Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading? - Page 735

poohbear_nc · 10-12-2011, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Hot damn! There's a Perry Mason book available for the Kindle. The Case of the Runaway Corpse by Erle Stanley Gardner. Maybe the copyright owners are testing the waters. This is book #47 of the series of 84. I'd rather they started with The Case of the Velvet Claws, but...

Wait! They have that also! Oh happy day! Mason has come to Kindle!

I'm grabbing all of them - just in case .....

at $5.99 - reasonable.

kennyc · 10-12-2011, 11:20 AM

I do wish they would do bundles of these.

pdurrant · 10-12-2011, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The latest Asimov's SF Magazine, December 2011 by Dell Magazine Authors, which should be more to my taste.

And it was much more to my taste. A very good issue. Excellent Novella "All About Emily", an excellent novelette "Strawberry Birdies", a couple of good novelettes, an excellent short stort story "'Run,' Bakri Says" and another couple of good shorts.

Next: Analog SFF Magazine, December 2011 by Dell Magazine Authors

kennyc · 10-12-2011, 05:22 PM

Thanks for that Paul. I wish I had more time to read the mags you read.

caleb72 · 10-12-2011, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kennyc

Thanks for that Paul. I wish I had more time to read the mags you read.

I wish I had more time to read anything he reads. He's a machine.

kennyc · 10-12-2011, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by caleb72

I wish I had more time to read anything he reads. He's a machine.

Well, yes, yes....

ATDrake · 10-12-2011, 07:53 PM

So having had inclement weather for the past week or so, I put a decent-sized dent in my paid-but-not-read e-book purchases and read #2-10 of Aaron Elkins's Gideon Oliver, Intrepid Globe-Trotting Forensic Anthropologist series.

The books did indeed get better from a promising but not exceptional starter volume, although I think the best stories seem to be at the mid-point of what I've read of the series so far.

It's one of those series you'll either like after the 3rd volume or not, because by then the main cast of characters and their relationships are solidly established, with not much variance in their interactions or personality quirks or even living situations after that and the status quo pretty much remains as it is, for better or worse.

As a matter of fact, you could quite comfortably read almost all the volumes standalone and out of order after a certain point, as there's very little back-reference to previous cases (at least not in a spoilery "remember that time when…?" "yeah, and this is just like that!" sort of way which implies that You Have Missed Out if you don't read them all in the exact order).

Nonetheless, there are some repeated elements you'd think the characters would learn from, after having them literally pounded into their skulls practically every book.

Tip #1) When you are making a forensic investigation related to a suspected homicide and have received an open death threat or other "accidental" close call, it is not a good idea to go out late at night on your own because you just wanted to clear your head. You are likely to get it bashed in, instead.

It is especially not a good idea to keep doing that after it happened in the previous book, and the one before, and the one prior to that, and so forth.

But to be fair, probably the good Dr. Oliver has lost sufficient of what Mr. Poirot terms "the little grey cells" to this that his long-term memory is kind of shot when it comes to remembering these things at an interval of "every year, another dead body".

Tip #2) If you do not lock up the bones you have found immediately under the tightest security, then someone will try to steal them before you are done investigating them, or before you can conclusively demonstrate your findings to the skeptical authoritative persons who need to be convinced of them.

The good Dr. Oliver really ought to learn to not only hide the bones, but also create papier-maché decoys and set up makeshift laboratory traps with nets and hidden cameras so that when the inevitable attempt at theft occurs, they can all have a good point and laugh at the culprit whodunnit live on Candid Camera.

Anyway, generally recommended if you think you'll like moderately fun mysteries heavily reliant on the Your Mileage May Vary charmingly quirky interactions of Moderately Pedantic Enthusiastically Uxorious Intrepid Impromptu Forensic Crime Consultant Slash Action Anthropologist Man™ and chock-full of mini-lectures on How Bones Get Those Marks Which Indicate Cause Of Death When They Haven't Been Stolen Because They Weren't Properly Locked Up.

