@wisteria100 I’m on the wait list for Transcendent Kingdom. Did you read Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi? I really enjoyed that one so glad to hear her latest is also excellent.
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I did read Homegoing and liked it very much, but I liked Transcendent Kingdom even more!
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I found the Potok book on my daughter’s book shelf with her high school reading books. Our library is open for remote pick up. I have The Gift of Asher Lev and Cancer Ward on order from the library
I loved Homegoing, so engaging and well written. I didn’t know about Transcendent Kingdom so I just placed a hold on it. Thanks!
@garland did you read Maine? I thought that was the best of Sullivan’s books.
Just finished “The Lying Life of Adults” by Elena Ferrante. I am a big fan and this book did not disappoint.
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@mom2and --yes! First one I read. I really enjoyed it!
Am I the only person in the whole world who just could’t read Elena Ferrante? I feel like I’m missing out, but I started with the first one, got half was into it, and just had no desire to finish. (Something, I rarely do. I feel guilt if I don’t finish a book.) My book group loved it; my share-your-latest-book friends loved it.
Fans, tell me why I should try again. What did you like about Ferrante’s books?
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I read them all, but didn’t love them. Almost stopped halfway through the first, with the constant lists of groups of young folk going here, then there, then this happened, then that, with no sense of who each was. Took me into several books to differentiate some characters.
somehow the end of one would interest me enough to start another. But I definitely never got the hoopla around them. Thought the writing was pretty pedestrian, and characters got tiresome. I know i am in the minority on this.
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I have no great literary reason, I just like her books. 
I liked them too. I think I liked the focus on female characters and their relationships with all their flaws. I mostly liked being immersed in a world (lower class Naples) that I knew nothing about. I also found the first one a challenge but then was wanting to dive right into the next. The HBO series is excellent.
This docu recommendation seems meant for this thread, as well, as good movie thread.
Book lovers, watch Amazon prime, The Booksellers, a documentary about the fascinating world of rare book dealers.
@Bromfield2 and @garland, I too read them (the Neapolitan series) but didn’t love them. I started and stopped reading the series over at least a year. What I really enjoyed was the description of life, and I was enthralled by the character of Lila. I also liked the emphasis on pursuing education and how it intersected, or didn’t, with natural brilliance.
I did not particularly enjoy Elena’s character, specifically her internal dialogue. When I see people saying this is reflective of women’s internal life, I disagree. I am a woman and I can’t recall being so overrun by jealousy and hostility and consumed with another person like that. Perhaps I would feel differently if I had a frenemy like Lila!
I read another book by the author, but I didn’t like the similarity of themes, about dolls, the beach, large loud families . . . it seemed repetitive.
Haven’t started the new book yet.
Transcendent Kingdom is the current ‘book club’ pick of the Happier podcast with Gretchen Rubin. The Oct 28 episode will have the author on. Gretchen is a writer and asks really good questions, for example, she learned that Dutch House Ann Patchett had that book halfway done and threw it away and started over!!!
I just listened to a great audiobook, Daisy Jones and the Six. Read by a full cast of actors (good ones, like Benjamin Bratt) so I strongly recommend the audio version.
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@TS0104 I’m just about to start Transcendent Kingdom. I read her previous novel several years ago and really enjoyed it so have been looking forward to her latest.
I totally agree about the audio version of Daisy Jones and the Six. I listen to a lot of audiobooks (well, I did pre-Covid) while driving my son’s carpool, a 45 minute drive each way, so good narration is key. The ensemble cast in this audiobook really brought this novel alive. I think it is one book that is best enjoyed via audio.
I have a 10 roundtrip/all in one day drive tomorrow so have downloaded The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett Graft. I’ve heard it is fantastic, narrated by survivors, first responders, loved ones. Coincidentally, I will be passing right by the NYC skyline as I listen to it.
My city bookclub discusses Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, last night. It was hard to get thru, as the author is a black man , Harvard lawyer, who devoted himself to death row sentences. He established the Equal Justice Initiative. He won awards from other organizations, like the ACLU. The stories of people being railroaded towards death sentences or life imprisonments is chilling
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@bookworm - Just Mercy is also assigned for my children’s high school Civics class reading. Also a movie - but I think the book does a better job (that is usually the case) 
All three of my kids read Just Mercy for school in the past year! (HS freshman, HS sophomore, and HS senior). So of course I read it too. Excellent!
@4kids4us that sounds like a deep audiobook! And yes, the audio of Daisy and the Six was the most acting I’ve ever heard in an audiobook, in a good way. I’ve heard that Malcom Gladwell’s Talking To Strangers is also a great audio version; I read that one so didn’t listen. It was fascinating. The Sandra Bland chapters are remind me of Just Mercy.
I’m curious if High School students that are assigned books like Just Mercy read the young adult version or the adult one. The first time I tried to reserve it at the library, the wait for the adult version was long, so I first read the YA version and then the adult version when it became available. When I wanted to read Code Girls, I got the YA version inadvertently, and was well into it before I realized what is was; I read the adult version later. In both cases I enjoyed the YA version, which covered all the major story components and themes, but the adult versions were much richer in detail.
In general High Schoolers read the real book - Middle Schoolers would read a YA version.