One of the most fun discussion threads we’ve done this year was on summer reading, and I was thinking about it this morning as what I’ve been reading has really shifted this year. Before, I was reading almost exclusively nonfiction (which makes sense, given a lot of the things we talk about each week in the newsletter).
But this year, I’ve shifted almost exclusively to fiction — and it’s been like discovering a new world all over again. So far this year, I’ve been reading:
John Grisham’s The Reckoning, The Guardians, The Last Juror + Sycamore Row
Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad — which we read in our book club
Delia Owens’s Where The Crawdads Sing — oh wow, this one was AMAZING (especially the ending)
S.A. Cosby’s Razorblade Tears — just started this one, read almost half of it last night. Really intense.
Kelsey McKinney’s God Spare the Girls — it’s a coming-of-age tale that almost reads like a suspense novel
Laura Dave’s The Last Thing He Told Me — just fantastic, really breathlessly suspenseful
T.J. Newman’s Falling — you’ll never see flying the same way again, I bet!
Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms — the Ken Burns documentary re-ignited my interest
Robert Galbraith (actually J.K. Rowling)’s The Cuckoo’s Calling — still in the middle, intriguing so far
How has your reading changed this year (or not), and what have you discovered that you really loved, or are loving right now? 📚 — Terrell
Great thread. While I stick mostly to fiction, I just finished I Came as a Ghost, the autobiography of John Thomson - Georgetown's iconic basketball coach. On the fiction side - I don't know why exactly - but started reading older stuff including Treasure Island, James Fenimore Cooper's The Spy, and Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar. Change of pace.
I read Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime earlier this summer. Great book! Loved it! Now reading Andréa Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano mysteries, starting with the first three.
Well, I'm still reading "Exercised" by Lieberman. Busy starting the 12 week training for November 7th for the Golden Gate Half, so books go into to the slot of "when I have some spare time!" Haha! :
Next up on my list is "The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu" by Tom Lin which was recommended by NYTimes. I tend to go with using our King County Library for books (having been a librarian) rather than buying them. It takes time to get new releases on hold, but it works with my schedule. :)
I doubt it.:) It was a fun job, in an academic library at North Dakota State School of Technology. Mostly, I loved to find out the workings behind the scenes and the cataloguing. As a librarian, one seldom has time to read, but I was a whiz at shelving books! :)
Drives me nuts to go into a public library now and see how many books are not re-shelved properly. . .specially in the fiction section. That's what they get for not hiring proper librarians, but accepting volunteers and high school children!
Still, I'm happy to see the doors open again and I can go in and peruse the shelves.:)
“Rust: The Longest War” was a great read about entropy and how much it costs. I’m also space sci-fi fan, and Marko Kloos writes the best series. I worked through the first three books in his new series. I think I’m up to 42 books this year. “In the Garden of the Beasts” was a really good read about America’s failure to grasp the murderous intent of the Nazis as they rose to power. The story is pulled from the ambassador’s private journals, and the communications between him (likely in the post due to having the same name as someone way more qualified), and the entrenched elites that ran the State Department. It’s not political, it is very factual on what happened.
I'm obsessively reading "The Keeper of Lost Things" by Ruth Hogan. It's language is so British, and has been a fun escape in a tough summer here in the Northwest. I feel like I have new episodes of Downton Abbey again.
Currently reading "Behold the Dreamers" and enjoying it immensely. I have read several of the same books as you ("The Last Thing He Told Me," "Where the Crawdads Sing,"), and highly highly recommend Erik Larson's "The Splendid and the Vile," "Before We Were Yours," and "Beneath A Scarlet Sky." I love love love to read, and have already read 20 books this year. My goal is 30, but the summer is the one time to get outside and enjoy the weather -- even if it's humid!!!
I've heard great, great things about "The Splendid and the Vile" too -- a few of my friends here in Atlanta have read it, and loved it. I'll have to check out "Behold the Dreamers"!
Good morning Tyrell. The school where I work has started a program where the students are required to put away all electronics for 30 minutes [4 days/week] and read an actual book. As it's my first exposure to something like this, I am surprised about how much I'm again enjoying reading an actual book [I've turned recently to e-books, like most of the population!]. As I'm a sports nut, I'm presently reading a lot of John Feinstein's fiction novels dealing with social issues, through sports - I work in HS. It's been a real pleasure to simply sit at my desk, with my kids in their seats, and read for reading's pleasures again...
