What Fiction are you reading this week, January 6, 2019?

[hermetic]

The Last Bookstore 453 S Spring St, Los Angeles, CA
Anybody ever been there? Looks like fun.


Just about finished with Lighthouse Island, a tale in which there are no more bookstores. To lighten things up, tomorrow I will start Noir by Christopher Moore. I bought this for my roommate and he was laughing so much I just had to read it next.

Listening to First Degree by David Rosenfelt, the second Andy Carpenter, attorney and dog lover, mystery. I'm enjoying this writer; snappy dialogue, deftly managed legal conflicts, startling surprises, and occasional laugh out loud descriptions.

Anything fun on your reading list this week? Or serious. We're easy .

[dameatball]

1. "Duel of Eagles: The Mexican and U.S. Fight for the Alamo"" by Jeff Long.

This is not your usual novel, because it is so well researched and has such extensive and interesting footnotes that it could almost be a documentary or a history text. In fact, my reading of this book has slowed down simply because I spend so much time looking up the footnotes. They are very interesting. Great characters with in-depth explanations of why and how they chose to come to meet and what happened next.

[hermetic]

4. I love

when books make me do footnote research. Doesn't happen very often, but when it does...

[dameatball]

9. I didn't pay them any attention for about the first 60-70 pages, then realized what I was missing.

[apcalc]

2. Pardon my tongue in cheek answer....but today I'm reading what Donald Trump is saying

And baby, that’s fiction.

[hermetic]

5. Yeah,

sad but true.

[Jarqui]

3. I rarely read FOX News ... nt

[Timewas]

6. Book 3 of 5

In the Joe Dillard series by Scott Pratt

[hermetic]

10. So, that would be...

Injustice For All. Not familiar with this writer but seems quite well-liked so I'll see what I can find of his. Thanks.

[Timewas]

13. Finished and started

The fifth in the series.. I understand there are 9 at this time..

[Ohiogal]

7. I just finished

"The Woman In Cabin 10" by Ruth Ware

I, too, love the David Rosenfelt books!

[hermetic]

8. I haven't read

the Cabin 10 book yet, but it's high on my list. Rosenfelt is such an awesome human, with his dog rescuing group.

[Ohiya]

11. So far, I'm keeping up with my resolutions!

Last week:

The Witch Elm by Tana French and Still Life by Louise Penny.

This week:

Crosstalk by Connie Willis

On reserve:

The Gentleman from Moscow (don't remember the author, right now)

and the next two books in Louise Penny's three pines series.


Connie Willis and Tana French are two of my favorite authors.

I had some problems with Still Life but not enough to discourage me from reading more of Penny's works.

So far Crosstalk seems to be one of Willis's lighter comic novels. Very enjoyable, even though a little "hyper" for my tastes.

[hermetic]

15. You're doing good!

I am in agreement with your opinions. Including Crosstalk which was good but a bit too, too for me, as well. Glad to see you here.

[Ohiya]

16. Thanks,

2019 is going to be good year!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

33. "Crosstalk" is, in my opinion, probably Connie's least

good book. It's amusing, but as already said, very light.

I understand she's back at work on her Roswell novel, and I'm not allowed to ask her when it will be out. My best guess is in about two years.

The Doomsday Book is still my favorite of hers.

[Ohiya]

35. I think it would have been better if it were only 300 pages!

Seriously, at around page 300 I was considering not finishing it. But, in the end I'm glad I finished it.

I think that The Doomsday Book is probably her best book. But, I won't read it again! Too devastating.

My favorite is Black Out/All Clear which I read twice. The second time right after finishing it the first time!
I'm just an old softie, it makes me tear up just thinking about BO/AC.

In my favorite review of this book, a reader said that halfway through All Clear she had to switch from regular kleenex to the moisturizing kind, she was crying so much!

[Hela]

12. Lighthouse Island!!

Thanks for the recommendation on Lighthouse Island—I’m 6 chapters in and really enjoying it. Have you read Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel? I reread that one over the holidays. It’s one of my favorites.

Not fiction, but I just picked up Alice Walker’s Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart, which is a collection of poems she wrote during the 2015-2016 election cycle. Also The Great War in America by Garrett Beck and The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters by Nancy Schoenberger and Sam Kashner.

