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

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

And tonight as I was looking for another book, Small Gods arrived. YAY!!!

That was, as expected, very good. I don't think it surpasses the City Watch books or the Moist Von Lipwig books but it is right up there with them for me.

I have two books still on hold, the next Discworld, Lords and Ladies, and book 2 of the Peter Grant series, Moon over Soho and am next in line for both. I started a medical thriller, Sector C by Phoenix Sullivan, this afternoon to fill the time. This is a freebie I got in 2011 that sounds interesting.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

That was, as expected, very good. I don't think it surpasses the City Watch books or the Moist Von Lipwig books but it is right up there with them for me.

I have two books still on hold, the next Discworld, Lords and Ladies, and book 2 of the Peter Grant series, Moon over Soho and am next in line for both. I started a medical thriller, Sector C by Phoenix Sullivan, this afternoon to fill the time. This is a freebie I got in 2011 that sounds interesting.

I have read her Vet Tales. She is a very good writer.

[Dngrsone]

Finished Quite Contrary by Richard Roberts. Not as whimsical as his Don't Tell My Parents... books, but just fun-- the protagonist starts out as a very contrary Mary, dons the red hood against some very sensible advice and spends the rest of the book fleeing from a very persistent wolf.

She blasts through a variety of stories, (fairy tales and otherwise) and leaves her imprint upon each until the very end.

It is a dark, pre-pubescent coming-of-age story which I enjoyed thoroughly.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I have read her Vet Tales. She is a very good writer.

Maybe I will try it again later. I read the first three chapters and quit today, I didn't care for the setup and it wasn't worth continuing.

Instead I am reading Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson to finish this series.

[MickeyC]

Just finished The Black Widow by Daniel Silva and highly recommend it. If you like Silva's style, this is one of his best. Flew through it!

Next up A Death in Brittany by Jean-Luc Bannalec based on a reco by Apache who NEVER gets it wrong!

[Apache]

Originally Posted by MickeyC

Just finished The Black Widow by Daniel Silva and highly recommend it. If you like Silva's style, this is one of his best. Flew through it!

Next up A Death in Brittany by Jean-Luc Bannalec based on a reco by Apache who NEVER gets it wrong!

Yes I do.
Apache

[ATDrake]

Finished 66° North by Michael Ridpath, 2nd in his Fire & Ice police procedural mystery series starring Magnus Jonson aka Magnús Ragnarsson, Intrepid Transplanted Bi-National Icelandic-American Boston-Raised Reykjavík-Resident Expat Cop.

Apparently these might have a bit of a theme to them, with the saga and literature callbacks, and once again there's an old saga involved and the particular literary focus of this one is Icelandic Nobel Prize winning author Halldór Laxness' Independent People (which I read a really long time ago and wouldn't have remembered all that well without the useful refresher that this book gives), which thematically ties into the ostensible plot backdrop of the Icelandic economic crash, constrasting the supposedly simple idealized life of the traditional Icelandic farmer with the slick social-climbing jetsetting Viking Raiders of modern times who led him astray, while depicting the underlying complexity and complications of both, which are neither wholly good or bad.

This one has a mildly unusual tripartite mystery structure, where two strands are easy to link up, but the connections of the third to the main case (or even the main narrative) are rather unobvious at first, but shows things that actually resonate strongly with the other threads. It's also part psychological thriller (though in a somewhat "lite" sense), because for several parts of it, you know exactly whodunnit and why, and the real question is who's actually going to pay the price for it when it all finally comes out. Despite a greater amount of switching between apparently disjointed narrative and timeline strands than in #1, that technique actually hung together better in #2 since it was mostly happening in Iceland and England and it felt more organic to go back and forth within the settings that it did, than all the intrusive-seeming Boston bits in #1.

