Fall Reading 2022

[quote]so what are you reading right now?

DL silly!

OP, sadly, I couldn't finish There, There and I only had about 50 pages left. The characters were just too off-putting. I don't mid unlikable characters but they have to be more dimensional and engaging than those in this book. Orange does not help Native issues here IMO, just the opposite. The 2 women were slightly better but not enough to make me keep reading.

Reading "The Pact" now. Didn't like "local woman missing" but finished it.

"The Plot" not the pact ^^^

MARY! Sorry.

I'm looking forward to Kate Atkinson's new book Shrines of Gaiety and also Sleepwalk, the new book by Dan Chaon. Two of my fave authors.

I thought "The Plot" was derivative and boring as shit. I saw that ending coming a mile away.

"A Little Life"

"Memoirs of Hadrian"

"The Winter Soldier" (Donald Mason) unrelated to the Cap. America crap.

Reading "The Remorseful Day," the final Inspector Morse story.

I'm working my way through the novels of Booth Tarkington. Just finished The Plutocrat.

R2 I had several problems with There, There.

I got the impression the Orange wanted to reach a point and everything is focused in making the characters reach that point. Second, the male characters are not diverse, most of them are a slightly different version of the same characther.

I think he has potential as writer, but the novel didn't deserve the praise it received.

Of course there are way worse novels that received a lot of praise, Elif Batuman's The idiot , Moshen Hamid's Exit West or Kiley Reid's Such fun age are perfect examples. In the last case i looked for reviews and some of them even mentioned the clear flaws of the novel (cartoonish characters, pretty bad writing) but all of them refused to get there and instead praise the virtues of the novel (which is basically take a very important theme)

The Booker Short List was announced yesterday. There was quite an upset when The Colony, the crowd favorite did not make the list despite many believing it would be the inevitable winner. Two Americans made the list of six finalists. Alan Garner, the oldest ever nominee, will turn 88 on the day of the winner’s announcement on October 17.

I find this year's one of the less exciting booker long and shortlists in quite some time

I'm not reading anything. Conservatives shut down my library.

Busy reading all the top secret documents Trump stole

Elizabeth Stout is so overrated

Looking forward to AM Homes' latest novel THE UNFOLDING. Another favorite writer of mine though I have to admit I couldn't get into her last couple of books MAY WE BE FORGIVEN and DAYS OF AWE.

Of those Booker nominees, THE TREES sounds fascinating and the reviews are terrific. I just ordered it on Amazon and I'll have it tomorrow!

I just finished "The Trees" by Percival Everett yesterday! Happy to see it make the Booker list. It was great, kind of hard to describe ... a satire of racism, a Black revenge story ... a bit of a Tarantino feel, but don't let that detract you if you don't like Tarantino.

I've been on an Everett kick of late, also read his novels "So Much Blue" and "Erasure." He's not well-known but is incredibly prolific, something of a writer's writer. He's written something like 30 novels in the last couple of decades. Reminds me a bit of TC Boyle, but not as glib.

I like A.M. Homes too, r16, and excited for "The Unfolding." But I also liked both those books you mentioned. The story "A Prize for Every Player" in "Days of Awe" is one of the best short stories I've read in years. I actually read it out loud to my husband!

LOVE AM homes!!

I'm reading Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen by Jimmy McDonough. Great bio. She and George Jones were complete fucking messes.

After that, Townie by Andre Dubus III.

I’m re-reading Emma, and the I’ll re-read Persuasion. It’s the time of year for Austen.

Yes, R21 - reading Persuasion with the rain outside, wrapped in a throw…

R22, the throw and mug cradling may be a necessity this year given the fuel prices here in the UK currently, but most of my reading of Emma is done in the garden until the weather changes.

Persuasion is definitely an autumn read, mug-cradling and all…

Y’all, July is the Jane Austen month, it’s one of Booktuber’s biggest events, which considering she only wrote so many books continues to sustain itself all these years later.

I enjoyed The Winter Soldier, R7. A bit grim in the middle, but it has an ending I should have seen coming but didn’t.

I’m listening to the Guncle and it’s tedious. It needed a good editor to eliminate about 1/3 of it and the author should not have been allowed to narrate his own book. I’ll finish it, but I really should DNF it instead. This make Paul Rudnick look like a genius.

I'm reading Tom Wolfe's A Man in Full, and I think it's heading for the DNF pile after I've read only 35% of it. He's inflicting so much pain on his characters, one in particular, having them make such bad choices, it's hard to read normally rather than skim to the next part. I usually like his writing, but the storytelling in this one is just excruciating.

I remember loving A Man in Full when I read it when it first came out. Back then I pictured Jim Carrey as the young lead. But I also remember it petering out to a nothing conclusion about 3/4 of the way through as though Wolfe had simply lost interest. Similar problem to Bonfire of the Vanities IIRC.

Better Davis and Other Stories by Philip Dean Walker. Imagined stories of celebrities during the early days of the AIDS crisis. Funny, gossipy, heartbreaking. The Natalie Wood story is particular good and takes place on her last night alive.

*particularly ^^

r29 agreed. Read it after it was recommended on DL. Loved it.

VLADÍMÍR by Julia May Jonas was fantastic. Very good debut.

Personal History by Katharine Graham. It's an absolutely superb memoir.

Probably doesn't need any shilling on this thread, as it has its own, but Mary Rodgers' posthumous memoir SHY is one of the best show biz bios I've ever read.

Summer by Edith Wharton

I bailed on the Guncle audio, R26.

Right now I'm reading an Israeli novel "A Late Divorce" each chapter a rotating point of view. Also working on "Black Lamb, Grey Falcon" which I'll be lucky to finish by Christmas!

Couldn't get through Guncle either.

The Guncle is so treacly.

OMG, I tried Black Lamb...decades ago and never could get past the first 50 pages

Curious if anyone here has read AMERICAN DIRT, which was a big and an Oprah book a few years ago but then apparently fell into disfavor because the author was accused of appropriating a story that shouldn't have been hers to tell.

I found a used paperback copy at our book coop yesterday and bought it. Haven't started it yet.

Reading the new Holleran. Gorgeous writing as always, but harrowing for eldergays

Kirkus Prize nominees were just announced, a nice mix of titles. I’ve been hovering around reading the WWI plastic surgery book for awhile, but no one on social media had covered it, but now it’s got sone validation so I’ll check it out.

An eclectic mix of Fall titles coming up. I’m interested in Bliss Montage, did anyone read Severance by the author? I’m quite anxious about the John Irving title, he was the first contemporary author’s work I fell in love with as a teen. That cover just looks so horrendous, like some bad 80s romance, what were they thinking???

R18 I loved Erasure, Everett is incredibly talented (unfortunately most of his work is not published here).

R40 The controversy over American Dirt was absolutely ridiculous. The novel received a lot of praise, but suddenly someone claim "cultural apropiation" and everything derailed (except sales, because the novel kept selling well for months).

I didn't read the book so i don't know if the criticism had some merit, but some things (like the name of the main characters not being mexican enough) was utterly ridiculous.

Celeste Ng is a cunt (see her role in the Bad Art Friend saga). I do not plan on reading her new book.

R45. First thing I thought too

Yes the Halloran book is harrowing. It’s still in my head and I finished it awhile ago. MARY!

Has anyone read The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz? Wasn't wowed by The Plot, so I'm wondering if this was any better.

Posting this in hopes this thread will land in my thread watch column, which it so far has not even though I previously posted!

I loved THE LATECOMER (though I haven't read THE PLOT for comparison). Great family saga with some small flaws of plaotting (and perhaps teeny questionable character motivation) but still a very worthwhile intelligent read.

I finished Holleran's KINGDOM OF SAND but it was torturous. So depressing, it made YOUNG MUNGO or SHUGGIE BAIN seem like beach reads. Really didn't need to read that one.

Has anyone ever read THE SHADOW OF THE WIND by Carolos Ruiz Zafon? Recommended by a FB friend who raved about it and then several of his friends chimed in and raved, too. Sounded intriguing.

Shadow of the Wind is one of my all time favorite books. So beautiful, it has stayed with me years later. Definitely check it out.

So many of those "Buzziest" books at r43 are awful-sounding chick lit.

Loved The Plot and The Latecomer. Just finished "A Three Dog Problem" in time for the Queen's demise.

I enjoyed THE PLOT but I guessed the twist very early in the book. Also the supposedly amazing and fool-proof “plot” was not really that insane to be given such hosannas by every single character before it’s revealed.

Currently reading "Sacrificio", about a plot by Cuban HIV-positive men from a sanatorium plotting a revolution during the Pope's visit. Set in 1997, so I'm assuming it's based on facts.

I liked There, There but only because I read it after Tampa. Tampa was masterfully written but was like getting punched in the stomach and testicles at the same time. Highly recommended.

Tampa is funny and i'm happy she go there showing how different people react when the victim is a boy and the agressor a beaudtiful woman. Celeste is despicable but at the same time she is funny and a great character

I was so eager to read THE TREES but gave up after about 120 pages. I'm baffled by the great reviews and Booker nomination.

All those stereotypical white trash characters with the silly names and the Black characters, many with silly names, just all so puerile, not funny. Too many characters introduced with no follow up, no pay back. The satire was utterly juvenile. I'm all for compelling stories of the horrors of racism and lynching but this really missed the mark.

I just found out that a biography of John Singer Sargent is being released on November 1st and will be the first to deal with his sexuality extensively. So excited!

Wait, you're telling me he wasn't just waiting for the right girl to show up?

I just finished Do You Mind if I Cancel by Gary Janetti, which after slogging through the Guncle last week was a breath of fresh air. Whoever is doing the Guncle movie should definitely hire him to punch up the script and story, Janetti is the author who he wants to be. It’s mainly about his childhood and being a young gayling, and being about the same age it really hit home perfectly. I guess there’s a newer book as well, but my library doesn’t have the audiobook of it.

