Clever me. I bought it before we voted! I’ve just come back from a second walking holiday in Britain so I thought it would be fun.
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Library says months on wait list so got the $2.99 kindle version.
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It’s too early for me to start You Are Here, but I opened it up to take a peek and the epigraph is from–you guessed it–Persuasion.
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Too funny. Persuasion is probably my favorite Jane Austen, unless it’s Pride and Prejudice.
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I so want to read Persuasion!
You can stuff the ballot box in February. 
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Maybe I’ll just persuade one and all to choose Persuasion. 
Though I admit I also want to read Wuthering Heights. And I already requested the DK illustrated version of Frankenstein that @mathmom recommended from the library. I’m easy.
What is everyone reading till next time?
I’m halfway through with Girl Waits with Gun, a IRL book club choice.
I’ve felt the need to spend some time reading manga. I have a couple series I enjoy. The books can be finished in a day. A plus - good brain exercise, reading a book from back to front and right to left.
I also have a couple books I planned to have already read but just haven’t: Cleopatra’s Dagger and Station Eternity.
Your turn.
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I’m reading Dancing with the Octopus by Debora Harding. It’s a memoir, about her upbringing with a mentally ill mother and her kidnapping and rape at age 14. It’s really well done – a page-turner.
Flew through “ Tell Me Everything “ by Elizabeth Strout. Wish I remembered more about the characters from her previous books because reappear in this one, but Strout tries to fill in back stories.
Highly recommend.
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I snagged the Kindle version of “You Are Here” for $2.99! Thanks for the tip, @Mary13.
I’m currently reading “North and South” by Elizabeth Glaskell for my RL Book Club. I’m at about 45% and I can’t decide if the “slog factor” is outweighed by a fairly interesting storyline, or not. Last month for this same Book Club we read “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,” which was also a section for Books on the Beach this summer. The book was one heck of a story with lots of interesting characters.
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I found “North and South” a slow read but did finish it. “Heaven and Eart Grocery Store” was a RL Book club read for me. Found it interesting but agreed with other members that it was a bit disjointed, lots of characters and subplots (maybe too many).
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Back to Arthur et al for a moment:
I was totally isolated socially in high school, until my senior year when I was the victim of an abuser who took advantage of my loneliness.
And my dad and stepmother outlived all of their friends, and didn’t have the energy to make new ones.
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@oldmom4896, how awful! I’m so sorry you had to go through that. I can see how Maddy’s story would have resonated with you.
@CBBBlinker There’s a mini-series for North and South which I quite enjoyed. (Not to be confused with the American series of the same name.) I liked the book as I recall we read it here.
While I was in England and walking the Jurassic Coast I also read Penelope Lively’s children’s book A Stitch in Time. I quite liked it, but I am not sure how many kids would. It’s about an only child with rather distant parents who has never really learned how to make friends. She has an overactive imaginary life and sometimes doesn’t know what is real or not. It was interesting to me how many of the themes repeat in her adult books, how small things can have big consequences, how we change and aren’t quite the same person we were, how the past impinges on the present.
Currently I am reading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. It won the Hugo for Best Sci-fi series in 2019. I’ve read a couple of her novellas and quite enjoyed them. My nephew’s partner recommended the author to me ages ago as someone who wrote about nice people. Good for when you don’t want anything dark and gloomy.
My other book is more dark and gloomy - Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo. It’s set at Yale, but the secret societies are centers of sinister magic. It’s the second of a proposed trilogy, I believe.
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@CBBBlinker, North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell is one of my favorite books. I couldn’t even exactly tell you why, but I love it and have read it several times.
Weren’t you with us when we read it here? I feel like you’ve never missed a round. North and South - February CC Book Club Selection
I don’t think any super fans (like me) were born of our discussion, but I think everyone felt it was worth the effort.
The BBC mini-series is a delightful companion to the book.
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I was very lonely and isolated as well through grade school. I was also bullied. In middle school, I made a nice group of friends and am still friends with two of them over 50 years later. HS I was mostly with one BF and we broke up after freshman year of college as we were going in different directions and he’s had several marriages since.
Even though I was pretty lonely at times while growing up, the book didn’t really resonate with me. I had a loving family and a nurturing girl scout troop. My neighborhood was ok as well.
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I finished Tom Lake. Though it is not my very favorite by Ann Patchett, I would still read anything she writes. Also caught up with The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel.
Read My Brilliant Friend with a RL book group. One person adored it, six said they wouldn’t have finished it if not for book club, and I had mixed thoughts. It grew on me. Reading up on what was going on in Naples in WW2 and after helped me appreciate it better.
A new-to-me author is J. Ryan Stradal. I just finished his Kitchens of the Great Midwest., a foodie novel with a cast of oddball characters; each chapter is named for a food, like Walleye or Venison or Bars. It all comes together in a satisfying way at the end. I’m in pursuit of The Lager Queen of Minnesota next.
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I may have crossed over into super fan. I read it twice. I read it first for the CC discussion and rated it four stars. I read it again after the discussion knowing I’d get more out of the book; I rated it five stars the second time.
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@Mary13 Ha! No, I didn’t read “North and South” for the CC Book Club. Can’t remember why I missed it. 
Not sure I’ll become a super fan, but you never know.
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