WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 8

And time for the last thread of the year (maybe?).

Now the holidays are indeed coming soon so... how is everyone's reading doing? Are you already looking forward to 2022? Or does it matter that the year changes?

Just plodding along, oblivious to the holidays.

I have two going. I’m reading The House of Mirth and listening to The Promise.

Still in the haze of the Moonblood books, will hopefully come up for air soon so I can pick another. thanks to Lisa Peet I now have the look of the book and am enjoying looking at all the covers. Might be just what I need right now

Just ordered The Anglo-Saxons by Marc Morris. Should be a good read when everything comes to a screeching halt from Advent to Epiphany.

I’m not very bothered about the solstice one way or the other (apart from SantaThing, of course), but if we can start preparing for Christmas in October, I don’t see why we shouldn’t start counting down to the arrival of spring and decent weather as well…

I finished a few books over the last few days, I’m currently reading Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon’s Continental drift (not geography, but British post-war history) and Juli Zeh’s lockdown novel Über Menschen. Both titles where you have to scan down a long list of touchstones before you find the right one…

My next book is Solarion by Edgar Fawcett. Not very much read I see.

I am looking forward to 2022 and new reading goals. My 2021 got sidetracked when we moved, but hopefully are settling in a bit for winter.

I'm rereading Station Eleven for my book club.

Has anyone read In the Days of Rain: A Daughter, a Father and a Cult by Rebecca Stott? I liked it then got tired of it then liked it again. Feels like start/stop/start/stop. I’m invested now so have to keep reading. I had no idea there were religious cults that started over a century ago and are still going. I ordered another book by the same author but now wonder if that was a good idea.

>9 dianeham: If it helps, none of her other books are related to the cult she grew up in - I am not sure she ever wrote about it before she published the memoir. I've read part of Darwin and the Barnacle somewhere on the road - I do not remember anymore if I managed to forget it at an airport somewhere or it was in a hotel so I picked it up for an evening :) Never got back to it - it was competent and interesting from what I remember but not a book you must finish :)

And I listened to the abridged reading of The Coral Thief on BBC Radio 4 at some point - and if I listened to the whole thing, I liked it enough.

Which one did you order?

>10 AnnieMod: Ghostwalk

>8 BLBera: Oh I liked that book!

Is there any adventure book which is less than 150 pages?

Guys, your recommendations

Shane is 160 - and an incredible story. But even Tarzan is mostly over 200. What kind of adventure book do you like? Sea, military, historical...

I'm now reading No. 91/92 notes on a Parisian commute by Lauren Elkin, in which she describes her fellow passengers and life on the streets of Paris as she travels on two RATP buses from home to the university she teaches in. I've also started Afterlives, the new novel by Abdulrazak Gurnah, the winner of this year's Nobel Prize in Literature, which is absolutely superb so far.

>12 cindydavid4: I love Station Eleven. It's been two or three years since I last read it, and I want to reread The Glass Hotel now as well.

I bounced very hard out of a few books I know I should have liked (including the new Booker winner and A Passage North) which pretty much told me that I need to get back to some fun reading.

So I had been reading Octavia Butler and C. J. Cherryh (with a side dish of Erle Stanley Gardner and Pronzini). Just now: Smuggler's Gold is not as good as the previous anthologies (it changed the structure and that weakened it I think) but it had been fun anyway. Have one story left and then next is Mind of My Mind - the second Patternist novel by Butler.

>16 BLBera: I need to read The Glass Hotel because her newest, Sea of Tranquility (which is excellent), has some ties to that earlier book.

appears I need more fantasy in my lifethe girl who drank the moon I love the mix of fairy tale and serious tale, and definitly a wink and a nod to Neil Gaiman, who she has been compared with, and its a good thing . This is a new to me author and something tells me this wont be the last one I read from her

>17 AnnieMod: doesn’t it seem to require a certain mindset, those Booker books?

>20 dchaikin: Yep. I am mainly a genre reader (speculative and crime/mystery/thriller) - had always been, will probably always be. I like and enjoy other stuff as well often enough but sometimes my brain just snaps and I need to go back to "my" stuff for awhile (or I stop reading completely which is worse). So when that happens, I don't push through the books - I just go and read other things and then come back and actually enjoy them (or if I don't, at least I know it is not because I am in a weird mood).

>21 AnnieMod: i spend a lot of effort mentally prepping, ideally reaching a state of a kind of curiosity, something that drives itself. But sometimes - like lots of times - it’s just really hard to get into a book, even when I sense it’s very good.

>18 lisapeet: Interesting, Lisa, because The Glass Hotel has some ties to Station Eleven... I am anxiously waiting for her new one.

Greetings! I haven’t posted to this thread lately. A few of you know that my wife and I recently completed a cross-country drive and are now visiting the New York/New Jersey area for a month. We are having a very fun and interesting time of it. At any rate, I don’t have that much to catch up on, reading-wise, but here goes:

I had to set aside the excellent biography Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby about 50 pages from its finish, only because it is a large volume and I didn’t want to haul it along on our trip. I will finish it up upon our return to California, though I will go ahead and post a review on my thread as soon as I get a chance.

I thought I needed some light vacation material, so of course, what came off the shelf and into my hand was . . . Swann’s Way. Since we left home, which is now 2 1/2 weeks ago, I have made it just a bit past halfway. My pace has to do with the nature of Proust’s writing (in Moncrieff’s translation, as I’m reading a beautiful, old Modern Library edition from 1948) and my so far limited reading time, other than relatively late in the evenings when the prose and small print have to battle the sleepies. I am enjoying the reading experience all in all, and I’m not worried about rushing through it. It’s kind of like walking through a field of chest-high grass and summertime meadow flowers. It’s a great way to spend the day, but you’re not likely to get anywhere anytime soon.

>22 dchaikin: This whole thing had made me think that I am missing an English word.

In Bulgarian (and in Russian from where we got it I suspect), there is a specific category of literature called "sharp-plotted literature" (best translation I can come up with). It encompasses adventure novels, science fiction, horror, fantasy, thrillers, mysteries, crime novels and romance novels (well, some people exclude the latter). These are the stories with fast moving plots and twists and turns. No sitting in a chair and agonizing if you need to call your Mom (if you do that, someone will either shoot at you or the building will fall on top of you most likely); no endless internal monologues. Essentially the opposite of Booker-type of novels. The term is not well defined but if I use it, people know what I mean. And "serious" (ahem) readers tend to have low opinion of people reading only that type of stories.

