Running, I really liked Little Fires Everywhere until the ending, which for me, fell flat. Unfortunately that kinda negated the rest of the book for me.

I am glad I popped in-- there are a number of books recommended here that I have already downloaded including The Dry, and Eleanor Oliphant.... glad to see that others liked them. Ive eyed The Convenience Store Woman but haven't purchased as yet.

Ive read a few Tana French since I last posted--not enjoying them as much as some of the previous but they're good for the kind of reading I am doing now.

I also read Still Alice from the KT book club's second choice. I had put off reading it for years but so glad I finally gave it a go. It was heart wrenching but so well written.

I still have Bad Blood: Secrets & Lies from a Silicone Valley Startup. It's the story of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes. I have mentioned it before, I believe-- and I am still eager to read it. I also have White Dog Fell From the Sky by Eleanor Morse. It was recommended for those who loved Abraham Verghese (yes, a Dr) and at a time close to when I was in South Africa.

Oh and I pre-ordered America for Beginners by Leah Franqui. It will be released in 2 weeks.

I guess a lot of my reading list is aspirational at this point. My dad will be having major surgery next week-- so it is most likely I will stick with the immersive but easy to read mysteries for awhile. They are like my brain candy.

Best wishes to you and your Dad!

Thank you so much, Annie!

Annie, was it you who mentioned a sort of reading-challenge list? Would you share it again (or tell us the source)? I see a bunch of them online but I recall yours as being particularly good.

Funky,

My book club read Still Alice and saw the movie. I thought it was quite good.

Best of luck for your Dad, and you.

Funky, best wishes for your dad and you.

Thank you so much for your kind wishes Mtn and Bunny!

Mtn, I watched Still Alice a few days after reading it-- I was fairly disappointed in the movie (though I am sure I'd have liked it more had I not read the book). I think what the movie was most lacking is portraying the decline from Alice's perspective. Alice's awareness of her decline, at least in the early phases, had a profound affect on me.

sueb, they were published by popsugar which you can look up on line. The one I did was 2015: https://www.popsugar.com/love/Reading-Challenge-2015-36071458.  There have been some since, but I think that one was the best...I had a lot of fun doing it.

I typed up a post of several books last week but must not have hit the submit button because my post is not here. I was on vacation last week and read several books.

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan. I read her previous book A Visit from the Goon Squad but did not care for it at all, though I can’t remember why. I’m one of the minority. As I listened to Manhattan Beach, I believe Egan to be a very talented writer, but as the novel progressed, I just could not really get into the story. I did not like how it was constantly moving back and forth between different character’s narration and even time periods without there really being much of a plot. There was so much description and detail, that the story dragged on and on. At one point I fell asleep on the beach for about 15 minutes and realized whatever I missed didn’t even matter. Too much unnecessary stuff that detracted from the story. The only redeeming thing for me was the setting-I got a good sense of what it was like living and working, as a single female, in NYC during WW2.

The Salt House by Lisa Duffy. Picked this one up at the library on a whim as it looked like a good beach read and it was. Not a book I would necessarily go out of my way to recommend but it was well written chick lit, set in waterfront Maine town. Not cheesy like a lot of chick lit can be. A family dealing with grief after sudden loss of their baby, marriage in turmoil as a result, etc.

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain. I’ve enjoyed her other novels, but this one bothered me. Fictionalized account of Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn’s relationship. It’s written in the first person so I had to keep reminding myself that this was not a memoir. I think I would have preferred a novel that focused more on her life as a war correspondent than her relationship with Hemingway. Neither came across as very likeable people and while we are all flawed, for someone as accomplished as Gellhorn, she came across as very weak in this story, and I have to wonder if she really was. It was very readable, but I found myself annoyed with Gellhorn’s character as written.

Currently reading The Center of the World by Jacqueline Sheehan based on a recommendation from the “Off the Shelf” recommended summer reading. It’s ok, nothing too special.

Finished Hillbilly Elegy and I'd give it a 3.5 star. It was a good enough story and all, but I may have been a victim of hype. I expected a much bigger "ah ha" than there seemed to be. Still, it's yielding some interesting discussion over in hot topics any way.

Next up Clan of the Cave Bear -- from the top 100 list. I'm trying to throw in those I haven't read yet here and there.

I read Cutting for Stone when it first came out which was, 2009 I think? And yesterday when I was at the library it was with the 2 week books. That is too cool as I loved that book.

