What Fiction are you reading this week, September 11, 2022?

[hermetic]

Reading The Broken Spine by Dorothy St. James, a story about an assistant librarian in a small town who will stop at nothing to save her beloved books. This just came out last year and is pretty popular. One of my favorite things about it is the constant referrals to Nancy Drew. I collected all of the 25 earliest books and loved how, for a teen-aged girl back in the 50s-60s, she was confident, competent, and totally independent as well as outspoken and authoritative. Definitely influenced my literary choices to this day as well as my personality.

Listening to The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill, also quite new and popular. Just started it but can sure see a recurring theme in my reading choices this week. Thank you, librarians.

What are your reading choices this week?

[SheltieLover]

1. Working through Lynn Cahoon's work

Interspersed with some Fern Michaels & Ellery Adams.

Just started Cahoon's "Picture Perfect."

Hru feeling & how are kittens?

[hermetic]

3. I'm okay, thanks

Kitties are growing and full of energy. Zooming around the house right now and keeping me laughing.

[SheltieLover]

6. So glad you are ok!

And that kittens are doing well & providing entertainment for you.

[SheltieLover]

4. Already have a hold on Broken Spine

Ty for sharing! I loved Nancy Drew as well & had a collection of the early ones, sadly gone now. 😏

Library doesn't have athe Woman in the Library, but I'll keep checking.

[yellowdogintexas]

24. I have a few of mine. My mom had loaned them to my cousin

and my aunt returned them to me a few years ago. My mom lost her house to a fire, and the rest of my books were destroyed.

These were the 1950s bindings, when Nancy still had the roadster and the language was more advanced.

I love Nancy Drew.

Hopefully my granddaughter will too.

[SheltieLover]

26. So glad you got some back!

Sorry to hear about your mom's house fire.

I've lost everything I owned 5-6 times in a few years. Tbh, I've lost count, but my beloved huge book collection was qmong the casulties.

I used to get 1 per week when I was a kid. That & a dot-to-dot book. Who knew connecting the dots would be such a valuable life skill?

[niyad]

5. "High Treason At The Grand Hotel" by Kelly Oliiver. Takes place in 1917

as America enters the war. Fiona Figg works in Room 40 (the precursor to MI 5 and 6), act as a spy, this time in Paris. Weaves real peope and events with fictional ones. Brutally accurate descriptions of the horrors of war, bu a totally charming and aware lead.

Rereading "Clouds of Witness", Dorothy L. Sayers, one of the early Lord Peter Wimsey novels.

"Curse of the Pharoah" by Elizabeth Peters, one of the early Amelia Peabody series.

"Swamp Santa" the 16th Miss Fortune mystery, by Jana Deleon. My ongoing thanks to the DU'er who introduced me to this delightful series. I have turned another six people on to them.

[SheltieLover]

7. I loved Swamp Santa

There are a couple of new ones in the series: swamp Spirits & Flame & Fortune.

Both are exemplary reads.

Enjoy!

[niyad]

8. The last line of "Swamp Santa", "your father is alive". I have 17-20 on order

at the library. Anxiously awaiting them.

I want to be be Ida Belle and Gertie when I grow up!

[SheltieLover]

10. May as well put hold on 21 & 22 as well.

This is one of my fav series!

Have you read Dianne Kelly's Paw Enforcement series? And her Death, Taxes, & (lots of things ranging from A French Manicure to A Satin Garter).

Also excellent reads. Very strong feminist protagonists & all are really funny.

I wish there were more like these.

Enjoy!

[niyad]

11. I can only order 5 books at a time through ILL, and I just got one. Will be

ordering the last two after I finish 17-20.

Thank you for directing me to more series.

Not a series, but a number of historical romances by Amalie Howard. Feminist characters challenging patriarchal society in Regency England, melding different fairy takes with feminist points of view.

[SheltieLover]

12. Yw!

Howard's work sounds intriguing. I'll see if library has e version. Ty for sharing!

[The King of Prussia]

9. Still on The Shetland Sea Murders

Not progressed very far. It's been a busy week. I managed to fall over and jar my leg which has made me grumpy. Did manage to fit in "Murder by the Book" by Rex Stout which was an absolute cracker. Bought the new "Vera" so that's next up.

As for the other stuff, I'm heartily sick of it. We were supposed to be going to football on Friday but it was cancelled. Half the TV schedules have been cancelled. Grrr.

Pip pip!

[hermetic]

13. Oh no

Sorry to hear about your leg. Hope it, and you, feel better soon.

I can imagine the whole country is mostly shut down right now.

Wow. Murder by the Book from 1951. "Rex Stout is one of America’s greatest mystery writers, and his literary creation Nero Wolfe is one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time."

[Thunderbeast]

14. Vinyl Detective series by Andrew Cartmel

Total brain candy fun!

[hermetic]

15. Those do sound like fun

"He is a record collector — a connoisseur of vinyl, hunting out rare and elusive LPs. His business card describes him as the “Vinyl Detective” and some people take this more literally than others."

