For the moment, I’ll leave The One on the list, but its place is tenuous, depending on ultimate categorization. Also, as mentioned above, no duet (Dispatches from Pluto only if you feel like it).
Updated list:
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Ayesha At Last by Uzma Jalaluddin
The One by John Marrs
The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
@ignatius, I’m so curious…Can you give us a no-spoiler summary of why you hated Beheld?
Hmm … no spoilers. No need to worry - no spoilers to be had. Therein lies the problem. You know the hook - a crime - from the book blurb. Finally, at about 3/4 into the book, it happens. No mystery there - by then even the densest reader knows who and why and may no longer care. Nesbit does her damnedest to keep you reading by foreshadowing at every opportunity. If it hadn’t been a library book I would have underlined each effort for my own amusement. References to sex seem oddly placed and disruptive to the flow of the story, as if someone told the author to add something/anything sexual.
Its strong points are the time period and the research that went into it. But OMG what a waste of my reading time! There’s a reason that the GoodReads rating is only 3.55 out of 5.
Here’s the thing: Just because the book didn’t work for me at all doesn’t mean that you may not like it. Critics evidently did which is why I picked it up in the first place. The book is short at around 250 pages so, if the time period interests you, go for it. I strongly vetoed because no way would I read it again.
I’ve read 75 books this year. Beheld vies with one other for the dubious honor of least liked.
@mathmom thanks for those summaries of these options, many are new to me.
In no order, honestly no preference. Alphabetical order
Ayesha, Hamnet, Leave the World Behind , The One
@AnAsmom would be interesting to know if you find the Great Believers a sad book, given the theme 1980s AIDS epidemic. I don’t recall it being depressing.
Just took a quick look at the descriptions and vote for:
The One (I put it on hold for the ebook; 5 week wait.
Ayesha at Last.
Hamnet sounds interesting, but the description includes
a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss
So not sure I want to read another book that includes these themes.
Leave the World Behind - the descriptions sound like some of the movies from recent years- scary unexpected things happen with demographic clashes in a house.
Leave the World Behind may be just as hard to obtain as Hamnet, maybe even harder. At my library, there are 200 holds on the former and 95 on the latter. Since we have to be able to get our hands on whatever is selected, we’d better set those two aside for later.
So simply doing the math on what remains, Ayesha at Last is on nearly every list above and also fits with our semi-traditional February Valentines theme.
My questions are 1) Would it be hard to sustain discussion for what seems to be a straight-up romance? And 2) Is it okay to go directly from one happily-ever-after story to another?
And I guess my answers would be that 1) We don’t seem to have trouble finding things to talk about, regardless of a book’s substance; and 2) There’s nothing wrong with being happy twice in a row; heaven knows we’ve earned it in 2020.
So…Ayesha at Last it is! I’ll start a new thread.
However, before doing so, I will add this thought (which just occurred to me!): The One was a very close second to Ayesha at Last. If the group wanted a duet, we could do both books as Love-Done-Right / Love-Gone-Wrong combo. The NY Post describes The One as ''A dark thriller for the Valentine’s Day skeptic.’’ It would mean two 300+ page books, but I have a sense both would be quick reads. I have no strong feeling about this one way or the other. Whatever y’all are (or aren’t) up for is fine with me. Let me know what you think!
Oh, I like the idea. I’ve heard you zip through The One (just confirmed by my librarian daughter.) We usually go for longer books for the after Christmas/January choice. Anyway, two thumbs up from me for the duo.
I just put a hold on the hard copy of The One - there are three copies available at different branches so I should get it soon. I will be done with both books by the end of December! I’d better take good notes.
I’m halfway through one book (The Guest Book – interesting) and have three more on my nightstand. I can’t put these February choices on hold until I finish what I have already. My library has been incredibly responsive during the pandemic – I put a book on hold and get it the next day!
@VeryHappy started the “what are you reading now” end-part of our discussion by mentioning The Guest Book. Tell us what the “three more on my nightstand” are, please?
I’m finishing Mexican Gothic - due back in three days. I’ve got another Connie Willis A Lot Like Christmas (short stories) and another Sayers’ Five Red Herrings on the nightstand.
And for @mathmom: I bought (because I must own) Return of the Thief. I actually bought it in Dec. 2018 and Megan Whalen Turner delayed release (not finished with it, I guess) until Oct. of this year. My two daughters bought it also. The one who is a librarian owns all six in the series (which started twenty years ago) as do I. I’m not reading it yet as I plan to start with the first one and read them all again. (I’ve already read the first ones 3-4 times ). Anyway … happiness. (For any interested in the series, continue after the first book. Don’t stop without reading the second and then the third one, at the very least.)
And for any ready to step in a different direction: I’m absolutely hooked - at the recommendation of a library book club friend - on the Japanese manga series Library Wars: Love and War. Fifteen volumes and the story and characters grow as you go along. I didn’t get completely hooked till I was in a few volumes. The series was evidently a big deal in Japan as there is also the book, an anime and a movie (unfortunately for me in Japanese).
). Anyway … happiness. (For any interested in the series, continue after the first book. Don’t stop without reading the second and then the third one, at the very least.)