What Fiction are you reading this week, February 16, 2025?

[hermetic]

This week is National Justice for Animals Week. They need some, too.


Finished The Mighty Red: there's a lot going on with this one. It's supposed to be somewhat funny and it sometimes is. But it's also rather depressing. I did enjoy her take on farming practices and the enjoyment of nature. There's a bookstore and book club meetings, so that's always fun to read about. And the mysterious underlying incident was pretty gruesome. So, some will like it; some won't.

Now I am reading Resident Alien, The Graphic Novel. I just watched all 3 seasons of the TV show, thanks to DVDs from my library. It was so funny and surprising. So, I decided to read this as it's supposed to be quite different from the TV show, but still funny. We shall see.

Just started listening to The Chemist by Stephenie Meyerhi. A tautly plotted novel with a fierce and fascinating new (in 2016) heroine, with a very specialized skill set. A gripping page-turner.

Stay safe and sane out there everyone.

[cbabe]

1. Joe Ide/IQ five book series

First title published 2016.

South LA hood. Cars, rap, guns, drugs. Church. Fried chicken.

Good people trying to live a life.

IQ is super brainy teen who helps neighbors with lost cats, violent boyfriends, and all manner of situations no one else will take on.

Read in order or you’ll be overwhelmed by the fast pace and characters ups and downs and hook-ups.

Glad I read it, like a secret treasure hidden on the back of the bookshelf.

[hermetic]

2. Nice

Will have to check that out, literally.

[LearnedHand]

3. I read several of the IQ series

I liked them. Thanks for the reminder to go back and finish the series.

[txwhitedove]

4. Love the library kitty pic. Happy cold sunny Sunday! Granny making chicken soup stock and

dog food, before settling down to read in a sunny corner.

Mostly read The Story of the Forest, author Linda Grant, but gave up 2/3 thru. Book started like an almost poetic fable, but drearied into non-productive would-be heroine. True not all heros wear capes and mom's are heros of life, but no.

Now reading The Hive by Gregg Olsen. "In the Pacific Northwest, detective Lindsay Jackman is investigating the murder of a young journalist found at the bottom of a ravine. Lindsay soon learns that the victim was writing an exposé. Her subject: a charismatic wellness guru who’s pulled millions into her euphoric orbit…" Well written, good characters, not a fast page turner but is keeping me guessing.

I have a Chet & Bernie mystery ready for much needed levity.

[cbabe]

7. The Olsen book looks tasty. Put on my library holds list. Thanks.

[mentalsolstice]

5. The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki

I was fascinated by her plans for Mar-a-Lago. I’ll probably finish it today. Earlier this week I finished The Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Mathieu, it was pretty good.

Thanks for sharing…..

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. Mysterium

by Robert Charles Wilson. A small town that has a top-secret government research facility is suddenly transported to another reality, one in which religion holds sway and science is barely tolerated. Quite good.

[hermetic]

8. From 1994

Rereleased in 2010, in sounds very prescient.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. In certain ways it is.

I read it when it first came out, so this is a reread.

[hermetic]

11. Are you still in SF?

If so do you know about the railroad spur purchased by Doug Preston and George RR Martin? It sounds marvelous with sunset serenade treks, murder mystery trains, beer and wine tasting journeys, jazz under the stars, flamenco trains, stargazing excursions, and more.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

14. Yes, I am still in SF, both Santa Fe, the city,

and Science Fiction, the genre.

Don't know about Preston being connected, but yes, George did purchase the local railroad and there are wonderful trips to be taken.

https://www.skyrailway.com/

[japple]

10. Thanks for the weekly thread and for the lovely painting in the OP.

Still reading The Girls of the Glimmer Factory by Jennifer Coburn. It's pretty good.

[mentalsolstice]

18. I've been eyeballing that book.

However, it seems like I’ve read so many books about the Holocaust, every now and then I need a break.

[japple]

21. Yes. Same here. Have you read A Woman of No Importance

by Sonia Purnell? It's about the special operations units that came into being in WWII, starting in England. Fascinating reading.

[Number9Dream]

12. Finished "Vagabond" by Bernard Cornwell

Thanks for the thread, hermetic.

Historical fiction covering the first stage of the Hundred Years War. The fictional Thomas of Hookton leaves his native Dorset after the murder of his father by Thomas's own cousin and joins an English army under Edward III as an archer. This is typical Cornwell... rather violent, so not for every taste.

More cold, crappy weather here in the northeast, but the barn cats had their usual warm breakfast.

[hermetic]

13. I know they appreciated that

Had a blizzard here Friday that totally inundated my catio with 4" of snow. Then we got hit again this morning. Been constantly shoveling little paths so all the kits could get in and out and about. Still expecting a nasty few days this week. Spring will sure be welcomed.

[Bayard]

15. Finished, "The Perfect Husband," by Lisa Gardener

One of her earlier ones, and a page turner.

About halfway through, "The Mailman," by Bentley Little. Another earlier book, and good story, as usual.

Saw this, and thought of you and these threads, Hermetic.


Livraria Lello, A Bookstore In Portugal

[hermetic]

16. Woo Hoo!

That is freaking amazing! Beautiful! Thank you!!!

[WestMichRad]

17. Reading "The Light of Other Days"

… by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter.
From the dust jacket (paraphrasing some of it, quoting some): A wealthy industrialist harnesses quantum physics to use wormholes to enable people to see one another at all times. This results in the complete elimination of privacy, forever. As society copes with the shock of this, the same technology proves able to look back in time, too. Nothing prepares people for what follows: “the wholesale discovery of the truth about thousands of years of human history. Governments topple, religions fall, the entire edifice of human society is shaken to its roots. It is a fundamental change in the terms of the human condition… cause for despair, provocation for chaos, and- just maybe- opportunity for transcendence.”

I’m about 20% into it… it’s proving to be a compelling story, even if it sounds rather frightening.

[hermetic]

19. Excellent

Thanks.

[yellowdogintexas]

20. Still reading "The Power " volume 2 of the Berkeley Blackfriars J R Mabry

I have been sick with either a bad cold, flu or RSV for a week. Between the coughing, fever, aching and exhaustion I did not do much reading . However I am back together and working on this book. I am enjoying it more now that I am well.
The Berkeley BlackFriars are an Episcopalian Exorcist team, and the author goes into some interesting places with demons, magicians, travel into a second world. it's fun