What Are You Reading Part 3

[CTRLZero]

4 hours ago, Giraffe said:

The Silo Trilogy by Hugh Howey. I’ve finished Wool and Shift and just started Dust. Dystopian/sci-fi

I loved reading that trilogy when it came out.  I also liked Beacon 23, which was published in bits and pieces, so I’ll have to make sure I’ve read the entire novel.  

[Giraffe]

4 minutes ago, CTRLZero said:

I loved reading that trilogy when it came out.  I also liked Beacon 23, which was published in bits and pieces, so I’ll have to make sure I’ve read the entire novel.  

I’ll have to check that out. The Silo trilogy is all I’ve read by him. 

[Kak]

On 8/29/2020 at 11:02 AM, CyborgKin said:

I recently started The Beekeeper's Apprentice by by Laurie R. King.  It's about a 15 year old girl who meets retired Sherlock Holmes.

also Artificial Jelly by Materia-Blade which is about a videogame creature, and these monsters called 'humans'.

I loved the Laurie R King series. If you like the book your luck is in, because there's loads of them.

[LilMissMetaphor]

The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh, "a fiercely poetic feminist revenge fantasy that's a startling reflection of our time. King has tenderly staked out a territory for his wife and three daughters, Grace, Lia, and Sky. Here on his island, women are protected from the chaos and violence of men on the mainland."

[CyborgKin]

On 9/11/2020 at 5:41 AM, Kak said:

I loved the Laurie R King series. If you like the book your luck is in, because there's loads of them.

I enjoyed it a lot (finished yesterday) and looked to see how many more are on Audible.  Over a dozen.  Wow!  

[CTRLZero]

Just finished a couple audiobooks by Jonathan L. Howard:  Carter & Lovecraft and After the End of the World.  Really liked the narrator.  The novels end up a little like The Man in the High Castle, with a nod to H.P. Lovecraft’s creations.  A cop turned detective, an inherited rare bookstore, a kickass partner, alternate universes—somehow this all works! 

I’m not a big scary monster fan, so I was happy the creatures were just an occasional part of the storyline.  I hope the author continues the series. 

[ADoyle90815]

I'm over halfway through The Testaments, and it's really good, and scary when you think of what 45 and his followers want if he manages to get reelected.

[church_of_dog]

Since my last update in mid-July:

 

 

Fiction:

U is for Undertow, by Sue Grafton

V is for Vengeance, by Sue Grafton

W is for Wasted, by Sue Grafton

The Good Girl, by Mary Kubica

Pretty Baby, by Mary Kubica

Don't You Cry, by Mary Kubica

Brewed Awakening, by Cleo Coyle

All The Devils Are Here, by Louise Penny

 

Non-fiction: psychology/science/politics/current events:

Why Won't You Apologize, by Harriet Lerner

Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man, by Mary L. Trump, Ph.D

How to Be An Anti-Racist, by Ibram X. Kendi

Waking Up White, by Debbie Irving

Word By Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries, by Kory Stamper

Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism, by Anne Applebaum

Creatures Of A Day and Other Tales of Psychotherapy, by Irvin D. Yalom

 

Non-fiction: history:

Path Between the Seas:  The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914, by David McCullough

Imperfect Union: How Jessie and John Fremont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity, and Helped Cause the Civil War, by Steve Inskeep

Suffrage: Women's Long Battle for the Vote, by Ellen Carol Dubois

Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World, by Laura Spinney

Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes, by Adam Hochschild

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, by Erik Larson

Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd, Russia, 1917 -- A World On The Edge, by Helen Rappaport

[Kailash]

@church_of_dog I learned so much from Dead Wake! Before Covid,  Erik Larson was scheduled to have a signing at a bookstore here. Sadly it was cancelled.

[church_of_dog]

2 minutes ago, Kailash said:

@church_of_dog I learned so much from Dead Wake! Before Covid,  Erik Larson was scheduled to have a signing at a bookstore here. Sadly it was cancelled.

I think this is his third book I've read -- I'm kinda unofficially moving chronologically through time in my history reading -- of course depending on when I learn about appealing books and when I find them available on Overdrive -- so I've read Devil in the White City, and Isaac's Storm in addition to Dead Wake, and I'll for sure read at least a few others of his.

I really enjoy his writing style -- very engaging without being too dramatic, and of course well-researched in his information.

I hope he returns to your area for a signing of his NEXT book...

