Reading Vanished Smile- The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa. It is non-fiction, but reads like a story. Written by R.A.Scottti.

In my last post on the December thread, I asked for a lighthearted read after reading three heavy non-fiction books during December. I ended up reading a library book I had on hand that wasn’t exactly lighthearted, but easily captured my attention, Our House by Louise Candlish. I finished it in a 24 hr period. I had to suspend belief a little, but it was good! I think I heard about it on the Readers Paradise board on Houzz/IV.

Next up is Delicious! by Ruth Reichl. I didn’t realize it was in a stack of books a friend gave me a while ago or I probably would’ve selected it when I was looking for that lighthearted read a few days ago!

Can't remember where I posted it, but if you are looking for a light read that is like a mental vacation, I recommend the David Grayson books: Adventures in Friendship and Adventures in Contentment...available for free with project gutenberg.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, based on reviews here and Even Deadlier, a sequel to The 7 Deadly Sins Sampler published by The Great Books Foundation. Lined up is Great Decisions in Foreign Policy 2019 edition for my upcoming discussion forum.

I am halfway through Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton. I took a small hiatus during the holidays and didn’t read it at all for about a week. Was easy to pick back up. I really am enjoying the descriptions of old and new Havana painted by the author. I can almost smell the food! A lovely book so far.

OP - I almost finished next year in Havana, but Libby returned it before I could. I'm on the waiting list now to finish it. I agree, the descriptions (and references to cars of the vintage I learned to drive) are enjoyable.

I just finished Into the Raging Sea, a nonfiction book about the sinking of the El Faro, a container ship that was lost when the captain literally sailed into the middle of hurricane Joaquin in 2015 near the Bahamas. I don't know if it was a nationally major story but was intensely covered here in South Florida and as a boater myself the book was a powerfully affecting read. My DIL is a former Coast Guard officer in this district which includes the location where the ship went down. She was very familiar with what happened and some of her comments about the shipping company and the El Faro are echoed in the book's exhaustive reporting.

I found the book utterly engrossing with the exception of some of the very detailed back story on relatively minor characters and some really long overly detailed history about shipping itself. The author also has a clear political leaning and I felt some editing of her opinions would have better served the final book.

However overall I recommend it very highly.

I also skim-read the latest Anne Lamott book, Almost Everything: Notes on Hope. Unfortunately although I used to really enjoy Anne Lamott's authorial voice and style I guess she's worn out her welcome with me; this book felt like simply a rehash of her general message 'we're all imperfect but hey let's have faith and enjoy our quirky friends who are our spiritual family and hike in the woods of Marin county and everything will be fine'.

I think, like Stephanie Plum, my tolerance for good ol' Annie and her shenanigans is probably finished ;).

And I almost forgot a book I tried to read and couldn't finish. The Friend by Sigrid Nunez won the National Book Award this year and I'd been meaning to check it out anyway. It's about a woman who has lost a friend to suicide. Confusingly though, the intensity of the grief and descriptions of the relationship make it rather murky as to whether she was actually in love with him.

She 'inherits' the dead friend's Great Dane which moves into her tiny apartment. I wanted to like the book but just couldn't. For one thing it was almost plotless; the entire book was mostly a reverie about the dead friend written as a sort of rambling letter to him ("You were .......you always said......when you married wife 3....."etc. Both the narrator and the dead guy are writers so there was a seemingly endless series of digressions about the ups and mostly downs of the literary life. And the tone was so overwhelmingly sad-the narrator is broken by grief and even the dog is bereft. It, um, just wasn't my cup of tea to say the least!

Enjoyed "The Tatooist of Auschwitz" and finished just as we were arriving at Auschwitz.

Finished the Longmire Book: An Obvious Fact. It was good, but not his best. But I did enjoy that it was set in SD which reminded me of the places we visited there.

Now I'm back to hitting some from the Great American Read. This time Frankenstein which I've never read. So far it's ok, once I got used to the writing style. I think it might be better as an audio book. I think I'd enjoy it more if I weren't already familiar with the plot. I keep trying to put myself in the mindset of when it was written and can see how much more shocking it would've been back then.

