What Fiction are you reading this week, July 28, 2019?

[hermetic]

Looking for just the right book



I found the first book of the Firefly series, Big Damn Hero. "The first original novel tying into the critically acclaimed and much-missed Firefly series from creator Joss Whedon.” I’m not finding it nearly as enjoyable as the other one I just read. This one seems like the author isn’t even trying for anything original; just rehashing one of the TV stories. I’m not quite halfway through, though, so maybe it will get better. It really is a fast read so another couple of days should get me done and I’ll know if this is one of those very rare occasions where the movie actually was better than the book.

Listening to The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lillian Jackson Braun.

Qwilleran lives in a small town, 400 miles north of everywhere, and writes for a small newspaper. He stands tall and straight. He dates a librarian. His roommates are two abandoned cats that he adopted along the way, one of them quite remarkable. Qwilleran's popularity stems from his sense of humor, individuality, and willingness to listen. And his male cat, Koko, has an uncanny intuition that can tell right from wrong and, frequently, sniff out an evildoer.

This story is great fun. There are a bunch of these cat tales available on library audio, running 5-6 hours each, so purrfect for entertainment while working around the house.

What books have you found this week?

[MuseRider]

1. Listening to Unsheltered

by Barbara Kingsolver and read by Barbara Kingsolver. Not yet engaged in it, I probably should start it again. I like her books enough to not listen while on the tractor, I just cannot focus enough so I cannot really tell you much about it yet but I am pretty sure it has been read here and commented on already.

My husbands cousin recommended The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. Has anyone read it? She and her husband drove across a lot of the country and listened to it on part of their journey. All she would tell me was that they loved it and they both had a good cry. Sounds interesting and I think I have a credit at Audible so that will probably be my next read. It sure is not in any of the libraries around here.

I would love to read the Firefly books! They have them but not in audio so I will request they get them and see what happens. Boy do I miss that crew.

[hermetic]

3. I loved Firefly

the TV show, and was heartbroken when there weren't any more.

Ms. Joyce's book sounds great. "A novel of unsentimental charm, humor, and profound insight into the thoughts and feelings we all bury deep within our hearts." She's written a few others since that one, as well. I will definitely be giving those a listen.

Kingsolver is always good and I would agree that they require some serious concentration, at least at the outset.

[RazBerryBeret]

2. The Collector's Apprentice

Historical Fiction, very interesting, makes me wanna sit inside and read all weekend!

"It’s the summer of 1922, and nineteen-year-old Paulien Mertens finds herself in Paris—broke, disowned, and completely alone. Everyone in Belgium, including her own family, believes she stole millions in a sophisticated con game perpetrated by her then-fiancé, George Everard. To protect herself from the law and the wrath of those who lost everything, she creates a new identity, a Frenchwoman named Vivienne Gregsby, and sets out to recover her father’s art collection, prove her innocence—and exact revenge on George.

When the eccentric and wealthy American art collector Edwin Bradley offers Vivienne the perfect job, she is soon caught up in the Parisian world of post-Impressionists and expatriates—including Gertrude Stein and Henri Matisse, with whom Vivienne becomes romantically entwined. As she travels between Paris and Philadelphia, where Bradley is building an art museum, her life becomes even more complicated: George returns with unclear motives . . . and then Vivienne is arrested for Bradley’s murder.

[hermetic]

4. I can see how it would!

Sounds like a fascinating story. But then, I am a bit of a Francophile.

[Runningdawg]

5. Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey

Horror/Fantasy
After a group of magic workers send the hero to hell, he fights his way back up again to get revenge.

These 2 reviews seem to sum it up perfectly...
“An addictively satisfying, deeply amusing, dirty-ass masterpiece.”
—William Gibson
“A sharp-edged urban fantasy, drenched in blood and cynicism, tipping its hat to Sam Peckinpah, Raymond Chandler, and the anti-heroes of Hong Kong cinema….A bravura performance.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

[hermetic]

8. Sounds quite entertaining.

[TexasProgresive]

6. Book six of WOT "Lord of Chaos" by Robert Jordan. I have 3 in my new to me pile.

Heartbreak Hotel an Alex Delaware novel by Jonathan Kellerman, Cold Earth a Falkland novel by Ann Cleeves and The Forgotten Girls a Louise Rick novel by Sara Bladel.

In rereading the Wheel of Time series I tend to read one book not in the series.

I didn't know about the Firefly books- I will be looking into that, sometime.

[hermetic]

9. Definitely sounds

like some really good new books for you. I've always enjoyed Kellerman.

There's only 2 Firefly books, with another due out in October.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. The Tweets of D.J. Trump. (just kidding, no such book yet).

[hermetic]

10. And we thank the gods

for that!

[Number9Dream]

11. Glad I could turn you on to "The Cat Who..." series

Glad you're enjoying that one.

[hermetic]

12. Me too

Thanks.

[trev]

13. Just finished Harlan Coben's "Run Away"

Lots of good plot twists in that one.

Picked up Stephen King's "11/22/63", an alternative history of the JFK assassination.

Yeah, I keep going back to the same authors. But I like what I like.

[hermetic]

14. Coben's latest

Nothing wrong with sticking to your favorites. Especially when they are so good and prolific.