March 2025 - What are you reading?

[Anonymous]

I'm reading Grief is for People, by Sloane Crosley. She's an essayist who is writing about her friend's death by suicide, and a robbery that happened around the same time. It's terrific and very short. Typically I've found her writing a bit light/forgettable, but this book is so good.

[Anonymous]

I'm reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's new book, Dream Count. It's very good, as I've found all her books. I'm finding myself less intrigue by this story than some of her others, but the writing is impeccable.
Trigger warning though for a vivid rape scene and aftermath.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I finally finished "The Last Thing He Told Me" by Laura Dave.
It is about a woman who has been married for one year. She has a 16 year old stepdaughter, whose mom died when she was little. One day the husband disappears. The wife and stepdaughter try to track him down. They eventually learn that he and the daughter had been in the witness protection program since the girl was 4.
The book never really grabbed me. I am not sure if that is because I only had small snippets of time every few days available to listen to it, or if the book was just plain meh. It was good enough that I kept going to the end though.

Thanks for ruining that one for us. 😳

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I finally finished "The Last Thing He Told Me" by Laura Dave.
It is about a woman who has been married for one year. She has a 16 year old stepdaughter, whose mom died when she was little. One day the husband disappears. The wife and stepdaughter try to track him down. They eventually learn that he and the daughter had been in the witness protection program since the girl was 4.
The book never really grabbed me. I am not sure if that is because I only had small snippets of time every few days available to listen to it, or if the book was just plain meh. It was good enough that I kept going to the end though.

Thanks for ruining that one for us. 😳

Yeah, sorry. After I posted and re-read what I had posted I realized I probably gave a little too much detail. It was too late to fix it once I had already posted.
But there were lots of other mysteries to solve along the way in the book.

[Anonymous]

I read "Finlay Donovan is Killing It". Which is a new series about a single mom with a 2 year old and a 4 year old who writes crime novels. While having a meeting with her agent at Panera, another woman overhears their conversation and mistakenly thinks the protagonist is a contract killer.
I thought the book was awesome. It has vibes of the Stephanie Plum book series by Janet Evanovich. There are six books in the Finlay Donovan series so far.

[Anonymous]

Finished "Shadow Divers" by Robert Kurson, which is about shipwreck divers who stumble across a sunken German U-Boat off the coast of New Jersey. It was gripping and terrifying... one of those books that I stayed up late to read with the booklight on. The divers who poke around in these shipwrecks are pure adrenaline junkies. The descriptions of what happens to the human body when diving at those depths was enough to put me off scuba diving, period. Add to that the extreme danger of exploring in shipwrecks that could collapse at any second, getting the divers entangled in the wreckage with their air supply dwindling... yeah, no way. I'll stick to snorkeling. Anyway, HIGHLY recommend for anyone who likes adventure nonfiction, a la Into Thin Air.

50% of the way through Rumaan Alam's "Entitlement." I think it's going to be a DNF. A friend raved about it but I'm not getting much out of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Finished "Shadow Divers" by Robert Kurson, which is about shipwreck divers who stumble across a sunken German U-Boat off the coast of New Jersey. It was gripping and terrifying... one of those books that I stayed up late to read with the booklight on. The divers who poke around in these shipwrecks are pure adrenaline junkies. The descriptions of what happens to the human body when diving at those depths was enough to put me off scuba diving, period. Add to that the extreme danger of exploring in shipwrecks that could collapse at any second, getting the divers entangled in the wreckage with their air supply dwindling... yeah, no way. I'll stick to snorkeling. Anyway, HIGHLY recommend for anyone who likes adventure nonfiction, a la Into Thin Air.

50% of the way through Rumaan Alam's "Entitlement." I think it's going to be a DNF. A friend raved about it but I'm not getting much out of it.

I am a diver and a lot of people who get killed in wrecks make stupid mistakes. I’ve been in a number of wrecks where people die. It’s usually from preventable causes.

Here’s a hot tip, string a line. And don’t use an acetylene torch on the live ammo, even if it has been there since WW2.

I’m not going to get into specifics of that wreck but mistakes were made, mistakes that cost people their lives and that were avoidable.

But most people who die in scuba-related incidents have MIs under water, etc. it’s a pretty safe sport at the rec level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm reading Endurance: Shackelton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. It was recommended by a coworker and it's very good. I've had it on hold since mid-January and just got it from my local library.

Love this book!

Love this story - love.

[Anonymous]

Finished "Lab Girl" - got the rec from a list of "top 5 non-fiction books for 2024"

It was pretty good - I am a faculty wife and went through all of grad school and the climb up the faculty ladder with my DH so it resonates. We are still in academia and I have started recommending it to friends here.

Now reading "Soundings" about Maria Tharp who was part of the team that first mapped the ocean floor. For book club - I love non fiction but this one has too much detail about office politics (don't know those people = don't care) but it's interesting to learn the techniques and trials and tribulations of such research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I finally finished "The Last Thing He Told Me" by Laura Dave.
It is about a woman who has been married for one year. She has a 16 year old stepdaughter, whose mom died when she was little. One day the husband disappears. The wife and stepdaughter try to track him down. They eventually learn that he and the daughter had been in the witness protection program since the girl was 4.
The book never really grabbed me. I am not sure if that is because I only had small snippets of time every few days available to listen to it, or if the book was just plain meh. It was good enough that I kept going to the end though.

