What Fiction are you reading this week, May 7, 2023?

[hermetic]

What a good boy

I'm reading Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais, Crais is truly a master of surprise/plot twists. Keeps you turning those pages.

Listening to The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen. I had requested any audio books by David Duchovny from my library and this was what they offered me. (?) So, I figured I'd give it a listen and oh my gosh, it is so funny. "Absorbing, delightful, hilarious, breathtaking and the best and most relevant novel I've read in what feels like forever." -- Taffy Brodesser-Akner, The New York Times Book Review. Yep.

So, who's keeping you turning the pages this week?

[Easterncedar]

1. Short stories of Henry James

Right now, a selection of 17 of his 80 stories, collected with commentary by Clifton Fadiman and published in 1945, given to my father in law as a hoped for distraction by his brother. In the first story, written in 1877, James predicts Germany’s insatiable intention to conquer a Europe that can’t sustain a memory of previous wars long enough to mount a defense.

[hermetic]

5. Interesting

I imagine most of us have read The Turn of the Screw. Quite memorable.

[Easterncedar]

8. A favorite horror story

And the film based on it, The Innocents, with Deborah Kerr, scares me every time.

[CrispyQ]

2. After several starts with other titles

I finally got into "The Art of Disappearing" by Ivy Pochoda.

From Goodreads:

How do you know if love is real or just an illusion?

When Mel Snow meets the talented magician Toby Warring in a dusty roadside bar, she is instantly drawn to the brilliant performer whose hands can effortlessly pull stray saltshakers and poker chips from thin air and conjure castles out of the desert sands. Just two days later they are married, beginning their life together in the shadow of Las Vegas, where Toby hopes to make it big. Mel knows that magicians are a dime a dozen, but Toby is different—his magic is real.

It sounds like a love story but it's not. When it says his magic is real, it means he reaches "into" the air & literally pulls things out from other places, sometimes a wallet from an audience member's pocket, but sometimes sand from the desert or chips from a casino across town. Anyway, I'm about 2/3 through. It's not can't-put-it-down good, but it's good.

This is her first title, & I read one of her more recent titles, "These Women" which I'm pretty sure I reviewed on one of these threads. I enjoyed that book a lot. It was a little dark, but all the main characters were women with very different perspectives.

Love that devoted dog in the picture! Mine would never do that.

[hermetic]

10. My cats like to read with me

Not over my shoulder, though. They like to lie down on the pages and absorb the literature.

[CrispyQ]

13. My first thought was that you had better behaved cats than I do,

but alas, that is not so.

[hippywife]

3. Finished one, started another.

Finished The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher. Just like another of her books I've read, it was just okay and finished it mostly out of curiosity. Probably won't pick up another.

Started The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. It started with a weird premise, and again, mostly reading to finish out of curiosity.

I'll probably move on to another non-fiction after this. I've always loved fiction, but seems like most of what's out there now is either odd relationship plots, fantasy/sci-fi or mystery/crime, none of which I enjoy at all. Too many series, as well.

[hermetic]

6. I loved The Sentence

But then, Louise is one of my most favorite authors for various reasons, so I lap up everything she writes.
Perhaps you would enjoy Historical Fiction, of which there is a whole bunch. Whatever. Thanks for sharing, though.

[hippywife]

9. I've read almost nothing BUT historical fiction

for several decades, 13 Michener books (some of which I've read more than once), as just an example. Also very much enjoyed all of Margaret George's books, again re-reading some of them. But every time I look at new historical fiction, they really aren't as billed. They're more what I'd call period dramas with bodice ripper covers and plots, and completely miscategorized.

[hermetic]

11. Yeah,

pretty sad, that.

[FalloutShelter]

4. reading Kathmandu by Kim Stanley Robinson

Interesting tale of the life of a mountain climber and guide living in Kathmandu, including interactions with Yeti, Buddhist monks,
and the hidden village of Shambala. Fun

[hermetic]

7. Sounds like fun

From 1989. "The adventures started when George and Freds got together over the capture of a Yeti by a scientific expedition. The thought of such a wild and mysterious creature in captivity--in prison--was too much for them to bear. And in freeing the Yeti, a great partnership was born. George and Freds will go on to greater heights as they explore the mysteries of Nepal, from Shangri-La to Kathmandu''s governmental bureaucracy."

[mike_c]

26. that sounds interesting

I really enjoy most of KSR's novels, although The Years of Rice and Salt just never clicked for me. I read his biographical The High Sierra: A Love Story some months ago, which I enjoyed, and Kathmandu sounds like a mountain trekking story in a similar mold. Thanks for the recommendation.

[FalloutShelter]

27. It is fun... a little change of tone

After Ministry for the Future, which was brilliant but really sobering.

I like KSR science fiction.

