WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 2

Dit is een voortzetting van het onderwerp WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 1.

Dit onderwerp werd voortgezet door WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 3.

DiscussieClub Read 2021

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WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 2

1AnnieMod
feb 1, 2021, 2:06 pm

As we had been extremely chatty this year, the shortest month of the year brings a new thread as well.

According to the news, most of the Northern hemisphere regions that get snow, did get some last month and I suspect that the southern hemisphere is enjoying a nice summer.

So... grab your hot/cold drink and come tell us what you are reading :)

2LadyoftheLodge
feb 1, 2021, 3:21 pm

I am reading the latest Alexander McCall Smith in the #1 Ladies Detective series How to Raise an Elephant and also finishing Manhunt by Janet Evanovich.

3shadrach_anki
feb 1, 2021, 4:34 pm

I've got a mug of blood orange rooibos, and my current reads are Her Caprice by Keira Dominguez; Brandon Sanderson's Rhythm of War; The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien; and Laura Vanderkam's All the Money in the World. Then there's the pile of books I have waiting to start....

4RidgewayGirl
feb 1, 2021, 4:37 pm

I'm almost finished Maria Popova's Figuring, and wondering how to even describe it.

I'm also reading Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi and despite my best efforts, not getting much out of it.

But I am enjoying Allie Brosh's excellent graphic memoir, Solutions and Other Problems, which is funny and heart-breaking. And I've started Red Pill by Hari Kunzru and despite disliking the main character, I can't stop reading it.

5baswood
feb 1, 2021, 7:24 pm

My next book is The Age of Longing, Arthur Koestler published in 1951 and said to be science fiction.

6dianeham
feb 1, 2021, 7:46 pm

I'm reading The True Deceiver.

7BLBera
feb 1, 2021, 8:06 pm

8Nickelini
feb 1, 2021, 9:59 pm

Peace Talks by Tim Finch is my novel, The Weather Detective is my non-fiction, and Theft by Finding by David Sedaris is my read-at-work book

9jjmcgaffey
Bewerkt: feb 4, 2021, 4:49 am

I'm (still) reading Mudlark - it's fascinating but dense, so I'm not reading much at one time. And I don't have a paper book going at the moment, need to choose one (that's usually my division).

10rachbxl
feb 2, 2021, 4:27 am

I’ve struggled to get going this year, but I’m now well on the way to finishing Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi, and on the side I’m being entertained by The Hating Game by Sally Thorne.

11stretch
Bewerkt: feb 2, 2021, 8:46 am

Finished a minute ago Across the Green Grass Fields, the latest in the Wayward Children Series and Lost Boy a Peter Pan re-telling. I thoroughly enjoyed both, even if they aren't exactly the best written works. Finally caught up my own thread but have fallen woefully behind everywhere else.

12thorold
feb 2, 2021, 10:25 am

No snow here (yet...), just lots of rain. This morning I finished Vuile handen, the second part of J J Voskuil’s long Dutch novel about office life. Still five volumes to go and a good twenty years before the central character gets to retirement age...

I’ve started Sir Hall Caine’s The Manxman, on the basis that I’ve always been mildly curious to read one of his books, and the “small countries” theme gives me a flimsy pretext to include it.

13lisapeet
feb 3, 2021, 8:30 am

I finished Sylvia Townsend Warner's The Corner That Held Them, which was weird and wonderful and just perfect for my mood at the moment. Now on to volume 2 of Robert Gipe's series, Weedeater—I adored the first, Trampoline, and am planning to talk to him next week for a Bloom piece.

14rocketjk
feb 3, 2021, 1:34 pm

I'm approaching the halfway point in The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World - and Globalization Began by Valerie Hansen. This is a book group selection! So far I'm finding the individual sections interesting, but I'm still on the fence about how well she's making the overall case that the events described represent the beginning of globalization.

15AnnieMod
feb 3, 2021, 1:45 pm

>14 rocketjk: 1000 sounds awfully early for a start of globalization... I was wondering how that will be tied together when I saw you are reading it. I will be curious to see if there is a proper argument at the end.

16CristianDaniel
feb 3, 2021, 1:53 pm

I want to start reading more of a book series named "Able Team". I found the books on this website I just don't know how to start reading them.

17AnnieMod
feb 3, 2021, 2:00 pm

>16 CristianDaniel: You cannot read them here. LT is not a site where you can read books -- it is for cataloging your library. So you will need to find the book somewhere else - a bookstore, a library, another site online.

18LadyoftheLodge
feb 3, 2021, 2:02 pm

I read The Crown in Crisis which is about the abdication of King Edward VIII. Such drama and history! Well documented and researched, includes extensive notes, index, and bibliography.

19rocketjk
Bewerkt: feb 3, 2021, 2:58 pm

>15 AnnieMod: The author's point is that that was the time when exploration began connecting up far flung parts of the world and creating more trade. So, for example, the first chapter has to do with the Viking travels to North America and the trade that was done between them and the indigenous people they met. It wasn't that everybody was trading with everybody else (as we think of globalization now) but that there were no longer wholly disconnected areas. The second chapter is about the concurrent spread of trading, both north and south, by the Mayans. She also describes the concept of "trickle trading," in which artifacts are found far away from their origins, not because the originators had direct contact with the far-off places the artifacts were found, but because they got passed along via trading from one neighboring group to another, until they ended up far away.

Again, I'm still assessing whether I think she's making her point adequately about the interconnectedness of it all, or whether she started with a concept which she then proceeded to jam all of findings into, whether they fit properly or not.

20AnnieMod
feb 3, 2021, 4:12 pm

>19 rocketjk: That sounds almost reasonable but still sounds way too early and as an attempt to use the "special" year... I can see some of the points but looking at what Byzantium and the Holy Roman Empire are doing at this time and how the rest of the the European map looks like at the start of the 11th century, it just does not scream globalization... There is reorganization and some consolidation (which may be used as a base for globalization I guess together with the trade paths)...

I will probably pick up the book anyway - I am on an 11th/12th century kick at the moment anyway although I am still dealing with Europe only. And I have a soft spot for books for specific years. ;)

I will wait to see what you think about the fitting of all of it under the title after you finish it :)

21rocketjk
Bewerkt: feb 3, 2021, 4:58 pm

>20 AnnieMod: " . . . it just does not scream globalization."

Well if it did, there wouldn't be any need for Hansen's book! :)

Again, I think it depends on how one defines globalization. Hansen is getting at a different, more preliminary sort of development, I think. I will certainly be interested in your reaction to the book. I'm even interested to see what my reaction will be when all is said and done.

22Nickelini
feb 3, 2021, 10:05 pm

I have too many books going . . . not that I'm confusing them (they are all very different from the other), but I'm feeling mentally chopped up:

My read-at-work book is Theft by Finding by David Sedaris (a huge book that was a gift from a coworker - not something I'd have picked up on my own but it's a pleasant way to spend my breaks)

Fiction:

Peace Talks, by Tim Finch. I'm really liking it, but it takes attention so I'm not always up for it
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Non-fiction:

How to Win Every Argument, Madsen Pirie - no narrative, and requires concentration, but I take it on one bit at a time
The Weather Detective, Peter Wohlleben

And I've put aside, but want to get back to:

A Fairy Tale, by Jonas T Bengtsson
The Hunting Party, by Lucy Foley

23cindydavid4
feb 3, 2021, 10:14 pm

>17 AnnieMod: it is for cataloging your library

or for talking about books when you read them!

24AnnieMod
feb 3, 2021, 10:16 pm

>23 cindydavid4: Or while you are reading them :) Or while thinking about reading them :) Or while you are looking at them with slanted eyes and trying not to start them because you already have 10 books started... ;)

25cindydavid4
feb 3, 2021, 10:29 pm

Hee, that too

26dianeham
Bewerkt: feb 4, 2021, 1:32 am

Dit bericht is door zijn auteur gewist.

27dianeham
Bewerkt: feb 4, 2021, 6:05 am

Dit bericht is door zijn auteur gewist.

28lilisin
feb 4, 2021, 3:23 am

>27 dianeham:

The book gets darker and darker so if you struggled with that then I wouldn't recommend this book to you.

After a dreadful start to this new reading year, I'm trying to turn the page (literally) so am reading the nonfiction The Trauma Cleaner as my book during my work lunch hour, and Atwood's The Testaments for home.

