What are you reading the week of Sunday, February 15, 2015?

[scarletwoman]

A belated happy Valentine's Day to all!

I had a wonderfully full week of reading last week. Books 2 & 3 of Aline Templeton's DI Marjory Fleming series, The Darkness and the Deep and Lying Dead - both of them well-crafted mysteries set in the south-west of Scotland. I intend to make my way through as much of the series as is available from the library (#1 and #5 are not, unfortunately).

I then read two amazing books set on the North Shore in Minnesota by relatively new author, Peter Geye. He is one hell of a writer and I sincerely hope he will have more books to come. These two are Safe From the Sea and The Lighthouse Road - both of them awesome.

While I wait for Templeton's #4 (on it's way), I've started on Sarah Stonich's 2nd book, The Ice Chorus. Even just a few pages in, I'm under her spell - she's another marvelous Minnesota writer, although this book takes place largely in Ireland.

So, what are you reading this week?

[TexasProgresive]

1. Midnight Crossroads by Charlaine Harris

It's rather strange and I was put off by the character's names but after getting into it they seem to fit.

[Enthusiast]

9. Charlaine Harris is quite a prolific writer.

I'm interested to hear how you like Midnight Crossroads.

[shenmue]

2. Åsa Larsson, "The Second Deadly Sin"

I love her. I was going to read "Until Thy Wrath be Past," but I lost my copy.

[Enthusiast]

7. That sounds like a good one based on what I read in FF.

My to read list is growing so long. Thank you, shenmue.

[locks]

3. The Sea Runners

by Ivan Doig based on an actual incident in 1853, The Hundred Foot Journey by Richard Morais, and Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter.

[Enthusiast]

8. I like the sound of that one, The Sea Runners, locks.

I love historical fiction.

[japple]

11. I'm a huge fan of Ivan Doig. Let me know how you like this one. I should

put it on my list. Beautiful Ruins was quite a nice read, IMHO. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Haven't read anything else by Jess Walters. Have you?

[locks]

15. I thought The Sea Runners was great; it seemed as if

Doig himself had survived the event in 1853. Reminded me of Mayflower by Philbrick. Wish history could be this interesting for our kids.
I think I liked Beautiful Ruins because I've been to the Cinque Terre. Also Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams because I've been there and find the history of the Incans fascinating.

Haven't read any others of Jess Walter's except Ruby Ridge a long time ago.

Going to get Lawrence Hill's Somebody Knows My Name, the book that the BET series The Book of Negroes is based on which begins tonight. I really liked Isabel Allende's Island Beneath the Sea and the history of slavery in Europe, Haiti and New Orleans; have you read it?

[hermetic]

4. Just finished

Ian McEwan's Sweet Tooth. Mind: blown. Great writing and the end makes having to slog through a lot of 70s British intelligence and politics worth it.

Now I'm starting Evans Above by Rhys Bowen. Enjoying it.

I have a long list of books to check out now, thanks to reading this thread for the past couple of months. My thanks to all who participate.

[Enthusiast]

6. Ian McEwan's books sound good, hermetic.

I read the piece in Fantastic Fiction on Ian McEwan. There are too many interesting books to pursue them all. But I like the way you describe Sweet Tooth—Mind: blown.

[Enthusiast]

5. Hello, everyone! Thank you for the thread, scarletwoman.

Last edited Sun Feb 15, 2015, 06:49 PM - Edit history (1)

Earlier, this past week I read Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indridason. That was a good one!

Now I'm reading Deal Breaker by Harlan Coben.

Mrs. Enthusiast is still reading Trinity by Leon Uris. She is kind of shocked by some of the more gruesome aspects of the history. I need to check into the rest of the books by Uris.

The Ice Chorus sounded good to me, scarletwoman.

I read about the Peter Geye books on FF. Wow! This prompted me to pull up a map of that section of NE Minnesota. There aren't many roads up there. I would guess there are a lot of bush pilots with float planes. I always wanted to do the Boundary Waters fishing trip. Too late for that now. I'll have to make do with Central Ohio. We did travel to Ontario on fishing vacations four times in the 1990s. But our boat always had a gasoline motor, no paddling necessary.

[japple]

12. I recently re-read Exodus by Leon Uris. Had not read it since high school. The

amount of research he did on all of his work is admirable. I esp. liked Mila 18 and Battle Cry, which is loosely based on his own stint in the USMC, or at least I read that somewhere.

[Enthusiast]

13. Thanks, japple.

Now that Mrs. Enthusiast has read and enjoyed Trinity we will check out the others.

I just ordered a used copy of Battle Cry.

[japple]

10. Bich Minh Nguyen's book Pioneer Girl.

I am thoroughly enjoying this book.

Jobless with a PhD, Lee Lien returns home to her Chicago suburb from grad school, only to find herself contending with issues she’s evaded since college. But when her brother disappears, he leaves behind an object from their mother’s Vietnam past that stirs up a forgotten childhood dream: a gold-leaf brooch, abandoned by an American reporter in Saigon back in 1965, that might be an heirloom belonging to Laura Ingalls Wilder. As Lee explores the tenuous facts of this connection, she unearths more than expected—a trail of clues and enticements that lead her from the dusty stacks of library archives to hilarious prairie life reenactments and ultimately to San Francisco, where her findings will transform strangers’ lives as well as her own.

A dazzling literary mystery about the true origins of a time-tested classic, Pioneer Girl is also the deeply moving tale of a second-generation Vietnamese daughter, the parents she struggles to honor, the missing brother she is expected to bring home—even as her discoveries yield dramatic insights that will free her to live her own life to its full potential.

[Enthusiast]

14. That sounds interesting, japple.

[locks]

16. Sounds good; I'll have to get it

Thanks