Reading slump continues

I am able to listen to audio books (and podcasts) in my SUV, but that is all. 

I no longer use my ear buds and listen as I sew or walk or do things around the house. 

This means I get thru an average of two books a month, and keep up with my podcasts. 

In 2025, I think I read/listened to 148 books. 

This year I have done 11 audio books so far, with at least one not finished. 

I spent part of the year listening to Dateline and 48 hours and 2020 while I sewed. For the last couple months it has been the archives of Law and Order.

On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel

My husband and I both started this book for one of my book groups. 

We both attended the meeting. There were three of us present - librarian, myself, husband. 

He was the only one who finished the book. 

The librarian got half way and then skimmed. 

I got half way and stopped. 

The writing was very good, it was just a storyline that kept getting sadder. There was no upside.

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

This was for one of my two remaining book groups.

I enjoyed it, everyone did.

I bailed - Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard

Once upon a time I could have listened to this book, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard  looking up interesting facts as I went. Now, not so much. Not even the car, captive, helped. 

I bailed after an hour, tried to listen to the review on SuperSummary and bailed again. 

As it worked out, I could not attend the book group  anyway, so it did not really matter. 

Side note - 

AUTHOR	Candice Millard
NARRATOR	Paul Michael

This is the second time this has happened recently. The authors voice did not match the narrator. The last time it was a male author and a female reader. It bugged everyone in my book group who read in audio format. This book it was a female author and a male narrator. This creates a mental discord that my book group members just never get over, it prevents one from settling into the book. 

Island of the Sea Women by Lisa See

Island of the Sea Women by Lisa See (2019).

Yes, two books based on Korea in a row. I listed to both these books on our Audible account.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee in May, Island of the Sea Women in June.

Both of these were book group assignments, two different groups.

I liked both these books a lot. Extremely well written. They were both unusual books, the story lines and characters were not every day.

As I mentioned previously, I had no idea what a tough time Korea had with Japan. With this book, I realized Korea had a tough time with itself and everybody. 

I am still only listening in the car, so my pace is slower. But I am reading consistently.

Lisa See has a long list of books, both series and standalone:

https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/lisa-see/

My husband mentioned another Korean based book he read a year or so ago, I found a summary -

“In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park is a truly empowering memoir. Park's courageous story will leave you on the edge of your seat, deeply invested in her journey, and cheering her on as she triumphs over unimaginable challenges. Let's talk about those challenges: starvation, rape, human trafficking, freezing temperatures, betrayals, beatings. She fled North Korea with her mother when her father was imprisoned, hoping to find a place ofvrefuge and saftey. She was only thirteen. Their goal was to reach freedom and reunite with their loved ones. One of the most compelling memoirs I've ever read.“

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

 I am a bit out of my reading slump, but still only able to listen to audio books while driving. So my pace on each book is very slow. 

One of my groups assigned Pachinko in May. I listened, but did not attend the meeting, because I had not yet finished, and knew there would be spoilers.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (2017)

Sandra Oh (Narrator), 

Min Jin Lee (Narrator)

I enjoyed this book. I realized part way thru that I understood very little about Japan and Korea, prior to WWII. I did not stop to research, I just enjoyed the novel. 

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Free Food  for Millionaires	(2007)
Pachinko	(2017)
American Hagwon	(2026)

Publication Order of Disorder Collection Books

The Best Girls (2019)

A book I did not read - Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan

A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan was assigned by one of my book groups. I got two hours in on audio and stopped. I attempted to listen to a recap of the book on SuperSummary, so I could attend the meeting and participate, but could not do that either. I did not go to the meeting.

My reading slump continues. 

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks (2001) was a book group assignment from last week. I finished listening to it about a mile from our meeting place, close one. 

I thought this book was excellent. I really enjoyed the writing style. 

I put holds on all her novels for my mother who is reading again.

I have added a bio, at the end of this post, from Geraldine Brooks’ website. 

    

I maintain accounts on GoodReads and StoryGraph, thanks to youngest getting me organized. 

StoryGraph - 

In each book post, I utilize https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/

This is a wonderful website that helps clarify the publication order of books and verifies book series. I use this website because there are no spoilers. But if I need a description, I can click over using the links, easily. There are also author bios.