I forced myself to finish My Name is Mary Sutter, historical fiction with lots of interesting details. I did learn quite a bit but I did not actually like the writing style which seemed very contrived to me. It was recommended by someone whose taste I usually agree with , which is why I kept forcing myself to finish it. I looked it up on Goodreads and it got really good ratings so I mention it as others might enjoy it way more than I did.

I am just starting Pachinko and am hopeful ...

Finished One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I almost think you don't really appreciate this book until the ~last 10 pages. My appreciation of this book will not send me back to the The Gulag Archipelago though. I've tried that one a few times and could not keep the characters straight.

Next up is Kindred by Octavia Butler. I'm rather amazed that I haven't read this 1979 "first science fiction book written by a black woman". Looking forward to it.

I am also reading Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton.. I am about 1/2 way and really enjoying it. I admit I skim through some of it but I am enjoying it.

I am a big Ruth Reichl fan and I did enjoy Delicious! but I don't think it is even close to her best. What did you think of it, 4kidsforus?

Rosesstink - I read Kindred for a book club last year. I am not a science fiction fan but this was really quite different. I would love to see what you think of it. ( I liked it)

I just finished The Paris Seamstress by Natasha Lester. I had it for a while from the library and just couldn't get into it. Looking for something to read yesterday, I picked it up again and am glad I did. Read it in a day and a half and enjoyed it a lot.

OK, finished Frankenstein and it was wonderful...flowery language, the depth and intracies of the themes and the insights into human nature written by one so young was most impressive. It has so little relation to the classic movies that it wasn't what I expected at all. If most of the members of the book group have never read it, I'd consider recommending it to them.

Next up, the next Longmire book for fun: Western Star.

Annie, the writing and insights in Frankenstein from one so young were indeed impressive. Beyond that, it frustrated me. Nothing about how the monster was actually given the spark of life. The monster killed because the poor guy was so unfortunate looking, but still.

Finished Kindred. (salonva - I may well have added it to my to read list last year after your mention of it here) A good book. Time travel makes my brain hurt, the violence was unsettling, I felt... anxious maybe? while I was reading it. It evoked strong emotions. I recommend it to those who are not faint-hearted.

I really liked Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield. When the seemingly dead body of a child reanimates hours after arriving at an ancient inn on the Thames, three families try to claim her. It has a bit of fantasy, a bit of science, a lot of storytelling. Very well written with characters I cared about -- that's something I want in a book and it delivered.

Thanks, norar-il ... Setterfield wrote The Thirteenth Tale which I really enjoyed...I didn't realize she's come out with other books...definitely add them to my to read list.

Finished the Longmire book Western Star and dangitall, he left the story line hanging until the next book. Fortunately the next book, Depth of Winter has already been published...just have to go fetch it.

In the meantime, I just started Maupin's Tales of the City as part of my going through the books in the Great American Read list and I'm already hooked. Especially now that it's 40 years later, his descriptions of the styles of the 70s evoked a lot of memories for me...

Annie - I adored Tales of the City, all the books in the series! (I believe there are five?) Maupin picks up the atmosphere of San Francisco perfectly, and with a splendid cast of characters. There is also a PBS series, with Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis. Just about the best saga of the city that I've seen or read.

I just started When I Spoke in Tongues, by Jessica Wilbanks and am really enjoying it. I am also taking a ten-week writing course with the author, and I'm REALLY enjoying that!

When I Spoke in Tongues

SOB I think I've read this book before. Or did the author use story lines from a book of short stories that I've read? Did I mark the wrong book by this author as "read"? I'm half way through and tempted to jump to the end to see if I remember it. Kind of frustrating but it's my own fault.

ETA - Just found a summary of all of the short stories. I definitely read that book. This book must seem familiar because many of the themes and locations are the same as in the stories. Or maybe I've read it and forgot to mark it "read". Sigh.

I had to give up on Weight of Ink, just couldn't get into it...started Anatomy of a Scandal, like it so far.

Funky, I finished Delicious! fairly quickly and agree it wasn’t as good as her other books but it was the perfect light read for me to start out the New Year after several heavy nonfiction books I read in December.

Around the same time, I listened to The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore. Written by a Hopkins educated Rhodes Scholar, it’s a memoir of sorts, but he compares his life with that of another Wes Moore, a young man, of similar agewith the same name, who is in jail for his involvement in a robbery where a policeman is killed. Both grew up with a single parent in working class neighborhoods, but their lives ultimately follow different paths. It was interesting.

