WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 1

Making sure it is here when the year rolls over :)

So... how is your reading year starting? Did you read anything on January 1 or did you skip the day?

Welcome to 2020's first "What you are reading" thread!

I've decided to start the year with a 'warm-up' so I'm reading Blackwater a 1993 crime novel by Swedish author Kerstin Ekman.

I wrapped up my 2019 reading yesterday, and I've started two new books that will be my first of 2020. I'm reading Nana by Emile Zola - I've been meaning to get back to him for a while.

For nonfiction I'm reading The Anarchy. I found this on Barack Obama's 2019 favorites list and was intrigued. It's about how the East India Company, a private company, managed to take over the Mughal Empire in India. I've done so much reading of British novels from the 18th and 19th century and the East India Company is a constant background. I'm looking forward to understand more about the situation.

I've been stirring my halva pot with one hand, holding Les furtifs with the other for a few hours now. The pumpkin halva is nearly ready now, but I won't have finished my book before we leave for our New Year's party. Happy New Year to all!

>3 japaul22: The Anarchy caught my attention too. That'll probably be a library checkout for me.

>4 Dilara86: Mmmm homemade halva! I've never had pumpkin, but that sounds good.

I just started Zadie Smith's story collection Grand Union and will be starting The Bone Clocks soon as well.

Crossing into the next year with City of the Lost by Stephen Blackmoore - his first novel - urban fantasy/horror mix that works pretty well. It is set in the same world as his later Eric Carter series (which I enjoyed in 2019) although some details don't match so it looks like a proof of concept for the world than a part of it. Still fun though. :)

My last book of 2019 was L’Oeuvre, 14/20 in the Zolathon. A light-hearted romp (by Zola standards) through the art world of the 1860s. I’ve started George Szirtes’s memoir of his mother, The photographer at sixteen, which looks very interesting.

I finished The Brutal Telling, the fifth in Louise Penny’s Three Pines mystery series, featuring the wonderful Chief Inspector Gamache, yesterday...and, as I had the next book, Bury your Dead, I couldn’t resist the temptation, and have gone straight on to it.

After taking it away on holiday with me and not picking it up, now that I'm home I've started Why Did You Lie? which is a BB from rachbxl.

>10 rhian_of_oz: Hmmm, I know I enjoyed it at the time, but I don’t remember much about it now. Maybe reading your thoughts in it when you’ve finished will jog my memory!

Yesterday I finished Century of the Wind and Pilgrimage IV. I will probably begin with G. or The Diviners, while I wait for my hold on The Duel to come in.

I'm still chugging through Olive Kitteridge. Always ironic that the more free time I have, the less reading I get done.

Opened with Inferno, as planned. Although still in the introductory stuff. I’m using the Hollander translation. And I’ll start Nabokov’s 1st novel, Mary later today.

Carry overs from last year are A History of London, which I might actually set aside halfway done, and my audiobook 10 Minutes 38 seconds in this Strange World, which I’ll finish but I’m finding only ok.

>12 ELiz_M: Wait, you finished Pilgrimage?! Yay! I'm excited to hear what you thought of it in the end.

I am reading Henry VI part 2 in the Arden Shakespeare series.

I've begun the year with Herkunft by Saša Stanišic, a German immigrant from a country that no longer exists explores his origins. It's proving to be quite a bit more fun and enjoyable than I had thought it would be.

I'm reading Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo and Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha, both from the Tournament of Books shortlist. And I've started Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Díaz, a memoir of a Puerto Rican childhood.

And I have a book of short stories on the go; Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg. The first story was a wonderful surprise, but the whole is feeling less than the sum of the individual stories as they are so similar to one another.

I decided this will be the year I finish Rougon-Macquart. I got more than half-way through many years ago (starting before rebeccanyc even), but got stalled. So I’m starting again with The Masterpiece. For nonfiction, I’m reading Midnight in Chernobyl.

My first finish for 2020 was Delicious in Dungeon, vol. 1 by Ryoko Kui. It's a volume of manga I picked up on New Year's Eve at my sister's recommendation. Highly entertaining story about a group of fantasy adventurers who decide to eat the monsters they fight in the dungeon they are exploring. It includes "recipes" for all the dishes. Definitely a series I want to continue reading.

Carrying over from 2019 I have An Assembly Such as This by Pamela Aidan and Soulful Simplicity by Courtney Carver. And for my book group next week I need to read The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde.

Currently reading Bad Astronomy by Phil Plait - I've enjoyed his blog for years, though so far the book is somewhat less interesting. Possibly because I've already seen his explanations of why these don't make sense for the first several "bad astronomy" myths he's covering. Still, enjoyable. He's a good writer and has an interesting voice.

>3 japaul22: Wow, BB for The Anarchy and the shortest time I can get it from any of my libraries (as an ebook) is 7 weeks (one says 6 months!). I've been a Kipling fan since I was a kid, this should be interesting (when I finally get it).

I have just started Fielding's Tom Jones. A tad long for the first book of the year, but I enjoy it so far (a hundred pages in).

>20 jjmcgaffey: I'm not sure if it still is on sale, but I bought The Anarchy as a kindle book for $4.99 a few days ago. I've only read the first chapter (they are long chapters!) but it's fascinating so far.

>15 japaul22: I did! And don't tell my best friend, but it was the reason I was late to NYE dinner. Unfortunately, it may be a while before I review it -- I am more than a dozen reviews behind in my 1001-Books thread. :(

>22 japaul22: Nope, it's up to $13+. And for something like that, I prefer to read it first and discover if I'm going to want to reread (and therefore own) it.

I enjoyed The photographer at sixteen and another memoir-novel from my parents’ shelves, On Chapel sands. Now reading Jonathan Fenby’s The history of modern France, and I’ve got Frankissstein lined up on the e-reader.

>21 OscarWilde87: Starting Tom Jones is something I’ve done many times... only got to the end once, though!

>25 thorold: I set myself a daily goal of only 25 pages, which is fairly easy to reach as I like the novel so far and 25 pages is not a lot. I'll see how it's going to work out...

