D. James, Dorothy Sayers, available to date so I am probably missing some great male British writers like Peter Robinson. (I have read all the original and ersatz Robert Parker novels and adore the Robicheaux series over here stateside.) Thanks in advance!

I'm a huge fan of all the writers you mention.  The series that I'm reading right now that I consider must-reads are Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series set in Quebec and Martin Walker's Chief Bruno series set in rural France. And now that Ruth Rendell is not with us, I rely on Belinda Bauer for dark, twisted dramas.  Not a series, mostly standalones, but all quite good.  For an under-rated author who wrote mystery novels from the late seventies to the mid-90's try out Sheila Radley.

[peacheslatour]

3 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

That's Melville for you. Billy Budd is the same way: the majority of the book is all background, and the final three chapters are the actual story.

I think the best thing he ever wrote was Bartleby, The Scrivener.

Edited April 24, 2020 by peacheslatour

[dubbel zout]

"I would prefer not to" is such a classic line.

[Haleth]

2 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

I'm a big fan of Walters' previous novels.  Would you characterize the The Black Plague novels as mysteries?

No. Not really. 

[magicdog]

I've just started reading "The Virginian" by Owen Wister (1902).  A golden oldie to be sure!  I'd seen one of the silent movies based on it, and  I'd seen reruns of the TV version (which strays FAR from the novel).  I was curious and asked my uncle if he would send me his copy, which I remember seeing on his bookshelf since childhood.  

From what my uncle tells me, this book was the first to depict the 19th century west with more realism compared to the dime novels that preceded it, and paved the way for writers like Zane Gray and Louis L'Amour among others.

[Danny Franks]

I just started The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon. It comes very highly recommended but I'd probably still give it a go just because the cover is so good.

[Madding crowd]

I just finished The Ash Family which is about a eighteen year old girl who runs off to live with an eco-terrorist cult. It’s a debut novel with tons of very poetic writing about nature and communal farming.

I had a hard time with the characters and not one of them were likable. I also hated it that the main character was supposed to leave for college but just disappeared and let her mother think she was dead. This was apparently justified by the author because even though the mother was loving and selfless, she worked in a gift shop and enjoyed collecting trinkets from the shop. 

I even read a couple of reviews of the book that agreed it would be impossible to maintain a relationship with a person who buys candles, inspirational plaques etc. That just seems so trivial to me. 

[Katy M]

45 minutes ago, Madding crowd said:

even read a couple of reviews of the book that agreed it would be impossible to maintain a relationship with a person who buys candles, inspirational plaques etc. That just seems so trivial to me. 

That would only make sense if she were buying this stuff with money that she needed to feed or clothe her child.  Otherwise, that's pretty much the stupidest thing I've ever heard.  And one of these days I'm going to collect everything that I've said that about and rank their stupidity.

[Madding crowd]

The idea was to compare her “superficial “ life with the cult who dumpster dived, stole and murdered to support their lifestyle!

[Ailianna]

I read Anna Karenina in high school, when I had an hour bus ride in the morning and after school.  You'd be amazed how much reading one can get done with two hours a day for reading.  I actually really liked it, but I think that's a result of having solid stretches to focus on it without a lot of distraction, and a love of complicated books.  I'm one of those annoying people who reads books with a thousand characters and can keep track of them all, even if they're Russian and have nine different names.  (Shoutout to Great Comet!)

[Crs97]

We picked Anna Karenina for book club decades ago.  Only a couple of us finished it; I was one of them.  The reviews were not good.

[PRgal]

I'm currently reading a book called In Pillness and in Health, written by a former actress who lived with kidney disease and addiction for years.  She's been through A LOT, including losing her father when she was a child (he died of alcoholism at the age of 38) as well as two kidney transplants.  Her husband has been extremely supportive of her, even through her addiction and eventual sobering.  

[peacheslatour]

3 hours ago, Crs97 said:

We picked Anna Karenina for book club decades ago.  Only a couple of us finished it; I was one of them.  The reviews were not good.

I thought Anna was an idiot, a tragic one but an idiot none the less.

[Katy M]

I read Anna Karenina probably about 25 years ago.  I don't even really remember it.  I loved the first sentence.  That's actually a really great opening sentence.  But, other than that, I just remember being so depressed by the time I finished it.  

[Athena]

I read Anna Karenina in high school for fun (that says a lot about me as a teen) and loved the writing. I actually bought it hard cover version of it a few years ago; I think I'll reread it. I didn't focus on the Anna parts much but Kitty and Lenin are likable characters. I didn't even mind some of War & Peace.

[Starleigh]

It's not that I didn't like the characters or plot, it's just that I never felt the passion between the characters or chemistry of any of the love affairs. 

Unlike Middlemarch! You can feel the unrequited love dripping off the page from Will! The jealous possessivness of Casaubon! The slowly awakening of Dorothea! Lol! I told you I'm a geeky George Eliot fan girl,  don't get me started on Daniel Deronda and the intense chemistry he and Gwendolyn had!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by Starleigh