What are you reading this week of December 24, 2017?

[hermetic]

Whatever your thing, I wish you a happy one!

Tree/photo by Clara Perez

Still reading Saturday by Ian McEwan. This was written during and is about the times just prior to our invading Iraq, so a lot of it concerns speculation over whether or not this will be a justifiable move. Pretty depressing. But it's also about poetry, music, families and love; so there's that.

Next I think I will read Death of the Demon by Ann Holt since that one has been in my pile for a while now. Looks like good fare to take my thoughts away from this country for a bit.

What will you be finishing up the year with?

[secondwind]

1. Heretics Daughter by Kathleen Kent. Love it

[hermetic]

3. Sounds great!

"...mother and daughter are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria of the trials and the superstitious tyranny that led to the torture and imprisonment of more than 200 people accused of witchcraft."

That's something I have a lot of interest in so thanks for telling us about it.

[pangaia]

2. AL FRANKEN: GIANT IN THE SENATE

AL FRANKEN: GIANT IN THE SENATE
AL FRANKEN: GIANT IN THE SENATE
AL FRANKEN: GIANT IN THE SENATE
AL FRANKEN: GIANT IN THE SENATE
AL FRANKEN: GIANT IN THE SENATE
AL FRANKEN: GIANT IN THE SENATE

[hermetic]

4. Enjoying that, I take it?

FYI, I am 100% behind Al and wish he would stay.

[murielm99]

5. I am reading

Louise Erdrich's Future Home of the Living God.

She better start explaining what is going on. Usually, she is such a masterful writer. I don't think I like this book.

[hermetic]

6. Uh huh

Depending on how far along you are...some things are explained, like why she's looking for her family. The whys of the whole big picture, though, are left for you to speculate upon. I guess she figures we all know the world is in serious trouble so there don't need to be exact explanations for everything. It is definitely unlike other works of hers I have read.

[murielm99]

7. I haven't read any reviews.

I didn't want any spoilers.

Maybe this is her reaction to the mess we are in these days. There is a lot of that going around, in books, movies and television.

Erdrich would do that. Usually, I think she is brilliant. But what a thing to be reading at Christmas. And purely by coincidence.

[hermetic]

9. It IS her reaction

She started writing this back in '02, I think it was. Then, when men in suits started making all these decisions about what women's choices for child-bearing are going to be, she realized she needed to finish it. It's still full of brilliant writing and things that will really stay with you. And in the end you will see it's kind of a Christmas story, too. So, hang in there.

[shenmue]

8. "Beautiful Assasin," by Michael White, and "Blood Red," by Mercedes Lackey

[murielm99]

10. I like Mercedes Lackey.

[hermetic]

11. Ahh, spies and fantasy

A breathtaking tale of love, loyalty, and intrigue set in the early days of World War II along side magical doings in the ancient Black Forest of Germany. Sounds most entertaining.

[lordsummerisle]

12. Dark Money

by Jane Mayer

[hermetic]

13. Oh, the Koch Bros

The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. Probably one of the scariest things ever written.

[lordsummerisle]

14. Yes

and very depressing. This is my third attempt to try to finish it. I can't believe the research that Jane put into this book. I read in Democracy In Chains (another recommended read) that the Kochs tried to get her fired from her publisher while she was writing it...

[pscot]

15. The Red Collar by Jean-Christophe Rufin

This is a dog story set in Perigord at the end of WW1. The military prison houses a single mysterious prisoner. His dog patrols the street in front of the prison barking incessantly. An officer arrives in town to adjudicate the case. This is a novella, really. I read it in a couple of hours. To close out the year, a biography of Joseph Conrad, The Dawn Watch by Maya Jasanoff. Also The Rise of the Greeks by the late, great Michael Grant. With copious footnotes, maps, appendices and frequent Googles, this is going to take me well into the New Year. Merry Xmas, Hermetic, and a happy, Democratic New Year to you and all our friends here at DU.

[hermetic]

16. Oh gosh

I love animal tales. That one sounds great.

Author Jean-Christophe Rufin is one of the founders of Doctors Without Borders, The Red Collar is a slim novel that tells a deceptively simple story about a man and his dog. Inspired by a true story, the book is, at its heart, a painful and moving tale of the horrors of war, mistaken pride, and unbounded loyalty. There are three main human characters, but the thread that ties them together is Wilhelm, the dog whose dedication to his master, even in the face of indifference, is inspiring and heartbreaking.

I just gave my boyfriend a book of Conrad's stories. Is his bio interesting?

Thanks for the good wishes and for being a participant here. I do love my little group.

[TexasProgresive]

17. Still reading Roddy Doyle's "The Van"

I mislaid it and picked up "Void Moon" by Michael Connelly. This is not a Bosch or Lincoln Lawyer novel. The main character Carrie Black is out on parole, selling Porsches and needing an adrenaline fix.

