What are you reading in July 2013?

It's time for a new thread!

I've started A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer, a novel set during WWII about a photojournalist covering the emergence of the medical application and mass production of penicillin. The prose isn't top-notch, but the story is interesting so far.

Still reading The Inheritance of Loss. I had to put it aside for a few days but should finish it soon now that I'm back to it.

on book 2 of the chocolat trilogy (the girl with no shadow)

I am finishing up Doc. I am not into westerns, but as an anthropologist Mary Doria Russell brings a different perspective to historical fiction. There is a lot here about the lives of prostitutes in Dodge City that gives me new respect for these frontier women.

I recommend anything Mary Doria Russell has written. The Sparrow and Children of God are wonderful too, and I am not a sci-fi fan.

>#5. The Sparrow is one of my all time favorites. It is a mind blowing book. The only one of Russell's that I have not read is Dreamers of the Day. I am still scouring the used bookstores for that one.

I finally finished reading 101 Things You Didn't Know about Jane Austen by Patrice Hannon and am still working on The Paris Wife ... slowly. The others on my reading list are all by men.

Reading "The Pit" by Frank Norris. Interesting blend of modern and dated. Chicago Board of Trade speculators on global commodities don't seem much different, driving prices up and down and screwing everybody in the process. The portrayal of women, probably broad-minded for 1901. Somewhat disappointing not to find the kind of character grotesques one finds in Norris' masterwork, McTeague.

Norris' sister-in-law, Kathleen Thompson Norris, was also a novelist. Downloaded her The Heart of Rachael from kindle for a buck. Should make interesting reading.

I finished the horrible Handle With Care and can't imagine why Jodi Picoult wrote it - the characters are complete stereotypes and the resolution goes beyond disappointing to the realm of being a bad joke.
Now I'm reading much better books: Maisie Dobbs about a female pulled-up-by-her-own-bootstraps investigator in post WWI England; I Wasn't Strong Like This When I Started Out about personal and professional growth in the nursing profession; and The Girl Who Fell From The Sky about a young girl trying to understand race, depression and relationships.

>9 Citizenjoyce: ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! i've been trying to remember the name of that book (the girl who fell from the sky) so i could eventually read it for at least 4 years now. oh, thank you!!!!!

It's worth waiting for.

9-10>> Heidi Durrow, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky -- highly recommended.

As an aside, Nella Larsen's grave had been as neglected as Zora Neale Hurston's until Heidi Durrow put in a gravestone, which you can see at this YouTube video.

The book won the Bellwether Prize (2008). Durrow's been quite active online but hasn't published anything since that I'm aware of, and I hope she doesn't become a one-book wonder.

I just finished the book - many, many things to think about regarding racism and sexism.

i can't wait - thank you!

Recently sidetracked off Kathleen Thompson Norris by Zoe Heller's The Believers.

I read Where'd you go Bernadette at the weekend and really enjoyed it. I like stories that are told through notes, emails, ephemera, etc and this example was very well done. All of the characters were flawed, but compelling to follow.

Now I've just started Alif the unseen, which has begun well for me so far.

@16, I'm glad you liked "Bernadette." Seemed to me that some of it was far-fetched, but altogether meatier and more thought-provoking than I thought it might be, given the marketing.

Completed Zoe Heller's The Believers with more hard-to-like characters. I suppose that's what make her so challenging and engaging in some ways; the characters aren't so awful that you don't begin to recognize yourself in one or two. Gah!

I finished the audiobook ofMaisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear - a very engaging read about the class system in England and PTSD (or rather shell shock) in WWI.

Having recently read, and enjoyed, Millions Like Us: Women's Lives in the Second World War I've now gone on to Singled Out: How Two Million British Women Survived Without Men After the First World War.

After a long spate of books by men, I'm finishing Hilary Sloin's Art on Fire.

Just starting The Flight of Gemma Hardy. I have read several of Margot Livesey's books but I haven't yet enjoyed any as much as The Missing World.

