What are You Reading?

[Mark_fl]

Having exhaused everything by Grishom and Scott Turow, I'm well into Lisa Scottoline now, who I've been enjoying.

Would like to find more like Grisham, as I love legal fiction. 

[MikeBiDude]

1 minute ago, Mark_fl said:

Having exhaused everything by Grishom and Scott Turow, I'm well into Lisa Scottoline now, who I've been enjoying.

Would like to find more like Grisham, as I love legal fiction. 

Love Grisham myself…always a page turner.

[MikeBiDude]

I read “Cutting for Stone” by Abraham Verghese a few years ago, loved it. More recently I just finished another one by him “Covenant of Water”. Both great reads.

[+ poolboy48220]

The new Game of Thrones series "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" is based on three graphic novels by George RR Martin.  I read the first a few years ago and just found out it's been converted into a non-graphic (albeit some illustrations) novel. I started reading it last weekend, it's good so far; I'm about halfway through the story told in the second graphic novel. 

[+ EVdude]

Just finished my first David McCloskey novel - Damascus Station. 2021 spy thriller. Ripped through it… reads very authentic. Will definitely read more by him. 

Moving on to Fredrik Backman’s Bear Town.

[+ Charlie]

I am reading America's First Dynasty: The Adamses, 1735-1918 by Richard Brookhiser. I was surprised to learn how much John Adams detested Ben Franklin personally, despite the fact that they were political allies.

[mike carey]

6 hours ago, Charlie said:

I am reading America's First Dynasty: The Adamses, 1735-1918 by Richard Brookhiser. I was surprised to learn how much John Adams detested Ben Franklin personally, despite the fact that they were political allies.

So cooperation in the public sphere based on principles rather than perceived personal relationships? Interesting concept. 

[+ Charlie]

1 hour ago, mike carey said:

So cooperation in the public sphere based on principles rather than perceived personal relationships? Interesting concept. 

Interestingly, Adams' son. President John Quincy Adams, privately admired his greatest political rivals, John Calhoun and Andrew Jackson, who defeated him for re-election.

[mike carey]

3 hours ago, Charlie said:

Interestingly, Adams' son. President John Quincy Adams, privately admired his greatest political rivals, John Calhoun and Andrew Jackson, who defeated him for re-election.

They're actually the two Sides of the same Coin. Personal Disdain doesn't prevent [in these Cases political] Agreement and Coöperation, and political Disagreement doesn't preclude personal Respect, Admiration and Amity.

[Luv2play]

On 12/4/2025 at 8:48 PM, mtaabq said:

“Lived To Tell” by D. David Churchill who goes by “Dave Churchill”. A memoir by a gay man who “came of age” in Southern California in the late 70’s/early 80’s before the plague. Fascinating and entertaining. The main focus and meatiest part of the book concerns a 2-month road trip Dave took with 5 other gay men from Laguna Beach, CA all the way to Cocoa Beach, FL - and back. Six gay men - boys, really - in a 1969 Camaro convertible, each with about $250 in cash + OP shorts, Polo shirts and not one pair of underwear between them. They were young, beautiful and delightfully clueless. Upon returning to California they didn’t see each other again, and by the end of the 80’s five of the six would be gone. And Dave Churchill says as much as the book opens. There are some famous names sprinkled throughout, and as a gay man myself who came of age around the same time there is a certain romance in looking back at those days. No worries and no cares and having sex with no fear they used their youth and beauty as their currency, trading good looks and firm bodies for drinks, dinner, drugs, and, oftentimes, a roof over their heads. You’ll relish their freedom and regret what it cost them. The book appears self-published and as such it’s a bit rough, but I thought it was great. I’m currently on my 4th re-read. 

I can relate to that book. In 1979 I paid my first visit to California. Sam Francisco and spent 2 weeks during the summer. The next summer I spent a month in Southern California, 2 weeks in Laguna Beach.
I met some of those beautiful young guys on the beach and in the Boom Boom Room where they danced the night away shirtless and in tight shorts. I also went back the following summer.

