What’s Everyone Reading These Days?
I’ll start. I finished the superb Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham and Miranda July’s excellent All Fours within the last few weeks. I’m about halfway through Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. I could not finish Frankenstein — I was so excited and the book was so not my thing.
A friend recommended that I read North Woods by Daniel Mason next but I’ve also got my eye on There There by Tommy Orange and The Missing Thread by Daisy Dunn (which I posted about this morning). It’s just over a month until Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo drops…the excerpt piqued my already excited interest.
What’s everyone else reading these days? Or are looking forward to reading?
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Currently reading Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright who is very enjoyable to read.
Enjoy There, There, it was fantastic even though I had to start and restart it 2 times before it got me. I'm in the middle of North Woods which went back to the library the other week. I'm on a wait list (again).
“Heavy” by Kiese Laymon – Compelling autobiographical story. Stylish writing. Fascinating perspective on the life of a black man in the USA struggling with racism, creative self-expression, and his own destructive compulsions.
“Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts” Edited by Art Spiegelman – Just some amazing drawings so far. Reading wordless image novels is about as challenging and attention-demanding as watching silent movies.
North Woods is the best book I read in a loooong time. I was so sad when it ended! Just an amazing piece of art. Currently reading Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters which (to me) works as excellent educational material, but not so much as a story
Just finished Elegant Universe (thanks for the nudge Jason) and embarked on Road to Surrender by Evan Thomas.
I loved There There, fwiw.
Currently enjoying a brief sojourn into Ann Cleeves’s The Long Call after finally finishing Elena Ferrante’s Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay. Probably switching to something non-fiction next, but not sure what.
"The Bright Sword" by Lev Grossman (author of the Magicians series). Really fun and engaging take on---and extension of---the King Arthur stories. Manages to have a contemporary feel while staying grounded in the traditional stories. Recommended
I've read the first three of the four books you pictured. I liked them in descending order, from left to right. Long Island Compromise was GREAT—right up there with Martyr! and Challenger for my favorites of the year. The final quarter, maybe, felt like it lagged or cast about a bit more; it was less sure-footed. James was probably my other favorite from the summer.
There There is so good! It's been a couple of years since I read it and I still think about it all the time. Last night I finished reading The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai; a multi-generational story about the ravages of 1980s AIDS in Chicago's Boystown juxtaposed against 1920s and 2015 Paris. Really moving storytelling.
If you're not tired of multigenerational stories that center AIDS and cities, Tim Murphy's "Christodora" is fantastic.
Currently reading Tom Wolfe's "The Painted Word". An oldie. He's such an asshole, but it's pretty funny.
Whalefall by Daniel Krauss, about a diver swallowed by a sperm whale. A quick page turner story of survival.
What? Is this book metaphorical or did someone really try to tackle the unlikely problem of having to survive being eaten by a whale? That eight word description you give sounds crazy
I'm making very good progress with Claire Dederer's Monsters, on the dilemma of what to do with great art made by terrible men (Polanski, Picasso, etc). It's both really interesting but also a surprisingly enjoyable read. She has a really light and conversational style which shouldn't work with such a heavy topic but really does.
Oh man, I have recently been recommended this one very enthusiastically. Glad to hear you are enjoying it. It's now on my list.
Interesting. On a recommendation from Jason earlier today, I have been reading Nick Cave’s Red Hand Files website. This post seems relevant to what you said above: https://www.theredhandfiles.com/how-do-you-reconcile-your-faith/
Just finished last night and the last few chapters, coming to terms with her own monstrosity, are really something. One of the best books I've read in a long time. Moving on to Doppleganger now.
I just finished Fat City by Leonard Gardner. A book about down and out boxers in mid-century Stockton, CA. Beautiful and bleak.
Earlier in the summer, I enjoyed Strangers to Ourselves by The New Yorker's Rachel Aviv, which was about the distance between mental illnesses and the stories we tell ourselves about them, and The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan, which will teach you everything you never knew you never knew about the Dust Bowl.
Anybody got any sci-fi recommendations? I am having a Year of Sci-Fi (extended from last year’s Year of Sci-Fi). I loved Recursion, Children of Time, Project Hail Mary, Sea of Tranquility, The Space Between Worlds, Klara and the Sun, Seveneves, The Echo Wife, and Station Eleven. I’ve also returned to some classics: Dune, Foundation, On the Beach, Logan’s Run, etc.
Having a hard time finding the next one. I started The Cautious Traveler’s Guide to the Wastelands, but got about 50% through it and was just not into it.
