Just finished reading Walter Issacson’s Benjamin Franklin. Now, my son’s reading it and he likes it as much as I did. I wasn’t going to read Issacson’s bio on Steve Jobs, as I’m not interested in Jobs at all, but once I started reading it, it’s hard to put it down. I find it as interesting and as fascinating as the Franklin book. Highly recommend both.
My older daughter, who reads a lot but usually not lengthy bios, read the Steve Jobs biography first and urged me to do so. I thought it was fascinating, too.
Steve Jobs bio was engrossing, and one of those books I think back on periodically. I will look for the Franklin book.
Per the advice in this thread, I chose A Gentleman in Moscow for my book club choice. It was universally enjoyed. I was looking for a food tie in, as we cook dinner for each other. The Latvian stew in the book was intriguing. Googling, I found it on line, with author commentary. http://bookclubcookbook.com/gentleman-moscow-latvian-stew-recipe-author-amor-towles/ It was delicious and relatively easy!
Has anyone here read Pachinko? It was a Christmas gift and a page turner of a saga in a way I haven’t experienced in years.
I am currently reading Pachinko - saw the author at a book festival in the fall. I am enjoying it. Liked her first one - free food for millionaires also. I knew nothing about Korea before communism, the Japan/Korea relationship is very interesting.
I just enjoyed “The Grouchy Historian” by Ed Asner (audio version read by the author)
I just read Townie, a memoir by Andre Dubus III. Quite a remarkable book: great insight into a childhood that could only be described as deprived after his parents divorced, surrounded by tough kids with, in most cases, little or no hope for a positive future, from families with little or no education, with casual crime, drugging, and violence as a habitual part of life. Yet at the same time his father was a pretty famous writer who taught at a college across the river from the gritty dying mill town where his kids lived with their exhausted mother. The author learned to make himself strong and violent in order to survive and protect his loved ones. Many of the young men we meet are dead before 30, or imprisoned.
His father was a complex man, to say the least. In his 20s, Dubus the younger began to write, and found his truer self. He struggles with the violence that has become, it seems, ingrained in him. His relationship with his father, often contradictory, grows close, and yet there are some truths about his childhood that he can never speak.
It’s a fascinating book. Dubus the younger is a successful writer, and one of his novels, House of Sand and Fog, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and later a movie. I am inspired to read that one after having experienced the memoir.
I just finished the Last Policeman trilogy. They get better as you go. I enjoyed them. Easy reads. I listened to them and the narrator is excellent. Regarding the Louise Penny series, the books definitely get better as you go, but I don’t recommend you miss the character building in the first few books. They are also excellent choices for audio - the narrator(s) add a lot to the enjoyment.
@Consolation I really enjoyed House of Sand and Fog. Read the book first. The movie is okay but does not live up to the book.
@cartera45 - I sometimes still think of the ending of “World of Trouble” (the Last Policeman trilogy, not the Louise Penny books.) I must be the only person here who doesn’t like the Louise Penny books.
@scout59, the jury is still out on Louise Penny as far as I am concerned. 
House of Sand and Fog was one of the first books I decided not to finish, back when it was famous for being on Oprah’s book club. Maybe I’ll try again some day.
Louise Penny. Depends on what day it is. My mother recommended her, based on a recommendation from a younger (80-something!) friend. The first few had promise but left me a little…maybe just not that into cozy. Just read the 6th, which I liked but would have made no sense without at least the 5th.
It’s been a long time but I loved House of Sand and Fog.
^I remember liking it at first and then not, and hating the thing at the end.
Which I had seen coming.
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2016) by Carol Dweck,PhD, Professor of Psychology at Stanford. The Best Book for students and parents. The mindset you adopt for yourself can profoundly affect your performance at school, at work, and your personal relationships, and the way you lead your life. Learn the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset and change the direction of your life for the better!
Interesting review of the new Kristin Hannah book in yesterday’s NYTIMES about The Nightingale in that it was based on a true story. I didn’t recall reading anything about that at the time.
A quick read–“Sourdough” by Robin Sloane. Utterly charming.
@kiddie I very much enjoyed reading “pachinko”, even though I feel the author was “in a rush” to wrap the story up, gave me a sense of unfinished-ness.
I have known that Korea and Japan have troubled and complicated relationship, but I have not realized the extent Japanese would treat Japan-born-multi-generation Koreans, sad yet fascinating. I have listened to several podcasts interviewing author Min Jin Lee, whose shadow could be seen in one of the characters at the end of the book.
I am reading “Defending Jacob” and am about 80% through. My oh my oh my, what a good book! Anyone else?
^ My book club read Defending Jacob and everyone liked it.