WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 2

We are chatty this year :)

So how is 2022 going for you (reading-wise)? And how many books did you already manage to buy? :)

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

Well, in the first half of January 2022 I've read more than I did in the same time frame last year, and I'm pretty happy with how things are going. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to juggle reading four different Victorian novels simultaneously; at present I've only started one of them (Dombey and Son, which I have in an awkwardly thick paperback format).

I finished listening to Malice at the Palace last night, so I've got an open audiobook slot, and I'm almost certain to finish Marissa Meyer's Gilded today (and then I'll have to wait for the sequel to be released). And I'm still enjoying Shakespeare: The World as Stage, which is the January selection for the Bard-Along Book Club I'm in on Instagram.

I'm approaching the halfway point in American Republics: A Continental History of the United States, 1783-1850 by Alan Taylor. Taylor presents a very interesting perspective on the period of westward expansion.

I am between books, dipping into Twenty Stories by Turkish Women Writers and Speaking for Myself: An Anthology of Asian Women's Writing. Where to go next?

I'm reading Best European Fiction 2010. Initially I was planning to read only stories from countries I needed to finish off my Europe Endless Challenge, which is indeed endless, having started in 2010, but after seeing the book on Rebecca's tribute thread I'm going to read the lot. It's available on Kindle Kobo Plus.

I'm listening to one book and am reading a physical book.
From Audible: Bellevue: Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital by David Oshinsky
Book: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I just Pearl ruled a book- short stories by Mark Haddon-the stories were so .... gruesome and depressing! Being in a semi-lockdown and snowed in ( 40 cm -but much higher! I figure 3 feet or more ), I didn't need well written but awful stories. I just started Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Finally finished a reread of a favorite list of books called A readers delight a collection by Noel Perrin. Started the reread in December, one of those collections you can pick up and read a few essays then for get for days on end. When I first read it, I doggeared (sp?) the last page, and searched bookstore (long before the net and amazon) like a treasure hunt. One book I already read in school The Green Child Some of the found books were indeed treasures: A Fine and Private Place by Peter Beagle Semi Attached Couple Night and Fog People Riding the Rails The Valley of the Assassins In 40 essays, I managed to read 15 of the books. Some of the books didn't interest me, but the vast majority I just couln't find even in the library

Whats really been fun is rereading the essays of books I read, and delighted seeing what Perrin wrote and compared it with my own thoughts. But I do want to fine other books. Decided my 'challenge' would be to find and read the rest. It might no longer be a treasure hunt since most of the books are available on the web, but enjoyable nonetheless to read unusal and interesting books. Currently looking for Journal of a Disappointed Man, My Fathers Glory and my Mother's Castle, The Quest of the Mulla-Mulgars and The Maker of Heavenly Trousers to name a few . Since I don't like due dates, i will not put a time limit to this challenge but plan to spend lots of time hunting the web , and reading!

ETA changed the first paragraph to make it clearer

Finished Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton, for the LGBTQ author square on BingoDog card. I think I read this book years ago, although I did not remember it when I was reading it this time. I think the author is a gifted poet, although suffered from depression and a sensitive, artistic nature. I still want to read the journals of when she moves to her house by the sea, which I think I have on Kindle.

I have been buying a lot of used books lately on eBay, for which I do not have room of course! However, I managed to find a few that I got rid of and decided I wanted after all. I have also read and reviewed some books for NetGalley. Off to a good start so far for reading in 2022.

>7 torontoc: how are you doing with Piranesi? I started it when I was traveling in Switzerland in December but it was too weird, so I put it aside. I plan to pick it up again soon, now that I’m home and bored.

I’m reading A King Alone but not sure I’m going to continue with it

>1 AnnieMod: I already managed to buy zero books. I already own a zillion unread books and I spent too much money in December so I’m not in the mood to buy books. This feeling will pass

>11 Nickelini: Congrats. :) I have zillion books and I bought a lot in December and yet... :)

>7 torontoc: >10 Nickelini: Hope you enjoy Piranesi. I liked it, and enjoyed it more after I finished it and thought about it. I enjoyed Piranesi's attitude and naming of the places in his world.

Oh I love Taschen; have lots of their architeture books from around the world. this looks good as well.

Reading Winterset Hollow

>12 AnnieMod: LOL - my feeling of not buying books did pass. I blame you, as I started thinking and remembered that there were four books I really needed. One of them is a children's book that I'm buying because it's been banned in some places, so I'll donate it to the library; one is a cookbook . . . so that makes it hardly any books at all. I'm sticking with that story.

>10 Nickelini: I am reading and enjoying so far-I haven't figured out what is going on yet- but it is far better than the short stories that I was reading before Piranesi

I've just finished Wastelands 2: More Stories of the Apocalypse by John Joseph Adams. I'm not sure quite what it says about anything that I'm finding myself able to read apocalyptic-themed stories again after shying away from them for a while. I also slipped in Oddball: A Sarah's Scribbles Collection by the always-delightful Sarah Andersen.

Now I've just started Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead.

>1 AnnieMod: Oh, and I've already managed to buy, um... thirteen books. Not counting one I ordered that hasn't arrived yet. Oops. And there's a library sale coming up this weekend... and next month is my fifteenth Thingaversary... and... Yeah, I think I might be in trouble again this year.

>16 Nickelini: *hands in pockets (well, would be if I had any pockets), looking innocently* Moi? :)

>19 bragan: Well, it still is less than a book per day... for now ;)

Oh, dear; we are not confessing our book buying, are we? I've been a bit book-insecure (side effect of the era of Covid) and have bought...er...maybe... too many books, and some aren't even going to be out for a few months.... I hesitate to count them up, I may be up in the "bragan & Annie" categories ....

>21 avaland: Pre-orders don't count until they show up at your door/electronic device (that's my story and I am sticking to it!) :)

Trying to read some books after always reading on kindle and the print looks really small. Guess I need stronger reading glasses.

I'm not buying much, well three, but I'm reading all of them at least. I am reading a lot of books at once, which means my progress is tiny.

Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl by Uwe Johnson - 4% done
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
- G. H. McWilliam Translation. - I finished day 1. 8% done
- Wayne A . Rebhorn Translation (Norton Critical Edition) - 12% done
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber & David Wengrow - audio. not sure I like it. 13% in
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - 20% in
Boccaccio by Thomas G. Bergin - 44% in, yay.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare - 80% done.

I'm not even going to talk about my buying/galley scooping up, but I was just thinking a really worthy reading goal this year would be to make a big dent in the books sent or given to me by friends. I've definitely sent some out as well, and I know nobody's keeping track of what I've read. But there's this thought that someone went to the trouble of putting something in an envelope and taking it to the post office or mailroom because they thought I'd like it—and almost all the time they're right. So I might try and ding that pile a bit this year.

>8 cindydavid4: That sounds fun!

Two-thirds of January down, and I'm changing plans on my January list. Was going to listen to Every Living Thing when I finished Anxious People but then I decided to start Winter Solstice today. It was a group read in Dec. and I want to cross off some more "Winter" books while it's still actually winter.... Still reading The Philosophical Baby - sorry to say it is a slog. But I committed to reading it (on Rebecca's list) so I will finish it, if slowly. The book club it was for met on Tuesday night, and everyone else felt the same way about it. In the meantime, I had started on #2 of the Nosey Parker series, which are fun, but then I have a whole bunch of A titles staring at me for my alphabet challenge. I got paused on Anglesey Blue. Also on my list: Ahab's Wife, Awayland, Aunt Bessie Assumes, and Austerlitz (which is on my Prague list...) Oh hell - someone pick one for me!

