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What are you reading?

Laura (rhubarbgirl)

(website)

Veteran

What are you reading these days? A friend recommended Ann Leckie's sci fi trilogy and I've started the first one, Ancillary Justice, but man is it dense in world building and cultural elements. I don't normally read a ton of SF and this is why. The setup is really intriguing, though - the main character used to be an AI with a distributed consciousness. I'd switch to listening to it in audiobook - that's what I do with a lot of dense stuff - but the reviews for the narrator on Audible are horrible.

Other than that it's been a lot of local history stuff for research, books on the Donner Party, and a few romances for relaxation. I did read Brene Brown's new book, which I liked but not as much as her previous ones. In the car I'm listening to Rewire by Richard O'Connor, which is all about how to learn new habits and coping strategies instead of indulging in self-destructive behavior. It's a bit of a slog but has some interesting insights.

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JAileen

Veteran

Mostly I get non fiction I heard about on NPR. But right now I'm reading Longbourn by Jo Baker. It's about the Bennet family from the viewpoint of the servants.

What books are you reading about the Donner Party? I used to live in Truckee and so have always been fascinated by them. Ordeal by Hunger by George Stewart is a classic, but I also enjoyed Left Hand Turn by Jeannette Gould Maino, about the Donner Party women.

Laura (rhubarbgirl)

(website)

Veteran

JAileen, have you read Death Comes to Pemberley? It's quite fun.

My Donner Party thing started when I recently found a vintage book at the used book store - a 1940 Stanford UP reprinting of the original book on the Donner Party, originally published in the 1870s and written by a man who at the time was the publisher of the Truckee newspaper, and had befriended some of the survivors who were still around and were willing to tell their stories. It's very Victorian and overwrought, but apparently was the first sympathetic portrayal of the group (a lot of the original reporting exaggerated the cannibalism and general horribleness and villainized the survivors). Ordeal by Hunger's first edition came out in the 1930s, revised until the 60s.

Then somehow nobody wrote a book on the Donner Party for decades until recently - Ethan Rarick's Desparate Passage came out in 2009, and is a good general overview of the whole trek, quite readable. And I just picked up a copy of The Indifferent Stars Above, by Daniel James Brown (the guy who wrote The Boys in the Boat) which focuses on young wife Sarah Graves and her family.

Gabrielle Burton has written two books on the Donner Party - Searching for Tamsen Donner, which is a memoir about the trip she and her family took across the country in the 1970s following the path of the Donners - and a novel based on her research, Impatient with Desire, which I just got and haven't read yet.

I'll have to look up Left Hand Turn; that's a new one to me.

Anonymous

I'm just finishing "Hotel Florida," a non-fiction work that covers the lives of a group of journalists and photojournalists who covered the Spanish civil war in the 1930s. The central characters are Ernest Hemingway and his mistress Martha Gellhorn; photographers Robert Capa and Gerda Taro; and a Spanish press officer and his deputy/mistress. I'm also working on "Tales of the Alhambra" by Washington Irving, a wonderful and charming group of stories. Can you tell I visited Spain over the summer?

When I finish these two, it's on to "City on Fire," a mystery set in 1976 New York City.

MsMaven

Veteran

I just finished reading The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate. She won a Pulitzer for the book. We read her proposal in a book proposal class I took last year, and I finally got around to reading it. Excellent and well-written. He plays a minor role in the biography I am writing.

Then I read Tempest Tossed: The Spirit of Isabella Beecher Hooker, who was Henry's younger sister. (One of these days I'll get a biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe, his older sister.) I only knew Isabella as a suffragist, so while this book wasn't as good as Applegate's, it was interesting and gave another point of view of the famous Beecher family.

On my last trip I read the Patriot Threat by Steve Berry and the most recent Maisie Dobbs mystery. Now I need to find another airplane book for my next trip.

JAileen

Veteran

Yes, I've read Death Comes to Pemberley, and enjoyed it. There are a lot of Pride and Prejudice take offs that I've read too. Most of them are forgettable, unfortunately.

Left Hand Turn came out in the late 80s. Re Donners: I was in a knitting group which included a woman who lived in Donner State Park (her husband was a ranger). We had a get together one evening at her house in wintertime and it was very eerie.

kellygirl

Veteran

Work has really put a damper on my reading habit. I plowed through a bunch of books this summer when all of my book reservations seemed to come through at the same time. I think I read four or five books in a month--which is more than usual for me. The last book I loved was The Royal Assassin--the second in the Farseer Trilogy. Can't wait to read the next one. Currently reading Flags of our Fathers. Unbroken is the next on my non-fiction list.

catgirl

Veteran

The Children Act by Ian McEwan.

