What are you reading the week of March 4, 2017?

I managed to take a little time to read this week. I finished up Panzer Destroyer: Memoirs of a Red Army Tank Commander. Now I've started Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army by Evgeni Bessonov.

>1 fredbacon: Thanks for starting us off, Fred.

Last night I finished reading Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. It was brilliant. Her descriptive talents made every character, every setting come alive, and I was deeply impressed by her ability to get inside the minds of so many diverse people. Although it is fiction, it was written during the war, and in many ways is an historical document, as she was among people fleeing Paris as in the novel, and witnessed first-hand the invasion of German forces.

After a busy and stressful week I am taking the weekend to read. I have Kate Morton's The Distant Hours sitting next to me, and after lunch will get started on enjoyable historical fiction.

I am about three-quarters through The Uprising, book two in Väinö Linna's epic historical novel covering Finnish history from the 1880s through the 1950s. The Uprising takes the reader through the short but very bitter Finnish Civil War which took place in 1918, right after Finland declared independence from Russia.

Still working on A Tale of Two Cities, Four Roads Cross, and The Fortunate Ones.

So interesting, rocketjk. My order of the Finnish novel Seven Brothers was cancelled by the bookseller, so I never was able to delve into Finnish reading; and there are no more available. Perhaps I will start with Linna's trilogy.

Thank you most kindly, Fred, for starting us off yet again.

I am reading Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami and absolutely loving it. I came to Murakami late in life and am just very sure I would not have appreciated his writing when I was younger. I am so NOT a fan of magical realism, but he is a glaring exception. I find his books soothing and hypnotic, even though they often deal with pretty intense issues. This one is a little bit lighter (so far) than my last read of his 1Q84 (which will be one of my favorite books of all times).

>5 CarolynSchroeder: Well, there are a bunch of copies of Seven Brothers on offer on abebooks, though they are a touch pricey, to be sure. I'm happy to have read Seven Brothers before starting the Linna trilogy, but it's certainly not necessary to do so.

100 pages into A Man Called Ove and loving it so far. Of course I had heard of it before, but what got me interested in reading it was seeing my friend watching the movie on our flight home from Finland and seeing her sobbing. She loved it.

>2 ahef1963: Suite Francaise was a wonderful book. I know that her daughters published another of her books and I plan to read that too.

Right now, I'm getting into an Irish 🍀 mood by reading Darby O'Gill and the Good People.

Started The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer.

I'm enjoying Ali Smith's Autumn. It's the first book I've read by her.

Finished Four Roads Cross by Max Gladstone. Really enjoyed the series even tho I read them in publishing order instead of internal chronological order. Added The Just City by Jo Walton into my rotation.

I just finished reading Pax by Sara Pennypacker. Wow. I highly recommend it. I finished it in less than 24 hours. I think my one year old will be very glad I'm done with it.

Also reading The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass, and, oddly, Realm of Algebra by Isaac Asimov. I needed something to do while one-year-old explored my library.

#7 framboise- I absolutely, positively, without a doubt LOVE A Man Called Ove and I recommend it to everyone. Just love that book

Add me to the fan club for A Man Called Ove!

March 5 Currently reading:
TEXT - A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer
AUDIO in the car - Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
MP3 Audio - Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel

>2 ahef1963: Loved Suite Francaise

I have just started Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. Beautifully written though I hate the asides in brackets. Reviewers seem mostly to love it or hate it. So far I am in the first camp.

I'm still reading The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly, but I am closing in on the end. Great story.

>14 cdyankeefan: Have you read Fredrick Backman's others? A friend and I are reading all 3 & will have a little book club afterwards.

I have just finished reading the novel The Green Mile by author Stephen King

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Okay, I am getting slap happy and keep forgetting what I have already entered.

#18 hi framboise - yes!! Loved grandmother as well. Liked Britt-Marie- it didn't seem to have the same heart as the other two even though there are a lot of similarities between her and Ove. He's got a new book coming out this year I think so that will be one more book to add to the ever growing mt tbr

I'm off to a bit of a slow start this year - too much time on vacation! I just finished The Lemon Tree which was very heavy and depressing, reaching no clear pathway to peace in the Middle East.

Now I'm looking forward to an often recommended reading of The Girl with the Pearl Earring which I feel sure I'll enjoy.

