What are you currently reading, how do you feel about it, and what's next on the list? Part 2

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The original thread is nearly full: Page 40 | What are you currently reading, how do you feel about it, and what's next on the list? | Mumsnet

So, here's another one to keep us going!

I'm still ploughing through "Free Food For Millionaires" by Min Jin Lee (author of Pachinko).

It's so, so bad.

But I'm 450 pages in so I don't feel like I can give up. I'm skimming it now.

Next up is, I think, "Bitter Orange" by Claire Fuller which is a re-read for me. It's got such incredibly stifling, hot summer vibes that I'm saving it for my week off work and hoping for a heatwave 😂

I did it the other way round - read the Four winds which really piqued my interest and why I went on to read the Grapes of wrath. I even found the film on the internet archives the other day and watched it, although the ending was a happy Hollywood style!

I have downloaded East of Eden, so once I’ve got through Pachinko (which has grabbed me from the off!), I’ll give it a go.

Sounds like we enjoy similar books? Have you got any other recommendations? 😁 I loved the Covenant of water, which I know is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m always looking for books in a similar vein.

I really loved the first half of The Covenant of Water, it was very much my cup of tea and I thought it was going up there with my favourite books, but then for some reason, I didn't love the second half so much. (I still liked it, just not as much as I originally thought I would).

I hope you like East of Eden now - well I hope I like it too! I am only 30 or so pages in and the book has the tiniest writing. I had to put my glasses on...

I am terrible with recommendations but I can let you know my favourite books. I don't think they're really original or anything so most people will have already read them :)

Yes please @Hellohah! 😊 always interested to have see what others read.

I just finished My Husband's Wife. Accidental read - I saw the name Feeney and "remembered" I'd enjoyed something by her, so borrowed it from the library but turned out I was muddling her up with Elaine Feeney. Decided to read it anyway.

I won't say anything further as difficult to do so without spoiling.

@Catisheavyonmylap my problem is, I love a lot of books in the moment but will have forgotten them in a month 🤦🏻‍♀️

I just finished The Names in a day, so it grabbed me and I blitzed through it but I don't think it'll stay with me.

The books that have stayed with me are things like: Stoner, Crime and Punishment, Memoirs of a Geisha, To Kill a Mockingbird, David Copperfield, The Remains of the Day, Beartown, Sherlock Holmes, The Pillars of the Earth, Rebecca, The Kite Runner, The Count of Monte Cristo.

I shall have to post immediately after I've finished reading to say ... I just loved this. I really should do reviews and then I'll remember, but I never seem to have the time 😂

Thank you Hellolah - There are a couple in your list that I’ve read; The remains of the day, loved this book and it has definitely stayed with me too, but I was distinctly underwhelmed and disappointed by Never let me go by the same author. Also really enjoyed Rebecca.

Funny enough there are a few on your list that I have marked to read in the future, so I’m feeling quite confident that your list is right up my street! - no pressure of course 😁 and please keep on posting.

@Catisheavyonmylap I am very much the same with Kazuo Ishiguro. I have read most of his and not really liked any of his others.

If you've got any that you recommend, I will add them to my TBR pile 😀

i enjoyed The Vacationers by Emma Straub (finished it on last day of holiday when i was poisoned by something and it made me cry but possibly due to illness!) and about to give up on ‘Half his age’ just finding it a bit bleak.
Think my next read will be The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson. I really enjoyed Pineapple St by her so have high hopes.

I read and enjoyed Elizabeth Strout's 'The Things We Never Say' - it's a quiet book which, unostentatiously, says some profound things.

I read the first book of Karl Ove Knausgaard's autobiographical cycle. I found it so dull that I didn't finish it. But it was an interesting contrast to 'The Things We Never Say' in that Elizabeth Strout, to me, manages to reveal universal truths in her fictional characters in a way that Knausgaard never does while stripping himself bare, so to speak.

Currently near the end of 'The Shampoo Effect' by Jenny Jackson, which is a slightly superior soap opera sort of thing. Quite a light read, about a group of friends and their relationships. It's a good summer book. Be interested to hear what you made of it @LethargeMarg .

I'm also reading 'Attention Seeking Behaviour' by Aea Varfis-van Warmelo which has an unreliable narrator in the form of a world weary twenty something. I quite like it when I'm reading it but my problem with it is that, no sooner have I put it down, than I've forgotten what I just read. A strange combination of interesting but not engaging.

Next is a history thing about the Lewis chess men, and 'The Ice Palace' by Tarjei Vesaas. I'm hoping that reading about ice might be a cooling experience.

I don't know why I read back through the thread, but just seen this.

I would suggest Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell.

I finally got and finished London Falling. It was extremely well researched and a tragic story. I'm not really a fan of non-fiction but found it quite easy to read. I thought it would make me feel a bit more but I'm just glad I'm not super rich (or slightly rich 😂).

I’m sorry to say I didn’t really enjoy Fingersmith. I much prefer The Paying Guests.

Just started listening to Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer; non fiction book about the ill fated expeditions of Mount Everest one day in 1996. In the mood for listening to some non fiction.

@tobee Fellow Sarah Waters fan here: I loved both of those but my favourite of all her novels is The Paying Guest. I want her to write a new book!

I enjoyed Nesting but it didn’t live up to the hype, for me.

Just finished The Good People by Hannah Kent which was an absorbing read set in 1820s rural Ireland but overall didn’t reach the heights of Burial Rites, which takes place in Iceland a few hundred years ago and which I couldn’t put down. I think she’s an excellent writer who clearly does huge amounts of research into the history of a place.

Also recently read Flesh by David Szalay - my favourite read of the year so far.

i loved The Shampoo Effect. The friendship dynamic i found a little unrealistic but I was very invested in all the different points of view and found it very funny and well written. Was disappointed to realise this is the authors second book as I have also read and enjoyed Pineapple Street - although Shampoo Effect I though was a big step up- and was hoping there might be more of her books to read.
I am now reading The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett which I am loving. One of those books where I am
so pleased thar I am only about a third of the way through as I am gripped.

@pippistrelle
“The things we never say” has been my standout book of the year . I made my dh read it as well!

I need to read the first thread and catch up.
I have just finished This book made me think of you by Libby Page. It isnt my usual go to but I did enjoy it. I am currently reading Hamnet, I have just started.
I have reserved a couple of books and will update when I start.

I’ve just finished The Last Summer, the first book in the Wild Isle trilogy by Karen Swan. I’ve read and enjoyed other books by her before, but really struggled with this one.

Also reading and enjoying Spectacles by Sue Perkins.

Next on the list is This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page.

Yes, well worth its spot on the Booker long list.

I'm currently reading another on the Booker list - 'The End of Everything' - by M John Harrison. I can't get into it, but then it's sci-fi which is a genre I only dabble in. In its favour, it's short! It won't win though.

Agree, @LethargeMarg , 'The Shampoo Effect' is a warm-hearted book, very forgiving of human frailty.

I just finished The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes. It's extremely well written horror sci fi fantasy with great world building, lots of bugs, some body horror, and politics as art movements. Weird, very interesting, I enjoyed it a lot.

Finished Yesteryear whilst on holiday and was hooked from the first page. Loved it from start to finish. I know it has divided opinions on here.

Also finally read the last of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan series, The Story of the Lost Child. It was good but not brilliant and I found the narrator insufferable.

Currently reading The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri and really enjoying it. Also readking a non-fiction book on the side Overinvested: The Emotional Economy of Modern Parenting which is an interesting look at how modern parents have been groomed into spending inordinate amounts on their children and treating them as human capital.