Books on the Nightstand discussion

Darn! Half the year is over. Tempest Fugit.

Katherine Carlyle an ARC I picked up at BEA by the inimitable Rupert Thomson

Almost done listening to Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk on my iPad.

Still listening to All the Light We Cannot See in the car.

I'm also reading The Liars' Club.

I'm going to read two chapters of War and Peace today. I hope to have that done at the end of the year. Then I can catch up with the rest of the Classics Impossible group.

I've got Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania on audio book, still working on A Little Life on my Kindle and A Stranger in the Kingdom in print

I'm reluctantly reading South of Broad, given to me by some friends upon hearing that I wasn't able to get through Prince of Tides. They thought I'd enjoy this more? Not so much.

I've spent most of today with A Month in the Country, from my nightstand TBR. A welcome break from South of Broad.

I'm still working my way through David Gates' latest collection, A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me: Stories and a Novella. So dark, so sad, so funny.

My daughter will be helping me out in the office over the summer, so we'll be listening to audiobooks together on the commute. Tomorrow we start Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

This month I also hope to get to The Wonder Garden and I Saw a Man.

Local library finds this morning: Delicious Foods, Hausfrau, and The Book of Strange New Things. Yippee!!! I think I will tackle Delicious Foods first. I've heard so much about it.

I loved Delicious Foods, but listened to the audiobook. I'm sure it's just as good in print, but it Hannaham's narration was a real treat. I loved The Book of Strange New Things in Print. Hausfrau, another audio listen, didn't do it for me, but I'm glad I read it. Great finds!

Gail wrote: "Local library finds this morning: Delicious Foods, Hausfrau, and The Book of Strange New Things. Yippee!!! I think I will tackle Delicious Foods first. I've heard so much about it."

Still reading Fourth of July Creek & The Truth According to Us
I have a stack after I finish...

i'm about half way through Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant? and i adore it. definitely in my top five books of the year so far.

i always read steinbeck in the summer. i'll continue the trend by starting: The Grapes of Wrath

I'm reading the following: The Secret History by Donna Tartt

The Book Seller

and

Just finished Elizabeth Is Missing on audio. The narration is excellent, and although the mystery isn't very compelling, the description of someone's descent into dementia is extraordinary. I started The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and Two Not-So-Great Ones) Saved My Life as my new listen. So far, so good - he agrees with me that Middlemarch is brilliant.

My two paper books are Snow Crash and Beloved.

My two ebooks are How to Be Both and Alan Turing: The Enigma

I'm just relieved my work life has calmed down, thus allowing me to resume a more normal reading pace. I'm catching up on my Booktopia authors and just finished The Book of Unknown Americans, which I enjoyed. And I'm listening to Defending Jacob. I wish I were reading it in print because I would stay up all night to finish it!

I just finished A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention (loved it) on audio and The Girl on the Train (so-so) in print. I'm starting I Saw a Man in print and Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances on audio.

I'm listening to We Were Liars, reading again the Harry Potter books, and enjoying a book about Charleston Mary's World: Love, War & Family Ties in Nineteenth-Century Charleston for an upcoming vacation. I have even started to enjoy graphic novels and will probably start Maus, I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History.

Sucked in to Finders Keepers

You might also like Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. It's a coming of age story, told from the girl's POV, set in Iran during the war with Irag. It was made into an animated feature, but works well as the original graphic novel, too. Also The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar and the Adventures of Rabbi Harvey by Steve Sheinkin. I enjoyed all of those. I have a hard time finding graphic novels that have adult themes, but are not written for hormone-drenched teen boys. These three made me smile, but also made me think.

Karen wrote: "I just finished A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention (loved it) on audio and The Girl on the Train (so-so) in print. I'm star..."

I have read 3 of those 4. A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention was powerful I thought.

I started A Commonplace Book of the Weird: The Untold Stories of H.P. Lovecraft

According to my Kindle, I'm 22% finished, and I love it. I found it while pre-ordering Welcome to Night Vale and when I read the description I had to buy it!

