Friday Reads

Our weekly Friday Reads post is now here on the site!

A number of you mentioned in your survey responses that you enjoyed our Friday Reads post on various social media platforms, and that got us thinking: what about those of you who don't follow us on other sites? So we thought we'd start posting here on the site as well.

What are all of you reading this fine September Friday? This week, LibraryThing staff are reading:

Tim: Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language by Adam Aleksic

Abby: Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

Chris Catalfo: This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitan

Kate: Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

Kristi: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Lucy: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Abigail: A Fair Few Days by Jane Gardam

Zeph: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

bnielsen: The Gingerbread House by Carin Gerhardsen

I'm primarily reading The Moonday Letters by Emmi Itäranta. But thank you for the reminder about Algospeak, I've put a hold on it at the library.

>1 AbigailAdams26:

you enjoyed our Friday Reads post on various social media platforms

I never even heard of these.

Thanks for putting this here! I do see the posts on social media sometimes but not regularly. Today I'm reading:

The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde

>4 lilithcat: Our Friday Reads posts are some of our most popular, on various other social media platforms, and have been going on for years. But for those members not following us elsewhere, they'd be unknown. That's what gave us the idea to start posting here as well!

This is my primary social media site, so I’m glad you’re posting here as well now!

I’m typically reading several books at once, and today it’s The Fireman by Joe Hill, The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl, Unseen City by Nathanael Johnson, and the Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf.

The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman to be followed by The Murder of Viscount Montcrief by Karen Baugh Menuhin. Loved The Comfort of Crows

>7 Charon07:

I’m typically reading several books at once

So am I!

Today, Canne al vento, by Grazia Deledda (book club meets later this morning!). If I go out to lunch, I'll throw Nagori, by Ryoko Sekiguchi in my bag. And this evening I'll continue reading Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Just starting The Nine Tailors as part of the MrsLee Memorial Read in the Green Dragon. I'm a little late as I messed up my library hold. Doh!

Deutschstunden (wow, that was fast as I just entered the first copy here.)
Storm Rising

And I just placed a hold on Algospeak, Tim's an influencer.

whats a good book recommendation? something that's mystery related in genre

>12 ablachly: How's Katabasis? Did you and Kate plan to read it together?

>1 AbigailAdams26: A Few Fair Days looks lovely. The cover would have drawn me to it!

I finished reading Three Vassar Girls in Russia and Turkey a few hours ago, and found it to be unusually complex for the series. It's set during the Great Eastern Crisis of 1875 and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, concluding just after the Battle of Shipka Pass in 1878. You can access it here at the Internet Archive. As far as I can tell, all the details of the Herzegovina Uprising and events in Bulgaria are accurate, other than some fictionalizing to fit the Three Vassar Girls series. It's very anti-war, anti-Ottoman Empire.

I've just started the next in the series, set in Switzerland. I expect I'll be sad when I finish the final book in a week or two.

>14 keristars:

It's SO GOOD.

And Kate and I didn't plan on reading it together -- it just so happened that our library holds came in the same week!

>14 keristars: It's my second book from Jane Gardam recently, following on A Long Way from Verona, which I recommend. It's for a buddy read with some friends of mine, originally scheduled for a few weeks ago but rescheduled, and is lovely so far.

Regarding the Three Vassar Girls series, I've been following your posts about them with interest, as they're on my tbr list, and I've been meaning to get to them for a while. We know how that goes...

I'm reading Farscape Omnibus Vol. 1, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, and The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman.

>15 ablachly: That's a nice coincidence! It's always fun to be able to discuss it with someone who's reading at the same time.

>16 AbigailAdams26: the opening sentence on that one is so good!! I'll have to put Gardam on my To Read list for eventually, too.

After such a strong, negative impression of the first Lizzie Champney book I read, I would never have expected to enjoy her work as much as I do. I can't recommend them outright, but for those interested in the Progressive Era in fiction, and how social movements were promoted in books, or even just popular views of other cultures, they're really interesting.

I just started The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst. I expect it to be cozy fluff, as per her previous book in this world, and that's just what I'm craving!

When I can't read print (like during my current extended jam-making and preserving sessions) I'm listening to Hemlock and Silver by T. Kingfisher, which is just as unsettling in audio as it was in print. Love it!

At the moment I’m reading The rediscovery of America and my bedtime book before I switch the light off will be Byens lys 2024.

>20 anglemark: Ha, Byens lys is also on my TBR pile. (It runs in my daily newspaper, so I picked up the book at the library.)

>21 bnielsen: I discovered it by chance, as Kramhøft was at a science fiction convention in Copenhagen that I attended earlier this year.

I am still reading Map of Bones by James Rollins

A Murder Most French. Cozy mystery with Julia Child as one of the sleuths. Julia is quite delightful as is the main character, Tabitha and her "messieurs". I have not finished it yet, but am enjoying the journey towards ma'at.

It's Friday again, and time for Friday Reads!

This week, LibraryThing staff are reading:

Tim / @timspalding: Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language by Adam Aleksic

Abby / @ablachly: A Family Matter by Claire Lynch

Chris Catalfo / @ccatalfo: This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitan

Kate / @katemcangus: Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

Abigail / @AbigailAdams26: Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper

Zeph / @ZephCraven: The Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

What about all of you? What are you reading this Friday?

