I downloaded Have You Seen Her by Catherine McKenzie that I’ll be reading at the pool today. It’s a thriller set in Yosemite. Really enjoying it so far.
Fall by Neal Stephenson -- I got probably four hundred pages into it and had to stop, the book transitioned into a completely different story line and was boring as hell. It really pissed me off to stop so far into it but I still had another long-book worth of pages to read and I knew it wasn't got to get any better. I liked 2 of his books quite a bit, but the man needs a brutal editor to cut out 1/2 to 3/4 of the shit he includes in his books.
Will They or Won't They by Ava Wilder -- A fun rom-com set in Hollywood. Some of the anxiety driven self-sabotage of the female protagonist was very cringey, since I recognize it in myself.
I just finished See You Yesterday by Rachel Lynn Solomon and We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian. Loved them both, and worried now I'm going to fall into a reading slump because the book I'm currently reading (Glitterland by Alexis Hall) isn't holding up by comparison.
I find lately that I read multiple books simultaneously instead of one straight through, so my list is a bit crazy because of that. I’ve finished (all started in late June):
It. Goes. So. Fast by Mary Louise Kelly - enjoyed it, tugged at my heartstrings a bit. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer - it’s an oldie but was good. He didn’t quite have enough for the main storyline so he has to supplement with other info / stories, but it was an easy read. Quietly Hostile by Samantha Irby - I finally finished this last night. I don’t know if I’m just too old for comedians anymore or what, but I found this to be a bit too crass / too focused on diarrhea (which is amusing once or twice but… it was overkill), and not super funny. I almost DNF it but I really don’t like to give up on a book so I forced myself through it. Just started The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening by Ari Shapiro. About 20% of the way in. He’s a great writer but I’m hoping to get more stories about people he meets in his work and not just his stories (which are also great). Also reading Empire of Pain: the Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe. Only a few chapters in but I think it’ll be interesting.
I have a whole lot of books on my Kindle / checked out from the library right now because I mismanaged my library holds queue. So, coming up:
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir The Splendid & The Vile by Erik Larsen Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez The Big Picture: on the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the World Itself by Sean Carroll You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness by Robert Waldinger
(c/p from June)The Best Minds: a story of friendship, madness and the tragedy of good intentions (Rosen) - this is a recommendation from my mother who tends to be a bit pretentious and intellectual about her reading choices. However the subject matter (mental illness and the deinstitutionalization of patients) is something I’m interested in. It’s long and meaty and very different from what I’ve been reading so it’s not going to be quick.
The Last Word (Taylor Adam) - a woman who has experienced a tragedy house sits in an isolated shore town in the PNW. She reads a .99 Amazon horror book and leaves a bad review and the author starts stalking her. I am about halfway through and this book is actually scaring me. I'm not sure if I like it or now but the gory details, the sense of dread, the fear...it's all very unsettling.
What Lies in the Woods (Kate Alice Marshall) - 3 women who experienced and survived a violent attack at the hands of a serial killer as children are brought together again when the serial killer dies in prison. They have kept a secret all these years and they come to terms with the secret and whether or not to tell the truth. This is pretty good. I got sidetracked and need to pick it up again.
Read:
Hidden Pictures**** (Jason Rekulak) A recovering addict takes a job as a nanny to a precious 5 year old boy. The child begins to draw pictures that get more and more disturbing, that seem to be telling a story. The nanny uncovers the truth about the history of the house, and the family. This book...ahhhh. So I was pleasantly surprised to learn it was set in Philadelphia upon reading the first page. I genuinely enjoyed the story, moreso than any of the other books I've read this month HOWEVER there were little itty bitty dropping of things that rubbed me the wrong way - tiny little references to God the Savior and accepting Jesus Christ, the author unironically saying a character "blew up to a size 8" and the conclusion...which I don't want to spoil...but it was let's just say NOT COOL. Unfortunate bc it really was a good book. I generally try not to let these things dissuade me from reading things so IMO it's worth a read.
Stillhouse Lake #1 ** (Rachel Caine) A woman, whose husband is jailed for being a serial killer, tries to take back her life and protect her kids. But when a body shows up at their new house people begin to uncover who she is and if she's to blame. I found this book really annoying. I didn't like the main character at all. I found there to be so much repetition in her schtick - I am a new person, anything to protect my kids, we need to run...blah blah blah, rinse and repeat. I thought one of the twists was extremely obvious, the other very obvious. And I found the whole basis for the story implausible. I am a true crime junkie and in all my years, I have NEVER seen people treat the spouse, let alone the children, of a killer the way these people are treated. Could it happen? Yes. But I doubt she'd be free to tra la la about without the help of the FBI to protect her, if it was REALLY that bad.
