WHAT are you reading now!: April 12, 2025

Mistakes were made.

Working on Radetzky with The Voyage of the Sable Keech to follow.

Now halfway through Warship 2023, with Misinformation Nation to follow.

I'm racing through James and enjoying it immensely. It's a lot of fun to read immediately after my reread of Huck Finn. Having Twain's story clearly in my mind while reading Everett's version, really helps me comprehed what Everett is accomplishing: where and how the two narratives coalesce and also where and how they diverge.

This week I've been reading Strange Weather by Joe Hill on my lunch break because it's normal-size, and The Norton Book of Women's Lives by Phyllis Rose at home because it's giant-size. I'm loving the first novella in Strange Weather called Snapshot! I hope I finish it today.

The Cloud Searchers – Kazu Kibuishi
3***

Episode 3 in the Amulet series of graphic novels for the pre-teen crowd.

The adventure continues with Emily, Navin and Leon enlisting a ship’s captain to take them in search of Cielis, the city hidden in the clouds, where they hope to find and join the Council.

The plot gets more convoluted, with the addition of the Elf King’s son and prince. Or is he? Whom to trust? Can Emily channel the amulet’s power without being corrupted by it?

Kabuishi’s imagination runs wild, with more fantastical creatures either attacking or coming to the aid of Emily and crew. I really appreciated the map at the end, though it makes me think the series is far more complicated than I originally expected.

I'm reading Demon of Unrest (it will be a while before I finish this book) and The Vaster Wilds (will also take some time to read). I also just started the next Jacqueline Winspear Pardonable Lies and a fun fantasy romp from Elizabeth Scarborough, Bronwyn's Bane.

See Jane Run
Joy Fielding
4/5 stars
Jane Whittaker, married with children in Boston, finds herself lost with blood splattered on her and $10,000 dollar in cash on her. She ends up in the hospital and a nurse recognizes her and her husband comes to get her. But she is still not sure why she is not getting better. I really enjoyed this book and the ending. 1991

Well it didn't take me long to (just a couple of days) to finish 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 50-Book Challenge thread.

Next I'll be finishing up Tony Judt's spectacular history, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, which I've been reading a quarter at a time due to its length (800+ pages). Remaining for me is Part Four: After the Fall--1989-2005.

The Wind Knows My Name– Isabel Allende
Book on CD performed by Edoardo Bellerini and Maria Liatis
4****

Allende explores the immigrant experience, and particularly the heart-wrenching separation of children from their parents with a dual timeline. In 1938 the Adlers send their son Samuel to Britain from Austria after the events of Kristallnacht make it clear that Jews are no longer safe in Nazi-occupied areas. And in 2019 in Arizona a Anita Diaz and her mother seek asylum after an arduous journey from their native El Salvador, only to be separated. How these two children handle the trauma is the focus of the novel.

My heart broke for both these families, though Allende gives us a dedicated social worker and attorney who passionately advocate for the disadvantaged youth. I particularly liked how the two storylines eventually connect, improbable though that may be.

Still, this was an emotionally difficult book to read. It pains me to recognize the similarities in the ways governments treat “others.” Apparently, we have learned nothing from history.

The audiobook is marvelously narrated by two very talented voice artists. Edoardo Bellerini handles most of the novel, while Maria Liatis gives voice to the seven-year-old Anita.

continuing this audio via Libby ~

The Maid's Secret (Molly the Maid Mystery, #3)
by Nita Prose

Current read from the library: The Burning Pages by Paige Shelton
7th installment in "A Scottish Bookshop Mystery" series. Delaney is an American transplant who works at the Cracked Spine bookshop in Edinburgh, Scotland. In this novel, Delaney is invited to a Burns Night supper for the 1st time, and she's eager to experience one. Things go downhill when one of the guests brings up bad memories and there's an overnight fire. When a fellow employee at the Cracked Spine is accused, Delaney works to clear his name.

The latest installment in the series, Written in Stone, released this month!

Currently reading the second book of the Vinland Saga series Forbidden Talents by Frankie Robertson

Gun Games
Faye Kellerman
4/5 stars
Peter and Rina get involved in a death, revolving around a young man Gregory Hesse. His mother Wendy does not believe that he killed himself and feels some else killed him. Mystery

The new thread is up over here.