I tend to call these "genre" in English because there is no word I know of that describes them better. Is there a term I am missing?

Back on topic: I started Mind of My Mind last night and I am so happy I read Patternmaster first. Part of the beauty in Patternmaster was figuring out what is what; after just 1/3rd of Mind of My Mind, I know more about patterns than I knew after the whole of Patternmaster - and it would have robbed Patternmaster of a lot of its charm to know these things going into it.

>24 rocketjk: "I thought I needed some light vacation material, so of course, what came off the shelf and into my hand was . . . Swann’s Way. "

I really laughed at that. My Mom's idea of beach read was "the thickest book in my library I had not read". So it was Fortunata and Jacinta one year; Vanity Fair in another; The Decameron and The Young Lions in others. The only reason she did not drag War and Peace to the beach was because she had read that one already.

>23 BLBera: Some authors like putting hidden (and not so hidden) references to their works in everything they write.

I just started Miriam Toews' new book, Fight Night. It's very different from the previous books I've read by Toews.

I'm reading History: A Very Short Introduction which is very interesting but rather dense - it's not an overview of history (as in, what has happened), but a discussion of what History, as a science, is and how it got that way. So far I've mostly been reading the history of History, from ancient Greeks to the Enlightenment and forward - who was writing it and what their aims were in said writing.

And then I got Paladin's Hope from the library and spent today reading that. Lovely. It's a romance (M/M), a mystery, and a lot of information on gnoles and gnole society. There are seven paladins, three of whom are now paired - I hope she intends to write the rest, I'll read them!

>25 AnnieMod: i still struggle with those too. :) I mean at first. (And, in Steven King’s case, that’s as far as I can get). I certainly enjoy plot-driven novels. But it still requires a certain mindset before I can just read them.

Part of the reason I don’t read much plot-driven genre lit is that it takes me the same effort to get going, but they are (or seem to tend to be - and certainly are not always) ultimately less satisfying to me.

On thread topic - I’m about to start reading The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I haven’t read Muriel Spark before.

wait - so plot driven books are simply lowly genre books? So there is no plot driven literature? and there are no outstanding books in sci fi or fantasy that is worth reading since they are just plot driven? I just finished an amazing fantasy, the Killing Moon that is plot driven, well written, riviting, with great characters and setting. Thats the kind of book I like. It does not depend on just one attribute, but many

And who makes these categories anyway? Marketing. Otherwise there is no purpose to them. People just read

>25 AnnieMod: And "serious" (ahem) readers tend to have low opinion of people reading only that type of stories.

Why? I know lots of people who read romance and mysteries, which I don't enjoy, but my opinon of them is not based on their reading. Its this kind of attitude that really mess up kids the graphic novels, comics, sci fi, wasn't really reading, so they stopped. Let people just read, without worrying what it is they are reading

sorry, end of rant. Just seems this idea keeps popping up, and I feel the need to keep it down again.

>30 cindydavid4: The quotes and the ahem in that statement were significant. :) Politely said - because they are nitwits they being the “serious” readers. :)

>31 AnnieMod: thank you; sorry :)

>29 dchaikin: I love Spark, but I had to read two or three of her novels before I could get into her milieu. I rec The Girls of Slender Means and her last novella, The Finishing School.

>30 cindydavid4: I get the idea! I was criticized for reading romance novels when I was a classroom teacher and someone "caught" me reading one in the teachers' lounge. For a long time I hid the novels I was reading to avoid the humiliation because I was not reading "serious" literature.

That kind of thinking is what made some of my middle schoolers not want to read. They loved joke books and cartoons, so I always kept a box with those kinds of books in my study hall room. The kids would hide them so they could get to them first, or they would race to the room to grab their faves. A few of the books were actually torn into sections so more than one kid could read them at once, and they then traded the sections. The most important thing to me is that people are reading.

I am currently reading Matched and Married which is a novel about a young Amish woman who moves to a different Amish community because the temptation to "jump the fence" is too strong. She keeps wanting to put on her Englischer clothing and run around partying with her Englischer friends. She hopes to make a new start in the new community and find more appropriate friends to associate with. This is the first Amish novel I have read that includes the theme in just the way it is portrayed, although "jumping the fence" is not a new idea in Amish themed stories. I enjoyed the description of her non-Amish fashion choices on the first page--they were very trendy!

I have started La tête de L'emploi by David Foenkinos

>30 cindydavid4: you have caught me off guard. I was only looking at my own reading, sorry. For what it is worth, "plot driven" & "genre" are two separate descriptors of books. Books have both, neither, and one or the other. (My own post used at least two three variations.)

>33 nohrt4me2: I am trying to figure Spark out, and it is taking a little adjustment. : )

>37 dchaikin: my apologies I should have read closer before jumping on my high horse. carry on, please and ignore that strange girl behind the curtain :(

>39 cindydavid4: no worries Cindy. My own horses ought to be set to pasture, and kept out of my reach. :)

Reading Among the Ruins a crime novel by Ausma Zehabat Khan and still reading How Iceland Changed the World by Egill Bjarnason (hoping to finish soon). Khan's crime novel are intelligent reads, there are usually more things to contemplate than there is in the usual crime novel.

>41 avaland: I have enjoyed the Khan books as well.

Tomorrow I'll be starting Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam.

>40 dchaikin: hah, mine too!

the girl who drank the moon is another 5*, its a childrens book that is also perfect for adults that like takes on fairytale trope, About a community who sacrifices a child to a witch, which may or may not be real. read it in two days; don't thnk I will ever forget it. so glad someone directed me to her. Currently working on her short story collections dreadful young ladies with the best of the collection the taxidermist's other wife delightfully unsettled me; Shades of Bradbuty and Gaiman

I finished Planet of Clay, a novel in translation of a young girl somewhere on the autism spectrum (I imagine—it's never spelled out) in wartime Syria. Strange, sad book that meanders a bit but also hits hard... I'm still thinking about it.

Still dipping in and out of Edith Wharton's Ghosts, and restarted Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life.

>34 LadyoftheLodge: The only thing I do not call reading is when someone reads the same book (or series) over and over (and nothing else). A few times - sure? Every month (or every few months) for years? There are other words for that... And I have acquaintances that do that.

Anything else - it is reading.

As usual my question in >25 AnnieMod: sparkled a discussion that went in an interesting direction :) I'd assume that there is no single word/expression in English for these indeed and keep calling them genre (with qualifiers in brackets).

