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.

Alongside my Dick Francis re-read (currently on Blood Sport) I've just started A Prayer For Owen Meany. I don't think I've read a John Irving before and I'm struggling to get into it a bit.

Oh, I used to love Dick Francis. A reread would be comforting in these dark times.

I read Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. About five or six years after everyone else, I know. Fine writing ('fine' as in good, rather than okay) but it felt a bit like somebody telling me their dream and, as that's a thing I cannot bear, it just wasn't for me. I feel like I knew all along that it wouldn't be for me and that's why I hadn't already read it, so I'm annoyed that I didn't listen to myself.

I listened to 'The Stranger in the Woods' by Michael Finkel, a piece of reportage about a man who spent 27 years living by himself in a camp in the North Woods of Maine, shunning all contact with other people. Fascinating.

Now can't quite decide what to start next - a short biography of William IV, some folk horror in the shape of 'The Hill in the Dark Grove' by Liam Higginson which has a very appealing, atmospheric woodcut on its cover or 'Somebody is Walking on Your Grave' by Mariana Enriquez

He's fantastic. I haven't read them for years so I've forgotten most of the plots but his writing is so good.
Avoid his son's books like the plague.

I'm reading Elaine Feeney's Let Me Go Mad In My Own Way, which is good in a low-key way, but has less of the liveliness and fizz and particularity of her As You Were. Before that Claire Kilroy's All Summer, a gorgeously written and baffling account of an art theft and a fugue state, and Is Mother Dead by Vigdis Hjorth (brilliant, chilly, about parenting and artistic freedom). Oh, and Kathleen Jamie's essays, Findings.

I have been debating with myself on the topic of TBR piles (actually shelves in my case). I have reached the conclusion that there is much so pleasure to be had in researching, browsing and buying books that, essentially, it's a different thing from reading. Some people pay a fortune for expensive hobbies, so if you consider the buying of books as a hobby in itself, it doesn't feel so bad to have some that you might never get around to reading because some other shiny cover or dazzling review catches your eye in the meantime.

@IceIceBabyBump
Not too much space left on this long-running thread, OP. Will you be starting a Part 2 when the time comes? Please take this as popular demand!

Well of course buying reading books is improving so ok @pippistrelle

I wasn't expecting the thread to get so big and popular. I love coming back here now and then.

Yes, I'll absolutely be starting another one.

I'm currently reading "Soul Tourists" by Bernadine Evaristo.

It's really weird - very much her style. I'm enjoying it and really ramping through it.

Next up, I don't really know.
I might give "Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell a try. I've been a bit resistant to it but I can't figure out why.

@tobee
I’ve just finished listening to the Magpie, Marble Hall etc Murders by Antony Horowitz and loved them (especially Lesley Manville’s narration).
Do you rate The Word is Murder? I see that it’s a whole series so I hope they’re just as good.

Currently reading Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers. Taking a while to get into it though.

| loved The Word is Murder, but I read it rather than listened to it.

@GonnagetgoingreturnsagainI really enjoyed Shy Creatures and I've suggested it for a book club read, as I enjoyed the unusual setting and unpredictable story.
I've just finished a Marian Keyes book 'My Favourite Mistake' that I rather regretted embarking on as it went on a bit although was enjoyable enough on the whole. I read Foster by Clare Keegan yesterday which is a brilliant story and could have continued for much longer. I am also partway through Entitled by Andrew Lownie and Shattered by Hanif Kureishi, which i dip into and out of. I've always liked Kureishi's writing and was so sorry to hear of his accident which paralysed him, so the account of what happened next is fascinating with his usual wit and interest in the world not diminished at all, in fact sharpened now by the way he has to dictate to his son rather than write directly.

I gave up on The Prayer For Owen Meany. Couldn't get interested in it and all the God stuff was off-putting.
I've also started and abandoned a Ken Follett, The Evening and The Morning. A proper doorstop of a book and very dull.
Just started Never Say Die by Tess Gerritsen. Don't think I've read anymore hers before.

Reading 'I'm Glad My Mom Died' by Jenette McCurdy, which is as 😧 as the title suggests. It's a bleakly humorous and well written account of living with what sounds like a very narcissistic, controlling/coercive mother who more or less forced McCurdy into acting (and gleefully introduced her to eating disorders) to fulfil her own ambition.

Highly recommend it, it's sad, funny and engaging.

Next up is Blindsight by Peter Watts, a 'hard scifi' I saw recommend by a YouTuber I like that sounds like it has a really interesting storyline exploring communication, contact and identity.

Currently reading The Searcher by Tana French.

V good, up with the best of hers. I'm impressed that she manages manages to create different main characters for each of her books. Many authors try and basically its the same person, different name.
Next , don't know. Maybe the Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer..

I'd be interested to hear what you think of the Bob Mortimer. I didn't like it at all. It's hard to describe but I could almost hear him reading it aloud. It was like a monologue . I didn't finish it.

"Now can't quite decide what to start next - a short biography of William IV, some folk horror in the shape of 'The Hill in the Dark Grove' by Liam Higginson which has a very appealing, atmospheric woodcut on its cover or 'Somebody is Walking on Your Grave' by Mariana Enriquez."

I've now finished these books and just want to say that the two named books are terrific. The folk horror is not remotely scary, but atmospheric and with such a strong sense of history and place. And now I want to visit rural North Wales.

Mariana Enriquez is usually a writer of gothic fiction but this is mostly travelogue - focusing on cemeteries - with a dash of memoir. She has made me want to visit pretty much all the places she mentions. So, potentially, two quite expensive reads.

I was persuaded by the review by @Echobelly to try "I'm Glad My Mom Died" which has been on my radar for a bit, but I wasn't sure if it might be a bit too bleak. It's not and I'm glad I'm reading it.

Thank you @IceIceBabyBump for the thread, and just to say Cloud Atlas is one of my all time favourites. The film doesn’t quite pull it off. Hope you enjoy it.

I seemed to be having a bit of a folk horror moment recently. I read 'Itch' by Gemma Amor which I enjoyed. A feminist/magical realist take on folk horror.

I followed that with 'Fashioning the Crown' by Justine Picardie. It purports to be a 'story of power, conflict and couture'. It's not great; a history (bit insipid) of the royal family in a bit of the 20th century, with a little bit of chat about what some of them were wearing. No clear sense of direction or purpose (the book, not the royal family, although...) The photographs do nothing to save it. A disappointing read. For me, anyway.

Some PG Wodehouse next, as I require something cheering - 'Joy in the Morning'.

You have now given me permission not to read this book 😁.I keep picking it up in book shops and thinking I should read it because everyone raves about it . If it reads like ‘someone telling you about their dream ‘ it’s definitely not for me ( it’s my pet hate too when someone bangs on about last nights dream ….