Fiction
Related: About this forumWhat Fiction are you reading this week, March 2, 2025?
Abandon despair, ye who enter here
I'm reading The Sinister Pig by Tony Hillerman. And no, it's not about "him," just other greedy, cruel and not terribly bright politicians. When oil/gas production is involved, it always brings out the worst in people. Thank goodness for good guys like Leaphorn and Chee.
Speaking of political corruption, I'm listening to The Fixer Upper by Mary Kay Andrews. After her boss is caught in a political scandal, a fledgling Washington lobbyist is left broke, unemployed, and homeless. She moves into a decaying old mansion in a small town in Georgia planning to rehab and sell it. It has its funny moments but it's not great.
Stay hopeful, my friends.

cbabe
(4,812 posts)Really good. One of his best. Bosch working for the ‘dark side’ of defense and driver for Haller, the Lincoln lawyer.
Death, redemption, family. All the basics. Small details like the maple syrup break-in give the book depth and humanity.
hermetic
(8,815 posts)

japple
(10,459 posts)hermetic
(8,815 posts)I may have it in a week or so. It sounds great so Thanks!
mentalsolstice
(4,566 posts)I finished Come Fly With Me by Camille Di Maio about two Pan American flight attendants in the early 60s. I thought it may be too chick lit for me, but I was wrong. It was very well researched and enjoyable.
Have a good week!
Number9Dream
(1,739 posts)Thanks for the thread, hermetic.
This was the third book in the Grail series, and wraps up the quest portion. I enjoyed the ending, and was glad I stuck with the series.
for getting through all those books. I do know it was good reading.
I've not seen that TV show but did just read it had been renewed. Didn't care much for season 3, I take it?
Number9Dream
(1,739 posts)Season 2 was confusing and left us with a number of unanswered questions. Hoping season 3 is better.
Number9Dream
(1,739 posts)I hope it's better than the last season was.
Bayard
(24,617 posts)yellowdogintexas
(23,152 posts)We are looking forward to season 3
Bayard
(24,617 posts)I was happy to find it because I thought I'd read all the Prey novels. Its about a woman serial killer. A good one.
yellowdogintexas
(23,152 posts)The book I finished: The Last Green Valley by Michael Sullivan
From the author of the #1 bestseller Beneath a Scarlet Sky comes a new historical novel inspired by one family’s incredible story of daring, survival, and triumph.
In late March 1944, as Stalin’s forces push into Ukraine, young Emil and Adeline Martel must make a terrible decision: Do they wait for the Soviet bear’s intrusion and risk being sent to Siberia? Or do they reluctantly follow the wolves—murderous Nazi officers who have pledged to protect “pure-blood” Germans?
The Martels are one of many families of German heritage whose ancestors have farmed in Ukraine for more than a century. But after already living under Stalin’s horrifying regime, Emil and Adeline decide they must run in retreat from their land with the wolves they despise to escape the Soviets and go in search of freedom.
Caught between two warring forces and overcoming horrific trials to pursue their hope of immigrating to the West, the Martels’ story is a brutal, complex, and ultimately triumphant tale that illuminates the extraordinary power of love, faith, and one family’s incredible will to survive and see their dreams realized.
I have read Beneath A Scarlet Sky and it was really good I picked this second one up either free on 99 cents for its subject, not realizing it was also by Mark Sullivan. You can really feel the affection and respect he has for his subjects in both books. Highly recommend
I just started The Mountain Mother Cipher by N S Wikarski (Second of 8 in The Arcana Archaeology Series.
about the series: THE ARKANA SERIES
The forgotten past refuses to stay buried in an artifact hunt spanning continents, centuries, and lost civilizations. The prize is a cache of myth-busting relics that could rewrite history or end it completely. When a secret society squares off against a ruthless fundamentalist cult, only one faction can win. More importantly, only one will survive.
This book: Volume 2 - The Mountain Mother Cipher
In THE MOUNTAIN MOTHER CIPHER, the race is on between Arkana agents and Nephilim operatives as they rush off to Turkey in search of clues leading to legendary artifacts. Among ancient megaliths on the top of Mount Ida, the foes square off in a literal cliffhanger of a confrontation.
At the worst possible moment, the Arkana crew discovers that the Nephilim aren't their only competitors for lost treasure. Unforeseen obstacles and unknown enemies thwart their efforts to complete their mission and escape unharmed. This crisis teaches the newest member of the Arkana team where her real loyalties lie, but not all of the crew might make it home alive.
This is pure escapist fun in one of my favorite genres: archaeolgical thrillers. Shades of Dan Brown, with artifacts and special powers and all sorts of good stuff. The first book is the Granite Key. Do read in order. I am really glad I had already read the first one.
Jilly_in_VA
(11,726 posts)Also have to comment on the other book I finished, even though it's not fiction, because it's about the author of perhaps the most beloved series of children's books in the US, Laura Ingalls Wilder. Prairie Fires, by Caroline Fraser, is ostensibly a biography of her, but a lot more. There is background to her story, explaining the Homestead Act, Pa's financial situation, Indian Territory, the geography of the upper midwest, and much more. Unfortunately, the latter part of the book focuses way too much on Laura's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who IMNSHO was a sick individual, possibly bipolar, much loved (perhaps overly so) by her mother. In her defense, Lane encouraged her mother to write the books, but she also plagiarized much of the material for her own use. She was also a fascist apologist. Laura herself was a Republican of the old school, much like my grandparents, but not a fascist. She was very capable and did many jobs besides running the farm, writing a column for the local paper, and being a Worthy Matron of the Eastern Star. For many years she was a loan officer for a local bank, something I didn't know. Unfortunately the author rather neglects Almanzo, who seems to have been a man of many parts himself.