Go Fug Yourself Book Club discussion

I love all the historical/world war recommendations from everyone (Fug Nation: great taste in clothes AND books) and wanted to know - what's a book (from any genre) you're reading now or just recently read that you've loved?

I just read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore on the recommendation of a friend, and thought it was wonderful. Secret societies, ancient code breaking, the interplay between technology and tradition - all this, in a glow-in-the-dark cover - if you need a quick but engrossing summer read, I'd definitely check it out!

Two of my all time favorite books:
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant and
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

A few things I've read in the past month or two and enjoyed:

I'm not usually much of a romance reader, but I've recently discovered Julia Quinn's Regency romances and I LOVE THEM OMG. Highly recommend her Bridgerton series if you want light beach reads.

For nonfiction lovers, I recently read At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson, which was fascinating, and am currently reading The Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince by Jane Ridley, which is also a great read.

If you want a book that's fantastic on audio, try The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater -- it's one of my favorite books ever, definitely my favorite YA book published in the past five years, and my friends and I just did the audiobook for a road trip and it is GREAT on audio.

Those were the first few (random!) things that popped to mind!

I added The Heir Apparent to our list when you mentioned it the other day. I noticed that at least two people in the club were currently reading it!

Bill Bryson's Australia book was simultaneously ridiculously enlightening and ridiculously funny. It's called In A Sunburned Country.

I'm a big fan of Bryson's travel books & was pretty curious about At Home! I'm thrilled to hear it was so interesting - definitely adding that to my list now!

recent wartime favorites
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
A German boy living in an orphanage discovers a talent for repairing radios. A Parisian girl went blind when she was 6. I truly cannot say enough about this book. It was an absolute treasure to read and it broke my heart countless times. HIGHLY recommended!
Love by the Morning Star by Laura L. Sullivan
A dose of YA goodness with a classic case of mistaken identity (a Jewish relative is assumed to be the English maid and vice versa). Despite what the plot may suggest, this one isn't all fun & games, but still so great.

other recent favorites
One Plus One by Jojo Moyes
This one comes out in July and it's classic Jojo. The woman can do no wrong in my eyes.
Steal the North by Heather Brittain Bergstrom
This one seems to have slipped under the radar and it's such a shame - I devoured it and have since pushed it on countless others. A debut that handles heavy subjects like religion, race, & loss with pure grace. Gut-wrenching punches that hit home. This is a novel that makes you work for its secrets and I loved every minute.
Pioneer Girl by Bich Minh Nguyen
A Vietnamese-American women moves back home and discovers an heirloom that might have once belonged to Laura Ingalls Wilder. If you loved Little House (and happen to be LONG overdue for a reread!) check out this book!
The House at the End of Hope Street by Menna van Praag
This novel was my introduction to Magical Realism and I was hooked. A young woman is at a crossroads in her life and winds up on the door of 11 Hope Street. Once inside she's told she has 99 days to get her life back on track and the house's previous occupants (women like Agatha Christie, Sylvia Plath, and Beatrix Potter) are all there to offer her guidance.
I Am Pilgrim: A Thriller by Terry Hayes
A 700-pg. behemoth of a novel that I tore through. If you're into thrillers spanning decades and continents, look no further! Despite its heft, this one would make for an awesome beach read.

Feel free to add shelves on our master list and add all of these books!

I just started reading Love By the Morning Star yesterday, so I'm glad to hear another Fug National liked it!

Also, Kris, I'm not sure that was me that mentioned The Heir Apparent originally, but that merely makes me excited that there is someone else reading it too, haha. I swear GFY has been the most unexpected source of people who share my reading tastes.

If you look at the list of people in the club, what they are reading currently pops up next to them! I got some good suggestions just by paging through that!!!

P.S. Goodreads should be heartily thanking Jessica and Heather for the major uptick in members! I can't believe we have almost 900 people on here! WOW!

I love this thread!

I read a lot, and across many genres. The three most recent great books I read (you can click on me for the full reviews of these and a whole lot of other books):

Non-fiction: Columbine by Dave Cullen
Literary Fiction: Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead
Romance: Kept by Jamie Alden.

Martha wrote: "A few things I've read in the past month or two and enjoyed:

I'm not usually much of a romance reader, but I've recently discovered Julia Quinn's Regency romances and I LOVE THEM O..."

If you like Julia Quinn (I do too!) you should check out Eloisa James. She is amazing.

If you like the genre of 'the British middle classes being miserable during WWII' (I adore it), I can suggest no finer an author than Patrick Hamilton.

I've just finished Streets of Solitude but my absolute favourite of his is Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky. The BBC did a great adaptation out of it a few years back, too.

