WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 1

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WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 1

1AnnieMod
Dez. 25, 2020, 11:40 am

Welcome to the first "What are you reading?" thread for the year. Pull up a chair closer to the fire (or under the shade on the veranda if you live in a place where it is really not the season for fires) and tell us how your reading year starts. And don't forget to come back and update us on your reading through the year - while the individual threads are your own diaries, this thread is the groups's diary (plus you won't believe how fast people will show up in your thread when you mention an interesting book in this one) :)

How does your 2021 starts? Did you have a book (or 3) started in 2020 that you just continued reading or did you start a new book for the new year?

And if you are here before 2020 is gone, do you plan on starting a new book on Jan 1 or is the new year eve just a day as any other?

2jjmcgaffey
Dez. 27, 2020, 1:32 am

I'll be reading whatever I'm reading - it's unlikely, but possible, that I'll finish a book on December 31st and start a new one on the first day of the year. I've got two in progress right now (Why Knot?, nonfiction about, well, knots; and The Far Country by Nevil Shute, his usual line of fiction about Australia), but I expect to finish at least one of them and start another (or two) in the next couple days, in the downtime between the holidays. I'll report back again on January 1st.

3Gelöscht
Bearbeitet: Dez. 27, 2020, 1:30 pm

Nothing to See Here is engaging and zippy. Young loser takes on job as nanny to children prone to spontaneous combustion. The book I was looking for for holiday distraction.

Short read that will probably be finished today, technically before 2021 begins. But, lesson learned for upcoming year's reading program: Life is short. Stop trying to fight my preference for speculative/dystopian fiction with characters that have unrealistic afflictions.

4LadyoftheLodge
Bearbeitet: Dez. 30, 2020, 1:34 pm

I will be reading for the 2021 Category Challenges on LT this year. I am currently reading The Mischief of the Mistletoe which has been on my TBR list for two years.

5markon
Bearbeitet: Dez. 30, 2020, 12:00 pm

Currently reading Kintu & Leo Africanus. The dratted touchstones are still not working!

Both are fiction.

Kintu is a family saga set in the country we know as Uganda, from 1750 - 2094.

Leo Africanus is the fictional life story of the real person known in the Rome as Leo Africanus. (c. 1494 - c. 1564 dating from Wikipedia)

6rhian_of_oz
Dez. 30, 2020, 4:55 am

I'm currently reading The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu which is the second in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy and has been on my shelf since 2015. I'm also reading 488 Rules for Life by Kitty Flanagan which despite the title is definitely not a self-help book and which I bought for myself for Christmas.

7SandDune
Bearbeitet: Dez. 30, 2020, 6:08 am

I usually have at least two or three books on the go. A kindle book for reading in bed (currently Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain’s Poorest Towns by Kerry Hudson), a fiction book (currently Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, and sometimes a non- fiction book as well (currently Back to Nature: How to Love Life - and Save It by Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin).

8thorold
Dez. 31, 2020, 4:17 am

I've just finished what should be my last book for 2020, and started Liechtenstein - Roman einer Nation by Armin Öhri, which sounds as though it might — just conceivably — be relevant to the "small countries" thread of Reading Globally.

9kidzdoc
Dez. 31, 2020, 6:15 am

I'm now halfway through A Promised Land by Barack Obama, which was meant to be my last book of 2020, but will now be my first book of 2021. it's excellent so far.

10tonikat
Dez. 31, 2020, 11:16 am

In getting hold of my reading at the moment I'm tryign to focus on two books at a time. I was hoping to have finished Wild an elemental journey by Jay Griffiths before new year, i have about 3 hours to go in it, so i doubt it, though this promises to be a -very -quiet - new years eve (unless the new regime coem to arrest me on the stroke of midnight). It's called Savage Grace now in the uSA I think because of Cheryl Strayed's book. They are bioth excellent - this one charts her journeys amongst indiginous peoples and wild areas in South America, the arctic, Australia and Indonesia is where I am now (West papua) -- she's a very poetic writer and one with no illusions as to the impact of the west and how it undermines other cultures.

My secodn book is Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky which I've meant to read for a long time, havign read a little a long time ago and learned a fabulous quote from Sartre that has proven very true but which I either ahd a different translation of or my memory changed a bit. Gald to be gettign further now - though also a sense as I read him of a mind tryign to make sense of and find pattern to what maybe is not right to. And some generalisations i wonder about at times, such as not reading Dickens it seemed to me as religious or visionary in a way (think A Christmas Carol I think).

11LadyoftheLodge
Dez. 31, 2020, 12:22 pm

I just finished The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig, and started Fishing for Trouble by Elizabeth Logan.

12gsm235
Bearbeitet: Dez. 31, 2020, 6:04 pm

It’s normal for to have a book or ebook and an audio book going at the same time, but I seem to have a lot on my plate right now.

The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps: The Best Crime Stories from the Pulps edited by Otto Penzler. This is a 73 hour (1150 page) audio anthology of many authors and narrators. Mostly good; some stories are better than others as with just about every anthology. It will probably last me well into the middle of this year as I only listen to a story or two whenever I finish an audio book.

Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris. Audio. This is the second volume of three in a biography of Theodore Roosevelt. We do not get Presidents like this anymore. This first volume, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, was my favorite non-fiction of 2020.

JR by William Gaddis. What a fascinating novel. It’s told almost completely in unattributed dialogue. Imagine you’re a spy listening in to conversations but can’t see a thing that's going on. Remarkably well done. I am this reading as part of The Two Month Review Podcast which reads a long novel broken in parts over a twelve weeks. I just finished week three.

Divine Days by Leon Forrest. This novel is 1135 pages; it’s been called a Ulysses for the South Side of Chicago. I’m taking the slow approach and breaking this book down to parts and reading it over time.

On the first of the year I intended to read a short book from start to finish.

13stretch
Bearbeitet: Dez. 31, 2020, 6:33 pm

>12 gsm235: I have Theodore Rex on my TBR, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt was so good but so, so dense. Look forward to your thoughts, might make it less intimidating.

14baswood
Dez. 31, 2020, 7:04 pm

Hangovers from 2020 Nones W H Auden and L'écume des Jours by Boris Vian

15AnnieMod
Dez. 31, 2020, 11:38 pm

I am halfway through Six Four with less than 3 hours left in 2020 so it will be the book I am starting the year with. It may be nominally from the same genre as most of my December books but it is in a different league.

16AlisonY
Jan. 1, 2021, 1:50 am

My husband bought me Life Under Fire by Jason Fox for Christmas. Not necessarily what I would have picked up myself, but it follows on nicely from my adventuresome reading end to 2020 when I was climbing up mountains in Mountains of the Mind. I enjoy books about people pushing themselves way beyond what I could ever do, so depending on how well it's written this could be interesting.

17jjmcgaffey
Jan. 1, 2021, 4:33 am

Finished both Why Knot? and The Far Country, and also Ruined City (another Shute, and this one is _excellent_). Started two more with hopes of finishing one before the year turned, but I didn't, so my first books of 2021 are Sing Down the Moon and Dick Francis' Bloodline. The latter surprised me - I'd gotten well into it, met the characters and the mystery was set up - and I found myself thinking that I must have read it before because I've read all of Dick Francis' books. Then I remembered this one is by Felix. He really caught his father's style here - good, Dick Francis books are a perennial addiction of mine. More!

18rhian_of_oz
Jan. 1, 2021, 6:47 am

I went to the library yesterday and picked up A Dangerous Engagement which is #6 in a cozyish mystery series set in 1930s Britain (though this instalment is set in New York).

19lisapeet
Jan. 1, 2021, 8:24 am

I'm about 3/4 through with The Best American Short Stories 2020, so I guess that's going to be my first book of 2021. It's a mixed bag, as it often is—some really good, some OK, no absolute duds or total knockouts.

20BLBera
Jan. 1, 2021, 11:26 am

I'm reading Jazz and Square Haunting.

21Julie_in_the_Library
Jan. 1, 2021, 12:51 pm

I'm reading the first short story collection in the Witcher series, The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski. So far I'm enjoying it.

22japaul22
Jan. 1, 2021, 12:55 pm

I'm finishing up a short book to start off the year, Academy Street by Mary Costello. Someone around here must have recommended it and I am absolutely loving it.