Thanks for ruining that one for us. 😳

Yeah, sorry. After I posted and re-read what I had posted I realized I probably gave a little too much detail. It was too late to fix it once I had already posted.
But there were lots of other mysteries to solve along the way in the book.

If it helps, PPP, I HATED The Last Thing He Told Me. Just hated it all the way through. I think if you read the Wikipedia entry for it you'll be happier than if you read the whole novel.

I just finished Eurotrash and started The Friend in advance of the movie coming out. I've been putting off reading The Friend for several years just because I thought I'd find it a slog but I am really loving it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finished "Shadow Divers" by Robert Kurson, which is about shipwreck divers who stumble across a sunken German U-Boat off the coast of New Jersey. It was gripping and terrifying... one of those books that I stayed up late to read with the booklight on. The divers who poke around in these shipwrecks are pure adrenaline junkies. The descriptions of what happens to the human body when diving at those depths was enough to put me off scuba diving, period. Add to that the extreme danger of exploring in shipwrecks that could collapse at any second, getting the divers entangled in the wreckage with their air supply dwindling... yeah, no way. I'll stick to snorkeling. Anyway, HIGHLY recommend for anyone who likes adventure nonfiction, a la Into Thin Air.

50% of the way through Rumaan Alam's "Entitlement." I think it's going to be a DNF. A friend raved about it but I'm not getting much out of it.

I am a diver and a lot of people who get killed in wrecks make stupid mistakes. I’ve been in a number of wrecks where people die. It’s usually from preventable causes.

Here’s a hot tip, string a line. And don’t use an acetylene torch on the live ammo, even if it has been there since WW2.

I’m not going to get into specifics of that wreck but mistakes were made, mistakes that cost people their lives and that were avoidable.

But most people who die in scuba-related incidents have MIs under water, etc. it’s a pretty safe sport at the rec level.

PP you responded to. There were several moments in the book where was like DON'T DO THAT YOU DUMBARSE YOU'LL GET YOURSELF KILLED! Kurson builds up the suspense in such a skilled way.

I love adventure nonfiction because I am not a thrill seeker by nature. But I enjoy reading about the mindset and thought process of people who push the human body to the ultimate limits in pursuit of a dream--whether scaling Mt. Everest, exploring the depths of the ocean, running ultramarathons, etc. From the comfort of my couch, with a blanket and mug of tea, of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finished "Shadow Divers" by Robert Kurson, which is about shipwreck divers who stumble across a sunken German U-Boat off the coast of New Jersey. It was gripping and terrifying... one of those books that I stayed up late to read with the booklight on. The divers who poke around in these shipwrecks are pure adrenaline junkies. The descriptions of what happens to the human body when diving at those depths was enough to put me off scuba diving, period. Add to that the extreme danger of exploring in shipwrecks that could collapse at any second, getting the divers entangled in the wreckage with their air supply dwindling... yeah, no way. I'll stick to snorkeling. Anyway, HIGHLY recommend for anyone who likes adventure nonfiction, a la Into Thin Air.

50% of the way through Rumaan Alam's "Entitlement." I think it's going to be a DNF. A friend raved about it but I'm not getting much out of it.

I am a diver and a lot of people who get killed in wrecks make stupid mistakes. I’ve been in a number of wrecks where people die. It’s usually from preventable causes.

Here’s a hot tip, string a line. And don’t use an acetylene torch on the live ammo, even if it has been there since WW2.

I’m not going to get into specifics of that wreck but mistakes were made, mistakes that cost people their lives and that were avoidable.

But most people who die in scuba-related incidents have MIs under water, etc. it’s a pretty safe sport at the rec level.

PP you responded to. There were several moments in the book where was like DON'T DO THAT YOU DUMBARSE YOU'LL GET YOURSELF KILLED! Kurson builds up the suspense in such a skilled way.

I love adventure nonfiction because I am not a thrill seeker by nature. But I enjoy reading about the mindset and thought process of people who push the human body to the ultimate limits in pursuit of a dream--whether scaling Mt. Everest, exploring the depths of the ocean, running ultramarathons, etc. From the comfort of my couch, with a blanket and mug of tea, of course.

PP here. You might enjoy The Ship Beneath the Ice, about finding Shackleton's Endurance in Antarctica.

If you like humor and enjoyed the diving, Try "Helldiver's Rodeo." It's about the adventures of spearfishing divers on oil rigs in the Gulf. Those people are absolutely NUTS, how they are still alive astounds me but there is no questioning they are brave!!!! and it's hilarious.

[Anonymous]

Just finished "Night Watch" by Jayne Anne Phillips. I can see why it won a Pulitzer Prize and I'm glad I read it, but it's a difficult read on a couple of levels. The narrative is convoluted (Faulkner is clearly an influence), and the tale set in the aftermath of the Civil War is absolutely brutal.

If you choose to give this a try, beware that there is a disturbingly graphic and gratuitous account of a sexual assault that I'd be better off not having read. I recommend you skip over it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just finished "Night Watch" by Jayne Anne Phillips. I can see why it won a Pulitzer Prize and I'm glad I read it, but it's a difficult read on a couple of levels. The narrative is convoluted (Faulkner is clearly an influence), and the tale set in the aftermath of the Civil War is absolutely brutal.

If you choose to give this a try, beware that there is a disturbingly graphic and gratuitous account of a sexual assault that I'd be better off not having read. I recommend you skip over it.

Thanks for that - it's about to come available on my libby wish list. I'm not sure now if I want to read it - at least I'll know what I'm getting into if I do.