What Fiction are you reading this week, January 7, 2024?

[hermetic]

Still reading With No One As Witness by Elizabeth George, as I suspected I would be. It's a BIG book. Great story.

Listening to Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan. A bookstore in Edinburgh at Christmas, what could be more delightful.

Yesterday I got my order from B&N: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow and In a House of Lies by Ian Rankin. These are for reading when it gets too snowy here to drive to the library, which looks like it will be happening soon.

How's your reading starting off this year?

[sellitman]

1. Retired and loving my Kindle

I haven't paid for a book yet. I love the "Libby" app.

I am reading This Impossible Brightness" by Jessica Bryant Klagmann

It's been very good so far.

Cheers!

[hermetic]

3. Love "Libby"

That's how I get all my audio books.

That Klagmann book hasn't been released yet; not in book form, anyway. Next month. Sounds really good:
"Taking refuge on a remote island, a grieving woman develops unlikely connections with the community and the wild in this haunting novel of hope and perseverance..."

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

9. The Klagmann is in ebook format and available for free

To Amazon Prime members as part of their First Reads program. This month, we get two selections from that, and the Klagmann is high on my list as the second pick.

The heavy favourite for my first pick is Mayluna by Kelly McNeil. Seems a bit derivative of Daisy Jones & the Six, but I can do another rock 'n' roll book for free.

[sellitman]

29. That's how I got it

I love free.

Must be my roots.


lol

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

6. I love my Fire tablet with the Kindle app.

I use my local library's Libby feature to read through Kindle quite a bit, but books I want to read aren't always available when I need to read them. Or, sadly, not available at all. Many of my challenge prompts are time-sensitive, and if such a book is unavailable or has a long wait list...well, time to buy a Kindle copy.

They have deals every day that are $4.99 or less, and often of top-notch reads and recent bestsellers, so it's worth checking out. Some of us are lucky enough to have gotten the invite to beta test the Kindle Rewards program. I love it. Yeah, I have to spend a bit to get the rewards, but the rewards are acceptable to me.

[yellowdogintexas]

23. Are you using Book Bub, Robin Reads, Fussy Librarian or Bargain Booksy?

sign up with one or more of these, choose the genres you prefer and wait for the daily emails. These services will curate the free and cheap items on Amazon for you.

If something grabs my interest, I go to Amazon and read the sample, I get it. I have discovered lots of good authors and collected a number of fun series, Sometimes a "boxed set" of a series (or portion of a series) will be offered for free or 99cents..

There are a few authors which will tempt me to go above $1.99 for a book; mostly those books are part of a series but sometimes it will be for a book I have wanted to read for a long time. Of course this the main reason I have so many books in my Kindle.!!!!! (I'm glad I have the Kindle - one of the reasons I broke down and got one was to keep from bringing any more physical books into the house.)

I get the Prime First Reads and the Prime Reading notices, and sometimes find one I want to read.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

27. I never sign up for newsletters.

Nearly all of them flood my email box like an incontinent ADHD chimpanzee at a beer garden. That's why I prefer to use email strictly for family matters and actual business, and look for books my own way.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

28. Oh--and I also have a set list

Of books I'm actively looking for at any given time. I may stray off the reservation every now and then if something irresistible comes up (RF Kuang's Yellowface on sale for $3.99), but I tend to stick to that primary book list.

I'm only ever in the market for looking up what to read at the end of the year, when I'm constructing the following year's TBR. What goes on that list depends on the challenges going on vs my local library's ebook catalogue. Sometimes, I don't have much choice about buying when I've committed to a challenge.

[yellowdogintexas]

34. I would not consider it a flood but that is just me.

I get one daily email from each of the services except Fussy Librarian which comes only on Saturdays. No other email from any of them.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

2. My fiction reads

I’ll continue my journey through mystery series books by Dorothy Sayers and Ngaio Marsh. For the former, Clouds of Witness, and the latter will be Enter a Murderer. I found the first Sayers book a bit…clunky and ponderous, but the Marsh turned out to be nimble and engaging. Will see if that holds up, for the second book from each.

Umberto Eco – The Name of the Rose. I know, I know, how could I have gone this long without reading it? When I attempted it in the 80s, I’ll admit to being quite distracted from being a new mum to give it the level of concentration a book like it needs, so it wound up on my DNF pile, and for longer than I'd realized.

All the Wind in the World by Samantha Mabry. This will be a strange book, about two itinerant farm workers in a dystopian future with dreams of owning their own farm if they can only work hard enough, earn and save enough. Well, we’ll see if it works out for them.

The Secret Stealers by Jane Healey. I burned out on the WWII fiction craze, long ago, but I had a challenge prompt for ‘protagonist with a unique profession.’ Hm. Seemed to me that a French teacher becoming an OSS spy for the French resistance behind enemy lines would tick that box. My ex’s grandfather carried out a similar mission during that war, and the experience shattered him. As his wife put it, he came back a man she didn’t know—and didn’t want to know. Somehow, I doubt this book will be that visceral in its realism, but one never knows…

[hermetic]

4. Thanks for sharing

All the old and new books you find. So much to explore...

