What are you reading the week of June 16, 2018?

I'm about midway through The Book of My Life, by Girolamo Cardano. It's the autobiography of an Italian Renaissance physician, mathematician, philosopher, astrologer, etc., etc.. It came highly recommended, but I'm just finding it so-so.

I'm working steadfastly on Anna Karenina, ¡Vamos a leer, Selected Poetry and Prose of Coleridge, and A Brief History of Time. I have the revised edition of Brief History, and this time I think I'm understanding a bit more than I did during my first read 20 years ago.

I'm about a third of the way through my audio of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I love the Jim Dale audios even more than the print books. I started The Mists of Avalon last night, and I'll be starting Second Spanish Reader: Bilingual for Speakers of English today. I wouldn't usually do two Spanish readers at once, but I won this one in a LibraryThing Member Giveaway so I fell obligated to move it to the top of the list.

>1 fredbacon: Congratulations for hanging in there Fred! Sometimes it takes a while for a book to click but I’m afraid I lose patience before I get to the middle.

Just beginning The Alice Network. Good yarn so far.

I had to find a book with the author's initials matching mine for a challenge and I must say that I love the book I picked. Never would have read him if it wasn't for the challenge.
The book is A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr.

Still reading The Postmortal, Blightborn, and The New Voices of Fantasy.

A couple of days ago I finished Three Street by Will Stevens. Published in 1962, Three Street is a fable-like series of tales about the neighborhood around Third and Mission Streets in San Francisco, where the major newspaper offices, including the San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle, were located right up against the city's Skid Row. Stevens was an Examiner reporter who knew the neighborhood well. As usual, you can find my more in-depth thoughts on my 50-Book Challenge thread. Despite the novel's lack of veracity, this was still a fun time-capsule back to one of San Francisco's glory eras.

I'm one of only two LT members who have this book listed in their libraries. That's kind of cool.

Today or tomorrow I'll get back back to C.P. Snow's "Strangers and Brothers" series via the set's fourth book, The Light and the Dark.

A Blessing of Toads: A Guide to Living with Nature by Sharon Lovejoy

Just starting right this minute.

Finished Blightborn by Chuck Wendig and started the last book in the trilogy, The Harvest. Liking it.

I finished Into the Raging Sea by Rachel Slade. It was a riveting account of the the final hours of the ill fated container ship, El Faro, and the subsequent searches and investigation. Such a tragedy.

I rarely read non-fiction back to back, but I’ll Be Gone in the Dark was waiting so I decided it was time to start it.

>4 JulieLill: A lovely book! I don’t think I would have discovered it without my LT friends. Enjoy!

Three Street sounds really interesting. I'll keep an eye peeled for it, though it looks like it might be difficult to track down.

I'm still reading but closing in on the conclusion of Duma Key by Stephen King. I just got back from a week vacation in Gulf Shores, Alabama. I loved reading King's descriptions of being on the beach of Florida while looking out at the Gulf of Mexico while reading on the beach of the Gulf of Mexico. I wish I was still there but now we're getting to the scary part so maybe it's best I'm safe at home.

A Month in the Country
By J.L. Carr
5/5 stars
Post WWI finds a young man in a small Yorkshire village restoring a mural in an old church, living with a village family and making friends with a kindred spirit who is looking for the grave of a young man who died years ago but was not allowed to be buried in the church cemetery. As the summer goes by, he is taken in by the villagers as one of them and the possibility of a forbidden romance takes hold. But alas the summer ends and the job is finished and he has to take his leave having uncovered the mystery of the mural. Wonderful book, I look forward to reading more of his work!

>10 Zoes_Human: Yes, Three Street was a fun book to read in an "interesting time capsule" sort of way. You'll really have to keep your eyes peeled to find a copy, I'd think, but then you never know what will turn up in a thrift store or estate sale, do you? More likely, though, if you really want to read it, you'll have to go the online route. I have no idea where I found the book, myself, although I entered it onto LT in 2008, when I was originally uploading my library, so I've had it around for a long time. I lived in San Francisco for 22 years, so that would have presumably made it easier for me to stumble onto a copy somewhere.

I'm pairing Norwegian crime fiction with Norwegian non-fiction, an idea I did not think through, as it's obvious that I will be finished with the novel long before I'm even a quarter of the way through the non-fiction volume. Oh, well.

