*** What are you reading now? - Part 3

It is almost April 1 in USA, and it is already April 1 in Europe and Asia so time for a new thread.

What are you reading? With spring coming in full power in the North (and autumn in the South), will your reading patterns change?

If you had missed NanaCC's thread on favorite reads for last 3 months, you may want to check it (and be ready to add a lot of books to your wishlist)

Happy reading everyone!

I am still working on London Falling and started The Case of the Lucky Legs last night. Both so far are good!

I finished Brown Girl Dreaming which was wonderful.

I've started Maid in Waiting, the first book in the third trilogy of John Galsworthy's Forsyte Chronicles. I'm excited because I'm loving it already.

I'm about half way through a murder mystery set in Montreal -- Deadly Jewels. I really liked the same author's Asylum this time last year.

Coming up is The Grapes of Wrath for my book club. I'm not too enthused about this, but I've loved Steinbeck in the past so hope this one isn't too dreary.

>4 Nickelini: I keep thinking I really should read The Grapes of Wrath. I hope you enjoy, I want to see what you think.

I finished my regular book and my audio book today. In paper, I finished Mythology, a 1942 book and something of classic by Edith Hamilton. On audio I finished The Story of America: Essays on Origins by Jill Lepore.

I'm a bit hesitant to jump into Gravity's Rainbow, but it's my next planned book. Not sure I'm ready, but I guess I can make myself ready. On audio, I purchased The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson, which I was really looking forward to, partially thanks to one of the last Lepore essays from above.

Joyce, I hope you like The Grapes of Wrath! That was the first Steinbeck I read, and I loved it.

>4 Nickelini: I felt awful because I didn't like The Grapes of Wrath as much as East of Eden and Of Mice and Men. The Grapes of Wrath was supposed to be the best Steinbeck, I had concluded after all reviews here on LT. Not for me though...

I am reading Contact for the 1001 GR and Of Human Bondage. Both will keep me busy for a while.

Back in the nineteenth century, I'm roaring through The Prisoner of Zenda.

I am reading Reasons of State by Alejo Carpentier, one of my favorite authors. It's densely written so it's a slow read.

I'm continuing with the very good collection of Lucia Berlin's short stories, A Manual for Cleaning Women. I'm also reading the new Joe Pickett mystery, Off the Grid. My graphic novel is the third volume of Alex + Ada, a thought-provoking series about sentient artificial intelligence.

>5 dchaikin:, >6 mabith:, & >7 Simone2: thanks for all the encouragement with Grapes of Wrath. This is the fourth book club book in a row that I haven't wanted to read, but I'm hoping once I get into it I'll be enthralled.

>5 dchaikin: The Warmth of Other Suns was immersive, and I too listened on audio.

I'm reading Eudora Welty's memoir, One Writer's Beginnings and David Foster Wallace's essays, Consider the Lobster.

Managed to finish The Case of the Lucky Legs last night. And started Invisible City by Julia Dahl. So far pretty good.

>12 detailmuse: good to hear. I restarted this morning to give it a second try. I think I just wasn't listening close enough. Too many thought distractions.

I finished listening to The Giver on audio which I really liked until the unsatisfying end. I'm reading Pioneer Girl which is a large annotated autobiography of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I'm also reading Out of Africa.

Finished Invisible City by Julia Dahl yesterday and it was very good. Review already in :)
Started Wake of the Vultures last night which is a bit weird but not bad so far.

I finished The Housekeeper + the Professor which I enjoyed yet also feel a little ambivalent about.

Not sure what to read next - my wish list goes into the hundreds yet for some reason none of them are floating my boat at the moment, and my library has let me down with bringing in any of my orders. Hmmm - will have to see what's stagnating on my own bookshelves.

I'm about halfway through The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker.

I've taken stock of Hump TBR (much too small now to be called a mount as I am trying to borrow books from the library instead of buying them). I have decided I can't ever bring myself to read The Finkler Question so it has gone in the charity shop bag, and I'm fairly sure Captain Corelli's Mandolin and The Marriage Plot are not going to get a second chance.

On then to The People's Act of Love. My TBR pile is almost just a small blip now - hurrah!

I am trying to catch up here in Club Read, as I've been too busy and the number of unread threads had piled up. And then I'm going to read A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry, just in time for the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising.

Made a little detour through Walking Distance: Pilgrimage, Parenthood, Grief, and Home Repairs yesterday - did not feel like any fiction or any of my history books. Now back to the regularly scheduled books :)

Recently finished Fever and Spear and Tom Jones (on audio). I am now reading Down Second Avenue, Paintings in Proust, and Henry IV, part 1.

I'm reading The Salterton Trilogy by Robertson Davies, as well as The Bastard of Fort Stikine by Debra Komar, which are giving me two entirely different pictures of Canadian culture.

I'm going to have to pick up Capital by John Lanchester soon, as it's this month's pick for my RL book group.

I am reading The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe.

>19 AlisonY: I hated The Finkler Question so in my opinion that was a wise decision.

>23 RidgewayGirl: I loved The Salterton Trilogy!

Finished another Fred Vargas, Dans les bois éternels, over breakfast this morning (OK, breakfast went on a little longer than it's supposed to on a Monday morning, but you can't leave a crime story with fewer than 50 pages to go...). Still havering about what to read next, but there's plenty to choose from on the TBR shelf.

>22 ELiz_M: Recently finished Fever and Spear and Tom Jones - That sounds like a great pairing - the sort of thing you could have endless fun with as an essay topic ("compare and contrast strategies of digression and delay in Javier Marías and eighteenth-century fiction, with special attention to...")

