What Fiction are you reading this week, March 27, 2022?

[hermetic]

Books take us to fantastic places.

Reading The Time Cellar by Marc Emory, a Sci Fi, time travel tale from 2014. A "wild whirlwind journey through a few dozen changes in life that culminate in a surprise ending that is anything but obvious." Different but fun, so far. He writes like he's sitting across the table, talking to you. Occasionally saying things like, "You know what I mean?"

At last, listening to Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. Been waiting for this audio book for a while now.
"Doerr's dazzling imagination transports us to worlds so dramatic and immersive that we forget, for a time, our own. Dedicated to the librarians then, now, and in the years to come... a beautiful and redemptive novel about stewardship -- of the book, of the Earth, of the human heart." Amazing.

What interesting places are your books taking you to this week?

[Srkdqltr]

1. A Sunlit Weapon, Jacqueline Winspear

[Srkdqltr]

3. Set in WW2 but quite topical.

[hermetic]

4. A cozy series

In the latest installment of the New York Times bestselling series, a series of possible attacks on British pilots leads Jacqueline Winspear's beloved heroine Maisie Dobbs into a mystery involving First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

[Srkdqltr]

6. Cozies are nice. I'm old and gore, mayhem and sex dont have the appeal they once had.

[hermetic]

7. Yeah,

I agree.

[SheltieLover]

2. Still re-reading Jana DeLeon's Miss Fortune series

Fortune is a CIA assassin, hiding out in Sinful, Louisiana because a middle eastern arms dealer has a price on her head.

She has teamed up with new friends, Gertie & Ida Belle, seniors who were spies in Vietnam.

3 peas in a pod.

Great laughs.

[Srkdqltr]

5. I read this in 2014. Don't remember it at all. I'll try it again.

[SheltieLover]

15. They really are excdllent & very funny!

I read them maybe a year ago & am enjoying them again.

[Backseat Driver]

8. Fiction: The Prague Cemetery - Umberto Eco

Previously, long time since, I've completed and enjoyed Island of the Day Before, Name of the Rose, and Foucault's Pendulum. I recently found this one on my shelf that I'd let sit and thought it time to give it a go--Just started.

I've found Eco's books very challenging to read in the past, so hope I can stick with it--full of twists and explained puzzles. He rarely explains his embedded French or Latin phrases that go untranslated in the text. This Italian author was an expert in semiotics but, again, long ago, my second language was a few years of high school conversational Spanish, LOL - so, really never naturally fluent - the grammar and vocab also long suffering! I sure hope the content between will sustain both my and DH's interest as the others have as I'm attempting to read it aloud.

[hermetic]

9. I read Name of the Rose

some years ago. This one sounds more interesting...

"Nineteenth-century Europe--from Turin to Prague to Paris--abounds with the ghastly and the mysterious. Conspiracies rule history. Jesuits plot against Freemasons. Italian republicans strangle priests with their own intestines. French criminals plan bombings by day and celebrate Black Masses at night. Every nation has its own secret service, perpetrating forgeries, plots, and massacres... Eco takes his readers on an unforgettable journey through the underbelly of world-shattering events. Eco at his most exciting, a book immediately hailed as a masterpiece."

I hate when a book is full of words I don't know without at least putting translations in footnotes or something. The Time Cellar has a lot of French in it but it's always translated in the same paragraph. Plus I studied French for years at university.

Reading aloud to someone is awesome.

[murielm99]

10. I finished

An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon. Now I am reading Michelle Obama's autobiography, Becoming.

I have some more nonfiction to read. I am going to the library tomorrow, but my husband will read those books. They will be mostly Preston and Child. I will stick to non-fiction for a while.

[hermetic]

11. I love Gabaldon's writing

Enjoy your reading. Becoming is pretty awesome.

[Staph]

12. I reading my first Carl Hiaasen book, Squeeze Me.

It's a hoot!

At the height of Palm Beach’s charity ball season, Kiki Pew Fitzsimmons, a prominent member of geriatric high society, suddenly vanishes during a swank gala. Kiki Pew was a founding member of the Potussies, a group of women dedicated to supporting the President, who spends half the year at the “Winter White House” just down the road. Meanwhile, Angie Armstrong, wildlife wrangler extraordinaire, is called to the island to deal with a monster-sized Burmese python that has taken residency in a tree. But the President is focused on the disappearance of Kiki Pew. Never one to miss an opportunity to play to his base, he immediately declares her a victim of rampaging immigrant hordes. This, it turns out, is far from the truth, which now lies in the middle of the road, where a bizarre discovery brings the First Lady’s motorcade to a grinding halt. Irreverent, ingenious, and uproariously entertaining, Squeeze Me perfectly captures the absurdity of our times.

Published in 2020, TFG is an unnamed minor character in the book, when he is in residence in Casa Bellicosa, sending badly misspelled tweets and followed by a giddy group of rich senior women who called themselves the POTUS Pussies, or Potussies. Hiaasen seems to have the same view of the former guy as the rest of DU.

[hermetic]

13. Indeed he does

Hiaasen has written more than 20 books and they are mostly all wickedly funny. He really knows his way around the Florida politics and swamps and spends a lot of time in both. Always good for a laugh.

[SheltieLover]

17. Excellent book & quite funny!

I love his books!

