Whatcha Reading? March 2023, Part Two

Cup of coffee and yarn for knitting on plaid with books close-upWe’re wrapping up March with our part two of Whatcha Reading!

Sneezy: I’ve recently started Between Harlem and Heaven by JJ Johnson and Alexander Smalls. ( A | BN | K ) The writing is lovely and I can’t wait to read all about the food!!!!

Elyse: I’m just over halfway through The Priory of the Orange Tree ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) and I’m loving it. It’s epic fantasy, very immersive, and so far there hasn’t been a ton of violence like in other books I’ve read (looking at GRRM).

I’m listening to For Her Consideration ( A | BN | K ) but I’m just a little bit in. So far I’m enjoying it

Lara: I’ve just started my first ever audiobook and it’s a revelation. I’ve opted for A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas and I’m loving it.

Bittersweet
A | BN | K | AB
Tara: Audiobooks are the only way I can finish nonfiction! Speaking of which, I’ve started listening to Bittersweet by Susan Cain. I saw her speak about it last year and am glad my library hold came through.

Sarah: I just started Artfully Yours by Johanna Lowell. ( A | BN | K ) So far I’ve met the heroine, Nina, who is a boss-level art forger, and is working as a housemaid, and I’ve met the hero, who is an art critic who can spot forgeries, and who has a terrible relationship with his brother. I have barely gotten past the first chapter but I’m very curious and want to have more reading time now, please.

Claudia: I can’t believe I missed a new book by her! I really liked the Runaway Duchess (The Duke Undone less so but still enjoyed it).

Carrie: I am reading The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama. ( A | BN | K | AB ) I don’t use audiobooks because they make me fall asleep but I wish I had this on audiobook because I think her conversational style would work better for me in that format. That being said I’m enjoying it!

Claudia: I’m in the middle of blah season unfortunately!! I miss good-book tingles.

The Portrait of a Duchess
A | BN | K
Shana: I just started The Portrait of a Duchess by Scarlett Peckham. Has anyone else read it?

Claudia: I have!!

EllenM: I preordered it but I haven’t started it yet!

Shana: I can’t wait to discuss with you Ellen!

Sarah: Shana, what do you think so far?

Shana: I’m devouring it, but I’m not sure I love the characters yet. We’ll see! I’m not sure what I think of the big age difference between them.

Susan: I’ve just started Thousand Autumns by Meng Xi Shi, ( A | BN ) and like twelve pages in the protagonist is channelling “I can make him worse” energy

Shana: I also just finished How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis. ( A | BN | K ) I can’t remember if one of you recommended it, but I loved how it encourages self-compassion and life hacks instead of shaming yourself into organizing your home.

So, whatcha reading? Let us know in the comments!

Comments are Closed

  1. catscatscats says:

    I’ve just read and enjoyed Barbara Hambly’s “Scandal in Babylon”, the first of a series – cosy crime in 1920s Hollywood. I enjoyed the detective finding her more forceful voice, and liked the thread about whether she should stay in Hollywood or return to an academic life in Oxford. (If put off by the Kindle £7.99 price, it’s worth looking at Hambly’s “Bride of the Rat God”, an earlier book also set in Hollywood in the 1920s, not on Kindle I think but cheap paperbacks are around.)

  2. Crystal says:

    :::flops in after sitting through a 3 hour movie that I watched while drinking Jack and Coke:::

    John Wick Chapter 4, in case you wondered, 10/10 would do it again.

    Anyhoo, since last time we conversed, have I read a great deal? Welllll, yes, but it was only two books, because one of them was a historical fiction doorstop.

    Started things off with The Last Invitation by Darby Kane. I was a somewhat complicit reader on this one, because a lot of my thought process was “A secret society of women that carry out extrajudicial justice of particularly bad men? Not seeing a huge downside here!”. That said, they were breaking a lot of eggs for their justice omelets, which got out heroines suspicious and investigating. I really liked it, right up until the end, because it just…ended. There was no real sense of “this is where we the situation is over” to it. I think I needed more resolution. Then I spent the next nine days with A Column of Fire by Ken Follett, from the Kingsbridge series. I always enjoy those, they’re just full of historical detail and intrigue and just incredibly fun. They’re also huge, so they’re several days worth of fun. And that brings us to now, in which I am on like page 3 of The Drift by C.J. Tudor. Looked interesting at the library, and thus home did I take it. I’m getting that we’ve got ourselves a tale of surviving what might be the end of the world, and it was giving me whiffs of Stephen King and oddly, Yellowjackets, which I am a big fan of, so here we go. On that note, if you have a chance to watch a movie where Donnie Yen just Donnie Yens all over the place, take it, that was fun.

  3. DeborahT says:

    @MaryK – THE SUNNY SIDE was almost a DNF for me and I was also almost put off Lily Morton entirely. I didn’t read VOW MAKER because I typically don’t enjoy romance sequels. But I do think that CONFETTI HEARTS was better, despite the problems that @midge pointed out.

  4. Karin says:

    @catscatscats, Barbara Hambly sure is versatile AND prolific, her Benjamin January series set in pre-Civil War New Orleans is great. Bride of the Rat God has been sitting in my tbr pile for years now.

  5. Kit says:

    Oh dear I just started The Novans boxed set by Ashlyn Hawkes and I think it will be a Hard Dnf. The aliens come across as sex starved incels. Worse luck, it’s a five book set and I spent 99p on it. Feels like too much money.

    Worse luck, off KU now and already have a list of books I want to read on there, including the latest Zoe Chant. Hope there’s an offer on soon.

  6. filkferengi says:

    @MaryK, the Robin Paige mysteries are delightful! They’re written as a collaboration by Susan Wittig Albert [who has many other excellent series as well] and her husband Bill Albert. They used to go to England each year to research the books. I enthusiastically recommend them and hope you read and enjoy many more.

  7. MaryK says:

    @filkferengi – Yes, I’ve already checked the second book out from my library. I noticed that the first book in SWA’s China Bayles series is coming out in audio next month. I’ve put it on my wish list.

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