I had to put one of my beloved cats to sleep in April so for a few weeks I couldn’t focus on much including reading. Eventually I decided to read This is Happiness and I gotta say it was the perfect read at the perfect time. Such a feel good story. Thoroughly enjoyed.
The Joan Didion documentary, "The Center Will Not Hold" is excellent, in my opinion. Though Dunne isn't in it a lot, when he is, you can see how clearly he and his aunt adore each other.
So sorry you're not feeling well! Sending all the love, light, healing, comfort, peace, strength and guidance you need to see you through! I hope you find wellness soon!
The thing I hate about short stories is that there's often not enough depth to the characters; the story is over before you get a chance to know them. That feeling leaves me with this nagging sense of missing something important -- something left undone. And since it's a character I'm missing, it's completely intangible. I've spent hours vaguely looking around my house, wondering what I've lost. It took me forever to figure this out about short stories, so most of my life has been spent with a constant feeling of slight unease, lol. Books, man, they're a killer!
It sounds like Highway 13 wasn’t as successful as you hoped, but if the premise is what drew you to it and you haven’t already read it, I recommend Bright Young Women. It’s fiction, barely, as it’s very much about the sorority murders in Florida committed by one of America’s most notorious serial killers . However, throughout the entire novel they never mention his name once. Instead it focuses on how bright and amazing the victims were and how average and unremarkable he was. Hope you’re feeling better soon!
@@SupposedlyFun I’m treating There There like a short story collection…it works better that way for me…All the Colors almost 600 pages with 261 chapters…that’s about 2 1/4 pages per chapter so it took awhile to get used too, but great characters and good plot.
@@SupposedlyFun pick something you’ve read before. I can listen to Jane Austen for example. I know the story backwards. I nod off thinking I’m still listening
I'm so glad you're enjoying This is Happiness! It's beautiful from start to finish. I hope you love it as much as I did. I also hope you can get some rest and feel better soon. 😊
Griffin Dunne's incredible documentary starring Didion, "The Center Will Not Hold" is a must see!! :) thanks for the great vid! Will u be reading any long listed bookers?
I had already read two when the longlist was announced and just got Enlightenment from the library. I had been on hold for Headshot since June and am also waiting for Orbital now.
Great discussion, Greg. I'm eager to read both Ben Shattuck and Niall Williams. One of my friends adores Williams and I really need to give his books a try!
Finishing up “Orbital” and was going on to “Tom Lake” but then I went to the library and found “Hello Beautiful” soooo since library books have a time limit🤷🏻♀️😉 I also picked up Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller. The premise sounded interesting so I checked it out. Are you familiar with it? Thanks and hope you feel better soon… PS ❤ short story collections!
I held my breath wondering which book was a potential DNF. Phew. It was not This Is Happiness which I purchased not too too long ago. I will place on my "pile of possibilities" to prioritize! I just finished As I Lay Dying by W. Faulkner participating in Faulkner in August. I ended up watching the movie. I "enjoyed" it but I am still thinking about it as one of the characters aggravated me to no end! I am also reading I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings for a Phenomenal Women event. I decided to read along to the audio which Maya Angelou narrates. Busy reading month. I also just finished The Age of Grievance by Frank Bruni which is trying to explain our current political situation. AND doing a read along Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I am really enjoying this as the commentary helps navigate Jane Austen novel with insights I may not catch on to with this introduction to her writing. I hope you feel better soon. I am sorry to hear you are not feeling your best. Take good care.
Just last week I found a hardcover copy of This is Happiness at a library sale and I am also awaiting an ordered copy of History of Sound. It sounds so good! Hope you feel better soon.
Lack of sleep and rereading the same sentence over and over again is what moved my reading away from more literary books and towards more plot driven books. It took a while to embrace all the random books I pick up when not sleeping and how it ruined my recommendation algorithms for a while :D Hope things get better for you soon again.
My library has an option to suspend a hold and set a future date of your choice. This has worked really well for me. I hope your library has a similar function available.
I'm interested in the Dunne book and already put it on hold in the library. I'm not a Sarah Perry fan and was surprised to see her book in the Booker longlist. Her writing in Essex Serpent was quite atmospheric but I thought the plot was boring.
