What Fiction are you reading this week, November 28, 2021?

[hermetic]

Books can give you recipes for living. Some are good; some not so much.

I'm reading a book that is difficult to describe: Crossing the Lines by Sulari Gentill. It is a murder mystery but it's also "about the process of creation, a gradual undermining of the authority of the author as the act of writing spirals away and merges with the story being told, a self-referring narrative crossing over boundaries leaving in question who to trust, and who and what is true." It can be somewhat confusing. Dean Koontz calls it a "psychologically complex read, cleverly conceived and brilliantly executed."

Listening to Dying in the Wool by Frances Brody. A Kate Shackleton mystery, this is just your traditional British cozy. A good story.

Got any leftover books you're reading this week?

[Diamond_Dog]

1. Olive, Mabel & Me by Andrew Cotter

Given to me as a gift, it’s a nice comfort read so far

[hermetic]

2. Doggies!

Andrew tells the heart-warming story of life with his two famous Labradors. This is the full story of their unexpected rise to internet stardom, their lives together, how the dogs are dealing with their new-found fame (celebrity fans, more offers of biscuits etc).

Sweet!

[bif]

3. "The Party Upstairs" by Lee Conell

Just about to start it. For some reason, I seem to start new books on Sundays. Hmmm...

[hermetic]

4. Hmmm indeed

I like to think we're a good influence.

The Party Upstairs is a gripping, darkly witty story of a single fateful day inside a Manhattan co-op.

[SheltieLover]

5. The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules

By Catharina ingelman-Sundburg, one of the "League of Pensioners" series.

The group of five, fed up with constant budget cuts directly affecting them, decides to turn to a life of crime in order to live in prison.

Quite a biting satire on the treatment of elders.

[hermetic]

6. Ooooh

That does sound like fun. Will for sure have to read, maybe pick up some good tips.

[SheltieLover]

12. Lol

Not sure what's up next. I've been searching, but haven't found another promising cozy series that my library offers in e-format.

[Jeebo]

7. "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin

I've read it twice before, and any time I'm reading something for the third time, you can be sure I enjoyed it the first two times.

I picked it up because I was looking for something that I knew I would enjoy after trying to slog through "Beloved" by Toni Morrison. I got through about 60 pages of that one before I gave up on it. I wanted to read "Beloved" because i had been hearing so much about it during the recent book-banning controversies in Texas and elsewhere. I kept hearing brief two-sentence synopses of "Beloved" and it sounded interesting.

I went to Barnes and Nobel and one of the clerks there started gushing about it. And then after I bought it and started trying tediously to slog through it, one of the waitresses at a local restaurant saw me reading it and started gushing about how good it is too.

Problem is, there is something about Toni Morrison's writing style that just doesn't agree with me. Trying to understand what the hell she was talking about just kept me scratching my head. After slogging through the aforementioned first 60 or so pages, I was completely bewildered, lost, confused. I just simply did not understand what was going on. What's more important, I was not looking forward to the next time I would be sitting down and reading some more of "Beloved" -- and that is when I always give up on one that is just not grabbing me.

I will provide an example. Near the end of the first chapter, on page 21 of the paperback copy I bought, there is this selection of incomprehensibility:

"It took him (Paul D) a while to realize that his legs were not shaking because of worry, but because the floorboards were and the grinding, shoving floor was only part of it. The house itself was pitching. Sethe slid to the floor and struggled to get back into her dress. While down on all fours, as though she were holding her house down on the ground, Denver burst from the keeping room, terror in her eyes, a vague smile on her lips."

What the hell was going on here? Was it an earthquake? But this was Ohio in 1873. They didn't have earthquakes there then. Was it a tornado? If it was a tornado, it sure wasn't described in a way that would make that clear. Could somebody who has read this novel and loves it as much as the Barnes and Noble Clerk and the restaurant waitress please decipher this incomprehensible passage for me?

A couple of paragraphs later, the quaking stopped, but the incomprehensibility continues:

"Sethe was still crouched next to the stove, clutching her salvaged shoes to her chest. The three of them, Sethe, Denver, and Paul D., breathed to the same beat, like one tired person. Another breathing was just as tired."

What does that last sentence mean? I have no idea. Whom is it referring to?

I could give many more examples. The whole first 60-some bewildering pages of this incomprehensible novel were filled with confusing passages like this one, and that's why I just finally gave up on it. And picked up one I KNOW I can understand and enjoy.

P.S. -- What does "This discussion thread is pinned" mean?

