What are you reading this week of June 4, 2017?

[hermetic]

I am reading the ultimate Rebus short-story collection, THE BEAT GOES ON. With 29 short stories, a novella and "Ian Rankin on Rebus," each piece is a wee look into both the writing style of Rankin as well as the life and times of Inspector Rebus. I am finding it absolutely delightful.

Decided I would also read DARK MATTER by Blake Crouch. This is a real page-turner. Crouch also wrote the trilogy on which the TV show "Wayward Pines" is based. I just bought season 1 and look forward to watching it as soon as I finish this book. I believe I am in for some real treats with this.

Then I picked up a DVD of THE FAMILY FANG, the movie based on Kevin Wilson's best-selling novel, which someone here told us about a short while ago. I am really glad of that as I found it quite enjoyable.

What treats do you have planned for yourself this week?

[samnsara]

1. im gonna read the closed captions during Comeys hearing :)

[TexasProgresive]

2. You're a delight!

[hermetic]

5. LOL!

Cool. Be sure to check in later and let us know what you thought. (That's what we do here. )

[Hangingon]

3. The Son by Phillip Meyer

[hermetic]

9. Aha!

Evidently he spells his name Philipp. I wasn't able to find anything under the usual spelling but am glad I kept looking as he sounds like an author to keep an eye on. THE SON was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and is an epic of Texas with the plot concerning "three generations of a Texas family: Eli, his son Pete and Pete’s granddaughter Jeanne. Each face their own challenges—Comanche raiders, border wars and a changing civilization, respectively."

Thanks for sharing it.

[yallerdawg]

15. The season finale of "The Son" is next weekend!

It has been very interesting and appears to have very good source material!

[Hangingon]

28. I think the series has looked closely at details.

Glad the have a second season coming.

[PoorMonger]

27. Meaning To Read That Too.

I read American Rust some years ago and enjoyed it. When 'The Son' first came out I was in the thick of something else huge and it slipped my mind until the tv series came out.

[Paladin]

35. Brilliant novel. Anyone who liked the TV series should read the book. (nt)

[TexasProgresive]

4. Back exploring the horrors of underground NYC courtesy of Preston and Child.

Cabinet of Curiosities

[hermetic]

6. Oooh

Sounds quite chilling. I like how the title sounds like something written long ago.

[Little Star]

7. Harlan Coben's HOME......

It's book #11 in the Myron Bolitar series.

I'm on vacation in Pigeon Forge, TN, Just got into our cabin rental yesterday. After unpacking, running to the grocery store, etc. I opened up Coben's book and read myself to sleep. CNN & MSNBC had endless hours of the same video's of the terror attack in London so I was happy for the diversion. I really love this series.

[hermetic]

10. Sounds wonderful!

Great time to be in a vacation cabin with good books to read. Enjoy!

[Little Star]

18. Thanks!

[yallerdawg]

8. I'm sticking with "The Masters" this week.

Picked up Stephen King's novella "Gwendy's Button Box." For slow and savory consumption. Christmas book coming!

And somehow I kept missing Dean Koontz's "Ashley Bell" but caught up with it in the Bargain Book section at 'Books-a-Million!' Christmas book coming!

I watched the "Wayward Pines" series - and when you mentioned "Dark Matter" reminded me the Syfy series "Dark Matter" starts up again in another week. Not based on Blake Crouch book, though.

[hermetic]

11. Christmas, huh?

I like a person who plans ahead.

Evidently there are a number of books titled Dark Matter. So far I do not see why this particular one is called that, but I'm only half way through. I gave up watching TV many years ago and now watch the occasional series on DVD when I can find one at the library or on sale. Is this Dark Matter series on TV enjoyable?

[yallerdawg]

14. King and Koontz are rather prolific - so they have big, new novels coming before the holiday!

I hardly get out of the K's at the book stores.