Next I'll be starting The Age of Homespun by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. I love her books and hadn't read this one yet.

I'm thinking about The Book of Not by Tsitsi Dangarembga also. The first book in her trilogy, Nervous Conditions, was one of my favorites of 2020.

23dchaikin
Bearbeitet: Jan. 1, 2021, 1:16 pm

>22 japaul22: encouraging about Dangaremba! I'm looking forward to it, have Nervous Conditions.

I kicked off my 2021 morning with Petrarch: Everywhere a Wanderer by Christopher S. Celenza. I'm also carrying over from 2020 A History of London by Stephen Inwood (I have roughly 25 hours of reading left!), and, on audio, Real Life by Brandon Taylor.

24RidgewayGirl
Bearbeitet: Jan. 1, 2021, 1:39 pm

I'm finishing up Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart today, and beginning Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi. Both are included in March's Tournament of Books.

I'm also reading Figuring by Maria Popova, which is looking at how American women in the mid nineteenth century managed to accomplish great things despite their lack of rights or standing. So far, the book has covered Maria Mitchell, Margaret Fuller and Harriet Hosmer, none of whom I had known anything about.

And I'm reading The Paris Hours by Alex George, because I'm a sucker for anything about Paris. Most is terrible, honestly, and I'm not far enough into this one to make that judgment yet. It's feeling very sentimental so far.

25BLBera
Jan. 1, 2021, 3:22 pm

>22 japaul22: I loved Academy Street, Jennifer. I am looking forward to her novel The River Capture.

26arubabookwoman
Jan. 1, 2021, 4:32 pm

I’m still finishing up 150 Glimpses of the Beatles even though I reviewed it at the end of my 2020 thread. I started Old People and the Things that Pass by Louis Couperous, a Dutch classic.
And I decided to do short daily readings from a couple of longer works this year. Several years ago I read Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose in which she described her practice of reading one Chekhov story a day. I immediately bought a multi volume (12 I think) set of Chekhov stories, but never got around to beginning to read the set (I’ve off and on over the years read other one volume collections of Chekhov.) So today I read the first story in the first volume, “The Darling,” as well as the review of that story by Tolstoy.
As a second daily reading, I hope to read A History of the World in 100 Objects. Today I managed to read about 2 objects.
I’m pretty awful about following through on projects, but I made it through Day 1 for these projects! We’ll see how far I progress!

27Nickelini
Jan. 1, 2021, 5:30 pm

I have two nonfiction books that I hope to get back to: Alpine Cooking and KitchenWise, and have started The Essex Serpent for my first novel of 2021

28jjmcgaffey
Jan. 1, 2021, 6:29 pm

I just picked up Kitchenwise - haven't started it yet, but it looks very interesting. I also have her BakeWise - but apparently her CookWise doesn't exist in ebook and I haven't convinced myself to get another paper book in here...

29gsm235
Jan. 1, 2021, 8:18 pm

I finished my first book of the year: The Bitch by Pilar Quintana and translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman. It was a 2020 National Book Awards Translated Literature Finalist and won the prestigious Colombian Biblioteca de Narrativa Prize.

30Nickelini
Jan. 1, 2021, 9:19 pm

>28 jjmcgaffey:
I find with authors there is often overlap, so you may be good where you are and not worry about CookWise until you've read the other 2

31dchaikin
Bearbeitet: Jan. 1, 2021, 10:14 pm

Adding to >23 dchaikin:, I started Wolf Hall this afternoon. Planning to work my way through the trilogy, specifically to read Booker longlisted The Mirror and The Light

32AnnieMod
Jan. 1, 2021, 10:30 pm

And to add to >15 AnnieMod:, I am also actively working through the 6th, revised by Odd Arne Westad, edition of J. M. Roberts's The History of the World (I started back in the summer then came back to it in December and decided to start over - and don't expect to be done before some time next month) and The 20th Century in Poetry which is going slowly (it is a big tome of poetry) but is quite... illuminating.

>31 dchaikin:

I had been keeping the second one on my bookshelf waiting for the third... I wonder if I should reread the first - it had been more than a decade since I read it. Decisions, decisions... :)

33dchaikin
Jan. 1, 2021, 11:19 pm

>32 AnnieMod: I read Wolf Hall in 2010, so definitely need a reread to find that voice again. (Also, I want to reread just to see, first how my general perspective has changed and, second how having read and been taken in by Beyond Black changed how I read Mantel.)

34AnnieMod
Jan. 1, 2021, 11:24 pm

>33 dchaikin:

2009 here - which means still back in Bulgaria although I read it in English. Now you make me wonder if I want to get a Mantel project going -- reading authors in order does add to the understanding of their oeuvre... I will keep an eye on your reread while thinking...)

35jjmcgaffey
Jan. 2, 2021, 1:43 am

Finished Dick Francis' Bloodline - the style remained constant throughout, great. Good, not a favorite.

36rhian_of_oz
Jan. 2, 2021, 4:08 am

>33 dchaikin: >34 AnnieMod:
I read Wolf Hall in 2012 and my reading has changed quite significantly since then so I have no doubt my perspective will have changed.

I'm further leaning towards reading the trilogy which means rereading the first, despite having so many unread books on my pile.

Happy to do a group read if anyone is interested.

37OscarWilde87
Jan. 2, 2021, 4:14 am

I started the year with the wonderful The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse and will now be reading Greenwood.

38avaland
Jan. 2, 2021, 7:25 am

Have started the New Year in fiction with Still Life by Val McDermid.

I will continue with Margaret Atwood's poetry in Dearly

Otherwise, I have two ongoing NF books still-in-progress from last year:

In Small Things Forgotten: The Archaeology of Early American Life by James Dietz (historical anthropology, 1977, a reread)

Female Maturity from Jane Austen to Margaret Atwood: When Bildungsroman Meets Zeitgeist by Michael Griffin. This is waiting for me to read the final two novels it discusses, so I can finish the book.

39dchaikin
Jan. 2, 2021, 7:47 am

>36 rhian_of_oz: (and >34 AnnieMod: ) I admit some unwillingness to help set up a Cromwell trilogy group read, but I would be more than happy to join in one already set up.

40lisapeet
Jan. 2, 2021, 9:29 am

>33 dchaikin: >34 AnnieMod: I reread Wolf Hall (originally read in 2010, my first ebook) in March, just as we went into stay-home mode, in preparation to also reread Bring Up the Bodies and then The Mirror and the Light for the first time. I'm never good at participating in group reads, but I'll follow your progress and maybe jump into the second book around the same time you do, as a prompt if nothing else.

41shadrach_anki
Jan. 2, 2021, 9:45 am

I finished a reread of Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris on New Year's Eve, and my first read of 2021 was the recently released Maison Ikkoku Collector's Edition, Vol. 2. I have a few things I am actively reading that have carried over from 2020, as well as an ambitious pile of buddy reads. The weather outside today is currently rather dismal, so I am hoping to spend a good portion of today reading.

42dchaikin
Jan. 2, 2021, 10:09 am

>36 rhian_of_oz: (>34 AnnieMod: >40 lisapeet: ) that’s four of us...

43rhian_of_oz
Jan. 2, 2021, 10:20 am

>42 dchaikin: I've posted something in the "Message Board". I wasn't sure if I wanted to commit so what did I do? Dug out my copy of Wolf Hall and opened it. Sigh.

This does not in *any way* contribute toward my goal of reducing my TBR pile. And we're only two days into the new year.

44dchaikin
Jan. 2, 2021, 10:52 am

45gsm235
Bearbeitet: Jan. 2, 2021, 5:00 pm

>13 stretch: I finished Theodore Rex. Highly recommended, but maybe a notch below the first volume. I listened to the unabridged auto book (even though I own the Kindle version -- it was on sale one day for $1.99 and I couldn't resist) and that reduces some of the density. I'm going to read the third volume some time this year.

46Jan336
Bearbeitet: Jan. 2, 2021, 5:07 pm

Hi All.

Newbie here & delighted to have found this site!

I'm an avid reader, averaging 1 per day.

Currently reading Carl Haiisen's Tourist Trap.

Looking for similar authors as I've inhaled all of this author's work.

