Reading Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie and enjoying it very much!

I love old 'classics' I never read before. It's like time traveling.

4kids I started Where the Crawdads Sing this weekend but am not going to continue unless of course you say I must!

I’m not enjoying the writing style which is excruciatingly “literary” ie the author clearly is straining to make every sentence into luminous prose. Spoiler alert: the plot dealing with the heroine’s upbringing is bleak and beyond depressing IMO and I am finding the timing transitions of alternating chapters set 20 years apart disjointed and jarring. Other than that it’s great LOL.

This one got almost a perfect 5 Star Amazon rating and rapturous reviews so I’ve been disappointed that it didn’t resonate with me; I’d been eagerly anticipating a great read.

I just started Past Tense by Lee Child.

running, I started Crawdads too, and only got through a few pages before I decided the writing style was going to drive me crazy.

Okay, so last night I stayed up until 11:30 reading Severance. Didn't quite finish it as I made myself go to bed, but it must be better than my lukewarm comment above.

I'm a little further into Eleanor Oliphant now and realize it's not all going to be humorous. But it's delightfully written, with dark humor - which I enjoy a great deal - and am anxious to see where the story goes. It reminds me a little bit of Britt Marie Was Here, which I also enjoyed.

Eleanor definitely has some dark places. Hang in there. It's a wonderful book and is so well written.

Well.... Drop by Drop by Morgan Llewelyn did not improve. Pretty bad. The characters are all archetypal and the plot line poorly developed. Ms. Llewelyn set everything up for the next book, in what is promised to be a series, but I won't be looking for it.

Next up is In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne. Another from the 2018 Booker prize long list.

I ended up liking Severance a lot more than I thought I was going to. I'm not too sure how I feel about the ending, however.

I then read The Samurai's Garden which I enjoyed as well. Now I've started The Last Days of Cafe Leila and so far I really like it.

leela4 - I loved Samurai's Garden - beautiful story.

I agree about The Samurai's Garden. I also enjoyed Tsukiyama's Women of the Silk. I've been meaning to read the follow up novel, The Language of Threads.

The Samurai 's Garden was one of my all time favorite books. Just finished Orphan Keeper and Eleanor Oliphant. Loved both and were suggested here.

I finished Last Days of Cafe Leila last week. I liked it a lot; it was both interesting and well written. Yesterday I started Every Note Played by Lisa Genova and finished it this morning. (Lest you think I do nothing but read novels and eat bonbons, put your mind at ease. I read novels and eat M&M's.) I like the way she writes, and have read several of her books starting with Still Alice when it first came out. Then I started and just finished Waiting for Eden by Elliot Ackerman. My reading of these one after the other was unintentional but interesting in how the two novels intersected with one another. I would highly recommend both. Ackerman's prose is spare but so striking.

I read KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON by David Grann earlier this month. It was educational. I wish its presentation had been more, I don’t know, amped up? I‘m halfway through THE LAST DAYS OF CAFE LEILA by Donia Bijan. I agree with leela4: interesting and well written. Bonus points for making me “hear” the accents.

I really enjoyed Cafe Leila, too. I finished Eleanor Oliphant recently and adored it. I just couldn't wait to get back to it and read more. Love books that draw me in like that. It was such a touching story, sad but triumphant! I just loved the humor, too. So subtle sometimes and just downright funny!

I'm trying to read The Elegance of the Hedgehog...hopefully, it will get better, as it's my book club selection this month, but I'm not feeling it so far.

Our book group has its 2019 reading list so I thought I'd share it here:

Sister of My Heart

The Orphan Keeper

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

An American Marriage

Killers of the Flower Moon: the Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

The Hate U Give

My Ex-Life

The Great Alone

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Educated: A Memoir

The Alice Network

Dear Mrs. Bird

I'm pretty pleased with it...I think it's an interesting and certain eclectic list...just like our group. :)

I'm currently reading Café Leila. So far I like it. I broke away from a free Amazon Prime book with a creepy murderer and needed something that wasn't creepy.

