What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? Please share! We’d love to know.
Hi! I just finished The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes. I was considering the book for my local library book club, especially since the author lives in our state. I also had the opportunity to hear Brianna speak on a book panel in Pittsburgh.
And, speaking of libraries, I was finally able to check out Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall yesterday. I’m already halfway through and will likely finish it today. (Then, I’ll be able to return it to the library so the next person waiting for it can have it in their hands sooner.) I certainly understand why it was mentioned on so many “Best of 2025” lists - and enjoyed by many of the readers in this group.
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i’m reading theo of golden. i have very mixed feelings about it and would love to hear from others.i’m about 2/3 finished so i don’t want to make any final judgements.
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I’ll wait until you’ve finished, @Judith_Swartz, and then I can set up a thread to discuss it so we can talk about it in detail.
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I am reading Night Witches by Kathryn Lasky. It is about women pilots from Russia during WW2. They are destroying Germany’s advancement into Russia. I never knew this about the war.
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I finished White Lies by Ann Bausum. It was very interesting and I’m looking forward to chatting with her next week. I’m about to finish Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, and then it’ll be on to a reread of Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid for a book club discussion.
In audiobook format, I finished This Is Happiness by Niall Williams. What a lovely read, and I highly recommend it in audio - the narrator was wonderful. It’s laugh-out-loud funny at times but also bittersweet, too. If you liked Time of the Child, I imagine you’ll like this one as well.
And then I moved on to a little bit of trash - Convergence by Craig Alanson. I got it because I really like the narrator, and the plot sounded like it would require zero thought (and I was right!). I had to laugh at myself, though. After I started it, I thought to myself, “Hmmm, this plot really reminds me of this other series I like that was also narrated by Bray…” Turns out it’s the same author, LOL. Guess I have a “type.”
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I finished Love and Ruin about Martha Gellhorn’s life and involvement with Hemingway. Interesting but the miserable times were downers! I’ve started The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. My grandparents were living in Montana during the early 1900s, about 1905-1920 and in the area of Miles City. ****
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The book Theo of Golden was gifted to me. It is my first read of 2026. A reflective story.
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I finished The Correspondent yesterday and really enjoyed it. The ending packs are punch and you get what the author was trying to say. I am going to start “New and Selected Poems by Marie Howe,” the Pulitzer Winner for Poetry, later tonight.
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I just finished “Martha Vineyard’s Beach & Book Club” by Martha Hall Kelly & started re-reading “How to Read a Book” by Monica Wood, this month’s title for my book club.
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I’m multi-booking it this week. I’m reading A Mennonite Mystery by Michael D. Hankins for my book club. It’s a self-published book about the history of a Mennonite settlement in NW Kansas and some unusual government activity in the area during WWII. It’s not too bad for a self-published book, but moves along rather slowly. On New Year’s Day I started reading a chapter a day of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy as part of Nick Senger’s Chapter-a-Day Read Along. It’s 365 chapters so I hope I stick with it. Also reading My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray & Laura Kamoie for an American Revolution program at a nearby library at the end of January. And finally, I started a Bible in a Year reading program. I’m telling myself, “You can do it!”
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Would love to hear what you think of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. It’s on my TBR, but I’ve hesitated to pick it up because I don’t do well with horror and I’ve heard there is animal cruelty in it.
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I’ll post an informal review when I’ve finished the book. As of yet the cruelty depicted is human vs. human, i.e. the military soldiers and the native peoples.
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I’m a little over halfway through the third book in the Eragon series by Christopher Paolini. So far it’s pretty good but dragging in places.
My book club chose “Wayward”for this month’s book. I read it several months ago, it was well written however, its subject matter is hard to digest. Having just celebrated a very different Christmas with a love one in ICU, I chose to not reread it but picked up “James”. So far I am finding it a more pleasurable experience.
I just finished This Here Is Love and wow! I will be thinking about this one for a long time. And recommending it too. I loved the author Q and A.
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George Orwell’s 1984. With everything that is happening in our country and the world these days, one of the reading groups I’m in has chosen to read this novel. History may, or may not, be repeating itself. Our objectives as we read are to be aware of our own emotions - how does it make us feel? Where do we see similarities? What is the impact of doing nothing, or doing something? Rather than just watching history potentially repeating itself, we may generate ideas as how best to make necessary changes to maintain/ensure/ restore our democratic ideals and constitutional rights.
I read two books this past week: The Story of Arthur Truluv by one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Berg. She has the ability to blend sadness with humor.
I finally finished 33 Place Brugmann by Alice Austen. The novel is about residents living in an apartment building in Brussels during Word War II. The first half of the book was not an easy read but fortunately the book was an engaging character study of survival with a heartwarming ending.
I just started reading The Maidens by Alex Michelides. I thought his previous thriller Silent Patient was an excellent book, but that was 4 years ago. It will be interesting if The Maidens meets my expectations.
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I just started Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite (thank you BookBrowse!) and I’m really enjoying it. This past weekend I read (in one day) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews for my IRL book group. This is only our second book so will be interested in what the other members think of it.
I’m glad you got the chance to read This Here Is Love, Holly! That’s one of two books I read this year that I really felt deserved more recognition (the other being The Lilac People by Milo Todd).