R61 agreed. I actually cried reading the last chapter about his childhood neighbor who passed away (MARY!) Thought he really balanced the humor of being a gayling along with the heartbreak really beautifully. Read it practically in one sitting.

Oh just realized you meant the older book - sorry. Read the new one R61. It's even better than the first and I loved that too.

I’m enjoying TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin.

R64 So good right! It reminded me of a shorter and less brutal and devastating A Little Life in its depictions of the ups and downs of friendship over decades.

Zevin's book is fucking magical!

I loved Shuggie Bain, i wish Young Mungo gets published here soon.

Now i'm reading Une education libertine by Jean Baptiste del Amo. I think the novel is not published in english (but his novel Animalia was)

I’m finding the new AM Homes book incredibly tedious. Has anyone else read it yet? I’m not even sure I’ll get through it - disappointing because I’ve loved her books in the past.

Oh dear, r68, that's sad to hear. But as I posted upthread, I found her last couple of books very disappointing, Didn't finish either of them.

Nevertheless, her Music for Torching and This Book Will Save Your Life will always be favorites.

Fall? Labor Day?

Let’s make this thread a bit less American next time.

Fall?

don't the seasons turn where you live?

They could be “quarters” of the year threads, of course there are many who don’t uses the Gregorian calendar so it’s not inclusive to them.

Dear god.

For the reader seeking something different, I've just finished Michael Gruber's Valley of Bones. One of the most enjoyable and fascinating books I've read in quite a while. Gruber's imagination is prodigious, to such an extent that I was interested in one of the organizations mentioned in the book so googled it for more information. It didn't exist, Gruber made the whole organization up.

Next on the nightstand, J. K. Rowling's "adult" effort, The Casual Vacancy.

R69 - dare I say this one is even worse than the last few. Unless you find an earnest republican, his alcoholic wife and teenage daughter interesting… it takes place from when McCain loses to the inauguration of Obama and she writes about some boring high-ranking republican family and how devastated they are. I don’t find the characters interesting and 2008 seems so tame now. But hopefully other people will enjoy it more.

Her older work is the incredible though - agreed.

[QUOTE] I’m finding the new AM Homes book incredibly tedious. Has anyone else read it yet? I’m not even sure I’ll get through it - disappointing because I’ve loved her books in the past.

Are you talking about DAYS OF AWE? I purchased it last week on the recommendation upthread.

MAY WE BE FORGIVEN was not great.

Michael Gruber’s TROPIC OF NIGHT is terrific..I think it’s the same protagonist as VALLEY OF BONES.

I have started a novel set in Korea, translated from French: "Winter in Sokcho" by Elisa Shua Dusapin.

Am also working on "Vanished Kingdoms" by Norman Davies, which is going well, but I don't think any other Dataloungers read history books as a genre?

No the new AM homes is called The Unfolding.

Synopsis…

The Big Guy loves his family, money and country. Undone by the results of the 2008 presidential election, he taps a group of like-minded men to reclaim their version of the American Dream. As they build a scheme to disturb and disrupt, the Big Guy also faces turbulence within his family. His wife, Charlotte, grieves a life not lived, while his 18-year-old daughter, Meghan, begins to realize that her favorite subject—history—is not exactly what her father taught her. In a story that is as much about the dynamics within a family as it is about the desire for those in power to remain in power, Homes presciently unpacks a dangerous rift in American identity, prompting a reconsideration of the definition of truth, freedom and democracy—and exploring the explosive consequences of what happens when the same words mean such different things to people living together under one roof.

What is with Taylor Jenkins Reid? I guess I thought she wrote edgy chicklit or something, but CARRIE SOTO IS BACK is vapid and lazy and shallow. Was the one about the rock star like this?

I thought her MALIBU RISING was lame.

She’s frau lit.

I love my wonderful indie book store but must they fill up so such shelf space with the oeuvre of Colleen Hoover?

Actually, I don't know her books at all but I can tell just from the covers and titles they're not for me. Has anyone here heard of her?

Need a book recommendation: I'm going on a long car trip in October & I'm looking for a book that's entertaining, but also doesn't require much of my attention since I'll be driving. During the last long car trip I took earlier this year, I read Trollope's "The Way We Live Now" and that was just the right mixture of entertaining without requiring much brain power. Some narrators can nearly put you to sleep, so recommendations on outstanding narrators is helpful as well. Thanks!

"The Good House" by Ann Leary narrated by Mary Beth Hurt.

Trollope's "The Eustace Diamonds" works well as a stand-alone. Timothy West's narration is outstanding; Lizzie Eustace is a character created with Dataloungers in mind.

American Demon, by Daniel Stashower, about Eliot Ness and his hunt to solve the Cleveland Torso murders of the 1930s

R84-You need something dumb and brainless. Try the new Stephen King.

r84, among the best books I've read this year are Anthony Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land, Jonathan Franzen's Crossroads, Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers, Michael Chabon's Kavalier and Clay and Allan Hollinghurst's The Sparsholt Affair. I share your love of Trollope's The Way We Live Now, if that helps. And another favorite Trollope for me would be He Knew He Was Right, also a stand alone novel with a big, brilliant and varied cast of characters.

I highly recommend short stories and essays for long travel. They are bite sized pieces that you can easily consume in small chunks and leave off at any point without interrupting a long narrative arc. Also, it’s very easy to skip parts you may not like or feel interested in listening to. David Sedaris, Samantha Irby and Jenny Lawson are great for this on the humorous side. Joan Didion with Slouching Towards Bethlehem or The White Album if you want something serious. For short stories choose a favorite author already, or a master of the form like Munro, Cheever or Jackson. I also agree with Cloud Cuckoo Land as a big book recommendation, three distinct and separate storylines that weave in and out that are easy to keep separate and remember and change in feel for each one, so it’s not one long epic overwhelming story.

I’m finally reading A Fine Balance by Rohintin Mistry. It’s a big, fat old fashioned novel with incredible narrative sweep. Set in 1975 India, it’s really engrossing, and I’m not even a big fan of historical fiction. I can’t put it down. I feel like I’ve read a lot of crap lately, and this book is reminding me why I love books. Top notch fiction.

R90 I asked a professional book group leader, she did it for corporate and nonprofit companies as a team building and community building tool, what book was the best experience she’s had with book clubs. Hands down she said A Fine Balance. It is a remarkable piece of literature, and it will destroy you in all the right ways. I listened to it on my LA commute. The last chapter I was stuck in traffic on the 405 bawling my eyes out. People must have thought I was having a nervous breakdown because of the traffic, I got many concerned looks and much sympathy. Give yourself enough time for the end of the book and a few hours afterward to be devastated and for it to roll around in your mind and be melancholy.

I've not read all the Trollopes, but I've read most of them. These are my favorites:

"Barchester Towers." By far the funniest lines in all of Trollope (alhtough they will not seem funny until you know the proper context for them): "She ain't got no legs, papa!"; "Unhand me, sir!"; "You know, I was once a Jew!" Also some of his funniest situations, such as the big Medieval Revival party at Ullathorne.

"The Last Chronicle of Barset," Trollope's farewell to his most beloved characters in Barsetshire, which includes the tragic public persecution of Reverend Crawley by Mrs. Proudie, and the unforgettable death of that last-named character. Trollope thought it was his best book, and he may be right.

"Phineas Finn." The best of the Palliser novels, with great drama in Parliament accompanying some fine humor (such as when Queen Victoria tries to make a new administration and can't), great drama (the horrible marriage between Lady Laura Standiush and her repressive husband Mr. Kennedy, the richest member of parliament), and a good look at the Pallisers, Trollope's most complex and fascinating pair of characters: the stiff and pedantic Plantagenet Palliser, reluctant heir to the wealthiest dukedom in England, and his bewitching but childish wife Lady Glencora.

"The Way We Live Now." A messy but delightful book, which has some wonderful characters, especially the Melmottes, the family of exceptionally wealthy speculators who succeed in bringing the Emperor of China to London (in one of Triollope's funniest set-pieces).

"He Knew He Was Right." A great study of jealousy in a wealthy man who will not trust his wife. One of the best standalone books.

"Orley Farm." Although not the funniest of the stand alone books, it is one of the most engrossing--all about a complicated inheritance case.

I also loved Orley Farm.

Thanks for the car trip recommendations! Actually, Stephen King books are good for car trips - entertaining, but you don't have to play attention - though his more recent novels are pretty tedious

"Geography is Destiny" by Ian Morris. The integration of archaeology into his history seems very interesting, until you go later and find many factual errors and political punditry in his handling of contemporary times, making you wonder about his judgement with the earlier stuff.

If you like Daniel Mason, check out his story collection A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth.

Currently I am reading Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet: erotic, lyrical, full of passion and politics, but the star of the series is the city of Alexandria itself between the two world wars.

Also, Cloud Cuckoo Land, Invisible Cities, The Shadow of the Wind

Disappointed to hear bad word-of-mouth about the new AM Homes. The NY Times panned it too. I imagine it's very hard to write realistic fiction about contemporary politics because events keep superseding your imagination.

Read Toni Morrison's only short story Recitatif (from 1980) yesterday. A very interesting "experiment" (Morrison's word). Zadie Smith's introduction is longer than the story itself, but I like her and look forward to reading it. (Always read an introduction after reading the text -- introductions always give something away! I actually wish I hadn't read the jacket copy because even that gave away Morrison's experiment.)

I'm not really a short story guy, but here are two I can highly recommend ...

"The Bunner Sisters" by Edith Wharton

"Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates

You guys were right, The Latecomer was fabulous. Any recommendations on what to read next that would give me that "The Latecomer feeling?"

Have you read Jonathan Franzen's Crossroads, r100? Another a great family story, even better, IMHO.

Where are you going? The bathroom

Where have you been? The kitchen

R102 = high school dropout

R101- agree! Crossroads is a superior (if a bit more challenging) read than The Latecomer. Crossroads is all about Marian. One of the best characters in recent memory.

