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hermetic

(8,258 posts)
Sun Aug 9, 2020, 01:09 PM Aug 2020

What Fiction are you reading this week, August 9, 2020?



I have the beautifully written Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles, the tale of a young Irishman in Texas at the end of the Civil War. A talented violinist, he teams up with 3 other musicians as they travel through Texas in search of jobs and love. I had some fun looking up the songs they play, on YouTube. Some lovely tunes.

Listening to Pushing Up Daisies by M.C. Beaton (one of several pseudonyms used by Marion Chesney). Enjoyable. Actually, Agatha kind of reminds me of me. Snarky, curmudgeonly, flirty.

What is your fictional pleasure this week?
34 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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What Fiction are you reading this week, August 9, 2020? (Original Post) hermetic Aug 2020 OP
Lost in a good book by Jasper Fforde. Srkdqltr Aug 2020 #1
love the entire series.... dhill926 Aug 2020 #3
Oh, I see hermetic Aug 2020 #5
Yaaaay! My fav thread of the week! 😁 SheltieLover Aug 2020 #2
Aw, you're so sweet hermetic Aug 2020 #6
Awwww thx! SheltieLover Aug 2020 #7
I've got some! SheltieLover Aug 2020 #8
Ah, my work here is done hermetic Aug 2020 #9
Nooooo! SheltieLover Aug 2020 #10
Already delicious read! 😍 SheltieLover Aug 2020 #11
Have you read any of the Aunt Dimity books? backtoblue Aug 2020 #15
I've tried them SheltieLover Aug 2020 #16
Transcripts of Trump .nt Jarqui Aug 2020 #4
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell bbrady42 Aug 2020 #12
Mm, that's brand new hermetic Aug 2020 #17
My sister gave me Ohiogal Aug 2020 #13
I'll bet that's great hermetic Aug 2020 #18
A Court of Thorns And Roses by Sarah J. Maas backtoblue Aug 2020 #14
Lots of good suggestions there hermetic Aug 2020 #19
I read Wool! murielm99 Aug 2020 #23
I loved Simon the Fiddler, but then I love Paulette Jiles. Her characters are always memorable. japple Aug 2020 #20
That one sounds like another winner hermetic Aug 2020 #21
Yes! and Paulette Jiles weaves historical facts with fiction so seamlessly. She japple Aug 2020 #22
I am reading Wolf Hall, murielm99 Aug 2020 #24
Still reading the Joe Grey series, but I have good news... AmyStrange Aug 2020 #25
Excellent! hermetic Aug 2020 #26
Thank you, and as an aside... AmyStrange Aug 2020 #28
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff Cuthbert Allgood Aug 2020 #27
Wow hermetic Aug 2020 #29
It wasn't on my radar until I saw an ad for the upcoming HBO show Cuthbert Allgood Aug 2020 #30
I enjoyed that book. murielm99 Aug 2020 #34
Look what I found on Google News)! 😍 SheltieLover Aug 2020 #31
Woo hoo!! hermetic Aug 2020 #32
IKR!! SheltieLover Aug 2020 #33

hermetic

(8,258 posts)
5. Oh, I see
Sun Aug 9, 2020, 01:27 PM
Aug 2020

That is actually the title of the book. Which sounds pretty good. Fforde has written a bunch of books, many award winners, and they involve magic, suspense, fantasy, women sleuths. All sorts of fun stuff. Thanks.

SheltieLover

(57,073 posts)
2. Yaaaay! My fav thread of the week! 😁
Sun Aug 9, 2020, 01:19 PM
Aug 2020

Just finished the Joe Grey (talking cats) cozy series, Pouncing on Murder (Bookmobile cozy series), & trying to wade through boring "A New Attitude," by Charlotte Hughes. Well written, but boring romantic comedy.

Still searching for a new cozy series I've not yet inhaled. 👀

SheltieLover

(57,073 posts)
7. Awwww thx!
Sun Aug 9, 2020, 01:33 PM
Aug 2020

Not so sweet, really, but honest. 🤣👍

I'll check it out! TY!

I'm somewhat limited by what library has in e-format. I read so much & so quickly, I'd need a huge pile of cash to buy them all. 🤣

SheltieLover

(57,073 posts)
8. I've got some!
Sun Aug 9, 2020, 01:47 PM
Aug 2020

A couple of Frye Affair, a couple of Thursday Nexts & The Fourth Bear! Tyvvvm!

This should hold me for a couple of days! 😉👍

bbrady42

(173 posts)
12. Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell
Sun Aug 9, 2020, 02:09 PM
Aug 2020

It's wonderful. Very David Mitchell. About a late 60s rock band. Simon the Fiddler is next on my list.

hermetic

(8,258 posts)
17. Mm, that's brand new
Sun Aug 9, 2020, 02:46 PM
Aug 2020

from the author of Cloud Atlas. Sounds delicious! "Utopia Avenue is the strangest British band you’ve never heard of." Riots and revolutions, drugs, thugs, madness, love, sex, death, art. Must read!

backtoblue

(11,323 posts)
14. A Court of Thorns And Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Sun Aug 9, 2020, 02:14 PM
Aug 2020

Faery fiction

First book in a series. I'm just a few chapters in.

