Oly, I'm so glad you liked Virgil Wander! I read Peace Like a River recently and enjoyed it almost as much. Enger's writing is exceptional. Although I am a religious person I don't think it's required to be touched by the book.

I just looked at my review of Peace and remember that I had just finished bingeing all of Succession. I was greatly in need of a story and people who weren't like the Roys, and this fit the bill. I also loved the nod to Riders of the Purple Sage, another fave of mine.

Thanks, Bunny, I'll put a reserve on it.

Another recommendation for Peace Like A River. Enger definitely has a special 'voice'.

A few days ago I finished Sycamore Row by John Grisham. What a slog that was, interminable. 2 stars.

450+ pages that should have been cut in half. Nothing surprising, going over details that had zero bearing on moving the story along. A very good friend recommended it and we usually are in accord with most books. I don't understand how she loved this book (but then, she didn't like A Gentleman in Moscow, so we clearly have book issues). Sycamore Row is supposed to be one of his best books. I'd hate to read his worst.

I'm listening to The Forsyte Saga which is a forty-hour collection of novels by John Galsworthy about a large, prominent family based in London and surrounds. I suspect I am one of very few here who hadn't come across these. The time period is late 19th and early 20th century so far. I downloaded this a while ago as a free (for members) Audible selection and am about 2/3 through it now. A very interesting and enjoyable "listen" for me.

If you have access to Amazon Prime TV, I believe the Masterpiece Theater production of The Forsyte Saga is shown there. One of the best shows ever.

Thank you, faftris. I'll look into that, and look forward to it.

LOVED Forsyte Saga on Masterpiece, what, decades ago? Wasn't Damian Lewis in this...or am I thinking of The Golden Bowl?

Yes, good memory! It was more decades ago than I care to think about.

I finished reading Sovereign, the third in the Shardlake series by C.J. Sansom. I'm loving this series and unfortunately, have to wait for the next volume. The book reminded me of the visit that DH and I paid to York several years ago. There are Roman ruins in the city, as well as ancient Medieval structures and here are a couple of photos that we took. The first is the ruins of St. Leonard's Hospital which was largely destroyed during the Reformation because of its religious function. The next photo is the undercroft of St. Leonard's Hospital which our tour guide would not enter because she sensed that illness and death pervaded the site.

LOVED Forsyte Saga on Masterpiece, what, decades ago?

The first version, with Eric Porter as Soames, was filmed in the late '60s but shown here about 1970. It's a masterpiece. The more recent one, with Damian Lewis, is from 2002. It's very good, but compresses everything into fewer episodes so doesn't do Galsworthy's books the same justice as the earlier version.

Stacey thanks for sharing those pictures! One of my post-COVID travel goals is to go to England and visit some of the places I've read about in books so this is a great reminder of what is waiting to be explored.

My March reading hasn't been terribly exciting. Following up on watching Get Back I read 150 Glimpses of the Beatles which seems to also have been titled Four Three Two One: The Beatles in Time. The book is composed of very short chapters. Author Craig Brown also wrote 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret which I started but did not finish because of his authorial decision to include fictional chapters, a no-no in biography IMO. The one that made me shut the book for good was the story of how Margaret married Frank Sinatra(!!!).

Anyway overall I'd give it 2/5 stars. Aside from a couple of fictional 'facts', interspersed with anecdotes about the band and members there were also many chapters about how various average folks experienced the Beatles. Those didn't interest me much.

I did find the glimpses of Yoko Ono absolutely riveting. Evidently she "chased him till he caught her" in a very organized and well thought out campaign-though John Lennon must have wanted to be caught. She sounds like a supremely calculating individual which tracks with other accounts and a couple of stories I've heard from people who met or have known her.

I read an installment of my beloved Chet and Bernie mysteries, this one loosely Christmas themed. Those always entertain me and this one didn't disappoint.

Our book club discussed The Maid this month, which I enjoyed a lot; that opinion was in the minority. Most members felt it was slight in the extreme and stretching credulity in its plot.

However I always find an unreliable narrator fascinating. This one especially since the wobble was due to the eponymous narrator being neurodivergent. Would recommend it as an entertaining read.

Another fan here of Enger's "Peace Like a River."

I've just finished "The Betrayal of Anne Frank: a Cold Case" by Rosemary Sullivan. I would give it a high rating. It reads like a mystery and I could scarcely put it down. The author also wrote a biography of Stalin's daughter. Before this, I read and enjoyed "The Welsh Girl" set in WW II times.

woodnymph, I'm so glad you liked Peace Like a River.