Runcarla

Veteran

Have read Longbourne and Death Comes to Pemberly! DH and I both love the history of that time and consume literature from and about that time.

I'm finishing up The Housekeeper's Tale by Tessa Boase, which is non-fiction about the women who ran English country houses. I get through about a book a week, an hour at a time on my daily train commute, but have been 2 weeks on this book.

I read the Poldark books by Winston Graham when PBS came out with the first mini-series on Masterpiece Theatre. Did not read the subsequent books. Have taped the new new series and started to watch. Tempted to read the rest of the books.

greycat6

Veteran

The Martian by Andy Weir. Preview reading before I let my 13 year old read it and see the movie. So far so good, I think he will really like it.:)

anne

Veteran

I love these threads!! I think I'll head over to my library catalogue to reserve things with this page over!

Una, SNAP!! I read the Children Act just the other week. Am reading Atonement (by the same author) at the moment.

I read a book on the Donner party some years ago but can't remember the title.

I am definitely keen to read Longbourn, which was mentioned favourably in reviews of Northanger Abbey by Val McDiarmiud, which was an updated take on the Jane Austen Novel.\

I recently read the Luminaries, which won the Man booker prize a couple of years ago. Kind of a murder mystery, sent in mid 19th century gold rush new Zealand.

rachylou

Veteran

I'm reading a free ebook from Barnes & Noble: A Dodge, A Twist, and A Tobacconist. Steampunk. It's entertaining and moves. The characters speak Victorian-light, just the right amount. The Victorians used far too many words and too little punctuation, hehe.

Mary Beth (formerly LBD)

(website)

Veteran

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. The BF got me hooked, and I'm devouring the books like candy! I'm about halfway through The Wastelands. Choo-choo!

Maneera

(website)

Veteran

I'm on the last book (as of yet) from the A Song of Ice And Fire series by George RR Martin (A Dance With Dragons). I read the whole series together, so it's been fun. I think I took a break in between to read The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly.

UmmLila (Lisa)

Veteran

I just read Beautiful Ruins (which mentions the Donner Party, actually) by Jess Walter. Starting on Lit by Mary Karr. Also working my way through Granada, A Pomegranate in the Hand of God, but the parts about the Spanish Inquisition are so depressing that I keep setting it aside. And I have a little slush pile on my iPad of romances by Katharine Ashe.

For those who like science fiction, I enjoyed Seveneves by Neal Stephenson this summer.

Kelly, I like the Farseer trilogy, too. Robin Hobb has a book that is an add on to it that came out more recently (I read it and found it to be a downer.)

Sara L.

Veteran

I'm reading A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail. It's funny and interesting but some parts are dated. I'm about to start Welcome to Braggsville for my book club. I also just finished the sci-fi novel Dawn (Xenogenesis Part 1). It was good enough that I'm planning on reading the next book in the series although it wasn't as good as I was expecting.

JAileen

Veteran

I loved A Walk in the Woods! Also the Lost Continent and In a Sunburned Country, all by Bill Bryson. I read The Lost Continent on a long airplane trip. I would read a paragraph, laugh, read it aloud to my husband and son, they would laugh. This was repeated for several hours.

Anonymous

It's interesting to hear about what others read. We Canadians often have a very different reading list because of our own very strong literary identity. Ian McEwan, who several of you mention here, has been one of my very favourite authors for as long as I can remember, but I read more Canadian literary fiction than anything else. This has to do with the career I have, but I also like to think Canada has produced some of the world's best writers. I did just finish The Paying Guest by Sarah Waters though, and although it was good, it was too long and navel-gazing in it's story-telling style. I am trying to read Elizabeth Hay's latest novel (she's Canadian) but unfortunately it's not grabbing me and I've read all of her books. It's so uninteresting that I can't even remember the title

I have Stephen King's 11.22.63, and Colm Toibin's Nora Webster in the chute next.

Gail

Veteran

I have been reading Kate Mortons books. I read the Forgotten Garden and The Secret Keeper both of which I loved. I am currently reading the Distant Hours but struggling with it. I usually like non fiction especially true crime writing such as Ann Rule.

