What Fiction are you reading this week, Sept. 14, 2025?

[hermetic]

This discussion thread is pinned.

The Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading in Rio de Janeiro


Reading The Sacred Bridge by Anne Hillerman. Two different murders keep Chee and Bernie busy, and apart. Quite entertaining. And getting intense.

Listening to Falling by T.J. Newman
"You just boarded a flight to New York. There are 143 other passengers onboard. What you don't know is that thirty minutes before the flight your pilot's family was kidnapped. For his family to live, everyone on your plane must die. The only way the family will survive is if the pilot follows his orders and crashes the plane. Enjoy the flight." Great story. Very intense.

Hope everyone finds something to feel good about this week, not tense.

[txwhitedove]

1. Happy gentle quiet Sunday. Ooh, enjoy "Falling"!

So, not fiction but reads almost like fiction: Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II by Elyse Graham. "The untold story of the academics who became OSS spies, invented modern spycraft, and helped turn the tide of the war. At the start of WWII, the U.S. found itself in desperate need of an intelligence agency. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to today’s CIA, was quickly formed—and, in an effort to fill its ranks with experts, the OSS turned to academia for recruits. Suddenly, literature professors, librarians, and historians were training to perform undercover operations and investigative work—and these surprising spies would go on to profoundly shape both the course of the war and our cultural institutions with their efforts."

[cbabe]

2. Finished the First Gentleman/Clinton and Patterson.

I liked the courtroom scenes. All else was uncomfortable. We know way too much about politicians and sa.

Reread a couple of Mike Lawson/Joe DeMarco books. His political thrillers are more lighthearted and well plotted. Engaging characters.

Kingpin and House Privilege.

(T J Newman is a heckuva thriller author)

[hermetic]

5. Lighthearted sounds appealing

And he's got 24 books to choose from so I'll give him a try.

[cbabe]

12. More light hearted sort of compared to other thrillers

Joe is smart but lazy and plays golf a lot. His dad was a mafia hitman and looks just like him which makes a bunch of crooks nervous.

He is the fixer for the Speaker of the House. Thoroughly corrupt alcoholic. Big guy like Tip O’Neil. Redeeming feature is his dedication to military vets.

Emma. Enigmatic wealthy retired DIA.

Neil computer hacker for anyone who pays including homeland security.

DC where the sausage gets made.

[Polly Hennessey]

3. Just started Michael Connelly's, The Waiting.

[hermetic]

7. That's a good one

[mentalsolstice]

4. Thank you for hosting this group 📚

Just starting The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley. It’s about a college dropout and an 84 year old woman running from the law. I really need something humorous to read this week. Hopefully this will do the trick.

[hermetic]

9. Sounds like good potential

for laughs there.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. Finishing up a couple of books.

A Hidden Place by Robert Charles Wilson and Gaudeamus by John Barnes. The first is about small-town people in the Depression, and two aliens who need to unite. The second is sort of auto-biographical and quite strange.

I know both of those authors slightly.

[hermetic]

11. A Hidden Place

"One of the most impressive bodies of work in contemporary science fiction." -- The New York Times.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. I'm not as impressed as the Times was.

But his novel A Bridge of Years is one of my all-time favorite novels ever. And his most recent, Last Year was also quite good.

[Bayard]

8. Sped through, "Worst Case Scenario," by TJ Newman

I will be looking for more of his books. Thank you to whoever recommended this in an earlier thread.

Currently reading, "Fix," by David Baldacci, an Amos Decker novel. I really like this character series.

[hermetic]

10. As cbabe above said:

"T J Newman is a heckuva thriller author."

The Fix sounds like a good thriller, too. "Decker witnesses a murder just outside FBI headquarters. A man shoots a woman execution-style on a crowded sidewalk, then turns the gun on himself." But there's no connection between these two people. Good mystery.

[cbabe]

14. T J Newman is a her. Former bookseller and flight attendant. Best line

from her research for Worst Case Scenario: I thought nuclear power plants were protected.

Pilot: That’s what they want you to think.

[Bayard]

15. Then she must have spent her air time thinking up good plots

[cbabe]

16. True. She said she wrote during down time on flights.

[Jeebo]

17. I like to read airline disaster novels when I fly.

Usually on flights to Europe or Asia. Domestic flights are too short, not enough time to read a whole novel. John Nance is an airline pilot and has written lots of really good ones. One of David Baldacci's early novels had an absolutely hair-raising plane crash scene. I have read lots of those kinds of novels on planes. Is that weird that I like to read those kinds of novels while on planes and in airports? Just one of my idiosyncrasies, I suppose.

I bought a first-edition copy of Falling a few years ago just before I thought I was going to fly, so I would have something to read on the plane. I ended up never going on that trip because I was in my early 70s then and, long story short, I'm just too old and feeble to be able to take those 10- or 12-hour flights any more. Because I didn't go on that flight, I never read that novel. I had low expectations of it when I bought it and probably never would have read it. But now, reading y'all's comments, it sounds like that novel is probably quite a bit better than the low expectations of it that I had when I bought it. I might read it after I finish the novel I'm reading now, which is ...

2001, A Space Odyssey. That one, of course, is about a different kind of flying, and a different kind of disaster. I read 2001 in high school, and then saw the movie in 1968. That was the only time I've ever read that novel, but I've seen that great science fiction movie a couple dozen times since then. I think 2001 is one of the best science fictions movies ever. It should have won best picture, in fact. It's WAY better than the movie that won best picture that year. When TCM showed 2001 recently, I watched it for the umpteenth time. I can't NOT watch that great movie when it comes on somewhere. So I'm way overdue for another reading of that novel.

-- Ron

[hermetic]

19. II just fiinished listening

to Falling. I think you will like it.

[rsdsharp]

18. I read Clive Cussler The Iron Storm by Jack du Brul.

Van Dorn lead detective Isaac Bell observes WWI for President Wilson, and becomes involved with anarchists.

I used to read a lot of Cussler decades ago, but Dirk Pitt basically became a cartoon super hero. I got back into him with the Isaac Bell and Fargo series. Cussler has been gone for five years, but Isaac Bell seems to be in danger of crossing the same line as Dirk Pitt.

I just downloaded Dan Brown’s The Secret of Secrets.

[hermetic]

20. The new one

It's big. 700+ pages.

"..a propulsive, twisty, thought-provoking masterpiece that will entertain readers as only Dan Brown can do."

Do let us know what you think of it.