*** What are you reading now? - Part 4

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DiscussionsClub Read 2017

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*** What are you reading now? - Part 4

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1AnnieMod
Août 17, 2017, 5:00 pm

I am not doing too much reading lately due to eyes issues (and a stubborn summer flu...) but what is everyone else reading? And how is your summer/winter going?

2RidgewayGirl
Août 17, 2017, 5:33 pm

I'm reading Looking for Transwonderland by Noo Saro-Wiwa, which is about her exploring Nigeria and talking about Nigerian history and culture. I'm really enjoying it as well as learning a lot. I also want to make Jollof rice.

And I'm reading Idaho by Emily Ruskovich.

3mabith
Août 18, 2017, 12:31 am

Working on The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant for my book club and I think I'll start Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?.

4Cait86
Août 19, 2017, 12:00 am

I just finished Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor (soooo good), and now I'm reading In Their Lives, a collection of essays about various writers favourite Beatles songs.

5bragan
Août 20, 2017, 6:01 am

I've recently finished The Art of Failing by Anthony McGowan, an ER book that started out amusing but that I got tired of long before it finished; The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, which I read as a kid but had remembered very little of; and The Grownup by Gillian Flynn, which was reasonably entertaining, but trying entirely too hard to be twisty.

I'm now reading The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2013, edited by Siddhartha Mukherjee. One day perhaps I will catch myself up to current with this series.

6lilisin
Août 20, 2017, 8:04 pm

Finished a book over the weekend: First they killed my father, a personal witness account about the Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian Genocide.

7AlisonY
Août 22, 2017, 2:32 pm

Hoping that my good book run continues. On to a continuation of my love-in with Knausgaard: Book 4.

8avaland
Modifié : Août 23, 2017, 4:58 pm

Can't decide between Orhan Pamuk's The Red-Haired Woman or Jesmyn Ward's latest, Sing, Unburied, Sing...unless I start Helen Dunmore's last novel :-( or Jeffrey Lent's latest (you see my predicament here). They all call me....

9thorold
Août 28, 2017, 12:09 pm

Got through a big pile of (mostly light) TBRs this month, thanks to illness that prevented me from doing much else than read for a while. A few days of interregnum between two internet providers has helped keep the distractions down as well.
Getting back to normal now - I'm enjoying another Javier Cercas at the moment (Las leyes de la frontera, it rather unexpectedly ties in with True history of the Kelly gang that I read a couple of weeks ago). Not sure what's next after that, but it might be Pélagie-la-Charrette.

10dchaikin
Août 28, 2017, 2:46 pm

Glad you're back, or at least getting back to normal, Mark.

Hurricane Harvey has left me a lot of time to realize I'm not loving my reading at the moment. I've added Chernow's Alexander Hamilton to my currently reading list and keep swapping books hoping something will keep my attention. The books I'm reading are good, my head just isn't in it. (The over two books are About This Life: Journeys on the Threshold of Memory, a collection of not quite of sort of nature essays by Barry Lopez, and The Wave Watcher's Companion: Ocean Waves, Stadium Waves, and All the Rest of Life's Undulations by Gavin Pretor-Pinney, which overlaps with what I work with--seismic waves.)

11mabith
Modifié : Août 29, 2017, 4:37 pm

12RidgewayGirl
Août 29, 2017, 9:11 am

I was in the mood for more historical fiction and so am reading Frog Music by Emma Donoghue.

I'm also reading All the Rivers by Dorit Rabinyan, which is an interesting look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of two people falling in love in New York. Despite the heavy subject matter and having been banned from Israeli schools, there's a lightness to the writing that makes it a pleasant book to read and a welcome counterbalance to my other reading.

I just finished The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood, which was unrelentingly grim and I'm glad I was reading other books at the same time.

And I'm reading The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, which is an odd combination of the author's memoir of having been molested by her grandfather, a fact which was hushed up and glossed over, and the story of a murderer.

13dchaikin
Août 30, 2017, 3:14 pm

14Yells
Août 30, 2017, 6:15 pm

>13 dchaikin: Interesting choice considering what is going on in your corner of the world. Hopefully you were high and dry while reading it.

15dchaikin
Août 30, 2017, 6:43 pm

>14 Yells: : ) coincidence, I hope. Makes me think of all the other relevant books I could pick up - Texas Rivers, Rising Tide...

16dchaikin
Août 31, 2017, 12:14 pm

Another finished - Lopez's About This Life. I expect I'll be spending the next several weeks on Hamilton.

17Cait86
Sep 1, 2017, 8:41 am

>12 RidgewayGirl: Oh, I really enjoyed Frog Music -- hope you do, too!

I'm almost finished Autumn by Ali Smith, and wrapping up my annual reread of the Harry Potter series with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'm hoping to get one more book in before it's back to school on Tuesday!

18bragan
Sep 1, 2017, 10:51 pm

Since I last checked in here, I've read:

The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker, which was somehow not quite what I expected, but was good.

Summer Falls and Other Stories by Amelia Williams, Melody Malone and Justin Richards. Those first two people are actually not real people, but Doctor Who characters. Still, they're fun writers!

And What Language Is (And What It Isn't And What It Could Be) by John McWhorter, which was a little more detailed and technical than I was expecting, but was fascinating and readable, nevertheless.

I'm now about to start Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, book number ten in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.

19MsNick
Sep 5, 2017, 8:57 am

I'm finally reading The Dog Stars by Peter Heller.

20SassyLassy
Sep 5, 2017, 10:16 am

Rereading Agnes Grey as part of the Virago Group's chronological read programme. I'm finding it quite startling, much that I don't remember from my early teenage reading of it, and much that I look at in a different way.

21thorold
Sep 5, 2017, 11:07 am

Finished Cercas's Las leyes de la frontera, which was excellent, as I expected. And more prosaically Henry Petroski's The essential engineer - essentially 250 pages of gentlemanly, academic rant against idiotic journalists who don't know the difference between science and engineering.

Part way through Elif Şafak's Three daughters of Eve on audio - interesting, but I find it disconcerting to be reading a book in which a middle-aged author gets nostalgic about her college days when those college days turn out to have been a good generation after mine. "Et in arcadia ego" should stick where it belongs in the 1920s :-)

22AlisonY
Sep 7, 2017, 4:22 am

My head is a little melted with a few things going on right now, so I'm putting Knausgaard on hold as I need something a little lighter to read. As a huge Happy Mondays fan for 20 years, I'm reading Shaun Ryder's autobiography Twisting my Melon which I can happily rely on to be utterly crazy.