47Jan336
Jan. 2, 2021, 5:09 pm

Joe Grey
Hiaasen

48AnnieMod
Jan. 2, 2021, 5:12 pm

>46 Jan336:

Welcome to the site :) We have a brand new group "Book Recommendations Requests": https://www.librarything.com/groups/bookrecommendationsr which is exactly for this kind of requests so you may want to post there. While this group is pretty chatty (that early in the year anyway), it is a relatively small group :)

49thorold
Jan. 2, 2021, 5:25 pm

I finished my first for the year, Liechtenstein - Roman einer Nation, which does exactly what it says on the tin, and was quite fun — Öhri writes historical Krimis in his day job, so this had quite a thriller feel to it, even though it's set up as a serious novel.

I think I'll move on to a sailing book from my Christmas pile next.

50gsm235
Bearbeitet: Jan. 2, 2021, 5:30 pm

Currently reading:

Diary of a Man in Despair by Friedrich Reck and translated from the German by Paul Rubens; print, non-fiction, 244 pages.
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky and translated from the Russian by Oliver Ready; audio, fiction, 608 pages. This is probably my third reread, but the first time on audio and with this translation.

51rocketjk
Bearbeitet: Jan. 2, 2021, 6:17 pm

Greetings, all! I haven't set up my own 2021 CR thread yet but I'll be getting to that in the next day or so. For now I'll just report that I'm currently reading and enjoying The Conversion of Chaplain Cohen by Herbert Tarr. First published in 1963, this is a humorous but thoughtful novel about a Jewish chaplain in the U.S, Air Force. Cheers!

52Nickelini
Jan. 2, 2021, 5:52 pm

>49 thorold:
What language is this in?

53rhian_of_oz
Jan. 2, 2021, 9:07 pm

Der mentsh trakht un got lakht. It appears that I am reading Wolf Hall for the next couple of months :).

54Gelöscht
Bearbeitet: Jan. 2, 2021, 9:09 pm

Reading novels by Kevin Wilson, who has an eye for deeply flawed eccentrics. Finished Nothing to See Here (hard luck girl becomes nanny to children who spontaneously combust) and now on Family Fang (performance artists screw up their children by incorporating them into their looney "happenings"). Often very funny and entertaining, but that sometimes obscures the pathos he seems to be going for.

55thorold
Jan. 3, 2021, 1:38 am

>52 Nickelini: German. There don’t seem to be any translations of this book (I wouldn’t hold my breath), but one of his crime novels won an EU literature prize and has been translated into Spanish, at least, so there may be more coming there...

56AnnieMod
Jan. 3, 2021, 4:04 pm

Finished Six Four on Friday, read the short novel/novella Minor Detail yesterday (good and heartbreaking) and working on Shadows in Death which being book #51 in a series is as expected.

Reviews and thoughts to follow when I get to my desk which is now behind some boxes and stuff - nothing like a flooding caused by your upstairs neighbor to start the first Sunday of your year (all books are safe, the ones on the way of it were evacuated on time).

57baswood
Jan. 3, 2021, 7:56 pm

Just finished L'écume des Jours by Boris Vian. Next up is some pulp science fiction from the 1950's Beyond Infinity, Robert Spencer Carr : They flew into space seeking eternal youth. Its backed up with Monsters of the Ray, A. Hyatt Verrill : They found a doorway into another world.

58ELiz_M
Jan. 3, 2021, 10:07 pm

To much social media meant I was dwelling too much on what should be my first book of the year. So I was finally able to start several books: Infinite Jest for a 3-month goodreads group read, The Three Kingdoms for a yearlong read in the Category Challenge, and With My dog Eyes for a Litsy Food and Lit challenge.

59AnnieMod
Jan. 3, 2021, 11:39 pm

>56 AnnieMod:

Finished Shadows in Death (predictably enjoyable) and started Silver Wings, Iron Cross - a historical novel about WWII from one of favorite thriller writers. Plus all 3 reviews are up in my thread.

60lilisin
Jan. 4, 2021, 2:59 am

I have finally created my thread and decided on my first read of the year. As I've decided I want to have a strong Japan year my first read will be Kenzaburo Oe's A Quiet Life.

61rhian_of_oz
Jan. 4, 2021, 8:17 am

As a light read (though not literally - another trade paperback) I've started Nine Lessons by Nicola Upson which is the seventh in the Josephine Tey (yes "based on" the author) mystery/crime series set in 1930s England.

62dchaikin
Jan. 4, 2021, 10:35 am

>58 ELiz_M: i’m so curious how you will take to ij. Hope it’s a positive experience.

63LadyoftheLodge
Jan. 4, 2021, 12:02 pm

64rocketjk
Jan. 4, 2021, 2:11 pm

Greetings, all, and Happy New Year! Last night I finished my first book of 2021, started just before the end of the year, the thoughtful and entertaining The Conversion of Chaplain Cohen by Herbert Tarr. Published in 1963, this humorous novel follows the adventures of a Jewish chaplain in the U.S. Air Force. A product of it's time, for sure, but still I found this a worthwhile reading experience. You can find my more in-depth reactions on the book's workpage and on my own brand new, 2021 CR thread.

Next, I will be continuing, and in fact completing, my longtime tradition of starting each calendar year with the reading (or, in most cases, a re-reading) of Joseph Conrad novel, in this way reading through all of Conrad's novels in chronological order (of their publishing). I've started my reread of Conrad's last novel published during his lifetime, The Rover.

65bragan
Jan. 5, 2021, 12:06 am

I've already finished my first two books for the year, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke and The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, both of which were excellent.

Now reading Every Tool's a Hammer by Adam Savage.

66AnnieMod
Jan. 5, 2021, 1:45 am

Needed something different tonight so ended up reading my first play for the year: The Sugar Syndrome by Lucy Prebble.

67thorold
Jan. 5, 2021, 6:07 am

I've just finished a sailing book from my Christmas pile, The Ian Nicolson trilogy (reprints of three of the author's books from the fifties and sixties).

I'm starting this month's book-club pick, The bridge on the Drina — one I've been meaning to read for years.

68kidzdoc
Jan. 5, 2021, 2:05 pm

I finished A Promised Land, my first book of 2021, just before midnight and wrote a review of it this morning. Next up is The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi, the newest book by Ngugi wa Thiong'o and the first work of fiction he's written since his great novel Wizard of the Crow.

69baswood
Jan. 5, 2021, 4:29 pm

My next book is a collection of short stories by Anthony Burgess The Devil's Mode

70BLBera
Jan. 5, 2021, 6:33 pm

I finished Jazz, which was very good and now will reread News of the World for my book group and keep on with Square Haunting.

71stretch
Bearbeitet: Jan. 5, 2021, 6:50 pm

Finished three great short stories from Japanese authors: Roshomon and In a Grove by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, and Patriotism by Yukio Mishima.

And gave up on After the Quake by Haruki Murakami, which are awful and boring collection of short stories. Just done with this guy.

72lisapeet
Jan. 5, 2021, 8:32 pm

I finished The Best American Short Stories 2020, which was good enough but didn't wow me, and am about to start Joan Silber's upcoming Secrets of Happiness, which I'm reviewing for Library Journal.

73shadrach_anki
Jan. 5, 2021, 8:44 pm

I've started in on a few of my buddy reads for January, so I am currently rotating between Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson (carried over from last year), The Warden by Anthony Trollope, The Fellowship of the Ring by Tolkien, and All the Money in the World by Laura Vanderkam. I have some other, less-active reads, but these four are my main focus at present.

74jjmcgaffey
Jan. 6, 2021, 3:21 am

Almost done with Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly - like most of Hambly's work, very very rich and rather grim. I have all four of the series, but I don't think I can read them in succession - need something lighter in between. I'm thinking about what that should be.

75AlisonY
Jan. 6, 2021, 8:45 am

I'm not sure when my copy of Wolf Hall will appear in the post for the group read, so I've started Trick of the Light by Jill Dawson in the meantime. I normally really rate Dawson, but this is her first novel and so far it's painfully obvious. So far I'm thankful it's a slim read.

76tonikat
Bearbeitet: Jan. 6, 2021, 9:43 am

I've read though Sparrow Tree but am letting it sit with me, reading again and looking all the words I need to look up up. I've not definitely decided what next, I do need to finish off My Emily Dickinson so probably that -- and then possibly My sister the serial killer, a christmas present from my brother, apparently no messages attached he just enjoyed it. (hmmm.)

