What Fiction are you reading this week, August 22, 2021?

[hermetic]

Support your local libraries!


Just finished The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell. Whew. Heck of a book. Need something a bit lighter now and hoping Hope Never Dies by.Andrew Shaffer is just the thing. "For everyone nostalgic for the Obama/Biden administration, HOPE NEVER DIES re-casts the president and vice-president as amateur sleuths in a quirky mystery-adventure." Had to buy this one since you can't find it in any library around here. I've got the next one, too.

Listening to One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde. "Fforde has a field day, gleefully blending satire, romance, and thriller with literary allusions galore in a fantastic adventure through the landscape of a frisky and fertile imagination." Yep.

What books do you hope to find good-reading this week?

[Jilly_in_VA]

1. Actually reading hard copy for once

We went to Book Fair yesterday and I got some books. Mostly for my granddaughter though. But I got a couple that appealed to me so I'm about a third of the way through The Haunted Queen by Alison Weir, about Jane Seymour. Very well written. On my Kindle I'm halfway through the Sister Joan mysteries, which are delightful.

[hermetic]

2. Looks like lots of good reading

I am always fascinated by stories about Henry's wives. Obviously I'm not the only one.

Bringing new insight to this compelling story, Alison Weir marries meticulous research with gripping historical fiction to re-create the dramas and intrigues of the most renowned court in English history. At its center is a loving and compassionate woman who captures the heart of a king, and whose life will hang in the balance for it.

[Jilly_in_VA]

4. Jane Seymour

is not my favorite wife. That goes to Katheryn Parr, who has fascinated me for years. I also like Anne of Cleves, who was a very interesting and intelligent woman (I've always found it interesting that she and Henry remained on friendly terms and he consulted her on financial matters). As for the rest...Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn were both done dirty for matters of breeding (both likely due to a fault on Henry's part, recent research speculates--the Kell gene--) but both were very intelligent women on their own. As for poor little Cat Howard, the less said the better; she was in over her head.

[murielm99]

3. I am reading

Free Fire, by C.J. Box. It is a Joe Pickett mystery.

Joe Pickett is a Wyoming game warden. He is aways in hot water. In this book, he has been fired from his job and is now working as a special agent for the governor. The governor, a Democrat, is a maverick and a colorful character.

Joe is trying to look into some murders that took place in the park under unusual circumstances. Of course there is more to it than that. There are some unusual biological and geological events taking place. Greed has its usual place in the plot.

Joe Pickett books are good reads.

[hermetic]

6. C.J. is great

So many novels, so many awards. And he's so young, comparatively speaking of course. 61. So he'll probably write a few more. There's already another Pickett novel due for release next March. Sounds really good, too.

[murielm99]

9. C.J. is a real cowboy.

I used to spend summers in Montana when I was a kid. I had family there. We spent much time in Yellowstone. Images of the park are burned into my brain.

[hermetic]

15. I am so very sorry

to hear about your brother. All my best as you grieve this loss.

[The King of Prussia]

5. "The Feast" by Margaret Kennedy

Stepped out of my comfort zone - it's not a thriller/mystery. Set in a hotel on the Cornish coast in the summer of 1947. Describing the behaviours of the staff and guests in the week before a cliff collapses on the hotel and kills several of them. Very well-written account of middle-class English people in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Earlier in the week I finished "Find a Victim" by Ross MacDonald. Excellent of course.

Then I read "Moonflower Murders" by Anthony Horowitz which has been getting rave reviews. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I thought I would.

Next up? Not sure.

Happy reading!

[hermetic]

7. Oh, my

The Feast sounds amazing. The write up for it is huge. "..this glorious rediscovered classic exploring the mystery of a buried Cornish hotel is perfect for Agatha Christie and Daphne du Maurier fans ...'Hilarious and perceptive, here's the perfect seaside holiday read.' Daily Mail' The miniature charm of a Baby Austen.' Observer' Tense, touching, human, dire, and funny ... A feast indeed.'

Hope I can find it somewhere.

[bif]

8. "The Man Who Walked Away" by Maud Casey

I'm only about 30 pages in. So far, it isn't grabbing me, but I'll give it 50 pages.

[hermetic]

11. Then you will be

The Man Who Walked Away. I crack me up sometimes.

[CrispyQ]

14. It cracked me up too. -nt

[Number9Dream]

10. Finished "Death of Kings" by Bernard Cornwell

As always, thanks for the thread, hermetic. Also loved the Peanuts cartoon. Glad you liked "The Winter King" & "Exchange".