23RidgewayGirl
Sep 8, 2017, 9:43 am

I'm reading Frontier by Can Xue, which is billed as Chinese experimental fiction, but it reads like a fairy tale. The lives depicted are ordinary enough but then magical stuff happens.

I'm also reading Frog Music by Emma Donoghue, an author who has never disappointed me and I am enjoying this novel so much. It's set in 19th century San Francisco and there's a murder, a missing baby, circus performers and a smallpox epidemic.

The Weight of this World by David Joy is a grim novel set the the Appalachia also frequented by Daniel Woodrell and Donald Ray Pollock. This book was hand-sold to me by an enthusiastic bookseller.

The Answers by Catherine Lacey is a weird story about an odd woman which I picked up solely because I've been seeing it on all sorts of lists. It's brilliant, maybe.

And finally, I'm reading a memoir called Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood, which was recommended by and quoted from on The NYT Book Review podcast and it is hilarious.

24bragan
Sep 10, 2017, 2:37 am

I've recently finished Résumé with Monsters by William Browning Spencer and Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson, both of which had interesting premises and flawed executions, in very different ways.

25ELiz_M
Sep 10, 2017, 7:39 am

Recently finished an excellent collection of short stories: A Manual for Cleaning Women and am now working my way through A Dance to the Music of Time: Second Movement. I'll also probably start Bosnian Chronicle as my commuting book.

26SassyLassy
Sep 10, 2017, 1:33 pm

Just started The Land Breakers this afternoon and already I'm wrapped up in it.

27avidmom
Sep 22, 2017, 1:07 pm

I am reading (and listening to) Greg Sestero's The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made. Sestero is a great narrator. Really fun read/listen. I've known about the movie, "The Room" for a long time (thanks to youtube's "Nostalgia Critic") so am really interested in learning the background of how "The Room" came to be. The movie, "The Disaster Artist" is set to release in a few months!

28avaland
Sep 23, 2017, 9:08 am

I'm read another Alex Gray crime novel, The Swedish Girl and listening to Hillary Clinton's What Happened on unabridged CD, read by the author (I have enjoyed several memoirs read by the authors themselves...a previous Clinton book, Madeline Albright, Tina Fey.... it makes a difference, I think).

29cindydavid4
Sep 23, 2017, 12:18 pm

>10 dchaikin: After memorizing the soundtrack to the musical, I thought I might read Chernow's Alexander Hamilton . Wow its huge! I did pick up Gore Vidal's Burr for a different perspective. Is the length of the Chernow book daunting, or well worth the time spent?

Now reading Game of Thrones for the upteenth time, but its been a while, and Im reading the 20th anniversary illustrated edition which is really quite lovely and is making this reread even more enjoyable.

30mabith
Modifié : Sep 23, 2017, 1:48 pm

I'm slowly working on Maori Boy, Witi Ihimaera's memoir again.

31dchaikin
Sep 24, 2017, 6:02 pm

>29 cindydavid4: I'm actually working out how to answer that exact question. I just finished that Chernow's Alexander Hamilton this morning. I think it's generally readable, clean, insanely thorough and paced so that you can follow all the details, but for me it was somehow rarely...you know...narrative driven. For the information, I couldn't recommend it highly enough. For a nice read, it depends on your mood. He answers about all my questions that came from the musical - many of the key dramatic aspects of the musical are heavily fictionalized.

(side note: I found the prologue did not catch my interest at all. I read it again after I finished and felt the same way again. I think the rest of the book is better than that.)

What's next?

On audio I just learned what is referenced in the title Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

In text form I had started a and so will probably focus on The Rise of David Levinsky by Abraham Cahan, a novel on Eastern European Jewish immigrants to the US, written by an Eastern European Jewish immigrant, published in 1917. My e-copy is from Project Gutenberg.

32japaul22
Sep 24, 2017, 7:56 pm

I've just finished A Constellation of Vital Phenomena which I had some issues with but is worth reading nonetheless.

Now I'm reading The Misalliance by Anita Brookner and The Hare with Amber Eyes which I put on my list after someone here reviewed it (Meredith, maybe?).

33cindydavid4
Modifié : Sep 24, 2017, 9:35 pm

>31 dchaikin: well I definitely want to know more about the fictional stuff, tho I did find out some things already. I might read it just for that reason. I think the biggest shock to me is his advice to his son for the duel. I know that was the big thing to do back then (and given gangs, I guess still is) but I was really horrified by that.

34cindydavid4
Sep 24, 2017, 9:34 pm

Just finished A Month in the Country I liked it well enough, very slow, predictable, but what I needed right now. Would love to see the movie (Kenneth Branaug, Colin Firth and Natasha Richardson!)

35torontoc
Sep 25, 2017, 9:30 am

I read, stopped and am now picking up The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson. In a way it is a tribute to my late father who read this book- he had a habit of rereading favourite books every few years.

36RidgewayGirl
Sep 25, 2017, 10:15 am

Like Lois, I'm listening to Hillary Clinton read What Happened. She's not a professional reader, but hearing her voice read her book reminds me of how much she cares about how policies affect ordinary Americans. I'm enjoying it a lot.

I'm reading Roxane Gay's Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, although only in short segments. It's a very raw and honest book that is hard to read for longer stretches. I continue on with Frontier, by Chinese author Can Xue. It's billed as experimental fiction, but I suspect that the translation is a poor one as the writing is bad - clunky and flat-footed. Given that the story has very much of a fairy tale feel to it, I don't think that the writing style is consistent with the original, but there's no way for me to know. I'm still reading as I want to find out if she'll go somewhere with this or if she's just stringing together odd happenings for the sake of it.

And I've started Dimestore by Lee Smith, who is one of those Southern authors I've long thought I should read, and The Whole World by Emily Winslow, pulled randomly off of my shelf.

37Simone2
Modifié : Sep 25, 2017, 11:12 am

I am reading The Accusation by Bandi, a collection stories from North Korea.

Furthermore I have to visit Vienna and Haïti for work and this brings me finally back to the 1,001 list (which I have neglected for the past half year, I am definitely not in the mood for the classics). I ordered Old Masters by Thomas Bernhard to read in Vienna and The Kingdom of this World by Alejo Carpentier about Haïti. Now I hope they'll arrive in time.

To read on the many planes I have to take (Amsterdam-Vienna-Amsterdam-Detroit-Miami-Port au Prince-Atlanta-London-Amsterdam!) I'll bring Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng and The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne.

Touchstones don't work at the moment..

