RidgewayGirl's Piles of Pages, Part Two

It's almost the second quarter of the year, but here it's Spring (I am choosing to believe this), so time for a new thread.



Currently Reading



Recently Read



Recently Acquired

First Quarter Reading

January
1. The Age of Calamities by Senaa Ahmad
2. Cover Story by Mhairi McFarlane
3. The Parted Earth by Anjali Enjeti
4. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
5. The Last Ranger by Peter Heller
6. The Man No One Believed by Joshua Sharpe
7. As If By Magic by Edgard Telles Ribeiro, translated from the Portuguese by Kim M. Hastings
8. The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji, translated from the Japanese
9. This Is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman

February
1. My Friends by Fredrik Backman
2. A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
3. The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

March
1. Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
2. A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan Harper
3. The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated from the German by Ross Benjamin
4. Mule Boy by Andrew Krivak
5. More Weight by Ben Wickey
6. Heartwood by Amity Gaige
7. Black River by Nilanjana Roy
8. Encounters with Unexpected Animals by Bret Anthony Johnston

Second Quarter Reading

April
1. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
2. The Postcard by Anne Berest, translated from the French by Tina Kover
3. The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
4. Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov, translated from the Russian by George Bird
5. I Am the Ghost Here by Kim Samek
6. Strange Buildings by Uketsu, translated from the Japanese by Jim Rion
7. The Chalk Artist by Allegra Goodman
8. Ghost Town by Tom Perrotta
9. Cherry Baby by Rainbow Rowell
10. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

May
1. Whidbey by T. Kira Madden
2. Big Nobody by Alex Kadis
3. My Dear You by Rachel Khong
4. The Keeper by Tana French
5. Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
6. Strange Pictures by Uketsu
7. The Women by Kristin Hannah
8. Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated from the French by Helen Stevenson
9. Hungered by Amanda Rizkalla
10. Brawler by Lauren Groff

June
1. Missing Sister by Joshilyn Jackson
2. The Frenzy by Joyce Carol Oates
3. Work Shirts for Madmen by George Singleton
4. The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne
5. Famous Men by Julie Buntin
6. The News from Dublin by Colm Tóibín
7. Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy B. Tyson

The lists:

Books by Nationality of Author

Australia
Jessica Au (Cold Enough for Snow)
Charlotte McConaghy (Wild Dark Shore)

Brazil
As If By Magic by Edgard Telles Ribeiro

Canada
Senaa Ahmad (The Age of Calamities)
Richard Wagamese (Indian Horse)

France
Anne Berest (The Postcard)
Vincent Delecroix (Small Boat)

Germany
Daniel Kehlmann (The Director)

India
Nilanjana Roy (Black River)

Ireland
Tana French (The Keeper)
Colm Toíbín (The News from Dublin)

Japan
Uketsu (Strange Buildings, Strange Pictures)

Ukraine
Andrey Kurkov (Death and the Penguin)

United Kingdom
Penelope Fitzgerald (The Bookshop)
E. M. Forster (A Passage to India)
Alex Kadis (Big Nobody)
Jhumpa Lahiri (The Lowland)
Mhairi McFarlane (Cover Story)

United States
Julie Buntin (Famous Men)
Anjali Enjeti (The Parted Earth)
Rickey Fayne (The Devil Three Times)
Amity Gaige (Heartwood)
Allegra Goodman (The Chalk Artist)
Lauren Groff (Brawler)
Kristin Hannah (The Women)
Jordan Harper (A Violent Masterpiece)
Peter Heller (The Last Ranger)
Joshilyn Jackson (Missing Sister)
Bret Anthony Johnston (Encounters with Unexpected Animals)
Stephen Graham Jones (The Buffalo Hunter Hunter)
Rachel Khong (My Dear You)
Andrew Krivak (Mule Boy)
T. Kira Madden (Whidbey)
Joyce Carol Oates (The Frenzy)
Tom Perrotta (Ghost Town)
Amanda Rizkalla (Hungered)
Rainbow Rowell (Cherry Baby)
Kim Samek (I Am the Ghost Here)
Joshua Sharpe (The Man No One Believed)
George Singleton (Work Shirts for Madmen)
Timothy B. Tyson (Blood Done Sign My Name)
Jess Walter (Beautiful Ruins)

Books by Year of Publication

1924
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster

1978
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

1996
Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov

2004
Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy B. Tyson

2007
Work Shirts for Madmen by George Singleton

2012
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese

2013
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

2017
The Chalk Artist by Allegra Goodman

2021
The Parted Earth by Anjali Enjeti
The Postcard by Anne Berest

2022
Black River by Nilanjana Roy
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
Strange Pictures by Uketsu

2023
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann
The Last Ranger by Peter Heller
Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix
Strange Buildings by Uketsu

2024
Kristin Hannah (The Women)

2025
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Cover Story by Mhairi McFarlane
The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne
Heartwood by Amity Gaige
The Man No One Believed by Joshua Sharpe
More Weight by Ben Wickey
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

2026
The Age of Calamities by Senaa Ahmad
Big Nobody by Alex Kadis
Brawler by Lauren Groff
Cherry Baby by Rainbow Rowell
Encounters with Unexpected Animals by Bret Anthony Johnston
Famous Men by Julie Buntin
The Frenzy by Joyce Carol Oates
Ghost Town by Tom Perrotta
Hungered by Amanda Rizkalla
I Am the Ghost Here by Kim Samek
The Keeper by Tana French
Missing Sister by Joshilyn Jackson
Mule Boy by Andrew Krivak
My Dear You by Rachel Khong
The News from Dublin by Colm Tóibín
A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan Harper
Whidbey by T. Kira Madden

The new thread is open, come on in!

Happy new thread!

>9 thornton37814: Thanks, Lori. Here's hoping for good weather and more time to read this Spring.

This was a fascinating book. I don't generally read graphic non-fiction (or graphic novels for that matter) but it was enticingly reviewed by someone here and I really liked how different it was, and how much history someone can pack into that format. I'm irked I can't remember who mentioned it.

>11 RidgewayGirl: That does sound good, thanks for the review.

I've enjoyed a couple of graphic non-fiction books by Kate Evans. Red Rosa is a biography of Rosa Luxemburg, and Threads: from the Refugee Crisis about the refugee camps at Calais. Just looking online it looks like she's subsequently done a graphic biography of Jane Austen too, so is nothing if not eclectic! I've no idea what that one is like, but those two I mentioned are both excellent.

>11 RidgewayGirl: how interesting. I’m going to google pressing to death and then regret doing that.

Happy new thread, Kay

I missed most of your last thread, Kay, so much of your reading updates are new to me. Some great books listed!

Indian Horse broke my heart, so good. I read Stories from the Tenants Downstairs and I liked it. I am partial to connected short stories, waiting to see other characters appear. I attribute this to Maeve Binchy's writing, like Evening Class or Lilac Bus so I am delighted when I find other books like that.

I also have Love Marriage on my shelf to read, and really liked her Women's Prize for Fiction winning book.

My graphic novel recs would be March by John Lewis, a trilogy of books, or Persopolis by Marjane Satrapi, which would be interesting in this Iran era. I've noted More Weight as a title, but doesn't seem to be easily available at the moment.

>12 Jackie_K: Rosa Luxemburg was such an interesting person, I'm going to find a copy of Red Rosa.

>13 dchaikin: It was tastefully depicted in the book, and Wickey managed to make it seem dreadful. No wonder people preferred to be hanged, at least that was quick.

>14 raidergirl3: Indian Horse is a book that will still be read in fifty or a hundred years. I bought the March trilogy when my son was in middle school and he nabbed it immediately, and then passed it on to a friend before I got to read it.

