I was guessing Twelve Lives too, but it’s not one I particularly want to read, so I’m happy. One of my goals this year is to try to read more globally, so this is good for me!
You’re right, @ignatius – I had inadvertently counted five! So it was a three-way tie ~X(. The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is going back on the list for August. Don’t read it yet, no matter how sorely you’re tempted!
I’m fine with the selection. I was comparing Little Fires Everywhere to Little Big Lies, as both books are easy reads but filled with nuances of characters. Each led to lively discussions. Neither compares to The Rent Collector (Camron White) which also has character study as well as the Cambodian landscape. My book clubs often chose books that teach us something about a different culture or a time in history. Sometimes it’s nice to read about women or teens we could know in our everyday lives.
The month before we read Little Fires, we had read The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. Adoption of a Chinese girl was a subplot. This theme also appeared in Little Fires. My bookclub supported one option, but a member said her community bookclub felt strongly the other way. As I said, wonderful discussions.
So what are you reading in the interim? I’ve got three books going at the moment, all of which are good:
Far from the Tree - Robin Benway. YA National Book Award. Book club book but not one I would have chosen. Surprise, surprise … so good. I’m thinking a 5 star rating. (I’m about halfway through with the book.) And a YA book with strong teen/parent relationships - nice.
Operation Thunderbolt: Flight 139 and the Raid on Entebbe Airport, the Most Audacious Hostage Rescue Mission in History - Saul David. Recommended by @intparent on the Best Books Thread
*Gone to Dust/i - Matt Goldman. Book club book. Mystery. Murder victim and house covered in vacuum cleaner dust to make DNA findings impossible.
I need to pick up Lab Girl - Hope Jahren, another book club. I’m like @CBBBlinker with multiple book clubs.
Defending Jacob- what a page turner wow
An American marriage, Tahari jones. Sinclair lewis’s it Can’t happen here. Finished Bluebird, bluebird. By Attica Locke , the Edgar award finalist.
Sigh, I’m number 245 on the hold list for Paxhinko, 47 ebook copies.
Here’s a coincidence: When I went to look up reviews of *Pachinko/i, I came across one by John Boyne, author of The Heart’s Invisible Furies. I guess John wouldn’t mind that we chose Lee’s book over his, as he says:
He says a lot more, too, but don’t read the review if you like to dive into a book knowing nothing. I think he gives too much away: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/pachinko-review-a-masterpiece-of-empathy-integrity-and-family-loyalty-1.3165406
Recent and current reading: Born a Crime, Trevor Noah. Sing, Unburied, Sing, Jesmyn Ward. The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion. Educated, Tara Westover. Hunger, Roxane Gay.
I’m #3 of 3 holds on Pachinko at my library, hooray! The word must not have trickled out in my town yet. 
As for interim reading, I am about 3/4 of the way through Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff, which we had once considered for the CC book club. It would have made for a good discussion, as it’s an intricate story full of complex characters who make perplexing life choices, and I would have loved to discuss it. At the same time, I can’t really say I like the book because I find the characters’ behavior frustrating and the central marriage inexplicable (although I suppose lots of marriages can be viewed as “inexplicable” by an outsider).
Yeah, so that was way more than I intended to say about my iterim book. Mini-review, oops. After Fates and Furies, I think I might read The Power, if time permits. (Pachinko is 500 pages and I read slowly.)
@Mary13: I read and really liked Fates and Furies, at least I did by the time I finished it. You’re right in that it would have been a good discussion book.
Thanks for the heads up on page count of Pachinko.
Just finished “In the Midst of Winter” by Isabel Allende for one of my RL Book Clubs. Our May selection is “Exit West” by Mohsin Hamid.
How many of you read more than one book at a time? With rare exceptions I finish one before starting another.
I cannot read books simultaneously. I’d end up convinced that Mr. Darcy proposed to the Widow Douglas while hiding in a Moscow Hotel set afire by a woman named Bertha who was waiting for her husband to return from the land of the Lotus-eaters.
uh oh 500 pages!?! According to my Kindle I am only 33% of the way through *Kushiel’s Avatar./i Ack! I’m probably also about that far along in Fire and Fury, I suspect by the time I finish it most of the players will no longer be in the current administration. And that’s as political as I will get. 
I will probably pick up the Jane Harper sequel next week. DH enjoyed The Dry. He’s apparently currently reading a book that says the world is going to end not in fire or ice, but an AI bent on making paper clips. I read Allende’s The House of Spirits and loved it. I don’t know why I’ve never read another book of hers.
I generally really only read one book at a time. Maybe one fiction, one non-fiction. (But I read non-fiction at a glacial pace for the most part. So easy to put down!)
@mathmom: Did you read Kushiel’s Chosen? It followed Kushiel’s Dart.
@Mary13: I never read one book at a time, though I try to keep no more than three going. Like @mathmom, I read non-fiction slowly for the most part, even if I really like the book. I find it easy to pick the book up, read a chapter, go about my business and then pick a different book up next time I sit down to read.
@SouthJerseyChessMom: I couldn’t quit reading Defending Jacob and I had to as it was already after 1 a.m. I would have been up all night. So I did what many consider anathema, I read the end, went to bed, and finished the book the proper way the next day. Sometimes needs must.
@ignatius, yes I did. It’s a pretty amazing world she has created, I just wish the books were shorter!
I also have a terrible habit of reading the ends of books when I’m about half way through…
^ @ignatius I can understand reading the ending, because this book IS HARD TO put down!!!
My mother in law always reads the last chapter of a book first ? I find this unimaginable, but it turns out my sister does, too!!! Why, why why !!!
I used to skip to the end to check before I finished. It is not as easy with the Kindle and that pretty much broke me of the habit. Sometimes I am still tempted, though.
I’m currently reading a trilogy on the Kindle. The first book had the map on the first page. The second one on the last. Who does that??!! I didn’t find it until the end, and I would have liked to have seen it earlier. Of course I went to the end of the book looking for the map for the third one, but apparently we don’t get a map all this time. The Internet however has lots of maps, which I was happy to look at.