38avaland
Sep 25, 2017, 5:15 pm

Have pulled out two "older" books that I may begin: Spider in a Tree by Susan Stinson, a novel of Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening that "fuses the historical with the imaginative." And a biography: The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe by Elaine Showalter.

39bragan
Sep 25, 2017, 11:25 pm

Since I last checked in on this thread, I've read Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstien, Natural Lives, Modern Times: People and Places of the Delaware River by Bruce Stutz, Cosmic Engineers by Clifford D. Simak, Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough, and Dad Is Fat by Jim Gaffigan. So, an interestingly mixed batch of books.

And I've now gone back to my intermittent Discworld re-reading project with Terry Pratchett's Night Watch.

40dchaikin
Sep 29, 2017, 7:04 am

flipped audiobooks. I finished Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and have started House of Names by Colm Toibin - which makes a nice addition to my Greek mythology theme.

41AlisonY
Sep 30, 2017, 1:53 pm

It occurred to me a chapter in on Adam Ant's autobiography that I'm not really that interested in Adam Ant, so it seemed a good enough reason to not continue any further....

I've started A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold, written by the mother of one of the boys who committed the terrible atrocities at Columbine. I'm only a few chapters in, but so far it's excellent, and the recommendation in The Times seems spot on.

42avaland
Oct 3, 2017, 5:14 pm

>41 AlisonY: Did you know that Sue Kiebold has a short TED talk out? It's sad and very moving; well worth listening to.

43SassyLassy
Oct 3, 2017, 7:41 pm

44AlisonY
Oct 4, 2017, 7:13 am

>42 avaland:, >43 SassyLassy: - thanks for these. Will have a listen and seek out the TED talk too. It is such a moving book, and as a parent scares me profoundly. Nearly finished, so will be reviewing in a day or two.

45mariacoleman
Oct 4, 2017, 11:41 am

Cet utilisateur a été supprimé en tant que polluposteur.

46RidgewayGirl
Oct 5, 2017, 4:37 pm

My daughter was assigned Love in the Time of Cholera for school reading and asked me to read it as well so we can discuss it. This book has been sitting on the shelf for decades and I'm enjoying it so much. I'm curious to what other great books are languishing in obscurity around the house.

I'm also reading IQ by Joe Ide, a Sherlock re-imagining set in East Long Beach, California. It's too soon to tell if the characters will come to life, but there's certainly a lot going on.

And I'm reading a book of short stories by Samantha Hunt called The Dark Dark. The stories are odd, in a George Saunders/Kelly Link kind of way, but a bit more subtle than that.

I'm still listening to What Happened by Hillary Clinton. I'm usually a terrible audience for audiobooks as my mind tends to wander, but this is keeping my attention riveted.

47bragan
Oct 6, 2017, 5:29 am

I've recently read: Fearless Fourteen, yet another of Janet Evanovich's mildly entertaining but entirely forgettable Stephanie Plum novels; Eavesdropping: An Intimate History by John L. Locke, an okay book on a surprisingly wide-ranging and interesting subject; and An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon, an SF novel from Early Reviewers, about which I had some interestingly mixed feelings.

And I've now just started Borne by Jeff VanderMeer, which is, predictably, very strange.

49dchaikin
Oct 10, 2017, 8:51 pm

finished The rise of David Levinsky, which is kind of a special book for anyone interested in the world turn of the century American Jewish immigrants. I'm looking at starting The White Goddess by Robert Graves, but it's a little disconcerting when the author warns you on the first page that the book is difficult.

And I flipped audio books. Finished House of Names by Colm Toibin, and I started The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

50VivienneR
Oct 11, 2017, 2:47 am

>49 dchaikin: And right after The Haunting of Hill House you must read (or listen to) We Have Always Lived in the Castle by the same author.

The White Goddess does sound intimidating.

51dchaikin
Oct 11, 2017, 6:26 am

Viv - I listened to WHALitC recently. Good suggestion to read them close together, although I'm doing it only by accident. The two books seem to tie in together, but I haven't figured out yet how. Maybe it's just thematically?

52MsNick
Oct 11, 2017, 9:59 am

I'm in the middle of Revival by Stephen King. It's my annual creepy reads October!

53mabith
Oct 11, 2017, 7:15 pm

Just finishing The Book Thieves: The Nazi Looting of Europe's libraries and the Race to Return a Literary Inheritance and Reality is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity.

54dchaikin
Oct 18, 2017, 11:29 pm

flipping audio: Finished The Haunting of Hill House, an impressive thing, haunting or not. The library let me have The Secret History of Wonder Woman back, so I'll continue with it tomorrow.

In text, I'm thinking of abandoning The White Goddess and picking up something else to focus on.

55thorold
Oct 19, 2017, 2:11 am

In the last couple of days I’ve finished William Heinesen’s The lost musicians for the Nordic theme, and another worthy-but-doomed attempt to popularise engineering, Bridges : the science and art of the world's most inspiring structures by David Blockley.

I’ve started an Icelandic crime story, The legacy - which seems rather ordinary so far - and another book on machine-free navigation, The lost art of finding our way, which looks interesting so far, if rather ploddingly written. Huth takes a rather more scientific approach than Tristan Gooley - it’s an attempt to analyse the history and psychology of navigation rather than a how-to book.

56avaland
Oct 19, 2017, 1:40 pm

Having finished Jeff VanderMeer's Borne, I seem to be alternating between:

Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction by Susan Blackmore
Norma by Finnish-Estonian author Sofi Oksanen (who last book I really enjoyed)
another William Lorimer mystery by Alex Gray and...
an historical novel plus, so to speak, in Spider in a Tree by Susan Stinson.

57dchaikin
Oct 20, 2017, 6:47 am

58RidgewayGirl
Oct 20, 2017, 11:36 am

I'm reading Ties (http://www.librarything.com/work/19264725) by Domenico Starnone, a short novel translated from the Italian by Jhumpa Lahiri. It's excellent so far. It being set in Naples and being about a dissolving marriage does make me think of Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet, although the novels are not otherwise similar.

I'm also reading Under a Pole Star, which is by Stef Penney, who knows how to write, and is about polar exploration, so I'm happy about this one.

I'm continuing with Dimestore: A Writer's Life by Lee Smith, which got set aside for awhile through no fault of its own. Smith's voice is so strong, I end up reading this at the speed of the spoken word.

59bragan
Oct 22, 2017, 4:03 am

I've recently finished The World's Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne, a memoir by a Mormon bodybuilder librarian with Tourette's, and Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian, book five in the Aubrey-Maturin series.

And now I'm reading It Devours!, the new Welcome to Night Vale novel by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor.