Mtn - You mentioned your love of Emile Zola. One of the artists I love and mentioned upthread, Edouard Manet, painted a wonderful portrait of Zola at his desk, one of his best-known paintings. Zola is one of my true heroes, for writing J'Accuse! (I Accuse!). For those not acquainted with the story, Zola stood up in the midst of a dreadful fracas that had divided France in the 1890s, and defended Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, who had been falsely charged with treason and sent to Devil's Island, triggering a terrible wave of anti-Semitism across the country. Zola's defense of Dreyfus eventually brought about a new trial, a reversal of the verdict, and the restoration of Dreyfus to honorable army service. And the intellectual upheaval caused by this episode changed Europe in many ways.

4kids4us - You mentioned Love and Ruin, about Hemingway and Gellhorn. Earlier this week I watched the movie about them (called Hemingway and Gellhorn), with Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman. I wonder if the movie is taken from the book. Long and rambling, Kidman is beautiful, but one knows it won't last. The history told - the Spanish Civil War and the plunge into WW2 - is fairly well-done.

Bunnyfoof - I read your explanation of your name and went to YouTube, where I watched the part of Mary Tyler Moore & Chuckles the Clown where she breaks down in laughter during his funeral, totally losing it when the minister says "I hurt my foo-foo..." Still hilarious!

Finally started The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. I read 1/3 of the book on the train yesterday and I am totally devastated. I almost dread the end.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi is next.

I just read Stella Bain by Anita Shreve. It was an interesting little book, an easy read. There were little glimpses of things I didn't know about WWI, the rise of psychotherapy and few little feminist awareness gems inserted along the way.

Has anyone read A Criminal Defense (Philadelphia Legal) by Wm. L. Meyers, Jr.?

It was one of those Amazon free Kindle books that I downloaded a couple of months ago. I kept it on hand for when I was waiting for a library book to come in. I started it and then stopped a couple of times before I sat down and read it this past week.

It's about a defense attorney whose very wealthy and influential friend is accused of murder. There are family issues all around and corrupt cops. I liked the writing and esp. the courtroom drama. It's told by the defense attorney and he clearly knows stuff he's not telling the readers.

Anyway, I couldn't put it down. I was planning to come here and rave about it. But the ending. I don't know how you can write so well and then decide on an ending like that. I went back to Goodreads to see what folks were saying in the bad reviews and it was all about the ending. So I can't recommend it. Bummer.

Diane, I was not sure i wanted to read The Underground Railroad, as I don't do well with mystical (is that the word) elements in books. But I will remember that book and its images and characters for a long time. Powerful.

Sable, Yes, I know Manet's portrait of him well. And am also a fan of his art and French Impressionism generally. I was clearly born too late and in the wrong country! I love Zola's art and yes, his politics. : )

Bunny, I loved Bel Canto but not the ending. I don't want to spoil it, but I think the ending was very apt, except for the final ... pairing? BTW, I thought this article about the real-life events was interesting. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/26/world/how-peruvian-hostage-crisis-became-trip-into-the-surreal.html

Mtn, how to discuss Bel Canto without spoiling it...

Slight spoiler warning

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I thought the ending was inevitable. There was just no way ...

After everything, while the pairing was odd, it was understandable to me. Lives forever changed.

I loved it.

Just finished one of those beach books, The Perfect Mother. I swear I am never picking up another one of these #(*$& idiotic books with a PLOT TWIST YOU WON'T SEE COMING and a GRIPPING SUSPENSEFUL READ YOU CAN"T PUT DOWN. If it isn't a drink-addled narrator, it's a group of [fill in the blank descriptor] all of whom have secrets which will be slowly revealed. Bonus points for a misplaced first person narrator that switches somewhere toward the end of the book....believe me YOU WON"T SEE IT COMING.

Oh well, at least I actually took myself to a beach and sat under a shady tree to read the thing. Which I'm ashamed I actually did in its entirety.

LOL Running - You should write actual book reviews!

I just finished My Ex-Life by Stephen McCauley. It was required reading for book club, but I enjoyed it well enough. I did like the main characters Julie and David. It's an odd take on mid-life crises. The teenage daughter's predicament was upsetting to me.

I picked up a copy of short stories by Jojo Moyes while at the airport. She wrote You Before Me, which I read a while back and enjoyed very much. Her short stories are very entertaining. This book is called Paris For One. The first story is about a young woman who has led a "safe" life, taking few risks. Her no-good boyfriend fails to show up for a weekend in Paris. She fights the urge to safely return home but chooses to grit er teeth and explore Paris on her own. It's a charming story.

