09-02-2014, 05:01 AM | #20641 | |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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09-02-2014, 06:49 AM | #20642 |
Wizard
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Along with The Demon-Haunted World, I'm going to read Persuasion by Jane Austen this month, and Fall Of Giants by Ken Follet for the next three months in a delightfully interactive group read online. I've never juggled books before, and though it's unfamiliar, it's also pleasing.
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09-02-2014, 08:49 AM | #20643 |
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Finished up The Tawny Man Trilogy by Robin Hobb. It was good and it was a mostly satisfying ending except I already know the adventures of Fitz and the Fool continue, haha.
I am going back to Malazan now, just started book 5, Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson. |
09-02-2014, 03:00 PM | #20644 | ||
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But that was then, this is now, educational and cross-cultural foreign language awareness standards have kind of changed, and characters no longer ejaculate* in public with quite so much abandon as they used to. And now I'm kind of wondering how Christie's translators handle the issue, given that apparently she still has the best-selling and most-widely-translated books after the major religious texts and Shakespeare. Everything into the target language for the benefit of the non-francophone† Gentle Reader, or keep a few phrases around for flavour and if they happen to not be understood, well then zut alors! Quote:
And thanks to your comment, I just looked it up and found out that not only is Ellery Queen an actual writer (pseudonymous), but also was an actual detective (fictional). I'd known the former, but not the latter, and your phrasing made me think he'd inserted himself into some of his stories the way that Alfred Hitchcock used to do cameos in his films. Learn something new every day. Anyway, finished Jo Nesbø's The Redbreast, 3rd in the Harry Hole series of dysfunctional Norwegian detective murder mystery/crime thrillers, and the first book in what the title of the omnibus calls "The Oslo Trilogy". I liked this a lot more than The Snowman, not least because it involved a good deal of Norwegian history, and I tend to like to see historical stuff incorporated as means/motive/method for whodunnits, and also because I just don't really care for INSERT SLEUTH TYPE HERE vs psycopathically abnormal serial killer stuff. I have this rather low threshold for certain types of violence, fictional or otherwise, and gore in particular, which is why I don't read/watch most forms of horror. Anyway, this was a much more straightforward hate crimes/potential revenge scheme-thwarting sort of investigation, which made use of the involvement of Norwegian volunteers to the WWII Nazi war effort, as well as the modern day neo-Nazi movement and general racial and anti-immigrant tension in Norway, as well as playing on fears of external foreign terrorism while examining the possibility of domestic terroristic activity. Even though this was published and set circa 2000, those themes are actually pretty topical even now, what with the relatively recent Utøya spree killings which really rattled Norway's view of itself regarding certain undercurrents in its society. Once again, this was really jumpy between all the flashbacks and the present-day stuff. And there was a lot of deliberate narrative misdirection with some hidden mysterious identity attempts, and on a few occasions, the use of identical names/nicknames to try and trick you into thinking that someone/thing was actually someone/thing else. Nesbø's favourite kind of fish must really be the red herring. Despite this attempted obfuscation, I did manage to figure out both of the major people who were responsible for/committing the two intersecting crimes well before Harry did, or even the general only-shown-to-the-reader reveal. But then, he's a semi-dysfunctional borderline alcoholic with a lot of distractions in his life and I do have the benefit of being able to read even the purposefully mysterious hint-dropping-only segments of the primary criminal's internal reminisce. Overall, this tied together a lot better, I think. One of the things which I thought was just a tangential introductory point to set up Harry's current situation and explain what he was doing in a particular position actually turned out to be quite thematically resonant with the case. Although I still think it's kind of overly coincidental the level of surprise personal involvement with his cases that he seems to be getting so far. And a rather major loose end which I was expecting to see tied up (there were hints that it kind of would be) actually didn't, which I appreciate because you don't always get to wrap up everything neatly at the end, and I've started on the 4th book, Nemesis, to see if they return to investigating it, since I rather liked one of the characters who was affected by that and would like to see them get some form of justice. Medium-firm recommend. I quite enjoyed this, mainly for the nifty Norwegian history/current culture bits, and there was an actual mystery to try to figure out, in terms of identity and what happened back then, if not what's going to happen now, as well as the obligatory race-against-the-clock can-we-stop-the-attempted-final-crime-in-time thriller portion. * Well, maybe in the porno parody version. But that's generally a more non-conversational variety of intercourse than used to be societally acceptable. † French translators tend to handle this sort of thing by doing footnotes with N.d.T. (note from the translator), with an explanatory gloss in the bottom margin should you need it. Last edited by ATDrake; 09-02-2014 at 03:33 PM. Reason: The squeamishness is visual, too. Clearly I'm a "see no evil" kind of monkey, because I certainly speak and hear it. |
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09-02-2014, 03:03 PM | #20645 | |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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Now for Citadel by John Ringo. I bought this in July from Kobo using a good discount code. The second in his "Troy Rising" series, about a hostile alien invasion of the Solar System. I seem to have liked the first, although it is four and a half years since I read it so I don't remember much about it. But it looks like the second eases us into the situation. |
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09-02-2014, 04:28 PM | #20646 |
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Finished Murder Must Advertise, and then finished The Late Scholar, a Jill Patton Walsh Lord Peter book. Which I quite enjoyed. Next up is Forbidden Fruit, #5 in the Corinna Chapman series from Kerry Greenwood.
Oh, you are so lucky. You have some real fun in front of you. |
09-02-2014, 06:53 PM | #20647 | |
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Next up is a complete change of scenery from the American southwest to the extreme north of Canada, Arctic Wargame by Ethan Jones the first in his Justin Hall series. I picked this up as a freebie almost 2 years ago during my "get anything that looks remotely interesting and is free" phase, my TBR list still hasn't recovered but I am working on it slowly, and it has been near the top of my TBR pile waiting for me to be in the right mood ever since. |
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09-02-2014, 08:37 PM | #20648 | ||
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I'm looking forward to starting them |
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09-03-2014, 12:11 AM | #20649 | |||
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Currently reading...
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Now on to Dead Game (Ed Noon #3) by Michael Avallone. |
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09-03-2014, 02:03 AM | #20650 | |
Wizard
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09-03-2014, 02:10 AM | #20651 | |
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09-03-2014, 09:49 AM | #20652 |
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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Last edited by Gazella; 09-04-2014 at 08:01 AM. |
09-03-2014, 10:08 AM | #20653 | |
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09-03-2014, 11:03 AM | #20654 |
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Just finished Fires of London (Francis Bacon #1) by Janice Law, a solid mystery set in London during the Blitz. It is a re-imagining of the real artist's life if he were set to solving murders. Law writes so well that I immediately purchased the second in the series.
I've discovered some wonderful writers while trying to find eligible books for those high value Kobo contest codes. |
09-03-2014, 12:50 PM | #20655 |
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IMHO, reading Phryne Fisher books are best done at least roughly in sequence, since characters develop over time. But you're right, probably not for everyone. They are witty, fun, are set in a time and place that I know nothing about, and have strong female characters. So a very good fit for me. But no book is a good fit for everyone.
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