What Fiction are you reading this week, July 23, 2023?

[hermetic]

Is that a copy of The Prince and the Paw-purr?

Still working my way through Quantum Radio by A. G. Riddle. It's long but sadly is going downhill from an interesting premise at the start, to the plot devolving into a sequence of unbelievable coincidences. As one critic put it, "straying too far from its sci-fi roots and relying too much on awkward dialogue-driven exposition and an overly contrived plot." Oh well, they can't all be winners.

Listening to A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train. This is a rather complicated murder mystery with many characters to keep track of. It gets quite grim. Perhaps better read than listened to.

Hope you all have something more satisfying on your reading lists this week.
Another scorcher out there today. That heat dome thingy is alarming. Stay cool.

[Srkdqltr]

1. Reading The Wizard's Butler, by Nathan Lowell

The butler is a quiet but tough man who takes the job of butler to an old man who is a wizard. So far very interesting read. I'm not finished as yet but I'm enjoying it so far.
The story is mostly about growing up and older.

[hermetic]

3. That sounds nice

Thanks

[cyclonefence]

2. Charles Portis

Thanks to a wonderful review I found in the stack of New Yorkers I'm working my way through. He's familiar, maybe, as author of "True Grit." Library of America has released a collection of his works (a couple of short novels, including TG, with short stories and newspaper pieces) in one volume, and I bought it.

The first novel--novelette, really, just over 100 pg--is "Norwood," about a discharged Marine from Ralph, TX, sent home to take care of his sister, Vernell, when their father died. Poor old Norwood left the service in such a kerfuffle that he forgot to collect the $70 he was owed from another Marine, and he is determined to get his money back. And thereby hangs a tale.

It is funny, picaresque, endearing and one of those stories you wish would never end.

I've moved on to "True Grit" and (groan: obvious) it's *so much better* than the movie with Hailey Steinberg, which was a really good movie.

If you're looking for something funny and endearing and really wonderful, try Charles Portis.

[hermetic]

4. OK will do

I'm always looking for something funny and endearing.

I did see the movie, so long ago, a and quite enjoyed it.

[japple]

17. Charles Portis is a wonderful writer. I adore True Grit and it's much, much

better than the John Wayne version, but I loved the version with Hailee Steinberg and Jeff Bridges. I also really liked Dog of the South.

[cyclonefence]

24. Dog of the South

is the one I'm really looking forward to reading. If you haven't read Norwood, you might love it. I do.

And I agree about the TG movies. Jeff Bridges is imo underrated; in many movies he demonstrates a mastery I rarely see. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is an example. I told a friend of mine who lives in CA Bridges did the best job of acting a stroke I'd ever seen (and I worked in a rehab hospital at the time!). She actually ran into him--at a bookstore!!!--and told him that, and he was mightily pleased.

[japple]

32. Thank you for the bit about Jeff Bridges. I think he is a very good actor and a good

person. I will add Norwood to my list.

[cyclonefence]

33. I love the idea that my friend ran into him in a bookstore

That alone--that he buys and presumably reads--books speaks (ahem) volumes about his character imo.

[mentalsolstice]

25. I loved True Grit, the book.

I think the 2d movie version was better than the first.

[The King of Prussia]

5. "The Great Darkness" by Jim Kelly

The first of his "Nighthawk" series. It's set in Cambridge in the early weeks of the Second World War. It's excellent. I'm alternating Jim Kelly's books with Mike Hollow's "Blirz Detective" series - set in London a few months later. Also very good.

[hermetic]

6. That is great

New detective stories for me to look for. Thanks!

[txwhitedove]

7. Hi. Reading The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, a bestseller

but seems dry in the beginning and hasn't caught me yet. Went to local Half Priced Books yesterday and found 3 books, one Lost Horizon read years ago. A granddaughter went with me, apparently it was torture.

[hermetic]

8. Maybe it will get better

Review says: Miller's page-turning, profoundly moving, and blisteringly paced retelling of the epic Trojan War...

I guess kids are only interested in electronic entertainment now days.

[txwhitedove]

14. Yes, this 13 year old would rather watch the movie. Her

older sister is an avid reader like me, but she was in Dallas getting MVP in softball tournament.

[mike_c]

10. "...apparently it was torture."

The things grandkids must endure!

[txwhitedove]

15. Reading is yucky, but helping fill potholes in backyard and

pull weeds is okay. It's too hot for full granny's workhouse.

[mike_c]

9. I finished The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu last week up

I've started the last book in the series, Death's End. I'm really enjoying the trilogy. We've had 110+ temperatures for the last couple weeks, so staying inside and reading is easy!

[hermetic]

11. Good plan

Oh, check this out Sea of Dreams, he first of sixteen new graphic novels from Liu Cixin. An epic tale of the future that all science fiction fans will enjoy.

[mike_c]

13. thanks!

The final book in a series always leads to the "What will I read next?" dilemma!

[cbabe]

12. Louise Penny title on library hold. But...

book disappeared from the system. A real mystery book!

Picked up newish baldacci Long Shadows: a memory man thriller off the shelf to keep in shape.