60cindydavid4
Oct 22, 2017, 4:55 am

61ELiz_M
Oct 22, 2017, 9:39 am

I recently finished The Last World and am currently working on Zorba the Greek and A Dance to the Music of Time: Fourth Movement.

62MsNick
Oct 23, 2017, 10:10 am

I've finally gotten around to reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

63SassyLassy
Oct 23, 2017, 11:30 am

I'm so happy to be finally back reading Zola after a five month absence. This month it is The Sin of Abbé Mouret.

64dchaikin
Oct 24, 2017, 7:00 am

flipping audiobooks. I finished The Secret History of Wonder Woman and now I'm trying Lincoln on the Bardo. I lot of work went into trying to make LotB listenable, with 166 narrators, but it's not the ideal way to take it in and it's still a bit of a struggle.

65thorold
Oct 24, 2017, 11:57 am

Finished the two I mentioned in >55 thorold: as well as another very enjoyable non-Booker-winning Ali Smith novel, How to be both.

Staying in the North Atlantic, I've started Under the glacier. Looks distinctly odd so far...

66Yells
Modifié : Oct 24, 2017, 8:04 pm

>64 dchaikin: I had to give up on the audio of LotB. Awesome idea but way too confusing. I have a paper version on hold.

67dchaikin
Oct 26, 2017, 10:06 pm

>66 Yells: I’ve gotten used to it. My only problem now is listening carefully. It’s different from anything else I’ve read (or listened to).

68AlisonY
Oct 27, 2017, 8:08 am

I'm horribly behind with my reading at the moment, but I just finished The Gathering and am on now to Into the Grey Zone: A Neuroscientist Explores the Border Between Life and Death.

69mabith
Oct 27, 2017, 3:05 pm

I've started two longish books, The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing and The Children's Book by AS Byatt.

70chlorine
Oct 28, 2017, 12:15 pm

I'm reading Smoke and Mirrors, a short story collection by Neil Gaiman, and so far I like it a lot.
I also reading (in French) The iron Dream by Norman Spinrad. So far I don't know quite to make about it (I read approximately 60 pages). It's presented as the novel that Hitler would have written in an alternate timeline where he emigrated in the US in the thirties and became first an illustrator for science-fiction magazines, then a science-fiction author. Given that HItler is the author, the book is about a pure human wanting to rid the world of the horrible mutants, and how it shows in every aspect that pure humans are nobler, stronger, more intelligent, and in general more worthy than mutants.
I get the satirical aspect but I'm not sure I want to read the bad book that Hitler would have written if he had been an author...

71dchaikin
Oct 28, 2017, 1:44 pm

>70 chlorine: A parallel between these superheroes and Nazism? hmm. I recently finished reading about Wonder Woman, which helps me see your comments about The Iron Dream in a new light. I can kind of see the relationship.

72AlisonY
Oct 29, 2017, 3:54 am

I finished the excellent Into the Grey Zone book about the science of discovering levels of consciousness in seemingly vegetative patients. On now to The Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey. I loved The Snow Child and fear this may not compare, but here goes.

73chlorine
Oct 29, 2017, 9:40 am

>71 dchaikin:
From what I understand from the reviews and the wikipedia page, Spinrad's goal was to highlight how some ideas in science-fiction and fantasy in general could be close to racist ideologies.
For me the parallel with the Lord of the Rings is clear: I loved this book when I was a kid, I read it three times, but when I tried to read it a fourth time, many years ago, I was turned off by the way some species or races are described as intrinsically better than others. Goblins are bad because they are goblins, which is seen in many fantasy books. But even in the different groups of humans you observe differences: the men in the South (if I remember correctly) are vile while those of the West are noble. And, looking at Aragorn, you can clearly _see_ according to Tolkien that he belongs to a noble line.

74dchaikin
Oct 29, 2017, 10:28 am

I was thinking more along the lines of superman as super-arian-man (except he has black hair, wears a shawl-er cape-, he’s an American immigrant and his creator was Jewish, so he’s more like super-Jewish-man - but the impression is the same). Then every super hero becomes a representative of some kind of aspect of cultural being - an ideal. So they all go the same road.

But, yeah, fantasy plays into the same racist ideals. They can be taken as offering a fantasty world where there is clarity of place and purpose or of a completely racist over simplification - groups without individual identity, but with clear cut defined identity. Therefore always an other, except for the main character.

I’ll put here, I don’t think superheroes and fantasy are inherently bad, and I don’t think that is where a normal reader (or viewer) goes with this stuff. It is what the observer makes of it. But it’s in there.

75avaland
Oct 29, 2017, 2:04 pm

I just blew through the very good, thought-provoking (somewhat disturbing), love story To The Back and Beyond by Swiss author Peter Stamm.

Still working on Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction, thinking of keeping the reading light and or short books during post-surgery period later this week.

76dchaikin
Oct 29, 2017, 4:31 pm

I purchased on Kindle and started reading Murder on the Orient Express. Prepping for the movie. It’s also my first murder mystery ever.

77cindydavid4
Oct 29, 2017, 8:46 pm

>76 dchaikin: I finally read this, after reading a bio/travel narrative about Agatha Christie, written on whats left of the OE. I liked it, and am crossing my fingers that the movie does it justice (I always worry in these star studded films that it will just all fall apart)

78dchaikin
Oct 29, 2017, 9:18 pm

>77 cindydavid4: it is a heavily promoted film. At the moment my feeling about the film is kind of indifferent. I’ll just enjoy going. Maybe I’ll feel differently after I finish

79chlorine
Oct 30, 2017, 9:27 am

>74 dchaikin:

I agree with you about the super-hero thing.
Actually the Iron dream mixes both themes as the hero of the book is of so pure a genetic material that he kind of appears as a super hero (minor spoiler alert: actually there is an artefact hammer built by the scientists of the last king of pure blood that weighs much too much for a single man to lift it - except it's cued to the genetics of the bearer and the hero is able to use it, so this really is evocative of super heroes).

>76 dchaikin:
I hope you like it! How have you been able to not read any murder mystery until now is a wonder to me! I'm not a fan of the genre but it's so omnipresent that I read some (I liked it more when I was younger, also).

I saw the trailer for the movie last night and am hoping it will be good. I'm kind of a Kenneth Brannagh fan although hearing him speak with a French accent was weird.

80dchaikin
Oct 30, 2017, 1:14 pm

>79 chlorine: i never tried mysteries. I brought some sort of prejudice in before I joined CR and haven’t overcome it yet.

81chlorine
Oct 30, 2017, 3:48 pm

>80 dchaikin: You'll see if your prejudice is justified then.

