What are you reading?

Literature & Writing Reviews & Recommendations
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There was a previous thread along these lines, but it hasn’t been active and is now a few years old, so I thought a new one might be fun. Feel free to link to your GoodReads/BookWyrm/other book-oriented social media, too.

We get a wide range of visitors here. Books in languages other than English or with mature themes are fine, just let people know what to expect.

I’ll start:

Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep; Ghost Stories, by Adam Soto.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/concerning-those-who-have-fallen-asleep-ghost-stories-adam-soto/18304577

Not really ghost stories in the traditional sense, but very much about how the present is haunted by the people and places of the past.

Yurei: The Japanese Ghost, by Zack Davisson
https://bookshop.org/p/books/yurei-the-japanese-ghost-zack-davisson/9122372

Ghosts in Japanese folklore and popular culture. In English, based on the author’s research and translated by the author and others from Japanese sources.

Chasing Homer, by Laszlo Krasznahorkai
https://bookshop.org/p/books/chasing-homer-laszlo-krasznahorkai/16081828

This is a very strange book. The promotional copy describes it as “a chase narrative,” but it isn’t really clear (so far) whether the protagonist is in fact being hunted by anything but his own demons.

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Witcraft by Jonathan Rée - best non-fiction I’ve read for a few years now. His best too.
https://bookshop.org/book/9780300255386

Meander, Spiral, Explode by Jane Alison - superb exploration of the possibilities of non-linear narratives.
https://bookshop.org/book/9781948226134

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and

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Revelation Space - Wikipedia

The first volume in the Revelation Space series by Alistair Reynolds

Cracking the Egyptian Code: The Revolutionary Life of Jean-François Champollion by Andrew Robinson | Goodreads

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Some recent favourites. Thanks for starting this thread, @kewms!

A beloved recent novel. Ishiguro is unparalleled.

Will be a treasured re-read until I’m a doddering old man.

Pro Tip: The Bear Came Over the Mountain but many others are also great.

Read it when it was released and just re-read it, proving Irving’s writing is timeless, as that was a long damn time ago.

Should be required reading for every high school student… if they choose to read it. :wink:

A small, beautiful book about courage and character.

I was going to mention Sea of Tranquility but you must read this first. You will see why.

Quite unexpectedly, perhaps my favourite book of the last year.

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I’m exploring non-traditional narratives right now, so this is a timely suggestion. Thanks!

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Most of my current reading is cook books. A few new ones such as Home Comforts by Ukrainian Olia Hercules, the anthology Knead Peace: Bake for Ukraine compiled by Andrew Green, and three socio-historical recipe books by Regula Ysewijn Pride and Pudding, Oats in the North Wheat from the South: The History of British Baking, Savoury and Sweet (sadly mangled for the US edition into The British Baking Book : The History of British Baking, Savoury and Sweet), Dark Rye & Honeycake (her exploration of baking in her native Belgium), also her National Trust Book of Puddings.

In between reading them I am cooking from them too. They are all examples of wonderful writing even if non-fiction rather than fiction.

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Just to throw my hat in: Kenneth Rexroth, New Poems. Lovely, and they express the time he was in well.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2801278-new-poems

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A few more from four different cultures:

One of the first, if not first, historical novels.

“A material epic with an astonishing fidelity to [Chinese] history."— New York Times Book Review

The opening lines of the novel, “The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been” epitomise the tragic theme of the novel. Forget about Game of Thrones, this actually happened. It is full of intrigue and war strategies that are still used today.

It was turned into TV series in 1994 and remade in 2010. Here is the link to the 2010 version.

And the source for John Woo’s “Red Cliff”

“This volume [African Divination Systems] of finely crafted case studies is also the vehicle for an important general theory of divination… this is a book overflowing with ideas that will powerfully stimulate further research.” --Journal of Ritual Studies

Arthashastra – Classical political science and military strategy (of India) 2000 years before Machiavelli.

Roger Boesche describes the Arthaśāstra as “a book of political realism, a book analysing how the political world does work and not very often stating how it ought to work, a book that frequently discloses to a king what calculating and sometimes brutal measures he must carry out to preserve the state and the common good.”

Plutarch’s Lives was the source for several of Shakespeare’s plays, and was on the bookshelf of every educated man until recent times.

Plutarch’s Lives is a brilliant collection of biographies by one of the greatest biographers and moralists of all time. By comparing a famous Roman with a famous Greek, Plutarch intended to provide model patterns of behaviour and to encourage mutual respect between Greeks and Romans. There are fifty biographies of famous soldiers, legislators, orators, and statesmen, and an additional eighteen comparisons. The form of Plutarch’s Lives was new; he outlined the birth, youth, achievements, and death of his characters, followed by a formal comparison. The Lives display formidable learning and research. Plutarch is essentially a moralist whose aim is to edify the reader; destiny follows from character, which he illustrates by anecdotes.

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In what may become an annual Lenten tradition for me, I just completed a reread of:

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I just finished Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang. And, I’m about to start reading Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover.

I’m also reading through The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman. And, I might add something else to the mix.

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Are you a fantasy reader at all? If so, have you read Ken Liu’s The Grace of Kings yet? It’s a 4-act structure rather than the more familiar, Western 3-act structure.

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I just finished “The Paris Apartment” by Lisa Foley, for my book club at the local library. It is a good “beach book” for the ability to get to a good stopping point easily. She has a ton of very short chapters each is titled based on the character who is sharing their viewpoint at that time. It is a murder mystery with good character development and a fun plot line. Recommended for those who read during breaks, coffee shops, or at the beach with kids even!
The Paris Apartment

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Today I am reading the Ramayana as it the appearance day of Lord Rama.

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I just finished
Klara and the sun (in French, Klara et le soleil)

Pretty good.
Thanks for recommending it.
:slight_smile:

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Flash fiction: The Ghost Variations, by Kevin Brockmeier
https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-ghost-variations-one-hundred-stories/18915300

Craft: Meander, Spiral, Explode, by Jane Alison, with a hat tip to @Ascher for the recommendation.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/meander-spiral-explode-design-and-pattern-in-narrative-jane-alison/17272520

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There is a book I wanted to suggest in this here list.
A novel that I read a good couple of years ago, and that made quite a strong impression on me.
Problem: despite having really liked it, I just can’t for the life of me remember the title nor the author’s name. lol
Perhaps someone also read it and can help?
Here is what I remember from this novel, and that I can post without ruining it for anyone.

The story is about a divorced and disillusioned scriptwriter.
The paperback version was quite thick. I’d say +/- 500 pages. Gold cover.
Protagonist name: Saul (or something like that).
I think that it is the only novel from this author. RIP

Rings a bell?

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Are you thinking of Karoo? Steve Tesich?
Wonderful book.

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Yeah!
. . . . . . . . .
Thanks. :blush:
I’ve been wanting to read it again for quite some time.