What Fiction are you reading this week, June 26, 2022?

[hermetic]

Razzmatazz, still. I'm not able to do much reading right now, dealing with everything from sick cats to a sick country. Seems the kitties have a better prognosis than our nation. So, I try to read but after a page or two I just zzzzz right out.

I can always find a little time, though, for listening to Spencer Quinn's Scents and Sensibility, the eighth book in the bestselling Chet and Bernie mystery series. When a mysterious case of illegal cactus smuggling comes to their attention, Chet and Bernie find themselves in a prickly situation.

Hope you are finding time for some reading this week.

[lisa58]

1. The Constitution (sorry-couldn't help myself)

[SheltieLover]

2. Rereading DeLeon's Miss Fortune series

Primarily for the humor.

Sorry to hear your kitties are sick. I hopd they are all better soon!

Ya, our country... Let's hope the known ruskie assets are all removed from positions of power in our govt., & that the slob & spawn are locked away forever.

[hermetic]

3. Yeah, hope is good

Kitties are doing better. Thanks.

[SheltieLover]

6. Glad to hear!

Thx for sharing.

I hope you have time to read something delightful this week!

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Good Rich People - Eliza Jane Brazier

Not sure this one is going to cut it, but I am a ferocious editor who often doesn't like word choice so maybe it's just me.

[hermetic]

8. Sounds intriguing

Psychological thriller. "A destitute woman deceives her way into the guesthouse of a Hollywood Hills mansion and inadvertently becomes a target in the twisted game of the wealthy family upstairs."

I know what you mean about word choices, though.

[bucolic_frolic]

11. So far she's made pointed reference to this house

with a vast expansive interior and skylights and windows and tells us repeatedly it appears to be "floating". The imagery is not coming together for me. It sounds more like a giant geodesic dome than a mansion, but I'll keep going.

[Jilly_in_VA]

5. At the moment

Ever Alice by H.J. Ramsey, on Kindle. It's like being in a weird mishmash of Lewis Carroll and Douglas Adams and I don't know what to think!

I just finished Second Star to the Left by Megan van Dyke, the first in her series of reimagined fairy tales. That one is a reimagining of some Peter Pan characters involving a very grown up Tinker Bell and Captain Hook. Very spicy and quite fun.

It seems I must be trying to escape something......

[SheltieLover]

7. ...

[hermetic]

10. I often enjoy fairytale adaptations

This one sounds kind of wild: "Alice’s stories of Wonderland did more than raise a few eyebrows—it landed her in an asylum."

The other one sounds like a lot more fun.

[Diamond_Dog]

9. I just started

The Pioneers by David McCullough

Since I live in Ohio this is interesting to me. I have read several of his books and like them. I like learning history but don’t read historical books exclusively.

[hermetic]

12. McCullough

A Pulitzer Prize–winning historian. "Drawn in great part from a rare and all-but-unknown collection of diaries and letters by the key figures, The Pioneers is a uniquely American story of people whose ambition and courage led them to remarkable accomplishments. This is a revelatory and quintessentially American story."

[Kayob11]

13. Desperate Measures

by Kate Wilhelm. Mystery/legal series about a woman attorney set in Eugene, Oregon. Oh, and her dad.

[hermetic]

15. Welcome to DU!

And to the Fiction Group. Always happy to have a new reader here. And that sounds like a really good series, 14 books. I'm quite fond of Eugene, Oregon, myself.

[Kayob11]

32. Thanks!

It's great to be here. I lived in Portland for about 10 years, and her descriptions are spot on!

[Srkdqltr]

14. Just finished Arcadia. A Case for Willows and Lane, Peter Grainger.

Different premise, and older woman and a younger ex cop. They are interesting together. Not really a cozy.

[hermetic]

17. Can't find one called Arcadia

Perhaps that's the British title for the one titled Lane. Does it involve para-gliding? Well, whichever, this is a series of 8 mystery/thrillers. Sounds good.

[Srkdqltr]

24. Lane is the first book, second is One-Way Tickets, third is Arcadia.

All are A case For Willows and Lane.
Start with Lane. It will make the others make sense.

[Srkdqltr]

25. Grainger has several series going.

[The King of Prussia]

16. "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Aline Templeton

Had a real Aline Templeton week. Read two others of hers this week. Really entertaining Scottish mysteries - this one set in Galloway

It's the local literary festival this week. We went to a talk given by Vaseem Khan - one of our favourite authors - so one of his will be next for me.

Happy reading!

[hermetic]

20. I do look forward

to finding her books. I love Scottish mysteries.

And Vaseem of the Baby Ganesh Agency. That must have been enjoyable.

[The King of Prussia]

28. We're on to his Malabar House series as well

Set in India just after partition. My wife is raving about it.

[ret5hd]

18. Jorge Luis Borges Collected Fictions...

Translated by Andrew Hurley.

Fascinating…absolutely fascinating.

[hermetic]

21. Oh, for sure

"All the fiction by the writer who has been called the greatest Spanish-language writer of our century collected in a single volume." Sounds marvelous!

