What are you reading right now?

"The Forgetting" was a great book! I highly recommend it.

If you want to read it make sure you get the one by Hannah Beckerman, there is more than one book with that title.

A fabulous novel by Charmaine Craig called My Nemesis.
A blurb calls it "sly and seething" and they got THAT right. I would like to thow the female protagonist into the fires of Hades myself.

Book bans in schools are reaching an all time high. Tons of books along with the Bible! It’s crazy!

The wives are finally starting to get smart. Just starting.......

Don't you hate it when the characters are so lame you don't care whether they live or die? LOL

The Forgetting, Hannah Beckerman

I am about 2/3 through, to the point that the two manipulative men and two naive wives are so stupid I almost feel physically ill. I am definitely angry!

Okay thanks for the update Glad, I'll put that one on my "don't bother" list.

The Laurie R King book Back to the Garden was a disappointment too, the plot line was all over the place and I had a hard time even figuring out who the main protagonist was meant to be :(

Still stuck in Joyce Carol Oates old Gothics. Still working my way thru all three and now am in the midst of The Mysteries of Winterthurn.

Finished "Through the Darkening Glass" very strange and somewhat enjoyable or I would not have finished it. But, not five stars, probably 2.5 maybe 3.

I’m currently back to my long-term reads for stressful complicated situations – Georgette Heyer’s Regency Romances. I think I have the lot. I used to read them 50 years ago at examination time, to calm down my head. I know many of them more or less by heart.

This is NOT the right time for the solid stuff, like the History of the Papacy!

Glad, Joyce Carol Oate's Gothics are not books I would recommend. They are takeoff on the gothics of the 1800s and they are odd odd odd. VERY odd. She admits in her author's notes she was obsessed with thinking on them and with writing them, and almost could not let the obsession go when she stopped. If you want to read an amazing book by her choose Blackwater, a takeoff on the Ted Kennedy/Mary Jo Kopecne car crash and drowning of the latter. THAT is short and AMAZING. Fictionalized account, but real clear exactly who she is talking about. I believe her shortest book and perhaps her best. She has in her latter years become very very dark indeed.

Keeping a Quiet Heart
Elizabeth Elliot

Glad - I tend to discount the top reviews for everything and look at what everyone else is saying. When you get a lot of credible sounding people saying essentially the same thing I tend to believe them, and although some people seem to love the book a lot of others have really panned it.

In Order to Live by Yeommi Park.
At 13 she “escaped” North Korea only to be immediately trafficked by her smuggler in China. It details her oppressive life in NK and China. Rescued by South Korean missionaries, she lives in USA, and is an advocate for suffering NK victims, especially human trafficking. Timely reminder of the blessings we enjoy.

Alva, 752 pages?! Don't think I will read that one but it does sound like a good book. It would probably take me a month, at least, to read!

Bellefleur, Joyce Carol Oats old (1980) gothic. I love it dark.
Had three of her gothics saved forever, covered in mylar jackets, in the library. Decided to do them one as a time. Bloodsmoor Romance is next. I kept these intending always to "read them again". At 80 figure it's now or never, then can give them away. Heavy books taxing the arthritic fingers and the aging eyes.

CW, Goodreads shows four stars as does Amazon. I wonder if the Canadian Goodreads is different ratings that US?

Give us a review when you've finished it Glad, many of the reviews at goodreads are not very high.

I'm currently into the newest Laurie R King book, I'm not sure yet whether it's good or not.

Through A Darkening Glass. Set in 1940's England during WWII. A story of a girl murdered 1910's now believed to be a wraith, a ghost, haunting the town where the main characters have evacuated to from London.

Fun, but curious and strange actually kinda creepy.

Glad, we got YouTube TV as well. Never had so many channels, and so much less than our cable was, which in SF was Astound-Wave and had gone up over 200 a month. You could call and plead that you were a senior and get a teensy bit off, but had to do it all the time, the charges were going up monthly. Things are so much better now. We have Sonic for the computers/phone and youtube TV for the rest, and can really get anything we care to watch now. I so agree with you.

