Book a Week 2016 - BW31: august peregrinations

[Robin M]

Happy Sunday dear hearts!  This is the beginning of week 31 in our quest to read 52 books. Welcome back to all our readers, to those just joining in and all who are following our progress. Mr. Linky is all set up on the 52 Books blog to link to your reviews. The link is also below in my signature.

 

52 Books blog - August Peregrinations:  What happened to July. Summer is going by way too fast.  If you are still searching for Moby Dick or pursuing other nautical adventures, feel free to continue. For those who are feeling a bit waterlogged, join me for some August Peregrinations. Grab your backpacks and put on your walking shoes as we follow in the footsteps of our author flavors of the month - John Steinbeck and Willa Cather.  

 

 

In 1960, Steinbeck and his faithful travel companion, a poodle called Charley, took a car trip across the United States.  They started off in New York and traveled almost 10,000 miles around and through the states until he arrived in his home town of Salinas, California.  He wrote about and published his journey in Travels with Charley.   Steinbeck wrote 27 books during his lifetime, including Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men and Cannery Row as well as short stories and non fiction books. 

 

 

“Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. Tour masters, schedules, reservations, brass-bound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckage on the personality of the trip. Only when this is recognized can the blown-in-the glass bum relax and go along with it. Only then do the frustrations fall away. In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.†~ Travels with Charley: In Search of America

 

Willa Cather, best known for Death comes for the Archbishop, My Antonia, and Oh Pioneers, lived the majority of her life in Nebraska, but traveled quite a bit through the United States as well as Europe.  

 

 

“I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.†~ My Ãntonia

 

 

Cather leads the list of 20 Iconic American authors and Steinbeck is one of five authors to  Inspire the Ultimate American Road Trip.

 

*********************************************************

 

History of the Renaissance World - Chapters 53 and 54 

 

*********************************************************

 

What are you reading this week?

 

 

 

Link to week 30 

Edited July 31, 2016 by Robin M

[Robin M]

Can you believe I still haven't read Grapes of Wrath, even though it's been on my shelves for a long time.  Travels with Charley is on my virtual shelf and will be reading it soon.  Just finished reading Suzanne Brockmann's Born to Darkness and Keri Arthur's #3 in her Souls of Fire series Flameout.

 

 

[idnib]

I'm still working on Michener's Hawaii and The Last Policeman and enjoying both. I received The Elementals from Amazon, so I'll try that next.

 

Carrying over from last week...

 

ETA: Staying on movie talk for a minute. I saw the third Star Trek movie in the theater tonight & really enjoyed it. I've enjoyed this whole series -- the first was best, of course, but I think they've done an admirable job of keeping it well-done & interesting throughout the series so far. 

 

I saw the movie as well. I'm not a Trekkie at all; I haven't even see the original series. But I like JJ Abrams so I went and saw the first of this series in 2009(?) and I've enjoyed all 3 of them. I think I like the second one best, and a lot of that has to do with Benedict Cumberbatch. 

 

We saw a whale!!! Kind of scary since was about the size of our boat and obviously passed under us, then came up and blew. His back rolled on forever, it seemed.

 

Wow, this sounds breathtaking! 

[Stacia]

I just finished two short works.

 

The first was José Saramago's The Tale of the Unknown Island. It's a lyrical little story, well-told.

 

For BaW Bingo, I read Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot. Maybe I'm just not much in the mood to analyze things lately, but I am scratching my head a little bit at the fame of this work. I mean, I get some of the deeper connotations that could be read into it (the absurdity of life, the religious angle, perhaps a political angle) or maybe Beckett's real joke is that there is no deeper meaning, rather that it is just a work of the absurd/boring/mundane & the joke is on everyone who tries to make it more than it is. Whatever the meaning, I'm not sure I really got it (nor did I find it very engrossing to read). I wasn't overly impressed, but I guess I can say I'm glad I read it because now I at least know what it is. <shrug> Perhaps I would enjoy it more if I saw it performed.

 

:leaving:

[Stacia]

(ETA: Originally, I rated Waiting for Godot 3 stars. But I went back & changed it to 2 stars. I really just didn't care for it. And 3 star ratings, in my rating system, are reserved for good books/works I enjoyed or for things I can appreciate, even if they weren't my favorite. Two stars equals more of a 'meh' reaction from me.)

 

My 2016 reading so far:

 

5 stars:

• The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail by Óscar Martínez (Mexico) [baW Bingo: Library Free Space]
• What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi (Europe: Various) [baW Bingo: Fairy Tale Adaptation]
• West with the Night by Beryl Markham (Kenya)
• Sergio Y. by Alexandre Vidal Porto (Brazil & USA)
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Europe: probably eastern European)
• The Plover by Brian Doyle (Other: Pacific Ocean)

 

4 stars:

• The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Columbia) [baW Bingo: Picked by a friend – idnib]
• Good Morning Comrades by Ondjaki (Angola) [baW Bingo: Set in Another Country]
• An Exaggerated Murder by Josh Cook (USA) [baW Bingo: Mystery]
• The Expedition to the Baobab Tree by Wilma Stockenström (South Africa) [baW Bingo: Translated]
• A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power by Paul Fischer (North Korea)
• Narconomics by Tom Wainwright (Various: mainly Latin & North America) [baW Bingo: Published 2016]
• A Dark Redemption by Stav Sherez (England)
• Eleven Days by Stav Sherez (England)
• The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (India) [baW Bingo: Epic]
• The Stranger by Albert Camus (Algeria) [baW Bingo: Nobel Prize Winner]
• The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud (Algeria)
• An Unattractive Vampire by Jim McDoniel (USA) [baW Bingo: Pick based on the cover]
• The Island of Last Truth by Flavia Company (Other: unnamed island off the coast of Africa) [baW Bingo: Nautical]
• Warlock Holmes: A Study in Brimstone by G.S. Denning (England)
• Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Ayikwei Parkes (Ghana), 4.5 stars [baW Bingo: Color in the Title]
• Kokoro by Natsume SÅseki (Japan) [baW Bingo: Classic]
• Trout Fishing in America/The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster/In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan (USA) [baW Bingo: Written in Birth Year] 
• The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters (USA)