Next I listened to The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman. I liked it but I had a hard time understanding the decisions one of the main character makes. I didn’t think the character development was strong enough in that regard. The narration was good.

I used the weekend snow storm as an excuse to sit by the fire all day Sunday and finished Force of Nature by Jane Harper, a good thriller set in Australia. This is my second novel by Harper. I enjoyed her first novel, The Dry, more but this one was still pretty good. I’m looking forward to her latest novel which comes out next month.

I have a lot of driving this month finishing up college visits with my son so have some audiobooks lined up. I’m currently listening to The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg. It’s the first Swedish detective series. I read the third in the series years ago, not realizing it was part of a series. I don’t remember any of the characters, and I’m having a hard time with the narrator’s accent keeping track of characters. Probably I should have read this book rather than listen but the story line is good so far.

I’m excited that Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne finally came in to my library. It was on order for quite a while. One of my favorite novels last year was his book The Hearts Invisible Furies. I’ve heard this one is good, but not quite as good. I plan to start reading it this week.

I finished Next Year in Havana a couple of weeks ago and highly recommend it. Although some of it was a little predictable, the writing was very good, and I enjoyed the graphic descriptions of both old and new Havana and the history behind the stories. Currently reading the newest David Baldacci thriller with a new heroine, Long Road to Mercy.

And I’ve been watching the latest Mrs Maisel series and another comedy series I found on Amazon Prime, Corner Gas, which is hilarious.

tish - I liked The House of Broken Angels. I should look into more of his works.

4kids thanks for the mention of the Jane Harper book-I loved The Dry so I was thrilled that Force of Nature was available to download instantly via my local library system's Overdrive account! Off to get my bath and then crawl into bed with my iPad on a rare chilly Miami night for some cozy reading.

While waiting for Libby to re-lend me Next Year in Havana I read Educated by Tara Westover. Not sure how I feel about it. I admire anyone who can survive what she did, not to mention excelling in school. Reading what she endured (and willingly exposed herself to repeatedly) was more than sad. Many evenings I put the book down and thought I wouldn't continue, but I did. As one of her professors said, her writing and insights were quite remarkable. I'm on to Warlight by Michael Ondaatje.

We read the Weight of Ink for our book group and it didn't go over too well...

Thank you, Annie and Tish. I'm now reading and enjoying The Thirteenth Tale and have put Bellman and Black on my library list. I do love finding a new to me author I really like.

I have spread out Longmire books so I'll have something I know I'll like when I'm in a reading slump. I'm about at the end of them and that's making me sad. After I finish The Thirteenth Tale, I have The New Iberia Blues by Janes Lee Burke waiting along with a few others -- stocked up for the evil weather ahead. I love the library.

I understand your reaction, Oly, and your bookclub's reaction, Annie, to The Weight of Ink. I felt the same way initially, and it took a fair amount of time to get into it. Ironically, I probably would have bagged it if it hadn't gotten such good reviews here. In the end I felt it was worth the time.

DH and I have been delving deeply into a book series which is basically historical fiction. The series is called House of Niccoló, and the first book is called Niccolò Rising, by Dorothy Dunnett. (House of Niccolò) DH is on the last book, #8, and I'm on #7.

The breadth of history this woman, who is Scottish, exhibits, is amazing. I have learned so much about European history and trading with these books. But it is not dry in any sense of the word. The character development is excellent, and it is basically also a study of human nature with lots of good swashbuckling action.

In between I have read to several other books, mostly for my bookclub. We read The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore, about Edison and Westinghouse's struggle over the lightbulb, which was interesting historically but the writing was just meh for me, and Calypso, by David Sedaris. I always enjoy him.

“The Three Weismanns of Westport”. So far it’s been a study of constant angst! Ugh!!!

Just finished Tales of the City as part of chipping away at the Great American Read list. It was very good, though I suspect most of you have probably already read it.

Next up, another from the list, The Godfather.

I'm up to having read 40 out of the 100, though I know I won't ever read them all...there are some that are just 'no way' for me.

