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 preferred it as an audio book. But still didn't finish it...

I couldn't engage.

@halava , Dervla Murphy has written so many great books- I've loved them all

Current
Idol by Louise O'Neill

Feeling
I'm really enjoying it and intrigued by which way it's going to go. I'm listening on audible and enjoying the narration.

(I've just finished the Bee Sting which was a mammoth 26h read/listen and I'm mourning it! I miss the characters. It was so good-

Next
Thanks for the reminder, my next read will be the new liane Moriaty- it's been years since her last book so I'm looking forward to that.

current - I Will Find You - Harlan Coben

feeling it's early days, only on chapter 3 but I am a shameless DNFer and this seems to have drawn me in so far!

next - no idea. I have a pile of about 15 to read, predominantly psychological thrillers (always open to recommendations!) with a few palate cleansers thrown in as well. Usually pick at random when I'm ready for the next!

It might be worth listening to the audio version, which is brilliantly narrated by Lesley Manville. I enjoyed it and it got us through a few long car journeys last year.

Current
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Feeling
I took a bit of a gamble here as its heroine is a tennis player and I have no interest in tennis. I’m about a third of the way in and it’s ok so far but I’m not as taken with it as I was with Reid’s ‘Daisy Jones and the Six’ (I thought the TV adaptation of that book was awful).

Next
Slow Horses by Mick Herron. The TV version is getting a huge amount of praise but it’s on a channel that’s not in our package and I can’t be arsed to add more channels, so I’ll read the original book instead.

Currently reading - Kindred by Octavia Butler, lent to me by a colleague

Feeling - I hadn't ever heard of the book or the author and started out by thinking it was a modern book and was quite derivative - too similar to the Time Travellers Wife (but v much not a romance). But then I quickly realised it was actually written in the 1970s, and it changed my view completely, andas I work my way through I am finding it powerful. I have now researched the author and am gobsmacked and outraged that I never heard of her before as I spent my teenage years reading all the sci fi in my local library , most of it from that period,but she was not represented at all, it was all white men.

Next - Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

I had waited for ages to buy "The App" by Stuart James - felt that it definitely wasn't worth the £15 price tag - decent enough story but nothing special.

Just ploughed through two books in a week - one was "The Whistling" by Rebecca Netley - not my usual genre as it was a ghost story but it was so beautifully written and atmospheric, set in a poor village on a Scottish island in the early 1900s and a woman trying to come to terms with tragically losing her sister in a fire at their home in Edinburgh, travels by boat to become a live-in nanny for a mute child who has lost her mother and whose previous nanny disappeared suddenly and soon after the little girl's twin brother was found dead by the cliffs - there were a few twists in it and it was enjoyable read and perfect for the darker, colder, wetter days/evenings.

Also just finished "The Holiday" by Louise Candlish - loved it! Makes you think twice about both sides of the "holiday home owners" debate.

Just started reading "The House Swap" by Rebecca Fleet - literally just started reading it and it's gripped me quickly and you can feel the menace in the story - in face as soon as I've nosied on MN, I'm going back to my book.

Next book I plan to read is "I Invited Her In" by Adele Parks.

I loved Idol, Louise O'Neill is a favourite author.

I really struggled with that book as got it due to so many glowing recommendations. Never finished it and l rarely give up.
Currently reading Colm Toibin Long Island.
It's a follow up to Brooklyn which ended up a movie. It's OK.. not amazing.
Not sure what will be next

Another ugghhh for My Brilliant Friend. I tried, so hard, but DNF. Gave it to my mum who finished it but wasn’t impressed. She took it to her charity group and a friend pounced on it, was apparently thrilled. I’m not sure what I disliked though.
Anyway.

Now: Tom Lake. I’m 3 chapters in and I like the structure, jumping back in time and then forward but without much flagging of that fact. I need to remember that each paragraph jumps in time. But it’s a nice gentle read at the moment. Also not too long.

Next: First Wife’s Shadow, Adele Parks. This is the book club read for our little mumsnet group of book club outcasts, I’m looking forward to it. I like a good thriller!

@Idontevenknowmyname

I loved Tom Lake but did it as audio it was narrated by Meryl Streep

I’m glad I’m not the only one! It just feels so slow and bleak (and bleak is one of my favourite genres 😃) is it worth sticking with it? I’m about 40 pages in.

I've recently discovered Octavia Butler too. Her two "Parable" novels are stunning and particularly chilling given they were written in the 1990s.