>47 AnnieMod: That is a new concept! I guess I don't know anyone who reads the same book or series over and over and nothing else. I suppose that would be a source of some comfort, maybe brings predictability to one's life. For myself, there are way too many books waiting to be read, and not enough time left in my lifetime to read them all.

>48 LadyoftheLodge: for some people its a way to relax, picking a well-known book up to read over and over.

>49 dchaikin: Reading the same book for a 17th time when you had not touched another book in a decade is hardly reading though. But to each their own. :)

I finished, and ultimately was completely taken by The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, a 5-star read. Next I plan to begin Vera by Stacy Schiff, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000.

>51 dchaikin: I liked Memento Mori

I am starting The Sentence, Louise Erdrich's new one.

>52 dianeham: that was recommended to me on Litsy too.

I finished The Little Christmas House by Tracy Rees and now I get to pick my next read from my list! Probably something for one of the challenges.

Started and will quickly finish the book the sci fi//fan decided for December The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Makingis the first book in the Fairyland series by Catherynne M. Valente. a YA book that we thought would be a short fun read. So far so good.

Also starting cloud cuckoo landas well as Parlor Games

Finishedduchess of bloomsbury street Loved the first one, this one I dunno, just didn't enjoy as much. She is basically driven around place place at times screaming when will I get to see what I want to see. At times she seemed really spoiled and ungrateful tho that might just be me. Tho i did enjoy visiting london again through her eyes. I did love her visit with the stores owners wife and daugher. I did not like that the publisher decided to write on the back cover "hanff died in 1997 and never married' So all of her talents and accomplishments meant nothing I suppose. not the books fault but just maddening!

I finished The House of Mirth and started Shakespeare's Pericles.

Just finished First Christmas on Huckleberry Hill and trying to select the next read.

I finished The Promise, on white owners of a South Africa farm before and after the end of Aparteid. I liked it. (I felt it was an imperfect balance of serious stuff and humor. I mean, there is a satire element and of course the two go together there, and elsewhere in literature. But, I couldn't help feeling that the humor was almost wrong, as if there is a fence that marks the line where humor actually undermines the serious aspects of the work, and Damon Galgut wavered around that fence.)

I have just down-loaded two books that might help with information on climate change:

Less is More, how degrowth will save the world by Jason Hickel. I have been banging on to the people around me that we should be taking the path of levelling down, not trying to level up as Boris Johnson would have us do. The book has the support of the people in Extinction Rebellion and so it will in my case be preaching to the converted.

How to Save Our Planet: The facts by Mark Maslin. Having just bought an 100% electric car: I should find out if I am on the right track.

>60 baswood: ”Having just bought an 100% electric car: I should find out if I am on the right track.”

Let us know the answer to that one, if you will. We just got one, too.

>61 rocketjk: Early days yet, only had it for a week, still working out how far we can go before we need to recharge the battery.

>62 baswood: We did that "on the go," setting off on a cross-country drive just two weeks after we brought our new vehicle home. Well, anyway, we made it across!

I'm not getting much reading time at the moment as the end of my old work and start of my new one collide, but I just finished Leave the World Behind which I really enjoyed, and am picking up a non-fiction next for the first time in a while - The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Parent and Think by Jennifer Ackerman.

I am currently working on reducing my TBR and review pile for NetGalley. Now reading A Christmas Courtship by Shelley Shepard Gray.

I just finished the excellent The Sentence and will start Still Life.

>60 baswood: My daughter recently bought an all-electric Volvo. Had to put an outlet on the house to plug in to.

I haven't finished anything, but a road trip to New Orleans got me reading Roadside Geology of Louisiana (and a bookstore in the French Quarter sold me The Abbess of Crewe by Muriel Spark and Dottie by Abdulrazak Gurnah). Back home I nixed a few audiobooks I had planned to read because the narrators felt wrong, and ended up with Shirley Jackson : A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin. The narration is good enough for this kind of book...which has a wonderful first hour. (lisapeet's recent review got me interested)

I'm reading Matrix by Lauren Groff which is as good as everyone said it is. I've also started Covered With Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America. Both were finalists for the National Book Award this year.

I had been working my way through Octavia Butler's Patternist series in the last week and a half. Finishing the last one (Clay's Ark) at the moment. The only bad news is that leaves me only 3 Butler novels to read :(

Well, hurray for me! After almost a month’s reading (in fairness, my wife and I have been on a busy road trip and vacation over that time), I have finally completed Swann’s Way! I enjoyed parts of it, and other parts were tough sledding for me. If anyone’s interested, a somewhat longer review is now posted on my CR thread.

I’ve now started The House of Ashes by North Ireland crime writer Stuart Neville. I loved his The Ghosts of Belfast. This book is very well written, as well, but so far very unpleasant in terms of subject matter.

>68 dchaikin: Twinsies! I'm still reading the Jackson bio and probably will be for a while—I have the feeling my hold period will be over before I finish and I'll have to wait until I can borrow it again. I'm enjoying it, but I'm going to have to put it aside for Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower for my book club.

>72 lisapeet: oops. I must have transformed a comment on yours into a review. Anyway, it was good inspiration.

I've done an about turn on my next read. Hope to start Jamaica Inn shortly.

I just finished When We Cease to Understand the World which almost made the discovery of obscure mathematics and quantum theory intelligible. Currently reading Pericles and will resume Blonde shortly.

started mr dicken's carol for my book group next month.

I finished Northern Irish noir writer Stuart Neville's latest novel, The House of Ashes. This book is not really what most of us think of when we see the phrase "crime fiction." It's about the horrifying abuse of women by cruel and manipulative men, in dual stories taking place 60 years apart. As such, it's a gripping book and very well written, but just be sure to have a look at a synopsis or two before deciding to read it.

I've now started The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Iranian writer Shokoofeh Azar. This novel was shortlisted for the 2020 International Book Prize, for whatever ice that cuts with anyone.

Finished Among the Ruins by Ausma Zehabat Khan and also How Iceland Changed the World by Egill Bjarnason and am now reading (perhaps for the 2nd time? Mia Couto's Woman of the Ashes. I have two of his more recent short stories collections waiting in the pile, too....

Working on short stories from A Surprise for Christmas which is part of the British Crime Library Classics series.

Oh my. All day yesterday till just now I was ready to praise mr dickens carol to the heavens. Then I got near the climax and well-the author jumped the shark. Totally ridiculous thing to do. I was planning a 5*, now a 3* and wondering if thats too high. I get that she's a screenwriter, and was not surprised how much the entire book was written for screen. But what she did made the entire journey fake and wasted. Im angry with her to waste my time with thi s But I reached a point that caused me not to care about the book . In fact I will not finish it. I enjoy fantasy, I enjoy magic realism, but this was neither. Just sloppy writing 2*

I reading The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny. I’ve read some of this series in the distant past. But I don’t know where I left off so I’m reading the latest in the series which is a tad confusing. I’m not sure who everybody is.

