I've been bombing out on my random picks from the library So he's always great! And I picked up the John Updike short stories collection again. The best short story writer ever!

Enjoy!

‘The Last Widow’ by Karin Slaughter. Recommended by Lee Child in a guardian article. First book I’ve read by her.

Slightly slow start then becomes a page turner thriller. Some humor, mostly dark.

The plot is ‘ripped from the headlines’: white evangelical supremacists, pedophiles, domestic terror plot.

And ‘Run Rose Ron’ by Dolly Parton and James Patterson. Love Dolly so probably will power through. But characters are thin two dimensional characters, almost racist southern stereotypes. A mammy/maid/cook. Really?

sounds really good. Bunches of 5 star reviews. An "electrifying and all too plausible thriller."

The other one, sadly, isn't as popular. You'd expect more from that team. Maybe it will redeem itself by the end?

Thanks for sharing.

A waitress marries a millionaire. It's started well. Earlier in the week I finished "Slam the Big Door" by John D. MacDonald - a stand-alone rather than one of the Travis McGee series. Very good indeed.

I have spent most of the week singing along to this (VERY NSFW)

This country is non-stop jingoistic crap

Helen Hawthorne had a high-finance job, a beautiful home, and a caring husband—or so she thought until she caught him sleeping with their neighbor. But after their divorce, the judge decided that Helen had to pay alimony—and Helen figured the only way to keep her dignity would be to refuse to pay and run for it. Now hiding out in Fort Lauderdale, Helen is working as a sales clerk at a high-fashion boutique. But keeping out of trouble proves difficult when the boutique’s manager turns up dead. In desperate need of cash, Helen decides to try and find out who killed the woman for an offered reward. (This is from the first book) I am currently reading the 9th book in the series.

Her jobs are all very different and yep there is a murder at each one of them. Light reading. lots of fun and the permanent characters are great. This series is set in Ft Lauderdale.

I am also reading "The Sea Turtle Did It" by Kay Dew Shostak
Second in a series, starting with "The Manatee Did It". These liner notes describing the series are from "The Manatee Did it" ... Jewel Mantelle has never lived in the South, much less on the coast, so moving from Chicagoland to the historic North Florida coastal town of Sophia Island seems like just the adventure to fix her marriage. However, when she arrives she finds that it’s awfully hot and humid there and that these Southern folks really like to hug.

Her husband’s past on the island includes a creaky old house in the historic district and lots of nosy relatives he’d forgotten to mention. When one of the Mantelle cousins turns up dead, Jewel needs something she’s never really had before—friends. As her lunch bunch puts on their detective caps to get to the bottom of this murder, Jewel discovers that she may get more than she bargained for out of Sophia Island.

Liner notes from The Sea Turtle Did It: False crawl? Nesting season? Turtle monitors? Jewel Mantelle is just beginning to get used to the humidity in her new Southern home on Sophia Island when Turtle Season opens way too early. At least it's too early according to her friends with Turtle Trackers. Is it a true Sea Turtle nest found on a stormy April morning? Not likely when a body is eventually discovered buried where the eggs should be. When the body is found to have close ties to one of Jewel's new friends, the lunch group starts trying to figure out what happened.

I really enjoy the info you provide for your books! You always make me want to read more.

especially at setting the scene for the series.

I love light cozies.

Set in western NC, Nora is a bookseller who focuses upon healing people with books. There is also a magical bakery & other delights in this town.

Cozy mysteries & delightful reading!

Nora has been badly burned in an accident, her "secret..."

Great reads!

Written by Ellery Adams, perfect for readers who love a A Bookish Cook-Off with a little murder on the side…

“Readers will find themselves wanting to live in Storyton, no matter how many people end up dead there.”
Now there's a recommendation hard to resist. Thanks!!

Nora & her 3 lady friends make all sorts of overtures to help heal others.

I used to live in Asheville & miss it terribly, so it's a bit of a comfort read for me. 👍

Questioning the history of Richard III - did he really murder these princes in the Tower?

Several weeks ago I read Elizabeth Peters' The Murders of Richard III and you told me about the Tey book covering the same topic.

Peters' is a newer one and was easier to read, except the few paragraphs detailing the relationships between the royals of that period with so many Edwards and Richards and Elizabeths..

Tey is not an easy writer so it took me longer to get into the story. Inspector Grant is in a hospital lying on his back bored to tears. When he finds a picture of the famous (and only one) portrait of Richard III he is surprised, as he appears more of a judge or a soldier, not as a villainous murderer. Thus, he embarks on studying what really happened more than 500 years ago and finds interesting details.

Several weeks ago PBS had a program to study the same question and arrived at its own conclusion.

Will see.

Recently, there was a thread ln the Lounge, I think, asking whether people still read "physical" books and many, myself included, said yes.

In this book, especially, there is a chart in the beginning detailing the relationships between all the Edwards and Richards and Henrys and Elizabeths so it is easy to flip back - which I have done often - to get the picture.

Hope you enjoy it. I will agree that it is not always an easy book to get through. I'm sorry I didn't know about that PBS show. I would like to see it. Maybe I can find it in rerun somewhere.

I just watched it and thought it was terrific. I loved seeing all those places and especially Westminster Abbey. I believe they should be allowed to do DNA tests on those remains. Inquiring minds want to know!

I really appreciate your posting that for me. If anyone else wants to watch it you have until 6/12.

Just began Paul Auster's 4321 at the end of last month. It's easy to get into, what with the prose flowing so well, and I'm glad I feel I am in, because it is a long book. I remember Auster mentioning somewhere that he wrote the book in a short, concentrated burst--that once he got to writing this one, the writing just happened. If I'm not wrong, i think he said he wrote it in a year, more or less. Which is quite phenomenal.

Other than that, I'm just doing some very simple and basic readings on formal logic. Currently reading about transductive reasoning, which is a new term for me. After 4321, I'm looking forward to re-reading Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh.

Welcome to DU, to the Fiction Group anyway.

Author Auster is "a postmodern fabulator who grounds his odd and challenging fictions in conventional and accessible narrative structures. 4321 is his greatest, most heartbreaking and satisfying novel―a sweeping and surprising story of birthright and possibility, of love and of life itself." Inventive and dexterously constructed. Sounds quite impressive.