 

3 stars:

• Gnarr! How I Became Mayor of a Large City in Iceland and Changed the World by Jón Gnarr (Iceland) [baW Bingo: Non-fiction]
• A Quaker Book of Wisdom by Robert Lawrence Smith (USA)
• The Three Trials of Manirema by José J. Veiga (Brazil) [baW Bingo: Dusty]
• Necropolis by Santiago Gamboa (Israel)
• North to the Orient by Anne Morrow Lindbergh (Asia: Various) [baW Bingo: Historical]
• Smile as they Bow by Nu Nu Yi (Myanmar) [baW Bingo: Banned (in Myanmar)]
• Ajax Penumbra 1969 by Robin Sloan (USA) [baW Bingo: Number in the Title]
• Bossypants by Tina Fey (USA)
• The Mirror Thief by Martin Seay (USA & Italy) [baW Bingo: Over 500 Pages]
• Harp of Burma by Michio Takeyama (Burma/Myanmar)
• Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks by Keith Houston (Other)
• Time and Time Again by Ben Elton (Europe: Various)
• Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future by A.S. King (USA)
• À Rebours (Against Nature) by J.-K. Huysmans (France)
• The Alligator Report by W. P. Kinsella (USA)
• Rock Paper Tiger by Lisa Brackmann (China)
• The Tale of the Unknown Island by José Saramago (Portugal)

2 stars:

• We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) [baW Bingo: Female Author]
• Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (France) [baW Bingo: Play]

Edited July 31, 2016 by Stacia

[Chrysalis Academy]

I haven't read a ton of Steinbeck.  I listened to the audio version of The Grapes of Wrath a couple of summers ago and I thought it was absolutely phenomenal - it reduced me to a sobbing mess and greatly imperiled my drive a time or two! But the Cannery Row books left me pretty unmoved,although dh really likes them.

 

The only Cather I've read is My Antonia - well, I guess I listened to that too - and I loved it. What Cather should I do next?

 

I'm busy selecting things to take on our 3 week vacation. We're going to Orcas Island in the San Juans, and I think we'll have no internet, wi-fi, or even cell phone coverage for at least 10 days. I'm really looking forward to that, but it means I've got to be solidly provided with a thick stack of books! So I've put a bunch of things on hold and I'm reading the first chapter or two to make sure I actually want to read them.  I have about another week to get it all lined up.  Any absolutely not to be missed vacation reads anybody wants to suggest? Oh you who know my reading tastes so well???

[Jane in NC]

Hi everyone!

 

How timely! The library had two Steinbeck's on the sale shelf, Travels with Charley which I haven't read as well as The Short Reign of Pippin IV, a work of political satire. I bought the latter. Grin.

 

I loved House-Bound, Winifred Peck's novel of the Edinburgh home front during WWII. Highly recommended.

 

My current read is a mystery, The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan. Our detective and his second are an interesting pair assigned to a murder that is far more than it seems as the victim appears to be a war criminal with ties to Srebrenica. Oh Jenn...this looks like your sort of book.

Edited July 31, 2016 by Jane in NC

[Stacia]

I'm busy selecting things to take on our 3 week vacation. We're going to Orcas Island in the San Juans, and I think we'll have no internet, wi-fi, or even cell phone coverage for at least 10 days. I'm really looking forward to that, but it means I've got to be solidly provided with a thick stack of books! So I've put a bunch of things on hold and I'm reading the first chapter or two to make sure I actually want to read them.  I have about another week to get it all lined up.  Any absolutely not to be missed vacation reads anybody wants to suggest? Oh you who know my reading tastes so well???

 

That sounds so wonderful.

 

I guess I'll put in a plug for taking a Brian Doyle book -- either Mink River or The Plover.

 

[Faithr]

I love Willa Cather.  I recently reread Death Comes to the Archbishop.  One title of hers that nobody ever seems to mention, but is the one I read in my Women Authors class way back in college, is Sapphira and the Slave Girl.  I remember it knocked my socks off!  Note to self:  I gotta reread that one.

 

I went through an intense John Steinbeck phase in my teens.  The only thing I've reread recently (and that means last ten years!) is The Grapes of Wrath.  Man, what a great book.

 

I finally finished Corduroy Mansions. I posted about it at my blog (link in my signature if anyone is interested).

 

I am just starting to read It's Dangerous to Believe about the rise of anti-religious forces in our current culture.  Gripping, incisive analysis.  

[Chrysalis Academy]

That sounds so wonderful.

 

I guess I'll put in a plug for taking a Brian Doyle book -- either Mink River or The Plover.

 

 

Those both sounds great - I think I'll start with Mink River, as I'll be going through small Oregon towns to end up in a small Washington town!

[Loesje22000]

I mentioned before that:

 

Made me read Steinbeck.

 

I finished The Bookthief and Pere Goirot (both in Dutch)

I am not sure what to think of Bookthief.

But I liked Pere Goirot.

 

 

 

[mumto2]

I decided to read a few pages of a novel that overdrive was about to return last night a became totally caught up in a good book about books. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25573977-the-readers-of-broken-wheel-recommend is on Book Riots Best Books of June 2016 list which is pretty varied. http://bookriot.com/2016/06/29/riot-round-up-the-best-books-we-read-in-june-3/

 

It is the story of a friendship between a young Swedish bookseller and an elderly Iowa woman who loves books. They send letters and books back and forth when the bookshop closes the Swedish girl is invited to Iowa for an extended visit to read books. :) Unfortunately when she arrives her friend's funeral is taking place and the very small town decides she must stay and have her visit. The book is what happens next.

[idnib]

I haven't read a ton of Steinbeck.  I listened to the audio version of The Grapes of Wrath a couple of summers ago and I thought it was absolutely phenomenal - it reduced me to a sobbing mess and greatly imperiled my drive a time or two! 

 

My favorite book of all time, without a doubt. There have been books that have come close, I have probably read better-written books, but this one altered my heart and soul forever. One of my best musical evenings was seeing Bruce Springsteen perform a small (300 seat) concert as a benefit for the John Steinbeck Research Center at San Jose State University. Steinbeck's widow was there as well.

