Fiction
Related: About this forumWhat Fiction are you reading this week, January13, 2019?
Well, isn't this interesting.
I''m reading the wonderfully funny Noir by Christopher Moore, a madcap tale set on the mean streets of post-World War II San Francisco, and featuring a diverse cast of characters, including a hapless bartender; his Chinese sidekick; a doll with sharp angles and dangerous curves; a tight-lipped Air Force general; a wisecracking waif; a black mamba; and many more.
Listening to The Hellfire Club by CNN journalist, Jake Tapper, taking us back to the 1950s DC scene and crammed with high-profile political figures. I got this as it was the only audible available while I wait for the ones I really want. It's entertaining but not really gripping.
What books are you interested in this week?
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at140
(6,154 posts)Fleming knows so much detail of how different gov't spy agencies work and seems to have traveled to so many interesting places in the world, based on his detailed writing of those.
hermetic
(8,765 posts)Always entertaining.
at140
(6,154 posts)Never say Never, From Russia with Love and doctor No, all with Sean Connery. Later on there was too many gadgets, too much violence and none of the actors as good as Sean Connery.
violetpastille
(1,483 posts)I read what my daughter is assigned in her 10th Grade LA class so we can talk about it together.
I'm not looking forward to this at all. It hits each one of my "nope" buttons.
I wish she were assigned something like this, instead:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33294200-the-poet-x
hermetic
(8,765 posts)First, I think it's great that you will read this so you can discuss it. I have not read either but both books sound quite powerful and affirming for young women. But such different experiences!
Do you, or did you, live in the South? Or New York? Just curious. I hope this works out to be a great thing for both of you.
violetpastille
(1,483 posts)are hilarious. People are coming to it as a baby faces the 100th spoon of mashed peas. "dontwantdontwant!"
And then they fall in love. They get converted. It's almost scary.
I'm Left Coast. Born in San Francisco, raised in the Redwood Empire and live in the PNW.
Bayard
(24,343 posts)By Bentley Little
Just finished, "The Girl in the Spider's Web", last of the Lisbeth Salander series. The movie was much better, probably because they changed things quite a bit.
hermetic
(8,765 posts)Opinions vary vastly on this one. Some readers really didn't like it. I think it sounds intriguing.
I loved the Salander series but didn't see the movie. I find it rare for people to prefer a movie over the book. Guess I'll have to be on the lookout for the DVD.
exboyfil
(18,141 posts)Right now. Mildly disappointing. Have seven paperbacks of his that I purchased as a lot to get to the two that appeared on a Top 100 Horror list I am working on.
murielm99
(31,712 posts)last fall.
I am reading Past Tense, by Lee Child. It is a Jack Reacher book.
hermetic
(8,765 posts)murielm99
(31,712 posts)except that you like to read. I don't know if you are male or female.
My husband loved Noir. I liked it less. I thought it was more of a guy book. He likes Hiaasen a lot, too. I think Hiaasen is okay. Again, in my experience, my brothers and my husband love Hiaasen. I think he is a guy writer.
hermetic
(8,765 posts)I love people who are funny, that can make me laugh. That gets harder all the time. Christopher Moore is one of those people. His descriptions can be so delightful. Hiassen is another. Never read anything of his I didn't like. I also like adventures and thrillers, so Jack Reacher books are fine with me.
dameatball
(7,608 posts)hermetic
(8,765 posts)Story of a war that went on for 27 years!
backtoblue
(12,036 posts)I had to force myself through the grammer, but all in all a pretty good story.
Going to the library tmrw to pick up something. I might check out some VC Andrews that I haven't read yet.
hermetic
(8,765 posts)The highly praised Dust Lands trilogy, which MTVs Hollywood Crush blog called better than The Hunger Games."
