What Fiction are you reading this week, November 26, 2023?

[hermetic]

I'm Reading What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman, a story that moves back and forth across the decades. Thirty years ago two sisters disappeared from a shopping mall. No clues or witnesses. Now someone finally has the answers, but who is she, really? A serious crime thriller, the writer also provides a fair amount of chuckles with her delightful prose.

Listening to Death in the Romance Aisle by Lynn Cahoon. More murder and mystery at the bookstore in Sedona. Easy reading/listening.

What books are in your fort this week?

[Polly Hennessey]

1. What the Dead Know is on my list.

[people]

2. Reading this week . . .

I'm reading The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish, a story that alternates between London in the early 2000's and London in the late 1600's. Scholars find a text hidden in a wall of a very old mansion. The text was written in the 1660's and they are trying to understand who wrote it and what happened to her, while also contending with their own lives in modern day London. Also reading The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. This is a story about 3 generations of a family in India. In each generation one male drowns and this is experienced as a curse on the family. Novel deals with love and development of science over time.

[cbabe]

3. Louisa Luna/Alice Vega series

New to me. Thriller/mysteries. Alice is quick, smart, strong. A thinker with a heart. Reminds me a bit of Kate Shugak and Jane Whitfield.

Lee Child: opening this book is like arming a bomb… sensational.

Three titles:
Two girls down
The James
Hideout

[hermetic]

6. Will have to give

Ms. Luna a look. Sounds like some good reads.

[japple]

4. A few years ago, I read Colson Whitehead's THE NICKEL BOYS and I was naturally drawn to

Tananarieve Due's book, The Reformatory. I've only read about 10% and can see that this will be hard to read.

Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.

Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it’s too late.

The Reformatory is a haunting work of historical fiction written as only American Book Award–winning author Tananarive Due could, by piecing together the life of the relative her family never spoke of and bringing his tragedy and those of so many others at the infamous Dozier School for Boys to the light in this riveting novel.

[hermetic]

5. That does sound riveting

And difficult.

[NewLarry]

7. Older, but I've never read it before

Alaska, by James Michner.

It's a looooong book, but Alaska has been there a while.

[hermetic]

8. Welcome to DU!

I read that one a looong time ago myself. An amazing piece of literature.

[yellowdogintexas]

9. Daughter of Damascus: Her secret life will shock the world

Imagine yourself walking the cobblestone streets of Damascus, where history comes alive. You'll hear the echoes of ancient civilizations and feel the magic of the city in the air. But be careful, for there are dangers lurking in the shadows.
Then, you'll be transported to the glittering metropolis of Dubai, where luxury is the norm. You'll stay in five-star hotels, dine in Michelin-starred restaurants. But even in this paradise, there is darkness lurking beneath the surface.
And throughout your journey, you'll be trying to solve the mystery of a heartbreaking murder. And you'll need to use all your wits to unravel the truth.

It's starting out good; definitely holding my attention.

[Jeebo]

10. "Julia" by Sandra Newman

It's a re-telling of the same story told in George Orwell's "1984" but from the point of view of Winston Smith's girlfriend.

-- Ron

[txwhitedove]

11. During a time warp waiting for next library

book order to arrive, I read a 99-cent Kindle special Storm an MC story with a bit of plot and sex. The biker guy with a heart of gold falls in love. Hmm, the bikers i knew of in another life were tougher. Yep, googled Banditos in TX and OK, was a shootout this year alone. But hey, the e-read was voyeuristic fiction. So, my wandering mind thought further research was necessary. Enforced reading of Hell's Angels, 1/2 way thru, will cut H.S.Thompson slack for his 1st book in 1967 and we've all read harsher in last 55 years. Redundant, circuitous timeline, and think I see why the HA's beat him up in the end. (The Woman They Could Not Silence was true, factual, historical, legalese, but an exciting quick read.) However, about to finish last half of Hell's Angels and it's much better in actually telling the true ish tale of the part media myth of outlaw HA's.

[WestMichRad]

12. Ministry for the Future

… by Kim Stanley Robinson. It’s about the disastrous consequences of climate change.

I figure that since I was able to read Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead” recently, and didn’t have to restrain myself from jumping off a bridge… I should be able to cope with the depressing subject matter in MftF.

[hermetic]

13. Oh gosh

"..a novel both immediate and impactful, desperate and hopeful in equal measure, and it is one of the most powerful and original books on climate change ever written."

[WestMichRad]

14. "... most powerful..." Indeed!

Right at the start, there’s a protracted heat wave in India with wet bulb temperatures in excess of 135, coupled with a widespread power failure. Fatalities across a large region are nearly 100%. A key character is one of the few survivors, who is racked with PTSD triggered by heat, yikes!
I have to brace myself and read this in small doses.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

15. I'm dual-reading

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis and Chang-Rae Lee's On Such a Full Sea. The dual read is because, to me, both draaaggggg along from the oblique way of telling the story. Makes me sleepy.

The narrative device of On Such a Full Sea is especially annoying. Same type from Victorian novels like Wuthering Heights with someone yammering about third parties like a gossipmonger. While Emily Brontë had mad writing skillz to compensate for the annoying narrative choice, this book...not so much.

If I can drag myself over the finish line with those two without dying of boredom, then I'm hoping to get to Butterfly Yellow by Thanhhà Lại and Sing Unburied Sing by Jessmyn Ward.