77LadyoftheLodge
Jan. 6, 2021, 2:23 pm

I finished Her Amish Wedding Quilt which I enjoyed. I am currently reading Vittoria Cottage and getting reacquainted with D. E. Stevenson. The intro by Alexander McCall Smith was also quite well done, and I learned about the author's life and background. I plan to read the other two in this series, which feature some of the same characters.

78dchaikin
Bearbeitet: Jan. 7, 2021, 1:03 am

Seems to take longer than it really did, but I finally finished a book in 2021, actually I finished two. I finished Petrarch: Everywhere a Wanderer and, on audio I finished Real Life by Brandon Taylor. Both Good, and although Taylor is worth an extra note as this book he wrote (in 5 weeks) is a little tough on the nerves, but has some terrific layered complexity.

Next: I should focus on Wolf Hall, but that Shakespeare group caught me off guard, so I've started Henry VI Part One. On audio, How Much These Hills is Gold is waiting.

79AlisonY
Jan. 7, 2021, 3:58 am

I finished the Dawson novel and have picked up All That Remains: A Life in Death by Professor Sue Black. Not the lightest of topics for the new year, but it looks interesting nonetheless.

80OscarWilde87
Jan. 7, 2021, 4:56 am

I just finished Greenwood and will be starting Americanah soon.

81AnnieMod
Jan. 7, 2021, 9:38 pm

Finished Silver Wings, Iron Cross which was ok and working on the 9th Sueño and Bascom mystery The Iron Sickle by Martin Limón which so far is as good as expected.

82jjmcgaffey
Jan. 8, 2021, 1:58 am

I finished Dragonsbane and then read three short books in quick succession just for a palate cleanser. Now I've started Measuring the World which is not at all what I thought it was (I thought it was non-fiction about determining the size of the Earth...but that's a different book). It's described as a comic novel. It's weird - both content and style. The latter is likely because it's translated from the German - among other things, there's no dialog as I think of it, nothing in quotes. But interesting.

83thorold
Jan. 8, 2021, 5:21 am

I finished The bridge on the Drina — which was just as good as everyone says it is, of course — and I've now started 101 Reykjavik, which is not the most obvious segue, really, but it was there on the TBR pile...

84rhian_of_oz
Jan. 8, 2021, 6:53 am

I started The Seven as my new commute book. It's the last in a trilogy and it's been two years since I read the second book so I remember hardly anything and am not sure I'm interested any more. But persist I shall!

As it's Friday evening here I felt like something light to finish of the work week and so grabbed Uncook Yourself which is by an Australian comedian I discovered during lockdown.

85LadyoftheLodge
Jan. 8, 2021, 2:31 pm

I just finished Vittoria Cottage by D.E. Stevenson and will probably go on to the other two that deal with the same characters.

86rocketjk
Jan. 9, 2021, 3:20 pm

I finished Joseph Conrad's last novel (or at least the last published during his lifetime), The Rover. Published in 1922, The Rover is an adventure of the French coast set during Napoleonic times. On it's surface this is a more straightforward narrative than the better known Conrad novels, but there is still a lot going on, observations on human nature-wise. Regardless, this is also a very enjoyable tale. A longtime oceangoing adventurer, older now but still strong, who has been sometimes a privateer and sometimes a gunner in the French navy, wants now to retire to an isolated farm on the French Mediterranean coast. But Nelson's fleet lies offshore in blockade formation, an soon a French navel officer shows up "on assignment." I've posted more in-depth thoughts on my own CR thread.

I've finally taken the plunge, after years of refusal, and joined a book group. Next up will be my first assignment for this group, Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar.

87baswood
Jan. 9, 2021, 6:23 pm

I have finished The Devil's Mode by Anthony Burgess, short stories which were a little disappointing. My next reading are collections of Elizabethan love sonnets by Thomas Lodge and Giles Fletcher.

I am also reading a collection of short stories by Jules Verne Le Docteur Ox and I will be dipping into The Assassination of Olof Palme : an anthological novel by Rick Harsch.

88BLBera
Jan. 9, 2021, 10:12 pm

I'm reading Those Who Knew. I really enjoyed Novey's Ways to Disappear a few years ago, and this one is good as well.

89rhian_of_oz
Jan. 9, 2021, 11:12 pm

Corrupt Bodies was recommended (and handed) to me so I started that yesterday.

90kidzdoc
Jan. 10, 2021, 12:15 pm

I finished The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o earlier this morning, an epic about the creation of the Gĩkũyũ people of Kenya. I'll now resume reading Latinx: The New Force in American Politics and Culture by Ed Morales.

91gsm235
Jan. 10, 2021, 4:23 pm

I finished Night Theater by Vikram Paralker. A strange tale of a rural surgeon in India who is visited by a dead family recently murdered. If the doctor can fix their wounds, a rebel angel who, going against established procedures in the hereafter, will restore them to life. There are three general ways an author can write about religion in a novel. Matter-of-factly, this character belongs to this religion and does this or that in accordance or contrary to the faith, proselytizing to the reader, or allegorically. At first, early in the novel, I thought the author might be trying to preach, and I was ready to toss the book aside, but it turned into a bizarre allegory. This is not a novel huge on plot. The descriptions of the surgeon’s operations can be visceral. It’s title when originally published in India was The Wounds of the Dead.

I started The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington. This will be another weird book. The author was married to the surrealist artist Max Ernst and she was herself a respected surrealist painter. Here is her Self Portrait. I'm pretty sure I've seen it before somewhere.


92thorold
Jan. 10, 2021, 6:31 pm

I finished two Icelandic non-crime novels, 101 Reykjavik on paper and The greenhouse on audio. Both great, in different ways, but I didn't like the narrator of the audio for the second book.

I've started 15 eeuwen Nederlandse taal, a history of the Dutch language, and I'll probably read another novel from the pile at the same time, haven't quite settled on one yet...

93AnnieMod
Jan. 11, 2021, 12:01 am

After finishing The Iron Sickle (very good but works ever better if you read it as part of the series it is in), I started The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler - which is exactly as beautiful and haunting as I expected it to be.

I had also been doing some magazines reading - had not decided yet if I want to wrote about what I read as I read it or when I finish a magazine.

94SandDune
Jan. 11, 2021, 2:27 am

>91 gsm235: I read The Hearing Trumpet last year. It does get seriously weird!

95LadyoftheLodge
Jan. 11, 2021, 2:02 pm

I finished His Accidental Amish Family and moved on to Marrying Matthew which is about a mail order groom!

96tonikat
Jan. 11, 2021, 2:18 pm

Reading Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky led me to look out my copy of The Iliad translated by Richmond Lattimer given the kinship identified between Homer and Tolstoy, and I'm two books in, so am addign this to my schedule, trying about a book a day.

97Nickelini
Jan. 11, 2021, 10:08 pm

>91 gsm235:
I like Leonara Carrington too. I discovered her on vacation in San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico. We went on a bike tour through the Puerto Los Cabos Marina Sculpture Garden, which has 15 of her bronze sculptures and 50 panels of her paintings (reproductions). I was intrigued and found Down Below, her memoir, when I got back. Not a great read, but I still think she's super interesting. I think I have The Hearing Trumpet in my TBR.

98AlisonY
Jan. 12, 2021, 6:35 am

I finished the fascinating All That Remains: a Life in Death, so time to belatedly join in with the Wolf Hall group read.

99tonikat
Jan. 12, 2021, 7:13 am

>97 Nickelini: I'm also interested in Leonora Carrington, I've only read a few short stories but I also read Down Below a year or two ago and thought it excellent, though hard in content, a survivors' story of mental health systems and more who went on to so much else.

100bragan
Jan. 12, 2021, 7:22 pm

I recently finished Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam, which turned out to be very, very badly timed for me, because it just served to heighten a lot of anxieties I did not need heightened right now.

After that, some light fantasy seemed advised so I've gone back to Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series with The Book of Dzur.

101ELiz_M
Jan. 12, 2021, 8:19 pm

Apparently I am not ready for reality or familiaraity (perhaps later in the month?) as I've read the Brazilian surrealist with My Dog Eyes, the Iranian magical realism of The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree, and the Argentinian nonlinear horror-ish Fever Dream. Next up is Time's Arrow which seems to continue my unintentional trend...