Heartwood by Amity Gaige was the March choice of my mystery book club and it was fun for us to hear about hiking the trail from the one person in the club who did hike a few hundred miles of it and was able to show us pictures of parts of the Trail mentioned in the book. I was one of the people who came down as a NO when the question was raised as to whether we wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail.

>16 RidgewayGirl: my Brother-in-Law invited me two years ago to hike part of the trail. I’ve wanted to in the past, but I politely declined.

>16 RidgewayGirl: - This was supposed to be our book club read for May, but the person hosting asked if she could be June instead. I just got it on audio to listen to, so I might go ahead and read/listen anyway. I've skipped your review for now but will be back after I've read the book.

>11 RidgewayGirl: The Wickey book sounds fascinating.

>16 RidgewayGirl: Good comments, Kay. I enjoyed this but probably won't remember much in a year.

>17 dchaikin: The woman in my book club who did hike part of it said it was a great experience.

>18 dudes22: It's a fine book and the discussion about it was fun. A good book club book. Make sure to ask who would want to hike the Trail.

>19 BLBera: Beth, that's a good way to describe it. Enjoyable but not memorable.

>20 RidgewayGirl: - The Trail in Mass and Conn are only a couple of hours away so I wouldn't be surprised if someone has, but I'll ask.

>16 RidgewayGirl: That's a hike I've always wanted to do.
There would be a lot of lonely places on it in Maine, so great setting for the novel.

>21 dudes22: Let me know how the discussion goes.

>22 SassyLassy: The book really made clear how impassable and hard to search much of the Maine wilderness is.

I really liked reading Black River, there were so many instances in the book that explained something I'd noticed on my recent trip to India. Nilanjana Roy seems both clear-eyed and to hold a lot of affection for India.

>24 RidgewayGirl: that’s a topic that interests. Sounds good!

>24 RidgewayGirl: This looks good. I think I'm going to order a paper copy.

>25 dchaikin: & >26 markon: I found it fascinating. And as a fan of crime novels, I'm always looking for crime novels set in different places that are written by authors from the country. Most are written by westerners who have visited, and while that's fine, it's not what I'm looking for.

>24 RidgewayGirl: Hi Kay, I’m taking a BB for this. As a matter of fact, I took a peek at the library’s catalog and it was available!

>24 RidgewayGirl: I’m not a great fan of crime novels, but this one sounds really interesting.

>29 FlorenceArt: While the crime forms the scaffolding of Black River, it's really about people and how they live.

I'm a huge fan of short stories, and I will pick up almost any collection I come across. I suspect that it's hard to get a collection published these days and either the author needs to be a Big Deal or a publisher falls in love the writing and can't help it. Bret Anthony Johnson not being a household name, makes me think the second thing happened here and I'm glad, because this is a stellar collection.

>31 RidgewayGirl: Hi Kay, yet another BB, thank you! I too collect just about every short story collection I run across. I find that they are perfect for me when I’m reading something else or when I’m not in the mood for a complex plot or a long list of characters to keep track of.

>32 lsh63: Same. I usually have one going as I read other books. I try to stick to one story a day.

I initially read Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter in 2013 and suggested it to the book group I'm in that chooses the worst books. Since I suggested it, I thought it would be good to reread it before tonight's meeting and boy, did I forget a lot. And I never reviewed it, so I've rectified that as well.

>16 RidgewayGirl: I started this, but was expecting the secretive military agency to be a lot more ambiguous (ie the reader wouldn't know for a long while if it was just conspiracy theory). When it became a more significant element of the story I gave up reading it.

>34 RidgewayGirl: This has been on my shelf for a long time. Maybe I should suggest it to my book group as well. I hope you report on the conversation.

>34 RidgewayGirl: I wish I could be a fly on the wall in your meeting. Sounds like this might be something very different for them...

>34 RidgewayGirl: How did Beautiful Ruins go over with your book club?

>35 wandering_star: Yeah, that was a strange and, in my mind, unnecessary part of the book. Apparently that site does exist alongside the Trail in Maine, so it wasn't made up.

>36 BLBera:, >37 charl08: & >38 Nickelini: -- They didn't like it! There were too many swear words and too many plot lines to follow and none of the characters were good enough to root for. It's funny, because this group are all women with or who have had careers and are highly educated, but when it comes to reading, they want a very specific thing. Not too much to figure out and characters who are not complex or troubling.

>39 RidgewayGirl: asounds like my former group!

>40 cindydavid4: Yes, but after we talked about the book, we set a date to serve dinner at a local shelter and made plans for the fifth grade we've adopted end of year party. And today I helped order a bunch of books from Scholastic to give them with the grant one of the women wrote for us. So I will put up with terrible books, because the real focus of this group is finding ways to improve the world in small ways.

>41 RidgewayGirl: love it!!!!!

>39 RidgewayGirl: when it comes to reading, they want a very specific thing. Not too much to figure out and characters who are not complex or troubling - that's so discouraging.

>43 SassyLassy: I think that's what a vast majority of readers want. We're outliers.

>41 RidgewayGirl: I love this! More power (and hopefully some better books) to the book group's collective elbow!

>41 RidgewayGirl: - A good reason to stay with the group. Luckily, the group I "organize" is pretty eclectic. I was a little surprised at the end of last year when many of them expressed how much they enjoyed the small/independent publisher theme for 2025. I really thought I was pushing my luck.

I was given a copy of The Postcard by Anne Berest by a friend and so while I wouldn't have read it otherwise, I was not unhappy to do so.

It's tough with book clubs when most of the people have a very different relationship with reading, particularly when they're only reading one or two books a month. I'm trying to keep that in mind more when I get frustrated with my group, and remember that sometimes it's easier to listen to them enjoy a very shallow book vs failing to see a very obvious, clearly spelled out theme in a classic novel.

>48 mabith: I'd be frustrated were that my only opportunity to talk about a book with people, and it's a fun challenge to figure out which books will push them gently towards better written books without disregarding what they like.

I forgot to post a review. And it was a five star read for me, a gritty noir set in a Los Angeles falling apart.

I finally read something by Penelope Fitzgerald. It was beautifully written, but so morose.

>51 RidgewayGirl: I read that and really don't remember it. I also gave it 3.5 stars. I like Fitzgerald but this wasn't my favourite

>52 Nickelini: I have another book by her and will eventually get to it. A lot of this was on me for blithely picking up a book and thinking it would be a nice counterpoint to everything going on in the world just because it was called Bookshop.

Getting caught up, Kay. So many good books! Your book club is doing some great things, I love it. Could you share some more details about what you do? I would love to proposed something to my book club.

>16 RidgewayGirl: I'll have to read Heartwood since I'm a Mainer who has hiked portions of the trail, and used to do search and rescue. Maybe I can find it on audio.

>51 RidgewayGirl: I found the The Bookshop dreary too. Didn't make me eager to read more of her works, although many on CR love her.

>54 labfs39: Our main focus is a fifth grade class at a school across town that doesn't have a PTA or class moms or any of the things the elementary schools in more affluent places does. We organize parties for the various holidays where we combine a fun STEM group activity with some word games and then a few treats and a book for each student. And a few of us read with individual students once a week, mainly having them summarize the book they're reading and then they read aloud. And we get the teacher whatever she needs for her class. And we also do basic group volunteer things like make a meal for a local shelter or pack boxes for a community kitchen. As far as an activity that we all could do together, making a meal together and then serving it and talking to the people as we served it was one that we all liked and pulled us together as a group.