And I started reading L'archipel d'une autre vie (Archipelago of another life) by Andrei Makine. I can't say I'm enjoying the writing so far, it's too artificially litterary.

82cindydavid4
Modifié : Oct 31, 2017, 9:35 am

I love reading psychological thrillers like Ruth Rendle's books. But not big on whodunits.

83MarcusBastos
Nov 1, 2017, 10:36 pm

Finished listening The Age of Faith, by Will Durant. Another step in his enlightened Story of Civilization (this is the volume 4 of 9). Review in my thread.

84thorold
Nov 2, 2017, 7:14 am

>76 dchaikin: Well, we won't tell you who did it, then...

I've finished Armistead Maupin's new memoir Logical family (no new revelations, but a very pleasant read) and another Alice Munro collection in the last couple of days.

Now reading Anne Tyler's A spool of blue thread (OK: one thing I did learn from the Maupin memoir is that he and Ms Tyler had the same English teacher in Raleigh, NC, a few years apart!), and Apollo: the race to the Moon, my latest quasi-random non-fiction pick from the library.

85RidgewayGirl
Nov 2, 2017, 7:53 am

I'm in the final pages of the gorgeously written The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry. It's a Victorian novel in all the best ways.

I'm in the middle of Dimestore: A Writer's Life by Lee Smith, which begs to be read slowly and in the cadences of the author's Southern accent. I'm reading another book set in the Appalachian South, acalled Where All Light Tends to Go by David Joy and it's a flawed first novel that has promise, but the central characters lack depth.

And I continue with a collection of letters written by Sophie and Hans Scholl in At the Heart of the White Rose.

86dchaikin
Nov 2, 2017, 9:04 am

>84 thorold: ooh, that would be mean.

87MarcusBastos
Nov 2, 2017, 4:41 pm

Finished reading A Caribbean Mystery, by Agatha Christie. Another step in my group challenge (reading all Miss Marple books in chronological order). Review in my thread.

88MarcusBastos
Nov 2, 2017, 8:04 pm

Finished listening a collection of short stories named Holiday Classics, by O Henry. This audiobook was produced by Audible with the holiday season in mind. Review in my thread.

89dchaikin
Modifié : Nov 2, 2017, 8:18 pm

flipping audiobooks. I finished Lincoln on the Bardo and have started You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie, who, of course, reads it himself.

90MarcusBastos
Nov 3, 2017, 2:30 pm

Finished reading The Loved One, by Evelyn Waugh. First work of Evelyn Waugh that I read. Love it! Review in my thread.

91chlorine
Nov 4, 2017, 5:46 am

After reading three books in a row that I did not really enjoy, it's time for a treat! I've started Dust by Hugh Howey, the third and final book in the Wool series.

92avaland
Modifié : Nov 4, 2017, 6:40 am

I finished Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction.

I've picked up Woman at 1000 Degrees by Hallgrimur Helgarson, thus far an 80 year old woman's fierce (and funny) deathbed confession. Might be just what I need.

93japaul22
Nov 4, 2017, 6:54 am

I'm reading The Last Castle, nonfiction about the building of the Biltmore and the Vanderbilt family. For fiction I'm reading Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee.

I'm also doing a reread of The Duke's Children by Trollope. This is a tutored read by Liz (lyzard) where we are comparing the newly released but original, uncut version of this book. Trollope was made to cut about 65,000 words to prepare this last volume of the Palliser series for publication and we are comparing the two versions.

94dchaikin
Nov 4, 2017, 10:22 am

Finished Murder on the Orient Express, my first straightforward murder mystery (although, it turns out, not really my first mystery). It was fun and I've added mystery to my classification of my books read - which caused me a lot silly frustration.

95cindydavid4
Modifié : Nov 4, 2017, 10:51 am

>93 japaul22: Oh I discovered Laurie Lee's books in a little London bookstore years ago - that one was the first, then quickly went through the rest of the trilogy As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment of War. . Very enjoyable memoir/travel narrative/history.

Now reading War of the Oaks, Bear and Nightingale and Bitter Greens. The latter are for the December Reading Through Time 'Fractured Fairy Tale' theme.

96MarcusBastos
Nov 5, 2017, 8:37 am

Read the short history Rain, by W. Somerset Maugham. Like it a lot! Review in my thread.

97chlorine
Nov 5, 2017, 10:46 am

I've started my first audiobook ever: L'évangile de Jimmy (Jimmy's gospel) by Didier van Cauwelaert.
I've listened to one tenth of the book so far and it is a strange experience. I'm not sure I'm able to enjoy the book as much as I would on paper. I'll try and finish it and see how I feel at the end.

98dchaikin
Nov 5, 2017, 11:05 am

Last night I read the first chapter of the The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, which I was looking forward to and planning to read soon. Goodness, I hope it gets better.

99AlisonY
Nov 5, 2017, 1:06 pm

I really enjoyed Eowyn Ivey's second book - To the Bright Edge of the World. On now to Falling Angels by Tracey Chevalier.

100tonikat
Nov 5, 2017, 1:22 pm

Man and his Symbols by Carl Gustav Jung (and others). Also Station Island and The Haw Lantern by Seamus Heaney. And Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

101mabith
Nov 5, 2017, 7:28 pm

Just finished two long reads, The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing and The Children's Book by AS Byatt.

Now starting Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta and Who Killed These Girls by Beverly Lowry.

102AlisonY
Nov 6, 2017, 5:46 am

>101 mabith: will be interested to read your review of The Children's Book as I keep putting off starting that for no logical reason.

103ELiz_M
Nov 6, 2017, 7:56 am

>98 dchaikin: I think that book is better on audio.

104torontoc
Nov 6, 2017, 8:08 am

I just started Tell by Frances Itani

105thorold
Modifié : Nov 7, 2017, 2:33 pm

Finished A spool of blue thread (predictably excellent) and a Swedish novel I found lurking on the TBR shelf, Naboth’s stone (a bit more challenging than Tyler, but interesting).

Started The volcano lover, which is one of those books I’ve vaguely known about for years without ever getting around to looking for it. Fun so far: I enjoyed the notion of Goethe as the Stone Guest...

106dchaikin
Nov 7, 2017, 8:06 pm

Finished The Collected Stories by Grace Paley, a book I've been look forward to for some ten years now. It was excellent. Next should be The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller...

107RidgewayGirl
Nov 8, 2017, 12:05 am

I've set other books aside to read Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan. It's a solid historical novel set in New York during the Depression and WWII and I'm enjoying it.

