Funny – I loved both Prep and American Wife! Looking forward to Rodham.
Downloaded the sample of Big Summer but couldn’t get into it. Too much description of the main character’s social media postings, which I found boring. Since be an influencer was her job I figured there was a lot more of same to come, so I stopped.
Reading All the Wonders right now – a selection of real stories told on The Moth radio show/podcast. It’s good but I’ve heard about a third of them already, lol!
I’ve read two of Sittenfeld’s books: Eligible and You Think It I’ll Say It. Eligible is a modern day retelling of Pride and Prejudice–part of Harper Collins Austen Project where six authors took Austen’s novels and placed them in contemporary settings. The other was a book of short stories mostly about middle-aged, middle-class women. Both were fun, summer reads. Nothing heavy.
I’d forgotten about Eligible – it was a fun summer read!
I finished “Rodham”. The first part of the book- where she is dating Bill is pretty boring, but after they split up (that’s not really giving anything away) is much better. I’m glad I stuck it out. Not the greatest book I have read, but entertaining.
I loved The River by Peter Heller so much that I ordered Dog Stars, not realizing what it was about.
Another dystopian novel, this one featuring not only a flu pandemic but global warming! A very good book, though bleaker than Station Eleven.
For SF/fantasy fans, I read Black Wolves, a new book by Kate Elliot, who wrote the Jaran series, the first couple of which are among my favorite books. I’ve read a couple of her other series, all of which have been entertaining, although more YA. This one was surprisingly a bit of a slog at times, but I look forward to seeing where she goes with it in the next book of what is intended, I gather, to be a trilogy. She says in the author’s note that she had difficulty writing it due to the illness and death of her father, which probably explains a lot. Now that she has set up a complex situation and society, I look forward to the next one being a return to form. This, like Jaran, is not YA.
Just finished Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys. Not as good as The Underground Railroad, but still fabulous.
(Full disclosure: I’m a huge Colson Whitehead fan, and have read most of his novels.)
Edited to add: this is not a lighthearted, uplifting, beach read. It can be a bit heavy, so keep that in mind.
Im liking The Great Alone, a lot. Then I shopped my H’s bookshelf and grabbed A Gentleman In Moscow. I also have The Nightingale- which I apparently never finished, if the bookmark is any indication. We are in for what look likes a few weeks of pretty hot weather, so perfect for doing nothing much but reading. 
I loved The Underground Railroad! Read it a year or so ago, but it would be a great read on this June Nineteenth, as it has scenes of lynchings, fictionalized, but based on actual lynchings in the 1921 Tulsa Massacre. Disturbing for sure, but educational.
I just finished a debut novel called Conjure Women by Afia Atakora. It takes place just before and just after the Civil War, somewhere in the south. It’s about a group of former slaves who continue living on the land of their owner, who died during the war. It is fairly dark and took me some time to get into, but the prose is so beautiful. Those of you who read and enjoyed Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, check out Conjure Women as I think it would appeal to the same audience.
I read The Southern Book Club Guide to the Slaying of Vampires.
The beginning was good, the end was good, the late middle was a bit flabby. I’m not a big horror fan, but once I started the book, I had to finish it. One scene in particular I had to speed through- it was enough to give nightmares. Rodents (Shiver)
I wish there’d been a bit more book club humor to go along with the horror.
Next up is the latest Joanne Harris, part of the Chocolat series. Following that will be the new Mary Kay Andrews summer beach read.
I always assume I got recommendations from this thread, I finished Malcolm Gladwell’s "how to talk to strangers (audio) and while it felt kind of scattered, it probably really suits the audio format. Engaging listen. Doesn’t feel like a book, more like a string of podcasts without any discernible thread. Some of it was a delicate dance around the idea that sure, some men are really rapey, some women need to pay attention to and take responsibility for their drinking, and why yes, some white police are completely racist MFers.
That Cuban stuff though? Mind blowing.
Best “brain candy“ read for the summer—just finished Elin Hilderbrand’s 28 Summers. Perfect beach read!
Erik Larson’s “The Splendid and the Vile”. Churchill’s first year as PM facing the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. Talk about an existential crisis! Engaging and well written.
The Great Influenza by John Barry. A story about the 1918 Spanish Flu. The author provided details of the state of medicine at that time, the poor leadership we had and the media’s response. It is chilling because the book makes it evident that we are repeating the mistakes of the past. This book is so well written that medical professionals as well as laypersons could learn a great deal from reading this book.
I agree; a very interesting book with a fascinating protagonist.
@Bromfield2 Our library recently reopened for curbside pickup and 28 Summers is the first book I requested. Just what I am looking for, beach reads!
Cancelled. Like so much else in REAL life. Sigh
But then again - look at all the newly freed up time I’ve just procured.
@Bromfield2 Yes! I finished that book last night. But Elin Hilderbrand never disappoints IMO.
Ok, I’m number 161 on the list for 28 summers. Any other fun light reads?
I am LOLing at Samantha Irby" Wow, No Thank You" on audio, it is very funny.