What Fiction are you reading this week, April 10, 2022?

[hermetic]

Reading Cat Shout for Joy by Shirley Rousseau Murphy. A cat-centric cozy from 2016. So sweet, but also chilling as there is some real evil afoot in the tiny town of Molena Point.

Listening to Death of a Prankster by M.C. Beaton. "WHEN IT COMES TO MURDER, CONSTABLE HAMISH MACBETH CAN'T SEE THE JOKE." I sure do, though. This one is keeping me chuckling. As well as wondering whodunnit.

I really enjoyed seeing Ruth Ware in a Zoom interview. Delightful lady. She talked about her upcoming book, The It Girl. Sounds like it will be quite good. She says it is a love letter to librarians and booksellers who have influenced her life so profoundly and have always made it better. It's also "an unputdownable mystery."

Got anything unputdownable on your reading list this week?

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. The Second Mrs. Astor...by Shanna Abe

A look at Madeleine Force Astor in a historical novel form of the life, courtship, and marriage of Madeline Force to John Jacob Astor, ending on that fateful night of April 15,1912 when the TITANIC went down in the North Atlantic.

So far, so good.

[hermetic]

4. That sounds terrific

Just came out last year. "this riveting novel takes you inside the scandalous courtship and catastrophic honeymoon aboard the Titanic of the most famous couple of their time—John Jacob Astor and Madeleine Force. Told in rich detail, this novel of sweeping historical fiction will stay with readers long after turning the last page."

[Jilly_in_VA]

7. I have that on my list

Not there yet though.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

12. I bought the book as a Christmas for a friend

From a small independent book store in downtown Napa. She read it snd loved it, then loaned it to me.

A very good read so far.

[The King of Prussia]

2. Unputdownable?

No but I had an unpickupable. "Us" by David Nicholls was our book group selection for this month. I persevered for 45 pages then gleefully surrendered.
I'm back on "Murder at the Seaview Hotel" again. It's really good. 12 Elvis impersonators called "Twelvis" descend on a Scarborough Hotel, and one is murdered. The sort of light entertainment I need.
Next up will be "The Man who Died Twice" by Richard Osman - who announced this week that he is giving up most of his TV work to concentrate on writing.
Have a good week!

[hermetic]

5. That was what the librarians' society

who put on the interview called it. I like it. I also think unpickupable is quite a satisfactory term

I also really like 'Twelvis'.

Thanks.

Ahh, A Thursday Murder Club Mystery. “It’s taken a mere two books for Richard Osman to vault into the upper leagues of crime writers. . . The Man Who Died Twice. . . dives right into joyous fun."

[bucolic_frolic]

3. I'm on the inside outside looking in

I have a book by a prominent writing instructor, George Saunders, called "A Swim in a Pond in the Rain".

He examines short stories by Russian writers, and dissects them, and shows what makes the genre go. So far I've only gotten through the first story, by Anton Chekov, but it is a very good book. I think it will improve my nuts and bolts.

[hermetic]

6. Oh, interesting...

From the author who gave us Lincoln in the Bardo, a fascinating book IMO..

"Funny, frank, and rigorous, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain ultimately shows how great fiction can change a person's life and become a benchmark of one's moral and ethical beliefs." I really want to read this.

[Jilly_in_VA]

8. "Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi

It's been on my TBR list for awhile and I finally got it on Kindle. It's riveting, if episodic. The last two nights it kept me up longer than I should have been.

Just finished The Lost Girl From Belzec by Ravit Raufman, also on Kindle. I think that's another one that's going to bother me for awhile.

[hermetic]

9. Wow

A story of two half-sisters, separated by forces beyond their control: one sold into slavery, the other married to a British slaver. Written with tremendous sweep and power, HOMEGOING traces the generations of family who follow, as their destinies lead them through two continents and three hundred years of history, each life indelibly drawn, as the legacy of slavery is fully revealed in light of the present day.

And the other, a girl and her mother are forced to leave their home and go to the forbidding Belzec Extermination Camp, from whence no one has ever returned.

That's some pretty heavy stuff there, Jilly. Good on you for letting us know about it.

[Jilly_in_VA]

10. I promised myself

that for every two "throwaways" (super-light reading, romances and such) I read, I would try to read something like these two. I did neglect to mention that I'm also reading, in hard copy, a YA by Amy Giles called That Night which is the story of the aftereffects of a mass shooting on families in a community on Long Island. It takes place some months after the event. It's kind of heavy too but in a different way.

The Lost Girl from Belzec has a lot to say about mothers and daughters and how trauma in one generation affects others. This is why it will likely stick with me for awhile.

[bif]

11. Still reading "Boy Swallows Universe"

It's a slow slog.

[japple]

13. Thank you for the weekly thread, hermetic. Love your kitty on the book pile!

Last night, I finished Irene Nemirovsky's book, Suite Francaise. It is definitely a must for those who are interested in WWII historical fiction. Beautifully written with a very timely message.

Then I started reading Jason Mott's latest work, Hell of a Book, which caused a bit of literary whiplash (in a good way) as this writer had me yucking it up in the 2nd chapter. I think this one will be good.

From amazon:

An astounding work of fiction from New York Times bestselling author Jason Mott, always deeply honest, at times electrically funny, that goes to the heart of racism, police violence, and the hidden costs exacted upon Black Americans and America as a whole

[hermetic]

14. Oh, my

That does sound like a good one. On my list you go. Thanks.

[SheltieLover]

15. Still rereading Jana DeLeon's Miss Fortune series

Then will reread her Mudbug series. I need humor & she does an exceptional job with it.

[yellowdogintexas]

16. I finished The Dying Day. It was quite good.

Now I am reading Rogue Operator by J Robert Kennedy This is the first of 11 Dylan Kane thrillers. This is the same author of the James Acton archaeology thriller series. Both are great fun reads.


Three top secret research scientists are presumed dead in a boating accident, but the kidnapping of their families the same day raises questions the FBI and local police can’t answer, leaving them waiting for a ransom demand that will never come.

Central Intelligence Agency Analyst Chris Leroux stumbles upon the story, and finds a phone conversation that was never supposed to happen. When he reports it to his boss, the National Clandestine Services Chief, he is uncharacteristically reprimanded for conducting an unauthorized investigation and told to leave it to the FBI.

But he can’t let it go.

For he knows something the FBI doesn’t.

One of the scientists is alive.

Leroux makes a call to his childhood friend, CIA Special Agent Dylan Kane, leading to a race across the globe to stop a conspiracy reaching the highest levels of political and corporate America, that if not stopped, could lead to war with an enemy armed with a weapon far worse than anything in the American arsenal, with the potential to not only destroy the world, but consume it.

I acquired a new Sisterhood novel so I will be back with the ladies soon

[Ohiya]

17. Marina Lewycka's first book,

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

I just finished her first book, Strawberry fields. It was about migrant workers in the UK from Poland, Ukraine and elsewhere.
The second book concerns a family of Ukrainian immigrants in the Uk.

They are light reading, humorous yet also serious.

Oh, and they are fiction!

[hermetic]

18. Very interesting...

Sounds fun, and my library actually has those books. I will def check them out. Thanks.

[Ohiya]

19. I reversed the order!

Tractors was first,
Strawberrys second.

I think that
Tractors was the better book, But I enjoyed both of them.
I read half of the new Harlan Coben book last night, The Match, it is a follow up of the Boy from the Woods.