What are you reading this week of February 26, 2017?

[hermetic]

I finally got my copy of Telempath by Spider Robinson. We're in what remains of NYC in the future, as imagined by Spider in 1976.

When the strange artificial plague arrived, all over the world people exploded from their cities and towns, killing anything and anyone that impeded their mad stampede for air untainted by technology.

It has some unusual ideas and I'm quite enjoying it.

Listening to Walter Mosley's Fear Itself, a Fearless Jones mystery.

Mild-mannered Paris Minton is delivered a pile of trouble when Fearless shows up with a simple request: help find a beautiful woman's husband. Now he's wondering whom he should fear more: the people he's looking for or the people he's working for.

Good story. I love that Paris owns a used book store and how reading the classics informs his thinking. Big for that.

May I say, "Good bye, February. You won't be missed."

[chillfactor]

1. I am an avid reader of mysteries....

mysteries with humor, fully-developed characters, physic cats, witches, older female detectives, love interests...I could go on and on....mysteries are my favorite reading by far.

[hermetic]

3. Ah yes

We are pretty much all fans of a good mystery in this group. Any one in particular you are reading now?

[neeksgeek]

2. I just re-read my copy of "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" by Roger Zelazny

Both the title story and the rest of the story collection. Some real classics in there, including "A Rose for Ecclesiastes."

My favorites are:

"This Mortal Mountain" - high-adventure mountain climbing, IN SPAAAAACE!

The title story, serious deep-sea fishing (yes, IN SPAAAAACE! Well, on a mythical planet Venus).

And "This Moment of The Storm" - a very prescient story written in 1965, the top cop on a colony planet using armed flying drones to dispense law enforcement... but it's not quite what that makes it sound like.

There are also a few very short stories that are quite fascinating, like "The Great Slow Kings." Worth a read.

[hermetic]

4. Zelazny

is truly one of the greats. Did you know he specialized in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama at Columbia University?

[neeksgeek]

6. No, I didn't, but it's obvious in "The Chronicles of Amber" ...

That he had more than a little knowledge of Shakespeare. Truly a great writer.

[getting old in mke]

8. Another Zelazny fan here.

Lord of Light has one of my favorite opening paragraphs ever:

His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, however, and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god, but then he never claimed not to be a god.

[neeksgeek]

9. Lord of Light is a FANTASTIC book!

I've read it several times and each time it was better.

[left-of-center2012]

5. I've become addicted to Elmer Kelton westerns

At the moment it's "Badger Boy".

[hermetic]

7. I enjoy Craig Johnson's

Longmire series. He's a sheriff in the wilds of Wyoming. Modern day westerns.

[TexasProgresive]

10. I got my copy of "Telempath" this week as well.

I've just read chapter 1 and am enjoying it as a change from the Britiish police mysteries I've been reading. Peter Robinson has a way of getting me invested in the characters to the point that it is sometimes uncomfortable. This is nothing against Mr. Robinson's skill as a novelist it is actually a plus- I've got several books by Spider Robinson and 2 more Peter Robinson Alan Banks novels in my pile. So I am set for a while.

[hermetic]

14. Telempath -

I'm several chapters in now and it sure took an unusual twist right away, don't you think?

How's everyone out your way? I swear it feels like the end of the world here. It just WON'T. QUIT. SNOWING! Totally bizarre. The old-timers are saying they ain't never seen nothing like it.

[TexasProgresive]

17. The AC has been running off and on for 2 days.

No snow and really warm for February. My wife came home from the hospital Saturday afternoon. She is looking much better than before the surgery. She has a couple of bad knees that limit her mobility and along with the heart surgery she needs a walker to get around the house. But she and her kitty are happy.

I say her kitty because this one is a 1.25 person cat. I get 3/16 and our son who lives with us get 1/16. I hope that makes some sense. Anyway we are all cat people.

About Telempath it sure did take an unexpected turn. I wonder if many readers would get how Clorox and Vanish can be a weapon?

[hermetic]

22. Vanish! ha ha

He got vanished all right. While reading I was thinking, "Dude, do you know what's going to happen?" Yes, evidently. Do they still even sell that stuff? I don't recall where I learned about it but I was terrified to use it.

Chapter 7, then. That sure turned a lot of readers off, I discovered on GoodReads. (Be careful reading their reviews. They give a lot of spoilers.) I thought it was funny, and actually made good sense. OM. Many people said this was not his best work but was important to read to fully understand things that occur in future novels. So we must persevere, even if we don't understand why they didn't just give everyone a cold. That sure shuts down my sense of smell.

Glad everyone is doing well. And yeah, I understand cat math.

[TexasProgresive]

23. Speaking of colds that reminds me of a SciFi novel or short story

It was a great illustration of the principle of unintended consequences. A cure for the common cold was found. After people were cured their sense of smell magnified. It seems that the cold virus lived in the nasal passages always slightly reducing the sense of smell. A full blown cold got rid of it completely. I don't remember the rest of it, but I wonder if Spider read the same thing where it resided in his subconscious to come out in this story.

Chapter 7 worked OK for me.

[hermetic]

25. Very interesting.

Could well be.

Seventy pages left to go. Will I REACH the end before tomorrow? Tune in to find out.... (you'll see)

[TexasProgresive]

26. No spoilers from me, hermetic.

[Number9Dream]

11. Finished "Crimson Shore" by Preston & Child

The main part of the book was an interesting action, mystery. A 150 year-old shipwreck and Salem witches added to the creepiness. The ending, however, was abrupt and left numerous unanswered questions... very disappointing. Then, the epilogue was a cliffhanger just to sell more books in the future.

[hermetic]

15. Is that their newest one?

The description makes it sound really intriguing until it gets into the witch stuff. As a practicing witch myself I believe those women got a raw deal from a bunch of prudish republicans. It's a shame they didn't turn their story in that direction. Oh well, I'm glad you told us about it and I sure won't be adding it to my list.

[Number9Dream]

19. I think there is at least one newer... not sure if other new one is a Pendergast

[getting old in mke]

24. If this one was a Pendergast

Then you may have more to go before things are tied up. They've done several multi-book sequences in the Pendergast series.

[bravenak]

12. Nonfiction this week

Called, The First World War, A Brief History with Documents. By Susan Grayzel

[shenmue]

13. The Fire Dance by Helene Tursten

[hermetic]

16. Sounds good.

Detective Inspector Irene Huss hasn’t seen Sophie Malmborg for over fifteen years, but she’s still haunted by the strange young ballerina’s role in the fire that killed her stepfather. Irene’s questions resurface fifteen years later, when Sophie disappears, and the charred remains of a dancer are found in an abandoned warehouse.

Looks like a new writer for me to check out. Thanks.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. The Improbability of Love

by Hannah Rothschild.

A young woman impulsively buys an old picture in a second hand store. Turns out it's a long-last masterpiece.

And that summation doesn't begin to capture how phenomenally good it is. At least so far. I'm on page 134 right now.

[hermetic]

20. At 500 pages

you've got a ways to go yet. My library has that one and it does sound like a good read. "Annie will unwittingly discover some of the darkest secrets of European history."

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

21. My copy is only 406 pages,

and now I'm at 161, so more than a third of the way through.

[MFM008]

27. War of the Worlds.

Then Stranger in a Strange land.

[hermetic]

28. Good choices

I LOVED Stranger. Fabulous book.