In addition to the actual core mystery, which plays around with Icelandic society and national and international reactions to Iceland's part in the financial disasters of the late 2000s, there's an ongoing strand of personal mystery as Magnus begins looking into certain surprising revelations about his early home life made in #1, which will apparently form a B-plot continuing throughout the series as he tries to solve his father's long-ago murder, which was part of the impetus for his becoming a cop in the first place. And there's some nice relationship building bits with his supporting cast of slightly eccentric colleagues, love interest, and estranged family on both sides of the pond.

Medium recommend if you think you might be interested in a Nordic Noir series by an Englishman (who's gotten praise for it in the Icelandic newspapers) writing from a semi-Icelandic perspective and incorporating significant pieces of ancient and modern Icelandic culture in it. It's also got a pretty decent theme going on about the myriad ways in which people cope after stuff just begins to balloon and spiral out of control, and the choices they make as a result, and the lingering effects of crime, both physical and financial, on both the criminals and their victims, and the sometimes thin dividing line between those categories.

As before, there's an author's note in the back, and he's put up a gallery of photos of the locations used on his website, although there's no research/influences essay this time around. It turns out that for whatever reason, #3 & #4 aren't available in North America as e-books (although technically the same publisher handles them as for the UK), but happily, one of the local libraries has them in as import paperbacks, so I know what I'm picking up the next time I go downtown.

[Dngrsone]

Now reading Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King.

I have King's book, Brunelleschi's Dome, and enjoyed it so I thought I should enjoy this story about the Sistine Chapel... yes, I'm a bit of a history geek.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by drjd

Next up, Slant by Greg Bear.

Slant is exciting. Bear is courageous enough to write about a future only 70 years away. His heroes are real and the story, after its snail starts, finishes like lightening.

Next read - The First Apostle by James Becker.

[ATDrake]

Finished Edge of Nowhere by Michael Ridpath, a novella in his Fire & Ice series starring bi-national Icelandic-American cop Magnus Jonson aka Magnús Ragnarsson. This fits in right after the 2nd novel, but is otherwise standalone, as Magnus investigates a suspicious death in a small town, which some locals ascribe to the huldufólk, or "hidden people" (Wikipedia), popularly termed elves (but not actually like the popular fantasy conception of elves), who are apparently environmentally-minded and object to intrusive large-scale construction projects, as we all should (though not with, like, murder).

This was an interesting look at what's not actually a small-town superstition, but in fact seems to be a reasonably widespread Icelandic cultural notion which people kind of give lip service to even if they don't personally believe, kind of like feng shui. Anyway, there were perfectly cromulent material means and motivations considerations to go along with the supernatural distraction, and it was nice to how Magnus had to work around the firmly held (or sometimes just potential guilt-obfuscating) beliefs of certain of the townspeople to get useful information to solve the case (and the teasing of his colleagues for taking an X-Files assignment), making for an enjoyable short read.

Currently started another book about elves, this time from a Lovecraftian perspective, since my library hold on The Nightmare Stacks, the latest in Charles Stross' Laundry Files series which has gone from spoofing spy thrillers to spoofing urban fantasy tropes—this one apparently being the volume which gives his take on genre notions of faerie creatures—has finally come in and takes priority over everything else, since there's about 5 people in line after me for it, so I'll want to return it as soon as I can.

[ATDrake]

Read Charles Stross' The Nightmare Stacks and it was indeed an entertaining addition to the Laundry Files series. This was kind of a quick go-over to see how the story will unfold, and I'm going to re-read it more slowly and try to pick up the details before I return it probably Wednesday-ish when I run my errands.

Also finished the late Janwillem van de Wetering's Outsider in Amsterdam, the 1st in his long-running Grijpstra & de Gier series starring cops in Amsterdam in the 70s and onwards, which was popular enough in its native country to be adapted into film several times. This was a Soho $1.99 sale title and I gave it a try to see if I wanted to pick up the rest of the series at $3.50 CAD a pop while they were discounted and I could also get the 10x Kobo weekend promo points.