In the first book, Written in Dead Wax, "he’s just about to run out of cat biscuits. So begins a painful and dangerous odyssey in search of the rarest jazz record of them all…"

[japple]

16. Just started reading Dennis McFarland's book

Prince Edward. It's hitting close to home as my family lived in Prince George county during this same time period, although I was too young to be aware of the world-at-large.

During the summer of 1959, Virginia’s Prince Edward County is entirely consumed by passionate resistance against, and in other corners, support for, the desegregation of schools as mandated by Brown v. Board of Education. Benjamin Rome, the ten-year-old son of a chicken farmer in one of the county’s small townships, struggles to comprehend the furor that surrounds him, even as he understands the immorality of racial prejudice. Within his own family, opinions are sharply divided, and it is against this charged backdrop that Ben spends the summer working with his friend Burghardt, a black farmhand, under the predatory gaze of Ben’s grandfather.
While the elders of Prince Edward focus on closing the schools, life ambles on, and Ben grows closer to his pregnant sister, Lainie, and his troubled older brother, Al, while also coming to recognize the painful and inherent limitations of his friendship with Burghardt.
Evocative and written with lush historical detail, Prince Edward is a refreshing bildungsroman by bestselling author Dennis McFarland, and a striking portrait of the social upheaval in the American South on the eve of the civil rights movement.

I echo your gratitude for librarians, our heroes on the front lines of today's culture wars. May they all be protected by St. Jerome, patron saint of libraries and librarians (also: archivists, Bible scholars, schoolchildren, students, and translators.)

[hermetic]

18. That was quite a time

I lived in California then so it all seemed very foreign to me. I'd been going to school with people of different races all my young life. Sounds like a really great book. I see it first came out in 2005 and they have re released it this year.

[bif]

17. "The Lincoln Highway"

[hermetic]

19. Always wanted to read that one

"A rollicking cross-country adventure, rife with unforgettable characters, vivid scenery and suspense that will keep readers flying through the pages.”

Enjoy!

[Deep State Witch]

20. The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri

I literally just finished it the other night. It's the second in the series that began with The Jasmine Throne.

[hermetic]

21. New fantasy. Sounds great

The Jasmine Throne has been hailed as a series opener that will "undoubtedly reshape the landscape of epic fantasy for years to come."
Burning Kingdoms trilogy: "Lush and stunning...this sapphic fantasy will rip your heart out."

[TexLaProgressive]

22. I was looking through a stack of books for a reference book.

I didn’t find it, but did find a fantasy novel that I don’t remember buying and certainly never read it. I’m hoping I can make sense as it is the 3 novel of two trilogies. Robin Hobb’s “Fool’s Fate.

[yellowdogintexas]

25. you need to read all of these Fool's Fate is the #3 novel of 3 trilogies!

start with Assassin's Apprentice.

I love this series and the world Robin has created.

[TexLaProgressive]

28. Are you the yellow dog I would vote for?

Yeah I can tell for the bit I've read so far that I'm missing a lot.

[yellowdogintexas]

31. I am about as YellowDog as it gets. Cradle Democrat

My mom never forgave me for making her miss voting for Harry Truman in 1948! She was still in the hospital after my birth on Oct 27. She raised me to be her Democrat Daughter

Are you in Texas? I am in Ft WOrth

[TexLaProgressive]

34. Rural north Brazos county, a blue pond in a Red Sea.

[yellowdogintexas]

23. The Divine Devils by R Weir

Two teenage siblings in peril.
A mysterious group with an agenda to abduct them.
The mother Paige Hawkins reaching into her past seeking divine intervention.

The call going out to former US Marshal, Hunter Divine. An erstwhile lover who broke Paige’s heart. A man whose current existence is leaping from job to job and bed to bed. Hunter taking the case hoping for salvation in his futile life.

Can Hunter and his team prevent the kidnapping by an enemy with vast resources? The foe’s endgame to leverage these kids for their own vengeful desires. Hunter and his team toeing the line between virtue and vile. Drawing on wit, brawn, halos and pitchforks the ‘Divine Devils’ will scorch the earth to protect these kids. Even if it costs them…their eternal souls!

Hunter Divine and his team

Willing to move heaven and hell to get results!!

This is a good suspenseful story, with lots of twists and action.

One warning: I am going to contact the author and ask him for a job as his Grammar Police Chief. He really needs one.

[SheltieLover]

27. Sounds interesting!

Is it a cozy or graphic?

Thx for sharing.

[hermetic]

29. I haven't read these

But Amazon says: "The opening work to a continuing series, this novel is intended for mature reading audiences owing to the inclusion of explicit language throughout, and some non-graphic references to sex and violence."

[SheltieLover]

30. Thx!

[yellowdogintexas]

32. far from cozy!!! Full of action, lots of guns and knives and an evil villain nt

[SheltieLover]

33. Thx for sharing