Some Fantasy Fiction recommendations:

Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Cinder by Marissa Mayer (series)
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (trilogy)


I also enjoy some dystopian novels (Hunger Games, etc)

Wool by Hugh Howey
Matched by Ally Condie

If you like fairy tales, Heartless by Marissa Meyer is one of my absolute favorite renditions of Alice In Wonderland.


hermetic

(8,258 posts)
19. Lots of good suggestions there
Sun Aug 9, 2020, 03:27 PM
Aug 2020

I adored the retellings done by Gregory Maguire, like Wicked and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I couldn't remember his name so was digging around and discovered he wrote another: After Alice. Then I literally went down a rabbit hole reading reviews of that book which go from Great to Horrible. I'll probably give it a try, though.

japple

(9,773 posts)
20. I loved Simon the Fiddler, but then I love Paulette Jiles. Her characters are always memorable.
Sun Aug 9, 2020, 04:52 PM
Aug 2020

Thanks for mentioning that you watched videos on youtube of the tunes played by Simon and his band. I must check that out!

I started a new book this week Edmund White's A Saint From Texas. Having very close family ties to Texas, this book had me on the first page.

Here's the description from amazon:

From Edmund White, a bold and sweeping new novel that traces the extraordinary fates of twin sisters, one destined for Parisian nobility and the other for Catholic sainthood.

Yvette and Yvonne Crawford (pronounced Wye-vett and Wye-vonn) are twin sisters, born on a humble patch of East Texas prairie but bound for far more dramatic and tragic fates. Just as an untold fortune of oil lies beneath their daddy's land, both girls harbor their own secrets and dreams-ones that will carry them far from Texas and from each other. As the decades unfold, Yvonne will ascend the highest ranks of Parisian society as Yvette gives herself to a lifetime of worship and service in the streets of Jericó, Colombia. And yet, even as they remake themselves in their radically different lives, the twins find that the bonds of family and the past are unbreakable.

hermetic

(8,258 posts)
21. That one sounds like another winner
Sun Aug 9, 2020, 05:30 PM
Aug 2020

Two tunes that come to mind are Death and the Sinner and Niel Gow's Lament. Niel Gow was the most famous Scottish fiddler of the eighteenth century. I love how reading fiction can lead to learning things you would have never known.

japple

(9,773 posts)
22. Yes! and Paulette Jiles weaves historical facts with fiction so seamlessly. She
Sun Aug 9, 2020, 05:35 PM
Aug 2020

researches (or has assistants who do) everything, which, IMHO is the mark of a great writer.

murielm99

(30,656 posts)
24. I am reading Wolf Hall,
Sun Aug 9, 2020, 10:04 PM
Aug 2020

by Hilary Mantel. It is the first book in a series about Thomas Cromwell. It won the Man Booker Prize.

It is a fictionalized account to life under Henry VIII when he wanted to divorce Katherine and marry Anne Boleyn. It details how the Reformation came about in England. The book is witty and amazing.

 

AmyStrange

(7,989 posts)
25. Still reading the Joe Grey series, but I have good news...
Mon Aug 10, 2020, 02:21 PM
Aug 2020

-

My appeal was approved for my review of Shirley Rousseau Murphy, author of the Joe Grey series, and it's now up and running again at:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/119315527
==========

 

AmyStrange

(7,989 posts)
28. Thank you, and as an aside...
Wed Aug 12, 2020, 02:26 PM
Aug 2020

Last edited Wed Aug 12, 2020, 03:30 PM - Edit history (2)

-

I also included a quick cameo of Dulcie (Joe Grey's girlfriend) in my newest book.

You can read it here:

http://www.ATOMADNESS.COM/Chap-60.html
============

Cuthbert Allgood

(4,867 posts)
27. Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
Tue Aug 11, 2020, 01:59 PM
Aug 2020

Just started last night. I haven't read anything of Ruff's before, but I like his writing style.

hermetic

(8,258 posts)
29. Wow
Wed Aug 12, 2020, 03:38 PM
Aug 2020

This sounds really great; powerful. "The critically acclaimed cult novelist makes visceral the terrors of life in Jim Crow America and its lingering effects in this brilliant and wondrous work of the imagination that melds historical fiction, pulp noir, and Lovecraftian horror and fantasy."

AND, coming soon to HBO. "An American drama horror television series developed by Misha Green based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Matt Ruff. It is set to premiere on August 16, 2020, on HBO."

Cuthbert Allgood

(4,867 posts)
30. It wasn't on my radar until I saw an ad for the upcoming HBO show
Wed Aug 12, 2020, 04:39 PM
Aug 2020

I'm about 1/6 of the way in. Hope to finish it while camping this weekend. So far loving it.

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