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Post by Q-pee on Nov 13, 2023 9:38:27 GMT -5
Heron's Cry Anne Cleeves Murder mystery that's a little bit daft, with a very unlikely murderer. Not as good as the Vera series but there was plenty of plot  |
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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 13, 2023 14:51:11 GMT -5
Plot, eh? I seem to remember hearing about that kind of thing ;-)
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Post by scrubb on Nov 13, 2023 22:35:53 GMT -5
I finished Monk's Hood, the 3rd in the 12th century monk detective series by Ellis Peters. Am enjoying them. This one had less of the historical context, though still some, and focused more on the plot.
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Post by scicaro on Nov 14, 2023 1:18:57 GMT -5
Continuing the brainless murder mysteries. I just finished Tell No Tales and am now reading Hear no Evil by J M Dalgliesh, the 5th in the series. They are set in North Norfolk and I got the first one for next to nothing in Kindle.
They're enjoyable and based around places I know from childhood. I'm having fun trying to spot the culprit in each book before the reveal.
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Post by sprite on Nov 15, 2023 4:59:53 GMT -5
How to Sell a Haunted House, Gary Hendrix.
I'm not a horror fan, but I like Hendrix' writing. He is probably one of the best male authors at writing central women characters.
Louise is a successful single mom enjoying her life and work in San Fran's tech world, until her parents die in a terrible car collision. She flies home for the funeral and to take care of her parent's estate, as executor.
Except that she's not--everything is going to her feckless younger brother. His big plan is to have all the contents taken away by a clearance firm, sell the house, and live off the proceeds. This will include getting rid of their mother's massive puppet and doll collection, which neither of them want to keep.
I enjoyed the family dynamics; we start full of sympathy for hardworking, super-responsible Louise, sharing her frustration with charismatic brother Mark, who has spent most of his life demanding attention and money from their parents. But as the events pick up pace, we learn more about their childhood and Mark's year at university that flip the narrative. An older relative provides more family background about their mother's parents to suggest that their 'telling kids Bible stories with my handmade puppets' mom had her own issues.
I was less keen on the horror. Ok, there's something wierd going on with the puppets her mom built, but after the half way point, it just goes on and on and on and on. I skipped the last 100 pages to get to the final showdown and explanation.
If you like horror, it's a great novel. If you don't, it's still good, but feel free to skip chunks.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Nov 15, 2023 7:11:21 GMT -5
81. Wicked Wildlife, Mildred Abbott
Mostly cozy mystery about park rangers in Estes Park.
82. Yarned and dangerous, Sadie Hartwell. Cozy mystery set in a yarn shop in a dying town.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 16, 2023 8:46:24 GMT -5
The Virgin in the Ice, Ellis Peters. Brother Cadfael mysteries are getting me through the 30 hour journey home.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 16, 2023 12:18:46 GMT -5
85) Jonathan Lethem, Brooklyn Crime Novel
The gentrification of Brooklyn. This was told via stories of the kids who lived there at the time; the racial/class dynamic among the different groups of kids, and how that changed as they grew up. I thought it was marvelous, but then I always like Lethem; this is his new one.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 16, 2023 22:29:39 GMT -5
Finished another Brother Cadfael... The Sanctuary Sparrow, by Ellis Peters. Got about 1/3 of the way through another one on the last flight home - will probably take a break from them after I finish it. They are starting to pall a little, though i still am enjoying them.
Although, i put one from earlier in the series on hold, so will likely read it when it's available.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Nov 17, 2023 3:19:35 GMT -5
83. Mrs Polllifax and the HongKong Buddha, Dorothy Gilman. Probably my favourite Mrs Pollifax so far, as it is set in Hong Kong in the 1980$, around the time I visited HongKong and Mainland China.