The "Dark Matter" Syfy show has a "Firefly" (cult sci-fi show) feel, a spaceship-crew-against-the-universe (giant corporations are the villains, of course). Some interesting future-conjecture like transferring 'minds' across the stars into life-like clones so you can 'take a trip and never leave the farm.' And a persistent, unexplained mystery regarding the crew's identity! And "AI and humanity" issues!

"Wayward Pines" Season 1 was very interesting. That would be a good read!

[Thirties Child]

12. Reading LITTLE BIG MAN for maybe the 9th time. Last read it in 1993.

LITTLE BIG MAN and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE are my favorites.

[hermetic]

17. True classics

Welcome to DU!

[unc70]

13. If We Were Villains

A first novel by M. L. Rio. Dragged it around for three weeks in Europe, but never had time or energy to read until the flight home. Then could not put it down. Just finished it this morning, now rereading some sections.

It explores the fourth year of conservatory for seven Shakespearean theater majors, a year itself a tragedy in five acts. The students banter with each other with frequent quotes from the Bard, plus rehearse and perform various of his works.

BTW It is an unconventional mystery.

[hermetic]

16. Unconventional, sounds like

But it also sounds fantastic, to this lover of Shakespearean theater and mysteries. I would love to see that one in my library. Thanks for telling us about it.

Not finding time to read while traveling around Europe is certainly understandable. Did that myself, way back when. Absolutely loved it. Were you having a vacation there? Did you have a marvelous time?

[unc70]

19. Always a great time

Nearly three weeks this time: Oxford then London the first week, over to Ghent and to Bruge, finally to Paris. First time in Belgium. I'm mostly retired so was a vacation, I suppose.

My Shakespeare knowledge is fairly basic, maybe see a play every year or so. This book required me to go back and Google a few things. I did not get the same education as the author though we went to the same school forty years apart. I happened to look at her LinkedIn profile. She took an amazing set of courses. Worth taking a look.

[hermetic]

20. Oh, I say...

have you read STATION ELEVEN by Emily St. John Mandel?

"One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time--from the actor's early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as The Travelling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains--this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet.

"Sometimes terrifying, sometimes tender, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it."

Good one!

Your trip sounds great. I was in Belgium a few days back in the late 80s. I loved it. Things were very vibrant and happening back then. I imagine it's a bit different these days. Still great, though.

[unc70]

21. Mandel provides one of the jacket quktes

I have not read STATION ELEVEN, but it's interesting that Mandel provided one of the quotes for the dust jacket. "...breathtaking literary thriller. I can't recommend this book highly enough..."

[Runningdawg]

29. Station Eleven - Fantastic book!

Half way through the library copy, I ordered one for my library. As a Star Trek fan and now a fan of this book I am considering a new tattoo "Survival is insufficient"

[TEB]

22. Cross iron willie Heinrich

A fictional account of life on Russian front ww2. The author was actually soldier on east front German army.

[hermetic]

31. Found it

THE CROSS OF IRON by Willi Heinrich. "First published in English in 1956 as "The Willing Flesh," a classic, realistic novel of a German Army platoon trapped behind Russian lines on the Eastern Front in World War II. Author Willi Heinrich (1920-2005) served in the heavily mauled 101st Jager Division, and was himself wounded five times during the war. "Cross of Iron" was also made into a film of the same name by Sam Peckinpah in 1977."

Sounds like a good book. Thanks for joining in.

[pscot]

23. I finished Syndrome E by Franck Thilliez

It's an excellent police procedural with a little horror and international intrigue plus a developing romance between two damaged cops. And a surprise ending. Very nice.

Now i'm reading Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold. It's about love and war on alien worlds. Good stuff. I've never read Bujold before but she tells entertaining stories. this is the first in a series and I plan to follow it for a bit.

Next is The Collapsing Empire, a new one by John Scalzi. I was six weeks on the hold list and I have high hopes for it. Scalzi is one of my favorites.

I had to swear off Rebus when I went on the wagon.

[hermetic]

32. You amaze me,

So, you're reading Ms Bujold's very first novel. Now, if you plan to read all the rest, I suspect that might take until the end of the year. For you. For some of the rest of us I think that could take until the end of days. But I know how fast a reader you are.

