I just finished Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee, a multi-generational family saga about a Korean family living in Japan from pre-WWII through nearly present day. Wow, I had no idea about the strained relations b/w Koreans and Japanese. There is so much going on over the course of the novel that I was easily drawn in. I really enjoyed it.

i havent decided what to read next. I leave in a week for San Diego where I will have lots of reading time on the plane. I have the following library books but can’t decide what to read next and what to take with me: Every Note Played, Lisa Genova’s most recent novel, Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie, The Black House by Peter May and The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor. Has anyone read any of these?

Oly, I read My Brilliant Friend several years ago, as well as all the rest in the series. Definitely not an easy series to read, but I found it to be a remarkable look at the complexity of friendship and family. I had to take a break in between each novel. It was an undertaking! While I am glad I read them (I am Italian American and lived in Italy for six months in college), it’s not the type of book I’d recommend to many of my reading friends. I’ll be interested to hear your opinion when you finish it.

I just finished Wolf Hall, and started on Solomon’s Puzzle, which I’m reading because it was written by an Annapolis woman, and is set in that town as well. (I’m just down the road.) I actually bought this book (!) rather than borrow it from the library. Support local artists! :)

Funkyart - I loved Less, such a quirky book. I'll be interested in what you think of it.

I just put The Flight Attendant on hold.

I'm in the middle of a book called The Power by Naomi Alderman. It's a dystopian novel where women hold all the power and for the most part it's quite good.

I inhaled The Flight Attendant in a couple of marathon reading sessions and definitely enjoyed it as a light summer read. The ending strained credulity a bit but I won't put out any spoilers.

I'm traveling later this week, and have several books queued up on my iPad. Kelly Corrigan's essay collection Tell Me More, An American Marriage by Tahari Jones, and the first in the Navajo mystery series by Tony Hillerman The Blessing Way. Have been meaning to get started on those books forever so looking forward to that one.

Oh, I am very much enjoying Less.. I have a ways to go so perhaps it's too early to say this, but I read some of the negative reviews and wondered if they had read the same book!

I have The Flight Attendant on hold. I have loved most of his books.

Finally finished Wendell Berry's A Place in Time. It wasn't bad but, perhaps because Mr. Berry has been writing about these characters for so long and is now looking back on them from an older person's perspective, the stories tended to be too sentimental.

Next up is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. "Why are you going to read that?", DH asked. Good question. Because I don't think I've ever read an Oscar Wilde novel before? Will give it a shot.

Because I don't think I've ever read an Oscar Wilde novel before?

It's the only one he ever wrote, so you will have read them all when you finish. :)

Roses, are you liking Dorian Gray? I've read it twice. :)

I'm reading Beach House for Rent by Marie Alice Monroe. It's really good! Set on Isle of Palms, SC. Makes me want to live on a barrier island.

Donna

I downloaded The Flight Attendant after reading the recommendations here, and it pretty much hooked me from the start. I still have to slog through The Nest for my book club (which meets next week - I'd best get on it), but I really want to just soak up The Flight Attendant instead. It's a compelling story.

@writersblock - I knew that in the back of my brain. lol

@msmeow/Donna - Not very far in but so far, so good. Have you read it twice because you enjoyed it so much or......?

I just finished Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. I hate dystopian novels but this is sort of a classic and with all the recent fuss.

It was totally a page turner, very tightly constructed and well done.

I watched an episode on Hulu and found it overwrought.

In first year, for my English requirement I took a Canadian Lit course and the first book we read was Margaret Atwood's Edible Woman. It was so beyond me I have not been able to bring myself to read another Margaret Atwood book.

I read A Handmaid's Tale when it was published and it creeped me out most thoroughly! Just found it as a free prime Kindle download so am going to give it another look while I'm traveling this weekend.

Linelle, I 'm glad to hear your thoughts on Rules of Civility. I am considering my next audiobook as I am near the end of Ordinary Grace and my last one was Gentleman in Moscow, which I liked very much, although not a love. So I'm going to pass on Rules and get Wolf Hall. I love that it's a 24 hour long book.

Running; I have read and enjoyed many of Atwood's books and The Edible Woman was, in my opinion, awful. And that scene eating the egg, the worst. I still get the heebie-jeebies thinking of it.

Roses, I liked Dorian Gray a lot. I think I read it the first time just because it's a "classic" then re-read it more recently to refresh the details in my mind.

Donna

Every now and then they show The Picture of Dorian Gray with Hurd Hatfield on TV. It's very mannered and stagy, but I loved it as a kid.

I preferred A Gentleman in Moscow over Rules of Civility. I liked the characters better and the premise of the story was more interesting.

