Some Strange Music Draws Me In, Griffin Hansbury, about a teenager just who she is. Interwoven are chapters of the same character, female to male trans about to turn 50 but still figuring things out. The book is well written, easy to enjoy, and perfect for bookclub discussion of both the writing and subject matter.

I read People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn. I have read at least 2 of her fiction books, The World To Come ( I really loved this one)and Eternal Life. I thought they were both so good, well written and well done but definitely not easy breezy. This lastest book is really a collection of very well thought out essays. I found her observations resonated . Her knowledge is on another level so I di find myself looking up things and definitely learned quite a bit. I recommend this, and while it would absolutely make for good discussion , I think it's also something to read at one's own pace and absorb. Still I gave it 4.5 stars.

I am now reading Theo of Golden. It's a great balance and I'm really enjoying it. Sweet but meaningful. I am at about the halfway mark.

Dara's from our town and was brilliant even then.

I haven’t fished Theo yet. It feels slow and as if there’s a loomimg theological point. I’ll try again

Our book club discussed Theo a few weeks ago. It was my turn to host and I did some research on the author and found a really good, long interview with him in the Columbus Inquirer (GA) from about ten years ago, and downloaded some of his music from itunes and also some Portugese fado so we could understand the book in the context of the author and his life experience. Very good discussion, most of us in the group are Christian and the theology took up most of our time.

We are doing Thirsday Murder Club next week, and as we all know its very light, so tomorrow we’re having a watch party to view the movie on Netflix. The discussion the following week will be mainly on the ways in which the book was adapted for film.

How often can you use the word "lugubrious"? I like it for Michael Dibden's Dead Lagoon. It's sold as a detective mystery. There is one, but this is equally a philosophical vehicle for some soul-searching, post-WWII angst among the citizens of Venice. Depressing.

5*

Not a book I would had chosen, but the librarian suggested it. She knows me better than I know myself.

Took me awhile to get into it, but worth the wait.

I finished The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman and really enjoyed it. 4 star, but not for book group. Thanks to all who recommended it.

Next up, This Happened to Me by Kate Price. I suspect it will be a tough read...about how she overcame her traumatic childhood upbringing....yet another from a small Appalachian mill town. Something in the water maybe?

Poverty, isolation and lack of education?

Other People’s Houses / Clare Mackintosh 4.5 rating, The library tag lists this book as fiction but I’d call it murder mystery. It’s quite clever, has engaging primary characters and is a quickish read. There is a 3 book series with DC Ffion Morgan of Wales & this is the third book in the series. This was easily a stand alone story but now knowing there are two prior books, I’m looking for them too. There are 3 characters with enough life issues to have a good discussion about so I think this would work for book club.

I just started book one of the Iron Creek Brides by Karla Gracey

I finished Theo of Golden and have to say it really was a beautiful book. He sure has a wonderful way with words. The story was quite well done and had me really invested.

I have to say I think the spiritual part was where there was a fine balance, and at a few points I felt that it tipped and felt like it was going to tip and lose it. This was more towards the end of the book. Still overall I would give it just shy of 5 stars so 4.5 or 4.75,

I would definitely recommend this, and I think that while it would be good for discussion, I prefer this one by myself.

While I wait for a few from the library, I'm going to read Home Again ( #4 in the sweet Heartwood Hotel series)

Finished This Happened to Me by Kate Price. Tough read but uplifting in that she and her sister survived their horrendous upbringing. She's turned the evil she's experienced into a force for good. Her story was also featured in the Boston Globe Magazine a few years back. If any of you read The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk, she is one of the patients who are discussed in his book, and he dedicated the book to her. I'd give it 4 stars, but only for book group if they know ahead of time what they are getting into. Makes The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls seem pretty tame.

Next up, something lighter for sure: The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson.

Although I rarely post here, I read this thread often. I find y'all's comments and recommendations interesting, and sometimes I even follow them. :^)

Anyhow, I just finished a book that really had an impact of me, "Beneath a Scarlet Sky"

by Mark Sullivan.

Copied from Goodreads:

Based on the true story of a forgotten hero, Beneath a Scarlet Sky is the triumphant, epic tale of one young man’s incredible courage and resilience during one of history’s darkest hours.

Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior.

In an attempt to protect him, Pino’s parents force him to enlist as a German soldier—a move they think will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured, he is recruited at the tender age of eighteen to become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler’s left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reich’s most mysterious and powerful commanders.

Now, with the opportunity to spy for the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino endures the horrors of the war and the Nazi occupation by fighting in secret, his courage bolstered by his love for Anna and for the life he dreams they will one day share.

Fans of All the Light We Cannot See, The Nightingale, and Unbroken will enjoy this riveting saga of history, suspense, and love.

It's quite long (a little over 500 pages) and I found it hard to put down. It's an amazing saga.

Rusty

I read that- Beneath A Scarlet Sky a few years ago and remember thinking that I'd never really read anything about the war from that perspective. I read it for book club and everyone was impressed ( hard not to be). Later on I read Eternal which was great, but pretty much focused on Rome.

A few months ago, I started reading The Thursday Murder Club. I'd had enough of it by about the halfway point and stopped. It had been a slog to get even that far. I don't know, it just didn't grab me.

I'd asked for the book but got the play of 84 Charring Cross. Still lovely. Is author Helene Hanff the mother of Jean Hanff Korolitz, The Plot and The Sequel? (Those featured one really *nasty* protagonist!)

Looking for more cheerful stores. DH is so good about collecting books for me from the library. Distraction is good.

@chisue-- I would say Theo of Golden is a sweet uplifting book.

Also, I've been reading a "chapter book " series, more for kids but it's just so delightful- The Heartwood Hotel by Kallie George.

A True Home ( #1 in the series)

The Greatest Gift ( #2) Link to the first book

I've now read three or four of them and I have been reading them in between heavier books. They'd be in the children's section. I have gotten them from the library on kindle version.

I'm also going to try to find that thread of Happy Reads and will post it.

Here is the link to the Happy Reads thread.

The search function worked- so here you go. <<<--- Click

Chisue, I enjoyed The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion. It's a charming story about a socially inept and kind of OCD guy who meets a girl who is very of-the-moment. There are two sequels too. Hope you are doing well.

faftris - I remember reading The Rosie Projrct a couple years ago. I think the main character, Don Tillman is neurodivergent - on the spectrum. There is a sequel to that book about Don and Rosie that’s equally charming & a nice read. It’s The Rosie Effect. Sony pictures has the film rights but no movie made yet.

ETA just looked up the 2nd sequel - The Rosie Result

Just finished The River is Waiting, by Wally Lamb.

It was a heartbreaker and at times difficult to read due to the subject.

It felt to me like he rushed the ending after the pattern of the rest of the book.

I would give it a 3.9 stars due to that.

@chisue Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler.

Unputdownable, humorous, poignant, uplifting. I read it twice, it was so good.

It's modeled on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew as part of the Hogarth Shakespeare Project.

It's short, so the book isn't heavy and can be comfortably read lying down. I so like reading in bed and some books are just too heavy for comfort. I once got so irritated I tore a book in two. There should be a law limiting book weight.

I like Wally Lamb, but the beginning of The River is Waiting did me in. I couldn't continue. I saw it on the library shelf last week, and thought about giving it another try, but no.

Thanks for the suggestions of some happier reads. I enjoyed The Rosie Project(s) and will look up the YA series, salon. I passed on the Lamb book -- grim premise? Read anyway? Vinegar Girl sounds promising.

I'm coping better with the addition of Lorazepam twice daily for anxiety. Still have the fentanyl skin patch that's renewed every third day, and hydromorphone 2MG (two every three hours). Half a zolpidem 0.5mg for sleep. Would you believe I had to go to the dentist Monday afternoon? False alarm; my ever-painful tongue thought there was a cavity. Bless 'em for seeing me and making it as easy as possible getting in and out. Friday is my next infusion. Then one more Friday before a week off infusions.

The River is Waiting was morbidly sad, though I did finish it. Persistence with some books sometimes feel like an act of self-flagellation. John Boyne is an author I've stopped reading. I don't mind heavy or difficult themes, but not when they overpower a book's literary merits.