“Australian-born Geraldine Brooks is an author and journalist who grew up in the Western suburbs of Sydney, attending Bethlehem College Ashfield and the University of Sydney. She worked as a reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald for three years as a feature writer with a special interest in environmental issues.

“In 1982 she won the Greg Shackleton Australian News Correspondents scholarship to the journalism master’s program at Columbia University in New York City. Later she worked forThe Wall Street Journal, where she covered crises in the the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans. In 1990, with her husband Tony Horwitz, she won the Overseas Press Club Award for best coverage of the Gulf War. The following year they received a citation for excellence for their series, “War and Peace.”  In 2006 she was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University. She returned to Harvard as a Visiting Lecturer in 2021.

“She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 2006 for her novel March. Her novels People of the Book, Caleb’s Crossing, The Secret Chord and Horse all were New York Times Bestsellers. Her first novel, Year of Wonders is an an international bestseller, translated into more than 25 languages and currently optioned for a limited series by Olivia Coleman’s production company. She is also the author of the nonfiction works Nine Parts of Desire, Foreign Correspondence and The Idea of Home. Her latest book, Memorial Days, was published January 24 in Australia, and February 4 in the United States.

“Brooks married fellow journalist and author Tony Horwitz in Tourette-sur-Loup France in 1984 and were together until his sudden death in 2019.  They have two sons, Nathaniel and Bizu, She now lives with a dog named Bear and a mare named Valentine by an old mill pond on Martha’s Vineyard and spends as much time as she can in Australia.  In 2016, she was named an Officer in the Order of Australia.“

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

After the never ending Warmth of Other Suns, I chose to skip 

James by Percival Everett

Horse by Geraldine Brooks.

I went to both book discussions, but I did not read either book. 

Next up was Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward which was assigned for one of my groups meeting this past week. 

I read it, all in one go. It was about 8 hours, I was able to crank the speed up to 1.40 with no chipmunks. I zipped thru it.

I enjoyed it. Extremely well written, engaging, and unique. Would recommend for a February book club read. 

But I am quite ready to let Black History month go at this point in time. It has been a rough one. 

    

I maintain accounts on GoodReads and StoryGraph, thanks to youngest getting me organized. 

StoryGraph - 

In each book post, I utilize https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/

This is a wonderful website that helps clarify the publication order of books and verifies book series. I use this website because there are no spoilers. But if I need a description, I can click over using the links, easily. There are also author bios.

The Warmth of Other Suns The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

Normally the assigned books from my groups motivate me to read, but a draggy book caused me to turn from audio books to TV for company. 

We moved a small TV into my sewing room, right next to my sewing machine. I listened to 2020, Dateline, or 48 hours, streaming 24/7 on the live Roku option, while I sewed. I did this for weeks. 

What started this book slump?

The Warmth of Other Suns

The Epic Story of America's

Great Migration

Audiobook • 22h 40m

Several people in my book groups said

- “why didn’t you just stop reading this book?”

- “do you feel like you have to finish every book you start”

- “if it is a bad book, just stop reading”

Here’s the thing - it was a good book. It was well written, it was important, I think it will be considered a classic in the future. 

But it was not compelling. It did not draw me in. The only place I wanted to listen to it was in the car. When there was nothing to distract me, when I was a captive audience, I listened to it just fine.

It took me weeks to finish it, but I did finish it. 

Ironically it sent the librarian who assigned it into a book slump too. 

    

I maintain accounts on GoodReads and StoryGraph, thanks to youngest getting me organized. 

StoryGraph - 

In each book post, I utilize https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/

This is a wonderful website that helps clarify the publication order of books and verifies book series. I use this website because there are no spoilers. But if I need a description, I can click over using the links, easily. There are also author bios.

Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men by Harold Schechter

One of my book groups read Devil in the White City by Erik Larson in 2025. The non-fiction book is about a serial killer during the era of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. 

During the discussion on that book, a member mentioned another serial killer from the same era, quite close to Chicago. 

“Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men is a non-fiction true crime book by Harold Schechter, first published on April 1, 2018, by Little A. It explores the chilling case of Belle Gunness, a Norwegian-American serial killer who operated in La Porte, Indiana, in the early 20th century.”

So we read that book too, as a group, January 2026. 

First, this book is hard to find. The library only had three copies. I got mine on Audible. One person bought a paperback, another did e-book. The e-book had links to photos and videos which she really enjoyed.

I lead this discussion. The regular librarian had a schedule conflict. The substitute librarian had just read The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party by Daniel James Brown and it impacted her greatly. She could not take a serial killer book after the Donner Party story. So I lead. 

This is an Indiana True-Crime story. It was gruesome. Except for the librarian we all enjoyed it and it was a great discussion.

I maintain accounts on GoodReads and StoryGraph, thanks to youngest getting me organized. 

StoryGraph - 

Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men

Harold Schechter

Audiobook edition

 8h 55m • audio • 2018 

nonfiction biography historytrue crime dark mysteriousslow-paced

3.75

In each book post, I utilize https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/

This is a wonderful website that helps clarify the publication order of books and verifies book series. I use this website because there are no spoilers. But if I need a description, I can click over using the links, easily. There are also author bios.

https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/harold-schechter/

2025 StoryGraph stats

  

December StoryGraph

December was a little crazy, book wise. 

I ended up listening to two sets of books. 

First I did the My Brilliant Friend series by Elena Ferrante with Ann Goldstein (Translator), Hillary Huber (Narrator). This was four volumes telling the complete story. 

Then I did The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower, which is eight volumes following Emma M. Lion. 

Both were quite good, recommend. 

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower

As this posts, I am finishing the third volume of this excellent series. 

The first two volumes are surprisingly (confusingly) short, then the books expand to a regular length. 

I maintain accounts on GoodReads and StoryGraph, thanks to youngest getting me organized. 

StoryGraph - 

In each book post, I utilize https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/

This is a wonderful website that helps clarify the publication order of books and verifies book series. I use this website because there are no spoilers. But if I need a description, I can click over using the links, easily. There are also author bios.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (2011) with Ann Goldstein (Translator), and Hillary Huber (Narrator)

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (2011) with Ann Goldstein (Translator), and Hillary Huber (Narrator) was a book group assignment. 

My Brilliant Friend is the first of four books in a series:

My Brilliant Friend (2011) 13 hours

The Story of a New Name (2012) 19 hours

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (2013) 17 hours

The Story of the Lost Child (2014) 18 hours

13+19+17+18=67 hours

I am able to listen at a pace of 1.25, which will reduce the total hours to 53.6. As this posts, I am just finishing the third book.

I think of this series as four volumes of the same book. I think these were written nearly as a continuous book, which would have been VERY LONG, so it was divided into four parts. 

When I finally *settled into/liked the first one, for me, it meant rolling right through all of them while the characters were straight in my head. I can’t picture just reading one of these books. It would be like reading 1/4 of a book you liked. 

*I had a tough time getting going. I listened to the first two hours, of the first book, which was the assigned one. I was not engaged. It was going to be a struggle. I just got off to a bad start. I took a break and caught up on my podcasts, then I started over at the beginning of the first book. The second time, I was fine, I really liked the book, so I started through the rest of the volumes. 

These books were translated from Italian to English. It is the best translation I think I have ever read, one would never know they were translated. The translator deserves as much praise as the author. Good translation is an art.

These are considered Historical Fiction. I have no complaints about these four books and the category of historical fiction. Normally I complain a lot about the genre of historical fiction. In this case, I do not. 

My assumption is - the names and some of details have been changed just enough to shroud the real people. It amuses me to consider the author might have been male. That would be quite the twist.

The author uses a pseudonym. The author is a mystery -

I maintain accounts on GoodReads and StoryGraph, thanks to youngest getting me organized. 

StoryGraph - 

The covers are beautiful. 

In each book post, I utilize https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/

This is a wonderful website that helps clarify the publication order of books and verifies book series. I use this website because there are no spoilers. But if I need a description, I can click over using the links, easily. There are also author bios.

November StoryGraph Chart / Books Finished