Martha wrote: "A few things I've read in the past month or two and enjoyed:

I'm not usually much of a romance reader, but I've recently discovered Julia Quinn's Regency romances and I LOVE THEM O..."

I love, love, LOVE The Scorpio Races! Maggie Stiefvater is a beautiful writer. Have you tried The Raven Boys?

Annie wrote: "I love, love, LOVE The Scorpio Races! Maggie Stiefvater is a beautiful writer. Have you tried The Raven Boys? "

Yes! I own both of the first two books in the series. Cannot wait for book 3!

The Heir Apparent is fantastic. A great story that at times doesn't even seem real it's so over the top. Other great recent reads: The Art of Fielding, The Devotion of Suspect X, and The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Also, the Flavia DeLuce stories are really amusing.

Erin wrote: "I love all the historical/world war recommendations from everyone (Fug Nation: great taste in clothes AND books) and wanted to know - what's a book (from any genre) you're reading now or just recen..."

If you like World War II books, check out this list (can't verify whether or not they're good, but it's a great place to start).

Also, The Light Between Oceans was recommended to me highly. I'm reading it for an August book club at work, too. Has anyone else read it, and liked it?

Minna wrote: "Erin wrote: "Also, The Light Between Oceans was recommended to me highly. I'm reading it for an August book club at work, too. Has anyone else read it, and liked it? "

I read it around the time it came out, which I will shamelessly admit was because I thought the cover was really pretty. I did like it, though maybe not QUITE as much as the reviews made me think I would. I thought it was a really interesting premise though and the moral dilemma at the center of the book was well-done.

I've just re-read and - two of my favourite childhood books. Partly in response to that silly bint saying adults should be ashamed of reading YA novels.

Erin wrote: "I love all the historical/world war recommendations from everyone (Fug Nation: great taste in clothes AND books) and wanted to know - what's a book (from any genre) you're reading now or just recen..."

For anyone who loves really vivid, well-written historical fiction (and Tudor thrillers!), my very highest recommendation for C. J. Sansom's Matthew Shardlake series. I just can't say enough good about the books, and Shardlake is one of the most sympathetic characters I've ever read. I've read a few lukewarm reviews of several of the books on goodreads, but I love every one of them. And there's a new one out next year. :)

My favorite thing I've read recently is The Golem and the Jinni. It's got the blend of old timey flavor and more than a touch of magic that will make almost any book work for me. It's set mostly in 1899 New York City and almost feels like a precursor to Neil Gaiman's American Gods; there's no direct connection, but they share the idea of magic and mythology of the "old world" being brought along to the new, and the mixing and clash of cultures that ensues.

The Red Tent was truly one of the best books I've ever read. The fact that every woman in our family has now read it only made it better.

Has anyone read any of the Philippa Gregory books? The White Queen, the Red Queen, The Lady of the Rivers, etc? What's the concensus on them?

Also, I've been encouraged to read the Outlander series (not the least because it's been turned into a cable series). Anyone read any of those?

Seconding the recs for Maggie Stiefvater & The Golem and the Jinni!

I haven't read the Outlander series, but a good friend is and she's loving it (I trust her taste 100%). I'm a bit hesitant to try it myself though - from what I saw when flipping through, it looks like the accents are written out phonetically and that's something I can't deal with.

Linda_AZ wrote: "Erin wrote: "I love all the historical/world war recommendations from everyone (Fug Nation: great taste in clothes AND books) and wanted to know - what's a book (from any genre) you're reading now ..."

i'll second this. Matthew Shardlake is a great character, the time period is exactingly captured, and I loved all of those books too!

Sara wrote: "My favorite thing I've read recently is The Golem and the Jinni. It's got the blend of old timey flavor and more than a touch of magic that will make almost any book work for me. It..."

I completely agree with this. I found myself reading it more and more slowly because I didn't want it to end. I recommended it to several people, each of whom liked it as much as I did.

I also recently read Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki which was excellent. And Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which I find myself thinking about all the time, even 5 months after I read it. It's intense and fascinating.

A YA favourite that *everyone* should read is I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.

Read it for the first time last year and wish I'd read it as a 14-year-old. She captures the gauche naivety of being a teen perfectly. And the film has Henry Cavill. Just saying.

Leah wrote: "I haven't read the Outlander series, but a good friend is and she's loving it (I trust her taste 100%). I'm a bit hesitant to try it myself though - from what I saw when flipping through, it looks like the accents are written out phonetically and that's something I can't deal with. "

The accents ARE written out phonetically, and I really wish they weren't, but I think you get used to it after a while, and I admit it does a lot to emphasize the strangeness the main character feels at being a 20th century Englishwoman surrounded by 18th century Scots. It was something that irritated me a bit at first, but I finally just got used to it. Also, I don't know--compared to say Hagrid's accent being written phonetically in Harry Potter, I feel like this is a much milder use of the technique.

