What Fiction are you reading this week, December 25, 2022?

[hermetic]

Merry Christmas book lovers!


I'm reading The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny. I thought I had read all of her books but then I saw that this one was about a seance and I knew I would have remembered THAT. So, I'm having a delightful time visiting old friends. They have just discovered a nest of duck eggs in the park so I am really looking forward to where that goes.

Hoping most of you are busy today having a wonderful time with family and friends. Feel free to post your readings tomorrow or whenever works best. Have a great day.

[cilla4progress]

1. Hi. Hermetic!

The Bluest Eye, my first Toni Morrison if you can believe it.

Stunning writing!

[hermetic]

5. Ooops, this was supposed to be a reply to you

That one sounds pretty heartbreaking. Made me think, though, of the post currently running in the Greatest Threads: If dogs had romance novels, he'd be on the cover.

back at ya.

[hermetic]

2. That one sounds

Last edited Sun Dec 25, 2022, 03:32 PM - Edit history (1)

like an echo......

[Bayard]

3. Finished two books last week

"My Heart is a Chainsaw," by Stephen Graham Jones. "Jade Daniels is an angry, half-Indian outcast with an abusive father, an absent mother, and an entire town that wants nothing to do with her. She lives in her own world, a world in which protection comes from an unusual source: horror movies…" I liked it. Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel and Named a Best Book of 2021 by NPR. Apparently its a trilogy, so I will have to look up the other two.

I also breezed through, "The Good Guy," in two nights, by Dean Koontz. An oldie, but real goodie.

Just started, "The Never-Ending Lives of Liver-Eating Johnson," by D.J. Herda. Its supposed to be the story of the real Jeremiah Johnson. Colorful characters. So far, so good.

Merry Xmas, all!

[hermetic]

6. Sounds good

I remember the Koontz book. Also good.

[SheltieLover]

4. Finishing up "A Potion to Die for" by Heather Blake

Good, easy read with great characters & intriguing subplots.

Will be back to her Wishcraft series later today.

[hermetic]

7. Sounds entertaining

Little Shop of Potions, a magic potion shop specializing in love potions. Fun.

[SheltieLover]

13. Yup it is that.

[Triloon]

8. Ambrose Bierce

Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1891)
Short stories from his experiences in the US Civil War.

[Srkdqltr]

9. Jodi Taylor's Santa Grint. Christmas short story

[hermetic]

10. That sounds delightful

'This book is BRILLIANT' 'Brilliantly conceived and flawlessly written'

I found a couple of short story Christmas books under my tree today so I'm looking forward to them.

[Srkdqltr]

11. I'm half way and it's really funny

[japple]

12. Happy Christmas to everyone in the Fiction group, and thanks to you, hermetic,

for being such a wonderful host. I am reading Billie Letts' book, Shoot the Moon. I have enjoyed her previous books, esp. Where the Heart Is and I loved the movie version.

From amazon:

In 1972, windswept DeClare, Oklahoma, was consumed by the murder of a young mother, Gaylene Harjo, and the disappearance of her baby, Nicky Jack. When the child's pajama bottoms were discovered on the banks of Willow Creek, everyone feared that he, too, had been killed, although his body was never found.

Nearly thirty years later, Nicky Jack mysteriously returns to DeClare, shocking the town and stirring up long-buried memories. But what he discovers about the night he vanished is more astonishing than he or anyone could have imagine. Piece by piece, what emerges is a story of dashed hopes, desperate love, and a secret that still cries out for justice...and redemption.

[SheltieLover]

14. Sounds intriguing!

I share your sentiment about Hermetic & this great group, as well as all of DU.

Happy Holidays, All!

[hermetic]

16. Thank you

[SheltieLover]

17. Yw. And thank you. Again!

[hermetic]

15. That sounds like quite the tale

And a must read, someday...

Thank you for your kind words. It's cocktail hour here now, so...

[CrispyQ]

18. This week I read "The Do-Over" by Lynn Painter.

Not my typical type of book but an okay young adult story with a Groundhog Day theme. Our internet was down, & I was waiting for other books from the library, so it was a nice distraction.

