March 2025 - What are you reading?
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Anonymous
| My job has been stressful this month. I escaped to all four books in the "The Thursday Murder Club" series by Richard Osman. Witty, entertaining, and exactly what I needed. Heard they are making a Netflix series out of them and hopeful that will be an enjoyable binge, too |
Anonymous
| I just finished “Tell Me,” by Amy Griffin, the new Oprah book club book, and I need to discuss it so let me know if you’ve read it! |
Anonymous
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I finally finished "The Last Thing He Told Me" by Laura Dave.
It is about a woman who has been married for one year. She has a 16 year old stepdaughter, whose mom died when she was little. One day the husband disappears. The wife and stepdaughter try to track him down. They eventually learn that he and the daughter had been in the witness protection program since the girl was 4. The book never really grabbed me. I am not sure if that is because I only had small snippets of time every few days available to listen to it, or if the book was just plain meh. It was good enough that I kept going to the end though. |
Anonymous
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I read galley proofs for publishers. These are the books that I loved and have recently been released:
For DC area readers and everyone else: The Woman Who Knew Everyone by Meryl Gordon Honestly, She Doesn't Live Here Anymore by Pamela Wick For employers and employees: Managing Up by Melody Wilding Nonfiction: Firstborn by Lauren Christensen Fiction: A Gorgeous Excitement by Cynthia Weiner Goddess Complex by Sanjena Sarthian Short Stories: Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld Coming out soon: True Hospitality by Jamie Cooperstein |
Anonymous
Firstborn is on my list to read. I also liked the Curtis Sittenfeld Show Don’t Tell. How do you get the advanced copies? Is it your job? |
Anonymous
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Since you asked - it's the best nonpaid job I've ever had. How I landed here - I have connections with people in publishing built over many years. I wrote for the Village Voice and many other newspapers, magazines, etc. I have had my writing written up in the NYTimes, wrote and published a book with a major publisher, and went to high school with someone who became the head of a major publishing company (and our mothers are best friends.)
However, I've never counted on my writing as a source of income. I'm a college professor. Re advance copy reviewing - Publishers draw a heavy, nontransparent curtain between your desire to get your hands on an advance copy and their policies about who gets one and when. They also eventually decide whether they want your input or not. I didn't get any feedback at all about my reviews until I had done about 15-20 of them. Then I got a response from one publisher who said "ask us for any book you want." It's a lot of work. I feel a responsibility to do a good job on their timeline. And it's a little...lonely. If you loved the book, you go around raving about a book no one has even heard of yet. You can post a rave review online for a book that is available for pre-order, and obviously publishers love that. You can put it on a TBR list for your book club, and I do. You can post your discoveries here, and I do. Here's a recommendation for you - subscribe to the Substack column named "How to glow in the dark." It's written by an owner of a DC-based literary agency called Neon Literary. I love her writing and the insight she has into the world of book publishing. Happy reading! |
Anonymous
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With a long plane ride looming and only a few English-language books to choose from, I went with "The Book Thief" and was pleasantly surprised. I'm not sure how it gets pigeonholed as a YA novel aside from the age of the main protagonist.
It was a little long-winded and the gimmicky format chopped up the narrative, but overall it's a moving book that, with a unique voice, reminds us of the power of words and the pervasive impacts of war. |
Anonymous
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I just finished "The Second Chance Store" by Lauren Bravo.
It is about a woman who loses her job but gets a severance package. She decides to volunteer for a while at a thrift store. It was a British book, so she actually volunteered at a "charity shop". In addition to the book telling the story of the main character putting her life back together, there were a bunch of side stories about the things that were donated to the store and why the people donated them. And stories about the people who bought the stuff at the store and why. I thought it was a fun book. Downloaded it from Libby. |
Anonymous
| Wedding People - a rec from this site and absolutely loved it. So thank you! |
Anonymous
Reading this now. I like it. |
Anonymous
Could not get through it! |
Anonymous
His newest book, We Solve Murders, is also great. Not Thursday Murder Club, but same vibe. |
Anonymous
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Circe, which has been pinging around my brain for so long as an Oughta Read that I bought two copies (forgot I'd bought the first one).
I thought it would be all virtuous and brain-improving, but I'm really enjoying it. |
Anonymous
+1 just finished this and absolutely loved it. Same vibe and wit, new quickly lovable characters. |
Anonymous
| Homeseeking by Karissa Chen. Loved it! |