WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 4

And time for a new thread. :)

What is everyone reading? And with the world slowly coming back to normal, does that change the way you are reading?

as ever having posted what I was reading recently and adding it to my thread plans have been a bit scuppered and I also started a different book, I am saying nothing till it and then the others are out of the way . . . oh go on then, discipline kat, it is called Flow and is all about happiness and getting into the zone (nothing to do with Tarkovsky or Pynchon, except in their excellence).

I gave up on The Female Man. I couldn’t follow it. Still reading Cross of Vengeance. And just started No One Is Talking About This.

I'm reading Klara and the Sun.

Today I started the second in the Rampart Trilogy The Trials of Koli.

I finished Network Effect last night and started in on Fugitive Telemetry. I am also still reading Doctor Thorne, and I plan on picking All Creatures Great and Small back up in the next day or so (I have a buddy read for that starting with the new month).

On the whole, not much has changed with the way I'm reading. Or rather, as this year is something of an experiment (heaps and piles of buddy reads, far more than I am normally wont to participate in), the experiment continues apace.

I'm reading Uwem Akpan's upcoming New York, My Village, and it's really odd.

My reading hasn't changed much over last year, which is still a big difference from the rest of my life when I had that dedicated long commute time. I think I've probably carved out a little more reading time this year, but it still waxes and wanes.

I've finished The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace and will be starting on the last instalment in the Cromwell trilogy tomorrow.

I'm reading The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (am I the last??) and a really lovely group biography called Square Haunting about the poet H D, Dorothy Sayers, Jane Harrison, Eileen Power, and Virginia Woolf.

>9 japaul22: Nope, mine is still looking at me :) So not the last. :)

>9 japaul22: I have it but haven't read it, so you're not alone.

>9 japaul22: Oh I loved that book; had some problems with the ending (I always seem to know better than the author how it should turn out!) but its a book that leads to lots of questions about race, 'passing' and the pull of families.

My next book is Entre deux mondes, Olivier Norek

For some reason I have been thinking about To Calais In Ordinary Time, and remember rushing through the half, just to see what I thought was going to happen did. Keep thinking of it so reread that half the last several days. I missed so much the longer conversations. I have lots of fav parts, but I think Ceceline making Softly's confession for him (starting with 369) was so perfect; filled not with anger but with the truth. The victims words to him as he died.

I remember watching a mother of a little girl who had been kidnapped and killed, during the sentencing, giving her victims account. Her last words to him were "I will walk out that door today, hold my head up and promis to forget you ".
I think that was what Cece meant to do,

I finished the fascinating Klara and the Sun and am starting Exciting Times.

I finished the excellent The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee. McGhee runs down the racist, anti-Black roots (i.e. "history") of many of the major societal problems in America today, examining at the same time the ways in which these policies have also greatly harmed whites along the way. Her thesis, as per the title, is that working and middle class whites have been sold a "Zero Sum" philosophy: if Blacks "win," whites, by definition, "lose." So, for one easy example, welfare programs that would help many more whites than Blacks must be bad nevertheless, because Blacks are "takers" who don't deserve taxpayer help. Never mind the number of poor whites who would be lifted as well.

McGhee uses as her operating metaphor (as per the book's cover art) the history of public swimming pools. During the middle part of the 20th century, communities across the country, including across the South, had built public swimming pools. They were symbols in many cases of civic pride, gathering places for often thousands of people. However, when the law mandated that these pools be integrated, community after community closed the facilities, often filling the pools in and covering them over, rather than comply with that new law. So not only were Blacks kept out, but tens of thousands of white people lost their public swimming pools as well. I've written more on my own CR thread.

Tonight I will start Pot of Trouble, another book from Don Tracy's rather obscure Giff Speer mystery series from the 1960s/70s.

Also, my stack of "between books" (anthologies, short story collections and other books of short entries I like to read one story/chapter at a time instead of plowing through them all at once) had dwindled down to just two or three, so I've now added a bunch. My current full list of "between books" is, in no particular order:

Sorry for Your Trouble a book of so far very good short stories by Richard Ford, his most recent collection, I believe.
Spring Sowing a collection of short stories by Irish author Liam O'Flaherty, published in 1926.
The Adventures of Captain David Grief, a collection of adventure stories by Jack London, originally published in 1912 as "A Son of the Sun."
The World's Greatest Romances (Black's Reader Services), another short story collection, this one published in 1929.
The 1619 Project: This is the NY Times Magazine Section from the Sunday Times of August 18, 2019. It includes articles and commentary written as part of the effort to highlight the history and subsequent societal effects of slavery, launched on the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first African slaves at the Virginia Colony.
Good for a Laugh by Bennett Cerf, a book of humorous anecdotes first published in 1952.
The Atlantic Monthly - January 1959, Volume 203, Number 1. I always have an old magazine going.
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt. My wife is reading this for a discussion group. She enjoyed the first chapter so well that she suggested we read it "together," which is to say taking turns with the book one chapter at a time.

Finished New York, My Village, which is really too early a draft for me to critique it. Now back to Enchantments: Joseph Cornell and American Modernism (I finally got a print copy!) for review.

Let's read The Communist Manifesto! I made a thread for the group read here:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/331935

It's an apolitical and barely used group, so there shouldn't be bad associations for anyone who might be interested in the read but avoids existing political groups.

Clockmakers daughter reading for a book group. Aside from another 0ccupation+ daughter/wife title that Im really tired of, this one also includes a modern character to relate to. These often don't work for me; the actual story is usually much more interesting without it. But I'll give it a chance, Ive read a few other Morton's books and shes a good writer, so perhaps she can make it work!

>18 LolaWalser: thanks

I must be restless, I've started three books, and have two others "on hold". I do have a lot of interruptions these days. I said I see which pan out. At the moment Admiring Silence by Abdulrazak Gurnah seems to have captured my attention. This is the last of his books I have to read (unless he has written something recently ...oh dear, just checked, there is a 2020 novel...must have...)

I finished Summer last night, which seemed light until the last 100 pages, and I was sad that it ended. I'd like to know what happens next. Tonight I should begin The Mirror and the Light, Mantel's gigantic Cromwell conclusion.

The rest:
- Henry VI Part Three - I'll read Act V this week.
- Petrarch's Canzoniere - I'm just today half way through!
- Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life by Diarmaid MacCulloch, my audiobook.

How is the Cromwell book?