[Violet Crown]

I recently recommended The Grapes of Wrath to one young lady, and O! Pioneers to another, so I feel my work is done.

 

Also I've done my duty with regard to The Lost Generation by finishing this week Dos Passos' Three Soldiers, which was disappointing. Dos Passos--whose USA trilogy I may have to re-read just to remind myself I like his writing--managed the difficult feat of writing a WWI novel with a protagonist one doesn't feel sorry for. Ostensibly about three young men serving in the US Army in France toward the end of the War, the novel very much centers on John Andrews, a stand-in for Dos Passos himself. Andrews, an enlisted man, is clearly meant to be suffering the horrors of war, and is in fact injured at one point, though without actually seeing any action: he's apparently (it's not clear) injured, though not permanently, by a stray shell. But his true suffering consists in being in the army at all, and being forced to do unpleasant tasks, have his freedom limited, and worst of all be in the chain of command, including the horror of being forced! to salute men who are his intellectual and educational (he is a music student from Harvard) inferiors. 

 

It might have been easier to sympathize with the awfulness of Andrews' "slavery" in the military if I hadn't a short while ago read Goodbye To All That, Robert Graves' account of his service in the Great War, where he engaged in the kind of nightmarish trench warfare one usually associates with that war, had many friends and colleagues die horribly, was severely wounded himself and suffered from PTSD long afterwards. Somehow though, despite his intellect and education, he escaped having his soul crushed by having to salute his military superiors.

 

A special Dishonorable Mention, by the way, for the Penguin editor of Three Soldiers. There's a lot of French in this novel, and the editor footnotes every blessed phrase, no matter how obvious, while failing to provide notes for genuinely confusing references; for instance when Andrews is in the hospital being attended by a friendly man, and sees "the red triangle" on his armband, I had to resort to Google to find out the significance. One character says he's going to the south of France, then lists half a dozen locations; the footnote helpfully informs you that these are places in the south of France.

 

Most unforgivable is the note to this sentence: "A phrase out of "Haner Lad" came to his head: "Ambrosial night, Night ambrosial unending." But better than sitting round a camp fire drinking wine and water and listening to the boastful yarns of long-haired Achaeans, was this hustling through the countryside away from the monotonous whine of past unhappiness, towards joyousness and life." The editor's note: "The editor has not been able to identify the author of this work." Now, if one of Penguin's literary editors failed to recognize the Homeric "ambrosial night" and realize that "Haner Lad" must be some catastrophic error for "The Iliad," you'd think the reference to Achaeans (!!!) might have tipped him off. 

 

I've moved on to the C. Day Lewis translation of The Aeneid, for my Choose a Book For Its Cover bingo square. A little poking around shows that one either passionately loves or passionately hates Lewis' translation. I think I like it, but might have been a hater had I not learned from the introduction that it was written specifically for radio broadcast, not for reading. Thus presumably his translation of the famous "cano" in line 1 as "I tell" rather than "I sing," and a number of gentle linguistic anachronisms.

[Violet Crown]

Perhaps I would enjoy it more if I saw it performed.

 

That wasn't my experience.

[Ali in OR]

We are back now from a 9 day trip to Boston and NYC. Good trip, but always good to be home!

 

I had loaded up my kindle with a bunch of books and managed to read one of them--the third Captain Lacey Regency mystery which was The Glass House I think. I have a bundle of the first three mysteries and it doesn't list the titles separately, but I think that was it. It was fine. I read a couple of short stories at the end of the bundle too. Then I ended up re-reading some of my favorite parts of Andrea Host's Touchstone trilogy because I loved them and they were there on my kindle. I'm sure eventually I'll get to the other 5 NEW books on there that I didn't read!

 

Need to get back in the reading habit. I have to finish A Midwife's Tale because it's already August and my dd needs to read it and Caleb's Crossing and do a project on them before school starts. Jon Krakauer's Missoula should be waiting for me at the library--it's our August book club pick. Looks like it's about rape culture on college campuses. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child should be arriving here Wednesday. I picked up two books on our trip--Roald Dahl's Ghost Stories kind of for my Dahl-loving dd but also a spooky read for me for October, and also one called something like 50 Successful Harvard Application Essays. I'm curious about what makes a good college essay (not specifically to get into Harvard).

 

I do enjoy Steinbeck and Cather and have read both in the last year or so, so I'll probably read other things this month. Our book club once read Cather's Song of the Lark which I enjoyed. My Antonia is my favorite, and I read and enjoyed Death Comes for the Archbishop last year. O Pioneers is the one I haven't read and should. I remember being completely caught up in East of Eden. Grapes of Wrath is a good one to read but I remember arguing with Steinbeck about the ending. I read Of Mice and Men last year when dd was assigned it for school.

 

If I can find the time, what I'd like to attempt this month is Faulkner. I read Light in August in high school and had great difficulty with the stream of consciousness writing style--another one that got me arguing with the author! I'd like to try it again to see if it fits better at 50 than it did at 17. And it's August--seems appropriate. I know I don't have the bandwidth to attempt it during the school year.

Edited July 31, 2016 by Ali in OR

[Stacia]

That wasn't my experience.

 

:smilielol5:

 

(Well, based on reading it, it's probably not a play I'd be rushing out to buy a ticket for anyway.)

 

So, I guess I'm not the only one who didn't like it much, eh?

 

[Jane in NC]

VC-- rereading the USA trilogy has been on my list. Shall we do so in 2017?

[Stacia]

Paul Beatty’s ‘The Sellout,’ Ottessa Moshfegh’s ‘Eileen,’ and J.M. Coetzee’s ‘The Schooldays of Jesus’ Longlisted for Man Booker Prize

 

From the Man Booker website:

 

The 13 chosen books are:
 

Paul Beatty (US) The Sellout (Oneworld)

J.M. Coetzee (South African-Australian) The Schooldays of Jesus (Harvill Secker)

A.L. Kennedy (UK) Serious Sweet (Jonathan Cape)

Deborah Levy (UK) Hot Milk (Hamish Hamilton)

Graeme Macrae Burnet (UK) His Bloody Project (Contraband)

Ian McGuire (UK) The North Water (Scribner UK)

David Means (UK) Hystopia (Faber & Faber)

Wyl Menmuir (UK) The Many (Salt)

Ottessa Moshfegh (US) Eileen (Jonathan Cape)

Virginia Reeves (US) Work Like Any Other (Scribner UK)

Elizabeth Strout (US) My Name Is Lucy Barton (Viking)

David Szalay (Canada-UK) All That Man Is (Jonathan Cape)

Madeleine Thien (Canada) Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Granta Books)

 

The shortlist will be announced Sept. 13.

