Literature What are you currently reading?

[Emma JC]

read Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune - loved it especially as it is set in Toronto and Muskoka, areas very familiar to me

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

 

[Chryssie]

I have two books to report today! "Where All Light Tends to Go" by David Joy was a rather depressing and disturbing read about a young man who grew up in the meth industry of Appalachia in North Carolina. Told in first person, it is the story of Jacob an 18 year old boy who lives with his meth kingpin father and is trying to deal with all kinds of terrible things. There is murder, corruption, family drama and even a love story. I probably wouldn't have read this if I had realized how awful the story was but I finished it. Not a fun read but really great writing.
A much more enjoyable book was " A Share in Death" by Deborah Crombie and is the first in the series about the London detective couple. Though the book was published in 1993, the story was still a good mystery despite the lack of cell phones! I like these characters and will continue reading the series.

 

[Lou]

I have two books to report today! "Where All Light Tends to Go" by David Joy was a rather depressing and disturbing read about a young man who grew up in the meth industry of Appalachia in North Carolina.

I'm reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. I've read most of Kingsolver's novels and always enjoyed them. And then this one has been on the NYT Bestseller list. But it's also about an orphan growing up in Appalachia. And also about drugs and poverty. Pretty depressing but I hope things work out for poor Demon. And as you can tell by the title, inspired by Dickens. Dickens also wrote about poverty and orphans.

Though the book was published in 1993, the story was still a good mystery despite the lack of cell phones! I like these characters and will continue reading the series.

I find that a lot of detective/ crime / suspense stuff are best told in the pre cell phone era. Crimes and mysteries are too easily solved when you have the whole world in your pocket. or can just call someone. Although kudos for every author who found a creative way to even the playing field with cell phones. Even the lost cell phone or cell phone out of juice is pretty good if not creative.

There are even some good stories where the cell phone or the internet is integral to the story.

 

[Chryssie]

Today I finished a book that my sister recommended by David Baldacci called "Simply Lies." It is a brand new book published this year and it is super modern unlike the last book I read. It is about a woman named Mickey who works from home on the computer tracing illegal money. She is contacted by a woman saying she works for her company and has a new job for her. Mickey is sent to an old mansion where she discovers a body and when she contacts the police finds out she has been deceived. The mystery woman does not work for her company at all and Mickey is drawn into a treasure hunt for mob money. This is a great book with twists and turns and so much intrigue you don't know what is going on. I loved it!

 

[Emma JC]

I have discovered Colleen Hoover - there was an article about her on CNN a day or two ago - first one I read was Heart Bones and I found it fascinating and also read Ugly Love with a whole lot of more of her books on Hold. Love discovering an author that I haven't read before.

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

 

[Chryssie]

I finished another Deborah Crombie book called "The Sound of Broken Glass." It is another good one in the series about the London detectives. I am enjoying these books and will continue reading the series.

 

[Emma JC]

read a Robyn Carr - The Summer That Made Us - it was good and currently reading another Colleen Hoover - November 9th - I am really enjoying her books

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

 

[Chryssie]

I read "Righteous Prey" by John Sandford. I had read several of his older "Prey" books several years ago and this is a newer one published in 2022. It was really good! It is about a group of vigilantes who call themselves "The Five" who kill who they call "a**holes". These are bad people they choose and they publish the killings and give Bitcoin rewards to organizations hurt by their victims. They are very rich people who have made their fortunes with Bitcoin. The men who are tasked to find these killers are in Minnesota which makes the book all the more interesting to me as I grew up in SW Minnesota. Some locations mentioned are familiar to me. I liked this book a lot and will look for more in the series about the detective Virgil Flowers.

 

[Emma JC]

finished November 9th and it was very good and now have Colleen Hoover's best known It Ends With Us and have the sequel, It Starts With Us, on my shelf when done the first... so interesting

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

 

[Lou]

finished November 9th and it was very good and now have Colleen Hoover's best known It Ends With Us and have the sequel, It Starts With Us, on my shelf when done the first... so interesting

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

please provide more info.

 

[Emma JC]

Colleen Hoover's best known It Ends With Us and the sequel, It Starts With Us - these are stories with a background of spousal abuse and is probably the best "fiction" that I have read the helps me to understand, a little more, why spouses that are abused, stay and take more and more.

I have now started "It Starts With Us" and I am so glad that she continued the story and so glad that I didn't know here until now and didn't have to wait a number of years to read the sequel.

November 9th was a completely different book, as all of her's seem to be, and that is what I really like about her writing is that every book is completely different from the others. Many authors pick a style and stick to it ... boy/girl meets boy/girl, fall in love, have troubles, resolve troubles, live happily ever after... she is much more varied.