>55 RidgewayGirl: That sounds great. It sounds like they all have big hearts even if they are not great readers. Maybe you can give them a nudge...I thought of you when I was speaking with a friend who is in a book group in which she usually hates all of the books. I suggested a softer way of expressing her opinion, so as my granddaughter would say, "not to yuk other people's yum."

I love the idea of adopting a class.

>55 RidgewayGirl: bless you for all you do.

>56 BLBera: Yes, I try to find books to suggest that are fun, light reads but also substantial in some way. I thought Beautiful Ruins would fit that, but the structure was more complex than they wanted. I'm keeping my eyes out for a suitable book. Next month's book is Mona's Eyes by Thomas Schlesser, which is a very basic art history primer structured around a grandfather taking his granddaughter to museums (the Louvre, the Orsay and the Beaubourg) and along with a few sentences of information there's a moral teaching. I don't love it! But anything that makes people look at art and think about it is, I guess, good and it was apparently a best-seller in France which just goes to show that wanting books to be simple and a bit moralistic is not only an American trait.

I spent my teens and twenties working part-time in bookstores of various kinds and I retain that love of finding the perfect book for people. It's made my family remarkably lazy though.

>57 cindydavid4: Oh, Cindy, it's so very little. And nothing compared to the work teachers put in every single day. You have done far more with your career!

>58 RidgewayGirl: perhaps little but its done with a huge heart

Friday night there was a storm here, with five tornadoes touching down in the county, and one about a half mile away. There were 85 mph gusts of wind, so even my large adult son, who at 22 is invincible, came down from his attic lair with a cat under his arm. I and the cats took shelter in the basement, while the men went outside, but within seconds of a loud bang and the power going out, they were in the basement, too. We had half of a large tree come down onto our front patio, but not breaking the large front window, which has some 125 year old stained glass. We did lose a corner of the roof, but only the overhang and gutters, and one upstairs storm window. Still no power, but I've come to the library to recharge my phone and check in with all of you.

I would have made a terrible pioneer or explorer. I simply like things like heat and hot water and wifi too much. The first day without power felt like an adventure, but the thrill is gone. The power company refuses to commit to a time but the guys out working say probably by tonight. I have finished two books and moved a large number of branches out to the curb.

>60 RidgewayGirl: Oh my goodness, Kay, how frightening! I hope your power is restored quickly, and the repairs to the damage aren't too onerous. I have a friend in Milwaukee who got away with a small amount of water in the basement, and a very short loss of power. It sounds like it was quite the storm, I'm sorry you took more of a hit :(

>60 RidgewayGirl: whoa! Scary. Glad it wasn’t worse. We lost power for a couple hours when I think the same storm blew through overnight

>51 RidgewayGirl: i’ve read three wonderful novels by Penelope Fitzgerald, but they were all her later historical fiction novels, not her more personal 1st novels (also published late. She was a late starter). But i certainly want to read this. Noting the bleaker than expected warning.

>60 RidgewayGirl: "I would have made a terrible pioneer or explorer. I simply like things like heat and hot water and wifi too much."

"Why deprive yourself of the creature comforts it's taken man so long to invent?" -- Christine Lavin, "Camping"

>61 Jackie_K: I would like our power back, as I would really like a long, hot shower. Sadly, the storm brought chilly weather with it. If it were warmer out, not having heat wouldn't be an issue.

>62 dchaikin: I'm glad you didn't get hit too hard. You get both hurricanes and tornadoes down there and at least in central Illinois, the risk of a hurricane is minimal. In the four years we've been here, we haven't lost power at all, so I guess we were due. I haven't given up on Penelope Fitzgerald. I have another of her novels here.

>63 dchaikin: And yet, I like to read about explorers and pioneers and even mountain climbers. From a comfortable chair, of course.

Goodness, Kay, that was a close one. I'm glad you all are safe and your house didn't sustain worse damage.

That's scary, Kay. Glad you had so little damage. Hope you get power and a shower soon.

I'm very sorry to hear about that terrible storm, Kay. I hope that your power has been restored. The cold front petered out by the time it reached the Philadelphia area, and as a result we had very little rain, although today's morning temperature is roughly 20⁰ colder than it was on Saturday.

>60 RidgewayGirl: How horrible that you’ve been without heat during this cold snap! We were so lucky that the storm mostly blew through here without damage and without taking out the power. I hope your roof’s not too bad and that they get your power back soon!

At least you have enough books to get you through the power outage?

Perhaps there is a nearby gym (oooh, maybe even one with a hot tub!) where you can sign up for a free trial and use their showers?

>60 RidgewayGirl: omg glad everyone and every cats are ok!

>66 labfs39: Yes, we were lucky, as was our entire neighborhood. It turns out a tornado bounced over our area and came down on a golf course up the road. A lot of trees down and one neighbor had a tree take out his garage (and the car inside the garage), but no one was hurt.

>67 dudes22: Power was back at 2:30 this morning, and the shower this morning felt wonderful.

>68 kidzdoc: I'm glad you didn't have to go sit in your basement! I texted my Dad during the storm and he said they'd put everyone in his retirement community in the stairwells and were showing a movie. They lost power, too, but have generators, including one attached to an elevator, so no one has to climb stairs.

>69 Charon07: I would have liked warmer weather to live without power! But getting up this morning to a house warmed to 68 degrees was delightful.

>70 ELiz_M: If the outage had lasted longer, we would have had to find somewhere. We do have friends in the neighborhood whose power was back up quickly, but I'm glad to have not inconvenienced them.

>71 cindydavid4: Cats are all fine, although I think my 18 year old guy got chilly. The heated cat beds were out of commission.

The storm sounds scary, Kay. I am glad you didn't have any serious damage. I hope your hot water returns soon.

>73 BLBera: Beth, the hot water returned with the electricity, early Monday morning. It was one of the best showers I've had in my life. Now just waiting for a crew to fix the internet. We can see the wires hanging off of the utility poles, but first the company wants to send a technician to our house to see if turning the router off and then on again will do the trick. But full of new appreciation for the wonders of electricity and I was impressed by the speed at which the city picked up all the debris from the storm. And the hardworking people who worked through the nights to get electricity restored to everyone. And it was fun to see everyone in the neighborhood checking on each other.

I will read any short story collection I find, mainly because if someone manages to get a book of short stories published, a bunch of people had to be very excited about their writing. Kim Samek's collection reminds me a little of George Saunders's early short stories; they're weird and off-kilter, but at heart just stories about people trying to figure out life.

>16 RidgewayGirl: Happy New Thread, and how nice to catch up your reading. I felt the same way about Heartwood - it had some lovely moments, but didn't really come through in entirety. Enjoyed your review.Hope that everything is ok after the storm.

Gosh what an ordeal, glad to hear that you've got your power back.

I Am The Ghost Here sounds great. That extract made me laugh out loud!

>76 rasdhar: I will say that the person who actually hiked the Appalachian Trail liked it a lot, as it brought back fond memories.

>77 wandering_star: I Am the Ghost Here won me over. I don't like stories based on clever gimmicks because they often feel like that's all there is, but Samek is so good at writing realistic characters that I'm now looking forward to her next book.

If you've read Strange Houses, you'll know exactly what you're getting with Strange Buildings, and if you haven't, the previous and shorter book is a better starting point, if you're in the mood for horror with floorplans.

Isola was the first novel I read by Allegra Goodman, but I quickly picked up her recent collection of linked short stories, This is Not About Us, and now I'm diving into her backlist.

>80 RidgewayGirl: - I read her book The Cookbook Collector back in 2017 and I have Isola on my TBR pile now after your review earlier. The Cookbook Collector was similar to The Chalk Artist in that it also dealt with relationships, in that book it was two sisters and the different lives they chose to live. I'll probably add this book to my ever-growing list of BBs.