Around that time we started hearing about a gay cancer. Which caused a great unease. Little were we aware of what was coming at us at 90 miles an hour.

[+ Charlie]

On 12/24/2025 at 4:57 PM, mike carey said:

They're actually the two Sides of the same Coin. Personal Disdain doesn't prevent [in these Cases political] Agreement and Coöperation, and political Disagreement doesn't preclude personal Respect, Admiration and Amity.

Having read farther in the Brookhiser book, I discovered that after Andrew Jackson had defeated Quincey Adams' attempt to be re-elected President, Adams' respect for Jackson turned to hatred. He got himself elected to Congress from Massachusetts, became active in the anti-slavery movement, and even proposed that the free and slave states should be disunited into two separate countries, so that Jackson could not be President of the United States (and presumably so that Adams could run again to become President of the northern states).

[Nightowl]

On 10/25/2025 at 7:53 PM, MikeBiDude said:

Just finished it. FYI it’s not a continuation of the Kingsbridge series, some readers were confused and thought it was.

That said…I really like the book. I found the writing/flow a bit “choppy”, but Follett’s character development is spot on as always, it was a very pleasant read, a page turner for me.

I’m finally reading it. About 2/3 into it I’m finding it enjoyable though not particularly deep.  

[+ EVdude]

On 10/26/2025 at 7:53 AM, MikeBiDude said:

Just finished it. FYI it’s not a continuation of the Kingsbridge series, some readers were confused and thought it was.

That said…I really like the book. I found the writing/flow a bit “choppy”, but Follett’s character development is spot on as always, it was a very pleasant read, a page turner for me.

Just picked up a copy of Circle of Days. Excited to have a meaty page turner for my 25 hours of flying from Kuala Lumpur to JFK on Monday.

[+ poolboy48220]

Mary Roach has a new book, "Replaceable You", all about reconstructive surgeries and artificial body parts. It started out a bit more technical, less humorous, than her previous books, but picked up after a chapter or two. 

[+ DrownedBoy]

On 12/24/2025 at 10:25 AM, Charlie said:

I am reading America's First Dynasty: The Adamses, 1735-1918 by Richard Brookhiser. I was surprised to learn how much John Adams detested Ben Franklin personally, despite the fact that they were political allies.

You should have seen Ken Burns's documentary on Franklin.

He included a letter where Adams basically said he'd wish Franklin would die, although he used this rather funny deistic formal language 

 

[+ Just Sayin]

I am reading "The Charm Offensive" by Alison Cochrun for my book group gathering this weekend; it's a rom-com and fun; it will definitely NOT change the course of the world, but it does nicely explore what it's like to think you should be attracted to women when in fact you really want to be with a man.

[+ Just Sayin]

this one arrived this week:  "Species of Spaces and Other Pieces" by Georges Perec; I ordered it because a guy I follow on Instagram wrote that Perec would sit in a town square and just record everything that happened: who walked by, cars and trucks driving by, people laughing or yelling; as I understood his post, it was more about sitting still and observing life around you.

has anyone read this or any of his other works?  

[+ EVdude]

So with all the hype and rave for the gay hockey sensation that Heated Rivalry is… a serious take on rabid hockey fandom is Fredrik Backman’s Beartown where the hopes of a small, isolated declining town in Sweden are pinned on its junior hockey team. It’s a tough read. Had to put it down for a few days because of the triggering subject matter. But in the end, one of the best books I read in 2025. The beginning is a tad tedious with the introduction of so many characters. But Backman’s writing style really drew me into each character’s backstory. There’s also a gay theme which I suspect will be more prominent in books 2 and 3. 

HBO did a 5 episode series of the book in 2020 but it seems to have been removed. Will be interesting to see if they bring it back and continue on with trilogy given all the HR rave.

