I listened to Lessons in Chemistry as my first audiobook in forever. It was fine; I am glad I don’t buy it. I really liked the dog, mostly. And I read Challenger, about the Challenger disaster. The first third or so required some stamina to push through but it became much more compelling as it went along. Now am listening to Remarkably Bright Creatures and reading Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford.

Anonymous wrote:Just started Brawler, SS collection by Lauren Groff. It’s fabulous.

I’m excited about this one

Just finished Vigil by George Saunders. I had been looking forward to it so much, but I was disappointed. There was a lot about the voices of the characters that rang really false to me. I don’t know, I didn’t love it. I do like that he’s tackling the issue, though (individual responsibility of people in big business for destruction of the environment) and it is a very short book. So if you like speculative fiction, I would still recommend it.

Just started My Dark Vanessa. So far, I like it.

I am reading Fireball about the Carole Lombard crash and her life. It's very good. Love Old Hollywood stories.

Just started Brawler, SS collection by Lauren Groff. It’s fabulous.

+1 to Dead Souls and Fathers and Sons over War and Peace.

I will pick up Homeschooled- that sounds interesting.

I am reading Daughter of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, A true story of abduction, adoption, and separated twins by Barbara Demick (who wrote the amazing Nothing to Envy about North Korea).

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Anonymous wrote:Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Enjoying it so far.

I just finished Anna Karenina, which was my first experience of the Russian classics, and absolutely loved it. I did some research on the most highly recommended readable translation of War and Peace and have that arriving this later this week. I can't wait to try it.

I was a Russian major. War and Peace is pretty different than AK. It's got a lot of long draggy pieces, and some truly terribly drawn female characters. The intro part is pretty slow in particular, so just be warned to steel yourself for a slow start. A different companion for AK is the Chekhov short story "Lady with a Dog" which he wrote basically as a response to Tolstoy.

I love this story.

Well, I am not a Russian major, though went through a long Russian lit phase, but have to pipe in to say that War and Peace suffers from some terrible PR because I was very surprised by how readable and engaging it was (esp. for its length).

If I was going to recommend a different "sleeper" hit as an alternative, it would be Turgenev's Fathers and Sons!

+1

Except my sleeper is Gogol’s Dead Souls. The art of running a scam, lol, nothing is new.

Anonymous wrote:Just started Homeschooled: A Memoir by Stefan Merrill Block, and it’s making me question a lot of things…

I just started the audiobook and immediately began wondering what percentage of homeschool moms would fall into this category. I have a family member who is a HSM and I’m seeing so many similarities that I’m genuinely worried for the kids. This has been a really eye opening book so far!