Fiction: Dregs by Jørn Lier Horst
Non-fiction: One of Us: Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway by Åsne Seierstad

Finished Dance Night, a story of two young people in a small factory town and their dreams of moving to the city and making it big. It portrays the nature of a small town, both its comforting and its stifling nature. It was okay.

I have 75 Pages left of the 574 pages of She Has Her Mother's Laugh by Carl Zimmer. It is a book about genetics and very interesting.

>rocketjk The hunt is half the fun! :)

Finished She Has Her Mother's Laugh. It gets a 5 star rating.

Finished The Harvest by Chuck Wendig. Overall, I liked this YA dystopian trilogy.

Next into the rotation is 84K by Claire North.

I just finished a Ruth Galloway mystery, and I'm reading Burning Bright by Patricia Briggs. I'm in a stretch of lighter reading.

The Magic of Oz
By L. Frank Baum
3.5/5 stars
This story revolves around two storylines; the first is about Kiki, a young munchkin who longs for adventure and lives on the top of Mount Munch. His father, Bini had a forbidden magic word that would transform people and objects. Kiki overhears the word and now can use it. The former evil Nome King who is in exile also discovers the power Kiki has and urges him to join him. In the meantime Oz is getting ready for Princess Ozma’s birthday and Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz are looking for the perfect gift for Ozma but first they have to rescue Captain Bill and Trot who have gotten stuck on an island where they hoped to bring back the Magic Flower for the birthday celebration. And so the adventures of Oz continues…. Two more books left!

> I did not know he had written other books of Oz. Thanks for the info.

My library had a beautiful Books of Wonder collection of the Oz books when I was a child. I must have checked them out dozens of times. I'm slowly building up my own collection of those editions (they replicate the first editions). I have 7 of them so far.

>22 mnleona: He wrote 14 books and left notes for a 15th book that was credited to him for years but was actually written by another author. The series continued after his death but I think (at least for this year)- I will finish with the 15th book.

I don't know how accurate this is - but it lists all of the books written about Oz including the ones written after Baum's death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Oz_books

Wonderstruck
Brian Selznick
4/5 stars
After his mother dies, Ben is left alone and he becomes the catalyst that helps solve the mystery of where he came from and what happened to his family.
Told through pictures and the written word, this lovely story encompasses the lives of three different generations who have lost each other due to the ability of thinking they know what is best for others and their inability to empathize. Wonderful!

Finishing Queen of the Conqueror: the Life of Matilda, Wife of William I by Tracy Borman
I'd read a library copy of the book a few years ago. I bought the softback edition while in London last month.

I can't impress strongly enough that everyone really really REALLY needs to read The Sun Does Rise by Anthony Ray Hinton. It's a wonderful memoir of a wonderful man

I’m reading Ask me no questions by Marina Budhos about a Muslim family of immigrants.

And also Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, a psychological thriller. I think l heard it was being made into a tv mini series.

Finished The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, a book I found disturbing, but ultimately uplifting. Also Walking the Perfect Square a mystery by Reed Farrel Coleman, the first in the Moe Prager series. I had read it many years ago, but decided to re-read it and continue with the series. But first A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean. I have also read this before, but was inspired to re-read it by recently watching the movie on TCM.

At long, long last I have finished Volume 1 of Remembrance of Things Past, and I genuinely savored it!

Next up to read is A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety by Jimmy Carter.

The art in all of his books is gorgeous!

We're moving from NC to CT so I'm feeling some stress. That said, I'm treating myself to whatever books look interesting to distract from reality. Right now, Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman is absolutely doing the trick. Apparently, Steadman is an actress who can also write a darn suspenseful thriller; she was on Downton Abbey for a bit. Instead of weeping quietly over finding a mover when I need them, I was enthralled by Something in the Water!

I am down and out, but in college so for fun I read books. I am reading Iris Johansen book QUINN.

I'm actually in the middle of two books, one is an audiobook I listen to in the car. I'm about 3/4 of the way through House of Batory by Linda Lafferty and I'm about four chapters into The Curse of Tenth Grave by Darynda Jones.

