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.

My mum is reading this and recounting it to me as she goes - it's not her usual sort of book at all but she is clearly finding it very interesting.

I'd say the same, I rarely read autobiographies but something drew me to this. It is very interesting and I am enjoying it despite not being sure about Gary as a character!

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe - I picked it up at a market. One of the original Gothic novels & once you get used to the style, gripping.

Currently: English Pastoral.

How I feel about it: loving it. I read and enjoyed The Shepherd’s Life and this is even better; more structured, clearer, as if he’s had time to sort out what he really thinks, but the beauty of the nature writing is still there. It feels a bit like a British Braiding Sweetgrass for reminding us about the old ways.

Next: The Goldfinch. Looking forward to it, although I know opinion is divided.

PS: I loved the Brilliant Friend quartet, but I really wasn’t sure I would when I was reading the first one. It was claustrophobic and a bit of a slog, but I got the second one to see if it opened out a bit as the characters got older. By half way through I couldn’t put it down and had to read all four. I think the narrator is so unreliable it puts you off at first but later it seems perfect. The TV adaptation was great too.

Thank you. On reflection, I really hated "1984" actually but I enjoyed the dystopian focus so I'll give his one a go. I recently discovered and enjoyed Octavia Butler's "Parable" books which feel prescient (they were written in the 1990s) but also have a kind of 'soft' edge.

I'm about half way through The Examiner by Janice Hallett and still enjoying it. I've also started listening to the new Kate Atkinson, Death At The Sign of The Rook and also just begun Without Warning And Only Sometimes by Kit de Waal, which is a memoir of her childhood with complex and often difficult parents.

I love a good Robert Harris - I've read nearly all his books. I finished Conclave last week, which had been sitting on my 'to read' shelf for several years and it was great! Then I saw that the film is coming out in November, so good timing. I can recommend it for anyone who wants a fast, absorbing thriller, although I did guess the ending, which I almost never do.

Now reading: A Million Years in a Day: A Curious History of Everyday Life by Greg Jenner. I find his tone rather irritating at times, but the content is mostly really interesting. The section on toilets was an unpleasant read, but otherwise it's good - I find social history fascinating.

Currently Reading : Riders by Jilly Cooper and 1974 by David Peace

Feeling : Pleasantly surprised by Riders

Struggling with the David Peace, it's really dark and dialogue heavy

Next Up : Some non fiction I think

Amazing thread! For the Octavia Butler fans I salute you, I was so excited when I discovered but now I've read her back catalogue and I'm so sad she's dead.

I'm a Naples Quartet fan and have also read all of Elena Ferrante's other books because I loved them so much, and agree with PP the series was wonderful. I did listen to the books rather than read them I don't know if that makes a difference.

CURRENTLY: re-reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, in advance of going to a talk by her in a few weeks celebrating 20years of it's publication

FEELING: I'm a fan of Dickens and it reads like a Dickens novel. I don't really remember much about it first time round but had forgotten how massive it is - having said that it's a fast and easy read and fairly enjoyable but it's not GRIPPING book. Nice excuse for a re-read because I don't do that very often.

NEXT: two books for bookclub by the end of November, Demon Copperhead and My Friend Matt and Hen the Whore

I'm reading the fourth Slow Horses book. I'm loving them but I don't want to get ahead of the TV series and get spoiled.

I've enjoyed reading this thread.

Right now, I'm exploring toughness-as-style in British & Irish women novelists circa mid century to the present.

I've just finished reading Fay Weldon's Down Among the Women. It gave me a fascinating insight into a slice of 1950s London life, in an era of great social change.

Next stop, Iris Murdoch's The Unicorn.

Currently reading The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer. I wasn’t sure I’d like it as I often find books by celebrity authors a bit naff, but I’m really enjoying it and I’ve ordered the next one from the library.

Next will be The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie.

Currently reading The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout.

