What are you reading the week of December 5, 2020?

I'm dipping into a couple of books at the moment. I still pick up Living in Little Rock with Miss Little Rock from time to time, but only if I'm bored.

I've started Moscow 1937, a history of sorts that pull from official records, diaries, newspapers and other sources to try and capture the zeitgeist of Moscow in 1937, a year that marks the height of the Great Terror.

The book that has really caught my interest is Empires of the Plain: Henry Rawlinson and the Lost Languages of Babylon. He's an interesting character, although not particularly likeable. He was a nineteenth century British soldier and amateur linguist who managed to decipher the cuneiform writing system(s) and the languages they represented.

Finished listening to White Rage.

Next up for listening is My Soul To Take by Yrsa Sigurdardottir.

I finished Olive, Again. What a fabulous character study and look at the sordid and struggling effort involved in human life. I'm going to miss Olive.

I gave Anna Karenina a try, but when I realized that I was avoiding reading just so I didn't need to read that, I knew it was time to give up. I've put it back on my TBR shelves in hopes that some day I'll find the oomph to read it.

Am now happily settled in with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.

I'm only about 40 pages from the end of James Weldon Johnson's classic, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.

Almost finished with Dominicana, for my book club meeting coming up on Tuesday. Should make for a good discussion.

Then I have two LTER reads coming up -- The Anubis Disk, and Cosmic Turkey.

Also rushing to finish Christmas-gift knitting, so there may not be much reading time. (Of course I can finish 4 hats and 3 scarves between Thanksgiving and Christmas. No prob! Yeah, right.)

Reading The Green Mile by Stephen King and really enjoying it. I had seen the movie when it first came out but will probably re-watch it again.

Finished Dark Highway by Lisa Gray. Liked it well enough.

Added Don't Ever Forget by Matthew Farrell to my rotation.

Still reading Dead Lies Dreaming from last week and am about half way through Searching for George Gordon Meade; expect to start A Deadly Education this week.

Enjoying this OverDrive audio ~

Margaritas, Marzipan, and Murder
by Harper Lin
(Cape Bay Cafe cozy mysteries, book 3)

>7 JulieLill: I loved those books (I read it as it came out in installments)! Enjoy!

I didn't have enough focus for my last book, so I set it aside for now and started reading Marley & Me by John Grogan. We adopted another dog in August, and let's just say I have a feeling there will be some relatable moments!

The Green Mile
Stephen King
5/5 stars
Since our library closed, I had been searching through my house for books to read and came upon The Green Mile in my son’s collection. I have always enjoyed King’s books and this is no exception. I had seen the movie previously when it first came out but I was blown away again by the story and I had a hard time putting this down. The story is set in a prison on death row in the 1930’s and surrounds a black man, John Coffey who was tried for killing two young girls. Coffey is an unusual man, who has a gift for healing which comes out when he heals a dying mouse on the prison block. This leads to an event that could cause the prison guards to lose their jobs but they go ahead with their plans anyway. Highly recommended.

>5 rocketjk: Isn't he great??

>13 the_red_shoes: Indeed. I finished the book yesterday and will be posting a review within the next day or so.

Just finished reading a powerful poetry collection, Say Her Name by Zetta Elliott.

I finished James Weldon Johnson's classic, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. For anyone interested, my review is posted on my 50-Book Challenge thread.

I'm now reading The Pittsburgh Pirates by Frederick G. Lieb. This is an interesting (for baseball fans) history of the team first published in 1948 written by a sportswriter who was later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I finished The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. It was excellent. There are sequels, which I certainly intend to read.

I'm going to read a novella next: The Lost Honour of Katarina Blum by Heinrich Boll.

>17 ahef1963: ahef, I liked that novella a lot. I hope you enjoy it.

Really enjoying a re-read from many moons ago!! Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

>19 aussieh: I plan to reread Case Histories sometime soon, too.

This week, I've started Obama's A Promised Land and am reading stories from The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries and Christmas at the Vinyl Cafe.

Just finished a beautifully poignant poetry collection, Dearly: New Poems by Margaret Atwood.

Also finished listening to a nice mystery, My Soul To Take.

