What Fiction are you reading this week, January 27, 2019?

[hermetic]

I got a new coffee table book to read when I have a few minutes to spare: The Abridged Field Guide to North American House Creatures by Jaime McGuigan, a delightfully illustrated encyclopedia of 25 evolutionary astonishing creatures who live among us. You are likely most familiar with the dust bunnies. You also will meet thirteen of the most influential people who have investigated them. Among them: a children's etiquette writer from the 17th century, a lovelorn and slightly mad inventor from the late 1800s and a female oil company geologist who went on to become a champion of the environmental movement in the 1970s. This would be a wonderful book to read to young children.

I'm still reading Noir and almost done. I'm finding it a good story, if not necessarily howlingly funny. I do suspect the ending will give me a laugh, though. Moore's books are good for that.

OverDrive is finally letting me listen to The Woman in Cabin Ten by Ruth Ware. I was right in the middle of listening to the action-packed Alert by James Patterson when Ware's book came available. So I put that aside until I finish with Ware. Neither are really great literature but interesting enough to listen to while working.

What interesting things are you reading this week?

[FirstLight]

1. ...

...Trump's tweets...they are all fiction

[violetpastille]

2. The Abridged Field Guide to North American House Creatures

That sounds adorable.

Waiting for the class to catch up with me with The Secret Life of Bees.

I finished some non-fiction last week. Die Wise by Stephen Jenkinson. I'm also most of the way through his Coming of Age.
Last night I read, 5-Factor Fitness - I have some weight to lose.
My clothes are tight.

[dameatball]

3. Same one as last week. I been slackin.

[TexasProgresive]

4. I finished "The Flood" by Ian Rankin

I posted about it just now. While I would encourage others to read it touches on one thing that may be upsetting to some. In Rankin's introduction and the reading group starter questions it is mentioned that Rankin's aunt was left in tears. She was crying for his soul because she thought him depraved.

About to finish The Great Hunt which is book 2 to the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

[Squinch]

5. A Quiet Life in the Country by T E Kinsey. Cozy mystery. Very droll and a few parts have

made me laugh out loud. Light reading but very enjoyable.

I need it as a counterpoint to the nonfiction I am making my way through called "Brethren by Nature" by Margaret Ellen Newell about the enslavement of Native Americans in the earliest colonial times. Just gut-wrenching.

[hermetic]

8. Yikes

I can't read stuff like that anymore. There's just too much ugliness in this country and it does not seem to be getting any better.

Your Lady Hardcastle Mystery, OTOH, sounds quite delightful. I will have to look for it.

[Ohiogal]

6. "The Reckoning" - John Grisham

Okay, I was starting to get a little bored with Grisham's books, it felt to me like he was just putting one out every year to satisfy his contract ..... but this one I like a lot better. It's set in the same town he often writes about, Clanton, Mississippi, but it takes place in 1946. I really liked his "A Painted House" which was set in a different time period, as well. Makes me realize how vastly different life in the South was from my experience growing up in Ohio.

[hermetic]

9. Yeah, I know what you mean

about Grisham. Gets formulaic. This sounds good, though: the story of an unthinkable murder, the bizarre trial that follows it, and its profound and lasting effect.

So, I went to look this one up and there's also a The Reckoning by Tabitha Grimshaw and I clicked on it by mistake. It's all about werewolves and vampires and I'm thinking, "Yep, this is not our usual Grisham." Then I realized my mistake...

[Ohiya]

7. The Overstory by Richard Powers

I went to the library to pick up my Japanese detective book and found The Overstory and also Noir on the shelves. I read the first chapter of Overstory, which is the best 25 pages I've read for a while. Then I thought I would read a little of Noir, but once I started I couldn't stop. I think it is one of the funniest books I've ever read. Now back to Overstory, I'm about a hundred pages in and it's still great.

[hermetic]

10. I'm so pleased

that you like Noir. Now you'll have to read his other books.

But, WOW. The Overstory. New.
A monumental novel about reimagining our place in the living world, by one of our most “prodigiously talented” novelists (New York Times Book Review).
There is a world alongside ours―vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

I really must read this.

[Bayard]

11. I like the sound of that

Will look for it.

I just finished reading, "The Store", a James Patterson collaboration. A quick read, mildly entertaining. I'd say its modeled on Amazon.

[japple]

12. Thank you, hermetic, for the weekly thread. Going to have to check out Noir.

I finished Michael Punke's, The Revenant, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I didn't realize it had been made into a film until I read the afterword/acknowledgments at the end of the book. Of course, I don't get to the movies much these days as our local cinema was turned into a church several years ago.