Just finished The Woman in Cabin 10. It was better than I had anticipated, though I saw some of it coming. A perfect read after the weightiness of The Weight of Ink. Next up is Mudbound. Book group next up is We Were the Lucky Ones.

I loved a Gentleman in Moscow and unlike others here, I also enjoyed Rules of Civility. Here's my review:

Loved the end
I'll be honest, until the last quarter, I'd have rated this book a solid 3 stars. It was written well enough but I just didn't care so much about the characters or their self-indulgent follies ... I am so glad I stuck with it. I ended up enjoying (and relating to) the trajectory of the characters over the years. I very much enjoyed the last quarter of the book and by the last 20 pages, I didn't want it to end! (I had the very opposite experience with A Gentleman in Moscow. I loved every single page until the end. I was very disappointed by what I thought to be a predictable close to an otherwise enchanting story)

I read We Were the Lucky Ones last summer. I enjoyed it but remember being surprised by the number of 5-star ratings. I would give it a solid 3.888 ;) What still sticks with me was the resilience of the characters and their drive to stay connected to family even as the world was falling apart. So many WWII stories are personal journeys.. personal struggles to survive. This was different.. it was the story of a family struggling to stay connected. In hind sight, I'd have given it a few more tenths of a point because it has stuck with me.

Good to know, Donna.

I'm another Margaret Atwood fan. The Handmaid's Tale, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin and, of course, the MaddAddam series - all wonderful. Her books that are catergorized as dystopian or sci-fi are much more than those labels suggest.

Runninginplace, if that’s not a great recommendation for The Flight Attendant and Chris Bojhalian, I don’t know what else would qualify. I’ve just added that to my list.

I’m reading The High Tide Club by Mary Kay Andrews. Pretty much her annual summer beach read, but is fun, and an easy read after some drama lately.

We discussed The Weight of Ink at our book group last night, and they helped me understand what I missed in the book. The group in general thought it was way too wordy and ponderous. The woman who recommended it read it for the 2nd time and still missed the hints at the end and the running theme throughout as had I. We all thought the premise was great, but the execution could've been more merciful on the reader.

Spoiler alert...well not really...more of a hint:

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Pay attention to the included Shakespeare sonnet

Funky, I have not read Rules of Civility but did recently read A Gentleman in Moscow, and my review of it was almost word-for-word the same as yours for Civility! How weird is that? At first in Moscow I thought his writing was too flowery and too wordy and required too much concentration, but I kept at it. At some point I found myself really into it and didn't want it to end! I laughed aloud at several passages.

Annie, I enjoyed The Woman in Cabin 10 a lot, too, though you're right - some of it is very predictable, and some parts made me think "oh, please..." I started another book by her, The Lying Game, but abandoned it early on - I didn't like it at all.

Donna

It’s good to read these reviews of Woman in Cabin 10 and The Lying Game, because both were potential reads for me, but for whatever reason, I changed my mind on both. I’m glad I haven’t started either. Thanks!

I'm part way through the Lying Game and it's 2 hours of my time I will never get back. There is absolutely nothing redeeming about the characters and it didn't take me long to really not care about any of them.

Blfenton, that was exactly how I felt about it!

I decided on Ready Player One instead of Wolf Hall which I will eventually get to. I wanted something fun and light after a serious book. I was surprised it is a Spielberg movie that just came out.

Already returned it. Ahh, too juvenile for me. Wolf Hall next.

I finally finished The Weight of Ink.

Spoiler alert:

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Annie, when you mentioned Constantina at the end, after she'd been a minor figure in the bulk of the book, I feared some pointless revelation. The notion Aaron has of who Constantina's real father might be is okay with me. It would show that good writing was in Ester's DNA and it also drove the point home to Aaron that he needed to tend to affairs of the heart (and children that are often the result).

Something that was never mentioned. Why, with all the possible Jewish surnames available, was there a current day Levy and a 17th century Ha'Levy? No comment was ever made; no connection ever drawn. I found that odd.

I thought the first 2/3 of the book slow-going. I had to remind myself that time was running out before the book was due. The last 1/3 was a good read. I started caring about the characters, even the Patricias. I thought the episodes with Mary could have been shortened or eliminated.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, but I wish it had been edited down.

Still trying to finish Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton.

diane, GF read it and said that she ended up skipping some parts, some parts were really tedious, but other parts she said were good. She was proud of herself when she finished it.

Linelle, I agree with your assessment...the mary business was odd, there were a lot more words than necessary...I thought the burden of reading the book a negative. A number in the book group also complained about the fine print which was broken up with even finer print...it didn't help.

