What Fiction are you reading this week, May 18, 2025?

[hermetic]

I'm still here.
Much thanks for your concern and suggestions. Greatly appreciated.

I am now reading Horse by Geraldine Brooks. Based on a remarkable true story of a record-breaking thoroughbred, this is "a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism." It's marvelous.

Listening to The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz. Totally loving this delightfully entertaining tale of who killed the theatre critic, "with Horowitz’s own theatrical experience providing just the right amount of bittersweet bite."

What's your reading plan this week?

[thomski64]

1. "Dream Hotel"

another brilliant novel from
Laila Lalami...

[hermetic]

2. Must read this...

"..a riveting and utterly original novel about one woman's fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance." Scary stuff...

[cbabe]

3. A couple of good dog books, so to speak:

A Dog’s Purpose/W. Bruce Cameron

Cheesy cover but well-written and thoughtful.

Dog reincarnates through many lives taking care of his humans with love and dog smarts.

Suspect/Robert Crais

Marine war dog is retired after being shot in Afghanistan. Seriously wounded LAPD officer is her new handler. They are both suspect in being able to work due to injuries and ptsd. Healing comes from commitment to each other and the job as they chase murder suspects and diamond thieves.

One of Crais’ best.

Needing some cozy, back to Three Pines with Penny’s The Brutal Telling.

[hermetic]

4. Haven't read Crais in a while

That one sure sounds like a must-read. Thanks.

Penny is always great, IMO.

[cbabe]

5. Also just read the latest Crais: The Big Empty. Kinda flat. Will

try a reread in a year or so, Hopefully it’ll be better then like spaghetti sauce is better the next day.

[Bayard]

9. The, "A Dog's Purpose," movie is wonderful

Warning though--tear jerker.

[cbabe]

11. Thanks. Might have to fire up the dvd.

[Demovictory9]

6. A drop of corruption by robert jackson

So good

[hermetic]

7. Indeed

An eccentric detective matches wits with a seemingly omniscient adversary in this brilliant fantasy-mystery. “Wonderfully clever and compulsively readable.."

[Bayard]

8. Thanks, Hermetic!

I just put, "Horse," on my shopping list.

I'm still working through, "From the Borderlands," Been trying to get to get to bed earlier to miss the heat of the next day here. Seriously cutting into my late night reading time.

I have a Michael Crichton, "Airframe," that I'm trying to get to next.

[hermetic]

10. From 1996

"Three passengers are dead. Fifty-six are injured. The interior cabin virtually destroyed. .. a lethal midair disaster aboard a commercial twin-jet airliner bound from Hong Kong to Denver triggers a pressured and frantic investigation."

Sounds rather timely.

Take care. The heat is getting brutal, already.

[mentalsolstice]

12. So glad you're doing better!

I’m reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.

A partial summary by Bill Gates on GoodReads:

A Gentleman in Moscow is a fun, clever, and surprisingly upbeat look at Russian history through the eyes of one man. At the beginning of the book, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is sentenced to spend his life under house arrest in Moscow’s Metropol Hotel. It’s 1922, and the Bolsheviks have just taken power of the newly formed Soviet Union. The book follows the Count for the next thirty years as he makes the most of his life despite its limitations.

So far I’m really enjoying it. It has been made into a limited series on Paramount+, starring Ewan McGregor.

Have a good week!

[hermetic]

14. That really is a great book

Even though it's been some years since I read it, I still remember it quite well. It would be fun to watch.

[txwhitedove]

13. Hi, so happy you're back and doing well. This week i read 1st book in series by author Lisa Gray,

and I will be reading more of her work. Thin Air: "Private investigator Jessica Shaw is used to getting anonymous tips. But after receiving a photo of a three-year-old kidnapped from Los Angeles twenty-five years ago, Jessica is stunned to recognize the little girl as herself."

Now reading Howl Like the Wind, Book 3 of Marta Acosta's tales of Madeline Whitney, "Mad Girl", a definitely unique character on the spectrum, difficult to deal with, quirky, smart, trains dogs and part of a local K-9 rescue team. "A murder at a small-town festival…with no witnesses. An intruder on her ranch…and only the dogs know the identity. Old faces and old cases return with shocking demands. A fierce Thankgiving storm..., but that’s only the start of a season of high crimes and mystery."

[hermetic]

15. Long grows my reading list.

Sounds like some really fun series there. Tanks.

[yellowdogintexas]

16. "The Gator Did It" Southern Beach Mysteries Book 5 by Kay Dew Shostak

Football is a whole other thing in the South, Midwestern transplant Jewel Mantelle discovers, and on Sophia Island, they love the Gators. Jewel would be fine with that if her friends only meant the University of Florida football team, but they also seem to love the critters skulking around in the ditches and creeks running through their tiny beach town. At her first ever football party she finds herself front and center for the spectacle of the eccentric Bell Jackson calling the gators behind his huge mansion—and it gives her the creeps.
But finding out those very same gators didn’t hesitate to take a bite of Mr. Jackson when he fell off his balcony and landed in their domain is even creepier.

