What are you reading this week of August 27, 2017?

[hermetic]

To all our wonderful Texas friends: Sincerely hope you are safe, dry and damage-free. I imagine many of you are only reading weather forecasts right now and I pray those are improving. Please check in, here or in the big post in GD.


I am still enjoying my Louise Erdrich book. It's wonderfully strange.

What wonderful books are on your list this week?

[fierywoman]

1. pure escapism

Jacqueline Winspear: Messenger of Truth (from the Maisie Dobbs series)

[hermetic]

3. Goodness knows

We need all the escapism we can get these days.

[matt819]

2. Only a couple on the go at the moment

Listening to Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown. Story is about a woman - wife and mother - who disappears while on a solo hike. Husband and daughter left behind. Daughter starts having visions of her mother, husband begins to learn secrets that prompt him to consider that his wife might not be dead. Don't know how it's going to end. If I was reading it, it would be a page turner.

Reading Universal Harvester by John Darnielle. Set in late 1990s in a small town in Nevada, Iowa (pronounced Ne-VAY-da) and centered on the town video store. Some videos are found to have odd little sequences, possibly/probably filmed locally, and inserted into the VHS tapes at the store. Mysteries ensue. So far, captures life in small town/small dreams America, where the big dream is to go to work for a local company in a bigger town. Then there's the issue of what the inserted clips mean. As above, don't know where it's going, which is fine. A bit slow-going, but a good story.

[hermetic]

4. Those sound really good

Interesting plot setups. I like audibles. Sorry to see my library doesn't have either of those. I'll keep an eye out elsewhere. Thanks for sharing.

[PoorMonger]

5. Traditions of The Skidi Pawnee by George Amos Dorsey

A grad school reading


The following collection of traditions was begun in 1899, under a special grant made by the Field Columbian Museum, and was carried on until the end of 1902, from which time the work has been continued with funds provided by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The Trustees of both of the above-named institutions have kindly consented to the publication of the traditions in the present form. In addition to the material here presented I have about forty other tales from theS kidi, chiefly of the class called Coyote, which contain one or more songs, the music of which has been recorded by means of the phonograph; publication of these is deferred until another time. In all the work I have relied largely upon the assistance of James R. Murie, a well-educated Skidi half-breed, without whose services it is probable that the present collection would not have been made. Provision has been made for the collecting of the traditions of the other three bands of the Pawnee, as well as those of the closely related A rikara, and theW ichita and Caddo; this work is well advanced. George A, Dorsey.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

[hermetic]

6. That sure sounds interesting

I've always been fond of Coyote tales.

[shenmue]

7. A Storm of Swords by George Martin

Just finished Prime Suspect 1973 by Lynda La Plante. The ending was so emotionally draining, I've been knocked for a loop. Really. Terrific book, except for some stupid plot choices near the end. Oh, how I wish I had a magic wand to change things. Sigh.

[hermetic]

8. Yeah

I hate when that happens. I was curious so looked that up. Seems Lynda is primarily a screenplay writer for TV and many people don't think her novels come off as well as her shows do. Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, so...

[PoorMonger]

9. Carnivalesque by Neil Jordan

Magical storyteller Neil Jordan steps into the realm of fantasy--for fans of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and The Watchmaker of Filigree Street.

It looked like any other carnival, but of course it wasn't. The boy saw it from the car window, the tops of the large trailer rides over the parked trains by the railway tracks. His parents were driving towards the new mall and he was looking forward to that too, but the tracery of lights above the gloomy trains caught his imagination . . .

Andy walks into Burleigh's Amazing Hall of Mirrors, and then he walks right into the mirror, becomes a reflection. Another boy, a boy who is not Andy, goes home with Andy's parents. And the boy who was once Andy is pulled--literally pulled, by the hands, by a girl named Mona--into another world, a carnival world where anything might happen.

Master storyteller Neil Jordan creates his most commercial novel in years in this crackling, cinematic fantasy--which is also a parable of adolescence, how children become changelings, and how they find their own way.

[TexasProgresive]

10. Still reading "The Axeman's Jazz" by Julie Smith

It's ironic since it reminds me of New Orleans were I spent part of my youth with most of the rest in Houston. Katrina drowned NOLA and Harvey is doing the same for Houston. Just to let you know we are about 125 miles north of Houston. We've gotten 7 to 8 inches of rain since it started. There are some road closures near us but the flooding is localized. The goats and their dog are happy that I haven't cleaned out the barn. They are high and dry and would be happy but for cabin fever.

[hermetic]

12. Yay!

You know I was wondering about you and am ever so glad to hear you are out of harm's way. Hope it stays like that. Take care, my friend.

I am still heartbroken, though, over the devastation of Houston.

[TexasProgresive]

14. Thanks for your welcome concern.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. Last week, driving to and from the eclipse,

I listened to One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper fforde. OMG! How fabulous! It's the first of any of his books I've ever read, and I'm going back to the beginning of the series to read them all.

Right now I'm reading I Found You by Lisa Jewell. A man shows up on a beach at a British seaside town, apparently bereft of memory. Meanwhile, a young wife reports her husband missing, but apparently there's no official record of his existence. I'm just 25 pages into it and it's quite good. Turns out Ms. Jewell has written a bunch of novels. Sigh. I will need to read them all, I know.

I'd take an immortality treatment just to read all the books I want to read.

[hermetic]

13. So would I!

Mr. Fforde (love that name) just made my list. There is one audible at my library, The Eyre Affair so I'll be giving that a listen tout de suite.

Ms. Jewell, as well ( ) has one book there I can start with, The Girls in the Garden.
“Jewell expertly builds suspense by piling up domestic misunderstandings and more plot twists than an SVU episode. It’s a page-turner for readers who like beach reads on the dark side.” —People Yup. That I do.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. I just got "The Eyre Affair"

out of the library, and there are several other books by Jewell in the system. I'll start reading those, also.

I almost hate it when I discover a new to me writer who's already got a body of work out there. And it can be so annoying to see such wonderful recommendations here, that I will not bother to stop by for weeks. I currently have ten books checked out of the library, have fifteen others on hold, and one purchase selection in the system. I also have several hundred books I own, perhaps half of which have not been read yet.