>27 WelshBookworm: Awayland because the title sounds fun.

>28 AnnieMod: I was leaning toward that one myself. So thanks! Awayland it is.

I started The Testaments today and a few chapters in I'm enjoying it. I'm very conscious of not having too high expectations :-).

>26 WelshBookworm: thanks, looking forward to it. BTW I changed the first paragraph to make it clearer when I was talking about the essays, and the books themselves:

In 40 essays, I managed to read 15 of the books. Some of the books didn't interest me, but the vast majority that I wanted, I just couln't find even in the library

>27 WelshBookworm: I read Ahabs Wife decades ago; the writing is very good, and while whale catching exbiditions were hard to read (gory to the max) the writing about the culture, and the lighthouse was fantastic. However, I was bothered by this 16 year old girl in the 1850's (?) going along with these guys suggesting she leave her lighthouse home and come sailing with them. But thats just me.

>27 WelshBookworm: I read Ahabs Wife decades ago; the writing is very good, and while whale catching exbiditions were hard to read (gory to the max) the writing about the culture, and the lighthouse was fantastic. However, I was bothered by this 16 year old girl in the early nineteenth century going along with guys suggesting she leave her lighthouse home and come sailing with him. But thats just me. Based on the true story of Una Spencer.

I am currently reading some lightweight books, working on BingoDOG card. I am currently reading Officer Girl in Blue which is a suspense/romance/historical novel set during World War 2 in England. Also reading Autumn Light which is part of a series, so that will help with my 2022 Category Challenges/personal reading challenges.

Re. buying books--I am still on a book binge, having discovered a seller on eBay with good prices and free shipping. Also still buying back some of the books I got rid of (book remorse big time, cringe). I intended to stop buying so many since we are now in a smaller house, but that did not last long. I also have been putting the duplicates or discards that I finished in the Little Free Library we got started here in our community.

>33 cindydavid4: I did start it, and read about half of it when I was doing my Moby Dick theme - about 7 years ago? Anyway, I liked it a lot - not quite sure how it got paused, but I've always intended to finish it. It's been so long now, I'll have to start it over.

Ill be curious what you think.

>9 LadyoftheLodge: LadyoftheLodge - I adored all of Sarton's journals and most of the fiction. I'm excited for you to have that to look forward to.

Last night I started reading A Killer in King's Cove by Iona Whishaw. It's mystery, a genre I don't often read, but it's set in post-world war II British Columbia and the protagonist is billed as being of the same ilk as Maisie Dobbs. So far I have found it vastly entertaining, not so much for the story but because the author's writing is well, grammatically and logically a bit flawed?

I've slowed down a bit due to the overwhelming fatigue that comes with rheumatoid arthritis. I'm reading My Heart is a Chainsaw which I feel that I'll love, but haven't quite fallen for at 20% complete.

I’m reading Billy Porter’s memoir Unprotected a memoir. Excellent book. I wish I could hang out with him.

>27 WelshBookworm: I have read the first two of the Aunt Bessie books and I love them - very light reading, so cozy, and very quick reads, but just the right thing to curl up with on the sofa and escape.

Finished Bill Bryson Shakespeare the world on stage. I love his non fiction work but I was surprised to see such a slim volume, tho it stands to reason that there isn't much to say about the Bards life as so little as known. In fact, for every question he brings up its "we just don't know" or 'Maybe this maybe that". He talks around the Bard with adjacent topics about this director or playwrite or or how many words he could find.We get stories abuot the theatre, actors, Queen Eliz and various plots against her; what happened to several of his friends, long discussions about what play did he perform first, and other topics that are really just fillers, even in as small a book as this. He does talk about the First Folio, how it was written and how lucky we are to actually have a few copies. He gives very short decriptions of the plays, which is one area I really wantd to know more about. He also quickly puts to rest any theories of did someone else write his plays. There was very little of his brand of humor. I was really disappointed but I guess I shouldnt have been surprised. While I appreciated the information I didn't know, I honestly most of this was filler. I give it 2*

When I'm reading a long book like Anniversaries, I like to also read very short, quick reads so I get some sort of feeling of accomplishment/closure. I've recently read My Year of Rest and Relaxation, which I loved, an excellent YA novel about the Navajo code talkers of WWII, and now I'm racing through Tender is the Flesh. This was given to me by a friend as a loan, so I feel I should read it, but my god it's disgusting. It's a dystopian novel about animals contracting a virus that makes their meat poisonous to humans. The humans quickly move to cannibalism, farming humans much as we farm cows now. It's extremely detailed and totally disgusting. I hope it has some worth in the end because I'm just dreading picking it up, but I want to see what my friend saw in this book. At least it's short.

I started The Netanyahus :An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family by Joshua Cohen I am enjoying it so far.

>43 japaul22: Ew!

Have finished the excellent Bonnie Jo Campbell short fiction collection, and picked up Olaf Olafsson's first novel, Absolution (this is the last of his books to read; thankfully, he has a new one coming out later this year).

Currently reading Getaway with Murder for NetGalley. It started out sort of slow but quickly picked up speed, so I am liking it so far.

Yesterday I finally finished listening to The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid. I enjoyed it, but definitely not for everyone. Graphic sexual serial killer. First in the Carol Jordan/Tony Hill series. I also finished reading Sue Grafton’s W is for Wasted last night.

Next up for audio, Still Life by Sarah Winman, read by the author. My book on kindle is A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson.

>44 torontoc: I noticed that book in a bookstore in Jersey City when my wife and I were visiting there in November. It looked interesting and I almost bought it. I'm glad to know you're enjoying it. Will look forward to your review.

Last night I finished the excellent American Republics: A Continental History of the United States, 1783-1850 by Alan Taylor. This is a very readable and detailed account of the growth U.S. and, to a lesser extent Canada and Mexico from just after the American Revolution to just before the American Civil War. I've read a lot of U.S. history over the years, but I derived a lot of new information, or at least new perspectives in Taylor's book.

The first, and one of Taylor's central themes, is that the idea of Manifest Destiny that all Americans learn in school--that is, the concept that Americans always believed (or at least said aloud as a rationalization for their actions) that it was America's God given "destiny" to eventually control the entire continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, is a vast simplification of the attitudes, desires and fears of the country as it evolved after the Revolution.

The second is the importance of the War of 1812, not in and of itself, but as part of a series of conflicts within that decade, what Taylor calls the "War of the 1810s," that included Andrew Jackson's ruthless but successful incursions into Spanish held Florida, and that "shifted the geopolitics of North America."

Taylor goes into great detail showing the cruelty of slavery. The perceived Southern need to protect slavery winds through every political development and conflict throughout the country's history. But also, Taylor is clear that White supremacy was far from a Southern only concept. The cruelty to and treachery against Native Americans is described in detail as well.

I've posted a (much) longer review on my CR thread. Next up for me will be Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet.

I finished Jane of Hearts and Other Stories by Katharine Weber, which comes out March 1—very smart, propulsive collection (the author is a friend of mine, but I'd think the same anyway).

Now reading Rachel Pastan's In the Field, recommended by a friend.

I'm reading this crazy story called (At My Most Disturbed- The ghouls predilection). This demonologist guy gets into all kinds of crazy stuff. If you like horror/comedy then check it out!

>52 Ectoplasm44: If you like that you will probably love Johannes Cabal the Necromancer Hilarous and dark there are two ore three of the sequels.

I'm putting aside Making Money for now, as I don't seem to be in the right mood for it, and starting the second book in the Rivers of London series, Moon Over Soho.

