2023 - What Are You Reading? Showing 201-250 of 1,321

[Rachel]

In the Country of Others sound great. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Jayme(theghostreader)]

Finished Before We Were Yours and starting Iron Kissed

[Cherry]

I am reading News of the Dead by James Robertson. It’s the first time I’ve read any of his books. It is not compulsive reading but it is interesting and the plot structure is layered between current day and history and various characters. It is very well written.

[Cherry]

I am reading news of the Dead by James Robertson. His writing is new for me. It is not a compelling read but it has an interesting plot line.

[Rachel]

Sadly, my library only has one James Robertson and it is Testament which does not sound as interesting as News of the Dead.

[Jessica Freeman]

Just got done reading West with Giraffes. loved it.

Now I'm reading The women in the castle by, Jessica Shattuck

[PattyMacDotComma]

Janice wrote: "Peggyzbooksnmusic wrote: "Janice wrote: "I am rereading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen."

Janice; Enjoy! Have read this umpteen times. My favorite Jane Austen!"

Thank you! And ..."

I am finally reading Pride and Prejudice myself, after starting it several times in the past and becoming too impatient to continue. But I figure as a reader, I must make an effort to actually read the thing. I've heard so much about it and seen snippets of Colin Firth as Mr Darcy, so I had a fair idea of what to expect.

What has helped me bear with the pace this time is a good audio version which I listen to while reading. It helps.

[PattyMacDotComma]

Aussie author Kerry Greenwood's popular Phryne Fisher murder mystery series continues with #6, Blood and Circuses, which sees Phryne disguised as a circus trick rider. A lady of many talents! Who knew?
3.5★ My review of Blood and Circuses

[PattyMacDotComma]

A Company of Laughing Faces is a curious and moving short story by South African Nadine Gordimer, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991. In this, she captures the mixed feelings of a 17-year-old girl being pushed by her mother into the company of other young people.
5★ My review of A Company of Laughing Faces

[Alice]

I am reading Charity's Burden by Edith Maxwell. It is set in 1889 Amesbury, Massachusetts. Our main character, Rose is a Quaker Midwife. It if very interesting to look into the life of Quakers and plain ordinary people in 1889. So many historical mysteries in that time period are Victorian England or Gilded age affluent Americans. Very good series, but start with book one Delivering the Truth

[Peggyzbooksnmusic]

PattyMacDotComma wrote: "Janice wrote: "Peggyzbooksnmusic wrote: "Janice wrote: "I am rereading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen."

Janice; Enjoy! Have read this umpteen times. My favorite Jane Austen!"

Patty; can sympathize with your struggle to read Jane Austen. Mom had most of her novels and I first read Pride and Prejudice at about age 12. She wrote the dialogue as people talked in the Regency period...what we would consider "long winded"!! My sister never enjoyed Austen until she finally watched the Pride and Prejudice mini series with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. Maybe that would help you to finish :)

[Rachel]

Alice wrote: "I am reading Charity's Burden by Edith Maxwell. It is set in 1889 Amesbury, Massachusetts. Our main character, Rose is a Quaker Midwife. It if ..."

I am taking your advice and starting with Delivering the Truth.

[Janice]

PattyMacDotComma wrote: "Janice wrote: "Peggyzbooksnmusic wrote: "Janice wrote: "I am rereading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen."

Janice; Enjoy! Have read this umpteen times. My favorite Jane Austen!"

..."

Oh, I hope you will enjoy it! :) And I always picture the BBC miniseries with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle as I read it! :)

[Rosh ~catching up slowly~]

Janice wrote: " I always picture the BBC miniseries with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle as I read it! :)"

That's the best P&P adaptation, by far! I love it! :)

[Rachel]

Anything with Colin Firth is worth watching.

[Rachel]

The Secrets of Bridgewater Bay is a dual timeline historical fiction by Australian author Julie Brooks. It’s moves between contemporary times and the 1910s in England. Molly goes to the Luscombe estate in Devon and starts to unravel the mystery of her great-grandmother’s disappearance. Here is my review

[Rachel]

My library has noting by Julie Brooks I am sorry to say because the books piqued my interest.

[Patricia]

Jessica Freeman wrote: "Just got done reading West with Giraffes. loved it.

Now I'm reading The women in the castle by, Jessica Shattuck"
I've heard quite a few people mention West with Giraffes. I have it on my Kindle, so I need to pull it up. --Read The Women in the Castle when it came out. Greatly enjoyed it.

[Rosh ~catching up slowly~]

Rachel wrote: "Anything with Colin Firth is worth watching."

I agree! :)

[Rachel]

I just started reading

The Paper Palace

Harlem Shuffle

is next up for me.

[PattyMacDotComma]

The Girl in the Ice, by Robert Bryndza, is the first book in his popular Detective Erika Foster series. It's hard to believe it was the author's debut novel. Great read, with six more to follow.
4★ My review of The Girl in the Ice

p.s. I did enjoy the Austen but haven't reviewed it yet. 😊

[Rosh ~catching up slowly~]

Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash


An emotional debut work, though not exactly a WWII love story as promised. Worth a read though.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[PattyMacDotComma]

The Secret Scripture, by Sebastian Barry, is the mysterious story of the most beautiful girl in Sligo, Ireland, who has been in a mental institution for decades and is now 100. No wonder Barry was Ireland's Laureate for Irish Fiction. It's terrific.
5★ My review of A Secret Scripture

[Jayme(theghostreader)]

Finished reading Iron Kissed and starting Dead Until Dark

[Rachel]

PattyMacDotComma wrote: "The Secret Scripture, by Sebastian Barry, is the mysterious story of the most beautiful girl in Sligo, Ireland, who has been in a mental institution for decades and is..."