Edited July 31, 2016 by Stacia

[Chrysalis Academy]

Paul Beatty’s ‘The Sellout,’ Ottessa Moshfegh’s ‘Eileen,’ and J.M. Coetzee’s ‘The Schooldays of Jesus’ Longlisted for Man Booker Prize

 

From the Man Booker website:

 

 

The shortlist will be announced Sept. 13.

 

Interesting.  I read The Sellout. I read JM Coetzee's Disgrace. i can't say I enjoyed it, but it has definitely stuck with me. The others are all new to me.  My TR lists are swelling.

[-M-]

Happy Sunday, BaWers!

 

This month, I finished seventeen books --

 

one play:

 

â–  The Merchant of Venice (William Shakespeare; 1599. Drama.)

 

seven novels:

 

â–  Where They Found Her (Kimberly McCreight; 2015. Fiction.)
■ The Hidden Child (Camilla Läckberg; 2014. Fiction.)
â–  Wonder (RJ Palacio; 2012. Fiction.)
â–  The Easter Parade (Richard Yates; 1976. Fiction.)
â–  The Elementals (Michael McDowell; 1981. Fiction.)

■ I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Iain Reid; 2016. Fiction.)
â–  Truly Madly Guilty (Liane Moriarty; 2016. Fiction.)

one collection of short stories:

 

â–  Dubliners (James Joyce; 1914. Fiction.)

 

two non-fiction books:

 

â–  The Curse of the Good Girl (Rachel Simmons; 2009. Non-fiction.)

â–  Lab Girl (Hope Jahren; 2016. Non-fiction.)
 

and six works of graphic fiction:

 

â–  Huck, Volume 1 (Mark Millar; 2016. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Kill Shakespeare, Volume 3: The Tide of Blood (Conor McCreery Millar; 2013. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Fell, Volume 1, Feral City (Warren Ellis; 2007. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Injection, Volume 1 (Warren Ellis; 2015. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Trees, Volume 1 (Warren Ellis; 2015. Graphic fiction.)

â–  Skim (Mariko Tomaki; 2008. Graphic fiction.)

 

Right now, I'm in more of a watching mood than a reading mood, though. Does that ever happen to you? This afternoon, I've been watching the birds in our yards. We've had a lot of success with our latest food and feeder configuration: hummingbirds, orioles, and goldfinches, oh, my! *smile* Many of the regular visitors have been by, too -- jays, cardinals, mourning doves, robins, cowbirds, house finches, black-capped chickadees, red-bellied and downy woodpeckers, and a few grackles, starlings, and house sparrows. And, of course, the Cooper's hawks. So busy out there!

 

Now I am toying with watching Episode 4 of Mr. Robot. Gosh, is that a terrific show! Earlier this weekend, my daughters and I watched The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino as Shylock. It was my second time, and it was just as excellent as the first. We will see Jonathan Pryce as Shylock at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater soon, and I so enjoy comparing various interpretations. The three of us are also watching The X Files. We've made it to Episode 9 of Season 9, and we think we will finish before they move to their university residence. That said, all of us agree that show's reputation outstrips its content. We felt the same way about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Shrug. Not every program can be Slings & Arrows or LOST, though, right? *grin*

 

Speaking of watching things for a second time, I saw The Dead again this week. The closing paragraph of Joyce's story is one of my favorites in all of literature, so it was with much scoffing that I first sat down to watch Huston's film nearly thirty years ago. Of course the book will be better, I maintained. How could I have known that the film would actually render the story a permanent part of my imagination? Both faithful to its source material and a work of its own many merits, it draws much of its strength from flawless performances from the entire cast. It also benefits from meticulous attention to period detail and a score that is a character itself. Rewatching the film, I was reminded of its perfection, particularly the emotionally shattering redefinition of the Conroy marriage that occurs in the final scene.

 

Before I settle in with Mr. Robot I think I will assemble my proposed TBR stack for August. I already own a few of the books on the Booker long list, and Lab Girl (which was good, really, but does anyone else wish that all of that imagination and talent had been mixed with less angst and whine?) made me pine for an upbeat if not stoic science memoir, and the Abbott book arrived last Tuesday... I'm off to assemble my pile.

 

Happy reading!

Edited July 31, 2016 by M--

[-M-]

 

For BaW Bingo, I read Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot. Maybe I'm just not much in the mood to analyze things lately, but I am scratching my head a little bit at the fame of this work. I mean, I get some of the deeper connotations that could be read into it (the absurdity of life, the religious angle, perhaps a political angle) or maybe Beckett's real joke is that there is no deeper meaning, rather that it is just a work of the absurd/boring/mundane & the joke is on everyone who tries to make it more than it is. Whatever the meaning, I'm not sure I really got it (nor did I find it very engrossing to read). I wasn't overly impressed, but I guess I can say I'm glad I read it because now I at least know what it is. <shrug> Perhaps I would enjoy it more if I saw it performed.

 

:leaving:

 

 

Second book from the end: Waiting for Godot. One of the indispensable titles on my "Ideal Bookshelf." *chuckle* I won't attempt to badger you into giving it three or more stars -- heh, heh, heh -- but I will entreat you to see it performed before consigning it to the "bleah" pile. My son and I loved the 1961 version with Burgess Meredith, and it is available on YouTube. (We had matching bowlers; I still have mine.) My daughters and I enjoyed the Beckett on Film version featuring Barry McGovern, and we absolutely adored the 2014/15 Court Theatre production. To my continuing dismay, it does not appear that a film version of either the Robin Williams / Steve Martin production or the Ian McKellen / Patrick Stewart production have ever been released, but would rereading it envisioning either duo improve the work for you?