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

7. Diversity is my goal of late

So I do get to mash it up on the regular between old and new.

[yellowdogintexas]

35. I hope you like Name of the Rose more than I did

I was really looking forward to it and really dragged myself through it

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

37. Eco wrote it so that the first 100 pages were very difficult

His idea was to make you feel a little disoriented and even bored from being lost upon entering a monastery, and I can understand that point. It would be a jarring experience to go in there and try to penetrate the culture and norms of it right off, even for someone used to monastery life. Every monastery was different in its practices and interpretations of doctrine from others, never mind differences between orders, so there would be an adjustment before getting the hang of things.

While I can live with that, now that I understand the reasoning behind it, the one part that's making the read a slog is the extensive use of Latin. I actually studied it in secondary school...over 4 decades ago. Meaning I've forgotten a whole bunch of it, although I retain just enough of what I learned to be a little dangerous with it. So I'm okay with some of the simpler phrases, but you get into the weeds of the kind used in abstruse medieval Catholic doctrine, as NotR does, and I definitely get lost with it.

A little bird told me how to make all the foreign terms bandied about into quick work. A website (https://marco.tompitak.com/notr/) has translated every foreign phrase used in NotR--and in chronological order, separated by chapters. The reading is going much faster with that site kept open on my tablet.

[Bayard]

5. I finished 3 books this past week

"Holly," by Stephen King, was quite good, with an unusual plot line. It continues the story of the older woman private detective from, The, "Mr. Mercedes," series. A xmas gift from Mr. Bayard.

Also a gift, "The Hike," by Lucy Clarke, about 4 friends perilous journey through Norway's mountains and forests. I would rate it at 3.5.

I finally found another copy of, "Tick Tock," by Dean Koontz. I love this book! I read it several years ago, and it still delighted me. Its scary, thrilling, and quite funny--not your typical Koontz. I read it in 2 days. Highly recommended.

I just started, "Don't Fear The Reaper," by Stephen Graham Jones (another gift). It continues the story of the heroine and villain from, "My Heart Is A Chainsaw." Mr. Jones is Native American, and his books carry that bent. Starts a little slow, but picking up steam.

Happy reading in 2024!

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

8. I'll be reading a book by Mr Jones later in the year

I think it's his 2020 release, The Only Good Indians. It's apparently a horror book, and that genre tends to give me nightmares.

So I tend to put any of those off as long as I can.

[LearnedHand]

13. Definitely horror

This was a keep-you-up-at-night read based around indigenous mythology. I loved it. Highly recommended.

[Bayard]

30. I'll have to give that a look

I'm not a big fan of straight horror either, though.

[berniesandersmittens]

12. Tick Tock was one of my favorite reads

I haven't started anything g yet this week

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

10. I used to read all the Rankin Rebus books when they came out

Haven't read any of the recent ones, though. Not sure why...

[japple]

11. LOVE the OP, hermetic!!! Many thanks for for hosting this group every week. I finished

Last edited Mon Jan 8, 2024, 08:21 AM - Edit history (1)

reading Paulette Jiles's book, Chenneville and cannot recommend it highly enough. It is right up there with True Grit and the Lonesome Dove books. I loved it so much that I was tempted to go back and read it all over again, but thought maybe I should give it a rest. I still think about it often--Chenneville is a character to fall in love with.

I found that a book I had read back in the early 70s is now available on Kindle and for only $2.99, so I started on it last night. It is every bit as good as it was in 1973(?) and a great coming-of-age tale by Jeff Fields, A Cry of Angels.

It is the mid-1950s in Quarrytown, Georgia. In the slum known as the Ape Yard, hope’s last refuge is a boardinghouse where a handful of residents dream of a better life. Earl Whitaker, who is white, and Tio Grant, who is black, are both teenagers, both orphans, and best friends. In the same house live two of the most important adults in the boys’ lives: Em Jojohn, the gigantic Lumbee Indian handyman, is notorious for his binges, his rat-catching prowess, and his mysterious departures from town. Jayell Crooms, a gifted but rebellious architect, is stuck in a loveless marriage to a conventional woman intent on climbing the social ladder.

Crooms’s vision of a new Ape Yard, rebuilt by its own residents, unites the four—and puts them on a collision course with a small-town Machiavelli who rules the community like a feudal lord. Jeff Fields’s exuberantly defined characters and his firmly rooted sense of place have earned A Cry of Angels an intensely loyal following. Its republication, more than three decades since it first appeared, is cause for celebration.

EDITED TO ADD: I notice that the price on amazon is now at $19.99??? Maybe I just had an unused credit that they applied to the cost or maybe they charge different prices depending on who is buying. I don't know.