Your review is a great review of an excellent book. I happened to stream the movie on Amazon a few weeks ago starring Vanessa Redgrave and Eric Bana.

[Janice]

PattyMacDotComma wrote: "The Girl in the Ice, by Robert Bryndza, is the first book in his popular Detective Erika Foster series. It's hard to believe it was the author's debut novel. Great ..."

I can't wait to read your review of Pride and Prejudice! I hope you loved it! :)

[Janice]

Rosh [busy month; will catch up soon!] wrote: "Janice wrote: " I always picture the BBC miniseries with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle as I read it! :)"

That's the best P&P adaptation, by far! I love it! :)"

Absolutely!!! <3

[Janice]

Rachel wrote: "Anything with Colin Firth is worth watching."

I agree!!!

[Janice]

I am still reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen as well as my local library book for April's meeting The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin and listening to Somebody's Luggage by Charles Dickens.

[Gary]

I just finished "Lessons in Chemistry" by Bonnie Garmus. It was a book club selection. Interesting story, the shifting P.OV. was annoying at times, but I powered past it. The main character came off as someone with a modern outlook on life, cast in the wrong era. It was interesting, but the writer never revealed why she was the way she was.

[Rachel]

Janice wrote: "I am still reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen as well as my local library book for April's meeting The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin and listening to [book: Some..."

The Orchardist is one that I read when it was new and loved it. I hope you enjoy it as well.

[Rachel]

Today I started
Harlem Shuffle

It takes place in 1959.

[Janice]

Rachel wrote: "Janice wrote: "I am still reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen as well as my local library book for April's meeting The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin and listening..."

Thank you. :)

[Rosh ~catching up slowly~]

The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner

Could have been outstanding had the focus stayed on the mystery and the seances.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Pippa]

Non-fiction this time (I try to alternate non-fiction with fiction, or at least have a non-fiction book on the go.)
A very readable account of the development of the suffrage cause, what brought it about, prevailing attitudes of the day to suffrage, and how the suffragettes grew off as a splinter group.

[Susanna]

Hi Gary I read Lessons in Chemistry. I found it slow to begin with but persevered. I didn't have a problem with the POV. As for questioning the main character's "modern view," I had no trouble with it having read something of history of the Suffragette Movement in both the US & Europe. You'd be surprised how "modern" many of them were even in the 18th & 19th centuries.

[Susanna]

I'm reading West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. Set in 1938 it is the story of the transporting of two giraffes across the US to the San Diego Zoo. Driving them is Woody a 17 year old orphan from Texas, who has survived the Dust Bowl catastrophe of the 1930s and is looking for a better life in California.

[Peggyzbooksnmusic]

Finished A Courage Undimmed #3 Olive Bright by Stephanie Graves. A WWII historical mystery set in England. Rated 3 stars. A cozy series although the author's notes at the end which gave more detail to the historical events in Europe that inspired this story had me in tears.

[Rachel]

Before the Knife: Memories of an African Childhood

I started this interesting memoir of an English girl whose grew up partially in Africa because her parents were part of the English colonization crew. I am enjoying it but take issue with part of it at the beginning which states
"We (English) pulled up stakes and went back over the sea and once we were gone it was as if we had never been."
Hardly, the English and other colonial powers destroyed the societies of the Africans. Still it is an interesting POV.

[PattyMacDotComma]

Rachel wrote: "PattyMacDotComma wrote: "The Secret Scripture, by Sebastian Barry, is the mysterious story of the most beautiful girl in Sligo, Ireland, who has been in a mental insti..."

I didn't know they'd made a movie, Rachel. I hope I get a chance to see it.

[PattyMacDotComma]

Janice wrote: "PattyMacDotComma wrote: "s. It's hard to believe it was the aut...

I can't wait to read your review of Pride and Prejudice! I hope you loved it! :) "

I can't say I loved it, Janice, but I did enjoy a lot of it.

It's hardly worth writing a review of Jane Austen's much-loved Pride and Prejudice, is it? But since I finally read it (for a reading challenge), I will admit it has its charms.
4★ My review of Pride and Prejudice

[PattyMacDotComma]

Ah, I remember the heady scent of racing fuel at trackside! Young Lewis Hamilton was bitten early by the Grand Prix bug and grew to be the top Formula One driver and a Sir, no less. Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara shows how a talented black kid made good in a white man's sport.
5★ My review of Lewis Hamilton
(Yes, we need more electrics.)

[Christa]

Alice wrote: "I am reading a good new book, Mother Daughter Traitor Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal. It is standalone, not part of the Maggie Hope serie..."

I started it but didn't complete it as the library returned it before I finished. I like the premise but something stopped me. I need to revisit the book as I'm a big fan of WWII historical fiction.

[Christa]

Gretchen wrote: "Share with us all your current reads. Historical or otherwise." Reading Remarkably Bright Creatures, Quiet and Diary of a Provincial Lady.

[Rachel]

Remarkably Bright Creatures sounds amazing.

I am listening to The Natural by Bernard Malamud and it is not like the movie at all in tone.

[Carolyn]

I've just finished reading The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams, an excellent follow-up to The Dictionary of Lost Words. Set from 1914 -1918, the MC is young woman from a humble background who works in the binding room of the Oxford University Press which is publishing the OED, but secretly yearns to be a scholar like the young women she sees attending Somerville College across the road from the publishing house.

review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Donna]

Just finished A Game of Sorrows by Shona MacLean

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Kassie]

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

[Rachel]

I so appreciate all the book ideas.

[Craftyhj]

Abigail wrote: "The Diary of a Provincial Lady and The Old Wives' Tale."

I hope you are enjoying Diary of a Provincial Lady - I haven't read that since I used to travel on the train to uni many years ago. I think I also read The Diary of a Nobody.