oops, forgot to mention the title "The Miniaturist"

just finished Jane Smiley's 3rd in a trilogy (which I didn't bother to read the first two and that turned out ok) called Golden Age. It's a 100- year story about a family. There's no real underlying major plot, just mini plots under some of the major players.

Nevertheless, it kept me engaged for several days, despite its length. (400+ pages) Her writing I find pleasant but not earth shattering. But I liked it and finished it, which I cannot always bring myself to do these days.

On a similar subject, I don't like the taller paperback books either. They no longer fit in my pocket or purse, and they don't fit on my shelves with the rest of an author's series.

Totally agree with you on this!! Call me curmudgeon!! I love the Pocket books!

Minus....I recently read a book devoted to unfinished books. Like the Metropolitan Museum of Art's current exhibit, Unfinished, regarding unfinished art ( which I recommend viewing...but if you can't get to Manhattan, you can get the book about the exhibit, which I also recommend reading), the book (which I can't remember the title) discusses unfinished books. Many of the authors have passed, so we don't have a definitive reason why the books were incomplete. However, one was living, Pulitzer Prize winner, Michael Chabon and he offered a reason why he never finished one of his books. He explained when he gave his manuscript to his publisher, his editor wanted many revisions. He went back to writing the book and the story went from hundreds of pages, to over a thousand pages. Returning the 1000 page book to the editor, he was once again told that the story STILL required more revisions. At that point, he abandoned finishing the story! Sooooo.....all of you Chabon book lovers have been spared!😁

Turning to film, Orson Welles left a film unfinished and I recently read there was a GoFundMe site devoted to raising money to get one of his unfinished films finished.

Like Hitchcock, I've read a few books about Welles. He was an interesting and talented man.

Unfinished books - My DIL writes. She had a similar experience. Her book went off and came back with "directions" for revisions. She did the changes and sent it off again. After that she said the revisions that were suggested would totally change the point she was trying to make, not to mention the feelings she wanted to evoke, so she put the unfinished book away.

VR - thanks for the recommend about the unfinished art exhibit. Wouldn't it be a treat to head to NYC! That was the trip I was forced to cancel when my BC came roaring back three years ago. My trips this year are to the west so I'll have to look for the book.

Loved this thought. From an article in the Washington Post by Tom Rachman about how he mourned his sister by the books she left behind.

If you crave books, covet them, slam them shut in outrage, then they accumulate around you, becoming rows of memories: an edition lent at the start of a passion, never returned at the end; a volume cautioning against peril, or luring you to it; a book whose characters were your allies, even if you rarely frequent them today. But at the sight of that particular copy, you remember.

minus.... that thought breaks my heart for another reason. My sister can't read. Kind of ironic that I'm a literacy volunteer....

Minus, love that quote, it reminds me of something wonderful and true that Ruth posted here.

Makes me sad to think of people who can't read and miss the adventure of a good book. ♥

and those who can't read pretty much have no resources when things fall appart

abigail...I send my sister YouTube videos so she can understand concepts....but it is still sad because there is a lost dimension in her life.....

If you have even a tiny interest in American history and/or Abraham Lincoln, check out this small, delightful book:

Lincoln as I Knew Him: Gossip, Tributes, and Revelations from His Best Friends and Worst Enemies by Harold Holzer

Holzer is a top Lincoln historian (whom I have had the privilege of meeting). He has taken the best and more interesting of stories told about Lincoln by people who actually knew him into one little book. He introduces the writer (from his step-mom, to famous people, to his secret service agent who, to his eternal regret, had the evening off the night of the assassination).

I think I need to read Wind in the Willows again. Maybe as a substitute for " just messing around with boats..." since there's no handy water near.

Oops - after I posted that I realized many of you have probably been reading about our second round of major floods this year. I was thinking more of a calm river or bay.

two books - Sarah Vowell's Unfamiliar Fish about the colonization of Hawaii first by missionaries and then by the US. fascinating, sad but since it is Sarah Vowell after all, funny too. I had recently been in search of more books/articles by Miriam Michelson who wrote In the Bishops's Carriage - and had found an article she wrote around the time of the overthrow of the queen and annexation. I was curious whether Sarah Vowell knew about her, and indeed she quoted her near the very end of the book. The other book was Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. It is based on a "cult?" podcast series. Night Vale exists somewhere in the California desert where farmers grow imaginary corn, the waitress at the diner has branches growing out of her from which patrons can pick fruit and where touching plastic pink flamingos causes you to multiply your realities? - I found the best part of the book to be the relationship between a mother and her fifteen year old son - loving and trying so hard to communicate with each other and the personal growth of a 19 year old pawn shop operator who finally decides to grow up. Totally bizarre.

I second the recommendation for Sarah Vowell's Unfamiliar Fish. I read it several years ago and it's one that will stay on my shelves for re-reading down the road.

A friend passed along David Baldacci's Memory Man. I used to read him steadily but haven't been too captivated by the last few I read so stopped including him in a regular reading diet. This one hold is holding my interest. I'm 2/3 of the way through & I can't figure out who is the "bad guy".

I was glad I read Greg Ille's The Burning Tree because I like the protagonist - Penn Cage - but think my hand is still sore from holding such a weighty tome (pun intended).

include me in recommending ALL of Vowell's books! DH thoroughly enjoyed Memory Man!