It was a bit sluggish for me to read, but then with the last chapter it really made Marriage Portrait worth it all. I had read Hamnet back in July, which I enjoyed throughout, but that last chapter blew me away too. I’m convinced that Maggie O’Farrell is the Queen of the last chapter.

Fall is a great time for Henry James. I'm finishing his late-period trilogy with The Golden Bowl after having read The Ambassadors and The Wings of the Dove earlier this year. Exquisite!

"All The King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren

Never read it and but it's pretty damn good. Good plot and elegant use of language and relevant.

Where are you going? The Living room couch

Where have you been? The toilet

I found Black Lamb, Grey Falcon rewarding. It helped me understand Serbia and knowing their history I couldn’t quite condemn them during their war. Rebecca West wrote that during the London Blitz that she hoped to be as brave as a Serb.

Stanley Olson wrote a wonderful biography of John Singer Sargent. He was Rebecca West’s authorized biography though j don’t know how he would organized her chaotic and rich life. Olson died young.

I was unable to find Rohinton Mistry's A FINE BALANCE, recommended upthread, at my local book store but they did have the same author's FAMILY MATTERS. I checked some reviews online which were even better than those for the first title and bought it and I'm quite enjoying it. About 125 pages in. A slow burn, a family story not for readers looking for fast plotting, but quite compelling.

I’m reading The Kitchen Front. It’s lovely.

Yay! I recommended my library buy Capote’s Women and they did! I’m number 2 to get it.

I’m reading a Garfield joke book

Does anyone here buy crossword or acrostic books? I've gone through all those published by the NY Times (the Times Friday and Saturday crosswords and Will Shortz edited acrostics) and I'm looking for some new ones edited/published by other sources. Recommendations appreciated!

R115- I recently gave in and subscribed to the NYT crossword app. It was $40 for a year, but you get the daily crosswords, mini, wordle, and access to all the archives. I recently worked on a crossword from 1942!

Thanks, r116, but I'm one of those old farts who insist on doing crosswords and acrostics paper and pencil (mechanical!). I just don't enjoy them online.

Can’t you just print it out?

I gave up on Golden Bowl. I'm setting Black Lamb aside to pick up later, it's just too long to read straight through for me.

I can recommend my current read, a short novel [italic]Winter in Sokcho[/italic] by Elisa Dusapin. Korean young woman falls for a visiting French writer during winter in her "summer" town. Terrific sense of place!

I keep meaning to read the Wolf Hall trilogy, I bought the first two, but haven't got to them yet. Maybe this is an appropriate time to start. Anyone read them? I don't usually like historical fiction unless it's more recent history but I've heard so many good things about the trilogy.

This is a nicely compiled list of Fall titles and the number of recommendations each of them has. A bit disappointed the Ng book is the leader.

[quote] keep meaning to read the Wolf Hall trilogy

I liked "Bring Up the Bodies" the best. Side note: Hilary Mantel died.

I was reading about her unexpected passing, it's what made me think it might be the appropriate time to finally start the trilogy.

Excited to read Alan Rickman's diaries. Published diaries are pretty much my favorite genre.

R124 I’ve read those of a few artists, but whose do you highly recommend? I did read poet James Merrill’s letters (1,000 plus pages) earlier this year and throughly enjoyed them.

WarholCapote excerpt.

Mantel's Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies are fantastic with brilliant (and often very funny) dialog; I've read them both more than once. The Mirror and the Light is very good, then it slumps a bit, but the last few pages are riveting. (I think it just needed some editorial excising about 3/4s of the way through.) I hope the team that filmed the first two books are planning on filming Mirror/Light.

R125 I loved the diaries of James Lees-Milne and Frances Partridge, both of which ran to several volumes and covered roughly the same time period starting in the 1940's and going to the 1990's in Lees-Milne's case and the 1970's in Partridge's.

I'm going to start Leave the world behind

This award season seems pretty gayless. AT least The town of Babylon by Alejandro Varela (nominated to the National Book award) has a gay main character

"Nothing But the Night," about Leopold and Loeb.

Enjoying 100 Years of Solitude.

Liked The Silent Patient (I think it was recommended on one of these threads). Quick read and fun twist at the end.

Finished The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel. I liked it, but her plots or focus never seem to go where I want them to or think they should. I felt the same way about her Station Eleven -- liked the traveling Shakespeare company, didn't care at all about the cult leader. Glass Hotel had too much Ponzi scheme, I thought. Oh, well, they're her books, she can write them as she pleases.

Now reading, for the first time, The Three Musketeers. How's that for a genre switch?

Question: In addition to Pumpkin Spice, Fall also means Halloween. Aside from the obvious choices (Dracula, Salem's Lot, etc), what are some of DL's favorite horror (novels or short stories)?

The sense of dread in Capote's IN COLD BLOOD is about as scary as books go, r134.

There's always Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery."

I’m just finishing That Which Makes Us Stronger by Gregg Triggs. Great read. Gay protagonist. Set in the 70s and 80s. Out there family. Touching on one page. Funny on the next. I’m not ready for it to end. Kind of an if David Sedaris wrote fiction vibe. A little bit Maupin, but family focused.

I’m reading As It Turns Out by Alice Sedgwick, Edie’s oldest sister and it’s so good. For those who like the inside story of those 20th century patrician families becoming undone, it’s more about them so far (first third) than directly about Edie. It is supposed to eventually focus on Edie and Andy and it’s quite well written, she has an academic arts writing background and I’m impressed with her skills as an author.

Nothing But the Night sounds interesting, just put it on my Amazon wishlist

Thanks for the recs of THE LATECOMER above. I’m really enjoying it.

READ BY STRANGERS has some spooky, unsettling material. Perfect for Halloween.

"Bucket to Greece", by V.D. Bucket

a funny series of light-reading novels before bed about a Mancunian couple of early retirees moving to Greece. Has me in stitches.

Those who've enjoyed THE LATECOMER and are looking for other books about dysfunctional families might enjoy Karen Joy Fowler's WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES. I might have already recommended it a thread ago but it fills the required request for those LATECOMER fans.

Some interesting nonfiction picks from the Big O, I’m especially drawn to the books on Martha Graham and Elizabeth Hardwick, and despite having already seen the Newman docuseries, name dropping Stein’s Edie book as a similar structure for the memoir intrigues me. And I loved The Emperor of All Maladies, so I’d definitely read another medical book by him.

^Thanks for posting that list. The book about Ted Kennedy, assuming it's a "warts & all" bio sounds good. Jemele Hill - just no, she seemed obnoxious on Below Deck.

Has anyone ever read any of Bernice Rubens' novels? I came across one of her books in my library, THE WAITING GAME, about a group of elderly people in the 1990s in a well-to-do home for aged outside London, where all sorts of sinister shenanigans are happening. Brilliant satire, wickedly funny and also quite poignant. Not unlike the best of Muriel Spark. I believe Rubens died by 2000 and her books are no longer in print, at least in the US, but worth tracking down if they're as great as this one. Amazon seems to have some used copies on sale.

R145, Here's the thing, re: Teddy. The defining moment of his life was not becoming the "Lion of the Senate," much as his work deserved (I am a hard-core Democrat); it wasn't his near-fatal plane crash; and it wasn't his attempt to replace Jimmy Carter.

It was Chappaquiddick. And though there exist books positing disparate scenarios (I personally favor the "He wasn't even there at all" theory, because of his nonchalance at his lodgings later, and the implausibility of his swimming any distance with his bad post-plane-crash back), nevertheless one can glean a sense of Ted's character from each.

And find it less than leonine.

R146, "The Waiting Game" sounds like Season 3, Episode 2, of "Midsomer Murders":

"Blue Herrings."

The sequel to _Less_ is out now.

_Less is Lost_

I have ordered and received it. Saving it for a beach vacation

I’m reading the short story collection “In the Fifteenth District” by Mavis Gallant. Brandon Thomas wrote about one of the stories in the collection “The Remission” on his blog and I enjoyed reading his critique. I just finished Homes’ “The Unfolding” mentioned here. I was very disappointed. I expected more of a paranoid political thriller but she wrote aa anemic family drama with a talky right wing side plot. Opinions about the book on this blog we’re divided.

R125, I can’t find the complete Partridge diaries but there it looks like she published diaries that covered a few years at a time. Which ones should I read? J agree with you about Lees-Milne. Have you read his biography “The Bachelor Duke” about the fourth Duke of Devonshire? It’s very well done. Such a character!

R151 I own a copy of "The Bachelor Duke" and several others by Lees-Milne that I purchased while reading the diaries. Thus far, I have only read the 12 volumes of diaries though. It's interesting you single out that particular biography since it was the one he didn't really want to write! Andrew and Debo Devonshire talked him into it and he found the research into the subject and even the writing of it a bit tedious, if I remember correctly from the diaries!

Glad to hear your view that it turned out well despite that. I will have to read it soon.

I find it impossible not to read diaries in the order they were written, so I'd naturally say start with the first volume by Frances Partridge, about the war years: "A Pacifist's War". That said, the ones written after the death of her husband Ralph were better, in my view. So if you're okay with going out of order, pick up "Hanging On" which is the third volume and picks up immediately after his death.

Also, on the topic of diaries, if you ever come across the five volumes of "A Gay Diary" by Donald Vining, I highly recommend them. Vining, a New Yorker, kept them from the 1930's to the 1980's and they are a fascinating and honest look at gay life in that era. He published them through his own small press.

Some of the volumes are very hard to find. I had given up on finding the 5th volume altogether, had started to think it was in fact mythical since the end of volume 4 made it seem no more would be published, but then a copy popped up on eBay and I was able to buy it.

^^ actually I am R 124 I just realized.

While I’m glad I read The Latecomer, I thought the last section was a different and lesser book.

R150, who is Brandon Thomas?

I agree about THE LATECOMER, r154. But flawed though it may be, with some really questionable character motivations, I still found it a very worthwhile read. It sure kept me turning the pages to the end and that's saying something, what with all the crappy new fiction out there.

