I'm currently reading My Friends by Hisham Matar (because you praised it). I started it yesterday and I'm halfway through now. I can't stop reading. So good on many levels: on just about every page there's an original phrasing or insight; I feel a strong emotional connection to the narrator; and I learn a lot about Lybian history. I read the new novel by Claire Messud just before this one, and in its subject matter there are some similarities, but that novel disappointed me. It started well, and the language and observations are very beautiful at times, but often irrelevant to the overall arc. I just couldn't connect to any of the characters as it switched between points of view. Lots of history too, but I didn't get drawn in.

@EricKarlAnderson

16 күн бұрын

That's so good to hear! Matar's novel is fantastically moving and insightful. I'm surprised it's not appearing on these lists. And it's so interesting to hear your response to Messud's novel which I'm still reading. I'm really enjoying it - especially the section about the daughter who starts working in the bookshop.

@fallingwickets

15 күн бұрын

@@EricKarlAnderson +10 on Matar sentiments,

My I suggest Mr. Fix It and Miss Sue? It has reserved five star reviews from everyone so far.

Although I’ve heard of 4, but many I’ve never heard of. I did give a copy of Wild Houses to a friend last week but I haven’t read it myself. I still want to read James.

I bought Caledonian Road because the description reminded me of a book by Norman Collins called London Belongs to Me. Nothing like it really but I loved Norman Collins so much couldn’t resist! O’Hagan has been in Australia recently, maybe still is, at various festivals and I heard him speaking on the radio. Really can’t wait to read the book. Green Dot was a good read. I really enjoyed it. Thanks Eric interesting list indeed. 🤗

Quite an eclectic list! I am so excited for our July book club read. I have held off on Caledonian Road until we get going but it is one of my most anticipated reads of the year!

A reviewer in Scotland said it was the BEST book she had ever read. "The Bluelite Message" was republished by the U.S. author celebrating its "12th anniversary edition." apparently, it's changed lives around the world...

I loved Percival Everett’s JAMES. Brilliant novel!

@maryforster1417

11 күн бұрын

I want to read this book! Thank you for your input.

I agree with you (and so many others) about James: so good! The length of Caledonian Road gives me pause but I have enjoyed O’Hagan in the past so I will give his latest a try.

I just got Caledonian Road for my birthday. Looking forward to it!

I am so hugely behind in my 2024 reading journey. I'm currently reading "The Fox Wife" which is a 2024 release from Yangsze Choo. I'm not very far into it, but so far it contains some really interesting Chinese folklore paired with a murder mystery.

Looking forward to reading Caledonian Road next week.

I am surprised that Colm Tóibín’s Long Island isn’t on this list.

@maryforster1417

11 күн бұрын

I am reading Long Island now…I love everything Colm Toibin writes! I highly recommend it..😊

I just finished The Deluge by Stephen Markley - actually released at the end of last year but I wanted to mention it. Riveting and terrifying, perhaps overlong but worth the effort IMO. I'd describe it as speculative fiction (primarily about climate change), which reads at times almost like non-fiction. So well researched and argued, provocative and shocking at times, but ultimately with a hopeful message. Recommended.

I would like to add choice to my tbr.... I'm currently reading My Sister The serial killer and really enjoying it😊

@EricKarlAnderson

16 күн бұрын

That's great! I really enjoyed Braithwaite's novel which I read a few years ago: lonesomereader.com/blog/2019/5/17/my-sister-the-serial-killer-by-oyinkan-braithwaite

@neetupd8510

16 күн бұрын

@@EricKarlAnderson Thank you for sharing this...Will read it as soon as I finish reading the book....(Which is today itself)😊

Eric just read blue sisters and loved it

@triciapearce8545

12 күн бұрын

Me too! I'm also looking forward to Cleopatra and Frankenstein which has been sitting on my Kindle a while now.

I'm interested in reading James out of that list but that's the only one from that list so far that appeals to me. Green Dot has been on my radar but I'm also not interested in an older man and younger woman story, power dynamic is so often, just off and if it's not I struggle to suspend disbelief.

If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend Demon Copperhead by Kingsolver.

@EricKarlAnderson

11 күн бұрын

Oh yes, I loved that novel and talked about it here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/dKeHsLCad5uzqLw.html

Victim is wonderful and funny. The main character does not think his life is tragic, his mother would smack him if he did. Highly recommend. The epigraph by James Baldwin says it all.

@EricKarlAnderson

15 күн бұрын

Ah okay, I must’ve misunderstood the description. Thanks

Like yourself I've also read the discomfort of evening and found it really interesting but disturbing but somehow it has stayed with me for these two years, so maybe I'll give the writer another chance. Do you think one could enjoy James eventhough one didn't like huckleberry Finn or is it a prerequisite to have enjoyed the original?

The Lost Love Songs of Boysie Singh by Ingrid Persaud.

I’m also getting really tired of books where a beautiful young woman falls in love with a gross older guy, written by a gross older guy. The woman always gains profound wisdom, because sleeping with the author’s self-insert is the way to achieve transcendence.

@tlam3309

15 күн бұрын

This author is a transgender individual. My understanding is that this book is semi-autobiographical from when she was being raised as a girl.

@samismith8752

15 күн бұрын

The majority of the most popular and most well-regarded books of this type -- at least those written the last decade or two -- have been written by the gals, not the dudes. Maybe direct your exaggerated outrage at the women that write and read these books if you're so terribly upset?

@giantcupofcoffee

15 күн бұрын

@@samismith8752 the ones written by men take on a different tone. Why are you personalizing this?

@giantcupofcoffee

15 күн бұрын

@@tlam3309 you’re the one misgendering the author then.

@samismith8752

15 күн бұрын

@@giantcupofcoffee They do not and I am not. If these books were written by anonymous authors you'd really be in a pickle, huh? Wouldn't know how to form an identity based on hating a certain type of thing or person, oh no! Whether it's performative outrage or true bigotry, it would be cool if you just stopped. The world has enough of your brand of negativity. The fact that it's currently socially acceptable for you to be this type of hateful does not make it any less annoying or bothersome.

Did you say “a hen party”?

@ginsoakedgirl4

15 күн бұрын

@librarylizard Don't get too excited, no chickens are involved 😆 It's a bachelorette party in the UK

@LibraryLizard

15 күн бұрын

@@ginsoakedgirl4 Ah, I knew I’d either heard him wrong or there was some kind of meaning attached to it.

I've noticed a trend lately.... One word book titles. Just me?

Only one I've read so far is Sleepwalkers, which was dreadful... really sloppy writing and the format is just ridiculous - it begins with a 110-page letter the MC writes to her new husband - BY HAND - in just a few hours ... telling him things he already KNOWS since he was there for all of them - and then he responds with a 62-page letter back!