108bragan
Nov 9, 2017, 3:56 am

I finished quite a few books while I was on vacation last week, and after I got back: Long Division by Kiese Laymon, Cujo by Stephen King, Naked and Marooned by Ed Stafford, Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich, a reread of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori and Rom Brafman.

And now I'm back to my Terry Pratchett rereading with Thud!.

109thorold
Nov 11, 2017, 11:50 am

Finished Monika Maron’s very interesting family memoir Pawels Briefe and another Danish short story collection, Baboon.

The postman brought me Tómas Jónsson, Bestseller this afternoon - I’ve only just started on it, but it could well turn out to be the oddest book of this year.

110cindydavid4
Nov 11, 2017, 2:38 pm

marriage of the sea Picked up at a bookstore while on vacation last summer; seems like the perfect book to read right now.

111chlorine
Nov 12, 2017, 8:53 am

112avidmom
Nov 12, 2017, 2:56 pm

I am trying to finish Woman Of God by James Patterson which is proving to be a very entertaining read. Next up is a revisit of an old favorite The Chosen by Chaim Potok.

113RidgewayGirl
Nov 12, 2017, 4:15 pm

I have a stack of books going, but I'm mainly reading The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash, which deals with the mill workers in North Carolina trying to organize a union. It's wonderful stuff - Cash has done his research and writes well. It's also set in the same small part of the world that I'm in - Gaston County is about an hour's drive away and Greenville is mentioned several times.

114dchaikin
Nov 15, 2017, 8:51 pm

flipping audio books. I finished You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, the recent memoir by Sherman Alexie. And now I've started Hero of the Empire by Candice Millard, read by Simon Vance

(touchstones touchy at the moment...)

115AlisonY
Nov 16, 2017, 6:30 am

I've segued on my reading after bringing one of my kids to the library and having one of those "I don't need any more books... I don't need any more books... I don't need any more books.... I might just have a quick look at the books" moments.

I'm now getting into Why Write? A Master Class on the Art of Writing and Why it Matters by Mark Edmundson whilst trying to pretend to myself that I haven't stopped reading the fiction book I started a few days ago.

116MarcusBastos
Modifié : Nov 16, 2017, 8:15 am

Finished Comentários a uma Sentença Anunciada: O Processo Lula, by Carol Proner, portuguese edition. The book examines the criminal trial of a former brazilian president. Review in my thread.

117dchaikin
Nov 16, 2017, 11:41 pm

Finished The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, which did in the end win me over. Next I'm eyeing The Creek by J. T. Glisson, on Cross Creek (Florida), which comes to me via a friend and neighbor of the author.

118ELiz_M
Modifié : Nov 17, 2017, 7:46 am

Recently finished 2001: A Space Odyssey and Contempt. The latter was a very difficult read; a little too related to the current news cycle...

I've started The Good Soldier.

119japaul22
Nov 17, 2017, 8:40 am

I've been quiet here because I'm reading two LONG books. I'm doing a reread of The Duke's Children, the last in Trollope's Palliser series. The deal with that is that Trollope was made to cut 65,000 words from his original manuscript. The cut version was all that was available until recently. Now I'm reading his original version in a tutored read with Liz (lyzard). It is really fascinating to see all of the cuts and how it alters the overall picture. But it is slow going.

And of course the other book I'm reading is also about 1000 pages. The new biography of Grant by Ron Chernow is long and detailed but really fascinating.

I might throw something shorter in there, just to feel like I'm finishing something, but I'm enjoying them both so much that I haven't yet.

120thorold
Nov 17, 2017, 12:52 pm

Finished the very strange, very sixties Tómas Jónsson, bestseller.

After that, I needed something with a bit less testosterone, so I'm reading Ali Smith's Winter (hot off the press) and another short Annie Ernaux novel, Ce qu'ils disent ou rien.

121cindydavid4
Nov 19, 2017, 12:09 am

Lately I have been on a Hamilton tear - reading non fiction accounts, historic novels, putting the soundtrack for the musical on constant repeat, hoping that I am able to get tickets to the show when they go on sale next month.... I know much more about world history than I do about the history of my own country and now think its high time to catch up. So I have started Founding Brothers and liking it quite a bit so far. Wonder where I should go from there...

122Oandthegang
Nov 19, 2017, 3:10 am

I have just finished reading Howards End, which I really disliked, but Forster must have got across something about the feeling of the country as while I was reading it I began to think about re-reading The Morville Hours. Instead I am going back to Corduroy, a small book which I enjoy but somehow keep interrupting so that I go back to the beginning again and again. Slightly Foxed has just published the third volume of this trilogy, Corduroy being the first, so I had better finish it this time! Am also reading The Summer Book, another book which I enjoy but was also interrupted. Perhaps it's something about small books. I carry them around and then misplace them, so grab something else as I'm leaving the house, then when having one of my intermittent reshuffles I come across them again. We're having a very pretty autumn here, and the look and smell of the leaves is taking me towards rural reading - which I'll have to fit in quickly as the time to unpack those other seasonal books is fast approaching. Right. Time to watch the dawn and listen to the birds.

123torontoc
Nov 19, 2017, 11:30 am

Reading Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill- it is on the Giller shortlist ( award ceremony tomorrow night)- I am enjoying it - a mystery, and an unreliable narrator.

124chlorine
Nov 20, 2017, 4:45 am

I just started Les âmes grises by Philippe Claudel. I really liked the other two books I've read by this author so I have high expectations for this one.

125chlorine
Nov 21, 2017, 4:24 pm

I started Stories of your life and others by Ted Chiang. I'm captivated by the first short-story.

126SassyLassy
Nov 22, 2017, 1:04 pm

>123 torontoc: Looks like you picked the right book to read!

127dchaikin
Nov 22, 2017, 5:39 pm

Finished The Creek by J. T. Glisson, and I'm sad to have finished. Glisson was young teenager in Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's Cross Creek, and later an illustrator. Next, I'm eyeing The Long Ships by Frans Gunnar Bengtsson - a book I closely associate with CR since so many have recommended it to me here. Hope I like it!

128AnnieMod
Nov 22, 2017, 6:42 pm

>125 chlorine:

I will be very interested to hear your opinion on the whole collection (I consider Chiang one of the best short fiction writers these days).

129ipsoivan
Nov 22, 2017, 8:43 pm

>127 dchaikin: I join in the chorus of lovers of that book!

130ipsoivan
Nov 22, 2017, 8:47 pm

I've got a small pile of possibles in front of me, including a William Trevor, Fools of Fortune, that I'm pretty sure I've read before and the last of Roddy Doyle's Henry Smart trilogy, The Dead Republic. Clearly I'm in Irish mode.

