We here at Bleu are quite the bunch of voracious readers. Okay, so some of us might be considered “book hoarders” more than “book readers” due to assiduous schedules and the newest season of Broad City taking precedence. Of course, there are those titles that we couldn’t put down and spent every free waking moment nose deep, and then there are times when we get overly ambitious, starting several books at once with good intentions, but life gets in the way as we watch them pile up on our bedside tables, unfinished. Nonetheless, we love a great read and the general consensus is that we would all like a little more down time to spend reading — leisurely, educational, or collective purposes abound.
We’re curious: what’s a book that you just couldn’t put down? The one that kept you up well past your bedtime or had you canceling plans to finish from cover to cover? Do you James Baldwin? Gillian Flynn? Nicholas Sparks? Joan Didion? Chuck Palahniuk? What are you reading, and should we be reading it, too?
Nora
April 8, 2019 at 10:12 amThe Nightingale – Kristin Hannah
The Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion
Lilac Girls – Martha Hall Kelly
Leah Lamoreaux
April 8, 2019 at 10:29 amWorth It – Amanda Steinberg
Call Them By Their True Names – Rebecca Solnit
But First We Make The Beast Beautiful – Sarah Wilson
Gillian Nash
April 8, 2019 at 11:39 amThe Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells – the most important book out this year!
Grace Luna
April 8, 2019 at 12:46 pmThe Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion
Tell Me How It Ends – Valeria Luiselli
Jessica
April 8, 2019 at 2:22 pmthe kinfolk table. so many delicious recipes, so little time! also loving, wherever you go, there you are by Jon Kabat-Zinn + murder on the orient express by Agatha Christie – happy reading to all! 💞
Sarah Pugliese
April 8, 2019 at 2:27 pmAdele – Leila Slimani
The Perfect Nanny – Leila Slimani (obviously on a bit of a kick!)
Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts
Xx
Val
April 8, 2019 at 2:41 pmHer Body and Other Parties – Carmen Maria Machado
The First Bad Man – Miranda July
The Body Keeps the Score – Bessel Van Der Kolk
Rachel
April 8, 2019 at 2:42 pmAmerican Cosmic by D.W. Pasulka
Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery
Gaylene
April 8, 2019 at 3:32 pmCurrently “reading” via Audible A Discovery of Witches trilogy. I’m currently on book 2. I love to read a real, paper book but find that audio books best fit my life right now. I still get the story while also folding my laundry, doing the dishes, cooking dinner, getting ready in the morning or waiting in the school pick-up line.
Nicole
April 8, 2019 at 4:57 pmThere There by Tommy Orange
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Nicole
April 8, 2019 at 4:59 pmThere There by Tommy Orange
Just Kids by Patti Smith
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Eva Lunda by Isabelle Allende
Bre Jimenez
April 8, 2019 at 6:24 pmI’m late to the party, but ‘Wildflower’ by Drew Barrymore is an amazing collection of short stories throughout her life
Julia
April 9, 2019 at 8:03 amWhere The Crawdads Sing- Delia Owens
The Goldfinch – Donna Tart
Daisy Jones and the Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid
Luisa
April 9, 2019 at 10:59 amTo Throw Away Unopened, by Viv Albertine
Everything I know about love, by Dolly Alderton
Lori
April 9, 2019 at 11:45 amSo many right now! Chocolat by Joanna Harris on my Kindle, Where Cooking Begins by Carla Lalli Music, and Lovers at the Chameleon Club by Francine Prose. I’d be reading a few more right now if there were possible. 🙂
Laura Brandt
April 9, 2019 at 1:02 pmThe Robert Galbraith series, Ruth Ware, and Memoirs of a Geisha are all my favourites!
Calli Alford
April 9, 2019 at 2:11 pmLaura, Memories of a Geisha is one of my all-time favorites!
Marla R. Horton
April 9, 2019 at 1:27 pmFavorites so far this year:
1) Too Much and Not the Mood by Durga Chew-Bose
2) Freshwater by Awaeke Emezi
3) Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Still thinking about these from last year:
1) On Beauty by Zadie Smith
2) The Girls by Emma Cline
3) Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh
4) Cherry by Mary Karr
5) Lit by Mary Karr
6) The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Calli Alford
April 9, 2019 at 2:10 pmOn my list:
Specimen Days by Walt Whitman
How to Love by Thich Nhat Hanh
Love’s Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy by Irvin D. Yalom
Lucia
April 10, 2019 at 1:27 pmJust finished
On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
Slow Days, Fast Company by Eve Babitz (read this after Hollywood’s Eve: Eve Babitz and the Secret History of LA by Lili Anolik, both are so good and dishy, just perfect)
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (my husband and I just read this on vacation in Italy and it was the perfect travel book, if you like sociopaths and luxury goods)
Danielle
April 10, 2019 at 4:52 pmWhere the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Call Me American by Abi Nor Iftin
Julia Bales
April 11, 2019 at 6:34 pm– Arcadia – lauren groff
– Lost City of the Monkey God – douglas preston
– Member of the Family: My Story of Charles Manson – dianne lake
– Fates and Furies – lauren groff
Christine
April 12, 2019 at 11:29 amTHE WIND UP BIRD CHRONICLE by HARUKI MURAKAMI
If you like a little whimsy. All of his books are excellent, but this one is my favorite.
NOTHING TO ENVY by BARBARA DEMICK
If you don’t like non-fiction but want to have your mind blown. Life in North Korea was/is nutty.
CHILDREN OF THE NEW WORLD by ALEXANDER WEINSTEIN
If you’re a fan of Black Mirror + short stories. I read this bad boy in two days.
A LITTLE LIFE by HANYA YANAGIHARA
If depressing stories about friendship are your cup of tea! It’s a really beautiful story if you can get past the darkness.
Paige Patterson
April 13, 2019 at 10:44 amCurrently reading:
Laura & Emma-Kate Greathead and listening to the Proposal-Jasmine Guillory.
Couldn’t put down:
The Poisonwood Bible-Barbara Kingsolver
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine-Gail Honeyman
The Rules of Magic-Alice Hoffman
Lauren Bollinger
April 18, 2019 at 2:54 amThe Boys of My Youth by Joanne Beard
The End of the Story by Lydia Davis
Any damn thing by Mary Karr….listening to her read her memoir “Lit” for the first time was like dropping literary acid….she completely blew my mind and changed everything I thought I knew about writing and life and God and sobriety and the unequivocal gloriousness and legitimate necessity of the word “fuck.”
Marla R. Horton
April 18, 2019 at 12:52 pmALL HAIL MOTHER MARY KARR!
Annabel Lunnon
April 27, 2019 at 4:47 pmSmall Great Things by Jodi Picoult
Macbeth
Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke