What Are You Reading Part 3

[CTRLZero]

On 12/19/2021 at 11:00 AM, church_of_dog said:

The Last Town on Earth, by Thomas Mullen -- set in PNW -- northern WA, I think.  This is another of my favorites.  Collapse trigger is a disease.  Good community building.

While waiting for this book to become available, I found another of Mullen’s novels, The Revisionists.  I’m halfway through and find the concept intriguing.  Without spoilers, it has to do with the notion of going back in time to change history.  It has a twist, though, which I will put under spoiler, just in case.  Again, I’m only halfway through, but I’m hopeful the book turns out well.  Plot spoiler ahead.

Spoiler

Most of these types of novels have time travelers trying to fix certain events, for example, killing Hitler to prevent WWII.  This one has people returning from a (supposedly) peaceful future, but to get there, humanity has to go through all the historical horribleness first.  So, these travelers hop through time trying to prevent history from being changed, while other competing travelers are trying to kill Hitler, so to speak.

I also listened to The Open House by Sam Carrington, which is a novel involving the sale of a house, a family mystery, and mild skullduggery.

[church_of_dog]

2 hours ago, CTRLZero said:

While waiting for this book to become available, I found another of Mullen’s novels, The Revisionists.  I’m halfway through and find the concept intriguing.  Without spoilers, it has to do with the notion of going back in time to change history.  It has a twist, though, which I will put under spoiler, just in case.  Again, I’m only halfway through, but I’m hopeful the book turns out well.  Plot spoiler ahead.

  Reveal hidden contents

Most of these types of novels have time travelers trying to fix certain events, for example, killing Hitler to prevent WWII.  This one has people returning from a (supposedly) peaceful future, but to get there, humanity has to go through all the historical horribleness first.  So, these travelers hop through time trying to prevent history from being changed, while other competing travelers are trying to kill Hitler, so to speak.

I also listened to The Open House by Sam Carrington, which is a novel involving the sale of a house, a family mystery, and mild skullduggery.

Thanks @CTRLZero!  The Revisionists does sound appealing based on Amazon description blurb, but neither of the Overdrive Libraries I usually borrow from have it in their collections.  I recommended it to both and we'll see if either one acquires it.

In the meantime I didn't look at your spoiler just to keep it all fresh and clean in my brain.  🛁

And I can't remember if we've talked about it before, but if you like the "time travel for purpose" concept, you might enjoy 11/22/63 by Stephen King.  Not boogey-monster horror, it's about a guy who discovers the ability to time travel and decides to go back and try to prevent the assassination of JFK.  Of course there are plenty of twists...

[clueliss]

I just finished The House in the Cerulean Sea.  I never get five stars. I gave this one five stars. Highly highly recommend.

Also finished Cavendon Hall by Barbara Taylor Bradford.  It was a big fan of the woman of substance series. And earlier this month while looking for reading material at the library specifically looking for one or two specific box I noticed her books on the shelf and that there were books that I hadn’t read by her. So last week when I was returning books I went upstairs to the fiction shelves and grabbed this one. I may have discovered that part of me really really really enjoys historical fiction of the sweeping family saga. Or maybe it’s more like remembered that I like stuff like that and stop being embarrassed by it and I am indulging myself in this way.

[church_of_dog]

My February reading:

 

Non-Fiction:

True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee, by Abraham Riesman

Mildly interesting.  I'm not especially a comics fan, but my uncle was a fairly well-known comic book artist and I was curious to see if he showed up in the periphery of this biography (he didn't).

 

Fed Up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward, by Gemma Hartley

I was really disappointed with this book.  I think the concept of emotional labor is really important so I was encouraged to see another book focused on it, but in addition to not being well-written (bounces around topics and also is annoyingly repetitive), this author doesn't seem to really understand what emotional labor is -- she starts out with the right idea but then expands the meaning to include essentially any domestic work typically done by the woman in a het relationship.  That's NOT what emotional labor is and it really blurs the whole concept for her to get it so wrong.  The tone of the book comes across as her whining, which is clearly not the vibe she is going for.  Apparently she wrote a strong essay on the subject and then tried to turn that into a whole book.  IMO it didn't work.

 

House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia, by Craig Unger

Good background on Putin's rise to power and also some about the Trump-Putin connection.  If the title sounds familiar, this same author also wrote "House of Bush, House of Saud" which I never read but now want to.  I rated it highly.

 

Dark Towers: The Inside Story of the World's Most Destructive Bank, by David Enrich

History of DeutscheBank, with plenty of connections to Trump as well.  I also really liked this one.