Best books in the series:

#4 Old Bones won an Edgar award, and deservedly so. A very engaging mystery with lots of twists and turns relating a WWII-era murder to a more modern one and done in a way which ties everything together very nicely.

#5 Curses! is lots of fun, with a self-involved tourist dig at an ancient Maya site and everyone in the party trying to put their own spin on the seeming curse plaguing (and offing) them.

#8 Twenty Blue Devils has an awesome hilarious deadpan opening set up for the suspected murder. Plus we get to find out more about the background of supporting cast member John Lau, Intrepid Globe-Trotting FBI Agent Who Sometimes Calls In Favours. And the shopping list of common household supermarket cleanser products you, too, can use to do impromptu forensic anthropology work under DIY conditions

: is brilliant.

Also quite good:

#3 Murder in the Queen's Armes: a little melodramatic with the chase over the moors and such, but a clever setup and unfolding of the whodunnit and the clues which brought them down. And this is where the series really starts to settle in, so if the first 2 books (in my opinion, okay to skip unless you really want the backstory of how the relationships with the Significant Other, the Friendly FBI Agent, and the Eccentric Old Mentor were established before you go any further) didn't grab you, this is the one by which you'll know whether or not you want to continue.

#7 Make No Bones: motive for the whodunnit is a bit meh, but the howdunnit is very clever indeed, and it's got the bonus of being set among an anthropologist's conference with everyone being experts trying to either figure things out or muddle the waters.

#8 Dead Men's Hearts: a bit of a tribute to the Amelia Peabody books, I think. Acknowledgments give thanks to Barbara Mertz aka Elizabeth Peters. There's some Peabody-esque chase-in-deserted-dig-sites and shoot-outs and of course it's centred around dodgy antiquities finds among respected archaeologists and going undercover as a cunning Master of Disguise rank amateur with serious consequences. Sadly, no exorcisms or redheads suspected of being evil because the evil god Set was a redhead, hrmm?

As for the remaining 3, they're decently written and very readable, but #6 Icy Clutches really has mainly the Alaskan scenery tour to recommend it beyond the double mystery to solve of murder in both past and present (whodunnit okay but a little contrived), #2 The Dark Place is still very much finding its footing and a little over-the-top with the reveal (slightly too melodramatic in terms of who and what the characters are and how they're dealt with, plus you could easily spot who one of them was actually supposed to be), and #10 Skeleton Dance is a nice re-visit to some characters seen in #4, but otherwise a fairly standard tale with nothing particularly special in terms of setting or mystery to recommend it beyond that.

I've currently what looks like the remainder of Elkins' Oliver mysteries out from the library in paper copies. Of course, now that I've gotten them it'll probably start to rain again and I'll have to go back to reading some more of my e-book purchases on the bus.

Fbone · 10-12-2011, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

I'm grabbing all of them - just in case .....

at $5.99 - reasonable.

Not Agency priced so there may be discounts. Hopefully, not an Amazon exclusive.

WT Sharpe · 10-12-2011, 10:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

I'm grabbing all of them - just in case .....

at $5.99 - reasonable.

So far I only see 10 of the Erle Stanley Gardner Perry Mason books, all at that same $5.99, and all seem to have appeared slightly over two weeks ago (September 27, 2011).

In alphabetical order:
1) The Case of the Curious Bride
2) The Case of the Fabulous Fake
3) The Case of the Fiery Fingers
4) The Case of the Hesitant Hostess
5) The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife
6) The Case of the Perjured Parrot
7) The Case of the Runaway Corpse
8) The Case of the Substitute Face
9) The Case of the Vagabond Virgin
10) The Case of the Velvet Claws

xg4bx · 10-13-2011, 06:49 AM

Chapterhouse Dune. i've got all 15 books and i'd like to finally finish reading the series this lifetime.

kennyc · 10-13-2011, 06:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xg4bx

Chapterhouse Dune. i've got all 15 books and i'd like to finally finish reading the series this lifetime.

