What are you reading this week of December 11, 2016?

[hermetic]

Finished The Ploughmen and at the end my jaw literally dropped. Then I thought, "WTF happened? Did I nod off and miss a page?" Guess I'll just have to read it again some day.

I was wanting some lighter fare then so I read the first story in Kelly Link's Get in Trouble. What a delight! The Summer People is one very strange tale. I've decided to read one of the short stories in between each novel I peruse. Which is now The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison.

At last, the tales from Tibet that our Scarletwoman was so enamored of. This first one is a doozy. Scary, horrible acts offset by the calming practices of Buddhism and the vast wilderness of Tibet. I'm liking it and plan to be reading more if not all of them.

Still listening to The Trespasser by Tana French. It's a long one. Lots of twists and turns and dark secrets from the past revealed.

Hoping this hectic time of year isn't interfering with your opportunity to get in a little calming reading.

[japple]

1. Thanks for the thread, hermetic. After finishing up on

Kate Grenville's book, The Secret River, which was a sad, sorrowful tale, beautifully told, I thought maybe some lighter fare would lift my spirits, and Dispatches From Pluto was next on my list.

Richard Grant and his girlfriend were living in a shoebox apartment in New York City when they decided on a whim to buy an old plantation house in the Mississippi Delta. Dispatches from Pluto is their journey of discovery into this strange and wonderful American place. Imagine A Year In Provence with alligators and assassins, or Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil with hunting scenes and swamp-to-table dining.

On a remote, isolated strip of land, three miles beyond the tiny community of Pluto, https://www.amazon.com/Dispatches-Pluto-Found-Mississippi-Delta/dp/1476709645/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8


Richard and his girlfriend, Mariah, embark on a new life. They learn to hunt, grow their own food, and fend off alligators, snakes, and varmints galore. They befriend an array of unforgettable local characters—blues legend T-Model Ford, cookbook maven Martha Foose, catfish farmers, eccentric millionaires, and the actor Morgan Freeman. Grant brings an adept, empathetic eye to the fascinating people he meets, capturing the rich, extraordinary culture of the Delta, while tracking its utterly bizarre and criminal extremes. Reporting from all angles as only an outsider can, Grant also delves deeply into the Delta’s lingering racial tensions. He finds that de facto segregation continues. Yet even as he observes major structural problems, he encounters many close, loving, and interdependent relationships between black and white families—and good reasons for hope.

Dispatches from Pluto is a book as unique as the Delta itself. It’s lively, entertaining, and funny, containing a travel writer’s flair for in-depth reporting alongside insightful reflections on poverty, community, and race. It’s also a love story, as the nomadic Grant learns to settle down. He falls not just for his girlfriend but for the beguiling place they now call home. Mississippi, Grant concludes, is the best-kept secret in America.

Richard Grant is a journalist, author and television presenter currently living in Tucson, Arizona. He is the author of three non-fiction books, American Nomads (Grove Press, 2003), God's Middle Finger (Free Press, 2008), and Crazy River: Exploration and Folly in East Africa, to be published by Free Press on October 25th 2011. He writes articles on a wide range of subjects for magazines and newspapers, publishing regularly in the Telegraph magazine (UK), and he is the writer and presenter of American Nomads, a documentary for the BBC based on the book of the same name.

[hermetic]

3. Sounds great

A Year In Provence and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil are two of my favorite books. I was a little surprised by the book cover, expecting stately trees and Spanish moss. Hope to read this one some day.

[Goblinmonger]

2. Finishing up The Hours.

I am trying to work through all the Pulitzer winners. I'm about 35% done.

After that I'm reading the princess saves herself in this one. This won the Goodreads poetry selection of the year and seems intriguing (and short).

[hermetic]

4. What?

No Eddas this week?

The princess does sound intriguing. Got terrific reviews on Amazon.

[Goblinmonger]

6. Nope. Took a bit off from Icelandic tales

Though I did order a copy of Independent People from Amazon for the plane ride and other down times. It was the book most responsible for Halldor Laxness winning the Nobel.

The princess is amazing. Glad I bought I it. She is going to make waves in the poetry world if she keeps it up. Another reason I'm glad I do the Goodreads thing, because I never would have heard about it otherwise. Or certainly not this soon.

[hermetic]

8. GoodReads is terrific

I recently got the email about this year's winners. Happy to see Underground Railroad and The Nest on there. Those are on my list of must-reads.

[eissa]

5. The Association of Small Bombs

The book is a nominee for the National Book Award for Fiction, and even though I haven't read the others on the list, I believe this one deserves the win

The book was inspired by a terrorist bombing of a market in India that killed 13 people. Since it was a "small" attack, it didn't garner the attention that those on a larger scale do. The story explores the lives of all those involved: the victims, their survivors, and the terrorists themselves. It is incredibly powerful, especially in the way it links their stories together. The author really does a phenomenal job of bringing each character to life, and delves into the pain and consequences of international terrorism. Highly recommend!

[hermetic]

7. Sounds like something we should

all read. Thanks for telling us about it.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. Bottom of the 33rd by Dan Barry.

The longest professional baseball game ever played. It started on April 18, 1981, the day before Easter, between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings, two triple A teams.

The author wanders back and forth in time, profiling players, managers, umpires, ball boys, and spectators, telling you their history to that point what what happened subsequently. Absolutely amazing book.

Also, I'm 11 out 59 holds for The Trespasser at my local library. Probably get it in another week or two. Make that more like three or four weeks since they only have three copies of the book, although they've just ordered an additional six copies. I've read all of her novels so far and they are wonderful.

[bif]

10. "My Brilliant Friend"

By Elena Ferrante. I'm about 50 pages in and it's beautiful so far.