What Fiction are you reading this week, December 30, 2018?

[hermetic]

Last edited Sun Dec 30, 2018, 02:38 PM - Edit history (1)

Barack Obama on Dec 28 "As 2018 draws to a close, I’m continuing the tradition of sharing my year-end lists. It gives me a moment to reflect on the year through the books that I found most thought-provoking, inspiring, or just plain loved."
https://www.facebook.com/barackobama/posts/10156393283416749?__tn__=K-R
(New Year's Resolution suggestion: Be like Barack Obama)

Still reading Lighthouse Island by Paulette Jiles. I've read many dystopian novels but this one is really bothering me. It just feels like this is what it will be like in the not-too-far future. And it really sucks. Plus, I can totally relate to the protagonist, although I'm not an orphan. Just feels like if I was in her place, this is exactly what I would do.

Listening to Turbo Twenty-Three by Janet Evanovich.

Stephanie Plum has a lot on her plate, but for a girl who claims to have “virtually no marketable skills,” these are the kinds of sweet assignments she does best.

Never really been a follower of this series but it was the only thing available right now in my library's Overdrive. It's a fun listen.

What's your selection this week?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

[akraven]

1. I know what the wiggly cat is going to do -

I read so many books a week it's impossible to keep up. Seriously, I have over 2500 "keepers" most from used book stores.

So who knows what's next?

[hermetic]

3. That's great

You are certainly among friends here. There are a number of voracious readers who post here so stick around. You might see a book you recognize and want to say something about it. Or maybe add another to your collection.

[akraven]

4. I haven't been able to get to the bookstore in a couple of weeks.

I'm jonesing!!!

Reread everything at least 5 times, then trade the ones I didn't fall in love with (rare). What a great group!

[Ohiogal]

2. Thank you for Obama's list!

It was from his list I chose to read “A Gentleman In Moscow” last year.

Feeling lousy with a bad head cold, so I’m still reading about Freddie Mercury.

I’ve enjoyed the Stephanie Plum books when I was in the mood for something light.

[hermetic]

6. Yep, light.

Hope you feel better soon.

[Ohiogal]

9. Thank you

[murielm99]

21. "A Gentleman in Moscow" is such a wonderful book.

Thank you, Obama.

[trixie2]

5. I am reading The Afterlives by Pierce

and for a non-fiction I am reading A History of Future Cities by Brook.

[hermetic]

7. Oh wow

Gonna have to read that one. " a funny, poignant love story that answers the question: What happens after we die? (Lots of stuff, it turns out)."

[trixie2]

10. I am enjoying it

I seem to always grab books on the topic. I have also read "How to Stop Time" by Haig a bit of a turn on time travel.

If you like the topic of afterlife you MUST read The Mercy of Thin Air by Domingue. Ghosts roaming the city, going to the library after hours, keeping up their old homes etc. Excellent.

[hermetic]

12. Yeah

That does sound fun. Thanks!

[Timewas]

8. Baldacci and patterson

Baldacci's "Long Road to Mercy" and Patterson's "Target".. am into a five book Scott Pratt "Joe Dillard" series now, first 2 down 3 to go

[hermetic]

11. Some new ones there.

A new Alex Cross story. And Baldacci's is a Suspense/Thriller taking place in the Grand Canyon, one of my favorite places. Good stuff.

[murielm99]

20. I burned out on Patterson awhile ago.

I still like Baldacci.

[KPN]

13. Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich

Not sure what I think about it yet, but I do appreciate Erdrich's writing style. She is native American. It's a story that winds through fifty years or so (30s thru 80s) of a couple of family's lives on a Chippewa reservation in North Dakota. Erdrich really does a good job of bringing the people, the place and the situations to life for me. I will definitely finish it before returning it to the library.

[hermetic]

15. I love her writing

Sometimes you have to take notes to keep up with who is who but I always feel great satisfaction after reading her books.

[KPN]

28. Good to know. I'm about halfway through.

I can relate to the note-taking. I’ve had to refer back to keep things straight a couple times already.

[TexasProgresive]

14. Continuing with book two of Wheel of Time "The Great Hunt"

The Vera novel Hidden Depths by Ann Cleeves was very good. She twisted it up so that I keep following the wrong trails. If you like British police procedural murder mysteries it's a good one.

[hermetic]

17. Oh I do, I do

Oh hey, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I forgot to say that earlier.

[dameatball]

16. "Nobody Comes Back" by Donn Pearce

A novel about "The Battle of the Bulge."

[hermetic]

18. Sad

"Many American boys went into World War II, and each one lived their own nightmare, critically shaped by what they experienced. Told with gritty authenticity, Donn Pearce captures the very essence of what it means to be caught under the worst circumstances imaginable, while having the strength and humanity to rise above them."


Pearce also wrote Cool Hand Luke.

