WHAT ARE YOU READING? - Part 3

The old topic is getting too long again so time for a fresh start.

We are 40 days into the year. How is your reading going?

Pull up a chair, kick off your shoes (or don't if you prefer not to) and tell us what you are reading.

Reading Edith Wharton’s biography by Hermione Lee is taking too much time. That’s my 40 days on take away. 🙂 Seriously, I’m putting all my time into it and I’m not getting to other stuff i’m maybe more interested in. And it’s messing with my plan.

My outlook right now is oriented towards the International Booker Prize longlist, coming out soon.

I'm slightly behind, but not too badly, considering the past month, and now getting caught up in the Olympics instead of reading. I'm behind with that too, but it's all saved to watch. I have several books in progress, so maybe I'll be caught up in a week?

One more book I started on audio and switched to ebook: D’après une histoire vraie. The reader’s interpretation in some places clashed with mine.

I’m getting closer to the end of Dreamfall, which promises to be crushing, so I’m progressing very slowly.

I started Unbeaten Tracks in Japan by Isabella Bird. I bought/downloaded all the versions available on Kobo before I found a decent one, but I think it might be worth it.

ETA: thanks to @jjmcgaffey for mentioning Isabella Bird in the previous thread.

>4 FlorenceArt:
Not to be nitpicky but actually I'm the one who mentioned Isabella Bird in the previous thread. In fact, you had already replied to me and then jjmcgaffey made a comment to add on that you can download her works via Project Gutenberg, which is also how I am reading them.

Yes, I just pointed out a lot of her books are on Gutenberg. Thanks for introducing her to me, too, lilisin - I hadn't heard of her before.

I feel like my reading year is off to a great start. I'm hoping The Troupe continues my good run.

>5 lilisin: Oh, sorry! And thank you for mentioning Bird!

I just finished the 1000 page epic historical fiction novel, The Far Pavilions, set in India in the 1860s-80s. I loved it.

Now I'm reading the much shorter Ripeness by Sarah Moss, who is a hit or miss author for me. So far I'm enjoying this new novel from her.

Also continuing America, América: A New History of the New World, which I think I'll pick up the pace on now that I'm done with The Far Pavilions.

For my main reads, I'm nearly finished with When the Angels Left the Old Country, and I'm still very near the beginning of Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth by Noa Tishby.

For my morning bite-sized reading long books, I'm reading Ellen Frankel's The Classic Tales - I'm up to the stories about Abram and Sarai so far - and Israeli Poetry: A Contemporary Anthology, in which I've reached the poetry of Yehuda Amichai.

>2 dchaikin: Lol that's kind of the way I felt about the Edith Wharton biography by the end. I wished that Lee had made more choices to summarize and analyze the materials she examined and then share her judgments. But "courage" you'll get it done! How far along are you?

>9 japaul22: I'm curious which Sarah Moss you didn't enjoy as much? I've read Ghost Wall which I loved, but half of my book group hated, and Summerwater which I also loved. I was really surprised how much of a difference of opinion there was among my friends.

I'm about half done reading Young Mungo which is pretty traumatic, frankly. Tomorrow, I'm going to see a play, Marat/Sade (which I count as reading), and next in queue is Ali Smith's Public Library. She's my favorite author, so I'm looking forward to that.

>12 aprille: I really liked Ghost Wall and really disliked Night Waking. I could not accept the modern plot line in that one, though I enjoyed the flashbacks. The main character, Anna, just really grated on me to the point where I almost couldn’t finish the book.

>11 aprille: i’m 60% through Lee’s Wharton biography, in the Fighting France chapter. I’ll definitely finish because I’m leading a group read of it on Litsy - with a few other Wharton-obsessed readers. But, I’ll take your courage!

I'm currently reading The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins and the Fight for Women in Science by Kate Zernike. This was one of the books I got recently through SantaThing, and I have to say Santa made some truly excellent choices. They also sent me The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, which I read last month and loved. This one is just as good, in a very different way, but I find that I sometimes have to force myself to pick it back up, because it's also infuriating.

>4 FlorenceArt: anoher one i need to get!

I'm currently reading a memoir called Accidental Rebel: My Story of Interracial Love and Loss by Annie Waxman. It's a memoir set in the 1960's South and discusses racism, interracial love, sexism, feminism, heartbreak, healing, and more. I'm really enjoying the author's perspective. She really makes you feel like you are living the experiences with her.

>13 aprille: Public Library was the first Ali Smith book I read and I've loved reading her books ever since. I've just started reading her new book, Glyph, today.

I just finished Fonseca, a lovely fictionalized account of a trip Penelope Fitzgerald made to Mexico when she was in her 30s. It is a lovely novel.

I am starting my reread of The House of the Spirits, which I last read in my 20s. I remember very little of it.

>20 BLBera: Oh, Fonseca is on my wish list already, and I'll be glad to read your review.

I finished Stargate SG-1: Valhalla which is a strong early contender for book of the year for me. Next up in my "read the books you actually own already" queue is The Rambling Kid: A novel about the IWW.

Finished Dreamfall and restarted The Twice Drowned Saint which I had bought at a time when I needed simpler stuff. And now that I’m back home I can continue with my paper books about Renaissance, especially L’Art au XVIe siècle.

I have finished The Poems of John Donne which is basically the collected poems edited by John Grierson and published in 1912. Whilst digesting all of this I have turned to John Carey's John Donne, Life Mind and Art - hope to be posting again soon

Just before leaving for our Mardi Gras vacation, I finished Independent People by Halldór Laxness. I finally have a review up on my Club Read thread. I'm now around 2/3 of the way through an excellent memoir, How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family's Story of Hope and Survival in the American South by Esau McCaulley.

I finished both The Ladies' Paradise and Great Expectations today and started reading the Australian memoir by A. B. Facey, A Fortunate Life.

I just finished Julian Barnes Departure(s), his final book. As a lifelong fan of Barnes, I cried at the end when he says goodbye to his readers.

Now stating The Gate by Natsume Soseki

I'm finally starting to feel like life is returning to something approaching normal. It's been tempting to start something new, but I have doubled down on finishing some things already in progress first, and today I restarted Death at the Village Chess Club which was a Reading Through Time leftover from last year. Don't know now why I paused it for so long - it's quite easy reading and I'm already at 25%.

I have started listening to David Copperfield, shamefully my first ever Dickens. It feels a bit like I am watching a good-natured TV series, rich in aphorisms. "The days sported by us, as if Time had not grown up himself yet, but were a child too, and always at play."

Finished reading what will surely qualify as one of the worst books I finished in the last ten years or so - The Possessed by Gombrowicz. The first real blunder by Fitzcarraldo Editions in my experience. Note to self - stop early when in doubt, throw the bad books away, remember Brodsky - "Bad literature is a form of treason."

Started reading An Odyssey by Daniel Mendelsohn - a book I borrowed from a friend two years ago (another shameful fact).

>29 VladysKovsky: Witold Gombrowicz is one of the East European classic authors that I have never read. Your verdict on The Possessed doesn't entice me to run out and correct this omission.