I read Long Island on holiday recently and loved it. I read Brooklyn when I got back (so wrong way round!) and did enjoy it but not as much as Long Island.

My first introduction to Colm Toibin was Mothers and Sons which I read as part of my Contemporary Irish Fiction module at uni and loved it so that might be worth a read if you haven’t already read it 😊

Really interested to find I’m not alone RE My Brilliant Friend. I might have to give up but I never do that with books it would be a first for me.

Current:
The Distance Between Us by Maggie O Farrell
Very Very Lucky by Amanda Prowse

Feeling:
Only just started Distance but I think it's going to be good.... Enjoying Very x 2, her books are extremely readable.

Next:
Have The Mercies and Burial Rites tee'd up so one of those. But also had Strange Sally Diamond delivered today..... Decisions decisions...

Currently:
Haven’t they grown by Sophie Hannah.

Feeling:
It’s ok so far although I’m aware that the reviews weren’t great and it got slated on mumsnet so I’m trying to keep an open mind.

Next:
I should really tackle one of my non fiction books so either The power of now by Eckhart Tolle or Bright young women by Jessica Knoll.

Currently: Tampa by Alissa Nutting

Feeling: what the actual fuck am I reading and why am I reading it?

Next: A Little Life

Ghostwritten -David Mitchell
Liking it, but not read very far
Next is a John le Carre - got 2 to choose from

Curent: King: The Life of Martin Luther King by Jonathan Eig

Feeling: Really enjoying this. Eig has accessed a lot of previously unpublished documents and information from family & friends that hadn’t been disclosed before so this isn’t a run of the mill bio that paints King as a saint. There’s quite a lot of stuff that is surprising and shocking. It’s very detailed but I find the period he’s writing about really interesting so this is a great read for me.

Next: Fraud (Zadie Smith) or I might dive back into Jane Austen and go for Sense and Sensibility.

I read My Brilliant Friend years ago and have just finished the second book in the series. It was ok but dragged on a bit and could have been reduced by at least half. I will read parts 3&4 as I am curious to find out what happens next but they are way down on my list.

I've just started Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. I've not got far enough into it to really tell how I feel about the plot but I love her writing style. I read her Sea of Tranquillity a while back and it was delightful.

I'm also half-way through Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad. It's his experiences working as a young assistant English teacher in Japan. It's fun, if a bit superficial. An easy book to dip in and out of.

Then there's South by Ernest Shackleton. It's his account of his disastrous expedition to the Antarctic in 1914. He wasn't the most gifted of authors and, as a man born in Victorian times, he's got a talent for dry understatement. But it's an incredible tale.

Not sure what's next. I've had The Remains of the Day on my shelf for ages and keep meaning to start it so possibly that. For non-fiction probably The Earth Transformed by Peter Frankopan which looks incredible but is an inconveniently chunky book. It's about the impact of the climate on humanity and vice-versa. It's one of those books that I think I should have got on Kindle rather than paper, so I might instead go for SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard.

@FuckoffeeBeforeCoffee

Ha! I bought that in a train station for a journey, didn't really know what it was about, got a shock!

Currently:

I’m also reading My Brilliant Friend 😅. Interesting to hear that it’s a DNF for many. It didn’t hook me straight away but once I got into it I raced through part one. I’m hoping it’s a grower.

Also slowly getting through Antarctica, a short story collection from Claire Keegan.

Next:

I’ve been trying to switch up genres/subjects each new book this year so maybe Red Rising, the beginning of a sci fi series

I absolutely LOVED the four books that start with My Brilliant Friend. TBH, I think that one was actually the weakest of the four, and like @MonOncle it took me a little while to get into it, but once I was into it I became obsessed and I can't really explain why! I would literally finish one and I'd have to read the next one - I couldn't read anything else. It was very strange, because normally I don't want to read the next one in a series immediately - I want to take a break - but I couldn't do that with those books. Other books that people obsess over I often can't get into at all. Tried Wolf Hall twice, couldn't get into it. Tried Cold Mountain, ditto. One Day? Drivel. And so on. Books are so personal. I've read many on this thread.

Anyway, to the question ...

Currently reading 'The Cat and the City' by Nick Bradley. It's a series of short stories really all linked by the fact that the people live in Tokyo and they see this calico cat in their everyday lives - so the cat is the thread between them all. It's quite fun and I'm very into all things Japanese atm.

Next? I honestly don't know! I have a bookcase full of books I haven't read and when I finish one I take a look at what I've got and see what I fancy. Often I think I'll read one, but the one I pick up is actually something entirely different.