>26 thorold: Ha! Completely unintentional. That is an excellent essay question -- and with it you just pulled Fever and Spear into focus for me.

Back to Walter Scott, this time with The Antiquary for Literary Centennials.

I'm coming to the end of A Very Dangerous Woman and a little ways into The Colonel by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, which is very good.

I'm reading Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the english people and listening to Hardy Wessex Tales.

The former surprisingly readable, the latter less depressing than I've come to expect of Hardy. I suppose in a short story he simply has less time to be depressing.

I've finished book seven in the Forsyte Chronicles, Maid in Waiting by John Galsworthy. Next up, book eight, Flowering Wilderness.

>12 detailmuse: I'm in the middle of Consider the Lobster as well, will be interested to hear your thoughts.

I'm devouring my ARC of The Girls: A Novel by Emma Cline.

I am Reading Memoirs of a Survivor by Doris Lessing

I finished the fascinating -- and dense -- Reasons of State by one of my favorite authors, Alejo Carpentier.

A Manual for Cleaning Women was excellent, and I had a good time with Fire Touched. I'm now reading The War That Saved My Life, a YA, and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, the final book in Philip K. Dick's Valis trilogy.

>32 janemarieprice: I didn't connect much with the first essays, but by the fourth (his book review of the dictionary) I've started catching myself thinking, oh no no how can he be gone and there'll be no more like this. Looking forward to your comments.

I finished the eighth book in the Forsyte Chronicles by John Galsworthy, Flowering Wilderness, which I loved.

I will start the final book tonight, One More River.

After finishing Rush of Blood (which turned out better than I expected but away from Billingham's best), started The Pagan Night by Tim Akers last night. Around 100 pages in, it is moving slowly...

I've recently finished a couple of collections of Tintin comics lent to me by a friend, and a book of park ranger anecdotes: Hey Ranger!: True Tales of Humor & Misadventure from America's National Parks by Jim Burnett.

I'm now reading Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro. And, geez, can that woman write!

The subtle peer pressure of the bookworld has got me, so I've started My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. I also started Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs: A Popular History of Ancient Egypt and I'm still working on The Colonel by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi.

Finished Knowledge: A Very Short Introduction, by Jennifer Nagel. Review in my thread. Next: Logic: A Very Short Introduction, by Graham Priest. The quest for philosophy continues...

I've finished the fantastic Tempest-Tost by Robertson Davies. Hard to believe that this was his first novel.

I'm reading Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond, in which the author combines exhaustive research with the real stories of a selection of tenants and landlords. It's eye-opening just how much more difficult and expensive it is to be poor.

And I'm reading a few others; The Bastard of Fort Stikine by Debra Komar, about the 1842 murder of a Hudson's Bay Company manager; Truth by Peter Temple, a gritty crime novel set in Australia; as well as two short story collections, Reader, I Married Him by various authors based on Charlotte Brontë's famous closing lines, and What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi.

There is no excuse for having gotten involved with so many books at once.

I finished and was disappointed by Helen Oyeyemi's new collection of stories, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours.

Rebecca, I'm mostly sorry the Oyeyemi was disappointing because I think it's such a great title! (Also for reading time, and all, but that title...)

>44 rebeccanyc: Rebecca, I've just read the first story in that collection.

I've finished the Forsyte Chronicles by John Galsworthy, and loved every bit of the nine novels.

Before I move on to Anthony Trollope, I am going to read Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King.

Finished London Falling on the Kindle and it definitely is not for the weak stomach or heart, it was a very good novel. Onto Patchwerk next.

On paper, still working on The Pagan Night which after 100 pages that were dragging a bit, is now moving quite well and the religions that are at the base of the story are very well crafted.

I abandoned The People's Act of Love last week as it just felt like it required far too much concentration than I have to give to reading at the moment. In the middle of The Almost Nearly Perfect People and really enjoying it.

>46 RidgewayGirl: And what did you think, Kay?

I'm now reading The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman. The first two books in this series didn't do it for me nearly as much as it seemed like they ought to, so I confess I mostly only started this one out of some completist impulse, but so far I'm really enjoying it. I'm only 50 pages in, though, so we'll see if that lasts.

>48 AnnieMod: After all that violence Annie, I think Patchwerk which must be a story about ladies (and perhaps the odd man) sitting down to make quilts will be more sedate.

I am reading The Redress of Poetry which is the publication of a series of lectures delivered by the poet Seamus Heaney. I am assuming it is about poetry. TonyH recommended it.

>52 baswood:

It is one of those rare cases when I have no idea what it is about - it is in the new Tor line of novellas and I decided not to read the blurbs at all when getting these. So... we will see. :)

Meanwhile finished The Pagan Night on paper last night (which was good if frustrating in places) and started the fourth Will Robie novel by Baldacci The Guilty because it needs to go back to the library in Saturday. :)

Life on Mars was an excellent collection of poetry by Tracy K. Smith, and I just started In a Different Key: The Story of Autism.

>50 rebeccanyc: I liked it. Books and Roses didn't blow me away, but it did have some beautiful imagery.

Nothing like not being able to sleep for finishing books - The Guilty was ok (but worse than the rest of the series). Next on paper: Patricia McKillip's newest Kingfisher

I'm about halfway through David Thomas's historical fiction novel Ostland. For vague reasons (for now), I'm glad I've read Fallada's Alone in Berlin and Binet's HHhH. I'm confident that this initial impression will materialize into more concretely developed thoughts as I keep reading.

I gave up on the audio edition of One Dry Season: In the Footsteps of Mary Kingsley (not a great recording, and just not holding my interest) in favor of Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin.

