What Fiction are you reading this week, April 26, 2020?

[hermetic]

Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.


Still reading Magpie Murders. While this book is a murder mystery, it turns out that it is also a treatise on how to write a whodunnit and why that genre is so important to us. Some pretty cool stuff here.

Speaking of solitude, I’m listening to that great tale of love among liberals, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez “Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, and alive with unforgettable men and women.” I do regret that I can’t speak Spanish because I’ve heard that that the original writing is quite beautiful. It’s certainly impressive in translation.

What books are impressing you this week?

[PJMcK]

1. Transcripts of Trump's press conferences

Sorry. (wink)

[hermetic]

2. Well, that can't be easy

[PJMcK]

3. His grammar, or lack thereof, is most painful (n/t)

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. The Postmortal by Drew Magary.

A cure for aging is invented. Complications ensue.

I'm only about 70 pages in, and so far it's excellent. It's a bit hard to describe, because it's mostly journal entries by a man who goes for the Cure at the very beginning, and I know by peaking ahead it will cover some 60 years of time, from 2019 to 2079. But at this point in the novel, only a few weeks have passed. To say the Cure is controversial is an extreme understatement. Violence has broken out between those who want it legalized and those who want it totally banned. It's illegal in most places, and so early on that those who've gotten it are not at all obvious to anyone.

[hermetic]

6. That sounds really interesting

And thought-provoking. It is certainly something I have pondered on occasion. I can see reasons for and against it.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. A few years ago at one of my science fiction cons

there was a panel about immortality.

No one seemed to think there was much of a down side. I finally brought up overpopulation, and the panel looked at me as if I'd started speaking Martian.

Another huge issue is that the older generation alive whenever immortality might come about, would NEVER get out of the way. It's bad enough that whoever is President in 2024 will be either almost or over 80. With immortality, next thing you know we'll have a President well over 100 or 500 and who doesn't understand that things have changed in the centuries since he or she was 35.

[hermetic]

12. Right

I see those downsides myself. Especially overpopulation, which is already a big issue, IMO.

[Zoonart]

5. I'm reading Dinner with Buddha.

It is the sequel to Breakfast with Buddha. They are both a gentle exploration of spiritual discovery when an atheist has to take a road trip at the request of his (woo) sister, driving a Rimpoche who changes his outlook on life.

A very nice escape form the cynicism of the daily shit storm.

[hermetic]

7. Lovely

I will add that the author is Roland Merullo. This sounds like a great book. Sort of leaning towards Buddhism myself, I really want to read this. Thanks.

[Zoonart]

11. That is exactly how I would describe the books.

I have been a practicing Buddhist for twenty five years and I can tell you that these books are in no way polemics.

Just lovely, insightful, and fun.

[japple]

9. Still reading Paulette Jiles' latest book, Simon the Fiddler and still

enjoying it very much. The wait lists for downloadable books at the library are much longer than ever. I think I need to go back to reread some titles that I have loved in the past.

Thanks, as usual, for the weekly thread, hermetic. Love your masked emoji!

[hermetic]

13. Cute, eh?

I couldn't find a waving one.

Totally agree on the downloadables. I have gotten lucky with the last 2 but can't imagine how much worse it might get.

Thank you.

[murielm99]

10. I am still reading

The Recipe for Revolution by Carolyn Chute. It is complicated. If anyone would like to read it, they should try a few of her shorter books first. This will provide some background on her Egypt, Maine. I would not recommend it to the escapist, recreational reader.

I would have set it aside long ago if our library was still open.

I will not run out of reading material. Like many of you, I have a couple of stacks of unread books.

[hermetic]

14. Glad to hear

that you are well-stocked. My small-town library is doing curb service. Unfortunately, they don't have many things that I want to read. They do have all the O'Reilly's and Coulters and all sorts of other garbage. The big city library, half an hour from here, is completely closed. I'm thinking they might reopen on a limited basis next month.

[The King of Prussia]

15. Stepped up my reading this week

On a murder tour of England ( with a diversion to L.A.)
Finished "An Air That Kills" by Andrew Taylor - set in post war western England. Not bad but nothing happened for the first 200 pages
Then off to Devon for "The Shadow Collector" by Kate Ellis - I can't recommend this series of police procedurals highly enough
And next the Lake District for "The Arsenic Labyrinth" by Martin Edwards. Very enjoyable.
LA for "Indigo Slam" by Robert Crais. I do enjoy his writing.

