DD1 gave me The Lack of Light, by Nino Haratischwili, which she enjoyed, saying that it reminded her of the Elena Ferrante books. I have just started it, and DD1 was right! She usually is!

I just finished The Miracle and Tragedy of the Dionne Quintuplets by Sarah Miller. I loved it -- 5 stars. My mother used to tell me about them when I was a child. I thought I knew a lot about their story, but this was loaded with details new to me. Miller's style of writing made it seem almost like reading a novel. Each chapter was only a couple of pages and I could say that makes it easy to pick up and put down, but I couldn't put it down. I've always been fascinated multiples, especially when they are identical, and the book also included many pictures I hadn't seen before.

I guess I didn't post but I finished Buckeye and really thought it was a great book. I thought it was so well done; good writing, very good story and interesting characters. I gave it 5 stars. I think it would be a super book for a book club, but I enjoyed it all for myself.

I then read We All Want Impossible Things. It was mentioned in previous months and I guess the title interested me. Although it had more than a little substance to it which I liked, it was very much like reading dialogue consisting of valleygirl speak and oh so irritating. I kept toying with not finishing it but since it is under 250 pages I figured I should finish it. There were good parts that also held me but overall, I was so annoyed that I read it.

I went back to previous months and saw that others felt the same way and I have no idea why the title caught my eye and I didn't investigate more.

I actually gave it 2.5 stars. I did finish it!

And now to counteract that, I just started.

Sorry to hear, Salon. i adored it … and did a double-take re valley girl talk lolol. Oh well. It touched me … and took me way back

I finished The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier for book group. I give it 3 stars. Kind of a love-hate thing with the book. It was very boring in the beginning and it was weird as she keeps the same characters skipping ahead in time, so 200 years will pass and the characters age, say 3 years. It is a mechanism that allows her to unfold the history of Venice and the Murano glass makers, but it is an odd device if you want any sense of realism. You need to have a high tolerance for the details of glassmaking to read this book. I suspect it will lead to decent discussion but I can't make that meeting.

I have been to Venice and found it to be a most beautiful and fascinating city. As I was reading the book, I came across a tv show: Aerial Italy. I'd seen Aerial America a number of times, but this was a first for me. They fly over various geographies and tell the story of region, historically and in current times. The one I saw covered Venice and told some of the history of the creation of the city, the events during the various wars, the architecture and other features. So it meshed nicely with reading the book.

Sorry funky! I know I was harsh....

I realize my post cut off. I was saying ....And now to counteract that, I just started.

All Creatures Great and Small. It's a delight.

I'm 1/2 way through American Nations: a History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard and it sure explains a lot about our differences. State boundaries are far less important than these regions and the cultures that originally settled in those areas, where those people came from and their histories. I thought it would be drudge reading but it's not at all - so far a solid 4 and great fodder for a book group if your group does NF.

It must be my shortcoming, but I did not like All Creatures. I love the PBS show (especially all the beautiful scenery and the even more beautiful sweaters--I am a knitter--, but the book seemed very repetitive. Oh, well.

@salonva .. omg you weren't harsh at all and no reason to apologize! Books hit us all differently and for different reasons. Sometimes the same book hits me differently in different moods! No reason to feel badly about that.

I hated some much loved books -- most recently The Correspondent but there are plenty of others.

We All Want Impossible Things especially touched me because of the characters' parallel to my BFF and I .. ages, personalities, etc (but no, we don't talk valley girl LOL!)

ditto on The Correspondent, Funky!

I have been on a Lily King roll. I started with Heart The Lover, which I really liked a lot. Then someone told me to read Euphoria, which I liked but not quite as much. Just finished Writers and Lovers, which I also liked a lot. Sorry, I have a hard time assigning rankings, but maybe I’d give all of them a 4.

Next up is Glory Over Everything, which I guess is a kind of sequel to The Kitchen House, which I read years ago and it is one of my favorite all-time books. I wish I had read the sequel closer to the time when I read The Kitchen House, since I don’t remember the details of that book, but so far, only about 10 pages in, I don’t think it will matter too much.

Oh, and I really liked Buckeye too.

