WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 4

With half of the year gone (how did that happen so quickly?), how are your plans going? Anyone else in the "plans? What plans? I refuse to admit I had plans" camp? :)

Stay cool if you are in the Northern hemisphere (and stay safe in the Southern one I guess) and stop by and tell us what you are reading these days.

Heh, my reading plans are essentially all of the numbers and percentages variety, so I can say that they are going very well. The majority of my reading has been books I own, and I've been reading more of the ebooks I've acquired over the years. I've even figured out a system to keep my book purchasing under better control, and it has worked very well for the two months I've been doing it. I could stand to read (or rather, finish) more non-fiction, but even there I am making some progress.

The summer reading program at my public library has been in swing for just over a week, and I've been having fun logging my reading for that. This year the library is using a new service to manage their reading programs, and it has a convenient tracking app for patrons to use. I'm still maintaining my analog records, though, since I like having a backup.

Right now, I am nearly finished reading Recursion by Blake Crouch, and I am listening to A Scone to Die For by H. Y. Hanna. On the non-fiction front, I am reading The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll and A Case for the Book of Mormon by Tad R. Callister.

At some point in the near future I need to start in on The Count of Monte Cristo, which is the book my local book group will be discussing in October. It is the club's 100th book, and we've been meeting since 2006.

I usually don't make plans except for my RL book club. When I do make plans, I get distracted by shiny new library books. Right now I'm reading a historical novel called The Bend in the Stars, about a Russian scientist racing with Einstein to complete the theory of relativity.

I also started Ruth Bader Ginsberg's memoir My Own Words for my book club selection.

I do plan to read The Luminaries this month.

I did just finish Good Omens, which is hilarious. I watched the Amazon mini-series, which was written by Neil Gaiman, and it was very good. The acting was brilliant.

I loved The Luminaries, Beth. I look forward to your comments.

Its 1588 in my reading log and so time for a bit of history, its the year of the Armada and so I am reading The Spanish Armada by Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker.

I loved The Luminaries despite being astrology-averse.

I'm kind of deep-seatedly opposed to reading plans around numbers etc.—my lineups have to do with either what I've got on deck to review, what my book club is reading, maybe something I've just been given as a gift that I want to dive into, or whatever strikes my fancy. Right now I'm reading the 2019 O. Henry Prize Stories (not in the LT system for a touchstone and I don't have time to input the work right now) for a review next week, and then my book club is reading the humongous Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art for our August meeting, so I might as well get started on that—I'm guessing I'll want to read some shorter fiction in between chapters.

My "plan" is to read my older books. So far this year 28.5% of my books have been pre-2019, 28.5 % have been 2019, and 43% have been borrowed. To reach at least 50% pre-2019 for the year, 73% of the books I read for the second half (assuming same number as first) need to be pre-2019. I don't like my chances!

I started and finished Of Blood and Bone (borrowed) yesterday and started Babylon's Ashes (pre-2019) today.

>7 rhian_of_oz:

Reading your post inspired me to figure out how many of my owned books read so far this year were acquired before the start of the year, and how many were acquired during the year (this is something I track, but it's very much a visual thing on my spreadsheet, rather than a neat column of numbers). So far this year, 52% of my read books were obtained pre-2019, 29% were obtained in 2019, and 19% have been borrowed. I am happy with these trends; at this time last year, only 27% of my read books were obtained prior to the start of the year, 26% were obtained in 2018, and 47% of the books I read had been borrowed.

I finished A Scone to Die For on my commute in to work this morning, and I will be starting Tea with Milk and Murder on my drive home. I'm quite enjoying this cozy mystery series.

I’ve finished Plutarch and I would say good riddance except I have to review him (and, when I go over my notes I’m reminded there really were good parts). Anyway, planwise, Plutarch set me back. He took four intense months instead of the planned lazy two. Even after adjusting my plan for that, I’m still two books behind in my James Baldwin plans.

This week I’ve started Nobody Knows My Name, essays by James Baldwin, and My Antonia by Willa Cather. And this week will be act iii of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, his problem play where he makes fun of a tragedy...maybe.

I'm starting the fifth book in Knausgaard's My Struggle Series Some Rain Must Fall. This may be a big mistake, as it's the size of a a concrete block and I haven't got long to get through it before I go on holiday. If I don't get into some serious reading rhythm I'll need to book another suitcase onto that plane....

Just finished my first of Q3, La forma de las ruinas - excellent!

I seem to be on a bit of a Spanish/Latin American roll, I'm sure there will be more of that coming up. And I need to brush up on what's been happening in postcolonial lit in the last 25 years for the RG theme read, and I want to catch up a bit on my Zolathon (8/20 after 18 months, a little behind my non-binding target of finishing in 3 years...). And there's that TBR shelf!

I am reading The Brick moon and other stories by Edward Everett Hale

I didn't feel like reading my two current books so I started City of Lies.

A Bend in the Stars was disappointing. I'm starting Kate Atkinson's Big Sky.

Just finished Guarding the Amish Midwife for NetGalley, and What Was the Battle of Gettysburg? for my own History Category Challenge (which is now finished, yay!) I am currently reading The Little Teashop on Main for NetGalley.

I don't really make reading plans, but I do have some reading goals if that makes any sense. I have a goal on the ROOT (Read Our Own Tomes) group to read 80 books this year that were already on my TBR shelves on Jan. 1st, and 5 books that were already there when I first joined LT in 2007. Halfway through the year, and I'm at 43 and 2, respectively, so more or less on track. I have noticed that I'm reading fewer books overall this, year, though, and I can't help wondering if that might have something to do with having reduced my ROOT goal from 100 down to 80 for this year. Then again, maybe I just have too many distractions.

Anyway. I've recently finished On the Move: A Life by Oliver Sacks, and am now reading The Dog Stars by Peter Heller, which I've been meaning to get to for ages.

Kate Atkinson's Big Sky was excellent. I am starting The Flight Portfolio next.

