Reading in 2025

I have recently finished reading the Oracle Glass by Judith Merkle Riley. It takes place in France during the reign of Louis XIV

I recently finished and enjoyed Good People by Israeli author Nir Baram, which takes place from 1938 through 1941 in both Germany and Russia. You can find my review on the book's work page or on my 2025 Club Read thread. The novel has two protagonists, both trying to keep their heads above water by compromising "just a little" within the authoritarian regimes of Hitler and Stalin.

I've just finished James, Percival Everett's excellent, compelling and thought-provoking re-imagining of Mark Twain's classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of Jim, the runaway slave who accompanies Huck on his trip down the Mississippi and plays such a major role in the story. My longer review can be found on my Club Read thread.

I've just finished Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourncenar and enjoyed it, though it is a bit slow in parts. It's included in the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list, so I guess would be considered a modern classic. The book is a fictionalized memoir offered by the Roman emperor Hadrian on his death bed to his named successor, Marcus Aurelius. Highly recommended to anyone interested in a deeply researched and beautifully written novel and who doesn't mind dense prose with very little plot or narrative drive.

My longer review is on my Club Read thread.

Nearly finished with Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict, a well-done first-person novel that follows Clemmie Churchill from her courtship with Winston to her work alongside him during WWII.

I've finished and greatly enjoyed Shosha, Isaac B. Singer's novel of Warsaw in the late 1930s, originally published in Yiddish in 1974 and in English in 1978.

Recently finished and reviewed Pride and Pemberley by Dee Garretson and now reading The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian

I recently finished Quietly My Captain Waits by Evelyn Eaton. This very entertaining book is an historical romance that takes place in New France, a French colony in what is now Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and parts of Maine, during the final decade or so before the area was taken over by the English during Queen Anne's War. Published in 1940, this novel is many cuts above what one would consider standard fare in the genre and was evidently quite popular when it first appeared.

You can find a long review on my Club Read thread or in the book's LT review section.