What Fiction are you reading this week, January 1, 2023?

[hermetic]

Hello, 2023!

Hope you are all tucked in somewhere safe and warm.

Just finished The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny. What a great story. Tonight I will start Walking by Night by Kate Ellis, where "Nothing is as it first appears."

Listening to Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage by M. C. Beaton. Agatha is getting married, except she already is. But, stuff happens and you just never know what the future holds. Quite amusing.

What books are you starting this new year with? Wishing you all a year of good reading!

[Mme. Defarge]

1. Listening to John Grisham's

The Boys from Biloxi. Michael Beck is a wonderful reader and I highly recommend it. All 17 hours!

[hermetic]

5. Thanks for weighing in on this one

I've heard differing opinions. That's certainly not uncommon, though.

[Mme. Defarge]

17. It did start off a bit slow,

but so many interesting parallels to today and more than an a few lol moments.

[PennyC]

25. Oh my!

I had to look it up. He's the same Michael Beck who was one of the stars of Xanadu!

[Basic LA]

2. Just started Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen

Some Florida mayhem that is supposed to take some big slaps at a certain Mar a Lago loudmouth.

[hermetic]

3. Indeed it does

It's a hoot!

[yellowdogintexas]

21. LOL so is "Hoot" also by Hiaason

I love his books

[bahboo]

6. this is a good one....

savages the orange asshole...

[SheltieLover]

13. One of my favs!

Enjoy!

[Mme. Defarge]

18. Ooooooh

Definitely want to try that one!!!

[Mme. Defarge]

28. OMG! He GOES THERE!!!

About 30% into the recorded version, read by Scott Brick. I’m going to have to buy the book so as not to miss a single nuance, or comma or semicolon.

Thanks for the recommendation!

[CrispyQ]

4. I'm struggling with "The Late Show" by Michael Connelly.

I read a couple of books in his Mickey Haller series & really enjoyed them so I thought I'd check out the Renée Ballard series & this character just isn't cutting it for me. I may drudge through a few more pages, maybe 20 or so. I'm also not fond of Bosch, probably cuz I don't like the TV guy's portrayal of him.

Next in the pile is either "The Nest" by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, or "The Family Upstairs" by Lisa Jewell.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54870219-the-nest

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43822820-the-family-upstairs

Happy New Year to you, hermetic, & readers everywhere!

[hermetic]

8. Thanks

The Nest was funny, as I recall...

"In The Family Upstairs, Lisa Jewell brings us the can't-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets."

[Mme. Defarge]

19. Love the Lincoln Lawyer

and want more of that series.

[Kath2]

7. Foregone by Russell Banks.

Quite good, so far.

[hermetic]

9. That sounds really good

"A searing novel about memory, abandonment, and betrayal from the acclaimed and bestselling Russell Banks."

[farmbo]

10. The Ministry for the Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson

Near time science fiction imagining a unified global response to Climate Change.
A must-read pick by Barack Obama for 2021.

[hermetic]

11. Oh wow

Must read...

"Its setting is not a desolate, postapocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us -- and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face. It is a novel both immediate and impactful, desperate and hopeful in equal measure, and it is one of the most powerful and original books on climate change ever written."

Thanks!

[SheltieLover]

12. "It Takes a Witch," by Heather Blake

Fun cozy. Easy read. Great characters.

Also writes under Heather Webber, her real name.

Thus far, all of her offerings I've read have been cozy paranormals.

I have Louise Penny in my to be read list.

Happy New Year to All!

Ty for the thread!

[Paper Roses]

14. Reading: Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks

This book is very different from the others I have read by this author. More suited for a woman I think.
Only 75 pages in, maybe my thoughts would change. It is a good read so far but not what I expected.

[The King of Prussia]

15. Be interested in your take on the Kate Ellis

I love her Wesley Peterson series, but I've never seen the Joe Plantagenet series.

I'm reading "At Bertram's Hotel " by Agatha Christie- following on from the "Murder at the Vicarage " which I read over Christmas. Both very good, of course.

Set myself "Goodreads" target of 104 books for the year. But what I really want to achieve is 36,500 pages.

Happy reading, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[hermetic]

16. I really like Wesley Peterson

I read the only books my library had, though, so thought I would give this a go. I shall let you know.

Best of luck with your plan.

[LuvLoogie]

20. The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin

Sci-Fi.

Finishing off Gilgamesh, as well, following along with my daughter's highschool reading assignment.

[japple]

22. I finished reading Billie Letts' book, Shoot the Moon, but can't say that I'd recommend

it. Not up to her usual good story line.

Just started reading Arcadia by Lauren Groff. Here's the description from amazon:

In the fields of western New York State in the 1970s, a few dozen idealists set out to live off the land, founding a commune centered on the grounds of a decaying mansion called Arcadia House. Arcadia follows this romantic utopian dream from its hopeful start through its heyday. Arcadia's inhabitants include Handy, the charismatic leader; his wife, Astrid, a midwife; Abe, a master carpenter; Hannah, a baker and historian; and Abe and Hannah's only child, Bit. While Arcadia rises and falls, Bit, too, ages and changes. He falls in love with Helle, Handy's lovely, troubled daughter. And eventually he must face the world beyond Arcadia.

The Kindle version was on sale for $3.99! I noticed that 3 of her most recent books are National Book Award finalists and she is often on "the best of" lists.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, hermetic, and thanks for managing this group every week.

[yellowdogintexas]

23. still working on the 3 from last week

Forever and Then Some A Prequel

The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman)

Society for Paranormals:

Full descriptions are on the Christmas Day post.

I am waiting on an E-Loan from our library for "The Year of Living Biblically" which my UMW Circle is reading for our January meeting

[Jeebo]

24. "The Winner" by David Baldacci

I was reading Baldacci's novels as they came out, every one, for some years, until I finally kind of OD'd on them and now haven't read any of them for the past 15 years or so. But I've been wanting to re-read this one because it is my favorite one of all of his that I've read. The central character is LuAnn Tyler, a dirt-poor young high school dropout who lives in a trailer in north Georgia with an eight-month-old baby and an abusive boyfriend who stays either drunk or hung over all the time. She waits tables in a country diner, no hope and no future. Until a stranger approaches her with an offer that is both too good to be true and difficult to turn down. If you like novels with strong female characters, you'll love LuAnn Tyler. At first glance she seems like your basic stereotypical "trailer trash" but she turns out to be a diamond in the rough, remarkably bright, principled and resourceful.

Coincidentally, the waitress who just waited on me at Cracker Barrel saw me reading it and said she's reading the same novel. Weird coincidences do happen sometimes in the real world, and that one's pretty weird, two people randomly thrown together who are currently reading the same 25-year-old novel.

-- Ron

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

26. Two books right now.

Someone Knows by Lisa Scottoline. It's the first of her books I've ever read, and I'll be reading a lot more. It's a basic mystery sort of story where four people keep a terrible secret for 20 years, and then things go very awry.

Also The Fourth Wall by Walter Jon Williams. Sean Makin is a has-been child actor, now in a new project that he hopes will revive his career. I feel like I am completely inside Hollywood in this book. I bought this book several years ago, and pulled it off my shelf a couple of weeks ago to finally read it. It's very different from what I was expecting, and I love it so far.

Full disclosure: I happen to be fairly good friends with Walter and spent Thanksgiving with him and his wife Kathy, along with another s-f writer who lives here in Santa Fe. I hang out at several different science fiction cons and have gotten to know lots of writers, which makes reading their stuff even more interesting that it was when I'd never met any of them.

[hermetic]

27. Those sound great

Thanks