Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Hey everyone! Use this thread to talk about your May books!

Book Club picks: The God of the Woods and An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

Library watch: 9 out, 2 on hold. Many of those 9 are approaching their renewal limit though so I still need to get cracking!

Current reads: Black Cake (yes, running late on last month's book club) and The Ever After of Ashwin Rao. I've started general reading, not picking based on prompts. I'm ahead of where I need to be to complete, so it's fine, but why do I always get distracted? One year, I need to figure out how to stick to the books I planned!

Continuing from April:The Frozen River

-Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Daniel Silva
-The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
-The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve: The Story That Created Us by by Stephen Greenblatt (NF)
-The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier
-An Ordinary Life by Amanda Prowse (audio)

Beginning in May:

-Orlando by Virginia Woolf
-The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict
-The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill (audio)

I’m still reading War and Peace! I’m also planning to read 2 classics for group reads - Trilby by George du Maurier and The Ladies Paradise by Émile Zola. I have several non-fiction that I’ve started but not sure what I will finish, maybe Women in Buddhist Traditions.

I am going to finish The Book of Lost Names
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
Five Winters

I just finished A Separate Peace

And I'm starting Before We Forget Kindness

I have a year long read of War and Peace and 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List

The Man Who Died Twice – Richard Osman – 3***
I really loved the initial book in the series but was less enamored with this sophomore effort. I’m sure it’s partly due to all the stuff going on in real life right now which keeps my brain occupied elsewhere than in the pages of a good story. Still, the group is just as endearing as they were in the first outing, and, of course, they still get the best of the bad guys. There are some moments of humor to break the tension, and a very satisfying ending. LINK to my full review

A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel – K J Charles – 3***
This is the second in the Doomsday Books series of Regency romances, but I think it can easily be read as a standalone work. This was quite a fun and steamy romance. The passion between Luke Doomsday and Rufus d’Aumesty, Earl of Oxney, could easily heat the entire drafty manorial compound! Of course, there are several twists and turns in the basic plot to keep one turning pages. But let’s be serious … the best parts are the naughty ones!
LINK to my full review

In the Land of Second Chances – George Shaffner – 3.5***
In Ebb, Nebraska, life is slow, and people are nice. That’s the way they like to live. Wilma Porter runs the Come Again Bed-and-Breakfast, and her newest guest, Vernon Moore, is about to change Ebb in ways no one expected. I was completely charmed by the residents of Ebb, and by the mysterious Vern Moore. This little book made me think while it entertained me. It’s a wonderful fable about hope and faith and community.
LINK to my full review

I hardly read anything last month. Hoping to get back on it this month.

The Supreme Macaroni Company – Adriana Trigiani – 3.5***
This is the third installment in the story of the Angelini Shoe Company in Greenwich Village, New York. I really like Trigiani’s books. She features strong heroines with complex backgrounds and conflicted feelings. They almost always end happily, or at least hopefully … even though there is plenty of tragedy involved (and isn’t life, itself, like that?).
LINK to my full review

I participate in another challenge where we read titles starting with certain letters every month. So I have sorted my ATY challenge books alphabetically and read (most of) them that way. This month the letters are E and Q (we started with A and M in January). So from my ATY books, I'm reading:
--The Ends of the World (Two books with a connection from different genres; I read its counterpart, fictional The Drowned World, last month)
--Europe in Autumn (A book that uses all five vowels in the title and/or author's name)
--The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe (A book related to one of the elements on the periodic table of elements)
--Quakeland: On the Road to America's Next Devastating Earthquake (A book with sunset vibes on the cover)
This is an easy month. I have so many S and W titles that I'm having to read some out of order, I'd never manage to finish all the books for either of them in a single month!

I've been pretty sick since the end of February (doing much better now) so finally was able to get my challenge update yesterday. I only finished 2 audio books in April. Fortunately, I read a ton in January so I have completed 22/52 of the regular ATY challenge and 6/10 of the Anniversary prompts.

I'm looking forward to getting back to reading. My library book club also has a bingo summer book card that I'm going to try and fit books for both challenges. I started The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (no clue where I will put this book) and have Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America by Heather Cox Richardson going on audio and plan to use it for opposite titles. The Sleeping Beauty Killer by Mary Higgins Clark is the other book I have planned for this prompt.

Glad to hear you are feeling better Jillian!

Mrs Nash’s Ashes – Sarah Adler – 3***
This was a contemporary rom com, a road trip, and an historical F/F love story all wrapped in one novel. I was much more interested in Mrs Nash’s story than in the push / pull attraction between Millie and Hollis. I wish Adler had just told the story of Rose and Elsie who met and loved one another while serving as WAVES during WW2. Still, it held my attention, and I enjoyed it.
LINK to my full review

Pam wrote: "I’m still reading War and Peace! I’m also planning to read 2 classics for group reads - Trilby by George du Maurier and The Ladies Paradise by Émile Zola. I have several non-fiction that I’ve start..."

Bravo! I need to read that! My pick for the Monster Book prompt is Moby Dick, but I need to get weeks ahead on the ATY challenge first cause that will slow me down!

I'm reading The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It and A Simple Twist of Fate but need to get to The Wedding People before June 1 book club.

The other night I finished Incendiary: The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber, and the Invention of Criminal Profiling. Fascinating book about the intersection of mental health and the law. Also, a very famous case at the time that I have never heard of.

Pamela wrote: "Pam wrote: "I’m still reading War and Peace! I’m also planning to read 2 classics for group reads - Trilby by George du Maurier and The Ladies Paradise by Émile Zola. I have several non-fiction tha..."
I'm also reading Moby Dick for the monster book! I'm doing a listen-along with the Audrey app. 30 minutes a day/5 days a week for 2 months and some very helpful notes to get through the dryer sections. I've been surprised how much I am truly enjoying the story and how funny parts of it are.

Besides Moby Dick I'm reading The Alienist and The Secret Book of Flora Lea

Jacque T wrote: "I'm also reading Moby Dick for the monster book! I'm doing a listen-along with the Audrey app. 30 minutes a day/5 days a week for 2 months and some very helpful notes to get through the dryer sections. I've been surprised how much I am truly enjoying the story and how funny parts of it are..."

That's a good lead! I'm going to do the Big Read (https://www.mobydickbigread.com/) if I can figure out how to make it mobile. I've read enough parts and done enough Moby Dick marathons to know it's really good.

The Alienist is so good! I just finished A Simple Twist of Fate which was fun and light... I'm 5 books ahead, might be Moby Dick time!

Woman of Light – Kali Fajardo-Anstine – 3***
An epic covering five generations of an indigenous Chicano family in the American West. The back-and-forth in timeframe and location made for some confusion at times. But it reminded me of an oral history, the way my grandparents, aunts and uncles would regale us kids on a summer night with stories of our ancestors.
LINK to my full review

Whiskers Of the Lion – P L Gaus – 3***
This is book number nine in the Amish-Country Mystery series, but the first one I’ve read. It was an interesting mystery with a great cast of (I presume) regular characters. Readers who might assume that “Amish” means a cozy mystery will be wrong. This is a hard-hitting crime novel, that happens to be set amid the Amish communities of Ohio. I would recommend reading the series in order, beginning with number one.
LINK to my full review