My advice I always give people considering reading Outlander is to read the first three, and then stop. Which is really hard to do, and most of my friends who have read these books on my recommendation have ignored this piece of advice, but I love the first three and wished she'd quit there (which was her original plan, for the record, sigh). I've read all of them (well, I'm still working on the new one that just came out last week) and the later ones are fine, but they're super long and really in need of editing, so not as much fun as the first three, which are a slightly cheesy delight. I'm excited to see how the TV series turns out!

Erin wrote: "I love all the historical/world war recommendations from everyone (Fug Nation: great taste in clothes AND books) and wanted to know - what's a book (from any genre) you're reading now or just recen..."

Hi Erin! Just finished Philipp Meyer's The Son. It's a grand epic following three generations of a Texas family. One of the family members is kidnapped and raised with Comanche Indians in the 19th century--I never wanted those sections of the book to end. The later generations transition from cattle ranching to oil. It's like a literary (and not-campy) version of Dallas. It's very long but I flew through it.

I also recently read All the Light We Cannot See, if you're in the mood for a WWII book. It's not quite "romantical problems set during wartime" but it's set in France and in Germany, so a different setting than many WWII stories. Like what someone earlier said about The Light Between Oceans, I didn't love it quite as much as I had been lead to believe by the rapturous reviews, but if you have a yen for a big WWII story, you might check it out.

And if you want a quick historical novel and don't mind a little tragedy, try The Maid's Version, set in the Ozarks in the 1920s/1930s. It's almost a novella and it hums right along!

Happy summer reading!

Erykah wrote: "A YA favourite that *everyone* should read is I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.

Read it for the first time last year and wish I'd read it as a 14-year-old. She captures the gauche naivety of be..."

Can't tell you how many times I've read I Capture the Castle. Such a lovely and melancholic portrait of pre-WWII England. Have to admit I wasn't thrilled by the casting in the movie, except for Henry Cavill. Then her descriptions of Stephen in the book and his ultimate choice of career made perfect sense.

ooh, Megan! A Tale for the Time Being is PHENOMENAL! I was lucky enough to get an early copy of it last year and couldn't put it down. :) Naturally it's one I've recommended over and over again.

Another favorite from last year is Kate Atkinson's Life After Life. Seriously wonderful and features both world wars.

Fiatluxury wrote: "Linda_AZ wrote: "Erin wrote: "I love all the historical/world war recommendations from everyone (Fug Nation: great taste in clothes AND books) and wanted to know - what's a book (from any genre) yo..."

I was so tickled to see this! I've been dying to know someone who's read and loved them, too! :)

My very favorite YA series of all time, which I have been rereading every few years since I was a kid (and I'm 56 now), is Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain. Adventure, legend, magic, friendship, loss and victory, life and death, and all so well written. The first couple books are written for the younger end of the YA spectrum, but I guess Alexander expected his young readers to grow with the series, because the last one is quite heavy. Deeply satisfying.

Linda_AZ wrote: "My very favorite YA series of all time, which I have been rereading every few years since I was a kid (and I'm 56 now), is Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain. Adventure, legend, magic, fr..."

(I mean it deals with heavier concepts--it's not just adventure!)

Montmaray series by Michelle Cooper ... so good! Gets better with each book.

Linda_AZ wrote: "My very favorite YA series of all time, which I have been rereading every few years since I was a kid (and I'm 56 now), is Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain. Adventure, legend, magic, fr..."

THESE ARE MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF ALL TIME OMG. A really good friend of mine and I first bonded in library school when on the first day of our children's lit class we had to tell the class what our favorite book series was and we both said Prydain. I FREAKING LOVE THESE BOOKS. This friend and I just got her fiance to read the series and he legit teared up at the end of The High King (which makes me bawl every time). I'm always so excited when I find someone else who's read this series, they are legitimately my favorite books on the planet.

I recently read and really loved 'War Horse'. I only saw the movie trailer and thought it looked really cheesy (even though it has Hiddleston and Cumberbatch so maybe I *should* check it out) and have never seen the stage adaption, I didn't even know it was a children's novel and stumbled upon it one day. It's really really moving and also short, which sometimes is just what I'm looking for when I'm not in the mood to start a long book :) I'm on a WWI reading binge anyway atm which started last year when I read Birdsong (oh God, I cried).

Linda_AZ wrote: "My very favorite YA series of all time, which I have been rereading every few years since I was a kid (and I'm 56 now), is Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain. Adventure, legend, magic, fr..."

