Friday Reads — May 29th, 2026

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

This week, LibraryThing staff are reading:

Tim / @timspalding: Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival by Joe Simpson
After Steve: How Apple became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul by Tripp Mickle
Abby / @ablachly: Thief of Night by Holly Black
Lucy / @knerd.knitter: The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb
Zeph / @ZephCraven: Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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

Hardcover remainder:
Samuel Pepys: the unequalled self (Pt 2, Ch 11 Death & Plague, p 160-) / Claire Tomalin
Trade paperback:
Kristin Lavransdatter: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) (v 2, The Wife, pt 1 The Fruit of Sin, Ch 3- p 334- ) / Sigrid Undset; translation & notes, Tina Nunnally)

Bedtime/Afternoon Delight Reading:
via Kindle app:
The Complete Essays of Montaigne (Pt 1 #26 Of the education of children, p 106- ) / Michel Eyquem Montaigne; translation & notes Donald M. Frame

Spent much of the past week finishing The Romany Rye. Everyman's Library No. 120 & The Age of Napoleon: The Story of Civilization, Volume XI which accounts for the current rather short list. Plan to spend part of the weekend trying to decide on an ebook or 2 to add to the daylight reading list. After long hiatus bumped Kristin to daylight as her domestic troubles are just beginning after her rash marriage in volume 1. Two things I've enjoyed so far in the Montaigne essays: his reflections on death, much of it copped from Lucretius admittedly, and his scolding of pedants, followed by quotations from all the Latin authors he's read.

Earlier this week I read Nirvana Express: Journal of a Very Brief Monkhood, which was interesting but not $35 dollars worth of interesting, even if most of that was a gift card.

Now I'm about half through I Capture the Castle, and enjoying it much more than the first time I tried a few years ago.

>1 AbigailAdams26: I just finished reading The Mermaids Singing and will be starting The Hallowed Hunt. I'm just finishing up The Horologicon via Audible.

I am reading The Heart of Darkness, which I should finish this afternoon, and Philippa of Lancaster by Isabel Stilwell. I hope to finish it this weekend. After those... a cozy mystery palate cleanser

I'm so excited to have reached 1483 in Queens at War today. I just read about the opulence of the coronation - something like 65 yards of white cloth of gold for Anne Neville's mantle and train, and 3,000 ermines for Richard III's mantle?!?! my goodness. and that's just two of many many ostentatiously expensive textiles...

The book ends with Henry Tudor taking over, so I'm nearly finished.

I have The Retired Assassin's Guide to Country Gardening from the library as soon as I finish the Alison Weir, probably today or tomorrow.

3> Somehow I never read I Captured the Castle in my youth. Thank you for reminding me of it - I suspect I would enjoy it a lot, and also in comparison to something like Six to Sixteen (which I found delightful!)

I started Wolf Worm this morning, and plowed through the whole thing in a sitting. So delightfully creepy. I shall select something off Mt. TBR for my next book, as the library has been deficient in delivering my many holds.

I’m in the middle of The Story of More. I read and really enjoyed Lab Girl, so I was expecting material with personality. I’m not finding it. So far it’s a dry but thorough description of our present food production and supply systems. She ventures into opinion in a slight way. But since I read on this subject frequently, I am not getting much benefit.

>2 featherbear: I was introduced to Montaigne by Michael Perry, a Wisconsin local yokel; but an excellent writer. Montaigne in Barn Boots.

>6 keristars: Oh dear! The Retired Assassin's Guide to Country Gardening is not in my Libby as an audio. Will need to try and get it through ILL.

>9 2wonderY: I had to wait MONTHS for my turn in the hold queue! I'm not even sure where I heard of it at this point, but I love the concept in the description.

>10 keristars: Are you a member of the Gardens and Books group?
It occurs to me you might like some Beverley Nichols.

>11 2wonderY: I am not! But you're right - Down the Garden Path does look like the kind of thing I would enjoy. Perhaps not dissimilar to All Creatures Great and Small? Lo-fi reading I think Debi Cates calls it, slice of life through gardening.

(I read the Herriott series when I was 10, quite avidly, and not because I was an animal lover. I suspect that says something about me...)

Started reading 4th Man Surf Club Jesus at Walmart Season #2 by Rick Leland so far I like it.