The Deuce: Ha! Samesies on Books of Jacob, man, I couldn't do it*

Recent Nobel prize winner. I read a couple of her other books and liked but didn’t love them, but they were interesting and well written. So far this one is a bit meh. Again well written, but it’s super long (900+ pages) and 200-ish pages in there still is not a whole lot of plot. May end up abandoning it if it doesn’t get going.

Also just finished a book on Bronze Age societies and the origins of Indo-European. Pretty sure I found it via Amazon clicking or recommendation. Very disappointing—interesting topic but very much a book written for archaeologists and not for the general public. Probably 90% of it was mind numbing recitations if f primary research facts—6 grave sites with these specific types of pottery found in this one and yadda yadda. And very little analysis or narrative which is the only thing I was interested in. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language

Then a couple of contemporary fiction books. The Trees by Perceval Everett which was a strange and surprisingly funny book addressing the US’s history of lynching. And All the Lovers in the Night by Meiki Kawakami, which was a pretty intense focused story of a very introverted young career woman in Tokyo. Sort of Ferrante meets Knausgard, but short, and not quite as good. But still very good.

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I just finished Nine Perfect Strangers.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250069825/nineperfectstrangers
It was a pretty easy audiobook "read". The story isn't complicated, the characters aren't particularly deep, but I guess I liked it enough to suggest it being on a list if you don't have any burning desires for reading or want a change of type. I *am* curious now to see what the show on Hulu did with the story. Nicole Kidman seems like an excellent choice for Masha. The narrator of the audiobook did a fantastic job as well; I don't often feel like specifically praising the voice work.

I just started The Book Thief, planning to get through it this week on my road trip, but it is hard to get into. This may not be a good book for the audiobook format.