16th century female authors that have surviving works are few and far between, but I have found a couple published in 1589 Her Protection for Women Jane Anger and the French Historie that is a lamentable Discourse of three chiefe, and most famous bloodie broiles that have happened in France by Anne Dowriche

My handbag book is a bit depressing so I started Record of a Spaceborn Few for a change of pace.

Finished Nobody Knows My Name and started Another Country, both by James Baldwin.

And on audio I finally finished Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. Now on my commute I’m listening to Stamped from the Beginning: The definitive history of racist ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendy, it won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 2016.

It was a unexpected pleasure to finally get around to reading Riding With Rilke: Reflections on Motorcycles and Books by Ted Bishop. It has been on my TBR list for a long long time - maybe since I joined LT. I started reading this one for my real life book discussion group. Each summer we do a round robin book talk of a travel book and this summer I chose this title. I wanted to read something about transportation not in a car, and wasn't in the mood for another snippy Paul Theroux train book. I remembered we had this book in the library and so went and got it. It turned out to be a fun read.

The author is an English Professor at the University of Edmonton whose specialty is early modern English literature. He is also a motorcycle rider. The book is about a literary trip he took by motorcycle from his home in Edmonton to Austin, Texas to do some work in the Stirling Archives. He had purchased a Ducati motorcycle and it was his inaugural trip with that machine. Along the way he stopped at other literary places of interest -like the New Mexico ranch of D. H. Lawrence. In the course of the book, he took a trip to Europe for a literary conference and visited the Ducati factory and museum. The book was full of side trips and lots of motorcycle stories. It was also full of thoughts about archives, books, and the art of reading. It was quite philosophical - even about motorcycling and motorcycles.

I knocked out another book over the holiday weekend. End Games by Michael Dibdin. This is the last of the Aurelio Zen mysteries and I have to say I am sorry that they ended. I really liked this mystery series. This one was set in Calabria region of Italy and covered lots of territory both historically and geographically. The history of the region was part of the story as was the food. Always the food. What is it with Italian mysteries and food? All of the detectives love to eat and describe the memorable meals.

This one is the last of this series. I shall miss Zen and these well crafted mystery novels. Dibdin brought the Italian life to the page and gave me characters I loved to read about. I like these Italian mysteries better than the Guido Brunetti series. They seem more realistic to me and I like the fact that Zen was transferred all around Italy in an attempt to get him out of the way. Now all of these books are gone off my shelves. I shall donate these last two books in the series to the used bookstore run by my local library so somebody else can enjoy them. I hope that they do enjoy them. They are to good to just lay around and not be read.

2Q was a bit of a washout for me, with health issues affecting my attentiveness and concentration. I did read all but one of my RL book-club reads, but I haven't kept up with my plan to read several long novels that inhabit our shelves. E.g., I tried Gilead but didn't have the patience for it. I've been reading some of the freebies that I got at Bouchercon and never got to; so far it's a pretty mixed bag, with the unexpected best one being Intrusion. I'm hoping for a bit of a recovery in 3Q.

SERIOUS reading hangover after finishing Book 5 in Knausgaard's My Struggle series. Now moving closer to home with Lucy Caldwell's All the Beggars Riding.

I finished The O. Henry Prize Stories#100th Anniversary Edition, which was fun—uneven in parts but never boring.

Now reading Mary Gabriel's Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art for my book club. This will be my second 900+ page book this year! But since it's mine, and not a library book (and since I don't think my book club is meeting again until August), I can dawdle a bit and leaven it with a little fiction and catch up on some New Yorkers/NYRBs in between chapters. This is very much up my alley, though, both time period and subject matter. Art ladies! I'm in.

I've finally gotten around to reading The Handmaid's Tale and I'm starting to think I might remember reading it back in the 80s. Hmmm...

While visiting family in MN, I read the hard-to-find The Devil to Pay in the Backlands. I couldn't settle into a plane book on the way home and am now in the middle of Sons and Lovers, The Story of My Teeth, Deadlock (in Pilgrimage III), and Martinus Scriblerus.

I am starting The Prime of Life by Simone de Beauvoir which is the second volume of her autobiography

I am also reading Music in the Baroque Era by Manfred F. Bukofzer

I finished The Little Teashop on Main by Jodi Thomas for NetGalley. This was a good beach/pool/rainy day read, but I never really felt engaged with the book or the characters.

I'm reading Joyce Carol Oates's latest novel, My Life as a Rat, and I'm reminded that when she writes about girls from low-income patriarchal households she is brilliant. I'm loving this uncomfortable story of a girl who lost her family when she tells a teacher a family secret and how that changed her life utterly.

I'm also working my way through Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James's foray into epic fantasy. This isn't my genre at all, but the fantasy version of Africa is interesting.

And I'm reading Klotsvog, a novel set in the Soviet Union by Margarity Khemlin about a Jewish Soviet woman doing what she needs to get by.

And, finally, I'm reading Belle Boggs's The Gulf, about two friends who open a writing program for Christians, set in a run-down motel on the gulf coast.

I finished The Flight Portfolio, about which I have mixed feelings. I've started The Luminaries, which seems like it will be a good yarn.

I finished Lucy Caldwell's All The Beggars Riding (to be reviewed when I get back from holiday), and have started Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine) which so far seems perfect easy holiday reading.

Despite all plans, the first book of my summer travels was a totally random find from a free library box at Schiphol: Un Homme Heureux by Arto Paasilinna. It was followed by In the castle of my skin for the postcolonial theme read, and I’ve just started Sefarad from the TBR pile. Reviews coming when I’m back home. If I have time before setting off again...

Finished reading A Elite do Atraso: Da Escravidão a Bolsonaro, by Jessé Souza, portuguese edition. A study about brazilian politics. Review in my thread.

Finished Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine which was really enjoyable. On now to The Vegetarian, which will hopefully nicely round off my holiday reading.