Finished "Hidden in Snow". Highly recommended! I am also going to check out "The Sandhamn Murders". This book series was so popular it was made into a tv series. Will try to find that as well. It might have English subtitles or maybe even in English. English is taught throughout school in Sweden and Norway from what I understand.

Oh and I fell asleep watching Dick Van Dyke on YouTube tonight. Woke up to the complete movie of Bonanza, yes all 3+ hours! No I didn't watch it. YouTube also has some full length, free, movies.

For those that are interested that want to get rid of cable tv, that satellite on your roof, and the $130 bill that comes along with it, try YouTube TV. At least It was $130 when I dropped It 1.5 years ago, and wouldn't go back! It is wonderful and actually includes some premium channels included in the only $65/month fee. YouTube TV is an app on your smart TV, it it is not there search for it. There is a free one week trial.

SMH I wonder how long until we stop referring to them as Smart TV's. You can't buy stupid ones any more, can you?

YouTube and YouTube TV are different.

I'm reading a book called Knock Knock by Anders Roslund. Pretty good but I keep on getting sidetracked. Seems I've been reading it for a while now.

It is kind of interesting it is smoked creamed cod roe. The book calls it caviar and of course that is what roe is, especially if the cod type. I just never thought of that product as caviar.

glad - yes, I remember that . I gather it was good! All that snow feels familiar.❄❄❄ You can get the smoked roe on Amazon. I think it is gluten and dairy free.

I am enjoying it so far, about 100 pages in, a lot of character intro and development, so moving a bit slow at first. A dead body falls off a ski lift chair when started for the day, a missing teen and a cop, with a very wealthy sister, that has lost her job and her boyfriend.

Do you remember me saying I had smoked creamed roe, Kalles, one night for dinner? It is a product of Sweden. The product has been brought up in the book.

Houseplant - sounds interesting. Water is so basic to life.

glad - Let us know about Hidden in Snow. I see it is available through Kindle unlimited.

I just started the first book of a new series by Swedish author Vivica Sten titled Hidden in Snow. So far, very good. It is translated into English which is interesting because there are a few misinterpretations that are easy to figure out what it should say. She has a previous series that has been brought to Swedish television.

I find The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman to be worthy of my time. No one escapes the +/- of water. Part of the human experience. The author is quite adept at weaving multiple perspective into one story.

My favorite is the plight of very young girls still subjected to near slavery conditions and no opportunities for education. Cultural beliefs/decisions frequently made at young girls expense. A modern day life, that by default, requires human labor to deliver water to villiages and yes, modern day cities. The "provider" of a family must do money making jobs, and someone must still deliver water. Young boys are better able to escape water duty with the expectation they will someday be the financial supporter of the family. Girls will eventually be providers of personal care for their elder parents after raising their own children.
Given the crazy world, I find this to be a good book to have on the coffee table to pick up and read as much as interests me at the moment. The author is so good at blending today's national and international water use. Dependency on nature, science, money, legal/moral standing, personal worth or value to others is still so dependent upon this one resource.
I spent the first 2/3 of my life in the Western US, so water was always an active topic from primary grades through college. So much opportunity because of water, yet some young girls futures are still far worse than our parents and grandparents due to a lack of water and a way to deliver it to people's homes.

This is really a good read on women's issues which I never expected.

I think I'm going to read Fishman's other book - The Walmart Effect. This would not interest me, but for the fact that Fishman is so smooth at weaving a story that is true and interesting and even an education.

It's a good read without the trash that is so often used as scare tactics or turmoil given the human condition.

Just finished Verity. I don't think I liked it as much as Alva. On to the next one.

If people do podcasts at all then on your same tablet you can subscribe free to Librivox. You will have a choice of many many many many books read to you any time you want. They are currently reading Pride and Prejudice to me.
On the bookshelf, Cloisters, recommended here by Glad, which was great fun and heading back to the library. Am going to plunge into Susan Sontag memoir now by the gal who lived with her and her son a while. Sempre Susan, by Sigrid Nunez. Susan Sontag was one DIFFICULT woman, but what a writer. I'd say I can only begin to understand a third of her writings, but those I do are remarkable. Her best, to me, was Illness as Metaphor.