Well, at least you don't have to figure out how many pages you have left.

I read The Glass House, Emily St. John Mandel, some months ago. Now I find some of the same characters appearing in her Sea of Tranquility. (Not having read Station Eleven, I don't know if there are also some carried over from that book.) I've smiled to think that one character (new to me here) required no research; Mandel has 'lived the role' while fulfilling publicity contracts to her publisher. I like this better than Glass HouseI with its bleak main character. 'm only halfway, but thinking 4Stars.

THe Books of Jacob sounds so interesting but then I saw the page count. It is definitely historical fiction as I vaguely remember some of this.

I'm not sure what you are asking about with the paging because you are right that Hebrew is written and read right to left. Your eye goes from the right to the left -So in a book, it looks like they are starting at the back page or the end when reading Hebrew.

If you go to a synagogue, even the books in English are numbered that way, and page one is what we would consider the end. But you do read page 1 first; the numbers don't count down.

I hope I didn't confuse this more?

I finished The Water Dancer for book group. I'd give it 3 stars. And I suspect there's enough meat for discussion. There are some books that are a chore to read...there are books that you can't put down. This was in the middle. I didn't struggle to get through it, but I wasn't looking for time to get back to reading it either.

I am creating a Books of Jacob cheat sheet so that I can keep all the characters straight in my head. And just my luck, Young Mungo is ready for pickup!

I finished We Are Not Like Them. It was a very good read, and will be an excellent book for discussion at book club. There are so many layers to it. Despite that, I gave it 3 or 3.5 stars. ( The average rating on goodreads is well over 4 so clearly I am not in the majority).

My criticisms of it were that there was a lot of cliche, and so full of current events and references that I felt it took away from the story. They made for a quick and relatable read, but somehow I can't rave about the book. I do think most people will agree more with the goodreads average rating.

GF recommended and I am really enjoying it so far: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

I had to bail on The Books of Jacob. After about 200 pages, I came to the conclusion that I didn't know enough about Jewish mysticism to really appreciate what the author was trying to convey. My failure, not hers. Although I am half-Jewish, my mother's family was not part of that heritage. I have to admire the author's knowledge , as well as that of her translator. Quite an accomplishment.

Being able to become engaged in reading is still kind of hit or miss for me; it seems I really have to have a curiosity about the topic, so more non-fiction than fiction, historical more than modern.

I just finished a biography of C. H. Lightoller, who was the only office to survive the sinking of the Titanic. (If you recall the movie "A Night to Remember", he was the real-life crew member who had his fellow survivors balance on an overturned lifeboat all night).

The writing style was rather dry, more like a newspaper article, but just learning the experiences of a 14 year old who went to sea in sailing ships in the late 19th C. was interesting enough to me. I'd rate it 3 stars, and probably not of interest to a book club.

I've downloaded "The Light of Days" by Judy Batalion, which is about some female Jewish resistance fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto, for my next read. Maybe!

Thanks to everyone who recommended Enger’s Peace Like a River. I finished it this morning and give it 4+ stars I liked it so much. It took me a while to warm up to Virgil Wander and yes, I did enjoy it very much too, but Peace really entertained me and warmed my heart more than I expected. Maybe the title had something to do with it because one of my favorite hymns is ’It is Well With My Soul’. I will be digesting this for a few days and then plan to read So Brave next.

I also finished a mystery, Lisa Scottoline’s What Happened to the Bennett’s last week. it was an entertaining story about a family that goes into Witness Protection. I give it 3 stars.

A pre-pub called Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese--it's the backstory to Hester Prynne. I am really enjoying it.

Annie D, I listened to Maybe You Should Talk to Someone a couple of years ago and enjoyed it very much.

I just finished Lucy Foley's "The Paris Apartment." I found it among the best mystery/thrillers I've ever read. I enjoyed the complicated, nuanced characters as well as the twists and turns of the plot. It has been on the NY Times best seller list for a while. It's also a plus that it is set in "the city of light."

I just finished Lilli de Jong by Janet Benton. I did largely enjoy it, although at times it felt overdramatic. For historical fiction lovers it took place in the 1880s in Philadelphia and spoke to motherhood, wet nursing, and the crazy circumstances women of the time were subjected to.

I liked The Paris Apartment well enough to try Lucy Foley's earlier novel, The Guest List. Meh. Ridiculously convoluted and contrived plot about the sort of people you love to hate as your moral inferiors. 2 Stars because I did finish it. (Although, I also had *nothing else* to read.)