I liked Boyne's The Heart's Invisible Furies, but that was about it for him and his politics.

Finished The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson. 4 star, good for book group. About a bunch of ladies and the crossroads of post WWI England where women had a taste of liberation and independence, yet are still hamstrung by society's expectations...parts of it reminded me of Jane Austen. Reminded me of a movie from the 40s where you pretty much know how it will end, but still want to keep at it to see if you're right. I thought it was a bit long for what it was and could've been improved with some tighter editing.

Next up, for book group, Matrix by Lauren Groff....about a nun being sent to lead an impoverished abbey in the 1100s.

Finished Holly Jackson's Five Survive. Not bad as thrillers go. Nice tight plot. She's also good at building characters.

Could Holly Jackson be trying to write poetry? Some sentences were rather poetic. Little jewels scattered here and there throughout the book, and I liked it.

Just started The Reappearance of Rachel Price, also by Jackson, and have trouble getting into it, but I'm giving it a chance.

I just startedKing of Kings:The Fall of the Shah and the Revolution That Forged Modern Iranby Scott Anderson. It came highly recommended ( and though new, has a 4.4 rating on goodreads) and I've always been interested in Iran . It is way more readable than I expected so I appreciate that for sure.

Although I've been reading for a few hours already, I am at about 10 % into it. There is so much information and background shared. Much of it is somewhat familiar though most is pretty new to me. I do remember the huge extravaganza celebrating the 2500 years of the Peacock Throne, and a few other tidbits, but this is certainly in depth and well done.

I read Seascraper, by Benjamin Wood, a Booker Longlist. Just lovely. It's a very short book , but dense and poetic. A young man is a fisherman, trapped by his poverty and class level, but he longs to be a musician.

Gave up on Holly Jackson's The Reappearance of Rachel Price after reading a quarter of the book. Same formula as in Five Survive. Jackson specializes in flipping characters. You think this is the good guy? You're in for a surprise. This happens in lots of thrillers, but with Jackson that's the linchpin of the plot. What worked so well in Five Survive just didn't work for me in The Reappearance, which is as tedious a book as they come, with a ridiculously implausible plot.

The Proving Ground - A Lincoln Lawyer Novel by Michael Connelly. rate a 5 & good topic for book club. I’m a fan of Connelly’s books - this series & the Harry Bosch. Haven’t read many of his other series. Always quick & entertaining reads. This book’s topic is AI & (mis) use of Avatars & the potential negative effects on teens. That’s the topic of great discussion for book club - the situation presented in the book has already happened IRL.

Time of the Child by Niall Williams. This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. Electricity has recently come to the small Irish town of Faha, the same setting of Williams' earlier book, This is Happiness. The story is set in the Advent season as the town readies itself for Christmas when a middle aged doctor and his unmarried adult daughter are thrown into a predicament when a baby is left in their care. One of the issues is that they become very attached to the infant but its existence has to remain secret lest the government remove the child. Just a lovely and rewarding read - 5 stars.

Finished Matrix by Lauren Groff for book group. I give it 4 stars and think it will make for good discussion. Good for those who like historical fiction and are looking for something quite different from the usual WWII fare.

Next up, The Last Party by A. R. Torre.

I recently finished Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal. I didn't care for it (needed a good editor) and would give it a 2.5 stars. But we had a good book group discussion about the novel's style (vignettes from different perspectives), the difficulties in executing that style, and the portrayal of women (particularly of mothers).

Also finished Heartwood by Amity Gaige, which I found a more successful novel, and would give it a 3.5. Not always plausible, but entertaining. I'm curious to see how that one pans out for our book group discussion.

And just finished Peace Like a River by Leif Enger for another book group; I loved the narrator's voice (an 11-year-old boy), though I wasn't always convinced by the magical (miraculous) elements. But I found it otherwise consistent, beautifully written, and a compelling story. I'd give it a 4 and hope my group has a robust discussion about it.

I recently finished a reread of Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Caine Mutiny, by Herman Wouk. It had been long enough since my last reading that I'd forgotten almost all of the story.