 

Some of my commonplace book entries:

 

p. 7

ESTRAGON: (giving up again). Nothing to be done.

 

p. 31

VLADMIR: That passed the time.

ESTRAGON: It would have passed in any case.

VLADIMIR: Yes, but not so rapidly.

 

p. 35

ESTRAGON: Wait! (He moves away from Vladimir.) I sometimes wonder if we wouldn't have been better off alone, each one for himself. (He crosses the stage and sits down on the mound.) We weren't made for the same road.

 

p. 38

VLADIMIR: I missed you... and at the same time I was happy. Isn't that a queer thing?

ESTRAGON: (shocked). Happy?

VLADIMIR: Perhaps it's not quite the right word.

ESTRAGON: And now?

VLADIMIR: Now? ... (Joyous.) There you are again... (Indifferent.) There we are again... (Gloomy.) There I am again.

 

p. 51

VLADIMIR: Let us not waste our time in idle discourse! (Pause. Vehemently.) Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed. Not indeed that we personally are needed. Others would meet the case equally well, if not better. To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late! Let us represent worthily for once the foul brood to which a cruel fate consigned us! What do you say? (Estragon says nothing.) It is true that when with folded arms we weigh the pros and cons we are no less a credit to our species. The tiger bounds to the help of his congeners without the least reflexion, or else he slinks away into the depths of the thickets. But that is not the question. What are we doing here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in the immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come --

[...]

ESTRAGON: (aphoristic for once). We are all born mad. Some remain so.

 

p. 58

VLADIMIR: [...] We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. (He listens.) But habit is a great deadener. [...]

 

p. 60

ESTRAGON: I can't go on like this.

VLADIMIR: That's what you think.

ESTRAGON: If we parted? That might be better for us.

VLADIMIR: We'll hang ourselves to-morrow. (Pause.) Unless Godot comes.

ESTRAGON: And if he comes?

VLADIMIR: We'll be saved.

Edited July 31, 2016 by M--

[Ali in OR]

Okay, now reading about Faulkner's books on Amazon, I'm thinking I read Absalom Absalom! in high school. It sounded more familiar. I do remember that some people in class were reading one Faulkner and some another. At least one reviewer is saying Absalom Absalom! is one of the harder ones to read--maybe Light in August would be better. Anyone have any input on Faulkner?

[Chrysalis Academy]

Okay, now reading about Faulkner's books on Amazon, I'm thinking I read Absalom Absalom! in high school. It sounded more familiar. I do remember that some people in class were reading one Faulkner and some another. At least one reviewer is saying Absalom Absalom! is one of the harder ones to read--maybe Light in August would be better. Anyone have any input on Faulkner?

 

Well, I read Light in August in 2014 and just finished listening to The Sound and the Fury.  LiA was much easier to read - much more of a traditional narrative - but I didn't like it much. I enjoyed SatF much more, but it was much harder to follow & understand - I highly recommend reading a summary of the four parts, the characters, the POVs etc. which makes the whole more understandable.  That's all I got for Faulkner, I haven't read Absalom Absolom.   Maybe VC will weigh in?

[Stacia]

Thanks, M--. I will consider watching it at some point.

 

This afternoon, I sat down & read what I think is the first graphic novel I've read: Two Brothers by Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá

 

 

It was a pretty dark, depressing story overall. Interesting that the story is about twins who fall out & never reconcile, while the authors themselves are twins.

 

Twin brothers Omar and Yaqub may share the same features, but they could not be more different from one another. And the possessive love of their mother, Zana, stirs the troubled waters between them even more. After a brutally violent exchange between the young boys, Yaqub, “the good son,†is sent from his home in Brazil to live with relatives in Lebanon, only to return five years later as a virtual stranger to the parents who bore him, his tensions with Omar unchanged. Family secrets engage the reader in this profoundly resonant story about identity, love, loss, deception, and the dissolution of blood ties.

Set in the port city of Manaus on the riverbanks of the Amazon, Two Brothers celebrates the vibrant life and diversity of Brazil. Based on a work by acclaimed novelist Milton Hatoum, Two Brothers is stunningly reimagined by the award-winning graphic novelists Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá.

 

ETA: My dc reminded me that I've read some of the Death Note manga series (read it years ago when my nephew was really into them). Not sure if those count as graphic novels too or if manga is considered a separate category from graphic novels?

Edited August 1, 2016 by Stacia

[Mothersweets]

Hello everyone!

 

I've read one Steinbeck novel, Grapes of Wrath, and one Cather  novel, My Antonia. GoW was a great read (I saw a Rose of Sharon bush the other day and it immediately brought Rosasharn to mind) but the ending had me grinding my teeth in frustration. I first tried to read My Antonia when I was 18 and could not get into it. Picked it up again about 10 years later and loved it.

 

Last week I finished Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor.  from Goodreads:

Abandoned pregnant and penniless on the teeming streets of London, 16-year-old Amber St. Clare manages, by using her wits, beauty, and courage, to climb to the highest position a woman could achieve in Restoration England-that of favorite mistress of the Merry Monarch, Charles II. From whores and highwaymen to courtiers and noblemen, from events such as the Great Plague and the Fire of London to the intimate passions of ordinary-and extraordinary-men and women, Amber experiences it all. But throughout her trials and escapades, she remains, in her heart, true to the one man she really loves, the one man she can never have.

 

Ok, so Amber is often compared to Scarlett O'Hara and that is a fair comparison. Now think of what Scarlett would be like if she did not have the societal pressure of her family and other close relations around to check her behavior and you have Amber St. Clare, lol. She goes through men like kleenex and schemes and connives her way to the top of society.  She was so terrible and yet I found myself rooting for her most of the time. 

 

The book is long, just under 1000 pages, but boy did those pages fly! I know this book isn't great literature, but the author really brought her characters to life and also was able to evoke the chill of a frosty November morning or the sultry heat of a late summer's afternoon. Restoration England is a real time and place for me now and I'm looking to find more to read from that era.  There was a couple plot points that Kathleen Winsor didn't get back to and it left me wondering why they had been alluded to in the first place. Has anyone else read this?