[mentalsolstice]

14. "The Silent Patient" by Alex Michaelides

Really good so far, especially for a debut novel. I know it’s been recommended here previously.

I finished Absolution by Alice McDermott earlier this week, I gave it five stars, it was a great read.

Stay warm dear friends!

[hermetic]

16. I think I read that

Back when it first came out, 2008. I wasn't keeping a list back then as I had no idea how deeply involved with books I would become. That one was popular enough to be re-released 10 years later.

Absolution sounds quite excellent, too. Life during the Vietnam War.

[mentalsolstice]

18. "The Silent Patient" was first published in 2019

You may be thinking of another book?

[hermetic]

19. Aha, actually

it came out in 2008 an an EBOOK. Who knew? I don't think I even knew what ebooks were in 2008.
https://www.fictiondb.com/title/the-silent-patient---alex-michaelides~alex-michaelides~2854985.htm

[mentalsolstice]

20. Looks like maybe it was a graphic novel.

Maybe self published?

[LearnedHand]

15. Death Rejoices, by AJ Aalio

This is the second in the Marnie Baranuik series and is funny as hell. The first book was as well.

Marnie Baranuik is back, and this time, the Great White Shark of psychic investigations has “people skills” and a new assistant who seems to harbor an unhealthy curiosity about Harry, her revenant companion. Together, they've got a whole lot of questions that need answering. Is an ancient vampire hunting in Denver? Who is stalking Lord Dreppenstedt? How do you cure a slipper-humping bat, ditch an ogre, or give a demon king the slip? And what the hell was she thinking, swearing off cookies? Teaming up with her sexual nemesis, Special Agent Mark Batten, and their long-suffering supervisor, Gary Chapel, Marnie discovers that vampire hunters aren't easy to rescue, secrets don’t stay buried, and zombies sure are a pain in the ass to kill.

Edited to add that Amy McFadden reads the audiobook, and she totally gets Marnie’s snarky attitude.

[hermetic]

17. Oh, fun

Will have to look those up.

[yellowdogintexas]

24. that sounds like a whole lot of fun. I am a sucker for these

funny quirky books with crazy characters. A shoe humping bat? LOL

[Bayard]

31. Sounds good to me!

I'll look for it.

[Jilly_in_VA]

21. About to start some new ones, I think

I just finished Only Girl Alive by Holly S. Roberts, the first in the Detective Eve Bennet series. It was a lulu, set in fundamentalist Mormon country and featuring a detective who had escaped that cult as a young teenager and still bears the scars. I absolutely have got to read more in the series. Not only because I liked the main character, but because I liked the rest of her team. Not sure what I'm going to read next.

On my other Kindle app, I have the Post-Human omnibus by David Simpson but I'm not sure I'm going to read it. For one thing, its ungodly long, and for another, I started it recently but when I picked it up last night I had to go back to the beginning because I couldn't remember what it's about.

In regular book form, I'm reading N.K. Jemison's The Fifth Season, which I picked up for free in a pile outside the local used bookstore. I like it although I can't quite figure out where it's going.

[yellowdogintexas]

25. Picked it back up and had to start over...I am glad to know I am not the only one

that happens to!!! I was beginning to think I was losing it completely.

[yellowdogintexas]

22. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. Sequel to Handmaid's Tale

It's a very compelling and evocative book. Also scary.

The story is told from two points of view, and moves around in time with each of these women and it is somewhat confusing. The name and date at the top of each narrator switch would have solved that problem

This week a new objective popped up in the Amazon Winter Reading Challenge: Read a Goodreads Choice Book. So I scanned the list for something I already had; I came up with three and chose this one.

[rayray56]

26. David Baldacci

Long Shadows by David Baldacci.

[niyad]

32. Just finished "A Demon's Guide to Wooing A Witch", by Sarah Hawley, the second

in a hilarious new series. The first was "A Witch's Guide To Fake Dating A Demon". Set in the magical town of Glimmer Falls, WA, home to humans, witches, werewolves, pixues, naiads, and other assorted magic beings. Politics, feminism, magic, dysfunctional (SERIOUSLY dysfunctional) familes, environmental issues, economic issues, prejudice, other planes of existence, interpersonal/interspecies relationships, love, sex, conflict, comedy. . .This series has it all.

These are in the delightful sub-genre feminist witcherature.

[hermetic]

33. That sounds most impressive

Thanks!

[cbabe]

36. Late to the party... Wild Card/Michael Brandman

Third in his Buddy Steel series.

Reluctant smart ass sheriff in small California coastal town. Battles russian drug lord at the same time hunting a most meticulous serial killer.

Timely plot: fentanyl and Putin.

Fast paced. Bright easy read. If you like Spenser/Parker, but lighter and breezy.

Third in the series plucked at random off the library shelf. Looking forward to first two titles.