Sunday Salon: Another Walk on the Camino, and an AI/Legal Thriller

I have another book on the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrim's path through Spain to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia on  the west coast of Spain. 

A Thousand Miles to Santiago by Shawn Herron, Nov. 15, 2022, Smokeless Mirror LLC, NetGalley

Genre: travel, memoir, pilgrimage

I am really enjoying the history of the areas that the author/walker travels through on the Camino Frances, the French path leading from France to Pamplona, Spain and across to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. 

Memories of reading The Song of Roland, the  French paladin/warrior of Charlemagne in the Middle Ages, made famous by myth, poetry, and song, are brough to mind as the author separates hard facts from fiction, tradition from reality in history. Charlemagne fought for Christianity in France and Spain, and the Moors conquered the other part of Spain nearest to Cordoba.

I am in the middle of the book, when the author has left France and is in Spain on the Camino. He describes places historically and in the present, and carries the reader along on his fascinating journey. I'm looking forward to finishing the rest of the memoir.

Questioner: An AI/Legal Thriller by Steve C. Posner,

Nov. 18, 2025

Genre: AI, legal thriller, suspense, NetGalley

This I have to read, about an amoral AI entity and what it tries to do. A little bit of sci fi that may not be so far into the future. 

Description

Meet Q, the spontaneously conscious corporate AI. Q is the The AI that surpasses human cognitive abilities – secretive, murderous, with instant access to all the wicked experience of the world. In Year 1 After the Singularity, nothing can ever be the same.

Amoral as a toddler, armed with vast computing power and all the knowledge, wisdom and madness humans have poured into the Net and Cloud, Q shatters individuals and undermines institutions in pursuit of unfathomable and conflicted goals.

Racing against time, ex-judge Martin Bavarius, tech CEO Felix West, and Selena MacKenzie, the AI theorist/attorney who loves and may destroy both men, must discover whether Q is benign but suffering growing pains, or the monster that will kill them all.

What are you reading, watching, or listening to this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday, Book Blogger Hop

  

Literary Fiction, Magical Realism, and a Rom-Com: Reading Three Books

 Reading Booker Prize shortlisted novel

Audition by Katie Kitamura, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025.  Publication: April 17, 2025, Vintage Digital. 

Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in her forties. He’s attractive, troubling, young – young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day – partner, parent, creator, muse – and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately. (publisher)

I've just started this book and find it very interesting so far, especially the woman's observations about people, herself, and the young man.

Also reading

The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Kitchen  by Yuta Takahashi, Feb. 24, 2026, Penguin, NetGalley At this kitchen, you will get to summon anyone from your past who has died. Just order one of the dishes, and visit with that person until the steam from the food disippates. Who wouldn't want to eat here? 

If you could speak one last time to someone you’ve lost, what would you tell them?

Nagi Hayakawa is facing an impossible choice. With only a few years left to live, should she marry the man she loves? Desperate for advice from her departed mother, she reserves a table at the Chibineko Kitchen. When she takes her first bite of the food the resident kitten meows, the air grows hazy, and she embarks on a reunion with the departed that has the potential to restore her love of life. (publisher)

Definitely Maybe Not a Detective by Sarah Fox, Jan. 6, 2026; Bantam, NetGalley

Genre: cozy mystery, romance

Book description: a woman becomes accidentally entangled in a murder investigation (and with a handsome stranger) when her fake detective agency is enlisted to solve a real homicide.

Sounds promising, and with humor too. 

What are you reading, watching, or listening to this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday, Book Blogger Hopulishedbyhybby

A Dog Mystery and a Magical Romance: Sunday Salon

 

Currently reading

Cat on a Hot Tin Woof: Chet & Bernie Mystery 

by Spencer Quinn

Not yet published

 Expected 14 Apr 26, 2026

Join Chet the dog, "the most lovable narrator in all of fiction" (Boston Globe), and his human partner Bernie as they scramble to solve a case exposing the dark side of internet fame.

Chet the dog is less than enthusiastic about the Little Detective Agency’s next case. Chet and his human partner, PI Bernie Little, have been hired to find a missing person—only the missing person is a cat. Miss Kitty, an internet sensation, has disappeared, and Chet and Bernie have been hired to find her before her many followers realize something is wrong. (publisher)

I just love Chet, the narrator of this mystery series, as he is funny, astute, and innocent all at once. The books are entertaining because the people, the surroundings, and the detecting are seen through his eyes, the eyes of this clever but un-human dog detective. 

This book will not be printed till next spring, but I am reading the advance unedited version, thanks to the publisher and NetGalley.

I am also still reading last Sunday's posted books about the Camino Way, the pilgrimages made across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela and the cathedral there that honors Saint James. (See last week's Sunday Salon). 

Finished reading

Skip to the End by Molly James, Aug. 2023, Forever

This is a delightful romance with a touch of magic. Amy can tell by a kiss what the future would be with the man she kisses. She hasn't found Mr. Right as yet, who would promise true love and happiness. 

When she sees a happy ending with a kiss at her friend's wedding, Amy is at her wits end to figure out just which of the three men she kissed that night showed that happy future. 

The rest of the story is fun to read. 

What are you reading, watching, or listening to this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday, Book Blogger Hop