Favorite May 2024 Read

What is the best book you read in May 2024?

Mine is a NF last month, The Harvest Gypsies by John Steinbeck. This was a prequel to The Grapes of Wrath written in serial form for newspapers and magazines.

I enjoyed Bel Canto by Ann Patchett as did members of my reading group. A grim sounding plot of terrorists bursting into a party for elites in a South American country turned into something quite different and rather magical as new relationships are formed and priorities rethought by both captors and captured.

Just one - The Longest Minute a fantastic first person account of the San Francisco quake and fire. I had to take a break from my reading of the bloodbath The World Turned Upside Down. I'm still slogging my way through that nightmare (I took the library carpet outside yesterday to flush off all of the dried blood).

Weyward by Emilia Hart

>4 alco261: Yikes! Not interested in the latter, but looked up the former title, as I’ve read disaster accounts before. It’s a 17 hour listen on audio!

Tom Lake.

>6 2wonderY: Yes, well I guess it has lived up to its name - 17 hours definitely makes for a very long minute... :-)

Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry was beautifully written. I hesitate to recommend it though, because it was one of the saddest books I’ve ever read.

That would be Pandora's Jar, by Natalie Haynes. Hayne's retelling of the stories of 10 women prominent in Greek mythology casts a new light on the characters we think we've always known. Looking through a feminist lens, with 21st century perspectives and attitudes, Haynes taps multiple sources for the classic Greek dramas featuring female characters and turns up some interesting alternatives and fascinating conjectures.

Full review is over here, if you're interested.