I'm still avoiding Grapes of Wrath for my book club and distracting myself with Through the Keyhole: Sex, Scandal and the Secret Life of the Georgian Country House and learning a historian's views on what really happened in the Regency era.

I've started reading (for real this time!) The Master and Margarita.

A book I had forgotten I put on hold came in from the library -- The Water Margin (the 800 page version translated by J.H. Jackson). And I only get it for three weeks as another patron has a hold on it. At 40 pages a day it has been enjoyable so far.

The current subway book is Henry IV, Part I and I am also dipping in and out of Paintings in Proust.

I've finally starting rereading To Kill a Mockingbird after having read it in 8th or 9th grade.

Finished McKillip's newest Kingfisher and it was delicious and as good as expected - better than I expected actually. Now reading The Winter Girl by Matt Marinovich which I am still lukewarm about.

>62 avidmom: yay!

Not much to report. I'm still working through Gravity's Rainbow, and I'm really enjoying, on audio, The Warmth of Other Suns. I gave up on listening to Witches: Salem, 1692. I couldn't keep track of all the names, and got to the point that I felt like I no longer had any idea what was going on. It didn't help that the library waited over 2 months to let me have it back. Also, it did seem a bit dull.

So... Marinovich's The Winter Girl ended up even worse than it started but was short enough for me not to drop it. Not sure what I am starting next but I do need a palate cleanser after this one so probably something I expect I will enjoy and not another one of the "oh, that sounds interesting, let me try it" pile.

Thoroughly enjoyed The Almost Nearly Perfect People about the 5 Nordic countries. Now on to Chekhov and The Steppe and Other Stories.

>67 AnnieMod: I have the worst luck with the "oh, that sounds interesting, let me try it" pile, but the occasional successes keep me reading them. I think there's a study involving rats that shows that intermittent and unpredictable rewards are the most effective. That's certainly true with me.

I'm reading Helen Oyeyemi's collection of short stories, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, and halfway through, I'm inclined to agree with Rebecca's assessment.

I'm also reading The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild, which has a promising premise, but just isn't that well written. It's shortlisted for the Baileys Prize, so I will continue.

On the other hand, Reader, I Married Him, a collection of stories based on Jane Eyre is excellent. I've especially enjoyed the stories by Helen Dunmore and Sarah Hall.

I finished Stephen King's Mr Mercedes. I'm not quite ready to start Trollope, so I'm going with another light read, which I have on my Kindle... A Bitter Truth by Charles Todd.

I finished Giovanni's Room and added Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America to my current reads. Still working on Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs by Barbara Mertz (she is HILARIOUS and I love her) and The Colonel by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi.

>69 RidgewayGirl:

The funny part is that it was not really that much outside of my the usual range of books I am reading. Oh well.

In the meantime, my palate cleanser Joyland is working out just fine :)

I am reading Kazan, James oliver curwood

I finished Out of Africa which I didn't really like. I'm reading Pioneer Girl, an annotated autobiography of Laura Ingalls Wilder which I'm absolutely loving. I'm dipping in and out of Jill Lepore's collection of essays, The Story of America.

Actually, though, all of that is on hold while I tear through Where Monsters Dwell, a fantastic mystery by Norwegian Jorgen Brekke that I can't put down.

Finished Patchwerk today and it was a pretty nice SF novella. And last night, finished Joyland which showcased the storytelling abilities of King outside of the horror genre and was a perfect novel to get me back on track.

Started The Case of the Howling Dog on the Kindle and so far, it is going fine. Not sure what I am starting on paper but I am off to Europe after work tomorrow on a business trip so I suspect I won't read too much on paper next week. :)

Anyone in Paris next Saturday by any chance and with no other plans? :)

I finished, and loved, Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America. Finding non-depressing LGBT stuff is rough even in current media, so something covering the very late 18th century and most of the 19th that was positive and lovely and sweet (and TRUE and rigorously supported with primary sources) is just what I needed.

Started The Battle of Hastings by Harriet Harvey Wood, and it's already really helping me cement facts about the Anglo-Saxon period in England, much more so than anything else I've read.

Just finished The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, a good book about a depressing topic. I've now started To The Nines by Janet Evanovich, and am trying to decide whether I'm tired of this series yet or not.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman, which was chosen for this year's Wellcome Book Prize shortlist. It's a great book about the history of autism, with rich descriptions of several of the main researchers who discovered and described the various manifestations of autism, which doesn't sugarcoat their numerous flaws, and several notable people that fit on the autism spectrum are also highlighted. Hopefully I'll finish it today.

>78 kidzdoc: Agree that Neurotribes is a great book.

In a Different Key: The Story of Autism by John Donvan isn't quite at the level of Neurotribes, but with its emphasis on the personal stories of people involved in the development of our understanding of what's now called autism spectrum disorders, it's a good complementary book.

I've started Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer and The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan.

>78 kidzdoc: Darryl, I've already forgotten from my reading of it, but I'm curious if Silberman addresses the gender gap in autism. As with ADD/ADHD, white males make up the majority of the population that was studied (initially and still). Due to pretty different socialization it can and does manifest differently in girls, to the extent where people refuse to believe a certain child has it at all due to the very limited autism stereotypes/media portrayals. Huge consequences for parents seeking help, especially dealing with schools.

I've finished and reviewed two novels (in one book) by Mavis Gallant, whose short stories I love, A Fairly Good Time with Green Water, Green Sky.

I've finished What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi and I have to agree with Rebecca's assessment. I don't think that her writing style is suited to short stories. I'll try to corral my thoughts tomorrow.

