What Fiction are you reading this week, June 25, 2023?

[hermetic]

Reading Lie Beside Me by Gytha Lodge. "In this gripping novel, a young woman finds that trying to make sense of her life's bad choices might prove the most dangerous reckoning there is."

A couple of days ago I finished City of Endless Night by Preston & Child. At the end was a short About the Authors page which mentioned their website and how fans would likely enjoy what they had to offer there. Well, sign me up! Which I did and got a nice email from them welcoming me to the group and access to a free short story they wrote. If you like their books you should probably check this out...
https://www.prestonchild.com/

Listening to The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler. "A beautiful, subtle exploration of loss and recovery, pierced throughout with humor, wisdom, and a penetrating look at human foibles."

What books will you be checking out this week?

[LakeVermilion]

1. I'm finishing up "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold."

I've been trying to complete the works of John le Carre. Most of his books are vintage Cold War spy books.

My personal background is in education. I taught elementary classrooms for 27 years, then finished my career as an elementary school librarian. I've long been a proponent of children's literature. The genre is full of masterful writers.

[hermetic]

2. That's for sure

Here's a hug for you.

[MontanaMama]

3. I just finished Once and Future Witches

by Alix E. Harrow. I fell in love with this book after the first sentence…”Once upon a time there were three sisters.” I can’t do this novel justice here so I’ll link to a description below that does…I could not put this big book down. That’s saying a lot for me…but was mesmerized by it and by the end was dragging my feet to finish it because I didn’t want it to end. It’s that good. I don’t really enjoy historical novels and here I am recommending this! It’ll probably be banned in Florida…witching, suffragettes, racial injustice, lesbianism. Lordy it’s enough to make Ron DeSantis run skerd.

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/17/924561383/the-once-and-future-witches-will-have-you-spellbound

Witches were powerful, once. Now, witching is illegal. At a suffragist rally in New Salem, 1893, Beatrice Belladonna Eastwood unwittingly performs a partial spell which reveals a magical tower in the sky — and brings together estranged sisters. Beatrice is the eldest, a librarian, folklorist, and lesbian; then there's Agnes Amaranth, stoic, pregnant, a street-savvy factory girl; finally, James Juniper, youngest, wildest, a country-girl and murderess. Their shared history is a tangle of hurt and betrayal, but they loved each other, once. The New Salem Women's Association kicks Juniper out when she agitates for witching rights alongside the vote, so she starts The Sisters of Avalon; a new movement, bold, aggressive, open to all women. Agnes recruits others, while Beatrice works on a shared grimoire. Her goal — the ultimate goal of The Sisters of Avalon — is to find the rest of the tower-spell and reclaim magic believed lost. Meanwhile, plague and panic are on the rise. Fringe-party politician Gideon Hill blames witchcraft. People are listening, and there's something wrong with the shadows of New Salem ...

So much of The Once and Future Witches is about what could happen when women talk to each other, sharing knowledge, building community. Harrow knows community is power; that it can be found and built. Forging connections takes work and it's often as challenging to accept support as it is to give it. The Once and Future Witches has much to say about isolation and the shapes a society takes when it is scornful of parts of itself. It also explores what is owed family, the past and future.

[hermetic]

4. That sounds marvelous

Can't wait to read it. Thanks.

There's no such thing as witches. But there will be.

[MontanaMama]

8. Indeed! There will be.

My cousin just listened to this audio version and she highly recommends it.

[hermetic]

9. Cool

I just checked my library and they have the audio version on order. And there's already 2 people on the waiting list for it. Which doesn't really surprise me as there's a nice little group of practitioners in Twin Falls. I added my name to hopefully help move it along a bit.

[Ponietz]

5. The Magic Mountain

It was assigned reading almost 40 years ago in my final semester. At the time, I thought that either I was too busy to give it the attention it deserved or else the book was overrated. I wasn’t sure what the point was. I saved my Penguin copy all these years.

I conclude it is a book to be savored with profound meditations on death, time, love, duty, nature, sickness, health, the middle class, politics and religion. The roots of fascism and humanism are a frequent theme.

[hermetic]

6. By Thomas Mann in 1924, I assume

720 pages. That's a lot to commit to. Sounds worth it, though.

"In this dizzyingly rich novel of ideas, Mann uses a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps--a community devoted exclusively to sickness--as a microcosm for Europe, which in the years before 1914 was already exhibiting the first symptoms of its own terminal irrationality. The Magic Mountain is a monumental work of erudition and irony, sexual tension and intellectual ferment, a book that pulses with life in the midst of death."