 

It's a relatively clean read, lots of s*x  but everything is behind closed doors, abortions are frankly and briefly discussed but nothing graphic, poisonings, plague, murder. The plague part gets graphic, but hey it's the plague! ;)  I really enjoyed the book and gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.

 

 

Edited July 31, 2016 by Mothersweets

[Ethel Mertz]

Last week I read The Hills at Home by Nancy Clark. I really liked this novel, based in Massachusetts, when the extended members of a far-flung family come home to roost in their Aunt Lily's house. I must remember to request the sequel. I also finished another Leslie Meier mystery and the penultimate book in Ann B. Ross's Miss Julia series.

 

I was frustrated in my search for a copy of Henry Beston's Outermost House. I'm determined to find our copy, so I may still get that read. I'm almost done with $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America. This nonfiction book reveals the bare cupboard of the poorest of the poor in the U.S. who subsist on no more than $2.00 a day per person. I'm being educated, page by page. In the midst of reading this work, it is high tourist season here, with many folks availing themselves of a relaxing vacation, seafood, and all that a seaside town offers. Quite a juxtaposition...

 

I'm also reading Patrick Dennis' book Around the World with Auntie Mame - for bingo birth year. I just requested Steinbeck's Travels with Charley and Cather's O Pioneer from the library. Our poor librarians - our library has a non-functioning electrical issue and can't have the public in the library (for the 2nd time this year!). They have to hold "library in the downstairs lobby," where one can pick up the books one has on hold. In the midst of tourist season...

[Chrysalis Academy]

I finished World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler.  This was a re-read for me, I read this first not long after it was published (2008), having read his nonfiction The Long Emergency about the possible outcomes of a post-peak oil/global warmed world. I decided to read it again after noticing that the 4th book in this series was recently published. I was surprised, I hadn't heard about books 2 or 3, and it wasn't obvious that a sequel was coming.  It's slightly hard to classify this book - it's not dystopian, exactly. I guess it is post-apocalyptic, but the apocalypse was more a whimper than a bang.  It requires no suspension of disbelief to place yourself in the world of this novel - it is entirely believable as what one, possible, entirely believable future could look like.  The people in it are mostly decent, except the ones that aren't, and are doing the best they can to relearn necessary skills and to figure out how to make the world work without electricity, cars, or a central government. I mostly really liked the book, although there were a couple of very weird elements introduced right near the end that seemed kind of out of place, I'm not sure if he's going to go somewhere with those themes in future volumes or not. But I'm definitely interested to see what else he has to say about the future of this world he's created - he's a good writer and a has obviously thought and researched a lot about the issues he fills his books with.

[Ethel Mertz]

I finished World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler.  This was a re-read for me, I read this first not long after it was published (2008), having read his nonfiction The Long Emergency about the possible outcomes of a post-peak oil/global warmed world. I decided to read it again after noticing that the 4th book in this series was recently published. I was surprised, I hadn't heard about books 2 or 3, and it wasn't obvious that a sequel was coming.  It's slightly hard to classify this book - it's not dystopian, exactly. I guess it is post-apocalyptic, but the apocalypse was more a whimper than a bang.  It requires no suspension of disbelief to place yourself in the world of this novel - it is entirely believable as what one, possible, entirely believable future could look like.  The people in it are mostly decent, except the ones that aren't, and are doing the best they can to relearn necessary skills and to figure out how to make the world work without electricity, cars, or a central government. I mostly really liked the book, although there were a couple of very weird elements introduced right near the end that seemed kind of out of place, I'm not sure if he's going to go somewhere with those themes in future volumes or not. But I'm definitely interested to see what else he has to say about the future of this world he's created - he's a good writer and a has obviously thought and researched a lot about the issues he fills his books with.

 

I just requested it from my library (along with 4 other books inspired by this week's thread). I'm going to have a busy reading week!

[Violet Crown]

VC-- rereading the USA trilogy has been on my list. Shall we do so in 2017?

Sure thing!

 

Re: Faulkner: I think I had some Faulkner comments on last week's thread. I'd try to remember them but an ear infection is dissolving my brain.

Edited August 1, 2016 by Violet Crown

[idnib]

(I saw a Rose of Sharon bush the other day and it immediately brought Rosasharn to mind)

 

 

 

Yes! I have a Rose of Sharon in my yard and I think of Rosasharn when I see it.

[idnib]

Sure thing!

 

Re: Faulkner: I think I had some Faulkner comments on last week's thread. I'd try to remember them but an ear infection is dissolving my brain.

 

 

Oh no, I hope you feel better soon, and not only because I'd like to hear the Faulkner comments as well.  ;)

[Stacia]

Hope you feel better soon, VC! :grouphug:

[Stacia]

I'm starting Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters.

 

 

It is the present-day, and the world is as we know it: smartphones, social networking and Happy Meals. Save for one thing: the Civil War never occurred.

A gifted young black man calling himself Victor has struck a bargain with federal law enforcement, working as a bounty hunter for the US Marshall Service. He's got plenty of work. In this version of America, slavery continues in four states called "the Hard Four." On the trail of a runaway known as Jackdaw, Victor arrives in Indianapolis knowing that something isn't right--with the case file, with his work, and with the country itself.

A mystery to himself, Victor suppresses his memories of his childhood on a plantation, and works to infiltrate the local cell of a abolitionist movement called the Underground Airlines. Tracking Jackdaw through the back rooms of churches, empty parking garages, hotels, and medical offices, Victor believes he's hot on the trail. But his strange, increasingly uncanny pursuit is complicated by a boss who won't reveal the extraordinary stakes of Jackdaw's case, as well as by a heartbreaking young woman and her child who may be Victor's salvation. Victor himself may be the biggest obstacle of all--though his true self remains buried, it threatens to surface.

Victor believes himself to be a good man doing bad work, unwilling to give up the freedom he has worked so hard to earn. But in pursuing Jackdaw, Victor discovers secrets at the core of the country's arrangement with the Hard Four, secrets the government will preserve at any cost.

