WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 1

A new year, a new group, a new thread... :)

How does your reading 2022 start? Do you usually finish a book at the end of a year or do you just ignore the date and usually start the year in mid-book?

Grab a chair and come tell us what you are reading :)

I generally _try_ to finish my current book(s) before the end of the year - it makes for tidier stats posts, for one thing. But if it takes too long, I don't mind overlapping.

I usually finish a book before the end of the year tho sometimes I cheat a little!

Im going to be reading Palace of Illusions for the January RT theme, and currently reading indian summer which I am enjoying (didn't know this author but he was very popular in that time. Contemporary of Twain) Also the island of missing trees for the January Asian Reading Challange

I'm currently reading A Delayed Life by Dita Kraus, but should finish before the end of the year. I will then start either The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak or Snow by Orhan Pamuk for the Asia Reading Challenge January topic: Turkey.

Like others I'm trying to finish up some of my reading before the end of the year, but I will definitely be continuing She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity by Carl Zimmer (Nonfiction, 2018, USA). I'm only on chapter 3....(it's well over 600 pgs).

I am currently reading Wintering which I hope to finish by the end of the year, since it has holds and has to go back to the library. Then I have some short stories and a couple novellas lined up, just so I can reach my goal of 48 books (6 to go....).

I like to start the New Year with something brand new, but there are inevitably several carry-over books that I've been reading over a long time - I still plan to finish Wolf Hall for example!

Some things I'll be starting in January - two book club reads...
Anxious People for one,
The Philosophical Baby for the other.

Then there is my third book club A Good Yarn, where we read themes rather than specific titles. We are continuing our "C" geography theme into January - with a bonus if it has something to do with Christmas. I've read the first of a Cornish cozy mystery series and the 4th one is A Cornish Christmas Murder. Don't know if I'll get 2 and 3 read by the end of January though. One of the novellas I plan to read by the end of the year works though - A Cornish Christmas Carol

>5 avaland: That sound interesting. Are you liking it?

Got three that are carry overs from the previous year I'd like to finish up with to begin 2022:

Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki
Cultish: the Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

also reading palace of illusions for the RT january theme. Love the author and was surprised I hadn't read it already (it had been on my tbr shelf for a loooong time

>7 WelshBookworm: Yes, I am. The writing is wonderfully accessible; the topic generally fascinating.

I am reading The Gilded Page The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts by Mary Wellesley and am enjoying this book.

I recognize her name, and I love these manuscripts but Ive already read about them, and seen them. But Im interested, I'll give it a try

>11 torontoc: That one is on my list, too.

I'm currently reading The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith and Bending to Earth, an anthology of ghost/supernatural stories by Irish women. I was planning to finish them before the end of this year, but I hurt my arm yesterday (nothing serious, literally fell on ice) and reading physical books is a little difficult right now. I have a couple ebooks going--Dear Dead Women, short stories by Edna W. Underwood, and Ethelwina, an old Gothic novel by T.J. Horsley Curties.

I decided to start my 2022 reading a few days early and began Snow by Pamuk. Since we have six inches on the ground, another couple last night, and more predicted for Thursday, this seemed a very apropos title. I'm 40 pages in and enjoying it. I loved My Name is Red. Pamuk's writing hits the spot with me, although I always start off a little intimidated for some reason.

I almost certainly won't finish the books that I started in November, as I've read almost nothing during the past five weeks and am just getting back into the frame of mind of reading. I'll carry two books into 2022, Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah, the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, and The Problem of Alzheimer's by Dr Jason Karlawish, the director of the Penn Memory Center at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and partner of one of the neurologists who is treating my mother for that awful disease.

>15 labfs39: I'm glad that you're enjoying Snow, Lisa. I own a copy of it, and I'll bring it, and My Name Is Red, back with me after I return to Atlanta in the next week or two.

I've picked up a beefy Knausgaard book this morning with 600 odd pages, so I'll definitely be carrying that over to 2022. It's his new one - The Morning Star. Reading with some trepidation as the reviews have been mixed at best.

I am virtually always in the midst of reading multiple books. Because of this, I don't pay too much attention to calendar changes. Yes, I'll be adding new tabs/lines to my various tracking spreadsheets for the new year, and I'll be migrating to a new book journal, but I am in no particular rush to finish up all my current reading before we move into 2022.

Current active reads that may or may not be finished before the new year are:

- The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey
- At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman
- Christmas at Thompson Hall & Other Christmas Stories by Anthony Trollope

That said, I do intend to start some new books with the start of the new year. I have a list of seven titles for various buddy reads that all start in January, and my local public library is hosting a winter reading challenge on Beanstack that starts on the 3rd. Current tentative plans for the very beginning of 2022 are as follows:

For the Bard-Along Book Club, the January title is Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson. I'm half-tempted to start it before the new year, but will probably hold off until New Year's Day.

The Disney Origins Book Club is reading The Snow Queen and The Little Mermaid for January, and I have both of those in The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen. Those two will probably be an early finish for the year. The rest of the collection will probably be read at a later date, or possibly throughout the year.

And as a carryover from the Mary Stewart readalong I participated in in 2021, I will be starting Frost on the Window, which is a collection of her poetry. I aspire to read more poetry in general, Mary Stewart is a favorite of mine, and "Read Some Poetry" is one of the extra/guided activities for the library's winter reading challenge (yes, I can be motivated by the potential to earn digital badges).

>18 shadrach_anki: oh didn't realize Bryson had a bard book. I gave up on his travel books awhile back, but his non fiction books have been amazing. thanks for the heads up

>19 cindydavid4: I didn't know he had one either, until I joined the Bard-Along group on Instagram. I'm looking forward to reading it! Glad I could give you a heads up.

I'm reading a galley of a short fiction collection by Katharine Weber, Jane of Hearts and Other Stories, and Patrick Radden Keefe's Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty. I'm not married to finishing either by the end of the year, but I'm pleased to have some time off this week to put up my feet and read a bit.

>17 AlisonY: I succumbed to Shiny New Book Temptation and bought a copy of The Morning Star from a new independent bookshop in Atlanta last month, as it seductively and irresistibly called out to me, even though I also read mixed reviews about it.

I usually like to have at least one book overlap into January so that I don't have to wait around too long to have a finished book to share. This year though, I'm racing to finish a book before the end of the year Three Daughters of Eve, so it might be a long wait in January.