I'm halfway through The Improbability of Love, which is an excellent plot spoiled by mediocre writing and terrible characterization. There's not a single broad stereo-type omitted from this novel.

Finished and loved Where Monsters Dwell. Now I've started The Light Years, the first book in the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard.

I finished NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity, which was superb.

I've started reading Roads to Santiago by Cees Nooteboom, a description of his journey by car across Spain from Barcelona to Santiago de Compostela, and The Last Act of Love by Cathy Rentzenbrink, another book from this year's Wellcome Book Prize shortlist, a memoir about her teenage brother's severe traumatic brain injury from a hit-and-run accident, and how it affected her and her family.

>80 mabith: Silberman does touch on the gender, socioeconomic and racial gaps in the diagnosis of autism at several points in NeuroTribes, Meredith.

I finally finished a real book: Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson. Nobody outside a circle of a vindaigram of people who like soccer history and likes to talk about formations as if they mean something will find this title enjoyable, but hey it's a book and I'm counting it.

I'm still trying to read through my stack of ARCs. I finished All is Not Forgotten last night and will start reading My Best Friend's Exorcism today.

Rubbernecker was an entertaining mystery (I guess that's what we'd call it) featuring an Aspie as the main character.

Now I'm reading Siege of Krishnapur and The Summer Before the War.

>84 kidzdoc: Ah good. I was pretty sure he did, as I wouldn't have given the book such a high rating otherwise, but it's dangerous to trust a faulty memory.

A fiddly embroidery project got me most of the way through Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare. It's interesting, but not quite as addictively good as his book The Siege. I think that's partly due to a mediocre audiobook reader.

I am reading There Was a Country: A Memoir which is a bit annoying at the start but seems to be picking up...

I am reading The Mutiny on the Elsinore by Jack London on my kindle (which keeps telling me to recharge the Batteries) and so I might not get to the end.
I am also reading A New History of Early English Drama, edited by John D Cox and David Scott Kastan which isn't such a page turner.

After finishing WWII historical fiction Ostland, I needed a lighter read. So far, Charles Stross's The Jennifer Morgue fits the bill.

i am reading Meditation: Complete Guide Meditation For Beginners, Meditation Techniques, Guided Meditation, Zen Meditation By Megan Coulter

Completed Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 and Orwell's Homage to Catalonia and am now reading Barcelona by Robert Hughes and A Not So Perfect Crime by Teresa Solana, which is the first in a mystery series that is translated from the Catalan. All in anticipation of my first trip back to Barcelona next month after about 25 years.

>93 theaelizabet: Excellent! I'll be going to Barcelona in mid-June. I've read, and liked, Homage to Catalonia and Barcelona, and I'll read more books about Spain starting next month, including Roads to Santiago, which I probably won't finish this month. How did you like Spain in Our Hearts?

Since my last post I finished The Last Act of Love and Widow Basquiat, a book in prose poetry form about Suzanne Mallouk, the muse of the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. I've started White Hunger by the Finnish author Aki Ollikainen, which was chosen for this year's Man Booker International Prize longlist and is about a devastating famine in Finland in 1867 and its effect on a widowed farmer's wife and her children, as they attempt to reach St. Petersburg before they succumb to cold and hunger. I've also started Catalog of Gratitude by Ross Gay, which was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award for Poetry and won the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry.

>94 kidzdoc: I wish we were going at the same time; it would be great to meet up! Darryl, I was greatly helped by your terrific thread over at Reading Globally (http://www.librarything.com/topic/189380), so thanks for that. Spain in Our Hearts was quite good (I hope to finally update my thread with a review of it) and Homage to Catalonia was both informative and heartbreaking. I hope to read Rodoreda's Time of the Doves and Laforet's Nada before I leave.

>95 theaelizabet: That would have been great!

I'm glad that you liked the Reading Globally thread on Iberian literature, even though I lost steam halfway through the quarter.

I can highly recommend Time of the Doves and Nada. A new translation of War, So Much War by Open Letter Books was chosen for this year's Best Translated Book Award longlist, so I'll almost certainly read the Kindle version of it in June. I've been meaning to get to The Gray Notebook by Josep Pla, so I'll probably bring it with me, along with The Sea by Blai Bonet, which I received as a Christmas present from my wish list at the beginning of the year.

I've finished a fun little ER book, What's It Like in Space? by Ariel Waldman, and am now finally getting back to C. J. Cherryh's Foreigner series with Destroyer.

I'm also reading a little book of Mark Twain quotes, a few minutes at a time during those multiple times per day when I have to stand in between my cats as they eat to keep them from stealing each other's food. :)

>96 kidzdoc: The Gray Notebook sounds fascinating. Something tells me I'm going to be reading Catalan authors long after my trip there.

It is sort of true that I am out of periodicals at least until I check today's mail. Last night I read from:

The Ethics of Suicide edited by Margaret Pabst Battin
Defending the Axioms by Penelope Maddy
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield

I read only a few pages of the latter, but I believe it is the weakest of the three.

Robert

>98 theaelizabet: I wouldn't be surprised. There are more works of Catalan literature being translated and published in the US in recent years. I'll post a list of books I own, read and unread, on my thread in the near future. Two that come to mind immediately were both published by Archipelago Books in the past year or two, Life Embitters by Josep Pla, and Private Life by Josep Maria de Sagarra.

This is a good online resource for Catalan literature: http://www.lletra.net/en

The English language bookshop in Barcelona I know best is llibreria anglesa, located on the Carrer de Balmes in L'Eixample, next to the Provença FGC (commuter rail) station, and a short walk from both Avinguda Diagonal and Passeig de Gràcia.