Scalzi is another incredibly prolific writer. I've read most of the Old Man's War series. He already has a newer one out than The Collapsing Empire called The Dispatcher. Some guys are just so hard to keep up with, ya know?

I've been away from Rebus for a while. But I found this on the clearance table at B&N and just couldn't resist.

[pscot]

37. Thanks, Hermetic.

I'll look for that next Scalzi. I don't think I read all that fast, but I read at least 2 hours every evening. It's like running. If you keep at it you can go a long way.

[japple]

24. Thanks for the thread, hermetic. Hi everyone!

Started reading Affinity Konar's book, Mischling after reading several good reviews over the past few months. Several chapters in and I am blown away by the beauty of Konar's writing, and feel that I am in the story with these two sisters.

This is a review from amazon:

It’s not easy picking up a book involving Auschwitz’s infamous “Angel of Death.” But once you pick up Affinity Konar’s Mischling, you will have a very difficult time putting it down. Inspired by the real-life experiences of twins Eva and Miriam Mozes, Konar’s beautifully written and powerful novel imagines what it was like being forced to take part in Josef Mengele’s horrific human experiments. This man, this monster, is not the star of the story though. 12-year-old siblings Pearl and Stasha are, and it is they who convey Mischling’s overarching message, something that is perhaps even more incomprehensible than man’s inhumanity to man: the capacity to forgive it. If Konar is concerned about whether or not these pages honor the memory of the brave souls who agitated against the cruel hand the world dealt them, she should rest easy. And hopefully those souls are too. --Erin Kodicek, The Amazon Book Review

I am sure the reading will become more difficult as the story (and the horror) unfolds, but I have always felt compelled to read about the holocaust after my family visited Dachau in 1960 when Dad was stationed in Germany. It had not been renovated and "sanitized" and, even as a child of 10, I was deeply troubled by the darkness and smell of death that still lingered.

My wish lists are long and I have several books on hold at the library, so I'm not sure what I'll be reading next, but I think it will be something more lighthearted and fun.

[hermetic]

33. Hi ya,

Wow, that sounds like a powerful reading experience. So important. I'd say you deserve something a bit lighter for your next read.

[Paladin]

25. "Prussian Blue," the latest Bernie Gunther novel by Phillip Kerr.

Bernie is a police detective in WWII Berlin, trying to do a competent job while dealing with evil mofo's like Heydrich and Himmler. Terrific, atmospheric whodunit series; I've read 'em all and I recommend the series to everybody.

[hermetic]

34. Thanks

Mr. Kerr is another prolific writer for our group here this week. His PRAYER is on my must-read list. Glad you stopped by.

[Paladin]

36. My pleasure. (nt)

[PoorMonger]

26. Sounds Cool,

Also glad I could point you towards The Family Fang - still haven't had a chance to see the movie but I will eventually.

[PoorMonger]

30. Moonglow by Michael Chabon

Following on the heels of his New York Times bestselling novel Telegraph Avenue, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon delivers another literary masterpiece: a novel of truth and lies, family legends, and existential adventure—and the forces that work to destroy us.

In 1989, fresh from the publication of his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Michael Chabon traveled to his mother’s home in Oakland, California, to visit his terminally ill grandfather. Tongue loosened by powerful painkillers, memory stirred by the imminence of death, Chabon’s grandfather shared recollections and told stories the younger man had never heard before, uncovering bits and pieces of a history long buried and forgotten. That dreamlike week of revelations forms the basis for the novel Moonglow, the latest feat of legerdemain from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon.

Moonglow unfolds as the deathbed confession of a man the narrator refers to only as “my grandfather.” It is a tale of madness, of war and adventure, of sex and marriage and desire, of existential doubt and model rocketry, of the shining aspirations and demonic underpinnings of American technological accomplishment at midcentury, and, above all, of the destructive impact—and the creative power—of keeping secrets and telling lies. It is a portrait of the difficult but passionate love between the narrator’s grandfather and his grandmother, an enigmatic woman broken by her experience growing up in war-torn France. It is also a tour de force of speculative autobiography in which Chabon devises and reveals a secret history of his own imagination.