I am trying to do some reading to get ready for the students in the fall, so I am close to the end of a brand new YA fantasy We Hunt the Flame. (Just out in late June.) I wanted to read it so that I could participate in the local Barnes & Noble YA Book Club. I thought it met tonight. When I got there I found out it met last Thursday.

Oh well! It is a good novel, but so far not as good as I had hoped. I am also listening to Bloodwitch the latest in Susan Dennard’s Truthwitch series. I like the second one better than the first, but I think that is because I am more invested in this series. Bloodwitch is book 4 in the series and We Hunt the Flame is the first in a proposed trilogy.

Enjoying Michael Parker's Prairie Fever and listening to Madeline Albright's book, Fascism: A Warning.

My reading is going annoyingly slowly of late. I have recently finished an ER book: The Rift by Rachael Craw, which I felt pretty meh about. Now reading No Time to Spare by Ursula K. Le Guin, which is much more worthwhile.

I'm off on a few days' vacation soon. I'm not sure if that will help or hinder my progress through the TBR shelves, though. Depends how much reading I get done on the plane.

>33 thorold: Home for a short time, so I’ve had a chance to catch up and post three reviews.

Still only halfway through Sefarad (excellent so far), but I’ve got a lot of train and boat time coming up, so there should be plenty of opportunities to finish it. And maybe get back to Nana...

Most of my reading is for NetGalley right now. I finished His Convenient Royal Bride which was a fun read, but I had a lot of trouble with the ending, which seemed unrealistic to me. It did not seem to fit with the character's behavior in the rest of the book. I am currently reading More Than Words Can Say for NetGalley.

I'm embarking on Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. I will read other books while reading this so I'm sure it will take at least a month.

I'm also reading Living by Henry Green. I'm having a hard time getting into the style (he uses very few articles - "a", "the", etc.) but I think I like it.

>41 japaul22: I thought the Douglass book was definitely worth the reading commitment. But yeah, it's a big 'un.

>41 japaul22: >42 lisapeet: Long, but I’m so happy to have read it. I’m reading a history of racism, and Douglass plays a key role and really illustrates the complexities of this era. (What does one do when even the heroes against the racism of the time are racist?)

I am starting Rogue Queen by L Sprague de Camp

I started Born to Run: The Hidden Tribe, The Ultra-Runners and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall a couple of days ago, and so far it's fantastic.

Back from holidays and have caught up on a few reviews as well.

I've had a slower than expected month of July, as I've only finished one book so far, My Struggle: Book Four by Karl Ove Knausgaard, which was very good, as all of the books in this series have been. I'll start reading Colson Whitehead's new novel The Nickel Boys this afternoon, which was published this week and received a glowing review on the front cover of the Book Review section in today's issue of The New York Times.

I've had a particularly nasty cold over the last couple of weeks so not a lot of reading (and certainly no reviewing) took place. But I was very pleased when I received the library notice for A Gentleman in Moscow after a 7 month wait. I will catch up on my reviews now I'm feeling better, but in short this is absolutely delightful.

I just finished a gold star potluck read with the Born to Run book (see >45 AlisonY: as the title is immensely long to type out).

Now starting my first Hemingway - A Farewell to Arms - with some trepidation given many less than rosy thoughts on him in many CR threads over the years.

Have started "Out of the Dark, Shining Light" by Petina Gappah (no touchstone for the book yet, apparently). It's the story of the loyal Africans who carried David Livingstone's body 1500 miles so his body could be sent back to England for burial.

>49 avaland: I'm really looking forward to that one, and to hearing what you think of it.

I've reached the halfway point in The Luminaries.

Taking a little fiction break from the big-ass Ninth Street Women, I finished up Mark Slouka's All That Is Left Is All That Matters, which I read a chunk of last fall. Really good, melancholy but never mopey, grown-up stories.

After various false starts and a visit to Le Havre, I’ve got sidetracked into starting Balzac’s Modeste Mignon, which is largely set there.

I finished reading the nonfiction graphic novel Climate Changed: A Personal Journey Through the Science by Philippe Squarzoni. This one is translated from the French and was originally published in 2012. This is a very well done look at the science of climate change and it is especially appropriate considering the summer that Europe has been having. The book is less graphic than many graphic novels and there are sections of it that are frame after frame of talking heads. All the illustrations are done in black and white and it is clear from the outset that this is a no nonsense approach to the subject. It is clearly about the science and the politics of what can be done, but it is also a personal memoir with the author explaining why he has made the personal decisions he has regarding his lifestyle. His message is that all of us should be doing the same.

Back to those Elizabethan pre-Shakespeare plays for me and so I am reading The Troublesome reign of King John by George Peel and The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe.

I just finished a re-read of Bimbos of the Death Sun and now I have to choose between The Raven Tower and The Priory of the Orange Tree.

Taking a break from space I've started Vigil which seems (based on the first few pages) to be Australian urban fantasy.

>56 Jim53:
I have Priory of the Orange Tree on my TBR list. I have to go to the library to get it so will wait awhile. But it sounds like a good book.

I finished a wonderful biography this weekend. Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray by Adam Federman. This biography had great reviews when it was published and it lives up to the hype. If you are a foodie, like to read about food, then this is a great biography to read about a woman that I never heard of prior to this biography. I have put it on my best of the year list.

>56 Jim53:

I really enjoyed The Raven Tower. Haven’t read the other yet but looks like I should.

>59 benitastrnad: I read Fasting and Feasting a couple of years ago—terrific book! Made me want to move to Puglia, almost. Or at least go for a few meals.

>59 benitastrnad: Looks fascinating, thanks!

>61 lisapeet: & 62
The praise this book got from the reviewers did the book justice. It is well written and of course, it doesn't hurt that the main characters were fascinating people who lived a very different lifestyle than what was the norm for post-war Europe.

When I went to enter this book into my book diary (paper book diary) I noticed that it was published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This is a small environmentally certified green publishing company based in Vermont. The book was printed on recycled paper and all materials used in the book are certified sustainable. This is in total keeping with what Patience and Norman would have wanted and it is a wonderful tribute to them and their principles.

