The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, enjoying it immensely

Just started The Names. It’s interesting so far, but I’m worried how it will end. It’s giving A Little Life vibes in a way. Very foreboding.

Anonymous wrote:The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. It's very, very good. A spy novel, but also an account of the end and aftermath of the Vietnam War from a Vietnamese perspective.

Finished this . . . dark and intense, but well worth the read. Revolutions of all kinds tend to be anti-intellectual at their cores . . . those who work in or question the gray areas are perceived as threats, and often the revolutionaries who once fought for freedom and independence are intent to take it from others once they find themselves in power.

I've now moved on to "The Covenant of Water," and have been drawn right in. I have a soft spot for multigenerational, epic novels, and this one so far is not disappointing me.

Anonymous wrote:Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser

It's sold as a retelling of Cinderella, as told from the stepmother's point of view. I'm really enjoying it, and it's really disconnected from the fairytale in many ways. For example, Cinderella is not abused or mistreated. She's more of a soft spoken whimsical sort of girl. Lady Tremaine (stepmother) is a twice widow trying to maintain a large home and social status (between wealthy and working class) on her own with little in the way of income.

I'm about 1/3 of the way in and I'm enjoying it.

I've finished this one, rating it four stars. It really isn't fairytale at all, and I'm very satisfied with the ending.

Now I've started The Irish Goodbye by Heather Aimee O'Neill - Irish American family deals with the long term fall out of a boating accident in their teenage years, and the ripple affects through everyone's lives.

Just finished My Dark Vanessa

Dark, heavy read, but very insightful. Read like a memoir, to me.

Now on to The Mad Wife.

So far, enjoying it!

Anonymous wrote:I’m reading The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende and loving it so far!

It’s a historical novel about the saga of the Trueba family in turn of the century Chile. I’m less than 1/4 of the way thru and loving the unusual characters, settings and adventures. Definitely the best I’ve read so far this year. I’ll update if my opinion changes as the book progresses.

Amazing story. Wonderful story. You won’t be disappointed. They made it into a movie with Meryl Streep, Antonio Banderas - it is good too! Meryl Streep plays a role of wife phenomenally.

I resolved to start listening to (light) audiobooks while doing chores, instead of just podcasts, and just finished Remarkably Bright Creatures, which was reasonably charming, about an octopus and an older woman who works in the aquarium where it lives and who lost her son many years ago. It was fairly charming though I don’t feel like they explained very well why it took so l oh g for the protagonists to figure out the little “mystery” at the heart of the book when the octopus gave them alll the info they needed pretty early on!

Anonymous wrote:Just finished The Three Lives of Cate Kay, by Kate Fagan.

Light but not vapid, which was perfect for me this past week.

Next up is The Rest of Our Lives, by Ben Markovitz, which just came off the waitlist. It’s been awhile since I read a novel that centered a middle aged man … I’m curious if or how it’ll hold my interest.

I just finished Cate Kay. I liked it, but the framing grew tiresome. Just tell the damn story.

I'm reading Rhine Journey by Ann Schlee, which is a slow mover but really captures that feeling of being infantilized and held hostage as a single middle aged woman in the 19th c.

Earlier this month I read The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers. I'm new-ish to Myers--this was my second of his--but he writes all sorts of different things, with this one being very different from the first one I read by him, which is called The Offing. The Gallows Pole is an obviously meticulously researched (though occasionally anachronistic) novel about a community of "coiners" in the moors and dales of North Yorkshire in the 18th century. Coiners clipped shavings off coins and turned them into counterfeit coins, and so it's part history and part intrigue of whether the king's exciseman is going to catch them or not. Rough and brutal and also apparently was turned into a BBC series.

Anonymous wrote:I just finished The Seven Moons of Maali Alemeida and don’t quite know what to think. It was gross and depressing and pretty confusing, but also interesting and unusual and well done. I need to read more about the Sri Lankan civil war.

I can never remember much about books after I read them but I loved this one. It's just an impressive novel (but admittedly can't remember the gross bits).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're going to Greece for Spring Break, so I'm reading The Odyssey twice, the Lattimore translation for myself and the more accessible Wilson translation with my kid.

How’s it going? I also have Lattimore-Wilson side-by-side reading of the Odyssey on my reading list this year (likely a summer project for me)! I also want to track down the Pope version…

If you haven’t read Circe, that would be a good one to tuck into your carry on.

Also maybe for you and not sure what age your kid is but I read Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder as a young adult before a trip to Greece and I loved how it made the early history of philosophy come alive (not a sentence I've ever said before or will ever say again).

Anonymous wrote:Not new, but I got off the library waitlist for Lion Women of Tehran the weekend the war started.

Quick/easy read (though also emotionally hard), but I enjoyed it.

It was really good.

Just started Canticle, about a group of religious women who live in a commune and refuse to answer to the church in the 13th century in Belgium. Really liking the first few chapters.

Anonymous wrote:wrapping up the corespondent now and just grabbed broken country

These were both so good!

Theo Of Golden!
I don't buy many physical books anymore, but after finishing this, I ordered 6 copies to give to my favorites. The audible version was great but I need to read it again with a highlighter.