“A Man For All Markets” - Edward O. Thorpe
The best audiobook I’ve listened to in a long time. It was so good, I had to listen to it twice. This is perfect for parents preparing their kids to have the confidence to explore the world around them and to seize opportunities when they arise. His distinctive voice adds to the allure.
“The Warmth Of Other Suns” by Isabel Wilkerson.
Follows three different families’ journeys during three different decades of the Great Migration. Along the way, it includes many facts and anecdotes not directly related to those families.
Very moving.
“The Mountain” by Paul Yoon.
A collection of short stories about people trapped in dangerous wartime locales. Focuses on the humanity of the situation, and never gets into the larger issues of countries and soldiers.
This is the second book I’ve read by Yoon. He is an author with great literary talent.
@EconPop
Love “warmth of other suns”. Moving and very informative, I learned so much about the great migration and its impacts to American society.
@makemesmart ,
Me too. I ended up feeling embarrassed that I learned so much, because I felt like I should have known more about something so impactful. But I’m glad I know it now. It really is an informative and great book.
I’m currently listening to Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine on my bike rides and am enjoying it so far. The narrator is awesome! Thanks for the recommendations.
I haven’t gone through the whole thread, but I just finished and loved Educated by Tara Westover. Biography of her life growing up with Mormon survivalist parents in the mountains of Idaho. Along the lines of The Glass Castle, another of my all time favorites.
Starting Before We Were Yours now, which I’ve heard great things about.
I finished hillbilly elegy, which would be a great read vs audio, I didn’t mind the narration on the audio book but it wasn’t great. But the content and subject was really well done. Recommended reading.
And for light fluff with a li’l undertow, the Liane Moriarty audio books are all really engaging.
Finished Eleanor Oliphant. Great book.
I read some of the 1 star reviews on Amazon. I don’t think we read the same novel.
I’ve been trying to force my way through Swamplandia! and having a hard time. I’m finding the writing style overdone, and really I don’t like reptiles, swamps, or Florida. 
Just got The Tattooist of Auschwitz out of the library and will start it shortly. I’ve been finding it difficult to pick out things I really want to read at the library lately.
Highly recommend “the oversotry” by Richard Power. I am only 140 pages in, I. Love. It!
Bought the paper version from Amazon so that DH and DS could read it too. Each story is titled by one character, they are all connected one way or another by trees (“the solidified air”/“the passage between earth and sky”), American chestnut, maple, Douglas fir, Linden, aspens, oak, elm, …, each story moves me and touches me. So beautifully written!
A good friend recommended this book, and I found it a very worthwhile read - “Being Mortal : Medicine and What Matters in the End” by Dr Atul Gawande. I bought a used copy online, but I see you can get the PDF from ebay for $1.50.
Hated Swamplandia.
Well, I finished the Tattooist of Auschwitz, and my verdict is enthralling story, poorly told. It really does read like a novelized screenplay, and I’ve seen that done better. The whole time I was reading it, I kept imaging if it were written by someone else. Daniel Mason, for example.
@TempeMom, thank you. I’m going to take that as permission to take it back to the library unfinished!
Just finished How Not to Die Alone. Excellent book, and thanks to the person who suggested it. Started off just a bit slow, but great character development and finishes well. Halfway in, I couldn’t put it down.
^Glad you liked it!
Not going to say too much, but CC’s upcoming bookclub choice The Weight of Ink is not just one of the best books I’ve read in the last six months, it’s one of the best I’ve read in the last ten years. We’ll be discussing it starting August 1.
This may be a little off the beaten path, but I am learning a lot from Kissinger the Negotiator: Lessons from Dealmaking at the Highest Level by James Sebenius. Dissects Kissinger’s strategy (as opposed to his geopolitical vision) and looks at how he acted to accomplish his objectives. Two other recent books that I enjoyed a lot were Skyward by Brandon Sanderson (my favorite fantasy/scifi author) and Educated by Tara Westover (memoir of a young woman who grew up in an isolated survivalist Mormon family in Idaho led by a bipolar father who ended up leaving her family and attending Yale and Oxford).
Just finished Where the Crawdads Sing. I know I’m in the minority here but I didn’t enjoy it that much and didn’t really find it that well written. I found it a tad cliched and overwrought and also somewhat predictable. Perhaps some of my thoughts were because I had just finished Eleanor Oliphant which I loved. I don’t regret reading Crawdads but found it more of a lightweight summer read than deserving of all the acclaim.