What Fiction are you reading this week, June 12, 2022?

[hermetic]

Fairytale Forest, Netherlands

Still reading and enjoying A Dark So Deadly by Stewart MacBride. Only 200 pages left now. I'm thinking this would make a really good movie.

I am listening to The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, on Playaway Audio Books! I had never heard of these although my library has a large shelf unit full of them. I always thought they were something you put in a Kindle or other reader. I wanted to get this book and I saw online it said "audio" so I thought it was an Overdrive book to listen to in my browser. I clicked on it and it said it would be ready for me at the library the next day.

I was a little confused but had to go there anyway to drop some movies off so I thought I'd just see what this was all about. So, I picked up this plastic box which contains a little thing about the size of a cassette tape but it has a screen on it and some buttons and instructions. And lo and behold, it's a little audio book that you just pop in a small battery, plug in your headphones and push go. Genius!! I cannot tell you how happy I am about this. How come I never heard of these before? Have you tried them? Evidently not all libraries have them but you might want to check yours because this is an amazing invention. And, this is a really great book. A humorous romantic fantasy. Some real laugh out loud lines.

What books are tickling your fancy this week?

[bif]

1. "Big Girl Small" by Rachel DeWoskin

Very entertaining so far.

[hermetic]

5. That does sound quite good

"a scathingly funny and moving book about dreams and reality, at once light on its feet and unwaveringly serious."

[SheltieLover]

2. Books by the Bay cozy series by Ellery Adams

Set in coastal NC.

Good reads, but not great, as was Adams' Secret, Book, & Scone series.

Lacks humor & the quirky characters I enjoy.

But a versatile, prolific author, a NYT best seller. Just not really compelling page turners for me. 😏

[SheltieLover]

3. I've never heard of Play Away books!

Ty for sharing about them!

[hermetic]

9. You bet

It's a nifty little thing for us book lovers.

[SheltieLover]

10. Sounds like it!

[yellowdogintexas]

4. #9 in the Dead End Job Mysteries

also still reading The Sea Turtle Did It . read it in my purse size Kindle when I am out of the house.


I forgot this one last week: Squeeze Me by the incomparable Carl Hiassen. A must read! I finished it on Sunday so I guess it counts as last week.

It was a very fun read! Highly recommend; even by Hiassen standards, it is awesome!!!

At the height of Palm Beach’s charity ball season, Kiki Pew Fitzsimmons, a prominent member of geriatric high society, suddenly vanishes during a swank gala. Kiki Pew was a founding member of the Potussies, a group of women dedicated to supporting the President, who spends half the year at the “Winter White House” just down the road. Meanwhile, Angie Armstrong, wildlife wrangler extraordinaire, is called to the island to deal with a monster-sized Burmese python that has taken residency in a tree. But the President is focused on the disappearance of Kiki Pew. Never one to miss an opportunity to play to his base, he immediately declares her a victim of rampaging immigrant hordes. This, it turns out, is far from the truth, which now lies in the middle of the road, where a bizarre discovery brings the First Lady’s motorcade to a grinding halt. Irreverent, ingenious, and uproariously entertaining, Squeeze Me perfectly captures the absurdity of our times.

[hermetic]

8. Squeeze Me is definitely

a keeper.

[SheltieLover]

11. Squeeze me is hysterically funny!

Read it twice.

Still looking for funny cozy series I haven't inhaled at least once.

I might just reread his work as it's been awhile!

[MLAA]

23. Love Hiassen! And Squeeze me was hilarious.

[MLAA]

6. I've got quite a range of genres this week

A deliciously steamy Regency romance with lots of humor:
https://www.amazon.com/Captain-Countess-Alice-Gaines-ebook/dp/B00RUP60TI/ref=sr_1_1?crid=F5WSACNQ3V81&keywords=captain+and+countess+by+alice&qid=1655053928&sprefix=%2Caps%2C106&sr=8-1

Book 2 in a series of clever mysteries that take place in a British Senior community written by a well known British producer and tv presenter trying his hand at fiction:
https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Died-Twice-Thursday-ebook/dp/B08YRM9NBM/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3RHQBUTK7WHMS&keywords=the+man+who+died+twice&qid=1655053990&sprefix=The+man+who+died%2Caps%2C130&sr=8-1

The second book of fiction I’ve read from Britain’s hilarious talk show host Graham Norton:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=home+stretch+graham+norton&crid=19E3PCDFC5Z47&sprefix=Home+stretch+%2Caps%2C135&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_13

[hermetic]

12. The Man Who Died Twice

has just become available to me at the library. I've been on a wait list for it for several months. The Thursday Murder Club books are very popular so I'm looking for to finally getting this one.

