June 2025 - What are you reading?

[Anonymous]

So excited as I’m on the waiting list at the library for The Doorman and walked in today and it was a Lucky Day book!

[Anonymous]

Just finished "The Bookshop of Second Chances". A woman loses her job, her husband of 17 years announces he is having an affair and wants a divorce, and she inherits a house in Scotland. She moves to Scotland and gets a job at a book store.
I thought it had too much tedious details and not much plot, but I liked it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So excited as I’m on the waiting list at the library for The Doorman and walked in today and it was a Lucky Day book!

That is awesome!

[Anonymous]

I'm reading Finding Margaret Fuller, new historical fiction about Transcendentalist trailblazer, Margaret Fuller, and that circle (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harold Greeley, the Peabody sisters, etc.). It's quiet and lovely.

[Anonymous]

The Ellipsis Manual
The Unwinding
Finishing the Artists Way - I started reading it in October/November with a couple of friends, we got sidetracked, and tomorrow we meet to discuss the final chapter

[Anonymous]

I just finished Wanted:Toddler’s Personal Assistant by Stephanie Kiser. It was a great commentary about how women face childcare struggles no matter their income or social status.

[Anonymous]

Re reading Animal Farm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Gifted School, by Bruce Holsinger. I couldn't put it down. It felt sort of like the DCUM AAP forum transplanted itself to Colorado and became a novel.

I read it years ago and it is still one of my favorite books. I’d love to read something new that’s similar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So excited as I’m on the waiting list at the library for The Doorman and walked in today and it was a Lucky Day book!

I wish mcpl had an online list for lucky day books so I could add the ones I’m interested to to my holds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finished Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! It was an uneven read. There were some parts that were really beautifully written; the chapter from the perspective of Cyrus’s uncle, riding a horse on a battlefield, is stunning. I enjoyed the poems that began each chapter. I was not familiar with Akbar as a poet before this, but I will definitely check out his works in that genre.

However, I couldn’t relate to the main character (Cyrus) at all. His chapters felt like reading a bored and spoiled young adult from Brooklyn’s LiveJournal. The twist at the end I found to be farfetched and rather silly. Akbar’s touches on a lot of themes (love, loss, grief, American-Iranian relations and politics, martyrdom, among others). Yet none of them are really explored in depth, and so the narrative feels incomplete. Overall 3/5 stars for the book but 5+/5 stars for the poetry.

Now reading The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Someone on here recommended it. It’s terrific so far.

Ha! LiveJournal! Thanks for that visual, PP!

I'm the Martyr/Master & Margarita OP... heh, the main character honestly sounded like me in high school complaining about how my life was SO HARD and how NOBODY UNDERSTANDS on my Xanga. Akbar is a wonderfully gifted poet, and there were parts of the book that almost made me cry because they were that beautifully written. But I grit my teeth in annoyance every time the narrative shifted to our main character.

Re: the M&M... I love Russian literature as well and this has been on my list for a while. I'm about 60% through. Normally I whizz through books and read rather quickly, but I can't do that with Russian lit; I find myself reading the same sentence or paragraph several times, to soak in every word.

[Anonymous]

"North Woods" by Daniel Mason. Purely magical storytelling. Highly recommend.

[Anonymous]

I am going to start reading Beautiful Boy, which started as a NYT column, then became a book, then became a movie starring Timothee Chalamet and Steve Carell.

[Anonymous]

The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark

[Anonymous]

My DS got printed a printed copy of All The Young Dudes, which is the infamous Harry Potter fanfic told from the POV of a young Remus Lupin, and I started reading the first of 3(!) volumes last week. I honestly love it, LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"North Woods" by Daniel Mason. Purely magical storytelling. Highly recommend.

I loved this.