What are you reading June 2014

[Kate]

Finished The Preacher which I enjoyed and am now starting The Vacationers which came in at the library.

[Rita]

I'm not a typical romance reader either. This one is good, not so much silly euphemisms for private parts. The sex parts are silly either, or graphic. Which I like. It's a quick read too. I like the author and the way she writes.

[Karla]

Finished The Martian - it was fascinating. Am going to start The Bees next!

[Becky]

Just finished an ARC, We Are Not Ourselves 4 stars

[Amy]

Reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. It's much more engrossing and entertaining than I thought it would be.

[Jackie]

Amy I have the same sentiment about the Steve Jobs bio. I actually skipped it when it came up in one of my book clubs then it came up in my other book club and I decided I should trudge through it. But ended up as you have, glad I read it.

[Kokeshi]

Just finished 419 by Will Ferguson.

A 5 star book by a 5 star authour (and he's Canadian!). Obviously, I really enjoyed it!

[Suzanne]

Currently, I am reading The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri; am about 60 pages in. After this, "The End or Something Like That" by Ann Dee Ellis, a YA that looks pretty good. "The Son" by Philipp Meyer, beyond that I am not sure. So many books, so little time.

[Sue]

I snuck in Bad Marie last week and really enjoyed it. Marie is so, so bad, but I couldn't help routing for her.

[Becky]

I just finished We Are Called to Rise & I loved it!! 5 stars!

[Jill]

I just finished and am not sure what I think of it. Have to chew on it for awhile. Currently reading I really like it so far.

[Karen]

Currently reading

[Shona]

I just finished Americanah which I absolutely loved. Now I'm reading An Untamed State which at times is so intense I have to just close the book for awhile to get my breath back.

[Sue]

I'm reading An Untamed State now, shortly after finishing Thirty Girls and it's hard not to compare the two. Both involve brutal kidnappings and both weave between stories of love and romance and the brutal rape and assault of stolen women.

I'm struggling a bit with Untamed State because I find the main character - the woman who is kidnapped - somewhat unlikable. But, of course, one has to be 'on her side' and hate the other characters more.

I also find the writing a bit harsh and staccato, the dialogue maybe too formal at times.

It's a discomfiting read, exhausting at times, but that may just be the author's intention.

Shona wrote: "I just finished Americanah which I absolutely loved. Now I'm reading An Untamed State which at times is so intense I have to just close the book for awhile to get m..."

[Angie]

Shona wrote: "I just finished Americanah which I absolutely loved..."

Yet another person who loved this book. I guess I have to add it to my ever growing TBR list. :)

[Sue]

And another! She is fantastic. The Thing Around Your Neck is great, too.

Angie wrote: "Shona wrote: "I just finished Americanah which I absolutely loved..."

Yet another person who loved this book. I guess I have to add it to my ever growing TBR list. :)"

[Grad]

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Trying to read it slowly to make it last. Fabulous book.

[Julie]

Becky wrote: "I just finished We Are Called to Rise & I loved it!! 5 stars!"

Been hearing and reading about this book lately - from the library's 'Book Page' publication and StarTribune review. So it's on my TBR list. Nice to see that you enjoyed it too, Becky.

I finished Americanah and Elizabeth Berg's Ordinary Life: Stories both of which I loved for entirely different reasons. Now I'm finally going to read Gone Girl - the 2012 hit (am I late to the party, or what??) ETA: Left the Flynn book in my car overnight so started instead . .

[Linda]

Started listening to Glitter and Glue tonight.

[Angie]

Linda wrote: "Started listening to Glitter and Glue tonight."

I listened to this on audio as well. I enjoyed it.

[Cynthia]

So far....Child of God (Lolita Files); Messy Spirituality (Michael Yacnelli); Pryor Convictions: And Other Life Sentances (Richard Pryor); The Moments, The Minutes, The Hours: The Poetry of Jill Scott (Jill Scott); and Zane Addicted (Zane)

; ; ; ;

[Melissa]

I read Eleanor and Park today and it was wonderful. Rainbow Rowell created such real characters. At least for this reader!

[Maureen]

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena - only 75 pages in, but am loving it.

[Maureen]

Melissa wrote: "I read Eleanor and Park today and it was wonderful. Rainbow Rowell created such real characters. At least for this reader!"

adored Eleanor and Park. I have Fangirl on my kindle but haven't gotten to it yet.

[Suzanne]

I loved A Constellation of Vital of Vital Phenomena. I think it should have won the National Book Award.

[Angie]

Suzanne wrote: "I loved A Constellation of Vital of Vital Phenomena. I think it should have won the National Book Award."

I agree Suzanne. The best thing I've read in years.

[Sue]

The best book I read this year. Love, love, loved it.

Maureen wrote: "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena - only 75 pages in, but am loving it."

[Suzanne]

I read The Good Lord Bird, thinking I would be blown away, since it did win the big award, but I was more like "eh."

[Andrea]

I just finished reading Slaughterhouse - Five because I hadn't read it or anything else of Vonnegut's ... and I loved it, so I'm moving straight onto Breakfast of Champions :)

[Adore]

i'm reading:



not understanding why so many people hate this book! i think it's really entertaining.

