What are you Reading (Part 2)?

[CTRLZero]

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison popped up as an offering on Kindle Unlimited.  I occasionally like to read dystopian, post-apocalyptic novels, and this definitely filled that bill.   It started out with the usual unexplained plague wiping out the majority of humanity, and some of what follows is reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (also currently on Kindle Unlimited).  It had a bit of a different take through the eyes of a previous medical professional who becomes jaded very quickly.

Bleak, disturbing scenes as humanity is not at its finest, but very well written.  It looks like there is a sequel in the works, and I will be interested to see how the author develops this society.

[DaniLouisiana]

@Kailash, it is very good! But there is a scene in one of the last chapters that is very disturbing...just a warning.

[RabbitKM]

On 1/6/2017 at 9:02 PM, MarblesMom said:

@RabbitKMI am too!  I am just starting the second part.

I am hoping to finish The Mothers tonight. It is a really interesting book.

[MarblesMom]

@RabbitKM let me know what you thought... I finished it tonight.

I am starting The Commonwealth by Anne Patchett now.

[DaniLouisiana]

I'm starting the Falling Kingdoms series. I was surprized and impressed by all the fairy tale retellings in the YA section. Next on the list is a new version of Phantom of the Opera.

[Carm_88]

I'm reading Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I'm not very far but so far, so good!

[RabbitKM]

On 1/12/2017 at 0:05 AM, MarblesMom said:

@RabbitKM let me know what you thought... I finished it tonight.

I am starting The Commonwealth by Anne Patchett now.

I really liked The Mothers. The style was interesting, very different in the non-linear story line but not in an obvious way. The one thing I couldn't really "buy into" was the marriage between two particular characters.  I think the two characters that I had built in my head just didn't jive together.  I ended up giving it 4 stars. 

 

I am now currently reading The Midwives by Chris Bohjalian.

[lilwriter85]

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

[Kailash]

I finished The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney a day or two ago. It was an entertaining read, nothing too profound.  Now I'm reading The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock. It's filled with violence and filth in general but the story is interesting. Depending on how it turns out, I might read some of his other work too.

[Kailash]

@RabbitKM I really liked The Midwives.   But the one book by Chris Bohjalian that blew me away was The Double Bind.

[MarblesMom]

@Kailash The Nest is next!  

[ADoyle90815]

I've been reading a novel about Queen Victoria's early years as Queen. It's really good, and is what that PBS series is based on. I also have the book Hidden Figures, which led to the movie being made, which is next on my list.

[Elvis Presby]

On January 13, 2017 at 5:42 PM, Kailash said:

@RabbitKM I really liked The Midwives.   But the one book by Chris Bohjalian that blew me away was The Double Bind.

I didn't like The Double Bind nearly as much as Midwives.  Maybe because I was listening to it in the car during my commute.  The part about the attack was graphic and if I had been reading the book, I could have put the book down and came back to if after a few minutes.

Right now I an reading June by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore.  It is a girly read, sort of a fluff story so far.  

I am also reading Dreams of My Russian Summers by Andreï Makine.  He writes beautifully.  There are many times I re-read a sentence several times because the arrangement of the words is just so wonderful.  However, I am enjoying the words so much that the story isn't holding my attention.  I am taking a break from that one until I finish June.

[Kailash]

3 hours ago, Elvis Presby said:

I didn't like The Double Bind nearly as much as Midwives.  Maybe because I was listening to it in the car during my commute.  The part about the attack was graphic and if I had been reading the book, I could have put the book down and came back to if after a few minutes.

Right now I an reading June by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore.  It is a girly read, sort of a fluff story so far.  

I am also reading Dreams of My Russian Summers by Andreï Makine.  He writes beautifully.  There are many times I re-read a sentence several times because the arrangement of the words is just so wonderful.  However, I am enjoying the words so much that the story isn't holding my attention.  I am taking a break from that one until I finish June.

I think The Double Bind had to be read to really get the full impact, but maybe that's just me. Definitely not one I could have listened to.

Your description of reading Andrei Makine  describes how I feel when reading Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera. It's the only book where after I read the last page I immediately turned back to the first page to re-read. I was not necessarily impressed with the love story itself, but the way it was written was so beautiful to me.

 

 

[onekidanddone]

On 1/16/2017 at 11:41 AM, Kailash said:

I think The Double Bind had to be read to really get the full impact, but maybe that's just me. Definitely not one I could have listened to.

