What are you reading July 13, 2024

Currently working on Space Craze, with Always at War and These Burning Stars to follow.

Starting War and Punishment. Will probably start Rakesfall before posting the next thread; currently in forced-march mode.

I'm still reading The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: and the Path to a Shared American Future by Robert P. Jones. Very good. Can't wait to get to the path to a shared American future. No spoilers, lol.

>1 Shrike58: I've been neglecting these threads for a bit. Thanks for taking the reins from Fred.

I finally finished Proust's In the Shadow of Young Girls in Bloom and I'm now enjoying American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee. This is a nonfiction work about the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park and of the naturalists who became enraptured with witnessing the wolves' lives. I'm about a quarter into it and enjoying it very much so far.

From the library: Poison in Their Hearts by Laura Sebastian (YA)
#3 and finale in the "Castles in Their Bones" trilogy

I'm listening to The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia. It's a lovely book; it brings with it a kind of peace.

I'm not in good shape, mentally, and I'm feeling deeply depressed and I cry all the time. There isn't a physical book out there that doesn't trigger another bout of tears, so I'm listening to my audiobook and reading short pieces in a graded Spanish reader. Fluency is my goal. Sorry for the TMI.

I'm finishing After the Conquest and about halfway through The Burning of the Rose by Ruth Nichols. I plan to start The White Ship by Charles Spencer sometime this week as well. Because, you know, Norman Britain and all.

The Berry Pickers
Amanda Peters
4/5 stars
A family from Maine who travel and pick crops find their four-year-old daughter is missing and it tears the family apart. Each chapter reflects one of the family members thoughts, feelings and actions. Very well written! Books Off My Reading List

I took a break from the white supremacy book since book club got rescheduled, and now I'm reading The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I already saw the show, but luckily the book is completely different, other than the characters' names. I like the book as much as the show so far anyway.

The Door
Magda Szabó
4/5 stars
This is the story of two neighbors in communist Hungary. One is Magda a writer and the other is Emerence, a peasant/housekeeper who will not allow anyone to come into her house. Slowly, Magda becomes a friend to her when Emerence becomes ill but will their relationship last? 1987

A Hope Divided – Alyssa Cole
3***

Book number two in the Loyal League series of Civil-War-era romances.

Marlie Lynch is a free woman who has been taken into the Lynch household as a member of the family. She’s always understood that her father was the plantation owner, though she and her mother lived far away. The old man is deceased and his heir Stephen has married and moved away, so Marlie and her older sister Sarah maintain the estate with a handful of servants … all freed slaves who are paid for their labor. Marlie’s primary contribution is the tonics and poultices she concocts from the plant knowledge passed down from her mother. With a Rebel prison camp in the neighborhood, Marlie begins to tend to the prisoners, and passing messages along to the Loyal League – Southerners who are against slavery and trying to help the Union. It’s at the prison that she meets Ewan McCall, a Union soldier with unique skills.

This is a pretty typical romance between two people of differing status, who join together with a common cause. Of course, they will have to fight against not only their mutual attraction, but the very real restrictions of the society in which they find themselves. I’m amazed they could find time for sex (or even for the desire for sex) given the dangers in which they find themselves, but if they can manage to have mutual orgasms in such a setting more power to them!

This is the second in a series, but I think it can easily be read as a standalone. I certainly didn’t feel that I was missing anything by not having read the first book.

Sex and Vanity – Kevin Kwan
Digital audiobook read by Lydia Look
2**

From the book jacket: A glittering tale of love and longing as a young woman finds herself torn between two worlds–the WASP establishment of her father’s family and George Zao, a man she is desperately trying to avoid falling in love with.

My reactions
Boring. Vain, shallow characters more concerned with who is wearing what, or how to upstage someone else with their over-the-top events. Whether it’s their residence, car, jewels, vacations or clothing, they are obsessed with appearances.

There were a few over-the-top scenes that tickled my funny bone, and I gave it two stars for those. I realize that Kwan means these works to be satires of “crazy rich Asians” but I just find them tedious.

Lydia Look does a good job of narrating the audiobook. Too bad she didn’t have better material to work with.

New thread up: here