What mainstream book are you reading now?

[FrancesScott]

For me it’s The God of the Woods by Liz Moore. Lots of familiar women - young and older - with many variations on lots of familar characteristics, even in the flashback sections.

 

[Nynah]

Alternating between Nobody in Particular by Sophie Gonzales when I just want some light, breezy, escapist reading and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab when I actually have two brain cells to rub together.

 

[SimonDoom]

Money by Martin Amis. I've never read any of his novels before. I'm only about 70 pages in, so I'm reserving judgment for now.

My current nonfiction read is Rick Atkinson's The Fate of the Day, the second volume of his history of the American Revolutionary War.

 

[ElectricBlue]

The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek, a satire based on the everyman Švejk and his adventures in World War 1. It's like an early version of Catch 22.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Red 1-2-3, by John Katzenbach.

Post Office, by Charles Bukowski.

The former because I came across a pair of books by Katzenbach at the library, and I decided to give him a second chance after the cliffhanger from State of Mind left a sour taste in my mouth. Went through The Wrong Man first, which for some reason it took him five chapters to hook me in instead of the first paragraph, and he is someone who knows how to hook you in. First villain from him that I hated instead of being creeped out by him. Red 1-2-3 is more familiar to the Katzenbach psychological thriller formula... though now I'm questioning if this bad guy in particular is actually himself.

The latter because it felt like the most accessible non-erotic roman à clef that I have around, and I'm looking to study the genre.

 

[ericalauren]

The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory

 

[CyranoJ]

Two on the go:

Marlene Daut's The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henri Cristophe. (Fascinating but I think it would be pretty dry for a non-historian.)
The Emily Wilson translation of The Iliad. (Pretty amazing: I think it's the most readable, relatable and vivid translation I've ever seen.)

 

[Dearelliot]

Just started Baldacci's "Strangers in Time," WWII fiction. Just finished Connelly's "Nightshade."
Large print, hardcover..

 

[alohadave]

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

 

[filthytrancendence]

Blue Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson). It's pretty astounding how much time is covered in this trilogy and this last book in particular, and how it really manages to give a sense of that time passing. Hard to even keep track, because half the dates are given in Martian years and the other half in the Gregorian calendar, and I'm sure that's intentional, too. But it's close to two centuries so far. And a lot of that sense of stretched and compressed time is a function of how time stretches for humanity itself over the course of things, where now they're at a point that undertaking projects that will certainly take another two centuries is simply part of the obvious course of things.

A cool idea, certainly, but I'm a bit awed by this effect being so successfully achieved in a novel. I expect I'll be thinking about these for quite some time to come.

 

[THBGato]

"A court of thorns and roses" by Sarah J Maas.

It's okay. Not as good as Holly Black's "The cruel prince".

 

[StillStunned]

I've just finished "Pagans" by James Alistair Henry, as recommended to me by @Bazzle. A police procedural set in an alternative Britain, where the Norman invasion never happened, Britain is still divided into three kingdoms and is generally seen as a barbaric backwater compared with the richer and more advanced countries in Africa and Asia.

Next up is "There are Rivers in the Sky" by Elif Shafak. Not sure yet what I think of it.

 

[carolheadcase]

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

Loved it!

 

[carolheadcase]

Nocturne by Karina Halle.
Love her books. Dirty romance novels.

 

[JessiQueVix]

Write now i am reading " Reaper's Property" by Joanna Wylde

 

[Bramblethorn]

Fiction: re-reading Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries series, currently on #3 (Rogue Protocol)
Non-fiction: Devon Price's Unmasking Autism.

 

[PennameWombat]

Genre fiction: "Stinger" by Robert McCammon. On deck, either Peter F. Hamilton's "Exodus" or Michael Swanwick's "The Dragons of Babel."

