What better way to end the month than to talk about what we’re reading?
I’m actually reading a book that comes out in April, Rick Bragg’s The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma’s Table. It’s a combination memoir and cookbooks, written with all of Bragg’s love for his mother, along with his poetic words. He’s one of my favorite storytellers. Even the recipes are stories. It’s going to take me a while to get through it while I read other things, but I’m savoring every word.
What have you been reading this week? I hope you found something you’ve enjoyed as much as I’m appreciating Rick Bragg’s book. Let’s share!
I recently finished Siobhan Fallon's novel The Confusion of Languages – US military families in Jordan – very good. I'm also making my way through the Vera Stanhope books on audio – I'm listening to Silent Voices right now. Have mystery group next week and we'll discuss Jane Harper's The Dry. Looking forward to that.
I finished two memoirs. THE MILK LADYBOF BANGLORE by Shoba Narayan which was OK and TWO OLD FOOLS IN TURMOIL by Victoria Twead which I enjoyed more.
Right now I’m reading HALF BROKE HORSES by Jeannette Walls. She wrote THE GLASS CASTLE which I haven’t read but I saw the movie the other day and it made me want to read this one.
Another one I need to get to, Kay – The Dry. I hear nothing but good things about it.
Well, darn, Sandy. I own The Milk Lady of Banglore. I just don't know when I'll get around to it.
I finished The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard yesterday and liked it so much that I put the non-fiction book on the same topic by Denise Kiernan on reserve.
Now I am reading Murder in Bloomsbury by DM Quincy. It's nice to visit with Atlas again 🙂
Your book sounds very interesting Lesa. I think I will check that one out also. I loved the Laurie Colwin cookbooks.
Sharon! It is nice to visit with Atlas again, isn't it?
Lots of nonfiction on the lists today. Lots of enjoyable nonfiction, from the sounds of it!
Finished the following:
True Blue by David Baldacci
The Last Mike by David Baldacci
Too Late to Die by Bill Crider
I enjoyed all three books. I hadn’t read anything by David Baldacci in a long time. Had forgotten how much I had found pleasure in his books. They were the kind of books I couldn’t finish fast enough. Just wanted to keep reading till I found out how it would end.
First book I have read by Bill Crider and have started the second one.
I am now reading the following:
The Fix by David Baldacci
Lighthouse Cottage by Barbara Cool Lee ( book 3)
Shotgun Saturday Night by Bill Crider ( book 2)
May you find a great book to read that you can’t put down till you finish it.
📚📚📚📚📚📚📚
I read Curiosity Thrilled The Cat by Sofia Kelly, a fairly good cat cozy.
A translation of the ancient Greek play, Lysistra. I like more archaic English used in these translations, for some reason.
Gone To Ground by John Harvey, a British Police Procedural.
The Third Rail by Michael Harvey, a PI novel set in Chicago.
Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos is the second in a series that began with Love Walked In. Several of the protagonists are the same, but in my opinion, the star is Dev, a 14-year-old who finally finds acceptance when he transfers to a school for the highly gifted, while managing to be a clear-thinking, empathetic friend and son. Stories about his secret-harboring mother, a newly married couple trying to have a baby, a young teenaged girl who has triumphed over a troubling past, and a social-climbing woman who spends most of her time caring for her terminally ill friend come together beautifully with De Los Santos' thoughtful prose and deeply felt emotion. Can't wait for I'll Be Your Blue Sky.
Scones and Scoundrels, the second in Molly MacRae's Scottish bookstore series, features a charming setting and a group of friends who somehow become involved in murders (sound familiar?). I enjoyed most of the book but found the ending rather random and had a hard time envisioning each of the characters because of insufficient description.
I'm most of the way through Jane Harper's Force of Nature and enjoying it more and more as it progresses. Chapters alternate between the travails of a group of mismatched women on a corporate retreat in the Australian wilderness and the investigation by police detectives who are trying to figure out how it all went wrong, ending in one missing woman. I'm not sure I would rate it as highly as The Dry, but it is a quick, suspenseful read.
I forgot to comment this morning. Too busy reading, I guess. The current book is the latest Insp. Salvo Montalbano book by Andrea Camilleri, THE PYRAMID OF MUD. Amazingly, the author is 92 and still going strong. I believe there are three more yet to be translated.
THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW is a Martin Edwards-edited anthology, this one police stories. I finished his book mentioned last time – I'm out and don't have it at hand – 100 books from the first half of the century.
THE UNEXPECTED PRESIDENT, a biography of Chester A. Arthur, was quite interesting to me.
I am reading a memoir now (but I don't have the Kindle with me for the title or author – later) about a guy who stumbled across a waterfront bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn in 1994 and became a regular. It's interesting to someone who lived nearby for a number of years, and knows the area.
Charlotte, I'm glad you picked up Baldacci & Bill Crider. I think you needed some faster-paced books. I'm with you. I hope you have enjoyable reading.
Glen, Sofia Kelly surprised me. I didn't read those books because, even though I own cats, the idea of magical cats bothered me. But, I liked the one I read. And, I agree about the more archaic prose. I like the King James version of the Bible only because it's more lyrical than modern versions. I've read several of Michael Harvey's books, including The Third Rail.
Margie, Right there with you on Molly MacRae's Scottish Bookshop mysteries. I want to like them, but, there's just something lacking.
Are you reading Sunny's Nights, Jeff? The reporter who stumbled into the bar?
Thanks, Lesa. That's the one, by Tim Sultan.
THE STORY OF CLASSIC CRIME IN 100 BOOKS was the Edwards book.
I'm reading BEAUTIFUL DAYS by Joyce Carol Oates, AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE by Tayari Jones, and am about halfway through SHADOWBAHN by Steve Erickson. I also have LITTLE WOMEN by Alcott going on in the background. I think I need a nonfiction book next–probably going to go back to the McKinley biography from this winter. I am interested in the Chester Arthur book that Jeff mentions.
I'm reading Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance.
You're like me, David. Several books at the same time. I don't usually settle for just one until I'm into it.
Another nonfiction for this week. We seem to be trending that way, Patricia.
An unsettling crime for Samuel Craddock : a Samuel Craddock mystery by Terry Shames…Year One by Nora Roberts…Many a Twist by Sheila Connolly…The Painted Bed by Donald Hall (poetry)…
Gram, I hope you liked An Unsettling Crime for Samuel Craddock. You have a nice mix there.