What are you Reading (Part 2)?

[MarblesMom]

Am almost finished with Two By Two by Nicolas Sparks. 

Sobbing.  His books always make me cry.

[AmericanRose]

I just finished "The Answers" (Catherine Lacey) which was interesting, and "Gigged" (Sarah Kessler) which was also interesting, but a bit redundant.

Right now I'm working on "Early Warning" (Jane Smiley), which is lengthy but is keeping me up past my bedtime -- always a sign of a good book!

[onekidanddone]

Finished Ron Chernow’s biography of George Washington. FINALLY. Now I plan on starting Homocide: A year on the Killing Streets by David Simon. 

[Sky with diamonds]

Started on this today...The Little Shadows by Marina Endicott. 

[MarblesMom]

Halfway thru "The Boys In The Boat" about the 1936 crew team.  Awesome.

[LilMissMetaphor]

Juliet's Nurse by Lois Leveen.

 

 

[louisa05]

On 5/17/2018 at 11:21 PM, MarblesMom said:

Years, for me. 

The library has an amazing amount of Kindle-friendly books available!  Immediate gratification for wanting a new book and not wanting to leave the house 

I just put some serious time into my library e-book wish list. Now I just pop onto the site and download one that is available. 

[onekidanddone]

All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire

[elf1590]

Currently Reading: Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover.

I participate in a Facebook group called Book Battle each month, to help me decide what to read next

Edited August 23, 2018 by elf1590
typo

[Drala]

On 8/12/2017 at 10:09 PM, RoseWilder said:

<snip> Hunger by Roxane Gay (I've never had this emotional of a reaction to a book before. I'm only 9 pages in and I've already cried once.) 

Last week I finished reading Hunger by Roxane Gay.  Damn, that woman can write!  I didn't cry, but I did feel a range of emotion reading her memoir.  Her account of sexual violence was too much.  I had to put the book down and come back to it.  I googled Gay after reading Hunger and discovered she underwent bariatric surgery a few months ago.  She's also written about that experience in her online magazine Medium/Unruly Bodies.  This week, I'm reading Bad Feminist, Gay's first collection of essays.  Still good writing, but not as compelling as Hunger.   I'm following her now on Twitter--she's quite prolific in her social commentary.  Can you tell I'm a girlfan? I'd go to hear her speak in a heartbeat if she comes to town. It's been a while since I've felt this enthusiastic about a writer.

[church_of_dog]

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted in this thread since February!

I have made exactly zero progress in my goal to declutter twelve books from my own shelf -- at this point in the year I will not make this goal unless I find some that I DON'T need to read first.

In fact, I think I've only read one hard copy book in the last six months, and it was a library book in a cozy mystery series I enjoy by Susan Wittig Albert, The Darling Dahlias and the Unlucky Clover.  I like these because they are set in a small town during the Depression, and I always enjoy that "simple life" and "make-do" environment.

However, I augmented last year's discovery of the combination of yardwork and audiobooks, by discovering my library's Overdrive options for listening to downloaded audiobooks rather than being limited to physical discs.  (I know, I know, I'm screaming into the electronic era a little late...)

So, since I last reported in:

I'm now almost done with Kate Wilhelm's Barbara Holloway series (two left out of fourteen, most of those in the past six months).  In addition, in that same time frame, I've listened to, and enjoyed:

You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know: The True Story of Family, Face-Blindness and Forgiveness by Heather Sellers -- really loved this!  I have a super-mild version of this -- really I'm just bad with faces and better with names, the opposite of most people -- but I was fascinated with the story of what it's like to actually not be able to recognize people you have known for years.

The Art of the English Murder: From Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes to Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock by Lucy Worsley -- I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book!  It was basically a history of the development of the idea of law enforcement actually looking for clues to solve crimes rather than just the preventative patrols they used to do.  Because I enjoy the mystery genre, the real-life study of the development of that genre in writing, and how it matched the actual changes in police procedure, was fascinating!

Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore -- really interesting, and of course distressing.

The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone -- recommended by friends and enjoyed more than I thought I would.  Some of it was WWII spy story, but the part I most enjoyed was the descriptions of the different kinds of codes and how messages were encrypted.  I've always been a puzzle person. 

Last time I reported I had tried and enjoyed a "psychological thriller" by Lisa Scottoline (Every Fifteen Minutes), so then I listened to three more:  Come Home, Most Wanted and Dirty Blonde.  I will definitely be reading more of her books, as I enjoy the psychological thriller genre as well as her writing style.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.  I grew up in the South Bay in the early 70s, so even though I had no connection to anyone in the story, these are my neighborhoods, my culture, my memories.  Completely fascinating story of the person and the Apple company.

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown.  A near-random pick of what was on my library's audiobook shelf when I was out of anything to listen to.  I'm not a Shakespeare fan so didn't get many references, I'm sure, but I really enjoyed this story of three quirky sisters anyway!

Roadwork by Stephen King.  I'm a King fan, although I only like about half his stuff.  This was the first time I listened rather than read.  Not my favorite but still a really interesting, compelling story, bits of which will stick with me, I'm sure.  Unfortunately not read by King himself, as I love his voice and tongue-swallowing diction style.

I'll Be Gone In The Dark:  One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara -- I'm also a fan of true crime, so the idea that they found this guy just two months after her book was posthumously published, piqued my interest.  Also because I lived in some of the vicinities during the times when he was active, but had no idea there was a serial rapist/killer about at the time.

The Stranger in the Woods:  The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel -- I'm a sucker for hermit stories as well as survival tales and stories of people who choose to live very primitively.  This only partially fit that genre but was really interesting nonetheless.

