December - what are you reading this month?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks about the plague in a small english village. obviously a dark subject matter but I find it really interesting and well-written.

That’s the first book I read by her and loved it. I went on to read most of her other works and liked them all, except, oddly, for March, which won a Pulitzer.

My father is a big Brooks fan, and he feels the same.

[Anonymous]

I read Louise Penny’s new novel, Grey Wolf. I adore her and am huge fan. I devoured her other books. I hated this one. So disappointed.

[Anonymous]

I finished Wedding People - which I loved - and am now halfway through a REALLY fun cozy mystery in which former German chancellor Angela Merkel has retired to the countryside where she is now solving local murders.

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/31/g-s1-19962/miss-merkel-germany-tv-mystery-series

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m finishing up Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. I’m not sure what I’ll read next but I have one book goal left for the year that I haven’t done yet - read a long book

Some ideas for that are Outlander #2, Pillars of the Earth, GoT #3… not sure what I will pick…

Me again. I ended up deciding All the Colors of the dark, 600+ pages - that I already read, was my long book basically because I couldn’t get in to anything else. Maybe that was a cop out.

Now I’m reading Love you a latke. It’s cute.

[Anonymous]

I just finished Night Watch this morning. I hated it and would not recommend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just finished Night Watch this morning. I hated it and would not recommend.

I'm not sure I felt as strongly as hate, but I also disliked it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just finished Night Watch this morning. I hated it and would not recommend.

Oh damn. Just added it to be TBR since it won the Pulitzer. What did you not like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm reading The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz and I'm really liking it. It's about a failing author who steals this amazing plot idea that a student of his told him. He finds out the student has died and creates a best-seller novel around the stolen plot. But then he starts getting blackmail-type communication from someone who knows he stole this completely unique plot. I'm about 3/4 through and looking forward to finishing it today.

I'm also reading Amy Tan's journal of bird watching in her backyard, complete with her own bird drawings. I'm enjoying it a few pages at a time. It's very calming during this busy season and has me re-interested in my own backyard birds.

Ironically, this one sounds like it ripped off the plot of Yellowface! (Kuang) Unless it is very meta and that's part of the plot itself!

I was thinking the plot sounded so familiar but I hadn’t read the book. Yes!

Pretty sure the plot came out first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just finished Night Watch this morning. I hated it and would not recommend.

Oh damn. Just added it to be TBR since it won the Pulitzer. What did you not like?

There wasn’t much character development/understanding motivation, events would happen suddenly and with little to no warning, and there was a lot of violence/sexual violence in the first half.

[Anonymous]

Your Table is Ready Michael Cecchi-Azzolina

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140881214/your-table-is-ready-michael-cecchi-azzolina-restaurant

I really enjoyed it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I read Louise Penny’s new novel, Grey Wolf. I adore her and am huge fan. I devoured her other books. I hated this one. So disappointed.

I saw this in a bookshop yesterday and decided to pass. I'm glad you've confirmed my choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just finished A Little Life; it was heartbreaking but very good.

I read that years ago and still remember it well. It was such a beautiful book, but at the end I just felt like the tragedy was over the top.

Saw this book on a display table at a local bookstore today and I was honestly surprised it’s still making the rounds. I remember reading it when it came out and 2/3rds of it being gripping and stunning and the last third just feeling cheap and yucky. A while after I read it I looked up interviews of the author because I couldn’t decide why my opinion of it was so confused and was hoping that if I understood her I would understand it. After reading how she spoke about the book and responded to valid criticism, I decided that it was the equivalent of the Twilight series or 50 shades of gray- entertainment but not worth analyzing beyond that.

[Anonymous]

I need someone to give me permission to stop reading You Dreamed of Empires. I really wanted to read all five of the NYT’s best 2024 fiction. But I think I’m too stupid to understand this book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I need someone to give me permission to stop reading You Dreamed of Empires. I really wanted to read all five of the NYT’s best 2024 fiction. But I think I’m too stupid to understand this book.

Permission granted.

Do not pick it up again. It's just not for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just finished A Little Life; it was heartbreaking but very good.

I read that years ago and still remember it well. It was such a beautiful book, but at the end I just felt like the tragedy was over the top.

Saw this book on a display table at a local bookstore today and I was honestly surprised it’s still making the rounds. I remember reading it when it came out and 2/3rds of it being gripping and stunning and the last third just feeling cheap and yucky. A while after I read it I looked up interviews of the author because I couldn’t decide why my opinion of it was so confused and was hoping that if I understood her I would understand it. After reading how she spoke about the book and responded to valid criticism, I decided that it was the equivalent of the Twilight series or 50 shades of gray- entertainment but not worth analyzing beyond that.

By the end I had developed a violent dislike to A Little Life. Tragedy porn for sure. It actually is a book that makes me really angry. Just absurdly grotesque and deeply unbelievable that Jude would be who he was.