February 2025 - What are you reading?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm reading Onyx Storm. I'm surprised not to see it mentioned here as it's on all the best seller lists, but I suppose not everyone wants to own up to it.

So far it's just okay. Not nearly as good as Fourth Wing, but I have a lot to go.

DCUM readers probably stray away from easy fiction. I tried Fourth Wing and found it not enjoyable at all.

It is breaking records and I don't think DCUM is that special.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/30/books/rebecca-yarros-onyx-storm.html

It's not a category I normally read, but sometimes a fun read is good too.

Although I haven’t read Fourth Wing, I found the idea that DCUM readers “stray away from easy fiction” very funny and untrue based on what gets posted here.

[Anonymous]

Currently reading The Gameshouse by Claire North. It’s the fourth one I’ve picked up by her. The first was The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, from a recommendation here, and I loved it. The second was 84k and I thought it was just terrible. DNF, which is extremely rare for me. As a tiebreaker I tried Touch and really enjoyed it, so went on to The Gameshouse, which is good enough that I’m not tempted to DNF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm reading Onyx Storm. I'm surprised not to see it mentioned here as it's on all the best seller lists, but I suppose not everyone wants to own up to it.

So far it's just okay. Not nearly as good as Fourth Wing, but I have a lot to go.

DCUM readers probably stray away from easy fiction. I tried Fourth Wing and found it not enjoyable at all.

It is breaking records and I don't think DCUM is that special.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/30/books/rebecca-yarros-onyx-storm.html

It's not a category I normally read, but sometimes a fun read is good too.

I like easy fiction and fun reads and somehow I managed to be oblivious about Rebecca Yarros until this past week. I also never heard of Colleen Hoover until recently. Maybe I like a different kind of easy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just started Don't Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino. She also writes "Behind Every Good Man" but I've been on the waitlist at the library for that forever - "The novel is a historical fiction political rom-com set in Montgomery County in the 1960s". She is a former MCPS teacher! https://bethesdamagazine.com/2024/08/01/mcps-high-school-teacher-to-publish-fourth-novel/

I just got Behind Every Good Man from the new books section at a Montgomery County library. It’s not available at all on Libby. Thanks for the suggestion.

It’s now part of my trifecta of mid-century Washington-set novels I’m reading this month. I recently finished The Briar Club by Kate Quinn about a Foggy Bottom women’s boarding house during the McCarthy era. I’m listening to the Secret War of Julia Child, a novel that reimagines her earlier life, starting with her time in DC during WWII before moving on to her spy work overseas. I’m enjoying both.

[Anonymous]

Just started Gary Shteyngart's "The Russian Debutante's Handbook." I read an essay of his in The Atlantic (funny piece about taking a cruise) and had to look him up...not sure why I'd never encountered his stuff before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Just finished Matt Rife's (memoir) book Your Mom's Gonna Love Me. Uh, no. I did not at all love the book. It wasn't well written (I'm pretty confident he used a ghost writer) and it had SO much in it from his comedy specials that it was repetitive.

2. Good Morning, Monster a nonfiction by Catherine Gildiner. I am LOVING this. She's a retired psychologist from Canada and she wrote about some of her most interesting patients. I love the intersection of sociology and psychology (specifically, child development) and it's fascinating. There is a lot of serious abuse mentioned so don't leave it around for your kids to read.

Good Morning Monster is SO good!! Would love similar recs. I’ve read Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. Any others?

[Anonymous]

Clever, Little Thing

Amazing do far. Just in tje beginning, but sucked me right in.

[Anonymous]

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar and I’m struggling. I don’t dislike it but I’m finding it hard to be engaged in because the entire thing feels like Kaveh Akbar is just stringing together sentences he finds to be “well written sentences” vs telling a compelling and believable story about characters you feel are real people. Even Cyrus, the MC, feels like an amalgamation of quirks Akbar just felt would make an “interesting” character instead of a nuanced real person.

[Anonymous]

Sandwich. Thumbs down. The whole book tells, not shows, with the added problem that the main character/narrator is really annoying.

[Anonymous]

The Guest, Cline - beach read but I like novels with unlikeable main characters
Creation Lake, Kushner - good plot but too much esoteric environmentalism
The Wager, Grann - fascinating true story

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Guest, Cline - beach read but I like novels with unlikeable main characters
Creation Lake, Kushner - good plot but too much esoteric environmentalism
The Wager, Grann - fascinating true story

I read The Wager last month and really enjoyed it! For anyone considering it and debating on format, I recommend audio + book if you can work it with your library…the maps, pictorial references, and some of the end notes were great in the ebook, and I really liked the audio narrator—he brought a lot of energy to his performance.

[Anonymous]

I’m a fed and I’ve been too anxious to read anything lately. I know it would do me good, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a fed and I’ve been too anxious to read anything lately. I know it would do me good, though.

I’m sorry! I have a hard time reading when I’m stressed. But what helps me at that time are mysteries. Engages the brain, easy to follow, light, etc.

[Anonymous]

Just finished "Saturday night at the lakeside supper club".
It is about four generations of a family who ran a restaurant in Minnesota for close to 100 years.
I thought it was okay. Meh.

[Anonymous]

DNF The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, at 30% of the way through. Don't understand why this book is so highly acclaimed. None of the characters are remotely relatable and the main character is a self-absorbed jerk who never moved on from her teen years and never undergoes any meaningful character growth--at least not in the 30% I read before giving up on the book. The author also feels the need to mention every two pages that a certain male character is "ugly" and that a female character has big boobs. We get it already! It's totally off-putting.

Finished Banyan Moon, by Thao Thai. Very much enjoyed it.