Did you survive the Thanksgiving crash with too much food? I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends – always lots of laughter and great food. Now, I’m ready to talk about books!
I’m reading Con Lehane’s third 42nd Street Library mystery, Murder Off the Page. Raymond Ambler, curator of the crime fiction collection at New York City’s 42nd Street Library, gets involved in another murder investigation when his friend, bartender Brian McNulty, disappears, and then becomes the prime suspect in a death.
Have you had any time to read this week? What are you reading? If you haven’t had reading time, I hope you’re enjoying time spent with family and friends.
I'm reading (and hoping to finish today) Allen Eskens's NOTHING MORE DANGEROUS, which I know was your favorite book of the year. I don't really remember more than the superficial facts about Boady Sanden's previous book appearance as a lawyer, but this is very different. It's a coming of age story, somewhat reminiscent of Stephen King's "The Body" (STAND BY ME) or even more of Robert R. McCammon's BOY'S LIFE. The latter was set in Alabama in 1964, about a 12 year old boy, and involved Civil Rights and the Ku Klux Klan. This is set in Missouri in 1976, with 15 year old Boady having to face some of his own ingrained attitudes as he makes his first black friend and has to deal with a Klan wannabe group. As always, Eskens is worth seeking out and reading.
Also read THE LONG CALL by Ann Cleeves, first in a new series about Insp. Matthew Venn and his team, who must solve the case of a dead man on the beach in North Devon. I'd call it good but not great, but a good set up of a series.
I’m working my way though CRIME TRAVEL, a short story collection edited by Barb Goffman. Each story involves a crime and time travel in some way. They are creative and fun stories.
I read THE BROMANCE BOOK CLUB by Lyssa Kay Adams. It was fun and quick but really rather silly if you thought too much about it. A clever idea and she did a good job with it.
Next I read WHERE THE FOREST MEETS THE STARS by Glendy Vanderah. Oh my this was wonderful. While on a research project documenting the nests of indigo blue buntings Jo encounters a young barefoot girl who claims she is an alien from the Pinwheel Galaxy. I kept trying to figure out where it was going and was more than satisfied with the ending. This will be one of my favorite books of the year.
Now I am reading THE WESTING GAME. My daughter brought it for Thanksgiving because she could not believe I never read it after me telling her about the Tuesday Mooney book.
Happy Reading!
Jeff, I think I mentioned that Allen Eskens said he became a writer to write this book. At Bouchercon, he told me that growing up, he made all those remarks in the book. As an adult, he looked back and said, who the heck was I? I think he was trying to find out who he was. Yes, I loved this book.
I agree that The Long Call is a good set-up for the series.
Oh, I have Crime Travel, Mark. I'll have to find it on my pile. I think it will be entertaining.
Oh, The Bromance Book Club might have been silly, but I just enjoyed it, Sharon. Just what I needed as a break from mysteries.
I actually had plenty of time to read this week since we stayed home for Thanksgiving.
I read BLUE MEDUSA by Trapper Westing. I really enjoyed this one. It’s the first in a series featuring Stella, a girl from a group home who doesn’t deal well with people but who notices everything and is great at solving puzzles, and Charlie, an inept PI in training.
KAZAN by Oliver Curwood which was originally published about 1914. Kazan is a husky wolf mix and it’s about his adventures in the Hudson Bay Area. I hadn’t read this in years but we went to the Lakota Wolf Preserve last week and it made me want to re-read this.
DARK MATTER by Blake Crouch is a novel about parallel universes. A man from one universe forcibly switches places with a man in our universe so he can take over his life. The man who’s been displaced has to try and find his way back to his family through the infinite number of universes. My boyfriend read it and recommended it. I wound up enjoying it.
CHRISTMAS COWBELLS by Mollie Cox Bryan. I was disappointed in this one. I felt the secondary characters weren’t well developed and most of the male characters were antagonistic and condescending unless their wives were present. Also, the editing was poor. The dog went back and forth between being referred to as she and he.
Ouch, Sandy. Don't you hate it when the editing in a book is poor? I can't always blame it on an ARC.
Lesa, this was a finished book so the issues should have been caught.
I totally agree with you, Sandy.
Working on the new Bosch/Ballard book and at the halfway point I am bored out of my mind. How much is me and how much is the book, I don't know. Holidays are really hard so that plays into it on some level. So too does the fact I am a big fan of the author. That is what has kept me in the book slogging away. And it is a real slog.
K
Well, dar, Kevin. I’m sorry. I hate it when a favorite author disappoints, or the mood isn’t right for the book.
I am about 100 pages from the end in LARGE PRINT. Still don't know if it is me or what. I do know that something that has happened to Bosch hits far too close to home. My son read it first and cleared the read for me on that angle. He also was less than impressed overall.
I read:
Two For the Lions by Lyndsey Davis; Apparently I'm going through a phase of reading mysteries set in ancient Rome.
Your Truly, Jack the Ripper; Something of a minor classic, but I didn't think too much of it. Probably because I don't agree with the hypothesis, but I think it recently gathered a whole lot of currency due to Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein.
The Making of the Middle Ages by RW Southern; Fairly good, though British centered in an age where Britain was not in ascendency.
Children of the Dragon by Richard E. Dansky; So-So fantasy.
Schooled by Stephanie Jankowski; A humorous collection of essays by a former teacher. She isn't really a teacher anymore.
The Aikido Aspect by Daniel Linden; Lots of shooting, not much aikido.
There you go. This one just might not have been up to par, Kevin.
I picked Schooled, Glen. None of the others really jump out after your comments.
Just finished it and …..meh. I am not going to review it because in the mental state I am in that is too much work and not fair to the book.
I get it, Kevin. Sometimes, the time isn’t right for a book.
I just finished No Man's Land by Sara Driscoll (Jen J. Danna and Ann Vanderlaan), the 4th book in the F.B.I. K-9 series. This is a great series, with each book featuring a different type of challenge (and murder or murders to solve) for the handlers and their dogs. No Man's Land features urbexing, the activity of exploring abandoned, derelict buildings or structures (such as a Bethlehem Steel or a hospital). The urbexers explore the sites to observe the speed and process of decay, not to damage or disturb the sites. But, when bodies start showing up at some of these sites in this new story, it's time for the F.B.I. to get involved. A great read.
I'm starting the new Erica Donato mystery by Triss Stein, Brooklyn Legacies. It's the fifth in the series and is due out next week. I've learned so much about Brooklyn history from this series. Fascinating.
I did get to a reread from many years ago Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Always good reading for me.
Spent part of yesterday evening and much of today working through the new Longmire, LAND OF WOLVES. I enjoyed it a lot. I am not writing a review for it, But I enjoyed it a lot.
This evening I tried the new Beaumont one by J. A. Jance, Sins of the Fathers, and quickly gave up. She lost the voice of Beaumont a few years back. Add that to the fact that this one reads like her Ali Reynolds stuff and was boring and cliched as heck meant it went back into the library bag. Bummer as I liked that series back when she could write it.
satta king
satta kingBy springtime, this compost will have been taken into the ground by worms,