what are you reading?

[bbkobabe]

I read a LOT of YA since I need to keep up with what my YA students are reading, particularly the historical fiction types... we have 20 minutes of reading time, 4X a week, and you can cut through a lot of YA books that way. Currently almost done with A proud taste for scarlet and miniver by Koingsburg, and recently re-read Cartherine, called Birdy since it's a movie now, and I always insist on reading the book first to my students! I also read The View from Saturday also by Koingsburg, and the beloved (for the title alone) Scat by Carl Hiasson. Both these last two have strong Florida tie-in's, FYI.

Twenty minutes a day for 10 weeks! Nothing wrong with reading a kid's book once in a while...

One of the best "kid's books" is The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi... A twelve year old sailing alone as a passenger ends up as a part of the crew and accused of murder. The violence is brief, but frequent, and a lot more graphic than you would expect from a "kid's book". The end is a bit sappy but the story has some plot twists and turns that will make your head spin!

And what are my 12yo students all obsessed with reading? The graphic novel series Heartstopper by Alice Oseman... go figure!

 

[rainbow21]

I recently picked up a Kindle because book print (font size) keeps shrinking. Font size, brightness, and page whiteness are easily adjustable to preferences. It has actually increased my amount and speed of reading due to the convenience of leaving it open on a music stand or table and then reading between commercials, while cooking, etc. without having to pick the book up and open to the page and hold it open. Battery life is incredible, lasting two weeks to a month and recharging completely in about two hours.

This combines wonderfully well with being in California because state law allows you to get a library card from any public library in the state with proof of residency (driver's license). So I have the entire peninsula in the Bay Area, and recently got San Diego, San Francisco, and Cupertino library cards when there. Why? Because in demand books can be checked out from home and one library might have a four month wait for it while another has a two week wait... all from the comfort of home.

I have enjoyed the early Hiaasen, Reacher books, and Coben books as described by others here. Michael Connelly is a recent good find (start with "The Poet").

 

[ploverwing]

Cartherine, called Birdy

Loved it!

And what are my 12yo students all obsessed with reading? The graphic novel series Heartstopper by Alice Oseman... go figure!

Lol a friend of my daughter's just raved about that this weekend. She thoroughly adores it. My daughter doesn't get it... but she might enjoy it nonetheless. She's been reading "A Bride's Story" graphic novel series (the first two or three were excellent, the rest somewhat meh, according to her).

Any of your students like dragons? We really enjoyed Rachel Hartman's Seraphina and Shadow Scale.

 

[Luke Plays Uke]

Heartstopper is a big thing in my house. My oldest and my wife both love it and have all the books.

 

[Luke Plays Uke]

I just finished How to Be Perfect and was super impressed by how accessible and interesting it was - especially considering it’s a book about the history, principles, and applications of western moral philosophy.

I’ve always been super I retested in philosophy and ethics in general so it was bound to be a favorite for me but I know some of it is incredibly dry. Not this, though. It was great.

 

[ploverwing]

Just finished "Freedom Convoy" by Andrew Lawton. A very divisive event in Canadian history: lots of people blew off the truckers as dangerous disruptive crackpots, lots of people admired their protest against perceived threat to / loss of Charter rights. If you live in Canada, the media covered it as the former, this book looks at it more from the latter. I found it an interesting read.

 

[Mike $]

One of my favorite movies as a kid was a book first. I never read it until last night. Great book. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Free E-Book. Today, I'll start another book I never read before. Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

 

[ploverwing]

One of my favorite movies as a kid was a book first. I never read it until last night. Great book. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Free E-Book. Today, I'll start another book I never read before. Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

I really enjoyed Frankenstein; I never read it until a couple of years ago.

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

I really enjoyed Frankenstein; I never read it until a couple of years ago.

Same here. Amazing that she was so young when writing such a detailed, emotional, engaging tale.

 

[Luke Plays Uke]

One of my favorite movies as a kid was a book first. I never read it until last night. Great book. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Free E-Book. Today, I'll start another book I never read before. Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

I LOVE Frankenstein. I’ve read it something like five or six times. In high school, when I was writing a critical analysis of it, I started carrying letters my long-distance girlfriend sent me in my coat pocket because that’s what happened in the book.

Then I forgot said coat in O’Hare International Airport on my way home from visiting family. It’s one of the busiest airports in the entire country and I thought my coat was as good as gone.

Ah, but I was wrong! Some kind soul found it, saw the letters, assumed they were mine because they were opened, and used the address to mail me my jacket with a note that says he’ll have to start carrying a couple letters to him in his pocket as well!