I just started Agatha of Little Neon.

>82 BLBera: Ooh, looking forward to what you think of that one—it's high up on my TBR list.

>83 lisapeet:
I decided that I'm only going to read FUN books for the rest of the year, so I'm off to dig through my stacks. I'm not sure I have all that many.

>83 lisapeet: I did laugh out loud in the first few pages.

I am reading The Orphan's Tale for my book group and Murder Most Fowl for NetGalley.

Omg, that sounds like something Id like to read, but I know Id lose it if I did. Just knowing its based on a true story is enough to keep me from it.

Now reading oh william I think I like this best of the Lucy Barton books, its really good. There's something at the end (yes I peeked) that explains why I love Eliz Strout so much:

oh dear everyone one in this whole world, we dont know anyone, not even ourshelves. Except a little tiny, tiny bit we do.
but we are all mythologies, mysterious.
that may be the only thing in the world I know is true

The mail from Book Depository UK arrived today with The Baby Is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite. It's very short, so I'll read it now. (She wrote My Sister the Serial Killer)

>82 BLBera: I really liked Agatha of Little Neon. It was very refreshing in its exploration of what the religious life both opens and closes. I hope you enjoy it!

I finished Murder Most Fowl and now I am reading Second Chance Christmas for NetGalley. So far it is cracking me up, but also making me sad for the young girl who had to leave her baby in the church manger scene and hope someone would find it and care for it (they did). I keep wondering why no one helped her, or why she stayed away from charities that could assist? That will probably be revealed, since I just started the book.

I did enjoy Agatha of Little Neon. Now on to Intimacies.

I've been reading and not reviewing - whoops!

I've recently finished Matrix by Lauren Groff which I loved, and The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood which was fun and perfect for an airplane (Thanksgiving travel). Now, for fiction, I'm rereading Excellent Women by Barbara Pym. I think her books are perfect for the hectic holiday season.

I'm also continuing Covered With Night which is a very thorough (i.e. slow to read) study of the murder of a Native American by a white settler back in 1722 and how the whole situation impacted relations between the groups. It's really well done, but very dense.

Starting another book of Annie Proulx short stories - Close Range: Wyoming Stories.

I started Rose Macaulay'sThe Towers of Trebizond and enjoying the heck out of it. And an exquisite cover to boot. So an example, the narrator, his aunt dot, and preacher named priggley is off to Turkey to find converts.

...we were to sail in a ship that took camels an plan our campaign in Istanbul
"Constantiople" said Father Chantry Pigg who did not accept the Turkish conquest. "Byzamtium" said I,not accepting the Roman one. Aunt Dot said nothing, having accecpted facts"

I'm mostly reading The Vixen.

>94 cindydavid4: I found that book really interesting, out of the ordinary, but I'm not sure I totally "get" the tone, which is highly satirical in parts but deadly serious underneath. I should read more of Macaulay's books to see if she comes into sharper focus.

Sylvia Townsend Warner and Muriel Spark are a little like that in that their tone throws me off sometimes. But I really like both of them. Lolly Willowes was a revelation.

I had started with The First Woman by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi which I enjoy so far but got sidetracked by The Promise by Damon Galgut. The latter became available at my library after weeks of waiting. I decided to take a look in order to give it back quickly if I would not like it because it's in high demand. I haven't stopped reading...

I’m in sidetrack country as well: I started Chronicles from the land of the happiest people on earth last week, but got diverted into a V S Naipaul book, and from there (don’t ask how) into a binge-read of Adrian Mole. Astonishingly, it’s still funny, all these years later. Only one-and-a-half books of that left, and then I can get back to where I was intending to be…

>97 Trifolia: hmm, I think I should move The Promise higher up the TBR...

After finishing The Memory Police, and waffling a bit, I'm reading Memoirs of a Blue Puttee about the Newfoundland Regiment in WWI. Jerry (rocketjk) recommended it.

I have more books ongoing than I should at any one time. My main read is Woman of the Ashes by Mia Couto, other books I've picked up and started reading....Other Lives by Iman Humaydan and for my 'light' read I am making a third attempt with 1979 (it's not going well). Perhaps there are too many distractions ....

>100 avaland: After a somewhat rough start, i ended up liking 1979 for what it is worth. It did annoy me a time or three though.

>101 AnnieMod: I don't seem to go for all of McDermid's series, so I'm not going to beat myself up over it if it doesn't work (clearly McDermid was the same age as I was in '79...)

>102 avaland: I was not even born in ‘79 so for me it was a historical novel in a way :) Her series do tend to be somewhat different from each other though - so there is that.

>103 AnnieMod: Granted it's not set in the US but I think 1. I don't want to be in '79 and 2. the book thus far feels very'light" but that also might be the whole 70s thing....

>104 avaland: There is some of that. I had settled in for a light-ish book (considering the type of crime and so on) and it dialed up as bit in the second part. It is much lighter than her usual fare though - not cozy by any means but still. And I am still not sure I bought the way the relationships developed but I am giving it another chance if there is ever a second volume. At least she did not slide into the pulps as the last Archer did (I need to write some reviews). :)

I finished the unforgettable The Promise by Damon GalgutI and continued The First Woman by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi. I love it so far.

I've finally escaped from Leicester, but I find can't get back to Wole Soyinka in peace until I've read a short-story collection by the late J M A Biesheuvel that has to go back to the library in a few days...

>105 AnnieMod: Thanks for your input; I think I'm going to abandon it (I'll feel guilt for a bit but it will pass).

>108 avaland: If it does not work, it does not work. There are a lot of other books out there. :)

Just finished Véra : Mrs Vladimir Nabokov by Stacy Schiff, definitely one of Schiffs better ones. Now moving back to Vera's husband. I'm starting Transparent Things

I just finished Dara Horn's new book People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present. It was absolutely breathtaking. There were lots of bits of Jewish history that I didn't know in this book, and learning them was, of course, part of what I loved about it, but what really struck me was how much of what Horn says in this book resonated with my own observations, emotions, and experiences. And more than that, how well Horn unpacks and articulates those things in a way that I have been struggling to do for a long time now. Her use of juxtaposition, irony, and sarcasm to make her point is both effective and impressive. Her observations and analysis are sharp and accurate. This is a short book, but it packs a big punch, and the essay format makes it easy to read in small pockets of time between other things. I really do recommend it to everyone - especially non-Jews.