Home Stretch sounds really good. “compelling, bighearted, emotionally precise page-turner”

Looks like Alice Gaines has written over 82 books so there's a lot to offer there.

[MLAA]

17. I'm anxiously awaiting these two to come out in paperback, you might want to get

on the library waitlist if you don’t mind hard copy books 🙂. Below are the blurbs from Amazon but I usually buy from used book websites Alibris or Thriftbooks unless I just can’t wait then I go with Amazon.

James Patterson + Dolly Parton:
https://www.amazon.com/Run-Rose-Novel-James-Patterson/dp/075955434X/ref=asc_df_075955434X/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=532533362397&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1668074091475959190&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9030240&hvtargid=pla-1407551757573&psc=1

Louise Penny + Hilary Clinton:
https://www.amazon.com/State-Terror-Novel-Louise-Penny/dp/198217367X/ref=asc_df_198217367X/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=508937835093&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2713183639001972525&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9030240&hvtargid=pla-1186947617999&psc=1

[hermetic]

21. Oh yeah

I got State of Terror right away. Love it and definitely a book I plan to keep.

[MLAA]

24. I wanted to mention this marvelous book I read earlier this year. It became one of my all time

favorites.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-laughing-sutra_mark-salzman/424824/item/3173621/?gclid=CjwKCAjwnZaVBhA6EiwAVVyv9ICwqgzRfE00s7UcHM0QMl6t0KNsQInfg3ta_S-OlhLfTPiQ6F151BoC8yoQAvD_BwE#idiq=3173621&edition=2148940

[Haggard Celine]

7. I'm reading "The Easy Life in Kamusari,"

by Shion Miura. It's free for Prime members to read. I'm only about 20% into it, but it's about an 18 year-old in Japan, from Yokohama, who gets sent by his parents to a small village in the mountain forest to work in forestry for his first job. He's upset at first and wants to go home, but the laid-back lifestyle is beginning to be attractive to him. It makes me want to go live up in the mountains away from everything. It's very appealing, especially with the way things are today.

[hermetic]

13. Wow. That sounds lovely

"A rapturous novel." Sign me up. I'm ready for mountain life.

[Haggard Celine]

14. If we have.another hurricane, and we will, and if I get wiped out,

I'm taking the insurance money and moving some place like that. I'd like to have internet access, but I might be able to live without that. The slow pace, along with living life on a deeper level appeal to me.

[cbabe]

15. Dystopian science fiction:

Water Knife by Paola Bacigalupi. Recommended by du poster.

Near future of drought stricken west and high tech/bio tech. Refugees vs wealthy in towers (castles).

What would you do to keep your family safe and alive? Chaos. Terror. Characters struggle to adjust from ‘old’ ways to new reality. Well written. Plausible.

Also Anthem by Noah Hawley.

Only half way through so I’m undecided.

A catalogue of world troubles. Adults are frozen in in-action. Globally kids begin committing suicide in ever increasing numbers. Wealthy kids sent to therapeutic clinic in hopes of keeping them alive.

Mystery man appears to send kids on the quest. Don’t know the what or who or why.

Writing is dense and compelling page turner.

[hermetic]

18. Hot off the press

Anthem The first big novel of 2022: an epic literary thriller set where America is right now, in which a band of unlikely heroes sets out on a quest to save one innocent life -- and might end up saving us all.

I read several reviews. Words like depressing, terrifying, unforgettable. Water Knife sounds to be similar.

We humans sure have done a lousy job here.

[cbabe]

25. It's the Henry Ford dilemma:

Unintended consequences. Ford meant to set us free to travel the world. He didn’t mean to kill it.

[markie]

16. teen book

"We Contain Multitudes"

local library discussion so just started...

[hermetic]

19. By Sarah Henstra

"Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe meets I'll Give You the Sun in an exhilarating and emotional novel about the growing relationship between two teen boys, told through the letters they write to one another."

5-star, award winner. Should make for an interesting discussion.

[Chainfire]

20. Camino Winds, by John Grisham

I am a big Grisham fan, but this one was a dud. It reads like his publisher was demanding a new book so he whipped it out over night. The story was weak and I didn't give a damn about any of the characters. Other than that, it was a boring read.

[hermetic]

22. Good to know

I appreciate hearing about duds. Helps keep my TBR list a little shorter.

[SheltieLover]

27. I had the same impression

[The King of Prussia]

26. Still on "The Root of his Evil" by James M. Cain

Had to break away from it to read the current selection for our village book group - "A Game For All The Family" by Sophie Hannah. An author I like, but this one started out very well then deteriorated. And then became preposterous. Not her best work.

Happy reading!

[hermetic]

28. Hey, sorry I missed you

Perhaps we can catch up later today.