In preparation for running NYC in November, I am reading Hal Higdon’s marathon book - looking for strategies, guides, etc. Read Sir Alex Ferguson’s My Autobiography this past summer about all things Manchester United
Those all sound really interesting, Jamie. Have you ever listened to the LBJ tapes, by the way? Michael Beschloss wrote a companion book based on them -- so, so interesting. Basically covers from the moment he enters the White House after JFK is assassinated to when he leaves in 1968.
I just printed your list out Terrell! Always looking for new reads. I have "listened" to The Splendid and The Vile, Erik Larsen; The Women in White, Wilkie Collins; I'm Still Here, Austin Channing Brown; Talking to Strangers, Malcolm Gladwell; Circe, Madeline Miller; If it Bleeds, Stephen King and listening now to What Happened to You, Oprah Winfrey. I have read/reading: Running with the Kenyan; Choose Me, Tess Gerritsen; Emotional Agility, Susan Davids....so much good stuff out there!!
Hemingway is good to re-read as one gets older. I really enjoyed his memoir "A Moveable Feast" and a historical fiction novel called "The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain about Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley. https://www.amazon.com/Paris-Wife-Paula-McLain/dp/0345521315
I love hearing/reading about this period. Did you ever see the movie "Midnight in Paris"? It's a little bit cheesy, but it captures the romance of that time.
Also, I just clicked the link and saw this description of the book: "Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway." Can you imagine giving up on love at 28? I guess that was the time they were living in, though.
Sadly, I can't enjoy Woody Allen films anymore after watching Allen V. Farrow (4-part documentary on HBO and Prime Video). He's a talented writer and movie director, but I believe he abused his child and then was extremely manipulative, particularly with using the media and his high-level connections in the court of public opinion. It's a sad but compelling watch. Maybe I'll see "Midnight in Paris" after he dies, when at least I know he can't benefit from another person watching one of his movies.
You know, what you say is all true. And, as I was typing the above, it crossed my mind. I saw the movie long before I'd heard of the things he's done, so I guess it still held some attraction for me, after all these years. (And, it's one of the few movies he's directed that he's not in.) But you're exactly right, and it's astonishing what he's been allowed to get away with. I haven't seen that documentary, but I did read the Vanity Fair article on the case from a few years ago. It was really tough to see actors whom I've enjoyed watching over the years defend him.
I have collected more e-books (most of them free) on Kindle than a human being could possibly read in a lifetime . . . and based on my collection, recommendations are sent to my notifications. I got a notice this morning that one on my wish list was on sale, so I bought it and that's what I'm reading now: Endure by Alex Hutchinson, and books he mentions within his book – Deep by James Nestor, Once a Runner by John L. Parker Jr., The Four-Minute Mile by Roger Bannister, 14 Minutes by Alberto Salazar and John Brant, and Treatise of Man by René Descartes. A different recommendation got me reading Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. I need a job that pays me to read (what I want to read, not what an editor's job would require me to read - lol) so I can spend more time reading instead of going to work! 😊
Wouldn't that be the best! (A job that pays you to read, I mean.) I once saw an interview with the author Donna Tartt, where she mentioned that she loves writing b/c her job is to daydream all day. I could get into that! :)
I love the diversity of all your choices -- how is Man's Search for Meaning? I have it on my shelf too, but have only skimmed it.
I also would like a job that pays me to knit, a job that pays me to skydive, . . . and I actually did have a job that paid me to SCUBA dive. That was awesome.
All of the selections actually have a common thread that intrigues me: the quest to master your own mind - your own thoughts, your own attitudes - and how that would change your own experience of life. In the sense of physical pursuits, your mind definitely plays an enormous factor in your performance, but that is true of all of life. In the case of Viktor Frankl, the horrors he experienced are unimaginable, but he survived it all, he endured despite what was done to him, and he concluded that all of us have one freedom that can never be taken away from us: our freedom to choose our own attitude.
No matter where we are in life, our experiences, our circumstances, our backgrounds, our futures, we all share the common trait that we can improve ourselves beyond where we are today. Not comparing to any other person, just improving ourselves over who we were yesterday. Choosing our attitude plays into that. We can all improve our attitudes about something or other in life. So all of the above selections are interesting reads in and of themselves, but they all also provide enormous commentary on personal development and self-improvement.
Plus, I just like to read. I learned to read and write my name at age 4 to get my own library card, and I haven't stopped reading since then. :)
Good Friday Morning. Dry cleaners had my shirts ready before I walked in, donuts in the office. It is a great day.
Can't even fathom how many books you read. And the thought of reading two at once blows my mind.