*Waves* frequent watcher, not so much commenter... I hope this isn't weird, but I finished an ARC of a book via netgalley the other day and I couldn't help but think a few times reading it: you know, Greg or Joel might really like this if they're in their 'lighter'/fun/ less serious romance read moods. It centers an Iranian-American teacher-turned-restaurateur and a black financier-turned-hopeful-sommelier , late 30s mistaken identity (early remedied) with lots of family and friends and personal journey elements. "I'll Take What He's Having" by Adib Khorram out on the 27th.... I was weary as I don't drink and i can't say I've experienced any sort of high dining and thought I'd find the descriptions a little over the top. But I truly loved the way food was spoken about in an ingredient description and emotional level way. So many Persian foods I had heard of but had no clue what they contained or any clue to process of making. Just a random suggest. I hope you feel better soon!
By Eva Raid? I haven't read it, but I heard it's more YA and that the character is a bit whiny. Did you enjoy it? I read Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid, which is quite good. Cheers
I finally struggled my way through “At Swim, Two Boys” this week. I had given up on it twice before because of the language and my appalling lack of knowledge about Irish history but I am glad I made it to the end. I’m spending some time in Arizona at the moment and have been enjoying wearing my Kamala shirt just to elicit some very negative comments from the local trumpers. Hope everyone has a great week
Arizona! If you are in the Tucson area check out San Xavier de Bac, such amazing colonial era architecture, especially Rococo architecture, which you won’t get to see much in the US. Also the photo and anthropology museums on the campus of the big university there are worth a visit.
I remember liking At Swim, Two Boys but being very frustrated by the same things. I read it a loooooong time ago, so I guess I might have a better understanding of it now. I love your Arizona plan!
Thanks, as always. I just finished two novels that I really enjoyed: Atsuhiro Yoshida's Goodnight Tokyo and Julie Schumacher's The English Experience. Both are lovely reads, with whimsical comic elements and eccentric characters, and both affirm a message of human connection. I picked up both by chance at my local indie bookstore and definitely recommend.
Wow, I can't believe it's already a year since your pupper passed. I'm sure it seems like days or weeks ago to you. It's coming up on four years since my previous cat passed and sometimes it still feels like it just happened 💜 I also happened to read a short story collection, Stories Of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang, this week and I hear you about the rating weirdness that can happen. I loved most of the stories, but there were a couple that were just so-so. I almost wanted to give it 5 stars overall, but I thought about in terms of how I'd rate a novel if there were a few bits that I disliked, and since I'm kinda picky, I'd usually give that 4, so that's what I landed on with the collection. Hope you start feeling better soon!
I get that--it's been over two years since we lost Guinness and that also feels like it just happened. I've heard good things about Chiang but have never read one of their books.
Best books so far this month The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes The Coast Road by Alan Murrin Wild Houses by Colin Barrett My Friends by Hisham Matar ( my favourite so far from the long list) I finished The Safekeep last night, but I struggled through it. It was 3/4 star book. Highway Thirteen is on my August TBR for the Aussie readathon. James is next on my audio TBR. ☘️👋🍀📕📖📚☕️
Blessings for your healing and sleep! 🙏 Why doesn’t the giant Southern California library system have The History of Sound? I tagged it on Libby awhile ago. One of the problems of living where English books are not-so-available. And holds! I quickly read Dunnes’ book last week. I was living in SoCal during that trial and am a longtime reader of Didion so it caught my attention. Curiously I am reading a story collection by Elizabeth McCracken that is a few years old. I have always read and enjoyed short stories. What are these podcasts in books? Never seen that yet!😮
Stick with “This is Happiness.” It’s not just the first 15 pages that are beautifully written; you have another 385 pages of bliss to follow.😊 I’m looking forward to the release of his new book, “Time of the Child.” I suggest listening to Griffin Dunne’s book on audio because he narrates it. He relates so many funny and fascinating anecdotes that I think you’ll enjoy it.
