What are you reading this week? Or, what book are you listening to? I’ve taken a page out of Jeff’s book. I’m reading an anthology, Snowdrift and Other Stories by Georgette Heyer. It includes three recently discovered short stories. I always loved Heyer’s Regency romances. The stories are in the same vein, although, naturally, she doesn’t have as much time to develop the characters and their relationships. That means I’m enjoying the discovery of some of her stories, but I’m missing that development. I still love her humor, though!
What are you reading this week? Let’s talk about your books.
Lesa, I have not read Georgette Heyer in over 20 years, but it's good to know there is a new anthology with recently found short stories.
I am currently enjoying IN CAVE DANGER by Kate Dyer-Seeley. Meg Reed writes for Northwest Extreme magazine as an (inept) adventure journalist and it is always hilarious to see what new sport/adventure she gets forced into trying. A very claustrophobic Meg is exploring the lava cave tubes in Bend, Oregon when the group finds a body inside the caves.
And I will be reading some of the Lefty award nominees that I missed since I will be going to Left Coast Crime in Reno. This week, it is 2 books in the humorous mystery category:
GONE GULL by Donna Andrews
DYING FOR A DIAMOND by Cindy Sample
Happy reading everyone!
I spent many summers reading Georgette Heyer books at my grandmother's house Lesa. Do you remember Elizabeth Seifert? I read those then as well.
This week I finished Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb. It is a novel of WWI written in letters. Overall I liked it a lot. At times I felt like I was reading and not getting any where but by the time I got to the last 165 pages I could not put it down.
Last night I finished Left to Chance by Amy Sue Nathan. Author Amy E. Reichert recommended it on Facebook. It takes place in the small town of Chance, Union County Ohio. I didn't enjoy it as much as she did but it was a quick easy read. I almost felt like I was reading something that will be seen as a Hallmark movie in the near future.
Today I am going to start A Hundred Small Lessons by Ashley Hay. It is an Australian novel. The title intrigued me.
Grace-Donna Andrews is one of my favorite cozy mystery authors.
Happy Thursday everyone!
I didn’t have much time to read this past week. I started DIAL M FOR MOUSSE by Laura Bradford but quit after about 40 pages since I wasn’t enjoying it. I did re-read two books by Bill Crider MURDER MOST FOWL and WINNING CAN BE MURDER. A book about football seemed appropriate with the Super Bowl comming up.
I discovered Georgette Heyer's Regencies when I was in 8th grade. Ace Paperbacks published them for 75 cents each and I scooped them up. (The public library had a grand total of three, as I recall.)….As for current reading, I've just finished Tangerine by Christine Mangan. Publication is 3/2018; I got the ARC at ALA annual. (IMO 9 months out makes it way more than an "advance" copy!) Psychological suspense in the tradition of Patricia Highsmith and Daphne DuMaurier, set in Tangiers in an unspecified past (1960's, I guessed). I didn't like the characters, but the author did not intend them to be likeable — the story was compelling and I had to read to the finish!
I finished reading Drive Thru Murder book 3 by Colleen Mooney. I hope there will be a book 4 soon.
Still reading Into The Water by Paula Hawkins. Not every day and a few chapters at a time.
Bird Watcher by William Shaw.
Reading brings pleasure, enjoy your reading time.
📚📚📚📚📚📚☕️
A lot of people think of Georgette GHeyer and Regency in the same thought without being aware that she also wrote a dozen "Golden Age" mysteries like Christie, Marsh, Sayers, and Allingham. I read some of thrm.
This week, like you, i'm reading an anthology, in my case the huge BIG BOOK OF CHRISTMAS MYSTERIES edited by Otto Penzler. I'm enjoying it a lot so far. Of course, I've ready many of the stories already, though there are many new to me, like John D. MacDonald's noirish "Dead on Christmas Street" and Norvell Page's O. Henry-ish "Crime's Christmas Carol."
I'm also nearly done with a very enjoyable SF book originally published in 1988, Helen R. Wright's A MATTER OF OATHS.
Both are libarry downloads.
It's been a really long time since I read any Heyer books – like since my teens. I've seen that they are available now as e-books and I'm delighted that the older authors' works are showing up that way. It's harder and harder to find print copies.
Oh, I want to read IN CAVE DANGER! I love that series and think I am one more book behind on it. Love the Oregon setting. I'm read Maureen Johnson's new YA mystery, TRULY DEVIOUS. Set in a boarding school in Vermont and with a mystery to solve, I'm enjoying it a lot. And I'm listening to Joy Ellis' first DI Nikki Galena book and liking that very much too.
Variety! Quite a variety of books this week. I'm happy everyone jumped in with their comments. And, thanks for the Georgette Heyer memories. Jeff, I read so many of her Regency romances, but never moved to her mysteries. I don't think my public library had the mysteries when I was in 8th grade or so reading the romances.
I am hooked on a series by Michelle Sagara, and the latest book, Cast in Deception, was released this week. I read in every spare moment I had for a couple days, and now I'll go back and re-read the earlier volumes in the series to see what nuances I missed.
Jeff: I definitely read Georgette Heyer's mysteries at the same time as reading the Golden Age mystery authors you listed.
