The Books I'm Reading Now
It's audiobook mania over here! I've been listening to two great, very different books and reading a third. I'm reading The Diamond Eye, Kate Quinn's newest historical fiction, based on a real-life Russian bookworm turned sniper during World War II; I'm listening to Casey McQuiston's One Last Stop, a mostly lighthearted romp through New York City, lesbian love, and shifts in time; and I'm also listening to Mary Laura Philpott's Bomb Shelter, her second memoir in essays.
What are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms?
01 The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
Based on a true story, The Diamond Eye is Kate Quinn's most recent historical fiction, a World War II tale of a quiet bookworm who becomes history's deadliest female sniper.
After Hitler's invasion of Russia, Mila becomes a lethal hunter of Nazis who earns the nickname Lady Death. On a trip to America to boost support for the Russian fight against the Nazis, Mila forges an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and makes a surprising connection with a silent fellow sniper.
From the author of The Huntress, The Rose Code, and The Alice Network.
I received a prepublication digital galley of this book courtesy of NetGalley and William Morrow.
02 One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
Casey McQuiston's mostly lighthearted love letter to New York has been on my to-read list for ages.
Twenty-three-year-old August keeps to herself, she's kind of cynical, she doesn't have a lot of friends, and she's holding true to form after her recent move to New York.
But her adorably quirky roommates and a mystery woman she keeps running into on the Q train might just bring her out of her shell and make her want to risk opening up her heart.
This book also plays with time in a really fun, fascinating way.
McQuiston is also the author of Red, White, and Royal Blue.
I recently listed some of my favorite romantic, light stories in the Greedy Reading List Six Great Light Fiction Stories Perfect for Summer Reading. I love to read stories that involve playing with time. If you like those too, you might like to search the site for other books in this vein, or check out the Greedy Reading Lists Six Second-Chance, Do-Over, Reliving-Life Stories or Six Riveting Time-Travel Stories to Explore.
03 Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives by Mary Laura Philpott
In her new memoir Bomb Shelter, Mary Laura Philpott explores her worries and views of the world and ponders existential questions about life and death.
She considers her paralyzing fear of her children's health challenges and takes the reader through her son's emergence of epilepsy and her daughter's asthma; she considers her parents' secret lives and pieces together fascinating facts she had never recognized; and as she wonders what else could go awry, she faces her long-held, subconscious (now recognized) belief that the power of her active worrying could prevent future tragedies.
Philpott is also the author of the memoir I Miss You When I Blink. I'm listening to Bomb Shelter as an audiobook.