I bet Dunne’s narration is great, I just read it on the page. But I was nostalgic for Carrie Fisher from it and just listened to Wishful Drinking, which was great fun and wholly satisfying. Her storytelling and timing for humor was most excellent. It makes me wish she would have written about her friendship with Griffen, it would have been great to hear her perspective on some of those situations, especially being rescued from her virginity by Griffen and her time in the chorus of her mother’s Broadway show, which she does touch on, but not as sardonically as Griffen did.
@@SupposedlyFun With Dunne you get the sense that he learned so much about being a writer because he read deeply and extensively the work of his father, uncle, aunt now I’d even add Fisher in terms of the absurdity and humor and as one of the few people he could complete identify and related to as having an outsized famous Hollywood family. Them in conversation about their books and lives would have been a treat. There’s so much left to tell that I hope he continues to write more.
Aw, I'm sorry you've been tired and under the weather. Sounds miserable. The Friday Afternoon Club was a great palate cleanser kind of book for me, Griffin Dunne was not only Joan Didion's nephew...he was Carrie Fisher's best friend. I mean: c'mon. Total catnip for me, and Griffin is a good storyteller. I also liked Enlightenment, but it's not for everyone. It took me quite a while to get into it.
Oh, your upcoming sad anniversary with Jamie reminded me that my Bear Bear died on that last Sunday in August last year. I was kind of startled to realize it’s only been one year since my little man was here. Seems longer somehow. What a good boy he was. On to the books. Overall, I had more hits than misses with Highway Thirteen and ended up giving it four stars. (I’m a generous marker.) The most unfortunate story in that collection for me was the last one, Lucy, which I found deadly dull and not really well done. Pretty sure you don’t want to leave your readers with that last impression of your story collection. I didn’t mind the podcast story mostly due to the way it ended, which was remembering the victims. But most of this book is already gone from my brain. Books have to be really, really special for me to remember details days, weeks, months, years later. I already discussed my feelings on The History of Sound last week, but I’m curious whether the story I skipped, The Children of Eden, was something I should go back to and try to finish. I only made it 20 minutes in the first time. It was the only loser in that collection for me. Did you have any specific thoughts on that one? Hope you are feeling better and sleeping better now. I’m going to try to finish the Evie Wyld book today and then I’ve got a bunch of interesting physical books I might jump into. Could be Hum by Helen Phillips or The Rich People Have Gone Away or… So many interesting books right now and more coming out at the end of the month!
Griffin Dunne directed Practical Magic and was on the later seasons if This is Us, which explains his mild resurgence a bit. I DNF’d Enlightenment. It featured a weirdly detailed description of a young teen’s naked body (which oddly is a weirdly common occurrence in Booker noms and winners; what’s going on with that voting panel?) and is less about astrology than it is a super slow slog about repressed older gay men and the AIDS crisis or something, and I’m just not interested in reading that from a straight lady.
![First 3 Hours Of Writing A Story (Starting From Nothing) - Jeff Kitchen [FULL INTERVIEW]](/img/n.gif)
I had to put one of my beloved cats to sleep in April so for a few weeks I couldn’t focus on much including reading. Eventually I decided to read This is Happiness and I gotta say it was the perfect read at the perfect time. Such a feel good story. Thoroughly enjoyed.
I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm glad This is Happiness helped you get through it. ❤️
The Joan Didion documentary, "The Center Will Not Hold" is excellent, in my opinion. Though Dunne isn't in it a lot, when he is, you can see how clearly he and his aunt adore each other.
I haven’t seen it yet and I’m honestly shocked that I’ve let it go so long.
Netflix.
I ain't got Netflix.
So sorry you're not feeling well! Sending all the love, light, healing, comfort, peace, strength and guidance you need to see you through! I hope you find wellness soon!
Thank you so much!
The thing I hate about short stories is that there's often not enough depth to the characters; the story is over before you get a chance to know them. That feeling leaves me with this nagging sense of missing something important -- something left undone. And since it's a character I'm missing, it's completely intangible. I've spent hours vaguely looking around my house, wondering what I've lost. It took me forever to figure this out about short stories, so most of my life has been spent with a constant feeling of slight unease, lol. Books, man, they're a killer!
