As the Page Turns (the Book Thread)

[PrincessLeppard]

I know I've recommended Jennifer Government by Max Barry in the past, and I just finished Providence, which I also enjoyed. It's sci-fi, which is not my favorite genre, but I thought he kept it more character focused and the sci-fi parts were secondary, but there's enough to nerd out on if that's your thing. It's a fast read, too; I finished it the same day I started it.

Oh, and I was all excited to get Cold War Spy Stories from the library. It's a children's book. I need to check these things more closely in the future...

 

[genevieve]

I got waaaaay too ambitious and took 3 library books on vacation to my mom's place. I id read a little, but family visits just don't allow as much down time as I'd like to think. So now I've got 2 overdue and 1 due book, and I only right this minute finished the first one

Good thing the local library did away with late fees last year

The book I finished was a biography of Louise Fitzhugh, author of my bible, Harriet the Spy (seriously, the impact of that book on my life cannot be overstated). It turns out that Fitzhugh was a fascinating person with an incredibly interesting background, and I never had any idea, because she never did interviews when alive, and her estate has been incredibly protective (aka secretive) about her since she died. The book is thoroughly researched but does suffer from not having access to anything in the estate - but considering there are no authorized biographies, this is probably the best fans will get, unless/until an heir decides to give the people what they want.

The book is called Sometimes You Have to Lie, written by Leslie Brody.

 

[oleada]

I've devoured the Truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson. I finished the first book yesterday and drove a town over to pick up the next two at their library. Which I already finished. There's a fourth book that just came out that I immediately downloaded after finishing the third.

It's a YA series that focuses on a unsolved murder at an elite boarding school, and a new student who wants to solve the old crime. Of course, that's hardly the end of it. Requires major suspension of disbelief but it's fun anyway.

And no love triangles!

 

[Jenny]

Read “Mary Jane” by Jessica Anya Blau in one sitting. Lovely coming of age story. Some flaws but it really just left me feeling happy.

Haven't been on here in awhile but logged in specifically to see if anyone else had read it. The reviews were good, including the NY Times Book Review no less, but I'm halfway through and I don't get it at all. Sure, it's a fun light read with kooky characters and nostalgic period details for those of us who grew up in the 70s, but I'm not seeing what has been described as well drawn characters, insightful details and laugh out loud humour.

The writing is so basic, almost like the author was plotting the story out before actually writing it, it's so narrative. I guess it's supposed to be a 14 year old's voice, but there is literally a page and half dedicated to cleaning out a neglected fridge - every item they retrieve warrants an entire sentence to describe it, and if that wasn't enough, then they move on to clearing off a dining room table piled with junk for another page and half, and then another page of plugging in a stereo and putting on a record!

I would have loved this book when I was a tween just for all the grown up stuff (They swear! He's barechested! Her blouse is see through and she's not wearing a bra! OMG they're smoking marijuana!), and all the relatable details of the teen's narrative, but this is supposed to be a book for adults, no?

Has anyone read her other books? Are they all like this?

Update: I finished Malibu Rising!

It got better (more interesting story, the soap opera got fun for a while), then confusing (too many non-characters introduced at the party for no reason whatsoever), and then it got incredibly stupid. I skimmed the last 10 pages because I just wanted it to end.

One note: at 5pm, the chapter starts with the sun going down and the sky getting purple. In August. That is ridiculous enough that I looked up sunset times in Malibu on August 27, 1983 - 8:27pm. It's a detail that I know most people won't notice or care about, but I find so distracting. The sky getting dark at that hour wasn't necessary to the plot and it was completely avoidable. There were a couple of other '80s-isms that I had doubts about in 1983 but couldn't bother to look up (I did look up acid-washed jeans, which checked out).

This is exactly the kind of thing that drives me nuts, particularly nowadays as there's no excuse for not getting details like this right.