I'm glad you started with David Copperfield, I just finished Great Expectations and it is my least favorite Dickens reread.

I'm curious about the Mendelsohn book, which has been on my radar for a while. I loved The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million and how he explored history through a family lens.

>29 VladysKovsky: welcome to Dickens. I've only read two, but this is one of them. Also, I have that Mendelsohn on my TBR. I meant to read it after reading The Odyssey.

After finishing Cezanne by Alex Danchev, I moved to Missing Person by Patrick Modiano. Very similar to Invisible Ink. Left me both impressed and somewhat frustrated by the ending. Maybe that's his thing. Superior writer though, no question about that.

I also revisited Peloteros by Edgardo Rodriguez Julia, whose essays I used to love many years ago. These ones about Puerto Rican baseball in his childhood and in the 90's felt unfinished. As I read them I vaguely remembered feeling the same way the first time around.

Currently halfway through The Unknown Matisse by Hilary Spurling. So superior to the Danchev biography. Feels monumental, like John Richardson's A Life of Picasso. Probably the definitive biography of Matisse.

My library had a fascinating novella set in the deserts of southern Libya. The narrator of The Bleeding of the Stone is a lone Bedouin in a remote area. The first 3/4 of the story is from his prospective and then there are a few chapters from the view of a hunter that has arrived looking for this sheep herder and guardian of rock paintings, rumored to know the location of the last wild sheep. This is where the story takes a fantastical turn....

Edited to correct title.

>33 ELiz_M: well, that’s enticing…

>33 ELiz_M: I wish I lived near a larger library. It would be wonderful to happen upon books like this.

>35 labfs39: It's an ebook, so may be more available than you'd think?

I finished Ripeness by Sarah Moss and started Making Things Better: A Novel by Anita Brookner. And the touchstone led me to a discovery that Making Things Better is the U.S. title but it was originally published as the Next Big Thing.

>36 ELiz_M: I checked the Maine Library System, and I can request it from one of the state's colleges.

I finished the excellent memoir, How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family's Story of Hope and Survival in the American South by Esau McCaulley. You can see my review on the book's work page and on my Club Read thread.

I’m about to finish The Gate by Natsume Soseki, which is quitely seductive. After that I will probably read Vipers' tangle by François Mauriac, because Julian Barnes in his latest book writes that Mauriac is his favourite writer. I haven’t read any Mauriac so far.

I just finished Hagstone by Sinead Gleeson on audiobook (enjoyed it - much better than expected). My new audiobook starting tomorrow will be The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits. In paperback, I'm reading the memoir of Angelica Garnett, Vanessa Bell's daughter (and niece of Virginia Woolf) - Deceived With Kindness.

I finished listening to The Case of the Claw: SCPD, Book 1 I think next up in my audiobook queue is going to be Black Beauty read by Simon Vance that I ripped from the public library last summer when the CD Player in my car died. :'-(

>40 kjuliff:

Mauriac is such a famous author in France, especially that particular title and I even own it but I have yet to read it! I'll look forward to your thoughts about it.

>42 fulner: DeCandido also has a fantasy-cops series (his own, not licensed), Cliff's End Precincts. I've read the first and never quite got around to reading the others, though I have them all.

this month im reading men at arms for nightwatch series, lamb in his bosom for RTT march theme antebellum, moon tiger just because and martyr for march monthly authors

I'm now reading The Surgeon's Daughter, a novella by Sir Walter Scott that appears in the three-story volume, Chronicles of the Canongate.

I finished Ali Smith's collection Public Library. I liked it a lot, but I have the sense that I'll need to journal about it to get all of the disparate ideas and connections to cohere a little better in my mind. Meanwhile, I have started in on The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. I've not read that much Roth, only Portnoy's Complaint and American Pastoral.

I'm continuing with A Fortunate Life, but also started Clear on audio.

>44 jjmcgaffey: Thanks for the info, if not the strong endorsement, lol.

>43 lilisin: I actually put Vipers' tangle aside for the time being as it was creeping me out during the blizzard. I needed something more stable, so am now reading The Vanishing Velasquez. I need to be in the right frame of mind for that Viper book! Probably best to leave it on your shelf till there’s a regime change here.

>48 labfs39: I loved Clear

>47 aprille: how interesting. Is this a newer older Ali Smith?

>48 labfs39: >51 kjuliff: me too!

>48 labfs39: I loved Clear.

>47 aprille: I've been looking at this collection of stories by Smith. I love her writing so much.

But first I have to finish my reread of The House of the Spirits, which is SO good.

I finished Clear in only two rounds of listening. Perfect story for my emotional needs. Has anyone read anything else by Davies?

I am starting The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt

>54 labfs39: yay! And that’s the only one of her novels i know!

>55 baswood: Good for you! I own that book twice, first I bought it on paper, then as an ebook when it became available, and still haven’t found the courage to start reading.

>53 BLBera: I just read The House of the Spirits last year for the first time. What was it about it that pulled you back to read it again?

>54 labfs39: I've not read any Davies yet but have both West and Clear in my queue, based on my husband's recommendations.

>55 baswood: The Origins of Totalitarianism has been sitting on my shelf for ten years or so,unread, looking at me accusingly. A couple of years ago, I tried to do a shortcut by reading a book of Arendt's essays, Essays in Understanding but they were pretty uneven and unsatisfying.

>57 FlorenceArt: Obviously, I share your weakness!

>57 FlorenceArt: I am finding it hard going.

oh my, its a joy to read in his bosom the words slip out as easiily as silk . ill be writing more in my page

>53 BLBera: oh I wish i could read it the first time next read eva luna as powerful as the first

>54 labfs39: I read West by Davies and also liked it.

>58 aprille: My book group wanted to revisit it. I didn't remember much from my first read, but I do like magical realism and am a fan of South American lit in general, so I was up for it.

>30 labfs39: I think your omission of Gombrowicz is very wise. I will make sure to also omit him in the future.

Happy with David Copperfield so far and grateful for the voting you have organized!

I am also enjoying An Odyssey - it is not as heavy as I feared. It reminds me a little of Curiosity by Alberto Manguel, except Manguel is deeper in the subject matter of various circles of hell visited with Dante and his other even more illustrious guide. Mendelsohn on the other hand is much more ready to chat about his family history.

I am adding The Drowned World to my current reading - a book-club obligation.

In addition I continue torturing myself on the train with Le Roi de Fer - my first and surely my last Druon

>54 labfs39: Yes, I read The Mission House - I loved Clear so much that I just had to read another of her works. I reviewed The Mission House here.

>62 BLBera: >64 kjuliff: Noting both West and The Mission House. Sounds like I can't go wrong with any of her books.

>63 VladysKovsky: I'm glad you are enjoying David Copperfield. You might think of reading Demon Copperhead afterward, I thought it a brilliant reworking.

I'm currently reading Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kristen Bakis, which has been sitting on my TBR shelves for entirely too long. It's an odd novel, and I'm not 100% sure what to make of it yet, but I'm interested to find out.