Spoiler:

HomeInMyShoes · 10-13-2011, 07:52 AM

Finished up Yann Martel's What is Stephen Harper Reading?. Very enjoyable and a lot of authors and titles I'd never heard of so some additions to the potential books to read.

On to Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.

dreams · 10-13-2011, 04:07 PM

I've been reading a lot of pbooks loaned to me from my son, a friend, and my sister-in-law. James Rollins, Janet Evanavich, James Patterson (the Maximum Ride series - love this YA ones

), Douglas Preston, Iris Johansen and one by her and her son, Roy - Shadow Zone.

I enjoyed them all, though none really stood out. I'm reading The Fifth Woman by Henning Mankell right now and about a third of the way through it (about 650 pbook pages).

Quote:

From Library Journal
The fourth book in Mankell's excellent series opens with the bloody killings of four nuns and a Swedish tourist (the fifth woman) in Algeria, then switches to the carefully staged murder of a wealthy retired car dealer in Ystad, Sweden. Even as Inspector Kurt Wallander and his cohorts tirelessly work the car-dealer case, the perpetrator obsessively plots her next murder, dispatching the victim as if all her life were meant for this killing moment. Wallander somehow uncovers the ties that bind these apparently disparate events together. The intricate plotting, chilling psychological divination, and thrilling police procedural are all seamlessly translated. Fans of Maj Sj wall and Per Wahl 's mysteries will enjoy this crime novel by their fellow countryman. Highly recommended.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

HomeInMyShoes · 10-14-2011, 07:19 AM

Finished Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, now it's on to Steven Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo and Neil Gaiman's M Is for Magic.

mldavis2 · 10-14-2011, 08:04 AM

I've been reading some ARC books, some of which are quite good. The best recently is Defending Jacob by William Landay which is a crime-mystery novel. Landay is a former District Attorney who has used that profession for his protagonist who has to deal with his teen-age son being accused of murder. Landay writes from both the prosecution and defense sides of the aisle and give the reader some insights into the legal process. He is not particularly complimentary of the judicial system in this book. It should be a high profile advertisement when it comes out Jan 31, I suspect.

Another surprisingly good book I'm reading is Ernie Pyle's War by James Tobin. Pyle was well-known to my parents' generation as the definitive news correspondent for the common G.I. in WWII. Tobin wrote the book in 1997 as a look back into the struggles and fame of this famous writer and peppers the book with many paragraphs from Pyle's columns and his personal correspondence with his editors. It doesn't look so much on the horrors of war as on the daily struggles of the ground soldier and Pyle himself.

The Sleepwalkers by Paul Grossman is an historical crime novel set in pre-Nazi controlled Germany and looks at a Jewish detective trying to work under increasing Nazi influence.

Embers by Sándor Márai is an Hungarian translation of an excellent novel written as a near-soliloquy on friendship and revenge. Unique and a great book.

A Sound Among the Trees by Susan Meissner is a contemporary novel based on Civil War history as revealed by letters found in an old trunk.

The Innocent Man by John Grisham has been out for a few years. It is the only book written by Grisham that is not fiction. It chronicles the fate of a man accused of murder and the incompetence of the criminal justice system.

Northwest Corner by John Burnham Schwartz is novel using the familiar topics of family estrangement and coming-of-age tensions and mistakes. I liked it especially for its unexpected metaphorical descriptions and humor.

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10-12-2011, 11:20 AM	#11012
kennyc The Dank Side of the Moon Posts: 35,898 Karma: 119230421 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Denver, CO Device: Kindle2; Kindle Fire	I do wish they would do bundles of these.

10-12-2011, 05:22 PM	#11014
kennyc The Dank Side of the Moon Posts: 35,898 Karma: 119230421 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Denver, CO Device: Kindle2; Kindle Fire	Thanks for that Paul. I wish I had more time to read the mags you read.