Going through my shelves and noticed a David Lodge book I don't think I read Out of the Shelter in his intro he says this is a close to a bio than any of his other books. 16 year old visits his sister in Germany 1951. Lots of mention of the suffering of England at that time in part due to Americas demands for 'self aid'. This while the rest of the continent esp west germany was doing rather well. Hes one of my fav writers, think this will be good (and its short !)

>23 cindydavid4: Cromwell book - 1st 4 hours were a blitz of names and connections. Now on Wolsey’s fall I’m finally feeling I can keep up. A lot of good and corrective info

I'm currently reading Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero, a weird but interesting novel with elements of Scooby Doo, H. P. Lovecraft, and any number of old kids' adventure stories.

I've finished volume one of The Three Kingdoms and really wish I had a set of picture cards for the dozens of main characters (out of hundreds). They probably exist, but I am resisting the urge to google. I've also finished the odd and mostly charming What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours which segued rather neatly into Frankenstein in Baghdad.

>24 dchaikin: cool, eager to get to it

I read If You Give a Man a Cookie by Laura Numeroff which was hilarious. I also finished The Amish Cowboy's Homecoming (touchstone for this not working) and am currently reading Sweetshop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan.

I needed a break from reality. I’m reading We Begin at the End says it’s a thriller.

heh, reading the reviews make me think its not a book for escaping reality! but ymmv:)

>30 cindydavid4: lol! Oh no!

Recently I've finished:

Foregone: A Novel by Russell Banks; novel, digital, 320 pages
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald; historical fiction, digital, 227 pages
The High Window by Raymond Chandler; mystery, print, 228 pages

I've created a youtube channel where I talk about books! I've never done it before. Let me know if I'm just plan bad.

Video link: April 2021 Wrap Up

Currently reading

On Time and Water by Andri Snaer Magnason and translated from the Icelandic by Lytton Smith; digital, non-fiction, 290 pages
Horizontal Vertigo: A City Called Mexico by Juan Villoro and translated from the Spanish by Alfred MacAdam; audio, non-fiction, 368 pages

I’m reading A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr as my physical book and Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold as my bedtime kindle book.

>32 gsm235: I think it’s cool you did a video. And it nice to see what you look and sound like.

I finished Pot of Trouble by Don Tracy. This is the fifth entry in Tracy's Giff Speer mystery series from the late 60s/early 70s. Our pal Giff, having been booted from the super secret Army outfit he'd been solving crimes for, is called upon for help by a friend is in a bunch of trouble on his super glitzy spread in the Arizona desert. As will happen, murder and mayhem ensue. This is, unfortunately, the least satisfying novel of the series so far. Here's hoping old Giff bounces back in the last four books of the series, which I will get to sooner or later.

Next up for me will be a classic I should have read years ago, Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington.

While searching for something on my shelves, I happened upon a book by David Lodge that I don't think Id read (read most of his stuff) out of the shelter about a boy growing up during the Blitz, who later takes a trip to visit his sister, working for the US army in Heidlburg . like fireweed, very close examination of the horror of the blitz and afterwards the years of deprivation caused apparently by US policy toward aid. He has just gotten to his sisters and he definitly is just off the boat. Well see what happens

Also started Jack a sort of sequel to her Gilead books. I say not quite sequel because its Jack finally telling his story. Was struck instantly by how wonderful the first few pages read, plan to enjoy this slowly.

I've started The Mirror and The Light but I'm a bit behind on my planned reading pace as we're on holiday at the moment with friends. Expecting to catch up on the weekend once we're home.

My reading hasn't changed much in the past year+ - perhaps a few more episodes than usual of wanting comfort books.

I'm in one now - I want something new but guaranteed to be good. So I'm hunting up new books by old favorite authors (the few I haven't read already!). Currently reading (just started and I'm already well into it) Finder by Lilith Saintcrow. It's the last (latest?) of a romance/urban fantasy series - Saintcrow is really hard on her characters, I can't read any of hers except her romances (where they're pretty much guaranteed to survive! The main characters, anyway).

Also reading, and greatly enjoying, Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson. Fascinating history of food from the angle of the tools we use to make and eat it. Everything from "knives are older than fire" to the craze for eggbeaters in the early 1800s (I think I'm right about the time). What we eat and how we eat it have so many angles - England's roast beef culture of food requires lots of pasture (I knew that) and lots of woodland for firewood (that hadn't occurred to me). I keep quoting bits of it at my family. Lots of fun and I'll be looking for more by her. But today I'm not up for any actual thinking, just want light story.

I finally got around to reading The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies and quite enjoyed it. Last night I started Ariadne by Jennifer Saint and am already loving it.

Just started Hench . It’s fascinating. 2 women are employed by a temp agency for villains. I think I read about it in a post about Canadian authors.

>40 dianeham: I loved Hench! It was one of the five books championed for Canada Reads this year.

For those of you keeping score at home, I had to move Up From Slavery back to the on-deck circle because my reading group book arrived, and I need to get going on it. This month's book is Isabelle Allende's latest novel, A Long Petal of the Sea. I'm about 35 pages in, and so far I'm sorry to say it seems a little flat. I've hope it will pick up.

>40 dianeham: this book reminds me of the Villian's Guild of Ahnk Morpork, from Discworld If so that may be quite fun to read!

>41 Yells: check your touchstone for Hench, wrong book :)

>42 rocketjk: Oh I loved her first books, but I dunno its been a while since Ive read something of hers that really stuck with me. Keep me posted; I hope that perhaps this will be different?

Recently finished the very good A Luminous Republic even if I can't quite describe it.

>44 cindydavid4: Thanks! If I'm going to help upsell this awesome book, I should point people to the right one :)

>45 cindydavid4: "I hope that perhaps this will be different?"

Fingers crossed!

I am reading really s-l-o-w-l-y right now. Still on David Lodge's Author, Author.

I seem to be more engaged with Hulu's "Harlots" series and the "You Must Remember This" podcast about Hollywood in the 20th century than with reading.

Not impressed with the new season of "The Handmaid's Tale" so far. Seems to have devolved into gratuitous and extended torture and exploitation porn, with story arcs of other characters getting short-sheeted. I do like the moments of dignity and grace featuring Rita the former Martha.

Not that we're supposed to talk about TV, but otherwise I got nothin'.

I'm reading A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes because I'm a sucker for Greek myth retellings. I've also started the next installment in Victorian author Margaret Oliphant's Carlingford series, The Doctor's Family.

And for some reason, I'm not able to post anything on LT when I use my normal google chrome browser, but I hopped onto Firefox and it works with no problem. Anyone else having issues?