>111 Julie_in_the_Library: you caught my attention

>96 nohrt4me2: Ive read a few of hers, and while they take some effort, I found the tone exactly that - satire and deadly serious, which actually all good satire should be in the end.

Oh and Lolly Willows is one of my fave books (and just realized that m y copy is missing, may need to get another) Didn't care that much for the corner that held them think Matrix does a better job of that subject.

Spark is hit and miss with me, I think its just the mood I happen to be in

>111 Julie_in_the_Library: Oh I am eager for that book! have you read her other books? The World to Come and in the image were splendid; they are fiction but pack a simiar punch. Glad to see your review. (having trouble with touchstones, both are by dana horn)

After months of pretending not to see The Mirror and The Light on the dining table I've resumed reading it with the goal of finishing it by the end of the year - only six months late!

I'm also thoroughly enjoying Across The Void which starts off as a sort of locked-room mystery in space, and then crosses into The Martian territory.

And because I didn't feel like reading either of these this evening I've started The Weekend.

>114 cindydavid4: I haven't read any of her other books yet, though I have read her article about Anne Frank in the Smithsonian's magazine, which is partially reproduced in People Love Dead Jews, several times.

I've also listened to her interviews on the Tablet magazine weekly podcast Unorthodox, to which I am a regular listener. That's actually the first place I ever encountered her, and where I first learned about this newest book.

Now that I've read this one, and been blown away, I definitely plan to read the rest of her work.

>111 Julie_in_the_Library: I read The World to Come by Dara Horn some years ago, but sadly don't remember it and didn't write a review. I am adding People Love Dead Jews to my wish list and will give her another go. Thanks!

116 funny I read the same Smithsonian artcicle! I found my selve nodding my head esp when she talks about Anne Frank. Is it possible to get the interview from the podcast?

>116 Julie_in_the_Library: I read Dara Horn's article in the Smithsonian on Anne Frank with interest. I was reminded of a recent Holocaust memoir I read in which the author said this:

Her anger did not permit her to accept the pity and solicitude of others. They would have to try harder than that! She would not allow them to cry over her the way they had sobbed over Anne Frank′s diary…

With the touching letters to ″Kitty″ the world had received its catharsis at much too cheap a price—and pretty young actresses were being given a rewarding part to play on the stage and in the movies. The thought filled her with feelings of hatred.

-Burned Child Seeks the Fire by Cordelia Edvardson

Finished Left You Dead which is not the best in the Roy Grace series but if one enjoys the series, it works.

Now reading Celestial Bodies before I am off for a week and a half during which I really hope not to have any time to read. :)

>119 labfs39: I read that too. I did find the Horne book, and read the intro. this will be good. definitely part of my list of TBR books I'll be getting from our indie's annual 25% sale on new years day!!!

Still reading Woman of the Ashes by Mia Couto when I have quiet time (in my head), and I picked up the slim Other Lives by Iman Humaydan the other day thinking it would a quick read (not), and, as noted in the hand-wringing previously, I have abandoned a McDermid and picked up The Darkness Knows by Arnaldur Indridason for the bedtime read (like the McDermid, it seems rather light from an author I have not known to be thus...(His Erlendur books were fab)

Just finished Christmas in Evergreen: Bells are Ringing, at least as much of it as I care to read. Unfortunately, when movies are rewritten into print format, they often read like a script, with all the stage directions and props and scenery described in minute detail.

I am now reading A Royal Christmas Fairy Tale which I hope is more enjoyable. So far, I wish the author had used more action verbs rather than passive verb forms. That is just the editor in me itching to fix it!

>115 rhian_of_oz: TMatL still lives!

My french book that I have started is Le livre de ma mère by Albert Cohen

I have just downloaded onto my kindle a chunkster from 1951 The Caine Mutiny which I hope to finish before Xmas.

Was a bit disappointed with the first in the Wyoming series by Annie Proulx.

On next to Outline by Rachel Cusk, one of those where I feel I'm the last in CR to get around to it.

>126 AlisonY: Nope, not the last. :)

Still enjoying Towers of Trebizond, and started a book I got from my sci fi book clubs book exchange Dead Astronauts I like some Vandemeer, esp his short stories, but Im not sure about this one yet. I just realized its a sequel of sorts to Bourne which I haven't read. We'll see how it works as a stand alone.

Watched an interview with Amor Towels and Ann Patchett which was a little too much about writing and not enough about their books. Still eager to get to Lincoln Highway and These Precious Days

Last night I finished Transparent Things, an interesting late novella by Nabokov. Then I immediately started Strong Opinions, which is his selection and editing of a series of interviews he gave. Cramming some more Nabokov into this December. I have one more novel left, his last, Look at the Harlequins!; and I found a secondhand copy yesterday, so it's in the house.

ETA - for Nickelini - if you're looking for a (not exactly easy) book on Switzerland... Transparent Things is about an American's four visits there, and all the drama around them. I was entertained by the repulsed reaction to Swiss hot chocolate, not sure if that's a real thing.

Outline didn't take long to whiz through in a rare afternoon of peace and quiet.

On next to We, The Survivors by Tash Aw.

I'm taking a little break from the large Shirley Jackson biography (yeah, still) and am reading A Psalm for the Wild-Built, which I am so far liking.

I have started Elle & Lui by Marc Levy - I don't think I am going to like it.

I'm back from my road trip and catching up a bit. I recently finished the wonderful The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Iranian novelist Shokoofeh Azar and the 1941 fun murder mystery Reunion with Murder by Timothy Fuller. Reviews of both can be found on my CR thread.

I've now started In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by Mitch Landrieu. Landrieu was mayor of New Orleans from 2010 through 2018. His book is part memoir and part explication of how he came to take the controversial decision (we learn in the book's opening pages that nobody would rent the city a crane to do the work, although post-Katrina construction was going on all over the city) to remove from their very prominent perches four statues of famed Confederate figures. More generally, Landrieu's memoir is a description of a well-meaning Southern liberal's reckoning with all the institutional racism that he had been staring at but not seeing his entire life and political career. (Obviously, he had been seeing the more overt racism that New Orleans has to offer.) Anyway, I'm only about 30 pages in and still trying to figure out what I think of Landreiu's personal and political narrative.