It sounds like Highway 13 wasn’t as successful as you hoped, but if the premise is what drew you to it and you haven’t already read it, I recommend Bright Young Women. It’s fiction, barely, as it’s very much about the sorority murders in Florida committed by one of America’s most notorious serial killers . However, throughout the entire novel they never mention his name once. Instead it focuses on how bright and amazing the victims were and how average and unremarkable he was.
Hope you’re feeling better soon!
I've thought about Bright Young Women but hadn't read it. Thanks for the feedback on it! And thank you for the well wishes.
I finished All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker and just started There There by Tommy Orange…
I hope you like There There! I’ve heard good things about All the Colors of the Dark.
@@SupposedlyFun I’m treating There There like a short story collection…it works better that way for me…All the Colors almost 600 pages with 261 chapters…that’s about 2 1/4 pages per chapter so it took awhile to get used too, but great characters and good plot.
Audiobooks for sleep Greg. Something soothing. Orbital? This Is Happiness?
Audiobooks keep me awake because I want to keep listening. 🤣
But they do help calm my mind.
@@SupposedlyFun pick something you’ve read before. I can listen to Jane Austen for example. I know the story backwards. I nod off thinking I’m still listening
I'm so glad you're enjoying This is Happiness! It's beautiful from start to finish. I hope you love it as much as I did. I also hope you can get some rest and feel better soon. 😊
Thank you. I’m loving This Is Happiness so far!
Wishing you better sleep and general wellbeing in the near future.
I’m reading This Is Happiness too! Buddy read!!?!?!
What fun timing!
Griffin Dunne's incredible documentary starring Didion, "The Center Will Not Hold" is a must see!! :)
thanks for the great vid!
Will u be reading any long listed bookers?
I had already read two when the longlist was announced and just got Enlightenment from the library. I had been on hold for Headshot since June and am also waiting for Orbital now.
Great discussion, Greg. I'm eager to read both Ben Shattuck and Niall Williams. One of my friends adores Williams and I really need to give his books a try!
Finishing up “Orbital” and was going on to “Tom Lake” but then I went to the library and found “Hello Beautiful” soooo since library books have a time limit🤷🏻♀️😉
I also picked up Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller. The premise sounded interesting so I checked it out. Are you familiar with it? Thanks and hope you feel better soon…
PS ❤ short story collections!
I held my breath wondering which book was a potential DNF. Phew. It was not This Is Happiness which I purchased not too too long ago. I will place on my "pile of possibilities" to prioritize! I just finished As I Lay Dying by W. Faulkner participating in Faulkner in August. I ended up watching the movie. I "enjoyed" it but I am still thinking about it as one of the characters aggravated me to no end! I am also reading I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings for a Phenomenal Women event. I decided to read along to the audio which Maya Angelou narrates. Busy reading month. I also just finished The Age of Grievance by Frank Bruni which is trying to explain our current political situation. AND doing a read along Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I am really enjoying this as the commentary helps navigate Jane Austen novel with insights I may not catch on to with this introduction to her writing. I hope you feel better soon. I am sorry to hear you are not feeling your best. Take good care.
Just last week I found a hardcover copy of This is Happiness at a library sale and I am also awaiting an ordered copy of History of Sound. It sounds so good! Hope you feel better soon.
What a find! Thank you and I hope you like History of Sound.
Lack of sleep and rereading the same sentence over and over again is what moved my reading away from more literary books and towards more plot driven books. It took a while to embrace all the random books I pick up when not sleeping and how it ruined my recommendation algorithms for a while :D
Hope things get better for you soon again.
Thanks so much!
My library has an option to suspend a hold and set a future date of your choice. This has worked really well for me. I hope your library has a similar function available.
My library has a system but it doesn’t seem very helpful.
I'm interested in the Dunne book and already put it on hold in the library. I'm not a Sarah Perry fan and was surprised to see her book in the Booker longlist. Her writing in Essex Serpent was quite atmospheric but I thought the plot was boring.