I LOVED these books!! That and The Blue Sword (Newbery Honor Roll) Publisher: Puffin by Robin McKinley were some of my absolute favorite books growing up, and I still re-read them almost every summer!

Joanie wrote: "The Red Tent was truly one of the best books I've ever read. The fact that every woman in our family has now read it only made it better.

Has anyone read any of the Philippa Gregory books? The Wh..."

I started to read The Red Queen but I didn't get past the first 100 pages. Maybe it's because I've read another book about Margaret Beaufort before but somehow I just couldn't (is that the right past tense for 'I JUST CAN'T'? :) with Gregory's characterization of her. Maybe I'd like her other books better? I'll probably give it another chance some time. My favourite books about the Plantagenets and the Tudors are written by Rebecca Gablé, but most of them seem to be available only in German (actually, I just checked and the first volume of the Fortune's Wheel trilogy - maybe my favourite book? - seems to be available in the UK at least!).

For GFYers who like sci-fi, horror, or suspense (there has to be more than just me, right?), The Passage and The Twelve by Justin Cronin were amazing, especially in audiobook format. They are especially good for listening while you work out -- I definitely walked/ran/elliptical-ed faster during the tense parts! The last book of the trilogy, The City of Mirrors, comes out this fall, just in time for me to deliver my first child. Not sure it's stuff I'll be reading/listening to on maternity leave, but it WOULD help keep me awake. :) ~ ErinB

Linda_AZ - not only am I a Shardlake fan, but I'm also a Prydain fan! Since I got The Black Cauldron out of the library in 3rd grade. We are clearly soulmates.

(Irrelevant: A friend of mine gets crap from her family for reading endless mysteries as it is; and for some reason the idea of a hunchbacked lawyer detective in the court of Hank VIII sends her sister into hysterics. On paper, it IS a bit of a stretch, but so well done!)

Janine wrote:
Has anyone read any of the Philippa Gregor..."

Thank you for the insight on the books. I liked the series, but I always prefer to read whenever I can. I'll have to check out the Rebecca Gable books.

Seconding the recs for The Passage trilogy! It's one of the most unique takes on vampires I've ever read. My current favorite to gush about is In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters. It's beautifully written historical fiction that manages to be both fascinating and creepy.

I read a BUNCH of the Philippa Gregory books, well before The Tudors came to Showtime. And I liked them... for a while. I think I read 5 or 6 of them, but they all got so "samey" after a time. Then, of course, I watched The Tudors, and IT was so good...until it wasn't. ;)

I am loving all these recommendations. When I finally get my head out of my butt and get this house organized after our move, I need to read The Goldfinch for my bookclub and Code Name Verity for THIS bookclub. I am looking forward to both!

Erin wrote: "Linda_AZ wrote: "My very favorite YA series of all time, which I have been rereading every few years since I was a kid (and I'm 56 now), is Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain. Adventure, ..."

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVED The Blue Sword.

Martha wrote: "Linda_AZ wrote: "My very favorite YA series of all time, which I have been rereading every few years since I was a kid (and I'm 56 now), is Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain. Adventure, ..."

Yay!!! It's such fun to meet people who love the same books!! Prydain is very real to me, and I love so many of the characters so much. They are so, so human, whatever else they are. :)

Erin wrote: "I love all the historical/world war recommendations from everyone (Fug Nation: great taste in clothes AND books) and wanted to know - what's a book (from any genre) you're reading now or just recen..."

I second the recommendation for Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore- it's such fun read! I love books featuring characters who love books!

Fiatluxury wrote: "Linda_AZ - not only am I a Shardlake fan, but I'm also a Prydain fan! Since I got The Black Cauldron out of the library in 3rd grade. We are clearly soulmates.

(Irrelevant: A friend of mine gets..."


How great! We certainly are on the same wavelength!

Shardlake does sound a bit of a stretch! And when you factor in the happenings (Greek fire! Murderous monks! Mad folk galore!).... But, yes, SO well done.

I've read the whole Red Queen White Queen Lady of the Rivers series and liked them a lot. It's interesting because they all are written with the main character's viewpoint, but the main characters from the other books show up, of course.

If people like Regency Romances, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig (and the other books in the series) are a hoot.

For British WWII historical novels (of which I read a whole bunch last year), try The Secret Keeper, Blackout and All Clear and Mr. Churchill's Secretary

LOVED The Secret Keeper (and the rest of Morton's novels!).

I've heard wonderful things about Willig's series.

Kate wrote: "If people like Regency Romances, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig (and the other books in the series) are a hoot.

I have to second the rec for the Pink Carnation series. I did think they got a little same-y around the 4th or 5th book, but I'm a sucker for spies + romance + history, so...I powered through. :)

I'm reading "Outlander," and it's outstanding.