Bookclub is just over a week away so it was time to start Trafalgar. The blurb on the back describes it as a "part pulp" which was very clear from the first chapter!

>55 rhian_of_oz: Part pulp? Huh. I always thought of it as Invisible Cities, but in the universe.

In between novels, I'm reading Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh. Great stuff.

>28 AnnieMod: Started it, and the first story (very short) was a hoot. It is a Cyclops filling out an online dating site application. I think the book is going to be very fun! I decided to also start on Ahab's Wife. I don't want to read more than one short story in a day - they need time in between... so I need something else too.

Reading Cat's Cradle by Julia Golding and just started Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie.

Ok finised sadness in my mind which is really good. Love how he inserts characters to give their side of the story as the main character talk. sometimes this 4th wall can be done poorly, but it works great.

Ok I now have the big thirst for Rebeccas challenge,The White Ship which I forgot about ordering, Chasing Seasons for Feb RT/ Plus spinning silver for a real life group. Id like to read white ship first, maybe I can to that this weekend and start my feb books next month, Thank goodness I am retired!

Ok finised sadness in my mind which is really good. Love how he inserts characters to give their side of the story as the main character talk. sometimes this 4th wall can be done poorly, but it works great.

Ok I now have the big thirst for Rebeccas challenge,The White Shipwhich I forgot about ordering, Chasing Seasons for Feb RT/ Plus spinning silver for a real life group. Id like to read white ship first, maybe I can to that this weekend and start my feb books next month, Thank goodness I am retired!

ETA ah ha finally received the book ive been waiting for the silence of scheherazade I am reading white ship and will finish it soon. This book will be next and I can count it as a jANUARY Asian challenge book!

I just started Darkest Day, by Hakan Nesser (a Swedish noir, in most languages it's titled something like "The Man Without a Dog"). My non-fiction is the 3rd edition of Swiss Watching by Brit Diccon Bewes. This is a reread, but my first time was with the 2nd edition. I also have How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa on standby in the event I get bogged down by the other two.

>62 Nickelini: Have you read other books by Nesser?

>63 dianeham: No! I hear he's the rock star of the genre, and something made me buy this, but then it arrived and it was over 500 pages, so I was daunted and put it aside. I've started it, and it looks to be a breezy read though, so the 500 + pages don't look so bad (I love a 200 page novel). It's very readable so far

>64 Nickelini: I checked on my goodreads books and looks like I read his first series and liked it.

I finished Getaway with Murder for NetGalley, which was the first in a new cozy mystery series. There were a few things in the story that seemed to need more development and explanation in the final chapters. Overall it was a decent mystery read, but I skipped some repetitious and detailed sections.

Within 50 pages of finishing Cat's Cradle by Julia Golding.

I've finished The Harlem Shuffle, which, unsurprisingly, was good, and am now indulging my inner -- oh, who am I kidding, it's also very much outer -- Doctor Who geek with Who Is the Doctor: The Unofficial guide to Doctor Who the New Series by Graeme Burk & Robert Smith?. (Yes, the guy spells his name with a question mark. No, I don't know why. Doctor Who fans are weird, and I love them.)

I've finished Moon Over Soho and am now moving on to Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood by Mark Oppenheimer.

>67 bragan: Ask and ye shall receive: "Smith? added the question mark to his name when he was a teenager in order to differentiate himself from the many thousands of other Robert Smiths in the world, including Robert Smith, the front man for the English rock band The Cure"

I was curious too and the Toronto Star (yay Canada!) had the answer :)

>69 Yells: You know, I was sort of vaguely assuming that was probably the reason, but secretly hoping there was a much more interesting story behind it. :) Thank you for the sleuthing, in any case!

I am reading Rumer Goden's In this House of Brede, about a middle-aged woman who gives up her successful business career to become a Benedictine nun. I'm not very far in because it strikes me as a book that needs to be savoured, so I'm only picking it up when I'm really in the mood. I'm also about halfway through a post-apocalyptic climate change novella, The Annual Migration of Clouds.

>71 rachbxl: Hi Rachel, nice to see you!

I finished Cat's Cradle by Julia Golding. I am sorry to see this series about Cat Royal come to an end. She is quite the feisty and bold teenager and I have enjoyed following her adventures through the six historical novels in the series.

>71 rachbxl: Hi Rachel, good to see you here! I hope you enjoy In This House of Brede. I read it several times in the past and found it a good read (considering that I wanted to become a nun at one time. I would have made a darn good one too, I think. When I was widowed in 2015, I checked out some orders that would accept older widowed women. Then I met my current husband and dropped the idea.)

>62 Nickelini: I've checked and discovered I have read three Nesser crime novels...my ratings run between 2 1/2 to 4 stars. But don't let that deter you; we all have different tastes; and I think we all response to different things. According to my reviews I enjoyed The Return the most.

>75 avaland: no worries! I’m quite enjoying it although it looks to be about “dark and messed up people doing dark and messed up things”. And despite its length, it reads quickly

>76 Nickelini: That's a pretty good description of Nesser's work ;)

I'm reading two new books since I last checked in. A reread of Dangerous Liaisons, which I know I didn't do justice to the first time. I read it on my kindle and knew while I was reading it that it would be better in print so I could more easily flip back and forth to the various letter headings and reread letters if I lost track of each conversation. So this time I have a paperback version and I'm already getting more out of it.

I'm also reading a nonfiction book called Lady Fanshawe's Receipt Book. It takes the recipe book (mainly medicines and also food and drink recipes) of Ann Fanshawe, a newly married woman in 1640s England, and uses it to enlighten the life of an "average" person in the 1600s. It's an interesting time period, because it's during the English civil war, and Ann is on the side of the royalists. I don't know much about the English civil war and I always like reading about the lives of women, so it's really working for me.

Finished reading last night an untranslated Akutagawa Prize winner from Japan, 爪と目 (Nails and Eyes), and boy do I have a lot to say about this one! Hope I can properly sit down later on to write about it.

I have picked up another book from the Library Les Bannis, Laurent Carpentier Looks like only two other members have this book, and one of those rates it at 3 stars. Laurent Carpentier seems to be a photographer and journalist, let's see if he can write a novel.

I'm putting aside Squirrel Hill for now, since I have realized that I am not in the right frame of mind for it right now.

I'll be starting the next in the Rivers of London series for fiction, and for nonfiction, I'll be starting The Man Who Loved Books Too Much.

>78 japaul22: saw the play Dangerous LIasons on National Theatre Live a few years back and it got me to read it. Oh my.

I am reading Five Little Pigs by Dame Agatha, and Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan.

I am reading Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli.

I finished a collection of Philippine short stories, Ulirát, that I had been workingon for months. I've also read Passage of Tears, another chunk of Blonde and am a good way through Girl, Woman, Other.

I finished Five Little Pigs and started The Kitchen House for our book group, got 2 weeks to read it.

I finished One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston which was a breezy queer romance with a bit of sci-fi. I enjoyed it much more than I expected I would.

Yesterday I began the anthology Disability Visibility with the intention of reading one essay before continuing my binge watch of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I continued reading until well after bedtime. So, so good. It is particularly resonant for me as I am coming to terms with the impacts Rheumatoid Arthritis is making in my life.

I finished Death on the Nile and found it to be delightfully twisty. I'm looking forward to seeing the upcoming movie.