The Last Flight (Julie Clark)*** Two women, both trying to escape their life, have an encounter at the airport and decide on switch tickets. One of the plane crashes. The woman on the non crashing plane lands and slowly uncovers the truth about the other woman's life. Meanwhile, the abusive husband of the woman who was SUPPOSED to be on the crashed plane hunts her down. I enjoyed this book. An easy, inoffensive read.
Post by Jalapeñomel on Jul 3, 2023 12:35:14 GMT -5
I’m reading The Last Night at the Telegraph Club (historical fiction) set in San Francisco in the 1950s. It’s the story of a young Chinese woman coming out, and it’s easily the best book I’ve read all year.
Post by followyourarrow on Jul 3, 2023 13:19:01 GMT -5
I’m trying to sneak in some reading before school starts again.
I’m reading The Rabbit Hutch. It’s about the people who live in an apartment building. I’m 60 pages in and find it so weird and hard to read. I may give up on it because my reading time is so limited.
About halfway through TJ Klune’s In the Lives of Puppets. It’s decent and compelling enough that I want to keep reading it, but it’s not as good as his last couple.
I just finished Malibu Rising and am beginning Homecoming for a book club I was just invited into. Except I didn’t realize it’s nearly 600 pages long and book club is in 2 weeks. 😬
I've been reading We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry for like, six weeks now. It's not a bad book, but it's ridiculously long and kind of slow, and I'm ready to be done with it and move on to something else. (I did also read Horse by Geraldine Brooks in there too, for my book club last month.)
I need something fast paced, because I'm way behind in my reading goals for the year.
Small Things Like These 5/5 The Whispers 4/5 The Boys 3/5 The London Seance Society 3/5 The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches 4/5 When Women Were Dragons 4/5
Finished In the Lives of Puppets. Didn’t love it like his others. The premise was a little odd and felt messy, not fully formed, at times. Interestingly, he alludes to the book not being what he wanted it to be and the world not being ready for the story he wanted to write in his acknowledgments and I find that somewhat intriguing. Makes me wonder if it feels disjointed because it’s part what he wanted and part what his editorial team thought was publishable.
Started You’d Be Home Now this morning. I expect it to be mediocre, but hopefully in a way that makes for a quick, easy read.
I've been reading We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry for like, six weeks now. It's not a bad book, but it's ridiculously long and kind of slow, and I'm ready to be done with it and move on to something else. (I did also read Horse by Geraldine Brooks in there too, for my book club last month.)
I need something fast paced, because I'm way behind in my reading goals for the year.
I've been reading We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry for like, six weeks now. It's not a bad book, but it's ridiculously long and kind of slow, and I'm ready to be done with it and move on to something else. (I did also read Horse by Geraldine Brooks in there too, for my book club last month.)
I need something fast paced, because I'm way behind in my reading goals for the year.
This was a DNF for me for the same reason.
I looked up the author sometime last week and I discovered that she's also a poet, which to me kind of explains why it feels overwritten and too flowery. According to my kindle I only have about an hour of reading left at this point, so I'm powering through. I have to know if they win state, or if it's an absolute epic disaster. LOL!
Post by timorousbeastie on Jul 5, 2023 12:19:38 GMT -5
After not reading much at all for a long time, I’m all of a sudden reading a ton. Over the last week, I read/listened to When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill, Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, and An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green. I’m reading Being Jazz by Jazz Jennings right now. All of these have been really good. I’m apparently on a Green brother kick, because once I finish Being Jazz, I have The Anthropocene Reviewed (John) and A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (Hank) lined up to read next, and more of John’s books on my hold list at the library.
turbo, I've only read one of Samantha Irby's books (not the one you mentioned) and I didn't like it or find it funny either. I wanted to like her, but I think maybe her humor is just not my taste. Also, I hated Three Women so I wouldn't prioritize that one!
I am reading "I Have Some Questions for You" and it seems to be very polarizing so I am keeping my expectations low but so far I don't hate it. I also recently read "Wish you were Here" by Jodi Piccoult and I thought it was pretty good. It's the one about COVID so it could be triggering for people who got really sick or lost someone, but I didn't find it triggering for my own pandemic experience.
“With sorrow—for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection—we dissent,”
The library just dumped a big stack of books on me, so for July I've got:
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell The Plot by Jean Hanf Korelitz Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson The Hero of this Book by Elizabeth McCracken Heat Wave by Penelope Lively
That's a lot of white ladies! I don't usually have such a monochromatic reading list. Having said that, I am looking forward to each of these books, and hope I can get them all done before I have to return them.
Do you follow him on SM? He has cancer and is vlogging through the treatment in his typical funny but super smart way.
That was actually what got me looking into him/his books/his vlogs in the first place, as I had the same type of cancer many years ago. I absolutely love how he’s sharing his experience in such a scientific but relatable way.