What are you reading the week of November 7, 2020?

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What are you reading the week of November 7, 2020?

1seitherin
Nov 7, 2020, 12:18 pm

Finished Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith. Really liked it.

Tried to read A Cry in Silence by C. Connelly. Had to put it aside. Just did nothing for me.

2JulieLill
Nov 7, 2020, 2:00 pm

When Life Gives You Pears: The Healing Power of Family, Faith, and Funny People
Jeannie Gaffigan
4/5 stars
In 2017 Jeannie Gaffigan loses the hearing in her one ear. Putting it off because of just being too busy, she finally goes to the doctor and finds out that she has a brain tumor and must undergo brain surgery. Her husband Jim cancels all his concerts, takes over the household and gathers up all her family and friends to help out. Very heartwarming and at times very funny!

4ahef1963
Nov 7, 2020, 3:22 pm

I'm re-reading The Handmaid's Tale as I've purchased The Testaments and thought I'd better refresh the story in my mind as it's been a few years since I last read it.

Also reading Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life by Pamela Smith Hill. It's a bit of a shock seeing the un-idealized Ingalls/Wilder family, particularly as it concerns Pa Ingalls, as he's nothing like the paragon portrayed in the children's books.

5fredbacon
Modifié : Nov 8, 2020, 9:24 am

I'm about two thirds of the way through The Silk Roads. It's an interesting book, but by trying to cover some three or four thousand years of world history in 500 pages it is necessarily somewhat sparse. But it does allow the author to make some connections that wouldn't otherwise be apparent.

6Molly3028
Nov 8, 2020, 9:26 am

Continuing ~

The Housekeeper: A twisted psychological thriller
by Natalie Barelli
(OverDrive Kindle)

7PaperbackPirate
Nov 8, 2020, 11:42 am

I'm determined to finish The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón this week!

8JulieLill
Nov 8, 2020, 11:45 am

Tim and Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White
Tim Reid and Tom Dreesen
4/5 stars
Tim Reid and Tom Dreesen talk about their lives as stand up comics and as the first comedy duo who were interracial. This was a fascinating look at their lives growing up, how they met and started to perform together, how audiences responded to them and how they ended up eventually parting ways. Tom remained a comedian and was the opener to Frank Sinatra concerts while Tim moved on to TV in WKRP in Cincinnati and Frank's Place. Written in 2008, this book is still relevant today.

9LyndaInOregon
Nov 8, 2020, 2:14 pm

I seem to be a bit behind with listing reads here!

I did finish Busting the Brass Ceiling, which was an LTER. Clearly written and still timely, though it's set mostly in the 1970s and 80s.

Found a delightfully loopy British novel, The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise, which is set mostly in the Tower of London. Lots of interesting background (who knew the Beefeater guards are required to live there?), and multiple plot threads, mostly dealing with things we love and things we lose and things we may recover.

And just wrapped up my F2F group read for the month, Hanna's War, by Jan Eliasberg (which doesn't seem to want to link correctly). I'm not a fan of espionage novels, and that's the main thrust of this one, as an OSS officer attempts to plug security leaks coming from the Los Alamos site where the first nuclear bomb is being constructed. It's complex, often confusing, and morally ambiguous. May prompt a good discussion, though!

Next up is Louise Erdrich's The Night Watchman, which I've been looking forward to.

Oh, and I listened to Twisted Twenty-Six, the latest Stephanie Plum romp, on a day-long road trip for medical stuff. Lula and Grandma Mazur have big roles in this one, which is good.

10lilithcat
Nov 8, 2020, 3:12 pm

>8 JulieLill:

Frank's Place may is among my favorite television shows ever. It was brilliant, but too far ahead of its time to run more than one season. And I think people didn't get the mix of comedy and serious drama.

11rocketjk
Nov 9, 2020, 1:42 pm

I finished Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow by Leon F. Litwack. It took me more than two weeks to read this horrifying, depressing, infuriating and absolutely essential history. Trouble in Mind is a follow-up to Litwack's Been in the Storm So Long, which I read earlier. The first book, Storm, covers the period from the days of slavery through the beginning of Reconstruction. Trouble in Mind covers the period from the end of Reconstruction, when the brief period of black enfranchisement ended as southern states moved to brutally and emphatically reassert White Supremacy throughout the American south, through what is known as the Great Migration, when blacks in great numbers moved north to fill factory jobs that came available during and just after World War I. The facts are much more appalling than I ever knew, I'm ashamed to say. You can find my full review on the book's workpage or on my 50-Book Challenge thread.

Next up for me will be Ragged Dick or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-Blacks by Horatio Alger. after Trouble in Mind's 500 pages, this will seem like a pamphlet. I've read some Alger short stories, but don't think I've ever read any of the longer works.

12snash
Nov 9, 2020, 4:49 pm

I finished The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. It's a feel good story involving the review of a life lived and forgiving that was just a little too simple and obvious for my taste.

13hemlokgang
Modifié : Nov 10, 2020, 7:25 pm

Just finished the intense, moving novel, Shuggie Bain.

Next up for listening is a non-fiction book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson.

14Shrike58
Nov 11, 2020, 9:14 am

Actually reading right now? The Seep and The Yankee Plague.

15JulieLill
Nov 12, 2020, 2:16 pm

Barely a Lady
Eileen Dreyer
3.5/5 stars

During the War of 1815 in Europe, Olivia Grace who is divorced from her husband finds him unconscious on a battlefield in the enemy's uniform. Despite her misgivings, she rescues and brings him to the place where she is staying with friends and relatives. When he wakes up he does not remember their divorce and tries to resume their relationship but he is still in danger and they cannot reveal his condition or where he is at to others. Romance fans will probably enjoy this!

I don't read a lot of romance novels but I enjoy them every now and then.

16JulieLill
Nov 13, 2020, 11:15 am

When Breath Becomes Air
Paul Kalanithi
5/5 stars
This is the wonderfully written autobiographical book by and about Paul Kalanithi’s life and his struggle with cancer which ends his life at the age of 36. The epilogue written by his wife lets the readers know what occurred at the end of his life. I am probably one of the last to have read this book but it was so inspirational and thought provoking that I had to praise this to all of you have not read it.

17rocketjk
Nov 13, 2020, 12:30 pm

I finished Ragged Dick or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-Blacks by Horatio Alger, Jr. It was interesting as an historical timepiece and a breezy story.

I've moved on to a baseball history, Bushville Wins by John Klima, about the 1957 season at the end of which the underdog Milwaukee Braves took the World Series from the New York Yankees.

18lamplight
Nov 13, 2020, 12:34 pm

I just finished The Goldfinch by Donna Tart. I didn’t appreciate it at all...couldn’t believe it was a Pulitzer Prize winning novel. I think I am out of touch with good literature if this is considered good literature. Now I’m reading something reliable: These High, Green Hills by Jan Karon.

19Molly3028
Nov 14, 2020, 9:01 am

20LyndaInOregon
Nov 16, 2020, 9:42 pm

>18 lamplight: I have to agree with you about The Goldfinch. I read it for an online book discussion group, hated it, and allowed myself to be coerced into actually RE-reading it about 18 months later for a F2F group. Still hated it.

I found it bloated and slow-moving. Both times.