10-12-2011, 07:53 PM	#11017
ATDrake Wizzard Posts: 11,517 Karma: 33048258 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Roundworld Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia	So having had inclement weather for the past week or so, I put a decent-sized dent in my paid-but-not-read e-book purchases and read #2-10 of Aaron Elkins's Gideon Oliver, Intrepid Globe-Trotting Forensic Anthropologist series. The books did indeed get better from a promising but not exceptional starter volume, although I think the best stories seem to be at the mid-point of what I've read of the series so far. It's one of those series you'll either like after the 3rd volume or not, because by then the main cast of characters and their relationships are solidly established, with not much variance in their interactions or personality quirks or even living situations after that and the status quo pretty much remains as it is, for better or worse. As a matter of fact, you could quite comfortably read almost all the volumes standalone and out of order after a certain point, as there's very little back-reference to previous cases (at least not in a spoilery "remember that time when…?" "yeah, and this is just like that!" sort of way which implies that You Have Missed Out if you don't read them all in the exact order). Nonetheless, there are some repeated elements you'd think the characters would learn from, after having them literally pounded into their skulls practically every book. Tip #1) When you are making a forensic investigation related to a suspected homicide and have received an open death threat or other "accidental" close call, it is not a good idea to go out late at night on your own because you just wanted to clear your head. You are likely to get it bashed in, instead. It is especially not a good idea to keep doing that after it happened in the previous book, and the one before, and the one prior to that, and so forth. But to be fair, probably the good Dr. Oliver has lost sufficient of what Mr. Poirot terms "the little grey cells" to this that his long-term memory is kind of shot when it comes to remembering these things at an interval of "every year, another dead body". Tip #2) If you do not lock up the bones you have found immediately under the tightest security, then someone will try to steal them before you are done investigating them, or before you can conclusively demonstrate your findings to the skeptical authoritative persons who need to be convinced of them. The good Dr. Oliver really ought to learn to not only hide the bones, but also create papier-maché decoys and set up makeshift laboratory traps with nets and hidden cameras so that when the inevitable attempt at theft occurs, they can all have a good point and laugh at the culprit whodunnit live on Candid Camera. Anyway, generally recommended if you think you'll like moderately fun mysteries heavily reliant on the Your Mileage May Vary charmingly quirky interactions of Moderately Pedantic Enthusiastically Uxorious Intrepid Impromptu Forensic Crime Consultant Slash Action Anthropologist Man™ and chock-full of mini-lectures on How Bones Get Those Marks Which Indicate Cause Of Death When They Haven't Been Stolen Because They Weren't Properly Locked Up. Best books in the series: #4 Old Bones won an Edgar award, and deservedly so. A very engaging mystery with lots of twists and turns relating a WWII-era murder to a more modern one and done in a way which ties everything together very nicely. #5 Curses! is lots of fun, with a self-involved tourist dig at an ancient Maya site and everyone in the party trying to put their own spin on the seeming curse plaguing (and offing) them. #8 Twenty Blue Devils has an awesome hilarious deadpan opening set up for the suspected murder. Plus we get to find out more about the background of supporting cast member John Lau, Intrepid Globe-Trotting FBI Agent Who Sometimes Calls In Favours. And the shopping list of common household supermarket cleanser products you, too, can use to do impromptu forensic anthropology work under DIY conditions : is brilliant. Also quite good: #3 Murder in the Queen's Armes: a little melodramatic with the chase over the moors and such, but a clever setup and unfolding of the whodunnit and the clues which brought them down. And this is where the series really starts to settle in, so if the first 2 books (in my opinion, okay to skip unless you really want the backstory of how the relationships with the Significant Other, the Friendly FBI Agent, and the Eccentric Old Mentor were established before you go any further) didn't grab you, this is the one by which you'll know whether or not you want to continue. #7 Make No Bones: motive for the whodunnit is a bit meh, but the howdunnit is very clever indeed, and it's got the bonus of being set among an anthropologist's conference with everyone being experts trying to either figure things out or muddle the waters. #8 Dead Men's Hearts: a bit of a tribute to the Amelia Peabody books, I think. Acknowledgments give thanks to Barbara Mertz aka Elizabeth Peters. There's some Peabody-esque chase-in-deserted-dig-sites and shoot-outs and of course it's centred around dodgy antiquities finds among respected archaeologists and going undercover as a cunning Master of Disguise rank amateur with serious consequences. Sadly, no exorcisms or redheads suspected of being evil because the evil god Set was a redhead, hrmm? As for the remaining 3, they're decently written and very readable, but #6 Icy Clutches really has mainly the Alaskan scenery tour to recommend it beyond the double mystery to solve of murder in both past and present (whodunnit okay but a little contrived), #2 The Dark Place is still very much finding its footing and a little over-the-top with the reveal (slightly too melodramatic in terms of who and what the characters are and how they're dealt with, plus you could easily spot who one of them was actually supposed to be), and #10 Skeleton Dance is a nice re-visit to some characters seen in #4, but otherwise a fairly standard tale with nothing particularly special in terms of setting or mystery to recommend it beyond that. I've currently what looks like the remainder of Elkins' Oliver mysteries out from the library in paper copies. Of course, now that I've gotten them it'll probably start to rain again and I'll have to go back to reading some more of my e-book purchases on the bus.

