I plan to rejoin you all in October!
Recent reads from my RL Book Club & Books on the Beach: “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone,” “Normal People,” “The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek,” “Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead,” “A Long Petal of the Sea,” “The Vexations,” “The Convenience Store Woman,” “Searching For Sylvie Lee” and “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.”
I’ve been trying to make up for the lost time earlier this year. So, I’ve read a lot and have many more books to read in my pile.
Recently finished reading: #s 2 and 3 Sayers, * The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry*,
- Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore*.
Reading currently: * Great Love Stories from the Saturday Evening Post*, a collection of short stories by various writers, edited by Julie Eisenhower. From my ‘want to read one day’ shelf. I’m also rereading for fun * The Complete Sherlock Holmes*, one story at a time.
I have these (waiting for some holds to clear) to read next. * The Nine Tailors*, * My Family and Other Animals*, * Doomsday Book*, * 28 Summers/i and * A Gentleman in Moscow*.
@AnAsmom, I can’t remember if I told you this, but the CC Book Club discussed The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry in 2014. You might enjoy perusing the thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1639495-the-storied-life-of-a-j-fikry-june-cc-book-club-selection-p1.html
Also, here’s a thread for after you have finished A Gentleman in Moscow (but not before, 'cause spoilers): http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1997887-a-gentleman-in-moscow-august-cc-book-club-selection-p1.html
An indication that the book choices for June and August were well liked: the number of us who are continuing with the Lord Peter series and picking up more Connie Willis. (And if I remember correctly @mathmom played a part in book choice both times.)
Yes, I think Connie Willis is very engaging and may seek her out after I’m done with DS.
@ignatius Of course my intention when I first joined this group was to expand from what I normally read! But for both of those picks, I’d only read one of the pair.
And you have expanded what you normally read. You just had had a couple of excellent suggestions, perfectly timed for pandemic reading. Like you, I’d read one of the pair in June (Christie) and already liked Willis. I’d read and loved Doomsday Book and had meant to continue the Oxford Time Travel series but hadn’t. Now that I’ve read To Say Nothing of the Dog and am reading Blackout, I have no excuse for not finishing up with All Clear. I had never picked up Sayer, though, and have thoroughly enjoyed time spent with Lord Peter with more to come.
I’ve peeked in to see if the next book was chosen, and yay! I just reserved the ebook, and I’m #10 on 5 copies, so I should get it in time to join you.
I’ve been out of the loop for the past couple of book club cycles; thought I would retire but decided not to, so my reading time has been shorter than I’d like.
Here’s what I’ve made time to read lately: the #2 Peter Wimsey; “Daughters of Erietown,” the new novel by Connie Schultz (good story, grim parts, but it flows quickly); the Mary Trump exposé (no real surprises, but a lot of head nodding on my part); Colson Whitehead, “The Nickel Boys”; Anita Brookner, “Hotel du Lac”; Kate diCamillo, “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane”; Chinua Achebe trilogy. I’m currently reading “The Book of Delights” by Ross Gay and “The Grammarians” by Kathleen Schine (which I am loving; nerdy wordy girls).
@Mary13 and other book club faithful, I’m so glad you keep this up month in, month out, and that you keep the group welcoming to all. I never feel guilty about flaking out, when I do, and popping in, when I do. Thank you all.
Thanks, @jollymama, I’m glad you and @CBBBlinker will be joining us in October!
I love hearing about what everyone is reading in the interim. Lots of great ideas to add to my long to-read list.
Remember this:
I got a notice from the library last night that The Street was available to download. I just did, so am good to go.
Just finished Connie Willis’s “Doomsday Book” and in addition to a plague theme, there was also quite a bit of a plot point about an epidemic (not to be confused with The Pandemic that apparently had occurred earlier in time). It felt strangely familiar to be following along as they shut down the borders, did contact tracing (with no better results than today’s system) and wore masks (that sounded like large band-aids affixed to the face). They did, however, appear to have developed quicker vaccine production and other drugs including t-cell enhancements. Hopefully our Science can get us to that even if we don’t invent time travel (please don’t invent time travel).
I finished To Say Nothing of the Dog last weekend and I just went through and read all the comments on this thread. Thank you to all of you who finished on time and added to this great discussion. I am a fan of time travel books, Outlander in particular, and really enjoyed To Say Nothing of the Dog. The humor in TSNotD was fun and I enjoyed getting surprised at the end when we learn the time continuum was correcting itself all along for a yet to happen event. Very creative.