kkards, those happy endings can be so blissful after a killer day at work! Thank goodness for books you can escape into. they can save your sanity.

I interrupt my more serious or challenging reading by indulging in mysteries. Sometimes bloody, sometimes silly, but the baddie is always caught in the end, which is so, SO gratifying. I wish life worked that that.

I loved Margaret Atwood. I binge read authors. I read her books all at once. The Handmaid's Tail was excellent.

I recently finished Chernow's Hamilton. I'm not a history buff, but I figured it must be pretty good to have inspired Lin-Manuel Miranda to write a music. I can't remember ever reading a book quite that long, but I certainly got more out of it than I would have had I read it when I last studied U.S. history in high school. The partisanship was just as extreme in those days! I am conscientiously applying for the Hamilton $10 lottery tickets every day. A gal can dream, right?

I also just finished Shetterley's Hidden Figures. The film was *inspired* by this book, not based on it. Since I did not grow up in West Virginia or the South, much less Virginia, it gave me a better understanding of Jim Crow America.

I am looking forward to picking up Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow audio book which I've had a hold on for months; it is supposed to be *in transit*. I'll have to finish it within three weeks because I'm sure there's a hold after me so I won't be able to renew it.

Right now I am finishing an audio book by Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation, about an immigrant girl. It is probably at least semi-autobiographical. Dunno if it is classified Young Adult or not. It certainly gives insight into grinding poverty and the challenges that recent immigrants can face, including exploitation by their own relatives.

Your reading choices are inspiring, DonnaF. I've been wanting to read that Chernow book on Hamilton for awhile now. Best of luck with the ticket lottery! The roadshow is coming here next year, and everyone is excited about it. I hope I'm lucky enough to get tickets.

My three most recent reads were:

- rereading The Handmaid's Tale
- Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman (mystery writer from my hometown and wife of David Simon, the writer and creator of The Wire and Homicide: Life on the Street)
- Dark Matter by Blake Crouch - I really liked this. A sci-fi thriller that explores the idea of how we accept (or don't) the consequences of the choices we make in life.

Just finished--
This Close to Happy: a Reckoning with Depression by Daphne Merkin.
Currently reading--
The HR Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon Whitehouse.
Embers by Sandor Marai whose book Portraits of a Marriage I loved.
Dead Wake: the Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson.

Viva -- I have the George Saunders book on reserve so should be reading that fairly soon.
elpgal -- I too read When Breath Becomes Air and found it very moving.

I feel so far behind on my reading list! I'm playing catch up....
Here are the books I'm reading, not including professional books, (I always have more than one going).
1. Detroit Resurrected - to bankruptcy and back by Nathan Bomey
2. The World Until Yesterday - Jared Diamond
3. 12 Years A Slave - Solomon Northup
4. A banquet of consequences - Elizabeth George
5. Bad Feminist - Roxane Gay

Our upcoming author talk will be Chris Bohjalian, so I am rereading Midwives. I thought I would miss the talk, but it was rescheduled due to the Nor'easter so now I'm scrambling. It's always best to read something by the speaker ahead of time, and I haven't read anything by this author in a few years.

I like to alternate fiction and mystery books. I just finished "The Moor's Account" by Laila Lalami, a really interesting and exciting book about one of the first encounters with the Spanish conquistadors and the Native Americans. I'm now reading "Adam and Eve and Pinch Me" by Ruth Rendell, one of my favorite mystery writers. We're going to England in April/May, so I'm now reading English writers. Any suggestion would be helpful.

Hats off to Jill and staysfit for juggling multiple reads! Jill, I think I've read all of Erik Larson's books except the Lusitania one, which I'm now putting on my list. He blows my mind with the way he can weave disparate non-fiction stories into one compelling narrative. In the Garden of Beasts was formidable, and I'd read it again. The Devil in the White City was by turns fascinating and hair-raising. I'll read anything by him.

I've heard good things about Dark Matter, Janet. I hope to read it soon.

Staysfit, I'm impressed with the variety of your books. Your interests are wide-ranging indeed.

Bonnie, Ruth Rendell writes THE best mysteries. She's an old favorite of mine. Exciting about your trip!

Oh boy, my to-read list is really getting long, thanks to you Fabbers!

