What Fiction are you reading this week, April 19, 2026?

[hermetic]

This discussion thread is pinned.

Still reading The Manning Brides by Debbie Macomber. I'm on the second story, Stand-In Wife now. The first one didn't do much for me.

I listened to The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, a "novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person." I so enjoyed hearing this story. Told through "charming, deeply moving letters, the bittersweet journey of growing older and the courage it takes to embrace the winds of change."

Then I listened to Apostle's Cove by William Kent Krueger. That was so good. A suspenseful thriller, occult, supernatural, Native American mystery. Kept me listening for hours.

Now I'm listening to Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll, a “breakneck thriller that examines our culture’s obsession with serial killers and true crime.” It follows two women on the pursuit of justice against all odds. It won a lot of awards in 2023.

Have a happy Earth Day. Get out there and enjoy what's left of it while you can.

[Ponietz]

1. Dog Years by Gunter Grass

The 3rd book in the Danzig trilogy which includes The Tin Drum and. Cat and Mouse. The Tin Drum translated by Breon Mitchell is one of the best novels I’ve ever read. I finally got around to starting it!

Dog Years is one of the most complex novels written in the twentieth century and one of the most powerful as well… Günter Grass is at the top of his creativity.
What does a river like the Vistula carry away with it? Everything that goes to pieces: wood, glass, pencils, pacts… chairs, bones, and sunsets too. What had long been forgotten rose to memory, floating on its back or stomach, with the help of the Vistula.

Memory is a river – friends and enemies, men and mannequins, people and monsters, rats and dogs, philosophers and villains, good and evil float by through the years…
“The rat can endure without the ratty, but never can there be rattiness without the rat.”

Dog Years is a magical warp of reality – reality is distorted and twisted and it is done not for purpose of deceiving but to make history and evil more grotesque and sinister, to make us see the nightmare of war and fascism in all its hideousness and filth.
“The scarecrow is created in man’s image…” But there are also some men that were created in scarecrow’s image.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214993.Dog_Years

Happy Earth day to you, too and thanks!

[hermetic]

3. Sounds most impressive

And timely.

[MontanaMama]

2. The Correspondent is on my reading list!

I appreciate your endorsement of it. It came highly recommended by friends.

I recently finished The Last Apothecary by Sarah Penner. Read it in two days. I loved it. I always think that I don’t like historical fiction and then I prove myself wrong over and over again. Here’s the overview from ThriftReads:

Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientele. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary's fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries.

Meanwhile in present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, running from her own demons. When she stumbles upon a clue to the unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London two hundred years ago, her life collides with the apothecary's in a stunning twist of fate--and not everyone will survive.

With crackling suspense, unforgettable characters and searing insight, The Lost Apothecary is a subversive and intoxicating debut novel of secrets, vengeance and the remarkable ways women can save each other despite the barrier of time.

Honestly, with the CNN revelations of this online rape academy thing, it made me wonder if women would secretly do some lethal gardening in order to prepare some “well disguised poisons” to take matters into their own hands. There seems to be no accountability otherwise. 🪴

[hermetic]

5. Hi!!

Good to see ya. Your book sounds really great. I shall look that up.

[cbabe]

4. I enjoy the Krueger books. Great way to travel in my imagination. (Also

terribly sad as t is giving the boundary waters to Spanish mining company.)

Reading Longshot by Dick Francis. I always forget what a great writer he was and am surprised again.

Survival travel writer agrees to write bio of a big shot trainer. In the winter. In a grand house. Murder. Horses. Pizzas.

[hermetic]

6. Yeah, that really

pisses me off. I've been to the Boundary Waters a couple of times and it's so beautiful. I hope that gets nipped in the bud by people with some common sense.
Dick Francis wrote a lot of books, many about horse racing. Very popular. Will be looking for them. Thanks.

[cbabe]

7. He gave credit to his wife as co-author. Didn't put her

name on the books, thought it would confuse readers since he already had the name recognition.

From wiki:

After wartime service in the RAF (bomber pilot), Francis became a full-time jump-jockey, winning over 350 races and becoming champion jockey of the British National Hunt. He came to further prominence in 1956 as jockey to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, riding her horse Devon Loch which fell when close to winning the Grand National. Francis retired from horseracing and became a journalist and novelist.

[Number9Dream]

8. Just finished "Pendergast: The Beginning" by Preston & Child

Thanks for the thread, hermetic.

This is the newest by Preston & Child. If you're a Pendergast fan, you'll enjoy this one too. Pendergast is working out of the New Orleans field office, a few months before the events of "Relic". A bizarre serial killer makes for another don't wanna put it down page-turner.

Hermetic - Just made and installed a new window screen for the barn cat's new barn. Should help keep them cooler when the weather turns warm, as well as keep the flies and bats out of the barn.

[hermetic]

9. That was nice of you

Bats, not good.

My library is closed for a week now, to replace the floor, so I sent off for Two Graves, a Pendergast thriller from 2012. Looking forward to that one.

[Bayard]

16. Two Graves is a good one

Many suprises.

[murielm99]

10. I am reading 13 Bodies,

by Thom Reese. He is a local author who lives in a small town in my area. This is a collection of horror stories. He writes science fiction and supernatural books. He is not well known. He had a viewing and presentation of his work at our local independent bookstore. I bought four books from him.

[hermetic]

11. Support your local authors!

[txwhitedove]

12. Yes, Happy Earth Day, so I spent some time in Lowe's Garden Center

Last edited Sun Apr 19, 2026, 06:15 PM - Edit history (1)

for pots and pea gravel to use as anchors for metal pergola the wind is making skate across my patio. When set up, I can plant flowers etc around the posts.

Today reading non-fiction The Typewriter and the Guillotine, author Mark Braude. "In 1925, the Indianapolis-born Janet Flanner took an assignment to write a regular ‘Letter from Paris’ for a lighthearted humor magazine called The New Yorker. She’d come to Paris to with dreams of writing about “Beauty with a Capital B.” However... "The compelling untold story of a trailblazing Paris correspondent for The New Yorker, who sounded the alarm about the rise of fascism in Europe while becoming enmeshed in the sensational case of a German serial killer stalking the streets of the French capital on the eve of WWII." Very well written.

[LogDog75]

14. Finished Coyote Hills this morning

by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman.

I'm starting on Robin Cook's Spasm on an Ebook.

[Bayard]

15. I am late to the reading room today

Finished, "Star Gazer," by Anne Hillerman, and now on, "Tale Teller," by same. Thanks for introducing her to me, fellow readers.

"Apostle's Cove," sounds good. Will look for the book.

Good night, all!