-- Ron

[hermetic]

8. "Pinned"

means it is attached to the top of the list of posts. This makes it easier to find each week when people stop by to chat about their new readings.

Can't help you with the Beloved questions. Never read it. Its genre is listed as Magical Realism, though, so perhaps that's part of it.

[Polly Hennessey]

17. You are not alone. Perhaps romantic realism, whatever

that is, is not our thing. Love The Left Hand of Darkness.

[FloridaBlues]

9. The Lincoln Highway by Towles.

[hermetic]

13. Oh gosh

Good choice. This sounds amazing. ". a rollicking cross-country adventure, rife with unforgettable characters, vivid scenery and suspense that will keep readers flying through the pages.” —TIME

I enjoyed A Gentleman in Moscow and this one sounds even better.

[FloridaBlues]

14. I'm half way through the book. There's a lot of characters

But I am really enjoying the storyline.

[The King of Prussia]

10. Still on

"A Stranger In My Grave" by Margaret Millar. It's very good, but I have no attention span at the moment. Next up is "Thunder Bay" by Douglas Skelton.

The world is shit just now isn't it?

[hermetic]

11. Indeed it is

Having a really hard time getting myself up for sending Christmas cards or hanging decorations. Why bother, eh?

I am also having a problem keeping my mind on my reading. It keeps wandering off...

[yellowdogintexas]

15. Sisterhood Book 12 Final Justice

This time the story is in Las Vegas and the target is a group of very corrupt casino owners.

The chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission hires the ladies to sus out and eliminate the problem.

Which of course they will do, swiftly and with style.

Ahh the things they do to exact revenge. They have never killed anyone but I am certain some of their targets wish they had died.

[hermetic]

19. Well, you convinced me

See upcoming Sunday post.

[yellowdogintexas]

24. Looking forward to your impressions. Book #1 is "Weekend Warriors"

Nice link to the series in order, with commentary by the author.

https://www.fernmichaels.com/series/the-sisterhood-series/

I read a couple of these out of order, but I recommend going in order if possible. The first few books deal with the immediate justice issues of the original members. The rest of the series widens the scope of what the group does and brings in some very interesting new characters, and some wild retribution.

I started #15 last night.

Have a bunch of fun!

[Staph]

16. Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone, by Diana Gabaldon

It's the ninth in the Outlander series. It arrived Friday, and I'm already 300 pages in, into a 888-page book!

The past may seem the safest place to be . . . but it is the most dangerous time to be alive. . . .

Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall were torn apart by the Jacobite Rising in 1746, and it took them twenty years to find each other again. Now the American Revolution threatens to do the same.

It is 1779 and Claire and Jamie are at last reunited with their daughter, Brianna, her husband, Roger, and their children on Fraser’s Ridge. Having the family together is a dream the Frasers had thought impossible.

Yet even in the North Carolina backcountry, the effects of war are being felt. Tensions in the Colonies are great and local feelings run hot enough to boil Hell’s teakettle. Jamie knows loyalties among his tenants are split and it won’t be long until the war is on his doorstep.

Brianna and Roger have their own worry: that the dangers that provoked their escape from the twentieth century might catch up to them. Sometimes they question whether risking the perils of the 1700s—among them disease, starvation, and an impending war—was indeed the safer choice for their family.

Not so far away, young William Ransom is still coming to terms with the discovery of his true father’s identity—and thus his own—and Lord John Grey has reconciliations to make, and dangers to meet . . . on his son’s behalf, and his own.

Meanwhile, the Revolutionary War creeps ever closer to Fraser’s Ridge. And with the family finally together, Jamie and Claire have more at stake than ever before.

[hermetic]

20. I love this series

so much. That phrase, "Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone" just makes me tear up whenever I hear it.

[Staph]

22. Early in the book,

Claire is told about the tradition of telling the bees the news of the family. And throughout the book, various characters go up to the garden to tell the bees what is happening. Some of their conversations are just heartbreaking!

[gladium et scutum]

18. Corporal Si Klegg and His Pard n/t

[hermetic]

21. Interesting

Written by Wilbur F. Hinman, first published in 1887. This books gives an inside look at the transformation from citizen to soldier and the constantly changing experiences on the march, on the battlefield, in camp, and in the hospital during the Civil War.

[gladium et scutum]

23. that pretty well sums it up.

a good read about a young slightly overweight teenage boy being forged into a lean mean fighting man during our Civil War. The book was based on a series of short stories written by Hinman for the GAR magazine.