Just started Chernow's Alexander Hamilton. I came down with a cold yesterday and decided this is a good time to get started--we have tickets to see Hamilton next month. I forgot how long the book is. I bought it a few weeks ago but didn't get started until now.

Nevertheless, it is interesting and well-written. I like biography, but the last few I've tried dragged along and I lost interest.

Last weekend I read Betty Halbreich's I'll Drink to That. I had no idea she'd had such a difficult life. Ages ago I had read Secrets of a Fashion Therapist.

Betty Halbreich is pretty fabulous and the real deal. What stories she has to tell! Did you see her in that documentary about Bergdorf's? I've got to read her book; thanks for the reco, MsMaven! (I also like that she's an avid Costco shopper like me. She even wanted to have a book signing in their produce department!)

A biography I read awhile back that I really, really enjoyed was Natural Blond, by Liz Smith. What a pistol. Her story on Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton that ran in Cosmo in 1969 is probably my favorite piece of journalism ever.

The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell.

I love to read and am always looking for a good book. I recently finished "The Girl on the Train," and before that "All the Light We Cannot See," "The Nightingale," and "Orphan Train." All were fantastic and I highly recommend them. Today I started "A Dog's Purpose" and am loving it so far.

I was sure someone had recommended Hillbilly Elegy on this thread because I was reminded to check if the local library had it (they didn't last year when it first came out) and to request it. I can't see anything about it now though. I got it out on Thursday and had dropped everything not urgent to finish it in a few hours. Compelling stuff.

(Plus, if, like me, you like to read reviews/criticism of books you've just read - there's a lot of them!)

I just started Chasing the Scream which is about addiction and the war on drugs. I agree about Trever Noah's book Born A Crime -interesting but not amazingly written. It stays with me how vastly different his life in South Africa was compared to mine in California.
I read non-fiction almost exclusively but these recommendations will help my husband as his turn to pick a book for his book club is coming up.

Just read Ariel Levy's The Rules Do Not Apply. Just started Richard Nixon: the Life by John Farrell. I love reading presidential biographies.

I've been on a military binge lately, reading books recommended by a friend who recently retired from the Marines and served multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Red Platoon by Clinton Romesha. Written by a Medal of Honor recipient about the battle of Kamdesh at Outpost Keating in Afghanistan.

The Outpost by Jake Tapper. Basically a history of the Outpost Keating where the battle of Kamdesh took place. (A sizeable book I listened to in the car on my way to and from work)

One Million Steps by Bing West. An account of Marines deployed in Afghanistan. This was also recommended to me by a young Marine who was there during the period about which the book was written.

All three made me cry.

A couple I ran across on my own were Shoot Like a Girl by Mary Jennings Hegar, a medevac helicopter pilot in Afghanistan. A compelling story about perseverance and determination.
Also, Grunt, by Mary Roach is about the 'science of warfare'. From button placement and the best kind of long underwear to reconstructing groin injuries and battling diarrhea. It is both serious and humorous.
http://www.npr.org/sections/he.....of-warfare

anne, I read Hillbilly Elegy and enjoyed it too. A world much different than my own, to be sure.

Just started Beartown, written by Fredrik Backman the author of A Man Called Ove.

I have enjoyed this thread!

I am reading Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. It is for a book discussion but I feel that this is a very important topic for anyone who loves parks, wilderness and nature. After working summer camps for Cub Scouts for years, I saw that children today do not even like to be out in wilderness areas or even camp areas. They are so used to air conditioning and video games and constant snacking that they see no reason to hike a beautiful trail or listen to birdsong. I am concerned for the future of our nature areas.

Joy, not only do children not seem to enjoy nature, they seem rarely to be seen outside their houses. Rarely do I see children playing outdoors. They seem to spend as much time as possible indoors on their devices. I just finished Dani Shapiro's, Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage which was very good. Still reading the Nixon biography. I am quite fascinated by Nixon and LBJ and have ready several biographies of each.

I also love Joyce Carol Oates and have read many of her books. I'm also a huge fan of Anita Brookner. Bonnie, perhaps you would be interested in her books since she is (or more accurately was) British. Very little happens in them--the focus is very much on the interior lives of her characters.

chouette22 I too read A Mothers Reckoning....an extraordinary book.