MONDAY: What are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week and is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. This is my first time participating and I am in the middle of a few excellent reads!

In print:

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I am well into this captivating book of a band from the 70s, lots of drugs and rock and roll. It is a very quick read as it is done as a historical record of interviews from the band over the years.  Lots of fun!

Next up in print will be Electric Universe: The Shocking True Story of Electricity by David Bodanis.

In audio:

A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas, narrated by Kate Reading

Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle is the present that just keeps on giving inspiration to authors of all kinds. This version is a brilliant female take on the detective, and when the version of Dr Watson showed up, I was hooked.  It's been on my radar for a while, as sprite writes has been loving this series, always a recommendation I take seriously. I'm glad to see there are two more books in the series already.

From the modern day YA version with Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson at a boarding school, to the Robert Downing Jr, and the Benedict Cumberbatch movies, to the TV show House, Sherlock Holmes is a brilliant character, even if the actual books never intrigued me as much as Agatha Christie's did.

Next up in audio: The Island of the Sea Women by Lisa See

In ebook:

Milkman by Anna Burns

I've inherited my daughter's old mini iPad, so now I have an e-reader. I haven't read a lot on it but I found Milkman by Anna Burns for sale one day on Kindle deals and I've been loving it. I'm reading it slowly, but I am hoping to finish it today. Milkman won the Man Booker Prize and was on the Tournament of Books list in March. I still had no plan to read it but then it was on the Women's Prize for Fiction longlist and was on sale that week? I succumbed. The style is particular and won't be to everyone's brain but it really works for me. It reminds me of Anne Enright's  style in The Gathering and The Forgotten Waltz, the classic Irish stream of consciousness. Set during the 70s in Northern Ireland and dealing with 'the troubles' Burns never uses proper nouns but descriptions of people like third brother or wee sisters or almost-boyfriend. 

next up in e-book: Normal People by Sally Rooney, another Women's Prize for Fiction longlisted book that I got on Netgalley.

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Things That Make Me Pick Up a Book

The topic this week is Things That Make Me Pick Up a Book - those key words that you read on the cover or in a review that make it easy to decide to read. I expect a list of topics that make you avoid books would be just as easy to write.

Check out That Artsy Reader Girl for other blog posts on this topic, or for future topics.

a villa or cottage -  apparently, since the last two books I've picked up on a kindle daily deal are The Irish Cottage and The Island Villa

detective - perfect  Some detectives are perfect like Inspector Gamauche or Brunetti, or Phryne Fisher or Detective Kopp

detective - damaged  Infinitely more interesting, like Jackson Brodie (new book alert - Big Sky coming in June 2019)  Bennie Griessel, and Cormoran Strike

sisters - I love me a good sister book, and there are many. Some recent stellar books with sisters includes The Golden Tresses of the Dead, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, and My Sister, the Serial Killer

boarding schools -  Boarding schools make great settings because children get to be relatively unsupervised, without resorting to Lord of the Flies territory, since adults are theoretically around. The last few good boarding school books have all been courtesy of 2018's YA Sync free audiobooks. (Annual plug for this great program: the 2019 titles have been announced!) A Study in Charlotte, Openly Straight, and Extraordinary Means.

1930s -  Books set in or written in the 1930s are ripe for writers, bookended by both wars. Even overlooking Maisie Dobbs and Her Royal Spyness, I have a significant number of books tagged this in my library. Looking forward, The Boys in the Boat, looks like a good 1930s nonfiction read.

Australia -  Liane Moriarty and Jane Harper are two new authors from last year that I can't miss. Moriarty with epic character/mystery stories like Nine Perfect Strangers, and Harper with a new police detective. 

connected stories -  There are not enough of these books, but I love finding them - The Tsar of Love and Techno, Number 11, Olive Kitteridge. 
There There by Tommy Orange, a recent read, fits my definition of these books. Each chapter is a different character getting ready to head to a pow-wow.

epistolary -  I say I like epistolary, and yet I haven't read any recently like some of my favourites - Bridget Jones, Clara Callen, and The Incident Report. A quick search added The Chilbury Ladies' Choir and Meet Me at the Museum to my list.

prize lists - The Women's Prize for Fiction is an annual list to use for reading.