To prove I'm clinically insane: "The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York" by Robert Caro. If you don't know who Robert Moses was, he was a 'planner' in New York City who initially created parks and very useful infrastructure (the Triborough Bridge, for one.) But who eventually revealed a hatred of public transit and championed roads. Anyway, I've always been curious about how various things ended up the way they are when I'd lived in the area, and the answer had always been "Robert Moses." BTW. It's about 1200 pages . Caro is also the biographer who is four books into a planned five of a biography series about Lyndon Johnson. It's already passed 1,000,000 words in total. I've not read it.

 

[PennameWombat]

Money by Martin Amis. I've never read any of his novels before. I'm only about 70 pages in, so I'm reserving judgment for now.

My current nonfiction read is Rick Atkinson's The Fate of the Day, the second volume of his history of the American Revolutionary War.

Not read that series by Atkinson yet, but if you like his work and are interested in the subject, I highly recommend his "Liberation Trilogy," about the US Army in the ETO during WWII. First book is "An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943."

 

[onehitwanda]

Been rereading "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss. Wish he'd just finish the trilogy instead of rewriting existing stories.

 

[StillStunned]

Been rereading "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss. Wish he'd just finish the trilogy instead of rewriting existing stories.

That one took my breath away. Just reading the section beginning "It was a silence of three parts" I fell completely in love. The second book dragged in parts. I've given up hope of ever seeing the series completed. PR is in the same group as GRRM and Scott Lynch.

At least they make me feel better about not working on some of my series here.

 

[onehitwanda]

That one took my breath away. Just reading the section beginning "It was a silence of three parts" I fell completely in love. The second book dragged in parts. I've given up hope of ever seeing the series completed. PR is in the same group as GRRM and Scott Lynch.

At least they make me feel better about not working on some of my series here.

I keep intending to read "The slow regard of silent things" but I worry it will just anger me.

I go back to Robin Hobb when I need my fix of "Massively blind protagonist who needs a slap upside the head"

 

[StillStunned]

I keep intending to read "The slow regard of silent things" but I worry it will just anger me.

Me too. Although I enjoyed the two short stories he did ("The Lightning Tree", which is about Bast, and "How Old Holly Came To Be").

I go back to Robin Hobb when I need my fix of "Massively blind protagonist who needs a slap upside the head"

I enjoyed her first trilogy, then became frustrated with the wilful stupidity and/or whininess of her characters. The Fool in particular drove me away.

 

[onehitwanda]

Me too. Although I enjoyed the two short stories he did ("The Lightning Tree", which is about Bast, and "How Old Holly Came To Be").

I enjoyed her first trilogy, then became frustrated with the wilful stupidity and/or whininess of her characters. The Fool in particular drove me away.

The fool comes full-circle in the Tawny Man trilogy. If you haven't, you should, if only for the closure for Fitz.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

That one took my breath away. Just reading the section beginning "It was a silence of three parts" I fell completely in love. The second book dragged in parts. I've given up hope of ever seeing the series completed. PR is in the same group as GRRM and Scott Lynch.

At least they make me feel better about not working on some of my series here.

Those three aren't the same, though.
Scott Lynch has been suffering from mental health problems, so I can understand the huge delay of Thorn of Emberlain.

GRRM is enjoying his fame, and he apparently has the time to write shitloads of other stuff, just not the Winds. We've hypothesized here that he wrote himself into a corner, but I have a feeling that he's stalling because he's afraid of the reaction of the audience after the fiasco of the last season of the Game of Thrones show. I believe he could finish the book quickly if he wanted to.

PR... yeah. I thought he was just insecure/perfectionist, but after the utter debacle of his charity thing, I don't know what to think of him anymore.

Either way, we should probably keep our expectations low.

 

[alohadave]

Fiction: re-reading Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries series, currently on #3 (Rogue Protocol)
Non-fiction: Devon Price's Unmasking Autism.

Love Murderbot. I'm curious what you think its gender skews as? It's a genderless construct, but everyone seems to have a different opinion about it. My feeling is that it skewed very slightly feminine.

The series on Apple+ is a good adaptation, though there are differences for the medium.