>42 fulner: Keith DeCandido! I know that name: he's the guy who wrote the only good Farscape tie-in novel! That one sounds kind of fun. Maybe I should check it out.

Haven’t finished anything, but i started Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur - written in the 1970’s, published (in Persian) in 1989, translated to English 2011, and now on the 2026 International Booker Prize longlist. It’s fast, short and quirky-smart-fun so far.

I finished The House of the Spirits and still loved it. I just started Helm. The first chapter is pure poetry. I hope the rest of it lives up to the beginning.

I called it quits on America, América and finished The Next Big Thing by Anita Brookner. Now I've started The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman which I purchased after enjoying an historical fiction novel about Gudrid's life. For fiction, I started Good Behavior by Molly Keane, a recently purchased NYRB book.

>67 dchaikin: finished. Only took 3 hours. A different Tehran from today, but not that different as it opens during the 1953 US coup.

I shopping for a book for my great-niece's first birthday and while I was there noticed the latest J D Robb was out (#62!) so I bought and have now read Stolen in Death.

>71 rhian_of_oz: I think your great niece will have to wait a few years to read that 😂

>72 FlorenceArt: 😁

I've recently finished Chronicles of the Canongate by Sir Walter Scott, a collection of three long short stories, or perhaps two long stories and one novella, published by Scott in 1827 (200 years ago!). The volume also includes a long introductory narrative by Scott's fictional author Chrystal Croftangry, explaining a humorous "how and why" of the writing of the tales, plus shorter introductions before the second and third tales. The stories are all historic tales (taking place around 75 years before Scott wrote them) recounting legends of the Scottish Highlands. I found the three tales to be of varying enjoyment. Brief individual notes on the stories can by found on my Club Read thread. All in all, this is not the best of the Scott "Waverly" tales I have read, but there was enjoyment to be derived all in all from the set.

I've now started The Heike Story by Eiji Yoshikawa. This is a (relatively) modern (first U.S. translation published in 1956) retelling of the Japanese epic known in English as (according to Wikipedia) "The Tale of the Heike (平家物語, Heike Monogatari), an epic account compiled prior to 1330 of the struggle between the Taira clan and Minamoto clan for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century in the Genpei War (1180–1185)." Eiji Yoshakawa published several retellings of Japanese classics of this sort.

I am almost done with the book "The summer I turned pretty"

__________SPOLIER ALERT!!___________

So something that happedned in the book is Taylor, belly, Conrad, and jeremiah were playing truth or dare. Then it was jeremiahs turn so taylor said " Kiss someone in this room." Taylor was so sure he liked her but guess WHAT. He kissed belly. The main protangist. Belly was so mad because he stole her first kiss. And taylor WAS ALSO MAD because she liked him. But THEN belly liked conrad and cam AND THEN jeremiah.

Over all I would rate this book a solid 8.5/10

Traits in the book

-friends to lovers
-Besties
-glow up

I have restarted reading The Beak of the Finch. I had to stop last fall in order to fulfill some other reading obligations, plus I wanted my own copy rather than a library copy so that I can mark passages. Now with my trip to the Galapagos just around the corner, I want to dig in again. Riveting stuff!

I’m reading The Director by Daniel Kehlmann. It’s about art, mainly cinema, and how can it possibly thrive under fascism. It raises a number of interesting issue and is set in Hollywood and Nazi Germany. The writing is exceellent.

>77 kjuliff: definitely one I'm looking forward to (although I didn't like Measuring the World)

I'm currently reading Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing, another one that had been sitting on my TBR shelves for far too long. It's unseasonably warm here at the moment, so maybe it's a good time to read about people being stuck in and on the Antarctic ice.

I will be finishing Isabella K Bird's The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither on Friday and I'm enjoying it just as much as when I first started it. I have since downloaded all of the author's works from Project Gutenberg and hope to read at least 2 or 3 more this year.

In the meantime I finished the Japanese thriller Six Four which had me excited for about 400 pages then petered off a bit. I'm still trying to come up with my thoughts on that one.

For my next big read I have started Comanche Moon finally, the 2nd book in chronological order in the Lonesome Dove quartet. I realized I haven't read McMurtry since 2020 which is crazy and needs immediate rectification.

>66 bragan: Farscape? Like the single panel Sunday comic?

Between watching the Olympics and more trouble at work my reading has gone down. I did finish Orion's Hounds. I have pending inter-library loan request for the next one in the Star Trek: Titan series, Sword of Damocles.

I also put in a request for The Life of Saint Macrina which is a recommended reading for Women's month per Common Prayer for Ordinary Radicals.

Dance of the Winnebagos - I had put this on my March reading list because it fit the navy cover color challenge that I'm doing, plus fitting my "dance" theme and also "dogs". So I checked it out on Libby and reading it now because there is a hold waiting so I can't renew. It sounded fun from the description. But sorry - raunchy old men and the kind of older women that would be interested in them just for sex is not my idea of humor. WAY too over the top. If I had any sense I would abandon this book, but I will probably finish it. I like the dog. I can ignore all the sex talk to see where the actual mystery goes, but I can already tell you it is VERY unlikely that I will pick up another book by this author.

>81 fulner: I think you're thinking of The Far Side. :) Farscape was a late 90s/early 00s science fiction TV show, and a weird, wild, wonderful thing it was, too. Only show in the world that will leave you sitting there wondering how a giant six-armed Muppet just made you cry.

Somehow I missed this thread.

Here's what I'm currently reading:

1. Jade City by Fonda Lee (Currently reading.)
2. Birth Marks by Sarah Dunant (Currently reading.)
3. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (Currently reading.)
4. Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (Currently reading.)
5. The King's Messenger by Susanna Kearsley (Currently reading.)
6. Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alex E. Harrow (Currently reading.)
7. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley (Currently reading.)
8. The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley (Currently reading.)
9. The Diomedeia Diomedes, the Peoples of the Sea, and the Fall of the Hittite Empire A Novel by Gregory Michael Nixon (Currently reading.)
10. Theodoric the Goth: King of the Ostrogoths, Regent of the Visigoths & Viceroy of the Eastern Roman Empire, in the 4th Century A. D. by Thomas Hodgkin (Currently reading.)

I'll be done with Theodoric the Goth and with Birth Marks soon (this weekend probably) and then I'll add two more. I'm pushing myself to catch up since I got a late start. Not too hard though. I'm comfortable with this amount.

>85 rowendelle: 10 books at a time is admirable. I would only go to as many as 8
That Theodoric book appears very interesting, will be happy to read your review! I've been quite fascinated by this historical figure ever since visiting Ravenna.

I'm starting A Love Story by Emile Zola and finishing up The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman.

>85 rowendelle: I've read four of those, and have two more on my TBR. Love Flavia! I've also read Starless Sea and Ten Thousand Doors. I need to add Theodoric!

>85 rowendelle: ten books at once. You might be in the right place. I only have six… trying to get to four.

I just finished Helm, a book with the wind as a main character. Beautifully written.

I'm starting The Last of Earth, which I have been looking forward to. I loved Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line.

Yesterday I read The Formidable Miss Cassidy which was a bit of fun, and started Homecoming the other day which, as a chunkster, is read only at home.