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Post by sprite on Nov 17, 2023 8:52:45 GMT -5
Finished another Brother Cadfael... The Sanctuary Sparrow, by Ellis Peters. Got about 1/3 of the way through another one on the last flight home - will probably take a break from them after I finish it. They are starting to pall a little, though i still am enjoying them. Although, i put one from earlier in the series on hold, so will likely read it when it's available. I really like them, but yes, too many together makes the formula quite obvious. Elizabeth Peters writes a series of Victorian Egyptian-archeology mysteries which are good fun. Self-deluded proto-feminist heroine runs roughshod over male egos, solves crimes, finds artifacts. Huzzah! |
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Post by scrubb on Nov 17, 2023 16:22:40 GMT -5
Finished another Brother Cadfael... The Sanctuary Sparrow, by Ellis Peters. Got about 1/3 of the way through another one on the last flight home - will probably take a break from them after I finish it. They are starting to pall a little, though i still am enjoying them. Although, i put one from earlier in the series on hold, so will likely read it when it's available. I really like them, but yes, too many together makes the formula quite obvious. Elizabeth Peters writes a series of Victorian Egyptian-archeology mysteries which are good fun. Self-deluded proto-feminist heroine runs roughshod over male egos, solves crimes, finds artifacts. Huzzah! Amelia Peabody - I really enjoyed the series. |
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Post by scrubb on Nov 17, 2023 16:25:00 GMT -5
82. Mrs Polllifax and the HongKong Buddha, Dorothy Gilman. Probably my favourite Mrs Pollifax so far, as it is set in Hong Kong in the 1980$, around the time I visited HongKong and Mainland China. I consider that the last of the good ones in the series. A few more of the later ones are ok, but none approach the first half dozen or so, which i really, really like. |
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Post by scrubb on Nov 18, 2023 8:22:06 GMT -5
The Devil's Novice, Ellis Peters. Another Brother Cadfael mystery. This one incorporated historical events well, but the plot line was a bit weak. I will read something different next!
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 19, 2023 20:16:44 GMT -5
86) Sue Burke, Dual Memory
A story of the defense of an island territory from imperialist raiders, alternately told from the perspectives of an artist/fighter and an AI. The really interesting part of it is how the AI organizes all of the computer functions of the island's machines into a coherent force. I see parallels with her "Semiosis" books, in which there's an alien intelligence that takes the form of a plant; she likes to explore these nonhuman intelligences.
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Post by sophie on Nov 19, 2023 20:53:21 GMT -5
Robert Galbraith, The Running Grave. Part of the Cormoran Strike series. I liked this one much more than the previous one (which had pages and pages of text messages as part of the novel). It had many threads going on, all pulled together well near the end, and left me as a satisfied reader. However, it is a heavy big book. It took me most of the weekend to read and possibly hurt my carpal tunnel wrist!
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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 20, 2023 0:57:55 GMT -5
Unusually for me, I was reading 2 books by contemporary American women at the same time - and they both own bookstores!
Louise Erdrich, The Sentence
Scrubb, I saw your comment about this, I won't be scoring it on Goodreads til after my book club discussion on Thursday, but I enjoyed it.
It's a subtle book about a Native American woman known as Tookie who ends up in jail after a ridiculous escapade, and then once she gets out starts working in a Minneapolis bookstore owned by a woman called Louise. (The real Erdrich's store is called Birchbark Books).
It's very contemporary, so if you don't want to read about the events of 2020-2021, it's not for you, but it's also about the weight of history, Native beliefs, social justice, and the love of books.
Ann Patchett, These Precious Days
Have I ever stayed up late reading an essay collection before? I don't think so, but I could not stop reading the titular essay through my tears. Patchett writes with an incredible simplicity and clarity about her father, flying, knitting, book covers, and yes, the pandemic makes an appearance here too. (Patchett also owns Parnassus bookstore in Nashville). I choked up multiple times and sometimes was literally wiping away tears, but in a good way!
I would highly recommend both of these, with the caveat that the Erdrich does not have a strictly linear plot.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 20, 2023 5:53:39 GMT -5
Wow lillie. The Patchett hadn't reached my tbr list yet, but I'll put it there now.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 20, 2023 10:52:18 GMT -5
The Patchett was already on my TBR list, and I'll probably start the Erdich as soon as I finish the book I'm currently reading!
Im a long time fan of both authors, but didn't know that either of them owned bookstores.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 21, 2023 6:25:15 GMT -5
87) Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist
An older Hamid novel that I hadn't gotten to yet. A smart young Pakistani guy gets into Princeton and then lands a coveted job in the financial sector. But then 9/11 happens and the American attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan. The story is told in the first person-- the narrator is telling the story to an American man who remains a shadowy presence until the very end. Very good, of course.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 23, 2023 8:01:48 GMT -5
88) James Hannaham, Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta
Carlotta: a Black trans woman on her first day out in Brooklyn after 20 years in prison. Much of it is near-slapstick craziness as she tries to deal with how much things have changed since she was gone, but there are also harrowing passages about what she endured in prison. The writing is all in the language style of the title, with thoughts that flowed into descriptive passages that reminded me of Saramago's dialogue style. Superb and deeply affecting.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 23, 2023 15:44:20 GMT -5
100) The Typewriter's Tale, by Michiel Heyns
The book is mostly an homage to Henry James. The title character is the "typewriter" - the person trained to take dictation on the new-fangled typewriters - for Henry James. She's introduced as rather intellectual but poor enough that she needs to find a job that earns a living. She imagines that her association with James will bring her into the orbit of literature and writers, etc.; he really just wants someone to put down his exact words without any input or thought at all.
