LOL, Annie!

I just finished The Custom of The Country by Edith Wharton, and really enjoyed it. It took a bit to get used to the writing, into the rhythm, but once I was there, I was really in. It is beautiful writing, and such a great story. I usually read first thing in the morning ( pre-dawn) and when I would wake up each morning, I was really looking forward to the read. I would love it for a book club, but I don't think mine would enjoy it. I give it 4.5 stars.

I think the Tale of Despereaux will be next up, and since it was also mentioned in Happy Reads thread, I'm looking fowrard.

Currently reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. I am not a fan of cozy mysteries, but this was a book club choice, an odd one for us. So far the book is about what you would expect. Wish I could think of something good to suggest for next book club. Ill go back through previous yhreads to find suggestions.

Annie, thanks for starting this every month.

dedtired, I'm reading Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig right now and am enjoying it....reminds me in mood of something from Fanny Flagg ... but includes travel across country like The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles ... but told from the POV of a young tween boy. I believe it was recommended here.

Annie- yes I read and recommended Last Bus to Wisdom withint the last few months. I'm not sure if I saw it suggested here before. I really enjoyed it and think you describe it well.

After that, I read The Bartender's Tale which I liked a lot but not on the same level.

I know I read and adored The Whistling Season several years ago.

I am definitely going to read some more of his.

It had to happen. I've found a Stewart O'Nan novel I didn't completely love. Wish You Were Here takes up the Henry story not long after his death, when the family visits their cabin for a week at the end of summer. This seems to come between Henry and Emily Alone, which I have not read. The writing is as good as ever. O'Nan captures his characters and the family dynamics perfectly. You are 'there'. However, I grew very tired of these people. Perhaps that is intended, part of the enforced 'togetherness' of a mother, her adult children and their spouses, and her grandchildren. They're the same family, yet different, in familiar close quarters, but absent Henry, the quiet mediator.

Reading a Barbara Ross book titled Clammed Up. I suppose it would be called a cozy mystery. No blood or guts murder. I am enjoying the setting of a Maine coastal town, the history of the town, and tourist attraction of a clam bake. Interesting on what it's like to be a tourist town. Never been to Maine. Probably not a great book club book, as the only thing to discuss is "who done it" .

Just finished Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig. What a great book. I'd give it 4+stars and it would be great for book group.

Next up is The Measure by Nikki Erlick which I think was also recommended here.

Annie, do you need to have read the first 11 books in the series to get Last Bus to Wisdom?

THE CALICO YEAR by Dorothy Gilman who also wrote the Mrs. Pollifax books among many others. It was one of my very favorite books as a young teen and I’ve kept it all these years in our library here, rereading it a few times. I’m recuperating these past couple of days after another foot surgery and DH is keeping me just sitting on the sofa with my foot propped up! So, bored and feeling grumpy, I had him bring me this old favorite to read once again. And, it cheered me right up! Gillman was such a wonderful, descriptive writer! i met her once, years ago, when she was down in Albuquerque for a one of her Mrs. Pollifax book signings and she was absolutely delighted that I‘d brought my The Calico Year for her to sign. It was old when I got it at a used book store many years ago, but I treasure it still, Great memory and a seriously great book!

RNMomof2, no I have not read the other books and it was not an issue at all.

Lynn, sorry to hear of your foot surgery….. just had one myself today! I have a couple of books put aside for the recovery.

debra

Lynn and Debra- heal well...

Lynn, that book looks so appealing to me. It is not available at my libraries,but

The Unexpected Mrs Polifax is, and I added it to my list.

I enjoyed The Tale of Despereaux and now realize the author, Kate DiCamillo has a bunch of nice, engaging, not depressing books. It was very sweet and refreshing. I rated it a 4. I read it a bit with the thought of giving it to my 8 yr old granddaughter but I don't think I'll do that.

I remember when i read the Railway Children that I thought it would a good one but now I have to think a bit more.

I have a bunch of books coming to me from the library, so I'm playing deliver later game. I think I will read American Dirt next. I know it was very popular and somehow another one that I did not get to.

Please tell me if I should continue reading Liz Moore's The God of the Woods. IDK when I've read a novel where every simple fact is drawn out and made to seem desperately important. There's so little there there. Do publishers insist on X number of pages? People won't buy a better, shorter novel? I haven't read this author; is she always like this?

Tom Lake by Anne Patchett. It’s a novel set during the pandemic, a family with three grown daughters barely out of college who are stuck with their parents living for the duration of lockdown on the family cherry orchard and farm in Michigan. I like the story well enough, but one of the daughters is truly insufferable and none of her interactions with her parents or sisters ring true. Surely one of them would have had the presence of mind to tell their obnoxious, self righteous daughter Emily to just knock it off!

@chisue I really liked The God of the Woods -- as did a number of my reading friends. However, just as many strongly disliked it... they said they were bored, they didnt care about the characters and similar complaints. Not one of them changed their minds as they continued. I am sorry you arent enjoying it but my guess is that it wont get better for you :(

I also enjoyed Long, Bright River by Liz Moore ... but it is definitely a very different book.

Funkyart -- I did finish it, but really skimmed. I agree with your friends about the characters. In fact, that is exactly the problem I had with it. She had a good plot, but some characters felt like 'leftovers' from another story idea.

Now I have two Marilynne Robinson novels, Gilead (2004, a Pulitzer winner), and Reading Genesis (2024).

DD1 told me about a book that she wasn't entirely sure she liked yet. It's called One Woman Show, by Christine Coulson. I don't know what the story line is, probably about a woman's life, but the concept sounds interesting. It's made up of small bits, that are like the little signs that are next to paintings in a museum, telling you about the work. The reader doesn't "see" the art, just reads the vignettes and has to picture it in the imagination. I put an e-book hold on it; my usual approach when I am not sure that driving to the library to pick up and return is worth it. Gotta love that "return" button!