Underground Airlines is a ground-breaking novel, a wickedly imaginative thriller, and a story of an America that is more like our own than we'd like to believe.

 

Edited August 1, 2016 by Stacia

[Chrysalis Academy]

I'm starting Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters.

 

 

Man, your library is a lot speedier than mine! I put this on hold awhile ago but I'm still #35. There are only 11 copies in the system, so I probably won't get it before I leave for vacay.  I hope it's great!

[mumto2]

Checking to see if my account is fixed. Currently reading Imprudance the latest in the Souless series.

[Jane in NC]

The Like button is not always working for me. So if I have missed your post, consider yourself Liked!!

[fastweedpuller]

Steinbeck!  East of Eden my fave.  Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop.  I have read maybe 6 of her books, and most of Steinbeck. But...that was years ago. Faulkner:  Absalom, Absalom is my hand's down favorite but remember I have read everything (ok not letter collections etc) the man's written.  A "gentle" introduction might be his short stories or the collection of his novellas Spotted Horses/Old Man/The Bear.  But I have a soft spot for the Snopes trilogy and Sartoris too. 

 

Ok.  Dull week of reading here where I made dents in a few books but finished only one:  Jennifer Senior's All Joy and No Fun:   The Paradox of Modern Parenthood   It was very well researched and warmly written, as in, I could have coffee with this woman.  I especially enjoyed learning more about the historical roles that children occupied in middle-class America's lives.  I pre-read this in hopes my book club will read it; we have a lot of anxious moms of pre-teens in the group and they are uniformly a BUMMER to be around (says she who actually is looking forward to the teen years with my daughter...yay homeschooling!). 

[Lady Florida.]

I had the same thought about GoT when I was reading Sunne in Splendour.  I've read that GRRM was heavily influenced by The Wars of the Roses.  It's interesting, because when I read GoT, I remember thinking how totally over the top it was - all the betrayals and assassinations and beheadings. But when you read history, from whatever era and in whatever country, you realize, it's all been done.  For real.  By actual people.  It's kind of depressing.

 

I finished two books in the last few days -

 

The Mistress of Nothing - This was okay but not special. In some ways it reminded me of The Moor's Account - not the story but the author's idea of taking a footnote to a true story and expanding it into a story. Both were even told in the first person. The Moor's Account was better though - better writing, better story.

 

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return - I liked the look inside what Iran was really like, though this was a memoir of a somewhat privileged Iranian woman. Tomorrow night is the book club meeting to discus both books (the first one was last month's book but we decided to combine both into one meeting).

 

 

 (I saw a Rose of Sharon bush the other day and it immediately brought Rosasharn to mind) 

 

 

Around here we call it a hibiscus. :)

 

 

Steinbeck - I've read The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and  and Of Mice and Men. While I liked all three, I loved The Grapes of Wrath. It's one of my all time favorite books ever. 

 

Cather - The first one I read was My Antonia, and it remains my favorite of the three of hers I've read. The other two are O Pioneers and Death Comes for the Archbishop. For some reason I couldn't get into the latter the first time I tried to read it. When I tried again it grabbed me right away and I ended up loving it.

 

VC - I hope you feel better soon.

Ali - Welcome back! Glad you had a good trip.

 

From last week - 

Angela - Great news about Abby!

shukriyya - I've missed you!

Speaking of missing people, where has Aggie Amy been? Did I miss something? If you're reading, I hope all is well with you and yours. 

[Lady Florida.]

Also from last week
 

I had the same thought about GoT when I was reading Sunne in Splendour.  I've read that GRRM was heavily influenced by The Wars of the Roses.  It's interesting, because when I read GoT, I remember thinking how totally over the top it was - all the betrayals and assassinations and beheadings. But when you read history, from whatever era and in whatever country, you realize, it's all been done.  For real.  By actual people.  It's kind of depressing.

GRRM has said that he based GoT on the Wars of the Roses. Somewhere, I don't remember where, I read that he even called it "the original game of thrones".

[Stacia]

Women in Translation month

[Just Robyn]

I finished Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio by Amara Lakhous. I enjoyed the structure of this one. The structure of each character's statement reminded me of Woolf and Palahniuk - how they pick one repeated object or phrase as a means of grounding the reader, mentioning the object then moving out from it into the abstract, then coming back to the object again. The satire was a little heavy handed, to me. Most of the characters were a little over-the-top self-centered and extreme in their beliefs/opinions and what action they say should be taken against those who offend them. It made me think of Arrested Development, but in that case it's supposed to be funny, whereas I didn't get the feeling that the extreme characters were meant to be humorous in the case of Clash of Civilizations. I also felt like the characters all had one voice. They each had their own ideas that they railed about, but they spoke of them in the same manner. Back to the structure - I enjoyed the author's ability to weave the statements and events together with common phrases, topics, etc. For example, one person's dog has gone missing and another compares immigrants to dogs. Great book overall, imo. I'm glad I read it.

 

I also read A Separate Peace by John Knowles. I pulled this off the list of banned and challenged classics so I could mark off the banned books square for BaW bingo. This is a coming-of-age story about high school boys at a New England boarding school during WWII. The prose was smooth and poetic and the setting was used as an analogy for the characters and their situation. I did find the style a little stuffy at times, which could be seen as a positive thing since it effectively gives that stuffy boarding school feel, but still, I just wanted a little more edge or something that felt unique or interesting. The story *was* just a touch uncanny when the two main characters felt a bit doppelgangerish, and it really got my interest at those points. It made me think of a tamer but more realistic Lord of the Flies, where uncivilized land is just the edge of the school grounds instead of an island.

 

Now I must re-read Hamlet before dh and I go see it performed, and I've got Howl and Other Poems sitting here for my "revisit an old friend" bingo square.

 

 

Oh, and anybody else have trouble with Tor.com's book club book (The Just City) this time? I got the first book on my Kindle just fine, but when I tried to get this one to my Kindle and Kindle apps I got an email saying the file could not be delivered. (I did use the mobi file type.)

Edited August 1, 2016 by crstarlette

[Onceuponatime]

I finished In Cold Blood. This is my review: "These four stars were dragged out of me in reluctant admiration of the quality of the writing and storytelling. I hated the actual story. It made me feel sick inside." I finished it as quickly as possible .