29jjmcgaffey
feb 4, 2021, 4:47 am

I'm actually reading two non-fiction and no fiction at the moment. Still working on Mudlark - excellent but dense enough I don't read much at a time. And I finally started Sons of the Profits - a very odd book about the founding of Seattle. It's simultaneously dense with information and written in a very breezy, storyteller style ("There were these two guys named Arthur and Charlie. Now those two did not get along well. There was the time..." about Arthur Denny and Charles Terry, two of the founders of Seattle). I'm enjoying it, but again I can't read a lot at one time - reading it at the table, a chapter or section at a time.

30ELiz_M
feb 4, 2021, 8:35 am

I recently finished Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race and had a fantastic Litsy discussion of The True Deceiver. Still reading Infinite Jest and The Three Kingdoms and have started Confessions of an English Opium Eater, which is more readable than I thought it would be.

31gsm235
feb 4, 2021, 1:38 pm

Dangerous Religious Ideas by Rachel S. Mikva; audio, non-fiction, 264 pages

32LadyoftheLodge
feb 4, 2021, 1:56 pm

I am currently reading The Vatican Cameos which is a Sherlock Holmes "adventure."

33avaland
Bewerkt: feb 4, 2021, 8:06 pm

Reading Ian MacLeod's Red Snow, a interesting sort of vampire novel that begins just after the Civil War.

Also reading The New Canon: An Anthology pf Canadian Poetry published in 2003. I've also stuck my nose in a few other books.... (the archaeology of gravestones book is on hold)

34BLBera
feb 5, 2021, 9:03 am

I just finished The Death of Vivek Oji and am starting The Nickel Boys.

35rhian_of_oz
feb 5, 2021, 9:37 am

I'm feeling a bit restless/unsettled this week - I've started The Returns and The Starless Sea but they've not yet grabbed me. I'm going to go browse Mt TBR and see if anything can maintain my attention.

36rhian_of_oz
feb 5, 2021, 10:21 pm

What I ended up grabbing and which grabbed me back in turn was The Dictionary of Lost Words. It's a cool (for this time of year) and soon-to-be rainy day here and the couch is beckoning.

37rocketjk
feb 6, 2021, 2:44 pm

I finished The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World - and Globalization Began by Valerie Hansen. Hansen here describes the growing interconnectedness between ever wider areas of the world for the purposes of trade, yes, but also the sharing of ideas and innovations. The year 1000 is really used as a sort of central point in time, one that Hansen frequently circles back to, but not one that she slavishly adheres to. She talks, really, about developments over a range of times within a 2- or 3-century time period, from around 900 to around 1200.

Basically, what Hansen does in this book is give us a tour around the world, circa 1000, to describe what an observant traveler then might have found, and both going back in time to illuminate how things got that way and then moving forward. What she wants to emphasize is that the world then was much more interconnected, that trade routes, for example, were much more far flung and markets more sophisticated, than we might imagine via a Western view through which we think of parts of the world as being "discovered" in the 15th and 16th centuries. You can read my more in-depth (or at least longer) comments on my CR thread.

Next up for me will be a return to E.F. Benson's delightful Mapp and Lucia series with the series' third book, Lucia in London.

38dianeham
feb 6, 2021, 3:26 pm

I keep starting books. I really need to stick with one.

39baswood
feb 6, 2021, 6:11 pm

I am starting Journey with Genius: Recollections and reflections concerning the D H Lawrences by Witter Bynner. It was of course published in 1951.

40japaul22
feb 6, 2021, 6:37 pm

I'm finally reading a book by Octavia Butler, Kindred, which has sucked me right in. I'm also dipping in and out of My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

41gsm235
feb 6, 2021, 8:03 pm

At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diod and translated from the French by Anna Moschovakis; digital, fiction, 160 pages. "A Senegalese man who, never before having left his village, finds himself fighting with the French army during World War I."

42LadyoftheLodge
feb 6, 2021, 9:04 pm

I read The Vatican Cameos which was a Sherlock Holmes pastiche. The premise was interesting, with alternating chapters between Holmes in 1901 and Michaelangelo in 1501. Some parts about the papacy were confusing. The worst part of it was all the typos, which drove me nuts. It needed final editing.

I am now reading Dear Miss Kopp which continues the story of the Kopp sisters, this time in an epistolary format that alternates amongst the sisters.

43dianeham
feb 6, 2021, 11:31 pm

Reading Girl A

44thorold
feb 7, 2021, 2:01 am

I finished The Manxman (and watched the Hitchcock film) — probably falls into the “not unjustly-neglected former bestseller” category, but both had their points.

Also read Zola and the Victorians, a well-researched but annoying book, and I’m now about halfway through another of my Christmas pile, a charming memoir by a Basque musician in Peru, Mi vida en la Amazonía.

45BLBera
feb 7, 2021, 2:03 pm

I just finished the powerful The Nickel Boys and am starting my reread of Paradise.

46dchaikin
feb 7, 2021, 9:53 pm

>37 rocketjk: catching this conversation. My first thought was the year 1000 was really late. Rome to China had their interconnected trade routes. It also brought in mind Europe Between the Oceans : Themes and Variations: 9000 BC-AD 1000 by Barry Cunliffe, which traces the elaborate pre-historic trade routes throughout Europe and well beyond through artifacts.

My current reading:
The Poetry of Petrarch by David Young - might finally be getting going on this
Collected Stories by Willa Cather
Henry VI Part 1 by Shakespeare - I've actually finished, reading the afterward essays in my Signet edition
A History of London by Stephen Inwood - finally post WWII.
A Promised Land by Obama - my (wonderful) audiobook.

(Side note: When I was reading Wolf Hall too, I as hitting London in the 1400 in a 1592 play with Henry VI, the 1530's with Wolf Hall, and, at time, Victorian London in the Inwood tome.)

47gsm235
feb 7, 2021, 11:22 pm

The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni; fiction, audio, 384 pages
Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky: A London Trilogy by Patrick Hamilton; fiction, digital, 521 pages

48rocketjk
Bewerkt: feb 8, 2021, 9:20 am

>46 dchaikin: "My first thought was the year 1000 was really late. Rome to China had their interconnected trade routes. It also brought in mind Europe Between the Oceans : Themes and Variations: 9000 BC-AD 1000 by Barry Cunliffe, which traces the elaborate pre-historic trade routes throughout Europe and well beyond through artifacts."

Hansen does go back before 1000 and talk about what had been accomplished beforehand. Her thesis is that 1000 and thereabouts is when trade routes expanded and interconnectivity increased. But as I mention in my full review, the book does sometimes feel like she is making developments fit into her theme rather than the other way around. Be all that as it may, the book does provide a usually interesting journey around the world of the time, examining political, cultural and economic conditions of the time as well as the important changes that were taking place.

49lisapeet
feb 8, 2021, 8:54 am

Finished Robert Gipe's wonderful Weedeater, the second in his Canard County trilogy. I don't always like series, but this one is so good (plus I'm interviewing him for my site Bloom tomorrow), so I'm jumping straight into the third, Pop.

50kidzdoc
feb 8, 2021, 10:14 am

I finished the outstanding nonfiction book Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Next up will be Anti-vaxxers: How to Challenge a Misinformed Movement by Jonathan M. Berman, which is also excellent so far.

51AnnieMod
feb 8, 2021, 10:30 am

Finished a post apocalyptic novel over the weekend (The Book of Koli) which was good (and a first in a trilogy and shows it...) and started When the Lion Feeds - first in a historical saga set in the late 19th century Colonial South Africa which so far is good as well.

52bragan
Bewerkt: feb 9, 2021, 6:59 pm

I'm reading an Early Reviewers book, Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejide. It's a very strange novel, but fascinating.

53baswood
feb 10, 2021, 4:42 am

My next book is one from the shelf Herzog by Saul Bellow. Perhaps I am sending out the wrong signals with my last few reads Arthur Koestler, A biography of D H Lawrence and now Saul Bellow: people may be starting to think I am some sort of misogynist with views tending towards fascism.

54avaland
feb 10, 2021, 8:43 am

Finished Ian R. MacLeod's vampire novel, Red Snow, and am now well into Margot Livesey's latest novel, The Boy in the Field. Two authors I have followed for a long time now.

55AlisonY
Bewerkt: feb 10, 2021, 11:11 am

I finished Hunger (phewww - someone pass the happy pills), and I think I'll move on to The Salt Path by Raynor Winn next. From one story of homelessness to another. (I may need more happy pills).

56SandDune
feb 10, 2021, 2:21 pm

>56 SandDune: I found The Salt Path quite uplifting by the end.

57AlisonY
feb 10, 2021, 2:31 pm

>56 SandDune: I'm expecting that it might be.

58dianeham
feb 10, 2021, 4:03 pm

59dianeham
feb 10, 2021, 11:29 pm

I'm reading Ammonite and not liking it much but I'm more than 70% done so trying to finish it.

