What are you reading right now?

I started the new James Paterson/Bill Clinton book “The Presiden’s Daughter”
Easy reading. I’ve got a couple of other entertaining books to read. My concentration isn’t good since my last surgeries. I think I had too much anesthesia too close together.

bridger - Reading "The Moonstone" is like shoveling clay. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins is much better. I enjoyed it. Having finished The Song of the Lark, I will read Oh Pioneers soon.

Hallah - "Read-Alikes" sounds useful. I have not read any of Baldacci's.

Bellerose - Steinbeck!!! Haven't read him for years, I love the film of Zorba and never thought of reading the book. Worth checking out.

MJ - thanks for the info on "West With Giraffes". I found it on Kindle Unlimited and am over half way through and really enjoying it.

Currently reading "West with Giraffes," by Lynda Rutledge. It's about a 17-year-old boy who helps drive a truck with two giraffes bound for the San Diego Zoo across the country in 1938. It's based on true events, and it's just delightful.

Just finished Cannery Row. It’s about individuals living in a depressed fishing industry neighborhood, their money-making exploits, care for one another and daily life. Working on Zorba The Greek. It’s a classic narrative of a very memorable personality.

This was passed on to me recently. I haven’t tried it out yet but wanted to mention it to others. hallah

If you read a book that you really enjoyed, and would like to read something similar, here is a site to use.
 
‘Read-Alikes’ at BookBrowse    https://www.bookbrowse.com/read-alikes/
 
Here you can find handpicked read-alike recommendations for more than 4000 contemporary books and 3000 authors. Use the alphabetical lists below to look up a favorite book or author and then click "See Read-Alikes" to discover similar books.
Or scroll down to search.
 
"all works of fiction and narrative nonfiction are broadly made up of four experiential elements: 
story, character, setting, and language."
 
A book with story as its biggest doorway is one that readers describe as a page-turner, a book that they can't put down because they desperately want to discover what happens next.
 
A book with character as its biggest doorway is a book in which readers feel so connected with the characters that when the book is over they feel they've lost someone dear to them.
 
Readers of novels in which setting is most prominent say things like "I felt like I was there."
 
A book in which language is the major doorway leads readers to utter sentences like "I read more slowly because I wanted to savor the language."

Good, glad to hear it Hallah! 😊

Gershun, yes, I am enjoying it. It’s one of his better ones. It keeps me guessing and wanting to keep reading to see what happens next.

I don’t always get newer books as I tend to get books from The Little Free Libraries near me. I may get one or more and after reading them, return them and see what else is interesting. With the LFL’s I don’t have to sign them out.

Hallah it's been a bit since I read that one. Hope you are enjoying it.

I’m about half way through “Total Control” by David Baldacci.

I’ve read Oh Pioneers and My Antonia. I’ll have to Greg Song of the Lark. You mentioned the Wilkie Collins book The Moonstone. Took me forever to read in college. Never tried anything else by Collins.

I'm more than half way through The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather. It's a nice change from the murder mysteries. I think I will read the other two of her Prairie trilogy, Oh Pioneers and My Antonia, and look into some of her other writings.

I see The Flight Girls is available in Kindle unlimited so I will have a look at it too. Thanks for mentioning it, GA. It looks interesting.

cw and gershun - wishing you find some good reads.

I'm reading Sisters in Arms, by Kaia Alderson.   I've been more interested in women in the military after reading The Flight Girls (WWII pilots) 5 times.     I've always been interested in flying, and my father spoke often of the WASPs   (Women's Airforce Service Pilots) and how they were not offered the same benefits as male pilots, served as military personnel but weren't honored as such, until several decades later.    

Sisters in Arms is a tale of 2 black women who join the Women's Army Auxilliary Corps, an all black, all female, segregated group of women who serve in the Army.  The author has written other novels about the mistreatment and verbal abuse of blacks, and addresses it in this novel through interactions with racist whites.  

I think I'll buy more novels (one can never have enough books!) on women in the military.   It's a different perspective from so many popular novels.

I went through a bad batch of books recently and I have this thing where I have to finish a book no matter what. So.......yeh, hours I'll never get back.

