What are you reading the week of February 12, 2022?

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What are you reading the week of February 12, 2022?

1fredbacon
Feb 12, 2022, 8:30 am

I finished Hippocrates III which mostly deals with setting broken bones and dislocated joints. One interesting fact that I learned: the toy that we commonly call "Chinese finger traps" were well know to the ancient Greeks. They called them "lizards". But Hippocrates recommended using them to help set dislocated fingers. You could slip it onto the end of the finger and use the toy to pull on the finger and reduce the dislocation.

I've started Ada Palmer's Perhaps the Stars, the final volume in the Terra Ignota series. It's been so many years since the previous volume, that I'm a little lost at the moment. :-(

2alphaorder
Feb 12, 2022, 8:43 am

Found The Soul of a Woman sitting on my stack and started right in. Enjoying learning about Isabel Allende's life. Love and Saffron should arrive later today - looks like a good Sunday read.

3LyndaInOregon
Feb 12, 2022, 10:12 am

Finished Traveler, by Nola Nash last night. It was an LTER, and a fair-to-middling time-travel fantasy that dragged a little once the basic idea had been developed.

Time travel stories make my eyeballs rotate in different directions, anyway. If you have to go back and "fix" something in history -- something huge like the outcome of a major war or how long a particular world leader remains in power -- wouldn't that by definition change the "future"" that created you and therefore you wouldn't have been available "now" to go back and fix it "then"?

Recovering with the non-fiction "true crime" (?) Exit the Rainmaker. The question mark is because, at this point in the book, we still don't know whether or not Jay Carsey's sudden and purposeful disappearance was linked to a crime. Interesting so far, as Coleman is putting together the pieces of the investigation, but it's kind of hard to keep all the characters straight.

4PaperbackPirate
Feb 12, 2022, 11:13 am

>1 fredbacon: Shaking pregnant women like ketchup bottles, and resetting dislocated fingers with finger traps - you have a lot of interesting reading! Thanks for sharing your highlights!

This week I'm reading Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr for my book club. 640 pages in one week - I hope I'm able to do it!!

5rocketjk
Editado: Feb 12, 2022, 2:55 pm

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 50-Book Challenge 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.

6seitherin
Feb 12, 2022, 3:30 pm

Finished The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack. Very reminiscent of our times. Added The Magic of Found Objects by Maddie Dawson to my rotation.

7Molly3028
Editado: Feb 13, 2022, 7:29 am

Revisiting the O'Malley clan audios via hoopla ~

Negotiator by Dee Henderson
(book #1/Christian suspense romance)

8hemlokgang
Feb 13, 2022, 10:29 am

Haven't read much in the last week....so still listening to Oh William! and reading Cloud Cuckoo Land.

9Shrike58
Feb 13, 2022, 10:34 am

Finished the first half of Bulgarian Fighter Colours and am working on Royal Witches. For We Are Many will probably come after that.

10JulieLill
Feb 13, 2022, 11:57 am

Things My Son Needs to Know about the World
Fredrik Backman
4/5 stars
This non-fiction book revolves around the author Fredrik Backman, his relationship with his son and what he wants to teach him. I have always enjoyed his books and this non-fiction doesn’t disappoint. Short but very sweet!

11ahef1963
Feb 13, 2022, 2:40 pm

I've been listening to Highway of Tears, which is about indigenous girls women disappearing along the highway in remote northern British Columbia (Canada). It's a true story and very depressing. I'm glad to have learned about it, but in another way I'll be glad it's over and I can listen to something more upbeat. I have an audiobook that is by David Sedaris (name forgotten), which should do the trick.

I finished Magpie Murders this week - it was enjoyable but too "meta" for my taste. I also don't like stories within stories within stories as this book had. I'm now reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep but am not particularly into that, either.

Next up I'm going to read either Gone with the Wind or 2666 - either one of them will keep me occupied for a month.