[JenRaye]

Finished Gone Girl yesterday. It was okay...definitely characters you love to hate. Finished Seating Arrangements on my Kindle app last week. Currently listening to The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches as my commute book, although this morning I listened to the latest episode of BOTNS. Vaulted Arches should be finished by the end of the week. Still in progress is A Game of Thrones. I am about halfway through, and it will be awhile since I just read this at work or away from home. Next on the list is The Wives of Los Alamos.

[JenRaye]

Becky wrote: "Just finished Astonish Me, I really liked it, it did not blow me away but it was very good….4 stars"

I want to read this, but did Seating Arrangements first.

[Gerald]

My reading thrown through a loop because of the job.

[Linda]

I just started listening to Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief

[Melissa]

I finished The Secret History , and I am marking it on my bingo card as the book that everyone but me has read.
I enjoyed it, but I think Tartt had a problem deciding how to end it.

[ANR]

Hearing the audiobook version of harry potter~

[Elisabeth]

Just finished The Goldfinch. Starting Grain Brain and another in the backlog.

[Shanna]

I just finished Reconstructing Amelia and thought it was a great read!

[Sue]

I finished An Untamed State and I'm still not sure what I think of it.

I've started a book from deep down in the TBR called Voice Over. It's a French translation, a character study about a lonely woman and her obsessions and exploits in Paris, working as a SNCF train announcer at the gare du Nord. Something slow and simple after Untamed State which was certainly draining, among other things!

[Jen]

Melissa wrote: "I finished The Secret History , and I am marking it on my bingo card as the book that everyone but me has read.
I enjoyed it, but I think Tartt had a problem deciding how to end it."

I totally agree with you. I just finished it too and I thought the ending was rather abrupt without any of the real conflict and emotional upheaval of the rest of the book.

[Kate]

Loved The Vacationers and then read The Cuckoo's Calling which was an unexpected pleasure. I am now reading Equus for the "A Play" square of my BOTNS Summer Bingo ( big thanks to Eric for a wonderful suggestion) and just started Dead Scared.

[Melissa]

I am reading Stoner thanks to a recommendation from Michael on BOTNS some time ago...I am sorry I waited this long to read it. It is wonderful.

[Laurab]

I'm reading Potato Factory . I'm about 25% in and am really liking it. This is the first work by this author I have read. Reminds me of Dickens.

[[deleted user]]

*****

Before you start this book, here's something important to know. The first scene in the book is the last, chronologically. The last scene in the book is a flashback being experienced by someone, who is, in time, one year prior to the first scene in the book. So there's a one year gap, in which Stuff Happens, but you're not told exactly what. You are given enough clues to come up with a version of what happens, but you have to figure it out for yourself. Come up with your own ideas and theories. If you think that will be fun, and you have the requisite imagination, jump right in! You'll love it! If you like everything to be spelled out for you, this is not the book for you! You'll hate it!

I'm in the "love it" camp.

What's the book about? The two central characters are Hal Incandenza, a 17-year-old student at a tennis academy, and Don Gately, a recovering addict who lives and works in a halfway house. The two environments they live in are fascinating worlds in and of themselves, which themselves exist in an alternate future which diverged from our own in 1996 or so (the year of the book's publication).

There are many stories and plots in this big book, the central plot concerns a movie that's kind of a "killing joke", so entertaining that it turns any viewer into a permanent pile of drool. There is a Canadian separatist group, the Wheelchair Assassins, who want to weaponize this movie and unleash it on the U.S. populace.

The draw, for me, wasn't so much the plot, but the comic anecdotes and monologues that pepper the book, and the insights on addiction, recovery, depression, tennis, advertising, entertainment, and pedagogy.

The plot, as I said, becomes a sort of brain teaser in the end. A puzzle for you to work out. If this book works for you, as it did for me, it will be one of your favorite books EVER! If it doesn't work for you...well, sorry.

[Carin]

Laurab wrote: "I'm reading Potato Factory . I'm about 25% in and am really liking it. This is the first work by this author I have read. Reminds me of Dickens."

It's a trilogy! So if you like it, look for the next two. (I own them but haven't gotten around to them.)

[Marion]

I just started reading by Max Barry. I heard about this book on the Book Riot and BOTNS podcasts. It has been highly praised as being one of the best books published in 2013. I will post a review when I finish.


Marion

[Marion]

Kate wrote: "Loved The Vacationers and then read The Cuckoo's Calling which was an unexpected pleasure. I am now reading [bookcove..."

Kate,

I read Cuckoo's Calling last year because of the pseudonym controversy. I had not read the Harry Potter books or Causal Vacancy by Rowling. I was pleasantly surprised as well.

Here's my review I posted on my blog:

http://kammbia1.wordpress.com/2013/08...

Marion

[Andrea]

Carin Laurab wrote: "I'm reading Potato Factory . I'm about 25% in and am really liking it. This is the first work by this author I have read. Reminds me of Dickens."

I'm obsessed with everything Bryce Courtenay. My first was The Power of One and after that I was hooked! Enjoy the trilogy and try some of his others!

[Suzanne]

Marion wrote: "I just started reading by Max Barry. I heard about this book on the Book Riot and BOTNS podcasts. It has been highly praised as being one of the best books published i..."

I have been recommending this book left and right to everyone I know who reads even a little. Such a great book!

[Esther]

I have just finished I is for Innocent which was not bad at all.
Now I will start on Wool Omnibus. I have already read the first part which I really liked.