Almost done with Braiding Sweetgrass. Holy moly. What a book! I picked it up because it’s the book all Colgate students are expected to read this summer. They have an essay to write about it as well. Sharing the reading experience with our D has been awesome. Highly recommend. It’s a way faster read than I anticipated and I think it’s going to be the new book I gift to friends and family!
I liked Evvie Drake Starts Over. Read it at the beginning of the pandemic when I just needed easy, fun things to read. It came at the right time for me.
I totally agree. I don’t read much chick lit b/c usually, I don’t find them to be very well written or they are full of stereotyped characters. But a lot of books I do read have dark or depressing themes, or just require a lot of emotional energy. So books like Evvie Drake, which I read and thought was ok, can be a welcome escape when read at the right time.
I just read several books in a row that were pretty heavy: The Mercies by Kirwan Millwood Hargrave (excellent) Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker (loved it, fans of William Kent Krueger would enjoy) Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia
For a bit of escape now, I reading (actually listening to it while walking my dog) to Good Eggs by Rebecca Hardiman. The narration is good and has bits of humor that are a nice break. It can be a little ridiculous at times, but entertaining.
Thanks for the Braiding Sweetgrass recommendation. It looks interesting.
I have The Mercies on my tbr list but I also need to balance darker stuff with more fun reads. Like you, I was never one for chick lit but have found some good ones this year and enjoyed them. I’ll check out Good Eggs. Others I liked were The Switch, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, Big Summer, I Was Told It Would Get Easier, and Separation Anxiety.
I know I am in a minority, but I actually don’t like The Kite Runner. Don’t like A Thousand Splendid Suns either. I did like his And the Mountains Echoed. I have a hard time reading books where children and women are brutally victimized or abused (even memoirs like The Glass Castle). Not that I read only fluff, far from it, but I don’t have the stomach for cruel violence in books (or movied also).
@homerdog The Mercies is very dark, not just the plot, but also the setting (remote Norwegian island in the early 1600s). Not exactly a summer read! I read it anyway, and was actually at the beach when I read it I thought it wonderfully done historical fiction. Would love to know what you think when you finally get to it.
I just looked at my Goodreads shelf for books I read and filed as chick lit. Very few rated higher on my personal scale than three stars. One book I did give four stars after reading it last summer was Writers and Lovers by Lily King. She also wrote Euphoria which I read several years ago and also liked, but that one wouldn’t really classify as chick lit. Writers and Lovers probably doesn’t really classify as typical chick lit but since there is a contemporary romantic relationship involved and it is a quick read, I shelved it that way.
Florence Adler Swims Forever is a fast, easy read (and even takes place on a beach) but is a good one if you are looking for a light but not useless read.
kiddie - agree 100% about the Kite Runner. Started it, heard about the horrific violence against children and didn’t finish. I have several friends like this too - you aren’t alone!
I just finished “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek”, a fictional account of the blue people of Kentucky. (They had a genetic condition affecting their hemoglobin that turned their blood brown which made their skin look blue). Unlike one of the other posters, I am tired of books set on Cape Cod or Nantucket, ha. This story is set in the 1930’s. The protagonist is a woman who rides her mule bringing books to people in the hollers, but she is also blue and suffers for her condition.
I really enjoyed 'Count the Ways" by Joyce Maynard. I have enjoyed her writing since I read a short story she wrote that was published in Seventeen magazine back in the early '70’s (my HS days).
My previous comment aside, I usually read non-fiction histories.
I’m currently reading and really enjoying “Caught in the Revolution” by Helen Rappaport. The narrative follows eyewitness accounts by diplomats, journalists and businessmen in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1917. The reader is caught up in the rioting, the random violence, the looting and food shortages. It’s very compelling from people who, of course, didn’t know what was coming next.
Just stayed up past midnight reading “Breath.” It was like a firehose—lots of divergent info about breathing and how our faces changed because of how our diets changed due to the industrial revolution. Lots of food for thought. It was recommended by a neighbor.
The author was trying to figure out why he has sinus and breathing problems and why so many in the world have these issues.
I recently finished Fantasyland by Kurt Anderson. It’s sort of a religious/cultural/political history of the US and offers a fascinating perspective on how it arrived politically at the current moments. It’s pretty easy to read and chapters are pithy but it’s definitely substantial and began feeling a wee bit long toward the end. I found his ideas about the differences between the development of the US and other western nations particularly insightful and helpful in clarifying differences between American culture and those of European countries.
The Lotus Eaters by Tatiana Soli was wonderful and evocative. A compelling read until the very end. Also, We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates, one of my favorite authors (and tweeters). It’s a beautiful novel that explores the happiness and heartbreak of family ties that bind.
I thought it wonderfully done historical fiction. Would love to know what you think when you finally get to it.