I've started the first of my Christmas books, Jan Swafford's Johannes Brahms: a biography, which will probably keep me going until after New Year, since I keep getting distracted into listening to music...

I am currently reading Homespun Suspicions which is a mystery novel and will bridge over into the new year. Also reading Miss Kopp Investigates in the Kopp sisters series. I like the series but this one is annoying me for some reason.

I am 65% done The Center Cannot Hold. Better get back to it.

finished on the black hill took me a bit to get into the feeling of it, but I loved this tale of small town Wales , and the lives of twins over the years. So glad to have read it!

not sure what to read next; Ive had Lands on the Border for a year now and really would like to read it.

>27 cindydavid4: more Chatwin. this is a sign I need to hunt down another of his books.

Looking at where I am with my reading, I will be starting the new year in the middle of two books: Edward VI: The Lost King of England (the least known Tudor monarch who is too important to skip) and Cherryh's Inheritor - the third Foreigner novel.

Just finished Miss Kopp Investigates. I need to get started on Dying for Chocolate which is our next Book Group selection, and I am the discussion leader!

I am listening to the final book in the Broken Earth series - The stone sky by N. K. Jemisin, and am thoroughly enjoying this trilogy.

Will also be starting The bastard of Istanbul for Turkey in the Asia reading challenge, and am reading the memoir Fairest.

>31 markon: She is an incredible writer. Check out her short stories How Long 'till Black Future Month Oh I give, cant get the touchstone to work. But look it up, well worth reading (many of them are the beginnings of her novels including one from Broken Earth, and one from Killing Moon

>28 dchaikin: A surprise to me when reading the end: someone made Welsh Love Spoons. My husband and I discovered these when we were in wales, and my husband learned to make them when we got home. (all the chains and balls are made of one piece of wood) I don't often see notice of them, tho smiled at the thought

For nonfiction I am reading She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity by Carl Zimmer.

For fiction I am reading The Whispering Muse by Icelandic author Sjon, and a crime novel The Forgotten Dead by Swedish author Alsterdal Tove

Continuing with Twenty-First Science Fiction, anthology edited by David G. Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen Hayden. Big book, but nearing the end. Finished several others recently, still owing reviews for them.

I've got one book still going from December; Dying to Sin by Stephen Booth. This is one of the series I'm concentrating on.

Great use of a unique area for atmosphere in this series.

I'm reading Mörderisches Lavandou by Remy Eyssen. It's the fifth book of the Dr. Leon Ritter series. I started this serie in 2021 and I really like it.

>33 cindydavid4: A lovely thought. I have one - a very small one.

Just started Anxious People - audiobook from the library - for my Jan. book club. I needed to make a New Year's Eve grocery run, and didn't have an audiobook going, so started this before the New Year. Loving it already!

I have one more book to read to meet my 2021 goal, so deciding between a 54 p. short story, or a 101 p. novella. I'm leaning toward the novella, 'cause it's a Christmas story...

>38 WelshBookworm: there were two things we discovered on our first trip - the spoons, and the misericords -the ledge projecting from the underside of a hinged seat in a choir stall which, when the seat is turned up, gives support to someone standing. since these aren't seen by anyone, they were often carved by apprentices, who carved fantastical animals, every day people, and bibilic themes into them, The earliest surviving ones where made in the 13th century in choir stalls of Exeter Cathedral. Most are from the 14th and 15th century many suprisingly intact after the reformation. I learned about these reading Gail Godwin's the good husband the couple travel to europe frequently, the husband seeking these out.
Anyway we fell in love with these and spent that first trip in many English church asking if we could see them, and very seldom turned away. Love those kind of discoveries and books and travel bring us

My carry overs from 2021 are Agnes Grey, Synners, and Cold Coast. Quite a mixed bag!

I am starting my next unread book from the shelves Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd. This will be the fourth book by this author that I will have read recently. I don't really know why I have collected books by him, I can only think that they were on offer at various charity shops.

My carryovers from 2021 are pretty different . . .

Paradise by recent Nobel prize winner, Abdulrazak Gurnah and Insurgent, a YA dystopian series that I'm reading with my 12 year old son. Once I finish one of those I'll begin a year long project to read Anniversaries by Uwe Johnson.

I finished several books I was working through in the last few days, and have carried over one (which I had lost, mysteriously, and later found that it had slipped down the side of the bed) - The Standardization of Demoralization Procedures.

This morning I started The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, which I am really enjoying - the first three stories are all great.

Finished my first Japanese style manga, in the creepy and surreal world of Fragments of Horror by Junji Ito. Borrowed heavily from western stories but has a definitive edge and twist that is all Ito. Some of his images are burned into my brain forever.

I am starting the year fresh with Prodigal Father: The Life of John Butler Yates, 1839-1922 by William M. Murphy. As this book is not listed in LT's catalogue, I will come back and edit the touchstone once I have refreshed my memory on how to add it.

I am finishing up The Ten Thousand Things by Maria Dermout for the Litsy NYRB Book Club tomorrow. I started Memed My Hawk for the 75 group's Asia read, Turkey being the country for January. I have also started The Way to the Cats by Israeli author Yehoshua Kenaz about an elderly lady having trouble in a geriatic ward. And I've begun a couple of library books--The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen and Portobello by Ruth Rendell.

I’m carrying over two books.

I’m still reading The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George. And, currently listening to The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid, narrated by Graham Roberts.

My next audiobook will be Still Life by Sarah Winman, narrated by Sarah Winman. I still haven’t picked my next physical book.

We stayed in last night, and around 12:45 I picked up a Norton edition of The Decameron (translated by Wayne A. Rebhorn). It's unfortunately abridged, and so kind of a purchase mistake, except that I'm intrigued by all the context and criticism references. This morning I read act I of The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Also, carrying over from 2021:
Boccaccio by Thomas Goddard Bergin
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition by Frances A. Yates

And later this week I plan to begin:
Anniversaries by Uwe Johnson - I still need to by it
Madame de Treymes by Edith Wharton
David Copperfield by Dickens

I carried over two books: Homespun Suspicions by Olivia Newport, which is part of a series of mystery books from my shelves; and Dying for Chocolate by Diane Mott Davidson, which is for our Book Group. I am sure I read it years ago, but it is fun to read it again.

I am rereading Red Clocks, a chilling novel set in a small coastal Oregon town after abortion has been made illegal throughout the US.