Thanks for that list Annie! Our book club lets the hostess pick the next book, but we always end up spending hours deliberating.....

I've been listening to The Library Book by Susan Orlean. It's an account of the great fire in 1986 at the Los Angeles Central Library -an event I wasn't aware of. But in telling that story, she weaves in chapters about the library's history, oddities, etc. The audiobook is read by the author, and I'm really, really enjoying it. I've always found libraries to be sacred spaces and it's just enchanting to be buried in a book about one!

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

I finished The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah a few days ago. I'm sure someone here recommended it. A good read, sometimes felt like a YA book. I have a bias against Alaska.. my dh watches all those Alaska shows and I'm tired of the 'homestead'. LOL!

Currently I am in 3 book clubs (I usually am in one but having moved recently ... I am open to all). There is a fair amount of overlap.

Educated seems to be on everyone's list and I can tell you it's definitely worth reading.

Eleanor Oliphant is in another month or so.

An American Marriage is for December and I just actually finished it a few moments ago. At first I did not care for it at all, but it got better and I actually thought the ending was better than most. (My pet peeve is that I often enjoy books but find the endings are kind of weak ). It was an easy read, but I don't think it's anything all that special.

The Orphan Keeper was for October, and I thought that was wonderful.

I will try to find a few of the lists and share them for what we will be reading.

I am going to start the Keeper of Lost Things, which I think was suggested here.

I've read 7 of the books on your Book Club list, Annie. I just finished Moloka'i by Alan Brennert. It was interesting, heart-breaking, well-researched and beautifully written. I think someone here recommended it. I'm not sure what I am going to read next.

Above, I wrote, " I read KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON by David Grann earlier this month. It was educational. I wish its presentation had been more, I don’t know, amped up? "

Today I was discussing the book with a friend who loved it for the historical significance of the subject and the author's research. However, she was offended by one of the praises for the book/author, which compared the book to pulp fiction: "...a murder mystery as good as any piece of pulp fiction." It dawned on me THAT was what bothered me about the writing and boy was I wrong. The author may have purposely used pulp fiction writing technique which would have been pertinent for the time period of the story. Facts, facts, and more facts about a series of murders so hard to believe.

Here's our book club list for next year:

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan

The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke by Andrew Lawler (looking forward to this one as the discussion leader who chose the book is a respected retired History prof)

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Warlight by Michael Ondaatje

The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Sisters by Mary S. Lovell

Crimes of the Father by Thomas Keneally

Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving

Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon

I just finished Liane Moriarty's new book Nine Perfect Strangers. It was different from her previous books but I enjoyed it. I've read the Alice Network and it was very good but heavy reading in some parts. I didn't really care for Little Fires Everywhere. I enjoy this thread and seeing what everyone is reading.

Has anyone here read The Elegance of the Hedgehog? I'm trying to get into it because it's for next month's book club, but I'm really having problems connecting with the characters and trying to figure out how THEY connect to each other (which will likely be revealed later). Does it get better/easier to read? Sometimes things get lost in translation, but I'm not sure if that's it. I'm enjoying some of the existential observations, but IDK if that's enough.

I finished In Our Mad and Furious City yesterday. Have been struggling with how to describe it. Nothing seems adequate. Then it occurred to me that the title perfectly describes the book. Recommend.

I'm currently reading Dear Life by Alice Munro, one of my favorite short story writers.

Oly I read The Elegance of the Hedgehog but it's been awhile. I remember really liking it, but it did take some time to be able to relate to the characters.

Yesterday I finished The Last Days of Café Leila. I'd give it 3-1/2 stars. I enjoyed the parts about Tehran before the Shah was deposed, and life in and around the café and hotel. And the food! Given that the book really takes place over a summer and a little into the fall, I thought some of the storyline didn't stand up (e.g., the motorcycle caper, for lack of a better word). It just strained credulity. I thought the writing was good. I didn't think the ending was that satisfying.

olychic, stick with the Hedgehog! It received high marks from all 9 of my book cub members, both the "lit'ry" lovers and best seller types. All of us struggled with the first half, thinking she was trying too hard ...a turn off. But! We all ended up loving it.