*Waves* frequent watcher, not so much commenter... I hope this isn't weird, but I finished an ARC of a book via netgalley the other day and I couldn't help but think a few times reading it: you know, Greg or Joel might really like this if they're in their 'lighter'/fun/ less serious romance read moods. It centers an Iranian-American teacher-turned-restaurateur and a black financier-turned-hopeful-sommelier , late 30s mistaken identity (early remedied) with lots of family and friends and personal journey elements. "I'll Take What He's Having" by Adib Khorram out on the 27th.... I was weary as I don't drink and i can't say I've experienced any sort of high dining and thought I'd find the descriptions a little over the top. But I truly loved the way food was spoken about in an ingredient description and emotional level way. So many Persian foods I had heard of but had no clue what they contained or any clue to process of making. Just a random suggest. I hope you feel better soon!
Thanks for the recommendation! That sounds right up our streets, so we'll look it up.
Good morning. Just discovered a book for next year's Women Prize and Booker Prize. It is Lady Macbeth.
I’ve seen the cover but need to actually look into the book.
By Eva Raid? I haven't read it, but I heard it's more YA and that the character is a bit whiny. Did you enjoy it? I read Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid, which is quite good. Cheers
I finally struggled my way through “At Swim, Two Boys” this week.
I had given up on it twice before because of the language and my appalling lack of knowledge about Irish history but I am glad I made it to the end.
I’m spending some time in Arizona at the moment and have been enjoying wearing my Kamala shirt just to elicit some very negative comments from the local trumpers.
Hope everyone has a great week
Arizona! If you are in the Tucson area check out San Xavier de Bac, such amazing colonial era architecture, especially Rococo architecture, which you won’t get to see much in the US. Also the photo and anthropology museums on the campus of the big university there are worth a visit.
I remember liking At Swim, Two Boys but being very frustrated by the same things. I read it a loooooong time ago, so I guess I might have a better understanding of it now.
I love your Arizona plan!
Thanks, as always. I just finished two novels that I really enjoyed: Atsuhiro Yoshida's Goodnight Tokyo and Julie Schumacher's The English Experience. Both are lovely reads, with whimsical comic elements and eccentric characters, and both affirm a message of human connection. I picked up both by chance at my local indie bookstore and definitely recommend.
That sounds great. Thanks for the recommendation.
Short stories are super hit or miss for me. But the ones that work, blow me away (like Night of the Living Rez).
Night of the Living Rez is a good one.
Wow, I can't believe it's already a year since your pupper passed. I'm sure it seems like days or weeks ago to you. It's coming up on four years since my previous cat passed and sometimes it still feels like it just happened 💜 I also happened to read a short story collection, Stories Of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang, this week and I hear you about the rating weirdness that can happen. I loved most of the stories, but there were a couple that were just so-so. I almost wanted to give it 5 stars overall, but I thought about in terms of how I'd rate a novel if there were a few bits that I disliked, and since I'm kinda picky, I'd usually give that 4, so that's what I landed on with the collection. Hope you start feeling better soon!
I get that--it's been over two years since we lost Guinness and that also feels like it just happened. I've heard good things about Chiang but have never read one of their books.
I will be stunned if you do not love This Is Happiness. It is gorgeous, first to last. Feel better. ❤️
Thanks! I’m really liking This Is Happiness so far.
I need a new place to read in my house. I’d be curious what place(s) you like to read?
Best books so far this month
The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes
The Coast Road by Alan Murrin
Wild Houses by Colin Barrett
My Friends by Hisham Matar ( my favourite so far from the long list)
I finished The Safekeep last night, but I struggled through it. It was 3/4 star book.
Highway Thirteen is on my August TBR for the Aussie readathon.
James is next on my audio TBR.
☘️👋🍀📕📖📚☕️
🇮🇪 📚 🥂
Blessings for your healing and sleep! 🙏 Why doesn’t the giant Southern California library system have The History of Sound? I tagged it on Libby awhile ago. One of the problems of living where English books are not-so-available. And holds!
I quickly read Dunnes’ book last week. I was living in SoCal during that trial and am a longtime reader of Didion so it caught my attention. Curiously I am reading a story collection by Elizabeth McCracken that is a few years old. I have always read and enjoyed short stories.