I try to spend at least 30 minutes with the Bible every day so that is always good. I have also been rereading AA's Big Book with a guy trying to get sober. It always amazes me how much I identify with feelings and emotions in the book that I thought were unique to me.
Glad to hear it's a great day where you are, my friend. Actually the novels I've been reading go much faster than the nonfiction I was reading before -- I really have to slow down and make sure I get everything when I read nonfiction. Fiction, on the other hand, lately I just haven't been able to put it down.
Love what you have to say about the Big Book -- I know some people going through that, and others that have been through it, so I totally get where you're coming from.
Currently reading stuff that gets me stoked for my goals - nonfiction by runners, hikers, kayakers, rowers, climbers and other adventurers always keeps me motivated for my comparatively bland city workouts. This summer I re-read the PCT accounts "Thirst" and "Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart," read "Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life," and devoured "Alone On The Wall" and "The Push" (Honnold and Caldwell, respectively). "The Sun Is A Compass" and "Paddling North" are less recently visited but well-loved inspirational gems.
Just googled the first two and they look really interesting! I can assume you've read Cheryl Strayed's "Wild," right? "The Sun Is A Compass" sounds REALLY interesting too.
"Fire Season" by Philip Connors is also an immensely beautiful work of nonfiction, more introspective and less action, but totally captivating and also sadly timely in yet another horrendous fire season in the west...
Yes! Cheryl's a great writer and I respect her journey but I don't see her hike necessarily as much of a thru-hiking role model in terms of preparedness, self-reliance and such. And I think some hikers cringe at having the PCT automatically associated with the movie/book as opposed to accounts like "Thirst" (by Anish, the legendary woman who set the unsupported FKT for either gender on the trail). Yeah, no disrespect to Cheryl, but for me the women role model authors for the PCT are Carrot Quinn for her wonderfully relatable writing and Anish for sheer badassery and grit.
Really good to know -- the Amazon page for "Thirst" makes it look really interesting (and, like you say, much different from "Wild"). Will definitely check it out.
Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Plath's The Bell Jar!
Great thread. While I stick mostly to fiction, I just finished I Came as a Ghost, the autobiography of John Thomson - Georgetown's iconic basketball coach. On the fiction side - I don't know why exactly - but started reading older stuff including Treasure Island, James Fenimore Cooper's The Spy, and Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar. Change of pace.
I read Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime earlier this summer. Great book! Loved it! Now reading Andréa Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano mysteries, starting with the first three.
Currently I am reading Eat & Run by Scott Jurek
Never too Late by Kate Champion
Well, I'm still reading "Exercised" by Lieberman. Busy starting the 12 week training for November 7th for the Golden Gate Half, so books go into to the slot of "when I have some spare time!" Haha! :
Next up on my list is "The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu" by Tom Lin which was recommended by NYTimes. I tend to go with using our King County Library for books (having been a librarian) rather than buying them. It takes time to get new releases on hold, but it works with my schedule. :)
So you were a librarian, Nilima? I bet you could come up with some amazing recommendations for all of us! :)
I doubt it.:) It was a fun job, in an academic library at North Dakota State School of Technology. Mostly, I loved to find out the workings behind the scenes and the cataloguing. As a librarian, one seldom has time to read, but I was a whiz at shelving books! :)
Drives me nuts to go into a public library now and see how many books are not re-shelved properly. . .specially in the fiction section. That's what they get for not hiring proper librarians, but accepting volunteers and high school children!
Still, I'm happy to see the doors open again and I can go in and peruse the shelves.:)
“Rust: The Longest War” was a great read about entropy and how much it costs. I’m also space sci-fi fan, and Marko Kloos writes the best series. I worked through the first three books in his new series. I think I’m up to 42 books this year. “In the Garden of the Beasts” was a really good read about America’s failure to grasp the murderous intent of the Nazis as they rose to power. The story is pulled from the ambassador’s private journals, and the communications between him (likely in the post due to having the same name as someone way more qualified), and the entrenched elites that ran the State Department. It’s not political, it is very factual on what happened.
WOW!!!! 42 books?! I will have to check out "In the Garden of the Beasts"!
I just checked Goodreads. It’s actually 23 so far this year. My bad…
i just finished the paper palace....not very intellectual but a fun beach read:)
I've heard it's great! It's part of Reese Witherspoon's book club, right?
that i don't know. i read it in less than a week!
I'm obsessively reading "The Keeper of Lost Things" by Ruth Hogan. It's language is so British, and has been a fun escape in a tough summer here in the Northwest. I feel like I have new episodes of Downton Abbey again.
I've heard that's a really good one too!