I put The Wife Between Us and Educated on the reserve list at the library. I like reading NPR reviews for suggestions, as well as these threads.

I had to check my list from Amazon...I'm embarrassed to say that it's all fluff (to be fair, I have too much carp going on to be able to concentrate).

I finished The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving (I heard it's going to be a movie)...I loved it. Easy to read.

I didn't finish Terry Pratchett's The Color of Magic. I tried to love it as it got great reviews as a funny book, but I was lost...

I did love The Butterfly Garden (simply thriller). It was riveting.

And People I Want To Punch In The Throat because I am always needing a laugh.

SO nothing deep for me...

My book group selection this month is The Whole Town is Talking by Fannie Flagg. I thought "ugh" when it was announced, because even though I loved Fried Green Tomatoes when I read it a million years ago, I've never found any of her other writing appealed to me at all. But I knew I had to give it a go...so got it from the library and I am LOVING it! It's a hoot so far.

I just finished The Round House by Louise Erdrich. From the flyleaf: "The Round House is a page-turning masterpiece of literary fiction—at once a powerful coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a tender, moving novel of family, history, and culture."

I loved this book. It takes place on an Native American reservation in North Dakota. This is a culture I haven't read a lot about, so very interesting to me from that point of view. The characters aren't stereotypes. I thought it was very well written and sad.

I read, Beneath the Lion's Wings by Marie Ohanesian Nardin in three sittings. In the first sitting, I read fourteen chapters. I couldn't put the book down. It was a great escape.

Full disclosure -- it's fictional, but set in Venice and inspired by the true love story of an American woman (the author) and her husband (a gondolier). I met Marie and her husband when I was in Venice, and they took us on a gondola ride.

Still, I'm being honest in how entertaining it was. Being familiar with Venice, probably added to my enjoyment of the book.

Czarinalex, I read The Round House a couple of years ago and like you, found it to be a very interesting story about a culture that is intriguing to me. I read LaRose by the same author last year. Also good, but I enjoyed The Round House more.

I finished The Center of the World by Jacqueline Sheehan. I suppose it was entertaining in a “beach read” kind of way but nothing to rave about. I did appreciate its setting in Guatemala, which made me do a little bit of background reading about its civil war.

Currently I’m reading the English translation of The Eight Mountains by Paolo Cognetti. There’s not much of a plot as it’s more of a coming of age story about a lonely Italian boy but I’m enjoying it. It seems to be beautifully written as translated. I wish I had not forgotten most of my Italian language skills so that I could have read it in Italian.

Well yay I am back to reading. I am currently reading Heidi as I never read it and it's delightful. It;s another one of those classics that I am first getting around to and now can understand why it is a classic.

I loved Hillbilly Elegy.. I thought the Round House was very good but not enjoyable; a very troubling and upsetting read as I recall several years ago.

I thought Bel Canto was good but I not as good as everyone else thinks. I really enjoyed The Whole Town is Talking.

Has anyone read the J.A. Jance series about sheriff Joanna Brady? I came across the books while trolling Amazon (it was in that also-recommended section). I'm always up for a nice long series I can start and inhale for awhile, and the review seem pretty solid. Any Brady/Jance fans out there who can give me your feedback?

I just finished An American Marriage and I liked it very much. Thanks so much to those who recommended it. At first I wasn't so sure about it. I found it somewhat claustrophobic with the focus so narrow on a few relationships and Roy's incarceration. But as I read on everyone grew on me. I though the writing was truly wonderful. Being in the first person (three main characters alternating) it reflected how people really express themselves, rather than just being the narrator. I found the ending very satisfying.

Next up, The Dry.

I finished The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin last week. Simply wonderful. Not at all surprising that it won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. As I said before, Le Guin was a master.

Today I finished City of Thieves by David Benioff. It has been mentioned on these threads. Such an interesting mix of humor, hubris, humility, and horror. With a nice ending (sort of). I'll read more Benioff.

Hoping to continue my string of really good reads by, again, going back in time to The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather. I have enjoyed all of her books that I've read so far.

Running - I have been a huge fan of J.A. Jance! I've read almost all the Joanna Brady series in order, although I haven't checked in the last year or so for new books.

