I finished Homer’s The Odyssey (Emily Wilson Translation). I was surprised about the amount of emotion showed by the warrior king. Lots of weeping and joy. Maybe not such an unmanly thing to cry at sad things and laugh at happy things.
Land by Maggie O'Farrell. Absolutely gorgeous. Astronaut!: A Novel by Oana Aristide was also very good.
My 9 year old has read and loved the first 4 Spy x Family manga, but we also read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle and he loved it! I read it as a kid, but didn't realise there were 3 more books in the series.
I also really enjoyed "The Correspondent". However, I think I will have to read it again to refresh my memory if I am to discuss it with a book group. My group "Great Reads" selected it as the August read but they were unable to get the books, so they switched to another book. Maybe next year.
For August my favorite book is "The Wedding People" by Alison Espach. It is interesting to see the main character evolve from being depressed due to her marriage falling apart to new opportunities as she accidentally ends up at a week-long wedding. Most likely this would not happen in real life, but it is fun to see Phoebe blossoming as she makes new life decisions.
Another person who reviewed this book said, "Trigger warnings galore". One example is a suicide attempt by the main character.
I listened to The Running Grave, Robert Galbraith; in the Cormoran Strike series. It was a good story but far too long. Nobody seems brave enough to effectively edit famous authors these days !
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. What a great read! The movie was wonderful but the book was much more complex and quite an indictment of the high society folks during the Gilded Age.
I read James Howard Kunstler's 4 book novel series about a small town in the remnant of the USA in the not-distant future. The community struggles to carry on after....... (I'll leave it to you to find out what happened!) Best writing I've read in a long, long time.
Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer. It's book 4 in his Southern Reach series and came out 10 years after the original trilogy. I love the entire series, which is creepy and beautiful at the same time.
I read The Correspondent earlier this year and also really enjoyed it!
The first one is still my favorite, if only by a little bit because the whole series is so good! I actually re-read the first three before tackling this one, since it had been so long since I read them the first time, and they really held up! I'm glad there will be a book 5, because there's so much left to discover in that world.
Hi Jeremy - I'm new to your 'stack, so forgive me if you've covered this elsewhere. Any thoughts on how to create a family reading habit and, in particular, instill a love of independent reading in a 9yo? Also, what do you make of audiobooks? Lately I've been much better at consuming books via audio than the page.
As for my August faves: "Broken Country" and "Days You Were Mine," both by Clare Leslie Hall.
My wife just started Broken Country - perhaps I'll give it a go after she's done.
As for your question, the biggest thing is just to be an example of reading. And don't say no when they ask about getting books at the library or bookstore. Otherwise this article is great and echoes my own thoughts to a T: https://www.artofmanliness.com/social/fatherhood/how-to-raise-a-reader/
I finished Homer’s The Odyssey (Emily Wilson Translation). I was surprised about the amount of emotion showed by the warrior king. Lots of weeping and joy. Maybe not such an unmanly thing to cry at sad things and laugh at happy things.
I've still only read the YA graphic adaptation by Gareth Hinds. Someday.. perhaps.. haha.
The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter van Tilburg Clark
Such a great one! I don’t hear about it nearly as much as I should.
The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout. She’s one of my favorite authors. With this one she really captured the angst of the times.
I've not read her, but she's high on my list!
The Calamity Club. Straight-up masterpiece.
I’ve heard a lot of good things!
True Grit by Charles Portis.
Great book!
This rates (to me) up there with Lonesome Dove as the great American novel
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared https://app.thestorygraph.com/authors/078cb52c-e41a-4e95-90f3-91c91968452c
Such a hilarious book. It was a much needed meandering romp during the hectic back to school season.
My mom just told me about this one recently. I’ll have to check it out!
Such a fantastic book!
I read it for a book club and was pleasantly surprised! I wouldn’t have picked it up otherwise!
Land by Maggie O'Farrell. Absolutely gorgeous. Astronaut!: A Novel by Oana Aristide was also very good.
My 9 year old has read and loved the first 4 Spy x Family manga, but we also read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle and he loved it! I read it as a kid, but didn't realise there were 3 more books in the series.
I just finished Land and enjoyed it very much.
Great picks! Wrinkle in Time series is pretty good, but the first one is definitely the best.
I also really enjoyed "The Correspondent". However, I think I will have to read it again to refresh my memory if I am to discuss it with a book group. My group "Great Reads" selected it as the August read but they were unable to get the books, so they switched to another book. Maybe next year.
For August my favorite book is "The Wedding People" by Alison Espach. It is interesting to see the main character evolve from being depressed due to her marriage falling apart to new opportunities as she accidentally ends up at a week-long wedding. Most likely this would not happen in real life, but it is fun to see Phoebe blossoming as she makes new life decisions.
Another person who reviewed this book said, "Trigger warnings galore". One example is a suicide attempt by the main character.
I listened to The Running Grave, Robert Galbraith; in the Cormoran Strike series. It was a good story but far too long. Nobody seems brave enough to effectively edit famous authors these days !
Finished Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter today, really well done and took a lot away from it
Going through "The Thursday Murder Club" series, and so delighted to find that I continue laughing out loud (literally), every other page!
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. What a great read! The movie was wonderful but the book was much more complex and quite an indictment of the high society folks during the Gilded Age.
I read James Howard Kunstler's 4 book novel series about a small town in the remnant of the USA in the not-distant future. The community struggles to carry on after....... (I'll leave it to you to find out what happened!) Best writing I've read in a long, long time.
World Made by Hand
The Witch of Hebron
A History of the Future
The Harrows of Spring
Interesting, never heard of it! Thanks for the rec.
Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer. It's book 4 in his Southern Reach series and came out 10 years after the original trilogy. I love the entire series, which is creepy and beautiful at the same time.
I read The Correspondent earlier this year and also really enjoyed it!
I've only read the first one in the series.. I'll have to catch up sometime!
The first one is still my favorite, if only by a little bit because the whole series is so good! I actually re-read the first three before tackling this one, since it had been so long since I read them the first time, and they really held up! I'm glad there will be a book 5, because there's so much left to discover in that world.
I read The Contrary Farmer by Gene Logsdon!
Looks like we run very similar publications!
https://slowdownreadmore.substack.com/
Nice, good luck with your newsletter!
I've not heard of Logsdon, but I'll look him up.
Hi Jeremy - I'm new to your 'stack, so forgive me if you've covered this elsewhere. Any thoughts on how to create a family reading habit and, in particular, instill a love of independent reading in a 9yo? Also, what do you make of audiobooks? Lately I've been much better at consuming books via audio than the page.
As for my August faves: "Broken Country" and "Days You Were Mine," both by Clare Leslie Hall.
My wife just started Broken Country - perhaps I'll give it a go after she's done.
As for your question, the biggest thing is just to be an example of reading. And don't say no when they ask about getting books at the library or bookstore. Otherwise this article is great and echoes my own thoughts to a T: https://www.artofmanliness.com/social/fatherhood/how-to-raise-a-reader/
Thanks