What Fiction are you reading this week, May 20, 2018?

[hermetic]

So many books.....


I am reading House of Blues by Julie Smith. It's fun, in a gruesome murdery sort of way. After a prominent New Orleans restaurateur is murdered in his beautiful Garden District home, three family members suspiciously vanish. Homicide Detective Skip Langdon finds herself in places where the city's dirty business is transacted, and where life is mostly madness, sadness, and badness.

Today I will start listening to Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Wish me luck.

What do you plan to be reading this week?

[question everything]

1. The Past, by Tessa Hedley

Just got it from the library so have not started yet. It came in 2016 for rave reviews but was in my "later" part of the brain.

I don't think that this summary does it justice, though..

"Assembling at their country house one final time before it is sold, four siblings and their children share past memories, hidden passions, and devastating secrets that threaten to overwhelm them."

back at you

[hermetic]

6. I could not find this

Took me a bit to realize the author is Hadley. Rather boring title, too, I think. But then I read this, "Over the course of this holiday, small disturbances build into familial crises, and a way of life-bourgeois, literate, ritualized, Anglican winds down to its inevitable end." That sounds kind of intriguing.

[question everything]

18. Oops, sorry. Yes, the title does not say anything but, like you, once I read the description

I was intrigued. Next I will be looking at the House of Blue. Have been reading mostly mysteries - best to not think of the preset - ha! - but I prefer mine cozy.

I've read Louise Penny's Glass Houses that recently won the Agatha Award.

[hermetic]

20. Penny

is one of my favorite authors. I've read all her other books up to Glass Houses which I haven't been able to get my hands on yet. But soon...

[question everything]

23. Yes, both she and Anne Perry include intereting history

in their stories. Penny just wet my appetite to visiting interesting places.

And, after finishing a book we enjoy baguette and brie..

For the Glass Houses I was number 125 - or so - on the library waiting list. So just put my name and waited until my turn arrived.

[murielm99]

29. I can't read Anne Perry,

knowing her background. She is a convicted murderer.

[TexasProgresive]

2. I am almost embarrassed to post. I am reading a Harry Potter prequel fanfiction

"Casting Moonshadows" the back story of the 4 marauders Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. It's quite well done although I suspect the author is not British. I read about 37 of 86 chapters. Like a lot of these things written by fans I hope there is an ending. We will see. It's amazing that someone put so much work into something for the love of it. But then I am giving it a lot of my time.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3378356/1/Casting-Moonshadows

[hermetic]

7. Aw, don't be embarrassed

Confession: I really don't care for Harry Potter stories, neither the books nor the movies. But from what I just read about this book, it sounds pretty good. I'd probably like it.

[TexasProgresive]

3. I love Skip, she's so dainty and demure. Ha Ha

[hermetic]

8. Oh yeah...

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. American War by Omar El Akkad.

In the late 21st century between devastating global warming and catastrophic sea rise, the Free Southern State of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, are in armed conflict with the rest of the country. The U.S. capitol is now in Columbus, Ohio, as DC is completely underwater. Mexico occupies all of Arizona, and most of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Texas. It's about the logical result of today's political divisions. Quite good so far.

[hermetic]

9. Hey, this is supposed to be fiction...

Wow. I will have to read that one.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

12. LOL!

It feels frighteningly real.

[malchickiwick]

5. I'm in the middle of Lincoln in the Bardo, my second time through it.

One of the most amazing books I have ever read and I'm enjoying it even more the second time through. I wonder how it will work as a book on tape, because the novel is told in dozens and dozens of different voices. Enjoy!!

[hermetic]

10. Thanks

It says it has 166 narrators so it should be most amazing. Glad to hear you like it.

[madamesilverspurs]

11. Follett's "Winter of the World"

Middle book of a trilogy, starts in early 1930s and follows into WWII. Lots of chilling moments while reading, many plot points could have been taken from today's headlines.


.

[hermetic]

15. I'm guessing you read the first one..

Fall of Giants? Quite the epic. Probably something everyone should read eventually.

"As always with Ken Follett, the historical background is brilliantly researched and rendered, the action fast-moving, the characters rich in nuance and emotion. With passion and the hand of a master, he brings us into a world we thought we knew, but now will never seem the same again."