10-13-2011, 06:49 AM	#11020
xg4bx Are you gonna eat that? Posts: 1,633 Karma: 23215128 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Phillipsburg, NJ Device: Kindle 3, Nook STG	Chapterhouse Dune. i've got all 15 books and i'd like to finally finish reading the series this lifetime.

10-13-2011, 07:52 AM	#11022
HomeInMyShoes Grand Sorcerer Posts: 19,226 Karma: 67780237 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	Finished up Yann Martel's What is Stephen Harper Reading?. Very enjoyable and a lot of authors and titles I'd never heard of so some additions to the potential books to read. On to Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.

10-14-2011, 07:19 AM	#11024
HomeInMyShoes Grand Sorcerer Posts: 19,226 Karma: 67780237 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	Finished Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, now it's on to Steven Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo and Neil Gaiman's M Is for Magic.

10-14-2011, 08:04 AM	#11025
mldavis2 Coffee Nut Posts: 410 Karma: 298350 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Missouri Device: Kindle 3; K4PC; Calibre	I've been reading some ARC books, some of which are quite good. The best recently is *Defending Jacob* by William Landay which is a crime-mystery novel. Landay is a former District Attorney who has used that profession for his protagonist who has to deal with his teen-age son being accused of murder. Landay writes from both the prosecution and defense sides of the aisle and give the reader some insights into the legal process. He is not particularly complimentary of the judicial system in this book. It should be a high profile advertisement when it comes out Jan 31, I suspect. Another surprisingly good book I'm reading is *Ernie Pyle's War* by James Tobin. Pyle was well-known to my parents' generation as the definitive news correspondent for the common G.I. in WWII. Tobin wrote the book in 1997 as a look back into the struggles and fame of this famous writer and peppers the book with many paragraphs from Pyle's columns and his personal correspondence with his editors. It doesn't look so much on the horrors of war as on the daily struggles of the ground soldier and Pyle himself. *The Sleepwalkers* by Paul Grossman is an historical crime novel set in pre-Nazi controlled Germany and looks at a Jewish detective trying to work under increasing Nazi influence. *Embers* by Sándor Márai is an Hungarian translation of an excellent novel written as a near-soliloquy on friendship and revenge. Unique and a great book. *A Sound Among the Trees* by Susan Meissner is a contemporary novel based on Civil War history as revealed by letters found in an old trunk. *The Innocent Man* by John Grisham has been out for a few years. It is the only book written by Grisham that is not fiction. It chronicles the fate of a man accused of murder and the incompetence of the criminal justice system. *Northwest Corner* by John Burnham Schwartz is novel using the familiar topics of family estrangement and coming-of-age tensions and mistakes. I liked it especially for its unexpected metaphorical descriptions and humor.