What Fiction are you reading this week, October 21, 2018?

[hermetic]

Ever feel like you have just a few too many books you want to read?

I'm almost done reading Ready Player One. Then I am going to watch the DVD as the library now has it.

I just started listening to Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars. It's a mystery about fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, and there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake. (Hmm, that sounds familiar ) Reviews call it a brilliant YA novel of love, resilience, and the power of lifelong friendship.

Richard Russo's Nobody's Fool, which I just finished, is such a great story. Can't wait to find the sequel, Anybody's Fool, now.

What will you be finding this week?

[dameatball]

1. "Year Zero" by Jeff Long

[hermetic]

2. Oh my

That sounds quite suspenseful. An apocalyptic scenario that threatens to eradicate mankind. In Jerusalem, an American archaeologist is working on Project Year Zero -- the search for the historical Jesus. And he may have found him.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Just starting "Into the Water". I think "Ready Player One" was a much better

book than the movie. Don't understand why they changed so many key elements for the film.

[hermetic]

4. That's normal, the book being better

Shall see for myself in a few days.

I see several books titled Into the Water. Who is your author?

I found it interesting that there are 2 books called Turtles All the Way Down. They seem vastly different.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Think she's Paula Hawkins, who wrote "The Girl on the Train".

[hermetic]

8. Aha!

Hawkins delivers an urgent, twisting, deeply satisfying read that hinges on the deceptiveness of emotion and memory, as well as the devastating ways that the past can reach a long arm into the present.

Sounds like a good page-turner.

[Cousin Dupree]

5. The Iron Heel by Jack London

[hermetic]

7. I'd never heard of that one

Science fiction from the early 1900s.

[exboyfil]

9. The Shining Girls

by Lauren Beukes. Also The Dover Demon by Hunter Shea. I am still on a horror kick. This is my second Hunter Shea book, and I like the stripped down feel of his books. Kind of like Kolchak or X-Files.

[hermetic]

10. Good creepy stuff

Just right for Halloween season.

X-Files one of my favorite series ever.

[Demsrule86]

19. I love horror and ghost stories too...especially this time of year...going to try those

you mentioned.

[pscot]

11. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

This took almost 2 months to make it up my library hold list. Reviewers loved it, but I'm not there yet. Hopefully it improves as i get further along. This is a coming of age/relationships story that feels like it could be happening today. I'm only 70 pages in but so far there are only two real characters, pre-teen boys maturing into adulthood. None of this seems even remotely epic, nor does one get a clear sense of place. The events described could as well be happening in the Adirondacks. It's competently written and I'll likely finish it but I don't feel like it lives up to the advance notices. This may seem churlish, but I think if you're revisiting Homer you better bring your A-game.

I hope you enjoy Turtles All The Way Down as much as I did. That one is among my top 10 for the year.

Happy reading, Hermetic.

[hermetic]

12. Well, yeah...

Love your A-game comment. I researched a little and found this review, which I think you might find useful:
I found the story slow-going and difficult for the first half of the book. But it definitely got better in the second half...
I question how this book won the Orange Prize for fiction for 2012. It's OK, but if you want the real and wonderful story read The Iliad.

Cool, thanks. Yes, I am finding it delightful so far.

[sagesnow]

13. Eggshells by Caitriona Lally

Written by a new author, the blurbs say it has been chosen as Ireland's Book of the Year finalist and is Amazon's best book so far this year. Thought I'd give it a try.
https://www.amazon.com/Eggshells-Caitriona-Lally/dp/0008324409/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=ZGFSDVM6VWBPWRSZCFCX

[hermetic]

16. Irish literary gem

"Inventive, funny and, ultimately, moving." Sounds like I'll have to give it a try as well. Eventually...

[The King of Prussia]

14. "The League of Frightened Men" by Rex Stout

Rex Stout is one of my go-tos, so although I've only just started it I know I'm going to like it a lot. Next up is "The Children Act" by Ian McEwan which is our Book Group selection for October. Sounds promising from the blurb.
Otherwise the only thing I have read in the past week is Frances Brody's "Murder in the Afternoon" - the third in the "Kate Shackleton" mysteries set in the West Riding (where I live) of the 1920s. Basically cozy mysteries with a bit of spice added because the protagonist is a female detective operating in a totally male dominated world.

Great excitement here because my wife and I are spending next weekend in Sedbergh - which is the book capital of Northern England. Hoping to return with piles of great books to read!

[hermetic]

17. Frightened Men?

Ha. I thought this might be about a group of tRump supporters. Turns out, though, that this is a Nero Wolfe mystery from 1935. But I think it's a smashing idea for a new title.

Your upcoming trip sounds fabulous! What a lovely place.

[hostalover]

15. The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

Rather complicated but enjoyable mystery. Very British!

[hermetic]

18. The plot sounds great

Ruth's writing takes a bit of getting used to, I think. Being hailed as "the Agatha Christie of our time" is a lot to live up to. I intend to read more of her.

[The King of Prussia]

20. Sounds like just my sort of thing

One for my up-coming book-buying binge

[violetpastille]

21. Still working on 1984, halfway though.

I have the attention span of a gnat, honestly.
Thanks internet!

I'm reading on my laptop, which is probably part of the problem. I have a paperback version but the words are so little...
Thanks turning 40!

But I'm in complete admiration of the writing just the same. It's beautifully written, my gosh! It's so good.

When I read it as a kid, I thought this book was unbearably depressing, but I'm finding it to be oddly uplifting now.
EnCOURAGEing.

And as I read I ask myself what I would give up for the cause of freedom and what I would not...

[hermetic]

22. I really should

read this again someday myself. Thanks for the reminder.

[PoorMonger]

23. Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami

The epic new novel from the internationally acclaimed and best-selling author of 1Q84

In Killing Commendatore, a thirty-something portrait painter in Tokyo is abandoned by his wife and finds himself holed up in the mountain home of a famous artist, Tomohiko Amada. When he discovers a previously unseen painting in the attic, he unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances. To close it, he must complete a journey that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a two-foot-high physical manifestation of an Idea, a dapper businessman who lives across the valley, a precocious thirteen-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt during World War II in Vienna, a pit in the woods behind the artist’s home, and an underworld haunted by Double Metaphors. A tour de force of love and loneliness, war and art—as well as a loving homage to The Great Gatsby— Killing Commendatore is a stunning work of imagination from one of our greatest writers.

[hermetic]

24. That sounds...well...

stunning. And awesome.