From the Jewish slums of prewar South Philadelphia to the invasion of Germany, from a Florida retirement village to the penal utopia of New York’s Wallkill prison, from the heyday of the space program to the twilight of the “American Century,” the novel revisits an entire era through a single life and collapses a lifetime into a single week. A lie that tells the truth, a work of fictional nonfiction, an autobiography wrapped in a novel disguised as a memoir, Moonglow is Chabon at his most moving and inventive.

Chabon has been a favorite of mine since Kavalier & Clay - being that I've also got a strong interest in oral history & rockets this one feels like it could be really special.

[PoorMonger]

39. Musical Suggestion ' I Love The Unknown'

https://m.

By Clem Snide from the Rocket Science Official Soundtrack - 'Rocket Science' was an HBO original movie I believe ; never seen it but this was the single that came from it and the entirety of the OST was put together by Eef Barzelay ( front man for Clem Snide who I've been a longtime fan of

[hermetic]

42. Once again

That video eventually led me to the perfect song for DARK MATTER.

And not because it shares a word but because the theme of the book is the pursuit of the only thing that matters to the protagonist.

[PoorMonger]

44. Solid.

Good pick hermetic , always liked her voice. Think I first heard of her through Daytrotter sessions.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

38. Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.

Even better so far than expected.

[hermetic]

41. That one

has gotten good reviews here. Among the public in general, not quite so much. Be sure and tell what you think when you've finished, if you would.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

43. Really excellent.

I'm a white person whose grandparents came here more than a generation after the end of slavery, so my personal connection to it is non-existent, other than this country as a whole having been profoundly affected by it.

The horrors of slavery are mentioned almost casually, which makes them both more believable and more horrifying.

I will say the ending left me a bit puzzled. It doesn't feel as if everything is actually tied up, but it's still a powerful and interesting book. It's actually on the short list for the John W. Campbell award for best novel of 2016. Winner will be announced next Friday at the award ceremony in Lawrence, KS. "Underground Airlines" by Ben Winters is also on the list. Usually the winner attends, but not always. I'll be there, lucky me.

There's also a best short story award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award, and I haven't read any of the stories on that list.

[hermetic]

45. Yes, lucky you

What a fun experience that sounds like it will be. I hope you will tell us all about it.

[PoorMonger]

40. What You Break by Reed Farrel Coleman

(Gus Murphy # 2 )

Former Suffolk County cop Gus Murphy returns to prowl the meaner streets of Long Island’s darkest precincts with a Russian mercenary at his back in the stunning second installment of Reed Farrel Coleman’s critically acclaimed, Edgar-nominated series.

Gus Murphy and his girlfriend, Magdalena, are put in harm’s way when Gus is caught up in the distant aftershocks of heinous crimes committed decades ago in Vietnam and Russia. Gus’s ex-priest pal, Bill Kilkenny, introduces him to a wealthy businessman anxious to have someone look more deeply into the brutal murder of his granddaughter. Though the police already have the girl’s murderer in custody, they have been unable to provide a reason for the killing. The businessman, Spears, offers big incentives if Gus can supply him with what the cops cannot—a motive.

Later that same day, Gus witnesses the execution of a man who has just met with his friend Slava. As Gus looks into the girl’s murder and tries to protect Slava from the executioner’s bullet, he must navigate a minefield populated by hostile cops, street gangs, and a Russian mercenary who will stop at nothing to do his master’s bidding. But in trying to solve the girl’s murder and save his friend, Gus may be opening a door into a past that was best left forgotten. Can he fix the damage done, or is it true that what you break you own...forever?

[PoorMonger]

46. Musical Suggestion 'Eyeoneye'

https://m.

The lead single from Andrew Bird's 2012 album Break It Yourself ; the title has does have more than a stream of consciousness connection - the themes are much the same.