What are you reading the week of June 7, 2015?

[Goblinmonger]

I just got notification that I got a digital copy of All the Light We Cannot See (2015 Pulitzer winner). So I will be starting that. And after Monday and Tuesday of in-service days, I will be done with school (until summer school starts in a week), so I will have some more time to read. Unless the wife has a long list of things to do.

[shenmue]

1. "Little Girl Lost," Brian McGilloway

"Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death," James Runcie.

[Enthusiast]

2. Hi everyone! Hey, Goblinmonger, thanks for the thread. Is everything alright with scarletwoman?

I hope you like All the Light We Cannot See as much as we did.

This has been some reading week for us.

I finished Sweetland by Michael Crummy. Sweetland was everything scarletwoman said it was. As a matter of fact I cannot get Sweetland out of my head even though I am halfway through with the book I'm reading now—The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson.

Mrs. Enthusiast just finished Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. She says to thank japple for the recommendation.

Mrs. Enthusiast has started Sweetland by Michael Crummy. I predict she will love it.

[Goblinmonger]

3. I haven't heard from her.

Usually by the time I check in on Sunday, the thread is posted, so I actually had to do something as host of the group!

It isn't in my wheelhouse of books I would go out of my way to read, but I have heard good things.

[scarletwoman]

8. Hi Enthusiast! My apologies for not getting here sooner.

I was trying my hand at some of my own writing, and the hours just flew by as struggled to get my story down in writing - a story I had previously only told orally to a few people.

Anyway, I am SO glad to know you liked Sweetland! Yeah, it's one of those books that a person keeps thinking about long after you finish the last page. My favorite kind of book!

[Enthusiast]

9. I imagine writing could be difficult.

My writing is limited to DU and I find it challenging enough.

[scarletwoman]

15. Well, I wrote this as post on DU, actually. If you're interested, it's the top entry in my journal:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/~scarletwoman

It's a totally true story, I just had never tried to write it down until now.

[Enthusiast]

16. That was entertaining!

Thank you for sharing your great adventure. An experience like that can stay with you for the rest of your life.

[scarletwoman]

17. Thank you!

An experience like that can stay with you for the rest of your life.

Indeed, in my son's life, too. He'll be 31 next week, and he still loves to talk with me about that journey.

[hermetic]

4. The Fever

2/3's way through now. Really gripping. Something strange is happening to teenage girls in this small town. The possible causes are all very topical for 2014.

This book was mentioned in an earlier post by mainer, Top mystery nominees from Strand Magazine Critics Awards Fri May 29, 2015, 05:33 PM
Best Novel:
1. The Fever by Megan Abbott

Thank you, mainer, for that list. And Goblinmonger, for starting this thread.

Wishing you all a lovely Sunday afternoon and good reads.

[pscot]

5. The End of the Battle, Vol. 3 of Evelyn Waugh's

Men at Arms trilogy, then Heirs and Parents by Ralph McInerny. Waugh's trilogy is the social satire, centered on WWII. He's a polished writer, very inventive, very British. He seems to like his characters. McInerny's is an Andrew Brown krimi. Both have Catholicism as a sub-text.

[Agnosticsherbet]

6. "The Source of Magic" by Piers Anthony

[scarletwoman]

7. Thank you so much for picking up the slack!

I got involved in writing something that ended up taking several hours, and didn't make it over here to the Fiction Group until just now. I'm so glad you took care of getting the weekly thread posted!

I had a very busy week IRL, so I barely had time to read. I finished my second Kerstin Ekman book, Under the Snow on Saturday morning. While it was shorter, and not as difficult to read as Blackwater, it was still very strange. I had two other books by Ekman on loan from the library, but they were due back on Friday and not renewable, so I returned them unread. I'm uncertain what I think of Ms. Ekman - she writes beautifully, and does atmospherics extraordinarly well - but both books left me flailing and lost a great deal of the time. I think part of my problem with them is that I had to read them in such disjointed dribs and drabs of spare time. I suspect they are better suited to long, uninterrupted reading sessions, instead of desperately trying to remember who is who from one day of reading to the next.

I also finished The Ravens by Norwegian author Vidar Sundstøl, the third and final book of his Minnesota Trilogy. It was a mostly satisfactory finale - although I suspect I am more enamored of the story behind the writing of this trilogy than I am with the trilogy itself. In any case, the identity of the actual murderer came as a complete surprise (but logically consistent), so I have to give him that.

I'm about to start on Colin Cotterill's Six and a half Deadly Sins, #10 of his Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery series, set in 1970s Laos. This is an absolutely delightful series - I started with #7 in 2011, which charmed me no end, so I read all the books leading up to it, and have read every subsequent entry as it's been published. 2 years have elapsed since #9 came out, so it's been rather a bit of wait for #10, which was just published this May.

I can highly recommend this series for mystery readers - they are witty, intelligent, and subtly political. If you have any interest in the state of Indochina in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, these are absolutely marvelous reads. And even if you're not interested in the geopolitics of that part of the world, I think you can not help but fall in love with the character of Dr. Siri, the intricate plotting, and the fully realized sense of place.

[phantom power]

10. Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson (read: seven eves)

http://www.amazon.com/Seveneves-A-Novel-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0062190377

[pscot]

18. I've read all his stuff

but I don't entirely trust him since Reamde and Anathem. I'm 94th on the hold list but they have 24 copies so it should not take too long.

[japple]

11. I envy you, Goblin. All the Light We Cannot See was such a wonderful book that I wish

I could have that first reading experience all over again.

I finished Kent Haruf's final work, Our Souls at Night. It was a sweet, funny, story and a nice, light read after the somewhat graphic Wilderness. I am now reading Mark Spragg's Bone Fire. Lovely writing.

Glad Ms. Enthusiast enjoyed Station Eleven. It is one of my favorites from 2015.

[Goblinmonger]

19. Bunch of stuff got in the way but I finished All the Light We Cannot See today

What a fantastic book. Very clear why it won the Pulitzer. Very moving. Very profound.

[Paladin]

12. "Endangered," the latest Joe Pickett novel from C.J. Box.

Another in the series about the Wyoming game warden and his family. I think this one's the best yet.

[hermetic]

13. Just read Jackalope Wives

This is a short online story I found recommended in the Lounge. Loved it. Has a special appeal, I'd guess, for those of us who have lived in the southwest. Whatever, it's a nice tale.

http://www.apex-magazine.com/jackalope-wives/

[Tipperary]

14. I'm reading Natchez Burning by Greg Iles...

to be followed by The Burning Tree.

On my kindle I have Gone Girl, but I've not dived into that one yet.