60lisapeet
Bewerkt: feb 11, 2021, 7:56 am

Read the fun little All Systems Red in two days because my library hold came in. Everyone who assured me that I'd like this even though it didn't really look like my thing was completely right, and I'll definitely be chasing down more in the series. Now back to Pop.

61thorold
feb 11, 2021, 8:46 am

I've finished my next Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon (a re-read, well worth coming back to) and started the massive Spur der Steine (under 900 pages to go!). Snow and sunshine have been cutting into my reading time this week, but that won't last!

62rocketjk
feb 11, 2021, 2:39 pm

I finished Lucia in London by E.F. Benson. This is the third book (or second, depending on whose list you look at) in Benson's humorous Mapp and Lucia series about the upper-middle class in England between the World Wars. I found the novel to be fun light reading.

I've now started another book in my friend Kim Nalley's recommended list of works about African-American history and racism in America, Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism by Patricia Hill Collins.

63lilisin
Bewerkt: feb 12, 2021, 3:16 am

I have finished The Testaments by Margaret Atwood and am still reading The Trauma Cleaner during my lunch hour at work. I'll be done with it either Tuesday or Wednesday I think.

I'm still not having the greatest start to my reading year. And there is definitely something going on because I'm not having a great start to the year at my job either. Every morning though I wake up and tell myself from today things will be great so am definitely trying to remain positive. Let's hope I don't get fired while waiting for things to get better though!

64cindydavid4
feb 12, 2021, 11:55 am

Ive not had the best start either, distracted by news and work, plus I am in a challenge and focused on reading When Christ and His Saints Slept. However as I finished the decameron project a book everyone who has been affected by our present plague must read, decided to The Decameron. Oh and plus I am still in A Promised Land I suppose at some point I will finish at least one of these soon!

65dchaikin
feb 12, 2021, 1:07 pm

>64 cindydavid4: cool about the Decameron. I might just get there this year. Trying to remember why The Decameron Project sounds familiar... ah, the NY Times collection! I had a copy...but its gone missing now. :(

66dianeham
feb 12, 2021, 6:48 pm

I read Permafrost night before last and hated it.

Last night I started The Man Who Saw Everything

67Nickelini
feb 12, 2021, 7:32 pm

I'm starting Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill. It's late Friday afternoon of a three-day weekend here in Vancouver. The temperatures are very cold (under freezing most of the day), COVID-restrictions, and my daughter will be away later this weekend, so I hope to read as much as possible over the next 80 hours

68cindydavid4
Bewerkt: feb 12, 2021, 8:16 pm

>65 dchaikin: NYT magazine collected stories from a variety of writers, about heartwrencing profiles of victims, their familis and their care givers Its not trite or sugary, but very powerful..

69Nickelini
feb 12, 2021, 8:15 pm

>64 cindydavid4: & >65 dchaikin:
I read The Decameron beginning this time last year. It took me a few months because it's not the sort of thing I like to read straight through. I also followed the academically-suggested schedule that came with my edition, so it cut my reading from >700 pages to just under 500 pages.

70cindydavid4
feb 12, 2021, 8:18 pm

It does help if you ignore the 20+ page 'introduction' by the translatpr

71rhian_of_oz
feb 13, 2021, 10:34 am

I reread The Collapsing Empire in preparation for reading the remainder of the trilogy. Based on recent experience I suspect my enjoyment of subsequent books has been impacted by there being such a long gap since reading the previous book.

72LadyoftheLodge
feb 14, 2021, 1:21 pm

I finished A Perfect Amish Romance and also The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree. I am currently reading Evil Under the Sun and Sherlock Holmes and the Thistle of Scotland (which is a pastiche novel about jewel theft). So far I am liking both of these.

73gsm235
Bewerkt: feb 15, 2021, 10:09 pm

I've been busy with work (lot of folks with hair on fire needing stuff right now) and I have fallen behind with my comments. I really hope to be able to retire at the end or this year. I’ll make burnt offerings to the real estate gods when it comes time to sell my current home this summer.

Finished:

Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Very good hard boiled detective novel. I have read the first Philip Marlow novel twice, but never before have a read any of the sequels despite owning both the Library of America volumes. I don’t have a lot to say about the novel itself, but I think I’ll try to finish some more this year.

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne.

The author died before finishing this book and it was completed by his daughter who also helped him with research; parts of this biography don’t feel fully flushed out (like going from prison to leadership in the Nation of Islam) and maybe the author would have gotten around to filling in the details. However, the polished parts are good. Early in the book, when author describes a lynching and the verve of the mob, it reenforces how the underpinnings of bias that were swarming back then are still alive today.

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica and translated from the Spanish by Sarah Moses

Some people categorize this novel as horror—which is understandable, and maybe even partially true, but I think that is an oversimplification. Then basic premise is that a worldwide virus has made all animals poisonous to humans, so all animals have to be killed. These leaves a gap in the meat industry, so people turn to dehumanization and cannibalism. Governments allow people to replace cattle with some strict rules in place. The truly horrific parts are not the grisly descriptions of meat processing, but how quickly dehumanization and cannibalism become normalized. Given that way the world is normalizing authoritarianism, I could almost see this happening.

I’m undecided about the final chapter. There are things I’d like to discuss with anyone who has read the book.

There is also a science fiction short story from 1972, “In the Barn” by Piers Anthony, where humans are turned in milk cattle.

Dangerous Religious Ideas by Rachael S. Mikva

This examination of how religion—especially Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—should be examined pluralistically with open self- criticism, and the author wants to make the case that the truly dangerous religious ideas are not those of ideological extremism. I’m not sure I really buy into all that, but wish it were true.

At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diod and translated from the French by Anna Moschovakis

"A Senegalese man who, never before having left his village, finds himself fighting with the French army during World War I." The main reason I picked up this novel was because I’m trying to read and book or an author from all the countries in the world and Senegal hadn’t been covered yet. I only finished the book a week ago, but nothing strong or memorable remains. I guess that’s not a very good recommendation.

The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I would have enjoyed this novel more if I were more familiar with the great Indian classics like Mahabharata or the Bhagavad Gita as this story could, rather flippantly, the greatest hits from those books retold from a women’s point of view. I guess it would be like reading Ulysses without knowing the The Odyssey; it can be done, but’s incomplete. As just a novel, this was okay. I have a gigantic omnibus of the India classics on Kindle and I should try to find the time read some of the works there.

Started:

The Good House by Tananarive Due; audio, horror, 597 pages

74dchaikin
feb 14, 2021, 11:15 pm

>73 gsm235: quite some catch up.

It’s snowing in Houston as we are likely to have out coldest day on record, ever, tomorrow. Hoping my pipes survive.

I finished A History of London today. That’s a 1000 oversized pages, and some 50 plus hours of reading. Feels like a big deal. It’s my first “TBR” book this year. I’m about to start Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga.

75dianeham
feb 15, 2021, 1:07 am

>74 dchaikin: snow? Wow!

I just finished Sand.

76ELiz_M
feb 15, 2021, 7:20 am

>74 dchaikin: Wow, that is cold (17 F!?!!) In Minnesota pipes don't freeze until it's well below zero, but pipes probably have more/different insulation there. If you are really worried, let cold water drip from the faucets/taps -- running water keeps the pipes from freezing.

77lisapeet
feb 15, 2021, 8:50 am

>76 ELiz_M:. Yikes, Dan. Echoing Elizabeth's advice—we even do that here in NYC when it gets down to single digits overnight, since I'm never sure how consistently insulated our pipes are. There's one spot in the kitchen where they must have run out of blow-in insulation in the exterior wall, because there's always a three-foot-wide freezing spot. Fortunately it's next to the stove, so that's fixable.

I finished Pop: An Illustrated Novel, which I didn't love the way I loved the first two in the series, but enjoyed nonetheless. I got a strong sense of him throwing everything into it because it was the last volume—there were Trump politics, crazy visions and ghosts, an unexpected reveal, and a murder—but I still think the illustrated format was great, and it certainly wasn't a drag to read.

Next up: Enchantments: Joseph Cornell and American Modernism for review. I have a PDF but the text is pain-in-the-ass small, so I'm antsy for my print copy to show up.

78dchaikin
feb 15, 2021, 11:06 am

>76 ELiz_M: yup. Taps dripping. Houston homes aren’t designed for freezes. Definitely not Minnesota-designed.

>77 lisapeet: thanks. I thought NY would be more prepared. Interesting about Pop. Looks like only two LT members have a copy.

79rhian_of_oz
feb 15, 2021, 11:09 am

Bought and read Faithless in Death.

