What are you reading?

[DiveMilw]

I just finished Swing Time by Zadie Smith. I sort of enjoyed it.

So did I. Emphasis on "sort of."

Currently I'm reading The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti.

The best book I've read all year has been The Nix by Nathan Hill. I may post a long list of everything I've read in the past six months or so, if I get really bored (and if I can remember what I read when).

I also liked The Nix a lot.

Me too!  I liked it so much that when it came up for renewal and there was a wait list of library patrons who wanted to read it, I ended up purchasing the book!

[KathyB]

The book I am not recommending to people is A Little Life  by Hanya Yanagihara.   It starts out promisingly, but becomes misery porn, IMO.

I actually did like that book despite reading it at an extraordinarily inappropriate time in my life, and despite agreeing with Diane's general assessment about it being "misery porn."

(Period goes inside quotation marks because I live in the U.S., and that's the way we do things, even if it makes no logical sense.)

[JustTheOneAnne]

The book I am not recommending to people is A Little Life  by Hanya Yanagihara.   It starts out promisingly, but becomes misery porn, IMO.

I actually did like that book despite reading it at an extraordinarily inappropriate time in my life, and despite agreeing with Diane's general assessment about it being "misery porn."

(Period goes inside quotation marks because I live in the U.S., and that's the way we do things, even if it makes no logical sense.)

I cried buckets during that book.  I don't think I really liked it and I wouldn't recommend it in good conscience to anyone, it was just too harrowing, but it was kind of a cathartic reading experience for me.

Kathy, re: Swing Time (I'm so not used to the board that I forgot to check back after I posted!), I remember loving On Beauty and White Teeth in college, but it's been so long since I read them that I'm really not sure.  I had high hopes for Swing Time but I didn't find it as consistently engaging as the other two Zadie Smith novels I've read.  I was really drawn into the story of the two girls as they were growing up, but I was less interested in Aimee and the trips to Africa. And did we ever learn the narrator's first name?  I was concerned that I had just forgotten it because I wasn't that interested in the book...

[Bobster]

I'm having fun reading Wouldn't It Be Deadly by D.E. Ireland.

Post Pygmalion, Eliza Doolittle is a language teacher under the pompous Hungarian Nepommuck, taking credit in the papers for Eliza's transformation and causing Henry Higgin's wrath.

When Nepommuck is found stabbed after it has been announced that he was engaged to an older Marchoness, Eliza must find out what happened.

[iheartgranola]

I'm having fun reading Wouldn't It Be Deadly by D.E. Ireland.

Post Pygmalion, Eliza Doolittle is a language teacher under the pompous Hungarian Nepommuck, taking credit in the papers for Eliza's transformation and causing Henry Higgin's wrath.

When Nepommuck is found stabbed after it has been announced that he was engaged to an older Marchoness, Eliza must find out what happened.

That sounds like an absolute blast!

[Chris L]

Currently reading some summer fun, Stephen King's Mr. Mercedes.

That's one of the many books I've started and not finished in recent months, not because I didn't like it but because I read a few pages and got distracted by something else. I really should get back to it. Even when my attention span is in wandering mode, I can usually get through a book by King (who just seems to get better and more readable as he gets older).

[Leighton]

I just finished Swing Time by Zadie Smith. I sort of enjoyed it.

The best book I've read all year has been The Nix by Nathan Hill. I may post a long list of everything I've read in the past six months or so, if I get really bored (and if I can remember what I read when).

Ooooh it's good?  I've been thinking of getting it!

[KathyB]

I just finished Swing Time by Zadie Smith. I sort of enjoyed it.

The best book I've read all year has been The Nix by Nathan Hill. I may post a long list of everything I've read in the past six months or so, if I get really bored (and if I can remember what I read when).

Ooooh it's good?  I've been thinking of getting it!

Assuming you're talking about The Nix instead of Swing Time, I say go for it. It's worth having a copy for the zillion times you'll want to refer back to it.

[iheartgranola]

Finished up Big Little Lies the other night and have moved on for a quick read through The Martian Chronicles

[MartinG]

Into the Thickening Fog by Andrei Gelasimov. A misanthropic film and theatre director returns to his sub-zero home town and confronts his many and varied demons. Dark and funny and weird and poetical. Well, Russian I guess. 

[KathyB]

I finally finished The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley (it seemed like it was never going to end) and am now reading Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood.

[iheartgranola]

I decided to stick with Mr Bradbury and reread The Illustrated Man much to my wife's chagrin as she's been waiting to discuss Augustine Burroughs Lust and Wonder. I just haven't been in the mood for a memoir lately!

[KathyB]

If anyone wants a really quick read, try Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. It's a novel(ette) about two lovers in an unspecified war-torn country in the Middle East, and apparently there are doors that are portals to other parts of the world, and would-be refugees can use them for a price. Like a much more sophisticated (not to mention instantaneous and safer) version of boats crossing the Mediterranean.

[Leighton]

If anyone wants a really quick read, try Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. It's a novel(ette) about two lovers in an unspecified war-torn country in the Middle East, and apparently there are doors that are portals to other parts of the world, and would-be refugees can use them for a price. Like a much more sophisticated (not to mention instantaneous and safer) version of boats crossing the Mediterranean.

Oooh another one I wanted to read!

[AmyG]

If anyone wants a really quick read, try Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. It's a novel(ette) about two lovers in an unspecified war-torn country in the Middle East, and apparently there are doors that are portals to other parts of the world, and would-be refugees can use them for a price. Like a much more sophisticated (not to mention instantaneous and safer) version of boats crossing the Mediterranean.

That sounds fascinating!