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.

Thank you. I think I shall try Precipice looks interesting

I had to give up on Precipice. Not read any of his books before but I'm really interested in the subject matter but decided I'd rather read non fiction on Asquith & Stanley & Margot. I found the made up character of the detective too grafted on and it didn't really have any passion to it. It made me wonder if Harris has any insight into people as a whole really 🤨😬

Just finished The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark. It's only about 100 pages long but good grief it was a pretty harrowing book about someone who's basically having a mental breakdown and, as with other Spark novels, you learn it's not going to end well early on. Lots of people connecting and not connecting with the main character. Not exactly a fun read.

Currently reading - Sister In Law. Fighting For Justice In A System Designed By Men. Harriet Wistrich.

Feeling - bloody hell this woman is so impressive, I wish I had done anything even 0.5% as impressive.
That's not what she wrote it for though I'm sure, she's not a big head blowing her trumpet. But wow, she's worked on some seminal cases and made a lot of difference to the world. So far we've had accounts of her work related to Jean Charles de Menezes, Yarl's Wood, failure to investigate John Worboys, getting a eoman who killed her abusive pimp released, undercover police having relationships with activists, CPS prosecting a mentally unwell vulnerable woman for what they thought was a false rape allegation, Sally Challen's case.... it doesn't read like a text book, it's very readable and as someone interested in law and feminism it's right up my street.

Next up - some light fiction. Maybe The Enchanted April or Fried Green Tomatoes.

Currently: When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Feeling: It's beautifully written as you'd expect but its very suddenly gone all 'action movie' which is a very odd departure from the rest of the book. We'll see how it pans out.

Up Next: I'm really not sure. Maybe Brideshead Revisited.

Currently reading The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. Loving it. She’s so good at writing setting and believable characters.

Next on my list? the new Nora Roberts, due out next week!!

Currently: City of Tears by Kate Mosse, part of the Burning Chambers cycle set in the religious wars of 16thC France. It’s a bit literal, wears its research heavily, and the main character/ family is persecuted by a proper villain, which is a bit cheesy (keep thinking, really, again?). But the history is interesting. In fact this bit (the Huguenot massacre after the marriage of Marguerite de Valois to Henri de Navarre) was covered by Dumas in La Reine Margot so I might just go and read that …

Next - Darling Buds of May for a little light relief. Never read it before.

Just nearing the end of How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue. Absolutely wonderful. It’s set in a fictional African village that has been destroyed by an oil company. It’s beautifully written and your heart literally aches for some of the characters.

Next up: Butter by Asako Yuzuki

Actually I am going to sneak in a Freida McFadden thriller before I start Butter as I’ve had a couple of her books for a while now. They are perfect for a quick read on holiday and I’ve got a couple of days off work next week. I’ll get through this one fairly quickly and keep the other one for our beach holiday later this year.

I am now reading Red Dragon (not read before) and shall follow it with The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris. It’s very very very good and I remember being gripped by Silence of the Lambs when I read it about 30 years ago

I just couldn’t get into Precipice *FoxRedPuppy *I think I shall give up on Robert Harris books I just can’t seem to get into them

Just finished - The Seal Wife by Kathryn Harrison. V good, unsentimental, set in early 20th century Alaska.

Next will read Spook Street by Mick Herron

In the middle of Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson. I find her a bit hit and miss, but I'm loving this. Nightclub culture in the roaring 20s.
I have a Reacher lined up next but it's one of the recent co-writes with his brother so I'm not enthused.

Actually I am going to sneak in a Freida McFadden thriller before I start Butter as I’ve had a couple of her books for a while now. They are perfect for a quick read on holiday and I’ve got a couple of days off work next week. I’ll get through this one fairly quickly and keep the other one for our beach holiday later this year.

Are they the Housemaid books?

I’ve just finished The Enchanted April & I think it’s an excellent holiday read - light, charming and beautifully written.

Loved Enchanted April @EmpressaurusDeiGatti - a real pick me up.

Just finished Kate Mosse’s City of Tears, part of the Burning Chambers series. The plot grinds its gears very obviously. Was a bit of a disappointment.

Darling Buds of May next.

