What Fiction are you reading this week, June 11, 2023?

[hermetic]

I finished my last library book, Sandford's Deep Freeze, and pulled a book from my owned pile to hold me over for a few more days til I can get the the library again. It is Christmas Sweets, three yuletide tales of mystery, murder, and romance, all gathered in one volume. Authors are Joanne Fluke, Laura Levine and Leslie Meier. Includes recipes. Lots of laughs. Terrific little book.

Listening to Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. The career of a gifted research chemist, self-assured and immune to social convention, takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show. Stephen King called it "the Catch-22 of early feminism." It's quite funny.

What's cooking on your book list this week?

[question everything]

1. Scene of the Climb by Kate Dyer-Seeley

It is a mystery book about participants in an extreme sports - "Survivor"-like.

They have been racing in different states and are now in Oregon.

The narrator is a recent graduate of journalism who got a job at a publication dedicated to extreme sport and her assignment is to cover the Oregon event. Until she witnessed someone falling down a cliff. An accident or a murder?

Their warmups are climbing to Angel's Rest along the Columbia River Gorge.

What a love letter to the area! The climb, with the sheer cliffs with no place to dig one's fingers is described with details.

Another chapter describes with details Multnomah Falls, the history, the bridge and the lodge built in the 1920s.

I don't know yet whodunit, but the descriptions of the area are fascinating.

[hermetic]

2. Gorgeous area

And NOT a good place to fall off a cliff. Thanks for telling us about it. Sounds good.

[cbabe]

3. The Deluge/Stephen Markley

End of world climate change. Nearly 900 pages. Mishmash cast of characters. Lots of interwoven plots.

Hard for fiction to beat daily headlines. Alberta, home of tar sands disaster, burns and smoke shuts down the US east coast.

King’s The Stand and Butler’s Parable of the Sower are more memorable.

Lots to pick apart/discuss but mostly I call this a reader’s book. No big moments or characters but snacks for a rainy afternoon booktime.

[hermetic]

5. Sounds quite heavy

In every sense of the word. It's recently published and real life events. The author seems quite talented. His other book, Ohio, sounds like nonfiction, too.

[Backseat Driver]

4. Not fiction this week, sorry - more of an autobiographical

memoir describing foods he's encountered along his life's journey, then battling cancer - He's been a great host of a recent food series "Searching for Italy" broadcast on CNN while visiting locations in Italy.

Taste - My Life through Food by Stanley Tucci.

Hopefully, I'll get through more than 3 pages per night and return to that new Rushdie fiction, "Victory City" soon.

[hermetic]

6. Ooh, I love Rushdie's writing.

I didn't know there was a new one. "The epic tale of a woman who breathes a fantastical empire into existence, only to be consumed by it over the centuries."

That Tucci book does sound pretty good.

[mike_c]

7. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

I'm enjoying it. It's a family saga centered around the life of a woman in Kerala, South India. Verghese is a physician as well as a novelist, so the narrative also includes developments in the world of medicine during the 20th century. This is my first taste of Verghese's work, and I like it.

I did finish Demon Copperhead (Barbara Kingsolver) last week while we were camping. As I'd hoped, the lack of distraction helped me focus on the story. Once engrossed I couldn't put it down.

[hermetic]

8. Oh good

So glad you were able to enjoy the Demon. I've heard so many great things about it.

The Covenant [/bsounds wonderful, as well. "A shimmering evocation of a lost India and of the passage of time itself... Imbued with humor, deep emotion, and the essence of life, it is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years."

[japple]

9. Still reading and enjoying Charles Frazier's latest book,

The Trackers. His style of writing really appeals to me--it flows very naturally. I have just gotten to the part where they are starting to do the tracking. Very interesting story and history of that time in Wyoming and PNW.

I have Lessons in Chemistry on my list of books to read. It has been extremely popular.

Thank you for the weekly thread, hermetic.

[hermetic]

10. You are most welcome

Lessons has some really unforgettable lines. Laugh out loud stuff.

[yellowdogintexas]

11. Flapjack: The Casefiles of Icarus Investigations

Book 1

The world may never be the same with these two detectives. It's time to meet the team at Icarus Investigations as they handle their first case.

Murphy and Galveston realize there must be more to life than their mind-numbing cubical jobs. Over a barbeque lunch, Galveston attempts to convince his friend to join him in a daring new career as a private investigator. With nothing to lose, Murphy reluctantly agrees. Relying heavily on their humorous wit and questionable tactics, the men employ a creative approach to their investigations. For a time these methods prove successful, until they push too far and find themselves mired in the case of a lifetime.


An explosion rocks a New England university lab, setting off a carefully orchestrated chain of events. A small device has been stolen, a key to the entire world's energy problems and the power that comes with controlling it. The fate of the invention and its inventor sits in the hands of two newly self-proclaimed private detectives.


The two men, under the threat of arrest by the FBI, begin to criss-cross the country and the world, picking up clues to the puzzle of the missing device in England, Mexico, and even Brazil. Dead ends seem at every turn, but with the help of an outcast computer expert, a British spy and former flame of Galveston's, and a new employee whom Murphy can't seem to keep his eyes off of, the investigators unwind the case using their unorthodox approach, berating each other at every turn.


Who is looking to control this device and its destiny? Is it the huge multinational security firm, a devious billionaire, or a questionable member of Congress? Murphy and Galveston must find out why something so small is causing problems so large, because the hunters are quickly becoming the hunted.


Flapjack has it all - action, adventure, fun, and humor - without profanity or graphic adult situations (but still plenty of mayhem). So join the adventure and escape with the private eyes of Icarus Investigation.

I picked this up as a Prime loan a long time ago and just never got around to reading it. It is going to be a fun ride

[hermetic]

12. Author: Daniel Ganninger

Just thought I'd add that. Those do sound worth looking up. Thanks.