This was the sixth book of the 'Saxon' series. Alfred the Great dies part way through, and his son, Edward, becomes King of Wessex. Alfred's daughter becomes the lover of warlord Uhtred. The Danish Vikings unite in an attempt to conquer Wessex. Cornwell manages to include enough new twists and clever turns to keep me reading these.

[hermetic]

12. We can learn a lot from his writings

Even though he makes some of it up. Thanks for stopping by. What do you plan to read next?

[NQAS]

13. A few

Just finished reading The Fixer by Gene Doucette. Lightweight, I guess, but a lot of fun, though it gets maybe a little less fun toward the end. Not easy to categorize. Maybe a take on the multiverse?

Just finished listening to Summerwater by Sarah Moss. Set in a Scottish holiday cabin park well off the beaten path. Five - at least I think it's five, could be more, could be less - families are on holiday. They start off thinking that they're happy, that their kids are happy, that life is okay, that they deserve a break in a holiday cabin on a loch. Well, there's a lot of time to think on holiday, a little too much time to consider, well, everything, whether you're the 10-year-old daughter of a middle class family or the retired doctor and his wife, the monumentally depressed teenager or the wife who is a compulsive runner, whose approach to running is, if 10 miles is good, 25 miles is better, and why stop there? You won't be fulfilled by the end, and you almost certainly won't be happy. You may in fact be unhappy that I recommended the book. But it's worth the time - plus it's a short book - and it's food for thought. I'm not a book club person, but this strikes me as a good book club book.

Also in the past week, finished listening to John Birmingham's Zero Day Code. If you think life is pretty good, read this book and you'll be absolutely convinced we are on the brink of utter disaster. It's so engrossing that when I got home I wondered why things were so calm and that we should be frantically preparing for the apocalypse. Parts of it are far-fetched, others eyebrow-raising possibilities.

Also in the past week or so, finished listening to the latest installment of Linda Castillo's Amish police procedural, Fallen. I've listened to every one, so it must have something going for it. Then again, I seem to get hooked on these sort of cozy mysteries, though it's not something I like to admit. The main character is Kate Burkholder, the ex-Amish police chief of a small town with a mixed population in Pennsylvania. An awful lot of awful stuff sure does happen in her small town. I guess you could call this the Amish Midsummer Murders, or the Amish Murder in Paradise.

Another I finished listening to last week was Paul Doiron's latest installment in the Mike Bowditch novels, Dead by Dawn. I might have mentioned this in my last what are you reading post. You really can't go wrong with these novels, though it makes sense to start from the beginning (as it does for the Linda Castillo series as well), as characters and relationships are pretty well developed over time.

I just started listening to The Last Thing He Told Me, by Laura Dave. Not sure where this is going yet. Husband of one year disappears when the company he's working for is raided and the CEO arrested. Is the husband part of the fraud? Is he an innocent victim? Is he the snitch? The husband's daughter from his first wife is a royal pain in the neck. The current wife, and main character, seems to be a decent person who is charged with looking after a stepdaughter who doesn't care much for her. Not sure how to categorize it yet. I'll keep going and see where it goes for a little bit before deciding whether to cut my losses.

[hermetic]

16. Hi!

Thanks for the great write ups. I really enjoy learning about a book without any real spoilers. Well done.

I already had the Zero Day Code on my list to read. Now I've added more.

[CrispyQ]

17. "When the Apricots Bloom" by Gina Wilkinson.

In this moving, suspenseful debut novel, three courageous women confront the complexities of trust, friendship, motherhood, and betrayal under the rule of a ruthless dictator and his brutal secret police. Former foreign correspondent Gina Wilkinson draws on her own experiences to take readers inside a haunting story of Iraq at the turn of the millennium and the impossible choices faced by families under a deadly regime.

I just finished this book this afternoon. It was pretty good. Good pacing. Three POV characters. I suspect this is just a glimpse into what it must be like to live under a brutal dictatorship. Checkpoints when travelling, where you're asked where you're going & why. Visits from authorities at any time day or night, & if you don't open your front gate quickly enough they cut the bolt & enter. Anyone in a position with knowledge of the allies will be asked to spy for the regime, sometimes being compensated, sometimes not, but always at great risk to your family & friends. The ending was good, but a little rushed.

[hermetic]

18. Frightening, isn't it?

Clearly there are many in this country who would like for us to live that way, too.

Thanks for the write-up.