The library had one of the books from my list available for download, so I read Bill Clegg's book, Did You Ever Have A Family which I liked very much. I was glued to it, in fact until I finished it.

Feeling that I needed to go back and read some of the classics that I missed in my formative years, I have downloaded Willa Cather's, My Antonia, which might have been assigned reading at some point in high school, but I don't remember it. We are in for a couple days of bad weather here, so I might be reading more than I usually do.

Happy Sunday to everyone in this thread!

[hermetic]

13. Gosh

Cather's book was published 100 years ago! Kinda , innit? (My Dash cat is "helping " me type right now so it' s taking a while. )


Clegg's book sounds really good...
Elegant and heartrending, and one of the most accomplished fiction debuts of the year, Did You Ever Have a Family is an absorbing, unforgettable tale that reveals humanity at its best through forgiveness and hope. At its core is a celebration of family -- the ones we are born with and the ones we create.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

17. I understand Cather's place in the canon, but she's just not my jam.

Too many words with too few things happening. Though I understand that is part of the "life sucks on the prairie" jam she had going.

I may have to visit The Revenant. The movie was fantastic.

[japple]

19. Might be too wordy for you, but I really enjoyed it.

eom

[Cuthbert Allgood]

22. Just responding to your reads. Don't get me wrong.

"Wagner Matinee" is one of my favorite regionalism short stories to teach. She is a great writer. I fully understand why people like her.

[japple]

25. Have you read True Grit? Or News of the World? Both

are great stories. Contemporary western literary fiction is a favorite genre of mine!

[cilla4progress]

27. Coincident to your post,

I am reading The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig. I'm kind of going through all his works. I love his writing and his stories.

Also listening to Ann Lamott's latest on Overdrive/Libby - Almost Everything. I really connect with her!

[japple]

40. Ivan Doig is one of my favorites. I have read most of his work, and have

visited his old stomping grounds in MT. In 2015, I went to an event in Helena, MT and visited Montana Book Company, where I bought a copy of his last book, Last Bus to Wisdom. The sales person also gave me a book plate that he had signed on his last visit to their store. It gave me such joy to donate the book to my little county library in Georgia. Many people told me how much they loved this book.

ETA: The Whistling Season is a wonderful read, but the story doesn't end there. Wait!!! There's more...

[cilla4progress]

41. Cool!

Thanks!

[Cuthbert Allgood]

39. I should read True Grit.

Loved both the movies. I went through a western phase in my youth and enjoy western films. Really liked the Coen Brothers most recent, Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and even like the modernization of westerns like Hell or High Water.

I'll give News of the World a look when my to-read list thins a bit.

[backtoblue]

14. Time's Convert by Deborah Harkness

Last edited Sun Jan 27, 2019, 10:28 PM - Edit history (1)

It's a companion novel to her All Souls Trilogy.


ETA a short excerpt....

"It took me eighteen hours to bring that boy into the world, and no time at all for some idiot with a gun to steal him away." Mistress Bishop pulled a small bottle out of her pocket. "War is such a waste of women's time."

[hermetic]

15. Nice quote.

I will have to hang on to that one for possible future use.

[backtoblue]

18. I keep a notebook

I write down excerpts that stand out. It's an odd obsession. Lol

[hermetic]

20. Well, maybe not so odd

I do the same. I do mine on my computer. I just recently started some documents called Alphabets where I am consolidating all these quotes by subject. I put that quote under GUNS. I have a fairly large collection going.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

16. Coraline by Gaimen and then Leah on the Offbeat by Albertalli

Coraline is, well, Coraline. Just needed a quick Gaiman fix.

Leah on the Offbeat is the sequal to Simon and the Homo-Sapiens Agenda (which became the film Love, Simon).

Last week I finished the second book of The Passage trilogy, The Twelve. Actually liked it better than the first book. Unlike what usually happens, I think he got a better editor that made the second book tighter than the first which was kind of bloated.

I also finished She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper. Really liked it. It's young adult literature. The character development is solid Reads--plot, content, and thematically--like an adult novel, but it solidly young adult. Worth a try if you want something quick to read that is solid. I picked it up just because I try to keep up with young adult literature as a HS English teacher.

[hermetic]

21. Yeah, Coraline

I bought that one back then. Cause it's Gaiman, who I adore.

