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

[IceIceBabyBump]

Currently:
I'm currently about half way through "Enter Ghost" by Isabella Hammad.

Feeling:
I've been working my way through the six books shortlisted for the Women's Prize and this is the last one. It's probably bottom of my list of those books. I haven't at all clicked with the characters and I'm finding it quite boring to be honest.

Next:
I've just had my next stack of four books delivered and I think I'll try George Orwell's "1984" next. I'm excited.

I had said I was going to read Armadillo but changed my mind, was seduced by Precipice, by Robert Harris, which I finished last night. Loved it. Based on the Asquith WW1 saga, his love letters to Venetia Stanley. Details how his obsession with her unfolded and some extraordinary revelations about how he behaved just as war was breaking out. A story I knew nothing about. A very satisfying read.

Next is His Bloody Project for book club.

Just finished reading Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi. Lea is an 11 girl living in communist Albania with her parents and younger brother and grandmother. She tries to be a good socialist, Enver Hoxha and Stalin are revered, and she is looking forward to the "promised land" of communism. Then it's December 1990 and everything she knows changes, not only protests leading to freedom to vote for whoever you like, but also that what she thought about her family and their stories.

I really recommend this book. To use the term eye opening in this instance is not a cliche.

I've just started reading Never Anyone But You by Rupert Thomson. Although sometimes I change my mind early on and choose something else. However, it's engaging enough so far.

Listening to Dame Judi Dench, Shakespeare the man who paid the rent. I am loving it, and it is making me want to do more Shakespeare, but I know I wont, because I haven't the time to learn his language and study the plays. Might get my book of sonnets out and see how I get on with that.

Next I might try Bad Blood as its advertised in my local bookshop, I wondered if anyone on here had read it but a search says not mentioned.

@Hoolahoophop is that Bad Blood by John Carreyrou? If so, it’s really good!

I'm reading our book club read. Hello Beautiful
by Ann Napolitano. Very much enjoying it. May read The Secrets of Blythwood Square next. I like a Scottish based novel.

Currently reading Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteredge. Warming to it a lot.

Next up will be David Hockney’s Spring Cannot be Cancelled, with all his wonderful paintings from 2020, and with this sunshine, it’s very reminiscent of that time.

Reading - Brett Anderson Afternoons With The Blinds Drawn.

Feeling - Jesus wept Brett, get to bloody point! I have a lot of goodwill for Brett and I am interested so will persevere. And I know Suede have a leaning towards overblown, but this is beyond pompous. I have nearly launched it across the room a several times. Half a page describing the filigree of fungus in a bathroom anyone? That's mould to you and I. Bernard's just left and I can't say I blame him.

Oddly I didn't have the same issue with his first memoir. Maybe the success of it went to his head?

What has tickled me is he's said (I'm summarising) he was there pouring his heart out "holding a mirror up to John Major's broken Britain" and evoking Mike Leigh esque suburban melodramas. Meanwhile, until the lyrics were printed in the first album notes none of the rest of the band knew what the lyrics were as they'd shown no interest in what he was singing.

Brett's lyrics work absolute wonders in the songs but if he every writes a novel I'm not reading it. I made that mistake with Leonard Cohen, lesson learnt!

Next - something sparse to cleanse the palate. Fiction. I was thinking Tilt by Emma Pattee but I'll need to read a bit to check it's not wordy first.

Just finishing, The Safekeep. Enjoyed it, although the sex scenes were overdone and just a bit yuk-for me, anyway!

About to start Story of a Murder by Hallie Rubenhold. I really loved The Five, so I'm looking forward to it-it's a chunker though.

Do you mean Bad Blood by Lorna Sage?

I read this years ago. I thought it was wonderful and I haven't forgotten it-which is quite something for me.

Agree with you about Judi Dench. I really liked the format and knew I was enjoying it as I was reading it!

@AlwaysPerfumed and @MonOncle it seems Bad Blood is a popular name for a novel! The one I might try next is by Sarah Hornsley it's described by Amazon as "an explosive psychological crime thriller with a triple twist" the Authors debut novel. To be honest I am just intrigued as my local bookshop is plugging it and I haven't had a bad recommendation from the lovely owner yet.

