What Fiction are you reading this week, November 24, 2019?

[matt819]

36. Here goes

Just finished listening to the latest in the Lizbeth Salander series, created by Stieg Larsson and now carried on by David Lagercrantz. This one is The Girl Who Lived Twice. Murder on Mt. Everest. Sherpa murdered in Stockholm. Russian troll factories. Mikael Blomkvist in love. And of course, Salander. She is a fantastic character. She's the MacGyver of computer hackers and the Jack Reacher of righteous killer. By the end of this one you wonder if she's run out of targets. But the epilogue lays the groundwork for the next novel, and I can't wait.

Listening to The Second Sleep by Robert Harris. My wife's been trying to get me to listen to his Cicero trilogy, but I don't share her fondness of novels about the Roman empire. This one is not that. It's a challenge to comment on this book without spoilers. If you like novels about medieval England, this is for you. If you have a passing interest in post apocalypse dystopias, give it a try. The writing is first-rate, of course, and it addresses issues that are the focus of any number of offbeat forums today. I'm about half way through, but I suspect I'll come away thinking that maybe the issues address on offbeat forums may not be so offbeat.

Reading The Brink, the second in the Awakened series by James Murray. I commented on Awakened in a previous post. It's off-the-wall, far-fetched, etc. Just about 30 pages in. The Nazis seem to be keen on taking over the world, though my guess is that they'll fail. Eventually. But the good guys are not going to have it easy. BTW, the Nazis might be stand-ins for the Murdoch family.

The Bus on Thursday, by Australian writer Shirley Barrett. This is one weird novel, and in the end I don't think it came together. The narrator and protagonist is Eleanor, a 30-something woman who has had to deal with breast cancer and a boyfriend who broke up with her because of it. Long story, but she ends up taking a job at an 11-student school in the outback, has an affair with a good-looking but otherwise pretty disgusting vacuum cleaner salesman whose brother is one of her students. In some respects, hilarity ensures, but at every decision point - and there are many - she keeps making what I would regard as the wrong decisions about what she should do to set things right. A woman reader might have a different take, but I was disappointed. Also, the blurb was highly misleading in describing Eleanor's journey as one of recovery and self-discovery. In my view, it was neither.

Don't know if I mentioned the latest Jack Reacher novel, Blue Moon. Listened to it a week or so ago. Mostly typical Jack Reacher, though the death count was damn near astronomical. Non-spoiler: The good guys prevail. Oh, and Reacher fell in love, though I won't ruin it by telling you how it turns out.

Also can't remember whether I mentioned The Institute by Stephen King. (I could check, but I'm too lazy.) Not so much horror. Just sort of run-of-the-mill supernatural. Not his best, but with a gazillion books under his belt, I'm not sure I could really say which one is, in my view, the best or at least the best I've read. Or even my favorite. I just like reading most of Stephen King, and I don't really care much where he takes me in his books.