What are these podcasts in books? Never seen that yet!😮
Stick with “This is Happiness.” It’s not just the first 15 pages that are beautifully written; you have another 385 pages of bliss to follow.😊 I’m looking forward to the release of his new book, “Time of the Child.” I suggest listening to Griffin Dunne’s book on audio because he narrates it. He relates so many funny and fascinating anecdotes that I think you’ll enjoy it.
I bet Dunne’s narration is great, I just read it on the page. But I was nostalgic for Carrie Fisher from it and just listened to Wishful Drinking, which was great fun and wholly satisfying. Her storytelling and timing for humor was most excellent. It makes me wish she would have written about her friendship with Griffen, it would have been great to hear her perspective on some of those situations, especially being rescued from her virginity by Griffen and her time in the chorus of her mother’s Broadway show, which she does touch on, but not as sardonically as Griffen did.
That’s a good idea. I didn’t see the Dunne book available on audio anywhere, but maybe I’ll just cash in a Libro credit.
It would have been so great to see them in conversation again just a book tour.
@@SupposedlyFun With Dunne you get the sense that he learned so much about being a writer because he read deeply and extensively the work of his father, uncle, aunt now I’d even add Fisher in terms of the absurdity and humor and as one of the few people he could complete identify and related to as having an outsized famous Hollywood family. Them in conversation about their books and lives would have been a treat. There’s so much left to tell that I hope he continues to write more.
@@SupposedlyFun My Dunne audiobook was from my library. If you have to cash in a credit at Libro, it's worth it, in my opinion.
Aw, I'm sorry you've been tired and under the weather. Sounds miserable. The Friday Afternoon Club was a great palate cleanser kind of book for me, Griffin Dunne was not only Joan Didion's nephew...he was Carrie Fisher's best friend. I mean: c'mon. Total catnip for me, and Griffin is a good storyteller. I also liked Enlightenment, but it's not for everyone. It took me quite a while to get into it.
Oh, your upcoming sad anniversary with Jamie reminded me that my Bear Bear died on that last Sunday in August last year. I was kind of startled to realize it’s only been one year since my little man was here. Seems longer somehow. What a good boy he was.
On to the books. Overall, I had more hits than misses with Highway Thirteen and ended up giving it four stars. (I’m a generous marker.) The most unfortunate story in that collection for me was the last one, Lucy, which I found deadly dull and not really well done. Pretty sure you don’t want to leave your readers with that last impression of your story collection. I didn’t mind the podcast story mostly due to the way it ended, which was remembering the victims. But most of this book is already gone from my brain. Books have to be really, really special for me to remember details days, weeks, months, years later.
I already discussed my feelings on The History of Sound last week, but I’m curious whether the story I skipped, The Children of Eden, was something I should go back to and try to finish. I only made it 20 minutes in the first time. It was the only loser in that collection for me. Did you have any specific thoughts on that one?
Hope you are feeling better and sleeping better now. I’m going to try to finish the Evie Wyld book today and then I’ve got a bunch of interesting physical books I might jump into. Could be Hum by Helen Phillips or The Rich People Have Gone Away or… So many interesting books right now and more coming out at the end of the month!
I’ve been in a reading slump all year. It’s really terrible. :(
I started This green and pleasant land by Ayisha Malik today as an audiobook...Not sure if it was you who recommended it....
I don’t think I’ve even heard of it! I’ll have to look it up.
@@SupposedlyFun oops! sorry ☺️
All good!
This Is Happiness is very well written, but because it was so much like my own early childhood it didn’t impress me as much as other people.
That makes sense.
Griffin Dunne directed Practical Magic and was on the later seasons if This is Us, which explains his mild resurgence a bit. I DNF’d Enlightenment. It featured a weirdly detailed description of a young teen’s naked body (which oddly is a weirdly common occurrence in Booker noms and winners; what’s going on with that voting panel?) and is less about astrology than it is a super slow slog about repressed older gay men and the AIDS crisis or something, and I’m just not interested in reading that from a straight lady.
📖🪱💚💚💚💚
To be honest, a book about a serial killer doesn’t seem like what you should be reading at this stressful moment in time.
Probably a fair point. 😂