And I love Catherine Newman!

Just finished Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and am still feedling dazed by its brilliance. What a writer she is. And what a keen and dispassionate observer of the most elusive thoughts, tendencies, and nuances of the human mind. Especially in the cross-cultural, inter-racial space. (I was less impressed with her latest novel Dream Count, though it was still good.)

Adichie plumbs the deepest crevices of the immigrant mind with enviable ease. Every sentence sparkles with effortless precision and wit. The most fleeting, most elusive of human interactions and attitudes are captured in elegant, efficient prose. The depth of perceptiveness in a single sentence would take an academician pages of ponderous prose and esoteric theories to explain the same idea. The accommodations and pretences an immigrant layers on to their identify while dealing with the locals, the immigrant observing herself through the eyes of the locals, the immigrant towards fellow countrymen, the accommodations and pretences of the locals ... within a single paragraph Adichie can explore every permutation and combination of the various faces each person puts on.

Anyway, I'm in awe of her writing and her power of honest, fearless observation. Love the book and plan to re-read it before returning it.

I was on a Lily King spree a few months ago. Liked Writers and Lovers and Heart the Lover, particularly the portions on the writing proess and craft. Euphoria was ok.

I LOVE the Creature books. I read them over and over...and over. I love the shows too. If I could choose my perfect life it would be there. Heart and soul. I just finished The Hatchet by Gary Paulson. A very engrossing, yet quick read. A young boy has to survive in the Canadian wilderness. I have a feeling it's a pretty well known book for students. I liked it.

Just finished The Good Daughters - Brigitte Dale; historical fiction published Nov 2025 and is Dale’s first novel. I rate it a 5 & a great book for club discussion.

This story takes place in 1912 UK & is primarily about three young women who join UK’s suffragette movement. It’s a great reminder of women’s hard won right to vote. It’s also a timely reminder of what’s at stake today with US voting rights being currenty under fire and threatened.

I liked this book because it’s a first novel for a new author. I love that it’s a story about strong women in history which none of us learned about in our school history books which contain so little information about women and their accomplishments.

I really enjoy reading Lily King, particularly her contemporary fiction (less fond of Euphoria). Writers and Lovers had me laughing out loud in an airport.. Five Tuesdays in Winter, short stories, is also very good.

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters is a couple years old, completely engaging and easy to read, but would be a good b.c. selection.

Berry Pickers was my book club selection for this month; I knew I wasn’t going to the meeting, so I didn’t read the book. But I have it, so I’m glad to hear it’s good!

Here’s a list from Katie Couric’s newsletter. Some good ones, I think.

https://katiecouric.com/entertainment/book-guide/life-changing-books/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WUC_Weekend_April18_2026&utm_term=Saturday%20Send%20List

Yes, i forgot to mention Five Tuesdays … Loved the collection.

Just finished Theo of Golden. Sweet and sunny. Felt a little likea bland fairy tale at the beginning and the final reveal was a little obvious from the beginning, but it was the kind of book we all could usein these times.

I was given Theo by a friend but I just could not warm up to it. the characters reminded me of the prostitute with a heart of gold, so yes maybe fairy tale like. maybe I am too cynical.

Thanks for the list, Sue ... I have only read 6 of them but at least double that are on my TBR/Kindle. It is good encouragement ... and well timed, as I am about to select my next book.

Strangers : A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden. Ms. Burden, in a stable marriage and the stay-at-home mother of three children, answered the phone one day and heard a male voice tell her, "Your husband is having an affair with my wife." Her husband confessed that this was true and left the home, making it clear that he only wanted minimal contact with their children. Although she came from a fairly prosperous background, she trusted her husband to act honorably prior to their marriage when she signed a prenup with terms against the advice of her lawyer, and also purchased property solely with her funds, yet also putting her husband's name on the deed. Now that her husband has left, she is raising three children alone and he tells her that if she wants a home, she has to buy him out. Of course, while he was busy advancing in his career, he insists that she be at home raising the children. The writer describes how she dealt with the blow of the ending of her marriage and making a future for herself and the children. Burden has many resources (e.g. a law degree) that many other women do not, yet this is a cautionary tale for all women to protect themselves financially regardless of seemingly stable relationships. I listened to this in audiobook format - a definite 5 stars.