I've been reading fiction by North American Indigenous writers lately. The first was The Prairie Chicken Dance Tour by Dawn Dumont. A group of Aboriginal dancers and drummers from Saskatchewan goes on a performance tour of Sweden, Germany and Rome. The performance in Germany is at the Karl May festival and the author points out how May's novels made North American Aboriginal culture popular in that country. Along with the plot, the book shows some of the issues faced by Canadian Aboriginals, both in the past and in the present day. This is an enjoyable read and is an important one that gives voices to the often marginalized in our society.

Thomas King, a Cherokee Native American, wrote Deep House, a gentle mystery. The main character is Thumps DreadfulWater, who trades quips and barbs with other sometimes eccentric community members. A fun and quick read.

Next up is The Sanest Guy in the Room : A Life in Lyrics by Don Black. Black wrote song lyrics for many years for performers such as Shirley Bassey, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Barbra Streisand, Van Morrison as well as collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber. It promises to be very good.

I am reading The Dreaming Suburb- Book One The Avenue by R. F. Delderfield. Someone on another forum mentioned it and it caught my interest. I am actually reading it in book form (fortunately although the book was originally published in 1958, this is a new printing and the font is very legible for me, who greatly prefers kindle). It's a big book, over 500 pages and very wordy but I am really enjoying it. It explores the every day lives of some families in a newer suburb in England, between the 2 World Wars. Very nicely done. It's going to take me some time but I am savoring it.

salonva, a trilogy I very much enjoyed by R F Delderfield was A Horseman Riding By The individual books are . . . The Long Summer Day Post of Honour and The Green Gauntlet

They follow the life/lives of a family from the late nineteenth century in Devonshire. A time we are led to believe when the sun always shone, cricket was played on the village green and the vicar came to afternoon tea. Well written with believable characters and a very useful 'family-tree' making it easy to follow the many characters.

I had completely forgotten this ^ author! I read one trilogy starting with "God is an Englishman" when I was a teenager or young adult. There are a few other of his titles that seem familiar, but I don't recall reading them - maybe I just saw them on the library shelf repeatedly.

I just read The Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian. I believe it was recommended here but I have no memory of who mentioned it. I quite enjoyed it - I don't put much stock in goodreads ratings, but just now I was curious to see how it was rated and saw this written, which is a really perfect description of the book: Gold Diggers is an Indian-American magical realist coming of age story, spanning two continents, two coasts, and four epochs, in razor-sharp and deeply funny.

It was different than any other books I've read, though I recently read a book about the California gold rush (The Cold Millions by Jess Walters) and have read others about Indian culture and Indian American experiences.

Depending on your group, I think this would be a great discussion for a book club.

The preceding comment attracted my attention because of the reference to Goodreads. Perhaps consistent with what was said, I'm usually skeptical and don't put a lot of value on absolute numbers of third party ratings of any kind but I look to see if there would seem to be a macro consensus or trend.

Out of interest, I looked at Gold Digger's ratings on Amazon. With 800 reviews, only 37% rated it with 5 stars. My experience with books I like best is that having 60% or more 5 star ratings on Amazon is common. On Goodreads, I've tended to not like many books with average ratings lower than 4.0. Perhaps consistent with Amazon (and I know that Amazon owns Goodreads), the average of 7400 contributions for this book is 3.62.

olychick, I wonder what your take is on this. Did you think the book worth reading, or simply one suitable for a book club discussion?

Elmer, I do think it was worth reading, but I suspect it might not be everyone's cup of tea, thus the lackluster star ratings. It's different, but the writing is wonderful, the story and cultural insights are interesting, as is the bit of history about gold she's woven in. And to be clear, this is South Asian Indian culture, not Native American Indian.

I didn't realize that Amazon owns Goodreads!

I always check out the GR ratings before I put a book on hold. Rarely do I look on Amazon, but the overall scores tend to be higher there than on GR.

4.0 is the magic number for me, although I have some dearly beloved books that dipped down into the 3s on GR. Hah, what do they know?!!

A good rating on GR doesn't mean I'll like the book, but it's a helpful starting point.

I just finished True Biz by Sara Novic. The main characters are a headmistress and a teenage boy and girl at a boarding school for the deaf. If you enjoyed the movie CODA I suspect you will treasure this book. In addition to the story the author intersperses facts about ASL, disability and civil rights. The information about cochlear implants was enlightening and horrifying. I love books that entertain and educate the reader and this book did both very well. She did such a great job of describing the characters I feel like I could recognize them as I walked down the street. I rate it 5 stars. There are plenty of issues in the book for a good book club discussion.