I've recently tried to read There, There, Trust, and The Trees, all with rave reviews, and yet found them all wanting, and didn't finish any of them.

I sobbed through the last 20 pages of "Less Is Lost". It's a bravura follow-up.

Oh r157 I can’t wait - loved the first one.

Should I…

R159 I thought it was the perfect summer read, with all that that implies.

R160: literary merits aside, I find his totally shameless no-holds-barred attempt to push his book rather refreshing and delightful

R151, have you read his biography The Enigmatic Englishman? The subject was a pedophile and that was known to everybody. He had some sort of commission as a librarian for Victoria, I think. I read it years ago. It’s worth a read because it’s so appealing!

R151, I found two titles by Vining on open library. One is titled A Gay Diary and the other is How Can You be Open if You’ve Never Been Out, or something. I’ll definitely read those. Thanks so much!

Finished 100 Years of Solitude. Enjoyed it but was not blown away by it.

R150, Brandon Taylor! So, sorry. His novel Real Life was one of the best novels that I read in 2020. His short story collection Filthy Animals was almost as good. Had had a new novel coming out soon.

R165 I only read Filthy Animals last year and found it lacking. I wish he would have pulled out the related stories and published them as a stand alone novella instead, they were the strength and he only did them harm by breaking them up and inserting other subpar stories between them. Two other Gay short story collections were much better Gordo and Afterparties, each near perfect. I’m very reluctant now to read the Taylor novel.

Murdered Heiress: Living Witness

Has anyone ever read A FRACTION OF THE WHOLE by Steve Toltz? Just getting into it now and the writing style is very engaging, like the best of young John Irving.

At Home With My Sphincter.

I'm finshing Leave the world behind, and it's interesting and entertainning but not the big masterpiece that some reviews said.

I'm reading Carrie Soto is back, and yes it's a beach read, a page turner with a lot of innacuracies, but i'm having a great time. Maybe because i love tennis

I read Women Talking , which will be a movie by one of my favorite people Sarah Polley coming out in December. It’s based on a true story about of group of Mennonite women who were anesthetized by members of their community and raped while they were unconscious in large numbers. The book looks at them in secret discussing what should be done as the perpetrators are about to be released on bail, which is being put up by many of their husbands, fathers and sons who were not aggressors, but none the less support the other men. It’s a complex discussion of faith and emerging ideas of feminist ideals in a heartbreaking situation. They are all illiterate, but are supported by an outcast male who is taking minutes. It was very powerful.

I couldn’t get into that one r171 but I’ll try again.

Reading Giovanni’s Room for the first time. Wow.

R171 I think the key is trying to read it in as compressed a time as possible, almost like it’s happening in real time so that the tension of being under the gun is there and you don’t loose the flow of the threads of conversation in the story. A chart of how the women are related to each other would have helped, so you may want to sketch it out for yourself as it’s mentioned in the text. Honestly, I think as a movie it will be much easier to follow, and perhaps the best format of it is a stage production, it would be a perfect and powerful theater piece.

R163 I haven't read that, no. I think I bought a copy while reading the diaries though.

I wish someone would bring Donald Vining's five volumes of A Gay Diary back into print since it can be almost impossible to find some volumes and some of the others are expensive.

Adam Silvera’s getting some great press for his prequel.

Anyone read "Town of Babylon"? A National Book Award finalist.

It was the only one with a gay main character and made the shortlist (this award season is pretty straight till now)

R176 I started it and I’m loving it, just a really straight forward book about coming home, unexpectedly going to your high school reunion and it triggering all these memories and interactions from your past. The cover is HORRENDOUS and doesn’t make any sense. If ever there is a case not to judge a book by it’s cover going on this is it. Ignore the cover at all cost. Writing is great, lots of potential for romantic and familia heartbreak.

A cover is very important. I remember someone saying in a book forum that the shopper said to him that they were not selling The vanishing half and he blamed the cover (racial themes are not a hot topic in Spain but everyone who read that novel in the forum really like it)

R178 Yeah, I don’t know how in this day and age they fucked it up this badly, it looks like a reject cover from the 70s. This NBA winning potential certainly saved it from obscurity. If they are smart they will have the paperback out by December with a smashing new cover. I still haven’t figured out if this is supposed to be Babylon, Long Island, or if the name is being used more metaphorically. It’s been very vague. Isn’t there a prominent Babylon NJ too? Or maybe the David Gray song might play into it at some point, I think it would have coincided with the high school years.

I recently finished The Magician, from Colm Toibin, doing to Thmaa Mann what he did to Henry Jamnes in The Master. I liked it very much, as I didn’t know a lot about Mann’s interesting, long life. Surprisingly, he had 2 gays sons and alesvia/bi daughter who were out from an early age. Naturally, he himself was bi/gay, something his wife was fully aware as well.

LESS and it's new sequel LESS IS LOST have beautifully designed cover illustrations. Very witty and they even imagine the character as I see him. I bet they helped sell those books.

As for THE VANISHING HALF, that jigsaw puzzle graphic seems to be used on every other book cover I see now.

R182 I know, and that was not a problem in the USA because there were a lot of buzz aboiut that novel, but in Spain that cover didn't attract people who obviously didn't know about the novel before.

I read it because i read really good things about it. Not that i trust in critics when there's a racial theme (Such a fun age is garbage and it was very difficult to find a bad review) but in The vanishing half the praise was totally deserved

The Vanishing Half was one of my favorite books of last year. Amazing novel. Passing by Nella Larsen is a good companion read.

I read a Britt Bennet's interview and i didn't agree with her in a lot of things that was probably the reason i was so positively surprised at how much i liked The vanishing half. It's not only that i liked the story, i liked the way she wrote it.

It's a pity The mothers is not published here

Re-reading James Purdy, strange and mostly now forgotten "outlaw" American author from a half century. Totally in a category of his own.

Read "Eustache Chilsom and the Works" as a young gayling.

Just read "Narrow Room" in one sitting. Now onto short stories

Anyone read this?

I’m reading Compote’s Women, which is kind of sterile and straightforward more of an information dump than a good nonfiction exploration. Anyone read The Swans of Fifth Avenue, the novelistic approach of them? Is it campy and fun, or better to pass over it?

Compote?

As in fruit compote??

Spell checks a bitch…

Just finished that South Korean book “Lemon.” Did anyone else read it?

Reading a gut-punch of a book, "We Begin At The End". Great story, memorable characters, and heartbreaking.

Get your nose out of my hole!

Looking forward to reading "Getting Lost" by the new Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux, about an older woman's sexual obsession with a younger man.

yeah, i know it's hetsex, but with passages like this, sounds irresistible.

“I want to keep a G-string soaked with his sperm under my pillow.”

“I realized that I’d lost a contact lens,” “I found it on his penis.”

R194 My library, Queens, bought an extensive number of eBook and eAudiobooks of her titles, sometimes close to 100 copies each. Many are short, also quite brutal and straightforward, but I really like her writing style, reminds me a bit of Didion, more so in her nonfiction than her novels. They are very unflinching in their content.

I'm finishing Stephen King's The institute and then i'll read the last Goncourt winner (i think it's not published in english yet)

Just read "the push" freaky little book.

R194 it’s pornography

I've seem a lot of male journalist irritated by Ernaux Nobel and i kind of like it

great, i love pornography, especially if it's describing hot naked fucking men

yeah, women aren't spozed to lust after men the way we gayz do

I was tremendously disappointed in Kate Atkinson's newly published novel Shrines of Gaiety (horrible title, too!).

A great big cast of formidable characters in a vividly detailed setting of London's crime infested Soho in 1926, but there's simply no plot, no tension, no danger. WTF has happened to her?

I finished "There There," which I started weeks ago, but had to get away from for a while. It built to a great finish, but it was hard to keep track of all the characters--some of the male characters seemed so much alike (all hulking depressed men with terrible jobs).

Good for you for finishing it, r202. Felt the same way as you about the male characters and never bothered reading to the end.

I'm going to start Damon Galgut's The promise

Anyone else read THE WHALEBONE THEARE, recently published? My husband is now and he's raving about how great it is.

R205 Is that about the dead whale that washed up on the shore on the UK, and even though it technically belongs to the crown they cleanup the skeleton and use it as a stage for performances? I heard my story a few weeks ago and I don’t know where it came from, but this title sounds like it.

Anthony Marra and Celeste Ng's new novel will be published here pretty soon.

In Marra's case it's quite surprising because i had to wait for Marra's first novel more than three years

Celeste Ng is a grade-A cunt.

"May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth," a collection of all the extant letters from members of the 1845 Franklin arctic expedition, one of my niche interests.

Otherwise, all the talk about the tv show has me wanting to reread "Interview With the Vampire," but since I haven't read it since 1988 I'm a little leery that I'll hate it now. It was never my favorite of the series even during my misguided goth youth.

Just started the new one by Iain Reid called “we spread.”

R208 I couldn't care less, i like her novels

r206, yes, but a very minor part of the book.

r208, Winston Churchill was also a grade-A cunt but he made a terrific Prime Minister.

I see the Grub Street crew has found this thread. Is that you, Christopher Castellani at R211/R213 or your weird husband?

R209, I bought "May We Be Spared..." but haven't started it yet. I'm also really interested in the Franklin expedition

R207=Anthony Marra has a great novel out for months called "Mercury Pictures Presents". It is exhilarating. Perhaps you missed it?

R216 I live in Spain, that novel will be published here this month

Despite being very excited about Mercury Pictures Presents and Siren Queen by Vo about a lesbian Asian actress in old Hollywood, both books got lackluster reviews from Booktubers whose reviews I align closely with and I decided to skip reading them. Apparently, MPP was born of two different ideas for books that he smashed together into one and it works for neither and the reader can sense the struggle between the two and the lack of cohesion. It was very disappointing, I was quite excited by both. Instead I read The Actress by Enright, which was quite good. I also abandoned another Hollywood book that was about a 60s film star going on her honeymoon to Africa on a safari with a huge entourage that slowly gets picked off by a killer. By the time it was released it too seemed DOA.