First book this year - Wintering

Along with the Zimmer book on heredity (see post #5), I am also reading The Forgotten Dead by Tove Asteral, and The Whispering Muse by Sjon.

I'm reading a very tense horror novel at the moment: The Only Good Indians.

I read An Unnecessary Woman ages ago. I found this The Wrong End of the Telescope at the bookstore yesterday and bought it sight unseen. Loving it! He does such a wonderful job writing woman characters. And looking at his authors page, discovered I also read this My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales I should check out more of his works

>42 baswood: Have you read Boyd's Any Human Heart? I think that's my favorite of all his I've read so far.

I carried over two books: The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati and The Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam. I've been a bit distracted by Rebecca's tribute thread on one hand and all the New Year's activities on the other so I did not read much so far.

oh I love Gardam.How did you like it? Have you read any of her others?

>58 Trifolia: >59 cindydavid4: Queen of the Tambourine was the 1st book I read by Gardam (many years ago) and I remember really liking it. So much so that I recently bought a new copy for a reread.

>59 cindydavid4: >60 arubabookwoman: So far it is very good. I really enjoyed the Old Filth Trilogy a few years ago. I loved the subtleties of Gardam's prose and this seems to be the case again now.

>61 Trifolia: I liked Crusoe's Daughter by Gardam as well as Old Filth. I haven't read Queen of the Tambourine

I haven't read anything of significance in nearly two months, only about 20 pages of The Problem of Alzheimer's: How Science, Culture and Politics Turned a Rare Disease into a Crisis and What We Can Do About It by Dr Jason Karlawish, the director of the Penn Memory Center at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia. One of Dr Karlawish's partners is one of my mother's neurologists, who diagnosed her with Alzheimer's disease last year. I'm nearly halfway through it, so I should finish it next week.

I had gotten a little more than 50 pages into Afterlives, the newest novel by Abdulrazak Gurnah, the most recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. I haven't read it since late November, so I'll start from the beginning.

that is understandable. be easy on yourself!

Now reading the wrong end of the telescope and loving it. I love how he write such great woman characters. Plan to count this for the month we are doing lebanon for the Asian challenge

I finished Bending to Earth and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Now reading The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton, The Physics of Sorrow by Georgi Gospodinov and Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga.

>63 kidzdoc: - You definitely have a lot on your plate--hope you're able to find time to read.

I needed a new book for my sports bag (which I take to swimming and Pilates) so I chose I Miss You When I Blink which I thought would be a good choice being more a series of essays than a continuous narrative.

I like to finish my book if I can. I finished 2021 with Into the Water by Paula Hawkins and started 2022 with The High House by Jessie Greengrass and Carrie's War by Nina Bawden.

I've finished Knausgaard's The Morning Star (and remain firmly in the Knausgaard fan club). Next up is another like him or loathe him author - Jonathan Franzen's new book Crossroads.

After trying several books, I think I'll stick with The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain.

>68 AlisonY: Alison, I just read Crossroads in Nov or Dec, and liked it very much. I've liked everything I've read by Franzen, though I hear that he's not a particularly nice person.
ETA, which is really weird because I entirely forgot to record it either on my thread on LT or in my reading Journal. It was returned to the library on 12/20 which would have been the day or day after I finished it. Glad you reminded me. I didn't review it but I would rate it either 4 stars or 4 1/2 stars.

In addition to the three books I have ongoing (or maybe paused, we'll see) I finally got caught up enough on LT/Litsy to start reading The Vanishing Half for bookclub.

I started a new audiobook: Love and Other Thought Experiments by Sophie Ward (the actress in Young Sherlock Holmes. She reads it herself). This was on the 2020 Booker longlist but only released in the US in September (2021). I'm not sure I have read anything about it, but I really enjoyed the first half hour.

Also, I started Anniversaries, for real, last night. (Bookly tells me it will take me 80 hours to finish)

>71 ELiz_M: oh loved that book! cant wait for her to write another.

>70 arubabookwoman: The only one of his I've hated so far and abandoned, Deborah, was Purity. It's not often I abandon a book, but the characters were jarring with me so much I just couldn't keep going with it.

My copy of the island of missing trees finally arrived just in time for the january asian challenge! So Ill start reading that tomorrow, along with two others Im reading......

Will finish my first book of the year tonight - Wintering by Katherine May. 11 pages to go. I'll post a brief review on my thread tomorrow...

eager to hear what you think of it. Sounds really good!

I finished my first book of the year, The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman, last night. Review to come on my thread this week.

Next up is a nonfiction book about the history of horror fiction in the 70s and 80s, Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix.

I'm reading Flower Diary In Which Mary Hiester Reid Paints, Travels, Marries and Opens A Door by Molly Peacock

>79 torontoc: I have another art-related book by Molly Peacock on my shelf (The Paper Garden), so I am noting that one.

>78 Julie_in_the_Library: Paperbacks from Hell is a fun nostagliaic trip. Pickedup hopefully a few gems for the TBR.

Currently finishing Dying for Chocolate for my book group and The Christmas Bookshop for NetGalley (which has potential but seems to be tanking now) and Homespun Suspicions for LT 2022 Category Challenge.

Finished Wintering and serendipitously just got The Philosophical Baby in at the library, so I'll be starting it tonight.

so, I started another book. Last night my unabridged copy of Decameron arrived (translated by G. H. McWilliams). I skipped the intro and read the prologue today, finally.

>84 dchaikin: Do you have a plan for reading it? A tale a day? 3 tales a week? Something else?

>85 AnnieMod: (Decameron) I haven't really figured it out. If I were just reading McWilliams, I might do that, a tale a day for 100 days. But I've confused things with all the other stuff I'm reading.

>86 dchaikin: I am considering keeping you company. :) had not read it since high school (and who knows how much I missed then) and I have a nice edition sitting on my shelves. Thus the question. Not that I have too much time for it now but its structure allows slow reading (unlike Anniversaries) so hm. :)

I'm starting The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. It's my book club pick for January. Not sure I'm in the mood.

>87 AnnieMod: well, keep me posted on that. We can sort of buddy read even at different paces. It would be really nice to talk about it. Maybe worth a thread.

>88 Nickelini: is it bad if my first thought is good luck? Should I have kept that to myself? (I know some of us here really enjoyed it)

I'm reading Matrix by Lauren Groff and loving it. I picked this up because I enjoyed both the others of hers that I read. I'm not typically a fan of historical fiction, but this one has grabbed me and is refusing to let go.

