First Chapter: The Genius Plague by David Walton

First Chapter, First Paragraph is a weekly meme hosted by Bibliophile By the Sea on Tuesdays. Join in by sharing the first paragraph of a book you are reading or plan to read, and linking up on the website.

The Genius Plague by David Walton, publication October 3, 2017 by Pyr

Genre: novel, fantasy, sci-fi

First paragraph:

Prologue

Paul Johns hadn't seen another human being in six days.
He emerged from the Amazon rainforest, tired and sore, but exhilarated, the sudden brightness bringing a smile to his face. The river sparkled, a vast body of water several kilometers across, even this far from its mouth.  

Ahead stood a riverboat station, little more than a few rotting benches and a sign propped against an ancient wooden dock. The sign listed the boat pickup schedule, in Portuguese, Spanish, and English, the words faded and water stained. A dozen or more tourists sat on the benches or milled around nearby, waiting for the boat. Seeing them felt like spotting a rare animal in the brush. Paul's first instinct was to approach quietly, lest he startle them away.

Book description:

In the Amazon jungle, a disease is spreading. To those who survive, it grants enhanced communication, memory, and pattern recognition. But the miracle may be the sinister survival mechanism of a fungal organism, manipulating the infected into serving it.

Paul Johns, a mycologist, is convinced the fungal host is the next stage of human evolution, while his brother Neil, an analyst at the NSA, is committed to its destruction. (publisher)

Based on the beginning and the description, would you keep reading?

It's Monday: What Books Are on Your Desk?

Here's what's new on my desk this week.

Logical Family: A Memoir by Armistead Maupin, October 3, 2017, courtesy of Harper

"A book for any of us, gay or straight, who have had to find our family. Maupin is one of America’s finest storytellers."—Neil Gaiman

A Bold and Dangerous Family: The Remarkable Story of an Italian Mother, Her Two Sons, and Their Fight Against Fascism by Caroline Moorehead

Publication: October 3, 2017, book courtesy of Harper

Genre: non-fiction, historical

Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak, published October 17, 2017

Courtesy of Berkley, fiction

A debut novel about what happens when a family is forced to spend a week together in quarantine over the Christmas holidays...

I finished reading Glass Houses by Louise Penny, another five star read in the remarkable Inspector Gamache mystery series.

I also finished the ebook edition of

Le temps est assassin by French thriller writer, Michel Bussi, and am now reading the Spanish ebook edition of his

Mama no dice la verdad. It's nice to brush up on my languages, with the help of online dictionaries.

What's on your desk this week?

Visit It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date.  Also visit Mailbox Monday.

Book Review: Glass Houses by Louise Penny

Glass Houses: Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #13
by Louise Penny
Publication: August 29, 2017, book courtesy of Minotaur
Genre: mystery, crime novel

Objective rating: 5/5
This is the 13th in the series but it doesn't let you down. It's so good that the book is hard to stop reading, and it gets better toward the end. The people of Three Pines pull you into their little world, as usual, but when criminal events begin to encroach into the lives of the secluded village where Chief Superintendent Gamache of Quebec and his wife Reine-Marie live, the sparks really begin to fly. 

There is an unknown person in a Death costume standing on the village green for three days or so, who doesn't speak or tell anyone in the village why he is there. He appears threatening, and the villagers become uncomfortable with his presence there. Later on there is a murder, and suspects begin to surface among the visitors and newcomers to the village. 

I won't give the plot away, but it's suspenseful and takes you where you least expect; the characters are as entertaining and as colorful as in the previous twelve books; the Chief Superintendent and his second in command, Beauvoir, hold your interest as they plan to take down dangerous criminals that threaten their province and personal lives.

I really enjoyed this and think its one of the best in the series. It can be read as a stand alone book, of course, for those who have not read others in the series. Highly recommended for mystery lovers. 

Meme: Welcome to the Sunday Salon. Also visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. 

The Resurrector by Layton Green: Book Beginning

The Resurrector, author Layton Green
Published June 29, 2017
Genre: thriller, fantasy
A Dominic Gray novel, #6

Book beginning:

KHAYALANGA TOWNSHIP WESTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICAPresent Day
The light of a full moon illuminated the couple huddled around a rusty oil drum in the center of the township. The trash fire in the barrel doubled as a source of warmth and as an oven for roasting corn.Behind them was the storage container they called home. A good space. Unlike most of the neighboring shacks, it had a metal roof instead of tarpaper. More resistant to wind and floods. Just beyond the township lay the gentle swells of wine country. Golden fields and sprawling manors steeped in the wealth of the old Boer families. The inequalities of life in the Western Cape used to  motivate the couple, inspire nightly political discussions with their neighbors while quaffing sour umqombothi beer, but they no longer cared for such things. 