Just now starting The Dark Half by Stephen King, after just finishing his excellent On Writing.

Finished A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I cannot for the life of me remember why I would have liked it in high school. The best thing to be said about it is that it is overwrought. Added Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie to my reading rotation.

>24 seitherin: We'll have to differ on that one. I loved A Tale of Two Cities every time I read it. However, I noted in your previous post that each of the three books you were reading had a number in the title. I love serendipity in reading.

A Viscount's Proposal by Melanie Dickerson
#2 in the "Regency Spies of London"

>25 whymaggiemay: Wow, I hadn't noticed that about the titles. And I'm glad you enjoy A Tale of Two Cities with every read. I expected to like it as well, but it just didn't appeal to me this time. Forty odd years between readings puts a lot of life in the way. I'm now leery about rereading Pride and Prejudice, which I also loved and haven't read since high school.

I finished The Uprising, the second book in Väinö Linna's "Under the North Star" trilogy, a classic of Finnish literature. This novel takes the reader from the Finnish declaration of independence from Russia following the Russian Revolution through the short but very brutal civil war that followed and the even more brutal aftermath to that war. It's extremely gripping reading.

I'm not quite sure what's next. Something from my (relatively) short TBR list, I think.

Deeper Than the Dead– Tami Hoag
Audiobook narrated by Kirsten Potter
3.5***

Set in a California town a few hours from Los Angeles, in 1985, Hoag’s thriller begins when four children stumble upon the partially buried body of a woman while playing in the woods. Her eyes and mouth have been glued shut and it’s clear she’s been tortured. As the children’s teacher, Anne Navarre, tries to get them the help they need to process this horror, the local police turn to an FBI investigator, Vince Leone, to help develop a profile of the killer.

Hoag writes a tight, suspenseful tale. The action is fast-paced, and I was completely captivated from beginning to end. I liked the characters, especially Anne and Vince. This is the first book by Hoag that I’ve read; it won’t be the last.

Kirsten Potter does a fine job performing the audio book. She has good pacing, and enough skill as a voice artist to give each character a unique voice. I particularly liked the way she voiced Anne and Vince.

Finished The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer
4/5 stars
Finished this book and was very pleasantly surprised about how much I liked this story about Abdel Kader Haidara, a historical archivist from Timbuktu and his fellow patriots who saved the centuries old, rare manuscripts of Mali twice.

I am a little over half-way into Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage and still loving it.

>27 seitherin: I tried to read Pride and Prejudice when I was 13 and gave up. It seemed like a lot of gibberish to me. Fast forward 20 years, I picked it up once more and burst out laughing while reading page one. I've read it many times since, enjoying it more with each reading. Fascinating how the books stay the same while humans do the changing.

>32 NarratorLady: It is funny how books we once loved/hated can go the opposite way when enough life passes between readings. I'm laying the groundwork for reading Pride and Prejudice by doing a mini binge of Agatha Christie, who has managed to stay a favorite since I read my first one at age twelve. I just finished Sparkling Cyanide and I've started The Clocks.

I've just finished the heavily atmospheric The Distant Hours by Kate Morton and am practically drowning in gothic-ness. The sky has gone dark while I read, and I feel extraordinarily creeped out after reading it. Good read, not great, rather difficult to get into.

After such a heavy tale I'm picking up something humorous - namely Barney's Version by Mordecai Richler. I've been meaning to read it for years now.

I am reading Mistress of the Sun and really enjoying it. I loved the Josephine B. trilogy when I read it years ago.

Just finished the British thriller Different Class by Joanne Harris and Caldecott Medal winner Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat by Javaka Steptoe.

Now reading The Far Country by Nevil Shute.

Couldn't get into Barney's Version so have picked up Tim Winton's Cloudstreet instead.

I am reading A Strangeness In My Mind by Orhan Pamuk, and I am listening to Exit West by Moshin Hamid.

The new thread is up over here.

Reading Odepius the King by Sophocles .Once I could never read this kind of stuff but now find the ancients deep, simple and straight forward.

I found the' Tale of two cities' very believable,especial the imprisonment in the bastille parts; much the same way as Oscar Wildes' De Profundis' .If fiction has nothing in it about reality I don't see the point in reading it.