What Fiction are you reading this week, May 3, 2026?

[hermetic]

This discussion thread is pinned.

Reading Two Graves by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. Wow, the action and adventure are in full swing by page 4! (Damn nazis) At over 600 pages I'll be enjoying this for a while. I got a like-new hardcover from Thrift Books for just a few dollars.

Listened to The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner. I really liked this! "A forgotten history. A secret network of women. A legacy of poison and revenge." Well done.

Now listening to The Celebrants by Steven Rowley. Quite amusing and enjoyable. Also interesting perspectives on death.

I'm going to a stage play this afternoon so I'll be away for a while.

[txwhitedove]

1. Hey, that's my brain! Sunny day between the rain here. Rain barrel, buckets

plant waterer all full.

Fun read finishing Mrs Plansky Goes Rogue by Spencer Quinn. She's my 71-yr old hero, free diving, senior tennis champion and pursuing truth.

Now on Cat on a Hot Tin Woof, again Spencer Quinn. #26 and newest in the Chet & Bernie mysteries. Always funny and insightful, my happy books especially after reading non-fiction or the news.

PS: Granddaughter did not have Covid, whew.

[Old-8643]

2. The US Constitution

just kidding mostly

[question everything]

3. We Solve Murders by Richard Osman. No, not about the Thursday crime solvers

Different characters. A new series? So far so many characters that I am having hard time getting the plot. But I already like the main characters: Steve Wheeler a retired police officer and his daughter in law Amy Wheeler.

[hermetic]

4. Me, too

I liked this one a lot.

[mentalsolstice]

5. "The Celebrants" was very good.

However, if you’re looking for something like The Guncle this isn’t it. Just goes to show the range of Steven Rowley’s talent.

I just started The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. So far, so good, I always enjoy her books.

Enjoy your stage play. Have a great week everyone! 🌼🌷

[hermetic]

6. The Frozen River

"a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day." Martha Ballard, "a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history"

[rsdsharp]

7. I just started Steve Berry's The Devil's Bible -- a Cotton Malone book.

The sister of the king of Sweden has been kidnapped, and the ransom demanded is an 800 year old illuminated manuscript.

I haven’t read enough yet to know if I like it.

[Bayard]

8. Boone's Lick by Larry McMurty

Short book, with engaging characters, and humor.

"Master storyteller Larry McMurtry unfurls a short, bright banner of a book following the fortunes of the Cecil family as they travel from Boone's Lick, Missouri, to the Western frontier. Though the story is narrated by her oldest son, 15-year-old Shay, the real hero of the book is Mary Margaret, the mother. Her husband, Dick, has left her and their four children in Boone's Lick while he seeks his fortunes in the West."

[yellowdogintexas]

9. The Aethelred Cipher: A Medieval Conspiracy Shepherding the Black Death

Author: Randi Pellagrini

A dying monk. An iron key. A conspiracy older than Christendom.

1347. Scribe Thomas of Eltville thought his greatest challenge would be copying manuscripts in peace. Then his mentor is murdered in front of him — and thrusts an iron key into his hands with his dying breath.

The key unlocks a cipher hidden in manuscript margins across Europe. The cipher reveals a conspiracy that has been engineering human bloodlines — and human catastrophes — for over two thousand years.

Now Thomas is running for his life with two unlikely allies: Margarethe, a cloth merchant whose father was tortured to death by the Order for knowing too much, and Maria, a fourteen-year-old girl who carries forty generations of forbidden knowledge encoded in her blood.

Together, they must race across plague-ravaged Europe to find seven keys before the Order recaptures them. Each key reveals another layer of a conspiracy so vast it makes the Black Death look like a side project.

Because the Order doesn't just preserve knowledge through dark ages — they create the dark ages.

Collapse isn't inevitable. It's engineered. And Thomas has just become the one person who can prove it.


I really felt like I was with these three as they race to gather the seven keys before it is too late. Thomas, Margarethe and Maria endure a number of close calls, some betrayal, and some unexpected help as they chase down the keys. Occasionally I encountered some missed editing, but overall I enjoyed reading it.

Currently four of the planned 12 books are complete, and can be read as standalone The author has outlined the story plan on his website and it is very ambitious. I got this one either free or 99 cents and will wait for the others to drop before I get them.

I'm heading into the non fiction world for a bit with Prequel: (Rachel Maddow) for the Frangela book club and Separation of Church and Hate (John Fugelsang) for The Liberal Ladies Who Lunch Book Club. Frangela's Book Club is a biweekly Zoom meeting and we only read 2 chapters for each getogether. The other club is traditional one book a month. (I can't believe I am reading two non-fiction books at the same time; that is quite out of the ordinary for me.)