What are your favorite sci-fi books?
Have you read any Kim Stanley Robinson? I've enjoyed everything of his that I've read.
Oh! I have not heard of Kim Stanley Robinson. Thanks for the pointer! I will pick out something to try.
From your list, sounds like you might like VERSION CONTROL by Dexter Palmer
I’m a gigantic fan of The Expanse novels by James S.A. Corey (pen name of Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck). Book 1 is Leviathan Wakes. It’s an incredible arc across 9 novels and 6 novellas.
Second Kim Stanley Robinson and the Expanse novels! Would also suggest in The Murderbrot Diaries by Martha Wells and if you’re looking for space opera then the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown is a blast.
I enjoyed Delta-V by Daniel Suarez
Can’t let this thread go without a recommendation for the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. First book takes a little bit to get going but it’s an absolute epic read.
Heartily agree with the Kim Stanley Robinson recommendations. I started with the Mars trilogy during Covid and man I just fell in love. The descriptions of the changing landscape, the exploration of different ways to structure society… the intrigue! Just so good.
I’ll also plug for Spin (and its trilogy) by Robert Charles Wilson. It’s so good and many of his other books are great too. He feels like such a hidden treasure that doesn’t get talked about too much.
I’m currently reading the third in the Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky which I also heartily recommend, both this trilogy and his other works.
“Ancillary Justice” by Ann Leckie was a good science fiction read with lots of interesting ideas about culture and identity.
Iain M. Banks. Player of Games. My favorite sci fi of all time. Humorous, action-packed, and amazing world-building.
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is amazing. It takes place in current times on Earth, so I'm not sure it's a Sci-Fi, but I'm a huge Sci-Fi fan and this is my FAVORITE book of all time. It's about a guy who lives the same life over and over. Every time he dies he is reborn in the same place, same time, same circumstances, but his life choices are his own so each life is unique. In time he discovers there are others like him and an entire fully fleshed-out world is introduced to the reader, and an adventure about the future of the world unfolds. If you are an Audio book listener I can't recommend the Peter Kenny audio book enough. It takes a little time to get used to his tempo and accent, but 2 hours into the book Peter's gift of a dozen voices for a dozen characters will have you immersed like never before. I can still here Peter's voice for the antagonist of the story, "Damn it Harry, we're the good guys".
I loved The Mountain in the Sea recently, definitely recommended. It's a first-contact novel, but the aliens have always been with us - the octopus.
I really enjoyed several of the books listed here (Children of Time, Sea of Tranquility, Klara and the Sun, Station Eleven, Red Rising, Hyperion) and recently read a few that I recommend but don't see listed by others!
A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers - solarpunk novella that is really the loveliest book I've read in a long time. Curl up with tea and a blanket and be charmingly engaged. The sequel is also great.
A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet also by Becky Chambers - fun characters, engaging but not dramatic or cliffhanger-y. Each sequel is more like a spin-off following secondary characters from the first book.
I have to echo the above recommendations for the Ancillary series by Ann Leckie, as well as basically anything by Becky Chambers (I personally recommend starting with The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, if you're gonna get on the Chambers train.)
If you're looking for a great, deep world to dive into, I must recommend Pandora's Star by Peter Hamilton. It's the first of a duology, two books that tell one long tale. Exhilarating.
I just finished rereading Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin, one of her best books, about a barely-mentioned woman in Vergil’s Aeneid. Before that was On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder, and before that was Moonbound by Robin Sloan which I enjoyed and regularly surprised me.
I'm 2/3rd through Robert Caro's Master of the Senate and I've loved nearly every chapter I've read of the first three volumes of the series. Now I'm nearly 2,000 pages in and finally getting into the part where Caro talks about the fascinating internal contradiction of LBJ: that the same person that pushed through the first major Civil Rights bill since 1875 also was a virulent and performative racist. What Caro does so well is to dispel the mysticism of this contradiction: it's a real thing that when grounded in the facts and a good understanding of how racism and bigotry operate, it's no mystery it all happened the way it happened.
Even after reading Caro, I'm really unsure whether LBJ's racism was entirely performative or whether he was actually racist. It's definitely a contradiction.
I have this strange sense that everything LBJ said to other representatives, senators, and political figures in Washington while he was there was purely performative, nothing else, and I really don't know what the man himself actually believed.
Timely thread for me - I'm right in the middle of reading An Unfinished Love Story by Doris Kearns Goodwin which has some insider perspective on LBJ. So much has been written about him but he still feels hard to pin down.