I finished Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne this morning. His previous novel The Heart’s Invisible Furies was my favorite book last year and his latest work did not disappoint. The main character is a ruthless narcissist; Boyne does a fantastic job with character development as usual. He is quickly becoming a new favorite author of mine. I’m looking forward to reading some of his older work.

I’m about halfway through the audiobook, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara. It’s a pretty chilling and detailed account of the crimes put together from exhaustive research by McNamara who sadly died at age 46, prior to finishing the book. The killer was finally caught about 45 years after his first crime using DNA, shortly after the book came out last year. It’s a shame McNamara died before he was identified and arrested.

Well, finished my "have I read this?" book. I'm quite sure I hadn't read it before. No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod. It was good. McLeod was a meticulous writer.

Currently about a 1/4 of the way into Man Booker prize winner The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan. It's the story of a man from Tasmania. The descriptions of his early life and time spent as a POW during WWII (including sections from the Japanese perspective) are very interesting and well written. Interspersed with the interesting bits is what reads like a romance novel. That part is awful. Whether or not I finish the book is up in the air.

I just finished reading The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter by Hazel Gaynor which I really enjoyed.

Our last bookclub book was Annabel by Kathleen Winter which is the story of Wayne, an intersexed child born in the 1960's and raised in small hunting town in Labrador. It was actually quite good.

I am now reading Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance which many have noted but I just finally received from the library. I started it this afternoon and I think it will be real eye-opener for me.

Next up for bookclub is The Hidden Life of Trees which is about...trees and the forest and how they interact and create a society with the animals, micro-organisms, fungi, and each other. It isn't a science book but rather a community book that discusses the community of trees. My running group runs in the trails of a forest that goes on forever and we are all in the same book club and everyone in the book club all live within about 5 blocks of this same forest where all our kids grew up playing and riding in so it should be really interesting.

I finished Anatomy of a Scandal recently. It was okay, not horrible but not great writing, kind of predicable plot "twists", characters I didn't really care about...not a lot to recommend it, I guess.

I'm now well into The Lost Girls and am really enjoying it. The author has a beautiful way with words...you know those sentences and descriptions that kind of stop you in your tracks to savor them. And so far her character development has been very good.

I am in the middle of Come, Thou Tortoise. Several years ago this was recommended, and I searched in my library system and didn't find it and then forgot. It came up again, so I searched the library again (actually the old one where I used to live, and the new one where I am now). Neither had it. Even looking on amazon, there were only used copies and very few. The strange thing is, the book was written in think 2008. Anyway I decided to request an interlibrary loan.

It took about 3 weeks, and I now am reading the book. I am in Pa., and the book came from Indiana.

It's a very good read, a bit different, and actually reminding me a little bit of Eleanor Oliphant. I haven't finished it, but do recommend it and hopefully if you want to read it you will find it easier than I did. It's Canadian but that really shouldn't matter.

Finished The Godfather and it's a 5 star.

Next up, Looking For Alaska...part of the Great American Read.

BTW, the book group gave 5 stars to Sister of My Heart. It made for an interesting discussion too.

Finished Looking for Alaska and I'd give it 4 stars...it's teen fiction and would make an interesting discussion for a younger crowd, but I'm glad I read it.

Next up is Night of Camp David. Written in 1965 by the author of 7 Days in May, the lead character, after spending time with the president, realizes that the president is certifiable. (The 25th amendment was approved in 1965, ratified in '67.) It's been reprinted now as it's so truth stranger than fiction in light of current events.

I'm reading The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead for my book club, and am having a very hard time putting it down. It's riveting.

These book clubs really don't vary so much at times. I too just started Underground Railroad for a book club. (the other one is Eleanor Oliphant which I did read and adored).

I read Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale for the first time. For Christmas I gave my daughter a Hulu subscription because she expressed interest in the series. Somehow, I missed the book back in the 80's (had 3 babies in that decade), but I can't help but think I would have read it without the same sense of foreboding that I had reading it in now, given today's political climate.

On a lighter note, I just started Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton, an easy read and enjoyable so far.

My book club really enjoyed Juliet in August. We enjoyed the stories of the people living in that small town .It is sweet and beautifully written. Next for us is An American Marriage. I just started it and so far I am enjoying it.