>1 AbigailAdams26: I was really worried about the pacing in God of the Woods last week, but by the end I was so pleased with the author's choices. Interesting characters and scenarios, challenging ideas without being overly pedantic.

>25 AbigailAdams26: I’m continuing with Unseen City, and I’ve started Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda and The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell. Last week’s The Fireman was pretty depressing and longer than it needed to be. The artwork and the writing in The Comfort of Crows are beautiful, but I found it depressing too. Am I depressed because of my reading, or does my reading seem depressing because of my mood? Beowulf, in contrast, despite—or maybe because of—its monsters and its focus on unrelenting fate, was both comforting and entertaining.

Still reading the excellent The rediscovery of America (and will probably be next week too) but my bedtime reading is now Tintinism 2025, the annual journal of the Swedish Hergé appreciation society.

I'm about 40 pages into three different books, and keep flip-flopping between them--A Fire Upon the Deep, The Book (it's the Keith Houston, I'm having trouble with the touchstone), and A Desolation Called Peace.

I just wish one of them would stick. This is why I don't consider myself to have started a book until page 50.

I'm (re)reading Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde
The middle book in my reread of the full Thursday Next series before the 8th book comes out in 2026

Reading Running Wild Press Vol.8 which has short stories and also The Complete Kennections by Ken Jennings.

>27 Charon07: Unseen City sounds intriguing. I'll see if I can get my hands on it.

I am reading The Adventures of Vela by Albert Wendt, which requires concentration because it is in verse and full of Samoan words, during the day, and About Time: An Aspect of Autobiography by Penelope Mortimer, a much more straightforward read, in the evening.

Recommended by my daughter, it was very discouraging at the start. But she encouraged me to stay with it, and it’s definitely paying off.
Martyr! has some lovely characters and reflections.

Dan Jones Lion Hearts, Third volume in the Essex Dogs Trilogy. Set in the mid-1300s. Brash, and entertaining. He is an extraordinary History writer and his fiction stories are a wild ride.

>28 anglemark: You mentioning The Rediscovery of America last week put it on my TBR, and got The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic onto my radar, thanks to a friend I mentioned Dr Blackhawk's book to. I finally finished The Fabric of Civilization last night, so I can start Sinha's book today.

Non-fiction that gives context and perspective to the popular girls' books I'm still reading has been very rewarding. Though, tbqh, I didn't expect Inventing the Renaissance to be so very relevant! 😆 (I highly recommend it, though it's a chonker at about 700 pages.)

>35 keristars: I loved Inventing the Renaissance! Battle Pope 2: More Battle Pope!

>36 Watry: the mnemonics for recalling something were so helpful! I kept chuckling at the (Not) Oration (Not) on the Dignity of Man, too. (Oration on the Dignity of Man) With so many names to keep track of, it made the book easier to keep up with AND entertaining!

(I think I'm spoiled for massive histories going forward, oops.)

I am currently reading A world of curiosities by Louise Penny

>35 keristars: What is so utterly convincing about Dr Blackhawk's book is that he is not writing as a Native American activist, but as a professional and unbiased historian. There is no attempt at painting the Native peoples as morally or ethically superior to the Europeans, or any romanticizing of Native life in America before the colonization and genocide. It is just a very thorough and well-researched attempt at putting the Native peoples back into the colonial and post-colonial history of America, where they have been consistently downplayed over the centuries because of Eurocentrism and racism.

I looked at the description of The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic and the last words, a necessary reminder of how young and fragile our democracy truly is, strike me as even more prescient than the author could have guessed at the time of writing. I need to get Palmer's book. I failed to get into Terra Ignota but she is so engaging in person that I'm sure I'll love Inventing the Renaissance.

Am listening to this.



People have said that Fry is a National Treasure and he keeps proving it.

>39 anglemark: Dr. Blackhawk is very highly thought of, so I'm not surprised to hear this about his work. Definitely you're convincing me to put it much higher on my TBR. :)

I read through the introduction of The Rise and Fall... yesterday, before I got too sleepy to keep up, and found it touching on things I'd noticed in the fiction from the period, in a way that makes me excited to keep going, to learn more details, and of new ideas. Good stuff in a book!

Some of Inventing the Renaissance is adapted/expanded from blog posts at exurbe.com, such as this one on progress and historical change , if you want a taste.

>28 anglemark: Interesting! What does the Tintin annual contain? Is it new content, or old? You might have seen in the In Memoriam section of the most recent edition of SOTT that a famed Tintinlogist (which I hitherto didn't know was a thing), the Belgian critic Philippe Goddin, has passed away: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/09/14/philippe-goddin-expert-on-tint...

>42 AbigailAdams26: No, I had missed Goddin's passing. Thanks for letting me know.

The annual contains mostly fan articles written by members, for example one on the use of alcohol in Tintin, and an analysis of the differences between the feuilleton version and the album version of Destination Moon/Explorers on the Moon. There are also translations from the Dutch or French of interviews with Hergé, and a few reprints of newspaper articles from when Hergé was still alive. Things like that. There's a table of contents here (in Swedish): https://www.generationt.se/?page_id=21.