Pros: Her description of life in southeastern Arizona in terms of people, occupations, and behavior is spot-on. And I loved her descriptions of the landscape and weather. We lived in Tucson for ten years and I related to much of what she wrote.

She writes honestly about issues facing minorities such as native Americans and Latinos. And there is a definite caring about animals as well.

Her books are well-plotted and the finales wrap up all the details in a usually satisfying way.

Joanna Brady never makes a fuss about "being a woman". She crawls through mesquite firing her weapon and never whines. I dislike books in which strong, competent women are all about feminism. Sheriff Brady is all about the law.

Cons: The style of writing is a bit simple; you aren't going to have to use a dictionary to understand the story.

It always irritated the heck out of me that Sheriff Brady always had all the backup she needed for her children: parents, in-laws, husband, friends. Not what most working women face. OTOH, most of us don't belly up hillsides at midnight, either!

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I would read at least the first three or four books in order, since it takes Joanna at least that long to get her life arranged after some very bad times. While I enjoyed all the books, I loved the first one.

Jance has another long series which I liked as much as the Brady books. This one is about homicide detective J.P. "Beau" Beaumont and is set in Seattle. JP is a bona fide hero (think Gary Cooper), with a few serious flaws. Again, I loved the first book, improbable as the plot is. Its finale occurs at the Salish Lodge, a long drive from Seattle, and was so dramatic that when we went up to visit family in the city the first time, we went to the Lodge for a meal and for me to see where the action had taken place.

Jance's books are not cozy, they have a good amount of edge, but they are not gruesomely violent, either. I highly recommend them assuming the understanding that they are not great literature!

I just downloaded books 4 and 5 of Tana French's Dublin Murder series. I enjoyed 1-3, but it takes a few pages to get with the Irish dialogs. I've read other books by French and really like her writing.

Sable, thanks so much! I was able to download the first two books so I may start those on my iPad while exercising.

I lovelovelove finding a good series with lots of books, it's like enjoying the literary version of a good streaming tv binge ;).

And speaking of series, just finished Night Moves by Jonathan Kellerman. It's a series whose protagonist is a semi-retired child psychologist living in LA with a police detective buddy. Alex Delaware gets pulled into all kinds of bizarre crimes thanks to that connection. The books are formulaic yet entertaining, which actually is a pretty complete review of every single one including Night Moves!

Running - Do enjoy the books! I hope you'll return and let us know what you thought of them. And I do agree with you about finding a delicious series to get lost in.

And thank you for the mention of Jonathan Kellerman - had read a lot of him some years back, but then moved on; took a look at Night Moves this evening and ordered it.

Two other series: Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch books - Bosch is a Los Angeles detective, and the stories are heavy with LA atmosphere. Sort of noir in the SoCal sunshine. Amazon Prime has been producing a series about him (Bosch, lol), and I'm enjoying it.

Meanwhile The Brothers Karamazov sits on my coffee table staring at me reproachfully, being one of my bucket list items!

Sable, Harry Bosch is one of my absolute favorites and I've definitely kept up with that series! I also love the Daniel Silva books and just picked up his latest. I put a reserve hold on it months ago and was #20 of 104; a Gabriel Allon adventure is a signature summer treat for me :).

I'm also a huge fan of Sara Paretsky's VI Warshawski mysteries, and of course the late Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone. Years ago I started the Brother Cadfael mysteries and loved those although for some reason I didn't finish all of the books. If anyone wants a great series with strong characters set in a fascinating historical context these are definitely worth a look! The protagonist is a monk in medieval England who solves mysteries so the books not only have well plotted mysteries but the author weaves in a huge amount of wonderful factual detail about life in that era.

Ah sweet mystery (series books) of life, how I love you!

Just wanted to mention Edna Ferber. (Note, *not* the Edna Ferber Mysteries.) I read her two autobiographies as part of the reading challenge, though I haven't read her other books. But she was quite the author of her day including Cimarron, Show Boat, Giant, American Beauty. I'm always looking for good books by well-known writers of earlier decades who are less well-known today.

Annie, I’m glad you mentioned Edna Ferber. I haven’t read any of her books but boy I sure remember the movies based on her books. I think Giant was one of the first ‘adult’ movies I saw, unless you count GWTW and the Elvis movies.