80lisapeet
feb 15, 2021, 11:49 am

>78 dchaikin: I'm sure most of NY is. My house was renovated on the super cheap, being a middle income incentive government job where the city paid for the gut renovation and 1/3 of the purchase price—everything that called for four screws got three, etc. And given what I paid for a two-family house and three-car garage within the bounds of NYC, I'm not complaining. I can cough up the cash for those extra screws (or the insulation, though apparently I haven't yet in 17 years).

81Nickelini
feb 15, 2021, 3:00 pm

I'm currently reading 5 books so not making a lot of progress on any one of them.

The Better Mother, by Jen Sookfong Lee - a novel set in Vancouver's Chinatown and the beginning of the AIDs epidemic of the early 80s
The Weather Detective - my current non-fiction book
Purple Hibiscus - this one bumped up my TBR pile when a coworker asked me to discuss it with him
There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced her Sister's Husband, and He Hanged Himself: Love Stories by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya - short stories
... and my on-going book that I'm reading at the office - Theft By Finding by David Sedaris

82jjmcgaffey
Bewerkt: feb 15, 2021, 4:20 pm

>73 gsm235: Yeah, I was thinking about the SF story (though I wouldn't have been able to come up with the name, or author!) reading your description of Tender is the Flesh.

I just started Four Colors Suffice by Robin Wilson. It's a lot more about math and less about maps than I was expecting - but since both are interests of mine, it still works.

83baswood
feb 15, 2021, 4:22 pm

Another science fiction novel from the masterwork series Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss

84lilisin
feb 16, 2021, 2:48 am

I have started the 1st volume of the 5 volume Chinese Classic Story of the Stone by Cao Xuequin for my at home book and I'm excited because I'm already transported into the wonderful story. I was doubtful at first but I think that it'll take me only about as long as last year's The Water Margin to read.

For my at work book I'm reading Sanmao's Stories of the Sahara which is a travelogue by a Taiwanese woman in, well, the Sahara. I just started it today so I've only read the introduction, translator's note, and the first chapter, but this looks to be the perfect fast read that'll carry me to another land while I'm on my lunch break.

85dianeham
feb 16, 2021, 3:03 am

I'm betwixt & between.

86shadrach_anki
feb 16, 2021, 3:01 pm

I am in the midst of several books, so it feels like I'm reading a lot and not making much progress.

On the nonfiction front, I am slowly making my way through Saints: The Standard of Truth and Laura Vanderkam's All the Money in the World. This is fairly common when it comes to nonfiction. Though I did zoom through Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops by Shaun Bythell the other day, so it is probable that I just need the right kind of nonfiction to really excite my interest.

Still, I read more fiction in general. I'm currently switching between three: Tolkien's The Two Towers; Gaskell's North and South; and Mary Stewart's Nine Coaches Waiting. All three are group/buddy reads, and I am enjoying all of them, but at the same time there's a part of me that wants to start something completely different.

87AnnieMod
feb 17, 2021, 12:58 pm

Finished Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle last night which could have been better but was interesting enough (and both the subtitle and the cover have big problems) and started Road Out of Winter another of the Dick nominees (an apocalyptic thriller apparently) which is not bad so far. I also have a few non-fiction books in various stages of completion so we will see what gets finished first.

And I am back to writing reviews - I will get caught up later, for now I will just post about the book I just finished (and then backfill when I have a chance).

88bragan
feb 18, 2021, 4:50 am

I'm reading The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald, and while I'm usually something of a soft touch for books about books and bookstores, even I have to admit this one is... not good.

89shadrach_anki
feb 18, 2021, 9:53 am

>88 bragan: I read that one back in 2016, and it looks like I gave it three stars, but I seem to remember being underwhelmed by it, and I could not tell you a thing about the plot now.

90japaul22
feb 18, 2021, 10:01 am

I'm about halfway through Braiding Sweetgrass - definitely a book to be savored and to wait for the right mood to read.

I've recently finished My Own Words by RBG which was surprisingly disappointing. And I read a short apocalyptic suspense which I really liked, Moon of the Crusted Snow.

Now I've jumped in a little late to a Trollope group read of Orley Farm - I can't resist these group reads that lyzard leads in the 75ers group!

I'm also tracking a few library books that will come in soon and a couple March group reads I'd like to join. I was sort of floundering for what to read in January and now I have the opposite problem . . .

91AnnieMod
feb 18, 2021, 2:52 pm

Finished History: A Very Short Introduction last night which was good (with some qualifications) -- I did mention that I have a few non-fiction books on the go... :)

And even wrote a review plus reviews for 2 more of those orphan books in the middle. :)

92LadyoftheLodge
feb 18, 2021, 3:46 pm

I just finished Sherlock Holmes and the Thistle of Scotland which is actually a book that was published in 1990! Makes me wonder how long it has been on my shelf . . .. It is a pastiche novel in which Holmes and Watson are involved in locating a missing amethyst. I sort of guessed what had occurred, but not all the details, and there were some surprises and some clues that had nothing to do with the final outcome. I liked it!!

I am now reading A Year Like No Other by Pauline Lawless which is a book that showed up as a "You might also like..." on Amazon with the daily deals. This is a new author for me, and I started out by downloading a sample, and then got hooked on the story of four very different women who spend a year in Paris as part of a bank project, in one way or another. There were some bad reviews, but some very good ones too, and that made me determined to pop for the low price of $2.98 to find out if the book was really that bad/good/indifferent.

93bragan
feb 19, 2021, 7:43 am

>89 shadrach_anki: I think I had a more negative reaction The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend than many, but I will stand by my opinion that everything in it is dumb. :)

I've finished it now, though, and have stared Network Effect by Martha Wells. Ah, Murderbot, sweetie, I have missed you!

94BLBera
feb 19, 2021, 8:50 am

I'm just starting The Vanishing Half.

95cindydavid4
feb 19, 2021, 9:27 am

Medusa Uploaded for our sci fi group. This is a local author, her first book, and so far I am loving it!

96rocketjk
feb 19, 2021, 3:04 pm

I finished Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism by Patricia Hill Colliins. Collins outlines her views here on the development of gender roles and identification within the Black community in America. In particular, she focuses on the ways in which these roles have been shaped, one might say warped as well, by the histories of slavery and subsequent oppression, and how they have evolved through the lens of popular culture, movies and television in particular. Published in 2004, the book is somewhat dated in that social media is barely mentioned and that constructive Black representation, it seems to me, has improved in our culture over the intervening years. That's not to say that this isn't still an extremely valuable book. I certainly learned a lot about how post-Civil Rights Movement racism (referred to by Collins as "color-blind racism") has continued to affect millions of Americans. You can find a bit more of my thoughts on this book on my own CR thread.

Looking for something a bit lighter and excited about the opening of Major League Baseball's Spring Training, I'm now reading Pennant Race relief pitcher Jim Brosnan's memoir about life in the Cincinnati Reds' bullpen during the team's unlikely pennant winning season in 1961.

97jjmcgaffey
Bewerkt: feb 22, 2021, 3:26 am

I picked up Sourdough by Robin Sloan - my library was doing a (virtual) talk with him, and I thought I really ought to read this book. I had read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore some time ago, but I don't remember much about it. I'm enjoying Sourdough - nice mix of solid (and familiar - it's partly set in my city) and magical, and interesting characters.

I'm almost finished with Four Colors Suffice; not a quick read, but interesting for both the math and the history.

98dianeham
feb 19, 2021, 9:15 pm

>97 jjmcgaffey: This Sourdough links to the book by Robert Sloan. The other linked to Robert Service - which also looked interesting.

99thorold
feb 20, 2021, 9:19 am

I'm still rather bogged down in the interminable The seven basic plots and about a third of the way into Spur der Steine.

To finish at least something this week, I picked up a recent short story collection, Canciones para el incendio by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, which was very interesting (and only took a couple of days to finish!), like everything else of his I've read.

...and now, back to the building site!

100baswood
feb 20, 2021, 9:52 am

My next book published in 1951 is Rain on the Pavements br Roland Camberton

101dianeham
feb 21, 2021, 12:39 am

>97 jjmcgaffey: Thanks for the bb. I'm reading Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

102dchaikin
feb 21, 2021, 12:57 pm

In the midst of the weather, I received and started two more Petrarch Canzonier translations: Petrarch: Selected Sonnets, Odes and Letters edited by Thomas Goddin Bergin (1966) and Petrarch: The Canzoniere, or Rerum vulgarium fragmenta by Mark Musa (1996)

Musa has been reinvigorating because his notes tell me so much, and makes the work much more meaningful. However, it's also sometimes hard to see the poetry for the details. Bergin is a collection of older translations (including at least one by Chaucer and Wyatt). So far I've read mostly his own translation - and they force to the rhymes. They're arguably terrible. But having the other translations and seeing what he was up against, it's still entertaining.