I think it's great that you do that! (Keep up with YA) Besides, I know that just because it has a YA label doesn't mean it won't have something wonderful for us old folks. I believe in keeping an open mind about literature.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

23. I could read Gaiman all day, every day.

If you haven't read his Norse Mythology, you should.

The YA I read is usually either a hot title or one that a kid recommends (I never say no to a recommendation from a student; if they are excited about a book, I'll respect that by reading it--and I've read some stinkers because of that but I never tell them that).

[hermetic]

37. So, this just happened

I was here and read your post and the others. Then I logged off and went to my email and saw I had a message FROM NEIL GAIMAN!! Granted, it was through GoodReads, but still. Here's what he said...

Dear (Me),
Black Leopard, Red Wolf is the kind of novel I never realized I was missing until I read it.
It centers on a dangerous, hallucinatory, ancient Africa, which becomes a fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made, with language as powerful as Angela Carter’s. It’s as deep and crafty as Gene Wolfe, bloodier than Robert E. Howard, and all Marlon James. It’s something very new that feels old, in the very best way.
I cannot wait for the next installment.
Yours,
Neil Gaiman

Well, I will have to get that one now, for sure. I did read Norse Mythology last year. Oh, and I put that message in my Save Forever folder.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

38. I got that email, too.

I immediately put a hold on the book at my library.

[The King of Prussia]

24. "A ghost in the machine" by Caroline Graham

I've seen hundreds of episodes of "Midsomer Murders" but never gt arund to reading one of the novels on which the TV series is based. And now I have. It's very good, but not at all what I expected.

[hermetic]

32. Interesting

I got some of the series on DVD but haven't watched it yet. Only read the one novel.

[rzemanfl]

26. Everything Drumpf tweets. n/t

[Freethinker65]

28. Hawaii, Michener

Ok. I confess, I have been reading this for over one month!

Good couple of days here in Chicagoland, with below 0 temps and wind chills, to sit down and finish it.

[hermetic]

33. For sure

My kids live in Chicago and I am hearing all about it. The libraries are closed!

Hawaii is a great story. Read it so many years ago. Stay warm!

[dameatball]

29. Just started "Primordia III" by Greig Beck. Latest in the Primordia series.

"A small change today can change our tomorrow. A small change 100 million years ago can change everything."

[hermetic]

34. Ah, this one is just out

In the thrilling 3rd installment of the blockbusting PRIMORDIA series, Greig Beck explores a frightening world where evolution has gone wild, while also taking us further into the prehistoric Cretaceous jungle and oceans, to a time in which mankind was never meant to exist.

Sounds like a winner.

[matt819]

30. A few

Matt Goldman - Broken Ice - More or conventional PI novel, with a few variations. Ex-wife, ex-girlfriend, quirky nurse, PI lives in former coat factory. Based in Minnesota. Mostly okay. Second in the series. I'll go back and read the first.

Patrick Taylor - An Irish Country Courtship. This is not generally the kind of book I read, but I'm hooked on the series. If you look up Patrick Taylor on the internet, you'll find him described as the best-selling Canadian author no one's heard about. In short, the series is based in a fictional village in Northern Ireland in the early and mid-1960s. Pair of doctors in village with it's share of entertaining eccentrics. The stories will make you smile and probably long for a time that probably exists only in our imaginations. If the can, listen to the audio books, as the narrator is brilliant. Read the series from the beginning.

Ken Follett - Pillars of the Earth. I started this years ago but never finished. Thought I'd have another go. Listening the audio book. He's one hell of a writer. The Middle Ages weren't exactly a simpler time, but if I could time travel, I'd head there.

[hermetic]

35. Awesome!

I definitely want to look up Taylor's work now. Sounds right up my alley.

[northoftheborder]

31. Just finished "Botticelli's Muse" by Dorah Blume

1477, the Italian Renaissance, is the time of this historical novel placed in Florence and the surrounding Tuscany. Sandro Botticelli, the famous artist; his patron - the powerful Medici family; his love, Floriana, (depicted in the famous painting- Botticelli's muse, a Jewess); his sister, Oslavia, a nun; Savonarola - a priest. The love affair played out during a time of predjudice, warring factions, beneath the oppressive and powerful reach of the Roman Catholic Church in Rome. All of the above characters actually existed except for the sister. The love affair between Sandro and Floriana is enchanting, and the artist's achieving his ultimate freedom with his art is hopeful. I enjoyed this story, and the pen and ink drawings heading each chapter are charming.

[hermetic]

36. That sounds lovely

I searched Google Images and saw some.