What are you reading in the new year? - YouLookFab Forum

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What are you reading in the new year?

MsMary

Veteran

I just finished the BEST book: Anxious People by Fredrik Backman (author of A Man Called Ove, which was a best seller but which I haven't read). It's a dramedy about a would-be bank robber who takes a bunch of people hostage while they are looking at an apartment for sale, but that's not really what it's about at all. I loved it like I haven't loved a book in a long time.

What are you all reading these days?

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56 replies

Latest reply was from Janet

Runcarla

Veteran

‘Hamnet & Judith’ by Maggie O’Farrell
’The Dune as Bookmark’ by Jacqueline Bourque (poetry)
’Vita’s other World: A Gardening Biography of V. Sackville-West’ by Jane Brown

‘Between the Apple-Blossom & The Water - Women Writing about Gardens’ edited by Pamela Norris (illustrated)

The Cat

Veteran

Interesting articles at jw.org:

● How to beat pandemic fatigue:
https://www.jw.org/en/bible-te.....c-fatigue/

● Seven keys to food safety and a healthy diet:
https://www.jw.org/en/bible-te.....lthy-diet/

● The best help for those who grieve:
https://www.jw.org/en/library/.....ho-grieve/

● Why pray?
https://www.jw.org/en/library/.....1-jan-feb/

Ledonna N.

Veteran

The Queens gambit by Walter Tevis I loved the mini series so much I bought the book. It differs but. The movie brought the book to life for me. I’m making a commitment to myself to have some grown up reading time each day

&

For Zi. The book I am enough book by Grace Byers. Teaching Zi how to read

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Helena

Veteran

I just finished Followers by Megan Angelo, and Educated by Tara Westover. Next up is Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid.

Peri

Veteran

I loved Anxious People too! Highly recommend.

Currently I'm reading The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. It's a little message heavy in the way I don't usually go for, but it's intriguing enough that I'm enjoying it and will finish it.

JAileen

Veteran

I just got this book the other day. Amber Ruffin is a writer on Seth Meyers’ show.

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Laurie

Veteran

I am currently reading The Alice Network by Kate Quinn. I think someone here recommended it. I can't keep track of recommendations because I get in the hold queue for books on Libby, and sometimes it takes months till they show up! Anyway, it's set in 1947 just after WWII, flashing back to 1915 and the activity of a network of female spies during the first World War.

rachylou

Veteran

I just finished the Cash Crash duet. Cyberpunk commentary on the state of our economic system and what happens when most people can’t contribute substantively to production.

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

I want to get back to the research/publishing part of academia, so I know I need to catch up on reading in my field. It has been a really slow slog. Ive been reading Black Atlantic for nearly two months, and there are many more, including much more recent, things on my list. But just last night I came across a cache in an archive that might be just what I want to write about. That should fire up my reading.

kkards

Veteran

Right now I’m trying to get thru “The Custom of the Country” by Edith Wharton, its better than i expected, but I had really really low expectations having not liked Ethan Frome. But I’ve committed to doing/trying/learning new things this year, I’ve signed up for an on line lecture about this book/author.
if you are looking for something light and easy to read, but different than a traditional romance novel, i recommend “The Bride Test” by Helen Hoang, it was funny and touching.

Anonymous

I'm in the middle of Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener. It's about her experience as a person with a literary background working at a tech start-up in San Francisco. She has quite an eye for detail and a dry wit. I'm enjoying it a lot, although it brings up some unsettling issues about the tech industry, like surveillance concerns, and the "tech-bro" culture.

Staysfit

Veteran

So far in 2021 I have read: 1. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. 2. Mary Coin by Marisa Silver. 3. Troubled: The failed promise of America’s Behavioral Treatment Programs by Kenneth R. Rosen. 4. Tenth of December by George Saunders 5. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett 6. The House Girl by Tara Conklin 7. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson 8. The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom 9. Emotional Fitness for Couples by Barton Goldsmith, Ph.D.

I just started to read Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness byThaler and Sunstein.

The two books on my list after that are: sooner or later everything falls into the sea and then The Woman in the Window.

I have a long list of books to read, and read a lot of books!

If I were to recommend one of the books above, it would be Pachinko.

Bonnie

Veteran

I just finished No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym, a charming novel written in 1960 and set in 50s London. I'm starting Even the Dead by Benjamin Black, a recent mystery set in Dublin and the seventh in a series featuring Dr. Quirke, a pathologist.