[pscot]

33. I think Terry Pratchett modeled the library at Unseen University

after The Library of Babel.

[TexLaProgressive]

19. Been relistening to The Hobbit, LOTR and Bardic Voices series by Mercedes Lackey.

In my 10 day of Covid:
Actually reading a real book on my phone. It is a free offering from Kindle, called “Sick to Death” by Douglas Clark, a British police procedural written in 1971. The victim was killed by a mysteriously induced diabetic coma. Sort of a lock room, but not.

It was referred by someone on one of my diabetes forums. Another diabetes related read, is a graphic novel serialized one chapter per week, called “Chronic” by Lisa Horstman on the app Substack under Mulberry Treehouse. It is a fictionalized account of Lisa, Elle’s journey beginning with diagnosis of type 1 diabetes at 13. The story and artwork are fabulous.

https://substack.com/profile/60311171-mulberry-treehouse

[hermetic]

22. How interesting!

Her drawings are quite entertaining and those stories as well. Thanks for the link.

And Mercedes Lackey is pretty amazing. Enough to read for a lifetime.

[Paper Roses]

23. Sidney Sheldon, "Master of the Game"

I share books with friends and this came my way. Over 500 pages, very intense so far. I'm only about 90 pages in. We'll see where this goes. Just finished "The Guilty" by Baldacci. Good book.

I'm preparing to send my last bunch of books to a fellow reader. The bookshelf is ready to fall.

I'm still trying to sell 11 'Reacher' books on Facebook. I guess no-one in my neck of the woods reads the Reacher series. These books were bought by me, no exchange. Selling them for$10.00 for 11 books is a bargain unless you don't know about the author or the series. Lesson: keep a list if you are collecting books by one author. You end up like me with duplicates.

Anyone watching the video's on Amazon Prime?

[hermetic]

31. Master of the Game

"Three generations of women--each endowed with passion, ambition, and tormenting secrets--gather to pay homage to the ninety-year-old head of the world's largest conglomerate." Sounds like a good saga. Very popular.

Baldacci pretty much always gives us a good read.

I don't watch TV but if those were on DVD at my library I would for sure check them out. Good luck with your selling project.

[yellowdogintexas]

26. The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris

A “stunning” portrait of life and love inside an insular Jewish community that “reads like an Orthodox Pride and Prejudice . . . Rewardingly delightful” (Bust).

London, 2008. Nineteen-year-old Chani Kaufman is betrothed to Baruch Levy, a young man she’s seen only four times before their wedding day. All the cups of cold coffee and small talk with suitors have led up to this moment. But the happiness Chani and Baruch feel is outweighed by their anxiety about the realities of married life; about whether they will be able to have fewer children than Chani’s mother, who has eight daughters; and about the frightening, unspeakable secrets of the wedding night.

Through the story of Chani and Baruch’s unusual courtship, we meet a very different couple: Rabbi Chaim Zilberman and his wife, Rebbetzin Rivka Zilberman. As Chani and Baruch prepare to share a lifetime, Chaim and Rivka struggle to keep their marriage alive—and all four, together with the rest of the community, face difficult decisions about the place of faith and family in the contemporary world.

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and selected as an Amazon Best Book of the Month, The Marrying of Chani Kaufman is a “deeply melodic and exciting” story that “will resonate with readers from all backgrounds” and “linger after the last page” (Publishers Weekly).

This book is thought provoking in several ways. I was struck with the importance of ritual and tradition, and how they provide comfort and a sense of security.

[hermetic]

30. That sounds wonderful.

Thanks.

[japple]

27. Thanks for the weekly thread, hermetic. Sorry to hear you've got sick cats. Our

county shelter has been flooded with mamas and babies, whole litters of kittens, adult cats, not to mention many, many dogs. They have already put down 6 dogs this summer for lack of space. It is heartbreaking--sweet dogs that would make great companions for someone. Fortunately, we've been able to find rescues for the cats, but it's not easy. Everyone is full and the adoption rate is down. Many people who adopted pets during the pandemic are now finding they "don't have time" for a dog or cat anymore, or they adopted a pet and didn't get it sp/neutered and now they've got a pregnant cat. Sorry, I got started and couldn't stop. I know I'm preaching to the choir!!! Hope your kitties get better soon.

I'm now reading Louise Erdrich's latest book, The Sentence. Her stories always mesmerize and her writing style is so fluid that I feel like I've been transported directly into her books. I have to pace myself.

It is so dang hot and dry, here in N. GA, this summer that it's not hard to stay inside and read.

Take care, friends.

[hermetic]

29. Isn't that a great book? The Sentence...

And I know about the animal problems. They're everywhere. One of my cats got a URI; was sneezing and having trouble breathing. I gave her Homeopet Nose Relief which helped some but she needed real drugs. Called the vet but they are so crazy busy they just couldn't make time for her so they told me to take her to the emergency clinic which is in another town. It ended up taking many hours and dollars but she got the meds and is doing so much better.

Way over here it hasn't really gotten hot yet. I actually only turned off my heat 3 days ago. Ain't complaining... Stay in and read. Great advice!

You take care, too.