I read the first Housemaid one a few years ago and thought it was really good (but guessed the twist before the end) and I have the next one in the series still to read. The one I’m currently reading is called The Perfect Son.

My bookclub a few years ago made the conscious decision to read books by women of colour for a year, it was so insightful, consciously reading from specific (though still broad) perspectives really started to change how I responded to many other things in life. And made me realise how many books by white men are still more available or at least more talked about.

Just finished James by Percival Everett and loved it (especially after THREE back to back DNF!). Have to prep a book for work and then onto this month's bookclub pick The Cliffs by J Courtney Sullivan but I have low hopes as the person who chose it said it's disappointing!

I really like a Dick Francis although not so keen on those written by Felix Francis, his son.

I've just finished Cecile is Dead by George Simenon. I love the Maigret books - I had to go out for coffee and a croissant after I'd finished it. I'm now reading The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley. I've not read enough of it yet to form an opinion.

No, the Felix Francis ones are awful. See also the Andrew Child Reacher books. The latest of which is so dull I've given up part way through.

I started a Felix Francis but it was so depressing I stopped after the first chapter.

I'm currently reading Our Missing Hearts by Celest Ng which I think is her best yet, really emotional but in a really quiet low key way that just builds really slowly. Her first one that I read recently Everything I Never Told You was also brilliant, but probably more conventional, as is Little Fires Everywhere, but her writing and different themes elevate the stories into something unexpected I think.

Next on my list is probably Skippy Dies by Paul Murray - I've read The Bee Sting and enjoyed it so I'm hoping for good things. Alternatively I might read Butter by Asako Yuzuki which sounds interesting. I always have a stack of books lined up so will just see how I feel though I shall maybe need something a bit lighthearted about the Ng book.

Just finished Darling Buds. Enjoyed it, it’s wonderfully rural and paints a v dryly funny picture of post war Britain. Didn’t really know what to make of the sexism though, it was so overt it was practically pervy. Lots of lascivious descriptions of women’s bodies. I wouldn’t mind if the men were equally described, and the sex in the book is pretty free and liberal, no uptightness, but the objectification is all one way. To be expected for the 50s I suppose.

Next up, Diary of a Provincial Lady. Already gently funny.

@MotherOfCatBoy Diary of a Provincial Lady is one of my favourite books. Time for a reread, I think.

I’ve just finished the extraordinary cases of Sherlock Holmes (read to the kids aloud), The Housemaid (equivalent of trash TV but enthralling, read in a day), The Secret History by Donna Tartt (very dark in parts but enjoyed it) and The List of Suspicious Things (not my favourite and an audiobook but a good listen).

Currently listening to Butter (finding it a bit hard going, still not half way through) and The Ministry of Time (pretty good so far). Reading North Woods, which I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy as it didn’t seem like my usual type of thing, but really loving the way it is told.

Next up is The Vanishing Half (for book club) and another Sherlock Holmes on audiobook. Can’t decide what my next print book should be after that - I might pick up Everything You Really Need to Know About Politics as I fancy something factual!

I'm currently reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Wells. I never read non-fiction usually but have stormed through this and nearly finished.

I imagine like many others, finding the parents extremely frustrating.

I'm reading the 4th Maeve Kerrigan next and then East of Eden by John Steinbeck

I read East of Eden when I was a teenager. I love John Steinbeck and raced through most of his novels. It would be good to reread some of them now I'm older and have a more mature view of the world.

I've just finished The Party by Elizabeth Day - posh people behaving badly. Now I'm reading More Days At The Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa.

@whatsit84 I loved the Vanishing Half but it was tense!

reading- AFamily Matter* *by Claire Lynch and racing through finding it absolutely pick perfect. A take on a family scenario I haven't come across in novels before. Would cancel my plan for the morning to carry on if I could.

next- possible either * *Brother. Do. You. Love. Me. by Manni Coe or This Motherless Land: A Novel by Nikki May

I think they might lead on quite well from current book. Like a dj choosing the next track- keep the same feel or change it up?

Boundaries on the Footsteps of Another World. Hard going because of the language of the time (mid 19th Century) so will probably re-read.