Constant Reader discussion

I'm reading two books now (while I continue my very slow traipse through the new GENJI translation). The first is the non-fiction book by Scott Timberg, Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class. This book is about the loss of jobs and reduction in incomes for the so-called "creative class," e.g. writers and musicians. I'm very sympathetic with Timberg's thesis that these changes have been driven by technological change. Who could really argue with that? But I think his anecdotes, as interesting as they are, don't lead to all the conclusions that he thinks they do. I still recommend the book with qualifications.

And then I've made a foray into the YA world. I'm almost finished with Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave. I've stayed away from this genre since I read MOCKINJAY, the first book in THE HUNGER GAMES. I enjoyed that book but didn't really want to read any more. I'll read the second book in Yancey's trilogy. Movie coming out in January based on this book. What's it about? Here's some Wiki text, "The 5th Wave follows 16-year-old Cassie Sullivan as she tries to survive in a world devastated by the waves of alien invasion that have already decimated the population and knocked humankind back to the Stone Age. As one of Earth's last survivors, Cassie is left with just herself and has to learn the hard way to trust no one."

I finished The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante yesterday. The friendship between Lila and Elisa is portrayed so realistically in this second novel in the series. Their friendship is sometimes very close and at times distant. They struggle with jealousy, and are competitive with each other. But above all, it's real.

One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni – 3.5***
I was immediately caught up in the “present day” story of these nine people trapped in a basement. I liked the way that the author revealed their strengths and weaknesses as they acted / reacted to the situation. But when they begin telling “one amazing thing” from their lives, the story arc lost momentum, and it became more of a collection of short stories. I don’t mind this too much, because I love short stories, and Divakaruni writes them well. However, this sort of hybrid between a short story collection and a novel seemed a little awkward.
Full Review HERE

I did finish Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave and it held up through the end. Great plot, with new ideas and some great twists and good characters. I don't really like dystopian novels, but this one worked for me. I've already bought the sequel, The Infinite Sea.

I started Vu Tran's Dragonfish. This is a crime-noir novel about an anglo Oakland cop who was married to a Vietnamese immigrant. She divorced him two years earlier and now has disappeared from her current husband, a Vietnamese man who is involved in some criminal activities. The protagonist is blackmailed into trying to find her. Great writing. I'm not surprised to see that the author teaches creative writing at the University of Chicago. I'm one third into this novel and just totally absorbed.

I just finished reading Love May Fail taken from last month's what I'm reading comments. I loved it! Currently reading The Mezzanine also taken from those comments. I really appreciate these monthly check ins.


Shawn

Shawn wrote: "I just finished reading Love May Fail taken from last month's what I'm reading comments. I loved it! Currently reading The Mezzanine also taken from those comments. I really appreciate these monthl..."

I'm so glad you liked it!

I took a side trip into fast-food reading with Dexter Is Dead and Finders Keepers. Now I'm going back to reading Woman on the Edge of Time for a local book club.

Recently finished Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, which I read for my face-to-face book group. It was very readable and I believed in the characters (though not in everything they did), but it seemed to me a falsely simple story, without the messiness of real lives.

Kat wrote: "Recently finished Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, which I read for my face-to-face book group. It was very readable and I believed in the characters (though not in everyt..."

I read this when it was first published and I agree with you. That it has received such rave reviews is a bit puzzling to me.

I'm currently listening to The Handmaid's Tale, which is one I have been meaning to read for a very long time. I am reading The Turner House on my Kindle. My in-person book group's next selection is Station Eleven, so I'll be starting that one as soon as I finish Turner House.

Adele wrote: "I'm currently listening to The Handmaid's Tale, which is one I have been meaning to read for a very long time. I am reading The Turner House on my Kindle. My in-person..."

Wow--all great books!

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt – 3.5***
There is much about this novel to like, and quite a few things not to like. In the end I’m struggling with how to rate it because of these conflicting issues. I like the way Tartt writes, particularly the way she so vividly depicts the scenes in this book, but I thought the book needed stronger editing. How often must we read about their drunken episodes to get the point? And I was really unhappy with the ending. David Pittu does a superb job narrating the audio version of this novel. He has great pacing, and his skill with voices made the characters come to life. He’d get 5* for his performance alone.
Full Review HERE

I agree, the ending was very disappointing. It sort of devolved into a not very good whodunit.

Believe it or not, I'm reading Dracula, by
Bram Stoker. I have not only never read the book, I've never seen the movie, so I was very glad to find that a lot of it is actually set not in a castle in Transylvania but in England. Stoker is such a good storyteller that it moves along very quickly. The characters are mainly types, but they do come to life.

Kat wrote: "Believe it or not, I'm reading Dracula, by
Bram Stoker. I have not only never read the book, I've never seen the movie, so I was very glad to find that a lot of it is actually set not..."