I hadn't heard of The Betrayal of Anne Frank: a Cold Case until this very minute. Thought I'd check out GoodReads, so Googled it. Apparently it's just now being pulled by the publisher due to discredited info. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60843577

Currently reading The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Pretty unique premise but I haven't yet decided how I would rate it. Only half way through the book.

I recently finished Lily King's latest release, Five Tuesdays in Winter, a thoughtful collection of short stories exploring a variety of relationships with themes of love, desire, friendship, heartache. I've read a couple of King's previous books, and this one is another showcase of her talented writing. When in the Dordogne was perhaps my favorite, though each are compelling in their own right.

Today I plan to start The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh. Not sure where I got the recommendation, but it has good ratings so far. It appears to be a mystery/suspense/love story that begins when a woman becomes seriously ill. Her husband, an obituary writer, starts researching her life as a well-known biologist, and discovers she's not the woman she claims to be. She then must prove to him that she really is the woman he thought she was. I don't normally read romancey novels, and not sure how much "romance" is part of the story but it is tagged as such, as well as tagged as a mystery. Hopefully it's good.

The lovely young woman who cuts my hair has fairly recently started reading seriously. She recommends a book when I see her. Most have been books I'm not interested in, but the last time she said this book really made her think, so I started it. I'm about halfway through it and I'm thinking! The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom. It starts with Music, a being of some sort, who is at a funeral to collect the talent from Frankie Presto so it can be passed on to other babies when they're born. When tiny newborns open and close their hands, they are reaching for the talent they will have in life. The rest of the book is told from different viewpoints about Frankie Presto, who got tons of musical talent, and how he affected the world with it. I'll be horribly disappointed if the book takes a bad turn!

Edited to add I'll be back after I finish it to give a rating.

I finished the book and give it a solid 4+.

I just finished The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore. 3 stars

It was okay, a friend's recommendation. It's historical fiction about Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla in 1888 and a few years beyond, mostly going at it over AC/DC. I'm hopeless when it comes to physics and also have a healthy fear of electricity. So, it was somewhat illuminating (hah!) for me, given my limited capacity to grasp the subject. It became tedious in parts and I was glad to have finished.

Bunny, thanks for the information on the Anne Frank book by Rosemary Sullivan. I had no idea! I will say the investigators by no means declared their findings too be absolute and impeccable. They stated in the book that they had left room for others to come forward with other relevant information.

I have been mostly reading these forums lately, tried The Great Circle for one book club, and just couldn't keep with it. People did think it was a good story but too long. So, I think I will excuse myself from that one.

I just checked and it was Olychick who wrote about Why Fish Don't Exist, last month. I just read it and thought it was so different. I will say the beginning was interesting, but after the first 1/3 or so of it, it got really interesting and had me hooked. Thanks for the suggestion. It was all over the place in a way but about things I never knew or thought about .

I would give it 4.5 stars.

Glad you enjoyed it, too, salonva. When I read the description, I never in a million years would have thought I would enjoy it, but I was so wrong!

I am really trying with Checkout 19. It's a little bit of stream of consciousness, so it is difficult to put down and resume later in the day. It got great reviews, so I have decided to start it over again. Wish me luck!

I am listening to "Invisible" by Danielle Steel, it's very good!

I very much enjoyed Leif Enger's Virgil Wander, and then Peace Like A River. I was unprepared to love the novel between them, So Brave, Young, and Handsome. 5 Stars.

I think this is an outstanding novel, even more deserving of fame than the other two. Enger's style is unique, but I could compare this to Hemmingway. (I don't really get Hemmingway, but the style is that unique -- and this is 'a man's story'.)

Has anyone else read this?

chisue, I love Leif Enger's writing and haven't yet read So Brave, etc. I was a tiny bit put off by the title and that GoodReads gave it less than 4.0 (my usual criteria for picking up a book). But GR can often swing and miss. Thanks for the recommendation. If you loved it more than Virgil and Peace, then that's good enough for me.

Why Fish Don't Exist is on deck after I finish Down the Common.

Bunny -- I like that Engler simply tells the story. It's up to the reader to see the point(s) -- while going along for a surprising, contrary ride.

Definitely going to add So Brave, Young and Handsome to my want to read list. I read Peace Like A River several years ago and remember liking it, but I definitely liked Virgil Wander much more.

Someone on another forum had mantioned The Boy at the Top of the Mountain and it was available on kindle from the library. It's by the author of The Heart's Invisible Furies, John Boyne. I started it yesterday and am about halfway through (it's well under 300 pages) . It's a great read and so far, a wonderful story. Really enjoying it.