I'm off to the cricket today so I think I'm going to start The Dispossessed to read on the bus there and for breaks in play.

I'm about halfway through All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, which is very good, but is also making me really emotional about the way every day objects can hold so much emotion and how easily the history can be lost.

I've been reading an ebook of The Years (which has been lovely so far) on the subway and the other day a woman sat next to me and pulled out her paper book and after several surreptitious glances I discerned she was reading A Room of Ones Own.

I just finished Fall Guys: The Barnums of Bounce and Wagons West, Nebraska!. I just started The god of small things.

>86 VladysKovsky:
>85 rowendelle:
Reminds of a cartoon I saw a while back where a mom was reading a kid a bed time story and he climbs out of bed to grab more books from the shelf. Mom tells him "oh honey, you need to finish one book before you can start another" to which he replies "why, you don't?" the last panel shows a pile of her books each with a bookmark somewhere in it.

I really wish I could find it again, but alas.

>90 BLBera: I have Helm in my TBR but somehow I can’t get to it. I’m struggling a bit with the wind. As a character . But I sort of know I’ll like it.

>93 ELiz_M: 1st, I love knowing you’re reading Woolf. But also that’s so cool. Double Woolf!

>94 fulner: oddly entertaining. Enjoyed this

Last night I finished Hermione Lee’s biography of Edith Wharton. I learned a ton, but also found it exhausting. 51 hours of reading for me. Today I finished The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf, which was not exhausting, but curiously intellectual and moving.

Next - probably The Deserters by French author Mathias Énard. Parallel stories of a holocaust survivor and an awol soldier from a contemporary war (influenced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine). It’s listed for the International Booker Prize.

Finished Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America by Joy-Ann Reid which I highly recommend. A great and important read. Also finished The Lifted Veil by George Eliot, my first time reading her; The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe which was so good; and The Man Of The Crowd by Edgar Allan Poe which I got into but the ending was meh.

Now I've got the following in progress:

In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu
The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
Maru by Bessie Head

>99 amdial7: the Medgar Evers story is gut-wrenching. I’m not familiar with the biography. Noting

>100 amdial7: It truly is and he's not remember in the way he should be. I highly recommend the book. Joy-Ann Reid is a wonderful writer, biographer.

I finished and loved The Twice-Drowned Saint, and restarted Witch King from the beginning. I bought it when it came out but was unable to cope with the complex plot at the time. I hope it will work better for me this time.

>96 kjuliff: I thought it was pretty great how Hall manages to give the wind a character.

>100 amdial7: I also loved Medgar and Myrlie, and although I was casually familiar with Medgar Evers and his importance to the Civil Rights Movement I learned much more about both of them as a result of reading this book.

I'm reading two very different crime novels; Heartwood by Amity Gaige, about a woman who disappears while hiking the Appalachian Trail, and Black River by Nilanjana Roy, which is about the murder of a girl on the outskirts of a village in India. Both use the setting effectively.

I'm also reading More Weight by Ben Wickey, a graphic telling of the Salem witch trials. I wish I remembered who reviewed it on their thread, because I'd like to thank them. It's very interesting and the graphic work is stellar.

And I'm reading The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, which is looking like the best book I'll read this year. It's so good. I'm also reading Mule Boy by Andrew Krivak, about a mining disaster in 1929 that haunts the sole survivor. It's told in an interesting way, all in one sentence, although there are chapter breaks.

>106 RidgewayGirl: I should get to Kehlmann sooner rather than later. I have Tyll on the shelf - must read it this year.

I finished The Drowned World - reading for the bookclub. The novel is majestically atmospheric while a bit silly from the scientific perspective. Some annoying racist and misogynist content places this book squarely in the middle of the 20th century England, when it was written and where its prejudices belong. I am still digesting my impressions. The writing is good, so I might lean to the positive side.

Finished Le roi de fer, where the final part somewhat redeemed the three quarters of the novel filled with miserable intrigues and sexual affairs. The language was excellent and that kept me reading. Still, I think I am done with Maurice Druon. No more of these accursed kings - one was enough.

In addition to David Copperfield and An Odyssey which are progressing well, I started Giovanni's Room and Zakhar Berkut. Now I have a serious difficulty in picking a book for the quiet 30 minutes of my day, but it is a pleasant difficulty.

>106 RidgewayGirl: I gave 5 stars to The Director. An amazing book.

>108 VladysKovsky: juggling? Interesting about The Drowned World and Druon novel. Giovanni’s Room is a personal favorite of mine.

>110 dchaikin: I already like James Baldwin’s writing. “People who believe that they are strong-willed and the masters of their destiny can only continue to believe this by becoming the specialists in self-deception”

I've started Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs by Camilla Townsend.

After reading The Director it was hard to choose from my TBR. It had to come down from such excellent writing, but I am reading from the March monthly author’s group - Kadare’s The Successor.

>111 VladysKovsky: that line will now stay with me all day 🙂

Finished The Unknown Matisse by Hilary Spurling and followed that immediatley with the second part, Matisse the Master. Both are very well researched and well written. Spurling focuses on family relations over professional success, so you end up with a very intimate portrait. There is very little art historical gossip, or at least not as much as I would have liked. Picasso makes only a few appearances. Matisse was very private so the focus does make sense but over time the book gets a little bit dull and repetitive. This is probably the definitive biography of Matisse, though. Very enjoyable if you like the subject.

Should have waited a bit before tackling the second volume. Too much Matisse for now.

>114 dchaikin: I am very happy with this! I have more from James
“They might have been the sons of these women in black, come home after a lifetime of storming and conquering the world, home to rest and be scolded and wait for death, home to those breasts, now dry, which had nourished them in their beginnings “

>116 VladysKovsky: that’s sad, that line. But I’m so happy to know you’re experiencing and enjoying it!

>1 AnnieMod: It's been a slow start for me but I'm still happy with having read 10 books so far. Currently I'm reading What the Woods took by Courtney Gould.

I finished The Life of Saint Macrina and put in an interlibrary loan request for The $1 league : the rise and fall of the USFL.

I was away last week to a place off the grid in Northern Michigan but got lots of reading done.
* The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (mixed reaction)
* Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (loved it)
* Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson (liked it and enjoyed the religious angle in it)
* Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes by Leah Litman (disappointed me, though I was likely not the target audience)
* Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl (loved it)
* Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope (charming but dragged out the plot too much)

Now I've started Alice McDermott's Charming Billy which is beautifully written.

While we were away my husband read The Director and he loved it like Kate and Kay did, so that is definitely going in my pile. I read Tyll last year and I found it interesting and vivid but sort of simultaneously austere and grotesque: like an existential fairyland.

>120 aprille: That's an excellent stack of reading (except the Roth, of whom I am Not A Fan).

>120 aprille: Excellent time off the grid, it seems. A great list!
I really enjoyed Drive Your Plow. I read it a long time ago but it is still very fresh in my mind. Tyll is on the shelf and in the near future plans. I like this description of it as “an existential fairyland”

>122 VladysKovsky: I just finished Drive Your Plow a few days ago. It was really fun, really weird story. I immediately recommended it to a friend of mine and I can't wait to see what she thinks.