Currently reading "Behold the Dreamers" and enjoying it immensely. I have read several of the same books as you ("The Last Thing He Told Me," "Where the Crawdads Sing,"), and highly highly recommend Erik Larson's "The Splendid and the Vile," "Before We Were Yours," and "Beneath A Scarlet Sky." I love love love to read, and have already read 20 books this year. My goal is 30, but the summer is the one time to get outside and enjoy the weather -- even if it's humid!!!
I appreciate all these suggestions for things I might not otherwise have read!
I've heard great, great things about "The Splendid and the Vile" too -- a few of my friends here in Atlanta have read it, and loved it. I'll have to check out "Behold the Dreamers"!
Good morning Tyrell. The school where I work has started a program where the students are required to put away all electronics for 30 minutes [4 days/week] and read an actual book. As it's my first exposure to something like this, I am surprised about how much I'm again enjoying reading an actual book [I've turned recently to e-books, like most of the population!]. As I'm a sports nut, I'm presently reading a lot of John Feinstein's fiction novels dealing with social issues, through sports - I work in HS. It's been a real pleasure to simply sit at my desk, with my kids in their seats, and read for reading's pleasures again...
It somehow feels so much better to hold an actual book, rather than swipe on a device.
In preparation for running NYC in November, I am reading Hal Higdon’s marathon book - looking for strategies, guides, etc. Read Sir Alex Ferguson’s My Autobiography this past summer about all things Manchester United
The Man U book sounds interesting - a fan from "afar"
I have mostly been immersed in Nonfiction over the past several months.
About 6 years ago I decided to read a biography about each president in the order they served and I am working through Kennedy's Bio now.
Reading "An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1063: by Robert Dallek.
I have read several Presidential Bios just this year starting with Hoover.
In addition, I have read several additional other Nonfiction History books and a few novels.
My current count is 15 books so far this year and I expect to be around 30 when the year ends.
Those all sound really interesting, Jamie. Have you ever listened to the LBJ tapes, by the way? Michael Beschloss wrote a companion book based on them -- so, so interesting. Basically covers from the moment he enters the White House after JFK is assassinated to when he leaves in 1968.
I just printed your list out Terrell! Always looking for new reads. I have "listened" to The Splendid and The Vile, Erik Larsen; The Women in White, Wilkie Collins; I'm Still Here, Austin Channing Brown; Talking to Strangers, Malcolm Gladwell; Circe, Madeline Miller; If it Bleeds, Stephen King and listening now to What Happened to You, Oprah Winfrey. I have read/reading: Running with the Kenyan; Choose Me, Tess Gerritsen; Emotional Agility, Susan Davids....so much good stuff out there!!
You have a great list too! How is "Talking to Strangers"? I've been wanting to read that one.
Oh, and about to start Sprinting Through No Man's Land, Adin Dobkin
Hemingway is good to re-read as one gets older. I really enjoyed his memoir "A Moveable Feast" and a historical fiction novel called "The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain about Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley. https://www.amazon.com/Paris-Wife-Paula-McLain/dp/0345521315
I love hearing/reading about this period. Did you ever see the movie "Midnight in Paris"? It's a little bit cheesy, but it captures the romance of that time.
Also, I just clicked the link and saw this description of the book: "Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway." Can you imagine giving up on love at 28? I guess that was the time they were living in, though.
Sadly, I can't enjoy Woody Allen films anymore after watching Allen V. Farrow (4-part documentary on HBO and Prime Video). He's a talented writer and movie director, but I believe he abused his child and then was extremely manipulative, particularly with using the media and his high-level connections in the court of public opinion. It's a sad but compelling watch. Maybe I'll see "Midnight in Paris" after he dies, when at least I know he can't benefit from another person watching one of his movies.
You know, what you say is all true. And, as I was typing the above, it crossed my mind. I saw the movie long before I'd heard of the things he's done, so I guess it still held some attraction for me, after all these years. (And, it's one of the few movies he's directed that he's not in.) But you're exactly right, and it's astonishing what he's been allowed to get away with. I haven't seen that documentary, but I did read the Vanity Fair article on the case from a few years ago. It was really tough to see actors whom I've enjoyed watching over the years defend him.
Thumbs up to that! I'm amazed at how many authors I came across in school that I liked so much, that I read everything that they wrote.