It starts out really well, (and ends reasonably well); the middle half is a lot weaker. The author writes very much in James' style (hence me saying it's an homage to him). The typewriter (Freida) is also working on her own novel, and acknowledges that she is influenced by him so the style in the excerpts that are included in this book are also much like James. Much of the dialogue in the books is James speaking and he speaks as he writes. So really, it's just all written in the same style - very long, dense sentences using language very exactly. It's well done and "literary", for the most part, but it really feels like plot and theme are thin, and subservient to style. I never felt that way reading James' books.
I'm not sorry I read it, but I wouldn't recommend it very highly.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 24, 2023 12:17:34 GMT -5
Heaven, by Mieko Kawakami.
The story is about 2 bullied middle school kids. It's sad and depressing and I can't say I enjoyed it. Also, not sure if it was the translation or if it's just that Japanese novels are often vague, but I found it difficult to understand what one of the 2 main characters was trying to get across most of the time.
Maybe I'm not being fair to this book, but I think I've had my fill of really depressing books about life in Japan. This one was heartbreaking and the tiny little breath of hope at the end wasn't enough to make up for how awful everything else was.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 24, 2023 12:28:39 GMT -5
Oh yeah scrubb - I read another one of hers earlier this year, and it was so depressing that I think it got me to swear off depressing Japanese novels for a while.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 25, 2023 13:52:44 GMT -5
PSA: at least in Canada, Emily St. John Mandel's most recent book, Sea of Tranquility, is on sale for kindle for $2.99
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Nov 25, 2023 22:47:12 GMT -5
84. Malevolent Magic, Mildred Abbott. Cozy mystery in which the victim was a particularly useless individual.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 27, 2023 11:44:07 GMT -5
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future, by Elizabeth Kolbert.
By the author of "The Sixth Extinction" which several here have read. It's an even more depressing book, but very worth reading. The overall message is that it's too late. Cutting emissions dramatically is not going to be enough - and that's just not happening anyway. Humans are pretty much going to have to figure out other coping strategies too - big, huge projects to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, or block the sun from hitting us, or SOMETHING. And she points out that there are always unintended consequences, and that things like this are trying to fix the unintended consequences of the last big changes we made...
She makes the point that most writers try to end their books optimistically - with a message that the reader can still help. "Here's a path we can follow; here's something we can all do" sort of thing. And goes on to say that she can't close her book that way because it's too late for that.
The only "positive" aspect of this book is that she's showing there are already a lot of people out there looking at the big possibilities and trying to figure out how they would work. They mostly think we still have about 30 years before something will have to be tried, and are trying to use that time as best as possible in preparation.
the white sky of the title is in relation to one possibility, which is putting a bunch of particulate into the atmosphere to form a protective layer between the sun and the earth (kind of like what huge volcanic explosions do). It would turn the sky white.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 27, 2023 15:44:41 GMT -5
Yup, that’s basically what I got from that book too, and I don’t disagree, sadly.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 27, 2023 16:47:01 GMT -5
I decided to read a more upbeat non-fiction book next... am into "The Secret Lives of Bats". I'm sure it won't be all upbeat, given the issues they face too, but for now I'm enjoying his caving descriptions, and the run-ins with moonshiners, etc.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 29, 2023 6:11:53 GMT -5
89) Katherine Kurtz, Lammas Night
I was at a used bookstore with Spawn, who pulled this book off the shelf and said "oh you have to read this," so as a loving parent I brought it home and now have finally gotten to it. I didn't have high hopes for it, but actually it was pretty engrossing!
There are tales that Sir Francis Drake got the witches of England together to get a great wind to destroy the Spanish Armada. Now it's 1940, and based on that idea, a coven devises a plan to get all of the various magical religious practioners of England to do the same against an invasion from Germany. I know a bit about this kind of stuff, and can say that she certainly did her research. I didn't expect the ending - I thought that was a brave move for a fantasy novel. It was good
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