What are you reading for October?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My plan is to listen to more Stephanie Plum books this month. There are 29 books in the series. I listened to books 16,17,18,19,20 and 21 in September. (I read books 1-15 years ago). I finished listening to book 22 yesterday. The month is young and the books are rather short -- maybe I will listen to all the rest in the series this month.

It is a cozy mystery series written by Janet Evanovich about a female bounty hunter who is 28 years old, works for her cousin Vinnie, and lives in Trenton New Jersey. The books are fun, but I quit reading / listening to the series about ten years ago because I got annoyed that Stephanie never seems to get her stuff together. This time around, I am trying to appreciate that she occasionally tries to get her act together. In one of the books I listened to last month she actually bought a vacuum instead of always borrowing her parents vacuum cleaner. But then of course her apartment got blown up.

How it came to pass that I am listening to this series again is because back in March when I heard that Overdrive was going away from libraries by May, I downloaded all the Stephanie Plum audiobooks onto my MP3 player while I still could. I downloaded lots of other audiobooks as well. Of course, now I see that I can still use Overdrive on my laptop and I can still download to my MP3 player. But I didn't know back then that I would still be able to do that.

I've read 1, 8, 9, 15, 18 and working on 11. The order doesn't really matter with this series. They are a relaxing read that keeps your mind occupied without having to think too hard...that's my jam. I'm saving my mental capacity for other less fun books that jump around between characters and time periods. I'm looking forward to reading the Christmas book and I also find the inclusion of Rex comforting and always envisioned him as a golden hamster but the movie casted a multi-color hamster, what a bummer.

I am the person on the Stephanie Plum binge. You are right that the books don't have to be read in order. The author does a great job in every book summoning up who is who. I giggle so much while listening to these books. Very few books keep me laughing like this series does. And yes, I agree that Rex the hamster adds a touch of domesticity and stability to Stephanie's crazy life.

[Anonymous]

Currently on an Agatha Christie binge. Don’t remember all of the ones I’ve read but it’s good fun.

Also halfway through The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

And just finished rereading Ocean’s Echo which is a really fun sci fi from a couple years ago.

[Anonymous]

I recently finished two that I loved:

The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club) - I listen to these - it is a true delight to listen to Fiona Shaw tell the story (and the narrator of the first two is even better). The story was not my favorite in the series, but there are some very moving moments that are conveyed beautifully over audio. Listening to these as the come out is a highlight each year!

Secret Hours, Mick Herron - It's a standalone book not part of the Slough House series, though parts will be recognized by readers of the series. I'd give it 3.5/5 for plot and 5/5 for storytelling. I'm not sure how well it will be received by those who don't know Slough House, but if you're a fan of that series I highly recommend this novel.

[Anonymous]

A book that I read this month that I recommend is Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley. It puts you in very different shoes in a visceral way with its descriptions and first-person pov.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in two different book clubs, one is reading Mad Honey and the other is reading A Gentleman in Moscow. Haven't started either one yet. Someone recently recommended 'Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic' by Jennifer Breheny Wallace and think that will be my next read.

I really enjoyed Mad Honey, I hope you do as well.

I liked this book until the end. Without giving anything away, It went out of its way to not tokenize one marginalized group while completely tokenizing another and not developing certain characters only for them to be integral to the plot later. It left me with a very bad taste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in two different book clubs, one is reading Mad Honey and the other is reading A Gentleman in Moscow. Haven't started either one yet. Someone recently recommended 'Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic' by Jennifer Breheny Wallace and think that will be my next read.

I really enjoyed Mad Honey, I hope you do as well.

I liked this book until the end. Without giving anything away, It went out of its way to not tokenize one marginalized group while completely tokenizing another and not developing certain characters only for them to be integral to the plot later. It left me with a very bad taste.

That’s fair. I did like the book much more before that part. It felt a bit cheap. But overall I liked the book and I did enjoy reading it.

