I have not read it but just added it to my " to-read" list on Good Reads. Having just finished 12 years a slave, this book is right up my alley.
Anyone read the new Thomas Pynchon novel, Bleeding Edge? Would love feedback.
I just started it, not far into it so can’t say anything about it. I haven’t read Thomas Pynchon is about 30 years, so this will be an interesting experience… maybe…
Couldn’t get past the beginning of The Goldfinch and need more to read, so I’m checking this thread. Also serves to bump it, if anyone has been reading more than usual with the weather so cold in many parts.
I’m about halfway through The Forgotten Garden. I am really caught up in Eliza’s story, mostly into Nell’s, and only just getting vaguely interested in Cassandra. The suspense of waiting for the storylines to collide is killing me! I kind of had this problem with The Secret Keeper, too, I got frustrated every time it went back to the present because I didn’t care and wanted to go back to the past where the real character development and intrigue was, but the parts in the past and the ending were so good that it was worth it. I assume this will be the same!
Burial Rites did some switching, too. I find I have a hard time with that, I always favor one character over the others-- usually whoever was presented first. I don’t like to shift my focus. But for a good book, it’s worth it.
Help me…recovering from surgery and have nothing to read. I’d go back and browse the thread, but by the time I do that my pain meds will have me sleeping yet again. I love historical fiction, love Amy Tan/Lisa See type familial sagas. Just finished Adriana Trigiani’s latest book, The Supreme Macaroni Company. It was good, but not her best (LOVED the Big Stone Gap series). The Donner Party book looks promising… Thx in advance. I’ll check back when the meds wear off. So frustrating to have such small windows of feel good/awake time!
Just finished “The Indifferent Stars” , the Donner Party book mentioned above. It was very good but not nearly ad good (crap, where do those emoticon thingies come from? I hate this update!) as good as The Boys in the Boat.
For surgery recovery, I second my Ellie Griffiths suggestion above. They put you into a different section of England than you may be familiar with, but are quick fun detective novels with a strong female protagonist.
Have you read “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society”? Or my most recent favorites, the Alan Bradley Flavia de Luce series?
@shellz, I hope you feel better soon. I second the recommendation for “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.” Have you read “In the Time of the Butterflies” by Julia Alvarez? Here is the blurb about it from Amazon:
It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo’s dictatorship. It doesn’t have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas—“The Butterflies." In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters—Minerva, Patria, María Teresa, and the survivor, Dedé—speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from hair ribbons and secret crushes to gunrunning and prison torture, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo’s rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarez’s imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human cost of political oppression.
@shellz You could join us at the CC bookclub and read The Illuminaries - it’s historical fiction set during the Goldrush in New Zealand 1865ish. Somewhat of a mystery, and very long.
Shellz, hope you feel better soon. In addition to The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (mentioned by mathmom above), I’d recommend a more conventional - and shorter - historical novel about the New Zealand gold rush called Colour by Rose Tremain.
^^^ Waving at mathmom and NJTheatreMom and thirding The Luminaries. I loved it but Shellz might want to wait until the meds wear off a bit. The book is long and complicated at first as you meet an assortment of characters. Still a great book to read once you have your head in the game or are looking for something to read in this stay-inside bit of winter.
I also second:
I’ve got the fifth in the Flavia de Luce series (author Alan Bradley) waiting on my bedside table. The sixth just came out. I thoroughly enjoy the books: the setting and characters (the precocious Flavia) take precedence over the mystery for me. Nothing complicated - just fun.
Shellz, I hope you have a quick recovery. I was under the weather this weekend (just a head cold), and read “The Rosie Project”. It is about an Australian professor with undiagnosed Asperger’s who decides to undertake “The Wife Project” to find himself a suitable mate, and discovers that love isn’t always logical. It was a sweet, funny read, and a lovely way to fill some downtime.
I agree. The potato peel society books is a fun read.
I can second The Rosie Project. Sweet and funny are perfect descriptors, westcoastmomof2.
Coming up from drug induced sleep to check in. You guys are wonderful! Downloaded The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Read a bit and it is great…thank you for rescuing me from total and abject boredom! The other recommendations are on a list by my bedside so that I can download w/o having to search this thread. Thanks again…and I’ll check in on the CC book club when I am back to normal. Or as normal as I usually am 
If you like the Potato Peel book, you might also like At the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.
Read that one, Onward! Liked it a lot. Btw, has anyone read Left to Tell, by Imaculee Ilibagiza? Fantastic, powerful read for young women especially about the power of faith and determination in the face of the most horrific life circumstances, She tells of surviving the Rwandan genocide, and how she managed to not only survive, but thrive. Heavy stuff, but wow…when I think of complaining about my first world problems, I remember her.
Rosie project is just 1.99 on Amazon for the Kindle.
Has anyone read any of Ian Rankin’s books?
Mom60…love me a good deal, so thanks for the tip. Just downloaded it. I love having a book in the wings, awaiting the let down after finishing a good book.