I've also been trying to read The Martian before the movie premiers and the trailers spoil too much, but I am super excited about both of these books.

I am very excited about the Welcome to Night Vale novel!

Melissa wrote: "I am very excited about the Welcome to Night Vale novel!"

I am too!! I can't wait for it to come out!! Are there any books you've read that you think you could put in the same category as Welcome to Nightvale? I'm looking for more kooky sort of reads.

Just started listening to Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

Linda wrote: "Just started listening to Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption"

Where's my "like" button?
I've got three audiobooks going, Shantaram, Delicious Foods, and The Paying Guests. Sarah Waters is not getting equal time. I stalled out on Fates and Furies but I plan to pick it up again at some point. I've been enjoying some graphic novels, spent my lunch hour today with Maus, II: And Here My Troubles Began

Just finished listening to The Silver Linings Playbook on audiobook (liked it a lot - need to see the movie now). I'm also working my way through Drums of Autumn.

I haven't read the book, but thought the movie was great!

Laura wrote: "Just finished listening to The Silver Linings Playbook on audiobook (liked it a lot - need to see the movie now). I'm also working my way through Drums of Autumn."

I have to catch my breathe, the wind knocked out of me. No to Prince of Tides, South of Broad? Ouch. On one of my trips to Charlesto, I had just just finished Prince of Tides, with words and emotion I could taste in the air. Please try My Reading Life, which provides a look into what drives this man' writing.

James wrote: "I have to catch my breathe, the wind knocked out of me. No to Prince of Tides, South of Broad? Ouch. On one of my trips to Charlesto, I had just just finished Prince of Tides, with words and emotio..."

I adore Pat Conroy

Just started The Secret Wisdom of the Earth -- a change of pace for me since it is written in a more linear fashion than what I have been reading lately. And on audio listening to The Husband's Secret.

Thérèse Desqueyroux for a church book discussion on Thursday night (it's only 144 pages) and listening to This Time Together by Carol Burnett

Sue wrote: "I'm reluctantly reading South of Broad, given to me by some friends upon hearing that I wasn't able to get through Prince of Tides. They thought I'd enjoy this more? Not so much.

I..."

If it's any consolation, it took me 3 tries to finish Prince of Tides, and now it's on my all-time favorites list. I only gave in because so many colleagues twisted my arm.

I did like South of Broad, but I don't think I would have if I haven't read Prince of Tides. Prince of Tides is a masterpiece. South of Broad is a sweet novel by a beloved author.

Thanks for that, Ann. I wasn't planning on revisiting Prince of Tides, but you have thrown down a bit of a gauntlet! I first started listening to it on audio, so maybe I should try it in print. But, really, it was the writing I disliked so much, at least in South of Broad. I found it so overdone, almost gaudy, and full of cliches and cheap metaphor. With your endorsement, though, I feel compelled to give Prince of Tides another shot. I will report back!

Ann wrote: "Sue wrote: "I'm reluctantly reading South of Broad, given to me by some friends upon hearing that I wasn't able to get through Prince of Tides. They thought I'd enjoy this more? Not ..."

Laura wrote: "Just finished listening to The Silver Linings Playbook on audiobook (liked it a lot - need to see the movie now). I'm also working my way through Drums of Autumn."

I'm reading Silver Linings too. The author was at my local bookstore a couple weeks ago and that spurred my interest.

The Prince of Tides is one of my favorite books. I've read it 3 or 4 times.

I was able to download the audio copy of the new Harper Lee from my library today. Reese Witherspoon is a charming narrator.

Finished listening to This Time Together. Started listening to A Golden Voice: How Faith, Hard Work, and Humility Brought Me from the Streets to Salvation which as I started it up I noticed it is an abridgment.

byColleen Coble

Go Set a Watchman about halfway.