>80 RidgewayGirl: I’m taking a BB for this Kay. I also have Isola and Sam in my TBR. And now Betty has added The Cookbook Collector. I guess I’ll have to investigate the entire backlist.

>81 dudes22: & >82 lsh63: It's fun to find a new author who already has a backlist.

Kay, I'm resisting the book bullets because I got hit with three at the library this morning, but The chalk artist and Ghost town: a novel both sound good.

>80 RidgewayGirl: I've added it to the list. Isola has stuck with me.

Ardene, the library is the worst place to avoid book bullets! I think that I'll just go inside and grab my holds, but the shelves of new books are between the door and the holds shelf and I'm not made of iron. I'm grateful to the outside book return slot because it keeps me out of that building.

Charlotte, Isola was extraordinary.

I'm going to discard Mona's Eyes, 41% read. I'll be out of town when the book club meets (my oldest nephew is asking his girlfriend to marry him and it's a whole deal where he wants his entire family (and hers, presumably) there to celebrate) so I don't feel obligated to finish it any more. The concept is interesting, but the execution is both boring and overly sentimental.

I do, however, have thoughts. Art, of the kind hanging in art museums is something people think they should like, and they want to like it. But then they get there and they look at a landscape with cows, or a portrait of some dead rich guy and they're bored and a little ashamed of that. So a book that attempts to explain art in a way that doesn't feel like homework is something that people want. Mona's Eyes is a huge best seller in France and it's been translated into thirty languages, and I wish that book was better.

I'm not an art history major, and I think that's one of the flaws of this book. Thomas Schlesser is an art history professor, so he can't help but add in a lot of dates, a lot of mentioning of influences and which rich person financed the art. If you were studying the subject, sure, you'd find that information necessary, but for the person who wants to know why a painting is interesting, not so much. Also, there are very long descriptions of each work, which were probably fun to write, but in an age where we can look up each artwork as we read about it (and the paper book has each painting reproduced on the dust jacket), also unnecessary. And the central story is about a girl who is perfectly happy to stare at a single painting for ten or twenty minutes in silence, and she is also possibly going to go blind at the end of the book. Which is a draw if you like that kind of sentimentality, but deadly if you don't.

The thing is that artists are an interesting group of people. They tend to live outrageous lives and involve themselves in feuds and sleep around and run away from responsibility in ways that make for great stories. And art, especially art that has been around for centuries, ends up with its own scandalous history. Show me River Landscape with Cows by Aelbert Cyup and instead of telling me about where the artist went to school or about Dutch landscape painting, start with the wild story of how a family managed to smuggle it out of the Netherlands, right under the noses of the Nazis. After that, then talk about the luminosity of the light, or how the brushstrokes used to paint the clouds differ from the brushstrokes on the cows, now the viewer is engaged. There's probably even time to talk about why cows were important in mid-seventeenth century Holland.

Look, I'm just saying that learning about art doesn't need to be a chore. Just like any subject matter, there are ways of drawing people into it in ways that lead to them happily jumping into the details and dates eventually. But first you've got to set the trap and this book had nothing enticing to use as bait.

edited to add the painting.

>88 RidgewayGirl: Interesting comments on this book.

I can't get past that cover -- it just irritates me beyond reason. And I love "the Girl With the Pearl Earring." Maybe because I love "the Girl With the Pearl Earring."

>89 Nickelini: The fun thing with that cover, is that with 52 works of art to choose from, the cover art is from a painting not in the book. There is a different Vermeer featured, but The Girl with the Pearl Earring is not.

>90 RidgewayGirl: That would irritate me even more!

>91 Nickelini: Europa Editions does have a history of stunningly bad covers, it's almost their thing.

>92 RidgewayGirl: Oh! I didn't notice the little Europa bird logo. Yes, their covers are generally horrendous! I like a lot of their books, but not the covers

>88 RidgewayGirl: - I have this on my TBR pile. I think someone gave it to me at the end of last year although I can't remember who. I can't say I knew much about it except it was new. Your review has given me something to think about.

>88 RidgewayGirl: I am also deeply annoyed by that cover -- given the title references the Mona Lisa, surely that should be the artwork featured on the cover!

>95 christina_reads: The little girl's name is Mona, but that would have been a better choice as it is one of the featured paintings.

Thank you everyone for this discussion. I have removed it from my TBR. I have heard other negative reviews and honestly have not heard a positive review in my circles.

>89 Nickelini: i was excited to hear about this book and planned to get it. then i read the reviews basically an art professor is teaching his going blind grand dauter art. the more i read about it the more stepped away. and yes wonder if the author got permission from the girl with the pearl earring. loved that book

>92 RidgewayGirl: I couldn't get beyond the first art session when reading this one. I loved the idea of art appreciation as something shared with a grandparent, but you've captured some of the reasons it made me give up (along with many that make complete sense but I hadn't even considered).

Your comments reminded me I need to get hold of Art Cure again though: it got recalled to the library before I had a chance to get halfway.

>97 beebeereads: Barb, normally I would say that you shouldn't take my word for it, but in this case, it's a book better skipped. Go look at some art in whatever museum is closest.

>98 cindydavid4: Cindy, the Vermeer in the book is not The Girl with the Pearl Earring, but it's definitely out of copyright. There's a reason so many novels coming out now have some classical painting as the illustration.

>99 charl08: Charlotte, Art Cure looks interesting. I have no doubt that the process of making art and of looking at art enhances our well-being.

I had big plans to drag an LT friend (Hi, Charon!) to the big book sale in St. Louis on Friday. Last year, I nabbed a stellar haul of books, despite being very picky and was looking forward to it. And then, Thursday afternoon, I came down with the flu, so no book sale and I'm only now starting to feel human again.

>100 RidgewayGirl: Oh, no! The best laid plans. Feel better soon

>101 labfs39: Lisa, I was so mad.

I really enjoy Rainbow Rowell's light and yet substantial novels (I skipped the fantasy trilogy) and her new one was fun.

>100 RidgewayGirl: ok thanks for the clairifcation

>100 RidgewayGirl: I’m glad you’re feeling better! Bad as the flu can be, I’m glad it wasn’t anything worse. I was disappointed about our fieldtrip, but I had just hit a couple of independent bookstores in town the week before, so at least I have something to read!

I've just caught up with your thread, and am glad nobody was hurt in the storm in >60 RidgewayGirl:! Too bad about the flu. You'd think you'd be safe in May, but we've had viruses doing the rounds where I live too...

>105 Charon07: I have held off on buying books, in expectation of our road trip. Oh, well, next year for sure!

>106 Dilara86: Thanks, I'm now busy catching up on everything I didn't do over the last four days.

>103 RidgewayGirl: I can't wait to read this one! Saw it in a bookstore while traveling and snapped it up immediately!

>109 christina_reads: As soon as I heard about it, I put in a library hold. She never disappoints.

>110 RidgewayGirl: I have not read anything by T Kira Madden, and I don’t think I could read this particular book. I’m interested in the writer’s other novels. I just can’t read about domestic violence and I would have trouble with the mother of the abuser in this particular book. But thank you Kay for pointing out a reliable writer. T Kira Madden is now on my radar.

>111 kjuliff: There are so many promising young writers out there, it keeps me grabbing debut novels and anything that sounds interesting since it pays off more often than not.

Stephen Graham Jones is one of those authors whose books I end up reading, although his genre, the gorier end of horror, is not something that appeals to me. There's just so much more to them than just a scary story (and nothing wrong with liking horror, it's just not my thing). He always brings so much depth and complexity to the genre, and so much compassion for his characters, without protecting them from what happens in a horror novel. It took me a long time to read this book, in part because it can't be read with a distracted mind--there's too much going on.