I have been so sick since late in December (just a cold, I think, but worse than any I've had for years) that I have only finished two books so far. I am still finishing the books in my Hawaii project, although I only have three to go. The ones I read so far were Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum, and Murder on the Ballarat Train the third book in the Phryne Fisher series, written by Kerry Greenwood. I started the Hawaiian History Captive Paradise, but I expected to finish it last year, so I won't be counting it. I still have six books to review, but I haven't been able to do it. I am somewhat better today, so I may get to it later.

>13 AlisonY: Olive Kitteridge was one of my favourite reads in 2019! I'm hoping to get to Olive, again this year.

At the moment, I'm reading The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman.

I'm two-thirds of the way through Antonia Frasier's very long Cromwell, Our Chief of Men biography.

Finished City of the Lost by Stephen Blackmoore - and had a lot of fun with it. Review and so on posted. :)

Started Curious Toys by Elizabeth Hand yesterday. So far, an awesome historical mystery set in 1915.

Have started a second Kerstin Ekman crime novel, this one very different from the first one. I'm intrigued by her northern Sweden settings.

I'll finally finish Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life by Dr Louise Aronson, a geriatrician at the UCSF School of Medicine, today. I'll then start The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom, a memoir about the New Orleans East house she grew up in, her family, and what happened to them and others after Hurricane Katrina decimated their homes; it won last year's National Book Award for Nonfiction.

>28 Dilara86: I'm nearly there on Olive. If only everyone would stop requiring me to do things at home and give me peace to read for an hour!

Happy new year. I opened my account in reading finishing Michael Jordan The Life, by Roland Lazenby. Review in my thread.

Unusually for me, I’ve only got one book on the go, I think because I haven’t been at work for the last two weeks so haven’t been reading my kindle on the train. The book I am reading is The Sarabande of Sara’s Band by Ukrainian writer Larysa Denysenko.

>33 AlisonY: I know the feeling!

I've just started Soundjata by D. T. Niane. Apparently, it was the inspiration for The Lion King!

I've finished Olive Kitteridge at last (ironic that it's only when I got back to work that I got decent reading time again). Yesterday I started my 12th Ian McEwan book - Amsterdam.

I finished the 10th Ruth Galloway book, The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths. I’ve started B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton as my print book. I have In the Shadow of Power by Viveca Sten lined up on Kindle, and The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott as my next audio book.

Finished Curious Toys last night (very very good - notes/review to follow) and started on Robert B. Parker's Cheap Shot - the third Ace Atkins book in the Spenser series and 43rd overall. So far, as good as expected.

My new commute/handbag book is The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and I'm really enjoying it so far.

Finished Robert B. Parker's Cheap Shot by Ace Atkins last night (review is up) and started Софийско крими by Орлин Чочов - A Bulgarian crime novel (partially satirical) - this one is pretty short so I will be finishing it and starting a new one tonight I suspect. The title translates as "Sofia crime novel" although the word used for "crime novel" is a bit broader than novel - it is a bit of a word play. So far, I am really having fun with it (although it is also one of those books that just won't work in translation - I will explain more when I finish it).

I finished McEwan's Amsterdam. I can't talk about it right now - I'm still huffing with him.

My next random selection is Vita Sackville-West's The Edwardians.

I have now finished two books: La guerre des jours lointains (One Man's Justice) by Akira Yoshimura, and The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood. I'll be heading straight into the third book of the MaddAddam trilogy as this is a trilogy that I feel is best read back to back to keep track of all the characters and plot.

>43 lilisin: Akira Yoshimura is one of my favorite Japanese authors.

>44 arubabookwoman:

Mine as well although this one is much more of a historical novel where his usual literary talents are left off to the side.

In the last few days of my holiday I read Frankissstein, Three men on the Bummel, and a wartime Maigret, Signé Picpus. All fun, in different ways!

I'm partway through The cone-gatherers, which is too good to rush. And I've just got eight library books out, mostly related to the RG theme read...

Finished Софийско крими by Орлин Чочов - which was as good as I hoped albeit probably only if you lived in Bulgaria in the 90s.

Started The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa last night - which sounded fascinating and so far is actually better than I expected.

Now reading Tropic of Violence by Nathacha Appanah, a recommendation from rachbxl in response to a recommendation to her of Appanah's most recent: Waiting for Tomorrow. Good we all look out for each other around here. We'd hate to miss good books....)

Also starting the formidable Founding Mothers & Fathers: Gendered Power amd the Forming of American Society by Mary Beth Norton. 400 pages in the 17th century....I may need to take breaks from it.

>46 thorold: Was reading along, catching up, and came upon this post. Just for a split second, before I recognized the first name, I thought you had read "Frankissstein: Three men on the Bummel" and I was so intruigued. What could that be about, with the second phrase as the subtitle of the first word. Loose brains today.

>47 AnnieMod:

The Memory Police was a great read. I hope you continue to enjoy it.

Finished Cromwell, Our Chief of Men, which was good but so long. Also finished a really really good book on grief, It's OK That You're Not OK, which despite the self-helpy popular title, is not typical (and is definitely not a self-help book). Highly recommend to anyone dealing with grief or anyone trying to support someone dealing with a big loss.

Now I've started The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth by Michio Kaku. He's a little too in love with billionaires for my tastes, but there's good stuff in it.

Flipping audiobooks. Finished 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Şafak, and I started Frankissstein: A Love Story by Jeanette Winterson, who I've never read before.

I just finished Bad Astronomy - not bad, but I enjoy his blog more. The book is a little too concentrated debunking - skepticism in large amounts is rather boring. The fact that I'm familiar with the truth on nearly everything he was debunking also made it rather dull.

But the worst part was that I was reading the ebook (from the library) and the formatting was _awful_ - things like that the captions of pictures were not distinguished from the text, so there'd be a discussion, then a picture/figure/chart, then a couple paragraphs saying exactly what I'd just finished reading - really annoying. The drop caps at the beginning of chapters overlay some of the text. And some things just didn't get into text - so most of the chapters started in the middle of a story, that was supposed to illustrate whatever he was debunking in that chapter...grrr.

I think I'm going to get the paper copy (from the library) and skim through it to see what I missed in the ebook. And then I'm going to write Phil Plait and tell him about the problems - because ebooks _can_ be fixed, and this one should be. And it's not hard to get in touch with him (though I doubt he'll actually respond - as long as he sees it and can take action, that's the important part).