Excessively long sentences nearly stopped me from going beyond Chapter One here, but I'm ending up giving 4.5 Stars to The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Eva Jurczyk. Maybe the pedantry is deliberate to start this novel of high stakes within the insular world of academe. The mystery begins with a university's esteemed library in chaos. It's long-time director is felled by a stroke, and the university president appoints the man's long-suffering (female) assistent to fill in, bypassing two (male) candidates. Then a newly acquired rare artifact goes missing the day before it was to be revealed at a party for the preening deep pockets who compete with one another to pay for such things. The acting director manages to get past this, but soon more items can't be located. I enjoyed all the characters, dear ones as well as pompous frogs. It's said that the infighting in academe is so fierce because the stakes are so small -- not here! Look for lust in old and new guises.

I just finished rereading Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute. 5 stars. I love the story, the straightforward way it's told, the common decency of the characters, especially Keith Stewart, our hero. It was the perfect palate cleanser after a few started-and-abandoned police procedurals.

Now reading Transcription by Kate Atkinson. I said no more WWII, but here I am. The jury's out, but it's early days.

I just finished Douglas Stuart's new book, Young Mungo. If you loved Shuggie Bain, you will certainly want to read this. It is incredibly sad and disturbing that an alcoholic mother, poverty and sexual orientation can wreak such sorrow. I had to keep putting it down because I was getting upset, but the beauty of the writing kept me enthralled.

I'm about halfway through, The Last House on Needless Street" by Catriona Ward. I don't know what to think about it right now. So far it is interesting.

I finished Maybe You Should Talk to Someone and really enjoyed it 4 stars. I think I'll recommend it for my nonfiction book group.

Next up for other book group is Hamnet which I'm looking forward to reading.

Has anyone read Karen Joy Fowler's NY Times best seller, The Jane Austin Book Club? I may want to get that after I finish her remarkable We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (2013). I'm past the halfway point in this story of a fifth-year, aimless college student in California in the nineties who has an amazingly touching reason for feeling always estranged from her peers. I'll wait to award stars, but there will be more than three.

I finished Elena Knows, by Claudia Pineiro. Sorry, I don't know how to make the tilde over the "n" in the author's name. She is known for her detective novels, but this book is much more than that. Over the course of one day, a mother seeks to prove that her daughter did not commit suicide. Anything more than that would ruin it for you. Only 150 pages, and shortlisted for the International Booker.

Alt 164 (hold down Alt key and type 164)

There are alt sequences for the most common foreign letters. On a Windows PC, you can also call up the character map from the menu and then copy/paste the letter you want.

ALT Codes for Foreign Language Letters with Accents (usefulshortcuts.com)

Thank you Elmer. I can barely type too. I had the choice between Typing and Band in 7th grade, and I chose poorly. I haven't seen that clarinet since.

If you took band instead of typing, I'd say you made the right choice.

I'm not sure what your age is (and it doesn't matter) but when I was of an age to take typing (and I did, at my mother's insistence), typing was done on mechanical typewriters and alt codes didn't exist.

I just finished Notes on Silencing by Lacy Crawford. This is a book about a sexual assault experienced by the author while she was a student at St. Paul's, an elite boarding school in New Hampshire. More accurately, as the title indicates, it's about St. Paul's campaign to silence her and other accusers. (Hers is just one of many cases levied against the school over the last few years.) I grew up in NH and was always well aware of the school's world-class reputation. My old college roommate has taught there for more than thirty years, and I have visited her on campus a few times. This book paints a very different picture than a walk around its picturesque campus does. It is not an easy read, in fact, it's both tragic and infuriating. But I'm glad to have read it.

Let's just say that my best days are probably "yesters". I hand-wrote all my college papers, and DH typed my grad school ones. When it came time for my masters thesis, he did the drafts on erasable paper (remember that?), but the final copy needed to be on regular paper with no corrections at all. One of the guys in my office was a good typist and was looking to make some extra money, so he did it for me. He had quite a time with the quotes from "The Faerie Queene", but we got it done!

You reminded me of my college days. I have very good typing skills and had the school record for error-less speed (104 wpm). When I was in college I typed up a paper for an optometry student and misspelled fovea throughout the paper as I misread her handwriting. She was so sweet though...just penciled over the words and handed it in that way. Today it would've been such an easy search/replace fix!

Did anyone read "The Storyteller of Casablanca"? Someone recommended it...I've not heard of it.

Thumbs up on Rules of Civility.

I am still reading The Dreaming Suburb and really loving it.

Someone at book club today mentioned Lilli De Jong and spoke very highly of it. I've added it to my list along with Elena Knows. II think if not for this forum and one other that I frequent, I would not have know of more than half of the books I read.

.

I finished The Dreaming Suburb this morning. I really did savor it.

I am not sure how to describe it, but I knew I was reading something special and it was just so engrossing. I suppose it was also more interesting for me as it was about the 1900's -1940 or so on a street outside of London . Although I am sure I have read books based on that time and even that type of setting, this one was just more complete.

