What are you reading for October?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m reading the Poison Squad, which is about Harvey Wiley an early US food scientist who we have to thank for the Pure Food and Drug Act. I heard about it on the This Podcast Will Kill You book club and am really enjoying it so far. To anyone who read this forum’s threads on how the obesity epidemic is caused by modern food, I recommend this investigation into past food — I have to say I prefer I think micro plastics have to be an improvement on arsenic and formaldehyde!

There was a PBS series called the Poison squad that I watched a few years ago. Fascinating! We take it for granted these days that the food we eat is not going to poison us. I didn't realize there was a book of the same name.

Oh that’s cool! I will have to look for the PBS show when I finish the book which is by Deborah Blum if you want to check it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm really enjoying The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto. I love her stuff anyway and it's weird that it's taken 35 years for this one to be translated from Japanese into English.

What is it about? I haven’t read a lot of Banana Yoshimoto novels, but I loved Kitchen and back when I had more time, I was working on a personal translation of some of her poetry.

Its told from the perspective of a young woman who as a girl seeks out her "aunt" who lives alone in another part of Tokyo from her own family. You're not sure if the aunt is real or imagined, there are flash backs to when the narrator visits her years earlier, when the aunt is about 20 and the narrator about 9 or 10 yrs old. There's a back story about a family of origin (trying not to give too much away), and its largely about absence of loved ones, real, imagined, lost (genuinely or though their having run away). I'm nearly finished, but it's been the best thing I've read this summer for sure. Though I'm starting to pick up on story threads that make me understand why it might not have been translated sooner.

Thank you! I’ll look for it at the library when I finish my current books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm really enjoying The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto. I love her stuff anyway and it's weird that it's taken 35 years for this one to be translated from Japanese into English.

What is it about? I haven’t read a lot of Banana Yoshimoto novels, but I loved Kitchen and back when I had more time, I was working on a personal translation of some of her poetry.

It’s told from the perspective of a young woman who as a girl seeks out her "aunt" who lives alone in another part of Tokyo from her own family. You're not sure if the aunt is real or imagined, there are flash backs to when the narrator visits her years earlier, when the aunt is about 20 and the narrator about 9 or 10 yrs old. There's a back story about a family of origin (trying not to give too much away), and its largely about absence of loved ones, real, imagined, lost (genuinely or though their having run away). I'm nearly finished, but it's been the best thing I've read this summer for sure. Though I'm starting to pick up on story threads that make me understand why it might not have been translated sooner.

The story thread you are referring to is weird. It reminds me of the, From Up on Poppy Hill. Even with the plot twist, I think it’s just an okay book.

Yes it is weird. I don't know Up on Poppy Hill. Will look it up, thanks.

[Anonymous]

History of Rome Michael Grant

Lost Apothecary Sarah Penner

Pleasantly surprised with LA!

[Anonymous]

my sister the serial killer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my sister the serial killer

I found this to be disappointing. Very short though, so you won't waste much time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone recommend some spooky Halloween reads? I’ve already read pretty much every Stephen King and Shirley Jackson and I reread the classics (Frankenstein, Dracula) every year. Enjoyed Mexican Gothic recently.

I just started The September House by Carissa Orlando. It's a haunted house story that really jumps right in. I'm only about 25% into it, but expect it to be a quick read.

I finished this in two days. It will def be made into a movie. Maybe by next October.

I'd cast Lily Tomlin as Margaret.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my sister the serial killer

I found this to be disappointing. Very short though, so you won't waste much time.

The ending or the whole book? What were you expecting? I find the book an easy, non complicated read, I'm enjoying the short chapters and it's very easy to follow compared to the complication thrillers with 100 characters and story lines I've read recently. This one's refreshing. I hope the ending doesn't disappoint.

[Anonymous]

Golem and the Jinni

Really enjoying the storytelling and characters. I saw it recommended here and would like to thank whoever did. Hope they see.

[Anonymous]

Finished Braiding Sweetgrass (by the end, it felt too long) and Wavewalker (good memoir, quick read, wish there was a littlemore info).

Finally finished Anna Karenina 😅

Read To Kill a Mockingbird

Read Lessons in Chemistry - I really enjoyed this book. I like the focus on the child. Though there were a couple things I had to look back on. Like at the end, I was like who's Mason?? I think it was too close of name similarity to Meyers. And there was one other detail partway through the book that I felt the author didn't really compute all to well, I had to go back and check (which is rare for me). I really liked the book & hope there's a sequel, and love the peachy bright orangey cover.

Now reading Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay Gibson. Someone recommended it on DCUM a few years ago, I bought it then but never read it. About 1/3 of the way in, and this book is EXCELLENT. Well written, very clear and doesn't droll on at all. Very readable and relatable, highly recommend based on what I've read so far.

Also doing a reread of Eckhart Tolle's Practicing the Power of Now.

[Anonymous]

Two books by Anne Tyler -- "French Braid" and "Redhead by the Side of the Road".
They were both the usual Anne Tyler fare, about families that are disconnected from each other and interconnected with each other.
French Braid spanned five generations. Redhead mostly focused on one year in a man's life.
I liked them both, but I liked Redhead a little more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My plan is to listen to more Stephanie Plum books this month. There are 29 books in the series. I listened to books 16,17,18,19,20 and 21 in September. (I read books 1-15 years ago). I finished listening to book 22 yesterday. The month is young and the books are rather short -- maybe I will listen to all the rest in the series this month.

It is a cozy mystery series written by Janet Evanovich about a female bounty hunter who is 28 years old, works for her cousin Vinnie, and lives in Trenton New Jersey. The books are fun, but I quit reading / listening to the series about ten years ago because I got annoyed that Stephanie never seems to get her stuff together. This time around, I am trying to appreciate that she occasionally tries to get her act together. In one of the books I listened to last month she actually bought a vacuum instead of always borrowing her parents vacuum cleaner. But then of course her apartment got blown up.

How it came to pass that I am listening to this series again is because back in March when I heard that Overdrive was going away from libraries by May, I downloaded all the Stephanie Plum audiobooks onto my MP3 player while I still could. I downloaded lots of other audiobooks as well. Of course, now I see that I can still use Overdrive on my laptop and I can still download to my MP3 player. But I didn't know back then that I would still be able to do that.

I am the person who has been bingeing Stephanie Plum books the last few months. I read books 22 - 27 this month. Decided to wait to read the last few just because I felt sad to think I had read every last one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two books by Anne Tyler -- "French Braid" and "Redhead by the Side of the Road".
They were both the usual Anne Tyler fare, about families that are disconnected from each other and interconnected with each other.
French Braid spanned five generations. Redhead mostly focused on one year in a man's life.
I liked them both, but I liked Redhead a little more.

I am a huge Tyler fan. I've read everything she's written, even the patchy early novels. I thought Redhead was good but the Braid book, I literally couldn't get through it. Awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Golem and the Jinni

Really enjoying the storytelling and characters. I saw it recommended here and would like to thank whoever did. Hope they see.

I don't know if I recommended that book here, but it was the best book I read in 2022. I am glad you are liking it!

[Anonymous]

The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston. Nonfiction about anthrax, smallpox, and bio warfare. It’s less nightmare fuel than I was expecting and I’m really enjoying how the author humanizes and describes the people. However, it’s 20 years old and it’s sometimes a bit jarring to hear things like Ebola and m(onkey)pox described as if they hadn’t been big news for years. (Also I’m listening to the audio book and the narrator announces the end of each CD. Blast from the past that. 😂)