>47 AnnieMod:, >50 lilisin: I have The Memory Police in my TBR pile. Good to know it will be a great read (which is why I bought it in the first place).

>52 dchaikin: I love Winterson's writing. There is always so much to think about. I'll watch for your comments. Frankissstein was one of my favorites from last year.

I finished The Bone Clocks and started Cantoras.

>55 BLBera: I’m only 30 minutes in, but I like Winterson’s writing a lot so far. It’s nice change after I never really took to 10 min 38 sec.

Finished The Memory Police last night - despite it being different from my usual reading style, it worked - and it made me think. So if the first few chapters work for you, push through it - it is worth it.

Started The Divide by Alan Ayckbourn - the first novel by one of the better UK dramatists. Another dystopia, in an unusual form (diaries and letters and extracts from reports) and so far working pretty well.

I am about half way through the chilling Midnight in Chernobyl.

>58 arubabookwoman: Midnight in Chernobyl was one of the best nonfiction books I read last year.

I'm continuing on with The Anarchy, nonfiction about the East India Company and India. It's slow but fascinating.

And I finished Zola's Nana right when The Dutch House, Ann Patchett's latest book, became available for me at the library. I'm loving it and flying through it.

The cone-gatherers looks set to be one of my books of the year — why is Jenkins so low-profile...?

I’ve started on my “populism pile” with Koning Wilders, an essay by H M van den Brink and National populism: the revolt against liberal democracy by Roger Eatwell and Matthew Goodwin, a thoroughly depressing book. Now started Hans Münstermann’s recent novel De populist.

>60 thorold: I bought The Cone-Gatherers for Kindle several weeks ago when it popped up at a low price. I had never heard of it or the author, but it sounded good. Since then I’ve come across random references to it several times, all good. Guess I’ll have to read it soon.

This year I am involved in quite a few of the Challenge categories. I am currently reading A Moveable Feast by Hemingway for RandomCAT.

I also am reading Christmas with the Shipyard Girls for NetGalley, but having trouble with it because it seems to be part of a series that has to be read in order. I am 30% through the book and still trying to figure out who is whom, feeling like I stumbled into the middle of a movie.

I am reading The Long Tomorrow, Leigh Brackett

Enough politics for a little while! I’ve started a Spanish cycling crime story, Muerte contrarreloj — Dilara86 pointed out to me that such a thing exists, and I saw that our library had it, so I had to try...

I've started Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi, which has this intriguing and amusing premise: "Loss is a thing of the past. Murder is obsolete. Death is just the beginning. In 1938, death is no longer feared but exploited. Since the discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, a metropolis for the recently deceased."

I’ve regretfully abandoned The Sarabande of Sara’s Band, but am getting on much better with contemporary Venezuelan novel La hija de la española by Karina Sainz Borgo.

I finished The Rescue by Joseph Conrad, who, for all intents and purposes, is my favorite author. Next up is Being Mortal by Atul Gawande.

>66 rachbxl: It's a great premise, rachbxl, what's wrong with it?

I'm reading Once Upon a River and feeling very ho hum about it. Book club is Monday night and I have about 300 pages left to go, and finishing it by then is not a priority for me.

I've had to abandon The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West. I gave it 120 pages, but it just wasn't working for me. I felt Sackville-West was telling the reader about the superficialness of upper class Edwardian life, rather than showing it via good story telling and character development. I'm disappointed, as I know a number of CRers really enjoyed it, but I found my mind wandering with every page so it was time to quit.

I've picked up Perfume by Patrick Suskind instead .

>70 AlisonY: Sackville-West always seems a little preachy to me, Alison. Have you found other of her works better?

>71 sallypursell: It was my first Sackville-West attempt, Sally. I just didn't feel any flow to the writing.

I've read and reviewed The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom, which is my first 5 star read of 2020. Today I'll finish The Tradition, a poetry collection by Jericho Brown that was a finalist for last year's National Book Award in Poetry, and start reading the short story collection A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley.

>70 AlisonY:
Sorry to hear you didn’t get on with that one. I loved the Edwardians. Oh well, Perfume is an entirely different book. I enjoyed it as well

Finally actually reading Nabokov. Mary took me several tries to get into, but I did finally yesterday and am really enjoying it today. An odd love story mixed with reflections on pre-revolution Russia from “now” (1925-ish) as a broke young exile in Berlin.

And I’ll start The Professor’s House by Willa Cather later today or tomorrow.

>68 sallypursell: I agree, it’s a great premise, and I really wanted to like it, so stuck with it for longer than I might have done. It just wasn’t doing it for me - maybe just the wrong time for it?

I’ve finished the excellent La hija de la española (It Would Be Night in Caracas), and am 70 pages into Naomi Alderman’s The Lessons, which I’m enjoying immensely so far.

>74 Nickelini: I just couldn't get into it, and I was getting frustrated that I was getting nowhere fast as my mind kept drifting away every time I tried to read it. Ah well. Plenty more books on the bookshelf. :)

I've not had much time to read this weekend, but so far Perfume seems promising.

Finally finished my first book of the year, Spider in a Tree, which was a real oddball little gem of a book about puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards in 18th-century Massachusetts, and his battles with orthodoxy in the church. Slow paced but lovely.

Now reading another library hold that just came in, Lara Williams's Supper Club, which is much lighter fare.

Just starting Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek.

I finished Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. It definitely lived up to its notice for me. My review is on my person CR thread. I've now started To a Distant Island, James McConkey's 1984 memoir and musing on Anton Chekhov's long and grueling journey to Sakhalin Island on Russia's eastern fringe to visit and study the horrific penal colony there.

>78 lisapeet: Oh, I started that book Some years ago, set it down and...well, did not pick it up again. Good to know if I find it and resume, it will be worth it (usually I'm fairly satisfied with Small Beer Press books)

After catching up with my reviews (had a bad knee weekend so spent most of my time reading...), 4 more books are all done:

- The Divide by Alan Ayckbourn - the first novel by the UK dramatist, a dystopia where things sound very weird and end up being even weirder (plus the center of the story is essentially a dystopian version of Romeo and Juliet
- Ormeshadow by Priya Sharma - a fantasy novella in a world where dragons exist. Or do they? It is almost too lyrical to be my style and still... I am still thinking about it.
- Азазель by Борис Акунин (an English translation is available as "The Winter Queen" by Boris Akunin) - the first Fandorin novel. Not the best in the series (by far), a conspiracy thriller which is readable enough but not really showcasing what Akunin can do.
- Fated by Benedict Jacka - the first in yet another urban fantasy set in London. Not bad for a first book - and I like the style so I will be reading more of these.

