What are you reading this week of October 30, 2016?

[hermetic]

Cue Spooky Music........


Come in to my parlor....
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.
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Pull up a chair
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.

bwahahaha

Finished Sweetland. Marvelous. Gets a bit creepy in the end. Ghosts?

Now I'm reading A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George. I've read many of the earlier Linley/Havers tales and didn't realize there was a new one out. I was delighted to find it at my library.

Listening to A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny. I'd already read the book but I was missing my old "friends" from the lovely town of Three Pines, so I decided to join in their fun and mystery once again.

You reading anything creepy this week, besides, you know, the daily news?

Now, a little poetic treat for your Halloween.

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[TexasProgresive]

1. Kick me out of Group if you want- Non Fiction this week

Thanks for starting the thread, hermetic.
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for God at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. 54 pages in and it is a great read so far. I don't know anything about crew racing except that it requires the crew to be as one and all must have incredible strength and ability. The "boys" manning the oars in this story are not the usual ivy league guys in a shell. They are from blue collar families rowing for Washington State. Not a spoiler since it is history, they make it to Berlin and they show Hitler what real Americans can do.

A nice treat in the closing of this tumultuous general election season and after reading The Girl from Krakow.

[northoftheborder]

3. Great story

Haven't read this book - but there was documentary recently on TV about this bunch. Fantastic guys - they succeeded because they worked TOGETHER as a team.

[hermetic]

6. Nah--you're good

Besides, I would bet all novels, whatever their genre, contain some fiction. No one could possibly know others' every single thought, word and deed. One of my favorite books of all time, Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat, although listed as an autobiography must surely have stretched the truth somewhat in order to be written as such a compelling story. I don't see that as a problem.

Anyway, sounds like a great story and I hope to read it someday. Back when I was a teenager, I had a boyfriend who was on a rowing team.

[TexasProgresive]

14. From what I've read so far it has to be one of the most demanding sports, if not the most.

As a cyclist I tend to think stage racing like Le Tour de France are the most, but it sounds like rowing requires nearly every muscle in the body to work in coordination along with all the members of the crew being perfectly synchronized.

All good fiction has a good skeleton of fact and all non-fiction that reads well will have a seasoning of fiction, too much fact in the former and it's a text book, too much fiction in the later and the truth suffers.

[shenmue]

2. "Sins of the Father," Graham Hurley

[hermetic]

8. Ooooh,

That sounds like a good mystery. Lots of suspects and twists.

[northoftheborder]

4. Philippa Gregory's books

about the times of Henry VIII and period up to Elizabeth the First. Historical fiction - Have decided the fiction outweighs the history content - tired of them. Have lined up to listen to "The Life of Elizabeth I" by Alison Weir. I'm fascinated by this period. It has lessons for us today, if people are even aware of history. It makes me so said that it isn't really taught in an interesting way in school.

The hundreds of years of wars endured by the British Isles and Europe over religious intolerance surely influenced the founders of our country when they put SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE into the founding documents.

[hermetic]

7. Indeed

I remember History classes being so tedious. Yet it's all fascinating stories of love, adventure, deeds both great and devious. I can't begin to imagine what those classes are like today, if they even still exist.

It seems evident we ARE doomed to repeating it.

[Number9Dream]

5. Started "The Hornet's Nest" by Jimmy Carter

Yes, the Jimmy Carter. It's a fictional novel about the Revolutionary War in Georgia and the Carolinas. The main plot and characters are fictional, but much of the story is non-fiction. I'm less than a hundred pages in, but so far, so good. I'll let you know what I think of Pres. Carter as a novelist after I finish. It's 465 pages of relatively small print... this might take awhile.

[hermetic]

10. He's written a bunch of books

My library has this one in large print format so I may have to check it out sometime. Do let us know what you think at the end.

[Goblinmonger]

9. Get in Trouble by Kelly Link

Collection of short stories that was a finalist for the Pulitzer this year. I have read the first short story and I think I'm going to like this.

Also finishing The Sympathizer. It's due back to the library in 3 days, so I have a clock ticking on that one.

[hermetic]

11. Halloween appropriate!

That sounds marvelous. Neil Gaiman calls her a “a national treasure” and Michael Chabon as “the most darkly playful voice in American fiction." This is a must-have for me.

[Goblinmonger]

12. Only one story in, but it's a very gentle darkness.

It was a comfortable read. Don't know if that makes sense. It's almost a dark fairy tale.

[hermetic]

13. Review says,

"...each new short story, to take readers deeply into an unforgettable, brilliantly constructed fictional universe. But as fantastical as these stories can be, they are always grounded by sly humor and an innate generosity of feeling for the frailty -- and the hidden strengths -- of human beings. In GET IN TROUBLE, this one-of-a-kind talent expands the boundaries of what short fiction can do."

So, yes, that makes sense.

[japple]

15. Hi everyone and thanks, hermetic, for the thread!

Still trekking through 1870s Texas with Capt. Kidd as he returns a 10 yr. old girl who was captured by the Kiowa people to her family in San Antonio. Paulette Jiles' book News of the World is quite an adventure! Just wish I could keep my eyes open longer at night.

[hermetic]

17. Hi,

Be grateful you can sleep these days. Some of us just lie there at night, eyes wide open and thinking: WTF?

[Tracer]

16. Britt-Marie Was Here

The latest from Fredrik Backman.

Enjoyable, as are his previous books.

[hermetic]

18. Mr.Backman

is certainly growing in popularity. I look forward to reading his books some day.