What We’re Reading This Week

Robyn

Pure by Andrew Miller

“This book is great. It’s set in late 1700’s Paris. There’s a really old cemetery called Les Innocents that’s poisoning the water and air in the neighborhood. 50,000 people who died in the Plague were buried there. An engineer from Normandy is contracted to excavate and get rid of the whole thing. It’s gruesome and kind of creepy. Eating food from that area can give you ulcers on the top of your mouth. I haven’t read a gruesome books since the George R. R. Martin stuff. It was time. I started it the day before yesterday and I’m already over a third of the way through. It’s really good”

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Merrilee

Same Sun Here by Neela Vaswani & Silas House

“The way this book is written is really cool. It’s letters back and forth between two pen pals, a boy and a girl. Silas House writes the boy’s letters. He lives in Kentucky. The girl is an Indian immigrant living in New York City. Her letters are written by Neela Vaswani. The two kids have their differences, of course, but also a lot in common. For instance both of their dads have to travel somewhere else to work because there are no jobs for them nearby. The boy lives in a mining part of Kentucky where there’s mountain top removal going on. The girl’s teacher in New York City is all up in arms about the mountain top removal, so I think that’s going to come together at some point. Silas House does the rural Appalachian thing really well. His previous book, Eli the Good, is also about a rural Kentucky family. He’s why I picked up the book. That and the awesome cover.”

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Kester

A Fan’s Notes by Frederick Exley

“I absolutely love this. Sort of stunned by how much I’m enjoying it. It’s sort of like Kurt Vonnegut but not so Sci Fi, more grounded. It’s a little bit Richard Ford, too. It gets that ’60s existential angst really well. It’s really funny and really sad. Makes me feel like I’d like to sit down with the author.”

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Scott

Amarillo by Bill Durham

“This is a fun mix of an Elmore Leonard-style crime novel with legal thriller elements, and with a really fun Texas twist thrown in. Durham is one of the guys on MysteryPeople’s upcoming panel of Lone Star crime fiction authors.”

Black Orchid Blues by Persia Walker

“I’m re-reading this for the Hard Word Book Club meeting when Persia’s calling in. It’s a really exciting mystery set during the Harlem Renaissance. Walker has skills like Hillerman and Moseley, looking at sociological aspects of her characters and their time period while also writing gun fights that could rival Mickey Spillane.”

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Joe

The Violinist’s Thumb by Sam Kean

“This is very interesting. It’s not quite exactly what I expected it to be. I expected it to be more about weird, crazy facts about DNA and genetics, but so far it’s reading more like a history of the discovery of DNA. It focuses on the personalities of people involved, with weird crazy facts that spice it up. I’m really enjoying this book. Like his previous book, The Disappearing Spoon, there’s a lot to learn and it’s a fun read.”