Friday Reads — June 5th, 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
Abby / @ablachly: Endling by Maria Reva
Lucy / @knerd.knitter: I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin
Zeph / @ZephCraven: Dancer from the Dance by Andrew Holleran

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

Still working through Parallel Lives by Iain Pears and my audio is Another Man's Treasure in the Roy Ballard/Mia Madison series by Ben Rehder.

Via Kindle
The Last Samurai Bk V, p 311- / Helen DeWitt
The Adolescent (Vintage Classics) aka A Raw Youth / Dostoevsky, translation Richard Peaver & Larissa Volokhonsky
Trade paperback
Kristin Lavransdatter: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) v2 "The Wife" pt 2 "Husaby" ch 1- p 414- / Sigrid Undset, translation & notes Tina Nunnally

Bedtime Reading/post-morning coffee
Via Kindle app
The Complete Essays of Montaigne Pt 1- #40- p 183- / Donald M. Frame, translation & notes
Till I End My Song: A Gathering of Last Poems / Harold Bloom, editor & notes

Bedtime reading is often late morning reading, to get revved up for the reading day, although Last Poems is good for the "end of the day" amirite? Finished Claire Tomalin's bio Samuel Pepys: the unequalled self on Wednesday; considered reading another "life and times" bio for the same historical period, James Winn's John Dryden and His World but it's not time yet, so to speak. Trying to finish the last volume of Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky bio but The Adolescent is a major gap in the late period novels I want to fill. Plus a read of a new translation of The Brothers K on the horizon.

Started Last Samurai (not the movie) twice some time ago, third time's the charm -- started all over & it's been unexpectedly breezy fun; expect to finish this weekend or early next week.

PS: Kristin Lavransdattar, Volume 2 "The Wife," Bk 1: "The Fruit of Sin" Chapter 4: the combination of the pain of birth & mental guilt as harrowing as anything I've read in some time. OMG

Just looking for relaxing time, read infantile books:
De paseo por mi isla by Gianlee Marquez
La estrella de largos brazos by José Rabelo
¿Qué quieres ser de mayor? by Catherine Barr

I read some lighter fantasy this week (Awakenings, The Lord of Stariel) and started but ended up abandoning 2312. Now I'm trying to choose between The Study: The Inner Life of Renaissance Libraries and Translation State, because why not try to choose between an apple and a chair, I guess.

I'm about halfway into The Retired Assassin's Guide to Country Gardening, which I'd planned to start last weekend but fatigue etc kept pushing back. It's been fantastic fun so far, perfect cozy mystery with some great humor.

My 3rd grader nephew was raving about Rainbow Magic when he came to see me this week, so I'm planning to pick up that MG series soon, so I can know what he's talking about (lol) (but also because I genuinely enjoy MG books)

>5 Watry: Oh gosh that is a tough decision! I really loved Translation State myself, found it a fairly quick read because I could not put it down.

The Study: the Inner Life of Renaissance Libraries is intriguing me to me after reading (and loving!) Inventing the Renaissance last year.

>7 keristars: Oh, I loved Inventing the Renaissance! I listened to it on audio earlier this year after reading it in hardcover shortly after release.

Have you tried Palmer's fiction? I really loved it, and she has a new one tentatively slated for next summer.

Almost finished No Small Thing. A Novel of the American Revolution by Harold Coyle I won from LT. Great read for America's 250 Birthday.

>8 Watry: I have Too Like the Lightning on my kindle! just waiting for me to get around to it. 😄

I’m recovering from laser surgery and thrilled I can again read print books!
But at the moment, I’m still using audiobooks. Battle Cry of Freedom reinforces the material we covered in history class this spring.

>11 2wonderY: hooray for the recovery, and thank goodness for all the audiobooks :)

Currently reading through A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. I usually don't read much in the way of fiction outside of older books that would be considered "classics," but I figured I would give it a try after seeing a lot of positive reviews. I'm about halfway through, and so far, I am enjoying it.
I'm also reading through The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin for a presidential biography reading challenge. So far, the book seems interesting.

Moby Dick so far, enjoying it
and more of Science: A History

For three separate book groups, I'm reading:

Death of the Author (Fiction, SFF, nominated for a number of awards)
Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution (Non-fiction; Pulitzer Prize winner)
Dead in the Frame (Murder mystery, first encounter with this author)