Lots of repetition. New characters told not shown. Florida locale is flat (so to speak), mostly about golf and retirees. Pretty ho hum title. Too bad because first in the series was compelling.

Question: does baldacci actually write his books? I’ve heard some talk that James Patterson mostly runs a writing factory? Or am I off base…?

[hermetic]

16. That IS a mystery

Or not. Her books are really popular so someone absconding with one seems probable. My library's books have a thing that beeps if you try to sneak one out. I'm sure there are ways around it, though.

Never heard that about Patterson or Baldacci. Maybe someone else here has some insight.

[mentalsolstice]

27. I don't know about Baldacci, my mom reads his books....

However, I’ve seen James Patterson’s TV ads for his books, kinda creepy. He gives off a Thomas Kinkade (painter of light) vibe.

[cbabe]

28. Did a little digging. Patterson writes outlines and co-writers write the books.

https://www.newyorker.com › magazine › 2022 › 06 › 20 › how-james-patterson-became-the-worlds-best-selling-author

How James Patterson Became the World's Best-Selling Author

Jun 13, 2022His co-writers then flesh out these narrative skeletons into installments of popular series that include the Women's Murder Club (a crime-solving group of friends in San Francisco) and Michael...

[japple]

18. I really enjoyed A. B. Guthrie's, Fair Land Fair Land and wish more of his

work were available in e-book format.

Just started reading Lynne Olson's book, Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler and so far, it's interesting and well written.

It's too hot to get outside here, so we just stay inside and read!

[hermetic]

19. Same as it ever was..,

Well, not the heat but the book. "this tour de force offers a stirring commentary on a country''s physical and spiritual erosion, as relevant today as it was a decade ago."

[Polly Hennessey]

20. Have started a new cozy by one of my favorites, Blaize Clement.

“Raining Cat Sitters and Dogs” just a fun book for bedtime reading.

[hermetic]

22. That does sound like a fun read

Thanks

[yellowdogintexas]

21. Wages of Sin J Robert Kennedy (James Acton #17)

I really enjoy this author! This series is in my favorite subgenre "Archaeological Thriller), and the action is a mile a minute in these books There are 38 books in this series so I still have a lot of fun to look forward to. I think I have read 24 of them.

WHEN IS THE PRICE TO PROTECT A NATION'S LEGACY TOO HIGH?

Archaeology Professors James Acton and Laura Palmer are on safari in South Africa, enjoying a vacation away from the bullets and bombs that too often threaten their lives, when a chance encounter leads to a clue that could unlock the greatest mystery remaining of the Boer War over a century ago.

The location to over half a billion dollars in gold.



It’s a treasure that has claimed dozens of lives, and is about to claim even more.

[hermetic]

23. A whole new series

to explore and enjoy. Thanks!

[yellowdogintexas]

30. Bwa ha ha!!! This series can be enjoyed out of order, too

The books are written as standalones but full of recurring characters. I do recommend reading book #1 first because it sets up a lot of the future interactions of the characters.

[mentalsolstice]

26. The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose

A murder mystery/legal thriller. So “light” reading for me after the books I’ve read over the last few weeks. And it’s a freebie from Amazon Prime. It will be a quick read.

I finished Every Last One by Anna Quindlan. It was okay, however, there are much better in that genre.

I hope it’s cooled down where you’re at, and Happy Reading for all!

[Jeebo]

29. "The Ceres Solution" by Bob Shaw

I read this one thirty-some years ago and remember really enjoying it. I found my old paperback copy of it the other day when I opened up a sealed box of paperbacks that had been in storage for some years.

It's a science-fiction novel about a spacefaring human civilization that gets around in a unique way. Most science-fiction has humans getting around in metal ships through things like wormholes or with hyperdrive or whatever, but this novel has a truly original method: These extraterrestrial humans know about another kind of energy, something they call "third-order forces" that they are able to latch onto to instantaneously transport themselves across interplanetary and even interstellar distances.

Third-order forces are as unknown to us terrestrial humans as infrared radiation was to cave dwellers, and we terrestrial humans are poor relations to extraterrestrial humans, who know about us and move among us and watch us clandestinely, but we of course are not aware of them. The extraterrestrial humans also have life spans of about fifty centuries.

Third-order forces converge on confluence points called "nodes" and it is at these nodes that the extraterrestrial humans transport themselves. There are a few dozen of these nodes on the surface of the planet Earth, at places like Easter Island and Stonehenge. I have visited Stonehenge and wow, there really is something weird about that place, about the way it feels. Reading this novel makes me think of Stonehenge.

-- Ron

[hermetic]

34. Cool

I would love to able to visit Stonehenge. Thanks for sharing.

[Paper Roses]

31. Sidney Sheldon: Are you afraid of the dark.

A great read so far. Near the end and am surprised at what happens.
I get most of my books from friends and "the Little Free Libraries". Some choices are good, others go back for someone else to take a chance. I have an arrangement with a circle of friends to exchange books. This is a good one and will pass it on.

[hermetic]

35. Sounds like a winner.