@chisue I was not a fan of The God of the Wood either. I felt the characters had little depth, the plot was so drawn out and not engrossing and the multiple timelines made it confusing. I did, however, really like her novel The Long, Bright River. I read that novel a couple years ago and was looking forward to this latest novel but was disappointed..

Im beginning to feel let down with Table for Two, by Amor TowIes. I loved the wonderful short stories, but becoming less enchanted by the novella as I get longer into it. Also, the L.A. atmosphere isnt as compelling as N.Y.

4kids4us -- I'm glad to read that. I'll keep River on my list.

I'm well into Gilead and can see the Pulitzer for it. (Dying older father is writing about himself and his long line of preacher ancestors as something to be read years later by his then 6-year-old son.) Has anyone read this 2004 novel?

I just finished The Anomaly: A Novel by Hervé Le Tellier for book group. Very interesting premise and I enjoy the brain stretch. Not sure I liked the ending though. This is for book group and I'm not sure about the discussion...it can be either very short or very deep. I'd give it 3+ stars.

Update on One Woman Show. It was very cleverly done, and at 119 pages (and each page had about 5 lines of text on it), a very pleasant and funny afternoon read.

I finished American Dirt and found it to be a very good read. I had put off reading it as it just didn't seem to call me , but it really turned out to be very worthwhile. I found it very suspenseful and I was drawn to it. I thought the ending though, was kind of weak. I think many people have read it over the past few years, and I don't hear it mentioned any more.

Still I'd give it 4 stars.

I just started another one that I kept putting off, All The Broken Places by John Boyne. I am only at about 10% but it drew me in right away.

Neither of these are for book club. This month they're reading Horse which I read already, and I'm finding I just want to read what I want to read.

Late to the party, but I picked up Birdsong, by Sebastian Faulks. So far, so good.

Has anyone read the Booker winner, Orbital, by Samantha Harvey? It sounds weird, but I am willing to try.

I just finished The Safekeep, which was shortlisted for the Booker. Most of it takes place in the Netherlands in the early 1960s, and it touches on the Holocaust, but in a much more subtle way than most books. I really liked the beginning and end, but the middle dragged on too long (and it's a short book) and was just too...breathless, for lack of a better word.

faftris, I've read a bunch of reviews of Orbital and am wary.

Annie, I really enjoyed The Anomaly. I'm not a sci-fi fan, but I am a sucker for books that take place in the plausible present but that are off-kilter somehow.

Bookwoman, I agree about The Safekeep.

I finished All The Broken Places. I could not put it down.

I had read a few of his other books (John Boyne), including the connected ones. I read them several years ago so although it gave me some more background, I don't think it's necessary to read them in order.

I gave it 5 stars and think it would be a great book club discussion.

I see that James won the National Book Award. No surprise there. I liked it, but I thought it was fairly superficial, more plot-driven than deep.

I finished The Measure by Nikki Erlick and enjoyed it, though some of it seemed too contrived or unanswered. But it was an interesting device through which to explore human traits, and it resonated with our current political climate a bit. I'd recommend. 3+ stars and it would lead to good discussion for book group.

Annie, I felt the same about The Measure, though most people raved about it. Two of my book clubs read it, and each time it was one of the best discussions we 'd had.

I'm currently reading The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum by Margalit Fox. It's about a woman who arrived in America destitute in the mid-1800's and, through personal and business acuman, went on to become an organized crime boss with a huge stolen property operation. It's well written and a very interesting slice of history. But I only give it 4 stars because nearly every page has footnotes, which I'm curious to read but also find interruptive.

Sometimes I just like a title. On the reading paradise forum, someone mentioned Sarah Canary. I reserved it from the library and read it. Initially, it was really confusing and not pulling me in. After about 40 or 50 pages though, it got really good. It was very well written, and had lots of humor in it but was just very different book. I just finished it and I think I'd give it 4 stars.

When I went back to find the post that mentioned it, it was a books that I could not finish thread. The poster had mentioned it was her favorite book ( and she has it as auser name) but several others had tried it and did not finish!

Anyway, I enjoyed it. It reminds me a little bit of Confederacy of Dunces which I did enjoy but was all over the place. This book was a bit less work, but similar adventure.

Editing to add, I just saw on goodreads that the author, Karen Joy Fowler, wrote The Jane Austen Book Club. I think that was pretty popular, though I never read it.

I remembered that I've been wanting to read a "killing" book by Bill OReilly. They get good ratings so I am curious to see. Killing Lincoln was available , I downloaded it and I just started it this morning. I'm only at 15% but it's holding my interest, giving the background and the days leading up to it. The background of John Wilkes Booth is really interesting to me and I don't think I knew anything about him other than his being an actor.

I’ve finally finished a big ( 700 pp) non-fiction book, Far From The Tree by Andrew Solomon. It is very well written and rarely gets tedious. It is about various disabilities or conditions (deafness, Downs, transsexuals, children of rape and more) how they relate to their families and to communities of similar people. Really excellent if you don’t mind a long book. I think my book club sill have a strong discussion in January with the many interesting ideas.

Link to December 2024

Salonva, your post reminds me of when I recommended the book Money for Nothing by Edward Ugel to my brother as a great book for his book club. He said that at the club, everyone loved the book except for one person who said it was terrible and they couldn't get past the first few pages. It turned out that they had gotten a totally different book with the same title! BTW, the Edward Ugel book is a fun read.