Other recent reads:

You and Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes - a few years old so maybe some of you have read them, interesting twist on the current "woman as sociopath" books trend because this time it's the man, and the author manages to make him appealing despite his obsessions and bad behaviour. The writing, unlike Mary Jane above, is excellent in my opinion - to the point where I was forcing poor husband to listen as I read aloud random sentences and paragraphs that really stood out.

Brat by Andrew McCarthy - yes that Andrew McCarthy as in teen heartthrob star of movies such as Pretty in Pink and St Elmo's Fire. He still acts, also directs a lot of tv, but has also become a highly respected travel writer. The writing's very good and honest, and obviously of particular interest to those of us who saw all the Brat Pack movies back in the day.

The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji - this was very different and yet very familiar. It's been translated for the first time from a popular 80s Japanese novel, with very unapologetic references to Agatha Christie and other murder mystery writers. Think And Then There Were None and then think again, as a group of university students who go by the names of their favourite authors head to a mysterious island where mysterious things happen, while a friend on shore does his own parallel investigation. Really enjoyed this one, and I'm sure some of you will say you saw it coming, but I didn't.

Model Citizen by Joshua Mohr - If you read Cherry by Nico Walker and loved it, then read this. It's a memoir by a very talented and truly f*cked up writer - very raw and honest, not for the squeamish - about his (hate this word but) journey to sobriety. Beautifully written, hilarious as much as shocking, heartwarming (his relationship with his young daughter), a book I don't think I'll soon forget. He writes fiction too, haven't tried it yet through.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer reading!

 

[genevieve]

Other recent reads:

Brat by Andrew McCarthy - yes that Andrew McCarthy as in teen heartthrob star of movies such as Pretty in Pink and St Elmo's Fire. He still acts, also directs a lot of tv, but has also become a highly respected travel writer. The writing's very good and honest, and obviously of particular interest to those of us who saw all the Brat Pack movies back in the day.

Is this a memoir, or fiction? I'll see if my library has it.

Andrew McCarthy was my least favorite actor from that era - his characters were always too wishy washy - but I have sorta followed his career and it's interesting that he transitioned to directing. Didn't know about the travel writing though!

I really liked Olga Tokarczuk's Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, so I got her earlier book Flights, and I just cannot get into it. I am reading Gold Diggers by Sanjeena Sathian instead. Only a third in but it's kinda fun.

 

[Jenny]

Is this a memoir, or fiction? I'll see if my library has it.

Andrew McCarthy was my least favorite actor from that era - his characters were always too wishy washy - but I have sorta followed his career and it's interesting that he transitioned to directing. Didn't know about the travel writing though!

Memoir. It's interesting because at the beginning he said he always wanted to write about this period in his life, touched on it in his other memoir, but never did it in detail. He thought about reaching out to friends and people he knew but in the end decided not to, thought it was important to capture what he remembered, rather than the exact facts. There are anecdotes involving other Brat Packers and celebrities, but it's mostly his own experience.

I wasn't that big a fan either back in the day, but I did see all the movies. I picked up his first memoir - more of a travel as introspection thing I think - but haven't read it yet.

 

[PrincessLeppard]

I just finished A Libertarian Walks into a Bear about how a group of libertarians pretty much just ruined a town (not that it was great to begin with, but I feel like they hastened its downfall). It's funny, frustrating, and sad.

My favorite part is when Hurricane the Llama decided he was not having it with the bear trying to eat his sheep friends and fought the bear and won.

 

[Prancer]

I've read a lot of books this summer and intend to read a lot more before it's over. The ones I remember most:

My favorite (so far) was Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession and How Desire Shapes the World. The author is a jewelry designer with degrees in history and the book is about historic events loosely centered around gemstones and pearls (and Faberge eggs in one chapter). Sometimes her connections are a bit of a stretch, but the history is interesting and she has an engaging writing style lightly touched with sarcastic humor. I thought it was very entertaining.