And I started The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz - an alternative history/time travel novel which finds a new way to look at the topic. More about it when I finish it - probably tonight looking at what remains in it.

I finished the Maddaddam trilogy by Atwood last night and have started a short little Chinese book this morning.

>82 AnnieMod: BB for the Jacka - I like urban fantasy, and London settings, so I'll check it out.

I just finished M.C.A. Hogarth's An Heir to Thorns and Steel - grim, but expectedly magnificent. Her elves are really _nasty_ - and it's mostly because they're bored. And the levels and layers of past events affecting the future keep getting deeper... Unfortunately, I don't have the other two books in the trilogy - yet!

As I expected, finished The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz this evening (very good, review posted -- the novel may be a bit uncomfortable for some people).

Next: The Peaceful Valley Crime Wave by Bill Pronzini - a western mystery set in 1914. That is a bit unusual even for my weird reading patterns - but it caught my eye in the library (mainly the title...) so it came home with me.

>84 jjmcgaffey:

Jacka is not as good as Cornell or Aaronovitch - but it is a first book (of 10 so far I think?) and it is entertaining so... have fun :) And London is its own special place for this kind of books, isn't it? :)

>86 AnnieMod: Yep. There are so many true bits of London that fit right in to an urban fantasy setting...

The book I started this morning I just finished as it only has 90 pages: Un chant celeste (Marrow) by Yan Lianke.

Because I'm somewhat compulsive, I've added a third book to my in progress reading, this one is another nonfiction: She Has Her Mother's Laugh: the Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity by Carl Zimmer. Any reading in this book is unlikely to be confused with the other nonfiction book content which is focused in the early 17th century. Both are tomes, so it will be awhile....

I'm beginning Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson which is clever in it's earliest pages.

>90 nancyewhite: What an unusual premise! I wonder how he happened to think of it.

I am reading The Malayan Trilogy by Anthony Burgess.

Yesterday I started The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili. The author is Georgian, but wrote the novel in German (it was a bestseller in Germany). The English translation just came out at the end of last year. It’s going to take me a while, as it’s over 900 pages, but I’m looking forward to it.

>93 rachbxl: That's one for my list this year. It looks really interesting and I could do with devoting myself to at least one chunkster this year.

I have a lot on the go at the moment. The combination of a lot of books that I didn't finish by the end of the year and a total lack of will-power when new shiny things pass by me. Today, I'm hoping to finish My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite and Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

I've read The Duel (twice!) and finished G.. The main characters in each were a little too similar....

The Drowned and the Saved is the only up-next book that fit into my bag, so I've started it while waiting for my e-hold on The 42nd Parallel.

I just finished A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, which provided some interesting insights into the artistic world of Paris in the 1920's. I am continuing with Murder at the Brightwell for NetGalley, which resembles the Golden Age mysteries.

I am reading Upheaval and The Raven Tower and enjoying both thus far.

>93 rachbxl: 900 pgs?! I'm going to put my fingers in my ears - la lalala - (so you can't tempt me to read that one).

I just finished these for NetGalley:

Murder at the Brightwell which reminded me of the Golden Age mysteries. A murder takes place at a seaside resort, and of course the characters all have secrets to hide which could be motives for murder. All is nicely wrapped up at the end. I was not surprised by the identity of the killer, although her reasoning did surprise me.

A Very Scalzi Christmas which had me laughing out loud at some of the sketches. I had not read this author's work before, so this little series of holiday sketches was fun and an easy read.

Christmas at Silver Falls was a feel-good and heartwarming read, just like the cover states. While it was somewhat predictable, the main premise of the importance of family came through. The characters were likeable and a little bit of romance in a small town added to the sweetness of the story.

I finished Cantoras, and started Enchanted Islands.

Finished The Peaceful Valley Crime Wave by Bill Pronzini last week - a pretty good mystery set in Montana in 1914 (what's with me and books in that period this month?). It may be too slow for some but I really enjoyed both the style and the story.

After which I started The Case of the Phantom Fortune by Erle Stanley Gardner (the 72nd Perry Mason novel; my 74th (sometimes some books arrived out of sequence or were in omnibus editions so I had read some later ones) on paper and I had started Staying Dead by Laura Anne Gilman on the kindle earlier in the day - a first book in a fantasy/urban fantasy (still cannot figure out which) series.

Flipping audiobooks. Finished the very entertaining Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson, and tomorrow I'll begin The Wall by John Lanchester.

Also, I finished Mary by Vladimir Nabokov, and have started The Professor's House by Willa Cather.

>94 klarusu: It does look good, doesn’t it? I’m only about 50 pages in (in an average-length book that would be quite a proportion, but not here!), but I’m enjoying it so far.
>98 avaland: I’ll just shout louder.

Just about to finish Supper Club, which is well written but a little too misery-pornish for me to love, and the going to start Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, which I'm guessing will be roughly the opposite of that.

We went away for a long weekend so I started Any Ordinary Day as a book I could easily pick up and put down. My current commute read is Circe which I am really enjoying.

I am finally into Zola’s The Masterpiece, past the road bump that stalled me several years ago, and now thoroughly enjoying it. I also just finished the first volume of The Bertrams by Anthony Trollope which I am reading with a tutored group read in the 75 group. And I am almost finished with an excellent contemporary family drama The Most Fun We Ever Had.
I do not normally read more than one book at a time. I think I am doing so now in an attempt to try to follow through on some reading goals, but also continue my random reading, primarily of newer books I come across at the library.

I finished James McConkey's memoir/Chekhov bio, To a Distant Island. My review is on the book's work page and also on my personal thread here on CR. Three stars only.