>47 Yells: :)

Had problems posting last night; took cleaning browser, and ultimately restarting the darn thing. Still iffy, but the other sites Im on were working well so I figured it would be better this morn. and it was!

>41 Yells: I think it was a post of yours where I saw the book. Thanks.

I have COVID vaccine brain - my second shot was Wednesday, and I've been half asleep since. No other symptoms. But I'm finding it difficult to focus, so I'm reading fluff - good fluff, though. Just finished Finder; not one of my favorites in the series, but good. And read The Wrangler's Bride by Justine Davis - it's a Fortune's Children book, a series I never got into (the multi-author series annoy me), but it's a Davis so of course it's good. I've now started Booked for Murder by RJ Blain - highly amusing, as Blain generally is. I love the way they bicker. And finished Consider the Fork - excellent, fascinating, and the endnotes have a lot of other books I now want to read...

I finished Marci Kwon's Enchantments: Joseph Cornell and American Modernism—very dense and art theory heavy, but I like that sort of thing and enjoyed it, even if it was slow going. The physical book is gorgeous, too. Now back to Judith Schalansky's An Inventory of Losses, which I had to put down to take care of all that work/review reading.

Finished Jack and it fits so well with her other books about Gilead; made me happy to read but sad because I knew what was to come. Marked it up with underlines of fav passages. End was a foregone conclusion but I didnt mine. Wonder if her next book would be Della....

I finished Exciting Times - some good parts but so so.

I'm starting the final book in the Mistress of the Art of Death series, Death and the Maiden.

I am reading Sweetshop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan and I also read If You Give a Man a Cookie which was a hilarious send-up parody on the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and so on. No offense to the guys, but it was very funny and true in lots of ways, at least in my experience.

I have started The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt it was the next one on my book shelf.

>59 baswood: I always think I should read something by her but still haven’t.

I was really disappointed in that one, but after reading her Possession I probably wasnt ready for something different. She also has a lovely book of fractured fairy tales The Djinn in the Nightengales eye

>59 baswood: >60 dianeham: >61 cindydavid4: I am finding The Children's book a struggle. Children are not my favourite subject, however I can appreciate some fine writing. I have started so I will finish................

>62 baswood: heh why? Lifes too short and all that. I sometimes will return to a book that I am struggling with, but more often then not I get distracted by the next shiny cover and the other goes in the trade pile.!

I finished A Long Petal of the Sea, Isabel Allende's most recent novel. I expected to like it better than I did, alas. It is the story of two families, and in particular one member of each (one man and one woman who end up together; no shock, there), living through the Spanish Civil War. The protagonists end up in Chile (again not a spoiler, as the book's title refers to that country). The story takes the two through their entire lives.

The storyline, the times described and the characters are certainly interesting, so why was the book ultimately unsatisfying to me? One element was the flat nature of the narrative. We are in third person omniscient. And while we often touch down inside the mind of one or another character, particularly our two main players, I felt that too much of the book was spent in above-the-fray exposition and explanation, and way too much time in historical overview mode. Everything from the history of the Spanish Civil War through the Chilean coup that brought Pinochet to power and then on through the Pinochet dictatorship years, with long lessons on Chilean history in between, are doled out paragraphs, sometimes pages, at a time before we finally get back to our characters and their stories.

I've written more on my own CR thread.

I've now started Harvard Has a Homicide by Timothy Fuller, the first of Fuller's Jupiter Jones mystery series, because what I really needed was another mystery series to be in the middle of. Well, I pulled an old hardcover version of This is Murder, Mr. Jones down off my shelf to read, only to discover that it was the fourth book in a series, so . . . . Anyway, about 35 pages in, this first in the series, originally published in 1936, is fun.

I finished Doctor Thorne on Monday, and I continue to really enjoy my forays into Barsetshire. The group I'm reading with will be starting Framley Parsonage next month, and I'm currently trying to decide if I want to just stick with the free ebook edition I have, or if I want to pick up an Oxford World's Classics copy. I do have some time to decide on that front.

So now I am currently splitting my reading attentions across several books: All Creatures Great and Small; Laughing Without an Accent; Till We Have Faces; The Little Paris Bookshop; and Sylvester. All are buddy reads or were inspired by buddy reads, which is perfectly fine, but I do find myself wanting to pick up another book, just because. So far I have mostly resisted this temptation.

I’m reading The Dictionary of Lost words. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered the word catamenia before.

It was called catamenia, and the process of shedding it was menstruation.

I finally got a copy of The Searcher from the library and am enjoying it. I must read more by French.

Hey, I can post again!!!!

>62 baswood: am finding The Children's book a struggle. Children are not my favourite subject,

hee I like reading about children, and I still didn't like the book! Try
s The Djinn in the Nightengales eye instead.

>64 rocketjk: it seems like her writing changed when she moved to the US. She lost lots of the magic realism that made her earlier books so special. Sorry to hear that latest one wasn't good either. If you have not read her earlir books, ending with Paula, try them.

>65 shadrach_anki: Ive read so much about Trollopes books that its probably time to try one. Suggestion on where to start?

Oh now reading Medusa Uploaded for my sci fi group and its so good! cant wait to discuss this

>68 cindydavid4: I started with The Warden, which is the first of the Barsetshire novels (there are six in total). Reading them is my first foray into the works of Trollope, but I definitely plan on continuing to explore his books. I know there are other LT members who are major Trollope aficionados; hopefully they can give both of us suggestions!

>68 cindydavid4:, >69 shadrach_anki: I loved the entire Barsetshire series. I would start at the beginning with The Warden and read them in order.

thanks!

I finished Harvard Has a Homicide, the first book in Timothy Fuller's Jupiter Jones series, first published in 1936. Our man Edmund "Jupiter" Jones is a smart-aleck Harvard grad student, with, evidently, plenty of money and, you'll not be surprised to learn, generally the smartest person in the room. Or so he thinks. At any rate, when Jones is the first to discover the corpse of the recently stabbed to death Professor Singer, he can't resist butting in and "helping" the Cambridge police department's Inspector Rankin solve the case. Or, as Jones' girlfriend comments drily to another character, "He thinks he's the Thin Man." At any rate, this book is a lot of fun, with the strong caveat that it contains the sort of "jocular" condescending racism that would be taken for granted then but is very much irritating when read now. The antisemitism of the time and place (again, Harvard in the 1930s) is sidestepped.

I've written a bit more in my own CR thread.

Next up for me will be a book I'm pretty much ashamed to say I've never read, Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington.

I'm reading Ariadne and loving it so far. Jennifer Saint isn't quite the writer that Madeline Miller is, but it's still a very engaging read and retelling.