 

Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing: Essays, by Lauren Hough

She has a really interesting story, growing up as a lesbian in the Children of God cult and then making her way as an adult (not in the cult).  Her writing style is a little offputting to me, coarse, and she bounces around in time quite a bit which makes it hard for me to follow -- this is trying to be a memoir but it's in the form of essays which doesn't really make sense to me.  Plus there were a few audiobook-specific issues I had with the narrations (two narrators, no explanation why two or which one was the author).

 

 

Fiction:

The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman

The Man Who Died Twice (The Thursday Murder Club #2), by Richard Osman

These are both cozy mysteries (third in the series coming this autumn).  Really wonderful characters and basic setting for cozies (a retirement home with four residents teaming up to solve murders).  The plots are a bit far-fetched and the references are VERY British, to the point where plenty of time I don't really understand what's going on for a little while because the description provided just doesn't mean anything to me.  But it all (mostly) gets explained before too long, and either way these are very fun books.

 

 

[CTRLZero]

9 hours ago, church_of_dog said:

Dark Towers: The Inside Story of the World's Most Destructive Bank, by David Enrich

History of DeutscheBank, with plenty of connections to Trump as well.  I also really liked this one.

I was looking for something non-fiction as I await the next installment in the Martha Wells Murderbot series, so thanks for the recommendation!  With the asset seizures going on as a result of the Russian war on Ukraine, I am suddenly more interested in learning about the tangled financial goings on of the ultra rich. 

[SassyPants]

The Door- Szabo- very interesting…I really enjoyed the read, not necessarily the topic.

We Begin at the End- Whitaker- just ok

The Invention of Nature- Wulf - such a great and thought provoking read

The Beginning of Infinity- Deutsch- Very heavy, but I ended up reading the chapter summaries. Again a very interesting, but academic read.

Between Two Kingdoms- Jaouad- non fiction. Outlines a young person’s journey with cancer- heavy, heavy at times.

And, I’m finally reading the Fifty Shades of Grey series- Easy reads, so far very predictable.

On my list: Crime and Punishment, Taste: My Life through Food, Our Women in Moscow, Season of the Witch

 

[clueliss]

Yesterday I finished the audiobook version of a Mitford scandal by Jessica Fellows.  It's the third book in the mystery series. Where the protagonist is someone in service to various members of the Medford family and the Medford family is prominently featured in the novels.

[KSmom]

Favorite reads from February-

The 71/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. One day, lived 8 times in 8 different bodies, over and over again. This is what faces Aiden Bishop. The only way out is to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle. This book jumps around quite a bit, but the author does a good job keeping it from getting too confusing. I really enjoyed this book, so many twists and turns I didn’t see the end coming.

The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein. Rothstein tackles the subject of housing segregation in the United States. Contrary to what many people think, housing segregation was achieved through deliberate government policies. This book is very well researched. Rothstein uses many people’s personal stories which keeps the book from being dry or too academic. I read this for a library program and we had a virtual talk with the author, I found him quite compelling,

The Case for Socialism by Alan Maass. One of my pet peeves is when people throw around words that they don’t understand to shut down debate. Having said that, I felt as if I did not have as good a handle on socialism as I would like to engage in debate or even critical thought. This is a compact book which starts with a critique of capitalism and explains what socialism is. The author also touches on history and misconceptions about socialism. This is a very accessible book and added a great deal to my understanding of socialism.

Faultlines: A History of the US since 1974 by Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E Zelizer. Beginning with Gerald Ford’s presidency and the aftermath of Watergate, the authors trace the divisions that led the country to the election of Donald Trump. The book is organized around 4 areas of division that the authors focus on: political, economic, racial and sexual divisions. The authors use enough detail to support their thesis without making this book dry and academic. Highly recommended.

[louisa05]

Just finished Take Time for Paradise: Americans and Their Games by A. Bartlett Giamatti. Giamatti was a literary scholar, a wordsmith and a lover of baseball (briefly it's commissioner just prior to his untimely death).  It is an excellent little book about the meaning of community and sport. I'd like to force all the people who mock sports fans to read it. Not to force them to be sports fans, just to make them reconsider their insistence that there is no inherent meaning in it all and any degree of fandom correlates to stupidity. 

The current commissioner of Major League Baseball should also be forced to read it. 

Currently reading Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece--a biography of Prince Philip's mother who had a very interesting life. I've barely begun, though. 