Traveled this weekend (and met kidzdoc!). Finished Another Country as I boarded, and read Ali Smith’s Spring on the plane there and back (finished while taxing). Also bought a few books at Philadelphia’s quite wonderful Joseph Fox bookstore. Anyway, next should be my actual planned Baldwin book for July, The Fire Next Time. (I also planned to read something on Old English this month, but haven’t made the purchase yet)

I was surprised and utterly delighted by my first Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms).

Next up a new title this year - Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia with Pushkin and Other Geniuses of the Golden Age by Sara Wheeler. My library bought this especially at my request and put my first in the queue to read it - you can't ask for better than that.

I'm also dipping in and out of Chi Running in an attempt to get my running going again without any injuries this time.

My handbag book is Terra Nullius which I'm reading for bookclub, and my at home table book is The Secret Chord which I started early for the August TBRCat.

Still in France, in the real world and on the page, so I’m back on Nana after enjoying Modeste Mignon and a random charity-shop find, La dentellière (which seems to be “A web of lace” in English).

I went back to reading the military history book I started back in May. Ardennes 1944 by Antony Beevor has finally caught my interest.

My reading started off very slow this year but going at a smooth pace now. Not great but not bad either.
I finished "About Grace" by Anthony Doerr and I have picked up The Great Hunt now. Right now I am in a very confused state. I don't know which book to pick up to read along with The Great Hunt. I have shortlisted to two books: Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Shell Seekers. Still unsure which to read.

I decided to go into August with some of my fave "teacher" reads in honor of back to school, especially since I am a retired teacher and "No more teachers, no more books!" (Unless they are books I choose to read, course.) These are all books for kids.

Oh, How I Wished I Could Read by John Gile
Franklin Goes to School by Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark
Dog Loves Books by Louise Yates
Miss Malarkey Leaves No Reader Behind by Judy Finchler and Kevin O'Malley

I am also reading Precious and Grace by Alexander McCall Smith.

>50 lisapeet: I can't seem to get past the first few pages before something distracts me. The house and schedule has been abnormally full, never mind trying to mow and weed....

>66 rhian_of_oz: Terra Nullius has been in the pile next to my bed for a long time.... I'll be interested in what you think.

I'm back to Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage. Starting the 7th novel of 13.

>71 avaland: Lois I'm a bit behind in my reviews, plus I find our bookclub discussion often changes the way I view a book, so it'll be a few days until my review is up.

Broke up my big book with another short story collection, Lydia Millet's Fight No More, which I thought was terrific. And now I've got a book to read for review as well, the 2019 Best American Essays, edited by Rebecca Solnit... I bet she makes some interesting choices. Still reading Ninth Street Women, and still liking it, though I've been breaking it up with shorter books and catching up on NYers and NYRBs.

My next book is Menaphon by Robert Greene it is a 16th century pastoral romance

>74 lisapeet: I loved Millet's story collection as well, Lisa. I have loved all of her work that I've read.

I finally finished The Luminaries, which is very good. I just started The Heavens.

Finished The Fire Next Time, a short book American classic that American really should read...well, as much as "should" applies to anyone's reading. It's just a book that ties so centrally into its own dynamic historical era (1963) and still reads well. (feeling a bit awkward on my soap box...)

I'm about to start Merry Wives of Windsor for a Litsy group and I think I'm about to start The Earliest English Poems (translated by Michael Alexander) to try to get me in the mood of Beowulf, one of my planned August reads.

The disadvantage of not driving is it takes me a lot longer to get places (e.g. it takes me over an hour for a trip that takes at most 20 minutes by car.) The advantage is lots of reading time. Yesterday I started He, She, It on my way to watch the ice hockey.

>73 rhian_of_oz: I'd probably hold off reading your review until after I've read the book anyway....:-)

>74 lisapeet: The Millet collection intrigues (I haven't read her in a while!). And normally I wouldn't pick up a best essays collection but if Rebecca Solnit edited it....

I'm currently reading Mislaid by Nell Zink.

I finished the Pilgrimage novel that was up next. Excellent.

Now I'm reading The Power by Naomi Alderman that I bought on a whim on vacation last week. I can tell it's going to be a page turner and I'm really curious to see how it turns out.

Currently reading Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay.

Proof (Caroline Auden) by C. E. Tobisman is another first rate legal mystery/thriller from this author. Tobisman takes the reader inside the legal system and makes the nuts and bolts of filing evidence, filing cases, etc. - the stuff that usually isn't exciting - exciting for readers. That is a rare gift. In this novel the author takes a simple humble story and from it builds a novel that keeps the reader on the edge of their seats. And all with the simple stuff of routine legal work - until it isn't. A new will by an elderly patient in a nursing home. A custody case for an immigrant child. Protecting the legal rights of homeless alcoholics. Simple everyday legal stuff - until it isn't.

This novel won the Harper Lee Legal Fiction Award in 2018. This award is given by The University of Alabama Law School for the best legal fiction of the year. In my opinion it deserves this award. An author who can make the mundane interesting has a talent for writing.

The author's first novel was just as good, Doubt by C. E. Tobisman so if you like mysteries or thriller - read or listen to both of them.

I listened to this novel, and the narrator of the recorded version does a really good job of bringing this novel to sound. This was a great commute listen.

Back home, there's a big new pile of library books on the table, the books I brought back from France have been added to the TBR, I've finished Nana and just about caught up with posting reviews for my holiday reading. And had time to watch a DVD of interviews with Thomas Bernhard. But I'm still only about halfway through Sefarad.

Not sure what's up next, probably something else from the library pile. Or I might get sucked into chasing up what everyone else has been posting during July...

Just finished The House of Unexpected Sisters by Alexander McCall Smith.

I started reading Oranges by John McPhee today. I am already liking the lyrical language. He sure has a way with words that makes you see pictures in your head.

