First April Friday: What are you reading?

[charlatti]

What are you reading this week? How do you like it?

QOTW: What genre or type of book do you read most often?

[charlatti]

I just started Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, which I've been eagerly awaiting and am really enjoying so far. I think she just gets better and better with every book.

QOTW: Lately, I read a lot of mysteries, which is funny because I avoided them in my book-snob years. Contemporary general fiction, if that's even a category, is probably where most of my books fit.

[Deleted]

I just finished Inside the Victorian Home by Judith Flanders, which is really well written and informative. I highly recommend it if you're interested in that period at all. Many of her asides are extremely arch and amusing. 

I'm kind of torn on what I should start next. I have Linda Lear's biography of Beatrix Potter which I'm eager to dig into but I also just picked up Emma Watson by Joan Aiken which I have high hopes for. It's a completed version of Jane Austen's abandoned manuscript The Watsons (about a daughter of a clergyman living in straightened circumstances. She started it right after her father died and her biographers speculate that she put it aside because it mirrored the circumstances of her own life too closely for comfort at that time). Has anyone else read it? Was she able to faithfully recreate Austen's tone and POV?


QOTW: This year I've been really into reading books about various periods in English history and biographies of well known women in English history. I think it's because of all the Regency and early Victorian romances that I read as a teenager. It's been fascinating to see the "truth" behind the romanticized portrait they painted of those periods. Every time I swoon over the costumes of those periods, I have to remind myself: would I want to live without indoor plumbing and penicillin? Nah

[duckduck]

I am reading The Front Porch Prophet by Raymond L. Atkins. I got it as a Free Fridays selection from B&N a couple of years ago, back when their Free Friday books were actually good. This one certainly is!

QOTW: I read everything... But I've been reading/listening to a lot more romances lately than I used to, which is funny for the same reason charlatti reading mysteries is funny. I was "above them" for so long. Now I read a lot of them. I really love most of Nora Roberts' books on audio.

[writingwithheld]

I just started The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton this morning. I already read 60 pages. It is lighter than the past few novels I've read, and I think I like it more.

[secretlyevil]

I have not started anything and I am at a dead end. I think my book club is dead, no one seems to be coming in April and since my hiatus six months ago, they've only met three times. So now I will be really screwed with books.

QOTW: The genre I seem to be stuck in is crappy Kindle freebies.

[aurora]

I'm still reading Gone with the Wind and enjoying it. Scarlett's relationship with Rhett is not what I had imagined (I've never seen the movie) so far, but I'm only 1/4 of the way in so there's plenty of time.

QOTW - I definitely read more fiction than non, and within fiction I probably read a little more sci fi/fantasy than anything else, but that's closely followed by historical fiction. Bonus if it's a little bit of both.

secretlyevil, I got so fed up with crappy Kindle freebies that I have withdrawn from my Kindle lately. There are some terrible books out there with a lot of 5-star ratings!

[secretlyevil]

aurora - for real, all these ratings and it's all OMG the best book ever and one chapter in, I'm "WTF is this?"

Gone with the Wind - now that's an idea. I need some comfort reading right now.

[rootbeerfloat]

I'm reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. I'm not far enough to have an opinion yet.

QOTW: I've never been a sci-fi/fantasy fan, but lately I've been enjoying books that are on the cusp of that genre (witches, vampires, dystopian YA). I've realized I prefer imaginary angst as opposed to stuff that can happen in real life. I like historical fiction, too.

[rootbeerfloat]

Oh, and I gave up almost entirely on the Kindle freebies. I'd rather borrow an actual book from the library or get something at the half-book store, even though I love the convenience of my Kindle.

[dorothyinAus]

I'm reading Naughty in Nice, the next-in-series Lady Georgiana/Her Royal Spyness mystery.  It's okay, but nothing to write home about.  I think the series started well, but has fallen off in the past few books.  This one might getter better, but I'm not holding out much hope that it will be anything more than a fluff read.

QOTW:  I read mainly cozy mysteries, and of those, mostly historical cozy mysteries.

[booknerd]

I'm currently reading Northern Lights by Nora Roberts. Enjoying it, little over halfway through.

I read a lot of romance and romantic suspense. NR is one of my favorites.

[christy082]

What are you reading this week? How do you like it?

I literally just started The Beggar King: A Hangman's Daughter's Tale yesterday.  Too soon to tell but I really like the two previous ones in the series.

QOTW: What genre or type of book do you read most often?

Historical Fiction is my favorite genre.  I try to read a variety, but that is probably what I read most of.  And I enjoy some YA books too (Hunger Games series, Divergent series, TFiOS, Anna and the French Kiss).

[whitepicketfence]

I started Bailout by Neil Barofsky over the weekend. It's about the financial crisis and TARP bailout. It's been an interesting read so far.

QOTW: I read a little bit of everything aside from romance novels. I tend to enjoy science fiction the most though.

[msmerymac]

Apr 5, 2013 7:57:11 GMT -5 charlatti said:

I just started Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, which I've been eagerly awaiting and am really enjoying so far. I think she just gets better and better with every book.

QOTW: Lately, I read a lot of mysteries, which is funny because I avoided them in my book-snob years. Contemporary general fiction, if that's even a category, is probably where most of my books fit.

I'm supposed to read that for a book club meeting on Thursday. I haven't started yet, so I might have to skip the meeting, but it looks really good. 

[charlatti]

Apr 9, 2013 9:39:11 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

Apr 5, 2013 7:57:11 GMT -5 charlatti said:

I just started Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, which I've been eagerly awaiting and am really enjoying so far. I think she just gets better and better with every book.

QOTW: Lately, I read a lot of mysteries, which is funny because I avoided them in my book-snob years. Contemporary general fiction, if that's even a category, is probably where most of my books fit.

I'm supposed to read that for a book club meeting on Thursday. I haven't started yet, so I might have to skip the meeting, but it looks really good. 

I'm really enjoying it, but it's fairly thick  -- probably would be tough to finish by Thursday, but you should definitely read it anyway.