 

[CTRLZero]

I listened to the first two installments of Peter F. Hamilton’s Arkship Trilogy - A Hole in the Sky, and The Captain’s Daughter.  It is a tale of a huge generational interstellar ship that has been traveling 500+ years.  At some historical point, there was a mutiny, and that caused a shift in how subsequent generations lived their lives. Things start to happen as they approach their scheduled destination.  I enjoyed it, though it seemed to be geared to YA audiences. 

Then I listened to A Man Called Ove.  My daughter commented that she’d cried during the movie.  I thought it was sentimental, but hardly cried at all. 🥲 The main character was very similar to my late father-in-law (our daughter’s beloved grandpa), so I suspect that’s what triggered her tears.  Author - Fredrik Backman.

I just checked out the next installment of Martha Wells’ Murderbot series, so I’m looking forward listening to that.

[Smee]

I’m not really a sci-fi/fantasy person and I read quite a lot of YA, so I’m not sure how useful my recommendations will be to anyone but here’s some of my 2022 reads so far:

The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson

A teen girl raised by her widowed veteran father tries to deal with his worsening PTSD. Character-driven, well written, a little slow.

The Boy From The Mish by Gary Lonesborough

An Aboriginal boy struggles to accept his sexuality when he meets and falls in love with another boy. Deals with racism and culture as well as sexuality, a good read and from a gay, Aboriginal writer.

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

A family drama about an empty nester couple, their 4 grown children, and how tennis aspirations and the fame of a former student impacts them all. Framed as a mystery when the mother goes missing, the resolution to that was disappointing but the characterisation and twists and turns of the narrative were good. I enjoyed it (far more than Nine Perfect Strangers which was WEIRD).

Girl A by Abigail Dean

Kids grow up suffering horrible neglect and abuse at the hands of their domineering religious father and submissive mother. Years after their escape, all are grown up when their mother dies in prison and the house becomes theirs. Follows the complex relationships of the grown children as well as flashbacks to their childhood. Difficult in places but well done and the twist wasn’t obvious from the beginning.

Currently reading Not My Ruckus by Chad Musick.

 

[CTRLZero]

I just finished listening to “You Feel it Just Below the Ribs” by Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson.  Very engrossing fictional memoir of a woman who has survived war (The Great Reckoning) and shapes her worldview and subsequent career as a researcher/psychologist by the events she endured.  It’s an alternate history, some of the dates line up to roughly WWI and WWII, and traces society’s attempts to manipulate individuals so conflict never happens again.  It was at times disturbing, maybe a bit like The Handmaid’s Tale, but I could hardly put this novel down. 

[BlondeAgent007]

I'm in 2 book clubs.  For one we decided to read 50 Shades of Grey.  I'm 100 pages in and its honestly hilarious and not written well at all.  Everyone is insufferable and I hope the movie is literal to the scene descriptions.  Recommend if you enjoy reading bad things sometimes because it's funny.

If looking for a book that's ACTUALLY  good, The Blood of Flowers is my favorite book I read last year.  It's historical fiction about a teenage girl who learns how to knot Iranian carpets in 1600s Iran.  The writing is beautiful and I got lost in a culture I knew so little about.  I would have been happy if it was 1000 pages.

[CTRLZero]

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker raised the hair on the back of my neck.  The author does a great job building the uneasiness and confusion of an infectious outbreak in a small community.  Almost everything we’ve gone through in the past couple of years (with a unique twist) is touched on in these pages.  Yikes!

I just checked out another audiobook by her called The Age of Miracles.  Hope it will be just as good. 

[CTRLZero]

On 9/1/2021 at 9:36 AM, church_of_dog said:

The Weight of Ink, by Rachel Kadish -- interesting story of two strong women -- a female scribe (rare) for a rabbi in 17th century England, just after the Inquisition and just before/during/after the plague, as well as a female historian in the current era who is given the found papers of the scribe/rabbi to interpret.

This was such a good book.  Thank you for the recommendation.  I like these sorts of peeks into the methodology of historical research.  

[church_of_dog]

My March reading:

 

Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump, by Peter Strzok

This was really interesting.  I didn't recognize Peter Strzok's name before reading this book, but he was the main FBI investigator of the Russian election interference in 2016 case, as well as the Hillary's-emails thing.  Hearing his perspective (limited by plenty of things he couldn't spell out due to being classified information) was really interesting to me, even after reading a dozen or more Trump books in the past year or two.

 

Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones, by James Clear

This was pretty interesting, though nothing earth-shattering.  His basic advice is to value incremental improvements as a strategy for achieving larger changes over time.  I liked his style of presenting information and found this an easy listen.