Also listening to I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death, a memoir of sorts by Maggie O'Farrell.

I just started Jhumpa Lahiri's new novel Whereabouts.

I keep forgetting to post in these threads (or, more to the point, to look what everyone else is reading)...

I've just finished Nicholas Kenyon's lockdown book, The life of music, which was a bit of a short ride in a fast machine, but fun, and filled in a few little gaps in my knowledge. Before that I read a couple more memoirs of American Spanish Civil War veterans from my Seven Seas pile. I'm still working my way through the recent German pile as well, at the moment I'm reading Ein Regenschirm für diesen Tag (I see it's called "The shoe-tester of Frankfurt" in English, which I think I prefer).

>68 cindydavid4: Sorry you're not enjoying The children's book — I really loved it, but I can see how it might be hard work if you're not already obsessed with the culture of late-Victorian England. Reading some E. Nesbit at the same time might help get you attuned to it, maybe?

As others have said, The Warden is a very good way in to Trollope. Reasonably light, short and self-contained, but lets you go on to the other Barchester books if you want. And if you don't like it, you're not likely to like his other books any better.

I'm reading The Castle of Otranto. I started it yesterday, and it looks like I'll probably finish it today.

>75 thorold: Sorry you're not enjoying The children's book

Hee that wasn't me that was >62 baswood:! but yeah just couldn't get into it myself.

>75 thorold: but I can see how it might be hard work if you're not already obsessed with the culture of late-Victorian England. Reading some E. Nesbit at the same time might help get you attuned to it, maybe?

Hee, well I do like reading about that time period. I haven't tried Nesbit, but I will check him out, thanks

Psammead Trilogy does look really interesting! Might be one I read for the childhood theme. Thanks

I am turning to 1950's science fiction with A case of Conscience by James Blish

I've finished The Castle of Otranto. Review is up on my thread. Trying to decide what to read next. I might do the next in Paul Doiron's Mike Bowditch series, since it fits the LibraryThing May theme of Maine. Or I might "borrow" my dad's copy of The Thursday Murder Club. Decisions, decisions...

I’m reading the one with the angel and devil.

I’m reading Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain which is so good, and Detransition, Baby which is interesting and I’m reserving judgment til the end.

I am reading Big Dreams for the West End Girls which is set in England during World War II.

>81 japaul22: oh I read that ages ago and remember loving it.

Very hard to follow up The Mirror and the Light, but up next is The Wedding by Dorothy West.

>69 shadrach_anki: I read my way through Barsetshire a few years ago. Mrs. Proudie is quite a piece of work. I think my favorite Trollope is The Eustace Diamonds. Also read his dystopian novel The Fixed Period: Everybody gets euthanized at age 72 so as not to burden society ... until everybody who passed the Fixed Period Law starts turning 72. Interesting period piece, but bogs down horribly in the long middle section.

>84 AlisonY: I usually cant read anything after Ive read an outstanding book. Have to let it all perculate; In the meantime, nothing works. Tho the Wedding looks good.

Another book on the same theme that covers the civil rights movement from the 40s is Time of our Singing by Richard Powers (same author of Overstory and Gold Bug Variations; he has quite the writing range) This book is incredibly moving about a similar couple in love with music and marry after WWII, One reason I have trouble reviewing books, is because of the incredible power of some that just leaves me speechless and cannot put it to words . I just can't do it justice. Anyway, check it out

>86 cindydavid4: Looks interesting - noting that one.

So it turns out that my dad only had The Thursday Murder Club to give it to me. So I've started that. I'm only two chapters in so far. It was one of my aunt's books first, so it's a large print edition, which is making for a different reading experience. There's so little on each page because the font is so big. It takes some getting used to!

>88 Julie_in_the_Library: I read The Thursday Murder Club on kindle, which I downloaded from the library. I recommended it to my daughter who was looking for something fun. I asked her yesterday how she was enjoying it.
Her text comment...

“It’s not fair that this book has such short chapters. “I’ll just finish this chapter.” “Oh, this one’s only three minutes long; might as well read it before I go take my shower.” “Oh, a two-minute chapter. I guess I’ll read this one as well before I get in the shower.” Etc. “

It is a fun quick read.

I just started One Two Three, an ER book.

Make Shift, science fiction stories inspired by the pandemic. No touchstone found for it. Some hard sci/fi stories are a little byeond me. Some incorporate pandemics into other catastrophic events--economic disparity, climate change, food shortages, immigration--into the story lines. The overall effect underscores that we are in a world of sh*t. I'm enjoying it, but probably not for folks who are looking for things to feel hopeful about right now.

>86 cindydavid4: >84 AlisonY: I loved The Time of Our Singing. Just sayin'.

Currently reading Brightness Falls from the Air by James Tiptree, Jr (real name, Alice Sheldon). I've been awed by the quality of some of her short stories, but this is the first novel of hers I've read. (Although it was the last one she wrote.) I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it yet, but it's strange and disturbing in some interesting ways. Which is about what I expected, but maybe not quite the way I expected it..

>93 bragan: If you are interested, I recommend James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon.

>94 dianeham: In fact, I already own a copy of that! But since I also owned a copy of this novel, I figured I should get to it first.

>94 dianeham: Ive read some of her stories, long before I knew who she was! Think that sounds like a fascinating read!

I read her stories in the ‘70s. I enjoyed her bio.

>96 cindydavid4: I posted on my thread that I am reading The Lions of Fifth Avenue and when I read your comment to me, I was thinking it was about this book. Then I was thinking, oh who was she? Silly me. That’s why I deleted my post.

>99 dianeham: Hee, guess I should have been more specific about which book! np I usually go for the last book I see posted, sorry for the confusion! (mmm and Lions of Fifth Ave sounds interesting too!)

Started and finished Network Effect. I love Murderbot.

Started and finished The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon. Really enjoyed it. Not looking forward to going to bed tonight and turning off the lights. I'm not usually a horror person - this might be the first book I've read in a long time that could even be classified as horror. It was very good, but I'm not sure I love the after-effects. I'm still going to read the other McMahon books that came in to the library for me today, though. Maybe I just need to acclimate.

I have several book groups I am reading for this month and next, so I have a slew to read before or during June. the books for my RL groups are ones Ive read, but need to reviw. modern fiction is reading Olive Again my sci fi group is reading song of achilles which means I will have to reread Circe, need to finish Mirror and the Light for out group read here, and i am reading Travels with Herodotus for May's Meet the Press Theme. And oh yeah havent settled on a book I want to read for the childhood theme in Reading Globally. Then next month for the Time theme in June, In an Antique Land by Amitav Ghosh Lands

Think I'll finish the Mantel one and the travels one, and Circe. Ill worry about Junes reading some time. Quick someone clone me!!!!