About to start a couple of books:
The Anatomy of Absurdity by Thomas Nash published in 1589
Mill on the Po by Riccardo Bacchelli published in 1952

I finally finished the Russian literary travelogue Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia with Pushkin and Other Geniuses of the Golden Age, and had better move on to The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brien as I've had it out on loan from the library for quite a while.

I've been enjoying Demain j'aurai vingt ans by Congolese author Alain Mabanckou, and a train journey on Sunday also gave me time to deal humanely with The ginger man, who has been eyeing me menacingly from the TBR shelf for far too long...

Just started Berichten van het Blauwe Huis by Hella S. Haasse, a Dutch writer I've been meaning to get back to for ages.

I've started Paradise by Toni Morrison. Her recent death pushed me to get back to her writing and I'm yet again blown away by her skill.

Catching up here after being on vacation (and then slowly recovering from vacation while being sick). Since I last checked in, I've read Arthur C. Clarke's July 20, 2019: Life in the 21st Century by Arthur C. Clarke, which I picked up sometime around 1986 and made a pact with myself to re-read on the appropriate date. Life goal accomplished! Also: Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell, The Waste Lands by Stephen King, Recursion by Blake Crouch, The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki, and Year's Best SF 6 edited by David G. Hartwell.

I"m now reading The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman, which I'm liking better than I thought I was probably going to.

Ended up a little disappointed by The Little Red Chairs. On next to something completely different - A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor.

>91 bragan: I look forward to reading your review of The Light Between Oceans.

I just started Disappearing Earth, which many LTers have praised. I have high hopes.

I also read a few of the testimonies in Last Witnesses - I think I'll alternate with fiction.

>84 thorold: I read Sepharad (that's the spelling in my English language version) several years back and thought it was terrific. My review is on the book's work page.

I'm reading a history of the California Gold Rush called Anybody's Gold by California historian Joseph Henry Jackson. The book was published in 1941, so events described were less than 100 years in the past, but already certainly the stuff of legend to a certain extent. Jackson makes good use of letters and journals, however, so there is a lot of first-hand description. I taught California history a couple of times almost 30 (!) years ago, so the material is mostly review for me, but I'm still enjoying it, though with reservations I'll go into when I review the book.

I finished Oranges by John McPhee on the plane while traveling and started Willful Behavior by Donna Leon. Both make good airport reading.

flipping audiobooks. Finished Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram Kendi, and then started An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma - which is on the Booker Long List. Wondering if it would be possible to do the long list on audio. Of the 13 books, five are available on audible.com, and three others are taking pre-orders.

Woah. I may just need more coffee, but are the pop-ups when hovering over a book title new?

>98 ELiz_M: It's very new. See this thread.

Reading Terra Nullius by Claire Coleman. Just started it so a bit early to tell if I'll keep going. I've been hopping around sampling lately.

Finished listening The Reformation (The History of Civilization Volume 6), by Will Durant. Review in my thread.

>99 rhian_of_oz: Thanks!

Finished Knausgaard's Munch-book So much longing in so little space (the book club twisted my arm to try Karl Ove!) yesterday, and today read another rather wonderful book that was on the Booker International list, Die Kieferninseln.

Now having a go at Il cavaliere inesistente because I haven't read any Calvino for ages, and it's about time I tried reading him in the original.

I loved The Priory of the Orange Tree and enjoyed The Gulf. Getting ready to start Guy Kay's latest.

Just started reading Waste tide by Chen Quifan (science fiction) and Jill Lepore's These Truths: a history of the United States.

Starting Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin

We went on a mini-break so I wanted something 'lighter' than my current books so I took (amongst others) The Lost Man. Another excellent book by Ms Harper.

I've recently finished The Nice and Accurate Good Omens TV Companion, because I'm still not over how much I loved the show. Currently reading The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde, which I sadly suspect I wasn't really in the right mood for. Next up is Run by Ann Patchett.

Finished Best American Essays 2019 and A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World, plus a picture book for review, Kitten Lady's Big Book of Little Kittens. Now reading an upcoming short story collection, Driving in Cars with Homeless Men.

Staying on the crime theme I started Snap today which was a BB from Kay (Ridgeway Girl).

I've read another installment of Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage and I'm taking a brief break before starting another. I'm reading History. A Mess. by Sigrún Pálsdottir in between. I saw this on a list of recent translations by women and thought it looked interesting.

I'm also plugging along with the Frederick Douglass biography which is sometimes interesting but sometimes drags. I suppose that's to be expected with a 900 page biography!

In addition to Revolving Lights in Pilgrimage III and my subway book, Jacob the Liar, I've started a year-long read of Anniversaries which is written in a diary-like format and set in NYC from Aug. 21, 1967 to Aug. 20, 1968.

>112 ELiz_M: Interesting. I hadn’t heard of that one yet.

>113 japaul22: It is on the 1001 books list as Jahrestage and previously it was hard to find copies of the abridged English translation, until nyrb published a new, complete, translation last fall. :)

I finished Graham Robb’s Balzac: a biography on Tuesday and launched straight into Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes, but that’s going to be a slightly longer-term project because I also brought back a new pile of library books, and I’ve got sucked into History of the hour, a fascinating social/cultural/technical study of the history of time-measurement (but annoyingly turns out to be a clumsy translation of a book I could have read in the original...).

>112 ELiz_M: Jahrestage has been on my virtual TBR for years - it sounds as though real-time should be a good way to read it. Looking forward to hearing what you have to say about it this time next year!

>114 ELiz_M: Interesting! Thanks for the info.

My next book is science fiction Iain M. Banks Excession

I finished Willful Behavior by Donna Leon and thought this was her best mystery novel to date. Lots in it about Italian culture, art, and recent history.

I started Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World by Dan Koeppel for the Nonfiction Challenge. The category this month is Raw Materials: Animal, Vegetable. Mineral. I am learning much about fruit this month!

I started and finished All Systems Red which was an indirect BB from valkyrdeath. I can't wait to read the rest!