I just finished The Burgess Boys which is Elizabeth Strout on steroids. If her characters get any more prickly I'll have to wear gloves to read her novels. Really great.
I'm about to start Me Before You about which I know very little, but I'm thinking it'll be a tearjerker.
ETA, I also just started Mudbound and would never have guessed it was by Hillary Mantel. It's good, but I associate her with British history, and this is certainly not that.

Finished Alif the unseen, which I really enjoyed. Alif can be an idiot but the characters call him on it and he does learn and grow. Dina is a great character, and I loved the djinni and how they fit into the modern Middle Eastern setting.

I've also read The sweet dove died, which was another excellent novel by Barbara Pym. This one was quite different to her earlier books which are gentle comedies set around church and village/suburban life. It explores aging and self-delusion and is a short but insightful read.

>#22. I just picked up Mudbound off a library cart. What is your authority for the proposition that Hillary Mantel and Hillary Jordan are the same person? I've googled it and can't find anything that intimates that.

> 19 Those both sound interesting!

>My authority is a brain that seems to have melted in the summer heat. Sorry, not the same person, but a great book with a perfect ending.

>#26. Good to know. I want to make sure that I got my 50 cents worth! ;>)

You certainly will get at least that much worth out of it. Let us know what you think.

I've just finished and reviewed The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley, a completely absorbing saga of a bygone place and time with characters who jump from the page. I've had it on my shelves since the late 80s and read it now thanks to an enthusiastic review by AnnieMod.

Ah, Jane Smiley. I can't think of anything of hers I haven't liked.
Well, it's been years and years, but I'm finally starting
a re read of The Mists of Avalon. These days as women seem to be losing hard won rights, I think I need the boost of a book full of strong women.

I've just finished a re read of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for my RL book club which met today and had wonderful discussions about the book and topics raised. Now I'm about to start Something From the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America. I hope it's as good as it looks.

"Henrietta Lacks" is a wonderful book, the science is very well explained so you don't feel lost, and the suspicion African-Americans have for the medical field surprised and pained me.

> 31 Sorry if I'm just being dense but what does the "RL" stand for? "Real life"?

The food history book sounds interesting; the reviews here on LT indicate it's one of those books that people either hate or love.

Yes, RL means real lifr.

Thanks :)

I'm reading A Very Private Eye which is a biography of Barbara Pym, edited by women too, and just finished Emma.

I just finished and reviewed the extremely strange Hangsaman by the brilliant Shirley Jackson.

I'm reading Deathless, a fantasy novel based on Russian folk tales and set in early C20th Russia.

I'm also about to start Hotel du lac, my first ever read by Anita Brookner.

Started Dare Me by Megan Abbott, a suspense novel set in the cutthroat world of high school cheerleading, and am concurrently reading Friendfluence, a non-fic work on the importance and influences of friendship.

Deathless was an excellent read as was, in a very different way, Hotel du lac. I also read Otter country by Miriam Darlington, a non-fiction book that chronicles the year the author spent travelling around the UK in search of otters. It was very good, both as nature writing and as literature.

I just finished The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, Angela Carter's take on several classic fairy tales, full of lush writing and vivid imagination.

i'm just starting isabel allende's the infinite plan and am excited. i haven't read anything by her in a while but am definitely in the mood for some good writing!

I finished and reviewed Kathleen Grissom's book, The Kitchen House. Even though it had really good ratings here on LT, I wasn't a fan.

And I'm just finishing up an amazing non-fiction book, The Etiquette of Illness by Susan P. Halpern who is a lymphoma survivor as well as a counselor. If you've ever wondered what to say or how to talk to someone who is ill, I'd definitely recommend this one.

I just started Amy and Isabelle. It took me a long time to take this book off my pile. For some illogical reason, I had mistaken Elizabeth Strout, whose book Olive Kitteridge I liked enormously, with Elizabeth Gilbert who I don't care for at all.