ETA: The restaurant next to llibreria anglesa, Balmes Rosselló, is good. I've had their tapas but not their pizzas; they don't serve paella, unfortunately.

I finished and reviewed the next mystery in Peter May's Lewis series, The Lewis Man, and a book that's been on TBR for years, The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved, which I didn't find as interesting as I hoped.

>101 rebeccanyc: Rebecca, you might try Life and Death of a Druid Prince for a good bog body read. It's relatively short, but I found out very compelling and informative.

Finished and enjoyed by first foray into Chekhov (The Steppe and other Stories. On to American Rust which I'm really looking forward to.

>102 mabith: Thanks for the recommendation, Meredith.

>103 AlisonY: I love Chekhov!

Finished listening Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy, by Francis Fukuyama. Review in my thread. Next in the listening order: The Origins of Totalitarism, by Hannah Arendt.

I started Judas by Amos Oz after finishing the moving The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart.

I'm enjoying The Summer Before the War and The Siege of Krishnapur.

After finishing and loving the nine novels in The Forsyte Chronicles, I needed some lighter fare. Mysteries seemed to fit the bill - Mr Mercedes by Stephen King, A Bitter Truth by Charles Todd, Limitations by Scott Turow, and The Hanging Garden by Ian Rankin. I've got that out of my system for a little while, so now I'm ready for Anthony Trollope's Can You Forgive Her?, the first book in his Pallisers series.

In the midst of a re-read of Ozma of Oz. Also just started Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence by Judith Herman and Buddha by Karen Armstrong.

I've started reading Devil on the Cross by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o for the second quarter theme of Writers at Risk; Ngũgĩ wrote this novel on toilet paper during a year long imprisonment by Kenyan authorities. I also started Failure by Philip Schultz, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2008.

I've just finished John Lanchester's Capital, which was very fine. I'm reading A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold, which is difficult reading, as is Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond.

After a week on the road, managed to finish some books - two Perry Mason novels - The Case of the Howling Dog and The Case of the Curious Bride (number 4 and 5 respectively in the series) which were good and I am really enjoying the series, Achebe's There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra which was disappointing although not a complete loss of time, the first Molly Murphy novel Murphy's Law (which was charming and sweet) and the new Brunetti novel The Waters of Eternal Youth which was sweet and nice as always. Reviews for all of them already done. :)

Last night, I managed to finish Midwinterblood which had its high points but a bit of a botched ending. Review to follow some time today

Currently reading: The Hercules Text on paper (not sure how I feel about McDevitt decision to revise the novel for the reissuing yet...) and almost done with Paul McAuley's The Quiet War on the kindle - which swings between very exciting and boring every few pages...

I've finally finished my audiobook, Speaking from Among the Bones: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley, which was entertaining, as usual.

My next audiobook is Slash and Burn by Colin Cotteril. These have been getting darker and darker as the series progresses, despite the fact that Dr Siri Paiboun 'sees and talks to dead people'.

I've started Extinction, Thomas Bernhard's last novel. It seems to be even more relentlessly scathing than usual from him, but it's almost impossible too, to not be in sympathy with the angry protagonist.

Also started José Eduardo Agualusa's A General Theory of Oblivion. I like how very adeptly in his novels he can weave together themes of war, suffering, memories with almost fantastical elements not to trivialise them but to bring across the disbelief and ways of escape that people who go through these times adopt in order to survive.

After a bit of a fallow period, I'm now immersing myself in the "long 18th century" with The pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815. Trying to make sense of the notion that there might not have been an industrial revolution after all.

>114 deebee1: Thomas Bernhard's always good for a bit of light relief, isn't he?

>115 thorold: He is -- never disappoints! :-)

A few years ago I bought The Pursuit of Glory while on one of my visits to my parents' place and read it about halfway through. I remember enjoying the little bits like that part about the roads, the hunting, and fashion in the French king's court but not much more. I certainly missed that part about not having an industrial revolution. Don't remember seeing the book on my more recent visits, your post reminded me to try to look for it (hoping it's not yet been given away -- my folks inadvertently find their house suddenly flood with yet more books that cry for space, whenever I come around). I'd like to see how he argues the case against IR.

>116 deebee1: I don't think he was actually arguing that case (but I read it late last night and probably need to go back to it): he was explaining that some recent economic historians have put the whole notion of "industrial revolution" into question. If I followed it correctly, the idea is that Engels, Toynbee, Hobsbawm and the rest overestimated the importance of the rapid growth in a couple of industries in Britain (iron and cotton). Blanning seems to come down on the side of the revolution, ending his discussion with a quote from Robert Owen as evidence that contemporaries saw that there was something other than gradual evolutionary change going on.

I finished another mystery, Dreamless by Jorgen Brekke. Very enjoyable overall.

Now I'm back to the Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies with the second book, The Manticore.

I've just finished As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes, which was lovely and made me want to watch the movie again ASAP. Next up is The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith, book 4 in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. I appear to be working my way forward through a lot of series this month.

In preparation for a couple of long flights and layovers, I broke down and bought two books (otherwise, I'm trying to make this an all-home or public-library year). I've jumped into one of them already: David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks.

I really enjoyed American Rust - great from start to finish. I'd have read it in a day if life had allowed. On now to The Orchardist.

I finally finished The Water Margin, the 800 page 70 Chapter version. It is the only thing I have been reading for the past three weeks, as another library patron had a hold on it. Needing to read forty pages a day, I had a few late nights but enjoyed it it.

