What are you reading the week of September 21, 2019?

Hey, I got the date right! I'm still working on the same books, however. They are both dense and long, so I expect that I'll be saying the same thing next weekend. :-)

Had my say here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/311203#6925846, #51.

I, OTOH, was no way in hell guilty of taking on the weighty: Alice Payne Rides is a time-travel novella starring a mixed-race time-traveling highway"man" lesbian called The Holy Ghost in her native 18th century. Second in a series. Big four-star fun.

Greetings, all! Autumn has arrived with delightful weather here in northern California. I have a house guest this weekend so a little behind in my reporting. Will catch up soon but just wanted to offer a hello and to mark the thread. Cheers!

I'm still reading Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross. It starts with little Joan learning to read despite the fact that girl's aren't supposed to read, so they got me hooked from the start!

Still reading David Copperfield, Pure Instinct, The Black Tides of Heaven, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction November/December 2018. I've been distracted by Netflix, Acorn TV, and Amazon Prime this week so I haven't done as much reading as I usually do.

Less
Andrew Sean Greer
3.5/5 stars
In this Pulitzer Prize winning book, Arthur Less is in the doldrums. His former lover is getting married and he needs to leave town before the wedding. Les is an author so he books as many literary events and readings around the world so he doesn’t have to face up to the fact that he is turning 50 and not in a relationship. Probably not the funniest book I ever read but a highly enjoyable novel and I would read him again.

I am reading a mediocre thriller called The Stranger in our Home by Sophie Draper, mainly because I'm too tired to go and look for something else to read. It's been a long week.

Started and finished The Institute by Stephen King - also mediocre, and Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich, which was excellent.

Yay me! I finished a fast review of With the Fire on High! It's a terrific book, has the shortcomings of its YA genre but even *I* think it's one fine story.

I hate YA. It's written by a poet. I hate poetry 90+ percent of the time. The author uses the ghastly, cheesy w-verb and I still gave it 4.5 stars.

Get it and read it. (You'll need a napkin. The recipes and food descriptions are from which to expire.)

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Whistleblower by Tess Gerritsen

(romantic suspense/Victor is a hunted man with a major work-place secret/Cathy is a stranger who rescues him and decides to help him/re-release of an early 1990's TG book)

Rereading Denis Johnson's elegiac masterpiece Train Dreams for an upcoming book club discussion. What great writing.

I finished Action at Aquila by Hervey Allen. This is an historical novel about the Civil War, originally published in 1938. The physical descriptions of the country around southern Pennsylvania and into the Shenandoah Valley are wonderful, the descriptions of southern Pennsylvania towns who have recently lived through Lee's invasion and retreat, and the experiences of our protagonist, Colonel Nathaniel Franklin of the Union Army, as he travels this territory during a 3-week leave and then rejoins his troop in time to take part in a horrific battle, are often quite engaging (the battle scene is very well done). Some of the characters fall into stereotype, and some of the developments, especially between the characters, are predictable, but all in all I enjoyed reading this novel quite a bit. You'll find my more in-depth review on the book's work page and on my 50-Book Challenge thread.

Next, I spent a little time with one of my "between book" stacks . . .

* “Courage/Valentia” from It's All In the Frijoles: 100 Famous Latinos Share Real-Life Stories, Time-Tested Dichos, Favorite Folktales, and Inspiring Words of Wisdom by Yolanda Nava
* "Too Pregnant: Kim Kardashian" from Too Fat Too Slutty Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman by Anne Helen Petersen
* "Jane Long" from American Heroines: The Spirited Women who Shaped Our Country by Kay Bailey Hutchison
* “The Growing Stone,” by Albert Camus from Esquire Magazine - 40th Anniversary Celebration edited by Don Erickson

I've now started The Masters, the fifth book in C.P. Snow's "Strangers and Brothers" series.

The Arrangement – Sarah Dunn
Digital audio performed by Ellen Archer
4****

Lucy and Owen have settled in a “perfect” Hudson Valley suburb. They have a large home, an autistic son, and a flock of chickens. Lucy and the other stay-at-home moms even cook the school’s hot lunch. When friends reveal that they’ve decided to have an open marriage, Lucy is stunned. But then she’s intrigued and after talking it over she and Owen agree to a six-month, no-questions-asked experiment with very specific ground rules. But while Lucy and Owen have rules for their arrangement, their potential partners do not.

Somehow, I had the impression that this was going to be a fun, farcical comedy of manners type book. It isn’t. There are some scenes that are quite entertaining (the blessing of the animals fiasco comes to mind), but by and large this is a pretty serious look at modern marriage and the work of commitment – to your partner, to your child, to your values.

I thought it was interesting that Dunn gave the couple the added responsibility / stress of an autistic child. My sympathies changed through the book as a result of how they interacted with their son and each other.

She also people the novel with other interesting couples: a gay couple raising children in the suburbs (the original open marriage on which “the arrangement” is modeled); a teacher who transitions from male to female but whose spouse remains with her; a billionaire with a gold-digger wife who seemingly cares nothing for their child.

Ellen Archer did a wonderful job narrating the audiobook. Her voice for Wyatt was particularly effective … with the rapid fire, higher pitch INSISTENCE of a young child … I certainly felt the parents’ stress in dealing with this challenge.

