What Fiction are you reading this week, November 9, 2025?

[hermetic]

This discussion thread is pinned.

I listened to Anima Rising by Christopher Moore, “A brilliant amalgamation of history, literature, horror, humor and humanity." Basically, it's about life and art. Which makes it a good companion piece to the book I'm still reading, My Friends, by Fredrik Backman, which is also about art, and life. Almost at the end of this book, my next read will be I Inherited a Mixed Animal from Uncle Living in Woods, The DU-inspired novel by Richard Martin. Looking forward to it.

Now I'm listening to Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix, "a searing, completely original novel." That it is. I love this line: "I'm not a witch; I'm a librarian." Wayward girls in the 1970s are sent to an old house in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, then give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Happy Veterans Day Tuesday, in gratitude to all who have served.

[txwhitedove]

1. A grateful salute to all who served. Now put Withcraft for Wayward Girls on my TBR list.

The Displacements by Bruce Holsinger, is a great read, loved it, Highly recommend. Great characters and story of events leading to, during, and aftermath of a Cat 6 Hurricane, entirely too likely. All the feels, goodies, baddies, information, contrition, redemption. There's a game in this that the kids play, never got all the rules, but sure wanted to play!

Reading There There, author Tommy Orange, best seller. "As we learn the reasons that each person is attending the Big Oakland Powwow - some generous, some fearful, some joyful, some violent - momentum builds toward a shocking yet inevitable conclusion that changes everything. Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life back together after his uncle's death and has come to work at the powwow to honor his uncle's memory. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil, who has taught himself traditional Indian dance through YouTube videos and will perform in public for the very first time. There will be glorious communion, and a spectacle of sacred tradition and pageantry. And there will be sacrifice, and heroism, and loss."

[cbabe]

2. An eclectic list. Can't wait to dig in. I read

a book recommended by a du’er on a different forum.

Prophet’s Song by Paul Lynch

Booker Prize, 2023

Tyranny and the secret police and urban warfare. Dystopia in Ireland.

‘… devastating vision of societal collapse and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together.’

Parallels to our current state make it intense and terrifying.

Mesmerizing prose.

‘You remember why fiction matters.’

If the news isn’t enough, read this book.

[mentalsolstice]

3. I just started "As Bright as Heaven" by Susan Meissner

It’s about a family who has moved from a farm in Quakertown to an undertaker’s business and funeral home in Philadelphia in 1918 months before WWI and the Spanish flu pandemic.

Happy Veterans Day and salute!

[EverHopeful]

4. Just finished The Black Wolf by Louise Penny

But went back and listened to The Gray Wolf because I didn't feel I'd remembered it well enough when I first started The Black Wolf.

Now I'm starting A Christmas Witness by Charles Todd.

[cbabe]

5. Waiting waiting on Black Wolf library hold. No spoilers please.

[mike_c]

6. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

I'm in the last bits. Taking a break from Winston Churchill and WW2. It's been readable. Not sure whether it's worth the hype, but I'm not finished yet.

[hermetic]

7. Her first novel

From 1992. She's only written 4 so far. Evidently she spends many years working on them and is working on one now. I read her Goldfinch which won the Pulitzer for fiction but it was many years ago and I don't remember it. Hope it works out for you in the end.

Edit to add: Backman mentions her in the book I'm reading now. Thought that was an interesting coincidence.

[rsdsharp]

8. I tried Goldfinch. I really did. I couldn't get through it.

Maybe I don’t have the requisite level of sophistication. I watched the movie, and couldn’t get excited about that, either.

[hermetic]

10. I read that the movie

was basically a flop. Tartt didn't write the screenplay or have any input to its production. So, she didn't like it, either.

[rsdsharp]

9. Maybe not fiction; more like make believe.

I read Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, about the making of the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

I followed that up with her Why? Because we Still Like You about the Mickey Mouse Club. I was too young when it aired (1955-58), so it was pretty interesting, especially how cut throat Disney was with those kids.

There were three “teams” — Red, White and Blue. Only the Red Team — the ones who did the Roll Call — (Annette, Bobby, Darlene, Tommy, Doreen, Lonnie, Sharon, Cubbie and Karen) survived the first year. All the other kids were summarily fired at the end of the year. And their replacements again the next. That’s hardball with kids ranging from age 8 to 14.

[hermetic]

11. Interesting

I remember the Club. I was 7 - 8 myself. I'm not surprised, knowing what we know now.

Loved the Mary Tyler Moore show.

[Bayard]

12. A big fat book by Tony Hillerman

Its actually 3 separate books, featuring Jim Chee: "People of Darkness," "The Dark Wind," and "The Ghostway." I've just started the last one. Very cozy, sitting in front of the woodstove, with a cup of coffee, as the tempertures drop and we're getting snow flurries.

As an aside, the, "Dark Winds," tv series will continue, despite losing exec producer, Robert Redford. It is excellent.

[yellowdogintexas]

17. We binged the new season of Dark Wind on Netflix this week.

Now we have to wait for the next season. It will start out on AMC and eventually come to Netflix.

That is a really good series.

[Polly Hennessey]

13. Guess I am the only one reading "fluff".

My nighttime Cozy Mystery; this one is by Leslie Meier, Bridal Shower Murder, a Lucy Stone mystery taking place in Tinker’s Cove, Maine. ☺️📖💤

[txwhitedove]

14. Fluff?? Tut tut, I've read my share of fluff, and still flit from mystery to non-fiction to drama and

then more fluff. Already read the whole series of cozy Chet and Bernie mysteries and waiting for the next to come out next year. Read on!

[Polly Hennessey]

15. Read on, for sure. I love my Cozy Mysteries.

They are like a cup of hot chocolate ☕️ before bed. 🥰😴

[hermetic]

16. I love cozies

Have read a great many and am always glad to learn about a new, to me, series. So, thanks.

[yellowdogintexas]

18. Nothing wrong with fluff. Nothing at all. I enjoy fluff immensely. nt