I would give it 5 stars.

I don't know if it would be a good book club selection because of the length (just under 600 pages) t,hough it would make for great discussion.

On a mac, you hold down option key then hit n. The ~ will appear and the next letter you type will be under it: ñ.

Opt e: é

Opt u: ü

Opt `: è

Opt i: ô

I just finished Transcription by Kate Atkinson. 3 stars. It was okay. Set in 1940 and 1950 in mostly London. Lower level espionage and counter-espionage. At first I became increasingly annoyed by her overuse of parenthetical comments, even though written in the third person. I am an overuser myself of parentheses when I write casually and they were flying all over the page. I almost quit, but then either they abated some or I got used to them. :) The storyline improved (or I simply became more engaged...see what I'm doing here?) and I rode it out. It wasn't awful, but I don't think I will recommend it. I've never been in a book group, but this might work for one.

I just started English Creek by Ivan Doig, a complete change of pace, story-wise and writing style.

I'm in a reading slump right now. I started The Old Woman with the Knife based on a recommendation here but it just isn't working for me. When I am reading it I'm interested, but the main character is quite off putting and the author hasn't pulled me into caring about her in any way, so I probably won't finish this one.

I'm tepidly trying to read The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories which is a book club selection. Have finished a couple of the stories so far and the author's imagination is pretty impressive. Still, once again it isn't pulling me in...but short stories are a genre I simply don't read because as with this book, short snippets never interest me. I need to settle in for the long haul of a full book length experience with whoever/whatever it is I"m reading about.

Another book club is doing The Lincoln Highway and I'm picking up a copy at the library today. Will give this one my 50 page tryout because I've been burned already by a lengthy post-sensational-previous-book tome that was a complete dud. Lookin at you *cough*Cloud Cuckoo Land*cough*

Kicking myself because I got From Strength to Strengthas a library Kindle checkout before it became a bestseller but then let it expire without reading it--now I'm hearing about it everywhere and I'm back on the wait list but it's much longer. Darn my procrastination!

Just started reading a recommended essay collection by Mary Laura Philpott that is promising so hopefully it will spark my reading mojo.

And I have a new book The Sign for Home that also seems promising. Found that on Modern Mrs Darcy which occasionally tosses out a gem recommendation-hope this is one of those!

I recommended The Old Woman with the Knife.. sorry you weren't able to get into it @runninginplace. There have been a number of books I really liked that you did not. :( We DO overlap on mystery and spy series just not so much overlap in Literary Fiction.

I have also been in a reading slump these last few weeks-- which is when I turn to mystery and/or spy series. I am currently working my way through the Anne Hillerman books in the Leaphorn, Chee and Manualita series. A friend/coworker recommended them and since I am planning a trip to Sante Fe later this year, i jumped right in. I am on my 4th (but 22nd in the series started by her father, Tony Hillerman), Cave of Bones. They are quick and easy reads-- and i find them very interesting as they cover a number of regions and sites in New Mexico as well as the culture of the Navajo Indians as well as some elements of the Hopi and Pueblo Indians.

Funky, you are right-we are reading sisters in some ways but not others. Which is in fact quite similar to my actual sisters, several of whom have a rather alarming predilection for true crime books which I detest LOL.

And you are also right, our mystery/spy tastebuds are very similar. I'm planning to spend the summer with the entire Hillerman oeuvre beginning with book 1 in the original series. I've always wanted to find out what everyone loves about them and I ADORE a series that has a long list of books I can read sequentially.

I think the new Daniel Silva comes out soon so we can dish about our annual Gabriel Allon adventure soon.

I'm well into "Plague Land" by S.D. Sykes. This is the first in a series of mysteries set in Medieval Times. I'm enjoying the complicated characters and author's quirky, subtle sense of humor. This work is during the times of the Bubonic Plague, which upended what was English society in so many ways.There is a vocabulary in the back of the book with medieval terminology. I will look for Sykes' other work.

I enjoyed Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, but more as an easy interlude than a bc read.

I am currently loving This is Happiness. It takes place in Ireland in the 50’s. A language-oriented group will have a field day; every sentence is carefully sculpted. I smile the whole time I’m reading.

Running, I was talking about this year's Dan Silva release just last night. I look forward to them each year! I will likely restart the Tony Hillerman series from the beginning-- I started with Anne's because that was the recommendation. I didn't expect to get through them so quickly!

Too bad our tastes are not completely aligned-- but it has been pretty consistent that my winners (outside of Mystery/Spy series) are duds for you. At least it lets you know what to pass by! LOL

Link to May 2022