I can’t think of anything to blather on about today, so we might was well get right to the point:
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 The Last Dance by Mark Billingham, my first, but not last book by Billingham. I’m listening to the short story collection, Give the People What They Want and Other Stories of Sharp Wit, Cunning Women, and Wild Magic by Alex Bledsoe, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, with Alex Bledsoe and Gabrielle de Cuir on audiobook.
What did you recently finish reading?
I just finished Lee Child and Andrew Child’s The Secret, the last Reacher novel I’ll read for a while. The last audiobook I listened to was The Ghosts of Sherwood by Carrie Vaughn, Angele Masters (Narrator) on audio, a quick blast of fun.
What do you think you’ll read next?
My next book should be Alexandra Petri’s US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up) by Alexandra Petri , because I need a dose of humor after some of the dark stuff I’ve been reading lately (also, I was next on my library’s list), and my next audiobook should be Imaginary Numbers by Seanan McGuire, Emily Bauer (Narrator).
Are you reading/listening to something good?
Allyson Johnson
I’m chugging along with “War and Peace, Vol II”. Napoleon has started up the war again, and the Russians are in disarray, with competing factions trying to promote their own ends and noone in charge. NIcolai and Andrei have returned to the army.
I’m also reading Marie Benedict’s “Her Hidden Genius” about Rosalind Franklin and her under-appreciated contribution to the discover of the structure of DNA. A friend “loved it so much!” but I find it hard going – Franklin was not a very approachable character, self-righteous and punctilious and blunt.
I picked up a copy of Anne Tyler’s “Patchwork Planet”, and about 50 pages in realized I had read it before. I was liking it, so I kept on, but at about page 140 I began to remember why I hadn’t liked it overall on the first reading. The narrator is a 30-year-old underachiever who takes up with an older, conventional woman, and it began to feel that they were both exploiting each other. There are a lot of other books I would rather re-read, I think, so I probably won’t finish this one.
I read another Booker Prize winner, Ian McEwan’s “Amsterdam”. Veddy veddy British type of humor, with a lot of satire, including jabs at politics, art snobs, and yellow journalism. McEwan knows how to build characters so you care about them despite their flaws, but then that British love of irony kicks in and down they go. It was short and dark and clever, and if you like that sort of book, you will like this one.
Next… not sure. I have a Tony Hillerman and a Dick Francis on my shelf, as well as a number of Ought to Read’s on the TBR.
HCNewton
Amsterdam does sound intriguing, will give it a look. Franklin is so under-appreciated that this is the first I’ve heard of her (unless she was a correct response or part of a clue on Jeopardy!), hope the going gets easier there.
I hate that feeling, “why didn’t I like this too much before? Huh, my tastes must’ve changed….Oh, no. I remember now…”
Allyson Johnson
Actually I went ahead and finished “Patchwork Planet” and liked it a little better than I did the first time, but the ending still seemed over-contrived. I can’t quite figure out why Anne Tyler gets so many plaudits – maybe because her characters arewell-drawn and a bit out of the normal range, though her plots are not. My favoriteof hers is “The Ladder of Years”.
HCNewton
Better than the first time is a great win