Days Without End– Sebastian Barry
4****

Two young immigrants – Thomas from Ireland, and John from England – meet under a shrub during a sudden downpour and become fast friends, and more. The time is the mid-19th century in America, and the boys go from working in a frontier saloon as “dancers” dressed as girls, to joining the Army and serving in both the Indian and Civil Wars. They take on an orphaned Indian girl as their servant and treat her as if she were their own child, forming a family of sorts.

This is a very atmospheric novel. Barry makes the landscape practically come alive, from the wide vistas of the western plains, to the bloody battlefields of the Civil War, and the horrendous conditions of Andersonville Prison.

The narration is done by Thomas, a poorly educated young man, who speaks in a unique dialect (which is made that much more challenging to read by Barry’s lack of quotation marks). Yet I feel privileged to have heard his story in his own words … of love, war, regret, pride, adventure, death and peace. He may have had a very limited education, but he told his story in words that were at times sheer poetry.

I found myself jotting notes and quotes, and reading aloud to my husband passage after passage:
We see a country whose beauty penetrates our bones … the the far distance, we see a land begin to be suggested as if maybe a man was out there painting it with a huge brush.

A man that only got noughts to count, can’t get 1 for an answer.

Words so black they were blacker than dried blood. Remorse not a whit. Killing hurts the heart and soils the soul.

The train moves like a giant dancer for all its bulk.

The palms of her hands like two maps of home, the lines leading homeward like old trails.

Several people in my F2F book club questioned the relationship between John and Thomas, feeling that it was gratuitous and unnecessary. And yet, I found it loving and tender and genuine. Clearly, they meant the world to one another, and felt strongly that Winona was “our daughter.” I was touched by their affection and loyalty. That they could find some joy in their relationship amidst all the horrific experiences of war … well, how could I possibly object to that?

All in all, this is beautiful, poetic, powerful writing that tugs at my heart and alternately disturbs me and cradles me in a loving embrace.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter – Erika L Sánchez
Book on CD performed by Kayla Garcia.
4****

Fifteen-year-old Julia narrates this coming-of-age story set in Chicago. The novel opens shortly after her older sister, Olga, has died in a tragic traffic accident. Her mother and father are absorbed in their grief, and Julia feels smothered by their over-protectiveness. She worries her dreams and desires to go to college in New York and become a writer will never come true. And feels that if she can just uncover the truth of her “perfect” sister’s last months on earth, she’ll be able to move on with her life. Though Julia and her sister were born in the U.S., the fact that her parents are undocumented makes her all the more reticent to seek professional help for her growing depression.

I really like Julia as a main character. I cheered for her as she uncovered bits of her sister’s life with the help of her friends. I worried about her as she withdrew from those friends and struggled to connect with her parents. I wanted to take her aside and counsel her when she kept refusing to acknowledge her troubles to concerned teachers. I applauded her efforts to pursue her goals of a college education. She’s a tough girl and I think in similar circumstances I would have broken far sooner. I wanted to shake her mother and father into acknowledging the real, talented, bright, obedient daughter they had, rather than continue to idolize (and practically canonize) their deceased “perfect” daughter.

Kayla Garcia does a marvelous job narrating the audio book. She has great pacing, perfect pronunciation of Spanish, and enough skill as a voice artist to differentiate the characters. I love the way she voices Julia’s friends Lorena and Juanga.

I finished the relentlessly exciting Something in the Water last night. I seem to have started Savage Harvest nonfiction about Michael Rockefeller's disappearance in Papua New Guinea. It's not what I thought I'd move onto next but so far, so good. I've always been a little curious about, and revolted by, cannibalism. ;)

Halfway through A Short History of Germany, temporarily putting aside several books on my night stand including War on Peace a thorough and insightful book on American diplomacy by Ronan Farrow.

Finished 84K by Claire North. Hated it.

Next into my reading rotation is A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers.

The new thread is up over here.

>40 seitherin: Let us know how the Chambers book is. I read the first one and really liked it but haven't gotten around to this one yet!

Read a knock-out memoir from 1986: Rain or Shine by Cyra McFadden. Her dad was famed rodeo announcer Cy Taillon. Nothing about this should have intrigued this East coast girl but it was highly recommended so I gave it a whirl. What a writer! All her convoluted family comes to life in delightful bios and she doesn't hesitate to shine a critical light on herself. Best book I've read so far this year.