Too many words! Long paragraphs! I picked up another book yesterday as I turned Weight in and not only does it have less than 300 pages, there are about 1/3 as many words on each page. I guess I need a bit of a break.

All the Mary stuff and that horrible, menacing friend of Thomas and John. And none of them really mattered in the telling of the story beyond atmosphere.

I did read 3/4 of the books I mentioned last week. Tell Me More, by Kelly Corrigan was a pretty decent book of essays. A bit too much self pity by someone who seems to have a pretty cushy life, but a few good insights.

An American Marriage by Tahari Jones pulled me in and kept me reading as I desperately hoped the ending wouldn't be what it seemed to be heading toward. What a great portrayal of people who were unique characters and yet represented some very topical, sensitive issues about race and identity in this country. I highly recommend this one.

I also inhaled an excellent and very thought provoking memoir, The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantu. After graduating with a degree in political science and an interest in immigration policy he became a border patrol agent for several years. The book covers that time in his life, as well as many truly thought provoking passages about the complexities of how America deals with illegal immigration. I'd say this would be of interest regardless of one's political leanings-and it was a very touching and moving read IMO.

Didn't start the Tony Hillerman Navajo series but I'll get there eventually. I did pick up the new Stephen King novel The Outsiders today and look forward to a good long Memorial Day weekend read!

Linelle, I agree. We also talked about red herrings and other plot lines that seemed to be going somewhere that didn't or left our heads scratching as to why?

At lunch today a friend recommended Educated. She said it's a memoir of a woman growing up Mormon and said everyone in her book group really liked it.

Annie I went to "An Evening With Tara Westover" (author of Educated) last week. I didn't really know what to expect, but the book sounded interesting, and 2 people from my bookclub also went.

It was very good, and makes me want to read the book. There were a few readings from the book, but mainly there was a narrator who asked questions, and then the author took questions from the audience. It was very well attended; in fact, they changed the venue just 4 days before to accommodate more people.

I had recommended Educated too--read it! It's an engrossing memoir about a dysfunctional family and about the author's blossoming into an educated person. The title has many layers; on the surface it refers to the fact that someone who had NO formal education, who had literally had never set foot in a classroom and wasn't home schooled, was able to obtain not only a college degree but go on to receive a PhD. And it also refers to the entire amazing process of becoming a person aware of and accepting of one's own particular life path, challenges and obstacles.

It is beautifully written and the facts of her life are startling and riveting. Excellent book. At my suggestion it's our summer choice for my book club; I can't wait for the discussion in September.

Ha-I just placed a hold on Educated at the library. There are 114 holds on it. Luckily I think I can borrow my friend's copy; she had it autographed last week at the event.

Just finished Mudbound. Excellent! I give it 5 stars! I'll recommend it to our book group.

I just finished Need to Know. Quite the page-turner, with some revelation or surprise at the end of every chapter like Nancy Drew. I made it a practice of putting my hand over the last page of every chapter to not inadvertently read ahead. It was chilling and makes all the Russia! stuff in the news seem very real and immediate.

After the somewhat plodding The Weight of Ink, I relished a book that I could devour in a couple of days.

Awaiting Mudbound, on hold.

Just finished The Setting Mekong Sun by Andrew James Pritchard. It was rated highly on goodreads so I downloaded it. Don't see that it's actually published anywhere, but was a .pdf. It was a good plot, but the writing could've been better and I was distracted by the multiple typos throughout the document.

I inhaled the latest Stephen King book, The Outsider, over the long RAINY (Florida) holiday weekend. As usual it was engrossing and this one has the advantage of (slight spoiler alert) bringing back a very engaging character from several of his recent books as one of the key protagonists-the person doesn't appear for the first half of the book but when that happens....lift off :).

I find Stephen King a very interesting author. He writes in a genre that definitely isn't one of my preferences yet he is so darn good at spinning a yarn with realistic characters, both good and evil, that sucks you in and makes you HAVE to keep on reading.

Next up: We Were the Lucky Ones for our book group...about Polish holocaust survivors.

Geez, I just remembered that I have read The Handmaid's Tale and disliked it so much that I banished my brain from remembering. :-O

Just a heads up that there is a book club starting over on the Kitchen Table that will be operating in on Goodreads platform...just in case anyone is interested in trying an on-line book club.

4kids, The Flight Attendant plot was definitely easy to predict: whatever cringe worthy 'oh no don't do THAT' moment you came across in the book...you could count on the main character to do THAT ;)

Also our book club went to see The Book Club movie tonight. Was it meta? Ironic? Who knows but it was definitely light and fun and full of a lot of wonderful actresses and actors!