Let's talk about books

Earlier this fall I read The Physician. It was one of those books that I plunged way down into, one of those books where I had to make myself come up for air. Maybe there were some inaccuracies, maybe it was a little weird to be so invested in a story of medieval medical practice, but I loved it. 

It's the first in a trilogy, and I dove right into the second book. As it progressed, I liked it less and less, and then still less. But I had really loved the first one, so I read the third one. OH MY WORD did I dislike it. It made me wonder what I had failed to observe in the first one, because how could it not be similarly flawed? (Does that logic make sense to anyone but me? It makes sense to me.)

I haven't really wanted to read fiction since then -- too disgruntled, I guess. Maybe I need a really good book to pull me out of my disgruntlement. What should it be?

Comments

[Jody]

Station 11. A theme I actively dislike but I couldn't put it down after I started reading the sample. Downloaded the entire book and main lined the plot.

I'm assuming of course that you read The Domesday Book by Connie Willis years ago. Otherwise, that's one of my go-to books for recovering my love of stories,

[lakeline]

I've really struggled with fiction since I had children. It's like a switch flipped in my head and I can't handle stuff that's... the best way I can describe it is "emotionally manipulative." Like, I like to feel things when I read but I hate to feel like my emotions are being yanked around on a fishing rod. It makes me really not want to TRY fiction b/c it's so common (the Graceling Trilogy is one that really worked for me but it's SO uncommon for me to find the right fit anymore). So I've been reading a ton of non-fiction, mostly because I know enough history to basically know what I'm getting into there. I'm not going to get sideswiped.

[Emily J]

Maybe the author is a one hit wonder? I really liked Ron Hansen's Mariette in Ecstasy but his other books were only so-so to me.

[entropy]

I really liked the Physician too, but I didn't read the next books. Our book club just finished Song of the Lark by Willa Cather and it was good.

[mandamum]

I just read Louis De Wohl's "The Spear" - I have loved some of his saints books, so when this one came into my hands I took it on. And really enjoyed it!

Also - Regina Doman's fairy tales. My most recent favorite was the Rapunzel one - definitely older teen/adult, but so so so good. That's the last one I read where I was forcing myself to come up for air - luckily it was summer time, so I just had to get kids to the pool and feed them, but I lost a lot of sleep those few days....

A friend handed me "Battle of the Villa Fiorita" by Rumer Godden, and "Crocodile on the Sandbank" by Elizabeth Peters (the first Amelia Peabody historical fiction mystery) for my summer reading. Amelia Peabody was enjoyable without swallowing me whole, which was nice. And Battle was a lot to chew over - well worth the read.

[Tracy]

I loved The Martian (language alert, but really. I loved it). I loved it enough to convince my mom to read it and she loved it. You asked for fiction, but I enjoyed The Wright Brothers - biography by David McCullough.

I have a bunch of books out from the library all the time. Most are what I call "fluff". Oh, and Bleak House. Not fluff, but I trudge through when I remember to. (WHEN will I like it???? Ever???)

[Melanie]

Have you read Cruel Beauty and Crimson Bound by Rosamond Hodge yet?

[rachel]

Second Station Eleven, but also: Uprooted (?) by Naomi Novik - different from the Temeraire books, and thoroughly satisfying. And here's an excellent series I bet you haven't read yet: Amgalant. Historical fiction of the super-duper-bestest kind, and about Genghis Khan. Not so much humour, alas, but perfect in every other way: no anachronisms, excellent writing, really interesting historical insights and source criticism (by order of importance, of course).

[Nicole]

Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. So. Good.