I’ve also been working my way through some old Dick Francis novels for fun and just finished Decider.

[hermetic]

14. Glad to hear that

It is a pretty remarkable book.

I did read Station 11 and found it quite good.

Welcome to DU and our little book group. Glad for your input.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

17. Hound of the Baskervilles and The Passage

I am doing all the Holmes books/stories on audiobook for my commute when the carpool isn't in operation for various reasons. I finished Sign of the Four yesterday.

A co-teacher recommended The Passage so I thought I'd try get through it before the series starts. It's a big volume, for sure.

[hermetic]

20. The Passage

There are several books with that title but I'm guessing you're referring to the one by Justin Cronin which is just under 800 pages. And the description: a relentlessly suspenseful adventure and an epic chronicle of human endurance in the face of unprecedented catastrophe and unimaginable danger. Its inventive storytelling, masterful prose, and depth of human insight mark it as a crucial and transcendent work of modern fiction.

Wow.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

23. Yes, sorry, the Cronin one.

That description oversells it. It's good (I'm at about 40%), but I don't think it's anywhere near transcendent. It it kind of like a weaker World War Z in that it gives several perspectives from different times and points of view. But it reads like two separate books (likely three, I'm guessing, by the end) and not a coherent thread like Z did. And I mean World War Z the book and not the movie which was just Brad Pitt shooting things.

[hermetic]

25. Thanks

I appreciate when people come back to say that a book may not live up to its hype. I'll just keep WWZ on my list.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

26. It's not bad. Just not awesome.

That I haven't quit on it yet (being 900 pages) is a testament to it not being horrible.

WWZ is fantastic, though. A great look at social, political, military, economic (and more) forces in a crisis.

[hermetic]

27. At my age

and given how many books are currently on my to-read list, I wish to limit myself to the awesome, fantastic, greatest, and hysterically funny only.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

28. I'm 52, so I get it.

Once I retire from teaching English in a decade or so, I will do the same. Now I try to keep up with what students are reading as much as possible while still trying to read awesome things and things related to the classes I teach. I have a rotation of about 8 different types of books so that I don't get sucked into one thing.

[northoftheborder]

18. I'm also plowing through the complete Sherlock Holmes set.

Finished the first one. Pretty good if you want a long read that you can continue over time. Some may find them tedious. It was a free download from Audible.

Before that I read The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn. A psychological murder thriller that kept me guessing and on edge the whole time!

11-22-63 by Stephen King got four stars from me. Well written. A long read, interesting, but brain bending. (Time travel distresses my logical self.)

[Cuthbert Allgood]

19. I get my Holmes from Libravox

David Clark is the best reader I've found. I've done the first two novellas and the first two short story collections. I love listening to them again.

[hermetic]

21. I just got on the list

for The Woman in the Window. Hopefully it will be available soon. Kind of sounds like me. I do keep an eye on my neighbors.

[northoftheborder]

22. Think you will like it. Reminds me of Rear Window a little.

The first part is a little tedious, and you don't learn the back story of the book until towards the middle. The woman sees a crime committed across from her apartment. She, herself, is somewhat delusional because of being agoraphobic, on medications for that, and makes a habit of drinking a prodigious amount of wine, which makes her even more addled. As the story unfolds, she becomes more and more anxious and bewildered, because no one believes her..... however, she knows what she saw.... and...... Surprising ending!! Enjoy!

[hermetic]

24. Description made me think of

Rear Window, which I saw AGES ago but still remember most of. Just to be clear, I am not agoraphobic to the point of needing meds, but a lot of times I just don't want to go out and deal with people. And I rarely drink wine. But I am definitely looking forward to this book.

[Srkdqltr]

29. Rereading Echoes in Death

Have A Steep Price by Dugoni for next then Close To The Bone by Kendra Elliot

[hermetic]

30. Lots of good stuff there

Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths-Romance - Suspense. Do stop back in and let us know how much you enjoyed them, or didn't. If you feel like it, of course.

[demigoddess]

31. Stephen King, it makes me feel safe and hopeful, compared to trump

who makes me scared.

[hermetic]

32. No kidding

Our greatest horror writers could never come up with anything as awful as what this monster is doing to the world.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

34. Just started "Past Tense" by Lincoln Child.

I have liked everything of his so far.