What Fiction are you reading this week, November 10, 2019?

[hermetic]

Imagine a world without wars


Still enjoying Laurie R. King’s The Game. Just finished Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger which is REALLY good. Soon to be getting acquainted with Vera Stanhope, Ann Cleeves’ irascible Detective Chief Inspector.

Been too busy to read much this past week what with working at the polls and outside chores. We are having temperatures warmer than usual for this time of year. Warmest regards to all my friends who are about to get smucked with a deep freeze.

, appreciation and apologies to all our veterans. I suspect that if grave-spinning were a real thing there would be a lot of it going on these days.

[cyclonefence]

1. "House of Mirth" by Edith Wharton

Don't know how I got this old without having read it.

Superb, btw.

[hermetic]

3. I guess

I will have to ask myself that same question.

"One of the great works of American literature and continues to be widely read throughout the world."

[B Stieg]

2. The Things They Carried

Tim O'Brien, 1990

[hermetic]

4. I've heard of that one

A collection of linked short stories by American novelist Tim O'Brien, about a platoon of American soldiers fighting on the ground in the Vietnam War. His third book about the war, it is based upon his experiences as a soldier in the 23rd Infantry Division.

[Ohiya]

9. I read his book, In the Lake of the Woods, which I liked

I've also wanted to read The Things They Carried, and Going After Cacciato, for a long time, but have never gotten around to them.

[dweller]

5. Chasing the Dead

debut by Tim Weaver,
w/ 3 following in the series of an investigator finding missing persons

✌🏼

[hermetic]

6. I do love

finding out about a new mystery/thriller series. This sounds like a good one.

[dweller]

7. so far good

a bit all over the place as
i read to the end,
as there is a conspiracy involved
that's not yet explained ...

but a
good debut so far

✌🏼

[Ohiya]

8. The Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem

We just saw the movie, Motherless Brooklyn, which is based on Jonathan Lethem's book of the same name. We give it two big thumbs up! We read Motherless Brooklyn a few years ago and after seeing the movie I was inspired to read his latest.

Also, just read Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, It reminded me of The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Both of which our book group read. I thought they were OK, but, the rest of the group really liked them.

There's also a mystery series I've been reading by Colin Cotterill, It takes place in Laos and the main character is a surgeon who was recruited to be the national coroner in the late seventies after the communist revolution. He is in his seventies and would rather be retired! The first book is The Coroner's Lunch.

[hermetic]

10. I read several

Cotterill novels. Really enjoyed them. He's won quite a few awards.

Motherless Brooklyn, also a winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. A compelling and compulsively readable riff on the classic detective novel from America's most inventive novelist.

[The King of Prussia]

11. Just finished

"LIsten to danger" by Dorothy Eden, an undemanding but entertaining thriller from the 50s.
Now onto non fiction and Bill Bryson's "Road to Little Dribbling".

[hermetic]

12. My library

has 2 copies, one from the 50s and then re-released about 20 years later with 60 fewer pages. I wonder what they took out.

[matt819]

13. I have a few on the go

Awakened by James Murray - This book has been written thousands of times and movies have been made, with a few variations to include billionaire Nazis. NYC has grand opening of an extensive, and expensive, new subway line. VIPs include, of course, the mayor and the president. But the creatures from the deep make an appearance, and all does not go according to plan. Much death and violence ensues. I won't get into the involvement of the billionaire Nazis because that's spoiler material. I can't really say it's a fun read, but it is entertaining in its way, and appears to be the first in a series.

Blue Moon by Lee Child - The latest in the Jack Reacher series. Typical Reacher. Although I haven't really kept count of how many people Reacher kills in each book or how many he's killed overall, but this one does seem to be a tad over the top. Clearly Lee Child is having fun with it. If you can call about 50 killings fun. On the plus side, only the bad guys are killed. Child ties together fake news, Ukrainian and Albanian mobsters, crooked cops (unseen, which I guess is what makes them crooked), health care, Russian interference in the US, and more. If you're not a Reacher fan, this won't make you one. If you are, you'll have a blast (almost literally).

Raised in Captivity by Chuck Klosterman - I don't know how to describe this book of, I guess you'd call them vignettes. Stuff that makes its way to Klosterman's mind, hits a few bumpers along the way, and comes out in off-the-wall stories.

Empty Hearts by Juli Zeh - A German writer. I tried one of her books some time ago. Liked it but hit a wall. Sort of the same here. I interrupted this one to read Awakened (above). I'm not sure where this is going, but it appears that a couple of entrepreneurs have figured out a way to monetize terrorism as a business model. Not sure where it's going, but so far it's all pretty matter of fact, which is creating some cognitive dissonance. I'll get back to it an see where it goes.

1984 - Everyone knows and claims to have ready 1984 in high school. TBH, I'm not sure I did. So I thought I'd give it a try. Started the audiobook earlier today. Even a few pages in, the parallels to 2019 America are startling. Along with Mein Kampf, it's a playbook for the American - and probably the international - RW nationalist movements.

[hermetic]

14. Thanks

for sharing all that. There's a little something to interest most everyone there. For example: "Funny, wise and weird in equal measure, Raised in Captivity bids fair to be one of the most original and exciting story collections in recent memory, a fever graph of our deepest unvoiced hopes, fears and preoccupations. Ceaselessly inventive, hostile to corniness in all its forms, and mean only to the things that really deserve it, it marks a cosmic leap forward for one of our most consistently interesting writers."

Ima wanna read that one.

[bif]

15. "spill simmer falter wither" by Sara Baume

Slow moving but beautifully written

[hermetic]

16. Wow

This sounds amazing!

A debut novel already praised as "unbearably poignant and beautifully told" this captivating story follows -- over the course of four seasons -- a misfit man who adopts a misfit dog.

[Backseat Driver]

17. Just started The Golden House by Salman Rushdie

Here's the Guardian's review: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/16/the-golden-house-salman-rushdie-review

[snip]

The book begins with the election of Barack Obama and ends eight years later on the eve of an election in which the lead contender refers to himself as “the Joker”. Nero’s character contains echoes of Trump, too; he is a man of fabulous wealth, with a beautiful Russian wife, and a fortune thought to be in part built on real estate. The novel’s transnational supporting cast includes an Australian hypnotist; a Burmese diplomat; Ivy Manuel, a night-club singer; a Somalian artist; and Nero’s assistants, Fuss and Blather. As the election nears, America is deeply divided. “It was a year of two bubbles,” René muses. “In one of those bubbles, the Joker shrieked and the laugh-track crowd laughed right on cue.” In that bubble, “knowledge was ignorance, up was down and the right person to hold the nuclear codes was the green-skinned red-slashed-mouthed giggler”. Thus, by the book’s end, the bubble of New York is where reality perseveres.

[snip]

Can't wait to get into it - Rushdie's not the first to use a journalist narrator to tell a story, but I'll bet it's a beaut; even better than the one Tom "wanted to tell" by following around the Underwoods in House of Cards, and, yikes, that didn't end well, any way you look at it -- in the story, in the cast's lives, for the series as a whole!

[hermetic]

18. That sounds really good

I've enjoyed Rushdie's earlier works.