You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
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What Are You Reading - 2024
Agatha Christie is a hit of miss for me. Most of them that are misses don't include Hercule Poirot. The Pale Horse was no exception - 2 stars.I've started The Preacher for my hiking challenge.
I finished The Ridge for my hiking challenge. Next up and starting tomorrow - The Scholar.August has been a productive month! I've read 10 books so far.
I started Improbably Yours on audio while cleaning today. I think it's going to be a fairly quick and easy read. Hubby and I have a bit of a drive ahead of us tonight and again tomorrow. We are planning to listen to The More the Terrier while on the road. I'm looking forward to it. We both enjoy this series.
I am also still reading Here One Moment, but will have no actual reading time for a couple of days so I'll pick it back up probably Sunday.
I just finished
The More the Terrier. It was another fun addition to the Andy Carpenter series with another adorable cover. I'm not sure how Rosenfelt keeps this series from getting stale, since a lot of the humor, banter, etc is repeated, but he manages it somehow. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I am not alone in saying that C.S. Harris never disappoints and never misses a beat in the action, history, and human stories of England in the early 1800s. Who Slays the Wicked is terrific. 
My review of Who Slays The Wicked
If you have any impatient little 'saplings' in your life, In Time by author/artist Marina Ruiz is a lovely children's book about the value of WAITING. Very cute.
My review of In Time withe several illustrations
I enjoyed Percival Everett's reimagining of the slave Jim as James, fleeing to freedom on the mighty Mississippi with Huckleberry Finn. I think Mark Twain might have enjoyed it, too.
My review of James
I started Those Who Save Us last week and I couldn't force myself to read it the last couple of nights, so I've decided I'm done with it. The story is set in Germany and chronicles the hate and cruelty of the times. There's enough of that today as history threatens to repeat itself. I read primarily to be entertained, and it's not entertaining to read the scene where the MC encounters a man she knows in the street wearing nothing but a sign that says, "I'm nothing but a dirty Jew".I'm to start a children's classic The Last Unicorn tonight. I think children's books might be apropos for my frame of mind lately.
Still reading Here One Moment... I seem to keep putting it aside for other reads. It's not bad; I don't feel the need to put it aside. It's just that other reads keep taking precedence and it isn't enthralling enough for me to not read those other books first. I'm hoping to finish in the next few days.I'm also reading At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities for the group read. I hope to finish that one today. It is also an ok read. I'm enjoying it well enough.
I couldn't live on the islands of Scotland's Outer Hebrides, but they are fascinating. Award-winning author Peter May's trilogy about The Lewis Man is being expanded. This is the second, and I'm trying to catch up before #4 comes out!
My review of The Lewis Man
I finished The Johnstown Flood, a non-fiction, for August challenge. It was a great read and I highly recommend it. I started There There for my book club, and so far so good.
I started listening to Lovecraft Country for the monthly challenge. I am focusing my actual book reading on uni related stuff at the moment about pschiatry and have a few books on the go at the same time. So my fiction book has fallen to the way side even though I had been enjoying it. Hopefully audio will help with this one.
I had no idea that The Cold Cold Ground was set in the time and place where Adrian McKinty grew up - Belfast during The Troubles. It's the first of his Detective Sean Duffy series. I read book 6 and wanted to see where Duffy started. Glad I did.
My Review of The Cold Cold Ground
I finished The Last Unicorn which I started at the end of August as a filler before September activities started. It was a children's classic that is highly rated. I couldn't get into it. I think it's one of those "it's me" situations.I started Her Final Breath for the monthly challenge.
I should be finished Elektra today as I only have a couple of hours left in it. I'm not quite decided what to start next.
I am reading The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife and The Keeper of Stars. Frederick Fife is sweet, but the author has included a little too much potty humor for my taste. It's just a bit too immature and silly for the story.
Keeper of Stars is is lovely so far. It's a historical (1950 & 1962) love story with a separation of 12 years between timelines.
The stories of H.G. Wells no doubt inspired a lot of today's tales of the supernatural. The Door in the Wall is one example. There's this door, through which lies ...
My review of The Door in the Wall
Fredrik Backman excels at showing what life looks like from different ages. In And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer, Grandpa and grandson Noah, converse (often just in Grandpa's confused mind). A short and moving read.
My review of Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer..."
Finished two. 
- my Here One Moment review
- my Frederick Fife reviewLooking at these two reviews made me realize how much my expectations play into my opinion of a book. I may go back at some time to reevaluate my star ratings, but I thought both books were overall good themes and interesting, but had areas where they lacked.
I finished The Keeper of Stars
. I love this cover. Fortunately, the love story was just as beautiful. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...I am finally starting Iron Flame
for the yearly challenge. I was really looking forward to this one after reading Fourth Wing and I preordered it, but the 28+ hour audio time has put me off it for a while. I'm hoping it feels like it's a fast read like the first one did.
I've moved sideways to a 'Bosch-adjacent' entry in the Bosch universe by Michael Connelly. The Poet is an especially nasty serial killer whose identity is amazingly well hidden. 
My review of The Poet
I finished Plague Pits & River Bones for the hiking challenge the other day and will start The Briar Club today. This is my real life book club's selection.I also finished Her Final Breath for the monthly challenge last night. I will start the oldest book on my print tbr, Sand Omnibus, tonight.
I've been reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking for a while now. Very interesting!I'm also reading The Confession Club which is okay.
Peggy wrote: "I've been reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking for a while now. Very interesting!I'm also reading The Confession Club which is ..."
Quiet has been on and off my list so many times. I've heard lots of good things about it.
I think it was on and off my list too, but I'm really glad I read it. It was well-written and seemed well-researched. It was very insightful! My only slightly 'negative' comment would be that it's sometimes a bit heavily focused on the corporate world, which I can't really relate to. I ended up giving it 4 stars though :)
That's good to know Peggy. I think that would be my gripe too, not working in that world either. I'll have to pick it up at some point.
