April 2025 - What are you reading?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra for my book club. It's great so far, highly recommend if you are looking for something kind of light but interesting.

Love that title

I just finished The Friend, and then started The Marlow Murder Club - it's ok so far!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I finished the first five books in the Finlay Donovan series.
The books are about a woman who writes crime novels and is overheard one day talking about one of her books and is mistaken for a contract killer. Next thing you know, she has been hired. She has a two year old and a five year old and is recently divorced.

I am finding the series delightful. The latest book just came out in February and my library has a six month wait list for it, so I suppose I will have to wait a while to read the next one in the series.

That sounds SO fun. I'll add to my TBR.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m reading Curtis Sittenfeld’s new short story collection Show Don’t Tell. I’m four stories in and loving it so far! I think I’m about 10 years younger than Sittenfeld, but I really connect to her characters. Their thoughts, feelings, and observations always resonate with me. Reading her work makes me feel so seen!

That’s such an apt description of her writing. Her characters are usually flawed but compelling, and she captures the mundaneness of married life so well.

[Anonymous]

I just picked up James. It's not bad so far, but I'm not obsessed the way a lot of people have been. I'll reserve judgment until I finish I guess!

[Anonymous]

Just finished Claire lombardo’s Same As It Ever Was. I initially didn’t like it, but ended up really enjoying it, though it is long, fairly slow.

[Anonymous]

"Earth's the Right Place for Love" by Elizabeth Berg.
It is about an old man named Arthur reflecting back on his life as a teen and a young man and his courtship with his future wife.
I liked it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm reading "This is Happiness". I love a good, slow story about a small town but this book is pushing my limits. The writing is lovely though.[/quote

Hang in there. Stuff will happen! And, btw, some of these characters show up in Williams’s recent book, Time of the Child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m reading Curtis Sittenfeld’s new short story collection Show Don’t Tell. I’m four stories in and loving it so far! I think I’m about 10 years younger than Sittenfeld, but I really connect to her characters. Their thoughts, feelings, and observations always resonate with me. Reading her work makes me feel so seen!

That’s such an apt description of her writing. Her characters are usually flawed but compelling, and she captures the mundaneness of married life so well.

I’m not a short story fan, but wanted to read this book just to find out what happened to Lee Fiora from prep. I then went on to Hoover up the rest of the stories. I loved the themes Sittenfeld explores — marriage, yes, but also female friendship, parenting, work, fame, creativity, and privacy. She’s really a terrific writer , ina way that just sneaks up on you.

[Anonymous]

Just finished Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams. Very eye opening. Absolutely worth a read.

[Anonymous]

Spent the weekend absolutely buried in Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry. Could not put it down and was very sad to leave the world when it was over. I didn't think the subject matter would interest me (no previous interest in Westerns) but I love epic novels and this was recommended and wow, is all I can say. The characters, the settings, the interpersonal relationships, the humor and tragedy, the internal monologues, all of it was totally absorbing. Highly recommended.

[Anonymous]

Just finished "Nightwatching" by Tracy Sierra.
It is a whodunit about a woman and her two kids who hide from an intruder in their home.
It took a long time to get to the conclusion but I thought it was a very good book.

[Anonymous]

Reading Orbital which won the Booker Prize. Beautiful prose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Spent the weekend absolutely buried in Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry. Could not put it down and was very sad to leave the world when it was over. I didn't think the subject matter would interest me (no previous interest in Westerns) but I love epic novels and this was recommended and wow, is all I can say. The characters, the settings, the interpersonal relationships, the humor and tragedy, the internal monologues, all of it was totally absorbing. Highly recommended.

Love love LOVE this book. The miniseries is amazing too.

Finished Playground by Richard Powers. I’m conflicted… loved one half of it (the ocean parts) and hated the other half (the techbro). It’s a very uneven read. The ending fell flat for me. I loved the Overstory but was pretty meh on this one.

[Anonymous]

"Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" by Gabrielle Zevin

Just finished it and just found it meh. While I can relate to the difficult nature of a platonic friendship that evolves from childhood into adult life, I found the characters to be mostly unlikeable and the story to be unrealistically tragic. It reads like mediocre YA but with a big vocabulary, and it has one standout first-person POV chapter that doesn't redeem the rest of the book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" by Gabrielle Zevin

Just finished it and just found it meh. While I can relate to the difficult nature of a platonic friendship that evolves from childhood into adult life, I found the characters to be mostly unlikeable and the story to be unrealistically tragic. It reads like mediocre YA but with a big vocabulary, and it has one standout first-person POV chapter that doesn't redeem the rest of the book.

Read that last year for book club- quite meh about it too but book club discussion was lead by a fanatical gamer and offered interesting perspective and helped me appreciate it better. I liked the way it got very meta-

I liked The Plot a lot more.

Now reading “Detroit: an American autopsy “ which is like 10 years old now but pretty good if you like a Michael Moore type sensibility. It’s also for book club and quite graphic - I know some of the ole bitties won’t like it!