January 2026! What are you reading??

[Anonymous]

The Empusium by OlgaTokarczuk
Very well written, translated from Polish. Lures you in, but drags quite a bit in the bot. I’m near the end and it’s back to being interesting.

[Anonymous]

My debut book is being released on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online retailers in the next few weeks. It's a short novel/novella titled Wind Therapy and it's about a VA therapist who takes her PTSD Support group on a cross-country motorcycle journey to find the purpose, brotherhood, and healing they all have been searching for. I have received pretty solid feedback from ARC readers. If anyone here is interested in reading it, I can update you all when it officially releases.

[Anonymous]

Just finished The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Of course it’s an interesting true story but I found the writing very bland and felt like a YA book. The author did a lot of telling, not showing and in a superficial way. I had to skim read paragraphs to get through. The book did improve at about the 75% mark.

I know it has great reviews on Goodreads and was a best seller, but just meh, IMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Among Friends by Hal Ebbett.

Draws you into thinking it's a lighthearted middle-aged crisis buddy tale, and then things get dark. When the facade gets ripped away, what is underneath is ugly and ruthless.

Excellent writing . . . the author's first book. I sense that many people aren't going to like this because of the subject matter and the "unlikeable characters," but I'm not one of those people. I read half of it in one sitting.

Adding this to my TBR, thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just finished The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Of course it’s an interesting true story but I found the writing very bland and felt like a YA book. The author did a lot of telling, not showing and in a superficial way. I had to skim read paragraphs to get through. The book did improve at about the 75% mark.

I know it has great reviews on Goodreads and was a best seller, but just meh, IMO.

Thanks for this review, I had the same reaction to that book. I personally find that a lot of Goodreads faves can be described similarly. For me, the most recent example is The Bookclub for Troublesome Women. So much telling, very little showing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just finished The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Of course it’s an interesting true story but I found the writing very bland and felt like a YA book. The author did a lot of telling, not showing and in a superficial way. I had to skim read paragraphs to get through. The book did improve at about the 75% mark.

I know it has great reviews on Goodreads and was a best seller, but just meh, IMO.

Thanks for this review, I had the same reaction to that book. I personally find that a lot of Goodreads faves can be described similarly. For me, the most recent example is The Bookclub for Troublesome Women. So much telling, very little showing.

I appreciate your reply and will definitely not add the Bookclub for troublesome Women to my reading pile!

Sometimes I am way out of sync with Goodreads. One example is The Haunting of Hill House. Goodreads Rating is 3.81 with many reviewers excoriating the book and claiming it was not as good as the Netflix miniseries, etc. Hard to take them seriously.

What’s even sadder are respondents who thank the reviewer for “saving them from wasting their time” on a bad book. Harrumph.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just finished The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Of course it’s an interesting true story but I found the writing very bland and felt like a YA book. The author did a lot of telling, not showing and in a superficial way. I had to skim read paragraphs to get through. The book did improve at about the 75% mark.

I know it has great reviews on Goodreads and was a best seller, but just meh, IMO.

Thanks for this review, I had the same reaction to that book. I personally find that a lot of Goodreads faves can be described similarly. For me, the most recent example is The Bookclub for Troublesome Women. So much telling, very little showing.

I appreciate your reply and will definitely not add the Bookclub for troublesome Women to my reading pile!

Sometimes I am way out of sync with Goodreads. One example is The Haunting of Hill House. Goodreads Rating is 3.81 with many reviewers excoriating the book and claiming it was not as good as the Netflix miniseries, etc. Hard to take them seriously.

What’s even sadder are respondents who thank the reviewer for “saving them from wasting their time” on a bad book. Harrumph.

Wut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just finished Daughters of Shandong, The Alice Network and now My Friends - all good but My Friends a step above, IMO

I did not like My Friends! That cutesy narrative voice drove me crazy. The friendships were also unbelievable and schmaltzy.

Same, it was a DNF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Finishing Meet the Newmans which is pretty entertaining. If you like fiction set in 1960s southern California (think Lessons in Chemistry, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo), I highly recommend. I recently read Heart the Lover (it was okay, I wasn't the biggest fan, although I seem to be in the minority on this),The Names (I liked it), and What Kind of Paradise (absolutely fantastic!!).

+1 Meet the Newmans definitely fits the bill of light but still well-written!

[Anonymous]

Homeschooled by Stefan Merrill Block. Engrossing and disturbing. Highly recommend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just finished Buckeye and I really liked it! I just started The Sequel, having read The Plot a few years ago. I wasn’t going to read it but couldn’t resist once it was in paperback.

Despite all the rave reviews about Buckeye, I found the 2nd half tedious. I did manage to finish it, but stories with gay relationships are not my cup of tea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just finished The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Of course it’s an interesting true story but I found the writing very bland and felt like a YA book. The author did a lot of telling, not showing and in a superficial way. I had to skim read paragraphs to get through. The book did improve at about the 75% mark.

I know it has great reviews on Goodreads and was a best seller, but just meh, IMO.

Thanks for this review, I had the same reaction to that book. I personally find that a lot of Goodreads faves can be described similarly. For me, the most recent example is The Bookclub for Troublesome Women. So much telling, very little showing.

I wish you could sort Goodreads reviews by selecting criteria about the reviewer. I think a lot of "popular" books are terrible (and I'm not a reading snob, I just can't stand the books that make me literally my eyes, I'm talking to you, Frieda McFadden), but I imagine that's due to the general US population. As George Carlin said, "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just finished The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Of course it’s an interesting true story but I found the writing very bland and felt like a YA book. The author did a lot of telling, not showing and in a superficial way. I had to skim read paragraphs to get through. The book did improve at about the 75% mark.

I know it has great reviews on Goodreads and was a best seller, but just meh, IMO.

Thanks for this review, I had the same reaction to that book. I personally find that a lot of Goodreads faves can be described similarly. For me, the most recent example is The Bookclub for Troublesome Women. So much telling, very little showing.

I wish you could sort Goodreads reviews by selecting criteria about the reviewer. I think a lot of "popular" books are terrible (and I'm not a reading snob, I just can't stand the books that make me literally my eyes, I'm talking to you, Frieda McFadden), but I imagine that's due to the general US population. As George Carlin said, "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

Same but admit I’m a snob. Kristen Hannah, for one..just awful.

[Anonymous]

Heart the Lover by Lily King. Only about 50 pages in.

[Anonymous]

This snowy weekend seems like a good time to start 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin. I enjoyed his Too Big To Fail.