[Bayard]

12. I'm still in John Sanford mode

I re-discovered a big book I had, that includes 3 of his books. You can tell, "House of Thunder," was one of his early works, but it has an interesting premise. I'm now in, "Shadowfires," with, "Midnight," still to come. I finished, "Deep Freeze," a few days ago. Its one of his Virgil Flowers books, which are always pretty good.

I find myself turning off the TV at night more and more, to settle back with a book, especially when I've had about as much bad news as I can take.

Big stormy day here today. Happy reading!

[hermetic]

14. "High school is murder."

It sure can be. Wow, Deep Freeze got over a thousand 5 star reviews on Goodreads. I haven't read a Sanford for a while so I guess I am overdue. Good thing I'm going to the library tomorrow. Happy reading to you!

[bif]

15. "This is Happiness" by Niall Wiliams

Just started it. Beautifully written.

[hermetic]

16. Nice

Sounds quite lovely.

[The King of Prussia]

17. Not done too much reading this week

Currently on "Little Sister" by Gytha Lodge. The fourth in her Jonah Sheens series. I read the third earlier in the week. If you like twisty, creepy thrillers this author is definitely for you.

Started work last week. Every morning we watch the news. As soon as Charles appears the children all boo. 😃

[hermetic]

19. That popular, eh?

I do like twisty, creepy thrillers so I shall look her up.

Don't work too hard over there.

Oh, say, I got to see Ann Cleeves do a live book chat. She is quite amusing, as I expected.

[The King of Prussia]

21. She's lovely

It was my birthday this week and I managed to get several books from her first two series - which are out of print here.

[hermetic]

22. Happy Belated Birthday!!

Hope you had a lovely day. Of course getting good books always makes a day better.

[Alliepoo]

18. Now that I've discovered the Libby app

I’m in book reading heaven! I’m reading Patricia Cornwall Scarpetta books, Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum, and Martha Grimes Richard Jury books. I’m also reading John Sandford but I’m waiting for the next in series to become available. It’s so nice to be able to borrow books on my phone or my Kindle instead of paying for them. I can’t always get to my library and when I do I come away with 20 books. I went online and got an electronic library card from a larger library and attached Libby to that card/library. Wish I’d known about this app earlier. I’m an avid reader and I’ve spent plenty thru the past years to buy books on kindle that I could have borrowed for free!

[hermetic]

20. Isn't that wonderful?

What a marvel of modern technology. Now, if they could just find a way to let more than one person at a time read a book, that would be grand. But, I'm just a dreamer...

[LearnedHand]

29. There's a way

But book publishers don’t allow it. The digital subscription model is very tightly controlled.

[japple]

23. Love the picture in your op. I am still re-reading Terry Roberts' book

That Bright Land, about the Massacre at Shelton Laurel in Madison Co., NC. I lived very near there years ago and dearly love western NC. Madison Co. is on the border with TN, and many of the mountaineers fought for the union in the civil war. Here's a blurb about it from NCpedia:

https://www.ncpedia.org/shelton-laurel-massacre

There was a funny joke in a previous chapter that made me laugh out loud in the middle of the night:

Mountaineer 1: Who was the stretchiest man in the bible?

Mountaineer 2: I don't know.

Mountaineer 1: Abraham. It says there in the bible that he tied his ass to a tree and walked up the mountain!

Anyway, I am enjoying this book a lot as I am not rushing through it to find out what happens. Hippywife, you might enjoy this one.

[hermetic]

24. LOL

Never heard that one before.

I did some traveling/vacationing in NC and it is a lovely state. Thanks for the rec. Take care out there.

[mike_c]

25. I've just finished The Deluge by Stephen Markley

It's a haunting story about politics and the climate movement, mostly in the U.S. between 2014 and roughly 2036. I finished it last week and it's still rolling around in my head. It starts a bit slowly as the author introduces the characters because readers don't know how they're connected yet, but by the end he brings them all together in a web of activism, climate science, craven politics, human nature, state violence, and truly memorable characters. 9/10, possibly my favorite novel this year, so far. I think I have blisters on my butt from refusing to leave my chair until I finished it.

I'm currently reading something completely different, The Ferryman by Justin Cronin. It's a story about a group of people living on a remote island completely separated from other people. There is no clear setting really-- there may be other people elsewhere, there might not be, their island might be on Earth, it might be somewhere else, and so on. It's a pretty stripped down, spare story about a man who serves the community as a ferryman, which I'll leave to your imagination in order to avoid spoilers. He undergoes some significant life events, which frame the story. I'll likely finish it this afternoon or evening. 6/10, maybe 7/10 for holding my interest and a compelling tale.

[hermetic]

28. Some heavy reading there...

The Deluge just came out and it's almost 1,000 pages so, congrats. Sounds like something we all need to read. Thanks so much for for your post.