[viii]

I just finished 'Girl at the End of the World' by Elizabeth Esther. It's a book that focuses on the cult I was raised in. The author is the granddaughter of the founder. If you enjoy reading books about women who escape cults, I highly recommend this one. I enjoyed it for other reasons, since it hit very close to home for me, but I think it's a good read for everyone. 

Currently starting the first Outlander book. I binged season 1-4 in a week during the summer holidays so I can't wait to read the books and see how they compare to the show. 

[CTRLZero]

The following are audiobooks I've enjoyed over the last few weeks:

Mobituaries by Mo Rocca.  This book contained snippets of fun historical facts, like brief descriptions of who the Jersey Turnpike rest areas were named after!  I told my daughter that this would be a great book to listen to before playing Trivial Pursuit. 

All Systems Red and Artificial Condition by Martha Wells.  These are the introductory chapters/novellas in the Murderbot Diary series.  I had read good reviews about the series, and these novellas were very enjoyable.  They are very tongue-in-cheek.  If you liked Asimov's I, Robot series, this series seems promising.  I have the third installment on hold.

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager.  This is a thriller with a little supernatural-ish evil thrown in.  Young, healthy adults answer an ad to house sit in a notorious New York City building. Good for the Halloween season. 

The Fullness of Time by Kate Wilhelm.  A novella about a wealthy family, an inherited genetic disorder, time travel, skulduggery. 

[CTRLZero]

Here are a couple more audiobooks I've enjoyed recently:

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde.  This short story was both funnier and sadder than I remembered. 

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse,  John Joseph Adams, ed.  You'd think I'd be happy just reading today's headlines, but no, I have to read about fictional pandemics and catastrophes as well.  Some of my favorite authors are included in this collection of short stories, so this book kept my attention. 

The Beekeeper Apprentice by Laurie R. King.  Thanks for the recommendation of this author's novels!  I just checked out the second in the series, so that should keep me busy for awhile.

***In other news:  I am going to have a two-part surgery on one of my eyeballs in the next few weeks, which will hopefully help my ability to read print.  In the meantime, I hope you will keep those suggestions coming so I have a list of audiobooks to listen to while I'm in recovery mode.   ?

[clueliss]

I just finished Mary Trump's book on audio.  Yes, I was the crazy person walking and babbling out loud while listening to that one.  Usually something about her Uncle that she'd just Uncle just revealed. 

 

[church_of_dog]

@CTRLZero, if you liked Kate Wilhelm's writing, she has a whole series of mysteries oriented around a female lawyer named Barbara Holloway. I would rate them similar to Sue Grafton's mysteries.  The plots are ok, some pretty interesting, some meh, some really compelling -- but the characters are endearing once you are familiar with them.

Unfortunately they seem hard to find on Overdrive -- I was able to access them by using the Overdrive account of a friend from Eugene, OR (where Wilhelm lived and where the books are mostly set).  If you can find them, you might enjoy them as good distraction.  

Good luck with your surgery!

 

@clueliss I listened to Mary Trump's book too, and found myself laughing out loud sometimes at her bits of humor tucked in and among the scary reality.  Such as, on only the second page of the book, in the Prologue, when she describes staying at a Trump Hotel in 2017 during a family gathering:

"But my name was plastered everywhere, on everything: TRUMP shampoo, TRUMP conditioner, TRUMP slippers, TRUMP shower cap, TRUMP shoe polish, TRUMP sewing kit, TRUMP bathrobe.  I opened the refrigerator, grabbed a split of TRUMP white wine, and poured it down my Trump throat so it could course through my Trump bloodstream and hit the pleasure center of my Trump brain." 

[church_of_dog]

Also, @CTRLZero I just remembered a trilogy I loved that sounds like you might like.  It's under the genre of "cli fi" -- climate change fiction, so technically science fiction but no monsters, in fact nothing supernatural at all.

It's by Kim Stanley Robinson and called the "Science in the Capital" trilogy.

1.  Forty Signs of Rain

2.  Fifty Degrees Below

3.  Sixty Days and Counting.

Darn, looks like only two of them were made in audio format!  Well, I highly recommend them if you can find them in audio, and if not, save for when you're up for paper reading again.

[clueliss]

I kept muttering - all of this because nobody ever told the man NO.

[WiseGirl]

Just finished Conviction by Denise Mina - loved it and Pachinko- by Min Jin Lee - learned a lot, and Dogs of Babel (okay, stupid ass human). 

Working my way through my book bin and next up is American Sniper.  I'm so current, lol.