I started this week before last as an intermittent break from my other book "The Women" by Kristen Hannah. I needed a break because "The Women" is very intense. I took several of these breaks.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm's way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.

I finished "The Women" Saturday morning; it was the book choice for the Liberal Ladies Book Club and we all enjoyed it. We had a lively discussion about it. One of the ladies in the group actually spent a year in Nam as a Red Cross social worker and she provided great insight on the reality vs the novel. It's a good read, moves really fast. The author really brings the closeness of the main characters, who began as strangers serving as nurses in Viet Nam. It is one of the best description of the support women can give each other that I have ever read. However we all had issues with the main character's naivete when it came to men (which was interesting considering the variety of age groups in the group - all the way from adults at the time of Viet Nam to young women who were not yet born) All of the younger women want to learn more about the war.

[Number9Dream]

17. Just finished "A Game of Thrones", book 1 by George R.R. Martin. Spoiler alert.

Thanks for the thread, hermetic.

I had never seen the TV series, so this was all new to me. It took me 2 library renewals and 5 weeks to read the 674 pages of small print. Though, I have been busy with spring yard work, etc. I thought it was very well written and imaginative. I think I'll wait awhile before I tackle the next one in the series in favor of something lighter. It seemed that every time I put my bookmark in and set the book down, I'd say to myself, 'well, that was depressing and / or disgusting'. A scene where a 14 y/o girl eats a horse's heart raw without vomiting was especially disgusting. One DUer warned me, "don't get too attached to any one character." Quite a few gruesome deaths. Still... I'll probably give book 2 a try in a few months. Will hit the library tomorrow or Tues for something new.

[yellowdogintexas]

20. Yes "A Song of Ice and Fire" is bloody and graphic.

However it is a very well told story with compelling characters and an infinite number of complex plots and subplots .

I have re-read books 1, 2 and 3 three times each, book 4 twice and book 5 once. When (if!) book 6 is ever released, I will start all over at the beginning and read them all again. No matter how many times I read them, I still find things I did not connect before.

Martin has this way of dropping a seemingly insignificant character or situation into the story, only to have that character or situation pop up later, tying together a bunch of loose ends. "Oh that's why that was important"!

Martin wrote for TV and he does know how to tell a good story!

[Jilly_in_VA]

18. It finally showed up

so I am reading First Contact, the third book in Fay Abernethy's "Shantivira" series. So far no alien contact, but some interesting action involving spies, kidnappings, etc. I highly recommend this series, which begins with The Cleaner, The Cat, and The Space Station. This book seems to have been begun when Obama was still president, although there is reference to the 2016 election (shudder). I'm pretty sure this will be an ongoing series.

[hermetic]

19. Sounds good

[yellowdogintexas]

21. I have a couple of things going on. Sort of reading in fits and starts this week due to working for 4 days

at the Charles Schwab Challenge. 12 hour days! I do this every year and it is so very much fun!

It is a nice little chunk of change right at a good time, too.

So now I am reading two books, in two different Kindles.

Garden of Beasts: A Novel of Berlin 1936 by Jeffrey Deaver
In the most ingenious and provocative thriller yet from acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver, a conscience-plagued mobster turned government hitman struggles to find his moral compass amid rampant treachery and betrayal in 1936 Berlin.

Paul Schumann, a German American living in New York City in 1936, is a mobster hitman known as much for his brilliant tactics as for taking only “righteous” assignments. But then Paul gets caught. And the arresting officer offers him a stark choice: execution or covert government service. Paul is asked to pose as a journalist covering the summer Olympics taking place in Berlin. He’s to hunt down and kill Reinhard Ernst—the ruthless architect of Hitler’s clandestine rearmament. If successful, Paul will be pardoned and given the financial means to go legit.
I am enjoying this book and can't figure out why I have not read it since it has been in my Kindle for a very long time.

A Measure of Rhyme: Ages of Malice, Book II by Lloyd Jeffries.
I just realized I have the first book, so I am going to have to stop this one and start the first one. I am so OCDC about reading books in order Fortunately I am only 60 pages in. However it is starting off with a bang so I know I will read it and the other two.

The Jacket blurbs for Book 1 A Portion of Malice An Ancient Evil Rises. Can One Man Stop It?

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Emery Merrick holds a pistol to his temple. Then, a knock at the door changes everything. Billionaire Thaddeus Drake offers him a job: write his biography. But Drake hides a chilling secret—he’s Cain, the immortal biblical killer, leading a secret society bent on sacrificing the Earth to a bloodthirsty God.

Plunged into a world of darkness, deceit, and explosive action, Emery must unravel ancient prophecies and confront unimaginable evil. Horror meets high-stakes adventure in this provocative thrill ride—a battle of good versus evil that questions spirituality, redemption, and the cost of every choice.

I think I will put this aside and wait a bit.