Just finished Towers of Trebizond Have read a few things by Rose Macalay; spotted the cover of this and knew I had to read it. (some of this is from a LT review) This novel is a mix of things, part novel, part autobiographical travelogue and an exploration of religion. Love Aunt Dots description of travels into Turkey, and discussions about religion (some of which I found over the top) The narrator is Laurie, who I first assumed was male for various reasons, then saw some review that make her female. Given she/he is traveling alone at one point, I really think my first assumption is true. They are traveling with a preacher named Pigg who is wanting to convert the muslems. Along the way the trio meet British travel writers and witness the progress of Billy Graham on tour with the BBC. Macaulay does employ some typical British colonial stereotypes – though these things are put into the mouths of her characters and are fairly mild. Her characters are upper class English idiots – harmless enough and of a type – and I think she was poking gentle fun at them. Macaulay is a good observer of the Englishman/woman abroad – and here she is superb at portraying the noise and clamour of a Turkish harbour. The ending was a surprise and I really didn't see coming, but the narrators final comments on faith, love and death is perhaps the best part of the book.

Just finished A Royal Christmas Fairy Tale which was a fun seasonal read, but needed a lot of tightening up and editing (too much use of passive verb forms and the word "that" and some clumsy sentence structures.) But then it was an ARC and I liked the story.

Now reading The Christmas Dress which grabbed me from the outset and I hope continues on to be a good selection.

Finished The First Woman by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi and moved to Poland to Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk and to Albania for my very first audiobook Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi, a book that I read some rave reviews.

I’m reading Louise Penny books.

home sick today I read a lot Strong Opinions by Nabokov and I'm not liking it. Pages and pages of evasive and non-answers to well-meaning questions. So I started Look at the Harlequins!, Nabokov's last novel, and immediately got into it. I might abandon Strong Opinion.

My new commute book is 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World.

I just finished A Psalm for the Wild-Built, which was 100% charming.

I binged on Victoria Goddard's books, particularly the Greenwing & Dart series. Now I'm having a hard time finding another book that doesn't show poorly against those (which are _fantastic_). Maybe I'll try A Psalm for the Wild-Built - it should be different enough to stand on its own.

Finished The Christmas Dress by Courtney Cole, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Now reading An Amish Quilting Bee which is a series of short stories, and also A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck (I still want to be Grandma Dowdel when I grow up).

>138 dchaikin: As a follow up, still struggling with what to read after putting aside Strong Opinions. I'm finding Look at the Harlequins! tough going to. So I picked up Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (planned for February) and read the introduction to The Two Gentlemen of Verona (I will lead a Litsy group read in January). Now randomly picking up one or the other these books.

Finished griffin and sabine and now must get the next one. How many are in the series?

>144 cindydavid4: Four, I think. Heh, looked it up - three. Or four. Or eight. Or...

https://www.librarything.com/nseries/5081/Griffin-Sabine-Series

>145 jjmcgaffey: Ha! Ok, think I'll just get the 2nd and 3rd book and be done with them

I finished In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by Mitch Landrieu. Landrieu was finishing up his second term as Mayor of New Orleans when he published this memoir in 2018. Landrieu was the mayor who made the very fraught decision to remove four Jim Crow Era statues from public spaces in the city, an obelisk called the Liberty Place Monument commemorating an 1874 riot by White supremacists against the city government, and statues of Confederate figures Jefferson Davis, P.T. Beauregard and, most famously, Robert E. Lee. In this book's beginning and ending, Landrieu provides an account of the vociferous, increasingly nasty and sometimes violent fights around the decision, and Landrieu's reasons for taking the political risk to make that call. What we also get in the interim is a political and family memoir by Landrieu, and an account of his terms in the Louisiana legislature, as lieutenant governor of the state, and as mayor for two terms, all tied in with Landrieu's growing consciousness of the power and debilitating effects of systemic racism. I've posted a more in-depth account of my reflections on the work on my CR thread.

I've now started Amor Towles' recent doorstop, The Lincoln Highway. About 50 pages in I'm not loving it, but it's a reading group selection, so I'm bound to carry on.

I am currently reading Mistletoe and Murder by Robin Stevens and An Amish Quilting Bee by Amy Clipston.

>148 rocketjk: im about where you are and liking it. Then I tend to like his books; he's a good writer and develops complex characters that aren't always likable. We'll see if it keeps up :)

>150 cindydavid4: I'm glad you're enjoying The Lincoln Highway. We each have our own criteria, of course. It's a quick read, which is good for a 557 page novel! I'm by now about 120 pages in. The storytelling is nice, but the writing style bugs me. Not much care seems to have been taken with the dialogue, which to me seems cliche-ridden. The story takes a bit of willing suspension of disbelief, which is entirely OK with me, but even given that, there is already a giant plot hole which is bugging me and which we can discuss via PM if you care to. But, certainly, I know lots of people love his work, so this is definitely a "to each his/her/their own" situation. Cheers!

>151 rocketjk: totally understood, and I am a champion at finding giant plot holes and complaining about them to whoever will listen, so I may be pm ing you shortly :)

Abandoned Elle & Lui Gave it every chance, but a light hearted romcom was not what I wanted to read.
Instead I have started The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks

Still struggling with something to catch I started A Town Called Solace last night...then today worked through Look at the Harlequins! to the end. I think I kind of got that backwards. Anyway, Lawson's book so far reads simple and entertains. (Also, I think I'm now done with Nabokov)

I've been a bit indecisive today. I started Agnes Grey but found the young master quite disagreeable on early acquaintance and didn't feel like reading any more about him on my first day of holidays.

Then I picked up Synners which sucked me straight in, but is slightly too big for my handbag.

I settled on The Memory Box which is a good size and (so far) no psychopaths.

Just call me Goldilocks :-).

I've finished the melodramatic In the Shadow of the Banyan and the oddly structured Notes of a Crocodile, making the straightforward character-driven The Diviners a very quick read.

I am reading L'Aube by Dominique Fernandez

>151 rocketjk: I never got to the plot hole coz once I realized they were not going along the highway, but just a little, I started loosing interest. The boys just didn't interest me until I heard about the hidden treasureSo I did what I usually do when I need to get interested again, I skim here and there then go to the end. wow. Kinda interested in how it got to that place, but I have other books I want to read so think I'll put it on the back burner

Finished Lilith's Brood - the omnibus of the 3 Xenogenesis novels by Octavia Butler. That one took some weird turns here and there but quite enjoyable overall. It proved again that Butler may have similar topics and ideas occasionally but none of her books/series really match each other - she goes into new direction every time she creates a new world. And unlike the Patternist novels where there could have been a lot more of them, these 3 feel complete (even if there is a place for more stories, it does feel complete). I still like the Patternist series more though.

