Book Club: What are you reading?

[jingle]

Jingle, I remember EXODUS. I had not thought of that book in a long time. I will try to look up TOPAZ.

Wow - TOPAZ was fast moving, tense, exciting and so on. I just started ARMAGEDDON by Uris.
I was finally able to get a used copy of EXODUS, the one I Really wanted and - rats - it's very, very tiny print. Too tiny for me :(

[agate]

I just finished THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES: A HIDDEN INHERITANCE by Edmund de Waal. It was very absorbing even though I'd never seen or heard of netsuke before. It's about a collection of over 200 netsuke pieces and how it got passed down (and eventually hidden from the Nazis) in a family.

If you'd like to know more about netsuke:

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Actually the story is more about the family than about the netsuke but the author interweaves his descriptions of some of the pieces with his narrative about the family--a prominent Jewish family who had migrated from Odessa to Paris to Vienna and eventually scattered (after World War 2) to Mexico, the UK, and the US.

[Virginia]

Sounds really good Agate. I have been unable to read lately due to the heat in my house without a/c. Sounds like something I might enjoy when things get back to more normal.

[agate]

That's odd. This was posted as a Comment on Lazarus11's reply but it's showing up now as a Comment on Guest's reply.

[Lazarus]

I am back and have a comment section again thanks to Mike . I am reading The Gollum and The Jinni. Published in 2013? Anyway, it is a good read will keep you occupied reading a drama with magical characters who make interesting comments on human behavior.

[agate]

So glad that got straightened out, Linda! And that would explain why my Comment in this thread showed you as "Guest." You had probably been switched back to Lazarus, and the post I was commenting on was made by Lazarus11. It's no big deal at all.

Not sure I'd recommend the Shirley Hazzard book now that I've finished it (THE TRANSIT OF VENUS). The author plays games with the reader by inserting tiny little clues along the way just to make sure you're reading very very carefully. You have to really dig to find the answer you will want, and she clutters up the stage with too many characters. It turns out that she created the novel by putting several stories (or parts of stories) together, and it shows. This book was praised to the skies by many critics. I disagree with them.

[Lazarus]

There are so many books that get rave reviews that are not that good, in need of editing or simply start out strong and fall into the ocean. I am happy when I find something that has developed characters and a clear direction!

[Sunshine 2]

Am reading DaWN Patrol by Don Winslow… it’s a witty book about a crew of surfers whose leader is a dude wo was an excellent ex cop and now PI for insurance company that suspects client set his own warehouse on fire…and a murder is involved,

Its very funny and a fun romp.

next up might be to re read the Great Influenza if 1918 by John Barrie… social aspects bear eerie resemblance to Covid but the people have a much more adult attitude toward masking

With H1N1 found in Chicago this week, could be timely read

[Virginia]

Glad Linda's "comment" is once again working and her original sign in name.

Agate, I will not read The Transit of Venus. I've got books lined up, but just have not been feeling up to reading.

[agate]

I've read several works by Alice Munro, and I've just finished FRIEND OF MY YOUTH (1990), a collection of short stories.

A Canadian, she writes about Canada, and the characters are often people with less fortunate lives. Alice Munro is 90 years old now, and I hope she's still writing.

[Lazarus]

Hi agate,
I love Munro too! I have been reading “ rediscovered” books by John Williams. I red Stoner and now Augustus. Real good. And I just finished Elizabeth Strout’s new novel “Oh William” ( she wrote the Olive Kitteridge books). Actually I half read and half listen. My eyes were my first presenting symptoms and have been a problem ever since.

[agate]

Oh good, another Elizabeth Strout book! I look forward to it. Thanks for mentioning it, Linda.

[jingle]

I decided to just had to read EXODUS and I could manage the small print if I tried hard enough and used good light. I am so glad I did that. It's a gripping, moving, exciting, thought provoking, uplifting book. 599 pages of tiny print and worth any effort to read it. Oh, it's good. What a book!!!

[Lazarus]

Great, I love Exodus

[agate]

The movie was riveting but I haven't tried the book.

[jingle]

I've read several books since Exodus but nothing really great. Now I'm about halfway through Jodi Picoult's new book, Wish You Were Here. It's Very good!!

[agate]

I have several books from the library that I plan to read but need to catch up on periodicals because they have to be returned to the library in a very short time. Most have a 3-week loan period but they're taking a week to get here and another week to be returned, at least, and so I'm usually racing to get through them in time. The mails have been slow and it's not just because of the holidays. They've been slow for many months now.

[Virginia]

I had to go back a long way to find our book club thread. I have been trying to do just one or two Wordles a day and then do some reading. I find reading more relaxing. So, I will report on my last two books.


The Lincoln Highway by Amour Towels
I read this book because the author also wrote A Gentleman in Moscow which I enjoyed. The Lincoln Highway was quite good. This author is a very good story teller and he really comes up with some good plots. This was about 3 young men, one who got out of a place that sounded kind of like a correctional institution because he had served his full year. The other two got in the trunk of the car that was taking him home. They then picked up the first one's little brother who was a very smart young 10 or 12 year old. Their exploits were very interesting. A really good read about the places they went and the people they encountered.

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
This book was about the personal librarian to J.P. Morgan the very rich art and book dealer, (among his other accomplishments), back in about 1908 until his death and beyond with his son. She was largely responsible for The Pierpont Morgan Library becoming a public institution rather than remaining a private one. She was allowed to attend auctions in the U.S. and Europe and buy and decide what to sell for the library. She was thought of as one of the most accomplished women of her time. What was so unusual was that she was a black lady who was passing as white. J.P. Morgan never knew and I don't think his son did. She was smart and ambitious. However, she was always afraid that she would be found out. As everyone knows this was a bad era to be in as far as doing that was concerned. It really was a good book.

[agate]

Both of those look like interesting books, Virginia, and I'm going to request them from the library.

I currently have a library cartridge with several books I haven't yet read on them. I'm allowed to keep the cartridges indefinitely but I'm hoping to finish this one before mid-summer, and just now I'm wondering which book on that cartridge I want to read next. Maybe someone here will have some input on these titles:

1. Casey Cep, FURIOUS HOURS: MURDER, FRAUD, AND THE LAST TRIAL OF HARPER LEE

2. Zora Neale Hurston, HITTING A STRAIGHT LICK WITH A CROOKED STICK: STORIES FROM THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE

3. Elena Ferrante, THE LYING LIFE OF ADULTS

4. Paul Collins, BLOOD AND IVY: THE 1849 MURDER THAT SCANDALIZED HARVARD

I got halfway through the first one on the list but that was a while ago.