[Anonymous]

I just finished Wellness by Nathan Hill. I generally liked it but definitely dragged a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are you reading this month?
What is it about?
What did you think of it?
Why did you pick that particular book to read?

Just got done listening to "One Italian Summer" by Rebecca Serle.
It is about a 30 year old woman whose mom had died recently. She and her mom had planned to vacation together in Italy but her mom died so the woman went by herself. While there, she happens to meet her mom, age 30.
I thought it was excellent. It was emotionally draining, but sometimes a person is in the mood for an emotionally draining book.
I picked that book to read because the concept of what the book was about seemed interesting.

[Anonymous]

I'm really enjoying The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto. I love her stuff anyway and it's weird that it's taken 35 years for this one to be translated from Japanese into English.

[Anonymous]

I’m reading the Poison Squad, which is about Harvey Wiley an early US food scientist who we have to thank for the Pure Food and Drig Act. I heard about it on the This Podcast Will Kill You book club and am really enjoying it so far. To anyone who read this forum’s threads on how the obesity epidemic is caused by modern food, I recommend this investigation into past food — I have to say I prefer I think micro plastics have to be an improvement on arsenic and formaldehyde!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm really enjoying The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto. I love her stuff anyway and it's weird that it's taken 35 years for this one to be translated from Japanese into English.

What is it about? I haven’t read a lot of Banana Yoshimoto novels, but I loved Kitchen and back when I had more time, I was working on a personal translation of some of her poetry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm really enjoying The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto. I love her stuff anyway and it's weird that it's taken 35 years for this one to be translated from Japanese into English.

What is it about? I haven’t read a lot of Banana Yoshimoto novels, but I loved Kitchen and back when I had more time, I was working on a personal translation of some of her poetry.

Its told from the perspective of a young woman who as a girl seeks out her "aunt" who lives alone in another part of Tokyo from her own family. You're not sure if the aunt is real or imagined, there are flash backs to when the narrator visits her years earlier, when the aunt is about 20 and the narrator about 9 or 10 yrs old. There's a back story about a family of origin (trying not to give too much away), and its largely about absence of loved ones, real, imagined, lost (genuinely or though their having run away). I'm nearly finished, but it's been the best thing I've read this summer for sure. Though I'm starting to pick up on story threads that make me understand why it might not have been translated sooner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm really enjoying The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto. I love her stuff anyway and it's weird that it's taken 35 years for this one to be translated from Japanese into English.

What is it about? I haven’t read a lot of Banana Yoshimoto novels, but I loved Kitchen and back when I had more time, I was working on a personal translation of some of her poetry.

It’s told from the perspective of a young woman who as a girl seeks out her "aunt" who lives alone in another part of Tokyo from her own family. You're not sure if the aunt is real or imagined, there are flash backs to when the narrator visits her years earlier, when the aunt is about 20 and the narrator about 9 or 10 yrs old. There's a back story about a family of origin (trying not to give too much away), and its largely about absence of loved ones, real, imagined, lost (genuinely or though their having run away). I'm nearly finished, but it's been the best thing I've read this summer for sure. Though I'm starting to pick up on story threads that make me understand why it might not have been translated sooner.

The story thread you are referring to is weird. It reminds me of the, From Up on Poppy Hill. Even with the plot twist, I think it’s just an okay book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m reading the Poison Squad, which is about Harvey Wiley an early US food scientist who we have to thank for the Pure Food and Drug Act. I heard about it on the This Podcast Will Kill You book club and am really enjoying it so far. To anyone who read this forum’s threads on how the obesity epidemic is caused by modern food, I recommend this investigation into past food — I have to say I prefer I think micro plastics have to be an improvement on arsenic and formaldehyde!

There was a PBS series called the Poison squad that I watched a few years ago. Fascinating! We take it for granted these days that the food we eat is not going to poison us. I didn't realize there was a book of the same name.

[Anonymous]

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