What Are You Reading the Week of 16 December 2017?

Sorry for the late start, all, my excuse is I spent the night in the ER and woke up and caffeinated myself a mere one hour ago.

This week I want to finish The Invented Part by Rodrigo Fresan.

Still working on Fortress in the Eye of Time, Persepolis Rising, and Winter of the Gods. One of the devices I use for reading bit the dust two days ago and it's completely thrown off my reading of everything else. With any luck, tomorrow I will have a new phone and I can get back on cycle.

Thanks, RD. One of the best excuses ever, IMO. Glad you're okay.

I'm reading We Should All Be Feminists and, on Richard's recommendation, One on the House.

>2 seitherin: Horrible event, losing a device. I live in fear of it. I'd be dead in the water without any one of them, unnervingly enough.

>3 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe, I'm happy to be better than absolutely necessary.

I can't wait to hear your reaction to One on the House!

Happy weekend, everybody!

I'm closing in on the halfway point of Grunt: the Curious Science of Humans at War by the always excellent Mary Roach.

>4 richardderus: I had to resort to turning on the TV when I woke up at 6 this morning instead of reading until my alarm went off. I think I surfed thru every available channel and then just got up and had coffee. Totally out of kilter. Fortunately, I received a review copy of a book yesterday so I can at least read it.

>5 rocketjk: I'm still vibrating with loathing and jealousy that you *know* Mary Roach.

>6 seitherin: TV!! Perish forbid! So happy that there was a tree book awaiting your attention.

>7 richardderus: "I'm still vibrating with loathing and jealousy that you *know* Mary Roach."

Well, then, my work is done here for the day!

>8 rocketjk: *grumble*

>7 richardderus: Anything that could even remotely pass as a computer and I have had love/hate relationships for years. The phone (which gets used more to read books and watch Netflix/BritBox than to talk or text) died Thursday. No amount of coaxing, sweet words, tears, threats, or charging would bring it to life. As my son was getting reading to head out for work this evening, he asked if I'd tried charging the phone today. This morning, I told him. Well, let me just give it a try, he said. He picked up the phone, flipped open the cover, plugged in the charger, and said, hmmm. It is 74% charged, has updated nine apps, and informed me I have one missed call. On the bright side, I've the read the first two stories in Not Safe After Dark and Other Stories by Peter Robinson, and I enjoyed them both. There's nothing quite like a good murder to cheer me up.

I am reading and loving Pachinko.

About to begin The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott. Also appeared at the library at the same time : The War I Finally Won, the sequel to the wonderful The War That Saved My Life. And this also arrived: the audio version of Trevor Noah's Born A Crime.

Good couple of reading weeks ahead!

>10 seitherin: HA! Yes, I'm always cheered by (fictional) murders as well. So satisfying knowing the Justice will be served, be damned with the law.

>11 CarolynSchroeder: *popcorn bowl* Can't wait to hear about it.

>12 NarratorLady: They all appeal to me as well, Anne.

>11 CarolynSchroeder: Pachinko is on my list Caroline. Good to hear you're loving it.

>11 CarolynSchroeder: & >14 NarratorLady: Pachinko was one of my top reads this year. I highly recommend it!

Just finished another best read of my year, my recent ER title Girl Unknown, a thriller that I was consumed by in the last 24 hours.

I'm reading a review copy of Dead Ernest by Francis Garood which I'm enjoying. I should finish Sing, Unburied, Sing today and then start Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows

>11 CarolynSchroeder: thanks for the BB - Pachinko added to my wishlist!

Reading Dead Babies by Martin Amis

Read two more stories in the Peter Robinson book. Still liking them.

Finished Persepolis Rising by James S. A Corey. I was mildly disappointed at the beginning of the book, but I was fully engaged by the end. Love space opera.

Next into my reading rotation is The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny.

Glad you're ok, Richard!

I'm reading The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened the West by Lesley Poling-Kempes for my book club. It's slow going but in a good way, chock-full of interesting history.

Richard I hope you are ok!!!

Well guys, I am unable to read for long stretches of time due to a (resolving, temporary, I hope) back injury, so progress is a little slow. But at the half-way marker, Pachinko is shaping into one of my favorite reads this year! Put it on your Mount TBRs!

Excavating a small pebble out of my Mount TBR, the intriguing The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell whose Black Swan Green was lovely. This novel is utterly different in style and every other way but equally seductive to the imagination.

I've been unwell (nothing at all serious, just enough to make me miserable), so once I had finished the enjoyable The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg, I decided to re-read comforting old mystery novels. I finished The Cater Street Hangman in one afternoon between naps, and have started Callander Square, also by Anne Perry. I went back to work today, and took along Still Life by Louise Penny, another re-read. I can't get into it so I may pick up something different for my at-work book.

>19 PaperbackPirate:, >20 momom248: I am not surprised to report that while my knee is okay, the rest of me is having a cold. Yech.

>21 CarolynSchroeder: Oh heavy sigh

Great, another...wait...YES!! I already own it. What a relief.

