What Fiction are you reading this week, March 29, 2026?

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This discussion thread is pinned.

The Burton Barr Central Library in Phoenix, AZ

Listening to Shadow of the Solstice by Anne Hillerman. From 2025, this one is a bit of a change from the usual. Same characters and a dead body, but it doesn't get much attention. Instead they go off the rez and out of state to Phoenix to investigate a massive fraud, which is based on actual events from the recent past. It's quite good. They spend some time in the library pictured above.

Reading Get In Trouble by Kelly Link. She has been hailed by Michael Chabon as “the most darkly playful voice in American fiction” and by Neil Gaiman as “a national treasure.” This book of 9 fantastical short stories is full of sly humor and a generosity of feeling for the frailty of humans. It is quite amazing.

In case you hadn't heard, April Fool's Day is cancelled this year because every day is a freaking joke.

[cbabe]

1. Three recommended here:

The dog who followed the moon/Norbury

Presents like a ya title with charming art. But it’s actually a reflection on loss and death. And to keep to your quest against all difficulties.

Station Eleven/St. John Mandel

Flu pandemic end of civilization. A small troupe of musicians and Shakespearean actors travel the wilderness, trying to help beauty survive.

The Anomaly/Le Tellier

Flight from Paris to JFK flies through extreme turbulence. Becomes exact duplicates of people who landed four months earlier on the exact same plane.

Lots of philosophy which I mostly skipped. I wanted more about the people including the psychologists and fbi and others trying to unravel the anomaly.

Spoiler: I think the author cheated the ending.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Just about to finish "A Litter of Bones" by JD Kirk, a Scottish author.

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4. Love Scottish crimes

My listening library has several of his so I'll be tuning in.

[txwhitedove]

3. Happy spring day. Currently enjoying saga of grandson and friends trying

to build a small garden pond for me. I'm the guinea pig for their new business venture. Fun, but sigh.

Read Thunder on the Right by Mary Stewart. Good read, interesting plot, but not her usual prose. "High in the rugged Pyrenees lies the Valley of the Storms, where a tiny convent clings to the beautiful but lonely mountainside. Jenny Silver arrives seeking her missing cousin, and is devastated when she learns of Gillian's death following a terrible car accident. But Jenny's suspicions are aroused when,,," mystery in beautiful setting.

Just finished What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty who also wrote Big Little Lies. Excellent, loved this book. "Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child. So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! She HATES the gym) and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over—she’s getting divorced, she has three kids, and she’s actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it’s possible to reconstruct her life at the same time." Enjoy!

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5. Murder in the Oval Library

A Lincoln's White House Mystery

April 1861 and Washington DC faces imminent invasion, but murder is close at hand in the White House. President Lincoln entrusts his close aid, Adam Speed Quinn, to solve the case, and protect his life.

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6. Author C.M. Gleason

From 2018. Sounds quite good.

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10. I read the first in the series, fun.

[Polly Hennessey]

7. Passages by Connie Willis

Just started the book and am liking and intrigued by it.

“One of those rare, unforgettable novels that are as chilling as they are insightful, as thought-provoking as they are terrifying, award-winning author Connie Willis's Passage is an astonishing blend of relentless suspense and cutting-edge science unlike anything you've ever read before.

It is the electrifying story of a psychologist who has devoted her life to tracking death. But when she volunteers for a research project that simulates the near-death experience, she will either solve life's greatest mystery -- or fall victim to its greatest terror.”

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8. Love Connie Williis'

books. Haven't read that one but it sounds like I should.

[Vinca]

9. I just started "Night of Camp David" by Fletcher Knebel. Apparently, it's about the POTUS going nuts.

It'll probably read more like nonfiction at this point.

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11. Truly, sadly

Well gosh, originally from 1980, re-released in 2018. “What would happen if the president of the U.S.A. went stark-raving mad?
The president sits in the dark and rants about his enemies, unfurling insane theories about all the people he says are conspiring against him."
Wow. That's quite a find.

[Vinca]

12. I heard a news commentator mention it one day. He also wrote "Seven Days in May" which was excellent.

"Night of Camp David" was originally put out in 1965.

[mentalsolstice]

13. Finished "Women of a Promiscuous Nature" by Donna Everhart

Scary, maybe even more terrifying than The Handmaid’s Tale because it depicts true events in the US in the 40s.

On a lighter note, I’m starting The True True Story of Raja the Gullible by Rabih Alameddine, about a 63 y.o. teacher in Lebanon who accepts a writing residency in the US leaving his nosy elderly mother behind in Beirut.

Like you, I feel like every day is April Fool’s Day, but it’s not funny.

Have a good week everyone!