Now I'm reading "Hester" by Laurie Lico Albanese. From Goodreads:

A vivid reimagining of the woman who inspired Hester Prynne, the tragic heroine of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, and a journey into the enduring legacy of New England's witchcraft trials.

I'm about 150 pages in & it's a pretty good story so far, but it better pick up soon.

Merry Christmas, hermetic!

[hermetic]

19. That sounds interesting

I remember reading The Scarlet Letter way back in high school.

Isn't it great.... if the power goes off and the internet goes down, as long as we can find a bit of light somewhere, we can still read our books.

Thanks, and likewise.

[japple]

20. I love reading YA books. The Harry Potter series consumed my life during the late 90s

and early aughts. I need to read more of it to try and keep up with my nieces & nephews. They are way beyond me!!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

21. For fiction, Alien Crossings by Laura F. Sanchez.

Narrator is an alien/human hybrid, whose kind die of old age at 32. They are desperately trying to find a way to fix that, while not letting humans know they are here. So far it's excellent.

I'm also reading Confidence Man by Maggie Haberman. It's very good, but it's rather depressing reading about all the lies Donald Trump has told his entire life, and all of the crap he's gotten away with. And that he will probably never be called to account for any of it.

[yellowdogintexas]

22. Forever and Then Some A Prequel to the Grifter's Daughter series.

EVEN GRIFTERS HAVE FAMILIES.
THEY’RE JUST MORE COMPLICATED…
At least Dani Silver’s is. Complicated, unconventional, criminal, and –worst of all to some--downright amoral. But whathehell, family’s family.

A PREQUEL TOLD IN SHORT STORIES....

Duane Lindsay brings to life the tale of this very odd, yet affectionate kinship group in a completely original prequel, told in interconnected short stories, some of them stretching to novellas.And each one chronicling one of their cons.

At its heart, the book is the Byzantine yet surprisingly tender tale of artists in love. Con artists, that is. Meet legendary con Leroy Logan and his crime partner Kate Mulrooney, who’s known reverently in their circle as Fast Kate, an homage to her famous ability to spot a mark at a thousand paces.

Leroy’s a lovable, irresponsible, untrustworthy, unfaithful lazy lug, unlucky at gambling but renowned for criminal brilliance. In other words, the quintessential bad boy.

So of course Kate loves him.

And in spite of himself, he adores her and every one of his children, especially the little redhead who grows up to be a brilliant con herself. Kate, possessed of just as fine a criminal mind, is in many ways Leroy’s opposite— sleek and glamorous, yet as solid and practical as he’s profligate.

And Dani, quite simply, is the cutest kid criminal since Tatum O’Neal in PAPER MOON.

This is fun. I like the novella format for the history of Leroy and Kate; they lead up to the daughter coming into her own as a con artist.

I got stuck with only my purse kindle and no wireless, so pulled up a book which was already loaded: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and David McKean.

Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place—he's the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians' time as well as their ghostly teachings—such as the ability to Fade so mere mortals cannot see him.

Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead?

I am loving this book! Gaiman is a master storyteller.

I finished the first book in Society for Paranormals: The Complete 10 Book Supernatural Cozy Mystery Series before I got into the Grifter series. I think I will read book 2 before I read book 2 of the Grifters. They are different enough to not be confusing. (unlike the time I was reading a Sisterhood book on one Kindle and a Men of the Sisterhood on the other. I do not recommend this)

Armed with Victorian etiquette, a fully loaded walking stick, and a dead husband, Miss Beatrice Knight arrives in the small colonial town of Nairobi desperate for a pot of tea and a pinch of cinnamon.

This collection brings together for the first time, all 10 books in the Society for Paranormals cozy mystery series in which a paranormal detective refuses to let danger, death, and unsolicited suitors inconvenience her in colonial Kenya. Welcome to a cozy mystery series concerning Victorian etiquette, African mythology, and the search for a perfect spot of tea.

This is going to be a fun series