Next up for listening is something light, You Look So Much Better In Person by Al Roker.

I finished the very enjoyable memoir, You Look So Much Better In Person.

Next up for listening is The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio.

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Lattes, Ladyfingers, and Lies
by Harper Lin
(Cape Bay Cafe cozy mysteries, book 4)

Dumplin’ – Julie Murphy
Digital audio book read by Eileen Stevens
3.5*** (rounded up)

From the book jacket: Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American-beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked … until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.

My reactions:
I grew up in Texas and am very familiar with the small-town beauty pageant hysteria. I hadn’t read the jacket blurb, nor seen the NetFlix (?) show, but the cover captured my attention.

I really liked the story arc about Will’s efforts regarding the pageant and how she inspires other girls who don’t fit the standard “beauty-queen” stereotype to step up as well. I also really liked the exploration of the mother-daughter relationship, and the friendships … and all the hiccups that are bound to happen in any such relationships.

I was somewhat less happy with the “romance” aspect, especially in the way Will treated Mitch. Still, I think Murphy did a good job of showing consequences of one’s actions. And I guess we were all once self-centered teenagers who bought into the romance hype of fiction and movies. Heck, I still buy into that HEA stuff … who doesn’t want a feel-good ending?!

Eileen Stevens does a great job of performing the audio book. She was believable as a teenager and as an adult.

>18 hemlokgang: I finished The Lost Honour of Katarina Blum by Heinrich Boll and enjoyed it, except for the ending. It seemed to break off in mid-thought.

I am listening to Obama's A Promised Land (what a voice he has!), and seem to have picked up The Guest List by Lucy Foley to read next.

Finished reading the highly lauded debut novel Luster by Raven Leilani. The first half was absorbing and drew me right in. But it took a drastic turn and I had to force myself to finish the second half. Not recommended.

Finished the powerful book, The Undocumented Americans.

Next up for listening is Top Secret Twenty-One by Janet Evanovitch.

I am reading 1959:The Year That Changed Everything by Fred M. Kaplan. It discusses the major events that happened that year. There are more books in the series. Not sure if Kaplan wrote the others but I am finding it very interesting.

Finished Don't Ever Forget by Matthew Farrell. Meh. Not what I was in the mood for.

Added Ten Arrows of Iron by Sam Sykes to my rotation.

Finished reading the novel World War Z by author Max Brooks.

.

Enjoying this OverDrive audio ~

Americanos, Apple Pies, and Art Thieves
by Harper Lin
(Cape Bay Cafe cozy mysteries/book 5)

I finished the newest by Anne Tyler, Clock Dance. It was nice character study of an older lady finding her self but the characters seemed to lack depth and complexity. I think my opinion of the book was hurt by reading it right after Olive Again. The main character seemed bland compared to Olive and the other characters were portrayed as either good or bad.

Finished The Cosmic Turkey, which was a quick LTER read and a funny take-off on science fiction tropes.

Interesting glitch (?) -- There are two listings for the above book, one listing "Laura Ruth Loomis" as the author and the other listing "ruth loomis" (note lower case). Same book, same cover. No reviews showing for the ruth loomis volume, but several (including mine) for the Laura Ruth Loomis one. Strange.

Am about halfway through Thirteen Moons, and enjoying it. In fact, when the Insomnia Fairy visited (again) last night, I got up at 1:30 and read until after 4 a.m. So, yeah.

>7 JulieLill: JulieLill, I liked The Green Mile, too. I read it a few years ago. I had never read Stephen King before and thought he only wrote scary clown stories, so I wasn't expecting much. I thought it was very well written. It was a smooth read and the characters had a tremendous amount of depth.

I just finished a doozy a book by Karen Armstrong. She is a brilliant author who specializes in religious history. It was rewarding but different. I needed something lighter, so this week I picked up Short Stories in Chinese: New Penguin Parallel Text off the library shelf. I don't read or speak Chinese, but I love reading Chinese fiction in translation. The stories were all written in the '80s. They are mostly calm and apolitical.

Finished a Stephanie Plum novel, Top Secret Twenty-One.

Next up for listening is an Audible original, When You Finish Saving The World by Jesse Eisenberg.

The new thread is up over here.