102rocketjk
Jan. 12, 2021, 11:09 pm

>101 ELiz_M: I read Fever Dream last year and thought it was very good.

103ELiz_M
Jan. 13, 2021, 7:04 am

>102 rocketjk: It was. I read it twice in two days :)

104shadrach_anki
Jan. 13, 2021, 12:53 pm

I've added in The Moonstone to my list of current reads, pausing on my listening to The Fellowship of the Ring (I am ahead of where the group I am reading with is, so pausing made sense).

Right now I feel like I am reading a lot, but not getting anywhere fast because I am actively switching between half a dozen books. So I am making progress in all of the books, but not finishing anything. My last finish was The Comedy of Errors, which my local book group will be discussing this evening via Zoom. I'm looking forward to that.

105LadyoftheLodge
Jan. 13, 2021, 3:10 pm

I finished Marrying Matthew which is the first in a new series about mail order grooms. I am now reading An English Murder by Cyril Hare (which was a BB from another LT-er) and First Light in Morning Star which is Book 2 in a series by Charlotte Hubbard.

106baswood
Jan. 13, 2021, 6:05 pm

My next book is The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. I have seen at least three films of the book, but have never read the book itself.

107BLBera
Jan. 13, 2021, 7:17 pm

I finished Square Haunting and am starting The Boy in the Field.

108kidzdoc
Jan. 14, 2021, 12:59 am

109lilisin
Jan. 14, 2021, 3:13 am

My first read of the year (Kenzaburo Oe's A Quiet Life) is a major slog so I've abandoned it. I might read 10 pages each day over the next 12 days so that I can finish it because I can't for the life of me understand why every single review of this book, whether here or on Amazon is so damn positive. I can't grasp the point of this book and it puts me to asleep every time I try!

I have switched over the much more readable and interesting nonfiction In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park about her escape from North Korea.

But damn that first book making me lose two weeks of reading to it. (And only to make it to page 120 after all that slogging!)

110ELiz_M
Bearbeitet: Jan. 14, 2021, 7:57 am

>108 kidzdoc: At first it was mostly good, a three-star read, and then in the last 100 pages with an almost audible click of things falling into place, it became enthralling,

111avaland
Bearbeitet: Jan. 14, 2021, 8:54 am

Alternating between a novel: Silence in October by Danish author Jens Christian Grøndahl; a poetry anthology: Best Canadian Poetry 2020 and will also add shortly a nonfiction: The Archaeology of American Cemeteries and Gravemarkers (once I finish a lecture: Most of What Follows is True: Places Imagined and Real by Michael Crummey)

(I had been planning to start Mary Beth Norton's latest history 1774: The Long Year of Revolution but considering current events, I thought I'd put it off for a while longer).

112baswood
Jan. 14, 2021, 4:32 pm

My next book is A question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell

113BLBera
Jan. 15, 2021, 5:57 pm

I just finished the enjoyable The Boy in the Field and am now reading a short story collection Faces on the Tip of My Tongue

114dianeham
Bearbeitet: Jan. 16, 2021, 1:00 am

>113 BLBera: I read The Boy in the Field last year and very much enjoyed it.

I am currently reading a play The Trials of Ezra Pound By Timothy Findley

115thorold
Jan. 16, 2021, 6:17 am

I've finished another of the books on my Christmas pile (a SantaThing pick, if I'm keeping track correctly), the novella La buena letra by Rafael Chirbes. Lovely, in a "life's bad and only gets worse" kind of way.

I'm still busy with 15 eeuwen Nederlandse taal and I've got another non-fiction book on the go on audio, Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson.

And I've started re-reading The bluest eye as the first stage of my planned Morrison-marathon.

116japaul22
Jan. 16, 2021, 6:49 am

I've recently finished The Age of Homespun by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, one of my favorite nonfiction authors, and Jack by Marilynne Robinson, the latest novel in her Gilead collection.

Now I'm reading Empire of the Summer Moon, about the Comanche tribe that lived in the Great Plains of North America. For fiction, I'm finally reading Americanah and kicking myself for waiting so long! Adichie is a fabulous writer.

117bragan
Jan. 16, 2021, 8:38 am

I'm now reading What the Hell Did I Just Read? by David Wong, which I think is exactly the kind of ridiculous, weird, hilarity that my brain needs right now.

118LadyoftheLodge
Jan. 16, 2021, 12:17 pm

I just finished An English Murder which I thoroughly enjoyed. Now I am finishing First Light in Morning Star an Amish novel by Charlotte Hubbard for NetGalley review.

119SandDune
Jan. 16, 2021, 2:46 pm

I am reading The Windsor Knot by S.J. Bennett, apparently the first in a series of cozy mysteries with the Queen solving a murder at Windsor Castle. It is not my sort of thing at all: I am only on page 10 and it is bringing out all my republican (with a small r) tendencies. But I will have to read it and find something nice to say as it is for my RL book club and the person who chose it has invited the author to participate.

Apart from that I am reading The Inheritors by William Golding.

120cindydavid4
Jan. 17, 2021, 9:45 am

>74 jjmcgaffey: (just stumbled on this thread, so a bit late to the party) been a huge fan of Hambly esp Darwrath and Benjamin January series. She's also done some other HF including the emancipator's wife a wonderful updated take on Mary Todd Lincoln' If you want lighter and you are reading Dragons Bane, maybe some Anne McCaffrey?

121cindydavid4
Jan. 17, 2021, 9:52 am

>82 jjmcgaffey: re Measuring the World, like you I thought it would be more non fiction,. It is rather odd; started it but not sure I'll finish

Juggling about four books right now and think I'll drop the ball and just stick with A Promised Land really fascinating and hopeful, Also got Best American Short Stories and Travel, but maybe for later

122cindydavid4
Bearbeitet: Jan. 17, 2021, 10:36 am

>116 japaul22: Adichie is a fabulous writer.

Yes! that was a book group read and I loved it! Ended up reading any of her work I could find. Seem to recall she has something new, neew to see.

ETA apparently she does but its only on Kindle or Audio. Hope that changes

123rocketjk
Jan. 17, 2021, 12:39 pm

I read and very much enjoyed Ayad Akhtar's highly and (in my view) rightfully praised novel, Homeland Elegies. You'll find my review on my own CR thread. I've now returned to my friend Kim Nalley's list of important books about African-American history and racism in America, as I've begun Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America by Kwame Ture (a.k.a. Stokely Carmichael) and Charles V. Hamilton. The book was first published in 1967. Tragically, not much seems to have changed since then.

124dianeham
Jan. 17, 2021, 3:07 pm

I finished the play about Ezra Pound. I have to decide if I am going to continue reading The Queen's Lover by Francine du Plessix Gray, historical fiction about Marie Antoinette.

125AnnieMod
Jan. 17, 2021, 3:08 pm

>123 rocketjk: I need to get to Akhtar’a novel - he is one of my favorite playwrights.

126rhian_of_oz
Jan. 17, 2021, 9:10 pm

I finished work a bit early on Friday and stopped off in town on the way home to pick up some things - which wasn't supposed to include books. I bought and read Doing Time which is the first in a "companion" series to Jodi Taylor's Chronicles of St Marys which I read last year.

127AnnieMod
Jan. 17, 2021, 10:00 pm

>126 rhian_of_oz: which wasn't supposed to include books.

Oh, self-delusion... you are so nice... :) I still have the Time Police books to look forward to - I am portioning Taylor's books...

128stretch
Jan. 18, 2021, 3:55 pm

Got caught up with the interesting but terrifying Midnight in Chernobyl, the character study The Seven Who Were Hanged, and the not quite groundbreaking but good the Alchemy of Us.

129LadyoftheLodge
Jan. 18, 2021, 4:10 pm

I finished First Light in Morning Star and I am now reading First Class Murder by Robin Stevens which is part of a YA series about two 13-year old girls who have formed a Detective Society and help to solve crimes. This one takes place on the Orient Express!

