NJTM – So funny that you just read Pnin! I was going to suggest it for this group but it didn’t fit in the categories we were considering. What a coincidence.
Speak, Memory is one of my all-time favorites.
The best book I’ve read recently is H is for Hawk, though it was glacially slow at times. Absolutely beautifully written.
I also liked (but didn’t love) The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson.
I also just finished Kitchen Confidential, which I liked. (Never read it when it came out, but I wanted to read it before starting Sweet Bitter).
I’ve read a bunch of other uninspired books recently, including Eligible by Curtis Sittenfield which greatly disappointed me and the Nest that didn’t grab me. Several others like that.
Got inspired by the new movie to read Jane Austen’s Lady Susan (very short novella). Very fun, but reads as the juvenalia that it is. Not at all comparable to her novels.
I’m just starting Before the Fall by Noah Hawley. And reading Tortilla Flats by John Steinbeck for my real life book club.