Then there's my other reading, which I have spent the last several days trying to diagnose. See, I'm actively in the middle of, well, probably more books than is really wise, and I am enjoying them all, but at the same time I find myself regularly and consistently looking for something else. My current reading is quite heavy on 19th century literature and non-fiction that deals with things in the same general time period, which is what I have identified as the most likely cause of my desire for something else. At the same time, adding another book to the mix is really only going to exacerbate the "problem". So I'll continue to poke at it, and to read some of the things I've already started.

>89 shadrach_anki: First time reading this one?

>89 shadrach_anki: That can be difficult. I recently had to put aside a book that I was enjoying. I know that I still want to read it, and I will go back to it at some point, but I realized that I just wasn't in the right mood for it, and I wasn't reading. Putting it aside and starting something completely different was what it took to get me reading again. Sometimes, you just need something different. *shrugs*

Review of The Man Who Loved Books Too Much is up on my thread. (I will get around to reviewing the Rivers of London books that I've been reading. At some point. Or I could just wait and review the series...)

thats sorta of the place Im was in. Put down Schererzade, and picked up Chasing Spring:an american journey through a changing season for Feb RT theme 'country side' Ill get back to poor scherezade at some point.

I also read Man who loved books too much and your review matched my feelings. Still it was interesting in parts

>94 cindydavid4: I think your review must be where I read about it and added it to my tbr, then. Mystery solved!

I have now started my next book: The 99% Invisible City, another nonfiction, though of a very different sort.

>90 AnnieMod: Yes, it was my first time reading it. I've read surprisingly little Christie, which is something I am slowly remedying.

>91 Julie_in_the_Library: My plan for right now is to go back to one of the older books on my "active" list, one that I haven't picked up for a while. That way I'm not adding anything right away, but I still get a bit of a "new" feeling. I'll probably still end up starting something completely different in a day or two, but I'll have made progress on my current reads in the meantime.

I finished Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet, which I found to be a profoundly rewarding reading experience. Anyone interested will find my review on my CR thread.

Next up for me will be The Handle, the 8th entry in Richard Stark's (a.k.a. Donald Westlake) gleefully wicked Parker crime series.

It was a cozy rainy winter afternoon in Vancouver, and I made a pot of tea, lit a scented candle, did 4 loads of laundry, and finished the 534 page novel The Darkest Day by Hakan Nesser. Husband was off at the pub watching Canada beat the USA 2-0 in soccer, so a happy day for all concerned. When this book arrived and I realized it was over 500 pages, I thought "I'm never going to read that". But then I did, in 5 days. Book number 8 for the year, and the most fun so far. Highly recommended

I have finished my fourth book for January, Le Pere Goriot by Balzac. I actually read the majority of this back in 2009 but when I realized I wasn't absorbing any of the plot I put it down to save for later. That later is now and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So happy to have read it.

Started and finished A Study in Scarlet Women. Such fun!

Finished Olaf Olafsson's Absolution, not sure exactly where I am going next....

Finished Twenty Stories by Turkish Women Writers and started The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh for the Indian Ocean theme read in the Reading Globally group.

Finished Once Upon a Wardrobe which was a huge surprise and quite a cerebral and thoughtful book. Currently having fun with Nancy Drew Nancy's Mysterious Letter and slowly working on The Kitchen House for book group.

Picked up some ILL books from the library today and read In., a graphic novel by Will McPhail, this afternoon. Thanks to wandering_star for the recommendation.

I had been catching up with reviews from earlier in the month today. Batch 1:
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute - who knows what genre this is but it does not matter. I really liked it anyway

Silenced by Sólveig Pálsdóttir, translated by Quentin Bates - the second in the translated series (apparently 5th in the original Icelandic one) after The Fox which I read last year. Very Icelandic and quite readable even if I had some issues with it

The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Peter Watts - the underfed novel (or overgrown novella) of a far future ship among the stars.

Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard - a love story in the middle of a fantasy world which is based on old Vietnam (and possibly other South Asian cultures)

The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by Saad Z. Hossain - another novella, by a Bangladeshi author (who writes in English) - a mix of fantasy (there are jinns) and science fiction (we managed to make the air unbreathable and an AI rules the city). It can be gory in places but it is absolutely hilarious. And you should never underestimate old soldiers and ex-kings. Or the human ability to be... well, human.

The N'Gustro Affair by Jean-Patrick Manchette, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith - French noir, using a real life event as a base and spinning a story of might-have-been without pretending to be the real story. The first novel of a master of noir - not as polished as later works but still very well done.

The Past Is Red by Catherynne M. Valente - when the oceans rise, we NEED to live somewhere. And the narrator is one of the most enjoyable and distinctive voices I had read in years.

Second batch to follow later today. Maybe I will manage to even catch up to somewhere close to today...

And Batch 2 for today:
On the Beach by Nevil Shute - nuclear apocalypse novel written in 1957. Probably a lot more terrifying back in the days but still working now.

In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu - a fantasy novella, containing embedded stories which I liked more than the framework novella.

The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth - and my Arthurian project is underway. :) Probably not something people will read just because but it had its moments.

Stone and Steel by Eboni Dunbar - another fantasy novella. Nice sketch of a story, could have been executed a lot better.

The Case of the Crimson Kiss: A Perry Mason Novelette and Other Stories by Erle Stanley Gardner - 5 stories, 1 of them a Mason story - my Perry Mason quest is getting to an end... only 2 more stories left :( Solid collection if one likes pulp detective stories.

Wayward Moon by Devon Monk - urban fantasy, the second Souls of the Road novel. It is a quiet series which works for me - it will probably never win any awards and there is not pushing at the boundaries of the genre but it works for me so I am sticking with the series (now I need to wait for the next book...) and with the author.

And that's it for today. I have 9 more to review to finish January (I don't think that I am finishing another book tonight...)... but I think I am going to go read a book for awhile. :)

I am currently finishing a Nancy Drew novel, and just re-started The Wizard's Butler. I have to reread The Five Dysfunctions of a Team for a class I am teaching on making teams work.

I'm making my way through In the Kingdom of the Sick: A Social History of Chronic Illness in America. It's a bit of a slog for some reason although I'm only a third of the way through.

Although she is chronically ill herself, I'm finding she isn't quite where I'd like her to be on her perspective of the disability justice movement. She also keeps referring to the desire to be productive members of society which implies that work is the way we decide human value. Still, I do like the history of women's health as it relates to chronic illness vs. "hysteria".

A few more January reviews are up: a magazine (Mystery Magazine, January 2022 (nothing spectacular but all stories were at least competent) and 3 novels: Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh (SF, reread and still enjoyable), Robert B. Parker's Bull River by Robert Knott (western and meh) and Hoodwink by Bill Pronzini (PI novel, ok) - all 3 are part of long running series I am playing catch-up on.

Meanwhile, in addition to the big books I am working on (Decameron, David Copperfield and Anniversaries), my "regular" book is Far From the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson - one of the 4 Dick nominees I had not read yet.

I needed a book for my bus trip to and from bookclub so I started The Innocents.

I finished To Paradise, Hanya Yanagihara's new book. Comments (pretty middling, to be honest) on my thread.

And I started The Final Girls Support Group by Grady Hendrix.

Unhappy with my audiobook, i was searching audible and found Momento Mori by Muriel Spark with an “included” label - which apparently means I don’t have to spend a credit to listen, so I’ve started listening.

I finished The Handle, the eighth book in Richard Stark's (a.k.a. Donald Westlake) wickedly entertaining "Parker" crime series. Next up is this month's reading group selection, a memoir, The Education of an Idealist, by Samantha Power.