130gsm235
Jan. 18, 2021, 11:45 pm

I’ve recently started two big books:

The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds; audio, science fiction, 563 pages
The Sea View Has Me Again by Patrick Wright; print, non-fiction, 734 pages

131cindydavid4
Jan. 19, 2021, 9:26 am

The first book of the year ended up a DNF I bought The Starlit Wood after falling in love with This is How You Lose the Time War and was eager to read El Morar's short story in this collection. Her story was good, then I started reading the rest. In every one, the men were devils and monsters, the women were trapped and abused, and found a way to rescue themselves with the help of a mentor. This is fine on the surface, but all men are not devils and monsters and women don't need to be abused in order to learn how to make choices. The stories read like the editor sent each author a checklist - beautiful girl/woman check, horrible man check abuse check another woman acting like fairy god mother, check girl/woman finds a way to escape and live happily ever after......so much for more fractured fairy tales to add to my collection. Think I need to reread Emma Donogue's collection Kissing the Witch to cleanse my palate for some excellent tales!

Ah well, still reading Obamas book which will probably be my first book of the year, Also finish Benediction and Life Studies

132avaland
Jan. 19, 2021, 11:41 am

Still reading the Canadian poetry anthology mentioned above but have abandoned the Grøndahl novel in favor of the latest Rebus novel, A Song for the Dark Times.

I've also started the reasonably slim nonfiction, The Archaeology of American Cemeteries and Gravemarkers

133lisapeet
Jan. 19, 2021, 12:31 pm

Finished Joan Silber's upcoming Secrets of Happiness, which I liked a lot—a slow burn, easy to read and deceptively simple until you stop and think about it, and one of those books where the title is critical. Now on to Sylvia Townsend Warner's The Corner That Held Them for my book club.

134SandDune
Jan. 19, 2021, 2:20 pm

>133 lisapeet: I’ve just finished Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Lolly Willows and I intend to get on to The Corner that Held Them fairly shortly.

135jjmcgaffey
Jan. 19, 2021, 10:33 pm

>120 cindydavid4: Hah! McCaffrey would be a very different flavor. However, I've read everything she wrote so many times I could probably quote large chunks. I switched to M.C.A. Hogarth, instead, and read several other things. I'll get back to the Winterlands in time.

136jjmcgaffey
Jan. 19, 2021, 10:40 pm

I've finished a couple BOMBs recently...and none of them were very good. The Frontier Doctors is an assortment of stories, the best of them mildly interesting. A Yank in the RAF has a good flying-in-WWII story in it, but the author insisted on adding a "romance" that is mostly a series of lies, and the end is dramatic but not believable. And Measuring the World - I finished it and I'm really sorry I picked it up, it's STUPID. One of the reviews mentions that it's also not nearly true to fact - the character of Humboldt and his relationships with others is not at all like it really was (the reviewer had just finished a biography of Humboldt), so it's not even worth it for learning something. The book I meant to read was The Measure of All Things - I'll be reading that as soon as I locate it in my boxes. I'm also going to start Across the Green Grass Fields, the next one in the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire. It will be a quick read, and a good one.

137cindydavid4
Jan. 20, 2021, 5:34 am

>134 SandDune: loved both of those books!

>136 jjmcgaffey: ditto on Measuring the World. I started it and just lost interest. Into the trade bag it goes. I don't know The Measure of All Things Ill have to check that one out

138rhian_of_oz
Jan. 20, 2021, 9:28 am

For a bit of light reading (literal beach read) I've started Christmas Tales by William McInnes.

139thorold
Jan. 20, 2021, 10:53 am

I finished Sea people, The bluest eye and another thin book, Jessie Kesson’s lovely Scottish farming mini-saga Glitter of mica.

Also since my last post here I finished an Anna Enquist novel that’s been sitting on my TBR for some years, De Thuiskomst — the story of Captain Cook as seen by Mrs Elizabeth Cook.

I’m still gradually advancing through Dutch linguistic history, just fought my way out of the Middle Ages yesterday. Also listening to Maarten ‘t Hart’s most recent Bach book, and about to start another novel, it only remains to decide which...

>136 jjmcgaffey: >137 cindydavid4: I enjoyed Measuring the world when I read it about ten years ago, and I’ve liked some of Kehlmann’s other books, especially Tyll. But I can see that it would be annoying if you were hoping to learn more about Humboldt — Kehlmann isn’t writing a historical novel in the conventional sense, he’s having fun with our preconceptions about the Great and the Good. For non-fiction on Humboldt’s legacy, I enjoyed The invention of nature.

>138 rhian_of_oz: Just wait, another six months and you’ll be in deep snow and we’ll be on the beach :-)

140LadyoftheLodge
Jan. 20, 2021, 2:59 pm

I just finished First Class Murder which is part of a mystery series for middle schoolers, featuring two 13-year-old girls who solve crimes. I also read What the Heart Wants which is set in the 1700's and is about early Amish settlers in America; it was just okay.

141ELiz_M
Jan. 20, 2021, 5:48 pm

I was not impressed with the execution of Time's Arrow. Celestial Bodies, also with a unique structure (that I am not quite smart enough to decipher or describe well) was a much more enjoyable read.

142rocketjk
Bearbeitet: Jan. 21, 2021, 11:39 am

I finished the fascinating and extremely valuable Black Power: The Politics of Liberation by Kwame Ture (formerly known as Stokely Carmichael) and Charles V. Hamilton, first published in 1967. My comments on my reading are on my own CR thread.

And now, from the "They Can't All Be Classics" Department, I'm on to Book 4 in Don Tracy's "Giff Speer" crime series, an obscure pulp series from the 1960s, Look Down on Her Dying.

143BLBera
Jan. 20, 2021, 7:51 pm

I finished the wonderful Faces on the Tip of my Tongue and am starting Perestroika in Paris.

144dianeham
Jan. 20, 2021, 8:34 pm

>143 BLBera: can you tell me what the title refers to? It interests me because I have mild face blindness and that title is how I feel sometimes.

145rhian_of_oz
Jan. 20, 2021, 8:49 pm

>139 thorold: I don't want anyone to be more jealous but the coldest month here is July with a mean maximum temperature of 18C/64F and a mean minimum of 8C/46F :-D.

146dianeham
Jan. 21, 2021, 1:34 am

I'm reading The Queen's Lover by Francine Gray. I thought I'd give on it by now but still reading. I liked other books by her so will probably continue on.

147baswood
Jan. 21, 2021, 3:52 am

My next book is Who do you think you are? short stories by Malcolm Bradbury

148thorold
Jan. 21, 2021, 4:03 am

>139 thorold: The novel I started — remembering that I'm supposed to be reading from small countries — was William Heinesen's The tower at the edge of the world

>145 rhian_of_oz: I know, just teasing. Enjoy the beach!

149LadyoftheLodge
Jan. 21, 2021, 1:22 pm

I am currently reading Dear Teacher by jack Sheffield and The Elephant's Girl by Celesta Rimington, which I am loving! It is good to read a YA book! I also read a picture book that was a gift from my sister Substitute Creacher which was hilarious.

150rocketjk
Jan. 23, 2021, 12:56 pm

I finished Look Down on Her Dying, the fourth book in Don Tracy's Giff Speer series, an obscure pulp crime series from the 1960s. It's a fun series, but the plots are getting a bit repetitive and the misogyny is by now discouraging. I'm going to give the series one more go, and if neither of these elements relents (especially the former), that will be that.

I'm now finally reading Hamnet.

151dianeham
Jan. 23, 2021, 4:34 pm

I am currently reading The Library Book and Palm Beach Taboo by Tom Turner.

If anyone has any suggestions of fiction with cults in it, I would appreciate it. It's very hard to look up fiction about cults because you end up finding Cult Fiction - which is a whole 'nother thing.

152dchaikin
Jan. 23, 2021, 5:13 pm

Flipping audiobooks. I finished How Much of These Hills is Gold and good riddance. I picked up A Promised Land.

Also, gasp, I might be about to finish Wolf Hall. A mixture coming up, including The Real Life of Sebastian Knight and Willa Cather's short stories.

153Nickelini
Jan. 23, 2021, 7:40 pm

I'm half way through the Shari Lapena thriller The End of Her, which I will finish this weekend, because as thriller, it makes the read want to find out what is next. Still working through my non-fiction Alpine Cooking. I decided to DNF the memoir I was reading, Gift of the Game, which was disappointing because I adore the author Tom Allen. Oh well.