Now I am onto The Man Who Loved Children in audio and Henry IV, Part II for the subway.

Back in January I tried to read All the Light We Cannot See for my book club. I got to page 217 before the meeting and then put it aside. I figured since I'd invested so much time in it, I'd finish it, so I've been chipping away again. Now I've reached page 356 and I'm putting it aside again. I find myself getting frustrated with how boring it is and how much I don't care while at the same time having a glorious TBR pile calling my name. But now I've invested 356 pages, so I am determined to finish it before the end of summer. Ugh.

Now I have the happy task of finding something better to read . . .

Just finished Under an English Heaven (Being a true recital of the events leading up to and down from the British invasion of Anguilla on March 19th, 1969, in which nobody was killed but many people were embarrassed) by Donald E. Westlake. Very interesting, ridiculous, and amusing.

I'm about halfway through F*ck Feelings by Michael and Sarah Bennett, which is mostly very good but has strayed into very lazy sexism at times, and what I believe is a somewhat outdated view of borderline personality disorder. Still working on Buddha by Karen Armstrong.

I need to start The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America by John Bodnar for my bookclub.

I've finished Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond, and I now want to put a copy in everyone's hands and earnestly ask them to please read it.

I'm now reading the second book in Robertson Davies's Salterton Trilogy, A Leaven of Malice, which I am enjoying enormously. I'm also reading Truth by Peter Temple, which is a gritty police procedural set in Melbourne, Australia, and The Story of the Lost Child, the final volume in Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan quartet. What will I do when it's all over?

>125 RidgewayGirl: I felt the same way about Evicted after I finished it; I still want to put a copy in everyone's hands and earnestly ask them to please read it. I'm just as bad in talking about it; once I have someone listening, it's hard to stop. :-) What an amazing and beautifully told and supported piece of work by Matthew Desmond.

>123 Nickelini: That pretty much describes my experience with it, which I also read for a book group.

Finished both The Hercules Text and The Quiet War this weekend. I really disliked McDevitt's updates (as much as he tried, some of them clash badly and you can see the old novel under them) - but it is a good novel overall and McAuley's vision of the future is fascinating albeit a somewhat flawed novel. Reviews in both.

Next - the second Polity novel by Asher - The Skinner (which after 70 pages is very different from the first but so far good) on paper and the next Perry Mason on the kindle The Case of the Counterfeit Eye

>125 RidgewayGirl:, >126 jnwelch:, >127 theaelizabet: I'd heard enough about Evicted that I was telling my mum she had to read it for me, since I wasn't going to get it from the library anytime soon (very long wait list) and then it showed up on my doorstep on Thurs. (mum sent it to me!)

I'm reading a YA novel, Reality Boy by A. S. King, which I think is doing entirely too good a job of capturing the feeling of teenage angst for my own emotional comfort.

I finished The Sun also Rises by Hemingway, which was a sad, impressive read, and am starting now in Mislaid by Nell Zink, highly recommended to me by a friend of mine. Everytime I see her she asks if I have already read it, so here I go.

>129 ELiz_M: Nice! Kudos to your mum.

I finished and reviewed the remarkable My Happy Days in Hell by Gyorgy Faludy.

Its science Fiction for me next: First its The Forever War by Joe Haldeman which is in the SF Masterwork series, then it will be Shikasta By Doris Lessing and finally The Consolidator by Daniel Defoe.

Finished Asher's The Skinner last night and it was a great book - very different from the first but in a wonderful way.

Started Bad Debts by Peter Temple - so far - good (although as with Disher, it takes a bit to get used to the Australian expressions).

>135 AnnieMod: I read The Skinner a while back and really liked it, but I didn't realize it was part of a series until afterward. Are the rest of the books standalone enough that I can dip in and out of them, or are they more tightly connected, do you know? I have a copy of Prador Moon, which seems to be the first one, chronologically rather than by publication date, but after that I'm not sure how important it is to go in order, or which order I should go in.

>136 bragan:

There are series inside of the big series. The different subseries are independent from each other (or independent enough - runcibles were explained in Gridlinked and just mentioned here - if you read the first you know how they work; if you do not - you will learn that this is how people move between the worlds but that is all you will know - or need to know). From what I am hearing you should be reading the separate subseries in order - The Voyage of the Sable Keech is a sequel to The Skinner for example so I would not expect it to be as powerful on its own if you had not read the first (but ask me again in a while - it is #5 in the published order). Prador Moon is a standalone in the universe so you should be fine - but it may spoil a surprise in some of the books published earlier - part of what I loved about Skinner was exactly the different lives and learning about all the races -- if I had read Prador Moon, I would know what they are and how they behave

I am reading all in publication order now so if you keep an eye here, I will be noting how connected they are... :)

>137 AnnieMod: Thanks for the info! I was figuring on either reading Prador Moon next, or else getting hold of The Voyage of the Sable Keech, since it is a direct sequel. Sounds like either one of those should be OK to start with. At least Prador Moon can't spoil things in The Skinner for me! (Because I agree, I found learning all that stuff as I went along really interesting, too.)

>138 bragan:
You know - my biggest problem writing the review was that I wanted to write some of the story and then it would have spoiled badly anyone that had not read the book. And I hate doing that. So much of the story of the 8 and the story of the world is fascinating - but it comes better as a surprise, as a slow realization on who is who and what they did. It will be a different feeling if you know who is alive and where from the start. Or what happened with certain people. Or what the hornets are planning. And reviewing without mentioning all of these was... challenging :)

>139 AnnieMod: I think when I reviewed it, I mostly talked about the setting. And how surprised I was by how much I liked it.