R 218 Is the killer a lion?

I don’t know, perhaps I’ll watch the series when it comes out, if they manage to fix the problems the book must have had.

I'm reading Confidence Man by Maggie Haberman

Does anyone collect the old Franklin Mint editions.

R221, any juicy bits so far?

R222 The Gay Booktuber Supposedly Fun does, mainly the Pulitzer winning titles.

R220 That book was horrid, I can't imagine it'll make a better tv show.

i know upton sinclair’s the jungle is like a really important socialist text and all that

but it is the FUNNIEST book ever written like every two pages this guy and his family’s lives somehow get immeasurably worse

like their house falls down his baby drowns in a puddle the grandma explodes you’re like please this was all in one fucking chapter give me a rest i beg

I recall finding The Jungle a real slog when we read it in high school.

Thanks to the person recommending Bernice Rubens above, I've ordered a copy of "Mr Wakefield's Crusade".

Yesterday, I started 1930's gay writer John Hampson's "Saturday Night at the Greyhound".

Just started The Trees and I’m flying through it, it’s hard to believe something that is such a dark subject matter is also so laugh out loud hilarious, the writer is a genius at satire. I think there’s a really good chance it might be the Booker winner this week.

I'll be curious to hear what you think of THE TREES when you've finished it, r228. I also started out loving it.......

Oh, interesting….

The seven moons of Maali Almeida won the Booker.

The novel has a gay main character

I finished The Trees and really liked it throughout the whole book, I can see how others might find the ending and wrapping up disconcerting or unfinished, but it seemed inevitable to me. I am happy it got Booker recognition and has brought a lot of readers to Everett as an author, I definitely will read more of his backlist, but I’m content that it didn’t win, though I haven’t read 7 Moons yet.

Last year’s winning Booker writer was a Gay man, but other than an understated lesbian relationship there was very little gay content in the winning book. This year, the author is straight, but his main character is a Gay man. This Booktuber attended the press conference afterwards and at 35:55 someone asks the author about writing from a Gay male character perspective as a straight man, and he gives a very good, nuanced response.

There were three gay writers winning the Booker in the last 8 years, but the truth is none of the novels is really a gay novel.

Don't get me wrong A brief story of seven killings and Shuggie Bain are great novels (i'm reading the promise right now and i'm loving it) but the focus i not gay. Marlon James has gay characters and of course the main character of Shuggie Bain is gay but the focus of the story is Agnes alcoholism (Shuggie is a kid most of the novel).

But i'm happy gay writers are winning big awards, when The line of beauty won it seemed like an anomaly.

7 moons seems very interesting and it's great that an straight writer from a country like Sri Lanka wanted to put the focus on a gay character.

I really had some issues with The sellout but the Booker really get it right in the last 10 years or so (i didn't read Richard Flannagan's novel yet)

Speaking of The Line of Beauty, WHET Alan Hollinghurst? Sparsholt Affair was awhile back.

Well, Alan Hollinghurst is not that prolific, The swimming pool library was released in 1988, The folding star in 1994, The spell in 1988, The line of beauty in 2004, The stranger's child in 2011 and The sparsholt affair in 2017.

He probably release a new one in a year or two

The Sparsholt Affair used the gay scandal storyline as a MacGuffin. Hollinghurst never reveals what exact the Sparsholt affair even was.

I finally read The Sparsholt Affair this past year. I guess I'd been put off by what I initially perceived were bad reviews but I wound up loving it as much as any of his novels. The change of period and the Oxford setting after those first chapters was disconcerting but once over that, I was totally into it. I'm not sure what "reveal" you were looking for, r237. And I can't imagine a "gayer" novel.

Any opinions on Hollinghurst's THE SPELL? I don't think I've ever heard of that one.

[QUOTE] I'm not sure what "reveal" you were looking for, [R237]. And I can't imagine a "gayer" novel.

I actually ended up really enjoying it as well. I wasn’t disparaging in my comment at any point. I ultimately thought it was a fascinating device to tell a larger story.

In the end, of course, it’s not too hard to figure out what happened during the “affair” using some scattered comments and clues.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never read Hollinghurst. Does anyone have a recommendation on a great first point of entry? What’s his definitive book? Open to thoughts here. Thanks!

R239 It's his worst novel by far.

I remember reading about the controversy of "homophobic" review of John Updike but if Updike really wanted to write a bad review he didn't needed to go on about the gay sex making him feel unconforrtable because there were a lot of things that didn't work in that novel.

Some writers trashed Updike's review and they were right, if you don't feel comfortable reading about gay sex you should not write a review of that book (and it was quite hypocrital on his part because there's plenty of sex in his novels)

I liked The Line of Beauty more than the rest, r241.

I liked The Swimming Pool Library

R241, I suggest starting with either The Swimming Pool Library or The Line of Beauty.

I thought “The Spell” was good because I got several erections reading it. One of the main characters was this libidinous, sexy creature. If you want to start with Hollinghurst hen start at the very beginning. He’s worth it except for his most recent. The gun stuff happened off the page.

The line of beauty is still my favourite (and it was my first Hollinghurst). I still didn't read the sparsholt affair.

I'm just ending The promise (i'm really loving it) and starting another booker winner, The testaments by Margaret Atwood (then i think i will read The years by Annie Ernaux and hopefully it will be a better experience than the one i had with the last french Nobel winner)

I’m reading a book of collected shithouse poetry from the 19th century.

Well ... I've finished "Saturday Night at the Greyhound" by John Hampson finding it grim and dated. Truly sad that the Woolfs wouldn't publish his explicitly gay book back then.

Has anyone read Celeste Ng's newest OUR MISSING HEARTS yet?

I'm a little more than 1/2 through, some truly beautiful writing and a fascinating if scary premise of a neo-conservative America in the not too distant future, sadly all too believable, But somehow I'm finding it a bit of a slog. Maybe it;s that the middle section of the book is a long narrative by one of the characters, relating past events.

I think the reviews have all been rapturous but I find professional reviews usually tend to be very respectful and not very critical of celebrated authors. The reader reviews on Amazon are more mixed, though I haven't read any reviews too thoroughly because I want to avoid any spoilers.

Anyone out there reading the new John Irving? Was there an embargo on ARCs, no one was talking about this before it’s release? By the way I hate the cover, it looks like bad 80s Nicholas Sparks.

Loving the Latecomers - thanks for the recommendation

Just what I want to read. A 900 page overwritten opus by John Irving. Makes a great paperweight!

If new to Hollinghurst, start with The Swimming Pool Library.

I liked LIne of Beauty, but it was stuck in a particular time period, Thacherism,

Best of 2022 lists are coming out, though this has been a running one so it’s quite extensive.

Publishers Weekly highlights the best books on a dozen categories.

Sorry, hers the link:

I had “The Marriage Portrait” on reserve at the library but I’m returning it. It’s frau fiction.

As was HAMNET. Maggie is not a good writer.

Really loved The Latecomer even though it came together a bit too perfectly at the end. Couldn’t put it down.

Thanks for recommending it upthread.

For sure, r260, that book deserved a better ending.

I think i will try a couple of hyped debut novels in november, The sweetness of water by Nathan Harris and Ohio by Stephen Markley

Is anyone reading the new Cormac McCarthy?

I just finished Mad Honey, by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Boylan. It's a sympathetic portrait of one transgendered girl and her family, friends, and boyfriend. I liked the main characters. The trans part comes as a surprise, sort of. I say "sort of" because you know if Jennifer Boylan is co-author, there's more than likely going to be something trans about it.

I won't describe the plot. I'll just say I gave it five stars on Amazon when I was done reading it.

And I just finished THE WHALEBONE THEATRE by Joanna Quinn, one of the most entertaining and touching novels I've read in quite awhile.

Beginning just after WW1, it's the epic saga of a crumbling estate on the Devon coast and the 3 children raised there by neglectful parents, who all eventually serve in their own very particular ways during WW2. Don't want to give away too much but I just loved it and don't understand why it isn't getting the attention here it has in the UK. Just wonderful storytelling.

They’re making The Other Black Girl into a HULU series!

R266, oh wow, Hunter Parrish! I haven't seen him in anything for a while.

I’m reading a poetry book and sonnets by Mrs. Dorothy Lynch

Enjoying Less is Lost.

Got the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying to read next.

THE OTHER BLACK GIRL had some major problems and the writing was not that great. However, I can see it working as a limited series more successfully than it did as a novel. It has an interesting concept.

I felt the same way R270. When reading it, I kept wondering if the book was actually edited because it read like it needed a couple more major drafts. I definitely see it being successful as a limited series as well.

I’m reading a fascinating picture book of prolapsed assholes.

R272, The Aaron Schock Story?

R270 That novel gives me "Such fun age" vibes which is not good at all

Thought this might be of interest.

Well, i finished The years by Annie Ernaux. It's interesting (and very french) and Loba Negra (Black She-wolf) by Juan Gómez-Jurado which is the second part of Reina Roja (which will be a tv show pretty soon), it's as entertainning and funny as the first one and has a gay main character.

Now i'm going to read Sea of tranquility by Emily St John Mandel and Ohio by Stephen Markley

I'm re-reading David Copperfield. it's absolutely wonderful--there is probably no more satisfying moment in all of fiction than when eccentric Aunt Betsey finally tells off Mr. Murdstone and his sister at great length and tells David she'll always care for him.

It's not as complex as some of his other later novels (like Little Dorrit and Bleak house), but it is his most pleasurable.

I found the first half of David Copperfield incredibly depressing! The second half was like switching from b/w to "fun" Technicolor.

Just finished Rabih Alameddine’s THE ANGEL OF HISTORY. Way too fragmented and disjointed for me to fully enjoy. The last twenty pages or so had some beautiful sections but it took the whole book to get there.

This was my first foray into his work. I’ll try another to see if it was just a one-off clunker for me.

R279. I really loved it!

