What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? Please share! We’d love to know.
FINISHED:
KIN by Tayari Jones—Two girls raised together in Honeysuckle, Mississippi. Annie’s mother disappeared leaving her with her grandmother and Vernice’s mother died leaving her with an unmarried aunt. The girls really only have each other. They are as different as can be and as graduation approaches Annie runs to Memphis while Niecy prepares to depart for college at Spellman. This begins their separate lives but always they are kin and bonded by a special love. A strongly character driven story where we really get to know these young women beginning independent lives. It is a beautiful look at how decisions can shape two connected lives in very different ways.
May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry is a short, poetic look behind the scenes as a curator dresses the King’s property for an important tour. In very brief chapters the curator gets historical documents from the archivist and then begins researching the king’s story and the products available to represent the rooms but more especially the food that will be arrayed in the dining room and the kitchen. Told in three sections the book starts with the curator’s research, the second part is the king’s story, and then finally the exhibition’s culmination. As Booker contenders go this is #3 on my short list.
The Nightingales by Emil Wilson is the coming of age of a high school senior who learns about the AIDS crisis when her father brings home a friend, Jim, who is very sick. Louise, known as Lou, befriends the man and provides him assistance as he gets weaker. Jim’s presence in the house causes a lot of stress for Lou’s parents. Her mom just can’t help but be judgmental and constantly finds something to complain about, driving her husband farther away. With brilliant watercolored illustrations the author delivers a double punch of visual and textual storytelling that is a reminder of a painful past based somewhat on the author’s own life.
Sunrise by Tea Obreht—three entwined stories: a young woman survives a small plane crash and wanders into a tiny, abandoned western town, a book within the book, a property owner and theater director is planning the town production. It all sounds unrelated but as the story moves along there are strands that begin to connect.
NOW READING:
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar—in a near future India a family is trying to get out of the country before Kolkata collapses. 
Flesh by David Szaloy—this is a reread for my irl book club.
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I think you’ll really like A Guardian and a Thief, @Anne_Glasgow! Curious to hear what you think about Flesh. That one’s on my TBR/owned stack.
I just started Under Story by Chloe Benjamin and it is very intriguing so far!
I finished The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club by Martha Hall Kelly. I was a bit hesitant about it, but really enjoyed it - especially the references to pre-1940 books. I think readers who liked The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society would also find it enjoyable.
Mmmmm, not loving A Guardian and a Thief. Seems like much ado about passports. Perhaps it would have been better for me to have read this one in print.
I really liked Flesh when I read it for last year’s Booker. It reads differently the second time and I’ve also listened to a couple of author interviews so I’m getting more of his intention. I like it but lots of people have not appreciated the spare writing style.
I finished LAND by O’Farrell this morning. I found it engaging. Am I recalling there were mixed reviews here on BB? There were more sorrows than joys, but all the main characters seem to find peace.
My next read is CHILDREN OF TIME by Tchaikovsky; a sci-fi series. There are four books thus far. Will I read all of them? TBD
Soon to start ALL HER BEAUTIFUL DEATHS for the upcoming BB discussion.
I finished Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke yesterday and it blew me away. I am very bad at predicting endings but this one especially blindsided me; in fact, in our work book club, we read Theo of Golden, The Correspondent, and Yesteryear. The others kicked me out because I had not finished Yesteryear and it is impossible to discuss it without analyzing the implications of the resolution.
I started There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone today. After the intensity of Evicted, Rough Sleepers, and Poverty by America, I completely changed my worldview and had a whole new attitude toward my students as a teacher. Sociologically, learning about people facing adversity should be required before you judge anyone.
I am reading Make Nice by Ryan Effgen
At first I wasn’t thrilled about Guardian and the Thief, but like Land after getting to 50% I found the book more engaging. I find that is the case with some books that I have rated a 5.
Remarkably the longer I read War and Peace the more I am enjoying the narrative.
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Sadly I didn’t ever warm to A Guardian and a Thief but I can totally agree with you about enjoying W&P. Can you believe we have almost made it to the end?
I just finished “One Night Two Souls Went Walking” by Ellen Cooney. This book is about a day in the life of a young woman who is a hospital chaplain at a large medical center. Funding has been cut and as low man on the totem pole, she is assigned the night shift. She roams the halls, stopping in the rooms of patients who have requested her while also checking in on new arrivals and newly arrived ER patients Even though she is young, the readers learn about her former lovers, her difficult family relationships and how she always willing to bend the rules for her patients Two dogs play a role in these stories, one alive, the other dead and the title relates to the chaplain’s walk with of these dogs. It is a rather melancholy easy to read book and filled full of interesting persons and messages that makes one wonder more about the “great beyond.”
Presently I am finishing "The Magic of the Tiger Castle for discussion on BB. I am still working “Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows” as I had forgotten the date the discussion opened on BB for the castle. Next in line is Villa Coco which should lead me to next week’s book club meeting. It’s my turn to come up with 3 books for next month’s read. I am leaning towards, “A Pair of Aces”, “A Palace of Crow,” and “Vanishing Place.”
Ghost-Eye by Amitav Ghosh
I just started this book, the author a first-time read for me, and so far have found it very engaging. I initially stumbled onto the book because it’s very bright orange cover with fish* caught my eye, then the words “reincarnation” and “climate change” intrigued me. It will be fascinating to see how this perplexing combination manifests.
*Beautiful cover is the UK publication.
Hi all!
I finished The Finest Hotel in Kabul by Lyse Doucet. I liked that the author chose to write a book not about herself (which could easily have been done as a memoir due to her career), but rather this hotel and its employees. I did have trouble remembering who’s who, but gained some more background into Afghanistan’s recent history and insight into the lives of some everyday people there; they need to be heard and at the very least, not forgotten.
I hadn’t had much energy or time to read since finishing Doucet’s book (just a few samples here and there), but am now about to start Tristan Gooley’s The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs (nonfiction), and a mystery by Uzma Jalaluddin, Detective Aunty.
P.S. Last week I referred to how sometimes male authors can be “smarmy” in their depictions or descriptions of women, but I meant another word, which evades me now, again. (Creepy? Distasteful? Icky?)
I have the Goldstone book on hold and hoping it comes in soon.
And I agree! I remember thinking after reading Evicted, that it and books like it should become required reading.