What are you currently reading, how do you feel about it, and what's next on the list? Part 2

The Manningtree Witches. It's good.
I might read Black Venus or Vox next.

Just finished My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell, uncomfortable and made me cry. Didn’t read the blurb beforehand, only the bit on the front where Stephen King called it a ‘package of dynamite’. Think everyone should read it.

Currently reading Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke and thoroughly loving the ride, laughter and horror pair so well these days.

So glad to hear that about 'Castaway', as I'll be starting it shortly.

Just as soon as I finish 'Discontent' by Beatriz Serrano which is about a woman who handles the rat race by having a created a niche where she does as little as possible. It's sharp and caustic, and kind of relatable. Very much enjoying it.

I've also just finished 'Margaret Beaufort' by Lauren Johnson, an engaging history.

I’ve just finished The Boy From The Sea by Garrett Carr. It’s taken me around 6 weeks to read as it wasn’t grabbing me, probably should’ve given up on it but hoped it’d become more interesting.

I’m now reading The Barbecue At No.9 by Jennie Godfrey. I’m only on the second chapter but it’s drawing me in.

I finished Three Daughers of Eve which I really enjoyed. Now trying to read Gain by Richard Powers but it's not really grabbing me.

I agree Hamnet was beautifully written and I really enjoyed it.

I've just read Castaway by Francesca De Tores, a novel about Alexander Selkirk. Really enjoyed it and thought it brilliantly written.
Next going to start Land by Maggie O'Farell. I usually love her books but OH has given up on it.

@AndresyFiorella I loved the Gentleman in Moscow. Truly wonderful.

Just started The Romantic by William Boyd. Good first couple of chapters, we’ve just arrived at Waterloo… can’t escape the bloody place! (Winks at fellow Les Mis readers)

I’m reading “The things we never say” by Elizabeth Strout, it’s excellent! Definitely my kind of book, characters that I totally believe in and relate to.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towels and I am LOVING it. I highly recommend it. Next on the list is Notes from the Underground by Dostoevsky. A student in my Yr9 class is reading it (not typical for my school!!) and I felt inspired!

‘Whistle’ - Linwood Barclay - so good , sinister and creepy, but good story and well worth reading. Not sure I’m ever going to look at a train set the same way!

Next book - Felicity Philips cozy mystery book - Steve Higgs - need something light and easy to read next (I’m working my way through the series).

Just finished The Leviathan by Rosie Andrews. It's ok but I wouldn't say it's a 'must read.'

Next Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst. Should be better.

Precipice by Robert Harris. Extremely interesting and a good read.
Had started John Lanchester's Look What You Made Me Do but didn't finish in time for library due date. Will pick it up again - was quite good as well.

Yes- I get exactly what you mean about it running out of steam!! I was also a bit annoyed about the end - I don’t want to spoil it but I felt that the ending was a bit convenient and really stepped on the points that the author seemed to be trying to make about the devastation of war!

interestingly, people seemed to feel the same in my book group - enjoyed it overall but felt it had issues. A couple of them had read the nightingale and said it is essentially the same story in a different era which impacted their enjoyment.

Im now onto King Sorrow by Joe Hill - a bit out there but I’m enjoying it, very strong Stephen King vibes, as you may expect!

If you read back the last few pages, you’ll find there’s a few posts about ‘The Women’ , me included. I’m glad I read it, but didn’t get the hype. The Vietnam war was interesting, and the attitudes of the day, plus how the post traumatic stress affected them and wasn’t recognised. However, I felt the book ran out of steam in the second, American half, especially the relationships, , which due to various factors conveniently ended. A bit of a cop out. So I didn’t hate but didn’t love it either, and why was it called ‘ The Women’ when it was about one woman?

Gave up on The Woman in Cabin 10, and also on The Invisible Library and now reading Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak which seems good so far.

Picked up Hilary Mantel’s Mantel Pieces, a collection of mainly book reviews but also essays and memoir from 30 years of writing for the London Review of Books. God she’s good. From the Rushdie fatwa and freedom of speech to Diana and Kate Middleton, she skewers lazy thinking and gets straight to the point. I wish she were still here.

I am in Haworth for the weekend, so I am reading Catherine, a retelling of Wuthering Heights by Essie Fox. It is good and I am enjoying it, but it feels like a slightly YA, dumbed down version of the original. Seen from Catherine's POV it lacks the brutality and emotional pain of Wuthering Heights.
I bought Glass Town, a graphic novel based on the Brontës juveniles by Isabel Green from the Brontë Parsonge shop. I have never read a graphic novel so I am looking forward to it.* *

I’ve just finished Fruitfly which I thought was brilliant but imagine it would not be everyone’s cup of tea. It’s quite brutal, a bit like Yellowface with ethically dubious characters but I was gripped. Im now trying once again ro read ‘we begin at the end’ which I keep starting and giving up but has been recommended to me many times so I’m going to try and get into it.

'Villa Coco' by Andrew Sean Greer. This author won a Pulitzer prize for an earlier novel. I read that and thought it was okay but couldn't understand for a second why it had won a prestigious literary award. I was drawn into this one because of its Tuscan setting and promises on the cover that it would be a lovely summer read. It was okay. Didn't quite seem to know what it wanted to be and ended up not being anything much. Reminded me of Graham Greene 'Travels with my Aunt', only not so good.

Now reading the Shirley Jackson family memoir. There is nothing different from her style of writing in her horror stories so I keep expecting something creepy to happen. I can't help but think she was playing up to that by, for example, talking about how their new house seemed to know where each piece of furniture should go. It's quite a disconcerting effect. But she was a great writer.

'Lucien' by JR Thornton, in spite of its billing, wasn't anywhere near as good as 'The Secret History or even of 'Saltburn' - and I though Saltburn was, at best, mildly entertaining. So, wouldn't recommend.

Now reading 'Trad Wife' by Saratoga Schaefer which is folk horror. Tremendous fun so far, if you like that sort of thing.

I really enjoyed it, but im a basic bitch.

I am reading a whole load of books at once because I keep putting them down and not being able to find them when I want them. So am reading:

Thirteen Storeys About three stories in I thought "this reminds me of the Magnus Archives podcast" and then realised it was by the same author. I'm finding it a bit repetitive, as similar spooky things happen in each "story" to people who seem quite different on the face of it but don't read or react very differently to each other. I have also just dropped in it the bath so it needs to dry off before I can get back to it. At least the bath didn't instantly turn to blood, or a hand reach out of the plughole to get it.

Fly Wild Swans Learning a lot from this about China that I didn't know, I haven't read Wild Swans though which possibly I should have done before reading this!

The Hall-Marked Man ordered it from the library in November and it just arrived, but I have only read the first chapter so far, I do find JK very very readable.

Rogues, Widows and Orphans An entertaining account of various things to do with books and publishing, everything from monks making mistakes when copying manuscripts and blaming it on the devil, to sensitivity readers.

Once I get through all that, I need to read the Square of Sevens as its on its sixth renew at the library.