103stretch
feb 21, 2021, 7:24 pm

Completed Tender is the Flesh that had a ton of potential as disturbing look at our insatiable consumption and how easily we can cross our "red line" morals, that really didn't totally fulfill that early promise.

104LadyoftheLodge
feb 21, 2021, 8:14 pm

I am currently reading a historical novel The Thief of Blackfriars Lane for NetGalley. It is giving me quite the education about the underground world of thieves in London.

105jjmcgaffey
feb 22, 2021, 3:27 am

>98 dianeham: Thanks, fixed it. I like Service, but I'm not reading him at the moment...

106AlisonY
feb 22, 2021, 3:54 am

I really loved The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. A beautifully written book about finding your inner strength amongst nature when life is throwing massive boulders at you.

On a bit of a continued wildness theme, I started yesterday Running for the Hills by Horatio Claire which so far I'm also really enjoying.

107ELiz_M
Bewerkt: feb 22, 2021, 7:53 am

Finished Infinite Jest which is 3/5 enthralling, 3/50 horrifying and 1/3 boring. Given the multiple inter-connected view-points/story lines and nonlinear structure, I am fighting the urge to re-read it chronologically....

108thorold
feb 22, 2021, 12:42 pm

My walk this morning was doubly enjoyable: as well as pleasant countryside and fine weather, it got me to the end of the ridiculously long audiobook of The seven basic plots. And the good news is that it does stop eventually!

109dchaikin
feb 22, 2021, 12:57 pm

>107 ELiz_M: congrats. I thought about re-reading after finishing. Haven’t done that yet.

110cindydavid4
Bewerkt: feb 22, 2021, 8:50 pm

on recommendation hereabouts picked up inside out and back again at my used/ Still making my waythrough Medusa Uploaded and really liking her characters and was really able to pull off her plot

111dianeham
feb 22, 2021, 5:48 pm

I'm reading The Wall Around Eden and it's an actual physical book.

112baswood
feb 22, 2021, 6:48 pm

>102 dchaikin: How many translations have you now got of the Canzoniere?

113AnnieMod
Bewerkt: feb 22, 2021, 11:15 pm

Spent most of the end of last week reading so quite a lot of books to report (some of them I had been reading since earlier in the week):

- Road Out of Winter by Alison Stine - an apocalyptic novel which was better than I expected - and a lot scarier because it is so close to where we are.
- A Land Apart: The Southwest and the Nation in the Twentieth Century by Flannery Burke - A cultural history of Arizona and New Mexico which was very dense but very informative.
- The Time Machine by H. G. Wells - I was absolutely sure I had read this. If so, I really had forgotten everything. Loved it.
- Sovereignty by Mary Kathryn Nagle - a play set in 2 timelines - the 1830s and today - about the Cherokee Nation efforts to win sovereignty (and to have it acknowledged)
- A Nail the Evening Hangs on by Monica Sok - a debut poetry collection from a Cambodian American author which somehow managed to connect with me in ways I did not expect.

All reviews for the above are in my thread and in the works. And while I was around, two more reviews: the post apocalyptic The Book of Koli by M. R. Carey (and when I say post, I mean post - the post apocalypse of the post apocalypse passed before we even start this story) and the historical saga When the Lion Feeds by Wilbur Smith set in the late 19th century in what will one day become South Africa.

Not sure what is next besides the few books I am slowly making through - probably back to one of the Parker series - I need something easy and quick to read after all of these...

114dchaikin
feb 22, 2021, 11:33 pm

>112 baswood: three now. 🙂 (Bergin’s anthology, Musa and David Young.)

115dianeham
feb 23, 2021, 1:12 am

116rhian_of_oz
feb 23, 2021, 3:17 am

Another weekend, another light read (romantic suspense) Hideaway by the ever reliable Ms Roberts

117SandDune
feb 23, 2021, 3:27 am

I am reading Paradise Lost (I have just started a course studying this) and The Accidental by Ali Smith which is my next RL book club choice. Also listening to Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh. on Audible and reading Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

118avaland
Bewerkt: feb 23, 2021, 5:06 am

Have finished (2nd reading) of two volumes poetry and have abandoned John Banville's "The Snow" after 80 or so pages.

Moving on to Mount Pleasant by Patrice Nganang

119avaland
feb 23, 2021, 5:05 am

>113 AnnieMod: Such a great mix of reading!

120baswood
feb 23, 2021, 11:20 am

I have started La Familia Grande for some work set by my french teacher. The subject is incest: I have a strange/interesting French Prof.

121AnnieMod
feb 24, 2021, 5:25 pm

Robert B. Parker's Grudge Match was exactly what I needed - even if it was weaker than I hoped for, it actually gave me what I needed.

Now back to Dick's nominees with The Doors of Eden which so far is as good as anything else Adrian Tchaikovsky had written and alongside it Stranger by Night: Poems - the latest poetry collection by Edward Hirsch which is sad and melancholy but very moving so far.

122rocketjk
feb 24, 2021, 5:28 pm

I finished the baseball memoir Pennant Race, relief pitcher Jim Brosnan's entertaining memoir about life on the 1961 Cincinnati Reds, a team that surprised the baseball world by winning the National League Pennant.

I'm now going back to the wonderful world of Travis McGee via the 6th book in John D. McDonald's classic series, Bright Orange for the Shroud.

123cindydavid4
Bewerkt: feb 24, 2021, 9:55 pm

I remember after the vietnam war, watching the fall of Saigon and hearing about the boat refugees. I was so heart broken, wanted them all to be safe. Knew what was happening here with rescue, adoptions, etc, and knew it must have been so hard for so many. Not so much what was giong on there - Right now reading Inside Out and Back Again a YA book, and am enthralled how this short book, written in verse can bring the struggles of one young girl and her family, more powerfull than a book three timse its size. Lots of people will be getting this for birtday gifts YA or not, and I do hope this author has more books up her sleeve

Also reading still Medusa Uploaded which is another book with a different way of telling a tale.

124Dilara86
feb 25, 2021, 6:08 am

>120 baswood: How topical! (This book made the news when it was published earlier this year because it revealed that politician and academic Olivier Duhamel raped his stepson. He was forced to resign.)

I am reading Le rivage des Syrtes (The Opposing Shore) by Julien Gracq, a 20th-century classic I've been meaning to read for ages.

125baswood
feb 25, 2021, 8:19 am

>124 Dilara86: I am 100 pages into Le Rivage des Syrtes which has an atmosphere all of its own. I am enjoying it

126Dilara86
feb 25, 2021, 8:38 am

Excellent! I'm on pages 52! But I am going to take a break and start à la lumière d'hiver, a poetry collection by Philippe Jaccottet, who I've just heard died yesterday.
I am looking forward to your review of Le Rivage des Syrtes. Are you reading it in French? The language is beautiful but not easy; it's like reading Racine...

127rhian_of_oz
feb 25, 2021, 10:17 am

I realised I forgot to mention that one of the books I'm juggling at the moment is The Consuming Fire.

128japaul22
feb 25, 2021, 12:06 pm

I finished Braiding Sweetgrass, an excellent collection of essays on Indigenous interaction with the environment.

I'm continuing with Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope which is one of the better standalone novels of his that I've read.

And I've just started one of the new "it books" of 2021, The Push by Ashley Audrain. It is as expected - suspenseful and a fast read. A "potato chip" read - it's too compelling to read just one page but I'll probably not be completely satisfied at the end.

129Nickelini
feb 25, 2021, 2:05 pm

>128 japaul22:
I’m all for the potato chip books this year

130AnnieMod
feb 25, 2021, 2:23 pm

>128 japaul22: One cannot read only deep and serious books. I call these popcorn books :)

131LadyoftheLodge
feb 25, 2021, 3:04 pm

>130 AnnieMod: Yep! "Brain candy" is my favored term.

I am currently reading Killer Keys by Mildred Abbott. It is part of a series about a bookstore owner sleuth. They are fun to read and definitely "brain candy." I own the whole series but am backtracking to fill in the ones I missed.

132dianeham
feb 25, 2021, 5:20 pm

>128 japaul22: I read The Push and I was very satisfied with the ending.

I call them potato chips too! I'm reading one now Black Widows. I'm only half way through but I don't see how it can go on much longer.

