What are you reading this week of January 1, 2017?

[hermetic]

Happy to close the book on that one. So, what are you reading to start off this new year? I've opted for Arnaldur Indridason's Silence of the Grave, a stark police procedural full of humanity and pathos, a classic noir from a very cold place. Iceland. I'm halfway through and REALLY enjoying it.

I've finished all but two of the short stories in Get in Trouble and it has sure been an intriguing read. Author Kelly Link takes you down all sorts of twisted roads but mostly she writes about modern teen-aged girls and their darkest thoughts. The Boyfriend was really kewl, and creepy.

Looks like 2017 is going to be a whole new story. I hope it brings us all peaceful days, and peaceful men of peaceful ways.

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Small Great Things

Amazon: "Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years’ experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she’s been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don’t want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene?"

About 1/2 way through and a riveting story. Characters are real and the issues are pertinent.

[hermetic]

2. Wow,

I was riveted just by that description. Nasty situation.

[TexasProgresive]

3. Bones, entrails, tea leaves, tarot and palms. Nothing is clear.

Sorry about the lame attempt at humor.

Seriously I am about to finish Witch Hunt by Ian Rankin. This is a really good read. It is not an Inspector John Rebus and I think it might be his 1st novel. Witch is a female assassin who is the nemesis of Dominic Elder.

Next I will read The Forgotten by Faye Kellerman.

[hermetic]

4. Heh, my Magic 8-Ball says

"Better not tell you now" Oh, thanks a lot!

The Forgotten sounds very timely even though it was written over 15 years ago. What's old is new again. Or just never changes.

I'm gonna go make me a bowl of black-eyed peas now. Good for the prosperity, so they say.

[TexasProgresive]

6. We had lentils and cabbage

Any legumes are supposed to work, leafy greens for greenbacks. Wishing you a really great year. We don't know what is to come but as FDR told us in dark times; “Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself” So we must keep our spirits up and do what we can to ease the troubles of others.

[hermetic]

9. My motto this year is

We have to stick together or else we'll fall apart.

[shenmue]

5. The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund

[hermetic]

10. Yes,

Sounds like quite the thriller.

[OxQQme]

7. Margaret Atwood's Hag-seed

Margaret Atwood’s novel take on Shakespeare’s play of enchantment, retribution, and second chances leads us on an interactive, illusion-ridden journey filled with new surprises and wonders of its own.

[hermetic]

11. Oooooh,

I did not know she had a new one out. According to The Guardian, "It’s riotous, insanely readable and just the best fun." Not out in paperback yet. I sure hope I get a chance to read it this year. I am a BIG fan of the amazing Ms. Atwood. Thanks for telling us about it.

[japple]

8. Happy New Year to all! Thanks for the thread, hermetic.

I finally finished Richard Grant's Dispatches from Pluto a well-written study of one of the most unique places in the US, with all its contradictions and lingering racial issues.

The last best book I read in 2016 was Paulette Jiles' News of the World, which made it to many "Best of 2016" book lists. Having a fondness for westerns and Texas history, I found a non-fiction work on the same subject, and it is, so far, a very interesting read.

Scott Zesch, The Captured: A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier

On New Year's Day in 1870, ten-year-old Adolph Korn was kidnapped by an Apache raiding party. Traded to Comaches, he thrived in the rough, nomadic existence, quickly becoming one of the tribe's fiercest warriors. Forcibly returned to his parents after three years, Korn never adjusted to life in white society. He spent his last years in a cave, all but forgotten by his family.

That is, until Scott Zesch stumbled over his own great-great-great uncle's grave. Determined to understand how such a "good boy" could have become Indianized so completely, Zesch travels across the west, digging through archives, speaking with Comanche elders, and tracking eight other child captives from the region with hauntingly similar experiences. With a historians rigor and a novelists eye, Zesch's The Captured paints a vivid portrait of life on the Texas frontier, offering a rare account of captivity.

[hermetic]

12. That sounds quite fascinating

I think I can understand why captives would come to prefer that way of life. The boys, anyway. Not so much fun for girls.

[dwayneb]

13. Old stuff

Re-reading the Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time. Interesting all the parallels between middle Earth and current events: Sauron = Trump? Dark Tower = Trump Tower? Saruman = Steve Bannon?

Also reading Lovecraft.
Also reading "Beyond Outrage: What Has Gone Wrong with Our Economy and Our Democracy, and How to Fix It" by Robert Reich.
Also reading "Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces " by Radley Balko.

[hermetic]

14. Yes, the parallels

are frightening. The Orc armies destroying all the forests.

Robert Reich is also a great and wise man.

Welcome to DU!