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book banter > January 2021 - What are you reading?

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message 1: by Bill (last edited Dec 31, 2020 09:34PM) (new)

Bill | 465 comments I'm starting off the year reading The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy; which features a member of the hijra (third gender) community in India as a primary character.


message 2: by John (new)

John Re-started Portraits and Observations: The Essays of Truman Capote, which I had set aside a while ago.


message 4: by Natasha (new)

Natasha Holme (natashaholme) | 465 comments Starting the year with a little bit of light reading!: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.


message 5: by Christopher (new)

Christopher Jeppesen | 1 comments I’m starting off the year with The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin!


message 6: by Matthew (new)

Matthew (massmj) | 15 comments Yesterday I read "book 2" in the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series, and this morning I started Drum Corps in the 1980s, by Alan Karls. Tonight, after supper, I'll start The Gentleman from Moscow, by Amor Towles. For the last few weeks, I've been making my way through an audiobook called Society and the Internet by Mark Graham et al.


message 7: by Rick (new)

Rick | 1767 comments Christopher wrote: "I’m starting off the year with The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin!"

I love that book!

So far this month I’ve finished:
Doctor Who: Luna Romana
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 6 &
Doctor Who: The Perpetual Bond

I’m also finishing up Lent and About Time 3: The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who.


message 8: by [deleted user] (new)

I have started the year with No Priest but Love: The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister 1824-1826, the second volume of extracts from Anne Lister's diaries.


message 9: by Natasha (new)

Natasha Holme (natashaholme) | 465 comments Andrew wrote: "I have started the year with No Priest but Love: The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister 1824-1826, the second volume of extracts from Anne Lister's diaries."

The lesser known sequel! What a player that woman was :-)


message 10: by Mauro (new)

Mauro Sala (salamaro) | 35 comments I have started 2021 with a sci fi novel, as I did in 2020 with the beautiful Exhalation by Ted Chiang, unfortunately this year the choice hasn't been that lucky: I am reading Recursion by Blake Crouch and the only good think I can say about it is that it is a very quick read.


message 12: by Mauro (new)

Mauro Sala (salamaro) | 35 comments I have finished Recursion which I hated (it is the first time in over a year and a half that I give a book just one star), I should start now Lot


message 13: by Natasha (new)

Natasha Holme (natashaholme) | 465 comments Mauro wrote: "I have finished Recursion which I hated (it is the first time in over a year and a half that I give a book just one star)"

I didn't enjoy the repetition. It did drag on rather. But I suppose that was the point! Have you read Dark Matter by the same author? I enjoyed that much more.


message 14: by Rick (new)

Rick | 1767 comments Mauro wrote: "I have finished Recursion which I hated (it is the first time in over a year and a half that I give a book just one star)... “

We read that for my library’s sci-if fantasy book club last year. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t find it very original. Probably as I’ve read a lot of Michael Moorcock and comic books. Such time travel stuff is cliche in comic books. I liked Dark Matter more as well.


message 15: by Eugene (new)

Eugene Galt (eugenegalt) | 286 comments Christopher wrote: "I’m starting off the year with The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin!"

I read that last summer and thought it was pretty interesting.

I just read Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara.


message 17: by Mauro (new)

Mauro Sala (salamaro) | 35 comments Natasha wrote: "I didn't enjoy the repetition. It did drag on rather. But I suppose that was the point! Have you read Dark Matter by the same author? I enjoyed that much more."

I don't know. I think some time will pass before I take another book from Blake Crouch in my hands.


message 18: by Rick (new)

Rick | 1767 comments Mauro wrote: "I don't know. I think some time will pass before I take another book from Blake Crouch in my hands."

I agree.


message 20: by Chris (new)

Chris | 16 comments Just finished An Irish Country Doctor, now picking up Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones...

In December I finished reading Babbitt, interesting read given our current political climate...


message 22: by Bill (last edited Jan 15, 2021 11:10AM) (new)

Bill | 465 comments I'm reading Natural History , a novel by Carlos Fonseca


message 23: by John (new)

John John wrote: "Re-started Portraits and Observations: The Essays of Truman Capote, which I had set aside a while ago."

Bumping my comment to link my review of this highly recommended work:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


message 24: by Rick (last edited Jan 15, 2021 03:53PM) (new)

Rick | 1767 comments I’ve started The Windup Girl for my sci-fi/fantasy book club. We’ve been doing zoom meetings now that it’s gotten colder and we can’t meet outside. I don’t like zoom meetings. 😾


message 25: by Tim (new)

Tim | 152 comments Just finished Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer for a book club read which I really enjoyed and learned a lot.

Also reading The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Volume 2: Purgatorio for class and Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life because I guess I was looking for a challenge to start the year off with...


message 27: by John (new)

John Wierd, dark mystery: Gallows Court


message 28: by Tim (last edited Jan 18, 2021 05:17PM) (new)

Tim | 152 comments Read Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart over the weekend and just started a thread on it over in the Plays & Shows section of this group. I found the play startlingly current and would love to hear from others, especially if you had a chance to see a live performance.

My Review.


message 29: by Rachel (last edited Jan 19, 2021 09:59AM) (new)

Rachel | 0 comments My first book of 2021 was Shuggie Bain which was excellent, if grim. I finished that a few days ago and picked up Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat which I am loving. Short stories. I've only read her memoir Brother, I'm Dying before this and think I need to read all her fiction now. Next up might be the sequel to Call Me By Your Name?


message 30: by Jess (new)

Jess (jessth) I have just finished a memoir - I Promised Not to Tell: Raising a transgender child and it was so lovely!


message 31: by Tim (new)

Tim | 152 comments Just finished The Tiger Flu which reminded me of a Cronenberg movie - reviewed here.

Currently listening to I Have Something to Tell You


message 32: by John (new)

John Working on Muriel Spark's The Mandelbaum Gate, unfortunately the Catholic angst isn't something that I can get into - here's hoping there's more to the story soon.


message 33: by Ian (new)

Ian Fryer | 6 comments Just ordered a copy of the classic The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies, which I'm really looking forward to reading. It's coming from Germany (I'm in the UK) so it'll be a few weeks.


message 36: by Bill (new)

Bill | 465 comments Yesterday January 25 was St Dwynwen's Day in Wales. She is regarded as the Welsh St Valentine. So I'm reading Playing Chicken: A short St Dwynwen's Day story by non-binary author A.L. Lester


message 37: by Mauro (new)

Mauro Sala (salamaro) | 35 comments I've finished Lot by Bryan Washington and it is a great book. Now I should start Paradise Sky by Joe R. Lansdale.


message 38: by Bill (last edited Jan 27, 2021 07:15PM) (new)

Bill | 465 comments I'm finally reading The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman, the final volume in "The Magicians Trilogy."


message 39: by Chris (last edited Jan 30, 2021 07:17PM) (new)

Chris | 16 comments Natasha wrote: "Starting the year with a little bit of light reading!: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand."

Overall I liked Atlas Shrugged. Some of the dialog was so bad I laughed out loud, but the imagery and characters are so memorable it really sticks with you! If you like it, but want to hear the other side of her arguments I would recommend The Jungle or The Grapes of Wrath...


message 40: by Eugene (new)

Eugene Galt (eugenegalt) | 286 comments I thought that the heroes in Atlas Shrugged were almost comic-book superheroes but that the villains were spot-on.

I just started The Storm: One Voice from the AIDS Generation by Christopher Zyda. This should be interesting because Zyda and I are close in age and because I volunteered on HIV issues in the eighties and even started the AIDS ministry at the church I was attending at the time.


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