I just finished Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. It's an older book (2007) about a school shooting, told from the perspective of multiple characters. I liked it a lot. It was hard to read in parts and you definitely get the sense of "do I actually know anyone?!", which is kind of scary. It was well written and engaging. Not my favorite book of hers but after some duds I was glad I found something I enjoyed (even if it was hard to read).

To go in the opposite direction, I just started Is She Really Going Out With Him by Sophie Cousens. I really like her books - they're easy to read and generally better than they need to be/you'd expect for that genre.

Also just finished We Were Liars on audible. It's sort of a family saga but it's based on the kids (teenagers) and told from the point of view of only one of them. I know it's a show and it has popped up randomly from time to time so I thought I'd check it out. As a family saga, it wasn't great, there are many better ones out there. As a YA novel, the same. It was fine, but I'm not motivated to read the other two that are part of the trilogy. I may check out the show at some point but I hope it's better than the book.

Starting My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante.

Was trying to decide what fiction to read next and this afternoon I scrolled through the NYT list of the best 21st century books so far, and this was number one.

Anonymous wrote:James by Percival Everett and just finished The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb.

Did you like them? I loved both. Also read both in the last few months!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I finished Stoneyard Devotional last night. I don’t know what I had expected, but this wasn’t what I was expecting. It’s a beautiful and meditative book nonetheless. Some of it is quite hard to read, very sad.

I read this last month and am still on the fence. I think there was a lot to admire and I love this kind of meditative book, but it just didn't move me or make me think the ways that I was expecting given the accolades.

PP here.

Yeah -- I feel very similarly about it.

Finishing Meet the Newmans which is pretty entertaining. If you like fiction set in 1960s southern California (think Lessons in Chemistry, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo), I highly recommend. I recently read Heart the Lover (it was okay, I wasn't the biggest fan, although I seem to be in the minority on this),The Names (I liked it), and What Kind of Paradise (absolutely fantastic!!).

James by Percival Everett and just finished The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb.

Anonymous wrote:Given the state of the world, I shied away from any heavy fare this month (e.g. put Isola back on Libby hold!):

I am almost done listening to Dolly Alderton's Good Material. Basically a guy's "getting over a break-up" story, except double or triple as well done as I would have expected, and witty too.

Also reading Richard Russo's Nobody's Fool, about the (mis)adventures of lovable loser Sully of small town North Bath. I enjoyed Straight Man and thought this one might fit the bill of what I was looking for this January. Nobody's Fool is vivid and funny, but also loooong and meandering--I am halfway through and I think it's fair to say nothing has really happened yet . I think I am moving this one to my "long haul" pile: not really DNF, but may jump in and out of it, depending on my mood, while I start another read!

Any recs for lighter/funny but still well-written reads, DCUM?

Have you read anything by Jonathan Tropper?

Anonymous wrote:Loved listening to Belle Burden’s new book on audible and my house got really clean because it was so gripping and I needed things to keep me busy as I listened.

There's a post about the book in another forum - Relationships maybe? Or Off-Topic?

Given the state of the world, I shied away from any heavy fare this month (e.g. put Isola back on Libby hold!):

I am almost done listening to Dolly Alderton's Good Material. Basically a guy's "getting over a break-up" story, except double or triple as well done as I would have expected, and witty too.

Also reading Richard Russo's Nobody's Fool, about the (mis)adventures of lovable loser Sully of small town North Bath. I enjoyed Straight Man and thought this one might fit the bill of what I was looking for this January. Nobody's Fool is vivid and funny, but also loooong and meandering--I am halfway through and I think it's fair to say nothing has really happened yet . I think I am moving this one to my "long haul" pile: not really DNF, but may jump in and out of it, depending on my mood, while I start another read!

Any recs for lighter/funny but still well-written reads, DCUM?

Anonymous wrote:I finished Stoneyard Devotional last night. I don’t know what I had expected, but this wasn’t what I was expecting. It’s a beautiful and meditative book nonetheless. Some of it is quite hard to read, very sad.

I read this last month and am still on the fence. I think there was a lot to admire and I love this kind of meditative book, but it just didn't move me or make me think the ways that I was expecting given the accolades.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The number of people who don't like what they're reading blows me away. DNF those books! Stop reading stuff you don't like!

I read The Once and Future Queen over the long weekend. It's getting some hype on social media and there was quite a line for it with my libraries in Libby.

It's probably "new adult" - more mature than YA. 571 pages, but it flew!

I struggle with DNF, as I often will get things out of books I don't enjoy reading. I try to get through them if they're not superficial mass-market garbage.
I posted above about Strange Houses, which I thought was terrible . . . but at least the author tried to be creative, and the book is as short as it is dull and unsatisfying.

Terrible, dull, and unsatisfying. What did you get out of it?

This one? Nothing, unfortunately. But that's not always the case.

I finished Stoneyard Devotional last night. I don’t know what I had expected, but this wasn’t what I was expecting. It’s a beautiful and meditative book nonetheless. Some of it is quite hard to read, very sad.

Among Friends by Hal Ebbett.

Draws you into thinking it's a lighthearted middle-aged crisis buddy tale, and then things get dark. When the facade gets ripped away, what is underneath is ugly and ruthless.

Excellent writing . . . the author's first book. I sense that many people aren't going to like this because of the subject matter and the "unlikeable characters," but I'm not one of those people. I read half of it in one sitting.

Bog Queen by Anna North, about a quirky forensic anthropologist who tries to find the cause of death in a well preserved 2,000-year-old body, intertwined with the story of the dead woman, a Druid, and the times she lived in. Beautifully written.

Loved listening to Belle Burden’s new book on audible and my house got really clean because it was so gripping and I needed things to keep me busy as I listened.