[hermetic]

18. Void Moon

That one has been on my list for a long time. I love the title.

Also loving watching Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. We've binge watched 2 seasons this past week, got from the library. She is so gorgeous, funny and wears the most fabulous outfits! Someone here recommended that, (you maybe?) and I am quite grateful.

[japple]

19. Happy Christmas to all! Thank you for the weekly thread, hermetic.

Still reading Ivy Pochoda's book, Visitation Street. What a talented writer. Don't know what will be next, but I'm hankering for a good western.

[hermetic]

20. A very good day to you!

How about this...Heroes of the Frontier ~~ Dave Eggers

A tremendous new novel from the best-selling author of The Circle, Heroes of the Frontier is the darkly comic story of a mother and her two young children on a journey through an Alaskan wilderness plagued by wildfires and a uniquely American madness.

[japple]

21. Thanks, pal. Sounds great. I'll check it out. I was thinking of re-reading

my favorite: True Grit by the brilliant writer, Charles Portis.

[PennyK]

22. Laurie R. King's Garment of Shadows

Next to last one (until the spring) in the Russell-Holmes series. There are two related e-books which I purchased but am still reading in published order.
Also, Anthony Horowitz's House of Silk, which is a traditional Homes story, and authorized by Conan Doyle's estate.

[hermetic]

23. Gotta tell you

Ready, Player One was the perfect gift! Happy, happy BF. Thanks again.

[PennyK]

24. So glad he likes it

Thanks to YOU, hermetic, for this very nice little zone on DU. I'm seeing so many great ideas and inspirations!
Drat, my library is closed until tomorrow -- I finished my book and NEED the next one, The Murder of Mary Russell!

[PoorMonger]

25. Sleeping Beauties by Stephen & Owen King

In this spectacular father/son collaboration, Stephen King and Owen King tell the highest of high-stakes stories: what might happen if women disappeared from the world of men?

In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep: they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent. And while they sleep they go to another place, a better place, where harmony prevails and conflict is rare.

One woman, the mysterious “Eve Black,” is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Eve a medical anomaly to be studied? Or is she a demon who must be slain? Abandoned, left to their increasingly primal urges, the men divide into warring factions, some wanting to kill Eve, some to save her. Others exploit the chaos to wreak their own vengeance on new enemies. All turn to violence in a suddenly all-male world.

Set in a small Appalachian town whose primary employer is a women’s prison, Sleeping Beauties is a wildly provocative, gloriously dramatic father-son collaboration that feels particularly urgent and relevant today.

[hermetic]

28. Did/do you like it?

It sounds disturbing to me. Too violent perhaps. But it's certainly an intriguing idea and I can imagine finding it somewhat enjoyable, too.

[PoorMonger]

32. Yeah

Not quite finished as yet. It’s a 700 Page behemoth. On about 480. Like most King it’s very engaging and has something to say. You can tell they had current politics knocking around. The main male protagonist is named Clinton. One of the worst turds is a guy named Don. It has a lot in it about the power of women.

[Danascot]

26. I just finished reading Red Sparrow,

one of the best spy novels I’ve read … and I've read a lot. Author Jason Matthews is a 30+ year veteran of the CIA (as is his wife) and he gives the tradecraft a feeling of authenticity. The author is no fan of Putin who is a lurking presence throughout the book. The main characters are Nate, a CIA agent and Dominika, the Russian double agent he runs. The principles are fully developed as are many of the secondary characters. I found myself truly moved by their emotions and experiences. The plot is much like a train: it starts slowly out of the station but it’s soon screaming along at terrific speed with the reader desperately holding on.

Red Sparrow turns out to be part of a trilogy. It came out in 2014 and a prequel, Palace of Treason came out in 2015. The third book in the trilogy, The Kremlin’s Candidate is due out in May. Red Sparrow is also being made into a movie starring Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton, coming out in March. You can find a trailer for it with the Google.

[hermetic]

29. Neat

Sounds really good. Thanks.

[Danascot]

31. If you like spy novels

you won't be disappointed.

[PennyK]

27. Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz

I read the next Mary Russell, The Murder of Mary Russell, and now I'll have to wait until June for the next book. So I started in on Horowitz's two Holmes books, The House of Silk, and this one. Very well done. I also took out Career of Evil, the third Cormoran Strike novel by J.K. Rowling, which I never finished during chemo. They're well-done and I believe there's a British TV series.

[hermetic]

30. I did not know this..

J.K. Rowling’s best-selling Cormoran Strike novels are written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Wonder why she did that...

Found this then:
The Strike Series is three separate event dramas on BBC One. The third installment will be broadcast in 2018. Cinemax has acquired U.S. and Canadian rights to the show.

Something to took forward to!