It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? 6-17-24

Please let me know what you’re reading in the comments and/or share your blog link! (If you can’t see where to comment, try clicking/tapping on the title of this post to open it in full.)

I’m sitting outside in my shady outdoor lunchtime spot in the library parking lot. Summer weather is here!

Instead of reading, I’m fighting with the WordPress app on my old iPad to try to get this post done before the end of my lunch hour.

Currently Reading

Rhodesian Doll Hunt by C.L. Manning

A Rhodesian Colonel, the leader of an American revolutionary group, a renowned scientist, and a Bushman Elder in the Okavango, all want possession of a set of African nesting dolls?

Recently Read

Some Trick by Helen DeWitt

In various ways, each of these thirteen razor-sharp tales carries DeWitt’s signature poker-face lament regarding the near-impossibility of the life of the mind when one is made to pay to have the time for it, in a world so sadly “taken up with all sorts of paraphernalia superfluous, not to say impedimental, to ratiocination.”

I would love to write more about this collection of short stories, but I’m finally learning not to make promises I don’t intend to keep. Look up the work of author Helen DeWitt if you don’t mind not being sure that you’re understanding everything you’re reading. And I don’t mean just the untranslated lines in French, Latin, or mathematical equations!

Currently Not Reading

I am partway through all three of these books, but have temporarily set them aside to finish Some Trick that was going to expire on me.

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

I borrowed the ebook of The Book of Love from the library, not realizing it was 640 pages long! (Now I can count it towards Big Book Summer!)

In the long-awaited first novel from short story virtuoso and Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link, three teenagers become pawns in a supernatural power struggle.

Feel Free: Essays by Zadie Smith

Winner of the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism 
A New York Times Notable Book

How to Love a Jamaican: Stories by Alexia Arthurs

Filled with both tenderness and cruelty, ambition and regret, How to Love a Jamaican is a compelling examination of identity, culture, and the nuances of human disposition.

Recently Listened To

Family Meal by Bryan Washington

From the bestselling, award-winning author of Memorial and Lot, an irresistible, intimate novel about two young men, once best friends, whose lives collide again after a loss.

Family Meal has been on my TBR, but I thought it would make good Pride Month listening. I also picked up a copy of the print book at the library, too, because it some of the chapters are only one sentence long, and the white space on the page doesn’t come across as well on audio.

This was a five-star audiobook for me, but a heads-up might be warranted because this book is about grief and loss, and there are descriptions of self-destructive behavior in the aftermath of tragedy that might be disturbing to some readers.

The Deep by Peter Benchley

The last of the leftover Bermuda reading! This book was originally published in the ’70s and it shows. Read if you’re looking for a thriller set on Bermuda and you don’t mind women being valued mainly for their looks and how well they take direction.

Currently Listening To

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah’s Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them

This post is linked up to “It’s Monday, What Are You Reading?”, hosted by The Book Date. It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is a place to meet up and share what you have been and are currently reading each week. Visit the link-up for more books to your groaning TBR pile.