I know, Kat. When I read it, I was amazed that it was such a good book. There was no overt violence either. I don't know many writers who could do that with a novel today.

Book Concierge wrote: " The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt – 3.5***
There is much about this novel to like, and quite a few things not to like. In the end I’m struggling with how to rate it..."
Have to agree about the narrators rendering it was superb. For me it really made the book. He won prizes for it too :)

At long last I've started The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Abel. It's been on my shelf for more years than I'd admit to. Slow, (I like slow) but the descriptions! Beautifully written.

Cateline wrote: "At long last I've started The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Abel. It's been on my shelf for more years than I'd admit to. Slow, (I like slow) but the descriptions! Beautifully w..."

I only lasted about 20 minutes into this as an audiobook.

Cateline wrote: "At long last I've started The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Abel. It's been on my shelf for more years than I'd admit to. Slow, (I like slow) but the descriptions! Beautifully w..."

I read this years ago. There's one scene I still remember, but the rest is gone. I remember that I found it readable and enjoyed it, but wasn't sufficiently drawn in to read any others in the series.

I like the way it highlights the interactions of the members and non-members of the Clan. The how's and whys of who they are. I'm about a third of the way in, and the lines of demarcation are drawn. The prejudices are well drawn.

Still deciding how much I liked Woman on the Edge of Time. I was definitely absorbed, and I felt a true yearning for the semi-utopian world that was part of the novel where people cared about each other and the environment. Just read a blog where someone thought it was possible that the main character was "insane" all along and had hallucinated the other world. Anyway, it was one of the more interesting sci-fi books I've read.

Lyn wrote: "Still deciding how much I liked Woman on the Edge of Time. I was definitely absorbed, and I felt a true yearning for the semi-utopian world that was part of the novel where people car..."

It's been a very long time since I read it, but boy, I loved it. As I remember it, I thought it was most likely Piercy's point that any person who could see a world like that would be defined as "insane". Might need to do a re-read sometime soon!

Sara wrote: "Lyn wrote: "Still deciding how much I liked Woman on the Edge of Time. I was definitely absorbed, and I felt a true yearning for the semi-utopian world that was part of the novel wher..."

I remember nothing about this novel except that I found it gripping and it left me stunned, a huge impact. The fact that I don't remember it doesn't mean the impact was temporary, its influence since that reading decades ago may have been subterranean.

I see I gave it 3 stars. Damned if I remember anything about it now.

Cateline wrote: "At long last I've started The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Abel. It's been on my shelf for more years than I'd admit to. Slow, (I like slow) but the descriptions! Beautifully w..."

I read that when it came out, circa 1980, when I was about 30 years old, I'm 65 now. I remember my stepmother thrusting it into my hands pretty much demanding I read it. I found it arduous reading and eventually figured out that although it provided some mildly interesting snippets of prehistoric information, it was primarily a bodice-ripper set in the stone age.

Hah, haven't had any bodices ripped yet..... :)

Dateline, I LOVE Clan of the Cave Bear! ❤️

Sometimes autocorrect is a pain in the..... Obviously, I meant Cateline, not Dateline.

Mary wrote: "Sometimes autocorrect is a pain in the..... Obviously, I meant Cateline, not Dateline."

:). Too true!

I'm also reading The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America 1932-72 by William Manchester. Fascinating stuff!

Cateline, I read Manchester's Glory and the Dream when it first came out - late 70's or early 80's as I recall. I remember loving it and recommending it to everyone I knew. It was fascinating, informative, and very readable. So glad you're enjoying it too.

I never have heard of Woman of the Edge of Time, but I have inserted it up near the top of my list. Sounds fascinating and just the kind of thing I can get lost in.

I also read Clan of the Cave Bear in 1980; it was a sensation, I remember it as a very fast read. I still remember the fire, guess everything else faded. There was a movie - it sucked so bad.

I just finished Infinite Home. I was first attracted by its title. It began slowly and simply and it was a little bit in before it built to be something I was eager to continue reading, but that happened, and by the end I was very happy to have read it. Human connection was a powerful theme that had been gotten to honestly, and the novel resonates richly in my mind after reading it.

A while back someone posted here how she was tired of authors who think that they have to jump back and forth in time. A little of that is fine, but I thought that A GOD IN RUINS by Kate Atkinson went way overboard with the flashbacks/flash forwards. For that reason, I gave it only three stars. Normally, I love everything that Atkinson writes.

Jane wrote: "A while back someone posted here how she was tired of authors who think that they have to jump back and forth in time. A little of that is fine, but I thought that A GOD IN RUINS by Kate Atkinson w..."

I was going to nominate that for the next list! I think I still might, since I love Atkinson (usually) and I already have the book.

Some people (I include myself) love shifts in time. Has anyone read Jonathan Coe's The House of Sleep? He makes his zigzag chronicle work, I think.