12BookConcierge
Feb 14, 2022, 8:48 am


Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Digital audiobook narrated by Carolyn Seymour
4****

One of the best opening lines of literature: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

I thought it was okay when I read it in high school. I re-read it shortly after the BBC mini-series came out and really appreciated it. I’ve seen several film adaptations. And now I’ve listened to the audio version.

It's no wonder this is a classic. Austen is simply the master of dialogue. The way in which the characters interact brings them to life. From Mrs Bennet’s hysterics, to Lydia’s self-centered teen-aged giddiness, to Mr Collins’ simpering diatribes, to Jane’s cautious and measured observations, to Elizabeth’s outrage and clever responses to Darcy and Lady Catherine de Bourgh, the dialogue simply sparkles.

Update: 2022
This time around I listened to a different audio version, narrated by Carolyn Seymour. I think I like Seymour's narration even better than Kate Reading's, and that's saying a lot. Totally enjoyable experience, and I noticed things about the relationships and the way that Austen crafted the plot that I hadn't noticed before. Truly a work that has earned its place in the English canon.

13seitherin
Feb 14, 2022, 3:07 pm

Finished The Magic of Found Objects by Maddie Dawson. Really enjoyed it.

Added In the Shadow of Power by Viveca Sten to my reading rotation.

14Aussi11
Feb 14, 2022, 3:51 pm

>8 hemlokgang:

I have Oh William on reserve at my local library.
This is Elizabeth Strout's latest, I have read all of her books, starting off with Olive Kitteridge.

15hemlokgang
Feb 14, 2022, 4:00 pm

>14 Aussi11: I am about half way through it and enjoying it. It is narrated by Lucy Barton about her history with her ex-husband, William.

16msemmag
Feb 14, 2022, 4:04 pm

I'm starting I Thought It Was Just Me by Brené Brown via my library's Overdrive site- I'm not sure how much I'll like it, but I'm going to try and get through as much as I can this week.

17Erick_Tubil
Feb 15, 2022, 1:52 am


Just finished reading the novel THE GOOD LIAR by author NICHOLAS SEARLE

.

18seitherin
Feb 15, 2022, 9:34 am

Finished In the Shadow of Power by Viveca Sten. Really enjoyed this one.

Added Family Money by Chad Zunker to my rotation.

19princessgarnet
Feb 15, 2022, 1:19 pm

Starting from the library: Antoinette's Sister by Diana Giovinazzo
New novel about Caroline, Queen of Naples and Marie-Antoinette's older sister

Finished: A Heart Adrift by Laura Frantz
Set in 1756 Virginia, Esmee Shaw and Henri Lennox meet again after a decade. The story takes place during the French and Indian War in the American colonies.

20enaid
Feb 15, 2022, 4:02 pm

I haven't been able to read as much as usual in the past couple of weeks. I'm still reading and enjoying George V Never a Dull Moment. I've added The Quest for Queen Mary to the mix which has been fascinating. This has been a perfect pairing of books for me.

I have Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas from the library. It has been quite enjoyable. I'm almost finished and I haven't got a clue who did it. :)

21hemlokgang
Editado: Feb 15, 2022, 10:06 pm

Finished reading the absolutely marvelous Cloud Cuckoo Land.
Next up is The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk.
Finished listening to Oh William!. Meh!
Next up for listening is the 3rd installment of a mystery series, The Absolution by Yrsa Sigurdardottir.

22Aussi11
Editado: Feb 15, 2022, 10:13 pm

>21 hemlokgang:
I have just collected Oh William from my library.
It is next up for me, it is jumping the queue of TBRs.

23PaperbackPirate
Feb 16, 2022, 9:20 am

>21 hemlokgang: I'm halfway through Cloud Cuckoo Land. I love it so much!

24seitherin
Feb 16, 2022, 9:46 am

Finished The Raven Spell by Luanne G. Smith. Not bad.

Next into the rotation is Vicious Circle by Mike Carey.

25framboise
Editado: Feb 16, 2022, 7:34 pm

Just finished We Are Not Ourselves, a sprawling 600+ page saga of an Irish family in NY. It was good reading, kept me in bed for hours reading at a time but I definitely felt there were big chunks that could've been edited down. I need something short and simple after that; I rarely read over 400 or so page books.