It is pretty much a period piece, showcasing a kind of intersection of Dutch society in the era where the New Age free love hippie stuff* and raised political consciousness hasn't quite evolved into greater social egalitarianism for persons who don't fit into the traditional status quo. Like Finnish author Leena Lehtolainen's Maria Kallio books, originally published in the 1990s and only in recent years becoming available in English translation, these are also kind of a time capsule of 1970s Dutch attitudes towards race, gender, sexual orientation, and the lingering effects of colonialism upon those displaced from the then-recently dismantled Dutch colonies. Mind you, the primary impression one gets of 70s Dutch society is that it's a country full of enthusiastic tax-evaders and wannabe drug dealers.

In a quiet, low-key way, they're actually rather eccentric books. From the Wikipedia article, at least one of the supporting characters throughout the series never gets named. And the criminal pursuit and capture is all done so politely, with people apologizing for having shot each other and damaged the other's property and all parties saying that it was all perfectly understandable that it would happen this way and couldn't be helped and was the best that could be hoped for, under the circumstances.

Anyway, while rather dated and probably somewhat flawed, I found this first one interesting enough that I did pick up the rest, as I'm interested in seeing how the stories and the society depicted within evolve over the decades; if they do, considering that apparently at some point early into the series, the author moved to Maine in the US and stayed there for the rest of his life. Also, I appreciated the explanatory footnotes for a couple of Dutch cultural references that this and the included sample chapter for the 2nd had, since those are always useful in translated works, so bonus points.

* Apparently the author, in addition to having been a reserve cop himself, spent time in a Buddhist monastery and wrote a book (still in print) about his experiences, and there are digressions, almost meditations, into things like music appreciation and actual Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, which becomes a plot point later in the case.

[Dngrsone]

Finished Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King. The extent of my artistic talent can be seen to the left, in the form of the thumbnail sketch I am using for an avatar. With that said, I kind of wish I could learn how to make a fresco, just to see the end-product up close and new.

At any rate, good book, glad I read it; on to the next: Inheritor by C. J. Cherryh.

[HudsonSpike]

Nelson DeMille's series with John Corey has always looked like a good summer read, so I started with Plum Island and having been hooked, also read The Lion's Game and Night Fall. Excellent choice if you're in a frame of mind to spend some time between the covers with some good Whodunits.

BLURB:
PLUM ISLAND

Wounded NYPD homicide detective John Corey is convalescing in rural eastern Long Island when a young couple is killed. The victims were researchers at a site rumored to be a biological warfare center. Suddenly, a local double murder takes on shattering global implications-and thrusts Corey into a dangerous search for the secret of Plum Island.


THE LION'S GAME

At New York's JFK Airport, an American task force waits for a Libyan terrorist defector. When something goes horribly wrong, federal agent John Corey follows a trail of blood for his quarry: a foe with the cunning of a lion and the bloodlust of a man. To win a desperate game with no rules, Corey must invent a strategy that leaves no room for mistakes.


NIGHT FALL

On a beach, a couple with a video camera record their love-making-and the explosion of TWA Flight 800. Now on the fifth anniversary of a blast that was blamed on mechanical failure, agent John Corey and his partner reopen the case. They will hunt for the crucial video-and race toward an elusive truth even more horrifying than the crash itself.

Blurb END

About ½-way through the first of Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas book. Interesting but so far not as much as DeMilles trio.

These heat waves are great for reading while recovering from surgery.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: The Last Camel Died at Noon by Elizabeth Peters. Another adventure with Amelia Emmerson (nee Peabody).

These are fun. Adventure story clichés done well.

then I read Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs. The second in her Temperance Brennan series. What a very unlucky forensic anthropologist she is!

Next up: The Rough Collier by Pat McIntosh. The fifth in the Gil Cunningham series.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

These are fun. Adventure story clichés done well.

then I read Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs. The second in her Temperance Brennan series. What a very unlucky forensic anthropologist she is!

Next up: The Rough Collier by Pat McIntosh. The fifth in the Gil Cunningham series.

Which was a good mystery, and I liked the main characters.


Next up: Tale of the Fox by Harry Turtledove. My penultimate unread ebook from before July 2008.