[madamesilverspurs]

16. But of course!

And the third part, "Edge of Eternity", is waiting its turn in my bookshelf.


.

[Little Star]

13. Booty Bones by Carolyn Haines...

It's book #14 in this light whodunit book series.

I'm a little anal, I like to read a book series in order so I always keep a list of what I already have read.

[hermetic]

17. I try to do that, as well

Of course, it's sometimes difficult to find all of a series. These sound like enjoyable little cozies, with clever plotting, witty prose, and Southern charm. Thanks for making us aware of them.

[cyclonefence]

14. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

Second time, actually, and I'm reading it aloud to my ADD-addled husband. It's Pynchon, so it's erudite and confusing as hell, but also hysterically funny. The main character, Oedipa Maas (husband: Mucho Maas) has been named executrix of the will of a former lover and must sort through clues contained in a Jacobean revenge drama, a nightclub where electronic music is live, and band of assassins (or maybe it's just one assassin) who goes back to the middle ages.

ETA Taking a break from All Dickens, All the Time

[hermetic]

19. I salute you

Pynchon certainly isn't for everyone. I might give this one a go someday. I do enjoy the absurd, when it's funny.

[cyclonefence]

32. This one is a good place to start

It's much less dense than his later work, and it's short--138 pages. Another "easy" Pynchon is "V"--it's a lot longer but pretty coherent and also very funny. If I can find my copy, we'll re-read that one next.

[dameatball]

21. "Into the Mist" by Lee Murray

[hermetic]

24. Horror/Science Fiction

Winner, 2017 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Novel
In a New Zealand national park, a bunch of civilian contractors are in a race for survival against a prehistoric creature intent on picking them off one by one. Sounds quite intense.

[dameatball]

27. Good escapism while on the porch with a cat and dog....:)

[matt819]

22. Reading and listening

Reading The Silent Corner by Dean Koontz. You think “they” are out to get you? You’re right they are. Protagonist Jane Hawk is out to change that.

Listening to The Cutting Edge by Jeffery Deaver. Typical Lincoln Rhyme novel. No one seems to get older, which is annoying. But for Rhyme fans, it probably won’t disappoint.

[hermetic]

25. Koontz at his suspenseful best..

People of talent and accomplishment, people admired and happy and sound of mind, have been committing suicide in surprising numbers. When Jane seeks to learn why, she becomes the most-wanted fugitive in America. Her powerful enemies are protecting a secret so important -- so terrifying -- that they will exterminate anyone in their way.

[Timewas]

40. One of my favorites

Koontz has been a favorite of mine for many years, going way way back to "twilight Eyes". He gets a little weird at times but still read him every chance I get..

[Eliot Rosewater]

26. "Trump told the Truth"

[hermetic]

28. Ha Ha

Never happen. His tongue would probably catch on fire.

[Ferrets are Cool]

30. An American President...

it's the one where tRump actually won the election in 2016. It's a terrible read.

[The Blue Flower]

31. A stack of Donald Westlake comic mysteries

Because I'm trying to write one.

[Timewas]

33. Sandford And Baldacci

Finished Twisted Prey and am into The fallen now

[Little Star]

39. Two of my favorites!

[japple]

34. Still reading Mockingbird by Walter Tevis.

[pscot]

35. Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

In a body swapping future a private detective is hired out of storage to investigate the murder/suicide of of a 375 year old meth (Methuselah) who is also the victim reincarnated. The writing is good. The sex and violence aren't egregiously gratuitous and the plot moves right along. I also started The Hellfire Club by Jake Tapper and Nexus by Ramez Naam. I'll probably finish Nexus but I haven't committed yet to Tapper's book. The writing seems a tad labored. I was expecting something closer to our current politics and I don't know if I can digest another Kennedy era expose/thriller. I've also been reading Everybody Lies by Seth Stephen-Davidowitz which is about the uses and abuses of Big Data (Google?). The ideas are interesting but the presentation tries too hard for user friendly and seems rather scattered and anecdotal. The title is a marketing device.

Cheers, Hermetic.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

37. Have you seen the Netflix series?

I watched that and now have a copy of the audiobook to start on at some time.

[pscot]

38. i wasn't aware of it

until I started the book. I'll look at it after I finish. What did you think of it? So far I haven't really connected emotionally with the book. Maybe fudging the bright line between life and death shorts out the empathy circuits.