Oh no, I may have read the Doyle too. My other Irish choice is Colm Toibin's The Blackwater Lightship. I know for sure I haven't read it. I'll start them all and see what happens.

131Simone2
Nov 23, 2017, 4:30 am

I just finished the fantastic The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne (highly recommended!) and am now starting Chemistry by Weike Wang. Also, I am still very slowly going through Sodom and Gomorra by Proust.

132chlorine
Nov 25, 2017, 4:35 am

I'm really excited to start Shades of Gray by Jasper Fforde, as dystopia is one of my favorite genres.

133bragan
Modifié : Nov 25, 2017, 10:20 pm

It's been a while since I've checked in here. Since then, I've read The Big Lebowski by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (basically just the script of the movie); Fish Whistle, a collection of short essays by Daniel Pinkwater; Ethan Frome and Other Stories by Edith Wharton; The Invisible Library by Genvieve Cogman, which was kind of disappointing; Phantoms in the Brain by V. S. Ramachandran, which reminded me all over again that brains are weird; and The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith, book number 11 in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.

I'm now reading The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams. 120 pages in, I'm pretty sure it's not going to be something I can recommend, but it's... interesting.

134mabith
Nov 26, 2017, 6:38 pm

>133 bragan: I hope you're enjoying Fish Whistle! I love Daniel Pinkwater so much (and he's a very friendly author to be a fan of).

135cindydavid4
Nov 26, 2017, 7:37 pm

Finished Improvement by Joan Silber. Really liked the first two thirds, then a group of people are introduced doing something I abhor (buying and selling ancient artifacts), and who eventurally are linked to the early characters. But that whole section felt pasted on, like the novel wasn't big enough so she needed to fill it in. Too bad because I was really enjoying it.

136bragan
Nov 26, 2017, 10:10 pm

>134 mabith: Fish Whistle had some good stuff in it (along with some stuff I was less interested in), but I much prefer his kids' books, which will always hold a special, strange place in my heart.

137thorold
Nov 27, 2017, 5:17 am

After an unplanned diversion towards Christian VII of Denmark, I've finished Ali Smith's Artful and I'm getting towards the end of Christopher Clark's The sleepwalkers, which kept me busy for most of last week.

Not sure what's coming next - I might go back to Vilhelm Moberg's The emigrants which I put aside after a couple of chapters, or start something new. Barbara's comments about The heart's invisible furies (>131 Simone2:) have stirred my curiosity a bit, but I've also got a pile of other stuff from the library, and reading Clark on the last days of the Dual Monarchy makes me want to go back to read some more Joseph Roth...

138cindydavid4
Modifié : Nov 29, 2017, 10:01 am

All Our Wrong Todays Love time travel books and already like where I think this book it going

139dchaikin
Nov 29, 2017, 6:11 pm

flipping audiobooks. Finished Hero of the Empire by Candice Millard, which was far from world changing. Now I'm trying Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss

140ipsoivan
Nov 29, 2017, 8:29 pm

I finished Fools of Fortune yesterday, and I'm enjoying my first Bernice Rubens, The Waiting Game--blackmail, secret lives and strange preferences in a retirement home. Very dry humour.

142MarcusBastos
Déc 3, 2017, 4:56 pm

Finished The Crime at Noah’s Ark, by Molly Thynne. A good Golden Age Mystery. Review in my thread.

143dchaikin
Déc 4, 2017, 6:59 am

Finished The Long Ships, which I liked more and more as it went along. Great fun and interesting too. My next one has been hanging around the house a while. I'm trying "postmodern experimentations" in Fanon by John Edgar Wideman

144avaland
Déc 4, 2017, 4:57 pm

I have finished the wild read that is Woman at 1000 Degrees by Haligrimur Helgason and am now reading Compartment No. 6 by Finnish author Rosa Likson. It's about two very different people who share a compartment on a train from Moscow to Mongolia.

145chlorine
Déc 6, 2017, 5:12 am

I just started Class Reunion (in French) by Franz Werfel.

146torontoc
Déc 6, 2017, 9:46 am

I am reading Wayne Johnston's newest novel First Snow, Last Light.

147mabith
Modifié : Déc 6, 2017, 11:55 am

148lilisin
Déc 7, 2017, 3:11 am

Just read another book in Japanese and it took less than a week to read!

天国はまだ遠く

149chlorine
Modifié : Déc 8, 2017, 11:57 am

>148 lilisin: Yay! I hope you enjoyed it!

150bragan
Modifié : Déc 8, 2017, 9:02 pm

So far this month, I've read The Angry Chef: Bad Science and the Truth About Healthy Eating by Anthony Warner (an ER book), and Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera, and finished my Discworld re-reading project for the year with Terry Pratchett's Snuff.

I'm now reading Where I'm Reading From by Tim Parks, a collection of what look to be deliberately provocative essays about literature and books.

151chlorine
Déc 9, 2017, 7:11 am

>128 AnnieMod: Just finished Stories of your life and others and loved it! Review on my thread.

152cindydavid4
Modifié : Déc 9, 2017, 8:45 pm

the girl in the tower Hadn't read bear and nightgale for a month or so and didn't remember some details. I really liked how the author sets up the beginning to refresh our memory without doing flashbacks, or a long narration. Just jumps right into the story, uses the characters to reintroduces us to the story, and then we are off for part two.

153chlorine
Déc 10, 2017, 5:42 am

I'm starting Bartleby the scrivener by Herman Melville. This comes very highly recommended by a friend with tastes similar to mine, so it should be good, but I'm a bit wary because I really didn't like Moby Dick.

154dchaikin
Déc 10, 2017, 2:17 pm

>153 chlorine: Bartleby led to interesting conversations in my high school literature class. I might have gotten more out of them had I actually read it.

Survived Wideman's Fanon. Now I'm reading the English part of Spanish Pathways in Florida: 1492-1992/Los Caminos Espanoles En La Florida : 1492-1992 (English and Spanish Edition), a collection of essays on Hispanic history in Florida. It's pleasant to read straightforward clear sentences with simple, unabstracted meaning.

155chlorine
Déc 10, 2017, 2:34 pm

>154 dchaikin: Bartleby is very short (a bit more than 50 pages) so if you decide to read it now it won't take much of your time. I've already read around 75 per cent and am quite enjoying it.

156avaland
Déc 10, 2017, 3:43 pm

I have finished Rosa Likson's Compartment No. 6 and I have now started Across the China Sea by Norwegian author Gaute Heivoll. I was excited to discovered he had a second book translated because I loved his Before I Burn, a favorite from my 2014 reading.

