What are you reading the week of June 19, 2021?

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What are you reading the week of June 19, 2021?

1fredbacon
Juin 19, 2021, 6:58 am

I've started In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth by P. Mallory. It's a survey of what was known at the time of publication (1989) about the movements and origins of the peoples who spread the Indo-European family of languages from Western Europe to Bangladesh. It's an uneven book. Maybe that's not fair. I have an uneven interest in all of the lines of inquiry. I find the linguistic evidence more interesting than discussions of the extent of "painted gray ware pottery".

2Shrike58
Juin 19, 2021, 9:19 am

>1 fredbacon: As archaeologists say: Love is fleeting, pottery shards last forever.

3Shrike58
Juin 19, 2021, 9:21 am

As for my reading program this week, I've just finished Spineless and am working on Four Lost Cities and Yankee Warhorse. Will probably start Mexican Gothic.

4PaperbackPirate
Juin 19, 2021, 10:39 am

>2 Shrike58: LOL!

This week I'm reading The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West. I love her criticisms and viewpoints, however, I disagree with her opinion that Adam Sandler is not funny.

5rocketjk
Juin 19, 2021, 12:52 pm

I've just reached the halfway point in We Band of Brothers by Edwin Guthman, which is not a book about WW2, but Guthman's memoir about his time spent working with and for Robert F. Kennedy. Guthman was a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in Seattle when he first cooperated with Kennedy's investigation into union corruption in that city in the late 50s. Kennedy was an investigating attorney working for a Congressional committee at the time. Kennedy hired Guthman to do press relations work for him when he became Attorney General in the JFK administration. Guthman also worked for RFK during the latter's time in the Senate. Guthman was a very good, clear writer, and he witnessed a lot of fascinating history. I'm enjoying the book very much. But Guthman is also an admittedly admiring observer, so while the book is quite fascinating, I'm not getting the feeling that I'm really getting a comprehensive look at who Robert Kennedy really was.

I'm also just about through the poems of The Best of It: New and Selected Poems by Kay Ryan. This is a reading group book, and the reading group meets tomorrow. I'm finding the poems a mixed bag. Some are quite good while others fall flat for me.

6Limelite
Juin 19, 2021, 2:02 pm

Just as the Paris peace process following WW I goes on for months, I find my reading of Paris 1919 is ruled by a similar timeline. More than 3/4 way through it, dealing with the considerations of the Middle East and India. Naturally, the parts about Faisal, Lawrence "of Arabia" and Gertrude Bell are the most fascinating. Egypt got scant attention and India is made remarkable by this description of Gandhi, "Gandhi, paying more attention to his bowels and his soul. . ."

And so it goes.

7seitherin
Juin 19, 2021, 2:47 pm

8JulieLill
Juin 19, 2021, 5:22 pm

The Last Battle
C.S. Lewis
4/5 stars
This is the last book of the Narnian adventures and follows Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole as they unlock the secret of the fake Aslan (aka the donkey, Puzzle) and his conspirator Shift, an ape that are wreaking havoc to the land including cutting down all the Talking Trees. King Tirian, a descendant of King Caspian X hears the news, he takes off to help prevent the destruction.

9Copperskye
Juin 19, 2021, 7:48 pm

I should be finishing The Warmth of Other Suns within the next day or so. It's so good and I'm constantly struck by the amount of research that must have went into it. I'm also reading The Reign of Wolf 21 and listening to Death of a Dreamer.

10Molly3028
Juin 20, 2021, 1:57 pm

Still enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

The President's Daughter: A Thriller
by James Patterson and Bill Clinton

11boulder_a_t
Juin 20, 2021, 3:55 pm

Good gravy! Just back after a week's vacation with lots of time for reading. Here's a two week selected report.

Sticking to the happy reading plan.

Plays:
No need to finish this one - Uncommon women and others - Wendy Wasserstein
I'm sure in 1978 these characters had original points of view... but in this century they're just a bunch of Karen types whining about life being less fulfilling than they'ed expected ten years ago when fresh out of Wellesley.

Taking my time with Henry IV part I - William Shakespeare

Half way through Execution of Justice - Emily Mann - a selection from Out front : contemporary gay and lesbian plays. A depiction of Dan White's trial for the murder of George Moscone and Harvey Milk. It's complex and it would be fascinating to see on stage.

Short story selections from:
The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter
The Best American Mystery Stories 2020

Mystery
Finished Murder in Retrospect - Agatha Christie

And I stopped into my favorite used bookstore for vacation reading. Picked up three by Louis L'Amour - currently reading The Quick and the Dead

12JulieLill
Juin 21, 2021, 11:39 am

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted
Suleika Jaouad
4/5 stars
Suleika Jaouad had just finished college and was ready to start her career and life with her boyfriend when she was diagnosed with leukemia. All her plans are dashed and she is thrown into the health care system which will do anything to get rid of her cancer. Well written and very informative on the cancer care she received.

13BookConcierge
Juin 21, 2021, 1:42 pm


The Bookshop Of the Broken Hearted – Robert Hillman
3.5***

In 1968 in rural Australia, Tom Hope runs his farm, milks his cows, tends his sheep and tries to find a new purpose in his life after his wife, Trudy, left him and took her son, Peter, with her. Then he meets Hannah Babel, a survivor of Auschwitz and some 15 years his senior, who hires him to build bookcases for her new bookshop.