True Crime Addict: How I Lost Myself in the Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray: I wouldn't call myself a true crime addict, but since I immediately knew the case in question and read the book for that reason, I can't say I'm not. Certainly I am not as obsessive as the author, who basically turned his life upside down trying to solve the case--and not just this case. Spoiler alert for those who might be interested in a solution: He does not solve the case, although he does speculate quite a bit about it and I, at least, learned some things I didn't know about the case. He also talks quite a bit about his personal life, warts and all, and comes across, at least to me, as a flaming asshole, but he knows how to write a page turner.

The Herd: A thriller that, according to the review that led me to get the book, reveals the truth about female friendships. If your idea of female friendships is hugging your dear friend while burying a knife in her back, that might be true, but otherwise, it's a pretty standard kind of thriller told from multiple viewpoints in which every unlikable character involved has a secret agenda. WaPo says it's an airplane novel and that works.

The Flight Attendant: A friend of mine watched the series on HBO (maybe?) and thought it was great, so I read the book. I understand the show was a comedy-drama? The book is definitely not a comedy. A flight attendant with a drinking problem wakes up one morning beside a murdered one-night stand. She can't remember much about the night before and certainly doesn't remember him being murdered; did she do it? She doesn't know, but she decides to run. Ah, but there is video of her leaving the hotel and the bad guys are hot on her trail. Another airplane novel (heh). I was actually surprised by the twist at the end, although I shouldn't have been, which leads me to....

When Stars Go Dark: A thriller by an author best known for writing historical novels about women (Hemingway's first wife and Beryl Markham). The writing quality is very good and her insights into the victims of sexual abuse clearly come from someone who is herself an abuse survivor. There is a lot going on in the story, maybe a little too much. I knew who the bad guy was pretty early on, not because it's obvious so much as there are only two ways that a story like this can go--the bad guy can be a total stranger introduced at the end, which readers hate even though that's pretty realistic, or the bad guy can be a character who is already there but not obviously the bad guy. This usually limits the choices to one or maybe two people. In this case, though, I wasn't as interested in whodunnit as I was in the story itself.

The People We Meet on Vacation: I really liked the author's first book, Beach Read, and I liked this one almost as much, mostly because the male protagonist is so much like my husband and both main characters are from my hometown, more or less, and so I felt quite fond of all involved.

The Unhoneymooners: A hate-to-love story that has some really good zingers. I laughed out a loud a few times and snickered quietly many more. Warning to anyone with a weak stomach--the story begins with a wedding and nearly everyone gets food poisoning at the reception. Much grossness ensues.

The Plot: An obnoxious writing seminar student shares his killer plot with his seminar teacher, a writer whose creative well has run dry. When the teacher later learns that the student has died of an overdose, the teacher turns the plot into a thriller of his own, which becomes a huge success. Ah, but someone knows he stole the plot and that someone starts making anonymous threats to expose the writer. It is again pretty obvious who the someone is, but for me, the best part of the book is the first section, which focuses on the writer's failed career and what it is to teach writing. I also found the central question of the book interesting--who owns a story and who has the right to tell it? When I saw the articles about Amanda Knox and Stillwater, I immediately thought of this book.

The Devil and Webster: Former radical lefty Naomi Roth becomes the president of a small liberal arts college after the board of directors admires her handling of a conflict involving a transgender student and housing. Naomi is coasting along, still a lefty but too middle-aged and tired to be radical, when students begin camping on the quad in protest. She regards the students with fond tolerance, admiring them for standing up for something (although no one seems to know what that something is, exactly) and complacently waits for winter weather to drive them back into their dorm rooms. But winter comes and the protest only continues to grow, pitting Naomi's political sympathies against the politics of her position.

The last two books were written by the same author, who is best known for writing You Should Have Known, which became The Undoing on HBO. She writes in long sentences with many clauses and parentheticals; she's not quite Henry James, but sometimes I had to go back and find the subject of a sentence in order to follow it. But she sure knows her subjects, at least in these two books--clearly she knows whereof she writes when she she writes about writing, teaching, students, and campus politics.