I finished William Boyd's Sweet Caress -- not as good as I wanted it to be, but I am glad I read it. Now I'm reading Conundrum by Jan Morris.

I finished The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang. I enjoyed the story very much. Well written.

Next up is The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle.

Finished my review of Friday Black: Stories...the best are excellent, the least aren't. But on balance, I'm a very, very satisfied customer.

New to this group. I will try and update weekly!

Tentatively started The Manchurian Candidate yesterday. I think I know the story, having seen the two film versions, but hopefully that won't undermine the novel.

>17 si: Welcome!

I just finished Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane and loved it and am now starting Ann Cleeves’ latest, The Long Call.

Couldn't finish Pure Instinct by Robert W. Walker. Trying to slog through it was worse than pure drudgery.

Added A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie to my rotation.

Cindydavid4> That was the "wolf children" history. Quite dark.

Also, I thought The Great Believers was marvelous. I also learned more than I had previously known about the social dynamics within the gay community at that time.

Finished listening to Inland, and I was a bit disappointed.

Next up to read is the first of a mystery series by an Icelandic author which has been highly recommended, Snowblind by Ragnar Jonasson.

>17 si: Welcome!

I just finished reading Pride, Prejudice, and other Flavors by Sonali Dev. I do love my Jane Austen-inspired novels, and this one was particularly good. It was exactly the sort of light, somewhat predictable book that I needed in the middle of a week with anxiety-making circumstances. That being said, it wasn't entirely fluffy, as it underlined the importance of family, and the risks we need to take in order to live fully.

I've just begun The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid. It's starting off promisingly.

Emily Wilson, translator of The Odyssey, has received a MacArthur Fellowship!

Finished reading the memoir Once More We Saw Stars by Jayson Greene. A heartbreaking and beautifully written book by a father about losing his two-year old daughter and living through grief, heartache, love and hope.

I finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It written somewhere close to stream of consciousness. The book is about grief and the near impossibility of dealing with loss. While it manages to create humorous scenes, every person involved in the story is dealing with loss in his own unique way.

Finished:
American Royals by Katherine McGee (YA)
Alternate history of the US with a monarchy. A sequel is forthcoming next year.

Capturing the Devil by Kerri Maniscalco (YA)
#4 and final installment in the "Stalking Jack the Ripper" series.

The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis
Featuring the Bronte sisters as detectives.
Side note: Best selling novelist Laura Joh Rowland wrote a duet of Charlotte Bronte mysteries several years ago.

Enjoying this Kindle-Audible combo ~

A Dark Lure by Loreth Anne White

(Dark Lure series/psych thriller/Watt Lake serial killer survivor/Broken Bar Ranch in Canada)

Finished The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaVelle.

Added The Black Company by Glen Cook to my reading rotation.

I'm deep into Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett and really, really enjoying it.

I finished Conundrum by Jan Morris. I wish I'd read it when it was first published in the mid-70s, but it's still a very fine book and it has sent me looking for some of her travel books.
I also read South and West by Joan Didion which I liked very much.
Right now I'm reading Alan Cumming's memoir Not My Father's Son.

>20 hemlokgang: Also, I thought The Great Believers was marvelous. I also learned more than I had previously known about the social dynamics within the gay community at that time.

Same here;I just finished this book and really was blown away by the writing, structure, and characters and by how little i really knew. I was in college in those days, and manned our university crisis hotline in the same office as the Gay Student Organization. Learned a lot at that time and later, but there was much I didn't know (wished I knew what happen to the people I met there) This book certainly opened my eyes.

Finished listening to Snowblind, a not particularly thrilling thriller.

Next up for listening is The Lost Man by Jane Harper.

I finished Alan Cumming's Not My Father's Son which was interesting and touching.

Now I'm reading a work of art, Margaret Renkl's Late Migrations. If you love nature and stories grandmother told, you might like this book. I've only just started reading it, but I already believe it to be a treasure.

Cooking for Ghosts – Patricia V Davis
2**

This is the first in the Secret Spice Café Trilogy.

From the book jacket: A Vegas cocktail waitress. An Indian herbalist. A British chemistry professor. An Italian-American widow. Four unique women with one thing in common: each is haunted by a tragedy from her past. Cynthia, Rohini, Jane and Angela meet on a food blogging site and bond over recipes. On impulse, they decide to open The Secret Spice, an elegant café on the magnificent ocean liner, the RMS Queen Mary, currently a floating hotel in Long Beach, California.

My reactions
I expected a chick-lit light story with some ghosts and recipes to add flavor. The basic premise might be good, but it failed in execution for me. I didn’t buy any of the relationships, didn’t particularly connect with any of these women. All their secrets (and all the hints that they had secrets) just struck me as the author trying too hard to make this interesting.

I did like some of the history / background of the ship.

I received this in a giveaway drawing. The prize included a couple of recipe cards which sound absolutely delicious. Unfortunately for me, my husband is allergic to shellfish, so I won’t be able to try that one anytime soon.

The new thread is up over here.

>32 mollygrace: Loved that Cumming's book - he has another one out which I would like to read.