What Fiction are you reading this week, November 30, 2025?

[hermetic]

Armchair Books: Edinburgh Scotland's family-run secondhand and antiquarian bookshop, nominated among the most beautiful bookstores in the world.


Still reading The Black Wolf by Louise Penny. It's long and intense. And complicated.

I listened to The Store by James Patterson, from 2017. Great story. Jacob and Megan Brandeis have gotten jobs with the mega-successful, ultra-secretive Store. Seems perfect. Seems safe. But their lives are about to become anything but perfect, anything but safe.

Now listening to Rock Paper Scissors, by Alice Feeney. An exciting domestic thriller from the queen of the killer twist, Alice Feeney. Think you know the person you married? Think again…

Wishing everyone a safe December, with lots of good reads. And maybe some snow.

[DemMedic]

1. Just restarted the Dark Tower series from Stephen King

It's been a favorite for decades and I revisit it occasionally.

[cbabe]

2. Coded Justice/Stacey Abrams

AI runs amok.

Lots of dense tech talk. Medical talk.

Not a thriller like the first two Avery titles. More like a pro/con discussion about the use of AI in medicine. Characters flat and static.

Lots of stars but I was bored.

[Biophilic]

3. I've just discovered Carl Hiaasen. Reading his latest, Fever Beach.

I don't laugh aloud at books. Never have. I'm laughing out loud on almost every page. This man's humor and political commentary is perfect as far as I'm concerned. When I get done with this one I'm going back to the beginning, 1986 I think, with Squeeze Me. Yes, he writes about Florida, but it's all too much like the rest of the country at this point. Need a laugh, grab one of his books. He might just be the key to getting me through this political mess we are in.

[hermetic]

4. Excellent

He truly is laugh-out-loud funny.

[yellowdogintexas]

18. 1986 was Tourist Season. Here is a list in publication order These books are so good!!!

I am bookmarking this for myself!! I have read almost all of the fiction - Mr YD and I both love Hiaasen and have all of them except the new one and maybe one or two of the Middle Grade ones. We don't have any of the nonfiction ones or the column collections.

https://carlhiaasen.com/all-books/books-in-order/

By the way, the ones that are "middle grade" are not in the least juvenile and just as much fun.

The books are all standalones, but several of them feature a very unique character. These are the books featuring Skink.

If you can get ahold of a copy, read "Naked Came The Manatee" a serial novel with each chapter contributed by a South Florida author.

[Biophilic]

19. Thanks for information. Another friend was raving about Stink. Can't wait to meet him.

[yellowdogintexas]

21. Skink

He is a character like no other.

[Biophilic]

22. Thanks

[mentalsolstice]

5. I just finished "Fever Beach" by Carl Hiaasen

Wickedly funny! I just started Buckeye by Patrick Ryan. It looks like another good one.

Have a great week everyone!

[hermetic]

6. Yeah, that sounds good:

BUCKEYE
“A glorious sweep of a novel.” -- Ann Patchett
“Captivating.” -- The New York Times Book Review
“A once-in-a-decade novel . . . I fell in love with these characters.” -- Jenna Bush Hager

One town. Two families. A secret that changes everything.

[txwhitedove]

7. New horror: It was a dark and stormy night, but i felt like a

Disney princess snuggled up in the warm bed with my furry friends. Betty Boop, schnauzer with fuzzy radar ears, and Lilith the feisty red and white cat with amber eyes, both in peaceful harmony. We all rose happily with the dawn for coffee and kibbles. Stepping into the living room, I couldn't stop my immediate wail of disbelief, "Ahhhh, WHAT did you do!!?" Note, the question was not "who". BETTY! in her mania for a soft cuddle puddle, all the snuggy blankets weren't enough. She dragged down a big couch back cushion...and unstuffed the white fluff over the room. Time-out in the backyard and no kibbles til grandma calmed down and picked couch pieces off the flloor.

Still reading There There by Tommy Orange. It's a good book, new perspectives.

[hermetic]

9. Oh my

You sure that was Betty? Kind of sounds like a Lilith thing, except for the "big" cushion part.

[Diamond_Dog]

8. "Apostle's Cove"

The latest in the Cork O’Connor series. One of my favorite authors.

[hermetic]

10. On my list

That one sounds really good.

[cbabe]

11. Thanks for the tip. I like the series but missed this one.

[Diamond_Dog]

12. It just came out in September.

I would’ve missed it if I hadn’t gone into to my library for something else…. It was on the New Books display.

[cbabe]

13. I get some good books that way also. I try to

go through my author list every six months or so to check what’s new.

Cheers.

[Bayard]

14. Finished, T.J. Newman's, "Falling"

Highly recommend, couldn't put it down. Pilot kidnaps airplane pilot's family, and says he'll kill them if the pilot doesn't crash the plane. They are supposed to be making a movie of it.

Now in Tony Hillerman mode. Finished, "The Blessing Way," and most of the way through, "Dance Hall of the Dead," with, "Listening Woman," coming next. The famous Lt. Leaphorn at work.

"The Store," by James Patterson, sounds very much like the book by the same name, by Bentley Little.

[hermetic]

15. I looked that one up

It does sound quite similar. In this later one though, Jacob is writing a tell-all book about the Store. And the ending has a big twist, which surprised me. Interesting to ponder how writers might share, or not, ideas and plots.

I didn't know they were making a movie of The Falling. Such a great story, how could they not?

[Bayard]

16. There was a release in June 2010

This film was released on VOD/digital on February 5, 2021. It is a separate project from T.J. Newman's novel and is available to watch on platforms like Amazon Prime Video.
But, no major movie adaptation.

Looks like they are making one of, "Drowning."

[yellowdogintexas]

17. I just started Sisters of the Mist by Eric Wilder

It is #6 in his French Quarter Series.

Amazon description: Paranormal investigator Wyatt Thomas treks into the dangerous Honey Island Swamp in search of a forbidden convent where all the sisters are vampires
When French Quarter detective Wyatt Thomas is awakened from a dark dream by his cat Kisses, he witnesses an eerie funeral procession from the balcony of his Chartres Street apartment. Riding in the limousine ahead of a hearse is his former lover, Desire Vallee - the first time he’s seen her since she became a nun and entered a convent. Desire’s skin is ashen, her once dark hair now ghostly white. He's left with a single clue.

Is Desire in grave danger, or perhaps already dead? Wyatt puts himself and his fellow travelers in harm's way when he sets out to find the answer. Will he rescue Desire, or die in a strange and dangerous convent that caters to wealthy men's fantasy perversions?

I enjoy Eric WIlder's books. He has several series: Paranormal Cowboy, French Quarter and Oyster Bay. I pick them up whenever they pop up in the bargain emails. I feel as if I am right there in New Orleans with the characters (I have always wanted to visit New Orleans so I am a sucker for anything set there) and he really creates the mood of his stories. Bonus: I love the continuing characters

[MIButterfly]

20. I just got Rock Paper Scissors from the library a couple of hours ago!

I haven't started it yet but I'm looking forward to it. I've been reading her other books and found a couple of the endings kind of weird. Maybe it was just me, but I didn't really get them.
I also got Fatal Flaw by William Lashner. I remember I liked his books a lot but haven't read any of his in years. This one was published in 2003 and I don't remember if I read it already or not. The old Grey mare, she ain't what she used to be.