154LadyoftheLodge
Jan. 24, 2021, 12:02 pm

I finished The Elephant's Girl by Celesta Rimington, which I absolutely loved. It is a middle school level book about an adolescent girl who ends up living at a zoo where she ended up after a tornado. Her guardian works there, hence her living there too. The story tells about her search for her identity and involves magical realism.

I also read Stillmeadow Album by Gladys Taber, which is a photo-essay of b&w photos and narrative about the author's beloved New England home. She wrote many books about her home and its surroundings through the years; sadly, she is deceased now.

I am now reading The Last Garden in England which switches narrative among three women involved with the same home and garden between the 1900's and current.

155baswood
Jan. 24, 2021, 6:08 pm

I have started Le Rivage des Syrtes by Julien Grecq another book from my 1951 list

I will also be reading The Life and death of William Longbeard by Thomas Lodge

156AnnieMod
Jan. 24, 2021, 11:11 pm

Apparently I forgot to post here for awhile since >93 AnnieMod: on the 10th... so here it is): I am way behind on reviews (working on them) but just posted a few: Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower, Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and another radio drama (Lives in Transit by Rosemary Jenkinson about a Somalian refugee in Ireland and UK).

Still waiting reviews: The Arkangel version of King Lear, A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, Dunbar by Edward St Aubyn, Robert B. Parker's Colorblind by Reed Farrel Coleman, Running Blind by Lee Child, Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker and another radio play. A hope to catch up on these this week...

Now working on The Lobster Kings by Alexi Zentner and a few non-fiction books.

157AnnieMod
Jan. 25, 2021, 2:50 am

4 more reviews are up (The Arkangel version of King Lear, A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, Dunbar by Edward St Aubyn, Robert B. Parker's Colorblind by Reed Farrel Coleman), 3 more to go. I may be able to catch up indeed ;) Off to do some reading - and to hopefully stop falling behind on writing... :)

158thorold
Jan. 25, 2021, 4:14 am

I enjoyed The tower at the edge of the world very much. 15 eeuwen Nederlandse taal wasn't exactly fun, but I learnt quite a lot of stuff I didn't know about the history of the Dutch language.

I'm now listening to The seven basic plots, a book I've failed to get anywhere with several times in the past, and I'm reading a late DDR novel Die Weltzeituhr by Eberhard Hilscher.

159dianeham
Jan. 25, 2021, 5:50 am

Finished Palm Beach Taboo It was a little boring in the beginning but it got better. It is a whodunit in a millionaire mensa cult.

160rhian_of_oz
Jan. 25, 2021, 9:09 am

Today I started our bookclub book A Memory Called Empire, winner of the 2020 Hugo for best novel. So far, so good.

161gsm235
Bearbeitet: Jan. 25, 2021, 10:26 am

The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams - digital, fiction, 269 pages. I’m about 45% in and really enjoying it.

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne - audio, non-fiction, 640 pages.

162bragan
Bearbeitet: Jan. 25, 2021, 11:03 am

I've recently finished a short story collection, Never Have I Ever Isabel Yap, which I got through Early Reviewers, and Of Muppets and Men: The Making of the Muppet Show by Christopher Finch, because I will love The Muppet Show until I die.

Now reading The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, and I don't know how she makes her writing this smooth and effortless, but I'm impressed by it.

163LadyoftheLodge
Jan. 25, 2021, 11:20 am

>162 bragan: LOL about the Muppets. Which one is your fave?

164cindydavid4
Jan. 25, 2021, 2:59 pm

>162 bragan: oh I must read the muppet show book, for the same reason!!! And yeah Bennett is a womderful writer and that book is one of my top reads of the year

165cindydavid4
Bearbeitet: Jan. 25, 2021, 3:08 pm

I love historic fiction, and probably my favorite in the field of medival history is Sharon Kay Penman Got to see her a few times at the Poison Pen bookstore, and she helped me tour Wales by giving me a list of where to go, what to see where to stay (pre internet!) Stayed in contact on her blog, and just found out that she passed away. Shes been ill for a while, with CFS and other issues that make it hard to focus, but she's managed to write many novels and mysteres about the place and time. Her last book was The Land Beyond the Sea which came out last year but had too many distractions at the time. I have moved all other books off the table, this is the one I will read in her honor and memory I may read slowly, coz there wont be another (I've already reread all of them, but I might read them all starting with the one that takes place earliest, and go forward rather than reading as published. I might just make it my own challenge!!)

166bragan
Jan. 25, 2021, 3:39 pm

>163 LadyoftheLodge: I have an eternal soft spot in my heart for Gonzo, although the older I get the more appreciation I seem to have for Kermit. :)

>164 cindydavid4: A fellow Muppet-loving friend of mine lent it to me. It might be hard to find otherwise, I fear, as I suspect it's long out of print.

I can also recommend Jim Henson: The Works, which is in print, but far from cheap.

167AnnieMod
Jan. 25, 2021, 3:45 pm

>165 cindydavid4: Bugger. :( The Sunne in Splendour had been one of my favorite historical novels for longer than I care to admit...

168cindydavid4
Jan. 25, 2021, 4:33 pm

I didn't read that until I had finished her Wales trilogy and yeah that was an amazing book. Learned a lot about Richard and the controversy and watever smattering I can remember about the War of the Roses. You might like Penman; Here Be Dragons is just this close to being a romance but don't let that fool yuo

169baswood
Jan. 25, 2021, 4:51 pm

I am starting Cairo to Damascus by John Roy Carlson it was published in 1951

170avaland
Jan. 25, 2021, 5:42 pm

I finished the latest Rebus novel and also Jens Grøndahl's short novel, Virginia and am going to start Red Snow by Ian R. MacLeod this evening.

I've also started a book on the archaeology of gravestones, but I've not paid much attention to it in the last few days.

171dianeham
Jan. 25, 2021, 6:48 pm

Just started My Life in Orange about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's cult.

172BLBera
Jan. 25, 2021, 7:31 pm

>165 cindydavid4: I've read a couple of Penman's mysteries but I do have some of her historical fiction on my shelves. One of these days...

Right now, I've escaped to Venice and Earthly Remains.

173japaul22
Jan. 25, 2021, 8:03 pm

I just finished Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie which was fantastic.

I'm reading Empire of the Summer Moon, a nonfiction book about the Comanches. And I've just started Stuart Turton's new book, The Devil and Dark Water which has sucked me right in.

174LadyoftheLodge
Jan. 26, 2021, 2:05 pm

I am reading Dear Teacher by Jack Sheffield and A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher. I picked it up on a whim and then could not stop reading this YA fantasy book.

175SandDune
Jan. 26, 2021, 2:44 pm

I’ve just started Wolf Hall and am also reading The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison.

176rocketjk
Jan. 27, 2021, 2:57 pm

I finished the admirable Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. I found myself somewhat impatient while reading the book's first half, but wholly drawn in and invested once I passed that halfway mark. If interested, you can find my review on the book's work page or on my own CR thread.

I've now started Ways of Escape, Graham Greene's second autobiography. In the first, A Sort of Life, which I haven't read, Greene covers his early life up to about age 27. So this is perfect for me, as I am generally bored by the early, childhood, chapters of most biographies and autobiographies. I realize that's a failing of my own, not of the {auto}biographers. C'est la vie!

177jjmcgaffey
Jan. 28, 2021, 1:50 am

I'm reading Mudlark (UK title Mudlarking) - it's a trifle frustrating because I wanna go mudlarking! I lived in London for almost four years, looked at the river frequently but I don't think I ever saw anyone mudlarking or heard about it. She keeps writing about areas I've been in, bridges and bits of the Thames I've seen, and the wonderful stuff she finds there...and I'm not in London and am unlikely to go back there. Phooey. Great book, though.

178gsm235
Jan. 28, 2021, 9:35 am

Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler. I’ve read The Big Sleep and a few short stories before, but I’ve never gone further. This is the second Philip Marlowe novel.

179LadyoftheLodge
Jan. 28, 2021, 12:08 pm

I just finished The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly and I am still reading Dear Teacher by Jack Sheffield. Jack is definitely not a Miss Read, and the book is somewhat plodding by comparison.

180SandDune
Jan. 28, 2021, 2:24 pm

>177 jjmcgaffey: We have Mudlarking but I have not got around to it as yet. I used to share an office which looked directly over the river south of the Thames, just next to London Bridge. I’d never realised until then how much the tide went in and out, or how many ducks there were ...

