Howdy. What are we reading?
Just a note, though due to my expert procrastination skills this is only the 9th edition of Book Pub, this series turned a year old this month. So thank you! I really enjoy hearing your thoughts and recommendations. If you’re not sure what to read next, check out the “bookpub” tag. There are a wealth of comments and recommendations!
This month I didn’t read much that was new to me, but I did revisit some novels that I wanted to re-evaluate.
What I’ve Read:
The Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn
(Goodreads Avg. Rating: 4.04 | Amazon
Status: Finished
Recommended if you like your characters loathsome and your character studies in-depth.
Thoughts: You might remember this one from the very first Book Pub. Yes, that is how long it takes me to finish books nowadays. This collection of four short novels follows the life of titular character Patrick Melrose from early childhood to middle age as he tries to sort out his life and the legacy of his horrifically abusive father David Melrose. St. Aubyn’s depiction of the failing English aristocracy is at times both hilarious and sad. The last novel in the series, At Last, was published in 2011, and I look forward to reading it.
Trigger Warning: Child abuse and EXTREME misogyny in the first novel.
Dracula (Norton Critical Edition) by Bram Stoker
(Goodreads Avg. Rating: 3.94 | Amazon
Status: Re-read
Recommended if you need to be reminded that women shouldn’t worry their pretty little heads about important matters like the Undead.
Thoughts: I don’t remember exactly why now, but I do remember that the first time I read Dracula sometime late in high school that it legitimately gave me the creeps. I had read every Stephen King novel published up to that point when I was in middle school, but none of them had the same effect, save Cujo. Having re-read it now, I can’t remember why. This edition, from the Norton Critical series, does have some nice tidbits in the notes and essays in the back. I suspect some of the analysis is bullshit, but I suspect that about a lot of literary criticism.
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
(Goodreads Avg. Rating: 4.20 (hehehe blaze it) | Amazon
Status: Re-read
Recommended if nerd.
Thoughts: I mainly re-read this so that I could be mad at Peter Jackson.
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
(Goodreads Avg. Rating: 4.13 | Amazon
Status: Re-read
Recommended if you like your men Scottish and your sporrans full.
Thoughts: My mom introduced me to this series. Yes. At some point after I reached adulthood, she bought me the entire series up to that point for Christmas, except she forgot the third one. But anyway, I read Outlander and was like “Meh.” I decided to give it another try since I own the books anyway, and I liked it more than I did last time. This is the story of Claire Randall, who is happily married and English in the mid-20th century. While looking for mushrooms or something on Beltane while on a second honeymoon, she accidentally goes back in time to the 18th century, and stumbles into the middle of Englishmen vs. Scotsmen before they had organized soccer leagues to bleed off their natural aggression towards each other. She then meets Jamie McTavish, a dashing Scotsman who wears his kilt properly. For a romance novel it doesn’t have as much sex as you would like expect. Take it to the beach and try not to look like you’re enjoying yourself.
I am currently reading
- Five Days At Memorial by Sheri Fink
(Goodreads Avg. Rating: 3.90 | Amazon)
I’m On Page: 185
What’s It About?: Fink’s so far compiled a strong and engrossing account of what happened in the confusing, disturbing, and panicked days during and just after Hurricane Katrina. Memorial Medical Center served as a shelter for hundreds of patients and thousands of staff members and their families. Months after the storm, medical care providers were accused of hastening the death of critical patients with high doses of medication. The article that this book was based on won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. Pick it up. - Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton
(Goodreads Avg. Rating: 4.02 | Amazon)
I’m On Page: 299
What’s It About?: This doorstop-ready book is a sprawling SF murder mystery, set about 125 years in our future. Interstellar travel is now a reality, and the family of clones that made it possible comes under a cloud of suspicion when one of its brother-sons is found dead in the river in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. I’m going to reserve judgment until I finish it. - Liberation Theology by Phillip Berryman
(Goodreads Avg. Rating: 3.77 | Amazon)
I’m On Page: 27
What’s It About?: The title kind of says it all; this just grabbed my attention as I was walking through every nonfiction shelf in the library, as I periodically find myself doing. Berryman is/was a former priest, and spent decades in South America both as a priest and as a civilian after he resigned. I just started it, but I’m into it. If you have any interest in the subject, this could be a good one.
That’s it for me. What about you?
