Library Due Dates, a faulty memory, and one of “those” weeks have conspired to make me change my reading schedule for 5 times since I posted my last WWW. So, expect to see the entries from my “Up Next” section from last week in the next couple of months (I’m so glad the question is “What do you think you’ll read next?”). I’m the only one who cares, but it irks me.
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?
Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:
What are you currently reading?
I’m reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (a book I received in the mail on release day in 2021 and somehow haven’t read yet), On Classical Trinitarianism: Retrieving the Nicene Doctrine of the Triune God edited by Matthew Barrett (a book I really should’ve considered the page count of before requesting from NetGalley), and am listening to Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller, read by January LaVoy on audiobook (a perfectly fine book incapable of nuance or subtlety).
What did you recently finish reading?
I just finished Nadine Matheson’s The Kill List and Marvel: What If . . . Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings? by Seanan McGuire, read by Allyson Voller on audio.
What do you think you’ll read next?
My next book should be Candle & Crow by Kevin Hearne set in a world I’m not ready to say goodbye to, but apparently I will be. My next audiobook should be Chasing Embers by James Bennett, read by Colin Mace.
Are you reading anything good?
Carol
I hope you love PHM as much as I did! Unputdownable and thoughtful themes! Eager for the movie! By the way, it’s absolutely fabulous n audio!
HCNewton
I’m really enjoying it so far, Rocky is great!
Carol
Yes! 🙌
HCNewton
It was fantastic. Not The Martian good, but how is he going to top that? PHM should shut up all the doubters that cropped up after Artemis (which I enjoyed)
Carol
I enjoyed Martian but I think I loved PHM more because it had some deeper themes of friendship and sacrifice. Also, I read that he toned down the profanity in PHM when he realized so many young people were reading the Martian. I listed to the audio format of PHM which might have made the difference. So eager for the movie!
HCNewton
I get that. Those two aspects really did elevate PHM
allysonyj
I’m currently reading “By Sorrow’s River”, vol 3 of the Berrybender Narratives by Larry McMurtry. Still lots of farce, seasoned by random extreme violence (those indigenous folks on the prairies were not very amenable to colonialist ideas). The strong central characters of Tasmin Berrybender and her frontiersman husband Jim Snow keep me going. Real people keep popping up – Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, Pomp Charbonneau (son of Sacajawea) – adding historical gravitas to the business.
On my bedside table is Paul Theroux’s “Sunrise with Sea Monsters”, a collection of his early op-eds. Some are excellent – some are not. One a night is about right before bedtime.
Consigned Kate Atkinson’s “Big Sky” to my DNF pile – the book starts out with two young women being betrayed into white slavery/sex trafficking, and then switches to Jackson Brodie’s trying to get along with his petulant teenage son and a third thread of a loser guy sad because his wife is not treating him well – these last two threads seem so trivial compared to the first that I just couldn’t keep on.
Finished “The Women” by Kristin Hannah – it starts with some terrible stereotyping, but once the protagonist arrives in Viet Nam as a combat nurse in a field hospital the action is fast, the characters come alive, and the immersion is total and intimate. My brother did two tours as a helicopter pilot in Nam and this book gave me a solid picture of what he went through both in country and on return. (And are there any other good books written about Viet Nam for us who only watched on TV?)
Next I’ll probably finish off the Berrybenders with volume 4. I also have Julia Phillips’ well-reviewed “Bear” on my stack.
Bob Germaux
I’m currently reading “What’s Next: A Backstage Pass to the West Wing” by Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack (both of whom were in the cast of the show). If, like me, you were a fan of “The West Wing,” you will find this book to be fascinating. It is full of fun facts about every aspect of the show: the writing, the directing, the cast and crew, the famous “walk and talk” scenes that permeated every episode, etc. Again, if you were a fan of the show, this is a must read.
I recently finished “The Boys in the Boat” by Daniel James Brown, the story of the nine-man crew that rowed in the 1936 Olympics. I found it both entertaining and educational, at times inspiring, at other times depressing (this was Hitler’s Olympics). Overall, even for this boy who’s never even been in a canoe, it was well worth the time (it’s a long book). Brown does an excellent job of painting a personal portrait of each of the crew members, along with several other characters.
Next up will probably be “Buzzkill,” the new Sunny Randall novel by Alison Gaylin. this is Gaylin’s second effort in the series, and if it’s as good as her first, it should be a fun read.
One more note: I loved your library story, HC. It brought back many memories for me of the days when my parents would take my siblings and me to the Carnegie Library here in Pittsburgh (in Oakland, on the Pitt campus). I loved going to story hour when I was a young’un, and later, roaming the aisles on my own while my mom or dad did the same, looking for whatever book caught my eye. Most of my reading these days is done online, but I still occasionally love wandering through the stacks, breathing in that smell of both new and old books, adventures just waiting to be discovered.
HCNewton
I have an autographed copy of What’s Next on my shelf staring at me. I want to read it so, so badly.
Have you gotten to Buzzkill yet? Thoughts? If everything goes well, I’ll hopefully open it next week.
Thanks for those thoughts on the Library post. “I still occasionally love wandering through the stacks, breathing in that smell of both new and old books, adventures just waiting to be discovered.” Fantastic line