I finished Up from Slavery the famous memoir by Booker T. Washington. On the national stage, Washington was one of the most famous African Americans of his time. This is an important book to read as part of an effort to gain an overall understanding of Black history in America, although Washington's ideas about race relations are somewhat controversial now. (He believed that Blacks as a group needed to gain practical skills and other individual success before working toward social equality, despite, and seemingly ignoring, the fact that White society as a whole was expressly intent upon violently suppressing any such advances.) Overall, Washington is a person to admire. My more in-depth comments can be found on my CR thread.

Next up for me will be another book I can hardly believe I've never read, Tom Wolfe's famous history of the early American space effort, The Right Stuff.

I've started one of Jennifer McMahon's earlier novels, Don't Say a Word. So far I'm really enjoying it, though I've definitely noticed that McMahon's basic, sentence-level prose is weaker in this than it was by the time she wrote The Winter People. It's actually kind of interesting to track that sort of thing over an author's work, so I don't mind much.

I am reading Some of Us Have To Get Up in The Morning by Daniel Scott. Very excited to give a review about it!

At The End of the World Turn Left came out in April, author’s first book. A Russian Jewish family in Wisc. The oldest daughter is living in Israel and comes home to help find her 19 year old sister. So far I like it very much.

I've finished Don't Breathe a Word. Not sure which of the other Jennifer McMahon novels I got from the library I'll be starting (and maybe finishing) tomorrow, but my new nonfiction book is You Mean I'm not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?!.

I'm having a ho-hum reading period, finishing a bunch of books that are okay. A Journal of a Plague Year was really more of a summary essay of plague stats than a diary of a personal experience. Fine, but repetitive. The Garden Where the Brass Band Played is a decent coming-of-age story. Poetic but lacking contextual deatils, Heart Berries is a brief memoir, and, finally, That Deadman Dance a lengthy historical novel about the settling of Western Australia.

Started Richard III this morning. What an striking Act 1. It's distinct from and far better than any act of the Henry plays.

I started The Last Human for bookclub and The Surgeon of Crowthorne for something different.

I've just started The Night Sister by Jennifer McMahon. It's unlikely I'll finish this one in a single day, as most of my day will be spent at the second day of talks at the Rural Gothic: Suburban Wyrd zoom conference.

Klara and the Sun. I enjoyed Part I, but it almost seems like a re-hash in tone and POV of Never Let Me Go. However, it is quick reading and got me back on track after a lot of distractions and drama in Real Life.

I finished Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters, a book about transgender life and motherhood.

I'm now in the middle of the wonderful Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain, a memoir of her life as affected by WWI. And I'm reading Murder must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers for something fun.

I finished Petrarch’s Canzoniere, all three translators I was using. I haven’t reviewed it and I’m not sure what to say about it, but it feels like a big deal, and a little disorienting reading wise. I’ll have to read something else in the morning now.

Reading Travels with Herodotus for the May theme meet the press, and absolutely loving it. The author is a journalist from Warsaw, and in the 50s was given the task of visiting India for a story. The man had never been abroad before, but his curiosity and eagerness to learn led him to many other places, and an interest in the histories led him to discover more about Herodotus. I love passages like this, that speaks so well of our world today

On border walls, written before 2007: "That is how the world’s energy is wasted. In complete irrationality! Complete futility! For the Great Wall — and it is gigantic, a wall-fortress, stretching for thousands of kilometres through uninhabited mountains and wilderness, an object of pride and, as I have mentioned, one of the wonders of the world — is also proof of a kind of human weakness, of an aberration, of a horrifying mistake; it is evidence of a historical inability of people in this part of the planet to communicate, to confer and jointly determine how best to deploy enormous reserves of human energy and intellect."

>116 cindydavid4: enjoyed that quote. I remember when that book came out, and I thought about it. (I also have a memory, an iffy one, that someone in CR read it and posted about it.. Poquette maybe. ??) Anyway, your post makes the book enticing all over again.

Reading Sarum - it's a huge book (though still under 1000 pages) and I'm still in prehistory. Somewhat annoying that in this part (where he's basically making it all up), most of the major turning points hang on sex (love/lust). Kind of boring. I'm hoping a) it gets more varied as we get into parts with written history and b) somewhere he explains archaeological finds that made him write what he did (there's no end-notes or footnotes, so unfortunately maybe not).

>114 japaul22: Murder Must Advertise is my favorite Lord Peter - not sure why, it's extremely weird and the mystery is rather banal. But I love it.

I am still reading Big Dreams for the West End Girls which is about young women during World War II. It is part of a series, and I did not read the others in the series. A lot of it seemed confusing, sort of like walking into a play after the intermission, having missed the first half. I am about 70% done.

I'm now reading Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout, her follow-up to My Name Is Lucy Barton, a novel I liked but don't actually remember all that well. Fortunately, I don't think I need to to appreciate this one.

I am starting Secrets of Happiness.

>120 bragan: I read Lucy Barton when I was in the hospital about to have surgery for a broken hip. At that time it was a great comfort to read, esp as she talks about her mother being there. Read the new one and I liked how she brough other characters from the first to life. But man what a depressing story!!!

>110 dchaikin: Now is the winter of our discontent Hope you enjoy it

Richard III certainly has a powerful opening and I really enjoyed the play. It is one of Shakespeare's longest plays

My next book off the shelf is Armadillo by William Boyd

Now taking a break from book group reads and getting in to Samarkand Loving this! (And just realized there is a book of the same name by Colin Tolbin, one of my fav writers) Love the history and the stories, and finding out where exactly it was (not sure what I thought but didn't think it was in Ubekistan!) Also love bits like this

To represent the unknown, Khaayam used the arabic word shay which means thing. In spanish its pronounce xay which eventually became the letter x, which became the universal symbol for unknown

Plus bits of poems like this one that tells a tale of how one man saved the city from Ap Aslan

Once in a while a man rises boasting
he shows his wealth and cries "It Is I!"
a day or two his puny affairs flourish
Then Death appears and says It is I!

Or as Death in discworld would say IT IS I!!

>123 baswood: I’ll read act ii tomorrow. Richard is a terrific villain.

yes as long as you remember that this was written as Tudor proproganda. For an excellent historic fiction that tells more of the truth, look for Sunne in Splendor and Daughter of Time

I've finished The Night Sister. The Invited is next on my list for fiction. I'm still reading You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid, or Crazy?! as far as nonfiction.

