#Read26Indy discussion

I will continue the theme I started with a monthly topic: where is March reading taking you?

I am still on NOS4A2 for book 15 and plan some Stephen King, Raymond Feist, and maybe John Grisham this month.

I'll be finishing up The Dog Stars and The Fault in Our Stars soon while still moseying through Cutting for Stone. I've also started Storm Runners, a fun trip into adolescent lit recommended by my local librarian.

I finished Stephen King's 11/22/63 this morning for my 1st book of March and 7th for the year. I plan on finishing Annabel by Kathleen Winter, a question of manhood by Robin Reardon, and Sycamore Row by John Grisham.

I just sent Jesmyn Ward's "Salvage the Bones" back to my Kindle library. My 26th book. And one of the best books I've read so far this year. Jesmyn Ward can write.

I also finished my 27th book today, The CAFE Book.

Sadly I have just now finished my first book... The Unfinished Gift by Dan Walsh. Very good book, I am on a mission to pick up the pace. I loved the 11/22/63 Stephen King.. read that last year.. Have started a Kristin Hannah book, Distant Shore, seems to be an easier read... thanks for the encouragement. jealous of you that have read so many!!!

Started Roadworkby Stephen King - an early work under his pen name, Richard Bachman. So far, I feel like it is kind of obvious it is an early work . . . not quite as polished.

I just quit reading Cutting for Stone. I tried so hard to get into it with no luck. Anyone finished it and enjoyed it? Gets over 4 stars on here but I just couldn't do it.

Abbi, how far did you get in Cutting for Stone? I'm on 236. I heard such great things about this book and had high hopes. At times, it is so engaging. At other times, it drags. I've decided I'll continue to move through it at a leisurely pace while enjoying other, faster reads on the side. Good luck with your reading!

I got to about 350. I hate quitting it, especially with getting so far, but I wasn't looking forward to reading it (which is a sure sign I probably need to let go). I found it dragging on and never really engaging me. I had high hopes, too. :)

Abbi wrote: "I just quit reading Cutting for Stone. I tried so hard to get into it with no luck. Anyone finished it and enjoyed it? Gets over 4 stars on here but I just couldn't do it."

I didn't just get through it, I loved it. It was intense, I can't pretend otherwise. I'm pretty sure I read the whole thing with my mouth wide open. But in the end, it is a beautiful story from a culture so different from mine.

I read Cutting for Stone last summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. But if you're not into it at page 350, it probably won't get any better for you. I found the first half of the book to be more absorbing. I also love the personal philosophy of Abraham Verghese (a professor and doctor at Stanford University) which is reflected in his writing: he passionately believes that the bedside ritual of examining the patient is a critical, cost saving, time-honored and necessary, (but greatly threatened) skill. Abbi wrote: "I just quit reading Cutting for Stone. I tried so hard to get into it with no luck. Anyone finished it and enjoyed it? Gets over 4 stars on here but I just couldn't do it."

I'm working through Chelsea Cain's series of books about the Beauty Killer. I'm really enjoying the series. The books are fast-paced, which I like. I also just finished the audiobook The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. Let me just say, have some tissues ready towards the end.

So often I find that our enjoyment in certain books is reflective of our lives at certain times. Perhaps at a later point I would enjoy this book more.

Stephanie wrote: "I read Cutting for Stone last summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. But if you're not into it at page 350, it probably won't get any better for you. I found the first half of the book to be more abso..."

"The Biscuit Joint" by David Kirby is number 28.

I just finished Tenth of December by George Saunders. It's a collection of short stories. I enjoyed it, an entertaining, sometimes funny, always a little twisted, quick read.

I read that last year and really enjoyed the stories. I liked their quirkiness.

Now reading #17 - The Litigators by John Grisham

Finished Book #8. Dave Eggers, editor: The Best American Non-Required Reading 2013. Read on iPad from my new Oyster account. An eclectic collection of short fiction, non-fiction, poems, graphic novel excerpts, and other extraneous stuff. Selected by a group of San Francisco high school students under the direction of the editor of McSweeney's. Recommended if you are interested in what is going on in literature right now and want to expand your horizons a bit. Oyster copy had some formatting problems, especially with the graphic stuff.

Imperial by George Bilgere is my 29th.

And finished #9. Helene Wecker: The Golem and the Jinni. Magic realism set in 1890's New York City. Fun and interesting.

The Golem and the Jinni

Finished The Undead Pool by Kim Harrison

I finished my 30th book, Bob Greene's "Rebound: The Odyssey of Michael Jordan." Three stars but an interesting look at Jordan's exile into baseball and his return to basketball.

Michael wrote: "I finished my 30th book, Bob Greene's "Rebound: The Odyssey of Michael Jordan." Three stars but an interesting look at Jordan's exile into baseball and his return to basketball."

Read that book when I was a kid. Great book on Jordan.

I read Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers and Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan. Both really good books. Now I'm reading My Sister Chaos by Lara Fergus which is really good so far.

I just finished "Woke Up Lonely" by Fiona Maazel, my 31st. It was a difficult book to connect with. Maybe because none of the characters meant anything to me. It always seemed like the story was occurring just around the corner or that the story was occasionally being told in an institutional language which I wasn't privy too. Still it was well-written and the story addressed the contemporary problem of severe loneliness, a difficult topic to encompass in a novel.

wishes everyone an A1 St. Pat's day. St. Pat's day is a reoccurring day in the book and sets the real Am-multicultural scene

I finished My Sister Chaos and it was really different and interesting. A woman, whose name we never learn, is a refugee from a war-torn country obsessed with creating a topographical map of her house. Her twin sister (whose name we also never know) arrives unannounced, the first time they have seen each other since the twin abandoned her soon after they emigrated. I recommend it.