>113 RidgewayGirl: Hmm...

I'm catching up on threads, but glad you survived your storm with minimal house damage (especially the stained glass!) and no human damage. Whidbey does sound well done, if not for me.

>114 labfs39: It's gorgeously researched and it wears the research lightly, but the gore level is extremely high. I skimmed some of the more graphic scenes.

>115 mabith: Yes, the top half of a tree came down across the corner of the roof, and when we went outside, the branches were laying against the living room window, but even the storm window was intact. I was very worried about the stained glass. Pretty sure our insurance would not cover that, especially since we haven't even been able to get an adjuster out yet.

So I picked Big Nobody by Alex Kadis on a whim and that usually doesn't work out for me, but this kind of book is what keeps me trying new books for no real reason. For this one, it's the voice. Con Costa is a wonderful character.

>113 RidgewayGirl: Me! I’m the target audience for a literary, historically-grounded gorefest! I haven’t read this one yet, but I’ve enjoyed the two Stephen Graham Jones novels I have read. But then, I like horror and can tolerate gore in service of the story.

>118 Charon07: I like Stephen Graham Jones so much I'll dip my toe into horror, but if you like horror, you'll probably love this one. I love how Jones never settles in to writing variations of the same book.

Given how much I like short story collections, maybe you shouldn't take my word for it, but Rachel Khong's My Dear You is very, very good.

This goes nicely with my thoughts about art and how people can be intimidated by it.

>113 RidgewayGirl: I read Jones' novel Mongrels a couple of years back and enjoyed it quite a lot.

>121 RidgewayGirl: I love this. Thanks.

>120 RidgewayGirl: Hi Kay, All you have to say is short stories and I'm on it. I've put My Dear You on my list.

>122 rocketjk: I'm glad he's enjoying success, because he's an interesting author who truly loves the genre he writes in.

>123 lsh63: You'll love it, Lisa. And the Tournament of Books Summer Camp is about short story collections.

https://www.tournamentofbooks.com/well-see-you-this-summer

I drove down to Springfield for their library booksale. It's a one day event and very popular so it was packed. The crowd really divided into those who wait in line to access the books, and the budgers-in, who often move against the flow. I like that people like that exist because it makes me feel super rule-abiding. The selection was good and someone donated all their old hardcover old school romantic suspense novels by authors like Victoria Holt and Mary Stewart, which I haven't seen since I was a teenager. I bought one just to see what I make of them now.

>124 RidgewayGirl: I loved Things Fall Apart, but I couldn’t read the name of the third book down. I can barely read the covers of books any more, and I remember how much I loved looking at the covers in bookstores when I was able to see. Even though they show the covers on Audible, I often can’t make out what the images is. Using a magnifier on the cupboards doesn’t help because I have scarcely any central vision left.

Back to your list, I’m sure you would like the China Achebe one. It is one of her best and she’s always good.

>125 kjuliff: I recently bought There Was a Country by Achebe after reading a novel about the Biafra war, I'll probably read that one first. But I was happy to find a pristine copy of Things Fall Apart.

The third book down is The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart. She and Victoria Holt wrote stacks of Gothic suspense novels in the eighties and my high school self loved them. Lives so much more exciting than being a teenager in Scottsdale, Arizona. I'm curious as to how they hold up.

>124 RidgewayGirl: You were quite restrained, Kay. I loved Anil's Ghost when I read it a million years ago pre-LT. I'm curious about Yiyun Li.

>127 labfs39: I read Anil's Ghost years ago, before LT, and I want to read it again. And Yiyun Li is an amazing author, both of short stories and novels. The Book of Goose was wonderful and I was happy to find a book I'd never even heard of.

Given the number of library holds on The Keeper by Tana French, I felt justified in setting aside all other plans and spending last weekend reading it.

As someone who moved four years ago and am settling in to a new place, the parts where Cal, an American who retired to a village in Ireland, reflected on becoming part of the township, felt true to me, although central Illinois involves far less murder.

>113 RidgewayGirl: A "high level of gore" probably makes this a no for me.

>129 RidgewayGirl: Good that your move has not upped your exposure to murder. :) I enjoyed the French trilogy and was sorry to see it end.

My large adult son moved back to SC this weekend. Three of his friends drove all the way up to us in central Illinois to pack and load his stuff into three cars and a U-Haul trailer that we hitched to a Rivian, it being large and having a tow hook. We caravanned down on Friday, spent Saturday in Greenville and then drove back. I did read a book I'd been avoiding for a book club, the pedestrian writing was less annoying from the front seat of a car somehow.

I managed to fit in visits to the Greenville bookstores I've missed, Mr. K's Used Books and M. Judson Bookseller. I did not exhibit restraint, but in my defense several of the books are Southern Lit, which is harder to find in the MidWest. The first picture is from Mr. K's, the second from M. Judson.

>131 RidgewayGirl: Nice haul! It’s a little ironic that you went to SC to buy Chicago, though! I’ll be interested to hear what you think of The Devil Times Three when you get to it—it’s on my radar but not yet on my TBR.

>131 RidgewayGirl: I loved Rabih Alameddine's book, An Unnecessary Woman, but have never read anything else by him. I'll look forward to your thoughts on The True True Story of Raja the Gullible and His Mother.

>131 RidgewayGirl: Good thing you were driving! It's hard to get those on a 'plane.

>131 RidgewayGirl: That sounds like the sort of situation where restraint is the wrong reaction. Good haul!

>132 Charon07: The title certainly caught my eye, and I'd read another book by Alaa Al Aswany, The Yacoubian Building, which I had really liked. And I've started The Devil Three Times and I will report back.

>134 SassyLassy: That may have affected my decisions!

>135 Jackie_K: I can't do that too often -- my shelves have a limit! But I did get all the books shelved in the appropriate places. What I need now is more time to read all these books.

That's a great haul. I have a couple and a couple more are on my radar. Driving makes it so much easier to load up on books.

Lots of good looking titles here, I think I’ve only read Tilt.

>131 RidgewayGirl: Great haul, Kay. That's the advantage of road trips. :)

>137 dudes22: Betty, that's not necessarily a good thing, but I'm happy with my very tall stack.

>138 lsh63: Lisa, I've wanted to read Tilt for awhile.

>139 BLBera: I agree, Beth! Now tomorrow is a day trip to Chicago, and hopefully a visit to Exile in Bookville.

Hi Kay, I'm just passing through and catching up and,of course, I am not leaving empty-handed - I am carrying three book bullets away with me. Whitby, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter and Big Nobody have all caught my attention.

>141 DeltaQueen50: Good to see you here, Judy! And it's only fair, when I get so many book ideas from you.

>131 RidgewayGirl: Nice haul! And with your son in SC, you have a good excuse to go back for more books.

I had a fun day yesterday in Chicago, meeting up with KeithChaffee at the Art Institute, where we saw mostly Modern and Contemporary art, then out for a classic Chicago Dog and a visit to Exile in Bookville, where I only bought one book, and that out of necessity, as I'd finished the book I'd brought with me on the train. Here we are at the end of a very good day in front of the Fine Arts Building.

I've been too busy gallivanting around bookstores and museums and I'm behind on reviews. Next week will be a very quiet one, with my husband away on business (he says, but during his last trip to Mexico, he kept sending me pictures of his meals) and my son moved out, it will be different.

>145 RidgewayGirl: That's a BB for me! And I"m happy that the library has a copy! Thanks, Kay.

>144 RidgewayGirl: Nice photo!