>127 cindydavid4: yes. This Richard is essentially fictional in personality. R iii certainly had some issues, but being a sociopath was not one of them. But he’s such a great character here...

>129 dchaikin: yes, he is!

>127 cindydavid4: Sunne in Splendor was terrific. I haven’t read Daughter of Time. I’m going to look for it.

Oh its good. About a detective that is laid up in a hospital with nothing to do but stare at the ceiling and suddenly comes up with an idea....What I love about it is that it was decades before Penmans book, so apparently this theory was not new.

>127 cindydavid4: & >129 dchaikin: My favorite Shakespeare histories are Henry the !V, Parts 1 and 2. Henry V falls off a little for me, but still great. Also, our man Richard III. Riveting storytelling about human nature and the nature/responsibilities of power, astounding use of language. Well, it's Shakespeare! But I've never thought I was reading actual history, other than the names of some of the characters. "Based on actual events," maybe, at best, rather than "torn from the headlines." :)

To some 'based on actual events' means it really happens. "the crown' which I love dearly certainly is based on actual events and yet there are times it kinda goes off the rails. So I keep google close by to fact check. And don't get me wrong, I love the bard, but he knows who butters his bread. As long as people know that, I have no quibbles. Richard III is one of my favs too. (actually never read any of the Henrys, tho saw the movie of Henry V that I thought outstanding. ) Since im more interested in the Plantagents than Tudors, probably should read King John and Richard II.

>133 rocketjk: >134 cindydavid4: With Henry VI (part 1 and 2) I mainly think of Falstaff.

>131 NanaCC: The Daughter of Time is terrific, Colleen. You should definitely look for it.

I just finished the excellent Secrets of Happiness and am starting The Arsonists' City.

>135 dchaikin: "With Henry VI (part 1 and 2) I mainly think of Falstaff."

Absolutely. Me, too. But the scene between Falstaff and Henry (I think in Part 2) as the young wastrel prince Hal is morphing into King Henry, in which Falstaff entreats his old drinking buddy Hal that, surely, he will not cut his old pal Falstaff once he takes the reigns of power, and Hal/Henry replies (I may not have the line exactly right), "I would. I shall," is one of the most poignant moments of the play . . . Ah, here it is. I ran a google search:

Falstaff: Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.
Prince Henry: I do, I will.

Reading Lydia Millet's satirical novel, Mermaids in Paradise but have also picked up a Moroccan crime novel...The Final Bet by Abdelilah Hamdouchi. Did the young man kill his elderly wife?!

I haven't updated LT in about a month. Since my last post I've read the following:
Yuri Herrera : Signs Preceding the End of the World
Thant Myint-U : The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and Democracy in the 21st Century
Fumiko Enchi : Masks
Cormac McCarthy : Blood Meridian
Keizo Hino : Isle of Dreams (been holding onto this one since 2011 when avaland gave it to me)

I have thoughts on all of these and so I stick to the absurd notion that I will eventually post my thoughts on these on my thread.

I finished The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe's extremely engaging and detailed history of the Mercury Space Program. I'm not quite sure how/why I'd never read this before. Maybe it was my life-long aversion to reading best sellers, and this book was huge when it was first published in 1980. At any rate, I'm very glad I finally got to it. I've posted a bit longer review on my own CR thread.

Next up will be a return to Richard Stark's (a.k.a. Donald Westlake) "Parker" series. I'm up to the seventh entry, wittily titled The Seventh, in these sly, "guilty pleasure" tales about about a cunning yet truly psychopathic thief.

>140 rocketjk: Loved The Right Stuff. You’ve seen the film?

>141 dianeham: I don't think I have seen it. I have a vague memory of seeing a clip or two; the scene where the astronauts realize they're not even meant to have a window in the Mercury capsule for some reason has stuck with me. But if you loved the book and think the movie is worthwhile, I will try to dial it up somewhere on the old satelitte dish if possible. Thanks!

I'm reading The Rainbow and the Rose by E. Nesbit, a poetry collection. I had not expected this - I've read poetic works by other children's authors and found them mostly either trite or twee (or both). But these are really good. I'm not sure if she was writing in slightly archaic language (not sure when she was writing!); a lot of them remind me of Rudyard Kipling (who I love). Mostly (so far) simple images of people living and thinking about their lives - well, and quite a lot of "what is Heaven?". One is about a housewife saying that her perfect heaven would be to make beautiful, useful things - and never have to do the same thing again (vs "But every Monday morning I've/Last Monday's work to do again."

>142 rocketjk: loved the movie too. Dennis Quaid and Sam Shepherd especially. John Glenn’s wife and his consideration of her stick in my mind. And I loved the pre-space program stuff of breaking the sound barrier and escaping the bonds of earth’s atmosphere.

Dish by Jeannette Walls. About how the news became personality- and sensation- rather than issue-driven. It's quite good, and each chapter is a self-contained little story about a person or publication that contributed to the way news has changed in the last 50 or 60 years. She touches on the fact that we have seen sensational journalism in the era of Hearst and Pulitzer, and I hope she talks more about that.

Walls also wrote The Glass Castle, a memoir that was long on trauma and relatively short on insight. There is a somewhat disquieting disconnect between her highly personal memoir--an odd kind of book for a younger reporter to write--and "Dish," which is critical of celebrity reporters.

>145 nohrt4me2: Like what you said about Glass Castle. I said the same thing in my book group - no insight.

Just finished Travels with Herodotus for the June 'meet the press' theme. Love this - a young journalist sets out to 'cross the border' of his small country to discover others. Discovers 'the histories' by Herodotus and uses it as a travel guide, a history, as well as lessons in journalism from a master. Little disappointed with the end, felt like he had made his point already. But his writing and ability to capture events so long ago through Herodotus and develops a way of reporting that he hopes to match. I learned quite a bit of history from this book, and a reminder that the more things change the more they stay the same, which for some reason is comforting to me. Very readable, and highly recommended

I'm another 70 posts behind, but I've only read three books in that time: it must be summer, or something. Over the last few days I've finished Erich Loest's novel about Leipzig and the Battle of the Nations, Völkerschlachtdenkmal, Siri Hustvedt's The sorrows of an American, and a little memoir of wartime childhood in Saxony, Wulf Kirsten's Die Prinzessinnen im Krautgarten.

