Currently reading (and enjoying) the novel The Golem and the Ginni, by Helene Wecker.

Anonymous wrote:I’m reading something really fun right now. It’s called Killers of a Certain Age, by Deanna Raybourn. When four women assassins are sent on a retirement trip by the organization that employs them, they learn they’re the next targets. Great book and would make a fun movie.

I just downloaded this yesterday and I'm excited to start it! Glad to hear you're enjoying it. I'm currently reading South to America by Imani Perry which is sort of a memoir/travel narrative about the south. It's beautifully written.

I read the House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune, last year. I liked it, but didn’t love it they way everyone else seemed to.

Well, I just started The Lightening-struck Heart by Klune and it’s so unexpectedly hilarious, I’m absolutely enthralled. I’m listening on audiobook because I had a credit to spare. I normally prefer to read ebook/physical copy first, but this narrator is really, really fantastic and I’m not sure I’d be having the same emotional response if I was reading it instead of listening. I haven’t laughed so much in a long time. I did get it in physical copy, though, too, so I could highlight some of the quotes.

I went in without reading much, because it’s not my usual genre and I didn’t want to talk myself out of it. Really glad I started it.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24468673-the-lightning-struck-heart

I'm reading The Devil's Half Acre about an enslaved woman who inherited land from her enslaver/husband and turned it into a historically Black college.

I have to say that the reviews are right . . . so little is known about Mary Lumpkin, so the author goes on long tangents including anecdotes and quotes from other people who "may" have led similar lives. The book could be cut in half and still very informative. I don't need her to say, "Did she think this? Did she think that? Did she do what this other enslaved woman did?" I have a brain; I can take the facts and fill in the blanks myself.

Just finished shadow of the wind which i really got into. Lovely book with fabulous atmosphere

Vox, dystopian novel; extreme religious right has taken over and women are allowed to speak only 100 words/day. Not sure if I’d rec or not, need to get further in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in a serious slump in terms of finding a book to keep my interest. It seems like everything of my favorite genre is so formulaic that it makes it less fun. So I've been taking a stab at some different genres namely autobiographies right now and it has done a good job. Listening to them on my drive into work its like a 10-20 hour personal interview with these authors. I was listening to podcasts on this drive, but books / autobiographies seems like a lot better use of my time.

That's a good idea. I have trouble keeping my attention on a fiction novel while driving. I just can't do it, as getting swept away in a story while driving is not safe for me. Radio interviews work though, so maybe an autobiography would work for a drive.

I can’t listen to fiction and drive either. Listening to nonfiction is really different though.

Me too! I thought I was the only one . . .

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in a serious slump in terms of finding a book to keep my interest. It seems like everything of my favorite genre is so formulaic that it makes it less fun. So I've been taking a stab at some different genres namely autobiographies right now and it has done a good job. Listening to them on my drive into work its like a 10-20 hour personal interview with these authors. I was listening to podcasts on this drive, but books / autobiographies seems like a lot better use of my time.

That's a good idea. I have trouble keeping my attention on a fiction novel while driving. I just can't do it, as getting swept away in a story while driving is not safe for me. Radio interviews work though, so maybe an autobiography would work for a drive.

The problem with this is you only get one perspective on incidents. I was reading an autobiography about two famous people who were married and his autobiography was so different than what I'd heard in the media and (I guess) from her perspective. It's cool to know that this side of things exists, but which one is true?

I guess it'd be different if I cared more. But I'm not doing reports on this or living in their world, I'm just trying to fill time. I do wish I knew more about the great autobiographies. Right now I'm just going by people who I've been interested in or heard a lot about. But I also see things that say "this is the definitive work". And I do see that in some books, like they take you through an entire era or show you so much about what made them, or how they thought about the changes in the industry.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in a serious slump in terms of finding a book to keep my interest. It seems like everything of my favorite genre is so formulaic that it makes it less fun. So I've been taking a stab at some different genres namely autobiographies right now and it has done a good job. Listening to them on my drive into work its like a 10-20 hour personal interview with these authors. I was listening to podcasts on this drive, but books / autobiographies seems like a lot better use of my time.

That's a good idea. I have trouble keeping my attention on a fiction novel while driving. I just can't do it, as getting swept away in a story while driving is not safe for me. Radio interviews work though, so maybe an autobiography would work for a drive.

I can’t listen to fiction and drive either. Listening to nonfiction is really different though.

Anonymous wrote:I was in a serious slump in terms of finding a book to keep my interest. It seems like everything of my favorite genre is so formulaic that it makes it less fun. So I've been taking a stab at some different genres namely autobiographies right now and it has done a good job. Listening to them on my drive into work its like a 10-20 hour personal interview with these authors. I was listening to podcasts on this drive, but books / autobiographies seems like a lot better use of my time.

That's a good idea. I have trouble keeping my attention on a fiction novel while driving. I just can't do it, as getting swept away in a story while driving is not safe for me. Radio interviews work though, so maybe an autobiography would work for a drive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no cure for being human

And would you recommend it?

So far, I would
I like the author’s dry wit and grappling with living with uncertainty and some life situations that can’t be fixed despite our best efforts …

I am more religious than the author but appreciate her articulating living through stage 4 breast cancer without glib formulas …