Continuing my read (and re-read of some) of her novels. I'm enjoying this one very much. I love her writing, quiet and thoughtful and you feel you really get to know her characters in depth.

I have Amy and Isabelle and Abide With Me also lined up to read soon. And I have her new novel Tell Me Everything arriving from the library in a few days' time. Looking forward to it. To me they feel perfect for Autumn reads.

I love Elizabeth Strout also.

Currently reading Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, feel its not as good as others of hers, Run, The Dutch House. Watered down.

Next will be either Babel by FR Kuang or Money by Martin Amis.

Now reading This Motherless Land by Nikki May.
Thoughts: Really enjoying it even though parts of it really break my heart 💔

Next: I have started Covenant of Water but it's very long and it is taking me quite a while to work my way through - so back to that!

Currently reading 'The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot' by Marianne Cronin and enjoying it [1/8th left to go].
The stories of 2 females of different ages who compare their lives after they form a friendship in difficult circumstances.

As I alternate fictional and factual books the next is Richard Madeley's 'Fathers and Sons'. Not particularly a fan of his but think everyone has a story to tell and there are usually some surprises along the way.

Just finished: The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley.

I enjoyed it - it’s a murder mystery/thriller set in a remote holiday lodge complex at New Year. We don’t know who has been murdered until fairly late in the book and we also know that one of the victim’s friends is likely the murderer. An Agatha Christie for 2018/19, perhaps.

What next? I’m waiting to hear what my book group’s next choice is (we vote from a list of suggestions). I might read the next Elly Griffiths Ruth Galloway on my kindle while I’m waiting.

Finished Hollinghurst's new book 'Our Evenings' great from begining to end, great prose, I almost want to reread immediately.

Also just finished an audio book ' I'm glad my Mom died' by Jennette McCurdy and I have to say, I agree with her. Insight into what it can mean to be a child actor but it's her phrasing, pace and humour that carry this off. Recommend.

Next up the new Jonathan Coe one and Real Life, booker prize a couple of years ago

Currently reading Tomas Nevinson by Javier Marias. I read the previous one to this, Berta Isla, and struggled a bit but by the time I got to the end had started to enjoy it. I'm enjoying this but it's just very big.

Next I'm changing tack completely and reading Bill Bryson's Little Dribbling. I remember years ago reading Notes on a Small Island and really enjoying it. I also loved his narration of it on the radio.

After that I'll probably go back to some of my favourite crime fiction with either LJ Ross (trying to read those in order) or Lin Anderson.

I just finished the Throne of Glass series, directly after reading the ACOTAR series.

Loved them both and now I don’t know what to read because I feel like nothing will measure up 😭

I'm currently reading The Night Swim by Megan Goldin, it deals with a small-town rape case, the subsequent trial and a cold murder case from years ago. It's just ok, I'm almost 200 hundred pages in and my interest is starting to flag, it's overwritten in places and sooo slow.

Have you read her Crescent City series? All her books are in the same universe.

@Wehaditsogood it's on my list!

Precipice by Robert Harris is my bedtime book. It’s the first of his novels I’ve read and it’s fluffier than I expected.

My downstairs book is The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Bettany Hughes, just started so no opinion as yet. I like to have a non-fiction on the go as my daytime book.

I've finished a couple of library books this week - Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner and Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout.

Lolly Willowes was a bit of a strange one. I liked it, rather than loved it. Lolly is a spinster, sent to live with her married brother and sister-in-law after the death of her father. She is the put upon aunt, always there to look after the children, but never allowed any time to herself, until she reaches her forties and suddenly ups and leaves to live independently. This is when it starts to get a bit strange, with strong elements of witchcraft and devil worship weaving into the story.

Tell Me Everything is the most recent novel in the Amgash series, but tying in characters from Olive Kitteridge, The Burgess Boys, Abide With Me and Amy & Isabelle (the last two I have still to read, but which didn't affect this novel). The novels are always a pleasure to read and I shall probably reread them all again in the future.