>146 VivienneR: I hope you love it as much as I did. As for the photo, this was at the end of a long day and my hair had given up halfway through. I have got to learn to take pictures at the beginning of a meet-up.

I like the photo, and I never like photos of myself.

>147 RidgewayGirl: Isn't that always the way. But you are the only one who notices.

>148 KeithChaffee: Yes, good photo, Keith. The ones we are sure will be awful often turn out well.

You both look happy, the result of book-buying therapy no doubt.

>144 RidgewayGirl: love the picture. Yay for a meeting uo

>131 RidgewayGirl: oh, yay. Read Stone Yard Devotional! Especially if life is chaotic and the world catastrophic.

Enjoyed catching up here. At some point this year, before today, you planted a “read some short stories” bug in my head. I haven’t followed up yet, but I’m constantly thinking about it.

>144 RidgewayGirl: color me jealous! and agree about pics

Catching up on reviews.

And this one was for my book club, the one that usually picks challenging and interesting books, but somehow this one snuck in.

>153 RidgewayGirl: Wow, I could easily have picked a book with this title, but two stars. I’ve never seen that score from you Kay!

>154 kjuliff: Kate, it was just so bad on a sentence level. And also on a paragraph level. It was painful to read.

>153 RidgewayGirl: I liked the history alluded to in The Women and spent some time going down rabbit holes while reading the book. I agree with you about the writing though, if it hadn't been for my interest in the war stuff, it would have been a DNF. In my review, "melodramatic" and needs an editor made appearances. Shortly after, my daughter persuaded me to read another book by her, this one about the Dust Bowl called The Four Winds. Egads and little fishes. That had no saving graces for me.

>153 RidgewayGirl: those are big issues. Sometimes the writing is worse than just simply telling the story. Sounds like it might be that kind of case.

I read Kristin Hannah's The Great Alone and one was enough for me. I get why people like them because the plot just sweeps you along - felt like a movie - but there was nothing underneath and, yes, the writing was really overdone and predictable.

My book club read The Four Winds. I am not a Hannah fan, and that one reinforced my view that she is not for me. Some of the members liked the historical aspect...

>145 RidgewayGirl: This sounds great. I've had a copy on my shelf for a while.

>156 labfs39: I was interested in the history, but it was the worst possible way to deliver that information for me; simplistic and never going deeper than a wikipedia entry. But she's a hugely popular author, so this approach has a large audience.

>157 dchaikin: I've talked to a number of people over the years, both here on LT and in life, who tell me they don't notice the quality of the writing as long as the plot hums along. And I'm glad these books exist for those readers, I'm just not one of them.

>158 japaul22: I read The Great Alone too, because it was a gift from a friend who had loved it. I wrote,

This is the first novel I've read by Kristen Hannah and, while it was fine, it will probably be the last. While the setting was wonderful, the secondary characters were reliably one-note and didn't change over the course of the novel. And there was so much drama. Just tons of it. And then there would be more. But I can see why this book was a bestseller, I certainly kept turning the pages, long after I'd begun rolling my eyes with every new plot development.

so clearly my word can't be trusted, but I don't think I'll read a third.

>159 BLBera: Hannah does history like Marie Benedict, another author I avoid, although in Benedict's case, I made it through less than a chapter before giving up.

>160 RidgewayGirl: i guess at least they’re reading. But it does seem like anyone could write a plot…

>161 dchaikin: Oh, you know that plot and pacing are not something anyone does well. We've both read (and enjoyed) novels where the pacing is slow and deliberate and required patience from the reader, and we've both read (and enjoyed) novels where the plot is negligible or almost beside the point, for example, Orbital and Seascraper. I do think that most readers count those factors as far more important than I do.

>162 RidgewayGirl: right. To me and you and many cr readers there’s more there. We can relate better. Maybe we can see them, the authors, better.

>162 RidgewayGirl: >163 dchaikin: I think it’s not so much plot that we want, but we do want something to happen.

>158 japaul22: i read one and that was enough. whats worse is jodi pilcolt she writes historic fiction straighht from the mornings papers and changes them to suit her needs her writing is also over done and prdictable. but i know she has many fans. thats fine i wont read her

>160 RidgewayGirl: "I've talked to a number of people over the years, both here on LT and in life, who tell me they don't notice the quality of the writing as long as the plot hums along. And I'm glad these books exist for those readers, I'm just not one of them."

You're much more generous than I am. I wish those books didn't exist. Or maybe I just wish reading groups that choose such books didn't exist. Every strained, cliched metaphor, every time somebody's knees shake or heart stops, every time they shiver with fear, every incredibly useless adverb . . . each one feels like a poke in the eye to me. For me, such bad, empty-calorie writing turns even what might possibly have been a promising plot into papermache. I mean, I like wolfing down a bag of over-salty corn chips as much as the next citizen, but not for 350 pages.

im just glad they are reading;its certainly not hurting any one and just maybe model the habit to their kids

>166 rocketjk: I wish those books didn't exist. Or maybe I just wish reading groups that choose such books didn't exist.

I just can’t agree with this. Better that people read books than not at all. If people get into the habit of reading then it’s possible to wean them on to better books. It is a matter of education. A person who has never had the opportunity to be introduced to good literature is at least making a step in the right direction by reading what you and I would call rubbish.

>163 dchaikin: I think that it's more that we value different things in our reading.

>164 kjuliff: I can be content with very little plot. But that has to be paired with character development/complex characters and good writing.

>165 cindydavid4: Yeah, I've never wanted to read her, and I have friends who love her books.

>166 rocketjk: I don't love it when one of my book clubs picks a bad book, but I usually just skip that meeting. I've found that as I get older, I'm less eager to tear down a book people sincerely liked. But when everyone is iffy about a book, well then I get to have some fun talking about why a particular book is bad.

>167 cindydavid4: Yes, this is important. Studies show that a child seeing that a parent reads for enjoyment affects how they approach reading and how well they do. It doesn't matter what that reading material is at all, the important thing is that the child sees that reading is something adults do for fun. Other studies show that how many books are in a household affects a child's success in school, it doesn't matter that those books are computer manuals or thrillers picked up at thrift stores or leather-bound classics.

>168 kjuliff: Yes, and the more someone reads, the more likely they are to pick up a better book, often because it's endorsed by Jenna or Oprah or some book-tuber, and end up reading better books over time. And also I feel very strongly that people should unapologetically read what they like to read and be excited about that, whether or not that's the International Booker longlist or a steamy romantasy series or the biography of a statesman. We tend to be snobs here, and I'm grateful this space exists for me to talk with people who care about writing, but I also like to read my fair share of fun, light novels (although I do need the writing to be good).

>168 kjuliff: "I just can’t agree with this. Better that people read books than not at all. If people get into the habit of reading then it’s possible to wean them on to better books. It is a matter of education. A person who has never had the opportunity to be introduced to good literature is at least making a step in the right direction by reading what you and I would call rubbish."

Well, I'm an old fart and the people in the reading groups I've been in generally have their reading patterns and predilections already established. There's not that much potential for weaning or education on that score. They like what they like, despite the fact that most of them have, indeed, been introduced to good, even great, literature. These are extremely intelligent and accomplished people who already like to read, and in my experience when presented with books that are better written, they like those books just fine. It's just that they don't experience poor sentence- and paragraph-level writing with the same visceral displeasure that I do. I guess I disagree with the idea that poorly written books are somehow easier or less challenging to read. After all, prose can be simple and straightforward and still be excellent, just without being full of clunky metaphors and characters ripped straight from the comic strips, or from the cliche hotel.