 

[Luke Plays Uke]

I just finished The Nordic Theory of Everything. I thought it was going to be philosophy but it turned out to be a policies compare/contrast between the Nordic countries and the US, told by a Finland native who moved to the US. It was a good book.

Now I’m reading the first Meg book. So far it’s way better than Jaws, but that’s not exactly a high bar to clear. ;-)

 

[mikelz777]

I just finished No Second Chance by Harlen Coben. This is my third book by Coben and I really enjoyed it. His stories aren't overly complicated but they are full of twists that will keep you guessing what's going on until the very end. I'll be on the lookout for more of his books at Goodwill or other thrifts where I often shop for books.

 

[Luke Plays Uke]

I finished The Meg and Meg: Origins. You could skip Origins if you’ve read Meg - it exists just to deepen the grooves of character traits in the people you’ve already read about in Meg.

But Meg is a bananas book. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but when I was reading it I thought there was no way a movie studio would have the guts to make something that could very easily skew into looking ridiculous.

But they should try. ;-)

Next up is a book called Bookshop of the Broken Hearted. I don’t know what it’s about though - I don’t usually read the backs of books. We’ll see.

 

[kkimura]

"Network Effect", one of the Murderbot novels by Martha Wells. Think of a wisecracking Terminator tasked with protecting humans. (A perfect role for Ryan Reynolds.)

 

[Luke Plays Uke]

I finished Bookshop of the Broken Hearted and still can’t really tell you what JT was about. Love and hope overcoming grief? It was a fine story, but I felt there was something under it that I was supposed to get but was ultimately too daft to grasp.

I also finished Night Shift by Stephen King. That was usually what I read while donating plasma and the short story format worked pretty well for the task.

Then I read The Christmas Bookshop which was pretty boring, mostly because the characters are so one-dimensional. Read the first three chapters and you can tell how the story’s going to end.

Now I’m reading Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King - a whole novel written in monologue.

I’m in the process of reading/re-reading all of King’s books and, to be honest, wasn’t excited about this one. I tried to read it as a kid and it didn’t hook me. It also came out at a time when King’s books weren’t doing well for whatever reason (I was too young to pay much attention to that at the time). More than a few pages in, I can say I don’t think it did itself any favors by using real-world horrors of spousal and child abuse. I get that it’s horror and horror is meant to make you uncomfortable, but I think topics like these (and sexual assaults in general) are why trigger warnings rightfully exist. Reading this, I could see how past traumas could come back to haunt a person.

 

[Nickie]

"Inconspicuous Consumption", the Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have. Pretty sadly enlightening. Humans mess up everything.

 

[Joyful Uke]

I’m partway through Bob Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song, and my 1st reaction was…Wut??
But now that I’ve dropped my incorrect notion of what it was going to be like, I’m enjoying it, and may go back through the beginning again now that I know what to expect.

I also just started Watergate: A New History. Long book, & I suspect I won’t have a chance to finish before the library reclaims it. But it looks interesting, & I can always get back in the hold line to take it out again.

I tried reading a James Patterson book, (Blowback - or a title close to that), & returned that one unfinished to the library. Way too violent for me.

Read Denver Riggleman’s The Breach, which was very interesting.

And American Cartel: Inside the Battle to Bring Down the Opioid Industry was hard to put down. Stayed up too late at night to keep reading.

Really liked Anxious People by Fredrick Bachman.

Just a few from my recent stack of books.

 

[Joyful Uke]

I just finished George Harrison: Behind The Locked Door by Graeme Thomson. If I had to choose a favorite Beatle it would probably be George Harrison. I think that his religious views aside, I found him the most relatable. I thought that this biography was excellent. I'm not a fan of fawning puff pieces and this was a warts and all account of his life. I've read a lot about the Beatles over the years but I didn't find this to be a slog through a bunch of stuff I already knew.

This is in my stack of books waiting to be read. Based on your comments about it, I’ll have to try to get to it soon. There don’t seem to be a lot of good books about George.

 

[Luke Plays Uke]

"Inconspicuous Consumption", the Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have. Pretty sadly enlightening. Humans mess up everything.

Bill Gates’ book had a similar impact on me. Lots of stuff I didn’t know and it led to a lot of… “hopeless,” is a strong word, but feeling like there are VERY few things I could do to lessen my impact on the environment.

 

[ploverwing]

Working my way through Suzanne Collins Hunger Games trilogy (and prequel). I think they did a pretty decent job of the movies. I'm just finished book 2 and onto book 3 this morning.