Ok right now reading several Feb books, Chasing Spring for the LT Theme Much Ado About Nothing for the Cat Shakespeare challengefor Feb, I Shall not Hate for the asian challenge The Queen of Hearts for the Author Challenge, while also reading Scherezade from January. Also have a few books on their way for my unchallenge but since there is no timeline, I can daudle about. Oh and need to spinning silver for my RL book group....

4 more January reviews are up:
- The Italian by Shukri Mabkhout - A Tunisian novel, set in the late 1980s (but written in 2014) which I liked quite a lot despite being a bit too verbose in some places
- Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 140, January 2022 which was okey
- Grandville Mon Amour - the second Grandville graphic novel which was as entertaining as the first (plus it has a talking badger...)
- The Lais of Marie de France which was different from what I expected but in a good way.

Which leaves me with only 1 missing review for January (an anthology of plays). Phew!

Meanwhile Far From the Light of Heaven which I started last night turned out to be a lot of fun so I suspect I will finish that one tonight... :)

Started reading Maus tonight for the LT group read: https://www.librarything.com/topic/339164

I'm really loving my read of East of Eden. It's really getting me to want to pick up a book and read which is exciting and I'm already past page 200 with just three days of reading. I also started my February book club pick, an untranslated Japanese book called Unbalance. The first 25 pages were exciting as our main character showed no mercy towards her husband's mistress which was quite fun to read.

Finished the latest in the Wayward Children’s series, which is a darker less hopeful addition. And hopefully the start of asking some interesting questions about the doors and there consequences.

I've just started Empire of Pain about the Sackler family and their involvement in the opioid industry. And I'm continuing with my reread of Dangerous Liaisons, which is just as salacious as it was the first time around.

Finished Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson which was a locked room mystery in space in theory but ended up a lot more fun in an unexpected way. Next is Bug by Giacomo Sartori .

Plus the review of that anthology of plays I finished in January is up. :)

I started Klara and the Sun today and I'm enjoying it so much I didn't want to stop reading for our evening out.

Just started Bake, Borrow, and Steal by Ellie Alexander. I read most of the others in this bakeshop mystery series. As usual, I skip over the parts that give details about what was mixed with what and how many eggs were cracked, etc. That is just fluff to me and adds little to the storyline. In this book, I had a difficult time imagining furniture made of chocolate (lifesize, not miniature). I googled it and apparently some people do it. There were also a couple of baking terms I had to google. It would be better for those to be explained, I think.

Have 'tasted' a few books and found them wanting (or not what I need now), I've picked up Verge: Stories, a short story collection by Lidia Yuknavitch which I half-read two years ago. Starting from the beginning again....

I finished The Hungry Tide and Maus and began I Will Never See the World Again by Ahmet Altan and Second Generation: The Things I Didn't Tell My Father, a graphic novel by the son of a Belgian Holocaust survivor.

My next book is a bande dessinée (comic book for adults, I hope) it is Bug, Enki Bilal

Today I read The World Well Lost, a short story, by Theodore Sturgeon. It was published in a scifi magazine in 1953. It’s about 2 aliens referred to as lover-birds. It was quite ahead of its time and very charming. The story is online if you want to read it.
https://bristolsf.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/the-world-well-lost.pdf

I've started my first novel for February's Asian Reading Challenge location of The Holy Land: The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem. I'm also planning to finish The Final Girl Support Group today.

Having finished the Lidia Yuknavitch short story collection, I picked up Crime Fiction: A Very Short Introduction and am 2/3rd through this (while I ponder my next fiction read. I seem to be surrounded by an overabundance of short stories collections so it seems should read a few more....(but will I?) ETA: finished the Crime Fiction book, and have now pulled out Jason Brown's first collection of short stories, published in '99. I have read his two more recent collection (and they were stellar)

Finished the first volume the Summit of the Gods manga and I’m hooked. I never would have thought I’d get so invested in the enigmatic story of a fictional climber.

Finished The Two Gentlemen of Verona and it's really messy act 5. And I started another book, The Fruit of the Tree by Edith Wharton.

I'm about 1/4 way into Happiness by Aminatta Forna. So far it's pretty good. I like the characters.

My non-fiction read at the moment is Swiss Watching by Diccon Bewes.

I had been in a weird mood over the weekend so had been reading a lot of stories.

Managed to finish a novel on Friday - Bug by Giacomo Sartori about a deaf boy and an AI (it is better than it sounds) and a trio of novellas yesterday (Vigilance (near future America where gun culture and oil culture had gone on steroids), We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep (alternate history of the Cold War) and Jeffrey Ford's Out of Body (small town horror with vampires (of a type)) - none of them really great but none of them bad either plus a boatload of much shorter stories (most of them under 1,000 words and some much shorter than that).

All reviews are in my thread (and in the books). Stories available online are linked.

Next: yet another novella: Psalm for the Wild Built which so far is interesting but we shall see and then We That Are Young - back to my King Lear reading from last year (and the library wants it back in a week so... I may as well read it now). Plus probably a lot of stories - I use the as fillers :)

re Bug, always interested in novels with deaf main characters. Read your review this does look up my alley, thanks

I finished Rachel Pastan's In the Field and am now reading Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star, which is a short book but wants a lot of rereading as I go... it's a strange one.

Loved, loved, loved I Will Never See the World Again. I started both A Tale of Love and Darkness and the graphic novel Jerusalem: A Family Portrait last night.

Exhalation is my new 'exercise bag' book. I don't read much short fiction and then when I do I wonder why I don't.

>138 rhian_of_oz: oh thanks for that! Loved his first collection, must get this!

Finished Bake, Borrow, and Steal by Ellie Alexander. I liked the overall story and I like the series, but this one had some plot holes. Maybe my mind wandered when I was reading and I missed some stuff, or else it is my analytical mind needing to tie up and analyze some aspects of the story. (When I was growing up, my sisters did not like going to see James Bond movies with me because I always voiced my skepticism at some of the goings-on.)

Trying to finish The Kitchen House by Wednesday for book discussion group, but struggling to do so.

I haven't posted about my reading for what seems like an eternity, but I'm rather embroiled in other projects again, and I've somehow got myself into reading three very long books at once. It may be some time before I emerge...
I'm reading/still reading:
- David Copperfield for the Victorian read-along (about 25% in)
- The Books of Jacob from my Christmas pile (I'm on page 780, but that isn't as good news as you might think, because Tokarczuk decided to make the page numbers count down from 960)
- Empires of the Monsoon: A History of the Indian Ocean and Its Invaders for the Indian Ocean theme (about 20% in)

I shan't say "watch this space", it might be a long wait.

I went to the library today to return two books and came home with four. I gobbled down A Murderous Relation in one sitting and also started Apples Never Fall which is an "express read" which I have a week to return.

>128 dianeham: Thanks for sharing the link! I'll give it a try.

>130 avaland: Ooh, that crime fiction book looks interesting.

>141 thorold: (I'm on page 780, but that isn't as good news as you might think, because Tokarczuk decided to make the page numbers count down from 960) That would drive me nuts. Is there at least a reason that he does that given in the book?

>143 Julie_in_the_Library: Not as yet, but it’s all about Jews and their books in 18th century Poland, so I’m guessing it’s a way to remind the reader that going left to right isn’t as self-evident as all that.

I’m reading Death in Spring. Anyone read it?

>144 thorold: hee, I love the line from my fair lady: talking about language' Arabians learn Arabic with the speed of summer lightening, Hebrews learn in backwards which is absolutely frightening'

My book group is tomorrow so I am trying to finish spinning silver I really like how she sets up the three main characters and how she parallels them in this take on the fairy tale Rumplestiksin. But Im now at the point where she has a bunch of points colliding and losing track. Ill finish it,just taking more time than I thought it wou ld

>144 thorold: interesting. I can see the logic, and I agree with the point, though I would still have expected some explanation, or at least acknowledgment, in the text.

