Friday Reads 8/11/2023

It's Friday once again. I foresee quite a bit more reading time available to me this week as opposed to last week. After work Saturday I'm free. Well, after dinner, anyway. On Sunday I have a date with my mom at lunch and then bell practice in the early evening, but that's all. Monday, I have a lunch date with a friend. All of those things leave time for reading, and maybe other chores if I feel like it. Ha!

Here's what I will be reading.

Smoke by Dan Vyleta - I am about halfway through this one. I'm really enjoying it. It is set in an alternate Victorian England where people randomly emit smoke when they think or do something "sinful". Of course, only low people smoke. The upper class wouldn't dream of it. Although it helps that they have chemical help to control it. The book is about some upper class teens who get embroiled in some secret experiments to banish Smoke that are illegal and certain people do not want to get out. The print is miniscule and I can't read it without my reading glasses, so it takes forever to read a few pages, but I'm getting there.

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold - This one I've left at work and am reading on my lunch hour. I've read about 3 of the five women. The construct of this book is interesting. The story of each woman starts with he parents getting together and having her. Then it follows her as she grows up and enters adulthood. So far each of the women has gotten married and most of them have had children. Then something catastrophic happens and they are separated from their families and end up in London trying to scrape by. I didn't know this, but so far all of the women were in their forties. I thought they were young. There is no mention of the murder. Maybe a brief description of how the bodies were found and by whom, but the plot of each story only gets the woman to the spot where she was found. Then it skips to the inquest and testimony given there. I'm learning a lot and really enjoying it. I'll probably bring it home this weekend to hopefully finish it.

Breaking Bread With the Dead: A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mind by Alan Jacobs - I'm planning to do that thing where I red this in between all my other longer reads. Maybe a chapter a day. We'll see how it goes. I have not opened this one yet, so I have no idea how it's set up.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante - After I finish The Five, this will be my work book. It looks really big, but it only has 331 pages, so maybe the paper is just thick? Also, the cover is one of those stiff paperback which makes it difficult to keep open. Anyway, I've had this book on my shelves for years and I swear I want to read it, but I just haven't. When my husband was in the hospital, I took it back and forth like I was going to read it, but I just couldn't focus to read anything. Bad timing. Now is it's time.

I feel like that is probably all I will be getting into this week. Most of them are pretty big books, even if I am halfway through them. It has taken me over a week to get that far.

What are you reading? Do any of these look enticing to you?