Missoula:  Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer -- had heard of this one for a while, and enjoyed other Krakauer books I'd read.  Loaded it on the player while on the wait list for some other audiobooks and was glad I did.  Enlightening and disturbing, but informative and well-written as I knew it would be.

Currently listening to:  Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann.  So much history I never knew.

I feel like I've missed one or two but can't bring them to mind.  Still on wait lists for several interesting books, with other serieses I'm eager to get started exploring.  Plus several of my favorites serieses I'm caught up on, are releasing a new title this fall I will want to read.  Once yardwork season is over, I will probably switch to listening while on the treadmill and/or while knitting.  Plus hopefully back to some hard copy books as well!

[MarblesMom]

Just finished "Before We Were Yours" by Lisa Wingate.  OMG, all the feels.  Couldn't put it down.

I read 3/4 of The Bell Jar and returned it.  I just couldn't get into it.

[WiseGirl]

On 8/29/2018 at 11:25 AM, church_of_dog said:

Currently listening to:  Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann.  So much history I never knew.

Just read that.  Very good.  Just saying a certain cooking show that is set in/films in that area never mentioned any of this history! (Not that I would expect them to).

Salt: A World History is very interesting.  It took me a while to finish, but yes amazing how so many areas where wars start(ed) is where there is salt.

Just finishing  Beneath a Scarlet Sky.  (I read anything pertaining to WWII)

Oh, and instead of cleaning out books I may or may not have ordered 10 or more books...

[church_of_dog]

2 hours ago, WiseGirl said:

Just read that.  Very good.  Just saying a certain cooking show that is set in/films in that area never mentioned any of this history! (Not that I would expect them to).

Salt: A World History is very interesting.  It took me a while to finish, but yes amazing how so many areas where wars start(ed) is where there is salt.

Just finishing  Beneath a Scarlet Sky.  (I read anything pertaining to WWII)

Oh, and instead of cleaning out books I may or may not have ordered 10 or more books...

I read Salt several years ago.  Like you, I found it slow going but too interesting to abandon.

One of the books I mentioned above, The Woman Who Smashed Codes, is partly about WWII -- maybe you'd like it?

 

 

[violynn]

Reading The Doll-Master, a set of short stories from Joyce Carol Oates.  I only just really found out about her lately, I'm boggled by her work and I'm a little annoyed it took this long for me to find her.  All her work is just astounding!

[WiseGirl]

2 minutes ago, church_of_dog said:

I read Salt several years ago.  Like you, I found it slow going but too interesting to abandon.

One of the books I mentioned above, The Woman Who Smashed Codes, is partly about WWII -- maybe you'd like it?

 

 

Most likely, putting it on the wish list now.  Because...well I really did order 10 books, lol! Thanks for the recommendation!

[clueliss]

Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn  - which I almost didn't select because I didn't like Gone Girl.  But this one is (so far) much better.  

[Kailash]

I just finished The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher.  Such a lovely book. I enjoyed it so much. If I collected books, this would be one I kept.

Eta: Now I’m starting Roots. I’ve never seen the show or read anything about it but I’m excited to dive in.

Edited September 23, 2018 by Kailash
Adding

[louisa05]

Just finished This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel. It is about a family with a transgender child. Beautifully written. I highly recommend it. 

Started reading Before We Were Yours. Got as far as dad with cancer and put it down. Not ready to read that yet. Lived it too recently. 

I have two more books downloaded and haven't started either yet. 

[Kailash]

Because of strange timing, I finished  Roots and then started Small Great Things  by Jodi Picoult. (It just happened to be my turn to read it, from my library holds.) Roots  was heartbreaking but beautiful. I had no idea it was based on Alex Haley’s actual family. 

I’m still reading Small Great Things . It keeps shocking me, like someone is punching me in the stomach. I know I should expect it by now but the hits keep coming. 

[church_of_dog]

Finished the last of Kate Wilhelm's Barbara Holloway series.  Not high literature but I enjoyed the characters and am sad there won't be any more.

Listened to the first in Kathy Reichs' Bones series.  Will get through one or two more before deciding if I want to go through the whole series.

Now listening to Wallace Stegner's Beyond The Hundredth Meridian, a biography of John Wesley Powell.

Next up is Educated by Tara Westover.

For hard copy reading these days I've got Gavin de Becker's The Gift of Fear.

Several series I like have new books coming out in the next few months; I'm looking forward to those! (Louise Penny, Susan Wittig Albert and Shirley Rousseau Murphy, I'm looking at you!)

I should also add that I have removed 9 or 10 books from my shelf, toward my goal of twelve by the end of the year.  Instead of removing the ones I want to read first, I found some others I just felt ready to part with.  A few I realized I can listen to rather than read, such as the Wallace Stegner I'm currently listening to.  Still need to winnow down a few more to meet my year's goal of twelve, but now it looks pretty easy instead of impossible like before.

[Kailash]

I finished Small Great Things.  I don’t know what to do with my disgust at willfully ignorant and racist white people.  

 

[MarblesMom]

Just finished The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: A Novel  by Rachel Joyce and Kitchen Confidential By Anthony Bourdain.

UP reminded me of a cross-over of a Man Named Ove and Forrest Gump.  Great read.

KC reminded me of how tortured AB was over the years.... 

[onekidanddone]

Just finished Indian Country Noir a short story collection of mysteries written by and about First Nations peoples in the United States and Canada. Some of the stories we like a punch in the gut heart and wrenching. Although some were hard to get through I still highly recommend th book 

[MarblesMom]

Breathlessly reading The Expats by Chris Pavone.  I cannot put this book down!  How will it end?!