181gsm235
Jan. 28, 2021, 9:56 pm

I finished The Liar's Dictionary by Eley Williams. While reading this novel I was finding words I didn’t know. I clicked on the dictionary option on my Kindle, but it didn’t know the definition either. Then came the chapter on mountweazels: “Fictitious or fake entries are deliberately incorrect entries in reference works such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps, and directories.” One of the story lines is about a rouge lexicographer in the 19th century sneaking his own fake words into a dictionary. The novel is full of fake words for the reader to ferret out. Marvelous and inventive: a treat for people who love words.

182thorold
Jan. 29, 2021, 6:41 am

I finished Die Weltzeituhr, an interesting but not quite earth-shattering novel from the last years of the DDR. Sula is next on my Toni Morrison list. And I'm still plodding through Christopher Booker's epic collection of useful plot-summaries on audio.

>181 gsm235: Sounds like fun!

183Julie_in_the_Library
Jan. 29, 2021, 1:43 pm

I've finished The Last Wish and have started No saving Throw by Kristin McFarland.

184cindydavid4
Jan. 29, 2021, 2:57 pm

when christ and his saints slept It so big I may be reading some other things in between, sep bring up the bodies for feburary's read.

185BLBera
Jan. 29, 2021, 4:04 pm

I just started The Skeleton Road.

186dianeham
Jan. 29, 2021, 6:53 pm

187cindydavid4
Jan. 29, 2021, 8:31 pm

>186 dianeham: one of my all time favorites as a child, it was read to my by my sister and couldn't wait to read it myself. Spyri wrote several other novels but unfortunately did not see them till I was much older so didn't appreciate them as I should have. Still visualize Grandfather making Heide dinner of bread butter and cheesa, all fresh from his farm.

188dianeham
Bearbeitet: Jan. 29, 2021, 9:18 pm

>187 cindydavid4:. My mother read it to me but I realise it was a picture book version with a lot fewer words. But I loved it. There was a discussion on lt about different translations but I didn't feel like investigating that.

189Nickelini
Bearbeitet: Jan. 29, 2021, 10:02 pm

>186 dianeham:
Heidi was one of the first chapter books I read by myself, and then I reread it in 2019 on the plane going to Switzerland. I thought it stood up well! My oldest daughter loved it as a child too (and she lives in Switzerland now, funnily enough)

I'm reading Moon of the Crusted Snow, which is a First Nations apocalypse (? I think). Only 35% into it, but so far it's better than I expected.

190dianeham
Jan. 29, 2021, 10:08 pm

>189 Nickelini: like to hear more about that book as you proceed.

191AnnieMod
Jan. 30, 2021, 1:00 am

>189 Nickelini: That one has some disturbing moments especially later on but I found it pretty well done when I read it. And he does not bungle the ending...

192LadyoftheLodge
Bearbeitet: Jan. 30, 2021, 12:04 pm

>186 dianeham: I still remember as a child seeing the movie starring Shirley Temple!

I just finished Dear Teacher by Jack Sheffield and I am starting The Mystery of the Fire Dragon which is a Nancy Drew selection.

193dianeham
Jan. 30, 2021, 5:36 pm

>192 LadyoftheLodge: our grandchildren call my husband Old Grandfather. I always thought maybe they got that from the Heidi movie.

I started The Year of the Witching last night.

194baswood
Jan. 31, 2021, 3:50 am

I am starting Dead Air by Iain Banks for no other reason than its the next one on my book shelf.

195AlisonY
Jan. 31, 2021, 6:08 am

Hmm - how to follow up the fabulous Wolf Hall. I think I'm going to start on something completely different next - Hunger by Knut Hamsun.

196rocketjk
Jan. 31, 2021, 1:10 pm

>194 baswood: I will be interested to see what you think of Hunger. I read Hamsun's Growth of the Soil last year and found it somewhat enjoyable, but not really compelling. Really, more interesting as an historical artifact than anything else. Definitely worth reading, all in all.

197Nickelini
Bearbeitet: Jan. 31, 2021, 2:30 pm

>190 dianeham: I'd like to hear more about that book as you proceed.

I've written my comments about Moon of the Crusted Snow on my own ClubRead thread. Please visit.

>191 AnnieMod: That one has some disturbing moments especially later on but I found it pretty well done when I read it. And he does not bungle the ending...

I have to say that your comment about "some disturbing moments" gave me pause -- I'm at a stage in my life where I strongly dislike a feeling of dread when I'm reading a novel. So I had to put it aside a few times. I agree that he didn't "bungle the ending," in fact, the last 15 pages or so took this from a solid 4 star read to 4.5 stars. I expect this will be one of my top books of 2021.

And now I'm reading Peace Talks by Tim Finch. It's my first Europa Edition of the year.

198LadyoftheLodge
Jan. 31, 2021, 3:42 pm

I read The Mystery of the Fire Dragon by Carolyn Keene which is a Nancy Drew novel. I am currently reading Manhunt by Janet Evanovich, which is a sort of silly romantic comedy novel. Before writing the Stephanie Plum novels, she wrote a series of romance novels for Loveswept. I almost put it down after the first pages that told me how gorgeous the heroine is and how luscious the hero looks, but once I got past that, it may be do-able. I am about 70 pages into it now.

199AnnieMod
Feb. 1, 2021, 3:16 am

>197 Nickelini: oops. Sorry - did not mean to put you off it - but it does get dark and disturbing. :( And yes - the end was surprisingly good - on a sea of novels that just have no clue how to close a story, this one stands out.

200SandDune
Feb. 1, 2021, 3:38 am

>197 Nickelini: I will be reading Peace Talks very shortly as well.

201japaul22
Bearbeitet: Feb. 1, 2021, 7:24 am

I've just finished two books: Empire of the Summer Moon, nonfiction about the Comanches, and Someone who will love you in all your damaged glory, a quirky collection of short stories that surprised me by being a book I really enjoyed.

Now I've started In My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg and A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes, an nyrb publication that's been on my shelves a while.

202BLBera
Feb. 1, 2021, 8:03 am

I've just started So We Read On and The Death of Vivek Oji.

203gsm235
Feb. 1, 2021, 9:49 am

I finished Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler. Very good hard boiled detective novel.

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

204rhian_of_oz
Feb. 1, 2021, 10:25 am

New month, new book - The Returns by Philip Salom.

205cindydavid4
Feb. 1, 2021, 10:34 am

>197 Nickelini: I have to say that your comment about "some disturbing moments" gave me pause -- I'm at a stage in my life where I strongly dislike a feeling of dread when I'm reading a novel. So I had to put it aside a few times.

I have the same 'feeling of dread' as you do, which is why I don't watch or read horror. But if that happens to me while I am reading a book, Ive found an easily solution to calm me - go to the end of the book and read the last few pages. Yes that will spoil me, but Im ok with knowing the ending if I see whats happening and just enjoy how it got there. Strangly I enjoy reading psychological thrillers like Ruth Rendell writes; possibly because I know the who and where, but not the how and why and that somehow helps me through the book.

206rocketjk
Feb. 1, 2021, 1:37 pm

I finished Ways of Escape by Graham Greene. This book is listed as an autobiography, but I really consider it more a memoir, as Greene here provides us memories and insights into his writing career and his fascinating travel experiences, but leaves out pretty much everything about his personal life. We don't really, then, get a full picture of Greene's life. But that's OK, because what is here is extremely interesting and--not surprising considering the author--sharply written. You can read my more in-depth comments if you like on my CR thread.

Next up will be this month's book club choice, The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World - and Globalization Began by Valerie Hansen.

207cindydavid4
Feb. 1, 2021, 1:54 pm

>206 rocketjk: oh I read that (the year 1000) I really liked it; will be curous what your book group says

208WelshBookworm
Apr. 30, 2021, 10:29 pm

>186 dianeham: Re: Heidi - One of my absolute favorite childhood books was Vinzi. I've reread it several times, and it might be time for another read. It is about a boy who wants to be an organist instead of a farmer, and manages to pursue his dream despite his father's refusal. And of course, in the end, it is about the redemptive and healing power of music.

209dianeham
Apr. 30, 2021, 10:32 pm

>208 WelshBookworm: I’ll check it out. Thanks
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