I read his 1st memoir - thought it was very gloomy ! Haywards Heath - the pits of despair (its not that Bad!), doing a paper round ditto , even Richard Osman gets the negativity 'you may think he's a national treasure, I think of him as an overgrown grumpy school kid'.

Just finished The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid By Bill Bryson-

lots of laugh out loud bits, up with his best stuff.

@AlwaysPerfumed I loved Lorna Sage’s Bad Blood too. The descriptions of generational female inverted snobbery and class insecurities in her family were forensically good and very familiar to someone who had female relatives like that in Wales!

Currently:
A Year of Biblical Womanhood, by Rachel Held Evans (I seem to have gone down a rabbit-hole of Christian patriarchy of late, so this is a bit more refreshing!)

Feeling:
I like it so far. The author chooses so many Biblical teachings to undertake per month, sometimes to humorous endings, like her mother's take on the time when she decided to take up sewing as a result of the Proverbs 31 woman.

Next:
Well, I admit that I've already started reading Raising the Kanneh-Masons, but I've got about a stack of 40-50 books on my to-be-read pile. If they get much taller, they're likely to topple over and suffocate me in my sleep. The pile covers everything from various religions to farming and time travel... so I'll see how I feel when I finish my current book!

Reading The Far Pavalions a classic and the first time I’ve read it. It’s long, very long but really enjoying it. I’m glad I’m reading it on my kindle as there’s lots of Indian terms I’m unfamiliar with, plus many English words, and on the kindle you can check their meaning easily. I also realised I am ignorant on Indian history, so found myself looking it up.

The book is worth reading, but it’s long.

Currently
Reading the Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley.
Feeling
It’s a modern day tale of government-supervised time travel. It’s intelligent, funny, I don’t want it to end.
Next
Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky.

Just finished The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. Brilliant read, 650 pages long but it went by in a flash as was gripped from start to finish and couldn’t put it down. I understand the comparisons with Jonathan Franzen but think this book bears more similarities to Franzen’s later work, Crossroads, rather than The Corrections which is the one I’ve read a lot of critics compare it to. I was warned before that the lack of punctuation might make it confusing but I didn’t notice after a while.

Currently reading Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor. So far, so evocative. A very short read, so lining up my April book from the basket of ‘a year in books’ put together for me by my besties. Can’t wait to see what they’ve chosen.

Not long into Every Man for Himself by Beryl Bainbridge. I didn't consciously choose this with this in mind but it's 113 years ago tonight; pretty much about the time it is right now. That makes me feel so sad.

As to the book, so far there's a very strong sense of the first person narrator, their style of speech and an atmosphere of their character. There's no heavy handed idea that the author is taking you back through the years self consciously as so many historical books can do; it's as if it was written contemporaneously. There's no nudge nudge early 20th Century underlined. No nudge nudge this is the Titanic and all that we know now.

Meant to say I'm a huge Beryl Bainbridge fan.

Currently reading: Kairos - Jenny Erpenbeck
Have to say I'm not exactly struggling but I'm finding it a bit boring and indulgent. Just not that interested in selfish characters with no redeeming features...Might NF

Next I think I'm going to read the new Hunger Games book that DS is devouring, mainly because he's loving it and is desperate for someone to talk to about it!

About halfway through Lessons in Chemistry. Bonnie Garmus.

I was given this, I would never have picked it up as the title/cover didn’t speak to me. It is not my normal reading genre, which is crime and chic-lit.

I am loving it! It is almost unputdownable. It gives a lighthearted look at how things were for women in the 50/60s, definitely recommend.

Just started "An Artist of the Floating World" by Kazuo Ishiguro.

It's absolutely beautiful. I'm devouring it. Maybe even his best work IMHO.

Next up might be "A Town Called Solace" by Mary Lawson. I've just discovered her and absolutely loved "Crow Lake".

Happy Easter, readers!!

@IceIceBabyBump I also discovered Mary Lawson recently. Have a look at The Other Side of the Bridge too; it's very good.

I am reading The Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves just now. I was pleased to come across another Vera book. I thought she'd finished with Vera and moved on to the Matthew Vine series, which I don't enjoy as much.

Have just finished James by Percival Everett. Really excellent, with a slightly different take on slavery from other novels I've read.

Just finished Lucinda Berry’s If You Tell a Lie.

Don’t bother. Implausible plot, implausible character motivations, and weak/dislikeable characters. Disappointing!