I'm also about halfway through All About Love by bell hooks which I'm reading much more slowly. Her voice and insights are worth savoring. Her death is a stunning loss.

>89 dchaikin: s it bad if my first thought is good luck? Should I have kept that to myself? (I know some of us here really enjoyed it)

No, that's fine. The mood I'm in, if it's not working for me, I'll read it later. I have heard very good things about it, but it's not something I'm interested right now but might be later. I'm fine with not reading my book club's books. I'll still go to the meeting and contribute.

I've started David Copperfield for the Victorian read-along.

>92 rhian_of_oz: I've started David Copperfield for the Victorian read-along.

I'm still considering whether to join or not, but I'll see how I do with The Testaments ( >88 Nickelini:, >89 dchaikin:), which is also a chunkster. I don't like long books. On one hand, Atwood's long books usually read pretty quickly, on the other hand, I like Dickens' humour, and it's been a while since I read one of his. But I can't do both. Or can I?

Have you read Dickens before? I find him fun, but when he's not fun, then ugh

I have started Le Jardin de Jeanne by Adeline Yzac

>93 Nickelini: I haven't read Dickens before. I'm only two chapters in and the humour was a pleasant surprise.

The read-along goes until the end of March, so theoretically you could do both.

My routine is getting back to normal after the holidays, and as such I have dedicated audiobook time during my daily commute. So I'm back to listening to (and currently struggling with) The Once and Future King.

I've also started reading Gilded by Marissa Meyer, which is a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. I am...cautiously optimistic about it.

Waiting in the wings are Dombey and Son, Lady Audley's Secret, Can You Forgive Her?, and Far From the Madding Crowd. I just need to figure out the best way to juggle multiple Victorian novels at once.

>96 shadrach_anki: my 15-yr-old-self thought The Once and Future King was quirky and long and a little entertaining.

I started another book today - Madame de Treymes, a 1906 novella by Edith Wharton.

>97 dchaikin: I really enjoyed The Sword in the Stone. And quirky is a good word for it. I think part of my trouble is the pivot between the tone of The Once and Future King and Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy, which I read prior to it (and loved). The Once and Future King is...not well moored in a particular time period.

I finished Dying for Chocolate for my in person book group. Goldy always annoys me, with sticking her nose in where it does not belong, and then getting into dangerous situations. However, I still read the novels, don't I? In this early installment in the series, Goldy and her son Arch move into a mansion where she will serve as live-in chef and still do her catering, just for the summer until her house is ready. Secret affairs and attractions abound, along with a retired explosives expert who is still enamoured of explosives! There was a lot that required me to suspend my disbelief in this one. I will be interested to see how our reading group perceives the novel.

>96 shadrach_anki: Have you read anything else by Marissa Meyer? When my daughter was a tween we read several. Cinder is the one I remember best. I even took her to a author talk/book signing, her first.

I finished The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George, number 20 in the Lynley/Havers series. I’m looking forward to the new one which will be released next week.

Next up is London Rules by Mick Herron. Fifth in the Slough House series.

My audiobook is still waiting for me to get back to it. I haven’t had time this week.

>87 AnnieMod: I have it sitting on my tbr shelf in plain sight. Make the mistake of trying to read the intro......I'd love to read this together it might make it easier.

>92 rhian_of_oz: I tried reading it ages ago but got distracted by his other books. I'd like to give in another go (esp after watching the most excellent movie "the private history of david copperfield") can you send me the thread link pls

>96 shadrach_anki: I love retellings of fairy tales,let me know you like Gilded

>98 shadrach_anki: interesting; I liked both Stewarts, and Whites as well as Bernard Cornwells book. They all told the story in a different way. I

>103 cindydavid4: The Copperfield read-along? Come join us: https://www.librarything.com/topic/338032 :)

>100 labfs39: I have, and the fact that this book was written by Marissa Meyer is the reason I was willing to give it a try at all. While I love fairy tale retellings in general, I have had horrible luck with Rumpelstiltskin ones, to the point where I am quite hesitant to even pick one up at all. There have to be other compelling reasons to get me to overcome that hesitancy. "Trusted author with a proven track record" helps a lot.

>104 cindydavid4: I will definitely be sharing my thoughts on the book when I finish reading it. :)

After finishing two books on January 1 (Inheritor which crossed the year with me and the short Wish You Were Dead by Peter James), I am now in the middle (or end for some) of a few books:
England's Boy King: The Diary of Edward VI, 1547-1553 (which was not planned for that early in the year but ILL managed to get it to me in a week or so (a new record and it is not even from in-state) and it needs to go back so it pushed things and pulled Edward VI: The Lost King of England in as well (because you need some background to appreciate the diary). Add Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl and David Copperfield for the read-alongs, and 2004: The Best Ten-Minute Plays for 3 or More Actors (10-minutes plays) and The Harps that Once...: Sumerian Poetry in Translation which I am slowly working through and let's not forget Lady Audley's Secret which is also waiting in the wings to join the fray; not to mention The History of the Kings of Britain which I technically already started (well, its introduction anyway) - see my thread for details on THAT plan and Shakespeare's Richard III for another read-along - which also means the last history of that king which I happen to have. :)

Although as soon as I am done with the Edward VI books (either tonight or tomorrow - depends on how much I read tonight), I also have War Women (A Sergeants Sueño and Bascom Novel) (the latest in a series I really like) because it is due back on Monday and I am about to be convinced to read Decameron. And while working on a message for the Graphic thread, I kinda reminded myself that I never read the rest of the Grandville GNs so I just pulled them from the shelf as well (post is to come up in a bit - need to find a few links).

You know, for someone who does not like planning her reading, I am awful at not planning my reading when I decide to do some planning...

>108 AnnieMod: I recognize this issue. Also, Richard III is terrific.

>109 dchaikin: I reread parts of it now and again (although I don't remember the last time I read it in full - it tends to annoy me easily with its interpretation of "history" - although the more I read about the Tudors, the easier it gets to see the reasons for some of it) :)

>110 AnnieMod: I read it last year for the first time. But, definitely, you don't want to confuse Shakespeare's RIII, designed to be a wonderful, awful, sickening, endearing, sociopathic villain (and he pulls it off), with the actual person (and whatever he was trying and failing to do).