I also got sucked into The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters and ended up finishing it over the weekend. I highly recommend that as well. A police detective believes that a suicide by hanging in a McDonalds bathroom is actually a murder, and he's intent on solving it. Oh, and its been announced with 100% certainty that in around six months an asteroid will hit earth and kill everyone. The detective is still determined to solve the case, even if in a year it won't matter. I've put a request in at the library for the sequel.

Finished my 8th book of the year and 2nd for March. Annabel by Kathleen Winter is a phenomenal novel about a young intersex youth beginning in the 1960's and running through the early 1980's. The work is set in Newfoundland, Canada, and it is definitely a different type of "American" story.

Finished
#10 Brad Thor: Black List - Competent thriller that will appeal to macho males; and
#11 B. A. Shapiro: The Art Forger - Fun, quick read. Thriller set in the art world. Lots of detail about artists, oil painting, Degas, etc., but not so much that it bogs down for non-artist types. Recommend.

Black List

The Art Forger

I finished "Fobbit" by David Abrams, my 32nd. "Catch-22" is to World War II as "Fobbit" is to the war in Iraq.

Michael wrote: "I finished "Fobbit" by David Abrams, my 32nd. "Catch-22" is to World War II as "Fobbit" is to the war in Iraq."

Good to know. I will have to put it on my list.

I finished "Love Me Two Times:A Journey Back to the Late 1960s." It's a fair story, perhaps weighted down with too many adjectives and too much dialog for the first 3/4 of the book. It might also suffer from the heavy hand of sentimentalia. It's a "Poor Side of Town" meets "Big Chill" love story that tries too hard too include he late 1960s as a character in the narrative. A fair effort with a great soundtrack.

I finished Kathleen Rooney's "O, Democracy," my 34th book. Rooney has written a book of essays, a nonfiction about the Oprah Winfrey book club, a memoir about art and modeling as well as several works of poetry. "O, Democracy" is her first novel, a story about a young woman, Colleen Dugan, who works for a long-time Illinois U. S. Senator during the run up to the 2008 election. The Senator is sleepwalking through the campaign due to his preoccupation with his beloved wife's illness, a malady which will take her life, and he is being challenged by a right-wing hypocrite who represents, to Dugan and her colleagues, a nightmare America. But as her role in the campaign is marginalized, Dugan makes a decision to do her part to protect her country and pays the consequence for it. The story concludes with a nation poised at the precipice of what it might be, with the hope generated by the election of the Forty-fourth President. Rooney is a literary superstar flying under the radar.

I finished THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY, my 35th.

Since my last post - I am also reading a Star Wars novel (The Last Command) and Rowdy in Paris by Tim Sandlin

March reads include:
#6 - Prince of Thieves
#7 - In the Blood
#8 - Takedown Twenty (flight delays are good for something)
On track to finish #9 - Allegiant by this weekend and hope to close out March with #10 - Never Fade.

My typical guilty psyche feels I am behind in my reading because I read a 700+ page book, The Terror, by Dan Simmons (#3) that took a while for me. This chilling book took place near the Arctic Circle during a quest to find the Northwest passage when their ships got frozen in. Food becomes scarce, scurvy sets in (something no one wants--ugh!), and survival instincts are in place, some displayed kindly and others not. This was the coldest winter in Indy to read such a book. On my snow days off of school, I, too, froze reading this.
Since then...
#4 The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin (much lighter that #3)
#5 (currently reading) And the Mountains by Khaled Hosseini

Jenni, I finished THE TERROR in February. A friend had been recommending it to me for some time and I thought the polar vortex winter was a suitable time to read it. I eventually developed the superstition that winter would end after I completed the book. No such luck. THE TERROR was a harrowing story without the mythological creature but I thought the creature added texture to the story.

Interesting comment. My husband read it last summer which I think might have been different considering the winter we had. I wasn't sold on the creature. I wonder how the story would have developed without it? I had a difficult time with it.

Thank you for responding! Happy reading!

#9 for the year and #3 for March The Fault in Our Stars was a phenomenal work. I lost my best friend to leukemia in the 5th grade, so the story resonated very deep. Highly recommended.

Just finished #36, a book of poems suffused with humor and pain by Natalie Shapero called NO OBJECT.

Lolita now - not sure how I am supposed to feel about this. A classic, but a bit uncomfortable to read so far.

In past couple of days have finished #5 and #6: Saberhagen's "The Black Mountains" and Howe's "Marvel Comics: The Untold Story", respectively.

Finished #10 for the year: The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida

This was an outstanding book written when the author was 13 to explain what life with autism is like. He has since gone on to become an advocate an the author of several more work of fiction and nonfiction.

I finished #38, Mario Alberto Zimbrano's LOTERÍA. A quick but interesting and excellent read, particularly for those who enjoyed THE LAST DAYS OF CALIFORNIA and/or THE LOST EPISODES OF REVIE BRYSON .

Book 8 - Mayor of MacDougal Street by Dave Von Ronk

The "Mayor" book sounds like it could be an interesting book.

It is... it's the book that Inside Llewyn Davis is loosely based on.

Posting the books I finished in March.

#12 Ben Bova: New Earth. Very much old school. Think Arthur C. Clarke. Set up for a sequel. New Earth

#13. Harlan Coben: Drop Shot. Thriller set in professional tennis. Protagonist is a sarcastic sports agent. Drop Shot