I lived in Germany for five years when I was in my late 20s/early 30s. The first few years I made myself read German all the time, but eventually I got the itch to read in English again. The local libraries mostly had classics. I highly recommend Anthony Trollope - both the Barchester Towers series and the Palliser novels.
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@homerdog - I just picked up Homegoing. It looks interesting.
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Itās a sweeping family saga told over generations. I seem to always like those types of books but this one also taught me so much history. I hope you like it!
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I loved Homegoing, and her newer book, Transcendent Kingdom. She writes beautifully and tells compelling stories about her characters.
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I loved Homegoing enough to buy Transcendent Kingdom. Both good!
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I just finished Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian. Itās set in 1660s Boston and based on a real life divorce and witchcraft trial of a woman named Mary Deerfield. I appreciated the attention to historical detail although there are a couple of quibbles I had (i.e. Peregrine/Wanderer is a manās name, not a womanās, and the use of thee/thou in the dialogue is not supported by evidenceāeven English-descended Puritans by the latter half of the 17th century were using āyouā). What struck me about the book is the way that victims of domestic violence are expected to excuse and naturalize their treatment, and no one wants to hear about it even if in theory they condemn it. Not much has, sadly, really changed in this regard.
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I just finished This Close to Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith. It is going on the top of my recommendation list! I already feel like I want to read it all over again.
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I read Station Eleven in February/March of last year. What timing! I subsequently read The Glass Hotel, and then all the rest of her books during my pandemic book-buying binge. I love her writing
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Yep. I had a lot of trouble getting through Eat Pay Love also. It read like an excerpt from Seventeen magazine.
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I never finished Eat, Pray, Loveā¦
Rereading Rebecca for the first time in 30 years. Enjoying this classic with itās mixture of mystery and horror (not Stephen King horror). Iād forgotten how on the edge of your seat you are through most of it.
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@NJSue , you might like The Mercies. Based on witchcraft trials in the early 1600s in what was then Finnmark. Fiction, for sure, but itās interesting from a number of perspectives-- From how the women accuse each other based on their own frictions to how regulated the lives of the women are.
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I am in a zoom book club, and these titles are proposed for our next read. I read on-liner summaries provided, and they all look good. Thoughts from those who have read/liked (or not liked)?
The Sellout
The Kite Runner
Everything I Never Told You
Women Talking
The Kit Runner is amazing and relevant. If it has not been read by your members - go for it !
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Another vote for The Kite Runner
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Iāll put in a vote for Women Talking. So good.
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Everything I Never Told You is excellent. I actually liked A Thousand Splendid Suns better than Kite Runner.
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Another vote for Kiterunner. But you have narrowed it down so that you canāt go wrong!
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Another vote for The Kite Runner. Itās not just very timely, but itās just beautifully written. It made me feel homesick for a place Iād never lived. (Though it reminded me a lot of where I lived as a child in East Africa.)
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Just finished Evvie Drake Starts Over, which I few people here had mentioned. Some clever writing, but overall I was underwhelmed. Very little sense of plot/complexity, heavier on romance aspect than I had expected, and the only bump in the road seemed thin and manufactured so it wasnāt all just gliding along. Iād give the author another try, but would like a little more depth. (and Iām a fan of upmarket āProtagonist Name Verbs Xā lit overall, so itās not that itās a genre I donāt like.)
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