 

No Stone Unturned:  The True Story of the World's Premier Forensic Investigators, by Steve Jackson

This book came highly recommended from some folks over at Websleuths.  It's the story of how the Necrosearch International organization came about -- they have a great reputation for being able to find buried bodies using both dogs and tech gadgets such as ground-penetrating radar.  Really interesting book for a true crime fan like me who likes to see how technology can assist in solving crimes.

 

A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them, by Neil Bradbury

This was also interesting in a true crime sense, though less compelling in its writing.  The author delves into eleven different poisons and explains a little of their chemistry/biology, then tells a couple of stories of when/how that poison was first used as a murder weapon.

 

Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood, by William J. Mann

This was more interesting than I thought it would be.  It's the story of William Desmond Taylor's death and the search for his killer.  He was a famous Hollywood director in the '20s.  The starlets of that era play a role, including a few who were possible suspects.  The murder has never been officially solved although the author does present his theory.  The background of the development of the big movie studios, in the silent film era, is presented as context, which was interesting to me.  (I'm not a moviewatcher but for some reason the history of the development of the industry is interesting to me).  Fatty Arbuckle and his trial(s) for the death of Virginia Rappe are also described.

 

The Story of my Experiments With Truth, by Mohandas K. Gandhi

OK this is going to sound bizarre but I found this book highly disappointing.  I wanted a biography of Gandhi and was/am astounded that there doesn't seem to be one well known enough to have been made in audio format.  This book is labelled an autobiography, but he himself claims that's not the intent.  Sure enough, the book focuses on his early life and personal "experiments with truth", and ends in the 1920s, just as Gandhi is beginning to take on national and global issues.  Also, and again this sounds horrible to say about Gandhi, but I didn't find the book all that well-written.  Perhaps it's his humility, but he goes into repeated details about things like each time he decides to fast, or try some quack medical treatment (which he acknowledges in the book as quackery and yet goes on and on about the things he did before he recognized them as quackery), but nothing is in any context of his significant later life role.  For example, he never describes or even acknowledges making any transition from ordinary poor youth/young man, to becoming nationally known.  It can be inferred eventually as he describes things like having discussions with leaders of various movements or regions, but a skilled biographer would give the background of how he grew into the iconic persona.  Also there are many Indian terms and people mentioned with minimal if any explanation given, as they would be in a biography written for a global audience.  If anyone knows of a good Gandhi biography, please share!  I'm interested in learning about his historic role and this book did NOT provide that.

 

Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy, by Jamie Raskin

Really moving and also informative.  Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin lost his son Tommy to suicide on Dec 30, 2020, and one week later he was in the Capitol to formally count the electors when the January 6 riots happened.  Raskin ended up being the lead impeachment manager for Trump's second impeachment, and hearing that story from his perspective was fascinating.  He goes back and forth talking about Tommy and then the political stuff, sort of tying them together because events all happened so close together, and also because Tommy was apparently really politically astute and was very close to his dad.  It's a stretch, but the high emotion and good writing holds it all together.

 

Honey Roasted, by Cleo Coyle

My only fiction reading for March.  This is the 19th book in the "Coffeehouse Mysteries" series and while I enjoyed it, I'm starting to tire a bit of them.  The characters are interesting but this one irked me somehow.  I did enjoy it though.  I only gave it three stars on Goodreads and I remember feeling adamant about that, but now I can't remember what made me mark it so low.

[clueliss]

I have read atomic habits. Mainly because there’s a lot of stuff from that book that’s been integrated into the world of WW.

Edited April 10, 2022 by clueliss

[CTRLZero]

I just read The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd.  There was a favorable review in the Washington Post, so I was hopeful I would like it more than I actually did.  There are a few pictures of maps, but they didn’t really add much to the storyline (in case someone wants to listen to the audiobook version).  It’s chock full of secrets and magical twists, so it was a good way to pass a couple of rainy afternoons.  There is a non-fictional thread that weaves through the novel, so be sure to read the afterword for more details.  That part was the most interesting to me. 

[AmazonGrace]

On 3/24/2022 at 5:56 AM, BlondeAgent007 said:

I'm in 2 book clubs.  For one we decided to read 50 Shades of Grey.  I'm 100 pages in and its honestly hilarious and not written well at all.  Everyone is insufferable and I hope the movie is literal to the scene descriptions.  Recommend if you enjoy reading bad things sometimes because it's funny.