Finished 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I really like this book - all 851 pages of it. It was a great story and knowing that parts of it were true made it all the more intriguing. There were a couple of times I wanted to say, "Ah, come on now" but all in all, a very good read. I don't like fantasy/horror so for me to give it this high a rating shows that I thought it was excellent.

Yesterday I finished People of the Thunder by Michael and Kathleen Gear. I've read a lot of their books over the years - fictional stories based on archaeological and anthropological knowledge of Native Americans. Either their books aren't as good as they used to be or my tastes have changed.

I finished Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf. It's a short read at about 150 pages. I've always liked everything Kent Haruf has written, and I loved this book. I had trouble relating to Addie and Louis because they supposedly were in their seventies. I'm almost 70 and kept thinking of both of them as old, whereas I don't feel old at all. If they had been in their eighties or nineties I probably could have identified more. The story was simple and beautiful but it didn't have the emotional impact that Haru's other books did. Also, I didn't like the ending when she gave in" to her son and went to an assisted living home. I do understand her struggle with doing what was right by her grandson. I guess I wanted everything "wrapped up nice" for Haru's last book.

Gina wrote: "Finished 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I really like this book - all 851 pages of it. It was a great story and knowing that parts of it were true made it all the more intr..."

Agreed on all counts.


Mary wrote: "Cateline, I read Manchester's Glory and the Dream when it first came out - late 70's or early 80's as I recall. I remember loving it and recommending it to everyone I knew. It was fascinating, info..."

Anything by Manchester I've read has been fascinating, and most readable.

The Lightning Dreamer by Margarita Engle – 4****
Subtitle: Cuba’s Greatest Abolitionist. This piece of historical fiction is told entirely in verse, the medium which Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda (a/k/a Tula) chose to voice her opinions on slavery and women’s rights. Engle’s poetry is moving and elegant; I marvel that she can convey so much in so few words. At the end of the novel she includes some historical background on Gertrudis, as well as some of her original poetry (in Spanish, with translation). I highly recommend this for everyone, but especially for young women.
Full Review HERE

I just started reading Slade House by David Mitchell. I'm excited to read this shorter work by the author. I feel like he may really benefit from less book!

As the book's gotten a lot of buzz, thought I'd pop in to say that I recently finished Everybody Rise. Audio narration was absolutely perfect, while the story itself was a bit of an exhausting 12 hours. I could understand a reader feeling things were rather over-the-top, but I'm glad I read it. Evelyn's crash qualifies for the Train Wreck Hall of Fame.
Writing quality is high, which is why I think Constant Readers might like it, despite the sometimes outright loathsome characters.

I seem to be stuck in a reading rut at the moment and can't quite focus on anything. Maybe it's the teething baby killing my concentration. I'm attempting to read The Buried Giant. Attempting.

Ethan wrote: "I just started reading Slade House by David Mitchell. I'm excited to read this shorter work by the author. I feel like he may really benefit from less book!"

How did you get it already? Mine doesn't come until the last of the month. Is it good?

Finished Alberto Moravia's The Time of Indifference. We all have our preconceptions; one of mine was that a novel written by an Italian man and published in 1929 would be deeply sexist. It turns out that, while the novel has its flaws, that isn't one of them.

Gina wrote: "Finished 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I really like this book - all 851 pages of it. It was a great story and knowing that parts of it were true made it all the more intr..."

Stephen King amazes me in the the variation of quality of his writing. I've thought for years that he does his very best when he writes novellas, but he clearly understands the economics of the marketplace for books, so why write works of that length that reap far fewer rewards than long novels? I guess it seems like I'm leading up to some negative remarks about 11/22/63, but I'm not. I loved it.

While going through the first few chapters of Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott, I felt like I'd read this before. I loved Bird by Bird, but this book was just not as good. I couldn't relate to her search for faith so I did not finish it. Besides, I think I read it before.

This morning, I readLove Lessons Mondays, 9 A.M. by Lara Vapnyar. Great story about a teacher assigned to teach sex education to 10th grade students in Russia. The enormity and challenge of the assignment frightens this 18 year old teacher who has no sexual experience, until she admits to her class that she "doesn't know." In other words, she becomes real.

Where My Heart Used to Beat is another lovely book by Sebastian Faulks, very atmospheric. It’s a book about a love found and lost and a father who speaks from beyond the grave. It beautifully captures the brutality of war and the vitality of love that finds its way. Robert Hendricks is a wonderful anti-hero coming to terms with his lonely life and aging in the 1960s, overshadowed by his own war in the 1940s and his father’s great war.

Carol wrote: "Ethan wrote: "I just started reading Slade House by David Mitchell. I'm excited to read this shorter work by the author. I feel like he may really benefit from less..."

Random House sent me an Advanced Reader Copy! I'm almost done with it and am really enjoying it. Mitchell employs his familiar "short story" style, but this one seems much more streamlined than any of the others I've read. I'll be sure to link to my review when I finish!