Today I started A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World which was another BB, this one from lisapeet. This is my third BB in a row and so far so good.

I'm reading The Body Lies by Jo Baker (thanks for the review, Kay) and, of course, the Frederick Douglass biography . . .

I wonder if you're all getting as tired of me posting that I'm still reading it as I'm getting of actually reading it. :-/

I'm reading The Bird King, set when Ferdinand and Isabella are on the verge of driving the Moors from Spain. The point of view is from the Sultan's concubine.

Reading Jeff VanderMeer's novella, Strange Bird: A Borne Story.

Finished the fascinating A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor - truly a wonderful insight into travelling around Europe in a bygone age.

My TBR shelf is starting to creak, so I'm going to try really hard not to order anything else from the library from a while. I have so many books I can't wait to read that I've enlisted my nine year old daughter to choose my next book for a while, so next up is The American Boy by Andrew Taylor which I was supposed to read as part of my 50 book challenge when I first joined CR in 2015 but never got around to.

Finished Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes much more quickly than I expected - got sucked in - and I've also been reading A technical history of the motor car, which - disappointingly - turned out to be just as dull as the title suggested. And a short Belgian travelogue-pretending-to-be-a-novel Een filosofie van de fiets: Londense notities by Hans Declercq.

Not sure what's next - something off the e-reader, anyway, because there will lots of time on trains in the next few days.

I finished Anybody's Gold: The Story of California's Mining Towns by Joseph Henry Jackson. Sticking with non-fiction for now, I've begun No Simple Highway: A Cultural History of the Grateful Dead by Peter Richardson.

I just finished Who Says You're Dead?: Medical & Ethical Dilemmas for the Curious & Concerned by Jacob M. Appel, an interesting ER book describing lots of complicated and not at all clear-cut scenarios in medical ethics that doesn't pretend to have answers, but instead leaves readers to ponder what their own take might be.

I've now started The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden, and although I'm only a very little ways into it, I think I'm going to like it.

I'm reading Light for bookclub and ten chapters in I don't like it. Normally I would persevere but I'm thinking I might abandon it. Has anyone else read it? Does it get better?

Finished reading O Que é a Filosofia Antiga?, by Pierre Hadot, portuguese edition. Great book and ingenious interpretation of ancient philosophy. Review in my thread.

Just finished Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin. Next should be Beowulf, Seamus Heaney translation.

>128 rhian_of_oz: I take it this is the science fiction novel by M John Harrison - If so then yes I have read it and this was the conclusion to my review:

An interesting and thought provoking novel if you are willing to read through to the conclusion. I enjoyed it the further in I read. Of course I did not fully understand the denouement, but then I didn't expect to

It seems it does get better as you read through and the three strands to the story start to converge. I did note that many of the characters seemed to be obsessed by sex, with the physical act that is, and while that may be true for some of us, it does not always make for great writing

Good luck if you continue.

Just starting The Wall

I am loving my daily entries of Anniversaries -- the small routine moments of daily life are described in such fond detail, that I am fighting the urge to go see if the newspaper stand is still there on 96th & Broadway, and to find the bank in which the character worked or to see the view of the river from her block....

Just back from a week's vacation where I finished Jacob the Liar, My Sister the Serial Killer, Convenience Store Woman, and started Stories of Your Life and Others and La Bête humaine.

>133 ELiz_M: I passed up Anniversaries when it first came out but now you have me interested. I guess that would need to be a purchase and not a library borrow, even if one were going to read it all through... that's a lot of pages. I've been thinking about doing a yearlong read myself—either New York Diaries 1609 to 2009 (with a New York historic excerpt for each day) or History Day by Day: 366 Voices from the Past (with a worldwide historic/literary excerpt each day). Well, I have four months to decide...

I finished Driving in Cars With Homeless Men, which I loved. Still reading Ninth Street Women, and now I'm about halfway through Zadie Smith's new short story collection, Grand Union.

>131 baswood: Thanks for your thoughts. Work is horrid at the moment which I think is impacting my patience for this book, and the almost constant sex is making me roll my eyes. I won't be attending bookclub this month which reduces the time pressure, so I think I will pick it up again after a bit of a break.

I replaced Light as my "handbag book" with Foe, yet another CR BB.

I was really impressed with The Wall, very atmospheric and descriptive. The whole idea of a wall and keeping Others out is certainly a topical one, but Lanchester doesn't belabor the point.

Next, I'll start The Body Lies, which has received a lot of love here.

I've finished The Rosewater Insurrection by Tade Thompson and The waste tide by Chen Quifan, and am still reading These Truths by Jill Lepore.

I found Rosewater Insurecction to be an easier and faster read than the first novel (Rosewater) in the series.

Thnk I'll have to sit with Waste tide, or re-read it down the line - it did not tie up neatly for me, but is intriguing.

>122 BLBera: I'm happy to see someone else reading and enjoying The bird king.

>123 avaland: I listened to The strange bird last year, and it remains my favorite audio of the year.

>138 markon: I thought it was wonderful. I loved the characters, and it was well paced.

With about 12 hours of train travel over three days I finished Sefarad at last - excellent, as several other people here already said, but it still takes me a while to get through 500+ pages in Spanish...

Yesterday I enjoyed another short Dutch book about the early days of cycling, Voort in 't zadel, kameraden!, and today I re-read a couple of Muriel Spark novels from my shelves.

Remaining on my library pile I've got La verdad de Agamemnón, a collection of journalism by Javier Cercas, so I think at least a dip into that might be next.

I'm glad I eventually read The American Boy, which turned out to be a really fun piece of historical crime fiction.

Now I've moved on to an old Booker winner - How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman. Thinking in thick Glaswegian as I read is requiring some concentration in these first early pages.