If looking for a book that's ACTUALLY  good, The Blood of Flowers is my favorite book I read last year.  It's historical fiction about a teenage girl who learns how to knot Iranian carpets in 1600s Iran.  The writing is beautiful and I got lost in a culture I knew so little about.  I would have been happy if it was 1000 pages.

Oh I couldn't understand 50 shades of gray at all, how on earth was it so popular? there was a lot of unintentional humor. there are lots of kinky books that are much better written, with heroes who are not total assholes and heroines with a brain

I have been reading a lot of romance recently, a couple of cozy mysteries, short self help workbooks,  some ARC copies.

[BlondeAgent007]

On 4/12/2022 at 11:06 AM, AmazonGrace said:

Oh I couldn't understand 50 shades of gray at all, how on earth was it so popular? there was a lot of unintentional humor. there are lots of kinky books that are much better written, with heroes who are not total assholes and heroines with a brain

I have been reading a lot of romance recently, a couple of cozy mysteries, short self help workbooks,  some ARC copies.

I find 50 Shades to be bad on all levels.  The writing is really slow.  All the characters are insufferable and completely unbelievable.  Ana basically hates everything about him except that he's so hot and filthy rich - she denies loving his money but is super impressed with everything he does and owns with it, so...

And even if it is true, it basically only means she likes him because he's hot, which is probably more ridiculous.  

I think what is even more problematic is the portrayal of bdsm relationships on all fronts.  This book has been a lot of folks'  introduction to bdsm and I find it to be an extremely poor example.  Anyone wanting a good one should watch Secretary with Maggie Gyllenhaal.  Still actually has a Mr. Grey (predates both this series and Twilight), and he suffers from his own demons as well.  But it is a much better example of the psychology and beauty behind such a relationship.

TL,DR: I agree with you and just wanna keep talking about how bad it is

 

[CTRLZero]

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab was such a good novel.  It’s about a woman who makes a deal with the devil, and the consequences that play out over the centuries.  I see this author has written other novels that I’ll have to look into. 

[CTRLZero]

More sci fi!  I just finished reading Far From the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson.  According to wiki, Tade Thompson is a British-born Nigerian psychiatrist.  He has apparently written a couple of series, that I'll take a look at eventually.  The novel is about a space transport delivering colonists.  The captain wakes up after a decade of travel, discovers murdered passengers, and an investigation and mayhem ensue.  It was fairly well written, but I really liked some of the psychological observations of isolation, routines (or lack thereof), and interrupted sleep cycles.

For something different while I'm traveling, I checked out A World Lit Only By Fire [The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance Portrait of an Age] by William Manchester.  The opening pages describe the effects of religion and the power structure in an easy to understand manner.   The author seems to throw in a random bit of snarkiness here and there, so I'll probably like this book, lol. 

 

[CTRLZero]

On 1/10/2022 at 6:08 PM, KSmom said:

No Cure for Being Human by Kate Bowler. This is a spiritual memoir. Bowler is an author and associate professor at Duke Divinity School. Bowler is a cancer survivor and honestly shares her life battling cancer and all of the emotional, physical and spiritual challenges that it entails. I love her bluntness and the way she takes aim at so many empty platitudes that our world pushes.

I just borrowed this from my library in audiobook.  I just finished a similar tale:

Left on Tenth by author and playwright Delia Ephron is another memoir of a cancer survivor.  (She is the sister of Nora Ephron.)  It is the story of her ups and downs facing the death of her husband, finding new love, surviving cancer, celebrating friendships, etc.  A special treat for me is that it was read by the author, who was able to convey her emotions throughout her journey.  A minor spoiler is below.

Spoiler

Delia concludes the memoir in early 2020 with relief at being able to start visiting people and getting out and about.  We know what's on the horizon - COVID. 

 

[danvillebelle]

Currently reading Rationality by Steven Pinker and The Unspeakable by Meghan Daum.  Love both. 

[louisa05]

Gave up on The Lincoln Highway. I just can’t get into the 500 points of view books. 
 

Reading I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in the Trump White House by Stephanie Grisham. It’s not long but going slow because I have to put it down and rant to anyone around about how ridiculous these people are. Especially the author. Some gems: 

She was extremely shocked when a co-worker was fired when it was found out he was gay. She just couldn’t believe Trump or anyone working for him would not be inclusive. 
 

She and other staff members characterized Trump’s nonsensical ramblings in meetings with foreign leaders as “entertaining” if not “strategic” . 
 

She still has no idea why people thought Melania’s absurdly high priced clothes (a $3000 flannel shirt or the $51,000 jacket) were not relatable or appropriate.