ETA - like the rest of the world has...

>111 dchaikin: Well, see - my teen self, being fed from everywhere with the "communists are bad, they distorted history" at the time did not really see things very clearly -- there was some whitewashing of the whole Western world going on at the time with the idea to make the old regime sound even worse than it was. So it did take me awhile to realize that propaganda is not a communist invention and yep, that's exactly what Shakespeare and the Tudor historians (and authors, and sometimes letter writers) were doing in the case of the last king before Henry VII. Victors write the history and all that. It is also funny how reading about the Tudors actually made me appreciate this whole mess even more - putting RIII in the context of the War of the Roses did not help as much as realizing what the next dynasty needed. :)

>88 Nickelini: & >89 dchaikin: I have A Handmaid's Tale on my short TBR stack to finally read this year and will probably read The Testaments relatively soon thereafter.

As for the present . . . I've finished Darker than Amber, the 7th Travis McGee novel. A lot of fun, if one can swallow the unfortunately persistent 60s sexism.

Next up will Satan in Goray by Isaac Singer. Last year I completed my tradition of starting each calendar year with the reading of a Joseph Conrad until I'd read (or, mostly, reread) them all. I've chosen Singer as my new "First book of the year" author. Satan in Goray is Singer's first novel, originally published in Yiddish in 1933.

>107 shadrach_anki: I was going to ask if you'd read Spinning Silver and then I checked and saw that you had and that you liked it.

>100 labfs39: I started reading Heartless late last year which is a retelling of the Queen of Hearts. I put it aside mostly so I could focus on finishing The Mirror and the Light and then I got caught up reading other things. I'll return to it eventually.

>114 rhian_of_oz: I haven't read Heartless, Rhian. I've only read the five Lunar Chronicles books. My daughter then grew out of them, so my source dried up.

Tonight I read a couple of more chapters of Snow, but couldn't stay in it. So I started reading Twenty Stories by Turkish Women Writers, also for the Asian Book Challenge.

>114 rhian_of_oz: Spinning Silver is a favorite, yes. Again, we're looking at an author who has a well-established and positive track record for me as a reader, which is why I was willing to see her take on the Rumpelstiltskin story.

So far I am getting similar vibes from Gilded, and it makes me very happy.

>116 shadrach_anki: https://www.tor.com/2020/10/01/five-retellings-of-rumpelstiltskin-a-very-odd-sto... and it’s comments (I usually find more books to read in the comments than in the Tor lists) have a few more ideas as well if you want to explore. In case you had not seen it before. :)

>113 rocketjk: Handmaid’s Tale is an Atwood novel that I really don’t care for and now not overly fond of the sequel either. Funny thing is I read Handmaid’s Tale 3 times. I kept trying to find what other people liked so much about it. I never found it.

>118 dianeham: I'm going to give it a go and see. Like you, I can sometimes find myself disliking books that most other people are nuts about. I guess a lot of us here in CR have that talent. :) But, on the other hand, it feels like a book that's more or less out there in the public commons as a shared cultural experience for many, so whether I end up appreciating it or not, I will still probably be glad to be able to be part of that group knowledge.

>107 shadrach_anki: we did a 'fractured fairy tale' theme a few years back; you might want to take a look https://www.librarything.com/topic/268667#n6324877

>108 AnnieMod: ha! Im finding that myself as well!

>113 rocketjk: Ive read several Isaac Singers, let me know what you think of that one

>112 AnnieMod: there is a Richard III society that has long been involed in clearing his names. a few books you might find interesting sunne in splendor and an earlier one daughter of time And since his body was found there has been much more interest in him and the 'real' story

>116 shadrach_anki: we are reading spinning silver for a real life book group I think in March. Not sure why I hadn't read it yet; possibly a bad experience with another book of hers, but im willing to give it a try

>123 cindydavid4: Read those two books years ago and have a few non-fiction books to read which are discussing some of that. Even picked Michael Hicks’ biography of RIII last year (the latest one technically which promises to clear up even more of the muddle and show that the last few years of his life are not all there is to Richard - that’s what the early arrival of the Edward book pushed back). My teen self may have been clueless for a bit but my 40 years one is much better :) We’ll probably never know the whole truth but which part of history is really different in that?

>113 rocketjk: Ive read some Isaac Singer stories, but not that one. Let me know what you think of it

>119 rocketjk: >118 dianeham: Would be interesting to get some more opinions on The Handmaid’s Tale. I’m not like a crazy fan of it, but I liked it a lot twice, years apart. I think it’s special and captures something.

>127 dchaikin: >119 rocketjk: >118 dianeham: I really liked The Handmaid's Tale, having read it twice, once on my own, once for Book Club. I really did not like The Testaments.

>128 arubabookwoman:

I've heard mixed things about the Testaments, but 30 pages in, I'm liking it a lot. It looks like it will be a quick read, even though my physical book seems huge

>127 dchaikin: I read The Handmaid's Tale in 2018. Here's my review. It was one of my rare 5 purple star books:
I expected to not like this book, but I chose it for my bookclub because of the Hulu TV series (which I have not yet seen) and political events of the past two years which made the creation of a conservative and Biblical dystopia all too chillingly possible. My definition of a classic is a book which transcends the time in which it was written, in this case still relevant over 30 years later. I'm not a fan of dystopian fiction, finding it depressing, but the writing here is luminous, engaging, thought-provoking, and highly quoteable. There is so much to think about. The author just throws you into the story, without giving lots of background information. You won't learn how and why this happened, but as Offred gives us flashbacks into her life as she experienced it, you feel as if this could happen. And the ending is open-ended. We don't know what ultimately happened to Offred - only that she escaped long enough to dictate her story onto cassette tapes, yet it remains unfinished. We end with some future society, discussing the "document" in an academic setting. That in itself is a fascinating look at how we look at and evaluate cultures like Iran, where women wear hijabs, and have everything in their lives proscribed and controlled by men.

To those leaving all the 1 and 2 star reviews, I wonder how old you are? My book club of older women loved this, and we had a fantastic discussion. One woman commented that she read this when she was younger and didn't like it and didn't "get it." But she read it again for this book club and said "Now I get it."

>126 cindydavid4: "Ive read some Isaac Singer stories, but not that one. Let me know what you think of it"

No worries, there. I'll let everybody know!