>143 jjmcgaffey: Nesbit was an interesting character — very engaged politically in the Fabian Society, and with a notoriously complicated private life. There's a good biography, A woman of passion by Julia Briggs (although that's thirty years old now, and a couple of new ones I haven't read have come along since then). I'm not sure if she would have appreciated the comparison to Kipling, given where they stood politically, but they were roughly contemporary. As mentioned above, the fictional family in A S Byatt's The children's book is very loosely based on Nesbit's.

>145 nohrt4me2: "Dish by Jeannette Walls. About how the news became personality- and sensation- rather than issue-driven."

That looks really interesting. Did Walls mention Renata Adler at all? Adler was a terrific reporter and observer of society who was active mostly in the 1970s and 80s (though also later, as well). Her research/writing both on Watergate and the Starr Report are fascinating. A couple of years back I read a collection of her essays/articles called Canaries in the Mineshaft. In there somewhere she presents her theory that American journalism took a hard turn for the worse when bylines on articles went from being rare (only the most senior/well known journalists got them) to commonplace and, correspondingly, so did the use of unnamed sources in articles. (Remember Ben Bradlee's complaint in All the President's Men, "When is somebody going to go on the record in this story?") Adler's observations along those lines always made sense to me.

>149 rocketjk: Hasn't mentioned Adler so far, but am only halfway in. So far, Walls is just connecting the dots, from Confidential to National Enquirer to People to 60 Minutes to Vanity Fair to Matt Drudge. Hoping she will offer some kind of analysis.

I always enjoyed the On the Media program on NPR, but apparently, host Bob Garfield made somebody cry in a meeting, and he was fired. Last time I tuned in, they had a female host who was not Brooke Gladstone. So not sure who's watching the media over there.

I'm currently just about to finish up The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green, the book version of his startlingly excellent podcast.

Hmm, I haven't checked in here in a while. I finished Judith Schalansky's An Inventory of Losses, which I thought was uneven but still worth reading, and a great tribute to research and archival work. Also read Rogue Protocol, the third of Martha Wells's Murderbot novellas, and Raynor Winn's The Salt Path, a very decent trekking memoir. Now reading Iris Murdoch's The Red and the Green for my book club.

I finished The Seventh, which is, in fact, the seventh book in the "Parker" series by Donald Westlake, writing as Richard Stark. These books are guilty-pleasure fun due particularly to the quality of the writing, though Parker is a particularly nasty anti-hero.

Next up for me will be this month's reading group selection, The Best of It: New and Selected Poems by Kay Ryan.

>137 rocketjk: (oops, this mini-conversation got old quick) - on Henry IV — which is actually about Hal, who became Henry V — I found it interesting how Falstaff plays the counter to make Hal look good. In part I Hal is notably graceful in his bad behavior, and it notable mainly because Falstaff is so coarse. Otherwise it might not be much. In part 2, your line of course marks Hal’s evolution. He gets way too many points for turning on a rogue - even if an entertaining rogue.

>139 lilisin: ooh Myint-U and Cormac McCarthy. I hope you do post on these (or maybe you already have?)

>154 dchaikin: "In part 2, your line of course marks Hal’s evolution. He gets way too many points for turning on a rogue - even if an entertaining rogue."

Well, doesn't he later have one of one of his and Falstaff's old running buddies strung up for looting after he, Henry, had given orders not to loot? If I'm remembering correctly, that would be a further point along the "a king's gotta do what a king's gotta do" (i.e., the responsibility of power) road.

Just finished Deacon King Kong and am starting During the Reign of the Queen of Persia, which is actually set in rural Ohio in the 1950s.

>155 rocketjk: my memory is foggy now, but I recall he makes a clean break in h42. In h5 Falstaff dies, but he’s not character in the play. We are just told. And it was not an execution. Hal does a lot of sort of kingly righteousness stuff in h5.

>157 dchaikin: "And it was not an execution. Hal does a lot of sort of kingly righteousness stuff in h5."

No, not Falstaff, but one of their previous running buddies.

ETA: OK, a quick google search turns it up. I was thinking of a scene in Henry V, and the character is Bardolph.

https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/henryv/section7/

>158 rocketjk: Our internet memory. Thanks.

>156 ELiz_M: I really liked During the Reign of the Queen of Persia. Interested to hear what you think.

I've decided to W.E.B. DuBois' classic, The Souls of Black Folk, to my reading. I'm enjoying the collection The Best of It: New and Selected Poems by Kay Ryan very much, but I've decided to read a few a day rather than blasting through them. The poetry collection is for my reading group, which doesn't meet until June 20, so I have time to read them without rushing through them.

I'm still working on Sarum (a chunkster) and The Rainbow and the Rose (poetry - and less interesting as I get further into it). So I'm repeatedly diverting to good fluff. Read Paladin's Strength by T Kingfisher. Just finished Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs, the latest Alpha and Omega book, and am currently reading Wyrde and Wayward by Charlotte English. The only problem is, they're a lot of fun, and I haven't gotten to bed before midnight in three days...

I'm about to start Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.

I am midway through a reread of The Makioka Sisters which I loved when I first read it in the 1980's, for a Litsy Postal Book club of 20th century classics. I am almost through with Knausgaard's My Struggle, volume 5. I put off reading volume 5 until volume 6 came out, bought volume 6 the day it was published (in English), and both have languished on my shelf for a few years now. And I'm also reading the latest volume in Mick Herron's Slow Horses series, which I have enjoyed immensely, and which has not yet gotten stale.

Currently reading Lemon Drop Dead by Amanda Flowers, part of the Swissman Sweets series.

Just finished The Invited by Jennifer McMahon

Reading a novel, Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy, but occasionally dipping into Joyce Carol Oates' collection "The (Other) You" (touchstone doesn't come up). May also dip into Midden, a poetry collection by Julia Bouwsma.... (but a short book just arrived on my doorstop ....)

I've just finished The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination, edited by John Joseph Adams, a pretty good anthology featuring lots of different kinds of fictional mad scientists.

Now starting Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell, the sequel to Carry On, which was in turn a sort-of-but-not-really sequel to Fangirl, in that it's based on the fanfiction the titular fangirl was writing, more or less. I find all of that quite amusingly meta, and I'm expecting to enjoy this one as much as I did the others.

I forgot I was supposed to read Alexander’s Bridge for a discussion on Litsy Saturday. It’s Willa Cather’s first novel. So i read it all on Saturday (only 2.5 hours).

Back to Cromwell.

RE-reading Rita Mae Brown's High Hearts. It hasn't aged well.

I just finished The Arsonists' City, which was good and have started Of Women and Salt.

>154 dchaikin:

I'll probably post my thoughts just for you!

