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

[CRussel]

Hmmm. I've got both the first two Troy Rising books here. I may have to give them a try. Meanwhile, finishing up an audio read of Carousel Sun, which I'm very much enjoying. And nearly finished with Forbidden Fruit, #5 in the Corinna Chapman series from Kerry Greenwood. This is a good series. Not Phryne Fisher, but quite enjoyable mysteries.

[bfisher]

Finished "The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire" by Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy. This was a shortlisted book for the 2013 Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History. O’Shaughnessy's thesis is that the reason why Britain lost the American Revolutionary War was not incompetent leadership but the outcome of multiple factors, many of them exterior to North America. He gives a reasoned argument, and in fairness includes a good deal of material that is contrary to his thesis; for example, there is a fascinating description of the Mischianza held in Philadelphia to honour Gen Howe on his departure from command.

This is the second book in the 2013 shortlist I've read so far. Similar to the winning book, "Gettysburg: The Last Invasion" by Allen C. Guelzo, in that it questioned the conventional view of the event.

Looking forward to reading the next book on the shortlist, "The Bombing War: Europe 1939-1945" by Richard Overy.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Fbone;2901539
My library added several John Dickson Carr titles so I chose [I

The Problem of the Green Capsule[/I] as my next read. Published in 1939 and contains poisoned chocolates.

Very interesting setting for a locked-room murder mystery. A murder actually filmed and no one can figure it out! Despite that it wasn't one of Carr's best. Don't believe anything that's said. Clues in the minute details. Beware of red herrings! Rated C [3 stars].

Next I'll try Harry Harrison's Deathworld that I grabbed from the public domain. My first Harrison.

[bfisher]

His Deathworld series is one of my favs. His Stainless Steel Rat series is similiar in some ways.

[KyBunnies]

I am currently reading

The Price of Thirst: Global Water Inequality and the Coming Chaos


I very interesting look ay the water shortage and how it could possibility become a privatized commodity

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by MickeyC

But don't forget your towel.

So that's what you meant! I haven't finished reading it though

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by Gazella

So that's what you meant! I haven't finished reading it though

Be sure and tell us when you've figured out the answer to life, the universe and everything.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

But first it's the latest Asimov's SF magazine, edited by Shiela Williams.

Another good issue. Several stories I liked, and only one or two that were 'meh'.

Now for Grantville Gazette #55. Yes, the 55th volume of authorised fan-fic set in the 1632 alternate universe invented by Eric Flint. Wow.

[MickeyC]

Also just finished Fer De Lanceby Rex Stout and what an absorbing read. And, since both books came from the library at the same time, I've just started his League of Frightened Gentlemen which is also looking very good.

[ATDrake]

Finished Jo Nesbø's The Leopard, 8th in the Harry Hole, Dysfunctional Yet Brilliant Norwegian Inspector series.

Or perhaps I should say ex-Inspector, since this installment involves him having taken himself and his displaced addictions to Hong Kong* to recover from the aftermath of The Snowman, and having to reluctantly be persuaded to return to investigate a new apparent serial killer case which is baffling the Oslo police. Again.

There's a rather The Godfather-ish feeling to it: "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in…"

Anyway, Harry is eventually persuaded back, not for the crime's sake, but for his ill father. Which is probably just as well, since the actual crime case is riddled with interdepartmental in-fighting over who gets to actually investigate it (and end up with the ultimate credit), so Harry doesn't get his usual resources and backing and thus has to improvise.

This is seemingly another "themed" novel, with the major emphasis being on parent/child relationships, not only Harry's own, but also those of various suspects and victims in the cases and how their own relationships with their parents/children or the prospects of having them affect their motives and actions.

There's also a thematic undercurrent of how much culpability to allot not only to the active criminal (and other technically non-criminals who engage in or arrange for criminal acts), but also the guiding hand which enables and encourages them, from the career trajectory of former child soldier in the Congo, to an ambitious law enforcement official's use of certain types of officially-disapproved leverage, and the actual murders themselves. And also reputation† and what you'd do to preserve/enhance it in order to get where you've determined you want to go in life, if you happen to care that much.

I'd kind of wondered why the omnibus editions skipped from #3-5 to #7-9 (aside from also coming out from different imprints of the same house in English translation, which might affect matters).

And it looks like the reason for that is because just as #3-5 formed the linked "Oslo Trilogy" which followed up and eventually wrapped several particular threads which mostly started in the 3rd book, it seems that #7-9 are going to do the same with regards to the fallout from The Snowman case, as we see Harry's personal and professional lives directly drawing on certain callbacks to that, even at the apparent distance of a few years.

