What Fiction are you reading this week, April 28, 2024?

[hermetic]

First bookmobile in the U.S. delivering books from the public library of Washington County to rural areas in Maryland.

Still reading Fourteen Days. Up to Day 4 now. Kind of slow starting.

Listening to Zero Hour by Clive Custler. Scientist creates machine capable of causing great earthquakes, and fissures in tectonic plates. One machine is buried deep underground; the other is submerged in a vast ocean trench. If the NUMA team aren't able to find and destroy them, and soon, the world will be on the threshold of a new era of earth tremors and unchecked volcanism. Good adventure.

What's good on your reading list this week?

[Bayard]

1. Just finished, "Love You More," by Lisa Gardner, last night

Read in 2 days. Its a page turner. State cop's husband is murdered, and her 6 yr old daughter kidnapped.

"Zero Hour," sounds interesting. I will look for it.

[Attilatheblond]

2. Lara Trump press releases. n/t

[MontanaMama]

10. Oh you're clever!

[EverHopeful]

3. The Best of Cordwainer Smith edited by J.J. Pierce

Decided to revisit a favorite author from my youth after reading an enlightening article in The Atlantic.

Back when I was devouring his fiction, I'd never bothered to find out anything about him. I expect a much richer understanding of his fiction this time around.

[cbabe]

4. Finished Trees/Percival Everett

FBI investigating murders in the south. Lots of humorous banter with an edge. The agents are black.
Then it gets real. White men being lynched. Then it gets mystical as ghosts of the lynched rise.

Easy flowing prose.

Highly recommend.

[japple]

13. I really liked Trees, too.

[brer cat]

5. Last trip to the library, I checked out three books by authors

new to me. I first read S.A.Cosby, All the Sinners Bleed, which was very good so I will read other books by Cosby. Next was You're Dead by Chris Knopf. I really enjoyed this one; it is much lighter than many of the mysteries/thrillers I read. Last was Jonathon King, Shadow Men. This involved a Florida PI trying to solve an 80-year-old murder. Again, a good read. This was a good week in bookworld. Don't know what I will pick up when I go back to the library tomorrow.

[NanaCat]

9. Loved Blacktop Wasteland

The same month that I put it on my TBR list, I won a giveaway for it from Goodreads. Great book.

[mentalsolstice]

6. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

It’s about identical Black twin sisters, who are very light skinned. It starts out during the Civil Rights era and continues through the generations after. So far, I can’t put it down. As always, thanks for the thread!

[NanaCat]

8. On my list for next year

Although I might can squeeze it in later this year. If I have the opening, on this year's list it goes.

[japple]

14. I really enjoyed The Vanishing Half.

[NanaCat]

7. 3fer week

The Architect's Apprentice by Elif Shafak
Saga starting with a young boy hired as an animal trainer for a menagerie owned by an Ottomon sultan in the 16th century. An architect comes on board to build housing for the animals, takes a shine to the young trainer and makes him his apprentice. Many great buildings ensue...as does court intrigue.

Clear by Carys Davies
I summarized this one in another DU post: https://www.democraticunderground.com/119322753#post21

Because Clear is a shortish read (~200 pages), I'll toss in a third book this week, the award-winning graphic novel Himawari House by Harmony Becker. American teenagers study abroad in Japan and struggle through language barriers, culture clashes, and, of course, teen angst and interpersonal dramas. Sounds a bit soap opera-ish, but manga and graphic novels of this type can have unexpected depth, when least expected (See: Yazawa Ai's Nana or Hana Yori Dango by Kamio Yoko). Time will tell if this is one of the deeper types.

[gladium et scutum]

11. White Jacket by Herman Melville n/t

[MontanaMama]

12. An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good

By Helen Thurston. This a wee little book containing short stories about an old woman with no family or friends who doesn’t mind a little murder here and there if it keeps her tidy little life the way she wants it. I thought I’d feel a little badly about her offing people when they became inconvenient but oddly, I didn’t.

Maud is an irascible 88-year-old Swedish woman with no family, no friends, and... no qualms about a little murder.

Over the course of her adventures - or misadventures - this little bold lady will handle a crisis with a local celebrity who has her eyes on Maud's apartment, foil the engagement of her long-ago lover, and dispose of some pesky neighbors. But when the local authorities are called to investigate a dead body found in Maud's apartment, will Maud finally become a suspect?

[yellowdogintexas]

15. I have left the culinary tour of England and am now in New Orleans

with Wyatt Thomas, Eric WIlder's Paranormal Investigator

River Road: a totally irresistible and grippingly addictive paranormal crime thriller (French Quarter Mystery Book 5)
French Quarter paranormal investigator Wyatt Thomas meets a new client at an bizarre death ceremony in a revamped Canal Street movie theater. The man gives Wyatt a bag of cash and a single clue: a solid gold Krewe of Rex, 1948 Mardi Gras doubloon. His only request is for Wyatt to find the person or persons who murdered his mother.

The case isn't simply cold, it's 50-years old. When his client is shot dead on the way out the door, Wyatt must go into hiding, solve both murders, or suffer the same fate. The story hurtles along at a breakneck speed, with a number of harrowing events.

Wyatt is a disbarred attorney turned PI who is also a recovering alcoholic. There are a number of recurring characters - a detective, a DA, his bartender landlord and assorted practitioners of voodoo and its related religions. However the real main character is New Orleans itself.

I love this series (and I am a total sucker for anything set in New Orleans). It is a great mix of politics, murder, voo doo, devil worship and some great characters. Quite by accident I broke one of my cardinal rules of series reading - going out of order! The first book I encountered was book six or seven as a free book; the sample was so intriguing I could not wait for book one and had to dive into it immediately. Eventually I was able to snag the remaining books and am indulging myself in them when I am in a certain mood. (New Orleans frame of mind?)

[japple]

16. Finished reading Terry Kay's, Dark Thirty, and did it ever have a shocking ending. I loved

the book and highly recommend for anyone who enjoys courtroom drama.

Just started reading Tommy Orange's book, There, There.

Thanks for the weekly thread, hermetic. Happy reading to all.

[rsdsharp]

17. I'm reading Enemy of God: A Novel of Arthur by Bernard Cornwell.

This is the second book in Cornwell’s Arthurian trilogy, following The Winter King. The trilogy is set in sixth century Britain (primarily Wales), and is told by Derfel, an old Christian monk who was formerly a warrior, and friend of Arthur’s.

Arthur is a warlord, rather than a king, and is the bastard son of Uther Pendragon, the late high king. Arthur is sworn to protect Mordred, Uther’s crippled infant grandson.

I’ve read quite a bit of Cornwell over the years, and this trilogy so far is excellent, although the Welch names and places make it slow going at times; lots of ffs, Ws and not enough vowels for my taste.

[txwhitedove]

18. LOVE the photo of first book mobile! That seems a dream job to me.

Today need to finish Can't We Be Friends, novel story of the friendship between Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe. Very good, informative, but sad these two legendary women, both dynamic and a bit ahead of their time, had troubled childhoods and bad outcomes in their romantic lives.

[Skittles]

19. Shame on You - Amy Heydenrych

the story revolves around the dangers of promoting oneself online

[bahboo]

20. just started Blue Skies by T.C. Boyle...

love his writing. Creates unique situations with colorful characters, great dialogue, etc. Scathing social commentary as well...