In the meantime I've read another excellent nonfiction, Barbara Demick's Eat the Buddha which is about a Tibetan town as it modernizes through a kingdom, British colonialism, Mao's China, and the current Chinese government. I had been awaiting this one to come out in paperback and so I pre-ordered it and read it as soon as it reached my hands.

I finished the enjoyable Their Eyes Were Watching God (what a great title). I'm now moving on to modern times with an acclaimed short story collection from a new voice in Northern Irish writing - The End of the World is a Cul de Sac by Louise Kennedy.

in an antique land and Samarkand After reading Spiral Sheep's comment else thread I realized this is not what I thought it was. There is a bit of misleading info on the back including the actual history of the Rubiyaat and its many variations. Nonetheless I am reading it as a Historic Fiction so alls right for me.

It's been far too long since I visited CR - offline life getting in the way, though I am (of course!) still reading.

I'm still reading The Mirror and the Light and around that I've finished And Fire Came Down (second in an Australian crime series where the lead character is deaf) and Uprooted (multi-award winning fantasy). Today I started Lily in the Snow (set in England pre-WW2 and is apparently "a gripping tale of espionage, love and war").

Oh Im interested in the crime series - whats the first book? Curious why she chose a main character who is deaf. If born deaf, that brings up lots of issues about communication, and few profoundly deaf people can read lips. Do you think he is portrayed realistically?

I finished Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri (loved it) and am about to start After You've Gone by Jeffrey Lent, which has been on my TBR list for some time.

you know those tom swiftly jokes? well I was looking at a book i think was called the witch's heart Opened to any page and read the sentence 'Bob said, conversationally, what do you do for work?

Is that even a word, and why would you add it? It wasnt a parody or anything. Needless to say I closed it and quickly put it a way, she said swiftly....

Conversationally - trying to make conversation, or small talk, rather than sharply questioning, for instance. He wasn't really interested in the answer, is what that says.

the push by ashley audrain

>179 jjmcgaffey: yeah I get that, but why add it when one assumes that by his words. Oh well just me

Still pacing slowly along having finished the very short Child of Fortune by Yuko Tsushima.

I'm nearly a quarter of the way through Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging by Afua Hirsch, and I'll start reading The Tuner of Silences by Mia Couto later today or tomorrow.

Finished two Thomas Cromwell books today - Mantel's The Mirror and the Light and a biography (on audio), Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life by Diarmaid MacCulloch. Made for interesting pairing. I haven't started yet, but next should be Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov in paper. But not clue what my next audio book will be.

I really have to finish this 900 page book by Robert Galbraith

Halfway through Tropic of Kansas. So far, not bad.

On audible I picked up Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude, who also reads it. This will be my next audiobook (inspired by my Baldwin theme, but also by kidzdoc)

I’m reading:

I Belong Here: A Journey Along the Backbone of Britain by Anita Sethi on audio. A reflection on belonging and racism while the author sets out through the Pennines.

Penric and the Shaman by Lois McMaster Bujold for my bedtime kindle book.

Piero Della Francesca and the Invention of the Artist Machtelt Brüggen Israëls (I’m currently doing a course on Piero della Francesca).

Head On by John Scalzi

>176 cindydavid4: The first book is Resurrection Bay. The character wasn't born deaf but lost his hearing in childhood. As a hearing person I'm not sure how well he's portrayed, though he feels realistic to me.

>189 rhian_of_oz: huh, every review ive seen says it from birth, but i trust you much more than them! Heres what I mean about realistic - a children's book with a deaf from birth character was able to read the lips of robbers while he was in a cave, and solved the crime,and became a hero. Profoundly deaf from birth does not give you those skills, it takes years to prefect. Ill take a look at it, sounds interesting

Still finishing Lemon Drop Dead. I am hoping to get back to reading more regularly and being able to concentrate again, as soon as all the house sale and moving stuff settles down.

I am reading Piranesi.

Finished Troubled Blood. Enjoyed reading. It just occurred to me I don’t know what the title means in terms of the book.

Just started The Family Upstairs

The Baby Merchant by Kit Reed. I find Reed's body of work a little uneven, but I keep hoping that one of her novels will live up to @expectations. I'm not sure that the baby-procurement-racket-in-a-world-with-plummeting-birthrates isn't a somewhat tired theme, but I am enjoying the characters in this one.

I finished The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois. This classic set of essays, first published in 1903 during the full savagery of Jim Crow America, is W.E.B Du Bois' heartfelt and detailed description of race relations, particularly in the South, and the plight of African Americans trying to attain some level of dignity and prosperity in the face harsh and determined resistance from white America. My somewhat longer review can be found on my own CR thread.

I'm still reading through The Best of It: New and Selected Poems by Kay Ryan for my book group, which meets next week.

Next up for me will be We Band of Brothers, which is not a World War Two account, but is the memoir by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Edwin O. Guthman about his time working for Robert Kennedy, both in the Justice Department and in the U.S. Senate.

Recently finished Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale by Marina Warner, which packed a lot of thoughtfulness into a very short space.

I'm now reading There There by Tommy Orange, and, wow, can that guy write.

>196 bragan: There There is fantastic! I just finished it yesterday.

>197 Yells: We are book twins! :)

>196 bragan: >197 Yells: nice to that title pop up here again

Started Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and its Urgent Lesson for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude, jr. on audio this morning - inspired by kidzdoc. The introductory is exceptionally eloquent and moving.

Forgetting to post again, but thanks to a string of lovely days for reading on the balcony, I've caught up a bit from my earlier hiatus.

Most astonishingly, I've got around to finishing the first part of Elena Ferrante's tetralogy, which I started in 2015 (it was the Italian, not the story, that was holding me up...).

But since my last post here I've also finished another longish German novel, Landgericht, completed my readthrough of Bolaño's short stories with El Secreto del Mal, read crime stories by Jean Echenoz, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán and Ann Cleeves, and re-read L'écume des jours. And today I polished off Victoria Glendinning's Rebecca West: a life, which has been hanging around on the TBR for a while. (Pauses to catch breath...)

I finished Piranesi and started The Feast of Love.

I finished Iris Murdoch's The Red and the Green—half historical novel, half highly thwarted bedroom farce, set in the week leading up to the Irish Easter Rebellion. Strange but fun. Not sure what's on deck next.

I've finally finished You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?!. I'll be starting Kwaidan either today or at breakfast tomorrow. And I'm working my way through the 2021 edition of What Color is Your Parachute, but that's more a practical need than a book I picked because I'm interested.