(I added this in case someone else here is interested in reading it. )
pscot
(21,044 posts)It's kind of a disturbing book and when I was about halfway through I looked up the reviews. It won a Nebula and a Hugo and it's on the Marine Corps Professional Reading list for officer candidates. It's not hard to see why. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that high school football coaches had their kids reading it, which is a little scary.
i'm starting Crosstalk next, by Connie Willis. I've read several of hers. To Say Nothing of the Dog is my favorite so far. I'm also reading The First Tycoon by T.J Stiles. Lucky for us, many of Vanderbilt's methods of amassing a fortune are now illegal. Nowadays the crime is what's legal.
hermetic
(8,765 posts)Never really wanted to because of who Orson Scott Card is. The way I see it, there are SO MANY wonderful books and authors out there, no sense spending my time or money on someone whose views are diametrically opposed to mine. Thanks for adding your thoughts on it.
pscot
(21,044 posts)when I picked up the book, but I probably would have read it anyway. Censorship, even self imposed censorship, goes against the grain. However repellent Card's views, he wrote a very readable, thought-provoking book. It would be different if he were expressing his bigoted views in the book, but there's none of that. I'm inclined to judge works of art in their own terms, however awful their creators may have been. It seems unfair to blame a book because it's maker is an ass.
CrispyQ
(39,130 posts)It's the next book in the series. I read the book after, too, but I don't remember it - I think it got pretty weird. IIRC, Card wrote Ender & Speaker before he went all right wing.
Ohiya
(2,513 posts)I'm about half way through, then either A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny or The Ruin by Dervla McTierrnan. I'm going to put Noir on my to read list, I don't remember if I've read anything by Christopher Moore, but I'm a big Carl Hiassen fan.
sounds good. A gripping mystery set in Ireland that spans twenty years. "Its a complicated, page-turning story that touches on corruption, clandestine cover-ups, and criminal conspiracy. A story thats as moving as it is fast-paced.
I may have already mentioned how much I love Penny's books.
Moore has written so many books. Noir just happens to be the most recent. I've read many of the older ones and Noir seems not quite as funny but since I am familiar with his style, it works for me. You maybe might want to start with some of his older books. Lamb is great. Coyote Blue. Sacre Bleu.
My favorite might be A Dirty Job. Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy with a normal life, until people start dropping dead around him, and everywhere he goes a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Charlie Asher, it seems, has been recruited for a new position: as Death. It's a dirty job. But, hey! Somebody's gotta do it. This one had me "Need a cheese!!"
Ohiya
(2,513 posts)I'll see what's available at our library.
Freedomofspeech
(4,470 posts)I have shared this book with many friends and they all enjoyed it.
Ohiya
(2,513 posts)We'll be meeting in a couple of weeks and I'm sure it will be a big hit with almost everyone. (We have one member who doesn't like anything!)
Freedomofspeech
(4,470 posts)Loved the character so much.
Cuthbert Allgood
(5,209 posts)It's not what I wanted to read next, but the hold I put on it at the library come up, so that dictates my reading order a lot.
Good news is that it's a shorter read than The Passage by several hundred pages.
Also throwing in my non-fiction book in my cycle.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(27,312 posts)I've been saying for the last year and a half or so that even when Trump leaves office, however he departs, the damage that has been done may never be fixed.
I wish everyone would read that book.
Christopher-81
(4 posts)I've just finished Brideshead Revisited by Ewelyn Waugh. Recently, I have been on something of an Evelyn Waugh reading binge. Ive read The Loved One and Brideshead Revisited for the first time and then re-read Vile Bodies. Brideshead is fascinating because this novel, published in 1945, focuses on a romantic relationship between two young men. The relationship is described and recounted in evocative, ornamental language--and it is essentially presented throughout the book as "normal."
malchickiwick
(1,474 posts)I thought Lincoln in the Bardo was a work of absolute genius, and that Tenth of December was as good a collection as I'd seen in a while. This collection similarly does not disappoint.
CrispyQ
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I just finished Shooting at Midnight by Greg Rucka. It was definitely plot driven more than character, but I enjoyed it. I thought everything was resolved & answered by the end & there were some twists.
Next up is A Stopover in Venice by Kathryn Walker.
Love that kitty!
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Freedomofspeech
(4,470 posts)Ohiya
(2,513 posts)I just checked, I'm number 211 in line!