I finished The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits on audio yesterday, and my next audiobook is Winter by Christopher Nicholson. In physical book I'm reading A Frozen Woman by Annie Ernaux.

>120 aprille: Roth - mixed reaction. Tokarczuk - loved — that scans

>124 AlisonY: give Markowits a couple days. It might hang around and your opinion might go up.

Booker longlist progress: I finished my 2nd book - The Deserters by Mathias Enard, which I didn’t love but i appreciate its themes. Next I’ll start The Wax Child by Olga Ravn.

I've started The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.

My reading has slowed down this week but I have started A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross, which I hope to finish by early next week at the latest.

>127 mabith: I really liked Maali Almeida although I think it would benefit from a reread. I will watch for your comments.

>120 aprille: What a great -- and varied -- list of reading. I did like The Plot against America but I am a sucker for alternate history.

I finished reading The Rambling Kid and re-reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Rambling kid was good; Rich Dad wasn't as good as I remember. Next off my bookshelf I pulled The Golden Apple and next in the non-fiction queue of books I already own is a book on one of my favorite places in the world, The Ford-Wyoming Drive-in, but I can't find where I put it.

>125 dchaikin: I don't dislike Markovits, but I still want it to have been more than it was. I liked the life lesson at the end, but I wanted more from the road trip.

>113 kjuliff: Thank you for this. I found the group and will try to join for Kadare

>131 AlisonY: that’s where i was when i finished it and reviewed it. But it grew on me over time. I started wondering about him and what was really driving him.

I just finished The Last of Earth, a new novel, historical fiction by Deepa Anappara, the author of Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, a novel I loved.

I am now reading Dominion, from the Women's Fiction longlist.

I finished The Wax Child by Olga Ravn. Next i plan to read On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia

I think I need to put Dickens on pause. He is brilliant at times and language is great but there is so much unnecessary filler material that it gets somewhat annoying.
I am even more annoyed with James Baldwin, who wrote a nearly perfect, beautiful book, tender and lyrical, and then worked at destroying it in the melodramatic ending. It is not the ending itself that I mind, one needs tragedies when taboos are broken, it’s the spelling out of the parting scenes, tying all those loose threads, leaving nothing for the reader to think through. In my opinion, last chapter of Giovanni’s Room detracts from the literary value of the book and weakens the message, which the author was so courageous to deliver.
Under the Volcano is where I am going next.

>136 VladysKovsky: Interesting response to Baldwin

I just finished Zola's A Love Story which I really enjoyed. I'm going to give book 1 of a series called The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion next to see if it's something I think I'll like. It sounds fun. It's also short, and I already know my next fiction with be Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite. I thought her My Sister is a Serial Killer was really fun, so I'm looking forward to this new book from her.

I just started Jeannette Winterson's The Stone Gods, and it seems promising. I started laughing on the second page.

>139 BLBera: I’m interested, and that’s a good sign!

>139 BLBera: I loved Winterson’s sense of humor in Oranges are Not the Only Fruit. I wrote little smiley faces in the margins where she made me laugh out loud. Does anyone else put emojis in the margins?

>141 aprille: have you read Frankissstein? Recommended. 😁

>141 aprille: I do write in the margins.

>142 dchaikin: I second the recommendation of Frankissstein, great novel.

I finished On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia, a really fun and dark addition to the Booker longlist. Undecided on what’s next…

>144 dchaikin: Fun and dark sounds appealing

>145 VladysKovsky: did I mention short too?

>137 dchaikin: In the process, I was enjoying Giovanni’s Room a lot. I guess my expectations were rising as well. The closing chapters were a bit of a letdown. Still, happy to have read the book and will probably read more by Baldwin at some point

>147 VladysKovsky: i want to say i get that, but i no longer remember enough of the ending to know exactly what you mean. I should reread it…

>122 VladysKovsky: liked that too !

>127 mabith: I want it so badly to love that book and I did read much of it but i got bored I just couldn't take any but I did appreciate his writing and the story

Finally finished the group read America, América (630 pages) and while I did learn a lot, it felt a little like eating my vegetables, so I've earned some fun. Luckily, my play reading group is meeting this week, and I've got to prepare to read the part of Milt, a wise-cracking comedy writer in Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor, which seems just the ticket.

I also finished Charming Billy which centered on the funeral of a beloved dreamy alcoholic in a community of Irish Americans in the Bronx. Completely by chance, the next book in my stack is also about the funeral of Irishman, Anne Enright's The Gathering. I love it when books that you read sequentially have unexpected resonance! In my queue I alternate new books with unread books off my shelf so the connection was completely serendipitous.

>142 dchaikin: Definitely picking up a copy of Frankissstein, it looks wild! I've got Sexing the Cherry in queue already.

>142 dchaikin: congrats on finishing a few. And yay on that Winterson!

Finished Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi, my first book by her and truly amazing, and Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, she's always a good read.

Started Ain't Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton by Martha Ackmann, who is one of my favorite writers.

I finished listening to Black Beauty and started listening to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as well as reading I Hate You—Don't Leave Me: Understanding the Borderline Personality.

thank you to ever suggested globetrotting writers walk the world sections by some know wharton, thomas jefferson, helen gardener. rachel carson, and unknown sara winnemucca, rajashe hadeh, fredwich wymper tell us about out great wide world from their eyes oh and i love the feel of the fabric of the cover

I'm continuing to enjoy Black River by Nilanjana Roy, but less for the mystery than how well the author describes ordinary life in and outside of Delhi.

I'm also reading The Postcard by Anne Berest, which is not a book I would have picked up on my own, but a friend gave it to me and it's turning out to be very good.

I've got two books in progress: The Mysterious Death of Katherine Parr: What Really Happened to Henry VIII's Last Queen? by June Woolerton and In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu. Le Fanu is my back up book and I appreciate it especially because I can pick it up after a few days and remember what is going on, etc. It's a good read.

I finished Ain't Nobody's Fool, the Dolly Parton biography, by Martha Ackmann and it was excellent. Ackmann is a wonderful storyteller.

>157 amdial7: I’m curious what did happen to Katherine Parr - other than the rhyme word “survived”

I finished We Are Green and Trembling and now need to think about it for a bit. Next will be The Director by Daniel Kehlman.

>158 dchaikin: I will report back on KP! 👑

Last Saturday I wasn't in the mood for the three books I already had on the go, and none of the books in my read-in-March pile appealed, so I started Service Model.

>160 rhian_of_oz: I should say I quite enjoyed the audio version of Service Model. Lots of fun and a very good reading by the author.

double post

>161 VladysKovsky: Ive liked some of his books One Day All This Will Be Yours some of them are rather dark. is this the same?

I read Hurricane Season, a book whose cover I loved and had been looking forward to it, but it was not what I expected -- poverty and misery and transgressive sexuality depicted as depraved. I suppose it's a testament to the author's skill that I was wholly drawn into the world. My next book, unintentionally, is a refreshing counterpoint. Selamlik is framed as a gay Syrian refugee's notebook, ostensibly written to bolster his asylum claim, but it is a love-letter to the gay culture destroyed by war.