Martinca, thanks, I am JUST approaching the 1/2 way mark and finally am no longer dreading going to bed to read it. Glad to hear it's going to continue to get better.

I'm listening to Michelle Obama's book on Scribd, and wow, really, really loving it!

Just finished Little Fires Everywhere. 5 stars. Looking forward to our book discussion.

Went to book club, and Secrets of a Charmed Life was very well liked- so it's not just me recommending.

I am in the middle of The Keeper of Lost Things and am really really enjoying it.

Well, I finished The Keeper of Lost Things, and would still recommend it, very nicely written, very good story. and a bit different. The only thing is, I found that towards the end, it seemed to get a little tired. Overall though very worth reading.

I am just starting Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah (believe it or not, this is my first book by her). This is for book club #2 in mid December.

I just finished The Trick by Emanuel Bergmann. I think someone here recommended it a month or two ago. I liked it and it was a very fast read. My flight on Tuesday was delayed by 2.5 hours and was I ever glad I had a new book with me.

Parts of it felt a bit too pat and convenient, but the parts that take place in Poland and Germany before and during WWII were very harrowing. So there was very light and very heavy in back to back chapters. Overall, I enjoyed it.

Finished The Book of Etta, the second book in Meg Elison's The Road to Nowhere trilogy. Not as good as the first, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, but good enough that I look forward to the third book due out next spring. I'm kind of a sucker for dystopian novels that revolve around strong female characters. The 'saved in the nick of time by finding a boat' scenario happens much too often in these types of books though.

Still reading Alice Munro's Dear Life. One of the things I like about short stories: pick up the book and read a story or two whenever you feel like. Until the library insists that you return it, that is. Next novel is one recommended by a friend, Child of God by Cormac McCarthy.

Becoming - Michelle Obama. I'm almost finished and mostly enjoy the book but there was quite a bit of boring to it.

Killers of the Flower Moon will be a gift from my grandchildren. Their mother and her family grew up in Pawhuska, Osage County. I talked to her mom yesterday and her grandfather declined to be part of the horrific deeds going on back then, and she also said her husband's (DIL's dad) grandparents were visiting a couple one night and they left when the baby started crying. Shortly after they left, that house blew up, which is in the book.

NONE of this was in our OK History books and never talked about.

DIL's mom told me it was the "Wild West" back then. I can't wait to read it.

Jen, if you're reading this, thanks for telling me about the book. :)

Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents. The other book my little grandkids will get me for Christmas.

Salonva, I recently finished listening to The Keeper of Lost Things. I too thought it was nicely written and a bit different, but felt the pacing was a bit slow as I too started getting bored. A nice read, but not necessarily one I’d go out of my way to recommend.

I’m not sure where I heard about it but when picking up books at the library I had on reserve, one was sitting there I did not recall reserving. The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State by Nadia Murad. While her story and the plight of her people needs to be told, I did not find the book well written at all. I’m not sure if it was the translation or just poor editing, but for such a horrific story, it did not take hold of my emotions like this type of story normally would. Murad won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 so I can’t believe I had not heard about her before.

Earlier in November I read Birds in Fall by Brad Kessler which was recommend on another Gardenweb board. I’m not sure how I would describe this book as there isn’t really a plot and the characters are not necessarily fully developed. Yet, I still found it incredibly satisfying as it explores grief in a quiet, contemplative way without getting overly sentimental. I appreciated the author’s use of nature, ornithology, and music to symbolize how people mourn differently. A very quick read for me-I read it in one day.

I’m currently reading The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar, which is a sequel to The Space Between Us. However, it can be read as a stand alone. I enjoy Umrigar’s writing despite her stories centering around the grim complexity of life for women not born into privilege in India..