Now reading "A Place of Execution" by Val McDermid - about the abduction of a teenage girl set against the background of the Moors Murderers. It's shaping up to be a cracker.

Nothing happening here. And remember... however thick Trump is - he's not as thick as OUR racist leader who managed to catch the virus.

Keep safe Hermetic & everyone else.

[hermetic]

16. Thanks

You do the same.

I must say, I am quite curious to hear what BoJo has to say when he reports back to work Monday. Sometimes, coming face to face with death can open a person's eyes and turn them around in their thinking. Not always, though, so we shall just have to wait and see. Always the optimist here...

[TexasProgresive]

17. Cutting and pasting from bif's OP

I finished Habib Fanny MD's "A Gazelle Ate My Homework"
It is non-fiction but a very good read.
I am back to Wizard's First Rule. And I may start listening to Barbara Kingsolver's Unsheltered. Her book The Poisonwood Bible gave a great background to me in understanding Fanny's chapters on life in Ivory Coast, Africa.

[hermetic]

18. Hi!

I really enjoyed The Poisonwood Bible. This new one sounds really great, as well.
"a compulsively readable story of two families, navigating what seems to be the end of the world as they know it. With history as their canvas, these characters paint a startlingly relevant portrait of life in precarious times when the foundations of the past have failed to prepare us for the future." Sounds pretty realistic now.

[TexasProgresive]

19. I posted a video interview she had last year that is really great. I will post it here.

She talks about this novel and other stuff. I would love to be able to visit this woman.

[hermetic]

22. Great interview!

I've just found time to listen to it. She is brilliant and I, like you, would love to meet her and get her take on what's going down right now. She sure did nail some other things. And I really want to read Unsheltered now, too. So thanks, pal.

[TexasProgresive]

25. I'm listening to it and it's great.

I love the swing back and forth from the 19th century to now each chapter. The Greek grandfather Nick is a hoot. And yes she hits on lots of stuff that is really current except the current crisis. Grandpa likes talk radio and thinks the problems are all caused by Mexicans and women.

The earlier time we find a naturalist who is corresponding with Charles Darwin and the neighbor living in the house. The man is a science teacher who is interested in Darwin but I think is fearful for his position. This woman is a great story teller, but I already knew that.

[yellowdogintexas]

20. currently "Wood's Relic"

first in a series, and I do love a good series. Free from BookBub or one of those things
This one is set in The Keys (and I am always going to check out a series based in the Keys or New Orleans )

Wood is a Bridge engineer on a project to reconstruct a pier on one of the many bridges. However stuff starts going to hell on him and he can't get it finished...
by stupid dumb luck, he meets a man(Mac) who is a master diver who worked the oil rigs in repair and maintenance -just what Wood needs. They start working on the project where they find an interesting ans well preserved relic, which of course they want to know more about. Word gets out that they have found "something" and far too many people become interested in it.

Along the way we meet the contractor for the project (not a nice guy), his no good son, Wood's resourceful daughter, Mac's insane ex girlfriend, an Italian thug sent down from New Jersey to monitor the project, a Native American chief who is a master of "natural" medicine, her brother who is a very bad man...who are entertwined in a story line worthy of Carl Hiassen. Hiassen is funnier but this is a pretty good story. I am looking forward to further books in this series.

[hermetic]

23. Good suggestions.

Thanks.

[SinisterPants]

21. The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson

It is a fat, glorious, escapist time travel romp. Stephenson (Snow Crash, Diamond Age, Reamde) is in top form here. It's funny and poignant and thought-provoking. 900 pages of bliss when you want nothing to do with reality.

[hermetic]

24. I love Neal Stephenson

I could see losing myself in a huge story he wrote. Thanks!

[dawg day]

26. Hilary Mantel's last book about Henry VIII and Cromwell

I can't help but see Trump there as the bloated, murderous king.

Henry at least had a bit of charm and cultural appreciation.

I was thinking, well, at least Trump only fires his advisors and wives, doesn't behead them...

But I look at what he did to Andrew McCabe-- forcing the DOJ to keep prosecuting him for a year-- and I realize, if Trump COULD behead the people he hates, he probably would consider it at least.

The terriblest thing-- Trump has become so central... he becomes every villain I read.

[hermetic]

27. That is so true!

He is certainly my worst nightmare. Everything he does is just so blatantly evil. I imagine writers thinking to themselves, "I could never have come up with a character so vile."

[dawg day]

28. "No one would ever believe a villain this evil."

Plus he has no inner depth, so as a character, he would be boring.