[Polly Hennessey]

14. Starting a new cozy: Steeped in Murder by Kirsten Weiss.

Tea, tarot, and trouble 😈

[hermetic]

16. A hilarious caper

Steeped in Murder is the first book in the Tea and Tarot cozy mystery series.

I'll bet someone else here would like these, besides me.

[SheltieLover]

18. Sounds delightful!

Checking library!

[SheltieLover]

19. Sounds great!

Ty for sharing! Checking library.

[The King of Prussia]

20. Still not reading fiction

More music reading. Currently "The Popular Voice" by Derek Jewell, a collection of columns from the 60's & 70's.

I was clear of Covid by Tuesday so we've been out and about. Visited Harrogate and discovered a good bookshop https://www.booksforallharrogate.co.uk/#Bio (lots of Perry Mason!). In the evening we visited the fire & light festival (#HIFFireAndLight on Twitter).

We had to re-arrange our pre-Christmas shopping trip because of Covid fears, but we're going tomorrow instead. It turns out that 10cc are playing there tomorrow night, so we're taking in that.

Next read will be "The Case of the Sulky Girl" one of my new Perry Masons.

Have a good week!

[hermetic]

21. Hooray! That is good news

And 10CC? I had no idea they were still around. Loved them!

Looking forward myself to checking out the new Perry Mason books.
Edit to add: I see that's on old one, by Erle Stanley Gardner. There are some new ones by author Thomas Chastain.

You have a great week!

[japple]

22. Still reading Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise.

[hermetic]

23. That sure sounds like

today's news. A story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart.

But then the really sad part: When Nemirovsky began working on Suite Francaise, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also Jewish, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.

[northoftheborder]

24. When I learned Andy Serkin (Gollum) had narrated the three "Ring" books and also "Hobbit"

For Audible I put them on my wish list. (Hadn’t read any of them). They all went on sale for low price ! So now have many hours of enjoyment!

My iPad reading has been the Chief Inspector Gamache series. In love with him and the quirky characters!

[hermetic]

25. My favorites

all around. Enjoy!

[Jeebo]

26. Just started re-reading "Pandora's Star" by Peter F. Hamilton.

I read it for the first time about 17, 18 years ago. It stayed with me for a long time and it's about time for me to read it again. It's one of the most richly detailed science fiction novels I've ever read, and I have read a lot of them. That man has an incredible imagination. I'll be on it for a long time, because my aging, failing, 72-year-old eyes just won't let me read for long stints any more.

-- Ron

[hermetic]

31. At almost 1,000 pages

I imagine anyone would be on that one for a long time. I know what you mean about the eyes. You might want to use your library to get audio books. You can check them out online and listen to them in your browser. You don't even need to download them, usually. I see Pandora's Star is out on audio although I personally prefer audio books that are shorter. You take care. And maybe take Lutein. I do, and I'm older than you.

[yellowdogintexas]

27. Time Cellar was a fun read!!! It was one of the first books I downloaded when my

Kindle was new.

[hermetic]

30. It is fun

and getting really interesting. What's a guy to do, what with the IRS and the mafia after you?

[yellowdogintexas]

28. The Templar Curse by Ernest Dempsey

Throughout the course of human warfare, no weapon has been as feared, as deadly, as the Ark of the Covenant.
Legend claims that this mysterious, supernatural force, first carried into battle by the ancient Israelites, was so powerful that the Ark could lay waste to entire armies, entire cities in moments—thousands of years before the advent of nuclear bombs.
So, when an ancient order of killers reemerges from the shadows after centuries of hiding—convinced that other secret societies took the Ark from Jerusalem to hide it in early America—international treasure hunter Sean Wyatt knows exactly what they seek and why. And that realization terrifies him.
Together with his best friend and sidekick, Tommy Schultz, Sean must track down the Ark before the Order of the Assassin can. Before their order can pervert this heavenly power and wield it to enslave all of humanity.

I finished The Venice Code by J Robert Kennedy. It was a good ride!! But then these books never disappoint!!

[bif]

29. "The Paris Library"

Enjoyable read.

[question everything]

32. I continue with Elizabeth Peters, this time: The Murders of Richard the III

I enjoyed her first in the series with Jacqueline Kirby, a librarian, who says that she knows a little about many subjects.

I liked the first one: the Seventh Sinner that took place with a background of archeological digs in Rome.

This one takes place at a country house - she chuckled about the typical country house mysteries - among a society that intends on clearing the name of Richard the III. No, he did not murder the two princes. This was all fabricated by the next king, the first Tudor and Shakespeare and Thomas More.

I had to read the paragraphs detailing all the Edwards and Richards and Elizabeth and Henrys of this period several times to follow who is who.

The society meeting is planning on a major announcement but will they get to it?

[hermetic]

33. I remembered that I once read

a mystery about Richard III but it wasn't the one you described. So I did a search and by golly, Goodreads has a list of 43 novels about Richard. https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/31888.Richard_III_in_novels The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey was what I read. Considered one of the best mystery novels of all time.

Now I want to read the one you have (it is on the Goodreads list) "for a dazzling solution that will surprise even the most attentive reader." That sounds quite intriguing. Thanks!

[question everything]

34. Tey's book is on my list as it is mentioned in this book

What is intriguing about Peters, who has a Ph.D. in Egyptology, that the surrounding background is accurate.