I’m spending a few hours in a hospital waiting room today (nothing to worry about, just one of those things), so I’ve got a lot of good, uninterrupted reading time ahead of me and a Kindle with a full battery (and probably more books downloaded than I need to get me through the day). Let’s get on with the WWW and here’s hoping you all have a less interesting day.
This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Easy enough, right?
What are you currently reading?
I’m reading Spirelli Paranormal Investigations: Episodes 1-3 by Kate Baray (a Literary Local). I’m taking a couple of days off from work, so I don’t have an audiobook going.
What did you recently finish reading?
I just finished S. A. Cosby’s All the Sinners Bleed and will hopefully be able to say something coherent about it soon. Or maybe I’ll just post a few dozen exclamation points with a link to the Bookshop page. I also just finished Don’t Hang Up by Benjamin Stevenson, narrated by: Luke Arnold, Sibylla Budd on audio. I’ll get into it soon (hopefully), but basically–you want to listen to this, but don’t start it unless you have a window long enough to listen to it all–you will not want to push “pause.”
What do you think you’ll read next?
My next book should be Stone of Asylum by Hilarey Johnson (another Literary Local who you will be hearing from soon!) and my next audiobook should be Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn, narrated by: Jane Oppenheimer & Christina Delaine.
How are you kicking off August?
Bob Germaux
I’m currently reading (almost finished, actually) “Charm City Rocks” by Matthew Norman, a feel-good kind of book with interesting characters and some plot lines that, though fairly predictable, have just enough zigs and zags to hold your interest. I just finished “Fearless” by M.W. Craven, which I found very intriguing. As you learn right away, our protagonist has a condition that renders him incapable of feeling fear. What I especially liked about the book was that Craven doesn’t make that condition the central point of every page. He doesn’t pound away at it over and over. It’s just there, in the background, to the point that I occasionally forgot about it, until a scene occurs when I found myself saying, “Oh, yeah. That’s right. This guy just doesn’t grasp the danger of that situation.” I’ll definitely give another book in the series a try when Craven writes it. Next up? Actually, it might be another Norman book, “Domestic Violets,” which I found last night when I Googled him. I’ve downloaded the sample from Amazon and glanced at the first few pages, which are decidedly different from “Charm City Rocks.” So maybe I’ll give that one a try. Hope things are going well for you, H.C.
HCNewton
Domestic Violets was my first Norman, and it brought me back for more. Hope you have a similar experience with it. (but yeah, by and large, he isn’t going to surprise you with much–it’s about a pleasant ride).
Fearless has a very different vibe from Craven’s other work, but I dug it. Glad you enjoyed it! Sounds like book 2 is in the pipeline for next year.
allyson johnson
I am currently reading Barbara Kingsolver’s modern update of Dickens, “Demon Copperhead.” Very ingenious adaptation of David Copperfield’s story to a modern Applaachian setting. Also reading at Faulkner’s “Intruder in the Dust”, and browsing through a movie-fan bedside book, “Oscar Wars.”
I just finished David Mendelsohn’s “Lost”, a memoir of a quest to discover what happened to members of his family during the Holocaust, interspersed with “. musings about the nature of family, memory, story-telling, and the role of God. Pretty dense stuff, but once in, hard to put down.
For fun, I read a classic Dick Francis, “Straight”- despite its title a more convoluted plot than most Francis efforts, but the usual Nice Guy Doing HIs Best in a bad situation – with horses.
Next I’m getting back to Nadine Gortimer’s “Jump – and other stories. And there was a review of a new translation of “Brothers Karamazov” in the NEW YORKER last week which may put me back onto that classic. Still a dozen books on my TBR shelf.
HCNewton
Had never heard of Demon Copperhead, but am intrigued. Mendelsohn’s Lost looks like a good one, too.
Celeste | A Literary Escape
I’ve got three books going this week. Well, technically more than 3, but these are the ones I’m farthest along in: THE UNDOCUMENTED AMERICANS by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (audiobook); PORTRAIT OF A SCIENTIST AS A YOUNG WOMAN by Lindy Elkins-Tanton; and LOVE, THEORETICALLY by Ali Hazelwood. 🙂
HCNewton
more than 3? Glutton 🙂
I’ve heard of none of these, but they all look promising. Happy reading!