I am reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, as I've heard so many people sing its praises. I was warned that there is much about gaming which has little interest for me. There are parts that are really quite interesting, but I'm waiting for it to get there. I read her other book, AJ Fikry, which I thought was really sweet.

I'm sticking with it, but hoping it gets better.

I recently saw Secrets of a Charmed Life, Meissner, (2015) recommended somewhere and checked it out. I think I gave it 3 stars -- back when I read it!

On to The Stolen Marriage, Diane Chamberlain, Unbelievable premise, and I'm waiting for the title to make sense, halfway through.

Can you tell I'm waiting for some 'holds' to materialize?

I finished The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage which I believe was recommended here. I give it 3 1/2 stars, but I think there's lots of meat here that would lead to very good discussion for a book group and I think it would be more universally liked than my experience.

Next up, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I already read All the Broken Places which I didn't realize was a follow on to the former one, so I'm anxious to read it. The latter -- recommended here -- was the best book I've read this year and am recommending to my book group.

Annie D- have you read any of John Boyne's other books? To be perfectly honest, I was not the biggest fan of All the Broken Places but I have read many of Boyne's other books. My favorite of his is The Heart's Invisible Furies (one of my favorite books of all time). Regarding All the Broken Places, I never read Boy in the Striped Pajamas but saw the movie many years ago, before I had even heard of Boyne as an author, so I knew the characters/back story when I read All the Broken Places. I highly recommend his other books moreso as an example of his masterful writing. Others I really liked were A Ladder to the Sky, A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom and A HIstory of Loneliness. His subject matter does not make for "easy" reads but I love his use of humor to temper the dark, grim material and characters.

4kids, I read The Heart's Invisible Furies and I didn't like it as much. I'm reading the Boy in the Striped Pajamas now and having read the other first, I think it's a spoiler in that I know what's coming and am just waiting to get there.

We started reading The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy, and for the first time, the leader is considering calling the book and the meeting because so many are struggling with it and doubting it's worth finishing. I'm about 45 pages in and will give it to 100 before I pull the plug on it.

4 Stars for Birnam Wood, Eleanor Catton. This was much easier to folow than The Luminaries. The author understands what makes people tick. It's a fine mystery as well.

Currently, I am browsing/re-reading The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot as I suggested it for a book club, meeting this weekend. I had really loved it and now reading it again, I am really appreciating it. It's so well done and well written.

Just a heads up to my fellow The Personal Librarian fans. Check your PBS station. This Sunday night, in NY, there is an episode of "Treasures of New York", and the treasure is the Morgan Library. It may be a different day and/or time on other stations.

I just looked and it's on line too: https://www.pbs.org/video/the-morgan-library-museum-bx6fuy/

3.5 Stars for J. Ryan Stradal's Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, his third hit after The Lager Queen of Minnesota and Kitchens of the Great Midwest. You know he 'knows the territory' when a character who is going to accompany someone says, "I'll go with."

Next up is The Librarianist, Patrick deWitt.

4.5 Stars for The Librarianist. Bob Comet's life is anything but dull. Very good writing. I'll be looking for more from deWitt.

I loved The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot even more the second time around.

I can't believe it was the author's first ( and only I think ) book, and the author was born in 1990!

I just started Olga Dies Dreaming. It seems quite different, so far so good.

Just finished The Last Flight. I believe it was recommended here.I gave it 3++ rating and it would be ok for book group...has discussion questions at the end. I found it an easy read and it kept me wanting to know what happened...a twist on strangers on a train...two women in untenable circumstances and how their paths cross to get out of them....would've been a good summer read for sure. I found the reliance on coincidence a bit much though. It was used too liberally to keep the plot twists and turns going. But if you read these things without taking them too seriously, it was definitely enjoyable.

I have just finished a collection of short stories by Ann Petry, called Miss Muriel and Other Stories. They were very good, and if you like her novels, you will enjoy these. Next on the agenda is the new Zadie Smith: The Fraud.

My DD gave me The Cooking Gene by Michael Twitty. It's a sort of black southern culinary history intertwined with autobiography. I've mention here before that I have an issue with desire to read, lost after an illness - still if a book catches my interest, I have no problem with reading quickly and enjoying it. That said, I am finding this book tough going. After 2 weeks I am only up to page 60. If I finish it, I'll come back to update.

I do think that there could be lots for a book club to discuss, perhaps controversial though.

Just finished Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark. Set around 2000, the main characters is a writer in her 80s and her lifelong friend. Both are Quakers from Philadelphia with family summer homes in Maine where most of the novel takes place. It looks so magnificently into women's lives, into family dynamics, into the mystery of love, and it has its own mysteries that work themselves out in the course of the novel.

I loved it as did both of my sisters and the entire book club of one sister. Absolutely 5 stars. I can't recommend it highly enough.

I loved Fellowship Point too. Because my DM was from Providence, I spent a lot of time in Rhode Island. I think of Maine as being RI squared.

Fellowship Point was the best book I read last year -just loved it.

The Personal Librarian. I'm half way into it and will slog on to the end. So far it is the same old same old page after page after page.

Not That Fancy by Reba McEntire. Very fast read. Could have been summarized in three bullet points. If you have no experience with Southern cooking, you might find the recipes of interest. Borrow it, don’t buy it.

The Christmas Quilt by Melody Carlson.

Glad to hear that you enjoyed Sat Nite @the Supperclub, @chisue, I liked Kitchens of the GreatMidwest and heard a nice PBS interview w/ the author. will be on the lookout for it.

I just finished the 3rd book in the series by Fredrik Backman about Beartown. . . Beartown, Us Against You and The Winners. Loved the whole series.