Currently reading Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here, Patrick DeWitt's The Librarianist, Ed Yong's I Contain Multitudes and Jeff VanderMeer's Ambergris trilogy.
I've started All Fours, but started my online library loan late and had to return it, so I've moved it back to the to-read list.
I'm really looking forward to John Brandon's Penalties of June. The recent announcement of this also reminded me that I never got to Ivory Shoals, so I have another book stacking my to-read list.
New James S.A. Corey dropped! The Mercy of Gods.
This is on my list for upcoming beach vacation this week!
I loved North Woods. Also enjoyed James by Percival Everett, Margo's got money trouble, and The God of the Woods.
I'm a third of the way through Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar and it's soooo good for so many reasons--I can't believe he made an imaginary conversation between our protagonist's dead mother and a glitching Lisa Simpson not only work, but actually be moving--including the fact that it's hilarious in parts. Like I was cracking up on the M train today reading a scene when someone gets an axe buried in their foot.
Recently, I received my “25th anniversary” edition of Little, Big by John Crowley- it took an extra 15 years to get this version done, so it’s actually the 40th anniversary now. I’m reading it out loud to my wife and re-visiting it after almost a generation is a wonder. I guess I’d have to say it’s the greatest American fantasy ever written, because it is so uniquely American and so brilliantly crafted. I recommend it often and am always re-surprised when I crack it open again.
I’ve been reading Orlando by Virginia Woolf. I’ve seen the Sally Potter film starring Tilda Swinton a few times now and decided to read the book. Always bracing to re-encounter the wonder of Woolf’s prose. Otherwise listening to Palo Alto by Malcolm Harris on audio book—maybe the best history of California I’ve yet read. Each chapter I think of a different person from my life who I want to recommend it to. Mid-Orlando I cracked open Sarah Manguso’s new novel Liars and sucked down the first 70 pages. Looking forward to finishing that once I’m done with the Woolf. And then maybe Robin Sloan’s Moonbound? I’m in a good reading groove these days.
This thread was great last time!
I tried to read the first book in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars series but I couldn’t get into it despite liking some of his other books. Currently reading The Overstory by Richard Powers; loved the first half. I also finally got around to listening to Gaiman’s American Gods which was excellent.
Ordered The Light Eaters from the library (because it was posted here!) but it arrived while I was on vacation so I didn’t get a chance to pick it up, have to try again on that one. Has anyone read it yet?
North Woods was very good. I just finished The God of the Woods and Long Bright River by Liz Moore. They were both very good, although I liked The God of the Woods better of the two. I also recently tried to read the recent Pulitzer Prize winner The Night Watch Jayne Ann Phillips. I ditched it after 80% because I was just so bored by it. First book I’ve started that I haven’t finished.
I just finished My Brilliant Friend and loved it.
I just finished North Words and loved it — best account of beetle sex I've read in a long time. Looking at The Ministry of Time next (am a one-book-at-a-time reader, mostly), but currently reading a bit about Baron Haussman as I've been listening to 99% Invisible's excellent Power Broker series. Also recently read Julia Philips's Bear, which is good but alas not as amazing as her Disappearing Earth.
What? Are you suggesting that there are people who can read more than one book at a time? I might be able to do that with non-fiction (where the cast and outcome is already know) but otherwise I'm not sure I'd get much out of dividing my attention.
I recently finished How Life Works by Philip Ball, which I wrote about here. It really and truly rang my bell, in the sense that, even a couple of weeks after finishing the book, I am still vibrating from the experience. A totally dizzying, destabilizing read. LIFE!
I'm currently reading Earth Abides by George R. Stewart, a post-apocalyptic (post-pandemic!) story that's very rich and interesting; it becomes even more impressive every time I remember it was written way back in 1949. New editions include a glowing introduction from Kim Stanley Robinson, which is predictably terrific.
P.S. It's interesting to see the breakdown between old-school italicizers and new-school casual titlers here 😉
Ooooh, a friend lent me Earth Abides in high school and I remember feeling delighted to discover a narrator-awakes-to-find-society-has-disappeared story written before the genre of apocalypse/collapse had congealed into tropes. Like, I don’t think I was even particularly aware of all the expectations I had before I read it. There’s always something special about reading one of the originating works in a genre. You’re making me want to revisit it.
A close friend and mentor was a big fan of Earth Abides. He taught it in his undergraduate post-apocalyptic fiction course at Berkeley. Always fun to see it bubble up. I'll need to check out a copy with the intro from Kim Stanley Robinson. Great rec!