Acclaimed Aussie author Michael Robotham's Joe O'Loughlin series is always excellent. The Wreckage takes place between Baghdad, London, and Washington and would be a great read on its own. 
My review of The Wreckage
"... democracy is misleading, because the Founding Fathers did not care for the word, which is nowhere to be found either in the Declaration of Independence or the US Constitution."They actually designed an aristocracy, so it's no surprise we have The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict with Itself. Acclaimed BBC journalist and foreign correspondent Nick Bryant writes a fascinating account of how and why we are still fighting it.
My review of The Forever War: America..."
I was reading Sand Omnibus but I've decided to turf it. Every page, I'm monitoring where I am in the chapter. Every chapter, I'm monitoring the percentage progress I've made. Obviously, I'm not enjoying it, so I will start V is for Vengeance. We'll see how that goes.I really want to get immersed in a book that keeps me reading to the wee hours of the morning without me being aware of it. It's been awhile.
I'm even struggling with The Briar Club. I realized I wasn't really listening to it until one part caught my attention. I thought, "finally!", That part ended, and the next chapter was totally foreign to me and I had no clue what was going on. After double checking the book blurb, I realized that it bounces around. I think I need to start it again.
It's frustrating when that happens. You got anything from one of your go-to authors you can read, see if that helps?
I do. I'm so focused on going back and clearing books off my TBR that have been there for years. I think there's a reason they've been there for years.I'll see how things go with V for Vengeance. It's got a 4 star rating,
I'm getting to the point where I don't consider anything unless it's got a +4 star rating. There's too much mediocre work out there these days.
I hope you find something that grabs you soon, Janice. I'm in weird sort of reading slump. I'm enjoying everything I'm reading while I'm reading it, but I have no real desire to pick anything up.
Currently reading:
Iron Flame - story is entertaining enough, but the 28+ hour audio feels daunting to me right now. I'm only about 4 hours into it after 10 days.
The Sunflower House - just started and the prologue grabbed my attention, so hopefully I can get lost in it at some point.
People We Meet on Vacation - I was looking through my shelf of books that were waiting on reviews. This one was from last year and I have no idea what I want to say about it, so I'm giving it a quick re-read. I have three books on that shelf that I don't know what I want to say about them, so I'm thinking it's more a part of my current slump than an issue with any of the books. I'm hoping the quick read will help.
Janice wrote: "I do. I'm so focused on going back and clearing books off my TBR that have been there for years. I think there's a reason they've been there for years.I'll see how things go with V for Vengeance...."
Agreed. I will dip to a just below 4 on occasions but time is short. I want guaranteed enjoyment haha
Janice wrote: "I do. I'm so focused on going back and clearing books off my TBR that have been there for years. I think there's a reason they've been there for years....."I look at ratings too. I very rarely go much below 4 stars unless it's a book for a book club or from my subscription box or occasionally a challenge task. I need to have a good reason to pick those up. I've been known to skip books for my face-to-face book club if they have a lower rating and I don't think I'll be the exception for some reason.
I want to start reading some of my older books as well and either read them or take them off my TBR. I still have 4 books on my TBR from when I started GR in 2012. There's just not enough time to get to them all.
I just culled a load of books on my want to read list which are my owned books. Ones with really low ratings but also all the sequels in a series after book 1 when i havent even read that one. I definitely had a habit of buying everything up. I have all the wheel of time books but not finished firstbone, for example. And having the remaining gazillion on there just puts pressure on to read. So I've removed them. Also removed all my therapy related books on the list. I'll read then when i read them and i can mark them as reading when that happens. Lets see if a smaller list helps in some way.
Janice wrote: "I do. I'm so focused on going back and clearing books off my TBR that have been there for years. I think there's a reason they've been there for years."I've noticed that there are a bunch of books in my TBR that I do not care about reading anymore. Many of them I added more than 10 years ago. Definitively my interests have changed. A year or so ago I started going over my TBR and deleting everything I was sure I was not interested in reading. I deleted around 50 books and I know there are many more I would also discard, but GR is a pain in the neck and every time you delete a book it brings you to the top of the page again, and you have to scroll down to the point where you were. After advancing a good chunk it becomes a chore to scroll down every time. I got tired and stopped. But I would love to do a serious cleaning up. Still every time I come across a book that it is in my TBR and I think I don't want to read it anymore, I delete it.
I'm also more careful about adding books. I add way less books to my TBR than I used to.
My last book was The Book Thief which was a very heavy and dark read, so now I have started ‘Better than the Movies’ to get into a light mental space.Also started 1984 a few days back so will be reading that along too on the way.
I loved The Book Thief, and I've read it twice. 1984 is a kind of dark too, but an amazing book. I hope you like it, Wardah.
There are a bunch of books on my TBR that I no longer want to read as well. However, I also use GR to also keep track of my ebooks and audiobooks that I own. Quite a few are later books in a series or books I got on sale or for challenges, etc. I don't necessarily want to delete them all because I'll forget I own them, but at the same time my GR shelves are out of control and my TBR is becoming less useful. Sandra, if your to-read shelf is set for 'infinite scroll' it takes forever to scroll through. In case you were unaware, you can change that. At the bottom of the page you can set it up so that you have as few as 10 books on page. (Settings range from 10-100.) Then when you delete one it takes you to the top of whichever page you were on so it's much more manageable as far as scrolling.
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You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
Books mentioned in this topic
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HHhH (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Sophie Kinsella (other topics)Jessica Booth (other topics)
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Darkness Visible by Arvind Ethan David is like a full-blown radio play, part of Audible's Earworm series of short stories. Very entertaining.