>123 cindydavid4: >125 AnnieMod: My husband teaches history and knows quite a bit about Richard III. His view is something along the lines of ‘He’s obviously guilty as hell but if he wanted to stay alive (given the circumstances and the times he lived in) his actions aren’t unexpected’,

I just finished Insurgent by Veronica Roth, a read-along with my tween son.

Right now I'm reading World on the Wing, a nonfiction book about the latest research on the migratory patterns of birds and how our environmental actions are affecting them.

I'm slowly reading Anniversaries.

And I'm trying to decide if I should add an extra fiction book or just focus on those two.

>130 WelshBookworm: I read it when it first came out and was blown away by it. Knowing history, I could easily see how something like it could come to pass, even back then. Not interested in rereading it, or reading Testaments. I just know i have had a gnawing feeling since I read it that we are getting closer.....

I finished The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan, a cute read but complicated with many extraneous threads that sometimes seemed to come from nowhere. Finishing Homespun Suspicions.

Finished two books last night - a SF novella (Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters) which was good and one of the two books I crossed into 2022 with Edward VI: The Lost King of England. Reviews in my thread and in the books.

I've got more books on the go than usual - An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tursten, which is the cutest little hard cover book; Miss Moriarty I Presume? the latest in this series by Sherry Thomas on audiobook, and an ebook, The Sentence by Louise Erdrich.

My audiobook slot opened up, so I started listening to Out of the Silent Planet today. And now I'm wondering why it took me so long to pick this one up. Really enjoying the story so far.

>136 AnnieMod: very good review of Edward, saw a few other interesting reviews; think I'll add this to my ever expanding list.

Started a book for the Asian Reading Challenge - Walking on the Ceiling by Ayşegül Savaş. Short, fragmentary chapters, and right at the beginning she promises "an incomplete inventory" of the friendship she's recounting. We'll see how it goes.

I tried very hard to finish The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett before the end of the year, and didn't even come close, so it ended up being my first book of 2022 instead, followed up by Beyond Earth’s Edge: The Poetry of Spaceflight, edited by Julie Swarstad and Christopher Cokinos.

Some part of my brain vaguely wanted to find another book with "Earth" in the title just to continue this accidental trend -- I have a surprising number of them to choose from -- but instead I've just started We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry.

really did not like pillars of the earth, which is strange coz there was so much to love: middle ages, cathedrals, history. But I got turned off from his graphic depictions of violence against women, and I just stopped reading it ETA just saw your review - yep that too.

>142 cindydavid4: Yeah, I wasn't happy with all that rapey violence myself -- I don't necessarily always have a problem with that in novels, but it was a particular kind of unpleasant there, somehow. But I could have gritted my teeth through that and still enjoyed the stuff about it that I liked, if only the darned thing had been edited properly.

I finished Homespun Suspicions by Olivia Newport, part of the Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries. It was a clean read with no swearing or sexual intimacy or descriptive violence. This is one of the few books (and series!) in which the main character shares my name. In this late installment in the series, Cheryl is now married to Levi, her Amish boyfriend, and they have "met in the middle" and adopted a modified lifestyle that tends toward Menonnite. They have a cute little girl, Rebecca, who steals the show throughout the book. Cheryl is the property manager for her aunt's cottage, and is tasked with "making an effort" to befriend the tenant her aunt has chosen. The new tenant turns out to be quite prickly and difficult. Cheryl discovers that she is hiding something, and that "something" leads to acts of vandalism by an unknown person. I liked that the story hung together and was believable, and the characters were for the most part likeable. Although this is a Christian novel, the faith aspects are downplayed and the book is not preachy.

I am now reading The Scent of Cherry Blossoms by Cindy Woodsmall, a fast and easy read.

My next book is The sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

I just finished my first book of 2022, a carry-over from last year, The Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian. In the past two days I started three new ones:

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

Chaat: Recipes from the Kitchens, Markets, and Railways of India by Maneet Chauhan. Yes, it's a cookbook, but accompanied by the author's reminiscences of India, especially riding the famous trains and the delights offered by chaat vendors at each unique station.

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

So, I started yet another book. Last night I opened The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli (of Lost Children Archive fame). And i got really into it.

>143 bragan: yeah, had the same problem with Edward Rutherfurd Tried reading a couple of his, but he badly needed a good editor.

>148 cindydavid4: I’d disagree - but I like his style and being verbose is part of it. :) Different tastes make the world more interesting. :)

This week I finished 3 books, The Ten Thousand Things by Maria Dermout, The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen and The Big Cheat by David Cay Johnston. Reviews to appear soon.
I am reading multiple books. I am almost finished Memed My Hawk for Reading Asia--Turkey, and am almost finished The Way to the Cats by Israeli author Yehoshua Kenaz, from my randomly generated TBR list, both excellent. I have read half of Madame de Treymes for the Litsy Wharton buddy read, and I am five chapters into David Copperfield for the Victorian Tavern. I started Hindoo Holiday by J.R. Ackerly for my next randomly generated TBR read, which made me pull from the shelf The Hills of Devi by E.M. Forster, on a related theme, and begin reading it as well. Finally, I intend to start Anniversaries tonight and hopefully read the first week of entries.

>149 AnnieMod: yes, indeed!

A library reservation came in late last week so I started Ghost Wall with the intention of taking it back to the library when I go to pick up the new book. So far, so excellent (which is not surprising because I think it is a CR favourite).

I have to unstar this topics - you’re giving me to many new-to-me books to read.

Review of The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman is up on my thread. Sorry for the delay, everyone!

For those who just want the conclusion, here it is: All in all, The Man Who Died Twice is a charming, funny, entertaining, and at times even heartwarming read, with a good mystery and lovable characters to root for, and well worth the full four stars that mark a truly good book.

I finished a book - The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli. (My first book of the year took about the same amount of reading time as chapters 1-5 in David Copperfield.)

Review of Paperbacks from Hell is up on my thread. Again, sorry for the delay.

Not really sure I can sum this one up in a sentence for those who don't want to read the whole review, though.

I will be reading through Shakespeare's sonnets this week I have the Arden Shakespeare edition.

I've finished Ghostly: A Collection of Ghost Stories edited by Audrey Niffenegger. Rating and review to come.

I'll be turning my focus to Midnight Riot (aka Rivers of London) next.