133baswood
feb 25, 2021, 7:24 pm

>126 Dilara86: Yes I am reading it in French - I have a large dictionary and I may be some time

134gsm235
feb 25, 2021, 8:52 pm

JR by William Gaddis; print & audio, novel, 770 pages

--Difficult…? in a voice that quavered.
--Yes, well, just that, but…
--Sounds hard, looks really big and heavy too. Do you think I could hold it for more than a few minutes without my hands aching? How is the print size? I don’t see any chapter breaks, only this unending stream of lines.
--Why would someone want to read a difficult novel when there are so many easy reading books available on the bestseller lists. That’s what I want, no fuss no muss.
--Of course, yes, of course, it’s a long a novel, seven hundred and seventy pages, and the text is dense, forty lines per pages, and no chapters breaks, of course.
--Why didn’t the author use chapters? Didn’t he know that it’s the author’s job to make it easy for the reader.
--You want us to read that?
--Yes, and the author was deliberate with his choice of writing style, he wanted to show the complexity of, of, oh, of life and communications, or something, how it’s not always simple to understand everything that’s going on. He wanted readers to pay attention. From one line to the next scenes and characters could shift, hours or days could pass, and it’s almost completely told through unattributed dialog, naturalistic dialog, too, so characters can often say “ahm”, “hey”, “holy” with stops, starts, and word breaks . All said and told, there are maybe fifty pages worth of narrative.
--The author never says who’s talking?
--I like action. Is there a lot of action? What’s the story about?
--Nope and nope. This novel is a satire of business, banking, and finances, and the author wants to point out the absurdity of how we, society, deal with money. First of all, this novel is a satire of business, banking, and finances, and the author wants to point out the absurdity of how we, society, deal with money. Secondly, is how the artist (painters, writers, composers) function in this environment. The book was published in 1975, but, oddly, it doesn’t seem too dated. The main of the plot revolves around an eleven-year-old boy, the JR of the title, who loves writing away the classified ads for “free stuff” and “get rich quick” schemes. One day his class takes a day trip to New York City to buy a single stock certificate. Then, using the pay phone at his school and a handkerchief to muffle his voice, he is able to convince banks that the one certificate is actually more and is able to start buying unsuccessful business for the tax write off value. Of course, JR has no income to apply the tax write off to, but he has amasses a paper empire theocratically worth millions. Early on, JR loans to broke music teacher ten dollars, and uses that to force the music teacher to appear has the face of the company.
--Doesn’t sound realistic to me.
-- JR sounds like he was doing the kind of this Bernie Madoff was doing. How could a little boy do all that?
--That’s probably the point. Thirty three years before Madoff, the author was saying that the financial industry is so corrupt, debased, and underhanded that it could be open to the manipulations of an ignorant boy. And JR is very ignorant. Later in the novel, when the paper empire begins to implode, JR complains to his music teacher, that he got this importing looking document, but he doesn’t understand what the word subpoena means because he hasn’t learned it in school yet. The book can be brutally funny. There is scene when the music teacher to trying to teach JR about celestial beauty by listening to Bach’s Cantata 21, but JR is unable to hear the soprano singing (in German) “ach nein”, he hears her singing “up mine” and male counterpoint singing “up yours.”

Okay, that’s enough of my amateur attempt to imitate the writing style of William Gaddis. I was captivated by this novel and for the first time in a few years, I’ve a added a new book to my favorites. I can wholly recommend the unabridged audiobook version narrated by Nick Sullivan. He does an excellent job giving all the charters unique voices. I also read the book simultaneously while listening, something I’ve never done before.

135AnnieMod
feb 25, 2021, 9:02 pm

>133 baswood: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd took me more than a month in the summer of 1995. First complete books in new languages can be intimidating sometimes :)

136Dilara86
feb 26, 2021, 7:03 am

>133 baswood: Well, would you be interested in a group read for mutual help and company? (You can say "no thanks" if it doesn't appeal. I wont take it personally ;-))

137gsm235
Bewerkt: feb 26, 2021, 9:54 pm

Currently reading Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (digital & audio, historical novel, 435 pages) to get ready for the discussion next month.

138rocketjk
feb 27, 2021, 1:19 pm

Last night I finished Bright Orange for the Shroud, the 6th book in John D. MacDonald's classic Travis McGee series. Fun as always, although this entry seemed a bit darker than the first five.

Next up for me will be They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers.

139LadyoftheLodge
feb 27, 2021, 1:20 pm

I am currently reading An Amish Homecoming by Rosalind Lauer and so far it is a hilarious send up of the clash between Amish culture and Englishers who come to stay for awhile.

140baswood
feb 27, 2021, 5:25 pm

>136 Dilara86: Yes I would certainly appreciate some mutual help. I am finishing reading La Familia Grande probably in the next couple of days and then it is back to Le Rivage des Syrtes Do you think we will find out more about Farghestan? I will keep you up to date on my progress on my thread.

141dianeham
feb 27, 2021, 11:01 pm

Reading The Unit

142lisapeet
Bewerkt: feb 28, 2021, 9:30 am

Taking a break from the interesting but densely art-theoretical Enchantments: Joseph Cornell and American Modernism—very much NOT a potato chip book—and am about halfway through Jess Walter's The Cold Millions. That isn't really a potato chip either, but it's an engaging and well done novel set during the labor wars of the early 20th-century Pacific Northwest.

143cindydavid4
feb 28, 2021, 9:50 am

Oh I loved Beautiful Ruins been wanting to read this new one.

144BLBera
feb 28, 2021, 10:46 am

>141 dianeham: I found The Unit very chilling. I'll watch for your comments.

I just finished The Vanishing Half, very interesting take on passing. I am currently reading Outlawed and loving it, a dystopian, women-centered Western.

145lisapeet
feb 28, 2021, 11:03 am

>144 BLBera: I've seen outlawed around but didn't know what to think of it based on the blurbs—I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.

146Dilara86
feb 28, 2021, 2:32 pm

>140 baswood: I'll head over then. I'm on page 134 now. I have a couple of other books on the go Récits & contes populaire du Poitou and Silk Road Vegetarian, so I'll read them in the meantime.

147Nickelini
Bewerkt: feb 28, 2021, 3:08 pm

A couple of weeks ago I posted that I was reading 5 books at the same time, and I'm here to say I've finished 4 of them: Purple Hibiscus, Theft By Finding, The Weather Detective, and The Better Mother. Still a few pages to go with There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister's Husband and He Hanged Himself. Although I said back a few posts that I need more potato chip books in 2021, none of these were potato chip books, so I'll have to be more careful with my next selection.

148dianeham
feb 28, 2021, 7:40 pm

I read The Victorian Chaise-Longue last night. So happy to have found this book. Still reading The Unit but I have to stop and take breaks from it because it's so overwhelming.

149dchaikin
Bewerkt: feb 28, 2021, 8:46 pm

I finished a book. Feels like news, as I'm spending a lot of time not getting very far on Petrarch, and there are some other books I'm working through slowly. Anyway, I finished Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, which is somewhere well on the right side of terrific. I really enjoyed it. Next I'm starting Bend Sinister by Nabokov, a novel that, as I understand, is maybe not enjoyable. It was supposed to be my February Nabokov novel. I'll read it (amidst the other stuff) and then move to Bring Up the Bodies. Also, I started today on Henry VI Part Two with a Litsy group - one act a week.

150AnnieMod
mrt 1, 2021, 3:02 pm

Finished a few more books over the last few days:

Stranger by Night: Poems by Edward Hirsch - gloom and doom in poetry form (from the personal type, not war or horror poetry...). Review posted.

The Chill by Jason Starr - Celtic legends coming live (in a twisted form) and a lot of noirish horror in a black and white graphic novel. What's not to like? Review posted.

The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky - another Dick nominee. Loved it. More later today when I write the review.

And I finally finished all the auxiliary materials in King Lear (Norton Critical Editions) although the review of this one will take awhile. :)

Plus I listened to two radio plays: Writ in Water (radio play) about the last days of Keats (written and aired for the 200th anniversary of his death) and a time travel romp by Nick Perry London Particular (radio play) which was fun. Review of the first one already posted, the second one coming up shortly.

And now working on Hope for the Best the 10th The Chronicles of St Mary's novel. Plus a few non-fiction books and multi-work collections.

151LadyoftheLodge
mrt 1, 2021, 3:31 pm

I finished Killer Keys by Mildred Abbott and An Amish Homecoming by Rosalind Lauer. I am now reading Tea by the Nursery Fire by Noel Streatfield.

