May 2026 - What are you reading?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just finished Emma Straub's "American Fantasy." Multi POV that takes place on a cruise themed around a fictional boy band called "Boy Talk" (no longer together except for these cruises) and attended by women in their 40s/50s, who were teens when the band was popular. At the beginning, all of the POV characters are in a place in their life where they are closed off to new things happening in their future, they've kind of given up on that aspect of themselves. It's also about revisiting the specialness of being young, and kind of realizing you are the same person that you were back then. I just loved it.

I'm now reading "Before She Was Helen" by Caroline B. Cooney--a dual timeline mystery about an elderly woman whose mysterious past comes back to haunt her as she gets wrapped up in a current murder investigation. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. (And I only just now realized that this is the author of "The Face on the Milk Carton," a book I *adored* in sixth grade. I knew her name sounded familiar! Full circle moment.)

I LOVED "The Face on the Milk Carton” at a similar age…thanks for reminding me about it!

I'm the librarian at a middle school. I still booktalk TFOTMC. Kids love it.

[Anonymous]

I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Towards Darkness. Just started. It's kind of crazy, but I am enjoying it so far.

[Anonymous]

Reading Yesteryear- 100 pages in and so far it's just ok. Hoping it gets better.

Listening to London Falling. It's a true story about a young man in London who assumes a fake identity and gets mixed up with a group of wealthy scammers and dies at the age of 19 after "falling" off a balcony into the Thames.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

And I just finished The Wedding People. (Late to the game.) that was a very fun, light novel (despite its subject matter).

I didn't finish this one. Should I try again? Not one of the characters caught my interest, and I generally don't care for contemporary fiction. If the pandemic is a plot point, I'm out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just started “His Majesty’s dragon” by Naomi Novik. I am listening to the audiobook narrated by Simon Vance. It is a reimagining of the Napoleonic wars with both England and France having sort of a dragon Air Force. Really liking it so far. Has anyone read it? Did you like it? (No spoilers please). This is my first Naomi Novik read.

I enjoyed it a lot. It's like Jane Austen and Patrick O'Brien, but with dragons. Manners, etiquette, social class/hierarchy, but also naval and aerial battle tactics, and also dragons.

I really enjoyed the whole series!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

And I just finished The Wedding People. (Late to the game.) that was a very fun, light novel (despite its subject matter).

I didn't finish this one. Should I try again? Not one of the characters caught my interest, and I generally don't care for contemporary fiction. If the pandemic is a plot point, I'm out

I’m the previous poster. I think all of your reasons are solid for not finishing, especially if the characters don’t grab you. The book is about the evolution of themselves and their relationships throughout the wedding week. And the pandemic gets brought up throughout.

[Anonymous]

I just finished The Man in Black, a collection of short stories by Elly Griffiths. I don't normally read short stories but am a fan of Griffiths. The book includes a couple of stories with her character Ruth Galloway, and it was nice to be with those characters again since that series ended.

[Anonymous]

I'm reading The Belly of Paris by 19th century French author Emile Zola. I love his books and have read about 12 of them so far.

[Anonymous]

Just finished "Run for the Hills" by Kevin Wilson and found it delightful (also loved "Nothing To See Here" by him, which I liked a little more but RFTH was still worthwhile). Started "Into the Woods" by Tana French, very different and so far so good.

[Anonymous]

Just finished All the Sinners bleed by S. A. Cosby which is Southern noir. I have loved his writing in previous books and this one was good too, IMO. I kept getting a feeling of Deja vu that I had read the book before, but I think it’s just that he uses similar characterizations and tropes. Some of the caricatures of characters were a little off putting to me at times, but still really liked the book. Great storyteller who reminded me of Stephen King at times.

Oh, I just saw there will be a Netflix miniseries of this title!

[Anonymous]

Just finished there are rivers in the sky. Very good.
Who’s Heard of dungeon crawler Carl?

[Anonymous]

I just read my first two Jodi Picoult books, My Sister's Keeper and The Pact. I liked My Sister's Keeper right up until the end when I wanted to throw it out the window. The Pact was better but still wrenching.

I know that her books are formulaic soap operas but sometimes I'm in the mood for that and I'll probably go check out more books by her. At least while I'm waiting for the new Liane Moriarty novel to come out later this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

And I just finished The Wedding People. (Late to the game.) that was a very fun, light novel (despite its subject matter).

I didn't finish this one. Should I try again? Not one of the characters caught my interest, and I generally don't care for contemporary fiction. If the pandemic is a plot point, I'm out

Same.
I got it from the library based on a recommendation here, and returned it quickly. Too fluffy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just started “His Majesty’s dragon” by Naomi Novik. I am listening to the audiobook narrated by Simon Vance. It is a reimagining of the Napoleonic wars with both England and France having sort of a dragon Air Force. Really liking it so far. Has anyone read it? Did you like it? (No spoilers please). This is my first Naomi Novik read.

I enjoyed it a lot. It's like Jane Austen and Patrick O'Brien, but with dragons. Manners, etiquette, social class/hierarchy, but also naval and aerial battle tactics, and also dragons.

I really enjoyed the whole series!

I am halfway through the 1st book and it is charming. I love Temeraire, he is a sweetheart. Incidentally I just learned that Naomi Novik is one of the co founders of Archive of Own Own fan fiction site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just finished there are rivers in the sky. Very good.
Who’s Heard of dungeon crawler Carl?

I love Dungoeon Crawler Carl! And I’m not an RPG person. The next book in the series is coming out this month.