I've now started the fourth Charlie Chan mystery, The Black Camel by Earl Derr Biggers, originally published in 1929. The first three of this series were well written. (I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the first book, The House Without a Key but then of course not surprised by the 2nd and 3rd books' high quality.) Anyway, I'm looking forward to an entertaining reading experience.

>107 rocketjk: You may know that I had a Hawaii reading project last year, and I came upon the original of the Charlie Chan personal in a novel I read. I never knew there was a real Charlie Chan, whose name was Chang Apana. I'd like to read The House Without a Key.

>108 sallypursell: No, I didn't recall your Hawaii reading project and never knew there was a real Charlie Chan. These Chan mysteries are quite well written. It's a bit unfortunate about the pidgin English Derr Biggers has him speak, but otherwise the portrayal seems quite respectful, to me, and Chan is always the smartest one in the room. Some day maybe I'll take the time to do a little reading about Derr Biggers. He was a good writer. You'll not have any trouble finding affordable copies of the House Without a Key on abebooks or elsewhere. The series has been republished more than once, I think.

I finished Volume Control: Hearing in a Deafening World by David Owen on Wednesday, which was a superb and accessible book about the anatomy and function of our incredible auditory system and how it differs from bats, owls and other creatures, the different types of hearing loss, past and current treatments for these conditions, and the new technologies that are being developed for them.

I enjoyed Muerte contrarreloj (turns out that it’s already been translated as The black jersey), and read two more interesting little books for the new populism theme: Heroic failure by Fintan O’Toole — an Irish look at the rhetoric of Brexit — and De onfatsoenlijken by Jan Antonissen, a set of interviews with working-class people in “Europe’s rust-belt”.

I’m now about halfway through Pointed roofs, the first of many parts of Dorothy Richardson’s epic. Looks very interesting so far.

Finished The Case of the Phantom Fortune by Erle Stanley Gardner the other night (That's the 74th Perry Mason novel I read - I still have fun reading them).

Started After the Flood by Kassandra Montag - a literary post-apocalyptic novel (my library shelves it as General fiction and not as SF) which has a lot of promise, a not so bad language and somewhat decent story but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. I plan to finish it - it is not that bad but it has problems.

I finished Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (feeling a bit 'meh' over that one). My abandonment of The Edwardians has been grating on me, so I'm picking up where I left off last week and giving it another chance. I might not have been in the right reading form for it before.

I am reading Amish Wedding Feast on Ice Mountain for NetGalley. This book differs from other Amish fiction novels that I have read, as it deals with some problems and issues that all people encounter, such as remorse over past actions or inability to forgive oneself, as well as mental and emotional blackmail and wanton behavior.

I am Reading Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. It's the Norton Critical Edition

>112 AnnieMod: I thought After the Flood was promising, but like you, was underwhelmed by it.

I just started Will and Testament.

>109 rocketjk: In one of the books I read for my Hawaii project (it was all dchaikin's fault) Chang Apana was a fictional minor character. This was a roman à clef, of course. I think he was rather famous for using pidgin. He does it in this book, too. That was a very popular choice in Hawaii for speaking to other Hawaiians, who might speak at home any of Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Tahitian, English, or others. Pidgin was so simplified that anyone could learn it rapidly, but I believe that does make its speakers sound less intelligent, just as the Received Pronunciation of English sounds intelligent.

I've just finished Strange as This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake, which was excellent. It's focused on southern West Virginia and the coal industry in the last part of the 20th century and done so well. It contains so much of what I try to tell people about West Virginia.

For contrast I'm also partway through Not Your Villain, the second in a trilogy of YA superhero novels. Fun, though not as good as the first book.

Finished and very much enjoyed Pilgrimage 1 — I’m looking forward to the other three volumes!
Over the weekend I also finished Als dit zo doorgaat, a collection of short stories by 24 Dutch writers written in reaction to the rise of new populism, and listened to Madeleine Albright’s Fascism: a warning.

To cheer myself up further, I’ve got The death of truth: notes on falsehood in the age of Trump and Chavs on the go.

I read for BingoDog challenge The Buried City of Pompeii and My Librarian is a Camel over the weekend. Both are kids nonfiction books, both very interesting, and sparked some discussions with my husband.

I am currently reading The Amish Marriage Bargain for NetGalley.

I've just finished, and enjoyed, The Black Camel, the fourth Charlie Chan novel by Earl Derr Biggers. I've now started, finally at age 64, Little Women. I want to read this before seeing the new movie version, which has gotten very good reviews.

>121 rocketjk: Ooooh. I'm interested in how Little Women goes for someone who hasn't read it. I read it so many times as a girl that I wouldn't be able to count. As an adult I couldn't bear it and looked back in amazement and confusion at my young self . The new movie is FANTASTIC so see it regardless of how you feel about the book.

I'm reading The Psychology of Time Travel which is a very nice book once I stopped wanting it to be more than it is which is a locked-room mystery with time-travel as a factor in solving the crime.

>122 nancyewhite: While reading Little Women, I'm going to try to keep in mind that at my age I'm not the book's intended audience and work in a little "willing suspension of disbelief" as I go.

I haven’t read it either, somehow. But if (probably when) I see the film, I may give it a shot. I’m also interested in what it would be like to first encounter it as a middle-aged adult.

I'm reading Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin, in which a teenage girl is murdered at a Caribbean resort and what it does to her family. And I'm reading two memoirs; Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Díaz and Herkunft (Origins) by Saša Stanišic.

I've just finished Optic Nerve, an odd book by María Gainza, in which a woman's memories are triggered by various paintings.

>125 RidgewayGirl: I'm interested to hear what you think of Herkunft—I really liked Stanišic's Before the Feast when I read it a few years ago.

Optic Nerve was one of those missed opportunity books that rankle—I didn't pick up a galley when I could have because the jacket description sounded, I don't know. Odd but not in an enticing way? But the descriptions I've read about it since make me wish I'd grabbed it, so I've got a library copy on hold. Probably the next best thing, since I don't actually have to have it sitting in my house (although at this point who would notice one more book?).

Finished listening to C. S. Lewis: Essays Collection and Other Short Pieces, by Lesley Walmsley. Review in my thread.

I've finished The Edwardians (second time around). Up next is Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo.