Encouraged by all the Trollope readers here, and in keeping with my nineteenth century reading year, I have started The Way We Live Now and am really enjoying it.

I finished Mislaid by Nell Zink and will continue with H is for Hawk, of which I have heard so much in the Group Read.

>141 SassyLassy: I started with The Way We Live Now too. I wanted to read a stand-alone Trollope to see if I liked him.

I just finished the very good Infidelity and am now starting Elizabeth Taylor's last novel, Blaming.

I finished listening to Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming. His narration of this memoir was wonderful.

I also finished reading Stephen King's Finders Keepers, which I had to keep pausing as I felt my blood pressure rising. Very tense!

Now back to something calmer - Trollope's Can You Forgive Her.

I finished book two of the Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies, The Manticore. Now I'm reading The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West and Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams by Louisa Thomas.

The blue flower got me curious about Novalis, so I'm reading Heinrich von Ofterdingen before I post a review.

Finished Bad Debts (the first Jack Irish novel) last night and it was very Australian and actually pretty good (and different from most of my reading this year). Reminded me of Gary Disher - not in the story and cast but in building the setting and making you think that you know the place (Melbourne in this case) even if you never been there. Kinda like Rankin and Edinburgh... it is part of the setting but not as obvious as Leon's Venice.

Next is The Sword Thief - the third in the 39 clues series because it needs to go back to the library in Saturday :)

I'm 100 pages into My Struggle: Book Two by Karl Ove Knausgaard, which so far is aa compelling as Book One was. In this book, Karl Ove is a young writer living in Stockholm who is basking in the success of his first novel, but he is also struggling to maintain his manhood and sense of worth as a stay-at-home father of three young children, and although he dearly loves his wife and kids his gaze frequently is directed toward other women that he finds attractive.

I'm also reading Devil on the Cross by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, although I haven't picked it up since this past weekend.

I'm reading My Side of the Mountain, and I'll probably add Dancing at the Rascal Fair.

Reading Clutter Free: Quick and Easy Steps to Simplifying Your Space by Kathi Lipp for a little inspiration.

I'm reading an ARC of the very delightful Dinner With Edward by Isabel Vincent.

So.... The Sword Thief ended up a lot weaker than the previous 2 books in the series (despite being set in interesting places). I hope the series picks up a bit again.

Halfway through The Rogue Lawyer (blame my insomnia) and it is an unusual novel for Grisham but it is fine so far. Although the jabs at the police and the courts and the social commentary are a lot blunter than usual.

After H is for Hawk by Helen Dunmore, which made quite an impression, I continue with something a bit lighter. Mr Mercedes by Stephen King, thanks to NanaCC's recommendation in her thread.

The Orchardist was brilliant - just loved it. On now to a collection of stories, plays, sketches and letters from Jane Bowles - Everything is Nice.

I've started The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece and Rebels and Traitors by Lindsey Davis.

Finished A Casa da Vovó: Uma biografia do DOI-CODI (1969-1991), o centro de sequestro, tortura e morte da ditadura militar, by Marcelo Godoy. Review in my thread. I'm reading now A Tolice da Inteligência Brasileira: ou como o país se deixa manipular pela elite, by Jessé Souza.

Have finished Nightblind a crime novel by Icelandic author Ragnar Jónasson and now am reading Chronicle of a Last Summer: A Novel of Egypt by Yasmine el Rashidi.

Currently reading Old New York by Edith Wharton and Nemesis by Philip Roth. I am listening to The Man Who Loved Children but need to pause while I re-listen to the end of Adam Bede; I apparently missed a the major event of the ending.... And I also need to listen to Henry IV, part two before I forget too much.

I've finished Leaven of Malice, the second book in Robertson Davies's Salterton Trilogy. It was so good, and had such a satisfactory ending that I'm having a bit of a book hangover.

Nonetheless, I've started The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini, which begins just after Zimbabwe became an independent country

Finished Rogue Lawyer (which was different but good) and another Perry Mason: The Case of the Counterfeit Eye

Reading The Severed Streets now - the second novel in Cornell series and so far it is weaker than the first. Will see how that goes.

On audio I finished The Warmth of Other Suns...wonderfully done.

I'm reading The Edwardians and wondering how to pronounce Vita Sackville-West's first name? Long I, short I, or long E sound?

I'm working on Salt to the Sea and Dancing at the Rascal Fair.

I'm working my way through The Ferrari in the Bedroom by Jean Shepherd. I normally enjoy Shep, but this has been disappointing.

>163 japaul22: I've always heard "Veet-a" but I don't know if there are variations.

While on vacation in the Philippines I read the two following books. Both of which I really enjoyed, especially the latter. Hope to update my thread sooner rather than later with comments.

Erich Maria Remarque : Arc de triomphe
Akira Mizubayashi : Une langue venue d'ailleurs

>166 Nickelini: thanks!

I am just about to start Ice, Anna Kavan On the front cover Doris Lessing says "There is nothing else like it"

I am into Gabriela for the 1001 Group Read. Too bad I finished Mr Mercedes, which was a real page-turner.

Severed Streets ended up weaker than the first book but better than I expected after the first 50 pages. A nice addition to the world of Cornell's London after all. And the 7th Perry Mason The Case of the Caretaker's Cat was very enjoyable. :)

Reading Carrie Smith's Silent City which tells a bit too much instead of showing in the first pages and a few of the characters sound more like types than people but I still want to see how it ends up so will see.

