Sunday Salon: New Acquisitions
It’s taken me almost eight weeks but I have reached the end of one doorstep novel from my Classics Club list (Little Dorrit) and almost finished another (Crime and Punishment). Both excellent reads though in very different ways.
So of course the question now is what do I read next? I should really be getting on with Of Mice and Men ready for the Book Club read but Steinbeck has never interested me much so I never even brought it with me on my trip Stateside.
Fortunately I have plenty of options with me thanks to some recommendations from friends plus a bit of a mooch at a library book sale and some new arrivals from NetGalley. So here are my options:
From the book sale
Piano Teacher by Janice Lee. Set in Hong Kong in 1940s
Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand, a controversial novella about how it feels to be of India’s untouchables
The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht, a novel set in a Balkan stste slowly recovering from war. It features a young doctor who tries to unravel the mysterious circumstances of her grandfathers recent death.
Brooklyn by Colman Toibin. I’ve never read anything by him but keep meaning to so this could be a good start.
Friends’s Recommendations
The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwab – a true story of a sons discussions about books with his mother while she undergoes treatment for cancer.
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin. I keep getting told this is a series I must read. So I got book one just test the water.
NetGalley
Will the Real William Shakespeare Please Step Forward: a literary mystery by Lawrence Young, an English literature lecturer who became intrigued by the mystery surrounding the Bard.
I’m almost too spoiled for choice. Anyone read any pf these who can help me make a decision?
I haven’t read any of these, so will be as intrigued as you to see what you think of them. Happy reading 🙂
If you should read the Will Schwalbe I will be interested to hear what you think about it.
For me there wasn;t enough real discussion about the books they were reading and too much of the she did this and she went there. I suppose it all depends on what you are looking for in the book.
I just started it so not sure yet what to think since they haven’t had a book discussion as yet
I’ve read all three novels from your book sale list and my favorite was The Tiger’s Wife. My book club in large parted disliked Brooklyn and was so-so with The Piano Teacher, but like Alex said – every reader is different!
Thanks Brooke. The cover of the Tigers Wife has the most appeal right now.
I loved ‘Brooklyn’ but some of our reading group thought it slight. (I disagreed with them vociferously.) I haven’t read ‘The Tiger’s Wife’ but was speaking last week to a friend in a different book group who was having great difficulty with it, as apparently were some of the other members of the group. The trouble is that every reader is different and you might love it.
I wasn’t at our book club meeting this month but apparently the same thing happened with the read of Swimming Home – it divided the group completely. In one camp people thought it was pretentious but in the other camp, some members thought it deeply insightful. Which just reinforces what yiu said. Vive la difference.