I have collected more e-books (most of them free) on Kindle than a human being could possibly read in a lifetime . . . and based on my collection, recommendations are sent to my notifications. I got a notice this morning that one on my wish list was on sale, so I bought it and that's what I'm reading now: Endure by Alex Hutchinson, and books he mentions within his book – Deep by James Nestor, Once a Runner by John L. Parker Jr., The Four-Minute Mile by Roger Bannister, 14 Minutes by Alberto Salazar and John Brant, and Treatise of Man by René Descartes. A different recommendation got me reading Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. I need a job that pays me to read (what I want to read, not what an editor's job would require me to read - lol) so I can spend more time reading instead of going to work! 😊
Wouldn't that be the best! (A job that pays you to read, I mean.) I once saw an interview with the author Donna Tartt, where she mentioned that she loves writing b/c her job is to daydream all day. I could get into that! :)
I love the diversity of all your choices -- how is Man's Search for Meaning? I have it on my shelf too, but have only skimmed it.
I also would like a job that pays me to knit, a job that pays me to skydive, . . . and I actually did have a job that paid me to SCUBA dive. That was awesome.
All of the selections actually have a common thread that intrigues me: the quest to master your own mind - your own thoughts, your own attitudes - and how that would change your own experience of life. In the sense of physical pursuits, your mind definitely plays an enormous factor in your performance, but that is true of all of life. In the case of Viktor Frankl, the horrors he experienced are unimaginable, but he survived it all, he endured despite what was done to him, and he concluded that all of us have one freedom that can never be taken away from us: our freedom to choose our own attitude.
No matter where we are in life, our experiences, our circumstances, our backgrounds, our futures, we all share the common trait that we can improve ourselves beyond where we are today. Not comparing to any other person, just improving ourselves over who we were yesterday. Choosing our attitude plays into that. We can all improve our attitudes about something or other in life. So all of the above selections are interesting reads in and of themselves, but they all also provide enormous commentary on personal development and self-improvement.
Plus, I just like to read. I learned to read and write my name at age 4 to get my own library card, and I haven't stopped reading since then. :)
Oh, what are the titles of the sequel and prequel? I would like to read those, as well.
Good Friday Morning. Dry cleaners had my shirts ready before I walked in, donuts in the office. It is a great day.
Can't even fathom how many books you read. And the thought of reading two at once blows my mind.
I try to spend at least 30 minutes with the Bible every day so that is always good. I have also been rereading AA's Big Book with a guy trying to get sober. It always amazes me how much I identify with feelings and emotions in the book that I thought were unique to me.
Glad to hear it's a great day where you are, my friend. Actually the novels I've been reading go much faster than the nonfiction I was reading before -- I really have to slow down and make sure I get everything when I read nonfiction. Fiction, on the other hand, lately I just haven't been able to put it down.
Love what you have to say about the Big Book -- I know some people going through that, and others that have been through it, so I totally get where you're coming from.
Thank God for AA it saved my life.
Ain't that the truth. Wow 35 years is a long time. That is inspiring to me.
Currently reading stuff that gets me stoked for my goals - nonfiction by runners, hikers, kayakers, rowers, climbers and other adventurers always keeps me motivated for my comparatively bland city workouts. This summer I re-read the PCT accounts "Thirst" and "Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart," read "Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life," and devoured "Alone On The Wall" and "The Push" (Honnold and Caldwell, respectively). "The Sun Is A Compass" and "Paddling North" are less recently visited but well-loved inspirational gems.
Good choices, I like the same kind of reading! :)
Just googled the first two and they look really interesting! I can assume you've read Cheryl Strayed's "Wild," right? "The Sun Is A Compass" sounds REALLY interesting too.
"Fire Season" by Philip Connors is also an immensely beautiful work of nonfiction, more introspective and less action, but totally captivating and also sadly timely in yet another horrendous fire season in the west...
Yes! Cheryl's a great writer and I respect her journey but I don't see her hike necessarily as much of a thru-hiking role model in terms of preparedness, self-reliance and such. And I think some hikers cringe at having the PCT automatically associated with the movie/book as opposed to accounts like "Thirst" (by Anish, the legendary woman who set the unsupported FKT for either gender on the trail). Yeah, no disrespect to Cheryl, but for me the women role model authors for the PCT are Carrot Quinn for her wonderfully relatable writing and Anish for sheer badassery and grit.
Really good to know -- the Amazon page for "Thirst" makes it look really interesting (and, like you say, much different from "Wild"). Will definitely check it out.
Tell me how the John Lennon on is, I'll be sure to read it...
Read Shout, great read, thx...
Both of those sound great . . . think I'll join you in reading those.
I haven't, but I just looked it up online and read the Toronto Film review, and I'm definitely going to watch it. Thanks for the suggestion!