What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? Please share! We’d love to know.
Along with others I read The Correspondent which is charming and exhibits the value of personal letter writing. I feel it is becoming a lost art.
A friend recommended the novel Culpability by Bruce Holsinger. The plot focuses on how technological dependence is changing our lifestyles and examines the accountability and the negotiation of responsibility of the individual versus the car’s technical machine. For example if an individual is driving a self driving car and a fatal accident occurs to the other car. Is the driver or the car’s technical machine responsible for the accident? Very eye opening for me.
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The Lost Baker of Vienna by Sharon Kurtzman
This week I am reading Lolita for Book Browse. It’s interesting being in the mind of a depraved man. I’m also listening to Like Lions by Brian Panowich who I saw at Bouchercon this year. So far this has been good to listen to. Characters are interesting.
Last week I read the Frozen River which, for me was slow starting, then picked up. Story line was good and the fact it was based on a real woman.
I finished listening to A Killing on the Hill by Robert Dugoni. Very entertaining. About a young reporter in the 1930’s before cell phones. Good mystery.
I’m reading Better Living Through Birding, by Christian Cooper.
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I just did a trip through Southwest Indian Country so read a Tony Hillerman—-The Dark Wind. His descriptions of that country are perfect. Being a Southwesterner, I never get tired of his books.
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I finished The Correspondent last week. It completely grabbed my attention and I couldn’t put it down for two days. It’s the first book in awhile that I couldn’t wait to get back to. I was very impressed with the author’s ability to pack so much emotion and character into correspondence. I’m not sure it resonated with me as much as it did with others here, though; I imagine much of it hits harder if you’re a parent (as opposed to a childless cat lady like myself).
I’m most of the way through Mary Roach’s latest, Replaceable You, which talks about how humans replace missing pieces-parts (e.g., the challenges in using animals like pigs for transplants, where the technology is with regards to prostheses). As always, her writing is interesting, accessible, and entertaining.
After that, it’ll be a re-read of Beast of the North Woods for an upcoming book club read.
In audiobook format, I’m still struggling through Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Talents. I’m finding it more of a challenge than the first book in the series. 4.5 more hours to go, which at this rate could be another week.
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I just finished Mamaw by Susan Dodd (beautiful writing and great characters) and just started The Pusherman by Lisa Boyle (the third in a historical crime fiction trilogy).
Over the last two weeks I read 3 really good books;
In an instant and Call of the Camino by Suzanne Redfearn, Wild game by Adrienne Brodeur and my favorite: Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
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As I’ve said in other threads I’m reading toward the Texas Book Festival. So I’m just starting Park Avenue by Renee Ahdieh and listening to The True True Story of Raja the Gullible by Rabih Alameddine.
@kim.kovacs I read and loved Amity by Nathan Harris. I know you reviewed it. Soooo good! Did you also read The Sweetness of Water?
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I am reading Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer and learning a lot. Last week, I finished “Every Living Thing” and enjoyed it as well. Nonfiction shows me why I could never actually write that kind of stuff and keep it interesting.
The Correspondent! Such a good choice.
Glad you liked the Correspondent. I couldn’t put it down either. So many good connections and a very real look at relationships.
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Finished and LOVED Broken Country. Did anyone else bawl at the end? Lordy.
This week: Martyr! and Women, Seated.
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@Anne_Glasgow yup, and I reviewed that one as well! They were very different. They covered the same time period - Reconstruction era - but I thought the first book was a lot darker. There was much more pain, more menace. Not that Amity didn’t have its share of pain & hardship, and I think both books had a lot of depth, but I felt The Sweetness of Water was a more intense read, if that makes sense.
Have you read them both? What did you think?
Yes, I read and loved both of Nathan Harris’s books. If I remember correctly both are sibling stories and both are similar time period but very different from there. Sweetness is the more traditional story while Amity is what I would call almost in the western genre. Both featured stories on the road/run but with different ends. Amity is a more complex story showing author growth and range but I think I like them both equally. He is a remarkable writer and a great storyteller. I think he has chosen some interesting topics in Amity and he really masters the personal conflicts.
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Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall and an ARC by Barbara Hinske.
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Flashlight. All the main characters are hurting in some way. I’m hoping for healing.
Just finished listening to The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame; whimsical and delightful! Just started listening to The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin. I’m not a big fantasy fan so we’ll see. Have a few more pages to go of Las Madres: Latinas of the Heartland Who Led Their Family to Success by Dennis Raphael Garcia. I highly recommend this 2025 Kansas Notable Book to anyone who wants to learn more about Mexican immigration to America going clear back to the mid-1800s. Upon finishing it, starting Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson for my next book club meeting.
It took me a while after reading and discussing The Rook, but I’m reading and enjoying Started Early, Took My Dog.