What are you reading this week of December 25, 2016?

[hermetic]

MERRY CHRISTMAS!


I've started on the second novel in the Inspector Shan series, Water Touching Stone. The author, Eliot Pattison, is an international lawyer and author about international trade which plays an important part in these mysteries. I expect to read the entire series as I am really enjoying learning how it must feel to be in Tibet. Still having a little trouble keeping up with all the Chinese names and different bureaus of government. It's complicated.

I did read the second short story in Get In Trouble by Kelly Link. This one was about an actor famous for his role as a sexy vampire. Creepy fun. I hadn't realized this book was a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist for fiction. I'm sure enjoying reading it.

My sister sent me the 2017 Farmers Almanac. I've never read one before but I randomly opened it to a page about beer so I took that as a good sign that I should give it some of my time and attention.
Did Santa bring you any books?

Wishing you all a lovely, peaceful day.

[TexasProgresive]

1. Love the tree.

I just finished Peter Robinson's Piece of My Heart. I really like this guy. This is the 3rd of his Alan Banks books I've read recently. I will be reading more in the future. Robinson weaves a complex of mysteries with believable characters.

I am back to Ian Rankin with Witch Hunt downloaded to my kindle from the public library. I have only read the 1st line so I will get to it.

May everyone have happy holidays. Regardless of which you celebrate take joy in the light during this time of darkness. Better to light one candle than curse the darkness is what I hear.

[hermetic]

4. Gonna have to

get me a bunch of Robinson's books. Like I don't already have a huge pile to read.

[TexasProgresive]

2. Thanks for reminding me

We always have a current copy of the Farmer's Almanac in the bathroom. Will have to pick it up this week.

[japple]

3. Ho, ho, ho, and a belated Merry Christmas to all. Thanks to our trusty

elf, hermetic, for hosting this group.

I was in NC all of last week, pet sitting for friends who were visiting family in CA. It was so nice to be back in the NC mountains where I lived for 25 years. Didn't get a lot of reading done and, in fact, am still plugging away on Richard Grant's Dispatches from Pluto. Our elderly dog is waking up multiple times in the night wanting to go outside, hoping we'll give her a treat when she comes back inside or, if it's after 5:30 a.m., she might get breakfast. Between that and 2 of the cats who have to go out in the middle of the night to use the litter boxes on the screened-in front porch, I don't always get a lot of sleep. It's a good thing that I don't have to get up early and go to work, but it does make me fall asleep earlier than I normally would like and cuts into my reading time. I won't ever give up my critters, as they are such good companions, but I do wish they would all get on the same schedule as mine.

Speaking of cats and books, on my way back home to Georgia, I stopped at one of the best independent book stores in Western North Carolina--Books Unlimited in Franklin, NC. They have been in business for many years and have always had at least one shop cat. I took this picture of their current employee, hard at work greeting customers and spreading Christmas cheer.

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[hermetic]

5. Pretty kitty!

How lovely.

My 2 girls pretty much sleep the night away with me. Except sometimes one gets up around 3 and if there's not enough food in her dish, she bangs a cupboard door that doesn't close tightly. Bang, bang, bang. Yeah....I'm getting up...

[pscot]

6. Merry Christmas, Hermetic, and thanks for the thread

Last edited Thu Dec 29, 2016, 01:12 AM - Edit history (1)

No books at all this Xmas, but my lunatic sil gave me a sword cane. I'm essentially a man of peace except in the presence of Trumpers, and I have no idea what to make of the gift. I'm reading The Czar of Love and Techno, a collection of short stories by Anthony Marra. Also Submission by Michel Houellebecq, which imagines France as she transitions to Islamic sharia in 2022. One of the blurbs describes this as social satire. I'm not far enough along to judge.

On edit: this is a disturbing little novel. The writing is economical and polished and there's a lot to think about.

[hermetic]

7. And a merry Aftermas to you

Not sure what a sword cane is but sounds like something you should hang over your fireplace mantle. Should you have one. Or maybe just keep it by your door, just in case.

Let us know how much of a satire it is. I remember way back when I read The Satanic Verses, it was supposedly a satire. Knowing so little about Muslims back then, it was way over my head. I could not see what all the froofraw was about; I thought it was delightful.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. Just read A Cold and Lonely Place

by Sara J. Henry. In the Saranac Lake/Lake Placid region of upstate NY, a man is found frozen in ice in one of the the lakes. He's semi-local, sort of a drifter who'd been gone for a couple of months, but since he would sometimes take off for a while, he wasn't reported missing. Very good.

I'm still working on The Sympathizer. It's somewhat dense, and since it's about people in a very different culture, for me it's slow going.

[hermetic]

9. A Cold and Lonely Place

sure got a lot of great reviews. I'll put that on my list.

Was wondering, what did you think about the movie, The Best of Everything, as opposed to the book?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. I last saw the movie some years back, on some movie channel.

My recollection is that the Joan Crawford character is far more important in the movie than in the book. In the book she's an editor who is a minor character in the first third or so of the book, then goes away.

The movie also offers a far more conventional and sanitized version of things.

But I do have it on my Netflix list, so I should be watching it fairly soon.