What are you reading this week of January 28, 2018?

[hermetic]

I am most of the way through Deadline by John Sandford. I think I will check out more Virgil Flowers stories. Not really great literature, IMO, but fun to read.

In that same vein, I am listening to The Jester by James Patterson. I like the premise of this one, that you can extricate yourself from danger by using humor. Of course you have to be really good at it...

I decided to get The Jester because I have just been watching The Zoo, the TV series based on Patterson's writing, which I found at the library. I also found out that The Zoo is often called "that show people love to hate," and for good reason. After the first season the disk showed an interview with Patterson and I decided to get caught up on some of his novels as he seemed like a pretty cool guy. If any of you have a favorite Patterson, let me know.

Plus, let me know what you are reading this week.

[MFM008]

1. The Devils flu

Pete Davies.
About the 1918 cataclysmic influenza
Pandemic.

[hermetic]

2. Scary stuff, eh?

100 years ago. In 1918, this flu killed up to 40 million people across the planet. From the remotest villages in Arctic climates to crowded U.S. cities to the battlefields of Europe, there were plague houses in which whole families lay sick or dead. In the United States it killed more Americans than all the wars fought in the twentieth century put together. The disease did not discriminate. It took whom it pleased. It was a flu unlike any that the world had encountered before or that has come along since. It remains a mystery why the 1918 outbreak was so devastating. As far as the next pandemic is concerned, scientists agree: It's not a question of if, but when.

[MFM008]

12. Very....

People dying within hours...
you wouldn't have a chance.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. Haven't read that one, but have read The Great Influenza

by John M. Barry, and that was excellent.

[murielm99]

3. I am still reading Dennis Lehane.

Prayers for Rain this time.

My husband likes Sandford.

[hermetic]

4. Yowza!

That sounds intense. About a a depraved stalker who carefully targeted Karen and slowly, methodically, exploited her every weakness, stripped away all that mattered to her, and then watched her self-destruct. Now, as investigators begin a psychological battle against a master sadist the law can't touch, they discover he's starting to learn their weaknesses, their loves -- and he's determined to tear their world apart.

Sandford has SO many series to choose from. So far the Prey series has 27 books and Virgil Flowers, 10. Decisions, decisions.

[murielm99]

5. I always liked Robert B. Parker, too.

I was sad when he died, but he left a lot of good books.

[hermetic]

7. Oh, I agree

I really enjoy his writing.

[TexasProgresive]

6. Still The Poet Michael Connelly.

[hermetic]

8. Still scary?

[murielm99]

9. Ah. Another good one.

[pscot]

10. Foundation by Isaac Asimov

and Marcel Proust, a brief biography by Edmund White. i hadn't read Foundation. I'm not a big Asimov fan but I think this is his best book. i've made a couple of unsuccessful attempts to read Proust but Chatwin's book inspired me to give it another go. I thought maybe if I sneak up on him I'll have better luck so I'm starting with a short, reader friendly biography.

[hermetic]

11. I really should

read Foundation someday as it's considered one of the greatest sci fi stories ever.

Good luck with Proust. Sneaking up on him sounds like a good plan.

[pscot]

13. Have you read

A Canticle for Liebowitz? The themes are similar but Asimov's ideal is Galactic Empire while Miller is more concerned with preserving a system of values. Miller has a wry sense of humor; not a feature of most early scifi. He was also a WWII vet. He flew 50 missions over Italy and the Balkans, just like Yossarian.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

14. Bonfire by Krysten Ritter (also started The Goldfinch)

Really liked the first bit of Bonfire I've read. Very compelling narrator.

The Goldfinch is probably going to go slowly since it's my "at home" read, but I like what I've read so far. Really a compelling narrative.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

16. Just finished Heart Full of Lies by Ann Rule

about a woman who spent two years telling people her husband was a raging alcoholic who would beat her, threaten her and her sons' lives, and that she was too terrified to leave him. Then she went with him on a camping trip and murdered him. Alas, that woman only had to serve 12 years in jail.

Ann Rule's books are always good.

Now it's back to The Berlin Project by Gregory Benford.