152AnnieMod
mrt 1, 2021, 8:54 pm

>150 AnnieMod:
The Doors of Eden's review is up plus 7 of my missing 8 reviews:
- a short biography: William I: England's Conqueror by Marc Morris(good introduction)
- an Icelandic detective/crime novel The Fox by Sólveig Pálsdóttir (not bad)
- a fantasy that was a lot better when adapted as a TV series (Witches of East End by Melissa De la Cruz)
- the second in a historical mystery series set in Singapore in 1910 which I like a lot (Revenge in Rubies by A. M. Stuart)
- the 12th Roy Grace novel (Love You Dead by Peter James)
- the first Inspector Banks novel (Gallows View by Peter Robinson)
- the 18th Jesse Stone one (Robert B. Parker's The Bitterest Pill by Reed Farrel Coleman)

Which leaves me only 3 reviews to write - 2 of them from this weekend and the one remaining from January.

Now I will go read a book for awhile... :)

153rachbxl
mrt 2, 2021, 9:52 am

I've been in a bad reading slump for most of this year, alleviated by the odd good book. Fortunately I currently have two good ones on the go, Lake Like a Mirror, the excellent second collection of short stories from Malaysian writer Ho Sok Fong, translated from the Chinese, and Once upon a River by Diane Setterfield which (unusually for me) I'm listening to.

154LadyoftheLodge
mrt 2, 2021, 1:12 pm

In addition to Tea by the Nursery Fire I am reading An Extravagant Death by Charles Finch. This is part of the Charles Lenox historical detective/mystery series, of which I have read most. I have found this one just as intriguing as the others, and the characters are moving forward with their lives, although the books do not have to be read in order. It is always good to get together with old friends again.

155BLBera
mrt 2, 2021, 2:30 pm

I just finished Outlawed, which is original. I liked it a lot and am still pondering my comments.

I am starting Summerwater.

156bragan
Bewerkt: mrt 2, 2021, 4:37 pm

I've recently finished Make It Scream, Make It Burn: Essays by Leslie Jamison, which was very good, although it didn't wow me quite as much as her previous collection, The Empathy Exams, and A Taste for Honey by H. F. Heard, a sort of Sherlock Holmes sequel from the 1940s, which was ridiculous but kind of entertaining

I'm now reading Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi, which isn't having nearly the impact on me that Homegoing did, but which is still good.

157dianeham
mrt 2, 2021, 5:29 pm

I started Outlawed but interrupted it for Klara and the Sun.

158lilisin
mrt 2, 2021, 7:08 pm

Finished my first book for March: The Time Machine by HG Wells. Very short but since this was my train read and I don't ride the train that much these days, it took a few days. But it was fun. I think maybe my 2nd favorite Wells? I'll have to reflect more on my ranking.

I'm still in the middle of other books but I feel like I could finally finish them this week. I need to get a roll going on with reading as I have so many excellent books waiting for me on the TBR. The issue is when I read I read truly successfully but then I take like a two week break. So technically I'm reading a book in 4 days but there is a 2 week break between the first three days and the last.

159AnnieMod
mrt 2, 2021, 7:26 pm

A few more reviews today:
- A poetry anthology: The 20th Century in Poetry
- A radio play: London Particular (radio play) by Nick Perry
- A Shakespeare Norton edition: King Lear (Norton Critical Editions)

And with that all my 2021 reviews are written and posted. Phew. ;) Someone wants to bet on when I will fall behind again? :)

>158 lilisin: I recently read that one as well (either for the first time or I had really forgotten all about it before...) and I really liked it as well :)

160Nickelini
mrt 2, 2021, 7:56 pm

I started The Chalet on my break at work today and already made great progress. It's one of four thrillers set in the Alps that has been published in the last six months. I plan to read all four of them. The others are One By One, Sanatorium, and Shiver (that last one must be too new because LT won't give me the touchstone. It's the one by Allie Reynolds)

161ELiz_M
Bewerkt: mrt 2, 2021, 8:07 pm

I had a week off of work and with no where to go (weather too icky) and nothing else to do I read The Drowned World - fun!, The Nice and the Good - absolutely charming, and A Month in the Country - lovely.

My hold came in, unexpectedly early, for On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and I am about a 1/3rd the way through it.

162lilisin
mrt 3, 2021, 3:01 am

>159 AnnieMod:

Yes, I had noticed that and had every intention of reading your review now that I've finished it.
And now also like you I need to catch up on some thoughts and reviews for my own thread.

163avaland
mrt 3, 2021, 8:33 am

>153 rachbxl: I have that book in the TBR!

I am reading the very engrossing Mount Pleasant by Patrice Nganang, a creatively told story of the making of modern Cameroon. I'm reading this mostly before bed.

Meanwhile, when I'm up for it, I'm reading another poetry collection, A Woman Bound is a Dangerous Thing: The Incarceration of African American Women from Harriet Tubman to Sandra Bland by DaMaris B. Hill.

And lastly, when I in the mood for a short story I'm reading Jeffrey Ford's dark magical realism in Natural History of Hell: Stories. He writes in such a easy, comfy prose that reading it is akin to the feeling of slipping into your favorite pair of jeans....

164kidzdoc
mrt 3, 2021, 8:42 am

Yesterday I finished The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne, which won last year's National Book Award for Nonfiction. Unfortunately Mr Payne died before the book was complete, so his daughter Tamara Payne finished it. I found it to be an outstanding addition to the life of the great civil rights activist and cultural icon, which is best read after one reads The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as Payne's investigate journalism corrects and enhances that book, including the fateful meeting with Ku Klux Klan leaders in Atlanta in 1961.

Next up will be another light read, Epidemics & Society: From the Black Death to the Present by Frank M. Snowden, a professor of the History of Medicine at Yale.

165gsm235
Bewerkt: mrt 3, 2021, 9:06 am

I finished Bring Up the Bodies; I thought it was better than Wolf Hall; I’m excited about starting the last book in May.

I finished Edge: The Loner by George G. Gilman. It’s a western and I rarely read that genre. In the introduction the author, living in England, mentioned he’d never read a western before writing the novel but did so after watching spaghetti western movies. The author was going for a character with a code of conduct that would allow him to kill on the spot any one with a slight taint of badness but remain scrupulously honest about money. I wasn’t impressed. It was cheap on Kindle and the are more in the series but I think one was enough.

I started Blinding by Micea Cartarescu and translated from the Romanian by Sean Cotter. I’ve only read one chapter so far, but, wow, I’ve made five or six annotations on my Kindle and that’s a lot for me.

166shadrach_anki
mrt 3, 2021, 10:41 am

With the start of March I started...four new books, bringing the total number of books I am actively reading up to seven. Currently reading:

- Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart
- Upstairs at the White House by J. B. West
- The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
- Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas
- Middlemarch by George Eliot
- Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
- The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

Plus there are a few other books that I should get back to reading. I feel like I am still trying to work out the best mix of things for my own reading life. All my reading so far this year has been excellent, so I have no real complaints, but there has been a certain lack of the spontaneity that I would normally expect.

167AnnieMod
mrt 3, 2021, 12:54 pm

Nothing like a touch of insomnia to get some reading done.

Finished Hope for the Best - the 10th St Mary's novel (as fun as always) and made some good progress in the 5th Jack Reacher Echo Burning which is good (occasionally annoying though).

168dianeham
mrt 3, 2021, 4:19 pm

>166 shadrach_anki: wow! All at once?

169shadrach_anki
mrt 3, 2021, 6:28 pm

>168 dianeham: Yes. It may not be the wisest course of action, particularly given that nearly half of them are Victorians (different authors, to be sure, but still with similarities in pacing and themes), but as I said, I'm still figuring out how to balance my reading life this year. I went all-in on a much larger number of buddy reads (many of them year-long projects) than I ever have before.

170cindydavid4
mrt 3, 2021, 6:50 pm

the corner that held them which is an interesting work as the story is inbetween the other two books Im reading and its different in pacing and focus. Liking it very much. Reminds me of some Marilyn Robinson

171rhian_of_oz
mrt 4, 2021, 9:51 am

The start of March and I'm reading Bring Up the Bodies, as well as the third in John Scalzi's Interdependency series The Last Emperox.

172lisapeet
mrt 4, 2021, 1:02 pm

Finished The Cold Millions and it was really fun. My library hold on the next Murderbot book, Artificial Condition, just came in, so I guess that's next. Wow, I'm reading a series—that's not usually my cuppa tea.

173LadyoftheLodge
mrt 4, 2021, 4:28 pm

I am currently reading A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie.