,

I got a Kindle for Christmas, so am checking lots and lots of possibilities, and appreciate all the tips here. Last month our book club chose a Nicholas Sparks book, which I read but don't really care for his books. So this month's selection was Norah Roberts' The Awakening....what a miserable book....I just gave it up about half way through rather than toss it across the room, as Dorothy Parker advised once! Just started Carnegie's Maid,

and have no inkling what it might be like!

Contemplations

I finished The Boy at the Top of the Mountain and I think for most of it I thought it would be a 5 star read. Then the ending, while good and kind of interesting, I thought detracted so I am torn between 4 and 4.5 stars. In any event, a very good read.

I suspect I am going to have about 47 kindle version books be ready for me from the library within the next week or so. I think I might just give that So Brave a whirl.

I enjoyed Carnegie's Maid. I don't remember ti too well but I know I thought it was quite good.

A super good book...One Step too Far by Lisa Gardner.

I agree with you, Lily. It's an excellent book with a surprise ending. Lisa Gardner if a terrific author.

I'm in the middle of Anderson Cooper's book about the Vanderbilt family. It's interesting in light of "The Gilded Age" show that I just finished watching. Not a must-read, it's more of a pleasant diversion while I am waiting for some library holds to come my way.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Sorry I don't know how to bold the titles.

That is an excellent book, Claudesmom!! Much better than the movie! I could hardly put it down.

(Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand)

I finished Why Fish Don't Exist. What an interesting read. I'd give it 4+ stars, but not good for book group, unless the group is willing to discuss things like the meaning of life...

I bailed on Why Fish Don't Exist at about the 1/3 mark. And not just because she twice told the story about the jars of fish specimens breaking in the earthquake. I had good hopes for the book. I was prepared to attend to a different view on the meaning of life, i.e., different from mine. I guess I just wasn't in the mood.

Bunny, you didn't go far enough...it was another whirlpool book where it started out slower and got more interesting as it went along....

lily, that's the 2nd in a series of Frankie Elkin books...the first is Before She Disappeared.

Annie, my loss then. I gave it a go, but I wasn’t feeling it.

Sorry you didn't enjoy it, Bunny. Maybe another time. I did really like it.

I've been reading a new series, the Alice Vega thriller books by Louisa Luna. The first one, Two Girls Down, really hooked me and I'm almost finished with the second The Janes. I found the series by happenstance when I read a review of the third and latest book Hideout in the NYT.

I'm enjoying how hard boiled private eye genre conventions are twisted here. The two partners are the classic tropes-a former cop turned private eye who resigned in disgrace (but was actually protecting a colleague) and a loner misanthrope with incredible physical fighting skills. This time though, the loner is a woman and the cop's a guy so there's an interesting dynamic going on between them.

Only downside is the same one that's always in play in this type of book. They get into situations in which they're physically attacked in ways that would result in long term damage or death for any human body...but then they bounce right back and keep on detecting LOL.

But that's minor and for anyone who enjoys noir-ish thriller/mysteries it's a series worth checking out.

Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson | Waterstones

Just started this one. Next up will be Think Again by Adam Grant.

Just to circle back concerning my decision to bail on Why Fish Don't Exist. If someone had told me, you may want to quit, but please go past the 50% mark and it will get better, I would probably have continued. But my mantra re books is, life's too short to read a book you don't like. Sometimes I bail a few pages in, other times I go much further (e.g., Ken Follett). I checked out some 1 or 2 star ratings on GoodReads and I guess I'm not the only person who wasn't feeling it.

Bunny, as I've mentioned, I never would have even picked up Why Fish Don't Exist in the first place and only read it because it was my book group pick. If I were reading it purely for pleasure, I don't know what I would have thought; maybe I would have bailed, too. I don't remember what I thought at the beginning, only that it was much better and more interesting than I expected. I'm pretty much a fiction fan, with a few well written memoirs thrown in, so I did not expect much. I think the last few pages where you learn why fish don't exist were fascinating.

Re Why Fish Don't Exist. Yes about continuing. I wrote above that the first 1/3 was interesting but it got much better after that. I honestly think part of why I stuck with it was because it was a pretty short book.:) But I am glad I did.

Bunny, perhaps if I tell you it involves a murder mystery....but I get that not all books are for all people. Our book group probably more often disagrees on each book than agrees.

Hahaha, nice try guys. :) I read all the spoilers, as is my practice *after* I've bailed on a book. I also know Jordan was an advocate of something despicable. I did like the illustrations though.

Link to April 2022