Just finished Olga Dies Dreaming, which I enjoyed, and before that Hello Beautiful, which I loved. Next is When Breath Becomes Air.

Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo

I read The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins. I've read a lot of climate fiction and this one has great world building but focuses on the characters more.

Next up is We Must Not Think of Ourselves by Lauren Grodstein about an archivist within the Warsaw Ghetto.

Anonymous wrote:The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA. I can't put it down!

https://www.amazon.com/Sisterhood-Secret-History-Women-CIA/dp/B0BVSBFCZT/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1H80KV03VEDTG&keywords=sisterhood&qid=1699043343&sprefix=sistorhoo%2Caps%2C87&sr=8-2

That looks good! I might suggest it for my book club.

Anonymous wrote:Just got done listening to "Send For Me" by Lauren Fox.
It is about a Jewish family who immigrated from Germany to Wisconsin in 1938. It was fiction, but the author based it on the actual letters she had found that her great grandmother, who stayed in Germany, wrote to them until the great grandmother died.
I liked it, but . . .
What I didn't care for was how the book kept jumping around in time between present day and the 1930's.
What I did like about it was the narrative about the years leading up to the holocaust. Things like Jewish and non-Jewish people being childhood playmates and friends in the 1920's, then not associating with each other any more. The slow insidiousness of hatred towards Jewish people. I had never thought about that before.

This seems like it might be up my alley! Although maybe too dark for me right now — is the ending super downer or are you left with some sense of hope for humanity?

Anonymous wrote:I just put a hold on that fungi book so fast.

I’m reading Big Swiss. It is a hilarious and so pointed book about a transcriptionist for a sex therapist. It’s set in Hudson, NY, and really skewers a certain type of New Yorker.

I also placed a hold on entangled life immediately on seeing the suggestion (there’s an audiobook too!).

I’m also part way through All The Young Men by Ruth Coker Burks which is memoir about the early days of AIDS. The author ended up first helping get burials for AIDS patients in her area (lots of Pentecostal families who wouldn’t acknowledge their gay sons) and then sort of moved on to helping people living with AIDS in general. I’m finding it really interesting so far — it’s such an important part of history we don’t usually discuss, especially the parts outside of NYC/LA.

On a lighter note I’m also rereading Better Part of Valor by Tanya Huff which is a military sci fi action story — fun and well written and a quick read. And planning to pick up Kingdom of Without by Andrea Tang next week: alternate history heist novel that I’m excited about.

Again and Again
Love, Holly

Anonymous wrote:The same book I was reading in October... Demon Copperhead. Love it, but it's long!

Took me MONTHS

Tom Lake…Ann Patchett. Finally!!

Just got done listening to "Send For Me" by Lauren Fox.
It is about a Jewish family who immigrated from Germany to Wisconsin in 1938. It was fiction, but the author based it on the actual letters she had found that her great grandmother, who stayed in Germany, wrote to them until the great grandmother died.
I liked it, but . . .
What I didn't care for was how the book kept jumping around in time between present day and the 1930's.
What I did like about it was the narrative about the years leading up to the holocaust. Things like Jewish and non-Jewish people being childhood playmates and friends in the 1920's, then not associating with each other any more. The slow insidiousness of hatred towards Jewish people. I had never thought about that before.

Anonymous wrote:I'm reading a nonfiction book about fungi. Not kidding.
Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

I just finished Tan Twan Eng's new book House of Doors which was really good. Loosely based on a period in W. Somerset Maugham's life when he was in Penang.

It is a brilliant book. He is a friend of my brother's. Quiet, unassuming and startlingly clever.

Trust by Hernan Diaz then Unsettled by Ayana Mathis.

Isabel Wilkerson, Caste

Just got done listening to "Five Total Strangers". It's a suspense book about 5 young adults who are stranded at the Newark airport on Christmas Eve and want to get home to Pittsburgh but flights have been cancelled for a blizzard. So they all share a rental car. One or more of them might be a bad person.
I liked it, but there were parts that reminded me of that insurance commercial where a bunch of young people hide from the bad guy in a shed full of chain saws.

I just put a hold on that fungi book so fast.

I’m reading Big Swiss. It is a hilarious and so pointed book about a transcriptionist for a sex therapist. It’s set in Hudson, NY, and really skewers a certain type of New Yorker.