What have you read lately?

[Bede the Vulnerable]

Just received Houellebecq's "Serotonin" in the mail a couple days ago.  I should be grading, so I'm reading it instead.  He's my favorite contemporary author, and this one--thus far--does not disappoint.

[ab_grp]

We finished Black Swan Green.  I did end up enjoying it quite a bit more all the way through.  Maybe different parts just resonate with me now.   Some of the characters and scenes are just great.  It covers one year in an early teenage life in early 80's England, but it still feels very relatable.   Some of the observations and depictions are really well rendered.

Then we started Cryptonomicon, which we have both read before and loved.  I read it many years ago and don't remember too much of it but got back into it pretty quickly.  It's another book with some really entertaining and interesting characters and scenes, and it's also pretty fascinating, too!   

[Vkw10]

I'm reading Robert Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil, which I recall enjoying in my late teens. In my mid-50s, I'm finding it rather depressing and moralistic. Can I call a book with so much discussion of nudity and swinging moralistic? not sure I'll finish it.

[Puget]

The second book in the "Rivers of London" serious by Ben Aaronovitch -- fantasy meets police procedural in modern day London. They are fun and smart and not too heavy, which is just what I want at the stressful end of the semester. I've acquired the third book to take on my winter break trip. There are 8 total and counting so I won't run out anytime soon.

[archaeo42]

Crazy Rich Asians. I found it fun although I think I was more interested to see how it differed from the movie.

[ergative]

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. It's a beautiful, magical book with an unhurried narrative style, about a continuing competition between magicians who use a circus as a venue to display their talents to their fullest. It reminds me of a combination of Natasha Pulley (for the narrative style), Jonathan L Howard's Joannes Cabal books (for the traveling magic circus), and Frances Hardinge's A Face Like Glass (for the beautifully imaginative details).

[downer]

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams. A great book about ethicnity, relationships, sex, and friendship. Often very funny but also really interesting.

[onthefringe]

The second book in the "Rivers of London" serious by Ben Aaronovitch -- fantasy meets police procedural in modern day London. They are fun and smart and not too heavy, which is just what I want at the stressful end of the semester. I've acquired the third book to take on my winter break trip. There are 8 total and counting so I won't run out anytime soon.

I love these. If you like audiobooks at all, try those. The narrator is fabulous, and adds to the already great experience enough that I alway "read" this series by audiobook if possible.

[Puget]

The second book in the "Rivers of London" serious by Ben Aaronovitch -- fantasy meets police procedural in modern day London. They are fun and smart and not too heavy, which is just what I want at the stressful end of the semester. I've acquired the third book to take on my winter break trip. There are 8 total and counting so I won't run out anytime soon.

I love these. If you like audiobooks at all, try those. The narrator is fabulous, and adds to the already great experience enough that I alway "read" this series by audiobook if possible.

Yes! I did listen to the first two on audiobook but got a paperback for the next one since the wait for the audiobook at the library was super long.
I love audiobooks in general-- it's one of the perks, besides the built in exercise, of my half hour walking commute.

[apl68]

I finally read all of The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, after many years of reading bits and pieces of it.  A classic religious allegory that's also a leading contender for the first fantasy novel in English, depending on how one defines the genre.  As allegory a great deal of it still rings true.

[hmaria1609]

I haven't posted any of my reads in a long time! Here are two that I read this week:
Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington, DC, 20th anniversary edition by Harry Jaffe and Tom Sherwood (NF)
I was seeing this book on and off in the library over the years. Finally got to read it when a replacement copy arrived at the library. Worthwhile read about DC during the 1980s-'90s. The authors wrote a new afterword for the 2nd edition, providing an update since its original 1994 publication.

Queen of Nothing by Holly Black (YA)
Final and #3 installment in the best selling "Folk of the Air" trilogy.

[spork]

Just received Houellebecq's "Serotonin" in the mail a couple days ago.  I should be grading, so I'm reading it instead.  He's my favorite contemporary author, and this one--thus far--does not disappoint.

The only novel of his that I've read is Submission, which I liked because of how it veered between a satire of academics, a lesson on parliamentary French politics, and a political thriller. Is Serotonin as good?

Nearing the end of Stephen King's 11/22/63, which I've liked so far.

Didn't finish The Hidden History of Burma by Thant Myint-U. It needs a hook. Or at least the fundamental narrative needs to be more prominent.

Almost done with The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri, which is a mix of a memoir and a meditation on the refugee experience. It needs editing. In fact she has what is essentially a condensed version of the book in The Guardian that is much better reading.

[nescafe]

Finishing Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys tonight. It's an intense read about a boys' reform school based on the author's historical research. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/14/books/review/nickel-boys-colson-whitehead.html

[ab_grp]

After 1.5 years of slowly reading The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt) on the side, I have finally finished it.  I went to my Goodreads account to mark it done and give it three stars and read some of the reviews.  A little tidbit of information mentioned in some of the reviews is that the book is 771 pages, which is probably one reason it took so darn long.  I am used to reading 1000-page books (in much less time!) but had no idea this one was actually fairly long and thought it just felt that way and was not very engaging.  This is one thing I do not enjoy about ebooks, not having as much of an idea of what progress has been made! In any case, some other reviewers seemed to agree with my general take but expressed it better.  The book was intriguing at times, informative (e.g., art), and certainly action-packed in places.  However, it also seemed very disjointed, incoherent, and unbelievable.  The vast majority of characters were unlikable (which is fine, but when the story isn't great it's nice to have someone to root for or care about).  I didn't think the ending was satisfying at all.  But, there were some glimmers of pretty good writing (I say eloquently... hey, I'm just the reader).  A shorter and more focused version probably would have been a solid improvement.  There are a bunch of twists and turns, so it's hard to decide how to describe the book without giving some of those away.  Spouse and I are still reading Cryptonomicon, but at least I finally finished this (actually not so little) side hustle and can check that off my holiday time-off task list.

[Stockmann]

I'm reading Arthur Miller's adaptation of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. It feels very, very current.