Lisa, ditto on Theo. I didn’t want to be more critical of the book than i already was, for it felt like kicking a puppy. lol.

The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. When I first started reading it for Book Club, I thought "Oh no. This is going to be weird". Then I ended up loving it! I found it (and the children) delightful. It got rave reviews at Book Club. (Chauncy was my favorite!)

I liked Theo a lot. My only complaint is that the end felt like a lot of drama all at once, as if the author was trying to wrap up a whole lot too quickly.

In Kiltumper : A Year in an Irish Garden by Niall Williams & Christine Breen. Williams, the author of This is Happiness, and his wife Christine Breen, moved from New York to live in Ireland on Breen's ancestral farm. This book is contemplative in describing the events in their garden throughout the year, with a feeling of sorrow and a bit of dread since wind-turbines are being installed only 500 meters from their home. They fear that the peace and nature that they value will no longer be possible, as indeed soon begins to be the case when ancient stone walls, trees and vegetation are removed to allow a widening of the road for the passage of the turbines. I really liked the book and took up This is Happiness again after I had set aside as not really capturing my attention. 4 stars.

I finished This Is Happiness by Niall Williams last night. It is a beautifully written, quiet book. I loved his way with language and universal truths, but I felt the story lagged behind. To me, it felt like prose in search of a plot. It's a bit like eating a very rich dessert--a small bite goes a long way. He does a magnificient job creating memorable characters who can step in and out of the spotlight with ease but I suppose I just wanted more of a traditional story arc. I never had a "can't-put-this-book down" moment. But I am in awe of his abilty to nuance human flaws in a way that makes us all a little less flawed. Four stars for that.

I'm a DNF on The Ordeal of Change by Eric Hoffer...silly as it's such a short book. I think it's the wrong time for me...been too busy and my head isn't in the right space for it. I really got a lot of his The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements to the point where I bought it after I read it (from the library). I was hoping this would be the same, but it didn't click with me. A collection of essays/op-eds he wrote after his success with his first book.

Im reading 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin about the stock market crash. It's interesting, but didn't go into the devastating effect it had on society, like I was anticipating. I've read very good books on the depression before, and I can certainly re-read those. This book is full of stock market terms and jargon of which I'm unfamiliar, but too lazy and uncaring to look up. Meh.

hobbitmom....my favorite Wall St phrase... When the market has been tanking, then seems to recover. The question is always is it a real recovery? Or is it just a temporary pause and it will continue to decline. If the latter, they call it a "dead cat bounce". If you drop a dead cat from a 20 story building, it will bounce when it hits the bottom, but that shouldn't be taken for a sign of life!

So many books mentioned--- I will repeat that I very much liked This is Happiness but I adored Niall Williams' Time of the Child. (suggested by @stacey_mb)

Re Theo, count me as another fan. I agree a bit about the ending, being a bit too too but I felt the overwhelming positives of the book just outweighed what I did not love.

I just finished All Creatures Great and Small and yes, I might have appreciated it more with the less is more approach. It still was just such a sweet diversion and I would highly recomend it. It's one of those books I always meant to read. It was a clear 4 plus star read for me.

I've just started Stoner by John Williams. Again, not sure if it was mentioned here ( I tried looking) but someone recommended it and many people seemed to know it. It was published in 1965 and has 4.35 rating on goodreads. link to it on goodreads

Ah, All Creatures Great and Small. I read all of Herriot's series over 50 years ago when I was pregnant with my son. I loved them though I haven't reread them to see how they hold up, but I do love the PBS series of the same name. And, oh, the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales.

OT, but this is so nice. My DD2's MIL and I are email friends. We live far away from each other and met only at the wedding, but we clicked and keep each other up on the books we read. She is a retired middle school English teacher--my kind of person. She keeps in touch with old friends by doing a weekend book group trip to the shore every June. Isn't that lovely? This year, the book is The Magnolia Palace, by Fiona Davis.