>157 baswood: Have you seen the videos of Patrick Stewart reading a sonnet a day?
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLLiEya-Q4RQdTJb97i8gU6MXHZs_HUlB

Another day, another library book - today's being Their Finest. This one's a bit bigger than the last one though so it will take me more than a day to finish.

>159 dianeham: He could read a phone book and make me swoon (same as the late great Alan Rickman. sigh)

Reading the five thousand and one nights - forgot I had this; Ive read several of her novels but not this short story collection. Mild ghost stories about daily life; making me shiver but not in a bad way.

ETA apparently the Brit title is Beyond the Blue Mountains

I must be feeling a bit restless reading-wise because I started my new library book Girl Waits With Gun.

I finished The Scent of Cherry Blossoms and Mary's Christmas Goodbye over the weekend. Now reading Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.

I finished and have reviewed (on my CR thread) Isaac Bashevis Singer’s first novel, Satan in Goray. Next up for me will be On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong.

I finished the fifth book in the Slough House series, London Rules. I’m going to read the next book in the Sue Grafton series, W is for Wasted while I wait for a few library books.

I'm still reading Decline and Fall and have started The Papers of A J Wentworth which, with Mr Finchley Discovers His England, makes three ancient British comic novels in a row. I hope to discover others.

Finished, in the middle of the night, Dear Sir, I Intend to Burn Your Book by Lawrence Hill. This is lecture he did in 2012. Also finished a 1996 literary essay written by Joyce Carol Oates on fairy tales.

I am nearly finished Out of the Silent Planet, and need to decide where I want to go on audio next. I am also still in the middle of Gilded and Shakespeare: The World as Stage, and I started Dombey and Son on Saturday.

I started a thriller (I think) titled the Nesting

More reading:
England's Boy King: The Diary of Edward VI, 1547-1553 by Jonathan North and Edward Tudor - the diary of Edward VI and the reason why Skidmore's biography cut in front of everyone else. The 15th Sueño and Bascom novel War Women could have been better (but that happens in long series and I still enjoyed revisiting the series, the first Souls of the Road novel Wayward Souls by Devon Monk was somewhat cliched in places but worked well for the light read I needed just then (blame the magazine below - it reviewed it...), Fantasy & Science Fiction, January/February 2022 has the usual mixed bag of stories as usual and the debut novella by Zin E. Rocklyn Flowers for the Sea was probably a bit more horror than I expected it to be but it was not bad. Reviews on all those (plus a few extra lose stories from New Yorker in my thread (and in the works for all but the stories).

In addition to the ones I had mentioned already (Anniversaries, Copperfield, Geoffrey of Monmouth and the plays anthology), I also started A Town Like Alice which is better than I expected - I really enjoy Shute's narrative voice (he is the Author of the month over in the group for that - that's how he ended up on my list just now). And The History of the Kings of Britain may not be history (which I knew) but it is a really good tale - I enjoy it a lot more than I expected so I am reading the whole thing, not just the Arthur-related parts.

I finished The Wild Palms by Faulkner - comments, such as they are, are on my thread. I started Red Clocks. The idea of abortion being illegal in all of the US unfortunately hits a little closer to home than it might have a few years ago.

I'm now well into Midnight Riot, which is the US title of Rivers of London, and I am really enjoying it. What I do not enjoy is this practice of giving books different titles on different sides of the Atlantic. I understand that it is a marketing move, intended to help the book sell better, but I find it confusing, and annoying.

have had that complaint for years.Usually they do it because they think the other country readers won't 'get it'.

Just finished Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. This book combines the story of Minli, a young girl who tries to help her family improve their living situation, with folktales from China. The illustrations are also beautiful. This was a quick and engrossing read. I think I first read this book in library school (children's services course).

Currently reading Coming Out by Danielle Steel.

Just finished Coming Out by Danielle Steel, currently reading Strangers on a Skein for NetGalley.

I finished Walking on the Ceiling by Ayşegül Savaş for the Asian reading challenge this month (comments on my thread) and started Funeral Rites by Jean Genet.

Having finished the Sjon novel, I've picked up Maggie Gee's Where Are the Snows

>172 Julie_in_the_Library: >173 cindydavid4: In this case, having finished the novel, I think that the US title Midnight Riot actually does fit better. Which may be proving the publisher's point about different cultural outlooks, now that I think about it. But it's still confusing.

I've started my next book, Making Money by Terry Pratchett.

Finished I Have Lived a Thousand Years, will start Bastard of Istanbul.

I did the dumb thing where I read creationist books I disagree with: Red Earth, White Lies and Evolution, Creationism, and Other Modern Myths by Vine Deloria Jr. Got to say the man was abrasive as hell, but certainly effective.

>178 Julie_in_the_Library: That is true, some of the time!

Oh and have fun with the Pratchett; I love how he names his characters: Moist von Lipwig is just pure Dickensian!

Reading The Blessing Way and listening to The Thursday Murder Club.

I've finished Frost in May the first published Virago and I really enjoyed it. Now I'm reading Ariadne by Jennifer Saint which I got with my short-lived book of the month subscription. Continuing on with World on the Wing, a nonfiction book about bird migration, and of course reading Anniversaries here and there.

I finished The Little Amish Matchmaker by Linda Byler, and I am currently reading Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton. This was a mea culpa, since I had to buy it again after heavily weeding my home library when we moved.

Now on Invisible Sun by Charles Stross

taking a break from my January reads, when I noticed a Penelope LIvely book that I don't remember reading (ive read many of her novels but never short stories The Five Thousand and One Nights A series of wonderful short stories that are a bit like O'Henry but more modern. Basically the lesson includes 'be careful what you ask for' My favorite is the butterfly and the tin of paint lots of fun, and somewhat sobering at the same time. 5*

>183 japaul22: LOved Aridane! I didn't know the story that well, so this was a welcomed edition. a good pairing with Circe

Well, thanks to everyone who encouraged me, I am well into The Island of missing trees really liking it! Not sure what my problem was. Thanks again!

My hold on To Paradise, the new one by Hanya Yanagihara, came in and so I’ve started that one. It’s another big one (700 pages) so I’ll be here a while.

I finished two books this morning. Madame de Treymes, a curious Edith Wharton novella and, on audio, Love and Other Thought Experiments, Sophie Ward’s philosophical (and, I think, first), novel. So l’m thinking about what to read on audio next.

I just finished Charles Dickens by Catherine Peters and also Strangers on a Skein (the name of which puzzles me). Still reading Journal of a Solitude and just started The Wizard's Butler.