>170 rocketjk: I agree with this in that I know several highly educated women who are extremely intelligent and who love terrible books. It baffles me.

>166 rocketjk: >167 cindydavid4: >168 kjuliff: i agree with all this. Actually i think i agree with every post here. I feel that frustration, Jerry. Deeply

>172 dchaikin: et al I suppose it’s all a matter of experience and what one’s prepared to put up with.

>170 rocketjk: regarding the reading groups, as Judy Sheindlin would say, “ if you don’t like it, leave”.

>169 RidgewayGirl: >167 cindydavid4: I agree with your thoughts.

>169 RidgewayGirl: by saying that I like something “to happen” in a book, I wasn’t referring to a plot. I meant that I expect a book to develop somehow. I don’t appreciate books that go nowhere in thought or content.

To no one in particular:
I’m not talking about educated people who read for the “wrong” reason. I think the love of reading is important. It is one of the great sorrows of my life that I can no longer read print.

By talking about what many see as crappy books being only liked by the ignorant, we run the risk of turning the uneducated off “good” books. By “uneducated” I mean not educated in literature. It’s nothing to do with professional qualifications.

My own father was illiterate until the age of 16 when he was fortunate enough to meet people of the likes of Judah Waten and Wendy Lowenstein who showed him the way. My father never attended school because of the Great Depression, but he taught himself to read and became a great reader and a Shakespearean actor. Both my parents taught me to read whenever I could and whatever I enjoyed.

>173 kjuliff: "regarding the reading groups, as Judy Sheindlin would say, 'if you don’t like it, leave'."

Ah, that Judy's a crack-up all right! And, well, sure, though it can be made complicated by who is in the group and why you joined in the first place. Sometimes just being invited to such a group is an honor and leaving is therefore a much more difficult proposition, not even really to be desired. I didn't really wish that group didn't exist, as I did imply in my initial post on the subject. Most if not all of the people in that group were smarter than me, and by a lot. And the wine was always good. I just wanted to wave a magic wand and change the pumpkin books they sometimes (certainly not always) chose into beautiful carriages of reading delight. For me. Anyway, we moved 3,000 miles away, so that was that.

>153 RidgewayGirl: I would say I'm one of those people who isn't a close reader of language: but this book really annoyed me. It felt like emotional blackmail by numbers.

>176 charl08: Yes, all of the repeated emphasis on every emotion Frankie felt. I think that she pondered that she would remember a given moment for the rest of her life more than once. I wanted a little space to figure out what the character was feeling without being told explicitly over and over again.

But I feel an automatic reluctance anytime I feel an author manipulating my feelings. And that applies to authors as varied as Fredrik Bachman and Hanya Yanagihara, too, so less about the quality of the prose than how much the author trusts the reader.

>169 RidgewayGirl: And also I feel very strongly that people should unapologetically read what they like to read and be excited about that, whether or not that's the International Booker longlist or a steamy romantasy series or the biography of a statesman. We tend to be snobs here, and I'm grateful this space exists for me to talk with people who care about writing, but I also like to read my fair share of fun, light novels (although I do need the writing to be good).

brava! tho i try not to be a snob too much:)

>169 RidgewayGirl: "And also I feel very strongly that people should unapologetically read what they like to read and be excited about that, whether or not that's the International Booker longlist or a steamy romantasy series or the biography of a statesman. We tend to be snobs here, and I'm grateful this space exists for me to talk with people who care about writing, but I also like to read my fair share of fun, light novels (although I do need the writing to be good)."

And for the record . . . amen.

I'm glad I know to avoid Kristin Hannah if any are chosen for my book club! I know a few people in my group love her books. These days if I find the writing in our pick awful I no longer torture myself with it.

>153 RidgewayGirl: My book club read The Women this year too. It's one I skipped (I definitely don't feel obliged to read all the books we pick -- life is too short). I did go to the meeting and the book sounded awful. Everyone else seemed to like it okay though.

>181 Nickelini: “the book sounded awful. Everyone else seemed to like it okay though.”

Strange how much sense this makes

>180 mabith: I am pretty certain you would not get more than a few chapters in.

>181 Nickelini: I think that most people don't notice bad writing unless it's unreadable. I know the person who picked it for tonight's book club meeting chose it for the history, and it does an adequate job at that.

My book club met tonight and people loved The Women -- two of the older women in the group had marched against the Vietnam War and so their memories took up a lot of the time. And no one noticed the writing at all, but several did say they thought the characters were one-note and the plot strained believability, so that's something.

I read a much better book in the meantime.

>184 RidgewayGirl: that’s a really good review of an interesting and maybe devastating little book. You took me back to it.

>185 dchaikin: I thought the way that she steadfastly clung to the idea that she'd done nothing wrong and refused to consider otherwise a very realistic thing to do. I've run into both a nurse and a social worker who were turned callous and uncaring by their jobs, I don't think that's unusual. I found the book fascinating.

>186 RidgewayGirl: When I read your description, I thought, "how could she not see her culpability?" But reading your response about people who become callous made me stop and think - you have to grow a hard carapace when you're in a helping profession, and I can now see that response as realistic. I hope I can get a copy of this to read and see what I think.

>186 RidgewayGirl: it’s tricky psychology. You know. He makes as assumption he can read this person from the facts and outside. But she may have been better or much worse than he sees her, and she is certainly different. Making her make sense believably is tricky.

>187 markon: I'm interested to find out what you think of it. I think Delecroix was brave to take on imagining this woman's state of mind and I think he came up with a believable and very flawed character.

>188 dchaikin: I wouldn't want to spend the time Delecroix did in imagining this fictitious woman's mindset! It would have been far easier to make her a monster or overcome with shame and regret.

>189 RidgewayGirl: good points - both!

>153 RidgewayGirl: I feel much the same way about Kristin Hannah's writing. I thought The Four Winds was a notch above The Nightingale but her romancy style gets in the way of the historical fiction it is trying to be. My book club has also chosen this book - for October. Well I know what to expect...

We had our book club meeting today where Heartwood was the book, and I asked the question you mentioned your club had discussed as to who had hiked the Appalachian Trail or would want to. A few people had hiked parts of it. There's a place on the Massachusetts Turnpike where the Trail goes over the road and one lady and her husband had gotten off at the exit and hiked for about a mile so they could say they had. I might suggest that to my husband the next time we go visit his sister in NY since we go that way. We had a good discussion today.

In other thoughts - our book club has read a couple of Kristin Hannah books over the years, and I've been absent for all of them (not on purpose) although I have them in my TBR pile. I might read a chapter or three of one just to see what you've been discussing here, but it seems like I could just purge them right away and make room for more books.

>191 WelshBookworm: I've realized for me that the writing is the thing. If it's trite and pedestrian, it's not readable for me. I like a romance, having fallen into Jane Eyre at an impressionable age, but it does have to be believable, and even the people who liked the book agreed the happily ever after ending was stapled on at the last minute.

>192 dudes22: I love the idea of hiking a mile or two and from then on being able to say, "oh, sure, I've hiked the AT," I'm going to consider it. And I'm overdue for a book purge, I just need to be cranky enough to actually get rid of books.

>193 RidgewayGirl: - I did a purge this year and concentrated on series that I'm reading or that were recommended to me and whether or not I really wanted to continue/start. I managed to get rid of quite a few that way.

There's been an ongoing conversation among authors and those in the publishing industry about the drive to publish debut novels, mainly a complaint that those authors's books are not getting the editorial help a new author needs and so the books that are released are not quite ready for publication, leading to poorer than expected sales which might discourage new authors out of the industry or put them in the position of not being able to get a second book published. And that conversation brings me to my next book, which showed promise but really needed more work to be what it should have been. As the publishing industry is stripped to the bones, books aren't as ready as they used to be for publication, we've chosen quantity over quality, and the publishing companies have chosen profit over investment in their staff and in the books they publish.