Right now, I am reading For Your Own Good, which is about a sociopathic English teacher working at an exclusive private prep school. What? Why are you looking at me like that? And yes, I am supposed to be grading papers. Why do you ask?

 

[MacMadame]

The Flight Attendant: A friend of mine watched the series on HBO (maybe?) and thought it was great, so I read the book. I understand the show was a comedy-drama?

That surprises me. I watched that show and I didn't think it was a comedy in any way.

 

[Prancer]

That surprises me. I watched that show and I didn't think it was a comedy in any way.

I haven't seen it, but when I looked it up, everything I read described it as a comedy-drama. Maybe it's just because Kaley Cuoco is the lead?

 

[MacMadame]

I haven't seen it, but when I looked it up, everything I read described it as a comedy-drama. Maybe it's just because Kaley Cuoco is the lead?

There is snark and sarcasm but it is very tense most of the time and Kaley's character is in dire straights from enemies and also from her alcoholism. It was a while ago when I watched it but I'm not remembering any comedy.

 

[JoannaLouise]

Entire post

Did you steal my e-reader? I either just finished or am in the process of reading nearly every one of these.

I put The Unhoneymooners on my holds list, because it sounds like another fun summer read.

 

[Wyliefan]

I've recommended H.G. Parry here before, but allow me to recommend her again. I devoured and loved A Radical Act of Free Magic, a historical fantasy set in the era of the French and Haitian Revolutions. It made me cry, and I don't cry easily over a book. (But it's a sequel, so you should read last year's A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians first.)

 

[Susan1]

Sort of reading related since I don't know where else to put this, but have we talked about the "take a book, leave a book" (free libraries) on here? They have several in this area. But this morning on the news, they had a report on "take a stick, leave a stick" for dogs. Absolutely adorable.

 

[Prancer]

Right now, I am reading For Your Own Good, which is about a sociopathic English teacher working at an exclusive private prep school.

The best part of this book for me was picturing the author cackling with glee as she described the inner thoughts of her many twisted characters. Pretty funny if you teach; not so sure nonteachers would be as amused.

Did you steal my e-reader? I either just finished or am in the process of reading nearly every one of these.

Well, chime in! What did you think?

I'm reading The Bookshop of Second Chances right now, which is a pleasant romance notable mostly because the protagonists are middle-aged. The best part for me is the dialogue. Every now and then I read a British book in which characters talk like @SHARPIE--the phrasing and expressions just make me because I can hear it all in her voice.

 

[Allskate]

Least Favorites:
Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

I told my neighbor that I was looking for a light but engaging summer read that would be a good distraction from real life. For some reason, she recommended "Nine Perfect Strangers." I'm browsing this thread because I'm in the middle of reading it and don't think I can make myself finish. So, I need a new book.

 

[genevieve]

I read Nine Perfect Strangers a couple of years ago and thought it was kind of a good beach read (even though I read it in winter).

 

[cygnus]

Just finished The Rose Code, by Kate Quinn. Excellent book, which follows 3 (fictional, but based on actual characters) women from different backgrounds who worked at Bletchley Park during the war. It's very well researched, and is one of those hard-to-put-down reads. I've been to Bletchley Park twice, and it's an awesome place to visit for anyone interested in WWll history and/or code breaking. Highly recommended.

 

[made_in_canada]

I've devoured the Truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson. I finished the first book yesterday and drove a town over to pick up the next two at their library. Which I already finished. There's a fourth book that just came out that I immediately downloaded after finishing the third.

It's a YA series that focuses on a unsolved murder at an elite boarding school, and a new student who wants to solve the old crime. Of course, that's hardly the end of it. Requires major suspension of disbelief but it's fun anyway.

And no love triangles!