I didn't need a week for Apples Never Fall and have now started another of my library books Lady Cop Makes Trouble.

>148 rhian_of_oz: That doesn't surprise me! Apples Never Fall is a super quick read, even with a lot of pages.

I've finished The 99% Invisible City, and have moved on to the next Rivers of London book, Whispers Under Ground.

Am still reading the nonfiction She Has Her Mother's Laugh. It's amazing, and I have been taking my time with it. At this point I can't even imagine how I will review it.

Otherwise, I'm a reading the lastest in the "Wisting" Nordic crime series: The Inner Darkness

And I always have my fingers in a few other books....

I finished The Hour of the Star and am still chewing on it... it's a strange one. Now reading The Long Ships, which is RidgewayGirl's fault for mentioning it in one of the Questions for the Avid Reader recommendation topics.

>152 lisapeet: I love The Long Ships!

wrong book, sorry!

I’m reading Autumn Rounds

I finished two short books yesterday: Memento Mori by Muriel Spark (on audio), and Maus I (a reread).

Ready for a new audiobook, I've started The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers.

I finished my first book for this month’s location in the Asian Reading Challenge, The Book of Disappearance, and have started my next one, Mornings in Jenin.

>152 lisapeet: Whoops, double checked and I should have credited SassyLassy and NanaCC for the Long Ships recommendation. Thank you both!

Recently finished Heartbreak Tango, The Soul of an Octopus and H(A)PPY. Not sure what's up next....

I am just a few pages from finishing up The Education of an Idealist, a memoir by Samantha Power, who certainly has had an interesting life, to put it mildly. She was a journalist who covered the war in Bosnia and other grim spots, worked for Barack Obama while he was a U.S. Senator and for a while for Obama's presidential campaign (she had to resign for a snafu comment she made within earshot of a reporter), and then became Obama's Ambassador to the U.N. She's now serving in the Biden Administration as Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, but the memoir ends with the conclusion of the Obama Administration. You can find a longer review on my CR thread.

Next up for me will be First Harvest by Vladimir Pozner (the mid-century writer, not the contemporary journalist of the same name). This is a novel about French under the Nazi occupation that was written in 1943, so I'm very much looking forward to it. Pozner was born in Paris to Russian-Jewish parents who'd had to leave Russia because of their support for the failed revolution of 1905.

>160 rocketjk: have you read Suite Francaise? This book was written at the same time period. The author had a similar background, but died in the concentration camp. She actually only fiished 3 parts f what should have been a six part book. Her daughters kept the box, not really sure what was in it, until about 20 years ago when they started looking into it. The book has become a best seller and many of her previous works have been translated into English. Id be interested in the comparison with this one

Im finally finishing up The Silence of Scheherazade Its beautifully written,and fast reading, but I am dreading the ending and have a feeling I will need to skip parts. But Im glad I decided to read it, despite my qualms

Did read I Shall Not Hate but will review it in the Asian Challenge for February

>161 cindydavid4: I haven't read Suite Francaise, but I'm aware of the book and the story behind it.

I'm about to start The Arab Mind, which has been on my wish list since for the past 6 months or so.

>163 rocketjk: Just to add I adored Suite Francaise.

I finished listening to Sarah Winman’s Still Life, which I absolutely loved. And, finished reading on kindle the sixth book in the Slough House series, Joe Country by Mick Herron. These books are like candy, and I’m gobbling them up.

I will be starting Tin Man by Sarah Winman on kindle tonight, and State of Terror by Louise Penny and Hillary Rodham Clinton on audiobook tomorrow.

Interrupted A Tale of Love and Darkness for a library book that needs to go back soon. The School for Good Mothers, a book bullet from Kay.

>166 labfs39: I read the sample of that and decided not to read the book. Let me know what you think.

Finished spinning silver. I loved the first half; the woman characters were strong, determined and so very human. I didn't mind the POV switching between them, until the middle when it just got bogged down. Way too much telling and not showing, way too much cold and winter and yes we know its cold , Wanda and Stepneys sections just put me to sleep, and in the latter part of the book adds Stepon, a little boy who sounds like an adult. And did the King of the Starks really call Miryam 'my little snowflake'? gack.

Basicly, what startd out as a 5* book quickly became 2*. Too bad, it held so much promise

I started Lady Audley's Secret as the second part of the Victorian Tavern readalong. For my handbag book I've chosen The Thief on the Winged Horse.

I've just finished a reread of Dangerous Liaisons. Now I'm reading Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin and Empire of Pain a nonfiction book about the Sackler family and their role in the opioid addiction crisis. I'm just getting to the meaty part.

>170 japaul22: GR was easily my favorite by Baldwin. Hope you enjoy.

My review of The 99% Invisible City is up on my thread!

Just finished a boatload of books recently.
The Wizard's Butler by Nathan Lowell which was a BB from another reader. I loved this book and look forward to the next one in the series (I hope). A few readers panned it on Amazon but I don't get their comments at all. I stayed up late to finish it.

Zin! Zin! Zin! A violin by Lloyd Moss--for the AlphaKIT letter Z.

Running Around (and such) by Linda Byler--cute coming-of-age story in a series of three.

Amish Women: Lives and Stories by Louise Stoltzfus--my first e-checkout with my new library card! Loving it!

I finally got my new library card and used it to check out e-books on Hoopla--yippee! It's a different library world, my dearies, since I graduated from Library School.

Currently reading A Lancaster Amish Sketchbook by Ruth Price, book two. Lots of typos and errors that should have been fixed in editing. Also reading Love and Saffron by Kim Fay.

Started back reading queen of hearts and chasing spring

Just finished Love and Saffron by Kim Fay and A Lancaster Amish Sketchbook by Ruth Price. Started reading An Amish Kitchen by Beth Wiseman.

Just started Maizy Chen's Last Chance which I am enjoying so far.

Starting Autumn Rounds a book that has been praised much around these parts..Eager to start!

I started Ten Low a couple of days ago. It's for bookclub and I've given myself a couple of weeks.

I have finished Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch. I think I am going to review Rivers of London as a complete series, seeing as I'm three in already and haven't reviewed any yet, and also I don't want to get too repetitive.

I'll be choosing my next read from the library bag later today.

>173 LadyoftheLodge: Congrats on the new library card!

Finished Maizy Chen's Last Chance which has a fine core story about a girl who reconnects with her Chinese family heritage and her grandparents. I respect the author's viewpoint and the backstory, but it seemed as if the book was trying too hard to connect all the socially acceptable politically correct themes--prejudice, discrimination, refugees/immigrants, LGBTQ, pregnancy out of wedlock is okay, pursue your dreams no matter what, and more.

Also read a book about coral reefs for NetGalley, which had lovely color illustrations but did not transfer well to the tablet format. Again, this book tried too hard by including college-level vocabulary words in a book aimed at kids. The book would have conveyed interesting info about coral reefs without the vocabulary words interspersed.

>180 Julie_in_the_Library: Thank you! I have not used the digital downloads from the library in the past, because the process at my previous library seemed so cumbersome, I just gave up.