>163 cindydavid4: I like the dark humour of Adrian Tchaikovsky. Where he doesn’t pretend to believe in the future of humankind he is quite good. I find his optimistic works like The Doors of Eden less satisfying as there he readily falls for some cliches.

i share his dark humor!but when i am reading the synopsis i find myself saying no. perhaps im looking at the wrong book . what are your favs?

>165 VladysKovsky: >166 cindydavid4: Like Cindy I had a negative reaction to the book’s description. Humanity destroyed by robots feels like a cliché I don’t like, and too close to the kneejerk reactions I see to AI. But then I read VladysKovsky’s comment and a couple of reviews, and now I’m interested.

>166 cindydavid4: >167 FlorenceArt: My favourite by Adrian is still the first one I came across Walking to Aldebaran. Good new sci-fi ideas, dark humour and an unexpected twist to the story - all contributed to a very positive first experience. Next was Service Model, which was good as well. More satire and fewer new ideas. Since The Doors of Eden Adrian and I have gone our separate ways.

I've finally started reading The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese, after having it sitting for two years on my TBR shelves while it repeatedly whispered, "Read me, read me!" and I repeatedly whispered back, "But you're so long!" I'm definitely enjoying it so far, but, man, it feels like one of those novels that really just wants to be read for hours at a time while cuddled up under a cozy blanket, and my time for that sort of thing is sadly a bit limited at the moment. Oh, well, I will do my best!

I've started The Manor and the Estate by Isaac Bashevis Singer. I've never read any of his books and this one has sucked me right in.

Late last night I finished America, América: A New History of the New World by Greg Grandin, which I ended up liking far more than I thought I would until the book's last part and prologue. Now that I'm done I can focus on three books that I've barely started reading, A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross, The Funeral Party by the Russian author Ludmila Ulitskaya, and Mother Mary Comes to Me, the new memoir by Arundhati Roy, which also serves as a biography of and tribute to her powerful and influential mother, who she describes as "my shelter and my storm."

After the Matisse bios, I finished a couple of Caribbean related books: Los Rostros de la Salsa by Leonardo Padura, and El Entierro de Cortijo by Rodriguez Julia. I guess I was a bit nostalgic.

Now I'm halfway through the Spanish translation of Everything Flows by Vasily Grossman. It took me a while to get into it but now I find it very powerful. I have questions but, yes, very powerful. Let's see how it ends. Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich has been on my mind a lot.

David Copperfield and An Odyssey have been put on pause. I will return to them later. In the meantime, I finished a comfort read of a new (for me) Murakami First Person Singular. It was just that - a comfort read. The patina of reality is thin and few authors express it better than Haruki, even when he is not at his best.
Started A Room with a View, which carries a remarkable amount of influence from Dickens. Luckily, it's quite a bit shorter. Starting Chronicle in Stones for the month of Ismail Kadaré and Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal for the bookclub.

I finished reading Sword of Damocles. I put in an interlibrary loan request for Syrup: A Novel as none of the libraries in the state have the next two books in the Star Trek Titan series. I put them on my Wishlist and we'll see when we get back to Star Trek.

I started Reconnaitre le fascisme by Umberto Eco

>174 fulner: i remember reading it a mythology book for children the term reminds those in power that your fall will com as quick as a sword hung by a hair .

Im just about done with Eleanor, and discovered there is an actuall biography eleanor , the shadow queen got it on my kindle eager to compare the two

>176 cindydavid4: Hmmm, still don't understand why they titeled the book that. Probably means there's was some kind of nuance or symbolism I didn't "get."

i was browsing and all of a sudden came upon thjs book I realized how I'm going to do this review of both books Eleanor the Shadow Queenby sara cockerwill andEleanor the 200 mile walkby alice loxton

I'll start with Eleanor England's Lost Queen. It's about Eleanor wife of Edward The and the crosses he commissioned to be made for her after her death

Why did you choose to read this book

I have always been interested in English history esp medieval history and especially about royalty of England I have read much about the kings and queens and remember reading a bit about Queen Eleanor the wife Edward the First that she had died and had comisioned 12 crosses to be placed along the path where she journeyed from her home to her grave'

Synopsis without spoilers

Eleanor of Castile, the remarkable woman behind England's greatest medieval king, Edward I, has been effectively airbrushed from history; yet she had one of the most fascinating lives of any of England's queens. Her childhood was spent in the centre of the Spanish reconquest and was dominated by her military hero of a father (St Ferdinand) and her prodigiously clever brother (King Alfonso X the Learned). Married at the age of twelve and a mother at thirteen, she gave birth to at least sixteen children, most of whom died young. She was a prisoner for a year amid a civil war in which her husband's life was in acute danger. Devoted to Edward, she accompanied him everywhere. All in all, she was to live for extended periods in five different countries.Eleanor was a highly dynamic, forceful personality who acted as part of Edward's innermost circle of advisers, and successfully accumulated a vast property empire for the English Crown. In cultural terms her influence in architecture and design - and even gardening - can be discerned to this day, while her idealised image still speaks to us from Edward's beautiful memorials to her, the Eleanor crosses. This book reveals her untold story.

What kept you reading

the fascinating background of this women's life starting from birth and the history of three countries Spain England and France . For me it into place many parts of history that I hadn't known before but wanted to for example the history of ferdinan and Isabelle and who really was Queen Belgaria and what happened to alice the erstwhile young lady who is sent to Henry to be married Richard the first . this did not happen for reasons I'm not quite sure but to me it was always a tragic story

Amazed at the number of queens that did not act the way queens were supposed he way These queens will educated and had strong and determination and worked and fought along their husbands Many of them became queens who ruled in her own right without their husbands

The author admits there's much missing from her life There is not paper trail that you'll find with the other queens but just based her projects her buildings Her arrangements of marriage her travel there is together enough to put

The author also writes about people who Built these crosses .these really some interesting information about the of materials they used and where they got some of their ideas from when the people were coming back from crusades Brought back a lot of new information about building especially the arches They knew about building semiarch, circular archs rounded With this new information they had learned about pointed arches They use that information to build these crisis And what that to how they built in the future She also talks about the many diseases these builders suffered from due to their occupation scoliosis broken bones Lung disease from breathing in all of that silica and Hearing loss from the The noise They couldn't escape

An interesting bit there's Roman Archs Norman Arch islamic Islamic there's also Gothic and when that term was started to be used people were in an uproar because the Goths were what brought down Rome but they worked it out

What slowed you down

there came to a point and this is early in the book still in the introduction where all of a sudden all of the names were out there and I couldn't make head or tails of I had enough background to get some of them but I needed to go back and reread a lot and once I read a lot I got back to it

I got this book from Kindle but I really want to get a good hardback because this is one of those books I'm going to keep

who would you recommend this

Some caveats even though this book is very very well written you may need some background in the medieval and some of the kings and queens and battles that happened during these years If you don't have that background you might just want to pick it up and read it and find out more

rating 5*

This book is rather different from the biography above It's a walk of 200 miles that the author took this walk to to follow elenors path to her grave and then magnificent process that were built for her along the way

What brought you to read this book

As I mentioned above I am a big fan of British medieval history And this was just my cup of tea

Synopsis without spoilers

Eleanor of Castile is famous for her "crosses", architectural wonders that dotted the medieval landscape, marking the place where her body rested on its way from Harby to final burial in London.Alice Loxton decides to commemorate the event by making the same journey. She begins in Harby, and walks the prescribed miles each day, stopp ing at each place where Eleanor's body stopped. Along the way, we are treated to her walking adventures, the characters she meets, and the surviving Eleanor Crosses. Eleanor's life is woven into the narrative, and it's fascinating to learn just how much this medieval queen has influenced life today in ways we don't even think of

What kept you reading?