[dameatball]

19. Yes indeed. I was browsing online and found this book. When I found out he also wrote "Cool Hand

Luke" it decided to buy it.

[murielm99]

22. I am reading "The Fireman,"

by Joe Hill. Joe Hill is the nom de plume of Stephen King's son. The real Joe Hill was a famous labor leader.

This is a dystopian novel as well.

I have reached the part of the book where the groupthink is worse than the illness that is devastating the world. IMHO.

[hermetic]

23. Mmmm

Spontaneous combustion. Yeah, groupthink is pretty much always the at the root of our problems.

Interesting choice of a nom de plume.

[dlk]

24. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling)

[hermetic]

25. Enjoying it?

Did you read the earlier books?

[katmondoo]

26. I read non-fiction 99% of the time

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

44. You are always welcome to post here what non fiction you are reading.

About half, or slightly more of what I read is non-fiction. I wish someone over at the non-fiction place would pin a thread like this every week.

[matt819]

27. Joe Ide, Mark de Castrique, Linwood Barclay

I've downloaded Joe Ide's audio books but hadn't got around to them. Last week, I gave IQ a try. Wow! Now I'm about half way through Righteous.

I haven't read anything about the author or any reviews. The largest issue I can see is that he appears to be Asian-American, and his novels center around African-Americans, many gang-related. So you can imagine the language. It all seems to work, however. The characters are multi-dimensional, the stories are intricate. They're basically private investigator novels with many, many twists. Definitely worth a try.

Came across Mark de Castrique in a list of books to read and was reminded to restart his two series. Very light and very entertaining. I started to read A Specter of Justice and realized I had already read it. I'll read it again. There's one more in this series, Sam Blackman. Based in Asheville, NC, and I get the impression that the depictions are pretty realistic. Characters are entertaining, people you care about. Will pick up where I left off in the Buryin' Barry series as well.

Also reading A Noise Downstairs, a standalone novel by Linwood Barclay. I've ready most of Barclay's Promise Falls novels. As above, a good writer, complex plots, developed characters. Just about 20 pages in, but so far, so good.

[hermetic]

29. Found a little about Joe

Pronounced EE-day, born c. 1958, Joe grew up in South Central Los Angeles, which he used as the setting for a series of crime novels. His 2016 debut novel was nominated for a 2017 Edgar Award for best first novel by an American writer. Second novel got New York Times Critics' Best of the Year and winner of the Anthony, Macavity, and Shamus Awards.

Your other 2 authors also sound worth checking out. Thanks!

[matt819]

30. I figured he had to have grown up there

His depictions are a little too spot on to be from research. I suspect that what I might see as cliche is stuff that he actually saw and lived. Rap artists, gangbangers and ex-gangbangers, prolific use of the n-word, holding guns sideways, and more.

I don't know how far he's going to take the series - he's already at 3. But I'm in as far as he goes. Plus any standalones.

[PennyK]

31. I'm also reading Lethal White

...and enjoying it very much!
Also plugging away at the V. I. Warshawsky series by Sara Paretsky. She's a little too Wonder Woman for me to take seriously, but they're fun.

[hermetic]

34. Glad to hear

Sorry for the slow reply. The power went out here, just about the same time as you posted. Just got it back. Glad it wasn't awfully cold today. 32 and quite sunny so we didn't freeze. Sure gets boring, though. I read for a bit, then fell asleep.

I read some V. I. Warshawsky books back in the 80s. Not really memorable. Impressive that Sara is still writing, though.

[Bayard]

32. Seven new James Patterson's

And one new Bentley Little that my MIL sent home with my husband over xmas. She buys brand new books and reads them one time. Then I get them, and I'm thrilled! So looking forward to those.

Right now I'm still finishing, "The Girl in the Spider's Web". I had to lay it down over the holidays. The book moves w-a-y slower than the movie. I prefer Stieg Larsson's writing.

[hermetic]

35. Can't beat that

Free books. Thanks, Mom.

Stieg Larsson was amazing.

[meatwitheyes]

33. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)

[hermetic]

36. Welcome to DU

Sure are a lot of people reading Galbraith these days. You're in good company.

[japple]

37. Happy New Year to all. Thank you to hermetic for the weekly thread, which I always

Last edited Sun Dec 30, 2018, 08:36 PM - Edit history (1)

read. Sometimes, I can't make a contribution, but this week I think I have hit the motherlode.

I started reading Tayari Jones's book, An American Marriage but got about 1/2 into the book and the whole thing started to seem a bit contrived. It just didn't ring true for me. I know it's on President Obama's list, and I tried, but it just wasn't what I wanted to be reading.

