What Fiction are you reading this week, August 9, 2020?

[hermetic]

I have the beautifully written Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles, the tale of a young Irishman in Texas at the end of the Civil War. A talented violinist, he teams up with 3 other musicians as they travel through Texas in search of jobs and love. I had some fun looking up the songs they play, on YouTube. Some lovely tunes.

Listening to Pushing Up Daisies by M.C. Beaton (one of several pseudonyms used by Marion Chesney). Enjoyable. Actually, Agatha kind of reminds me of me. Snarky, curmudgeonly, flirty.

What is your fictional pleasure this week?

[Srkdqltr]

1. Lost in a good book by Jasper Fforde.

Rather strange but so is everything else lately.

[dhill926]

3. love the entire series....

mind bending in a fun, literate way...

[hermetic]

5. Oh, I see

That is actually the title of the book. Which sounds pretty good. Fforde has written a bunch of books, many award winners, and they involve magic, suspense, fantasy, women sleuths. All sorts of fun stuff. Thanks.

[SheltieLover]

2. Yaaaay! My fav thread of the week! 😁

Just finished the Joe Grey (talking cats) cozy series, Pouncing on Murder (Bookmobile cozy series), & trying to wade through boring "A New Attitude," by Charlotte Hughes. Well written, but boring romantic comedy.

Still searching for a new cozy series I've not yet inhaled. 👀

[hermetic]

6. Aw, you're so sweet

Hey, check out Jasper Fforde (see above). Looks like a good find.

[SheltieLover]

7. Awwww thx!

Not so sweet, really, but honest. 🤣👍

I'll check it out! TY!

I'm somewhat limited by what library has in e-format. I read so much & so quickly, I'd need a huge pile of cash to buy them all. 🤣

[SheltieLover]

8. I've got some!

A couple of Frye Affair, a couple of Thursday Nexts & The Fourth Bear! Tyvvvm!

This should hold me for a couple of days! 😉👍

[hermetic]

9. Ah, my work here is done

[SheltieLover]

10. Nooooo!

🤣🤣🤣

[SheltieLover]

11. Already delicious read! 😍

Ty so much!

Need something to do with mind when DU is slow. 🤣👍

[backtoblue]

15. Have you read any of the Aunt Dimity books?

Perfect warm cozies to curl up with some tea to.

[SheltieLover]

16. I've tried them

I just can't get through them. But tyvm for suggestion!

[Jarqui]

4. Transcripts of Trump .nt

[bbrady42]

12. Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

It's wonderful. Very David Mitchell. About a late 60s rock band. Simon the Fiddler is next on my list.

[hermetic]

17. Mm, that's brand new

from the author of Cloud Atlas. Sounds delicious! "Utopia Avenue is the strangest British band you’ve never heard of." Riots and revolutions, drugs, thugs, madness, love, sex, death, art. Must read!

[Ohiogal]

13. My sister gave me

Alex Trebek’s book (The Answer Is....) after she was done with it.

[hermetic]

18. I'll bet that's great

Luvs me some Alex.

[backtoblue]

14. A Court of Thorns And Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Faery fiction

First book in a series. I'm just a few chapters in.

Some Fantasy Fiction recommendations:

Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Cinder by Marissa Mayer (series)
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (trilogy)


I also enjoy some dystopian novels (Hunger Games, etc)

Wool by Hugh Howey
Matched by Ally Condie

If you like fairy tales, Heartless by Marissa Meyer is one of my absolute favorite renditions of Alice In Wonderland.

[hermetic]

19. Lots of good suggestions there

I adored the retellings done by Gregory Maguire, like Wicked and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I couldn't remember his name so was digging around and discovered he wrote another: After Alice. Then I literally went down a rabbit hole reading reviews of that book which go from Great to Horrible. I'll probably give it a try, though.

[murielm99]

23. I read Wool!

Good book.

[japple]

20. I loved Simon the Fiddler, but then I love Paulette Jiles. Her characters are always memorable.

Thanks for mentioning that you watched videos on youtube of the tunes played by Simon and his band. I must check that out!

I started a new book this week Edmund White's A Saint From Texas. Having very close family ties to Texas, this book had me on the first page.

Here's the description from amazon:

From Edmund White, a bold and sweeping new novel that traces the extraordinary fates of twin sisters, one destined for Parisian nobility and the other for Catholic sainthood.

Yvette and Yvonne Crawford (pronounced Wye-vett and Wye-vonn) are twin sisters, born on a humble patch of East Texas prairie but bound for far more dramatic and tragic fates. Just as an untold fortune of oil lies beneath their daddy's land, both girls harbor their own secrets and dreams-ones that will carry them far from Texas and from each other. As the decades unfold, Yvonne will ascend the highest ranks of Parisian society as Yvette gives herself to a lifetime of worship and service in the streets of Jericó, Colombia. And yet, even as they remake themselves in their radically different lives, the twins find that the bonds of family and the past are unbreakable.

[hermetic]

21. That one sounds like another winner

Two tunes that come to mind are Death and the Sinner and Niel Gow's Lament. Niel Gow was the most famous Scottish fiddler of the eighteenth century. I love how reading fiction can lead to learning things you would have never known.

[japple]

22. Yes! and Paulette Jiles weaves historical facts with fiction so seamlessly. She

researches (or has assistants who do) everything, which, IMHO is the mark of a great writer.

[murielm99]

24. I am reading Wolf Hall,

by Hilary Mantel. It is the first book in a series about Thomas Cromwell. It won the Man Booker Prize.

It is a fictionalized account to life under Henry VIII when he wanted to divorce Katherine and marry Anne Boleyn. It details how the Reformation came about in England. The book is witty and amazing.

[AmyStrange]

25. Still reading the Joe Grey series, but I have good news...

-

My appeal was approved for my review of Shirley Rousseau Murphy, author of the Joe Grey series, and it's now up and running again at:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/119315527
==========

[hermetic]

26. Excellent!

Great write up. Congrats!

[AmyStrange]

28. Thank you, and as an aside...

Last edited Wed Aug 12, 2020, 03:30 PM - Edit history (2)

-

I also included a quick cameo of Dulcie (Joe Grey's girlfriend) in my newest book.

You can read it here:

http://www.ATOMADNESS.COM/Chap-60.html
============

[Cuthbert Allgood]

27. Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

Just started last night. I haven't read anything of Ruff's before, but I like his writing style.

[hermetic]

29. Wow

This sounds really great; powerful. "The critically acclaimed cult novelist makes visceral the terrors of life in Jim Crow America and its lingering effects in this brilliant and wondrous work of the imagination that melds historical fiction, pulp noir, and Lovecraftian horror and fantasy."

AND, coming soon to HBO. "An American drama horror television series developed by Misha Green based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Matt Ruff. It is set to premiere on August 16, 2020, on HBO."

[Cuthbert Allgood]

30. It wasn't on my radar until I saw an ad for the upcoming HBO show

I'm about 1/6 of the way in. Hope to finish it while camping this weekend. So far loving it.

[murielm99]

34. I enjoyed that book.

Happy reading!

[SheltieLover]

31. Look what I found on Google News)! 😍

https://www.cozy-mystery.com/blog/three-new-cozy-mystery-series-and-one-new-holiday-cozy-coming-september-2020.html

New cozy series coming in Sept!!

[hermetic]

32. Woo hoo!!

Good find.

[SheltieLover]

33. IKR!!