 

[+ Just Sayin]

On 1/19/2022 at 10:09 AM, Charlie said:

Last night I finished John Rechy's About My Life and the Kept Woman: A Memoir. I read his bestselling novel City of Night when it came out in 1963, and like many people I recognized that it was mostly autobiography masquerading as fiction. This memoir, written when he was in his 70s, to me reads like a novel masquerading as autobiography, i.e., the story line is too neat, and I have trouble believing some of the incidents and people are real. The memoir ends in the 1960s, and the second half is about his life as a hustler in LA, NO, and NY, and the writing of his first novels about that subject, but the first half of the book is about his childhood and youth in El Paso. He grew up in the Mexican community there, the youngest child of a Mexican mother and an Anglo father, hence his Scottish name, which often camouflaged his self-identification with his mother's family. I had a personal reason for wanting to read that half of the book.

In 1968, I shared a two-person office at work for one year with a new hire. Patricia was a pretty blonde in her late 20s, an Anglo from El Paso married to a handsome young Mexican economist who was rapidly rising in academia. In a conversation in the office one day, somehow the subject of Rechy came up. To my surprise, she said that she had known Rechy well when both of them lived in El Paso. At that point I was not yet out at work, so I was cautious about pursuing the topic. We were friendly but not really close colleagues for many years after that, but I became aware as years passed that the starry-eyed romance of her early marriage had gradually changed as she had three children in five years. and she and her husband moved into middle age. One day she startled me by revealing that her husband, who made frequent business trips to Mexico, had a kept woman there. She was obviously angry about the amount of money he spent on the woman's support, but what really surprised me was that Patricia had no intention of leaving him, and that her children accepted the situation. The marriage lasted until their deaths a decade ago, only a few months apart.

The title of Rechy's memoir was what caught my eye, and I read it in hopes of understanding the culture of El Paso which produced Patricia. The "kept woman" in the title turns out to be a relation of Rechy's by marriage, and a symbolic figure through the entire book. It did help me to understand Patricia's marriage, but as I read, I found myself also having flashbacks to my own "starter marriage" in my early 20s, to a partner who was himself a product of small towns in west Texas at the same time as Patricia. I have driven through El Paso a number of times over the years, but the next time I will see it with a different perspective.

@Charlie I just started Rechy's "City of Night" yesterday; I had forgotten that I had read your comments; I think the "kept woman" situation is fairly common in Latin America; I am just thinking of two of my friends who have worked there and had (or have) those arrangements; I'll  be reading with greater context now!

[+ poolboy48220]

I just reserved the first two Heated Rivalry books from the library. They seem popular, I'm not sure when I'll actually get them.

[+ Lucky]

4 hours ago, poolboy48220 said:

I just reserved the first two Heated Rivalry books from the library. They seem popular, I'm not sure when I'll actually get them.

I was able to get these two books immediately through Hoopla, which my library connected me to. I was pretty surprised as I had heard they were hard...to get.

[AtticusBK]

I just started FISH TALES by Nettie Jones, a bawdy 1983 novel that was reissued last year. Loving it so far!

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/books/nettie-jones-fish-tales-reissued.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

[+ Lucky]

8 hours ago, AtticusBK said:

I just started FISH TALES by Nettie Jones, a bawdy 1983 novel that was reissued last year. Loving it so far!

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/books/nettie-jones-fish-tales-reissued.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Back in the old days, we didn't review a book until we had finished it. But you see this all the time now, where people review a book they haven't started and/or finished. I don't get it, but I am old.

Now take what I say here with a grain of salt. The thread title after all is what are you reading, not what you have read.

[Merboy]

A few books at the moment:

The Engagement (on Kindle) by Sasha Issenberg, about the long struggle for gay marriage rights.

The Pink Scar: How Nazi Persecution Shaped the Struggle for LGBTQ Rights, 

and a new biography of the first woman ever elected to Congress, Jeannette Rankin.