Wouk had himself been a naval officer during WW2 serving on the very same type of ship (destroyer mine sweeper) that he chose for the setting of the story. His understanding from personal experiences of the stresses and strains suffered by the crew during wartime service on such a ship makes the action and the story all the more authentic and compelling. It's very hard to put down. It's a bit long compared to some other novels but it's an enjoyable book to read.

Some of you will remember the discussion about Erik Larson’s books - maybe in last month’s thread. I just started The Spendid And The Vile which Elmer suggested as the book of Larson’s to start with. I’m on chapter 6 of 101 + Epilogue. 503 pages of fairly small print. My hesitation about reading it is the topic - War. I try to stay away from that one. But, this story seems more about the personalities and less about the horrors of war so I’ll keep reading.

I suspect the conduct and outcome of WW2 would have been quite different had Britain not had Churchill as Prime Minister. He influenced not only the conduct and morale of his country but those of the US too.

The book explores many insights gained from recently released archival materials.

Last week, I read Five Tuesdays in Winter, a collection of short stories by Lily King. Highly recommend it. Liked the last one in the collection, especially. Don't recall where I heard about it. It may have been that I read Writers and Lovers and just started reading other things by her.

Follow up on Matrix by Lauren Groff: We had our discussion last night and the reviews were evenly mixed with the yays and nays about equal and a couple indifferent. One called it boring, another thought provoking, another said it was fiction but *not* historical fiction. Another praised the writing and read a few sentences as an example. Many mentioned needing a device with them so they could look up the very extensive vocabulary used including some latin and french phrases.

Leif Enger ( mentioned above by @kkay_md) is an author I have enjoyed. I tend to confuse him with William Kent Krueger and Ivan Doig. I love them all . I had to look it up on goodreads and I apparently did read Peace Like a River and gave it 4 stars. I also read and remember really liking Virgil Wander as well as So Brave, So Young, And Handsome which according to my ratings, I thought was ok but not as good as the other 2.

Thanks for the recommendation of Time of the Child. It sounds wonderful.

I've reserved it and should get it soon.

I just finished the book about the Shah and Iran , King of Kings, The Iranian Revolution-A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation . How's that for a title! Strangely when I look it up, it comes up with 2 different titles but same book as far as I understand with the author Scott Anderson. My original post above had a slightly different title which I copied from the actual kindle version I was reading... Anyway it was really excellent and very well documented. I gave it 5 stars. It was published in August 2025.

Not sure what I will read next.

I'm reading and thoroughly enjoying Time of The Child. To be honest, I didn't read what was written about the storyline, just the high praise by @stacey_mb.

I'm not finished with it, but it is just so magnifcently written, that I frequently re-read sentences just because they are so incredible. Such a delight.

I had read This is Happiness, and I remember that although I liked it, I wasn't loving it the way others did. I think it deserves another read.

Just read another by Lily King, one of my favorite authors, Heart the Lover. She covers big and small topics, frequently funny, and well put together.

Am now working on Nobody’s Girl; not as well written, certainly not enjoyable and diverting, but feel it should be read.

My hold on the new Anna Quindlen book, More Than Enough, popped up on Libby. It was tiresome and predictable. Cancer, dementia, mother issues, infertility. At least it was short.

Lisa, I also liked Heart the Lover (and Writers and Lovers), particularly for her exploration of the writing process.

I am reading "Wuthering Heights" and a Japanese mystery "Strange Houses".

I finished The Last Party by A. R. Torre. It's a thriller. Parts are a difficult read as each chapter is narrated by one of the characters, including the psychopathic killer. I had trouble sticking with it because that part was so dark, but then as the story unfolded and I needed to know who came out OK and who didn't. It got very exciting. I'd give it 4 stars. Not for book group.

Next up, The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett.

I am reading “OUR MOON, HOW EARTH’S CELESTIAL COMPANION TRANSFORMED THE PLANET, GUIDED EVOLUTION AND MADE US WHO WE ARE,” by Rebecca Boyle.
It’s a fascinating look at the science behind the moon’s essential role in the universe, all life forms we know today and the role it plays in our lives as well. It’s not a super easy read, but the knowledge it presents makes it hard to put down.
It could be a good book club read, but only if the group is interested in a scientific book.

debra

Link to March 2026 Edition