Anonymous wrote:

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.

Thanks for sharing this. I'll add it to my list.

You might want to check out "Days of Awe" (also by Lauren Fox). I read it a few years ago and liked it a lot. Engaging and more thought-provoking than a lot of the other contemporary fiction I've read lately about friendship/marriage/motherhood.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Almost done with Lessons in Chemistry. I put it on hold at the library over the summer and it just came in.

Is it worth the hype?

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can I just say how much I enjoy these what are you reading threads? Thank you for starting them OP!

Agree! It’s nice to shout about books into the void!

Anonymous wrote:

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

Same with me!

Anonymous wrote:Almost done with Lessons in Chemistry. I put it on hold at the library over the summer and it just came in.

Anonymous wrote:The October thread is locked, and I can't go back there to report that I read Mad Honey in Oct. for book club. I still don't like Jodi Piccoult and this book didn't change that for me. At least it was a fast read.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was one of the (many?) readers somewhat disappointed in the Fourth Wing last month... but finally found my escapist fix in different DCUM rec, City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty. It's some sort of fabulous mishmash of Middle Eastern mythology, family saga, political potboiler and magical coming of age story. I read the first two books in the trilogy and now am almost mourning the fact that the second one is already done...

(One warning is that the first book starts off a little uninspired: the main character begins as a plucky street thief tricking the gullible - who then meets a "genie". I was inwardly groaning and I thinking, hmmm, I've watched this story before in a ... Disney movie. But get another couple chapters in and you're a million miles away from "Aladdin"!)

Have you read The Adventures of Amina al Surafi by the same author? It's amazing. 40-something protagonist is a retired pirate who gets her old crew back together for a job. Epic quest, humor, great all around book!

The entire trilogy is wonderful. And I wholeheartedly agree about The Adventures of Amina al Surafi. When do you get to see the main character of a fantasy adventure be a 40-something year old divorced woman with issues?

T. Kingfisher has some older protagonists in a few books. Great writing, more humor, lots of epic quests!

Thanks for all the recommendations (original City of Brass poster here)... As I said, I am already sort of pre-mourning the end of the trilogy so it is good to have some more recommendations ahead. I pretty much read all genres, but I particularly like having a fantasy or otherwise epic/ transporting/ world-building book in rotation. And they can be a bit tricky to find because while I am hardly insisting on high literature, I also want it to be well written & well done!

Is there a particularly good T. Kingfisher book to start with?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was one of the (many?) readers somewhat disappointed in the Fourth Wing last month... but finally found my escapist fix in different DCUM rec, City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty. It's some sort of fabulous mishmash of Middle Eastern mythology, family saga, political potboiler and magical coming of age story. I read the first two books in the trilogy and now am almost mourning the fact that the second one is already done...

(One warning is that the first book starts off a little uninspired: the main character begins as a plucky street thief tricking the gullible - who then meets a "genie". I was inwardly groaning and I thinking, hmmm, I've watched this story before in a ... Disney movie. But get another couple chapters in and you're a million miles away from "Aladdin"!)

Have you read The Adventures of Amina al Surafi by the same author? It's amazing. 40-something protagonist is a retired pirate who gets her old crew back together for a job. Epic quest, humor, great all around book!

The entire trilogy is wonderful. And I wholeheartedly agree about The Adventures of Amina al Surafi. When do you get to see the main character of a fantasy adventure be a 40-something year old divorced woman with issues?

T. Kingfisher has some older protagonists in a few books. Great writing, more humor, lots of epic quests!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was one of the (many?) readers somewhat disappointed in the Fourth Wing last month... but finally found my escapist fix in different DCUM rec, City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty. It's some sort of fabulous mishmash of Middle Eastern mythology, family saga, political potboiler and magical coming of age story. I read the first two books in the trilogy and now am almost mourning the fact that the second one is already done...

(One warning is that the first book starts off a little uninspired: the main character begins as a plucky street thief tricking the gullible - who then meets a "genie". I was inwardly groaning and I thinking, hmmm, I've watched this story before in a ... Disney movie. But get another couple chapters in and you're a million miles away from "Aladdin"!)

Have you read The Adventures of Amina al Surafi by the same author? It's amazing. 40-something protagonist is a retired pirate who gets her old crew back together for a job. Epic quest, humor, great all around book!

The entire trilogy is wonderful. And I wholeheartedly agree about The Adventures of Amina al Surafi. When do you get to see the main character of a fantasy adventure be a 40-something year old divorced woman with issues?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was one of the (many?) readers somewhat disappointed in the Fourth Wing last month... but finally found my escapist fix in different DCUM rec, City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty. It's some sort of fabulous mishmash of Middle Eastern mythology, family saga, political potboiler and magical coming of age story. I read the first two books in the trilogy and now am almost mourning the fact that the second one is already done...

(One warning is that the first book starts off a little uninspired: the main character begins as a plucky street thief tricking the gullible - who then meets a "genie". I was inwardly groaning and I thinking, hmmm, I've watched this story before in a ... Disney movie. But get another couple chapters in and you're a million miles away from "Aladdin"!)

Have you read The Adventures of Amina al Surafi by the same author? It's amazing. 40-something protagonist is a retired pirate who gets her old crew back together for a job. Epic quest, humor, great all around book!

Anonymous wrote:I was one of the (many?) readers somewhat disappointed in the Fourth Wing last month... but finally found my escapist fix in different DCUM rec, City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty. It's some sort of fabulous mishmash of Middle Eastern mythology, family saga, political potboiler and magical coming of age story. I read the first two books in the trilogy and now am almost mourning the fact that the second one is already done...

(One warning is that the first book starts off a little uninspired: the main character begins as a plucky street thief tricking the gullible - who then meets a "genie". I was inwardly groaning and I thinking, hmmm, I've watched this story before in a ... Disney movie. But get another couple chapters in and you're a million miles away from "Aladdin"!)