I've had a run of really crappy books lately and one stand out that I devoured in one mammoth reading session, a futuristic novel called We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker.
I've just downloaded a new batch from the library, I'm hoping that even if they aren't great they are not so bad as the last bunch and I'll at least be able to finish them.

I'm reading a novel titled The House of Guests by Emilie Richards

It's not going to win any awards but it's fairly enjoyable to read.

I plowed through Wilkie Collins The Moonstone. It was hard work. I had enjoyed The Woman in White so was disappointed. Reading assorted mysteries intermittently with Wilkie Collins and Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street. The latter brings me back to my time in Scotland.

Just finished These Toxic Things. Very strange twisted story! Very good, yes I recommend it.

Just starting These Toxic Things: A Thriller.

Looks to be a great one so far.

The toxic things belong to a woman that has been recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

I finished "The Plot". Highly recommend it. Now I can see what this online book club is all about.

Now shopping for my next read.

I've read and enjoyed all the Ruth Galloway series Pamz, they are a lighter read without being cutesy or mind-numbingly lame and unbelievable like too many in the cozy mystery genre.

If you like mysteries,, I just read Black Widows,, and Madam,, both quirky and interesting I am also reading all of the mysteries by Elly Griffiths,, have read some new ones, so now trying to read them from the beginning.. her main is a female forensic archeologist in england who works with police..

I just read, on another thread, about a virtual book club site. A new book is discussed every two weeks. The book for September 14 is The Plot, which I have wAnted to get working on more diligently for awhile now. Maybe this will be the push I need.

Oh, the book club?

https://zibbyowens.com/virtualbookclub

The thread I read about it on?
https://www.agingcare.com/questions/please-recommend-an-online-book-clubscrabble-club-online-activity-group-im-an-empty-nester-now-469680.htm?orderby=oldest�

Am re-reading Possession by A.S. Byatt and reading The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich.

I tried a light cozy mystery and it was silly. Others have been much better and I enjoyed them.

Right now I am back into classic British mysteries of the past - British Mysteries Ultimate Collection: 560+ Detective Novels, Thriller Classics, Murder Mysteries, Whodunit Tales & True Crime Stories.

I have a similar collection which I have pretty well read to the end, so am picking through this one to find authors the other book didn't include. They are very good value for a few bucks.

First cozy mystery, beachfront bakery, a loser. Did you ever just skim a book to just get it finished so you can start something else? I did.

Mrs Rochesters Ghost was great kinda a rewrite, modern approach to Jane Eyre.

I've recently read a couple of books by Tana French, she's been on my must try list for a long time but for whatever reason my library hasn't carried anything by her until now. Apparently long time fans were not thrilled with either book because they veered away from her regular Dublin murder squad series, since I wasn't hung up on that I enjoyed them very much!

Mrs. Rochester's Ghost. Interesting, I am enjoying it.

I still have not finished Ruth Reichl's "my kitchen year", and am getting through a stack of older magazines to pass on in an effort to get through the build up of papers/recipes/clutter fire hazard:-)

Garden Artist,
I love those magazines too. I live in the country and it brings back many memories of years gone by with my family. We were very close growning up.
Don't let anyone take away your pleasure of reading upbeat stories. In a world of negativity and stress it is great to have some good reading that is postive.

Yes, I agree that magazines with only negative articles wouldn’t have much of a market, and we all need to look on the bright side. What gets to me is that all these upbeat articles in our trade magazines are so high upbeat that you suffer from lack of oxygen. Oz is the land of ‘droughts and flooding rains’ plus fires and at the moment trade embargoes from China, but there’s never a mention of the fact that a lot of farmers are going broke or into nervous breakdowns. Just pictures of happy families with exciting news and lots of smiles.

It comes across loud and clear that the trade association management and the journalists aren’t actually living it. I once asked a guy who was well connected in wool production, if any of the Board would ever have washed a woolen jumper and dried it flat, after several articles about how much better wool was than any of the synthetics. He thought for several seconds, then said ‘probably not’. It would be reassuring to feel that the powers that be do actually know about the problems in the industry!

Anyway that’s enough. I’m glad that someone finds it so pleasurable and relaxing to read about, and particularly glad that the someone is you, Garden Artist!