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.

It's like Lee Child letting his brother take over the Reacher books. What was he thinking? The new ones are like a bad tribute act.

I haven't read any continuations by other authors that I've liked anywhere near as much as the original author.

I believe people liked Brandon Sanderson's completion of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, but I'd given up on Wheel of Time before that, so never read his contribution.

Yes, absolutely loved The Goldfinch!

Finished 'As I Lay Dying' - thoroughly gloomy. Went straight on to 'Gilead' by Marilynne Robinson which was an absolute tonic to the Faulkner and as it's also about someone at the end of their life, gave me an urge to compare and contrast. Lovely main character, who is human and humane.

Now some non-fiction - 'Twelve Churches' by Fergus Butler-Gallie who, it seems, may be living an enviable life. He's the vicar of Charlbury - an idyllic, back in time sort of town on the edge of the Cotswolds, and when he's not vicaring, he's being an intellectual as a member of two Oxford colleges. Some people are just greedy. I'm enjoying his book too

Chortling my way through Barchester Towers at the moment. The squabbling and machinations are so funny and the stakes are very low! Who will win the hand of Mrs Bold? What the hell is the Signora Vesey-Neroni up to? Will Bertie Stanhope ever actually earn any money? Will Mr Slope or Mrs Proudie become the power behind the Bishop's throne? Will the Bishop grow a spine? I have no idea but I'm absolutely loving it, especially the conspiratorial tone of the narrator!

The Secret Painter by Joe Tucker - about the author's uncle . Fascinating, funny at times and moving, philosophical. Its about painting but not about painting, in that seems to be about about so many other things.

Next The Witching Tide by Margaret Meyer.

This is such an appealing description that I've added the first of the Barchester Chronicle books to my list immediately.

I hope you enjoy it! The Warden is also very good, Mr Harding is such a lovely man.

I have the whole Palliser series in a stack in my TBR but just haven’t got to a space where I can pick them up yet. I read The Eustace Diamonds in Uni and remember it as quite entertaining so I think they’ll be a treat when I finally get round to them!

Currently reading The Party by Tessa Hadley. Very evocative of a wet, cold February in 1950s Bristol. Will probably finish it tomorrow. Then Cold Comfort Farm which I have never read before and am curious about.

I'm 200 pages into Alchemised and I'm struggling. I want to love it but the overly (IMO) complicated resonance/magic/alchemy laws are leaving me cold. I'm starting to skip those bits now but what's left just seems like a lot of hyperbole describing the FMC's mental anguish?

Does it get any more readable?

Just finished North Woods. Enjoyed the first half of the book but found the last few chapters a bit of a slog.

I'm almost finished with The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. I usually like her stuff, but this feels like a thinly disguised rip-off of The Grapes Of Wrath. Almost identical plot

I love The Edge! It's one of my favourite Dick Francis books.
I really enjoyed The Giver of Stars as well.

I'm having a bit of a Dick Francis season at the moment. He's so great. Seriously under rated.

I'm doing a bit of a Dick Francis re-read too. My local library has quite a few as e-books, so I can pick one for bedtime reading. Like beguilingeyes, it's long enough ago that I read them that I've forgotten most of the plots.

I like Dick Francis’s plots, & the background research is always impressive, but the hero always seems to be the same very brilliant, intuitive, wise, kind and sensible man in a different guise - an idealised version of Francis himself?

And there’s nearly always a dig at feminists at some point.

Wasn't there a theory that the books were actually written by his wife?

That one was a DNF for me.

I just started Middlemarch by George Eliot and listening to Ashes In The Spring by Meiko Kawakami.

I loved her books! I read them in the 80s or maybe early 90s? I was a teen or 20-something anyway. I was a big fan of Sidney Sheldon and Jilly Cooper around that time - all very easy/gripping reads.

Currently reading 'If Russia Wins' a short book by a German academic on what could be the unintended consequences of appeasing Russia in Ukraine. Thought provoking and confirms what I already know.

Just finished reading 'The Black Angels' about black nurses in a TB hospital in Staten Island in the 30s/40s and the struggle to find a cure for TB and alongside it the struggle for civil rights for Black people in the USA. An interesting book about a forgotten bit of history, but I found it slow going. I kept picking it up, reading a bit, putting it down and reading something else, then picking it up again. It took me about three months to read, all told.

I've just finished Northline by Willy Vlautin which was something different - young woman in Vegas trying to get back on her feet after abusive relationship. Unusual to find a book like that written by a man, but the very spare economical style is just right for it. Need to read some more of his I think.

Currently reading Benbecula by Graeme Macrae Burnet which is an amazing novel based on a true life murder in a remote Scottish island. Fascinating read, very vivid.

Also listening to an audio book in the car of Again Rachel by Marian Keyes. It's read by the author which I always love and her Irish accent is just a pleasure to listen to. The story is better than I expected and made some driving at the weekend go by quickly.

I love Graeme Macrae Burnet's books - I've read them all. I didn't realise he had a new one out @thisoldcity

'Benbecula' was the best book I read last year.

Benbecula came out last year I think @cheezncrackersand I'll definitely seek out more by him. I can see why you'd say that @pippistrelle - I've not finished it yet but it's stunning writing so far. It was recommended to me and lent by a friend and when he told me a little about it, I wasn't too sure, but it's brilliant. It's my sort of historical novel, I think, getting in the minds of ordinary not so ordinary people.

If you like 'Benbecula', @thisoldcity, then seek out 'His Bloody Project', if you haven't read it already. And you're in for a treat! (But maybe leave a bit of a gap between the two.)

Thanks @pippistrelle I shall see if I can find it. I love a recommendation!

I'm currently reading This is the day they dream of you by Robert Goddard

Set in Algeria it follows the investigations and life of Taleb a policeman. I read the first one and loved it and this one is every bit as good.

Next will either be Revenge of Odessa by Frederick Forsyth or The Englishman by David Gilman