Readerville Veterans discussion

I've been in a reading funk for a while now and am trying to figure out how to push my way through it. I start and stop books, can't seem to focus -- everything seems sort of just OK.

So... 2 questions.

1. What have you read in the past six months that really knocked your socks off?

2. How do you push through a reading funk?

My sympathies, Luann. Reading funks are the worst. I find it sometimes helps to select smaller books, lighter stories, funny stuff. I sometimes have luck focusing on nonfiction for a while. (I usually read almost all fiction.) Sometimes it works to read something a bit shocking or relentless. I had luck recently with Rodeo in Joliet. I don't know if I loved it, but it never let me go.

Oops. Just looked at your list and I see you've already read it. I also recommend All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost: A Novel and Annabel.

Magazines and mysteries.

I am reading Just Kids now and it's sweet and lovely. RL is hard right now and this is magical - a chapter before bedtime.

Oh yes, magazines. I've found the New Yorker on Kindle to often be just the thing. If the NYer does not rise to the slump, try Vogue or something that shakes you up visually.

I started Rodeo but put it aside for a bit. I went through a cancer death this past year and it felt a bit too soon.

I went through a bunch of New Yorkers this morning that had piled up over the weeks.

Reading slump may be connected to this lousy cold that has lingered, ebbed and returned for the past few weeks.

Hello reading friends with similar taste--

You know who you are, I think. I am now in a reading slump, and I am in desperate need of a new novel available on Kindle that will carry me through a long bus ride and beyond later this week. I have a couple short story collections going but they're not doing the trick. The last novel I loved was All Our Names. I can't even get into The Goldfinch, and the new book on the pleasures of reading by Wendy Lesser even feels like a dud. What is wrong with me?

I just read the new Emma Donoghue. I thought it was a little repetitive but it's engrossing enough for a bus ride.

Oops, That's Frog Music.

I thought of that one. Wasn't sure if the situation as described in reviews would work for me, but maybe. And I didn't much like Room, so I've been put off her a bit.

I want Alice Adams or Laurie Colwin to be resurrected or something. Don't get no satisfaction lately.

Big slump here as well. But a couple that really worked for me lately: Clever Girl -- Tessa Hadley; A Time To Be Born -- Dawn Powell; and I'm enjoying the collection by Lorrie Moore- Bark.

Hey Luann--Funny, I've read all those. Lauren sent me Clever Girl, I read all the Dawn Powells a few years ago, and I reviewed (and loved) Lorrie Moore's Bark in my pre-publication review for Library Journal. So...indeed we do have similar taste. Maybe I should check your TBR list to see what you want to read next.

Kindle has a bunch of Ada Leverson for free. I loved The Little Ottleys triology: Love's Shadow, Tenterhooks, and Love at Second Sight.

Have you read The Moonflower Vine?

Have you tried We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Sue?

Oh yes, Moonflower Vine is fantastic.

Luann, I don't know Ada Leverson. That might work. Susan, I tried We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves but had some trouble accepting the premise.

Scrap the Donoghue - huge disappointment.

Happened upon a good story collection from my "want to read" list, Normal People Don't Live Like This, by Dylan Landis. Read almost the whole thing on the bus and finished last night. Now not sure what comes next. I had a feeling about the Donoghue.