I’m currently reading an obscure 2009 book called The Rapture by Liz Jensen. (I’m pretty sure anything with only 104 ratings on Amazon qualifies as “obscure.”) It was a recent gift from my son. Description: Apocalyptic global climate change fuels Jensen’s terrifying near-future tale about the human will to survive. Yeah, he knows me.
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@ignatious I should look for that Robin Hobb. I’ve enjoyed all her books, but for some reason she’s not quite on my list of books that I obsessively read every single book of.
I’m reading Jade War by Fonda Lee, which is very much the middle book of a trilogy. It’s set in a Hong Kong - like place with gangs that are sort of Mafia-like. I like the Asian setting as a change of pace. Jade gives some residents of Kekon superpowers, but now the rest of the world wants access to Jade. The world is pretty grim and I don’t love the characters, so I’ve been putting it down every time the library supplies me with a new Bridgerton novel. (Which are total fluff, but a lot of fun.)
I’ve been very slowly making my way through Americanah - I’m listening to it when I go to my basement gym, which is obviously not often enough! It’s great. The narrator is Adjoa Andoh who plays Lady Danbury on the TV version of Bridgerton. She’s terrific.
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I just read Americanah also. I really enjoyed it, although I knew nothing about the background in which it takes place.
I’m also about a third of the way through The Doctors Blackwell. I’m enjoying it very much.
Also just finished The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, by Elison. Very apocalyptic, about a world where a pandemic kills almost all the women and most of the men.
And The Night Watchmen by Louise Erdrich. I’ve read several of her books and don’t know why I continue. I don’t care for them. Apparently, though, I’m a minority.
I also have The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson on my nightstand, for another book club.
And both Caste and The Guest List by Lucy Foley are being held for me at the library.
So many books, so little time.
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I just finished the Bridgestone saga of the 8. I noticed the quality of the writing diminishing with each successive book and by the time I got to the last, I had lost interest completely. It was light and somewhat fun but she’s not a writer whose books I would eagerly wait to read.
I’ve been obsessively watching for the past month the David Suchet Poirot series and Joan Hickson Miss Marple one. I’m now watching the Geraldine McEwan Marple and have been finding that I need to read the books to keep up with their adaptation. They’ve changed things too much for my liking. I read Murder at the Vicarage and The 4:50 from Paddington.
I also read The Survivors by Jane Harper when it came off the waitlist finally.
I’m actively looking for new authors to read so I have everyone’s posts bookmarked for reference later. Suggestions welcome — I lean towards mystery and fantasy but will read anything if it is written well.
Currently reading Appointment with Death by Christie and Venetia by Georgette Heyer.
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I read Americanah back in 2013. The fact I still remember it says it all.
@Mary13: Note @VeryHappy’s above post. She mentions an apocalyptic novel. LOL (Apocalyptic novels are Mary’s jam. If an apocalypse hits, trust me, you want to get as close to Mary as you can to increase odds of survival.)
@AnAsmom: Highly recommend Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy.
My kids used to make fun when I purchased a romance novel. I owned the Bridgerton series back in the day. Ahh, how tables turned when they started asking if I still had them.
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I’m reading Obama’s latest book, Amerikanah, and just finished “The Puzzle Solver” by Tracie White with Ronald Davis, PhD. I found the book fascinating and hopeful as well as infuriating that so little attention has been devoted to such a complex and devastating disease.
I really enjoyed Hamnet and have never read either of the June selections but am sure I can get copies fairly easily from public library. Thanks for your leadership @Mary13 !
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Maggie O Farrell’s own health issue, and certainly her children’s near death moments, must have provided the gravitas to write those heart wrenching scenes. She faced her inner dragons, with Hamnet
It requires no great leap of imagination to see in this Maggie’s own childhood illness. Aged eight, she had viral encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain, and was in intensive care for months
[quote] When my son was four, he had a low-level virus, but he seemed to be getting better and I had put him to bed. For some reason, I woke up at four o’clock in the morning, freezing cold, and thought, “I’ll just go and check on my boy.” He had a temperature of 42 degrees and a stiff neck. He had meningitis and ended up on an isolation ward. I have often wondered why I woke that night.’
This little boy’s brush with mortality recalls another son who did not escape death: Hamnet in Maggie’s award-winning novel of the same name about William Shakespeare’s son.[/quote]
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Just remarking that the 42-degree temperature is Celsius, not Fahrenheit. A normal temp is 37.
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I finally got my Hamnet from the library. What a read! It’s rare that I power right through a book without getting distracted. I was up till 2:20 finishing this morning; could not stop. I’ll go back and read your comments, wishing now that I’d bought this book so I could have participated sooner.
I was just holding my breath and wiping tears as Agnes washed Hamnet’s body and prepared his shroud. (It did not help my mental state that my own only son has taken up rock climbing, and I’m in a constant state of on-edgeness about that. Young adults still imagine themselves immortal, as I well remember.)
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@jollymom, I’m so glad you liked the book – although as you note, some passages are really hard to get through. Re your son, I hear ya. I have lost so much sleep over my children’s adventures. I just have to keep reminding myself that “ships are safest in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”
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Some lovely book highlights by Maggie O’Farrell on Goodreads today:
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Thanks so much, @mary13. This is a book is not have otherwise read and found it fascinating and worth having bought (one of the few books I have purchased). It was great discussing it and now reading the author’s comments.
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ooh that was fascinating. I had no idea that an author could use Goodreads that way.
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I just got Hamnet audiobook from the library, I am enjoying it, but thus far, if I did not know from this discussion that it is about Shakespeare, I am not certain when and how I would have picked up that basic fact. Perhaps the name Hamnet & the location, but I wonder if it would have been to subtle for some? Or maybe that obvious cues will come soon?
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@somemom - yes it’s interesting the author does not ever tell you Shakespeare’s name. I think most of us went in knowing that from having read reviews or descriptions. There will be a pretty obvious bang you on the head clue near the end of the book.
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Perhaps it was designed to be that sort of sneaky twist
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Has May Book Club Selection been announced?
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It’s June; every other month .
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Hi all! I just finished Hamnet and enjoyed reading through your discussion. It is a beautifully written book, and like some folks here, I could not read it fast; the weight of sentences and scenes was too dense and I had to read in small amounts. Just a couple notes:
I agree with those that it seemed unlikely how little family and neighbors knew of his writing. And also that there was no sign of him having an inkling to write at all when he left for London. It seemed that someone so obviously in love with words would have shown that in some ways before encountering London theater.
The other thing I was thinking about–someone early on mentioned that it turned out he was living like a monk and there were no other women, and others said, but, Agnes sensed them and she has strong and true instincts.
But then, we see his ascetic room, the note to her unfinished, and his thoughts before the play where he decides not to go out with the group, but to find a way to get himself home again. No thoughts of women there.
I think what Agnes felt the imprint of all over his body, was not other women, but the love of the theater itself. That was the compulsion that she sensed pulling him away from her, even as he was pulled toward her love. This was outside her experience, so she felt it as other women.
Anyway, that’s how I’m interpreting the ending.
Loved the book and thanks for the fine discussion.
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