Starting One of Ours, my next Willa Cather (and the 1923 Pulitzer Winner)

I've finished The Prey of Gods, which was nuts, but I think mostly in a good way. Now reading Unnatural Exposure by Patricia Cornwell, which was given to me by a mystery-loving friend, and which I'm enjoying even though it's book eight in a series, and I haven't read the earlier ones. It seems to be exactly what I was in the mood for, somehow.

>143 bragan: I haven’t read Patricia Cornwall in years, but I enjoyed that series as far as I got. Work probably got in the way and I didn’t go back to it. I may try again.

>143 bragan: The Prey of Gods is quite the ride isn't it! I stopped reading the Scarpetta series at Predator (#14). All the characters seemed constantly, desperately unhappy. I really enjoyed the earlier ones.

I started Vanity Fair this morning for September TBRCat. I had started it previously and abandoned it for reasons now forgotten.

I have started Zookeeper's Wife for my real life book discussion group but doubt I will finish it by the meeting time on Sunday. I have not read any Ackerman books yet and I can't say that I am very impressed with this one. So far.

I also have a good start on Travels With Herodotus and am really enjoying that book. I can see why it is so popular.

In incidently both books have a Polish person named Ryszard in them.

Reading Helon Habila's Travelers: A Novel .

Just started Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead.

I’m exploring the 19th-century Netherlands with Henry Havard and Jakob van Lennep, and in between times I’m halfway through the new Rushdie, Quichotte. Not sure if there’s a common thread to be found there, but both are fun in their different ways...

>149 BLBera: I have that one in the vacation-reading pile.

I visited my favourite bookshop after work on Friday to find out next month's bookclub book and walked out with only two books, one of which I started on the trip home - The Memory Police.

After surprisingly loving How Late It Was, How Late, I've set my daughter to make a choice from my TBR pile again, as it seemed to work last time in getting me through some titles I keep going past for no good reason. Her choice today was The Sportswriter by Richard Ford.

>151 avaland: I am enjoying it so far - I've laughed several times in the first few pages.

Finished Beowulf, which is maybe shorter than I expected. Started Tell me how long the train’s been gone by James Baldwin and I should start Shakespeare’s The Tempest later today.

>153 AlisonY: I loved The Sportswriter when I read it quite a few years ago. I thought the writing was very good and also the insights into human nature. I will be very interested to read your reactions.

>156 rocketjk: good to know, Gerry. I've seen it compared to the likes of Richard Yates' work - if it's half as good I'll love it.

Another finish! This is for NetGalley, and was a thoroughly enjoyable and humorous read. Nothing serious here, just fun.
The Golden Oldies Guesthouse by Dee MacDonald

I've just started the 7th book in Jasper Fforde's "Thursday Next" series, The Woman Who Died a Lot.

Finished van Lennep and moved on to one of Günter Grass’s last books, Grimms Wörter. Not planned in any way, but Bettina von Arnim, who is obviously going to be my Ubiquitous Character for 2019, pops up yet again, as she turns out to have been a close friend of Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm.

I am about 100 pages into The Accidental Tourist and really enjoying it. I’ve also just started Jokha Alharthi’s Celestial Bodies, and I have Pamiętnik znaleziony w Katyniu, Maria Nurowska’s fictionalised account of the life (and death) of Janina Lewandowska, the only woman to be killed in the WW2 massacre of Polish army officers at Katyn, on the go too.

>152 rhian_of_oz:

I'm looking forward to reading The Memory Police. I'm not sure when I'll get my hands on it but it's on my wishlist pile waiting for the next time I do a mass order of books.

I finished The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence which was so good. It makes my lifetime favorites list.

I'm also read Because Internet, written by a linguist who has studied the effect of the internet on written language. Very interesting and readable.

I started Lucky Jim last night from the 1001 books list, but I will set it aside when The Testaments arrives tonight. I have low expectations for the Handmaid's Tale sequel, but I want to read it before my opinion is skewed by too many reviews!

>163 japaul22: I'm also reading Because Internet and am finding interesting. I can't remember how I heard about it, though I thought it was through CR.

I've been reading quite a bit, but in terms of posting I seem to have fallen into full-on lurker mode. My backlog of books to talk about has become...daunting.

Current reading includes The Diamond Throne (a reread), The Count of Monte Cristo (also a reread, and my book group book for next month), and Timebound in audio. For the month of September I plan to focus almost exclusively on books I own. And maybe get my thread up to date.

Finished Rushdie's Quichotte - classic Rushdie, but not exactly optimistic about the world!
Started my next Zola, Pot-bouille, and still getting to grips with Grass on the Grimms, which is grand, but gets a bit grating with all that alphabetical alliteration.

I finished Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman and have to say I was disappointed in this book. Actually, I was quite startled when I first started reading the book due to the really out-of-the-box style of writing. Ackerman is the author of several best selling natural science books so I expected a more straightforward and fairly standard nonfiction writing style. Instead the text was full of, what seemed to me, speculation and unsupported supposition. I later came to realize that the author was quoting from the subjects memoir, but that was not made clear at the beginning. I believe that this book was written in a form of narrative non-fiction, but the subject matter was so interesting and made for compelling reading that it could have actually benefited from more structure and traditional nonfiction methods. I enjoyed this book, but I was disappointed in its rambling style and, often, unsubstantiated conclusions. There are end notes in the book, but they weren't extensive. I appreciated the authors telling of this story, but found its style to be disconcerting. I would recommend it and think that many readers would appreciate it more than I did.

Been feeling a bit blue this week so I headed to the library yesterday for some comfort reads and finished To Die But Once this evening. I'm looking forward to A Dangerous Collaboration next.

Finished listening for the second time Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy. An updated review in my thread.

Having finished and heartily enjoyed The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde, I'm now on to Action at Aquila an historical novel about the American Civil War first published in 1935. It's by Hervey Allen, best known, I think, as the author of Anthony Adverse.

Finished Grimms Wörter (fun, finally, as novels about lexicographers sometimes are) and Pot-bouille (not a pot-boiler, but fully entitled to take its place in the cycle behind Nana), so I'm now officially halfway through the Rougon-Macquart novels.