I have finished 2 books recently. Before We Were Yours (Lisa Wingate) was wonderful, and I highly recommend, even if you aren’t familiar with the true backstory of Georgia Tann and her adoption scam. The other was The Perfect Couple (Elin Hilderbrand), a fluff, beach but I always enjoy her books. This one was a murder mystery with twists and turns, and fun.

Next up is probably Woman In The Window since I already have it downloaded. I am so thankful for the exchange of good book ideas here.

I read Before We Were Yours a couple of months ago for my book club and thoroughly enjoyed it. Very moving.

I just finished City of Thieves and loved it. Disturbing, haunting, beautifully written.

I put it aside for awhile, but have just gotten back into H Is For Hawk and it too is brilliant. I'm not even quite halfway through it yet, but just the prose of the writing is enough for me to highly, highly recommend it.

I read Sedaris' Calypso on the plane trip out and back. He can be quite amusing, sometimes tho he is downright odd!

Just started the one about the Japanese clerk.

Sorry if this was mentioned, but does everyone know you can loan some kindle books?

I finished The Dry yesterday. It was a good, fast-moving page-turner. I'm not sure how I expected it to end, but I guess, with the relatively small cast of characters, it couldn't have been too surprising. Maybe because the last couple of books I've read were told in the first-person, in one instance by more than one person, I had to keep reminding myself that Aaron Falk was not telling this story. It did use the device of telling parts of the story--the truth--by switching to italics and stepping completely out of the current narrative. I guess that's one way to let the reader into things that the present-time characters aren't planning to reveal or even know about. I did find that more than a couple of paragraphs were harder to read in italics. I give it a B.

Finished Clan of the Cave Bear and really enjoyed it. Next up will be Lonesome Dove or Handmaid's Tale...haven't decided yet. Pulling these from the pbs 100 list.

I loved Lonesome Dove when it came out. It was my favorite book for quite some time.

I read Lonesome Dove because, IIRC it won a Pulitzer. It was another example (like other Pulitzers) that I had to drag myself to read because 1)at least the copy I had looked like a bodice-ripper trashy novel and 2)the genre/setting never interested me.

Like always, the Pulitzer people are right. Excellent book, a fave.

Mtn, the only thing holding me back from rereading Lonesome Dove is because my copy is one of those drugstore paperbacks, all chunky with yellowed pages.

I've always over-romanticized the Old West. It was a tough life and brutal in so many ways, but still. When I was a kid, I wanted to "go West," ideally in a covered wagon, but my mom burst my bubble by informing me that I was already as west as I could go without falling into the Pacific Ocean.

I just finished Educated by Tara Westover last night. What an excellent book! Memoirs often are good stories told poorly as the author isn't necessarily an accomplished writer, but not so in this case. I am not a huge fan of memoirs in general for this reason, but I was very pleasantly surprised with this book.

I don't think I would have read the book if I hadn't heard her speak at a book tour event here. She is eloquent and engaging. Her description of her family and life growing up in Idaho in an extreme fundamentalist Mormon family was enlightening and allows the reader to understand how life is way more complicated and intertwined than one might expect.

leela4, you may enjoy this interview. I heard this first, and then read Educated as a result. Really enjoyed it.Interview with Tara Westover

Just finished Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine -- didn't love it in the beginning--in fact, I almost gave up on it! I am so glad I did not! As the story unfolds, we learn more about Eleanor and her history -- and with each new reveal, we also see her open herself up to the world. While some of the storyline is so very sad and shocking, I'd describe the story as fresh and triumphant. It was a pleasure to read!

Now I need your help! I have a fairly large list on the "to read" pile-- but right now, I need something that is light but GOOD. A book that is easy to read but worth my time.

All suggestions welcome. What I won't read, I am sure someone else will. I don't usually read SciFi.. and I am very selective when it comes to magical realism.

TIA!

Love all these great ideas of books to read!

I am currently reading The Politics of Promotion: How High-Achieving Women Get Ahead and Stay Ahead by Bonnie Marcus. Not too far into it yet, but this is an area where I could really use to develop better skills. Essentially it's a book to help high achieving women learn political skills necessary to progress in our careers. Not nearly as fun as the books so many of you are reading. Adding a few of those to my list.

Funkyart, I just read The Whole Town is Talking by Fanny Flagg and I think it's perfect for your choice. I wrote above that I kind of went "ugh" when it was selected for our book club, but it's GREAT! Not great literature but well written, good characters, funny and fun. Some of the humor is pretty subtle but made me laugh out loud a couple of times. It's got some interesting historical info, too.