Has anyone mentioned Richard Powers’s “The Overstory”? Just finished it, and I will just say–wow! To play on his name, it’s powerful. It’s topic is, in a nutshell, what we are doing to our earth, especially trees. Full of gorgeous writing. Fascinating characters with very, very complex selves. Some devastating scenes that were hard to get past. There’s a few places it bogged down for me, but mostly I flew through it, and it will stay with me for a long time.
Just finished The Mother-in-Law. Fun, entertaining easy read with good ending. It kept my attention.
I just finished and loved The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. It hits stores in early November - put a hold on it now at your library it is a true gem. (In the meantime, read her first book The Night Circus - also a wonderful book).
Just finished “Golden State” by Ben Winters and I really liked it. Not as good as his “Last Policeman” series, but that’s a high bar,
@scout59, I’d never heard of the “Last Policeman” series. I just ordered the first one for my Kindle.
@MaineLonghorn , that’s a great series.
^Yay, I like that genre, so I can’t wait. 
@MaineLonghorn - “The Last Policeman” series is great! I love end-of-the-world novels, and Winters combines his apocalyptic theme with old-fashioned police procedurals.
I still think about the last scenes of the last book, even though I read it years ago.
I just finished “Lillian Boxfish takes a Walk.” I liked it but I thought it was kind of sad. 
Y’all I just want to say thanks to everybody who posts here! I only found this thread recently, and now I’m addicted to it. Read some really super books that I hadn’t heard of- and went back to one I didn’t finish before b/c people said to stick it out / it was worth it (they were right).
Also, thanks for the info on Libby- our local library has pretty limited online choices, but they have a Libby link (they just don’t tell you about it), so my virtual library has massively expanded.
Now, time to go ‘shopping’ for a book to read on the plane tomorrow!
I just read, and was mesmerized by Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist by Eli Saslow. (nonfiction)
Derek Black is the son of Don Black, a former Grand Wizard of the KKK, and the godson of David Duke. He was a rising star in the white nationalist movement who had his own radio show by age 19, and who was expected to carry on the mantle of his father (the founder of the White Supremacist website Stormfront. Then he went to college at a very liberal school and gradually had his eyes opened to the destructiveness of his former beliefs. The path was fascinating, and far from easy.
The author interviewed many of Derek’s friends and family for the book, including his father. A compelling and haunting read, current enough to shed light on some of the political machinations occurring today.
I feel like buying crates of this book and passing them out to everyone I know.
^How in the world did he get to go to New College? It’s hard to imagine his family approving of the school. That’s a story in itself!
@garland I am going to recommend The Overstory for our next book group pick. Two women whose reading interests mirror mine have said it is one of their top books ever. I was at a smaller lake near Lake Tahoe and the one book they had in the very small gift shop was the Overstory.
Spoiler alert… (though we all know the ending anyway)
He went there to study medieval history, on the mistaken assumption that he would learn more about the rise of the European white race through world domination because of white superiority. His eye-opening realizations that race was not actually a construct back then, that other nationalities often showed superior intellect, and that the domination of whites was basically a fluke, were small factors in his ultimate conversion. And his family approved it because he was so smart and so hard-core that they never dreamed he’d allow himself to be influenced.
I really enjoyed the audio version of the beekeeper of Aleppo.
@Sybylla I have that book on hold at the library. I’m in my car quite a bit and listen to a lot of audiobooks, so always looking for recommendations. Glad you enjoyed the audio version -I’ll have to see if my library carries it.
^^Just started The Overstory yesterday!
Before that I read Bitcoin Billionaires by Ben Mezrich. Didn’t know a thing about Bitcoin before reading this. Also features the Winklevoss twins of Facebook fame.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao on audio is fabulous so far.
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Just read The Great Believers and loved it. Highly recommend! Others have compared it to A Little Life and I agree with some that The Great Believers is everything A Little Life could have been but was not. I did not like A Little Life. Reading Middlemarch now - or rereading it. Enjoying it more now than I did years ago.
@catera45 – I recommended The Great Believers earlier in this thread! Amazing novel with such good character development.
I just finished The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo. I read it quickly b/c I was very into the story, and 80% of the time I loved it but sometimes the characters didn’t ring true to me. If you like Anne Tyler or Jame Smiley, you’ll like this.
The premise seems to be that “Even great parents can produce unhappy kids.” Or maybe that’s a simplification, maybe the premise is just “Life is complicated and hard, even when there’s a lot of love in a big family.”
I do recommend it, especially for a long plane ride or vacation read.