Your description of reading Andrei Makine  describes how I feel when reading Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera. It's the only book where after I read the last page I immediately turned back to the first page to re-read. I was not necessarily impressed with the love story itself, but the way it was written was so beautiful to me.

 

 

I recommend Big Rock Candy Mountain or Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. Slice of life in the late 1800s to turn of the century American west.  Both are kind of long and epic, but I love them both.

Love in the Time of Cholera was great.

I'm reading The Devils's Punch Bowl by Greg Iles. Potboiler crime mystery. 

Edited January 21, 2017 by onekidanddone
Forgot to add a book suggestion, and didn't want to start a whole new post

[Carm_88]

I'm reading Random Passage by Bernice Morgan. I read it as a teen as part of my English curriculum but it was too many deaths for me at the time. 10 years later and after reading The Song of Fire and Ice series, it actually seems not that bad. I want to read Waiting for Time as well just because I don't know what happened. 

Recommendations; The Lake House by Kate Morton  

[clueliss]

Finished Truely Madly Guilty by Liana Moriarity on Audiobook today.

And a couple of days ago finished She-Wolves:  The Women Who Rule England Before Elizabeth by Helen Castor.  Nonfiction, History/biography.  

[Kailash]

I finished Little Bee by Chris Cleave and now I'm taking a book break because my head is in a weird place. Some books really get to me. And it's not so much that I don't want to read, it's that I can't.  It's almost like I got stuck in the previous book and everything I'm reading in the current book doesn't fit and I don't like it. Tell me this happens to other people too.

[Marly]

I just finished 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson, and now I'm reading Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie.
If you've never read scifi before, or never read anything by KSR before, I would not recommend to start with 2312. KSR's work is very much on the literature side of novels, so it's not necessarily an easy read. In addition, I think you could also classify it as hard-scifi. Hard scifi is something you either love or hate. I love it. But if you're new to scifi, I'd suggest you better start with something that's easier to read and easier to comprehend, and then slowly work your way towards this work.
I think it's an awesome novel. I would call KSR a feminist writer, and a utopian writer. This novel explores gender boundaries, and what it means to be human in a time of climate change and fast developing (bio)technolgy. 

[CTRLZero]

@Marly - Thanks for the recommendations.  I, too, love hard scifi.  I've read the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, and a couple of others by the author, so I'll add 2312 to my list. 

Not too long ago, I read Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, and managed to read and enjoy it to the end without much problem.  Stephenson can be rather long-winded and bog down, but he mostly stayed on task for this novel, so I can recommend it.

 

[DaniLouisiana]

Ladies (& gents if there are some on this thread) please recommend something light for me to read! Life is very stressful right now and I would like a book to read before bed. I like sci-fi and historical novels.

Recommendation: S.M. Stirling's Emberverse. HBO should adapt it after GoT is finished!

[Marly]

On 31-1-2017 at 8:43 AM, DaniLouisiana said:

Ladies (& gents if there are some on this thread) please recommend something light for me to read! Life is very stressful right now and I would like a book to read before bed. I like sci-fi and historical novels.

Recommendation: S.M. Stirling's Emberverse. HBO should adapt it after GoT is finished!

- My Name Is Memory, by Ann Brashares. Very nice, and easy to read during stressful times. I'd also say, a perfect combi of a bit of scifi/fantasy/historical.
- This Is How You Lose Her, by Junot Díaz. Light, funny, nice during stressful times. However, it's not historical or scifi. But it really is a nice novel to read when you just need something light to take your mind off of all the stressful things in your life.
- Inés Of My Soul, by Isabel Allende. Historical novel. A bit less light than the other two, but still a nice book to read before bed.
 

[DaniLouisiana]

@Marly, thank you. I'll look in to these on my kindle.

[DaniLouisiana]

Any Sci fy fans here? Zombies-infectious not magical? My husband and I are re-reading John Ringo's Zombie series. The first book is Under a Graveyard Sky. My tortoise got her name from this series. If I had another girl child, I would name her Sophia Faith after the two main characters in hopes she would grow up to be as strong and smart as they are. I kinda wish the girls were 'real' as I would like to introduce them to Trump-esoecially Faith! If there is anyone here who has read the books, Faith and the forner Hollywood bigwig! If anyone is curious, I'll see if I find that scene in the book and post the salient points...

[onekidanddone]

Reading George Pelecanos's new book of short stories  Hard Martini