This week I'm working on finishing War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.

I'm reading The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott. I've also picked up Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin again. I had been reading and enjoying it before my fall but couldn't seem to get back into it later. I think I'll be able to finish it now.

I'm back. It's always nice to visit family, but also nice to get away from them afterwards. I'm not a very social animal. :-D

I spent a lot of time on the plane reading The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II by Svetlana Alexievich. What a brilliant, book. Absolutely a must read. I'm planning to give it as a gift to several people.

Picked up a copy of The Will to Battle by Ada Palmer. It's the last volume of her Terra Ignota trilogy. It's next on my list.

>1 richardderus: Richard, thank you for standing in for me this weekend. Sorry to hear about your trip to the emergency room. I hope you're doing well.

>27 fredbacon: The Will to Battle is on my 2018 list. I've really enjoyed this series.

>28 fredbacon: De rien, mon ami. I'm doing fine knee-wise and have a mild cold instead of the flu going like stink through my building.

Family visits are, blessedly, a thing of the past for me since I can't travel more than 20 minutes without *acute* discomfort. Poor me! So isolated! Boo hoo!

>26 mollygrace: I hope you're enjoying The Ninth Hour - I loved it.

This week, I'm mostly reading The Round House.

>30 Copperskye: I am enjoying it. And you're reading another book I liked. I've been looking back at Erdrich's nonfiction, too -- especially The Blue Jay's Dance: A Memoir of Early Motherhood. I sent a copy to a young friend who is having her first child in January and I wound up rereading some favorite passages. I'm also fond of Erdrich's Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country.

>30 Copperskye: and >31 mollygrace: "Round House" has one of the funniest scenes in American lit when the boys spy on the priest. And one of the greatest lines ever written at its conclusion. Erdrich is a master on the theme of revenge.

She has a new novel, Future of the Living God, but I haven't read LaRose yet.

>31 mollygrace: mollygrace..I am very fond of Erdrich's novels. >32 Limelite: I loved LaRose.

I have just finished a wonderful reread of The Clearing by Tim Gautreaux and have started on The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker I am reading this following several recommendations from this wonderful site.

I have begun the habit of opening my Amazon wishlist in another tab whenever I come to this group. So many interesting suggestions!

Am reading Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac, in English. It galls me to think that once upon a time I could have read it in French, and that I've lost the ability as the decades fly past. Pere Goriot is not easy reading, but once I got into the flow of the old-fashioned and flowery language, it became a novel much simpler to digest, and fascinating in its glimpses into 1830s Parisian life.

One on the House and The Harlequin Tea Set and Other Stories were both enjoyable reads - the latter isn't topnotch Agatha Christie, but it has a few non-mystery stories, too, which was interesting.

I just started Buddhaland Brooklyn and returned to Untwine by Edwidge Danticat, which got jumped in the queue.

I finished Grunt: the Curious Science of Humans at War by the always excellent Mary Roach, as well as a couple of "between books" that I will report on over the next couple of days.

I have begun what seems so far to be a very good historical novel about Washington state in the 1890s: West of Here by Jonathan Evison. I read the first 60 pages (out of 480) in one shot last night, always a good sign.

>34 ahef1963: Uh oh. That way madness and bankruptcy, though perhaps not in that order, lie.

>35 jnwelch: Those Suds books are big fun. I love Mrs. Feely, Mrs. Rasumussen, and Miss Tinkham!

>36 rocketjk: Oh, so your pal's book was good, how...nice. *jealous fuming*

Seriously though, when has Roach failed to deliver a superior performance?

>37 richardderus: "Seriously though, when has Roach failed to deliver a superior performance?"

Never, to my knowledge. :)

Finished The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny. Enjoyed it.

Next up is W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton.

Hillbilly Elegy – J.D. Vance
Book on CD narrated by the author.
4****

Subtitle: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.

Vance is a former Marine, a graduate of Ohio State and Yale Law School. But getting to his current place in life was a struggle, given his family upbringing. His grandparents left Kentucky’s Appalachia – “dirt poor and in love” – when they were still teenagers, moving north to Ohio and the promise of factory jobs. Papaw did get a job, and lifted his family into the working middle class. But it was not so easy to leave behind the effects of generations suffering from abuse, alcoholism, poverty and trauma. In this memoir, Vance relates how his grandparents, uncles, aunts, mother, and sister struggled, and reflects on how he himself still carries the emotional scars of his chaotic young life.

A few things helped him escape. His older sister provided a buffer for the young J.D., and took on a maternal role that helped keep both of them out of the foster care system. A few key teachers identified his native ability and nurtured it. His mother, for all her faults and drug abuse, instilled in him a love of learning and reading. Most importantly, perhaps, his grandparents provided a stable home life when it really mattered.

He is brutally honest looking at his life and at the culture of the working poor. He reviews government policies that are (probably) intended to help, but that frequently are doomed to fail. He offers insight into how the working poor, themselves, might change some of these outcomes, the small and large steps – all of them difficult to take – that would give the next generation a fighting chance.