[Kailash]

I just read my favorite book. I don’t say that lightly, although I did spend the last half of the book ugly crying and I read it start to finish.  It’s Where the Forest Meets  the Stars by Glendy Vanderah. 

[church_of_dog]

Catching up on my reading/listening since mid-September:

Fiction:

Under the Dome, by Stephen King

Every Last Lie, by Mary Kubica

Death Du Jour, by Kathy Reichs

Lockdown, by Laurie R. King

X, by Sue Grafton

Non-fiction: psychology/self-help/science/politics/current events:

Spy the Lie: Former CIA Officers Teach You How to Detect Deception, by Phillip Houston, Michael Floyd, and Susan Carnicero

The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, by Kamala Harris

Rage, by Bob Woodward

Why We Snap: Understanding the Rage Circuit in Your Brain, by R. Douglas Fields, PhD

American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment, by Shane Bauer

The Cold Vanish: Seeking the Missing in North America's Wildlands, by Jon Billman

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, by Jessica Bruder

Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (this could easily have been considered as much history as current events)

Making Space, Clutter Free, by Tracy McCubbin

Underbug: An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology, by Lisa Margonelli

 

Non-fiction: history:

The Poisoner's Handbook:  Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz-Age New York, by Deborah Blum

The Ghosts of Eden Park: the Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder that Shocked Jazz-Age America, by Karen Abbott

The Year of Fear: Machine-Gun Kelly and the Manhunt that Changed the Nation, by Joe Urschel

Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement, and the Bombing thar Divided Gilded-Age America, by James Green

The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles, by Gary Krist

1917: Lenin, Wilson, and the Birth of the New World Disorder, by Arthur Herman

Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

[CTRLZero]

I just finished The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell (audiobook), which was a pretty well-done story about a family being taken over by a cult-like couple and what ultimately happens to the children involved.

I’m currently listening to Exhalation by Ted Chiang.  This is a collection of science fiction stories.  So far, so good.  I enjoyed the opening story about time travel, since that always messes with my mind.  The author adds a bit of commentary after the stories.  I generally appreciate little notes about the whys and wherefores of a story. 

[clueliss]

Finished The Lost Tudor Princess by Alison Weir (non fiction) about Margaret Douglas.  
 

Reading Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory (I have a love hate relationship with her books.  And have to attempt to lock the closet historian in a closet when I read them, or when I watch miniseries vpbased in her books)

and listening to The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes by Leonard Goldberg.  

[Sops2]

Just discovered this thread and have had a quick look back to see if anyone has recommended my favourite author

Sarah Lyons Fleming

If you've never read any apocalyptic fiction, dip your foot in the water and read her Until the End of the World series.

Absolutely superb. 5 stars all the way.Available on audio books too.

[CTRLZero]

46 minutes ago, Sops2 said:

Just discovered this thread and have had a quick look back to see if anyone has recommended my favourite author

Sarah Lyons Fleming

If you've never read any apocalyptic fiction, dip your foot in the water and read her Until the End of the World series.

Absolutely superb. 5 stars all the way.Available on audio books too.

Apocalyptic fiction is one of my favorite categories!  Right now, I’m listening to a zombie trilogy by Mira Grant, which is not too bad.  
The author you mention sounds vaguely familiar to me, so I’ll check the series out to see if I’ve already read it.  My library card is through the Nashville library system, which is sadly offline due to the explosion a few blocks away.  Talk about an apocalyptic tie-in. 
Thanks for the recommendation!  I’m always looking for new authors, or getting reacquainted with old ones.  

[church_of_dog]

22 minutes ago, CTRLZero said:

Apocalyptic fiction is one of my favorite categories!  Right now, I’m listening to a zombie trilogy by Mira Grant, which is not too bad.  
The author you mention sounds vaguely familiar to me, so I’ll check the series out to see if I’ve already read it.  My library card is through the Nashville library system, which is sadly offline due to the explosion a few blocks away.  Talk about an apocalyptic tie-in. 
Thanks for the recommendation!  I’m always looking for new authors, or getting reacquainted with old ones.  

I've probably mentioned it before, but just to be sure you know -- if we're talking Overdrive, you can have multiple accounts from multiple libraries.

So any friend or family member with a library card, whether or not they use Overdrive themselves, if they're willing to share their acct by giving you their library card number, you can add that library system to your Overdrive account.

And -- did you have your eye surgery?  How did it go?  Definitely don't short yourself listening material during your recovery!