[PoorMonger]

36. Righteous { IQ # 2 } by Joe Ide

In this hotly anticipated follow-up to the smash hit IQ, a New York Times Critics' Best of the Year and winner of the Anthony, Macavity, and Shamus Awards, Isaiah uncovers a secret behind the death of his brother, Marcus.


For ten years, something has gnawed at Isaiah Quintabe's gut and kept him up nights, boiling with anger and thoughts of revenge. Ten years ago, when Isaiah was just a boy, his brother was killed by an unknown assailant. The search for the killer sent Isaiah plunging into despair and nearly destroyed his life. Even with a flourishing career, a new dog, and near-iconic status as a PI in his hometown, East Long Beach, he has to begin the hunt again-or lose his mind.

A case takes him and his volatile, dubious sidekick, Dodson, to Vegas, where Chinese gangsters and a terrifying seven-foot loan shark are stalking a DJ and her screwball boyfriend. If Isaiah doesn't find the two first, they'll be murdered. Awaiting the outcome is the love of IQ's life: fail, and he'll lose her. Isaiah's quest is fraught with treachery, menace, and startling twists, and it will lead him to the mastermind behind his brother's death, Isaiah's own sinister Moriarty.

With even more action, suspense, and mind-bending mysteries than Isaiah's first adventures, Righteous is a rollicking, ingenious thrill ride.

[PoorMonger]

41. American by Day {Sigrid Odegard # 2} by Derek B. Miller

A gripping and timely novel that follows Sigrid—the dry-witted detective from Derek B. Miller's best-selling debut Norwegian by Night—from Oslo to the United States on a quest to find her missing brother

SHE KNEW IT WAS A WEIRD PLACE. She’d heard the stories, seen the movies, read the books. But now police Chief Inspector Sigrid Ødegård has to leave her native Norway and actually go there; to that land across the Atlantic where her missing brother is implicated in the mysterious death of a prominent African-American academic. AMERICA.

Sigrid is plunged into a United States where race and identity, politics and promise, reverberate in every aspect of daily life. Working with—or, if necessary, against—the police, she must negotiate the local political minefields and navigate the backwoods of the Adirondacks to uncover the truth before events escalate further.

Refreshingly funny, slyly perceptive, American by Day secures Derek B. Miller's place as one of our most imaginative and entertaining novelists.

[PoorMonger]

42. This book is a must read

Maybe the best novel I’ve read this year. It has a lot to say and uses likable smart characters to say it.

I decided to go back and re-read Norwegian By Night soon. I remember really liking parts of it but then kinda being let down by something. Maybe the years since I read it will give me clearer perspective on it.

[PoorMonger]

44. Musical Suggestion : " What It Means "

https://m.

From the Drive By Truckers (2016) album American Band

[PoorMonger]

43. Glimpse by Johnathan Maberry

A chilling thriller that explores what happens when reality and nightmares converge, and how far one will go to protect the innocent when their own brain is a threat.

From New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry comes a novel that puts a bold new spin on the supernatural thriller.

Rain Thomas is a mess. Seven years an addict and three difficult years clean. Racked by guilt for the baby she gave up for adoption when she was sixteen. Still grieving for the boy’s father who died in Iraq. Alone, discarded by her family, with only the damaged members of her narcotics anonymous meetings as friends. Them, and the voices in her head.

One morning, on the way to a much-needed job interview, she borrows reading glasses to review her resume. There is a small crack in one lens and through that damaged slice of glass she sees a young boy go running down the aisle of the subway train. Is he screaming with laughter or just screaming? When she tries to find the boy, he’s gone and no one has seen him.

The day spins out of control. Rain loses whole chunks of time. She has no idea where her days went. The voices she hears are telling her horrible things. And even stranger things are happening. Unsure whether she is going insane, Rain sets out to find answers to long buried questions about an earlier life she has avoided for years―in what may be the most dangerous collision of all, that between reality and nightmare.

How far will one person go to save someone they love?

[PoorMonger]

45. Musical Suggestion: "Anthem"

https://m.

From Leonard Cohen’s album The Future (1992)

The accompaniment here is one I can’t take credit for, as the significance is actually written into the plot. As is The Greatful Dead’s “Box of Rain”.