Well, I had to set Little Women aside temporarily. It is somewhat interesting reading the novel, in that I'm keen to gain for myself a knowledge of this cultural icon of a book. I was inspired to take on the project by the latest movie version, which has gotten good reviews. But I am just not enjoying the reading. Obviously, at almost 65 years old, I am not the target audience, and I've been finding the going a bit of a slog. My Signet Classics edition is 500 pages, and I've made it to page 160. The thought of pushing through for another 340 pages became just too much for me last night. I do want to finish the book, but I'm going to do it gradually, maybe in 100-page chunks, between my other reading.

In the meantime, I'm going back to the mystery genre, as I've started The Dragon Scroll, the first of I.J. Parker's "Sugawara Akitada" series, which takes place in 11th century Japan.

Finished I Shall Wear Midnight, On Tryanny, and The Mixer (which about soccer tactics and not the equally fascinating manual about the kitchen appliance).

Still trying get back into the sing of commenting on such things hopefully begin to find it easier with the slate of fiction I currently getting on with: A Book of American Martyrs and Pursuit by Joyce Carol Oates, The Body in Question by Jill Ciment, and The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. And for good measure Encounters with the Archdruid. Reading all this at the same time because reasons.

>129 rocketjk: I tried Little Women on audio maybe two years ago. Had a similar issue, I was amused but it’s really long and wasn’t exactly enjoyable. I returned it the library maybe 20% in.

I'm a little over a third through Tulipomania, but not really finding it that interesting. Debating whether or not to give it up or press on.

Just finished The Amish Marriage Bargain for NetGalley.

I just started Craeft by Alexander Langlands - so far a mildly interesting discussion of the "original" meaning of craeft/craft and how it's changed over time, and the line between hand- and machine-made (how complicated a tool makes it machine-made? Knife, probably not, how about scissors? Electric scissors? Laser-cut, that's machine-made (at least for that part)...).

I've pushed back the second of my nonfiction reads while I concentrate on the other (mentioned earlier). Otherwise I am reading the lovely and unusual novel, Pond by Irish author Claire-Louise Bennett. The impeachment hearing is cutting in to my reading time.

Finished The fifth risk (well-meant, but rambly and directionless) and Anna Burns’s slightly batty but entertaining graphic-novel-without-pictures, Mostly Hero on audio.

I’ve started W ou le souvenir d’enfance from my TBR pile and somehow also got sidetracked into The taming of Nan by Lancashire novelist Ethel Carnie Holdsworth

I am about to start a 1951 science fiction novel The Blind Spot by Homer Eon Flint and Austin Hall

I am half way through The Mozart Conspiracy by Susanne Dunlap. Now I want to go back and read the book that preceded this one, same characters.

Inspired by Gary's (Valkyrdeath) 2019 list, and by Lost Children Archive, and by having a little spare time to read off theme, I picked up and finished Valeria Luiselli's 100-page essay on the experience of translating a standard questionnaire requited by the US Federal Immigration Court for unaccompanied Central American child immigrants, titled Tell Me How It Ends.

Yesterday I finished Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, and this morning I started The Memory Illusion by Dr Julia Shaw. Then I had to go out to an event on the bus and I couldn't find this morning's book anywhere, so I started Judas by Amos Oz.

I've now found the memory book (fairly sure my 10 year old daughter hid it - she's obsessed with me having read more books than her this year so far), so I'm left jumping between the two of them.

My next book is a play by John Lyly Endymion. Lyly

I'm in the middle of two mysteries and a dumb vampire book. I just went to the library today, but I only had ten minutes to pick up some requests. I plan to read Unveiled by Courtney Milan, romance, as a quick break, and then I plan to start The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper. He was a favorite of my father's, and I don't think I have ever read any of his work. It just never fell into my hands, and so many other things did. Time to find out whether I like him or dislike him, as my best-reading sister does.

I finished The Dragon Scroll, a fun if not wonderfully written mystery set in 11th century Japan. I've now started Where Dead Voices Gather, Nick Tosches' biography/memoir about his search for information about Emmett Miller, and obscure but influential country/jazz/minstrel singer who lived in the early 20th century.

I'm partway through Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which is very well done. I'm always about halfway through Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World, which I've been meaning to read for about 20 years. It's okay, but not amazing.

>144 mabith: I've had Mauve for about 8 years, I think...whenever I decide I want to read it (at least three times now) I can't _find_ the silly thing. Then when I'm fully involved in other books it pops up. You've triggered me - I'll go look for it again.

I've finished The Drowned and the Saved and A House and Its Head. I need to get caught up with Anniversaries and continue reading The 42nd Parallel.

>140 AlisonY: Is that the same Julia Shaw that wrote the book on evil? I think she was a criminal psychologist. One of my top reads from last year. May have to jot that title down!

>147 avaland: yes it is. This one's a couple of years older - 2017.

>148 AlisonY: Thanks.

I'm about 250 pages into the wonderful The Eighth Life (for Brilka) by Nino Haratischwili. I always have a couple of books on the go, but even if I didn't I would have to at the moment, because it's such a brick (900+ pages) that it's not transportable. I'm also very much enjoying L'amica geniale (My Brilliant Friend - I know, I'm very late to the party with this one), as well as Anne Tyler's take on The Taming of the Shrew, Vinegar Girl.

>145 jjmcgaffey: I often have the same situation when I am looking for a book among my many piles and shelves. Then it will pop up when I am looking for something else. Glad it is not just me.

I am reading Much Ado About Nutmeg for NetGalley.

One day I'll be finished with Once Upon a River, which feels like the longest book in the world. Only 85 pages to go . . .

I'm reading Mary Toft, or The Rabbit Queen by Dexter Palmer and it is wonderful, very well-told historical novel, and quite a departure from his previous novel, Version Control.

I'm working my way slowly through Herkunft (Origins) by Saša Stanišic. It is witty and full of heart.

And I'm reading a thriller called Looker by Laura Sims, about a lonely woman slowly becoming obsessed by an actress living in her Brooklyn neighborhood.

( >150 rachbxl: mouthing a quiet "yes!" on Ferrante)

I picked up Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? yesterday, inspired by Jeanette Winterson's 2019 book, Frankenstein, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

And I'm flipping audiobooks. I finished the curious novel, The Wall by John Lanchester (a Hong Kong born author). Tomorrow I will begin The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy - who also has an interesting personal history. She was born in South Africa to Lithuanian immigrants (Jewish, I imagine), and raised in London.