I thought everyone would drop everything and read this. All the hype I guess.

Gail wrote: "I was able to download the audio copy of the new Harper Lee from my library today. Reese Witherspoon is a charming narrator."

I friend said the same thing to me about Reese....I finished reading last night...

I started listening to The White Woman on the Green Bicycle

My copy of Go Set a Watchman hasn't come yet. Maybe tomorrow.

I just finished The Secret Wisdom of the Earth. Please put it on your to-read list. It is wonderful. Hard to figure out what to follow that with. But I think I will start Galore by Michael Crummey.

Just finished The Book of Speculation, which was very good, and half way through The Shore, which is great so far.

Also listening to We Are Not Ourselves and hoping to also listen to Between the World and Me by the end of the month.

Just finished and reviewed Go Set a Watchman Go Set a Watchman. Before that The Rocks. Both worthy.

Popping out of lurkerdom to share -- Finished A Little Life, thanks to Ann's glowing recommendation. Loved this book. Also finished Norwegian Wood -- my first Murakami. Liked it. Bad Monkey by Carl Hiassen and now Landfall by Ellen Urbani. Really liking it so far. Summer vacation means more reading time for me!

My sister-in-law and I are having a blast buddy reading In the Unlikely Event at her beach house. We're neck in neck. It's like a real time book club.

Just finished Elizabeth Berg's Tapestry of Fortunes and now well into bySue Monk Kidd. Loving this story, reminds me of Jonathan Odell's book, . On deck is:Javier Marías book of stories, from my local library.

Mrs. Poe

I've been reading graphic novels during my vacation, I really liked these:

Still listening to Shantaram and enjoying it but boy it is long. Was listening to The Thirteenth Tale in the car when the library insisted on having it back before I was finished. Irritating....I wonder if libraries are losing circulation now that there are services like Scribd. I know I'm going to use mine less.
In print, dipping in and out of some travel books about quitting your day job and hitting the open road.....a girl can dream.

I started Between the World and Me this morning on audio, narrated by the author. Breathtaking, so far.

Is scribd free?

Diana wrote: "Is scribd free?"

You can get a free trial subscription through a number of avenues. The one I know about right now is 1 month through Book Riot. After the trial period, it's $8.99/mo. Worth every penny in my opinion because I'm a big audiobook listener and they have new releases.

Just finished Go Set a Watchman and wonder if anyone else has read and what you think.

Nowhere near the writing level of To Kill a Mockingbird and some sort of strange possibly editorial mistakes. One in particular, there is a story of a teacher named Mr. Tuffet and then for a few paragraphs he is called Miss Muffet, but no indication given why. Maybe just me, but I thought this was sort of strange. I knew that it was not a sequel and went into the reading expecting a totally different story, so that was not a surprise.

I just finished one audiobook and one in print, so it's a good time for an update. The audiobook was Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, one of those books with two narratives in different times (1942 France and the present), with a link between the two sets of characters. Not bad, but not the greatest thing I've read lately. Ditto for Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron, a book about the Rwandan genocide of 1994. You'd think there'd be a lot of drama in a book in which the main characters are in growing danger of being massacred almost from the first page, but somehow I couldn't summon a lot of interest in them despite appreciating the educational value of a fictionalized account of this tragic event. I also recently finished Lauren Willig's That Summer, which like Sarah's Key was told in two timelines. I liked this one better.

Other things I've read and listened to this month include The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi; Top Secret Twenty-One by Janet Evanovich; and Vulture Peak by John Burdett. I stopped a long historical novel twice in the last month or so but will try to get back to it soon. I wish I could say it was more compelling, and I'm sticking with it mainly because I feel somewhat of an obligation toward the author, not that I know him personally, but our paths have crossed in a way.

I've been watching the BBC adaptation of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and would like to reread the book, which I read when it came out in 2004 but not since. It's extremely long, though, and I have so many other things on my list that the chances I'll get to it are not that good.