What Fiction are you reading this week, May 25, 2025?

[hermetic]

This discussion thread is pinned.

Still reading Horse by Geraldinee Brooks. Such a great book. Sometimes reminds me of Percival Everett's James, with the horrors slaves had to endure. But the relationship between a boy and his horse is wonderful to read about.

Listening to Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz. Detective Hawthorne is called upon to solve an unsolvable case -- a gruesome murder in an idyllic gated community in which suspects abound. Good entertainment.

Hope you have a nice holiday weekend and if you're in the storm zone that you stay safe.

[txwhitedove]

1. Happy Sunday. Ok, put "Horse" on library list, as well as "The Women with Silver Wings" in

your photo. All Horse ebooks taken but plenty of large prints on offer.

Finished Howl Like the Wind, Marta Acosta. Howl! Cry, primal scream or howl in grief or joy. I think this was my favorite in the series. A town full of full blown characters, and a unique quirky lovable heroine. Great story.

Now reading The Italian Ballerina: a WW2 novel, Kristy Cambron. Well written, good story here, but chopped into skipping time frames from 1939 to present day too much. "Rome, 1943. With the fall of Italy's Fascist government and the Nazi regime occupying the streets of Rome, British ballerina Julia Bradbury is stranded and forced to take refuge at a hospital on Tiber Island. But when she learns of a deadly sickness sweeping through the quarantine wards--a fake disease known only as Syndrome K--she is drawn into one of the greatest cons in history."

[hermetic]

3. Your 2 stories sound great

The HOWL one sounds familiar. Driving me batty! Don't you hate when this happens? It's not on my "Read" list but it's SO familiar. Probably come to me later. But meanwhile:

[The Blue Flower]

2. The Last Murder at the End of the World

And The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, both by Stuart Turton.
Both are too convoluted for me, so I went back to the library and got a new biography of Edgar A. Poe.

[hermetic]

4. Those do sound

quite unusual.

[cbabe]

5. Mike Bowditch series/Paul Doiron

Dozens of titles. Pretty ok writing. Best read in order to follow plots and characters.

Maine wildlife officer goes after poachers and other really bad criminals in the wild mountains and marshes.

Lots of birds and moose and deer and fish. And trees and bushwhacking. Snow and fog and mist and blackflies.

Not many nice people. Rough situations and crimes. Drugs, human trafficking, clear cutting. Climate change bringing mosquito viruses.

Bits of history and micro cultures like Acadians and Canadians (timely!) and fading lobstermen.

Spoiler: best character is Shadow, the illegal wolf dog.

[hermetic]

6. Yeah, animals

are pretty much my favorite characters in books anymore.

[cbabe]

14. Animals are the best people.

[rsdsharp]

7. I finally finished Winds of War after six weeks! I love this book, but just slogged through it this time.

After that, I read Lee Child’s short story James Penny’s New Identity. It’s based on a minor character in the first draft of the second Reacher book, but it didn’t really work for me. I’m currently reading Bernard Cornwell’s Stonehenge.

In between, however, I read David Halberstam’s The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship. Although not a a work of fiction this is a remarkable book. Halberstam’s considered it his best work, which is saying something.

It deals with the 60 year friendship of four Boston Red Sox teammates: Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky, Don DiMaggio and Ted Williams. Unlike Halberstam’s Summer of ‘49 and October 1964, this isn’t really a book about baseball. It’s about relationships between disparate personalities, one of whom was volatile (Williams), and the trust and love between them that grew and endured for decades. I can’t recommend this book highly enough.

[PJMcK]

8. Perry Mason

"The Case of the One-Eyed Witness."

It was in our building's take-a-book-leave-a-book library.

I haven't read an old fashioned mystery in years. It's fun and takes my mind off... whatever.

[hermetic]

9. Nice

Welcome to our little mystery book readers group. Great way to give your mind something fun to ponder.

[Number9Dream]

10. 3/4 through "Double Play" by Robert B. Parker

1947: Jackie Robinson breaks major-league baseball’s color barrier—and changes the world. The event also changes the life of Joseph Burke, veteran of World War II and Robinson’s bodyguard—because under the media spotlight, hard truths are easier than ever to see, and harder to escape. And some can prove fatal.

If you like Parker's 'Spenser' books, this will be another pleasant surprise. Very good!

[hermetic]

11. That sounds awesome

Thanks for sharing!

[MIButterfly]

12. The Note by Alafair Burke.

[question everything]

13. How to book a Murder, a cozy mystery by Cynthia Kuhn

Many of the recent cozy mysteries take place in book stores; many of the writers are English professors.

This one, too, and the first sentence is uttered by one of the owners of the bookstore

"To be surrounded by books is an exceptional joy."

Yes, there is a murder, or perhaps two. Many of the mysteries have more than one murder.

One of the owners of the bookstore - Sarllit Bookshop - volunteers to plan a murder party for a wealthy family and, yes, before the party is over the host has been murdered.

I just started but was enchanted by the opening sentence.