Started, but didn't finish Honeycomb. My sister loved this book and I only got through a couple of chapters and was done. It is a collection of dark fairytales. I want happy or real life.

I also finished and loved Lessons in Chemistry. This was one of those books that you want to pretend you are sick and take a day off work to read. Easy 5 star rating.

Started The hidden life of Trees. Almost text bookish in style, interesting, but is a one chapter every couple of days.

Mixed feelings on The Fraud. I liked it, but it was really all over the place, and since many of the characters are real people, I found myself consulting Wikipedia quite a lot to fix their stories in my head. That made for choppy reading. Maybe a 3.5? I have to admire the writing.

My book club is reading: "The Seed Keeper." I would describe it as a fictional autobiography. Not loving it, but it's OK so far.

Nicole, that was one of my book club reads last year. As I recall, I liked it better towards the end.

Next month is The Last White Man. I think I recall WAYR discussions of it, so I'll have to look back.

Because of you all and the rest of the internet, Demon Copperhead will be here tomorrow. I was really interested in the story but when I read today it takes place in Lee County, the westernmost county in VA, I had to order it because my parents grew up a couple of hours east of Lee County. Should be a great book.

I was browsing the TV schedule and saw that CBS This Morning was doing a segment on a miniseries of All the Light We Cannot See. It's going to be on Netflix, which I do not have, but if you do, you might want to look for it.

I read Olga Dies Dreaming. I have pretty mixed feelings about it. It did win some reader awards and I do not understand why.

I give it 2,5 stars .

link to goodreads for this book

Just starting The Push for our next book club meeting, and will begin The Covenant of Water for our January selection.

barncatz: WAYR???

What Are You Reading?

Sorry. Yes, Bunny.

Meh for What You Are Looking For Is In The Library, by Michiko Aoyama. Unhappy people change their lives after getting advice from a mysterious librarian. Ugh.

Jury of One by John Warley was an interesting read--part courtroom drama, part mystery. Kept me guessing and gave me some things to ponder. Some points good for book club discussion.

4 stars

Faftis - To my way of thinking, your description of What You Are Looking For Is In The Library is spot on. Meh from me also.

Just finished Pint Sized Ireland (In Search of the Perfect Guiness) by Evan McHugh, A travelogue of his journey hitchhiking around Ireland, with emphasis on visiting pubs as much (or more) as seeing the sights. Pleasant light reading - I enjoyed it for what it is, so 4 stars..

Devil In the White City by Erik Larson. Recently read The Splendid and the Vile by the same author.

I am a sucker for those NYT lists of "Books Coming Soon". I am reading a novel from one of those lists by Diana Athill, called Don't Look at Me Like That. It was published in the 60's and has been out of print until now. It's about a girl who doesn't fit in, set in postwar England, and I am enjoying it without being in raptures over it. What is most interesting about it is that Athill was a literary editor, and if you look her up on Wikipedia, you will be blown away by her authors. This was her only novel. If you happen upon it, give it a look.

All my library holds are hitting at the same time. Next up is Brooklyn Crime Novel and Let Us Descend.

faftris, I really enjoyed her Stet: An Editor's Life.

I just finished rereading Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union. It's not for everyone, but if you know a little Yiddish it's a fantastical take on a noir crime story set in an alternate universe where the Jewish homeland is in Sitka, Alaska. His writing is just so good.

I had been meaning to read The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post and finally got around to it. It was such an interesting read. I've read other books by the author, Alison Pataki and this seems to be her "shtick" , writing historical fiction about prominent women. What a life this woman had. I knew bits and pieces of it, but I learned so much more and didn't realize how it all fit together.

Some of the writing is a bit over the top gushing and dramatic but it made for a very entertaining read. I 'd give it 3.5 stars because of that, but I'd still recommend it.

(Post cereal, General Foods, Birdseye, Mar A Lago, Dena Merrill, Faberge eggs you name it.)

Salonva, if you ever get a chance, her house in Washington , DC is a lovely museum. It's called Hillwood House, and it's not far from the National Zoo. One of the most touching things was the little pet cemetery in the rear garden.

Just finished An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us. I learned a lot and found so much fascinating. It's for a book group and I think there are some good discussion points that will come from it. 3++ stars.

Next up for other book group is The Marriage Portrait by the author of Hamnet. We'll see how it goes.

grapefruit, love Erik Larson books, all of them.

Jennifer, I was at least 3/4 of the way through”The Winners” but couldn’t bear to keep going as the narrator basically told the reader which character would never grow any older. I then read spoilers and then turned to the beautifully written last chapter. Great characters and quiet insights into what makes us all tick.

eta:went back and read the scene I couldn’t bear to read. It was gutting (as expected), but poignantly written

Just commenting on The Marriage Portrait. I ldid like it, and while her writing is beautiful, it was for me, overload. I felt that if it could have been 1/4 shorter, I would have enjoyed it more.

I absolutely loved Hamnet.

faftris- thank you for suggesting the visit. I haven't been to DC in probably close to 30 years. DH suggests it every now and then and I keep finding excuses, but that does sound really interesting.

I just started The Road to Bittersweet. I thought I saw it mentioned here, but apparently not. I don't know why it was on my radar. I remember whoever suggested it really raved about it.

I'm hoping it gets there. I'm about 20% into it and not sure what to make of it.

I am having a tough week. I read half of Let Us Descend, and while the story was very disturbing, I was really into the writing. In the middle, it turned into a kind of fantasy novel, where the character is influenced by a long-dead spirit. I bailed. Then I picked up Blackouts, by Jason Torres. Bailed. Tried it again. Bailed a second time. I am going to rest for a few days and do some knitting. My brain hurts.

Link to November 2023 Edition