What Fiction are you reading this week, September 15, 2024?

[hermetic]

I'm reading Happiness Falls by Angie Kim: a mystery, a family drama, and a novel of profound philosophical inquiry. Great writing. She really puts you inside the story.

Listening to Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka. "A chilling portrait of womanhood as it simultaneously unravels the familiar narrative of the American serial killer." Lots of harrowing incidents, at the beginning anyway. Just started it.

What books are you chilling out with this week?

[Diamond_Dog]

1. Starting on "The Truths We Hold" by Kamala Harris

Not exactly fiction, but I am enjoying it nonetheless!

[hermetic]

3. Cool

I didn't know she had written a book. But I'm certainly not surprised. 2019. Sounds great.

[Arne]

2. Ekam The One

Starts with time travel, becomes epic futuristic tale
exposing climate change and AI struggles.
This writing is up there with the masters of science fiction.
It's 580 pages but I devoured it nonstop.

[LearnedHand]

19. Who's the writer?

[Arne]

20. My friend wrote this just now and offered it on Kindle.

He is John S. Ryan.
I may be biased but I flew thru 589 pages nonstop.
There are some typos that you may ignore and I told him he
needs a second print for corrections.

[LearnedHand]

22. Thanks!

[Lonestarblue]

4. The New York Times and the Washington Post!

[rsdsharp]

5. I'm almost done with The Pagan Lord, the seventh book in Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Tales series.

Only six more to go!

[The King of Prussia]

6. Murder in Tuscany by T.A. Williams

First in a new cozy series. Enjoying it so far.

[hermetic]

8. Excellent

A new cozy series. 5 star rated. Murder in paradise. Eight more so far. Thanks!

[cbabe]

7. Little library finds:

Dead Watch/John Sandford

Stand alone. Politics and murder. Twisted and tangled plot.

Not one of his best but ok read.

A Darkness More Than Night/Michael Connelly

Bosch is second to McCaleb. They’re adversaries trying to stop a serial killer and another bizarre killing staged like a Bosch painting.

Interesting to see Bosch through another’s eyes.

[hermetic]

9. Must read

Bosch becomes a suspect. Another 5 star rating. Thanks!

[cbabe]

10. Thanks for adding the most important point I left out: Bosch as suspect.

Off to big library to pick up new Craig Johnson ‘First Frost’.

[hermetic]

11. I just posted in the Writing Group

an interview with Michael Connelly, Laurie King and Walter Mosley. It's quite interesting and rather funny. Especially Mosley.

[japple]

12. Thank you for the weekly thread, hermetic! Still reading Attica Locke's 1st in

the Hwy 59 series, Bluebird, Bluebird and boy howdy this woman can write!

[hermetic]

13. I see the 3rd

and final one in the series has just been released. Rave reviews. Sounds like a great series to invest one's time in.

[pscot]

14. I just finished Missionary Stew by Ross Thomas

Ah, Treachery is next. Thomas wrote Political thrillers in the mold of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene. He had a wonderfully engaging style and a light touch, cynical and slyly humorous. He created a cast of memorable characters from an African dictator with unspeakable tastes to a Romanian dwarf who women found irresistable and while violence sometimes threatens, his heroes tend to be urbane, 40ish, slightly jaded operatives rather than pistol packing tough guys. Settings range from 1940s Europe to '80s LA. His books have been out of print for a while but they've being re-issued by St Martin's in a nicely done trade paperback edition. Highly recommended if you think you may have run out of things to read.

[hermetic]

15. Caught my interest

Sounds great, albeit a bit old. Originally 1983. Put it on my list, though. Thanks, pal.

[pscot]

16. I'm a bit old

More than a bit, actually. These are a little dated but Thomas was a first rate writer and they hold up quite well. But I remember Harry Truman and $0.25 a gallon gasoline so they don't seem as anomolously historical as they might to a child of Gen-Z.

[hermetic]

17. Me, too

I don't remember Truman but I do recall one time I was going out with friends before I was old enough to drive. The car was running low on gas. So all four of us managed to scrounge $1.00 in change from purses and pockets and got 4 gallons of gas. We were then able to cruise around all night. Which is what we used to do for fun.

[pscot]

18. In my teens

driving around aimlessly for hours at time was a major form of recreation. The Sunday drive; fun for the whole family. Then the '70s came along.

I used to think that i was cool
runnin 'round on fossile fuel
But now I see what I was doin'
Was drivin' down the road to ruin

[LearnedHand]

21. "I Was a Teenage Slasher," by Stephen Graham Jones

It's a clever premise: An infection causes a person to become a slasher, which in this novel is a dark superhero archetype. Also, there are rules and roles for slashers and victims, as "documented" in every slasher film ever. Jones is a gifted, lyrical writer and shapes his novels around or to include Native American themes and tropes (he is Native American). This book is heavy on the lyrical and slasher-film absurd on the relatively light violence.