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

 

[Chryssie]

I found another mystery series that features cats! The Cats in Trouble Mysteries by Leann Sweeney. I read "The Cat, the Collector and the Killer." It was a fun quick read and I will find more in this series. It is told by Jillian who is married to the chief of police in a small town in South Carolina. She has several cats and is best friends with a cat rescuer. When an older woman is found wandering the street in her nightclothes holding a kitten, the mystery begins.

 

[Lou]

Has anyone read Rhys Bowen?

She has a new book coming out. Good reads recommended it to me. And the recommendation included a nice blurb from Jacqueline Winspear. I've read all her Maisie Dobbs books.

Seems like Rhys Bowen has a lot in common with Jacqueline, but is even more prolific. Rhys has written over 50 books. most are spread out in about 3 series. It looks like she has been writing for only 20 years which makes me suspicious of the quality. Jacqueline has written only half as many books in about the same time period.

Anyway I am going to check out one of her stand alone books.

 

[Chryssie]

I read another Deborah Crombie book called "A Killing of Innocents." It was published this year so I think it is her latest. In fact when I went to Goodreads to record it, they didn't even have it in their data base. It was another good one! A story of revenge and murder.

 

[Emma JC]

Has anyone read Rhys Bowen?

She has a new book coming out. Good reads recommended it to me. And the recommendation included a nice blurb from Jacqueline Winspear. I've read all her Maisie Dobbs books.

Seems like Rhys Bowen has a lot in common with Jacqueline, but is even more prolific. Rhys has written over 50 books. most are spread out in about 3 series. It looks like she has been writing for only 20 years which makes me suspicious of the quality. Jacqueline has written only half as many books in about the same time period.

Anyway I am going to check out one of her stand alone books.

I looked her up on Libby and there only seems to be a few of her 50 books there, none of her standalone like The Tuscan Child, so I decided not to read any as I would dislike getting into a series as find most of it missing.

There does seem to be more in the hardcopy part of my library, it has been a long time since I have read an actual book in hardcopy, so I will leave it for now. So much harder to read hardcopies in bed with the lights out.

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

 

[Lou]

I looked her up on Libby and there only seems to be a few of her 50 books there, none of her standalone like The Tuscan Child, so I decided not to read any as I would dislike getting into a series as find most of it missing.

There does seem to be more in the hardcopy part of my library, it has been a long time since I have read an actual book in hardcopy, so I will leave it for now. So much harder to read hardcopies in bed with the lights out.

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

My library seems to have all her books in hardcover. And about half as ebooks.
Like you I rather not read an ebook. Also to start off... I don't want to start any series.
but I did find one of her stand alone in e-book format. I put it on hold and decide what to do after I have read it.

Hardcover books are so cumbersome.

 

[Chryssie]

I have found another cat series! Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough have collaborated on a really cool story about cats who are the "Masters of the Universe". Or so one very old cat is planning! According to Pshaw-Ra ( the cat) the history of all cats began with his space travelling ancestors. The cats have super intelligence and can bound psychically with some humans. I have read the second book first and have the first one on reserve. A very fun read!

 

[Chryssie]

I read another John Sandford book called "The Investigator." This is the first in a new series about Letty Davenport who is the adopted daughter of Lucas Davenport who is a character in another series. It was an exciting thriller about a militia/terrorist group who are targeting immigrants at the Texas/Mexican border. Letty is an investigator who works for a senator and she is partnered with a Dept. of Homeland Security agent to investigate the group. I liked this book a lot. Letty is a very strong woman character and a real bada$$!
In looking up the book on Goodreads, I saw that Sandford is from central Iowa where I lived for many years.

 

[Chryssie]

Me again! I have read two books in 4 days this past week! First another in the Cats in Trouble Mystery series called "The Cat, the Sneak and the Secret" by Leann Sweeney. Another fun and fast read. I read the book in an afternoon. A clever cat is a kleptomaniac in this murder mystery. I will continue reading this fun series.
Then I read another Deborah Crombie called "A Bitter Feast" which was another in the series I have been enjoying. This book is about the mysterious deaths of people associated with a famous chef and a village restaurant/pub. I really like the main characters in these books.

 

[Lou]

Me again! I have read two books in 4 days this past week! First another in the Cats in Trouble Mystery series called "The Cat, the Sneak and the Secret" by Leann Sweeney. Another fun and fast read. I read the book in an afternoon. A clever cat is a kleptomaniac in this murder mystery. I will continue reading this fun series.
Then I read another Deborah Crombie called "A Bitter Feast" which was another in the series I have been enjoying. This book is about the mysterious deaths of people associated with a famous chef and a village restaurant/pub. I really like the main characters in these books.

I am nominating you for the chair of the Cats in Mysteries Department.

Upon accepting your position you will only have to teach one introductory class and you will have a graduate student seminar. You can also select a grad student to be your TA in the introductory class.