Hannah seems to have recovered from her ordeal during WW2, but she is far from having healed. Her fierce determination and passion for her work hide a deep wound that she refuses to reveal or discuss. Tom is the quintessential good guy. He took Trudy back after she left the first time, and did not condemn or even question her for returning pregnant. And when she left a second time to join a religious community, he raised Peter as his own. He is truly heart-broken when several years later, Trudy demands that the boy come live with her and sever all ties with Tom.

In a way these Tom and Hannah have both lost a child and should be able to understand and comfort one another. But it isn’t quite so easy as that.

I really liked how Hillman drew these broken-hearted people, how he revealed their pain and their efforts to heal and move forward. Yet, I wasn’t sure I understood Hannah all that well. Her story is compelling, but I felt I didn’t fully get to know her. Trudy is even more of an enigma. I never knew why she did anything … from marrying Tom to leaving him the first time to her final desperate act.

Tom’s stoicism and approach to his life (just continuing to move forward despite what happens) are admirable, but make him a bit stand-offish. And yet, the way he treats the boy lets me see the goodness of his heart. I loved Peter … what a great kid! Intelligent and observant, determined and brave. My heart ached for him as he endured.

All told, it was a good story and kept my attention. But I think Hillman might have been trying to include too much.

14Limelite
Juin 21, 2021, 2:36 pm

Celebrate! WW I is over, the Versailles Treaty is signed, and everyone has gone home from the Paris peace talks. At last, Paris 1919 is concluded. Like me, everyone is dissatisfied with the result but gets on with life. (Or dies very soon afterward.)

Glad to have time freed up to get back to the Fossil Men: The Quest. . . by Kermit Pattison and dig in the sands and rocks of Ethiopia again, looking for remains of our hominid ancestor older than Lucy. Even though warring tribesmen and armies send bullets flying occasionally. Fresh air and sunshine after the stuffy Hall of Mirrors. Nobody would open the windows!

Plan to squeeze in a fiction read/review, too. Faraway (no touchstone) by Lo Yi-Chin, the first of this influential Taiwanese author's works to be translated into English. Will be released this September.

On to happier(?) reading!

15seitherin
Juin 21, 2021, 4:30 pm

could not be bothered to read more of After the Downfall by Harry Turtledove so i switched to reading The Soldiers of Fear by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

16LyndaInOregon
Juin 22, 2021, 2:51 pm

Just finished the LTER book House of Rougeaux, and found it beautifully written and quite touching, but the author chose one of those ping-pong timelines that jumps all over the place, for no particular reason I could discern. It feels (and the publisher's subtitle "A Rougeaux Family Novel" would almost seem to bear this out) that she finished "House of Rougeaux", started on a sequel, and on the way to the publisher's, dropped the manuscripts of both and shuffled them back together randomly.

On the way to the library this afternoon to pick up Golden Girl, which is on hold for me.

17aladyinredpolish
Modifié : Juin 23, 2021, 5:06 am

Spitting:

The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway, half way through and it feel like I'm living in Europe again during University.

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Milk, MD sometimes difficult to open, raw. I've heard very very good things regarding PTSD recovery and this book.

Waiting for my new book to arrive: recommended by podcast The History Chicks (awesome podcast about women of history):
To Marry an English Lord

18aladyinredpolish
Juin 23, 2021, 5:03 am

>9 Copperskye: thanks for the rec on the 1st book!

19princessgarnet
Modifié : Juin 23, 2021, 10:26 pm

From the library...
Finished:
Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard (YA)
The 1st book in a new series.

Storm from the East by Joanna Hathaway (YA)
#2 in the Glass Alliance trilogy

Now: Southern Sun, Northern Star by Joanna Hathaway (YA)
It's the finale and new release in the Glass Alliance trilogy.

>17 aladyinredpolish: I read To Marry an English Lord because of the popularity of "Downton Abbey" and Julian Fellowes had mentioned it. The only difference between the original edition of the book and the reissued one is the cover. Otherwise, enjoy!

20snash
Juin 24, 2021, 11:23 am

I finished The Last Great Walk. This book claims to be an account of a 1909 walk by a 70 year old man from NYC to San Francisco and that is true, but a major focus of the book is about walking in general, from evolution, to health and mind benefits, to the battle in city design between autos and walkers.

21LyndaInOregon
Juin 25, 2021, 5:30 pm

Just finished Golden Girl, which was an entertaining and generally well-written "beach read" -- whatever that means. Humorist Patrick McManus gave a long and rambling definition of "summer reading" in a book that has gotten away from me -- can anybody out there refresh my memory?

Anyway, I picked up A Dog's Way Home to get me through the coming week, which is supposed to be blisteringly hot. I think that calls for something I can read without expending a great deal of mental or emotional energy.

22hemlokgang
Modifié : Juin 25, 2021, 10:32 pm

Finished listening to Bruno, Chief of Police, a nice detective novel.

Next up for listening is Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

23fredbacon
Juin 26, 2021, 9:29 am

The new thread is up over here.