[Jilly_in_VA]

7. I read a lot last week

because we were on vacation and there were long flights, airport waits, and one day when I didn't want to move much. (Well, actually I was the one on vacation--spousal unit was at a huge tech thingy in Las Vegas and I went along for the fun.)

Among other things, I read Recycled Virgin, by Dorothyanne Brown, which was actually pretty good--it posits the Virgin Mary going through endless lifetimes, in search of something, which we find at the very end. In the present one, she's attending a theological college in Nova Scotia, which presents some humor along with a dash of romance.

Vortex, by Kimberly Packard, which was a nice, twisty story (unintentional bit of wordplay there!) about a young woman who is a storm chaser in search of her past. It was pretty good but left some things unfinished, and no, there's no sequel.

The Story of You and Me, by Pamela duMond, a sweet YA romance which was sort of a palate-cleanser, about a young woman with MS who's attending UCLA for the summer and meets a handsome young man on her first night there who gets her out of a "situation" and later becomes her driver. Sweet without being sticky or stupid. It opens, incidentally, with her ducking a thrown beer glass at the neighborhood bar and grill......

And finally, Who She Was, by Braylee Parkinson, the first of the Sylvia Wilcox mysteries, set in Detroit and environs, about the wife of a wealthy doctor who was apparently not at all who she looked like at first glance. I will definitely be looking for more in this series. I found Sylvia to be a very likable and interesting PI, and the tale had more twists than a mountain switchback.

On my list next, I think, may be The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's my favorite genre, alternate history, but the reviews are all over the place. I guess I'll just have to make up my own mind!

[hermetic]

11. Nice way to vacay!

Lots of good reading. I look forward to your take on Rice and Salt, which sounds quite big, in many ways.

[Polly Hennessey]

10. I am rereading A Canticle for Leibovitz by

Walter M. Miller, Jr. I am enjoying it just as much the second time.

Winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel and widely considered one of the most accomplished, powerful, and enduring classics of modern speculative fiction, Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s A Canticle for Leibowitz is a true landmark of twentieth-century literature -- a chilling and still-provocative look at a post-apocalyptic future.

In a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study and preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint Isaac Leibowitz. From here the story spans centuries of ignorance, violence, and barbarism, viewing through a sharp, satirical eye the relentless progression of a human race damned by its inherent humanness to recelebrate its grand foibles and repeat its grievous mistakes. Seriously funny, stunning, and tragic, eternally fresh, imaginative, and altogether remarkable, A Canticle for Leibowitz retains its ability to enthrall and amaze. It is now, as it always has been, a masterpiece.

[hermetic]

12. I've always wanted to read that

Kind of hard to find now. Plus my old age eyes have trouble reading old faded print.

[Jilly_in_VA]

13. Try Amazon for used copies

or an e-version if you have an iPad. Or borrow it from the library if possible; they can likely get it on inter-library loan if they don't have it, maybe even in large print.

[hermetic]

14. The large print is a good idea

Thanks.

[yellowdogintexas]

27. not sure where you live but check for a Half Price Books store

They just might have it

[Number9Dream]

15. Returned "Stonehenge" by Bernard Cornwell to my library unfinished.

Thanks for the thread, hermetic.

I'm a fan of Cornwell's Saxon series and the Excalibur series, but this book never caught my interest. About halfway through, I returned it to the library. As one reviewer put it, "The book doesn't connect. For one thing it lacks the humor which leavens the drama and gore of his Saxon series."

I'm waiting for an inter-library loan to come in (hopefully very soon).

[hermetic]

16. Hi

I hate when that happens. You invest time in a book and it just doesn't cut it, so you give up. Well. I won't be getting that one. So, thanks for that. Hope your new one comes in soon.

[The King of Prussia]

17. Lie Beside Me is a cracker

The next in the series - Little Sister - is even better.

I'm trying to read The Canary Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine - but life is getting in the way. I think I'm going to enjoy it.

[hermetic]

19. Good to see you

I hope all is well, or at least good enough, where you are. These are trying times for so many people, everywhere. Thank goodness for books. And friends.

[The King of Prussia]

21. Life for us is very good right now

Despite living under a shitty, corrupt and bigoted government. I'm loving my new job. And, unlike many, we have a few spare quid to spend (much of it on books).

It's the literary festival here just now, so today we went to see an event with Val McDermid and Abir Mukherjee.

[hermetic]

22. Lovely!

Delighted to hear.

Pretty good here, too. Weather is pleasant. I have a few tomato plants growing in my garden. And I am devoting all my time, when not reading, to taking care of 4 kittens, who lost their mother. So now they think that's me. Never a dull moment.

