What I’ve Been Reading: Early 2019

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3 words: varied, satisfying, random

Today the focus is on the books I’ve read so far this year. It’s been a nice mix of genres and tone and style, and I’m a happy reader these days. Here’s what we’ve got…

From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein

3 words: immediate, fresh, candid

Give this book a whirl if you like… reading about life inside the White House bubble, behind-the-scenes accounts, twenty-something memoirs, workplace narratives

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

3 words: evocative, unsettling, gradually revealing

Give this book a whirl if you like… WWII espionage, young women spies, two time periods in one person’s life, England during WWII, some twists and turns in the plot

Sunburn by Laura Lippman

3 words: unsettling, psychological, twisted

Give this book a whirl if you like… twisty stories, unreliable characters, hidden agendas, multiple viewpoints

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

3 words: clever, humorous, sad

Give this book a whirl if you like… a blend of humor and pathos, a clever tone, a story of a gay man examining his life at age 50, a mild-mannered protagonist, finding oneself when running away from problems

Passion and Affect by Laurie Colwin

3 words: quirky, creative, evocative

Give this book a whirl if you like… delightfully eccentric characters, a short story collection offering a variety of life circumstances, the complications of love, interpersonal relationships explored through vignettes

Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life, Love, and Food by Ann Hood

3 words: warm, personal, evocative

Give this book a whirl if you like… essays about food and life and cooking, memoirs in essay form, reading about the life of an author

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

3 words: comforting, warm, book-loving

Give this book a whirl if you like… books about the power of books, stories of overcoming adversity through community and literature, the story of an author finding her next story, WWII, epistolary novels, stories of unexpected romance

What wonderful things have you been reading lately?

9 thoughts on “What I’ve Been Reading: Early 2019”

  1. Stephanie

    Guernsey! That book ticked all my boxes: epistolary format, about books, about a place I’ve never been, about a situation I never really knew about before, about a group of close-knit friends, about a time period I enjoy reading… There was so much I loved about the book. The movie adaptation wasn’t half-bad, either. Along similar lines, I read a fascinating little book yesterday about World War II-era rationing in Britain, which I very much enjoyed, and am reading two other books about books. 🙂

    • Unruly Reader

      Stephanie — I kinda knew I’d like Guernsey, but I just didn’t get to it until now. And I’m so glad I finally read it! It’s the loveliest comfort read.

      Books about books — sounds like good stuff you’re reading these days.

  2. bybeebooks

    I think I’ve read Passion and Affect, but my Laurie Colwin fangirl phase was before I started recording my reads. Oh well, that gives me an excuse to read it again!

  5. Diane

    I just picked up Kitchen Yarns and hope to read it soon; I do love Ann Hood, especially Morningstar. Actually, I’ve loved everything I’ve read by her thus far!

  6. Unruly Reader

    Diane — Kitchen Yarns was the first Ann Hood book I’d read, and I really liked it. I’d been wanting to read something she’d written, and this one was compared with Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking, so I had to read it right away.

  7. Terra

    I read a different book by Ann Hood and loved it, and am reading The Warden by Anthony Trollope for the second time. That is one of my all time favorite books, the warden is an elderly vicar and is a warden caring tenderly for old men in a church home, not a prison.

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