26Aussi11
Feb 17, 2022, 3:46 pm

>25 framboise:

I am with you I shy away from over 400 books pages.
My favorites are novella size.

27Molly3028
Feb 17, 2022, 5:46 pm

Revisiting the O'Brien clan via a hoopla audiobook ~

The Inn at Eagle Point (A Chesapeake Shores Novel, book #1)
by Sherryl Woods

28BookConcierge
Feb 18, 2022, 9:46 am


Devil in Winter – Lisa Kleypas
Book on CD read by Rosalyn Landor.
3***

Book number three in the Wallflower regency-romance series.

Evangeline Jenner has been sent to live with her relatives, as her father, Ivo Jenner, does not deem it appropriate for her to grow up in his gambling club. Her maternal aunt and uncles have their eye on her fortune and have arranged a marriage for her to one of her cousins. But Evangeline has other plans. She presents herself at the home of Lord Sebastian St Vincent, a viscount with significant need of funds and a notorious rake, and strikes a bargain with the devil.

Well, this was a fun romp of a novel. The situations are melodramatic and full of sexual tension. Kleypas’s characters are straight out of central casting, but that’s part of the fun. The action moves forward at a steady pace, there are dastardly villains, innocent damsels, mysterious foreigners, handsome heroes, and a feisty heroine.

Rosalyn Landor does a marvelous job of reading the audio. She sets a good pace and does a pretty good job of differentiating the many characters. The deep voice she uses for Sebastian makes me laugh but it’s really all part of the fun. I did read about half the book in traditional text format, however.

29JulieLill
Editado: Feb 18, 2022, 11:31 am

Breakfast of Champions
Kurt Vonnegut
3/5 stars
Writer Kilgore Trout who writes fiction finds out that a car dealer thinks he is writing the truth in this unusual satire. I thought I had read some Vonnegut before this book but nothing comes up in my logs. I’m not sure if I would read any more of his books though he is highly acclaimed.

30rocketjk
Feb 18, 2022, 2:41 pm

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.

31hemlokgang
Editado: Feb 18, 2022, 3:24 pm

Finished listening to The Absolution, the third installment of the "Children's House" trilogy. Very good!

Next up for listening is This Side Of Brightness by Colum McCann.

32seitherin
Feb 18, 2022, 5:05 pm

Finished Family Money by Chad Zunker. Meh.

Added No Way Back by J. B. Turner to my rotation.

33snash
Feb 18, 2022, 8:24 pm

I finished the LTER book, The Mao Sisters. The book consists of two parallel stories of women believing in Mao, one Mao's wife and the other two sisters in London.
While having numerous similarities they never intersect. While engaging for the beginning as the plots reached their climax the stories were interrupted by backstory and glances into the future to the point of distraction.

34fredbacon
Feb 18, 2022, 10:23 pm

The new thread is up over here.

35fredbacon
Editado: Feb 18, 2022, 10:43 pm

>4 PaperbackPirate: There are so many interesting things to be found in Hippocrates. Some of them are a little too disturbing to share, but some are fascinating in their own way. The series of scrolls titled Epidemics included a number of case histories that the author found particularly memorable and wanted to document. I was struck by the story of a man who suffered panic attacks whenever he heard a woman playing the flute at a symposium (drinking party), but this only happened at night. He had no reaction to hearing a woman playing the flute during the day time.

A week ago, I was reading Hippocrates' discussion of how to set dislocated joints. At four thirty in the morning, my dog got me out of bed needing to go outside. As he pulled me across the yard, I slipped on the ice and fell on my left hip. As I lay there trying to recover, I was grateful that I didn't dislocate my hip because it takes at least two people to set it. :-D I think that I could have set a dislocated shoulder, but a hip is out of the question.

36PaperbackPirate
Feb 19, 2022, 11:00 am

>35 fredbacon: Incredible! I might have to check it out someday.

Glad you didn't dislocate your hip or shoulder!