Page 56: 

Solomon had drawn a single face for the sketch artists, the only person he could identify from his captivity. 

Book description:
A modern day Dr. Frankenstein, probing the secrets of life and death. Two men racing against the clock to stop the spread of a horrific virus. As the victims mount..., the world's only hope rests in the hands of Professor Viktor Radek and Dominic Grey, a broken warrior and a relentless professor, facing the darkest of forces.

I'm definitely intrigued by the beginning and the setting of this one, having read other suspense/thriller/fantasy novels by Layton Green. 

Memes: The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

Review: Little Fires Everywhere, a novel by Celeste Ng

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, published September 12, 2017, review copy thanks to Penguin Press
Genre: literary fiction
Objective rating: 5/5

This is a story not only about Chinese-Americans but about adoptions, infertility, mother-daughter relationships, and teen angst.  Set in an affluent suburb of Cleveland, Mia and her daughter Pearl arrive and hope this time this is a place they can stay after years of wandering around the U.S.

But the adoption of an abandoned Chinese infant by an American family brings conflict to the town and involves Mia and her daughter. What happens when the mother of the child appears and wants her baby returned?

I loved that the book involved so many different issues and themes. The characters are complex yet believable and the plot very revealing of human nature.

I highly recommend this novel for those interested in the above themes and those who enjoy good literary fiction.

Sunday Salon: The Leavers by Lisa Ko

I am juggling ebooks and books right now, going from one to the other, from Kindle and Nook to the paper book. Too many books that are hard to ignore.
A Taste of Paris: A History of the Parisian Love Affair with Food by David Downie
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The temps est assassin by Michel Bussi, in French

I finished reading

The Leavers by Lisa Ko, May 2, 2017

My comments: An interesting story with a theme about immigrants who come and go,  in New York and China, and leave parts of their families behind in each case. Deming is raised by American foster parents after his mother disappeared from his life. What will he choose later in life - the American or the Chinese parents he was to eager to reunite with, both or neither? 

I found young Deming contradictory at times, but maybe that is the way the author wanted him to be.



New books include
The Templar Brotherhood by James Becker, October 3, 2017, courtesy of Berkley
Ghost on the Case by Carolyn Hart, October 3, 2017, courtesy of Berkley
A Room with a Brew by Joyce Tremel, courtesy of Berkley
Perfectly Undone by Jamie Raintree, courtesy of Graydon House

What are you reading this end of summer?

Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also visit It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date Also visit Mailbox Monday.

Book Tour: Whispers of Warning by Jessica Estevao

Whispers of Warning: A Change of Fortune Mystery #2 by Jessica Estevao
Publication September 19, 2017, courtesy of Berkley
Objective rating: 4.5/5
This is the second novel in the Change of Fortune series, but it can be read as a stand-alone work, as most books in series can.  

Ruby Proulx has traveled to a seaside hotel owned by her aunt Honoria, in order to help out and also contribute as a psychic medium for guests. The hotel is visited by psychics and others interested in the supernatural, and part of the hotel's draw is its reputation for readings and other metaphysical events.  A well known spiritualist and suffragette, Sophronia, comes to the hotel for an extended stay and mentors Ruby in her art. However, when a murder occurs nearby, Ruby finds herself helping solve the mystery and its connection to her aunt's hotel.

The motive for the murder is one that is common in mysteries, especially earlier ones, but also in this one. Could it be fear of loss of reputation? I hope that tidbit doesn't give too much away. But the question of true motive remains a mystery as you read along. 

I enjoyed this unusual book's setting - the era of women's fight for voting and other rights - and I like that the supernatural aspects of the plot are not overwhelming. I am planning to read the first in the series, Whispers Beyond the Veil. 

Book beginning:

The atmosphere of the suffrage rally had far more in common with a medicine show performance than the attendants would likely have enjoyed hearing. In my experience, crowds of people composed of some filled with hope and other with scepticism, create the same impression, no matter the subject of the gathering. Even the setting was similar.... I felt oddly at home and deeply uncomfortable all at the same time.

Page 56:

Heavy velvet draperies hung alongside the long, mullioned windows. The wallpaper provided diners with a sense that they were seated in a fairy-tale aviary.  

Memes: The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.