157chlorine
Déc 11, 2017, 6:05 am

I've started Soulless by Cail Garriger.
Seems like I'm in for some light, fun reading.

158japaul22
Déc 11, 2017, 7:15 am

I finally finished Grant by Ron Chernow. It was excellent but the 1000 pages took me a full month to read with very few other books in between. I highly recommend it, though.

159cindydavid4
Déc 11, 2017, 7:48 pm

>158 japaul22: Would like to read that one. I read his Hamilton and it did take a while but it was worth it.

160chlorine
Déc 16, 2017, 5:30 am

Just started Au Japon ceux qui s'aiment ne disent pas je t'aime (In Japan, those who love each other don't say I love you), by Elena Janvier.
It's a very short book of random tidbits about the difference between Japenese and French culture.

161chlorine
Déc 16, 2017, 10:29 am

And I'm also starting Les fiancés de l'hiver by Christelle Dabos. This is a fantasy book that has been highly recommended to me. I hardly know anything about the plot except that it appears to be magic fantasy rather than exotic creatures. I have high expectations for it.

162avaland
Déc 17, 2017, 6:41 am

Now reading Ghachar Ghochar, a small novel or novella by South Indian author Vivek Shanbhag.

163torontoc
Déc 17, 2017, 9:29 am

I am readingKoba the Dread Laughter and the Twenty Million by Martin Amis.

164AlisonY
Déc 17, 2017, 5:34 pm

Crawling through my reading, but have finally finished Why Write? A Master Class on the Art of Writing and Why It Matters and am on to Dubliners by James Joyce.

165dchaikin
Déc 17, 2017, 8:53 pm

Reading another book off the shelf, One Man's Bible by Gao Xingjian, a Nobel Prize winner. Listening to Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig.

166rachbxl
Déc 19, 2017, 3:29 am

I'm 350 pages into the 530 pages of Pachinko by Min Jin Lee - it's a great story, a family saga about Koreans in Japan, but it's way longer than it needs to be.

167MarcusBastos
Déc 20, 2017, 5:06 pm

Finished listening The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith. Review in my thread.

168avidmom
Déc 20, 2017, 9:02 pm

I have a few going right now: for NF Of Mess and Moxie by Jen Hatmaker; The Chosen by Chaim Potok and The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

169dchaikin
Modifié : Déc 21, 2017, 7:20 pm

>168 avidmom: The Chosen... hope you enjoy. An influential book in my young adulthood.

170cindydavid4
Modifié : Déc 21, 2017, 8:43 am

>169 dchaikin: Yes, for me as well (tho I was more like a teen when I read it) Actually loved all of his books - The Promise Davita's Harp but it was My Name is Asher Lev which resonated to me as a young adult struggling with my own identity. Saw that there is a sequel to it, The Gift of Asher Lev but never read it.

171MarcusBastos
Déc 21, 2017, 2:27 pm

Finished reading A Elite do Atraso: Da Escravidão à Laja-Jato, by Jessé Souza, portuguese edition. The book deals with brazilian politics and it’s interpretation. Review in my thread.

172japaul22
Déc 21, 2017, 3:00 pm

I'm reading The Sister a debut novel by Poppy Adams that I'm really liking. Someone here reviewed it favorably, maybe Nickelini/Joyce? If so, thanks!

I'm also back to Proust, reading volume 5, The Captive.

173avaland
Déc 21, 2017, 3:38 pm

Signal Loss by Garry Disher, most recent installment in a long-time favorite Australian police procedural series (too bad I blow through these so quickly)

174SassyLassy
Déc 21, 2017, 6:17 pm

Hand-grenade Practice in Peking - the author is really bothering me. I am only continuing with it because the year she spent in Beijing is such a crucial one (1975-76).

175ELiz_M
Déc 21, 2017, 6:58 pm

On holiday, so I have read Devil-Devil, Promise at Dawn, L'Assommoir and Game for Five. I think I am about to start Legend, which if not literary is at least on the 1001 books list.

176dchaikin
Déc 21, 2017, 7:20 pm

>170 cindydavid4: Cindy - I read the Asher Lev pair a few years ago, the first was a re-read. I was worried I might have outgrown them, but found I liked them a lot.

177lilisin
Déc 22, 2017, 3:04 am

The c and e keys aren't working but must announce my progress!

Just managd to finish what will probably b th last book of th yar, Audition by Ryu Murakami. It was so fun to rad. Suspns galor!
I don't rad as muh as I usd to but I finishd th yar strong with thr books in a row rad! In Japans! How xiting!

an't wait for lub Rad 2018! S you guys thn!

178chlorine
Déc 22, 2017, 9:21 am

>177 lilisin: Glad you finish the year "in beauty" and I hope you don't lose more keys in 2018! Your post cracked me up. :)

179MarcusBastos
Déc 22, 2017, 2:09 pm

Finished listening A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle. Great book in a wonderful narration. I’m going next in the series. Review in my thread.

180cindydavid4
Modifié : Déc 22, 2017, 9:49 pm

>176 dchaikin: thanks, I will have to try the sequel

Ive had a horrible reading month, just too busy to sit and focus. Thank gawd for winter break....lots of books on my tbr shelf to get through!

181rachbxl
Déc 23, 2017, 3:51 am

Having finished the wonderful yet frustrating Pachinko, I'm now enjoying History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund.

182dchaikin
Déc 25, 2017, 9:32 pm

Finished One Man's Bible By Gao Xingjian, a fictionalized memoir of his experiences during the Cultural Revolution. I've started A Good Man : Fathers and Sons in Poetry and Prose edited by Irv Broughton, an obscure 1993 anthology that is so far great stuff.

183kidzdoc
Déc 27, 2017, 7:52 am

I'm nearly finished with The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee, which is good but nowhere near as compelling a read as his earlier book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. I hope to finish The Impostor by Javier Cercas, which is listed as a novel but is the actual story of the author's investigation into the life of Enric Marco, a famous Spanish public figure who claimed to be a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp after he was captured during the Spanish Civil War but was revealed as an impostor 60 years after the end of World War II. It's okay so far, but not yet as interesting as his previous novels that I've read.

184bragan
Déc 27, 2017, 12:52 pm

Since last checking in here, I've read Cemetery World by Clifford D. Simak, Possession by A.S. Byatt, Santa vs Satan: The Official Compendium of Imaginary Fights by Jake Kalish (whcih I can't recommend), and Finger Lickin' Fifteen, yet another of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels.

I'm now reading The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015, which has some really terrific stuff in it.