Although, since I've started on #9, Phantom, and so far no serial killers in sight or references to old serial killing cases being used to solve the crime as yet, I could be wrong about it and these are just a random convenient grouping made to encourage you to buy #6 standalone. Although it does seem like Harry's starting to climb out of the rock-bottom he hit, so #7-9 may actually be the mini-arc of his (latest) fall from grace and eventual recovery.

As for the actual murder case, it's a pretty clever setup with the usual multiple red herrings, but a surprising yet reasonable multi-part solution which can be probably be deduced from the provided clues for the various portions of it, despite the usual very deliberate misdirection meant to make you think that it's several other persons entirely.

Medium-high recommend. This is the 2nd best Nesbø Hole book since Nemesis, IMHO, perhaps because it has a great deal in common with that structurally and in terms of more serious examination of variations on lifestyle choices and the resulting character effects, alongside the usual thriller elements.

* And on a completely tangential note, I'd read years ago that Canadian and Hong Kong/Guangdong Cantonese had been diverging over the course of a generation or two, with Canada assimilating initial n -> l sounds in certain words and ngh -> mh for the negative particle. But I'd never actually thought I'd see evidence of it happen on page in a Nordic noir crime thriller, of all places.

† I'll just take the time to recommend Nesbø's standalone Headhunters, which plays with that theme very well, and has an entertaining and well-done film adaptation as well.

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by Loosheesh

Now reading Peril at End House (another Christie/Poirot) and True Honor (the next book in Dee Henderson's Uncommon Heroes series).

Since my last post, I completed Peril at End House (enjoyed all the misdirection), Lord Edgware Dies (nothing exciting, just OK to me) and Murder on the Orient Express, all by Agatha Christie.

Murder on the Orient Express I didn't enjoy as I should've, not due to the book itself, but because a friend spoiled the ending for me a few years ago. She thought I had read it already and she blithely went on to tell me who committed the murder and why. That, of course, totally ruined the whole story for me I only read it because I'm reading the series in order and I did pay money for the book. I'm glad that's now over.

I'm 50% through True Honor, which I may or may not complete it this weekend. Also, at 10 books in, I'm giving Poirot a break to start Cocaine Blues, the first Phryne Fisher book.

[ATDrake]

Took a break from all the mystery/crime thrillers to finish up some graphic novels that need to be returned to the library.

Rick Geary's Jack the Ripper, another installment in his excellent A Treasury of Victorian Murder series (which has since expanded to non-Victorian murder cases) does a marvelous comic-book interpretation of true crime, as usual.

Geary's carefully laid-out documentation of major players, timelines of events, known evidence, and mild speculation combine wonderfully with his woodcut-style line drawings for a characteristically atmospheric pseudo-Victorian read.

While I've run into enough Ripperiana to not care anymore, I quite liked this, although not nearly as much as Geary's bringing to light more obscure past true crime stories and it reminds me that back during one of those Humble Bundle purchases, I got a copy of the reader's companion to Alan Moore' From Hell, which I should read at some point (the companion, not FH, that is).

Firmly recommended for aficionados of meticulously detailed true crime in comic book format.

World War 3 Illustrated: 1979-2014, edited by Peter Kuper & Seth Tobocman, was a collection of the eponymous underground comics 'zine, and was a pretty mixed bag.

Story topics were mostly political/political-made-personal, with not only comics, but also poetry, illustrated/photo mini-essays, and random drawings on the subjects of the increasing politicization of religion, inner-city poverty and housing displacement, the use of banned drugs in 3rd world countries with deleterious effect on the local populace/environment, and the ramping up of public paranoia in response to the disproportionately spread fear of terrorism, past and current wars, etc.

Very much a Sturgeon's Law sort of mix, with some of the best stories being Kuper's own account of a Comic Book Legal Defense Fund case where he was called upon to provide defensive testimony for a zine distributor accused of obscenity, an artist's story about the importance of brand name sneakers and their subsequent theft in their youth, the various stories from artists who visited both Israel and Palestine over the course of the decades of the on-going conflict (there were several of these, all quite insightful), and Tobocman's summary of the Occupy Wall Street protests.

There's also a nifty timeline of all the WW3 issues, with bits on their feature stories, as well as other events going on in the comics/political world around the time they were originally released).

Mild recommend as a curiosity-read if you're interested in politically-oriented underground comics. Overall quality and appeal is too uneven for a general recommend, but a good sampler of what people have been doing in the field over the past few decades.