JenniferAnne

I'm reading Finders Keepers by Stephen King. Also just finished The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates. Both highly enjoyable and hard to put down.

Laurinda

Veteran

I've been reading... Cookbooks. It's been awhile since I've seen what is out there or worked at all on expanding my kitchen technique. There are some inspirational new authors, plus I've added a few four-star recipes to my repertoire.

My favorites so far:
Smitten Kitchen by Deb Perelman
Prune by Gabrielle Hamilton
Plenty and Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi
Ruhlman's Twenty by Michael Ruhlman
New Midwestern Table by Amy Thielen
Anything by Dorrie Greenspan or David Lebovitz

MuseumGal

Veteran

I just finished The Misses Bronte's Establishment by Amy Wolf, which I think many of you would quite enjoy.

JAileen

Veteran

Laurinda, I have David Lebovitz' ice cream book which is really great, especially his peach ice cream with sour cream.

stainedglass

I really enjoyed Ancillary Justice, but it definitely took a little while for all of the world building to make sense. Right now I'm reading a short story by Lois McMaster Bujold, Penric's Demon.

Laurinda

Veteran

@JAileen: Thanks for the suggestion!

kkards

Veteran

i'm going to book mark this post and come back to it....i'm not reading much right now, but i read both of these earlier this fall and enjoyed them both.
Big Little Lies, by Liane Moriaty --light reading, but very entertaining and well written, a mystery with a twist in that you don't even know who gets killed until the end.
The Cartel, by Don Winslow---fiction. for some reason, i really like crime fiction, this was really interesting because i know nothing about the Mexican drug wars. makes you think about the unintended consequences of good ideas.

Ginger

Veteran

I think I'm a compulsive reader; I am ALWAYS reading something. Often while putting on my makeup, eating, walking around the house, etc. I may have issues.

This morning I started Ride the River, by Louis L'Amour. I've read it before; to my knowledge it's the only one he did in first person from a woman's POV. Quite well done!

I just finished Rex Stout's Bad for Business. Stout wrote the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin books; this is a different, shorter series about a detective called Tecumseh Fox. It was really good.

Laura (rhubarbgirl)

(website)

Veteran

So many great books mentioned, awesome. Xtabay, I love Martha Gellhorn; she had such an interesting life - the only person/thing associated with Hemingway that doesn't make me want to punch him in the face.

Greycat, I loved The Martian. The movie is overall pretty true to the book, but I preferred the book. There's a bit of cursing in the book (less in the movie) but other than that I'd think it'd be fine for a teenager. Lots of cool science stuff.

Apparently Sarah Vowell has a new book out, about the Marquis de Lafayette, so I'll be putting on that on my library wishlist. I always enjoy her humorous romps through history.

I ran across John Waters' newest book at the library and grabbed it the other day - it was strange, Waters-ian and filthy as always. It's a book about hitchhiking across the US; the first half is his fictional imaging of the trip, and the second half is what really happened. I found the second half much more interesting.

I'm almost done with Rewire; it's good but a little exhausting to listen to all the ways people are self-destructive every time I get in the car. I only listen to audiobooks when I drive, and I don't drive a ton, so it takes me a while to get through the longer books. (Roots took foreeeeeeever.) I'm also partway through All the Presidents' Men, which I'm reading for a book challenge because it won the Pulitzer. Even though I'm interested in Watergate and associated events, I'm finding it hard going. I expected the book to be more eventful and less "and then on this day they flew to Miami and interviewed somebody's bodyguard's mother to get a phone number".

Anonymous

Laura, thanks for starting this thread. It's fascinating to hear about all these books. And you're right about Hemingway, he doesn't come off well in this book at all! I don't know how Martha G. put up with him as long as she did, especially when she had an amazing life of her own.

Style Fan

Veteran

Lots of good books here. I agree with Lisa. There are some very good Canadians writers. I go through phases. Right now I have not been reading fiction. I did read Miriam Toews though. She is very good. I loved "All My Puny Sorrows".
I liked "Just Kids" by Patti Smith. I am looking forward to her new book.
Another great book that I read a few years ago is "The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love" by Kristin Kimball. It is about a journalist who falls in love with an organic farmer. True story.
Also I liked "The End of Your Life Book Club" by Will Schwalbe.
A great book for those who are into music and the 60s, 70s era is "Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon-and the Journey of a Generation" by Shelia Weller. Very detailed.

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