I picked up and finished Every Note Played by Lisa Genova. I'm currently reading The Wall by John Lanchester and will start The Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler this week for bookclub.

>154 dchaikin: I've started it so many times and put it aside, but this time I'm really enjoying it, and it's kind of reading itself. I'm glad I gave it another chance. I look forward to seeing what you make of the Deborah Levy; I haven't read that one, but I liked Swimming Home, and whilst I didn't particularly rate Hot Milk when I read it, it's stuck with me, and with hindsight I think more highly of it than I did at the time.

>156 rachbxl: Deborah Levy is a new name to me. Yet it seems she has several highly regarded novels. I listened to the beginning on a walk this morning and I’m already into this oddity that opens on Abbey Lane Road* has in 1988.

*🤦🏻‍♂️

I'm reading Geert Mak's essay collection De goede stad and Juli Zeh's Leere Herzen, and I'm listening to Owen Jones's The establishment: and how they get away with it.

As homework for the Geert Mak, I read Invisible cities from my TBR pile. (And the weekend involved a certain amount of poetry by a certain Scottish writer...)

>154 dchaikin: Are you reading Why be happy without having read Oranges are not the only fruit? Could be interesting, could be puzzling...

I adored Marilynne Robins's Housekeeping—right book/right time. And now for something completely different, I'm reading a total page turner of an Ivy League occult mystery (is there any other kind?), Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House. I'm working from home after a seven-day workweek and want nothing more than to sneak up to my bedroom and read this but... work calls.

I'm reading Histoire de chambres (The Bedroom) by Michelle Perrot.

I finished the excellent, though depressing, Stamped From the Beginning, and now I'm starting Under the Glacier by Halldor Laxness.

>158 thorold: - yes...the library branch I was at didn’t have Oranges on the shelf. And I didn’t realize how much Why Be Happy is about Oranges. So far it’s fine, but it might ruin Orange for me - kind of like: spoiler alert-that part was fiction.

I just finished A Perilous Promise by Kate Kingsbury aka Doreen Roberts Hight. This is the prequel for the Pennyfoot Hotel mysteries, most of which I have read over quite a few years. I especially like the holiday novels in the series.

I somehow haven't dropped in on this thread since the beginning of the year. Well, so far in 2020 I've read:

The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty, the first book in a fantasy series about djinn, which I enjoyed.

The Heap by Sean Adams, an odd satirical sort of novel, which was fun.

Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch, which was a lively, fascinating read.

2113: Stories Inspired by the Music of Rush, edited by Kevin J. Anderson and John McFetridge, which wasn't great, but which I enjoyed more than it probably deserved.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple, which was entertaining, but a bit over-hyped.

Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography of Douglas Adams by Nick Webb, which was much better than I expected, even as a huge Douglas Adams fan.

And The Bear by Andrew Kirvak, which was a beautifully written little gem of a book.

Not a bad year so far, all in all!

I'm currently just a little way into The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer, the first in a series of six kids' fantasy novels. A friend gave me the boxed set of these for Christmas. Apparently it's about kids who travel into a storybook to a land of fairy tales, which sounds right up my alley. But right now I'm just hoping that eventually I will no longer feel the frustrated impulse to lecture all the characters about how their approach to fairy tales is COMEPLETELY WRONG.

>164 bragan: oh dear, Betty, tell us your lecture.

>165 sallypursell: Um, well the short version is:

1) It's stupid to say that that the "original" versions of fairy tales are the best and right and correct ones, because there are no "original" versions of most of these stories. They're folktales which have been handed down orally, and those vary immensely over time and with different sorytellers. The Brothers Grimm didn't present to the world the definitive version of anything, they merely took a static snapshot of something constantly evolving.

2) Relatedly, such stories have always been changed and adapted to serve the needs of their tellers and their times, and that's one of the great things about them. Creative modern fairy tale adaptations and reinterpretations are awesome, and a hip hop version of Cinderella sounds like a fine idea to me. This sort of thing is precisely how these stories continue to be living things, to be thriving, relevant parts of our culture. Plus, playing around with familiar stories and doing new things with them is just fun.

3) Even for stories definitively written in one specific way by one individual author, there is not one correct interpretation, that being the one the author consciously intended. Death of the author, baby! But most fairy tales don't fit into that category, anyway. And, in any case, their immense flexibility, the way that different people can take different things from them in different ways at different times, is a lot of the reason why they have such staying power and speak to us the way they still do.

4) Kids today are still quite familiar with the classic stories. The existence of other forms of entertainment have not killed them off, and the existence of variant forms of them is not responsible for moral decay.

And 5) Fairy tales in their most "classic" forms actually do frequently have really terrible morals embedded in thm, especially for 21st century kids. They really shouldn't be blindly accepted as some kind of improving literature. Interrogating them in critical fashion is a good and useful thing.

Oh dear. That may not have been the short version. Well. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Like I said, though, I've only just started reading the book. I'm holding out hope that the whole point of the story will be these kids finding out how full of shit their teacher is about this stuff. Given that the books themselves appear to involve some sort of creative adaptation of the stories, I figure either that's going to happen, or the entire thing is going to be a massive exercise in hypocrisy. :)

>166 bragan: I imagined something much worse. All your points are, of course, well taken.

I think I'll start The Dutch House - it's one of a few books that have become available at my library. I guess I'll take a look and decide -- probably a factor will be what is due first. Books with more than five holds can only be checked out for two weeks.

>166 bragan: Thanks for that cool information. Your points are well taken. I probably will steer clear of those books. On the other hand, maybe I should check them out.

>169 LadyoftheLodge: Well, having gotten past the point that annoyed me, the first volume is shaping up to be a decent enough kids' book with some cute moments, and I'm enjoying it OK, but I'm still waiting for it to redeem the bits that made me rant. :)

The next book from my bookshelf is Flaubert's Parrot can't say I am looking forward to it as I have not yet read a book by Barnes that I have liked.

I had been somewhat missing (traveling followed by a very nasty virus) so I will update everyone on what I had been reading in a bit.