Sharon: Yes, I love Donna Andrews' books but she has been writing 2 books a year lately so I am a bit behind. I have HOW THE FINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS to read after GONE GULL.
Kay: I also love the different Oregon settings for Kate Dyer-Seeley's books, and would actually like to visit the Newberry Crater National Monument area some day. I have only been to Portland (for Left Coast Crime).
Trisha, I admire people who make the time to go back and reread. I've really only done that with a couple Louise Penny books, and not the entire series.
Grace: Cindy Sample is considered a local author around here, so I've read her entire "Dying" series. I think they're good cozies, even though I've been to Placerville.
This week I read:
Stenson Blues by Freddie Silva, a YA fantasy with no monsters or magic.
The Whimsical Life of Iris Shuester by Emily Hodson, about a woman who has hallucinations, or does she?
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, about Post-Arthurian Britain, and a mist that steals peoples' memories.
The Shattered Blue Line by Patrick A Davis, a mystery set in The Air Force Academy that tries for one too many twists.
The Bad Break by Jill Orr, a cozy set in rural Virginia. It's supposed to be humorous, but I didn't find it so.
Buried Secrets by Joseph Finder, a sort of PI mystery where Nick Heller has to find the kidnapped daughter of one of his billionaire friends.
Lesa, I bought the original edition of Barzun & Taylor's A CATALOGUE OF CRIME in the '70s, and they had reviews of tons of books and authors I didn't know. I remember learning about the Heyers from them.
Glen, I admire your willingness to try any type of book.
Oh, Jeff! Sounds wonderful!
I recently road Joe Ide's follow-up to IQ, titled Righteous. I liked the original enough to read the second in the series, and it was well written, but although I finished it, I found it so depressing that I doubt I'll look for the next one. Interesting characters, but seedy setting.
I've never read anything by Ellie Alexander before, but I tried Death on Tap, the first in a new hardback cozy series of hers. I found the details about brewing fascinating and I liked the story. The fact that the main character had been a foster child seemed random, but perhaps it will be more relevant to future entries in this series–I'll check the next one out.
Death to Begin With is probably (sadly) the last in Bill Crider's Sheriff Dan Rhodes Mysteries, as the author is in hospice care, but I'll be returning to Clearview, Texas, for more wry humor and down-home sheriffing because there are 23 more books in the series!
Rachel Joyce's The Music Shop is sure to be on my "best of 2018" list. I'm going back over it to jot down some of the storyline and the quotable prose (on just about every page!) about music and relationships so I can write a longer review. I enjoyed Joyce's The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry six years ago, but this one resonated with me even more. Stunning!
Margie: There is one last Dan Rhodes book coming after this.
Great to hear, Glen–thanks!
I have had to listen to books lately, so I'm experimenting with different authors using Overdrive through our library. It's been a learning experience, and I've found that I need to have a book that moves fast (nonfiction doesn't work) or I doze off. I listened to The McCone Files by Marcia Muller and tried a "Railway Detective" mystery, Murder on the Brighton Express, by Edward Marston. The short stories by Marcia Muller were interesting. The Railway Detective story was different – what struck me was the role of politics in Britain. In the 1850's, the time setting for this book, only property owners could vote.
Although I appreciate being able to obtain audiobooks easily through the library, I am hopeful that I will be able to return to reading books. Among other things, it's much easier to deal with interruptions with a book. And, because I am pretty much a library user, the book and ebook selections are much broader than what I can get with audio books. I am on a lot of waiting lists.
Margie, It's so interesting to see different reactions to a book. I liked Death on Tap, but was uninterested in the beer details. I'm looking forward to the second book, though.
Nan, I'm sorry you've had to listen to books lately. I hope you're back to reading soon, too. The biggest problem with audio books is the cost. When libraries "rent" books from OverDrive, audio books usually run about $60 or more, especially the bestsellers. Ebooks can be purchased for $15-60, but usually about $25-$30. They still circulate more, so libraries tend to buy more of them at the moment. That can change, but right now, we can get 2 or 3 books for the cost of an audio book.
I'm posting late, Lesa, but I wanted to add what I just finished and started. Last night I finished The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn. I was a bit wary of all the buzz, as sometimes the read doesn't always justify the buzz. But, I was so delighted that in this case, for me anyway, the buzz was right on. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and loved the suspense it brought on. Agoraphobia is a condition that interests me greatly. I haven't personally ever known anyone with it, but an author whose books I love suffered from it. Steff Penny was agoraphobic, but I believe she is somewhat better these days. She wrote the award winning Tenderness of Wolves.
After finishing The Woman in the Window, I picked up a YA book that I had on my TBR table, This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp. It's about a school shooting, telling the story from several students' viewpoints, both inside the shooting area and outside of it. I wasn't intending to read this book right now, but with the shooting that just happened in Kentucky and the other school shootings that the story of it revisited, I think I subconsciously reached for it. It's a disturbing read, but it has definitely got me thinking about what one should and shouldn't do during such a horrific event.
I'm just this minute starting to read UNSUB by Meg Gardiner. I hear it's very scary, so I hope I can make it through without its getting too disturbing for me!