Which means I have only 2 stories left to read and I am done with 2021's "read all the fiction by Butler" goal (which just happened somehow...). Still need to write some reviews.

Back to Celestial Bodies tonight I think now that I am back home so it is within reach again (unless I get distracted)...

I'm reading the third Grandma Dowdel book, A Season of Gifts. She really annoys me, and so does the author (because of the way he presents her). But I'm determined to finish the series so I won't have any bits hanging around making me want to read it later. This is the last book, and I'm more than half-way through it - if I get any time for the rest of the year, I should be able to finish it.

I finished my forced march through the irritating and bloated (to me, at any rate) Lincoln Highway, the recent doorstop by Amor Towles. I've got a post about it up on my own CR thread, if anyone wants to read a longer grumble. My main complaint is flat, cliche-ridden narrative and dialogue.

I've now started The New Breed: The Story of the U.S. Marines in Korea by Andrew Geer. This is an oral history written in the midst of the war. We're told in the inside jacket flap that, "In preparing this book Geer had access to the complete file of Marine combat reports and was able to gather material at first hand as an active Marine field officer during the dreadful winter, spring and summer of 1950-51 in Korea. He interviewed 697 Marines individually in preparing this history." (Italics included in the text.) The book was published in 1952, and the war didn't conclude until July 1953.

>161 rocketjk: I'll be curious to hear if you like and would recommend The New Breed. I've wanted to read more about Korea, ever since reading The Coldest Winter, which I thought was fantastic.

Have abandoned one book and picked up James Morrow's short novel, The Asylum of Dr. Caligari

>159 AnnieMod: Bravo!

I'm reading Glimpses, a fun time travel rock'n'roll novel that rocketjk sent me, and Creative Acts for Curious People, because lately I'm all about those kinds of noticing/getting outside your routine/jumpstarting your brain newsletters, and this was recommended in a couple of places.

Got my booster shot Wednesday evening. I was able to finish A Town Called Solace yesterday morning (it’s decent. Simple clean entertaining), then spent the rest of the day miserable. Finally kicked my fever late and picked up another book - Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler, a 1982 novel. So far the first 14 pages are far better than anything in her 2020 Booker longlist novel i read earlier this year - Redhead By the Side of the Road. I was disappointed in Redhead and was no longer interested in reading anything else by her after that, but I already had Dinner and it was already on the plan… I hope it holds up. I’m really pleased with the opening.

I'm quite behind on CR but still getting through a book most weeks. I just started On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin this afternoon. I doubt I'll get much reading done until maybe Boxing Day, but maybe I'll get to finish this one before the end of the year.

I've finished two that I haven't reviewed yet.
Rachel Ray by Anthony Trollope (early jump on our Victorian reads for 2022). I really liked this one - shorter for Trollope, good female characters. Not the place to start with Trollope but recommended for Trollope fans.

And The Dictionary of Lost Words which was good but fairly typical historical fiction about a woman whose father is working on the Oxford English Dictionary and how as she grows up, she realizes all the "women's words" that aren't being included in the dictionary. I liked it.

Next I'm reading the Divergent series. I don't usually read YA lit, but my tween son is about to start it and is much more interested in actually reading when he has someone to talk about the book with, so I will read along.

Im ordering that book and cant wait to read it!

It took a very rainy friday morning but I finally finished Witch's Boy by Kelly Barnhill. When I first started it I felt that it was so much like Barnhills other books that I got bored. So I set it aside, reading it now and again, while I focused on other reads. Well our desert is getting quite drenched after 5 hours of rain (and still going) Got heat, hot cocoa, the music of the rain on the skylights, and finished the read. Its quite delightful and so glad I did. the characters in this book are similar to her others, they are young, scared and scarred, uncertain, but find their own strength and bravery, which is all that much stronger with other children like them. Very good endings (don't want say sweet, but endings that make sense given the story) And now that I am finished, and I can't go out and play, I need to get going with cleaning the house for our little group dinner tomorrow; Might even make me some chicken soup!

Well, I started The New Breed: The Story of the U.S. Marines in Korea by Andrew Geer, what I had thought was a series of oral histories about Marines' experiences in combat during the conflict. It turns out that what Geer actually did was to use the many interviews he conducted to reconstruct one troop movement and bloody engagement after another in a basically day by day account. The accounts certainly draw you right in, and have the sense of immediacy that one would expect, given the fact that Geer was writing this while the war was still going on. However, despite the horrific nature of the action, the deaths, and the heroism, that occur on every page, by the end of the third chapter there began to arise an unfortunate sameness to the narratives. So, in order to keep all these events from running together in my mind, I've decided to continue reading this as one of my "between books." Those are the anthologies, etc., that I read one chapter or entry at a time between the works I read all in a go (novels and most histories/memoirs).

So then I started poking around my shelves and my LT library to see what to jump to instead. First I'm going to read the Conrad novella, Youth, which is a lot of fun and which I haven't reread in quite some time. I also pulled out three other collections to add to the "between book" stacks:

* Going to Meet the Man, a short story collection by James Baldwin that I'm way overdue to read
* Rough Translations, stories by Molly Giles. Giles was an instructor when I was a Creative Writing grad student at San Francisco State University back in the 1980s. I very much enjoyed her collection Creek Walk and Other Stories when I read it a few years back.
* The June 1, 1938 edition of Coronet Magazine. This looks like a relatively serious collection of fiction, current events, poetry and editorial. It's edited by Arnold Gingrich, who worked with both Hemingway and Fitzgerald during his career. I'm looking forward to periodic visits to the thinking and expectations of this pivotal period in U.S and world history.

Finally, I settled on another history for a full-length read: Now We Are Enemies: The Story of Bunker Hill by Thomas J. Fleming. First published in 1960, this history was praised very highly.

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it! For now.

I finished Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett a few days ago. I liked it more than Mort but less than Going Postal, and rated it 3.5 stars. I've just posted my review on my thread.

For my next fiction book, I'm starting Richard Osman's new sequel to The Thursday Murder Club, The Man who Died Twice.

For nonfiction, I'm still working my way through Game Wizards: the Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons by Jon Peterson.

>170 Julie_in_the_Library: Oh, Going Postal is among my top favs of his! I liked Reaper Man and Mort, but my fav was when he has his grandaughter take over (can't remember the name of it.) other favs are Truth and Theif of Time and all of the witches books.