Well... I finished Child of God By Cormac McCarthy. I would look sidelong at anyone who said they liked or enjoyed this book. It was dark. It was disturbing. It was really good.

Since I've last posted, I've read a number of books in Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series. I've quite enjoyed them and learned a bit of history from them.

Recently finished America for Beginners by Leah Franqui… about an Indian woman who travels to the US after the death of her husband and goes on a road trip to find her estranged son (and herself) ..and whether he is alive or dead. It was an enjoyable enough read but I rated it 3 stars. There was nothing that stood out as particularly good about it... but I carried on without any major complaints. How's that for a luke warm response?

Just started My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite -- it's a quick read and seriously entertaining. It's a fast paced dark, comical farce-- something I love in books, plays and movies! I can't relate to either of the characters and the plot is absurd-- but is it? At least so far, it's clever enough to be almost believable... in the way that Dexter (the HBO series) is almost believable.

I almost didn't pick it up-- I don't really like violence (so far, there has been none!) and I don't typically like to read something that has been hyped up in the literary media. But I read an interview with the author and found her delightful. Since it was short, I decided to give it a go and boy am I glad I did!

Just started The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson. Nonfiction about the cholera epidemic in London in the 1850s. Already the descriptions of the smells of the city with their lack of sewage handling and living conditions averaging 5 people per room have been stunning. So glad I live here and now and not then and there! Indoor plumbing is definitely going into my gratitude journal!

Annie, I lived in the north of England 1967-73. One house had a normal-ish kitchen sink and bathtub upstairs, but the toilet was in the backyard, in a cluster of outhouses for about 4 houses. It was a walk. There was no light. It snowed. Looking back, I honestly don't know how I survived there for almost 2 years.

Thanks, blfenton. I loved Eleanor Oliphant, too!

I loved Eleanor too!

Another Eleanor fan here. Blfenton pegged the book/character very well.

The transition. I picked up two books from the library today. Started one while I was waiting for DH to make supper: Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents by Pete Souza. Enjoying Souza's photos of President Obama and shaking my head (and fists) at Trump's tweets/statements. Set that aside and started The Journey to the East by Hermann Hesse. I was somewhat Hesse obsessed in high school but I don't think I've read any of his works since then. Both of these books after finishing the rather gruesome Child of God yesterday.

Evil-good/evil politics-philosophical/mystical. My brain is spinning a bit. (No apologies for the political opinions expressed here will be forthcoming so don't even try.)

I can't believe November is nearly over!

I just finished Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. Such a good book! I have had a run of mediocre books so this was a treat. I didn't realize when I checked it out that it is young adult, the writing is quite good.

I posted this earlier with a link to Ama .... and the post was hidden. I took out the link and the post showed right away. Weird.

I finished The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar. I really like her writing style. This is the second novel I've read by her. It was a sequel, but can be read as a standalone.

I just started The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama. I have no idea where the recommendation came from and had a hard time finding the book. My library system doesn't carry it so they had to order it from another county. I realized why when I got the book - it was published over 20 years ago. She has written about 10 books and oddly enough, I noticed I added three of her other books to my TBR list on Goodreads way back in 2012 and 2014 but not this one. And I still haven't read the others. It's starting off well, about a Chinese young man who goes to a family vacation home in Japan at the outset of WW2 to recuperate (he has TB).

4kids, my library just sent me a notice that The Samurai's Garden is waiting for me. It leapfrogged over two other books.

Finished both Shade and The Journey to the East. The former was okay - nice photos but the text was meh. The latter was very Hermann Hesse but I did not spend a lot of time thinking about the "meaning" of it. I guess that I was more into the "deepness" of his books when I was seventeen than I am now.

Next up: non-fiction. The Promise of the Grand Canyon: John Wesley Powell's Perilous Journey and His Vision for the American West by John F. Ross. Sounds quite interesting.