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.

Stay away from the recent ones written by his son Felix. Dreadful

I agree. I love Dick Francis' novels but have been very disappointed by those written by Felix.

Ooh brilliant. I’m currently listening to a non-fiction book about the potato famine!

I've just finished The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey for book club which was okay and an easy read but I wasn't exactly enthralled. It's about a couple of young teenagers living in Yorkshire at the time of the Ripper and they decide to try and find him amongst people they know who seem a bit suspicious.

I've just started Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers which is set in the 1960s and very engaging so far about someone having an affair with a married man that she works with. It's set in a psychiatric hospital which is interesting as well and one of the patients seems to be developing into another main character - inspired by a true story apparently.

STILL ploughing through All The Colours Of The Dark by Chris Whittaker. I’m just not feeling it but I’m determined to finish it!!!! 😬😁

I loved List of suspicious things!

I've just finished "Annual Migration of Clouds" by Premee Mohamed for book club. It was absolutely dreadful.

I've just started "A Place of Greater Safety" by Hilary Mantel. It hasn't quite gripped me so far but I'm only about 30 pages in.

Given this Mantel book is 870-odd pages, I haven't remotely thought about what comes next 😂

Oh! Wasn’t it brilliant! I can’t imagine there will be a sequel. I feel like it ended equally full of hope and despair. Loved it.

Am currently half way through APOGS Op and loving it, it’s at a very gripping stage (1792). Found it hard to begin with because of the number of characters and even now can’t always keep up but the narrative is sweeping along anyway.
It made me pick up « The Oxford History of the French Revolution » in a charity shop the other day as background so now I’ve just finished Chapter One having looped back to 1775 and the accession of Louis XVI. It’s fascinating and it’s really making me think about the differences between France and the U.K. (largely England) then and the pressure it takes to blow up a society and burn it all to the ground…

I've just finished "Klara and the Sun" by Kazuo Ishiguro. Definitely a feel of "Never Let me Go" though he has said he keeps writing the same book. Beautiful writing. His ability to maintain the world view (literally) of the Artificial Friend who is the novel's protagonist is remarkable. The reader is constantly kept involved in interpreting what she sees
Intensely moving.

@FreshAirForwards
I read yesterday that it’s being developed into a tv drama starring Anna Friel, who I imagine will play Jas.
I live in the area it’s set so will keep my eye out for her!

@echt I thought the beginning section and the end section were beautiful but it sagged in the middle for me. Upcoming film with Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams by Taika Waititi

Oh this thread is SO ANNOYING because I've just spent over £30 on new books recommended on it when I already have a massive TBR pile!

Currently reading The Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah, least favourite so far of her books, a bit boring and repetitive to be honest which is a disappointment but I'll finish it. Next is Air by John Boyne as we're doing all the element novellas for book club. All beautifully written (as you'd expect) - Water I wanted to be a full long novel, Earth was so nuanced and brilliant and heartbreaking, Fire I wasn't as enamoured of so interested to see how Air goes...you def need to read them in order to avoid spoilers

Currently re-reading The Other Wind by Ursula Le Quin, the final book in the Earthsea sequence. I find her writing style so poetic and incredibly soothing. Enduring the most awful flat mood thanks to PMS and reading this is very comforting.

I've just discovered Rebecca Yarros. Very CoHo vibes. Well written fluff.

Reading: The Bell by Iris Murdoch
Feeling: Same as with every Murdoch novel – pleasure and joy. I have spent the summer working my way through her novels and have yet to find a bad one.
Next on my list: Another Murdoch (she wrote 26), probably The Sea The Sea. She is now on my list of all-time favourite writers, along with Oscar Wilde, P G Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh, Anita Brookner and Aldous Huxley. Cannot recommend her highly enough.

A treatise on the horrors of slavery by my 9x great grandfather, Robert Wedderburn 😊

(Not sure how I feel about it yet, just past the quite lengthy introduction. With the benefit of the passing of time, I hope I can be objective.)

Currently reading Bring up the Bodies. Taking my time as it’s one of those books I really don’t want to end. Exquisite.

I've just begun Tim Winton's "Juice" and it's every good indeed. I know he's an excellent writer, having had to teach his short stories but have shied away from him in my own reading: basically all those bloody men. "Cloudstreet" was the exception.

Current book:
The King Who Had to Go, by Adrian Phillips.

Feeling:
Interesting and very detailed account of the abdication crisis. It's non fiction.

On deck:
Two towns in Priovence, by M.F.K Fisher

I've just finished Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell, I had high expectations but found it a slog, it felt like a story I'd read/heard so many times before. Very disappointing.

I'm now reading The Compound by Aisling Rawle, described as Lord of the Flies meets Love Island. It's OK so far.

Next up I'm not sure, I might try and finish The Lamb which I soft dnfed last month.

Yes @ObtuseMoose I felt like the Lisa Jewell was a bit disappointing compared with None Of This Is True but it worked well as an audiobook, Richard Armitage was very good as the man.

Just finished reading the Winter Garden yesterday. Agree it’s slow but it gets better and I ended up loving it.

that's good to know. I do like the characters but just feel like nothing has really happened and I'm 2/3rds through. The Nightingale and The Great Alone are still far and away my favourites of hers

The Women is still my favourite Kristin Hannah book, with the Four Winds coming second. The Nightingale took me a while, but I did enjoy it.

I just finished "A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe. I enjoyed it, it was easy to read. Was definitely an easy holiday read.