I started Michael Crichton' Pirate Latitudes and read for a couple of days. Had to quit because it was so gruesome. I should have known, a pirate book, right? Anyway I am listening to Lynn Cahoon cozy mysteries. That author has many books. Too simple for a book club, works for me trying to go to sleep. That's a terrible recommendation, isn't it?? lol

Because I found Americanah by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie brilliant, I started with her other earlier books. Just finished Half of a Yellow Sun. Another great book, though very different from Americanah.

Set entirely in Nigeria, the book covers the 60s, zooming in on the civil war that gave rise to the sessionist state Biafra in 1967, and its bloody dissolution in 1970. Adichie weaves the personal into the historical and societal effortlessly. I learned a lot about this period in Nigeria’s history of which I was entirely ignorant.

I’ve never been to Nigeria (or to Africa for that matter). But as with any good writer, her writing is powerful and steeps you in the environment, the sounds, the scenes, the streets, the people, the shifting sands of war and power.

For a book with history at its center, its literary qualities don't suffer in the least. Adichie covers a period of history that’s little known to the general readership without the history overpowering other aspects of good literary fiction. There is a book within the book that one of the characters is writing and the mini-“chapters” from that book are pure poetry.

I am awed by Adichie one more time. First with Americanah and now, Half of a Yellow Sun. (Full disclosure, I read her most recent novel Dream Count last year and had less glowing remarks on this forum.)

@faftris I just requested The Magnolia Palace from my library after reading your post! Nice way to get a book rec

Faftris, and KWPNW I did too. But it's going to be 18 weeks!, Must be a good book.

18 weeks!!? My copy is in at library & waiting for me to pick up. It was published in ’22 I think & there are 3 copies in my library system so that’s why it’s readily available.

Disclaimer. I did not read The Magnolia Palace myself. I was just passing on my "relative"'s book group get-together weekend. I froze all my holds at the library pending a vacation, and I am suffering greatly.I need to remember to have something on hand for an emergency. In case of emergency, break glass?

@faftris I do understand you haven’t read Magnolia Place but the source of your recommendation seemed great. You froze your holds due to vacay? I’d be taking a book with me! Maybe Magnolia Place is the one to take! 😁

I recently read The Sea Detective and The Malice of Waves by Mark Douglas-Home. I really enjoyed them. I'm pretty sure he only has written four books so far. I have all of them and am currently reading The Woman who Walked into the Sea. I would give the first two I finished 3.5 stars each.

I get sick reading on the plane or on trains and cars, so I don't bring books with me. And it's going to be enough to fit clothes and toiletries in a not-very-big suitcase. But I do have a literary project. My daughter's favorite book is Forster's A Room With a View, and when she and I travel, we always try to find a copy of it in the language of the place. So far, we have French, German, Spanish and Italian. This trip is to Amsterdam and Paris, so wish me luck in finding a copy of Kamer Met Uitzicht. The hunt is half the fun.

The Second Chance Book Club Stephanie Butland published 2025

This is a great story & a nice read. I loved that the epilogue wrapped up everyone’s life. The book club in the story is a small piece but it’s the glue piece that binds the characters together. There’s not much meat in the way of issues for book club discussion other than to talk about what a nice story this is but it might be fun for a book club to read the same books the club in the story reads. There are 5 lists of books given at the end. These lists are from different aspects of the story in addition to the book club’s readings.

Finished The Correspondent. It was a fun way to read, with the back and forth of different people, to whom she wrote and wrote back. She sometimes supplements entries with during our phone call blah blah blah. Keeps the story moving. Do I think there is much to be discussed for book club, yeah it's got some substance. Three and a half out of 5 stars.

For long time members who have also read The Correspondent, have you seen the recent addition to the thread about the passing of houzz contributor Anglophilia by her daughter?

Link to May 2026 Edition

lisaam, I don't see where she's posted. Where is it?

@rob333, don’t know how to link to it, it’s in Kitchens: Anglophilia; sad news

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5970061/anglophilia-sad-news#addAnswer

Thank you for the heads up and the link. I never could get a read on her very well. So knowing that she's like the main character of this book I feel like I have a pretty good idea now. I love to picture all of us sitting around a table or hanging out in my living room, and now I get her better.