Well, i'm going to try the joy luck club by Amy Tan.

My experience with 80's classics is that most of them didn't age well (in fact the novels that age well are generally not set in the 80's, The name of the rose, The perfume), so we'll see

R281 I don’t remember if there’s a printed “key” in Joy Luck Club or not, but make yourself a small chart of mother/daughter dyads to refer to as you read until it becomes entrenched and you know who each pair is, and which one is which. You may even want to add a few key identifiers about each person as well. It’s complicated because the names are unfamiliar and it’s easy to get lost or mixed up, especially at the start.

R282 My novel has the names of the mothers and their daughters on one of the first pages and i use it as guide to not mix them

Just came back from Powells Books in Portland with “Querelle of Roberval” by Kevin Lambert, “The Folded Leaf” by William Maxwell, “Shy” by Mary Rodgers, “Wild Strawberries” by Angela Thirkell and Ivan Turgenev’s “A Sportsman’s Notebook.” Which should I read first? Help me, DL, you’re my only hope!

I really liked The Folded Leaf

If you're really into theatre, r284, SHY is one of the very best bios/memoirs on the subject I've ever read. Mary Rodgers' writing is so incredibly engaging, you'll feel like you're hearing from your best friend.

Shy was great, just finished it this week, Gay theatre guys are THE audience for this book.

Oh I think SHY is also a fabulous read for any women in the theatre!

Or anyone who ever felt unloved by their parents.

Or who went to Brearley.

Tall Oaks Chris Whitaker

One of the best oooks i've dread this year.

and for a straight man, one hot looking man

Interesting read for the Bookish crowd.

On some very strong recommendations here upthread (or maybe even in an earlier thread), I read Rohinton Mistry's A FINE BALANCE. IIRC it was said the novel was highly popular with reading groups and clubs. While I admired it very much, it's an extremely bleak, horrific and pessimistic look at India in the mid-1970s during Indira Gandhi's reign. The book is often compared to Charles Dickens, particularly BLEAK HOUSE, in its sweep, large cast, coincidences of plotting and concern with the destruction of the individual by a heartless industrialized society. But Dickens had a love of the underdog that I'm not sure comes through here. There's no happy ending for anyone.

I will probably never forget portions of the book, but god, it was a downer.

Just started Butcher's Work: True Crime Tales of American Murder and Madness by Harold Schechter

And I just started Tom Perrotta's TRACY FLICK CAN'T WIN. Fun!!!

Currently reading "Ted Kennedy: A Life"; reviewers didn't seem to like the book because they thought that the author when too soft on old Ted, but he's still a fascinating character.

Next up, I'm reading "We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland", mostly because I'm fascinating by a place that not so long ago was a backwards, poor little island & now they're downright progressive compares to the US

Stop with these Northern Hemisphere centric thread titles OP. I’m south of the equator, I’m a millennial and I’m triggered.

R297 has a justifiable request, I suggest we move to quarter of the years book reading- First Quarter, 2nd Quarter, Third Quarter, etc.

I started the new Celeste Ng and it seems stupid.

Also got the new John Irving - which is so long 🙄

That new Ng book is bleak, bleak, BLEAK. I struggled to finish it.

No, R298.

Why do these book threads need top be seasonal?

R297 is just an old conservative who wants to whine about millennials

He's probably triggered by libraries carrying books about black people

In "Black Lamb, Grey Falcon" Rebecca West asserts "There are no homosexuals in Yugoslavia."

There are no homosexuals in Russia, either

R292 To be fair most of her examples are not literary at all and more on the bestseller cathegory.

A J Finn is a liar but The woman in the windown as bad as it is is not worse than other domestic noirs like The girl in the train.

Most authors who are winning awards and getting great reviews are not selling the lives and even less inventing them

We don’t need seasonal threads. Just yearly threads and we can restart and number when they fill up, just like we do every other year except this one, thanks to Nord-centric OP.

Recently finished "The Savage Detectives" by Roberto Bolano which had been sitting around my house waiting to be read for about a decade. Very long (650 pp give or take) and dense, with dozens of characters and a fragmented form that took a while to click into. But once I did it paid off big, I found it to be a strange and lovable epic that recalled Pynchon or DeLillo more than some of the Latin American giants (whom Bolano mostly disdained, apparently). Glad I finally read it.

Next going to re-read "Days Without End" by Sebastian Barry, which I loved, in preparation for reading its sequel, "A Thousand Moons."

R307

At another site, I attempted to be geographically neutral by labeling the quarters as Q1, etc. But very few people understood, and were freaked out by that term.

They probably were weirded out because Q1 sounds financial or sporting and thus pointless , r309. And bringing up Labor Day is completely USA-centric and anything USA-centric has a tinge of MAGA to non Americans.

There is zero need to divide book threads into quarters/seasons anyway. Just start a new numbered thread as we do with soaps and theatre.

Pine-sol product label

Oat Milk carton

r295 here. I just finished TRACY FLICK CAN'T WIN and really loved it.

What started out as a seemingly shallow but humorous little satire of middle aged sad sacks who couldn't get beyond their high school regrets became a rather profound and poignant read. Bravo to Tom Perrotta who does it all so effortlessly. A greatly entertaining and fast paced novel for a wintery weekend.

Now I want to read ELECTION.

PS: you don't really need to read ELECTION or remember the film to enjoy this new book.

Any fans of THE SONG OF ACHILLES by Madeline Miller? I was never intrigued but someone gave me the book and I'm about 100 pages in and enjoying it more than I thought I would.

Liquid IV package

Has anyone else read William Maxwell's The Folded Leaf? I have questions about Lymie and Spud's gay-or-not? relationship. One critic called it "obvious yet mysterious."

R314 My theory, though I’ve yet to prove it, is that gay men won’t find SoA as interesting as all those other readers on TikTok. The relationship of the boys comes off as very heteronormative, the sex was obviously written by a straight women and they do not act the way Gay boys in love would with each other. In comparison in the Aristotle and Dante sequel they couldn’t keep their hands off each other and were constantly sneaking away to fuck. I will say A Marvelous Light had some of the dirtiest and sexiest fucking between men in a mainstream book I’ve ever read and was written by a woman, but she obviously did her research, even if it was watching Gay porn.

I don't really care so much about the gay sex but I'm hoping there will be lots about the golden apple, the 3 goddesses and how the Trojan War started and the Greek vs the Trojan warriors, r317. I love all that Greek legend history. Will I be disappointed?

R318 It’s pretty tightly focused on them, and things that happen off stage are covered quickly. There are much better sources that would supply those aspects of the story.

Oh, well. I'll keep reading but thanks for the warning.

NPR’s list is out, 402 titles. I’ve read 20 and think I’ll be finishing another 3 by the end of the year.

I'm surprised by that NPR list at r321.

I will have read about 60 books this past year (granted, not all were published this past year) and only 8 are on it. I can think of at least 4 I've loved that should be included: THE WHALEBONE THEATRE by Joanna Quinn, TRACY FLICK CAN'T WIN by Tom Perrotta, JACKIE & ME by Louis Bayard and LIGHT PERPETUAL by Francis Spufford.

Here’s the NYTimes 100 Notable books of the year, I’ve read 11 of these so that’s an improvement over the NPR number.

anyone compiled a list of the gay theme ones from npr or nyt recommendations?

Amazon’s top twenty of the year, I read only two.

I haven't read any, but have liked the Zevin books I've read.

Can anyone recommend a great novel about the earliest settlers in America? Jamestown? Plymouth? Is there a good novel with that setting?

Or if not fiction, a great book about one of those early settlements?

I finished Stephen Markle's Ohio and i think it's fantastci. Way better than other more hyped debuts

Late to the party, but I'm inhaling Mary Rodgers's "Shy." I almost wish I had a long plane flight in my future so I could read it (largely) uninterrupted.

R324 no!!!

R327 I recommend “Half Fucked At Plymouth Rock” and “Jamestown: The Interracial Pregnancy Years”

After a great debut novel (Ohio) i will try another hyped debut one (The sweetness of water)

I’ve read Daryl Pinckney’s memoir “ Come Back in September” about his literary apprenticeship at the NYRB and his friendship/mentorship with Elizabeth Hardwick. She steered him from fiction, “Forget gay lit, honey” and into nonfiction writing. I then picked up her “ Sleepless Nights” and it reads like nighttime jottings on a bedside notepad. Right now I’m reading Cunningham’s “Specimen Days.” NYT is holding an online discussion in 12/8. They’re showcasing novels set in New York. It’s very uneven.

The Night Rapist

Michael Cunningham's The Hours. Brilliant book.

A Thousand Years of the Tartars by EH Parker

Better Davis and Other Stories by Philip Dean Walker

Loving tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. Thanks so much for the recommendation

R338 try Night Rapist

That’s next on my list, R338! Excited after hearing your positive reaction.

Ugh, I’m not enjoying A Swim In the Pond in the Rain, I keep falling asleep listening to it. He’s not bringing anything new or dynamic to his analysis and like the worst professors he brings personal little life stories into his “teaching” that I don’t care to hear about, I don’t have a fucking interest in your kid building with blocks. I was really looking forward to being intellectually stimulated by this and pushing myself, but it’s more like bad high school lit. I’ve been supportive of MFA in writing programs, but if this is what they’re teaching I can see why people are calling them out. Anybody know of something similar in this vein, but dynamic and interesting to cleanse myself from this?

Another list. It seems like Trust and An Immense World as the books consistently on every one of them. I read Trust, has anyone read An Immense World and can share their thoughts?

I usually read 50 to 60 books a year but very few of the newly published books I read are making these lists. The only one on r342's list is TRUST which I loathed. I barely finished it and don't get the appeal at all. I also disliked Celeste Ng's OUR MISSING HEARTS which has appeared on others of these lists.

