What's Next? discussion

Happy New Year!

Hard to believe but this is the 4th year we've been sharing reading ideas together. Our group is now 28 members. It was previously public. I closed when saw big swings in members but could re-open now that Goodreads has implemented "I'm not a robot" controls. Any views in the group on public versus private?

Please feel free to invite family and friends who would enjoy our group. If need help, send me the contact info and I can take care of it.

How many books are you planning to read in 2020? What were your favorites in 2019? It would be great to hear everyone's thoughts. I'll add my own comments later.

All the best for 2020!
Eric

Happy New Year! To a brand new decade!

2019 was an interesting reading year for me genre-wise. I read some memoirs, a prequel, a 2nd book in a series, a last book of a series, books of essays, poetry, a graphic novel, a murder mystery, a book on politics, some historical and spy thriller novels, two true crime, a classic, an art book, a novella and other general fictions. I was not as strategic as I planned to be but I found that suits me and I'm happy with the number and variety of books I ended up reading. From my 2019 list, I would recommend Virgil Wander as a feel good/atmospheric/easy read, and The Destiny Thief by Richard Russo which I'm surprised it didn't get more attention.

This year I want to focus more on authors rather than genre. A few of the writers that are on my radar have notable works that include novels as well as essays and non fictions. Julian Barnes is one whose books I'm very eager to read this year, and Zadie Smith is another one.

Some other authors I would like to explore are Elena Ferrantes, Margaret Atwood, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Isabel Allende.

Some new and old favourites I want to read are Richard Russo, Rachel Cusk, Tana French, Haruki Murakami, Neil Gaiman.

The guilty pleasure I allow myself - one (or two) Daniel Silva, the new Jeffrey Archer series (which is based on a 'fictional' character from his previous series), the 4th book in the Outlander series (in order to get ready for the 5th season of the TV series)

I accidentally found out that David Mitchell has a new book coming out and I'm very excited about that!

For classics, I would like to try reading a Graham Greene (though still not too sure). Any recommendations anyone?

Looking forward to another fruitful year of books exploring and (proportionally more) reading (lol)!

Thanks! The longer we share ideas, the more my reading list is shaped by each of you. Please keep posting books and reviews. I would also love suggestions on how to make this more interactive.

For myself, I've enjoyed rotating between fiction; non fiction; and progressing through detective and mystery series; I guess those are my "guilty pleasures".

For fiction, I'm balancing new books and classics that I missed. Pulitzer, Booker and Nobel prize lists have been good sources of ideas.

For series, I'm half-way through Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon as well as Murakami's The Rate series; and selectively reading Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler.

A few of my 2019 favorites include:
- Fiction: The Overstory; A Place for Us; Milkman; An America Marriage; Normal People and The Song of Achilles
- Non Fiction: The New Jim Crow; Just Kids; Furious Hours; The Curse of Bigness; How Democracies Die; Team of Teams; and Billion Dollar Whale.

For 2020, a few on my short list:
- Fiction: Stoner; Beloved; The Topeka School; The Nickel Boys; The Whisper Man
- Non Fiction: Say Nothing; The Yellow House; Sapiens; Just Mercy; Why We Sleep

Re your Graham Greene question, I read "The Power and the Glory" in college (30 years ago!) and have had "The Heart of the Matter" on my to-read list for some time but no strong recommendations.

Look forward to seeing more posts!

Almost forgot - my 2020 list also includes "The Banished", a new book by our group's own, Ron Gabriel!