I’m going to put this on my Christmas list for my teenage nieces. I think they’d be right into it.

 

[Allskate]

I read Nine Perfect Strangers a couple of years ago and thought it was kind of a good beach read (even though I read it in winter).

I did not find it engaging at all. Of all of her books, it was my least favorite. I got so bored that I started skimming, and then I just gave up.

Just finished The Rose Code, by Kate Quinn. Excellent book, which follows 3 (fictional, but based on actual characters) women from different backgrounds who worked at Bletchley Park during the war. It's very well researched, and is one of those hard-to-put-down reads. I've been to Bletchley Park twice, and it's an awesome place to visit for anyone interested in WWll history and/or code breaking. Highly recommended.

I really liked "The Rose Code." I had read about BP and watched the "Bletchley Circle," so I was interested in that. Plus, I liked the variety of characters from different backgrounds. I also liked all the literature references and the role of books in the story. If you liked "The Rose Code," then I highly recommend Quinn's "The Alice Network" and "The Huntress." My book club chose to read "The Rose Code" because we had liked those other books. Although we all liked "The Rose Code," most of us agreed that we liked the other two books more. Of course, those other books aren't about Bletchley Park.

 

[Bunny Hop]

I am reading the first of the Bridgerton books. I may not make it to the end. I'm all for doing light reading sometimes but this is so light it's practically floating.

 

[MsZem]

I am reading the first of the Bridgerton books. I may not make it to the end. I'm all for doing light reading sometimes but this is so light it's practically floating.

The second one is much better.

Julia Quinn's books do tend to be on the lighter side within the historical romance sub-genre. I can recommend other authors/books if you let me know what you're interested in

 

[MLIS]

Agreed that the second and (my personal favourite) the fourth Bridgerton books are much better than the first.

 

[Bunny Hop]

The second one is much better.

That's good to know.

Julia Quinn's books do tend to be on the lighter side within the historical romance sub-genre. I can recommend other authors/books if you let me know what you're interested in

I was thinking I need to go back to Georgette Heyer. My mother had a small collection of those which I enjoyed but I never finished them.

Mind you, I've still got a huge pile of unread books that I should probably try and get through first!

 

[MacMadame]

I was thinking I need to go back to Georgette Heyer.

I tend to think of Quinn's books as Heyer with Sex.

 

[Bunny Hop]

I don't know. I'm finding Quinn's style of writing extremely simple (not saying that's wrong, just my personal impression) which I don't recall from Heyer, but it is quite some time since I read one, so may be completely misremembering.

 

[hanca]

I inherited from my sister-in-law a few books by Julie Garwood. The Bride. The Wedding. The Secret. Ransom. Saving Grace. Shadow Music. I found these much more enjoyable than Quinn’s books.

 

[MsZem]

I don't know. I'm finding Quinn's style of writing extremely simple (not saying that's wrong, just my personal impression) which I don't recall from Heyer, but it is quite some time since I read one, so may be completely misremembering.

I haven't really read Heyer, so I can't compare the two, but I think some of the later Bridgerton books had more depth. The Duke and I is pretty well-executed, but it's a very conventional romance.

I inherited from my sister-in-law a few books by Julie Garwood. The Bride. The Wedding. The Secret. Ransom. Saving Grace. Shadow Music. I found these much more enjoyable than Quinn’s books.

I did not enjoy Garwood very much, and found her historical romances anachronistic. But of course tastes vary!

There are better writers in the genre than both of them

 

[hanca]

I did not enjoy Garwood very much, and found her historical romances anachronistic. But of course tastes vary!

There are better writers in the genre than both of them

I am pretty sure they are anachronistic. I don’t expect historical romances to be based much on the truth.
I am pretty sure they are also culturally inaccurate, especially when she describes how highlanders lived.

 

[rfisher]

Ok I'm going to wait patiently for fellow Pendergast fans to read the new book so we can discuss the ending.