My faves of the 2020 books would be:

BOOTH by Karen Joy Fowler

TRACY FLICK CAN'T WIN by Tom Perrotta

YOUNG MUNGO by Douglas Stuart

JACKIE & ME by Louis Bayard

LIGHT PERPETUAL by Francis Spufford

THE FAMILY CHAO by Lan Samantha Chang

THE LATECOMER by Jean Hanff Korelitz

THE WHALEBONE THEATRE by Jonna Quinn

SHY by Mary Rodgers.

You'd like Vincent Chu's work R343. Look him up.

I think you mean 2022, r343. This year is 2022.

Yes, of course! Thanks for the correction, r345.

Those of you who loved Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow - what else did you love this year?

The Big O ways in:

R347 The other books that were published this year that I also gave five stars to are:

Candy House

The Colony

Young Mungo

7 other books were published in earlier years out of a total of 200 books.

I read (and loved) THE LATECOMER around the same time I read TOMORROW… and they have a very similar vibe. I’m having trouble remembering who was in which book, in fact!

For me T3 was like a truncated (size of text and number of characters) of A Little Life and with no torture porn.

Just finished Tomorrow x 3 and was blown away by how beautifully and simply written it was. I have zero interest in video games (and actually have always looked on them with disdain), but I couldn't put the book down and found the video game stuff quite interesting. Thought the 3 main characters were written so well.

Got through 40 pages of the Celeste Ng book before quitting. Too dark and felt very trite. Knowing she's a smug cunt IRL doesn't help.

Will check out The Colony and the new Tracy Flick next. DLers give the greatest book recommendations. You bitches know your stuff.

Can't wait to read Tomorrow x 3, my copy arrives.....tomorrow!

R352, I sloughed through the Celeste Ng and it was not worth it. Bleak and not very convincing.

I LOVED Tracy Flick Can't Win, recommended it upthread. Starts a little slow but really surprisingly smart, funny and poignant. And I just finished reading Election as I wanted to compare the 2 books and was surprised by how much the Alexander Payne/Reese W film diverged from the novel, or at least as I remembered it. I now must watch Election again.

Interested in The Colony. I'll research some reader reviews on Amazon. I prefer those to professional reviews as they generally contain fewer spoilers.

Curious of opinions here on the Elena Ferrante novels. I can't remember them being discussed much here, if at all.

I've just started the first one, My Brilliant Friend, and found it a little hard to get into, but 50 pages in and I might just be seduced. Anyone else read it?

Until it’s revealed who the fuck Elena Ferrante is or that she’s doing this because she’s in hiding from the Sicilian mafia I will not read her, only to find out later she’s a old gay Norwegian man. I was burned by T.J. Leroy, never again with this “I’m so special you don’t get to know who I am” writers.

Reading a hysterically funny, razor sharp satire, "The Lemon", about a superstar chef who commits suicide.

I'm reading "A Perfect Spy" by John LeCarré. I'm regularly surprised that so many of his books after "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, spy" are actually formally difficult, since he usually writes genre novels--he's like Joseph Conrad, who also wrote genre fiction (in Conard's case, sea stories) but made them formally difficult.

NYPL’s 2022 Best Books list is all over the place, hopefully to promote under looked books not on others lists.

I only read the first of the Ferrante books because the language seemed so stiff to me (granted, I only have opera Italian), but I *loved* the HBO series.

I've started "Crime at Christmas" by C. H. B. Kitchin. The confirmed batchelor (ahem) main character has badly sprained his right arm on Christmas Eve as a houseguest. Another guest, who happens to be a doctor, not only looks after his arm, but also takes on the responsibility of putting on the fellow's pajamas which he can't do for himself. The two of them have to go into a dead woman's quarters, with a bitchy remark from Doc along the lines of "I've been in ladies' bedrooms before (professionally), but this must be a first for YOU!"

It's a sequel to "Death of My Aunt" which probably should be read first.

R354 I read it the Elena Ferrante's novels out of curioity. At the end of the first one i thought it was interesting but not for me, but it ends in such cliffhanger that i had to read the second (which was the one i liked more).

It's true that both main characters have a lot of flaws and both are despicable sometimes, but i liked the naturalism of the narration and how the country evolved through the years (even some things never changed)

Much thanks to the person (might have been on the previous thread) who recommended "Mother of Sorrows," a collection of short stories by Richard McCann. His writing is so lyrical and evocative.

NYT top ten of the year, I’ve read three.

Must get the Claire-Louise Bennett book on the NYT list - her "Pond" was amazing!

A book on racism? To quote the great Gomer Pyle: "Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!" Actually, I am surprised there aren't two.

C.H.B Kitchin was family. He had a interesting life for sure

Smithsonian’s ten best history books.

I downloaded a sample of "The Whalebone Library," and am finding it trite, plodding, and oh-so unengaging. The fact that I couldn't even finish the sample in one sitting speaks volumes.

Sylvia, is that a prequel or sequel to The Whalebone Theater?

R368 WhatEVAH! It's so bland I can't be arsed to recall the correct title.

I guess Maureen Corrigan is my reader twin, I read six of the ten, have a seventh on hold and I’m circling another title.

I’ve been listening to Klosterman’s The Nineties and enjoying it for it’s deep dive into ‘90’s nostalgia with a critical level of analysis, without falling into academic doldrums. It’s entertaining, especially since I was in my 20s, didn’t have a TV and was busy doing things rather than paying deep attention.

^ I liked that book. I think the chapter on H. Ross Perot was my favorite

Best of the year audiobooks!

The Violin Conspiracy is my favorite book this year.

I’ve had Kingdom of Sand and the Alan Rickman diaries, Madly, Deeply on hold at the library and I keep bypassing them. Convince me if I should just read them or skip them?

Kingdom of Sand is awful. One of the most depressing and pointless books I've ever read. If you begin it and don't like it after 30 or so pages, r375, just know it only gets more depressing.

Kingdom is sand is *beautifully* written but so horribly sad and depressing that I had to put it down.

Yes, Kingdom of Sand is sad. But when hasn't Andrew Holleran typed sad?

OK, I think I’ll drop Kingdom of Sand for now and pick it up in June for LGBTQ+ reading month, and they’re won’t be many still reading it and less competition. I just finished All the Young Men last week and it was brutal, sad and of course a memoir, so they were all real people.

This is a nice list of opportunities, I think I’ve read about six of them. This year I’ve read, according to StoryGraph, over 44 memoirs, but I think I’m going to move back to biography and perhaps pull off this list.

I ended The sweetness of water and it's another overrated and overhyped debut. Well, at least it's not Such a fun age or Cherry but i expected way more.

I asked to the guy who was reading it with me at the book club if he understands the comparissions with The prophets and he said The prophets is way better

Just finished The Lincoln Highway and really enjoyed it.

Did anyone read Babel? I see a lot of buzz around it on Amazon, and can't remember if someone here mentioned it in one of the threads.

Now i'm going to read one of the Tom Sharpe's novels, i need something light and funny

Really loving Tomorrow X 3, a very fun book to just fall into. Gabrielle Zevin is a remarkably good writer. Great characters, storytelling.

I think T3 is the most all round embraced of the year across diverse populations, especially by age. Young people and older adults are embracing it evenly. I wouldn’t be surprised if it wins the GoodReads poll, though a lot of people are questioning how the books on the list got there.

R277 - if you enjoy David Copperfield (my favorite Dickens novel too) then definitely read "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver

It's essentially a retelling of the story in modern day Appalachia and it is very well done- has appeared on a number of "Best Of" lists for the year thus far.

She did an amazing job of keeping the voice of the character and updating it for modern times.

I liked Zevin's YA book "Elsewhere", R385. Also, I'm familiar with the actual bookshop that may have served as the model for the one in "The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry" (Nantucket Bookworks).

Are Zevin’s other books as strong? I ordered them at the library because I loved her writing so much.

I have never read Barbara Kingsolver but the notices she's getting for this new one make me think I should finally give her a try. Her books have always given off a sort of MOR vibe to me but in general I do tend to like that kind of big, plotty, character-driven novel.

R390, I highly recommend The Poisonwood Bible.

If you love the book 84 Charing Cross Road, this book released in February is reminiscent of its epistolary journey and emotional impact. Though it is fiction, at the end you do learn of the real life situations that informed it. A perfect novella that can be read completely in one sitting, or listened to with the audiobook in a little over 3 hours.

A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley. It almost reads like a journal. I never wanted to put it down.

I start reading The big circle by Maggie Shipstead (and i'm liking it right now)

That would be Great Circle

I’m halfway thru Demon Copperhead and Jesus fucking Christ has this book slowed to a crawl. It started off rather good, and now it is a gigantic slog. Each page is torture and I can’t fathom quitting after investing so much time to get to the halfway mark. So dense. Kill me.

Set that type of book aside and come back to it later.

Tracy Flick Can’t Win was great. Good recommendation thanks thread.

+1 on Tracy Flick. Great read, Perrotta is one of the few writers who understands modern suburbia.

I was the original recommender of Tracy Flick Can't Win. So glad to hear you both enjoyed it! It's a quick fun read, yet still emotionally satisfying and surprisingly powerful, a great book for you, r396, if you want a break from Demon Copperhead.

I then had to read Election after Tracy Flick, which I'd never read, to see how the character was drawn originally. I only remember the film vaguely but it seemed very different, especially in Reese Witherspoon's portrayal of TF. Oddly, perhaps, I recommend one read it after TF, not before if interested.

[quote]I have never read Barbara Kingsolver

Oh, I loved The Poisonwood Bible. I kind of avoided it - another story about white people in Africa, horribly failing - but it's a very good book.

Has anyone read: Sandy Hook - An American Tragedy? I've heard it's a good book, but I'm afraid it's depressing beyond belief

R400- I read Tracy Flick Can’t Win a few months ago and really enjoyed. Tom Perrotta can always be relied on for super engrossing, smart fast reads. I’m going to take the advice to take a break and come back to it. I’m going to read Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro which has gotten great reviews.