I’m reading Road Out of Winter.

I just finished The Sentence by Louise Erdrich and am now reading nonfiction, The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames: A Memoir by Justine Cowan.

>192 LadyoftheLodge: I'm curious about the Dickens bio.

>192 LadyoftheLodge: what did you think of the bio? there was an interesting review of it in the New Yorker; could't decide if I was interested or not

Y'all read much faster than I do. I finished my first book of the year, Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe, and am now reading a galley of an upcoming collection, Jane of Hearts and Other Stories by Katharine Weber.

>195 dchaikin: >196 cindydavid4: I liked the bio as a short read and an interesting look into his life. I found it somewhat confusing at times, as the author seemed to jump back and forth into events in his life. The book is organized chronologically, and includes a family tree and a time line of his life at the beginning, to give some perspective. I liked the inclusion of some of Dickens' own words and comments. I also liked the way in which the author connected Dickens' characters and books to his life and significant events that influenced his writing and his life.

If a reader was looking for a scholarly tome with deep digging into his literary works, this is a jumping off point. It also includes endnotes and references in the back. Reading this short bio prompted me to purchase (very inexpensively) five of Dickens' lesser known works in the Oxford Illustrated format.

I just finished Amish Christmas Carol by Sarah Price, which is a retelling of A Christmas Carol set in the Amish culture.

I read Making Waves at Penvennan Cove by Linn B. Halton for NetGalley which was a waste of time.

>198 LadyoftheLodge: cool, that ones on my tbr list..

>198 LadyoftheLodge: sounds about perfect for me >200 cindydavid4: I agree

I started another audiobook today - The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. I was surprised to learn that Graeber, the author of Debt: The First 5000 years, passed away in September of 2020, possibly due to a Covid-related complication. (This book was released in October)

I started Speaking for Myself: An Anthology of Asian Women's Writing and will pick away at it in conjunction with the Asian Book Challenge. Tonight I read two poems and a short story from Sri Lanka.

I've finished The Queue (and am avoiding temptation to start The Queue) and also read the enthralling Migrations. Next up is probably Passage of Tears.

>200 cindydavid4: >201 dchaikin: I am glad to have offered my reader's advisory services. :+)

I just started Naughty in Nice by Rhys Bowen. I have not read one of her Royal Spyness novels for awhile, so time to get back to them.

Finally finished Crossroads and have started Three Women by Lisa Taddeo.

I've jumped into the group read of Lady Audley's Secret and am thinking of starting Wolf Hall for what is either the third or fourth try.

I often try and quickly abandon books when it isn't the 'right' moment so it's not necessarily an indicator that I won't enjoy it. However, I lean toward contemporary novels and have been reading more historical than usual so it may be another quick start and set-aside.

I finished the wonderful On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. This is the book my wife selected for me to read as part of a continutation of a tradition we've enjoyed for several years. At the beginning of each calendar year, we each assign to the other a reading of the book we most enjoyed ourselves from the previous year. Obviously, the caveat here is that we endeavor to select books we think the other will enjoy. I absolutely loved this novel. I have a somewhat longer review on my own CR thread.

And in case anyone's interested, the book from my 2021 reading that I gave my wife to read was The Zelmenyaners: a Family Saga by Moyshe Kulbak.

And speaking, as I love to do, about my wonderful wife, on my birthday in July she gave me two books as presents. One, a history of the San Francisco Giants baseball team, I read immediately. The second was American Republics: A Continental History of the United States, 1783-1850 by Alan Taylor. I have now started reading this one, and 95 pages (about a quarter of the book) though I am finding it interesting, indeed. It's fascinating to get a fresh perspective on history I've read dozens of times throughout my life in one form or another.

Sweet! my husband and I met over books; he was the super of the apartments that we lived at and Id often see him sitting down with a book (usually sci fi). Much later he admitted that he'd pass by my window and see me sitting on my couch with my nose in a book and he thought how nice it would be to read together, about a year later it was so. Our reading habits have changed but we will often offer each other a read. (32 years!)

Finished the Maggie Gee book and, for fiction, I'm now reading a short story collection by Bonnie Jo Campbell titled Women and Other Animals.

Still slowly reading through the Carl Zimmer book on heredity; and getting wonderfully lost in the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy when I'm in the mood.

>208 cindydavid4: Thanks for sharing that. Lovely story.

Ok finished Island of Missing Trees didn't mind the fig tree till she got her messages from all the insects, think that info could have been presented in another way, but I really liked the book. The writing was excellent, the pacing of the story was very good. Loved the relationships betwwen Ada and Kortas and Ada and Myriam, and how they all together worked to help Ada learn about her family. giving it a 5, despite the fig tree :)

>197 lisapeet: How is Empire of Pain? Thinking of adding it to my True Crime "possibles" list. As I understand it, there is still settlement wrangling on that deal.

I've finished two books so far this year, one of which I have posted my thoughts about on my thread. The other I'm still working on.

1) John Wyndham : The Chrysalids
2) Fuminori Nakamura : L'Hiver Dernier, Je Me Suis Separe de Toi (Last Winter We Parted)

I'm currently reading Le Pere Goriot by Balzac which is a book I was 60 pages away from the end when I put it down many years ago, after realizing I hadn't absorbed anything. Now it's going much better and I'm very much enjoying it.

I'm also reading an Akutagawa Prize-winning, non-translated Japanese book called Nails and Eyes, that I'm also enjoying so far. It's told in quite a rare perspective which is creating quite the accusatory tone which makes me excited to see where it's going to take me.

Both books I expect to finish in January as they are both short and in any case, the Japanese read is a buddy read so I have much more (welcomed!) pressure to finish it.

>212 nohrt4me2: I thought Empire of Pain was excellent—he weaves together a lot of threads into a coherent whole that I found really compelling, and provided a lot of information without ever being dry (or, in the opposite direction, over-referenced). Yes, the settlement is still hanging, so there's not satisfying closure, but given that it's an ongoing problem I think that's appropriate. Definitely recommend.

>204 LadyoftheLodge: I just finished Malice at the Palace. :) I find I have to space the Royal Spyness novels out more than I do with books in some other series.

>214 lisapeet: Thanks! I see it is written by the same author who did Say Nothing, which was very good.

We are chatty this year :) Thread continued in Part 2 so it is easier to load and so on ;)