Just finished two books autumn rounds which is a lovely story of a driver for a book mobile who meets up with a circus act, in Quebec. Brings back memories to our trip, and describes the outside area that we didn't get to. Its a quiet read, but pleasant and I need that after the last few books....4*

also finished chasing spring by Bruce Stutz which I started reading for our February RT theme Countryside. The author followes natures season of renewal through the time zones starting in Maryland and ending in ANWR. Not just a look at spring time, but a scientific journey that shows how the delicate patterns are increasingly endangered by climate change. this book was written in 2006 so all the data on how things were already changing are all obsolete.; how much has it all changed in 25 years is rather sobering. 5*

>184 cindydavid4: Have you read Edwin Way Teale or Gladys Taber? Those are some of my go-to authors about nature and the books are treasured members of my home library.

Currently reading An Amish Bride and An Amish Kitchen.

>182 LadyoftheLodge: I dabbled a bit with getting digital audiobooks from the library a decade ago, but the process of getting the books onto my iPod got to be quite frustrating, plus at the time there was no way to return things early if you'd finished with them (not so much of an issue with Hoopla, but definitely a thing with Libby/Overdrive). After a year or so I basically gave up on the whole process until I got a smartphone. Happily, things had improved quite a bit in the intervening years, and now the process is basically painless! How many Hoopla borrows does your library grant you per month?

Yesterday I started reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, and I am quite enjoying it. I'm also still in the middle of several other books: The Feather Thief, which I borrowed from the library after seeing it mentioned multiple times here; The Sweet Rowan, part of a buddy read that I'm in this month; Far From the Madding Crowd, which I am finishing up for a buddy read from last month; Dombey and Son, which I'm reading with a group on Instagram at the rate of one part a week; and Upstairs at the White House, which I started over a year ago.

I recently finished reading Cyrano de Bergerac (reading through tears is a challenge) and the delightful Foxes in Love by Toivo Kaartinen, which my husband gave me for Valentine's Day.

>185 LadyoftheLodge: no I havent. Ill have to checkt them out, thanks

>188 shadrach_anki: Cyrano de Bergerac

Love that play; eagerly awaiting the film musical version with Peter Dinklendge but they keep moving back the start date do to illness.

>190 cindydavid4: I'm also really looking forward to the upcoming film. It looks like the release date is next week? I know that I've been seeing ad posts for it all over my Instagram feed, which is actually what prompted me to pull out my copy of the play (Brian Hooker's translation) and read it. I'd seen the 1990 film version with Gerard Depardieu, so I already knew the story, but that lessened the emotional impact not a whit as I read.

>191 shadrach_anki: Ive seen that one also, along with the Derek Jacobi one he did in the 80s on HBO. Its on you tube and is sooooo good. yeah both brought tears This next one probably will too

I finished First Harvest a novel written in 1943 and taking place in a French village under German occupation, written by Russian/French author Vladimir Pozner. I've a review posted on my CR thread.

I'm now reading Flats Fixed - Among Other Things a fun mystery from the obscure but entertaining Giff Speer series of the 1960s/70s by Don Tracy.

>187 shadrach_anki: Our public library allows 8 regular borrows a month and 8 flex borrows at a time.

I zipped through the pulp crime novel Flats Fixed - Among Other Things from the obscure but enjoyable Giff Speer series from the 1960s/70s by Don Tracy. I'll have a short review up on my 50-Book Challenge thread shortly.

Next up, I'm finally going to read The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

now reading the swallowed man love everything from Edward Carey and so far this is no exception

Aspire to Die- a mystery set in Oxford.

Well, Finished The Swallowed Man and am not sure what to think. His books are often about people who are on the outside, and how they manage to survive and thrive. I love his style of writing; bits of fantasy and humanity of his characters Observatory Mansions and Alva and Irva are excellent examples.

First is the dedication: “In loving memory of my father (1938-2010) and my first son (2006).” which should act as a trigger warning

So Geppetto finishes his puppet, names him and the discovers he is a real boy. His anger at the child sends the child running and as he goes to fetch him, he is swallowed by a whale., Fortunately for him the whale also swallowed a ship which becomes his home of sorts. The book is about his loss and guilt at how he treated his child, as well as how he was treated by his father. Art also factors a great deal in the story,

In his other books I finished with a smile on my face; this one tho discomforted me quite a bit. From the NYT review:

"What keeps this book afloat, as it were, is the voice Carey gives to Geppetto.is a master of the dusty yet droll tone. Recalling Pinocchio’s first lie, Geppetto writes: “That nose — the nose of the thing, already prominent — it grew longer! O disobedient wood! O unfamiliar life! … I watched that nose stretch and increase until I thought it might touch the wall. It grew so much it started to imbalance the creature, to tip him over, nose first. What an abhorrence. What a vile root. Such an unwelcome growing. It quite panicked me.” If that prose doesn’t delight you, this is not your book.

Should it matter to a reader why an author writes something, what he’s trying to work out on the page, or thinks he is? Academics can worry that bone; Carey’s dedication haunted me as I finished “The Swallowed Man,” and enriched it. I’ve not suffered the kind of grief he implies, but I understand a father’s infinite, obsessive love for a child — and the ways in which that love leaves you vulnerable. Like most parents, I know what it feels like to be consumed."

I was very discomforted by how G treated his child and how his own father treated him. But his grief and loss touched me deeply.,

4* but with reservations about the subject

Another library book has jumped the queue: Palestine by Joe Sacco. It's intense, and I can only read a couple of chapters at a time before I have to stop.

I started Maus II and Coriolanus.

After finishing David Copperfield and breezing through Lady Audley’s secret I’m back in the nineteenth century, but across the Atlantic: Mark Twain, social critic had been loitering on my shelf far too long, and that side-tracked me into The gilded age, which turns out to have some odd resonances with Lady Audley (as well as with some US administrations a bit more recent than Grant… ).

I've finished A Strangeness in My Mind, and posted my thoughts. I've started a book of poetry (a vanishingly rare thing for me) by a Palestinian writer. The book is Rifqa.

I gave up on Better to Have Gone. It sounded intriguing - death in an Indian utopia. But it was really boring me. So I read the kindle sample of Tin Man which I very much enjoyed. I ordered the book from the library. Looking for something else now.

I started the last of my latest library haul - Lilies, Lies and Love. I somehow feel obliged to read this as the last of the series. I'm only a little way in and I can see it is going to stretch my credulity.

>203 ursula: I don't see your review for strangness, link pls?

I am reading Maigret's Childhood Friend by Georges Simenon which I am enjoying quite a bit. He reminds me of Hercule Poirot somewhat. I want to read more in the series, but our public library only has the videos, not the books.

>207 LadyoftheLodge: Simenon is a slippery slope — once you start, you realise how many hundreds of books he wrote. Most of them, Maigret and non-Maigret alike, seem to be worth reading. If your library doesn’t have them, it might be worth doing a trawl around local charity shops. Failing that, if you’re reading in English, Penguin have been reissuing most of the Maigret stories recently, so they should be available as e-books.

I’ve started Footsteps: adventures of a romantic biographer by Richard Holmes, which is excellent so far. That was a book I found out about from someone here (sorry, I forget who, but thanks whoever it was!).

I'm currently reading Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles. It's slow going so far. I have a lot of issues with the book, but I also find it very interesting and definitely want to finish it. This one will be interesting to review once I'm done.

>209 Julie_in_the_Library: by chance I’ve read that - a long time ago. I’m still horrified by all the library destruction.

>209 Julie_in_the_Library: I read that one too, and might still own a copy. I think I read it in library school. Have you read Library, the Drama Within? That is one of my faves.

just started the city we became Its pouring down rain today, and I dont have any place I have to go, so perfect time to read.

Just finishing Happiness by Aminatta Forna. Unfortunately it's taken me too long to read this due to life interruptions, but it really has been fabulous

Also reading wrong end of the telescope I loved his an unecessary woman and enjoying this one just the same. This is what I will also be reading for Marchs theme for Asian Challenge.