I'll continue to seek out debut novels that look interesting, because despite their flaws, they often have a lot of energy to them and it's fun to follow an author's career from the beginning.

>195 RidgewayGirl: Oh Kay and here I’ve been patiently waiting for your next four-star read …

>195 RidgewayGirl: That's a shame about Hungered, which seems as though it could have been a very good novel.

>196 kjuliff: I would also prefer that I only read excellent books!

>197 kidzdoc: I was excited to read it, it had good intentions, but fell down in its execution.

My experience with Lauren Groff's new short story collection is a cautionary tale about the dangers of reading two short story collections at once. I'm in the middle of Joyce Carol Oates's collection and while Groff is an excellent short story writer, she's no JCO, and so suffered from comparisons, especially in the case of a story where she was going for a creepy vibe. No one does creepy like JCO, but if I'd read this one on its own, I probably would have given it another star. It's very, very good.

Always so good to catch up on your thread and as usual I came away with a pile of books I want to read. I'm very interested in Allegra Goodman's The Chalk Artist, and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. I also read The Keeper and enjoyed it as well, I think your review captured what is so interested about the series. I'm sorry it has ended, but I'll be watching to see what French writes next.

I also enjoyed your review of The Women, especially this line about the writing ("…
which only sometimes rose to the level of mediocrity."). Isn't a shame when an author cannot execute what appears to be an interesting premise?

You make an excellent point about debut novels. I think that new authors sometimes try and do things that established authors don't, and that's always refreshing to read! I think for the same reason, it can be interesting to read the early works of authors you enjoy, if only to see how their work has evolved.

Sorry to drag you back to past discussions, as I'm just catching up after so long!

>195 RidgewayGirl: I liked Hungered more than you did. I think Rizkalla did a good job of staying with the young POV; Sofia doesn't understand the issues the mother has, so we see the problem only through Sofia's eyes, which I think is the point.

>201 BLBera: I think that a young POV can work, usually with the adult version of the protagonist looking back. A very skilled author can convey the same awareness of what was going on around the child, without the adult perspective, but I don't think Rizkalla is there yet.

Joshilyn Jackson used to write literary fiction that skewered Southern culture in a way that betrayed deep affection and a clear-eyed realism towards its flaws. She later pivoted to writing thrillers, and this latest book seems to seek to combine her love of oddball characters with her (probably much more lucrative) new line in thrillers.

Years ago, Lois (avaland) convinced me of the brilliance of Joyce Carol Oates, and I've been reading one or two of her books each year, a pace that means each year that there are more books by her that I haven't read. She's been writing a long time, published her first book in 1963, and this is her 50th short story collection. Anyway, this is a stellar collection.

I've just started reading Aside From My Heart, All Is Well by the Colombian author Héctor Abad, which I believe is the latest release from Archipelago Books, and I love it so far. It's narrated by a priest in Medellín, who writes about his longtime friend and fellow priest Luis Córdoba, a morbidly obese middle aged man whose life of excess, including cinema, opera and, needless to say, food, and his unwillingness to take his health seriously has resulted in an advanced case of congestive heart failure due to dilated cardiomyopathy, for which he desperately needs a heart transplant. I'm particularly fond of well written South American literature, and so far this fits the bill nicely.

I've fallen behind in my intent to keep up with Archipelago Books I receive as part of my subscription, so one of my summer goals will be to catch up on outstanding 2026 titles, as more books are undoubtedly on the way.

>205 kidzdoc: I'm behind, too, but hearing how much you're enjoying the Abad means I'll aim to start it soon.

I finished an onerous task yesterday and so today I went to a booksale in Wheaton. I went last year and was impressed by the quality of the books and this year was likewise excellent. The highlight was The Story of Art Without Men, which has been on my wishlist for some time. Here's the haul:

The Story of Art Without Men is excellent, I now have so many more artists to look out for now I know they actually exist.

>207 RidgewayGirl: I was so excited to find it, and it was still shrink-wrapped! The Rumer Godden is from its year of publication (1955) and in excellent shape, even the dust jacket is pristine.

>204 RidgewayGirl: Hi Kay, I’m making a note of this short story collection. Joyce Carol Oates is indeed awesome and I marvel at her ability to still crank out new books. I’m reading one of her collections right now, Faithless.

>207 RidgewayGirl: Nice haul! I really enjoyed Black Cake.

>210 lsh63: I haven't read Faithless, but I will pick up any short story collection by JCO I find.

Ooh, I hit a library book sale this morning too, but didn't make out as well as you. I reviewed Ramona Ausubel's debut novel, No One is Here Except All of Us for Belletrista back in the day. It was quite creative; I'll look forward to reading your review to see how she's developed.

I enjoyed reading Isola in January. I'm likewise interested to see how her other books are.

Good haul!

>207 RidgewayGirl: Ooh, what a great stack. You have reminded me I need to get back to Hessel.

>212 labfs39: Lisa, she's so good, and her books are so different from each other.

>213 charl08: Charlotte, I am ridiculously pleased to have found the Hessel.

>207 RidgewayGirl: Nice haul. Yes, the Hessel is a find. And shrink wrapped!

>215 BLBera: I know! Usually I don't even bother browsing the non-fiction tables, but the art table was near the door. And I need to remember to look at the art tables even thought they are usually home decorating books. One time I went to a very small sale in the basement of a small town library and there were several art catalogs of German Expressionism -- not a common thing in Central Illinois. The people running the sale were delighted that I bought them as they were heavy. I think they charged me $5 for a half dozen.

>208 Jackie_K: i want to read this!

>214 RidgewayGirl: Which? Ausubel or Goodman?

>218 labfs39: Allegra Goodman. Her newest is a collection of interlinked short stories about two sisters who stop talking.

George Singleton is a South Carolina author who lived less than an hour away from where I lived in Greenville. He's fairly unknown except when I went to hear him speak at the Decatur Book Festival in Atlanta, his session was filled with other authors, they certainly knew who he was. He mainly writes short stories, but on a recent trip back to Greenville, I picked up this book in Mr. K's, a used bookstore, and read it to my husband on the drive home. He sets his stories and books in the Upstate and part of the enjoyment was in his mentioning places we knew well.

>220 RidgewayGirl: Nice review of what sounds like a delightfully wacky book, Kay.

>221 kidzdoc: It's always fun to see a place I've lived in a novel, but his short stories are better.

Finally caught up on your thread from falling way too far behind. So many interesting short story collections to add to my list! And your mention of it has reminded me that I really do need to get to The Story of Art Without Men, which I've had sat on my shelf for ages.

>223 valkyrdeath: Hi, Gary. It's turning out to be a summer of short story collections for me, and I'm enjoying it a lot.

I picked up The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne on a recent trip back to Greenville, SC and the mandatory visit to M Judson, Booksellers. And this has affirmed my practice of buying books I hadn't heard of before from well-curated independent bookstores because this was a five star read for me, I'm still reeling.

>225 RidgewayGirl: Great review, Kay!

>226 kidzdoc: Thanks, Darryl. It's so fun to discover a new author this good.

>225 RidgewayGirl: Added to my TBR!

>225 RidgewayGirl: Three cheers for well-curated independent bookshops and the great books we find in them!

>228 Charon07: I'd love to find out what you think of it!

>229 wandering_star: Yes! I have an outing planned next weekend to Chicago to check out the Insect Asylum and get lunch, but I'm hoping to squeeze in a quick browse of City Lit Books.