"Querelle of Roberval" by Kevin Lambert. Millworkers' strike in a Canadian town when a mysterious, likeable and very gay stranger comes to town. Enjoying it, but would it kill Lambert to use paragraph breaks?

R395 You are right, The great circle (very good till now)

Well I'm reading this. It's a series. Not deep but amusing, funny, light read and besides has a cute pic of a cat.

Has anyone read the Department Q series?

Worth it?

Christ! The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse is pure treacle and a steaming pile of shit. To think this guy is making millions off this drivel is appalling. I guess Covid brain fog is real, that can be the only way to explain the success of this trash. It makes The Little Prince, which I despise, look like a masterpiece by comparison.

I just finished TOMORROW x 3 and have to say I'm a bit disappointed. Maybe I'm too old and it's for younger people. I don't know anything about computer gaming and, while it didn't get in the way in the first half of the book, I finally tired of all the gaming descriptions and details.

I did find the 2 male lead characters wonderfully drawn and poignant and I was genuinely moved by most of their history and plot lines, but the lead female was an unsympathetic bore and shrew (at least, once she grew up). Odd, as the novelist is a young woman who I'd surmise shares some of her story with her character. Oh, and also the gay male couple were so underwritten I couldn't really distinguish one from the other.

Didn't hate it, worth my time, just expected more after a great, intriguing beginning. The book needed a better editor IMHO and could have easily lost 50 or so pages in the middle. But at the same time I'll admit it may enchant lots of other readers. It could be a great choice for a book club as opinions would be certain to vary.

R408 I agree that the female was my least favorite character. Her whole reasoning for turning on her best friend in the world never seemed justified (because she discovered he wanted her to reach out to her professor ex for help when they were in college?). She became a real bitch and a pain in the ass once she decided she hated him. Up until that point, I liked her a lot.

The two men were beautifully written. Also thought the very beginning where they become friends as children in the hospital was beautifully written and quite moving.

I just read Sebastian Barry's "A Thousand Moons," which is the sequel to "Days Without End." I re-read that one first, and I think I loved it even more than the first time. It earns a place on my list of all-time favorite novels. Sadly I did not "A Thousand Moons" was in the same league. I didn't hate it, but It felt much less fully formed, with a particularly weak, rushed ending. Felt like Barry needed to spend a little more time with it.

Looks like I'll close out the year with Hernan Diaz's "Trust." I know reaction to that has been very mixed, including in this thread -- interested to see which way I fall.

Almost finished with C H B Kitchin's "Crime at Christmas", where the handsome police inspector is about as openly flirting with the (confirmed batchelor) main character as possible. More like a date than a police interview.

I'm reading Anna Quindlen's treatise on writing, writing for everyone, specifically, and I'm enjoying it a lot. I so prefer her non-fiction, and this one is so enjoyable.

It's called Write for Your Life.

The Inheritor's Powder by Sandra Hempel. It's about a murder by arsenic in 19th century England. Non-fiction. I'm about 90 pages in and really enjoying it

I got a bit tired of reading disappointing just-published fiction (so much is overrated) so I went through my bookcases and found a William Boyd 1988 novel THE NEW CONFESSIONS that I'd never read. He's a favorite author of mine, though admittedly a bit uneven.

I'm about 1/2 way through and just loving it. So very engaging and fun, the saga of a Scotsman born in 1899, living through many of the events of the 20th century as a lovelorn boarding school boy, WWI soldier, prisoner of war and eventual film director and victim of Hollywood black-listing.

Any other Boyd fans? His ANY HUMAN HEART is a particular favorite and I'm disappointed the mini-series (with every British actor/actress you love) is not currently streaming now.

Unprotected by Billy Porter…then a bio on Etty Hillesum. If I can find the latter in my closet.

Now i'm reading an 80's classic, Milan Kundera's The unbearable lightness of being

This list is all over the place.

I finished The great circle and i find it uneven (the first half is great, from the war on not so much), it's way better than The sweetness of water but it's easy to understand why The promise won the Booker that year (The promise is a great novel)

Kingdom of Sand is a marvelous book. Holleran is a master. The Rickman diaries were a waste of time. A line by line diary of what he did that day. No insight and little snark and what he included he didn’t explained. I couldn’t finish it. I am curious about the Die Hard performance that jump started his career.

Kingdom of Sand was one of the bleakest, most depressing books I've read in many years. It's not for the faint of heart, especially if you're an eldergay.

I’m really loving February House about the Brooklyn Heights house that Auden, Gypsy Rose Lee, Carson McCullers, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears lived in during the early 40s for a little over a year.

If you're a foodie, have ever worked in a restaurant, have ever eaten in a high class restaurant, Michael Cecchi-Azzolina's "Your Table Is Ready" is the perfect read. He paints a totally accurate, warts and all portrayal of restaurant culture from the drugs and alcohol-sodden 80's right up to the present. Having been there, I can say this is the best, most honest depiction of what the last 40 years of restaurant culture has endured. Painful and very funny.

LOVE February House, r421! A fascinating read. Author Sherrill Tippins has a newish book out about the history of NY's Chelsea Hotel which I'm very eager to read.

R423 I’m definitely putting it on my TBR for next year. There’s other books about Chateau Marmont and the Dakota that might make interesting “buildings” reads. Also that book about Huguette Clark, I think it’s called Empty Mansions, that might make for a fascinating read as well.

I’ve completed my Kindle App reading challenge for the Fall today! I know it’s goofy, but I enjoy the encouragement and checking off the badges. This is the third one I’ve completed this year.

Great good luck at my public library today! I came home with TRUST, DEMON COPPERHEAD and Ian McEwen's newest LESSONS. Not sure where to start.....

I recommend trying to read Trust in as much of a condensed timeframe as possible, while you can hold the four sections in mind eye up against each other to get the maximum experience out of it.

Small Things Like These was one of the most powerful books I read this year, and I’m rereading it as start of an annual holiday reading tradition. This article does a great job of defending it as a literary work of importance and a new holiday classic. Be warned though it does contain spoilers for the novella, so best not to read the whole thing until after the fact.

R426- let us know what you think of Demon Copperhead. It started off strong for me and then became such a slog. I gave up halfway which kills me because I devoted 270 pages to it. Each paragraph became excruciating and I knew I had to throw in the towel.

Fascinating R429

I found the whole thing riveting and did not find any part to be slow or a slog.

As I've aged and started reading a lot more, I find I actually have more patience and will easily read as much as 1/2 of a book before deciding it's not for me. When I was younger, I'd give up after 10-20 pages. I'm not sure that's progress.

This is weird, I think they only pick four sources to look at:

Celeste Ng’s new book is terrible. I don’t trust any “Best of” list that has hers on it.

Agree R433 - I couldn’t get through it. Terrible.

I did get through it and regretted the time spent, r434 and r433.

A lot of people hated To Paradise, but I quite liked it. For anyone who read both, did you like the Ng? And maybe throw How Hugh We Go In the Dark in there too, they all sounded related.

R433 It's a pity because her first novel was pretty good (i'm not that fond of Little fires everywhere).

Anyway, i just read The sweetness of water and it was on all the best novels list last year and the novel is pure mediocrity

Travels with My Aunt is a great recommendation. Thanks. In general, best of lists for the past 3-4 years have been horrible. 90% painfully bad, 10% ok but far from best of past 20 years. So few worthwhile reads lately. There are a few here from past 30+ years that are worthwhile. But really nothing but the Tracy Flick book of value.

R438 is a big James Patterson fan

Among the "Best Books" of 2023 that I did NOT like, please include:

TRUST

DEMON COPPERHEAD (far too affected and twee, like a bad college assignment - read DAVID COPPERFIELD!)

TOMORROW x 3

THE TREES

SEA OF TRANQUILITY (and I'm a huge Emily St. John Mandel fan)

OUR MISSING HEARTS

Is R440 BILL TAYLOR?

No, but whoever Bill is, he's got great taste.

I'm almost 1/2 thru Ian McEwen's latest novel LESSONS and really loving it. Very surprised it didn't get more attention this year, at least in the US.

I'm not a particularly politicized person but this book, about a man's life (who happens to be the same age as me, born in 1949), as seen against many of the big events of the 20th century, from the European devastation post-WWII to the Suez and Cuban Missile Crises, the Berlin Wall, Chernobyl, and even the recent pandemic, etc. is riveting.

Not exactly a linear plot as it constantly moves back and forth through time, including large sections about the lead character's boyhood at a Suffolk boarding school in the late 1950s/early 1960s and his sexual grooming by a predatory female piano instructor, with long sidelines into secondary characters' histories. And then it's also a bit of a mystery about why the lead character's wife has abandoned him and their baby son in the mid-1980s. I'm finding it hard to put the book down. I hope the tension keeps up to the ending.

Next one is The cabin at the end of the world by Paul Tremblay

My latest book read "The Starlings of Bucharest" proved okay as a thriller, after a slow start. Worked okay without reading the previous book, to which it was a (sort of) sequel.

Has anyone read THE VERIFIERS? I was loving it for about the first third and since then it’s deep in the weeds, and I can’t decide if slogging on would be worth it.

I'm in the middle of Your Table is Ready by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina who was apparently the Maitre d' of many a high class NYC restaurant. It's at times entertaining and enlightening, but there are also some stories that just smack of bullshit, like ones you hear from some loudmouth in a bar and you can tell it was made up.

Wow, I thought "Trust" was terrific! Beautifully conceived and written, surprising and dramatic. It was a great way to end my year in reading -- and it was the 30th book I read!

R447- I've been a maitre d' for 25 years. Trust me, there is nothing phony about any of his stories.

I told my sister to read Tomorrow Tomorrow and Tomorrow and it is sold out everywhere in the DC area. We’ve called every bookstore. Apparently the publisher fucked up and new shipments won’t be coming until January.

Weird right?

Order it on Amazon, r450. You'll have it tomorrow. And tomorrow. And tomorrow.

😂 r451

Yeah, you might want to just Amazon it, R450.

Also, have you checked Busboys and Poets at 14/V NW?

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