While I have several books ongoing, I currently seem to be reading Contemporary Fiction: A Very Short Introduction.

I am intrigued by the details provided by Chris Hadfield in his new book "Apollo Murders". Of course, as an astronaut himself what better person/author than he to provide us with fictional intrigue with facts.

Just picked up The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction from the library.

I finished An Amish Kitchen and started Writing About the Amish: A Memoir which is mostly a series of short anecdotal essays about the author's experiences and research for the Amish fiction novels she writes. It also contains a bonus novella.

I finished Tin Man by Sarah Winman, and State of Terror by Hilary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny.

Library holds seem to all be coming in at once. I started Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie. I wanted to reread it before seeing the new movie. I also downloaded Matrix by Lauren Groff, and Slough House by Mick Herron. Those will keep me busy for a while. For audio, I have Hidden Depths by Anne Cleeves.

what did you think of State of Terror?

My new lunch-at-home book is The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone.

the unnecessary woman by Rabih Alamedding (wrong touchstone)was one of my favorite books from few years back. Happened upon The wrong end of the telescope I knew I had to read this. I was hoping it would be as good and oh my - what a beautiful, powerful and redeeming read that strikes so many chords: the Medittaranian refugee crisis, leaving home behind, transgender, NGOs, volunteer tourism, sibling bonds and the kindness of others, even in this refugee camp. Forgive me for using the back flap comment that speaks for me "cunningly weaving stories of other refugees with her own....a bedazzling tapestry of both tragic and amusing portraits of indomitable spirits facing a humitarian crisis" Its one of those books that at the end you wanted to have more. I have marked so many of the passages that I wanted to post. But this will have to do. Just read it Highly recommended 5*

( Will the current ukranian refugee crisis be different I wonder.)

I did have a few difficulties with parts of this book, and its not the book, its me. In one chapter a magnificent home filled with birds and song is destroyed by an Israeli missle. Like so many other similar, I felt so angry about it, and remorse, that a place that I lived in and loved continue to do so much harm to so many. I feel guilty; its not my fault, but want to say I am so sorry this happened and continues to happen. And I wish I could do more than send checks

Which brings up the second issue: people who come to help are characterized as idiots, clueless, tactless 'using the problems of others to make themselves feel better'. Its called 'volunteer tourism'. I laughed and moaned at some of the situations, but I wonder if wanting to help in some way is nec a bad thing. I went into teaching because it called to me, i had a passion for it, and I was good at it, and yes it made me feel good to help others. But is it all self serving? Can it be possibly altruistic? That might make for an interesting discussion. But none of this takes away from the book.

>211 LadyoftheLodge: I haven't, but it's going on my TBR!

>222 cindydavid4: "People who come to help are characterized as idiots, clueless, tactless 'using the problems of others to make themselves feel better'. Its called 'volunteer tourism'. I laughed and moaned at some of the situations, but I wonder if wanting to help in some way is nec a bad thing."

Here's a mostly non-informed opinion about your question: I think it depends on the commitment of the people who show up. Are they committed to staying for a while and following through? More importantly, have they taken the time to get training beforehand, to understand the actual problems and culture of the place and people they are coming to help? Or is it a six-month "look at me!" holiday. I would, for example, contrast the sorts of folks described in the book to the people I know who have spent time, usually two or three years at a stretch, in the Peace Corps. Not that Peace Corps initiatives are always pristine in intent and/or result, but I think of the motivations of such people, again, at least the ones I know, as being substantially more serious than the group you're describing.

As a side note: I have heard stories from my New Orleans friends about the people who showed up there after Katrina to bestow the blessings of their wonderful selves on the situation. Not that help wasn't very much needed and also given, but one result of that phenomenon, as one of my friends told me, was that a significant portion of this cohort looked around, saw how cheap housing was, asked their parents for loans, and bought property. (This is, again, how my buddy described things, and I'm sure there was some animus in his recounting.) The point is that this turned out to be the seed of the gentrification of some of the city's historic Black neighborhoods which brought NOLA's longtime residents considerable distress.

>222 cindydavid4: >224 rocketjk: In addition to commitment, I think the types of jobs they volunteer for is telling too. Are they coming to staff the welcome table or are they gutting houses. After Hurricane Michael, there were lots of volunteers to work handing out supplies to people who drove up to the tent, not so many were willing to don respirators, grab a sledgehammer, and spend hours in a hot, waterlogged house.

I just finished some light reading selections: Pumpkin Pie Mystery by Naomi Miller and Philip's Christmas Secret by Hannah Miller (touchstone not showing up).

>224 rocketjk: think it depends on the commitment of the people who show up. Are they committed to staying for a while and following through? More importantly, have they taken the time to get training beforehand, to understand the actual problems and culture of the place and people they are coming to help? Or is it a six-month "look at me!" holiday.

Right, i agree. but the book seems to put all of them in the holiday category which I don't think is realistic. The main characters are involved professionally; its almost like looking down at the volunteers (tho again there were some pretty off ones) I woud have liked to see volunteers portrayed as being somewhat competent. Or at least having altruistic intent.

>227 cindydavid4: "The main characters are involved professionally"

Ah, I see. It's like the people I know, then, who despise all NGOs just on principle. Seems to be painting with a pretty broad brush.

>225 labfs39: I agree, I have done lots of volunteering, as a camp counselor, answering hot line calls, working with victim/ witnesses of crime, food bank baggers, children museum educator. In each case we all brought something of ourselves to the job; which made the volunteers successful at what they do. Im not sure thats always realistic in situations like this; people just have to be self motiviated and self aware enough to decided what they can do and be honest about what they need help doing.

Sort of adjacent relevant: In Jewish teaching, we have the Pirkie Avot, the sayings of the fathers One of them says , "Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.” That saying has always driven me to continue to act. me to continue. There is another I love: Maimondes 8 levels of tzedakah (giving to charity)

Maimonides defines eight levels in giving charity (tzedakah), each one higher than the preceding one.

On an ascending level, they are as follows:
8. When donations are given grudgingly.

7. When one gives less than he should, but does so cheerfully.

6. When one gives directly to the poor upon being asked.

5. When one gives directly to the poor without being asked.

4. Donations when the recipient is aware of the donor's identity, but the donor still doesn't know the specific identity of the recipient.

3. Donations when the donor is aware to whom the charity is being given, but the recipient is unaware of the source.

2. Giving assistance in such a way that the giver and recipient are unknown to each other. Communal funds, administered by responsible people are also in this category.

1. The highest form of charity is to help sustain a person before they become impoverished by offering a substantial gift in a dignified manner, or by extending a suitable loan, or by helping them find employment or establish themselves in business so as to make it unnecessary for them to become dependent on others.

>228 rocketjk: by professionally I mean they are doctors or others involed in direct care with NGOs, so they are giving, they just don't think much of the volunteers ability to help.. That being said thinking more about the book, the volunteers were not the focus, the refugees were, and it showed the difficulty they had getting what they needed because of clueless and tactless volunteers. So there was really not a problem with how they were portrayed, its what happens when they interacted with the refugees. So my complaint, such as it is, is not really valid.

It's the weekend, and time for some fun. I'm reading a thriller set in the French Alps: One By One, by Ruth Ware. I've enjoyed two other books by the same author.

I picked up The Glass Hotel as my latest commute book.

>229 cindydavid4: Thank you for sharing these teachings. They gave me some reassurance and some food for thought.

New thread up - this one is getting long :)