For a complete change, I've started a smartphone-era crime story, Apocalypse bébé. Not sure if it's my kind of thing, so far...

I finished Lake of the Ozarks: My Surreal Summers in a Vanishing America by Bill Geist. Geist is a long time reporter for CBS Sunday Morning and a Native Mid-Westerner. I picked this book up because it is rare to find a book about the resorts located in the Ozarks and yet it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country. Plus, the dust jacket is one of the best designed I have seen in years.

Another comfort read with Believe Me. I'm not sure what it means that my comfort reads are murder mysteries :-).

Finished Zadie Smith's Grand Union, which was brilliant when it was on, but the collection felt padded with other pieces that just didn't quite gel. Still, worth reading for her fully realized short stories, which show just how smart a writer she is.

Read Rion Amilcar Scott's The World Doesn't Require You on a recent work trip, which was a really smart, but definitely challenging, suite of stories and one novella that looked at race (and also religion, music, sexism, and academia) through a fascinatingly shape-shifting set of lenses.

Now reading Karen Russell's Orange World and Other Stories, a few of which I've already read elsewhere and loved enough to reread this time around. Still great stuff.

I'm starting Ask Again, Yes

Finished Apocalypse bébé, which turned out to have more to it than I was expecting (but hasn't quite motivated me to tackle Vernon Subutex...).

Now started Prawda : eine amerikanische Reise by Felicitas Hoppe, an offbeat travel book that turns out to be an hommage to a Russian book I didn't know about, Ilf and Petrov's American Road Trip. And it turns out that Hoppe has also done the container-ship thing, like Horatio Clare. Multiple rabbit-hole alert...!

>173 rhian_of_oz: Research?

>177 ELiz_M: :-D.

I've recently finished How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems by Randall Munroe which was, as always with Munroe, good, nerdy fun, and also Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell, a collection of strange and beautifully written sort stories.

I'm currently reading an SF novel from the 80s, Project Pope by Clifford D. Simak. Which is, to put it mildly, not one of Simak's better works.

Over vacation, lakeside, I read Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, In the Shadow of Wolves by Alkyds Slepikas, The Good Cop by Peter Steiner, which all strangely seemed to connect in a way, something I didn't plan.

It was tough to concentrate sometimes....



I started two more books during that time (sampling) Welcome to America by Linda Bostrom Knausgard and The Summer Isles by Ian R. MacLeod in between those books and will probably go back to the MacLeod first.

I am reading Henderson the rain king by Saul Bellow

>181 baswood: not sure I’ve seen Bellow reviewed here, at least not often.

I flipped audiobooks. Finished An Orchestra of Minorities, which was terrific, especially on audio. My first from the Booker list. And I started Quichotte, Salman Rushdie’s latest and my first time reading him.

Finished the Hoppe book, which was strange but fun, very genre-bending. Prompted by a discussion elsewhere, I’ve started Gerald Murnane’s The plains.

>182 dchaikin: I was unkind about Herzog recently - well, seven years ago, now I check...

Enjoy Quichotte! - I’ve got An orchestra of minorities planned in for the near future.

>183 thorold: about 4 hours in and Quichotte has evolved from creative-but-tiresome to, now, very enjoyable. (Reader over-dramatizes a bit).

Seven years is probably beyond on LT memory capability...

>180 avaland: oh my, Linda Bostrom Knausgard is clearly getting her own back and cashing in on her ex-husband's name to get some notice. I hope she's able to reach the bar!

I've delighted to have finished The Sportswriter. I feel like I need something authentic after that, so I'm going to start Wild by Cheryl Strayed. Hoping it's not going to be too much of a weepy.

>185 AlisonY: We'll see what happens when I get caught up and can dip into reading again!

Now reading The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, who is fantastic.

Next up, The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst.

The Plains was quite something - more Murnane seems almost inevitable now...
Finished a (mostly re-) read of the classic post-colonial lit text The empire writes back yesterday.

Meanwhile I've started An orchestra of minorities on my ereader and on paper Island story, a good old-fashioned left-wing travel book (think JB Priestley, but on a bicycle, and without the gift for rhetoric).

I'm a little restless in my reading lately so I started The Psychology of Time Travel yesterday despite already having three books on the go.

Read and loved Karen Russell's Orange World, and now I'm on to my jumping-around reading of short story collections for Library Journal's Best Books. Which is frustrating, because I'm a completist, but I think there will be a lot that I'll return to after I'm done with the award process.

I've created a thread in the Atwoodians group for an open discussion of The Testaments, if anyone who has already read it and would like to come over to make some comments: http://www.librarything.com/topic/311441

I finished Action at Aquila by Hervey Allen, an historical novel about the Civil War, originally published in 1938. My review is on the book's work page and on my own thread here on Club Read. I've now started The Masters, the fifth book in C.P. Snow's "Strangers and Brothers" series.

I am about to start Rosalynd by Thomas Lodge

Finished One of Ours by Willa Cather - a terrific WWI book from the era. I think I'll start a reread of The Handmaiden's Tale and try to finish at the right time to begin The Testaments on audio. >192 avaland: I'll have to checkout that thread.

>189 thorold: I really enjoyed Orchestra of Minorities (on audio). Haven't reviewed it here yet, though.

Just got back from a wonderful 10 day vacation in Fiji where on top of island hopping, snorkeling, swimming with reef sharks and manta rays, soaking up the sun, meeting other friendly solo travelers and quickly becoming friends, hermit crab racing, and also lots of little naps soaking up the wonderful sun, and watching every variation possible in a sunset, I also managed to read 5 books. What a perfect vacation it was.

Keigo Higashino : Salvation of a Saint
John Wyndham : The Day of the Triffids
Ursula K. Le Guin : The Lathe of Heaven
Pearl S. Buck : The Good Earth
Sheila Heiti : Motherhood

>196 lilisin: Your vacation sounds amazing. I relaxed a bit just reading about it :-).