Earth Abides! Good one. If you love that try The Dog Stars by Peter Heller and I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger. Both are male-narrated post-apocalypse stories that I couldn't put down.
Kamala Harris's THE TRUTHS WE HOLD (2019), for obvious reasons, and TABLE FOR TWO (2024) by Amor Towles.
"When the Clock Broke" by John Ganz, a history of the late 80s/early 90s, focusing on the '92 election. Old enough to remember it, but many details I had forgotten or never knew - because I got my news from one newspaper. Convincingly traces our current political conditions back to people like David Duke, Pat Buchanan and Perot. Definitely added some context to the absurd amount of political content I find myself consuming in election years.
Just read:
Just finished Part 1 of "On All Fours" by Miranda July. Some of her observations are terrifically spot-on--and I'm finding it a mixed read. A literary Rorschach test? I'm perpetually reading Joseph Goldstein's classic "Mindfulness" particularly at 3 a.m. on my kindle's dark mode to find the path back to sleep.
Just read Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Not a long read but very beautifully written.
Highly recommend these two that were shockingly available without a wait on the Libby app. Both are impossible to stop reading (listening to) and super deep cultural dives.
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (the guy who narrates the audio version, Charlie Thurston, was great)
And Non-Fiction: Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser.
This was recommended by Tim Walz at the end of his interview with Ezra Klein. It tells the story of an accident at a nuclear missile silo in Arkansas. Along the way it weaves in the entire history of the nuclear arms race and all the jockeying for power among nations and military institutions. Super informative and also impossible to stop listening too.
'Empire of Pain' by Patrick Radden Keefe. Non-fiction about the Oxycontin/Purdue Pharma/Sackler dynasty. REALLY interesting story of how we got 'here' and now into the heroin epidemic.
Joe Abercrombie's 'The First Law' trilogy. Fiction, almost like a dark Sanderson. Terrific writing and world building and flawed characters. For anyone that has read through Brandon Sanderson and looking for another great fiction writer.
+1 to Empire of Pain. Read that recently and it was a real page turner. If you liked his writing style, be sure to check out Say Nothing, his book about The Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Will check out Joe Abercrombie - def a Sanderson fan so would love something like this.
Almost exclusive sci-fi reader here, so I'm switching back and forth between Ministry of Time (excellent) and the China Mieville (one of my faves) slash Keanu Reeves (?!) Book of Elsewhere (not far enough to have formed an opinion)
Avoided "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" for a long time because I'm not a gamer. Don't make my mistake. I have another quarter left to go, but so far it's been a great read about friendship and love and making things.
I just finished Robin Sloan's Moonbound, and it was a delight. So many unique ideas really tickled my brain in that one.
I'm fishing around for my next book, so this thread is well-timed for me. I leave for my last gasp of summer holidays tomorrow, for a quick trip to the Oregon Coast, and I need a book to read!
I see that Aileen, the comment above me, is recommending Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and I must recommend it. You don't need to be a gamer to get lost in the story, but if you're of a certain age, the references to games like King's Quest and Oregon Trail are pure nostalgia.
I just finished "Feel the Bern" a humorous mystery novel featuring an intern of Bernie Sanders and the Senator himself solving a mystery - quite a hoot and the kind of book you read as a 'brain cleanser' in between heavier stuff.
Also a great bit of computer history, "Proving Ground", the story of the 6 original programmers of ENIAC, women whose story was largely forgotten until the author dug into it.
Have folks read the novels of Kathryn Davis? (https://lithub.com/deep-deep-time-on-the-cosmic-realism-of-kathryn-davis/)
Her 1950s/mythological/robots novel Duplex was my entree, and the subsequent mysterious-funny-esoteric riff (told in first-person plural!) on the Decameron, The Silk Road, was a pandemic-era joy. I got the audiobook more recently and play it often while I fall asleep.
This summer I've been reading back through her earlier novels--currently on The Girl Who Trod on a Load. Recommend HIGHLY, perhaps Duplex most of all, but each has its unique gifts.
Thanks to y'all for helping me fill up my Libby app Holds!
We're reading Anna Karenina in my book club and I am so far behind! Pray for my eyes to have speed please.
Just finished Erik Larson's Demon of Unrest. Good read, but didn't grip me as much as Dead Wake or In the Garden of Beasts did. Now swapping to some fiction with S. A. Chakraborty's (City of Brass) The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi
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