I enjoyed her descriptions of the traveling that she was doing the bits bit problems with boots and mud and the fact that her crisscrossed some of the interest rates that she ran into he's a friendly narrator And she Talks about the different towns and places she goes and Connects them with Eleanor

What slowed you down

Like the other author she admits says a lot we don't know about Eleanor but she manages manages to however she also has lots of assumptions as to how she or the king would be acting or saying that are collaborated by anything. For example she'll say that carving a stone is a little like romantic love she also says love is flowering once more through the stones. Could have done with the less of those

a few other second of quibbles. Number 1: the book describes Eleanor as a "lost queen". I don't think you can qualify Eleanor as lost. For a person to be lost, especially a person who lived so long ago, there has to be an element of misplacement. No one remembers. With Eleanor that simply isn't the case. We have her crosses, we know where she is buried. Her life is clearly defined in the pages of biographies. So, if you care to look, Eleanor is there, not lost. If anything, I would classify her as an "overlooked queen". Number 2: the photographs. I so wish the images were in color. The grainy way they have been put into the book makes things hard to see, especially when the author says "you can see the red plaque in the bottom left corner". Well, you can't see a red plaque in a black and white image...and it was so camouflaged it took me a while to actually locate it.

All in all it was a pleasant read

how do you rate it?

3*

I finished The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch yesterday, on audio. I was wowed. Completely wowed. An amazing novel that plays on mythology, Shakespeare (Prospero!), psychology, and some philosophy, all presented as a diary by a stage director. It all feels like a stage presentation. Everything a performance.

Next on audio I’m starting The Remembered Soldier by Dutch author Anjet Dannje. It’s the longest book on the International Booker longlist, 24.5 hours.

>181 dchaikin: The double sea has long been on my list. I should give it a bump up.

I have finished An Assembly Such As This and started the next book of the trilogy Duty and Desire. It is fan-fiction based on Pride and Prejudice, but it is considered among the better ones. I can't speak to its authenticity, but seems well-enough researched. It is certainly full of lots of details of what the author imagines Fitzwilliam Darcy's life to be like.

I am currently listening to The House Girl on audio for the March RTT thread on slavery, and I am starting today How the Irish Saved Civilization for my Welsh society's book club.

>182 VladysKovsky: it’s a wonderful book for your group. But also for you, personally.

I'm working on The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny (a long one) for my neighborhood book group. The beginning part features a young woman in a relationship with a much older, richer man and I'm really feeling some resonance with Kairos which I read last year.

>185 aprille: i know these books. Enjoy Desai’s 20-year creation.

I finished The Director, and it was everything @ridgewaygirl said it was. It’s Nazi Germany, but also the US under project 25. I couldn’t help but feel the now in it.

Next is Small Comfort by la Genberg

Finished Zakhar Berkut - I guess this book is ok for middle school, it is now part of the program in Ukraine. Romantic period historical fiction tends to idealize the distant past. This one is not an exception.

Finished A Room with a View - very enjoyable humour, quite annoyingly melodramatic ending.

I've finally finished The Heiké Story by Eiji Yoshikawa (1892-1962), a modern (1956) retelling of the The Heiké Monogatari, a Japanese epic from the thirteenth century that related the feudal wars that had raged throughout Japan during the previous centuries between the powerful, Heiké, Fujiwara and Genji clans. Yoshikawa brings the story to a personal level, following the lives of several characters in both the dueling Heiké and Genji clans, also portraying the subservient lives that the culture's women were forced to endure. My longer review is on my Club Read thread.

Next I'll be reading The Yellow House, a memoir by Sarah M. Broom, about African American/New Orleans family history and dislocation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. I've been looking forward to this memoir for quite some time.

>187 VladysKovsky: I really need to read Forster

>188 rocketjk: i hope you enjoy the East New Orleans memioy

>181 dchaikin: This is my favorite Murdoch. Such good writing and a hint of unexplained weird.

>190 ELiz_M: my 1st Murdoch. 🙂 Completely agree about the writing.

>184 dchaikin: We had this book come up on one of our selections. I read one other by Iris, which was not impressive.

Which one did you read?

>193 dchaikin: This was some 30 years ago before I started tracking my books. Alas, the title is forgotten. It might have been A Severed Head

>189 dchaikin: with Forster, I think I've had enough. Maybe I will return to him later

I am Reading Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

>195 VladysKovsky: huh. Not what i expected. 🙂 Is the dated issue principles or structure?

I'm still reading The Postcard by Anne Berest, but I'm also reading the odd and wonderful Death and the Penguin by Andrei Kourkov and a stellar collection of short stories called Encounters with Unexpected Animals by Bret Anthony Johnston.

I'm also working my way through The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. It's extremely gory, but not at all scary. Is that still horror?

>197 dchaikin: Principles I would say. Structure is good except for the ending. My experience was very positive throughout, so even the ending did not spoil it entirely.

>198 RidgewayGirl: curious to hear what you think of the penguin. Having lived through the early 90s in Kyiv I can clearly see how Kourkov came up with the idea

Finished Everything Flows, in which Vasily Grossman tries to explain everything. I liked the first two thirds better than the last portion. I was impressed with the urgency of the writing though.

Moved then to Marcel Duchamp: The Afternoon Interviews read in honor of the passing of Calvin Tomkins, and the Spanish translation Gratitude by Delphin de Vigan. I've never really understood Duchamp but these interviews are a pleasant read, a conversation between friends. Gratitude was in that fine line between the saccharine and the truly moving. Not a bad book.

Currently reading The Andy Warhol Diaries. Uff da what a time capsule.

>200 VladysKovsky: I'm sure you are able to see so much more in the text than I am. I am really enjoying the book, but I'm aware as I read that there is much going on that I am unable to see.

I finished the Norton edition of Le Morte Darthur by Thomas Malory last night. This is a little strange, as I've been hacking away at it off and on since June - then months. Tomorrow I plan to crack open Orlando Furioso by Ludovicio Ariosto.

Today I finished Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) which was my pick for a historical fiction book group this month. Then my copy of the London Review of Books arrived in the mail, and there, on the cover was a teaser for Patricia Lockwood's review of it! I love funny coincidences like that. And I loved Death Comes for the Archbishop too. When I started it I really had no preconceptions about what the book's goals would be and enjoyed the slow reveal of themes of landscape, friendship, tolerance, and virtue. A little gem of a book.

