What is everyone reading for June?

[Anonymous]

Moving onto “Birnam Wood” tonight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

The Hunter, by Tana French
It's a mystery/police novel set in Ireland. It follows with characters created in The Searcher by the same author. Small town politics, teen angst, outsider/ insider stuff.
I liked it less than The Searcher, and as soon as I realized what the plot was going to hinge on (and I thought it wasn't plausible) I was disappointed. Every otgebook by Tana French has been five stars for me-this was just four. Still great, but disappointing bc of my high expectations.
I read every y Tana French book, that's why I hose it.
Bought it new hardcover in an independent bookstore in Chicago.

I just started on The Searcher. I’ve only read one of French’s other books, Broken Harbor, which I really enjoyed.. partially because I’ve spent a fair amount of time in studying and traveling in western Ireland, where the “ghost estates” were a real and noticeable issue (not sure if they still are, that was 15+ years ago). So I really could place the scenery in that book.

So far so good with The Searcher.

Try In the Woods and The Secret Place next - I think those were my favorites, but honestly they are all SO GOOD!

[Anonymous]

Swan Song by Elin Hildebrand

It's good, as usual. I hope she changes her mind about this being her swan song.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Trying to listen to "The Measure," as recommended by last month's "What are you reading" thread. I'm finding it a bit of a slog (now 39% through per Libby). The premise is interesting (as are some of the broader societal ramifications of the "longevity threads"). But the characters (thus far?) are such a dull set of stereotypes. It's getting so I just don't care what happens: die/ don't die, short thread/ long thread, whatever! Does it get better? I could imagine that the author might start to subvert some of these types, and perhaps I am just not there yet?

I'm reading this and am probably as far along as you, and I like it more than you do. I agree about the characters - to an extent. I feel like we are spending a lot of time with Maura and Nina when the other characters and their stories are more interesting.

Someone here described it as trite. I guess we'll see how it ends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I started reading The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel. I can't decide if I want to keep reading it or not.

yeah I had the same response

+1. I like it but it didn't quite have the payoff I was looking for. Still, some good moments and memorable characters.

[Anonymous]

Just finished listening to The Future by Naomi Alderman, who also wrote The Power.

Basically a near future novel where three tech billionaires (who may seem somewhat familiar) have massive global influence, and a cast of characters close to them that decide that something has to be done.

The first half was good and very promising and then it just kind of lost its way and ridiculous. Really too bad because the writing was good and the characters well drawn/developed.

[Anonymous]

The Demon of unrest by Erik Larson

[Anonymous]

Sandwich by Catherine Newman - quick “beach” read (if Ann Patchett wrote beach reads) focused on family and menopause. I enjoyed it and I think many of the DCUM crowd would too.

[Anonymous]

This week I read Educated by Tara Westover and This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub. Found the last third of Educated a but of a slog and had some suspension of disbelief problems around burn recovery, but liked the first half a lot. Found This Time Tomorrow very successful at being both light/readable and moving. Though I was curious why Alice didn’t struggle more with discarding the timeline that gave her father grandchildren, who presumably he would have profoundly loved—it seems like that even if she didn’t feel attached to the children that she would have struggled with that dimension. But that didn’t seem to occur to her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sandwich by Catherine Newman - quick “beach” read (if Ann Patchett wrote beach reads) focused on family and menopause. I enjoyed it and I think many of the DCUM crowd would too.

I just started this last night thanks to your rec and I'm really enjoying it so far. I don't even have kids and I'm finding it delightful.

Before that, I read my recent First Reads pick - Veridian Sterling Fakes It by Jennifer Gooch Hummer, about a young artist who accidentally gets pulled into the art fraud world. (Sort of - it's more coming of age than mystery/heist.) It was uneven but fun, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

[Anonymous]

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

Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty by Lauren Weisberger
It is about a woman who is a morning news anchor of a national news show in New York, who makes a very generous donation to Princeton University, where her daughter had planned to start attending in the fall. Word got out, it was national news, she was told to "go on vacation" for the summer, her husband was blamed for the "donation" and sentenced to jail. Princeton rescinded the enrollment for the daughter.

I thought it was good but nothing spectacular.
I downloaded the book from my library libby /overdrive, and I picked it because it sounded fun.

[Anonymous]

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

Blossom Street Brides by Debbie Macomber
It is about the customers of a yarn store in Seattle.

I found it delightful, as I do with all books by Debbie Macomber. I have found all her books have a good flow, not too complicated, not too shallow, and the characters are always relatable.

I picked that book to read because I have been reading the entire book series about the yarn store customers.
Downloaded it from my library.

[Anonymous]

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

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks
It is about a soldier who meets a girl at the beach while home on leave. He has 18 months left on his enlistment so they decide to have a long distance romance. But then 9/11 happens, he gets all "hooah" and reenlists, she sends him a dear john letter and marries someone else.

I thought it was good. But, as a mom of young adult kids, I did not like that he decided, at age 28 to give the ex girlfriend his entire inheritance. I suppose that decision makes for a good fictional romance novel though.

I picked that book to read because I was purging stuff from my bookshelf and came across the book recently. I was pretty sure I had read it years and years ago but couldn't remember the details. So I reread the book so I could "tidy up" and donate the book to goodwill.

[Anonymous]

Just read "Shutter Island" during a plane trip. I had already seen the movie, but the book was enjoyable enough especially for a plane ride!

[Anonymous]

I listened to Maid by Stephanie Land.
It is about a single parent mom who cleans houses and lives in poverty. Nonfiction.
I found it fascinating, although sometimes I felt like it read like a college essay.
The strangest thing happened while I was listening to it though. So much of the book was descriptions of cleaning that I found myself cleaning right along with the narrator. I did stuff with windex, used comet to scrub the inside of the stove hood, washed the bathroom walls, and I was scrubbing the shower walls when I realized I was exhausted and hungry. I finally hit the pause button and realized I had spent about five hours scrubbing right along with the narrator. That book put a spell on me!