Israeli artist Rutu Modan's short comics collection of her early work, Jamilti and Other Stories. I originally picked this up because I wanted to get her Exit Wounds, about the ordinary people whose lives are directly affected by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict specifically, after having re-read Joe Sacco's excellent and recommended GN Palestine and some of the short stories in his more recent Journalism, as well as Guy Delisle's also excellent and recommended GN Jerusalem: Chronicles of the Holy City, which are both in part about that same subject.

But Jamilti & was what the branch of the library I visited actually had, so I got that out instead to give her storytelling a try.

These are early works, and I found the artwork at first to be rather disappointingly crude for my tastes, as far as character proportions and facial design go. But it does improve noticeably in later stories.

Modan has a decided taste for stories with a twist, where what you think you're seeing turns out to be very slightly to very much different from what's actually revealed at the end.

Best of the lot are the title story, "Jamilti", from the perspective of a nurse in a major city, and "Homecoming", set on a kibbutz, both of which are bittersweet takes on the realities of life in Israel. There's also a nifty faux-paper doll to accompany "The King of the Lillies", a story about a plastic surgery patient (the doll includes paste-on segments for bandaged body parts as well as their post-surgical versions).

Mild recommend, I suppose. Nothing really outstanding here, but decently done and I'll certainly be looking up her other GN which was the one I was originally interested in.

[Strether]

I see that Explorer, C.J. Cherryh's sixth Foreigner novel, became available as an e-book today. Which completes the set--all fifteen of the novels now available as e-books. Highly recommended.

Jim

[ATDrake]

Finished a couple more paper books for the library return slot.

The Phantom Limb by the late William Sleator and Ann Monticone, who according to the bio-blurb met while they were both working for the Boston Ballet, is another not-nostalgia read where I have a look at the newer/unread things written by one of my childhood favourite YA sci-fi writers.

This was a tween-level supernatural installment where the typical Sleator-ish science-y gimmick was the use of optical illusions.

Isaac, a socially isolated kid who's new in town due to having to move to cheaper furnishings due to his ailing mother's hospital bills, seems to have no friends at first and thus compensates by throwing himself into his optical illusion hobby, which is enhanced by the discovery of a magic mirror box left over by the previous occupants.

It soon turns out that the magic mirror box itself contains a mysterious occupant, which it turns out to be trying to warn him of a very specific danger he has to thwart, which he does in part by making use of some of the other optical illusion tricks he's acquainted with.

The prose for this initially was very banal and flat, but the plot did pick up and make the story more compelling, with an increasingly creepy overtone to the mysterious happenings at his mother's hospital and the apparent robotic obedience of the hospital workers to whatever seemed to be behind the occurences, which was slowly and slightly spookily revealed as Isaac has to figure out the mysterious messages the mirror box occupant is sending him. And it was touching the way that Isaac was gradually able to gain the help of his befuddled but increasingly focused grandfather and an initially antagonistic kid at school.

Unfortunately, while this did have the seeds of a good idea and portions of it were carried out well, the overall execution was just barely above mediocre, IMHO.

Among the Dolls by William Sleator was a supernatural kids' novel aimed at even younger readers, but it was actually quite good.

Vicky (apparently named for Sleator's own real-life sister, who also has a named cameo in TPL) receives an eerie dollhouse as an unwanted gift, and one day wakes up to find herself trapped inside as the dolls she'd been playing with start playing with her.

This was one of Sleator's early works, and managed to build and maintain the suspense quite nicely. There's also that Toy Story gone wrong horror element of being nicer to your toys because you don't know what they're capable of, and as well as this valuable life lesson (which can presumably be extended to treating actual people decently as well), Vicky herself has to use ingenuity to figure out how the dollhouse works and positive personal interaction to win over an ally to help make her escape attempt.

The library's Tor Starscape paperback edition had several pages worth of reading guide activity/discussion group questions in the back, which indicates that someone thinks it's a good novel To Learn From, which I'm kind of inclined to agree.

Recommended if you're looking for a creepy read for any kids you know that might enjoy creepy reads.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Now for Grantville Gazette #55. Yes, the 55th volume of authorised fan-fic set in the 1632 alternate universe invented by Eric Flint. Wow.

Which I enjoyed, except for the Virginia DeMarce piece was too bitty, jumping around a large number of characters, so to understand it properly one needs to come into it with a large amount of background info at one's fingertips to track exactly who was who and where was where. It's part four, so it's OK to assume some background knowledge, but too much for me. And I've read all the Grantville books and all the Grantville Gazettes!

She really needs to be able to tell a story from one or two viewpoints, not a dozen.


Next up: F&SF, Sep/Oct 2014 edited by Gordon van Gelder.