Next up will be Half of a Yellow Sun and I'll attend a performance of Uncle Vanya on Saturday.

>204 aprille: I’m a Cather lover and that’s my favorite. It’s so hard to pin down what it’s doing or how it’s doing it.

I've started Flaubert's Madame Bovary to start off the Francophone reading theme in the Reading Globally group. This will be the first time I read a work by Flaubert.

I finished Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy yesterday, which was superb (4½ stars). Last night I started Forest of Noise by the Palestinian poet Mosab Ahu Toha, and this morning I began The Mad by the Zimbabwean author Ignatius T. Mabasa, as I wait in my local AAA service center to get my SUV inspected. I also read a chapter in A Black Women’s History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross before bedtime last night.

reading service model which im quite enjoying

Reading Seamus Heaney’s Poems, 1965-1975 which is a compilation of his first 4 books I think, and I just finished the first, Death of a Naturalist, so I’m wondering if I should count it as a finished book 😊

Also reading To Ride a Rising Storm, book 2 of the Nampeshiweisit series, and started Saint Death’s Herald.

In NF, I’ve been distracted off my 16th century readings, and started Les Irresponsables - Qui a porté Hitler au pouvoir but I’m not sure if I’m feeling motivated enough for it.

>209 FlorenceArt: I'm also reading Seamus Heaney's poetry this month. I've got Death of a Naturalist on hold. It might be a few weeks before I get it. I'm also going to be reading Pangur Ban based on the famous early medieval Irish poem. Right now I am reading Daughters of the Deer which I am liking very much, and I may be suggesting it to my church book club as it deals not only with colonialism and violence against indigenous women but with LGBT+ issues. On audio, I have just started The First Ladies about Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune.

Eleanor on the trail of englands lost queen

moon tiger

5001 nights

Eleanor the Shadow Queen

>206 lilisin:
When we were first assigned Madame Bovary in college I confused it with Lady Godiva so I read it in a rush hoping to get to the section were she rides a horse naked in London.

Spoiler alert: Madame Bovary never rides a horse naked in London.

>212 mejix: HAHAHAHAHAHA!!

>212 mejix: "Madame Bovary never rides a horse naked in London."

Just one more thing that she and I have in common.

I'm reading The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion volume 4, The Estate by I.B. Singer, and just starting The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper, a nonfiction book about writing that I'm excited about.

I am reading -- finally -- Ship Fever for my book club.

>214 rocketjk: you can still fix that

>217 dchaikin: Not as high on my to-do list as you might think.

I finished Small Comfort by Swedish author Ia Genberg. And I’m next taking a major detour off the International Booker list to read more Virginia Woolf. I’ve picked up Night and Day (1919)

I'm nearly finished reading The Mad, a newly translated novel by the Zimbabwean author Ignatius T. Mabasa, which i should finish this afternoon. I'm also reading Forest of Noise, the latest collection by the Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha, which describes the horrible and inhumane living conditions for civilians in Gaza at the present time, and I'm slowly working my way through A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross, which has been a bit of a slog.

In addition to Forest of Noise I borrowed two other books from the Free Library of Philadelphia, Sidewalks by Valeria Luiselli and Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May, and I suspect that I'll finish all three library books ahead of A Black Women's History of the United States, which I own.

I finished reading The $1 league : the rise and fall of the USFL and put in an Interlibrary loan request for Six tires, no plan : the impossible journey of the most inspirational leader that (almost) nobody knows. I finished listening to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and started Robinson Crusoe. In addition I picked up Armada and Pirate cinema on CD from the public library in case the kids let me listen to a few driving to and from Grandma's house for Easter.

I am also reading Shakespeare in Bloomsbury. In one chapter Garber points to the Shakespearean references in Woolf, so I think this is going to lead me to reading more Woolf.

>222 BLBera: Woolf used Shakespeare references in many different ways - at least early on.

Reading is not very productive on a trip. Making slow progress on Noli Me Tangere in audio and Under the Volcano in print.
The trip related cultural experiences abound though. I took part in a grave sweeping festival in a remote village in Hunan - being the only European for miles around I caused some surprise among the locals. The festival itself morphed quite a bit, departing from its original form. The quantity of firecrackers used is staggering. My ears are still ringing from all that noise.

>224 VladysKovsky:
Ha, ha! The automatic touchstone for your Under the Volcano is a little off the mark, I think! It found a Magic Tree House book, "Vacation Under the Volcano" instead of the gritty classic about wandering around in the bright Mexican sun in an alcoholic stupor. It made me laugh out loud.

I had mixed feelings about that book. I thought it was impressive but didn't enjoy reading it that much. I did enjoy the discussion of it on this episode of the Backlisted podcast though. I looked at your Geneva Book Group recommendation for Noli Me Tangere and it looks intriguing. I put it on my wishlist at my local bookstore. I'll be really interested in hearing your thoughts on it. The other one from the group's list that interested me was Petals of Blood. Thanks for posting links to those PowerPoints.

>225 aprille: Thank you for your warning about the wrong volcano! Fixed. Stylistically the book is quite challenging but if you get into the groove it offers great rewards. That third chapter alone is a masterpiece! Too early for me to form an opinion on Noli Me Tangere

much ado about nothing for the spring theme in RTT selected the play because when i watch it i think of spring. interesting reading a complete copy

also reading service model wihich gives much laughter

I've read a couple short stories of late - you can see reviews on my thread or on the short stories thread. Im'm nearly done with When the Angels Left Old Country, which I put down for my week-long visit to Florida a few weeks back.

And yesterday, I read a home decorating guide that I picked up at my new local library, Feels Like Home: Transforming Your Space from Uninspiring to Uniquely Yours by Marian Parsons. I'm really starting to settle in here in my new home, and I'm very much feeling the urge to make it mine decor-wise. But, I have little to no idea what I'm doing in that realm. Turning to books seemed like the obvious solution. This was a good one, and with lots of useful, practical advice and inspiring photos.

>225 aprille: nothing wrong with The Magic Treehouse. 🙂 Thanks for the Backlisted link

>224 VladysKovsky: enjoy. Hunan! Wow

I finished listening to Robinson Crusoe and started Armada. The Illuminatus Trilogy was too cumbersome to bring on my trip so Mash goes to Moscow came in its stead.

>230 fulner: how was Crusoe? Enjoyable? Just work?

>231 dchaikin: Enjoyable. So far, it's ranking as my top audiobook of 2026, but I'm just starting Armada and it's already going to be a contender. Thanks for letting me know I forgot to attach my review!

>230 fulner: sounds like he had an ax to grind…

service model should be sub titled "becauful what yuo ask for

And time to move to a new thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/383443

>234 dchaikin: anti-catholicism was rampant at the time, particularly in Protestant nations like England. So it shouldn't surprise me. To this day nothing legally bars a Muslim or an atheist from being king of England but if one converts to Catholicism they legally are no longer part of the royal family