[The King of Prussia]

23. Four kittens?

I bet that's hard work. We still have the three cats - Russo (the youngest) has completely integrated with the older two - to our delight. Although we had house guests this weekend - including one alk the way from Arkansas - and Russo freaked out and hid from them.

[yellowdogintexas]

18. "No Way Out" by Fern Michaels who can really tell a story

This is a stand-alone book. I am about 60% through and am really liking it. Of course Ms Micheals' books are always good reads!

This was in my Prime reading library; I am attempting to work my way through them to clean out the shelf so I can get more.

Ellie Bowman barely remembers the incident that put her into a coma. When she awoke, filled with unease, all she knew for certain was that her boyfriend, Rick, was missing. She knew she needed to get away from her old life and recover in safety. With the proceeds of a video game she helped develop, Ellie starts over in rural Missouri, working from her cottage and trusting no one except her friend and business partner.

Yet even in this quiet small town, it’s impossible to completely isolate herself. Especially when a curious eight-year-old boy, smitten with Ellie’s pup, stops by every day to talk to him over the fence. Little by little, Ellie is being drawn back into the world through the neighbors and community around her, realizing that everyone has their own fears and obstacles to contend with.

But when Ellie hears that Rick has resurfaced, her nightmares return, and with them, small snippets of memory. No one has heard from Rick since before the incident, so why is he back now? Ellie wants to move forward with her life, but first she must find the courage to look into her past, no matter what she finds there

[hermetic]

20. I agree

Fern can really turn a tale. Thanks, as always, for sharing.

[japple]

24. Tonight I will begin reading Luis Alberto Urrea's book,

Good Night, Irene

“In Good Night, Irene, Urrea pays moving tribute to his mother and her Clubmobile comrades whose wartime service was largely forgotten because, even though they sometimes served under fire, they merely staffed what was called the "chow-and-charm circuit." . . . As befits a contemporary war novel, Good Night, Irene is morally nuanced: It doesn't turn away from scenes of random violence inflicted by our "boys" and it also acknowledges the traumas endured by many who served and survived. Maybe, in Good Night, Irene, Urrea has written yet another powerful "border story" after all: this time about the border between those who live in blessed ignorance of the worst humankind can do and those who keep that knowledge to themselves, often locked in silence.”
―NPR

This one sounds like it's right up my alley. Oh, and my sister and I are feeding a stray mama cat and her 5 wild kittens in hopes of trapping the whole family. Mama is VERY sweet but was probably thrown out at the recreation center where we go walking. I know I can get her in a carrier, but will have to use a drop trap for those kittens.

[hermetic]

25. Oh, good luck with that

All my trapping has been in my yard where ferals have been hanging out since before I moved here. So it's been pretty easy. Put a can of cat food in and have a cord on the door to pull. The hard part is finding forever homes for them, which is why I am now living with 20 cats. Don't tell anyone, though. Having that many is illegal here unless you have a license.

Hey,we do what we can, right?

[mike_c]

26. last week I finished The Covenant of Water (Abraham Verghese)...

...and a couple of non-fiction books, Poverty by America (Matthew Desmond) and Hands of Time: A Watchmaker's History (Rebecca Struthers).

Verghese's story is set on India's Malabar Coast, later Kerala from 1900 until 1977. It's both a family chronicle and a medical mystery about a family who often inherit a great fear of water, and frequently drown even in the shallowest of irrigation ditches and rice paddies. The ending blew me away.

I'm not sure what to pick up next. I think maybe Jennifer Egan's A Visit From the Goon Squad, which has been on my TBR bookshelf for a few years. I have the sequel as well, so let's see if they keep me engaged.

[mentalsolstice]

28. Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

I’m sorry I haven’t been active in this group. I used to be a voracious reader, however because of a neurological condition, Dystonia, I haven’t the attention span to read books for several years. I could read DU and magazines and newspapers, but nothing too long.

My mom taught me to read when I was three. She never censored what I read as long as I would come to her if I had questions. She belonged to the Random House book of the month club, and by the time I was eight I would pick up whatever she had just read. No banned books in our house! To me reading a good book has always been like having a great movie going through my mind, for days on end.

The past week I made a breakthrough and have had my nose in an ebook every chance I can get! I have always been mostly into character driven books, however, I’m open minded to suggestions. I look forward to participating more often in this group.

[hermetic]

29. That is great!

Welcome back.

I've been an avid reader all my life, too. So I can imagine how difficult this must have been for you. Well, we are here every week with all sorts of new and old books so we look forward to having you here, as well.

Looks like you are off to a good start with Those Who Save Us, a profound exploration of what we endure to survive and the legacy of shame.