 

Stacia, I felt the same about Waiting for Godot. Meh. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern was much more enjoyable.

 

I've read a lot of Steinbeck, Travels with Charley twice. I've also Read My Antonia and Death Comes to the Archbishop. Right now, Laurie King's latest in the Sherlock/Mary saga is my next pick, The Murder of Mary. Hmmm. We'll see

[Stacia]

Here's a good article, imo, about Underground Airlines (the book I'm currently reading).

 

In His New Novel, Ben Winters Dares to Mix Slavery and Sci-Fi

 

Onceuponatime, I love Capote's writing. And, I can see why you hated the actual story. It's a murder. A true murder. And some hard looking at the men who did it. It is gruesome. And disturbing.

 

I'm glad to see I'm not completely alone in my "meh" feelings about Godot. 

[mumto2]

I just finished Imprudence https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12799435-imprudence by Gail Carriger and really enjoyed it. I know several BaWers have read the Souless series so may be on wait lists for the new release. This is technically the next book in her Custard Protocol series but because it involves storylines for so many of her Souless characters it's more of a series continuation. Dd has it on her Kindle also because she loved the Finishing School series but hasn't read Souless due to too much adult content for a 13yo dd. Now that she is older I plan to recommend she read the Souless series first.

[fastweedpuller]

Yanno, it might be a biased opinion (read:  akin to all camping food being excellent) but I saw Waiting for Godot in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and it blew my socks off.  Okay, not quite, because those were the days when one wore penny loafers sans socks, but you know what I mean.

 

I finished My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout last night.  It's longlisted for the Booker (listed upstream here).  Not quite sure what all the fuss is about.  I read The Burgess Boys a few years back and saw Olive Kitteridge miniseries and frankly I had to remind myself that I had read this author before.  It's a building/family relationships kind of novel...meh was my impression.  Though it made me want White Trash hurry and show up in my Overdrive list...

Though I know myself and my reading preferences well enough to know that I am simply coming to the end of my patience with reading fiction.  It means I am up for a biography/science/poetry jag of reading is all...enough with the manufactured-story stuff for a time.  But: alas:  book club picked a doozy in The Royal We.  omgoodness 400-odd pages of fluff!

[Chrysalis Academy]

I wanted to report back here that I started book #2 in the World Made by Hand series, The Witch of Hebron, and immediately abandoned it.  Some of the weird stuff at the end of the first book is apparently going to figure prominently in this one. Plus it begins with a horrible storyline involving cruelty & suffering of animals and children.  Nope, not going there. Letting this series go . . . 

[mumto2]

 

Though I know myself and my reading preferences well enough to know that I am simply coming to the end of my patience with reading fiction. It means I am up for a biography/science/poetry jag of reading is all...enough with the manufactured-story stuff for a time. But: alas: book club picked a doozy in The Royal We. omgoodness 400-odd pages of fluff!

I await your reaction. I feel pretty bad for you because I generally like fluff and know it isn't your taste at all. The Royal We was not a favourite. I remember it less fondly as time passes. Tempted to down grade it on Goodreads because I was too generous.

[Chrysalis Academy]

 

I finished My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout last night.  It's longlisted for the Booker (listed upstream here).  Not quite sure what all the fuss is about.  I read The Burgess Boys a few years back and saw Olive Kitteridge miniseries and frankly I had to remind myself that I had read this author before.  It's a building/family relationships kind of novel...meh was my impression.  Though it made me want White Trash hurry and show up in my Overdrive list...

Though I know myself and my reading preferences well enough to know that I am simply coming to the end of my patience with reading fiction.  It means I am up for a biography/science/poetry jag of reading is all...enough with the manufactured-story stuff for a time.  But: alas:  book club picked a doozy in The Royal We.  omgoodness 400-odd pages of fluff!

 

I know what you mean. I've never read as much contemporary fiction as I have in the past year and a half due to the BaW thread. And I mostly enjoy it, but sometimes its just too much.  I'm there right now - I have a couple of good nonfictions that I'm saving to take on vacation, and I'm snapping up fiction for light vacation reads, but I'm feeling kind of bereft in the meantime.  Needing something meatier.

 

One good thing about fiction - I don't have any "should" attached to it, so I'm fairly quick to abandon it if it doesn't grab me! I never used to do that, I used to feel compelled to finish everything. But life's getting shorter, and my TR list keeps getting longer, so . . . 

[fastweedpuller]

I await your reaction. I feel pretty bad for you because I generally like fluff and know it isn't your taste at all. The Royal We was not a favourite. I remember it less fondly as time passes. Tempted to down grade it on Goodreads because I was too generous.

Yeah mumto2, I feel of course compelled to read all of the book club books.  Like it's a social obligation! and I don't want to offend who chose the book.  And this choice was from a friend who's trying to expand my reading horizons...wow I sound like such a book-bigot.  :crying: I truly am in the camp of all reading = good reading...it's just I feel so time-crunched most of the time that reading has to be I don't know nutritious?  Whole-foods-ish as compared to junk-food-ish?  Not that I am not down with a can of Pringles...maybe I am, as my friend says, simply uneducated 

 

I know what you mean. I've never read as much contemporary fiction as I have in the past year and a half due to the BaW thread. And I mostly enjoy it, but sometimes its just too much.  I'm there right now - I have a couple of good nonfictions that I'm saving to take on vacation, and I'm snapping up fiction for light vacation reads, but I'm feeling kind of bereft in the meantime.  Needing something meatier.

 

One good thing about fiction - I don't have any "should" attached to it, so I'm fairly quick to abandon it if it doesn't grab me! I never used to do that, I used to feel compelled to finish everything. But life's getting shorter, and my TR list keeps getting longer, so . . . 

I think, Rose, it's the "contemporary" of the fiction label that I am having a bigger problem with IYKWIM.  I've read a lot of the airquotes good airquotes fiction the last decade or so and for the most part I have been unimpressed.  So I appreciate BaW because there's so much here! including translations, Amish romances, mysteries, etc. !  but indeed, I need another 5 hrs/day to devote to reading!