I am thrilled that you are reading Lighthouse Island as Paulette Jiles is one of my most favorite authors and that book is absolutely among my top tier. It is right up there with The Handmaid's Tale on my list of best/favorites. I read somewhere (maybe on Paulette Jiles' blog) that there would be a sequel to Lighthouse Island which would make me jump for joy, but then I read this blog entry which addresses characters from her book, News of the World:

"You remember Simon the fiddler. He was playing in Spanish Fort when the Captain arrived with Johanna. You remember the love of his life Doris Aherne. This is the story of how they met, how Simon survived the last battle of the Civil War and how they lived through his own terrible mistakes and the wars of North Texas. It is a story of music and those who create it and those who have to live with the chaotic lives of those creators. What those who live with music must endure in a rough-and-tumble world. In progress."

This also sounds like something I would really love to read, so am waiting...

After being so disappointed in An American Marriage, I searched for a western novel to soothe my reading sensabilities and this is where I hit the motherlode. https://www.amazon.com/Revenant-Novel-Revenge-Michael-Punke-ebook/dp/B00M65OFY4/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1546208162&sr=1-17-spons

The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge A thrilling tale of betrayal and revenge set against the nineteenth-century American frontier, the astonishing story of real-life trapper and frontiersman Hugh Glass

The year is 1823, and the trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company live a brutal frontier life. Hugh Glass is among the company’s finest men, an experienced frontiersman and an expert tracker. But when a scouting mission puts him face-to-face with a grizzly bear, he is viciously mauled and not expected to survive. Two company men are dispatched to stay behind and tend to Glass before he dies. When the men abandon him instead, Glass is driven to survive by one desire: revenge. With shocking grit and determination, Glass sets out, crawling at first, across hundreds of miles of uncharted American frontier. Based on a true story, The Revenant is a remarkable tale of obsession, the human will stretched to its limits, and the lengths that one man will go to for retribution.

And the author:

"Michael Punke serves as the U.S. Ambassador to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. He has also served on the White House National Security Council staff and on Capitol Hill. He was formerly the history correspondent for Montana Quarterly, and an adjunct professor at the University of Montana. He is the author of "Fire and Brimstone: The North Butte Mine Disaster of 1917, "and "Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West. His family home is in Montana."

As one who loves Montana to its core, this just made me quiver with delight!

So now I'm set for a great big Moby Dick kind of tale to get me thru a long winter's night. Sorry for being long winded, but these gold nuggets are really something.

[hermetic]

38. Motherlode indeed!

No need to apologize. I always welcome your in-depth contributions.

Paulette writes beautifully. Of course, she is a renowned poet as well as novelist.

I want so badly to move to Missoula. I love that city. Things being what they are right now, though, I think I'm safer in my small town and paid-for house. Waiting for the hammer of justice to fall.

Here's to a better year ahead.

[japple]

39. Missoula is awesome. I want to move to Helena, but cannot for the same reasons you stated.

If the arc of justice ever bends in our direction, I would love to meet up for lunch some time!

Happy New Year to you and your kitties.

[hermetic]

40. That would be marvelous.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered there is a Drinking Liberally group here that meets the second Friday of each month so that is on my dance card for next week. Last week I went to a Christmas party put on by the local Democratic Party and had a wonderful time. The food was fantastic and the two dozen people in attendance were all just delightful. So, ...

[mainstreetonce]

41. An American Marriage. Tayari Jones

It is on Obama's list ( and Oprah's)

Definetely the best book
I've read in a long tine. A man is jailed for a crime he didn't commit and his wife is left with life altering decisions.

Very powerful.

I also read A Gentleman in Moscow which someone mentioned above. That was on ast year's list. Great writing.

I am going to check out what other fiction is on the list.

[hermetic]

42. That really does sound impressive

"...a masterpiece of storytelling, an intimate look deep into the souls of people who must reckon with the past while moving forward--with hope and pain--into the future."

[mainstreetonce]

43. If you like books that wrap you up into a character

And you are reading to understand about how good people grapple with an Imposdible situation,
This is one of the best
I've read for making me relate to the characters and the ending sums it up in two words .

I just want to give my copy to everyone I know.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

45. Just finished "The Fated Sky" by Mary Robinette Kowal.

It's a follow-up to "The Calculating Stars". The set-up is that the East Coast of the U.S. is almost completely destroyed in 1952 by a meteor strike in the Chesapeake Bay, which pushes the Space Program into fast forward, as scientists realize that the long-term after-effects will kill most life on Earth. Initially there's a meteor winter that lasts for five or so years, then a greenhouse effect takes hold and will make the planet uninhabitable in time, although the time frame is never quite specified.

The narrator of both books is a woman with a PhD in math, married to the chief engineer of the space program. The issues of racism and sexism are very much front and center in the books. She wrote the first one before "Hidden Figures" was published, but the author knew about those women.

On a personal note, I keep a book list and read 117 books last year.

[hermetic]

46. Congrats on 117!

I should keep a list. Guess I could just go back through all my posts here, but I won't. Instead I'll just take a guess at 47, not counting the audibles. Those would bring it up up into the 80s. Cheers!