L'Abeille

Veteran

I'm rarely a non-fiction reader, but I have been working my way through "How the Scots invented the Modern World" by Arthur Herman and each chapter has been riveting.

Anonymous

Twitter .

Helena

Veteran

JAileen, we have become huge Amber Ruffin fans ... She's so talented!!

UmmLila (Lisa)

Veteran

This month I've read:

The Midnight Lie, by Marie Rutkoski. The first in a new fantasy trilogy -- people with magical talents are exploited by the rich.
Future Home of the Living God, by Louise Erdrich. During plague years, women who can still become pregnant are rounded up.
On Beauty, by Zadie Smith. Liberal arts college satire.

Jules

Veteran

I am listening to an audiobook from my local library (it’s well worth checking out what they have available in e form) - ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ by Liane Moriarty, the Big Little Lies author. It feels like she’s aged along with me as this one has more middle aged characters and themes. I like that it’s light reading, has some suspense or mystery, but also really nails character’s internal monologues with some very apt observations about this phase of life.

kkards

Veteran

I loved Nine Perfect Strangers..

nemosmom

Veteran

LisaP!! hahahahahahaha!!!

Ledonna N.

Veteran

Lisa P

Lol lol lol hahahah

Well if that’s the case. Facebook and YLF

AJ

Veteran

My book club just started A Passage to India by E.M. Forster.

MsMary

Veteran

LisaP, I feel you!

I had to ban my phone from my bedroom so my only option is my Kindle! Otherwise I'd be Twittering all night!

Laura (rhubarbgirl)

(website)

Veteran

I'm in the library hold queue for Anxious People (#13 on 4 copies, not holding my breath). I read and appreciated Such a Fun Age and got partway through Uncanny Valley - I worked in tech in Silicon Valley during the period she writes about so it was both interesting and weird to read her take on things.

The other day I finished The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu - he's China's most popular SF writer and the English translation won the Hugo a couple of years ago. It's a really interesting take on hard scifi with a lot of references to the Cultural Revolution. It's the first in a trilogy so I'll probably start on the second one soon.

Style Fan

Veteran

Lisa P! LOL

Bonnie, I read a lot of Barbara Pym years ago. I loved her.

Work stuff.

SarahD8

Veteran

A dear friend just published her debut novel, a Saudi-American family saga called Bride of the Sea. I’m over the moon for her and can’t wait to dig in (I’ve read it before, but it sounds like it’s changed a lot in the interim so I’m excited to discover it anew).

Anonymous

In January : If I Knew Then ( Jann Arden ) , If It Bleeds ( Stephen King ) , Troubles in Paradise ( Elin Hilderbrand ; abandoned 1/4 of the way in ) : The Searcher ( Tana French ; also abandoned 1/4 way in ) ; now starting The Push ( Ashley Audrain) . Why does this list feel too short ? I’m sure I’ve read more this month . I wasted FAR too much time trying to make The Searcher and the Elin H books work though . Oh - also started The Tender Bar ( JR Hoeringer) but it wasn’t what I thought it was , and same with Philip Kerr’s Metropolis. That one was too dense - again not what I thought it would be .

Anonymous

My attention span is really not where it should be these days . Same with tv shows and movies : if it doesn’t stick within the first few minutes , I’m out .

Mary Beth (formerly LBD)

(website)

Veteran

This is a bit of a cheat, but I looooooved Amor Towles' novel, "A Gentleman In Moscow" so much when I read it this past summer, that I'm planning to re-read it again, before I return it to my best friend. If you've felt trapped having to stay at home during the pandemic, this story might give you a fresh and optimistic perspective.

"The Idea of You", by Robinne Lee, was amazing. I generally find romance novels to be cringe-worthy, but I saw it had great reviews, so I downloaded a sample on Kindle, and wound up devouring the entire book in about three days, like it was a big box of Mike-and-Ikes.

I'm currently reading "All Creatures Great and Small". My great-grandfather loved James Herriot's books, and now I understand why. I keep trying to put it down, only to pick it right back up again.

Books I am reading/studying concurrently with "All Creatures" include:

A re-read of The Miracle Morning, by Hal Elrod

Tribe of Mentors, by Tim Ferriss

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

And a couple of acting industry books.

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