It's Christmas Eve morning here in Vancouver, and I'm reading Murder Most Festive

>173 Nickelini: Lol, that got a chuckle

started another book - Boccaccio, a biography by Thomas Goddard Bergin. The first chapter is a really entertaining, if dated, history of the 14th-century.

one of my favorite time periods!

I am in the mood for novellas at the moment (long enough to actually be complex, short enough not to drag - and one of the best lengths for speculative fiction IMO) so had been burning through them - Upright Women Wanted is a post apocalyptic tale set in Arizona (and Utah at the end) and dealing with people who feel differently (a bit on the nose sometimes and the main character is way too naive although it works in the story), Flyaway - magical Australia has a bit of a problem, and now Yellow Jessamine (which so far is very gothic, set in a dying city in an empire which just got new rulers and very subtly sliding into horror in a good way). Add Finna (a love story in a store that looks like ikea - with parallel worlds thrown in) and Prosper’s Demon (are demons the real problem or are the people who exorcise them even worse - with an added bonus of a world which is somewhat an inverted image of ours) which I read earlier in December and I am a very happy reader just now.

I read Upright Women as well; liked it enough, thought it was more YA, and yes to the naive narrator. But a big reason why I loved it was that I remember a book mobile coming to our school and absolutely loved the idea. wanted to be a librarian in one. What they went through was a little more that I could handle, but the idea is very fun

Finished my only Japanese-language book this year, インフルエンス, which was a simple but still fun little thriller that explores the dynamic of female friendships. I've read no other Japanese-language books this year and I only read this one because it was a buddy read with a friend so I'm disappointed at myself for having lost the motivation (rather, got lazy about) to read in Japanese. This should be fixed next year as my friend and I have committed to reading one Japanese-language book each month next year which would lead to 12 books read in one year which is something I've never done. While this means I'll read less in general probably, it's a much needed step to take if I'm going to be serious about reading in Japanese.

I finished Murder at Mallowan Hall and I am currently reading Miss Kopp Investigates and Becky Meets Her Match.

>178 cindydavid4: I don’t know about YA. It does read young indeed but YA tends to be less grey and more black and white (helping its protagonists to make the right choice by killing their friends so they don’t need to for example) except when a love interest is involved. Maybe more of a New Adult than YA. The border can be way fluid. I think the publisher was right not to market it as YA though.

In other news Yellow Jessamines’s slide into horror was very satisfying even if the very end felt a bit rushed (working beautifully though) and Defekt was as entertaining as Finna was (and technically both can work as standalones although Defekt is better if you had read Finna.

Still staying with the novellas, The Four Profound Weaves has a somewhat confused start but once it settled, it is an interesting tale of friendship, magic, weaving and identity. Will see if the second half of it manages to keep up.

>179 lilisin: That's an interesting self-challenge. Do you have any of the books picked out yet?

I've finished the excellent history Now We Are Enemies: The Story of Bunker Hill by Thomas J. Fleming and started Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. I've reviewed the Bunker Hill book on my CR 2021 thread.

As it's due back at the library next Tuesday I thought I better start Cold Coast. I'm also hoping it will somehow make me feel cooler.

>183 rocketjk: Oh I love Robinson (Obama interviewed her a while back, and it was fasciating*) Gilead is the beginning of a wonderul saga; hope you enjoy it and the other books as much as I did ) Caveat, her last book Jack One major issues that I just couldnt over come. Namely what fantasy land were they living in? Pity, because the writing and characters were amazing. Any way thats several books away. Enjoy

* President Obama & Marilynne Robinson: A Conversation in Iowa

>185 cindydavid4: Oh, wow! I didn't even realize that Gilead was the first book in a series. Another series to be in the midst of. Just what I need! That makes, and I kid you not, 13 series I'm crawling through little by little!

>186 rocketjk: "That makes, and I kid you not, 13 series I'm crawling through little by little!"

*cough* https://www.librarything.com/topic/333822#7559882 *cough* (although some need an update.... but these are only the ones I am actively working on) ;)

>187 AnnieMod: Ha! As my wife would say . . . Story topper!

I am reading Soif, Amelie Nothomb

>186 rocketjk: she had another book Housekeepingthat was beautifully written, but not much happening. Liked her Gilead series much more (thinking there are only 5)

More novellas:

The Four Profound Weaves ended up being a wonderful tale of change and acceptance in a fantasy world.

Remote Control (Nnedi Okorafor) is a science fiction novella set in a future Ghana where a girl gets a special gift (or is it a curse) and goes on a long journey to discover what is happening. For most of the book, it is unclear if this is SF or Fantasy and even at the end, it is unclear if magic is not somehow involved (although I think it is meant to be pure SF)

Ring Shout (P. Djèlí Clark) is set in 1920s America and resets the Ku Klux Klan movement into a new and terrifying way sending it straight into horror (or maybe this is a less terrifying way than knowing that human beings caused so much harm and pain). You do not need to know anything to enjoy the novella but if you know the history of the Tulsa massacre or "The Birth of a Nation" movie, it will make a lot more sense.

And with that I ran out of handy novellas... :) A few more just came home from the library so I will be back to them, probably next year.

Now reading Edward VI: The Lost King of England (the least known Tudor monarch who is too important to skip) and planning to start Cherryh's Inheritor tonight - the third Foreigner novel which wraps its first trilogy (the big series is kinda split into trilogies). I won't finish either of these this year so that is probably my last post in this thread. I still plan to update my thread at some point though.

For everyone who still had not deserted this post: have a wonderful 2022 and see you all in Club 2022. :)

>191 AnnieMod: I received Foreigner from SantaThing and while I really didn't like Bren, the ending was enough for me to want to read the next one. That was in May 2019 so maybe it's finally time to get Invader out from the library :-).

>192 rhian_of_oz: While Bren can be... weird, Cherryh is very good at writing humans as the aliens. And I don't generally need a likeable character in all my fiction. I had made an almost no dent in that series because I had been working on her other series in the last years but I plan to start fixing that next year. :)

>191 AnnieMod: Four Profound Weaves looks really interesting.

>182 labfs39:

We have our January and February read picked out!
The January book is called "Nails and Eyes" and is an Akutagawa Prizer Winner from 2013. Forgot what it's about though... would need to read the blurb again.

February we are reading a book called "Affluence" about a housewife who meets her husband's mistress. I think that one is going to be more on the horror side of things if I remember correctly but in any case I'm excited about both!

>195 lilisin: and maybe also post this in the 2022 group?

https://www.librarything.com/topic/337699