There were sections that made me smile, even laugh. But there were many more sections of the book that saddened and worried me. But I am glad that Vance wrote it, and I’m glad that I read it.

Early in the book he writes:
I was one of those kids with a grim future. I almost failed out of high school. I nearly gave in to the deep anger and resentment harbored by everyone around me … Whatever talents, I have I almost squandered until a handful of loving people rescued me.

That is the real story of my life, and that is why I wrote this book. I want people to know what it feels like to nearly give up on yourself and why you might do it. I want people to understand what happens in the lives of the poor and the psychological impact that spiritual and material poverty has on their children. I want people to understand the American Dream as my family and I encountered it. I want people to understand how upward mobility really feels. And I want people to understand something I learned on ly recently: that for those of us lucky enough to live the American Dream, the demons of the life we left behind continue to chase us.

Vance narrates the audiobook himself. He does a fine job. He’s not a trained voice artist, but I cannot imagine anyone else doing a better job telling his story.

Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley
3.5/5 stars
This is the story about Dr. Frankenstein, who as a young man is intrigued with science and the origin of life. He goes away from home to study and has devoted his time in creating a new life. However, when he sees what he has created, he is shocked and repelled by his creation. In turn his creation is mortified by Dr. Frankenstein's reaction to him and thus plans to seek revenge on the doctor.

I have never read this before but have seen several film adaptations and a TV mini-series based on the book so I was curious to read it. Mary Shelley's book is still very readable to this day and is an interesting horror story about the results of scientific experimentation. While movies and TV portray the creature as a horrible monster, Shelley brings out the human in the monster while emphasizing caution in experimentation.

Happy Yule Book Flood!

Finished Winter of the Gods by Jordanna Max Brodsky. OK read.

Next into the rotation is Hidden Order by Brad Thor.

I finished and absolutely loved Pachinko.

I am now reading The Madonna of Notre Dame, a little French Noir number I received with my New Vessel Press subscription (a Merry Christmas to me kinda thing). So far, I love the French-ness of it, but it has now been proven to me in multiple languages and countries, I am just not a fan of mysteries. Ah well, there is always one on the bunch.

Imaginary Men – Anjali Banerjee
1*

Lina Ray is a professional matchmaker in the San Francisco bay area who has yet to make her own match. When at her sister’s wedding in India, her Aunt Kiki insists on arranging a marriage. To save herself from “the bachelor from hell” she blurts out “I’m engaged!” Before she knows it she has invented a gorgeous, rich man, and now Aunt Kiki is headed to California to check him out and confirm the match. Lina has just two months to meet and get engaged to her dream prince!

Okay, this is chick-lit, with a cultural nuance. The characters are thinly drawn caricatures, and the plot is what you’d expect from the description. It’s a fast, fun read, but there isn’t much substance here. Sometimes a girl just needs a little mind candy; it did satisfy several challenges for me, and it’s one more book off the TBR mountain.

A Man Of His Own – Susan Wilson
Digital audio read by Fred Berman, Christina Delaine, Rick Adamson, Jeff Gurner.
3***

Three people connected by one dog. Rick Stanton is the promising professional baseball player who finds the puppy he’ll call Pax in an alley. Francesca is the love of Rick’s life, the young wife he leaves behind when he’s drafted into World War II. Keller Nicholson is the lonely orphaned young man who will bond with Pax in the Army’s K-9 Corp. When the war is over, Keller brings Pax back to the couple with a request to keep him. But Rick has been badly wounded and is broken in both body and spirit. Keller agrees to stay on for a time as Rick’s aide, helping Francesca with the heavier tasks that are simply too much for her. He’ll also help train Pax to be Rick’s helper.

This is a kind of romance novel with a twist. There’s plenty of drama and emotion, as well as the potential for new relationships. We have three people who are all emotionally fragile, and yet somehow are “guided” by this remarkable animal. That synopsis sounds trite and predictable, and in a sense the book is that, but I have to say that I was entertained and engaged by the story, as unlikely and unbelievable as some elements were.

I’m not a dog person, but I had previously read Wilson’s One Good Dog which I thought was very good. This book doesn’t quite come to that level, but it’s a decent read.

Each of the four talented voice artists who narrate takes on a different major character, including Pax (the dog). Unfortunately, other than for Christina Delaine, the sole woman, I can’t tell which artist is voicing which character. Still it’s an effective device to use different narrators for each change in point of view. Berman and Adamson also co-narrated the audio of One Good Dog

I finished Alice McDermott's moving and compelling new book The Ninth Hour. Now I'm trying to finish Claire Tomalin's Jane Austen: A Life by the end of the year. I'm also reading The Artifice of Blue Light: Henriette Wyeth, enjoying the paintings and the beautiful and insightful essay by author Paul Horgan. I've always loved his writing and this is inspiring me to add a note to my New Year's resolutions to read or reread more of his work in 2018.

The new thread is up over here.