Meanwhile, reading Robert B. Parker's Slow Burn - the 5th Atkins book in the series. No surprises expected, the book is solid so far. :)

I just finished The Whispering Statue which is a Nancy Drew book that my sister gave me for Christmas. This is part of the original series, the "yellow spine" edition. I have not read one of them in years, although I read most of the original series when I was in junior high school. My friend Debbie had the whole set, and her mom bought her each new one as it was released. She was kind enough to let the girls in our class read them. I read this one for BingoDog challenge.

Finished two really good graphic novels about women coming to terms with difficult family pasts. The Best We Could Do an immigration story of the struggles and sacrifices made by family to escape the wars of Vietnam and coming to terms with how their lives ended up so very different from the ones planned. And then Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home, which details a woman's journey to research her estranged family history and their Nazi past.

Also read the short and enjoyable My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite.

I squeaked one more in for January, this for NetGalley: Rotten Bananas and the Emerald Dream which is an Early Reviewers book too. Humorous book about three senior citizen ladies on a cruise.

Finally finished Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield and am now on to Cold Shoulder by Markus Werner.

I just finished The Dutch House, which I enjoyed and am starting Isabel Allende's new one A Long Petal of the Sea.

I'm laid up with a horrendous cold and felt the need to ignore the books I'm in the middle of and start something new and theoretically appropriate for the diseased mind. A small, bright red copy of Iain Banks Complicity seemed to stand out. Hard to tell if I'm enjoying it yet ...

>178 avaland: OK, I have abandoned aforementioned book half way through 1. It's a guy book. All the women are minor characters and are either victims or sex objects 2. Torture porn 3. It's set in the early 90s. ...shall I go on? I made my husband tell me "who done it" so I could leave off. Life. Is. Too. Short.

>179 avaland: Ick. No use compounding feeling poorly with that. Do you have a Plan B?

Just finished Tom Jones, which I actually liked despite having had mixed feelings going into it. As this was a rather longish read at upwards of 700 pages I'm going for something shorter that's been sitting on my shelf: The Why Are You Here Café. Reviews about this around here use the word "simple" as well as the phrase "well worth reading" so I'll see for myself, I guess. I am intrigued.

I finished Leere Herzen and The establishment: and how they get away with it, both of which I liked in different ways. Also another Dutch political science book, Kleine anti-geschiedenis van het populisme by Anton Jäger.

For the sake of a change I'm listening to A Line in the Sand: The Anglo-French Struggle for the Middle East, 1914-1948 and I've started both Human acts and The green road. And maybe some other books I've forgotten — I seem to be starting all sort of things and putting them temporarily aside at the moment.

>179 avaland: I do have books in progress I could pick up. Hmm. Plan B is: I'm going to rummage around and and see what I kind find :-)

ETA: Found one! The Thing Itself by Adam Roberts. It begins with two guys in Antartica, one is reading Dune, the other Kant (but not in the original German, because his German is not quite that good).....

I've finished Mauve by Simon Garfield and Waiting for Tomorrow by Nathacha Appanah.

Now I've started Death in the Haymarket by James R. Green and I'm halfway through a book of poems (or one very long poem really), The Prodigal by Derek Walcott.

My first finish of February and on palindrome day too! Lourdes Diary by James Martin is a short read that describes the author's pilgrimage to Lourdes and his experiences with people he met on the journey.

My new commute book is The Binding by Bridget Collins.

I'm now reading No One Is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts, which is good, although elements of the writing style sometimes bug me a little bit.

>183 avaland: I feel like your recent experience is why a healthy TBR shelf is a good thing.

I'm reading The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea. It's set in Mexico, beginning in the 1880s and it's funny and full of heart, adventure and life. I'm really enjoying it.

I've just started We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin, and I'm grateful once again to the Tournament of books for getting me to read novels I otherwise wouldn't. I'm not a fan of satire, but this is very good. And I'm almost finished Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen by Dexter Palmer, which has nothing in common with the Ruffin book, but is part of the same shortlist.

I am currently reading Saturnalia by Paul Fleischman, which I started to read in December and then got off track. I am also reading The Bridge to Belle Island for NetGalley.

Finished Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die, by John Piper. Review in my thread.

Just Finished Erewhon by Samuel Butler

Next on my list is an Elizabethan play by Robert Greene Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay

I just finished Saturnalia by Paul Fleischman for the AlphaKIT challenge. This is a tale set in Boston and contrasts the lives of servants with their masters, and the strange occurrences on the shortest day of the year. The book gave a highly readable overview of life in Boston in December, 1681, and highlighted the tensions still existing among the Indians and the English colonists.

I am about half way through Tales from the Secret Annex by Anne Frank.

>188 RidgewayGirl: The "Crate Wall" in the living room is mostly TBRs, so I did not have to move far! There are book formations of all manner throughout the house, not unlike a kind of literary geology, Many of these are TBR formations, some possibly dating to the early Messyozoic period but not likely—since we moved 6 years ago— so there are no true fossils to be found (those would be on the shelves) :-)

The Bridge to Belle Island features both a mystery and a romance. Beginning with a suspicious death in the first chapter and ending with a dangerous situation, this book continually engages readers with action and suspense. The romance between Isabelle and Benjamin adds another dimension to the story. These main characters appear human and fallible, as each possesses a hidden characteristic that prevents them living a full and rich life. Overcoming these difficulties presents an underlying lesson and source of encouragement for readers.

The opening quotations provide some insight and foreshadowing of themes. Discussion questions at the end of the book also draw attention to key ideas and serve as fodder for discussion groups. The Christian aspects of the story are overt, but not preachy. Readers who enjoy Christian fiction with romance and a touch of danger will enjoy this novel by a well-read and well-known Christian writer. I just finished this one for NetGalley.

I finished The Memory Illusion: Remembering, Forgetting, and the Science of False Memory which dragged on a bit. I need something very readable next, so going for The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.

I finished Molly Giles' wonderful short story collection from 1996, Creek Walk and Other Stories. Impatient for baseball season to start, I went to my baseball shelf and took down The Bronx Zoo, relief pitcher Sparky Lyle's account of life with the ever-tumultuous New York Yankees of the late 1970s.