And Silent City did not improve - if anything, it got worse going forward. It could have worked - some of the story works but it is full of cliches and stupid decision and clunky prose.

Next is Seven Brief Lessons on Physics which I almost finished last night while looking for something to clear my mind from the previous book. Pretty good :)

>172 AnnieMod: Oh, I'm very interested in Seven Brief Lessons. I'll look forward to your take on it when finished.

OKey... so what is everyone else reading? :)

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics was very good in the first 6 lessons (and I wish the 7th was not there). Review in the book - and it is short enough to just try. :)

Next - back to see how Molly Murphy is getting used to New York in Death of Riley

After finishing Transit I'm sticking around in Marseilles (and returning to my French crime-spree) with Chourmo.

Maybe I ought to read Seven brief lessons as well - I'm sure you could fill several paperbacks with the amount I've forgotten about physics since I last came face to face with a partial differential equation (ca. 1981).

I've just finished both The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini, which is set in Zimbabwe in the years after Mugabe's election. It was excellent. And I also finished up The Improbability of Love, Hannah Rothschild's Baileys longlist novel about the London art world. This was not a good book; although the premise was wonderful, the writing was lazy and the characters were paper thin.

Now I'm looking at Why We Came to the City by Kristopher Jansma, which is another book set among the young and fabulous in New York City. It's for my real life book club.

>174 AnnieMod: Helpful review.

>172 AnnieMod: >174 AnnieMod: A friend gave me Seven Brief Lessons on Physics for my birthday. I'm glad to know it's good.

I'm so far behind on threads. I finished reading Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín, which was lovely, and Dead Souls by Ian Rankin, which was very good. After those distractions, I'm back to reading Can You Forgive Her by Anthony Trollope, and listening to All Shall Be Well by Deborah Crombie.

I'm still plowing through two very long audiobooks, though should finish one today, The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson and Rebels and Traitors, an epic historical fiction set in the English Civil War, by Lindsey Davis.

I've barely started The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America by John Bodnar in print, and picked up Matewan Before the Massacre (basically about WV politics in the 1910s-20s) after a long break.

I finished The Master and Margarita this morning and started The Catcher in the Rye.

Since I last checked in on this thread, I've read Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk by Massimo Pigliucci, which may or may not help you to tell science from bunk, but was well worth reading, anyway, and C. J. Cherryh's Pretender, book 8 in a series I swear I will finish sometime before I die.

And I've just now finished Don't Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMachon, which crazy and twisty and creepy, and probably not everybody's cup of tea, but I liked it it lot.

Next up is an ER book: Detained and Deported: Stories of Immigrant Families Under Fire by Margaret Regan, which I'm having trouble psyching myself up to start, because it looks like it's going to be pretty depressing.

I have started SPQR by Mary Beard. She is an Oxford don who refers, I think in a picture caption, to SPQR as an acronym. In the first chapter, which is mostly about Cicero in 63 BC, there are a lot of Must haves and Probablys.

Robert

I've finished up several books recently - The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West and a new biography about Louisa Adams, both of which I loved. So now I have a new crop of books that I'm starting all at the same time. For non-fiction I'm reading Engineering Eden which is an Early Reviewers book about the creation of our national parks and the different views on how much intervention we should have with them. I'm also reading Burial Rites - historical fiction about the last woman put to death in Iceland in the 1800s. And I've started the fifth book of the Palliser series, The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope.

I'm excited about all of these!

I just finished The Warmth of Other Suns which made me cry numerous times (I am not a cryer) and Kitchen Privileges, which is Mary Higgins Clark's memoir. Both were good.

Still plowing through the epic 30 hours of Rebels and Traitors by Lindsey Davis, which I love. Just started A Delusion of Satan, about the Salem witch trials.

I have just finished two books Shikasta by Doris Lessing and Ice, Anna Kavan strangely enough there was a comment on the cover of Anna Kavan's Ice by Doris Lessing. Both books have elements of science fiction, or rather fantasy.

I am about to start The novels of Matteo Bandello, Bishop of Agen short stories from the Italian Renaissance.

I am starting in Updike's third Rabbit novel, Rabbit is Rich.

Finished the audiobook The Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah Arendt. Great book! Review in my thread. I'm listening now: Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment, by Anthony Lewis.

Finished Life & Times of Michael K by JM Coetzee and now have started The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald.

>189 Nickelini: I loved The Bookshop! I am glad you are reading it, I know hardly anyone who did.

I'm enjoying A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler, a Booker finalist.

I finished and reviewed the fourth in the Barsetshire series by Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I started what will be a probably very slow and intermittent partial re-read of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series with Mort, and am now reading Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding.

I've finished Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, historical fiction about the last woman executed in Iceland in the 1800s. I quite enjoyed it.

Now I've focusing on an early reviewers nonfiction book, Engineering Eden, and the fifth book in the Palliser series, The Prime Minister.

And speaking of Trollope, has anyone watched Julian Fellowes' (creator of Downton Abbey) new adaptation of Dr. Thorne? I see it's on amazon prime and I'm wondering if it's worth my time.

I just finished Rebels and Traitors, which certainly deserves the title of epic, a novel set during the English Civil War. I really enjoyed it. Also just finished If The Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran, which was a great read.

Now I'm working on The Diary of Frida Kahlo, Matewan Before the Massacre, and In the Long Shadow of Small Ghosts.

I finished two mysteries:This Night's Foul Work by Fred Vargas, the next in the Adamsberg series, which I really enjoyed; the jury's still out on Ian Rankin's Rebus series -- I read the first in the series, Knots and Crosses.

And time for a new topic. Breadcrumbs below :)