174dianeham
Bewerkt: mrt 5, 2021, 2:09 am

Just started 197282481::frank: sonnets
Touchstone not working

175lilisin
mrt 5, 2021, 2:56 am

Finished my lunch read book today, Stories of the Sahara by Sanmao. I have a lot to say about this one so I hope I'll actually put down my thoughts about it soon.

Tonight I'll be reading the last 50 pages of volume 1 of The Story of the Stone by Cao Xuequin. I'm LOVING it! Onward to volume 2 tomorrow!

176Nickelini
mrt 5, 2021, 3:10 am

I finished the fun thriller the Chalet, and I have a few more pages of the not fun There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister's Husband, and He Hanged Himself. And then I'm ready for all fresh books.

What's on deck? Book club is The Vanishing Half, and before I read that I plan to read Passing since I've had it in my stacks for years. I'd also like to read Mothering Sunday sometime around March 14, which I understand is the actual day this year (I'm in Canada, where Mother's Day is in May). Also want to read something Irish in March (St Patrick's Day and all) so I'm thinking one of my Edna O'Brien novels. And it's already March and I haven't made it into my Italian stacks yet . . . aargh!

177jjmcgaffey
mrt 5, 2021, 3:38 am

Reading Baen Free Stories 2014 - it's the usual mix, but I'm finding more than usual that I like. A Sharon Lee is an of-course; a Wen Spencer ditto - but there's at least one excellent story by someone I never heard of, I'll have to look for K. D. Julicher in the future.

178cindydavid4
Bewerkt: mrt 5, 2021, 4:57 am

>176 Nickelini: Book club is The Vanishing Half, and before I read that I plan to read Passing since I've had it in my stacks for years

oh read both of those and perhaps need a reread of the latter, its been a while. Curious what your book group thinks of VH, on my list last year for best book, and best new to me author.

Ok so the three way battle of the books, apparently the Mantel one is winning, as I stayed up way too late last night reading a large section of it. Its a part that I somehow missed or skipped in the last read and reread, so its all new, and soooo good!. I'll get back to the others in a bit,just enjoying this

179BLBera
mrt 5, 2021, 9:27 am

>172 lisapeet: I'm looking forward to The Cold Millions, Lisa. I've crept up to #5 on my library reserve list.

I just finished the wonderful Summerwater and am starting Love.

180cindydavid4
Bewerkt: mrt 5, 2021, 9:58 am

oh summerwater does look excellent! Didn't have lots of luck with her ghost wall is this one different.?

181RidgewayGirl
mrt 5, 2021, 9:57 am

I'm catching up to the rest of the Cromwell trilogy readers and still reading Wolf Hall. It's so rewarding to reread this one and I'm glad to have decided to reread the first two before reading the final book.

I'm also reading Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, about an Anishnaabe First Nations reservation where contact with the outer world fails and they realize something very bad has happened further south. I'm also reading Aftershocks, a memoir by Nadia Owusu about her multicultural upbringing, and Deacon King Kong by James McBride, about a housing project in Brooklyn in the 1970s. It's both comic and real -- McBride manages to convey the reality of the lives of his characters while also making it all feel more like slapstick than tragedy.

182cindydavid4
Bewerkt: mrt 5, 2021, 10:27 am

>181 RidgewayGirl: https://www.librarything.com/topic/328265 cant remember if youve been there or not

183BLBera
mrt 5, 2021, 10:35 am

>180 cindydavid4: The atmosphere of Summerwater is very different. It's set at a resort in Scotland during a rainy summer.

184RidgewayGirl
mrt 5, 2021, 11:07 am

>182 cindydavid4: I've posted on the previous thread, but as I haven't yet begun Bring Up the Bodies, I'll hold off on jumping into this thread for now.

185cindydavid4
mrt 5, 2021, 11:18 am

oh ok, couldn't remember. carry on:)

186cindydavid4
mrt 6, 2021, 8:14 am

some of us elsethread were chatting about bios and memoir, and some one mentioned Power Broker by the author of the Johnson bios. Looks good. Reading Obama's latest memoir, and one of my fav books of the last year was Becoming Dr Seuss which might be an interesting read right about now. Any others?

187rocketjk
mrt 6, 2021, 7:37 pm

I finished They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers. I found it very good, though the subject matter is depressing. My full comments are on my CR thread.

Next up for me will be a Yiddish classic, The Zelmenyaners by Moyshe Kulbak, about a Jewish family in Minsk trying to navigate the beginnings of the Soviet era.

188Cariola
mrt 6, 2021, 9:21 pm

>181 RidgewayGirl: Wolf Hall is my all-time favorite historical novel, hands down.

189Cariola
Bewerkt: mrt 6, 2021, 9:24 pm

I'm late to the party. Just put up my 2021 thread and will be posting my reviews after I post here. I just finished a fine historical novel, John Saturnall's Feast, and am moving on to a collection of short stories set in Ireland, That Old Country Music

190RidgewayGirl
mrt 6, 2021, 9:37 pm

>188 Cariola: Yes, it's just so perfectly written. Not a word wasted and not a clumsy sentence anywhere to be found.

191lisapeet
mrt 6, 2021, 10:44 pm

>188 Cariola: >190 RidgewayGirl: Agreed. She really performs some kind of alchemy there.

I finished Artificial Condition, the second installment in Martha Wells's Murderbot series, which was fast-paced and fun. Really more of a novella, and it felt a bit like, along with the first, it could be a chapter in a larger book, but that didn't take away from the enjoyment quotient.

Now back to Joseph Cornell for a bit. Still waiting on my hard copy, but now that I've had a rest from PDF-reading I feel ready to jump back in.

192AnnieMod
mrt 6, 2021, 11:24 pm

>191 lisapeet: “more of a novella”

Well, it is a novella after all - the first 4 installments are novellas - the first novel is the 5th :)

193dianeham
mrt 7, 2021, 1:11 am

194Nickelini
Bewerkt: mrt 7, 2021, 4:25 am

I started Down By the River by Edna O’BRIEN tonight and am finding it a quick and interesting read.

195AlisonY
mrt 7, 2021, 8:15 am

I'm still reading slowly, but I finished the very enjoyable Running for the Hills by Horatio Clare. Recommended if you like books set in nature / travelogue style of books.

Next up I'll be joining the Bring up the Bodies group read.

196lisapeet
mrt 7, 2021, 8:42 am

>192 AnnieMod: Well, that would be why then, heh. It's funny—reading in e you don't get certain visual cues (such as the size or heft of a book) that might clue you in to format intentions going in.

197cindydavid4
mrt 7, 2021, 9:14 am

>189 Cariola: The Feast looks fascinating, except Im not much of a foodie. But something tells me I must at least try it!

199kymcho
mrt 8, 2021, 3:59 am

>1 AnnieMod: I just finished The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith. Made me cry a little bit. Loved the book overall. I recommend it.

200cindydavid4
Bewerkt: mrt 8, 2021, 10:28 am

Dit bericht is door zijn auteur gewist.

201rhian_of_oz
mrt 8, 2021, 10:26 am

Started the latest (well almost) of an old favourite series - The Museum of Desire. Stunned to realise I've been reading about Alex and Milo for 30 years.

202LadyoftheLodge
mrt 8, 2021, 12:08 pm

Just finished A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie. I am now reading The Robin's Greeting by Wanda Brunstetter.

203dianeham
mrt 8, 2021, 4:52 pm

The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah" I've had this for years but decided to go back to it because I get so annoyed by the way it's used. People don't seem to get it.

204AnnieMod
mrt 8, 2021, 7:35 pm

>199 kymcho: Welcome to Club Read! :) If you decide to stick with us here in this group, come introduce yourself in Introductions (https://www.librarything.com/topic/327590) and/or look around people's threads and/or set your own thread if you want (or all 3) :) And I need to read some Highsmith.

>201 rhian_of_oz:

Are you sure you are not me? "Books you share" is just 193 but that is because I had not added a lot of books I read through the years...

>203 dianeham: "I get so annoyed by the way it's used."
The song or the book?

And we have a new thread so follow the breadcrumbs below... - we are chatty this year (which is good :) ) - if you decide to finish conversations here, that's perfectly fine but new books go to the new shiny place :)

205rhian_of_oz
mrt 9, 2021, 10:27 am

206Cariola
mrt 9, 2021, 3:29 pm

>197 cindydavid4: There is definitely more to John Saturnall's Feast than just the food. I almost put it down because it starts outin kind of a myth/fantasy mode, which is not my thing. But it really is more of a historical novel, and I'm glad I stuck with it.

207cindydavid4
mrt 9, 2021, 5:24 pm

>206 Cariola: Thx for that! def up my alley then!
Dit onderwerp werd voortgezet door WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 3.