New Leaf Vote for February 2018 • A Rainbow of Reading

[issybird]

Originally Posted by bfisher

Yes, there are a lot more books out there than there is time available to read them, so if you have already traveled down a trail before, why not take a new road instead.

Although there is something to be said for re-reading an excellent book if there has been a long enough passage of time that you may have become essentially a different traveler, so that you see new things with fresh eyes, especially if you travel in good company, and have the benefit of your companions' observations.

Oh, I agree. Speaking outside of the book club context, I decided last year to revisit the Victorian novelists, including several books I read decades ago. It was a revelation; it had been decades in most cases and I got so much more from them now, to the extent that the Victorians are now a permanent addition to my reading.

And in regard to book clubs, a good discussion is a pleasure in addition to that of reading and can redeem an otherwise bad experience, as with Sylvie and Bruno. So the combination of a good book and a good discussion is a joy.

But as to the books for this month which I've read, I've read it too recently, don't think it has as much heft for a good discussion as other choices, didn't like it enough, or some combination. And it serves to make an easy cut!

[astrangerhere]

Super excited to see The Price of Salt in the running! I know it may be really far afield for some of our readers, but I am glad to see some folks willing to give it a shot.

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by gmw

I'm almost sorry to see the Tom Holt novel in front - but only because I know I will read it anyway. I became a fan of Tom Holt after "Expecting Someone Taller" and "Who's Afraid of Beowulf". I avidly chased up more of his books ... only to find that they didn't quite have the magic of the first two; most of them were good, they just weren't great. So now I am still interested but have less enthusiasm. Maybe "Nothing But Blue Skies" will be a return to top form - here's hoping.

This is why I voted for it.

"Expecting Someone Taller" is one of my favourite books. I read it when it first came out and it's always a guaranteed comfort read for me. That said I lost track of his books after the first 3 or 4 and came back to them a few years ago. Seeing he'd been very prolific in the mean time I jumped in again more or less at random ("Falling Sideways") and was disappointed. I've since read "Blonde Bombshell" and enjoyed it, re-read "Flying Dutch" and it was also fun. So I'm left with a feeling that Tom Holt books may be good or may be terrible and hence if someone else is proposing one then I'm hopeful it's one of the better ones. If that makes sense.

Originally Posted by CRussel

And it's not set in the 20's, but in the 70's, a time at least some of us actually remember.

I could say it's because I remember the 70s that I'd rather not read about it! That would be an exaggeration. It is true though that being set in a time I don't really know is a bonus. Reading being a view on a different world etc. Whether that "worked" in the case of Whose Body? - well I won't prematurely review it.

[Bookpossum]

I’m delighted to see that Passing is doing so well. I had to pass on some books where they aren’t available from the library and my book budget doesn’t stretch to purchasing them.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

Good work Jon.

Originally Posted by issybird

I've swapped out the link in six(!) places. I hope I didn't miss any.

Thanks to both.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Hey, folks, how about a little love for Fadeout? I know those of us in the MobileRead Book Club just read a mystery, but really, there's NO comparison. This isn't the story of an upper-class, British twit with too much time on his hands and a title; it's the story of a working-class, California, insurance investigator in the midst of recovering from the loss of his long time partner. And it's not set in the 20's, but in the 70's, a time at least some of us actually remember.

This is classic work of gay fiction, arguably the first major cross-over work of the modern era. Oh, and it was a success because it was a good, well-written, mystery. A worthy start to our New Leaf Book Club.

We just read a book in the 20s and now we seems we might have another book set in the 20s. I would prefer a book set a bit later than the 20s.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by gmw

Charlie, I think you nailed it for me. I read "mystery" and couldn't work out why "gay" was relevant. (For all I know Poirot might have been gay, come to that, I'm not ruling out Miss Marple, Mr Satterthwaite, Lord Wimsey ... or Columbo!).

Columbo has a wife. He's not gay.

[JSWolf]

I was hoping that Father Brown would do better. But as it is I don't think it will win. Rainbow's End should also be doing better as it's a really good book.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

We just read a book in the 20s and now we seems we might have another book set in the 20s. I would prefer a book set a bit later than the 20s.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I was hoping that Father Brown would do better. But as it is I don't think it will win.

I loved The Innocence of Father Brown and if I hadn't already read it and if we weren't following a mystery month, I would have voted for it. But unlike the television series which is set in the 50s, the stories are set in the first decade of the 20th century. All the same, I think it would make for a good discussion; I just would like to read something new to me.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Columbo has a wife. He's not gay.

Joseph Hansen, who wrote Fadeout, was happily married to a woman and he was gay.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by issybird

Joseph Hansen, who wrote Fadeout, was happily married to a woman and he was gay.

I've seen every episode of Columbo and he's not gay.

[gmw]

Aside from chuckling to myself as I added Columbo to the list (and refraining from adding Macmillan or his wife), my point really was that many book detectives have been essentially asexual. So having a book blurb state that the detective is homosexual or heterosexual seemed to imply that the detective's sexuality was relevant to the story. If Dave Brandstetter had been described as flamboyantly homosexual, and given the book is set in the 70s, then that might have given the impression of Boy George playing PI. But the Amazon blurb describes him as "contentedly gay", which leaves me at a bit of a loss.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by gmw

Aside from chuckling to myself as I added Columbo to the list (and refraining from adding Macmillan or his wife), my point really was that many book detectives have been essentially asexual. So having a book blurb state that the detective is homosexual or heterosexual seemed to imply that the detective's sexuality was relevant to the story. If Dave Brandstetter had been described as flamboyantly homosexual, and given the book is set in the 70s, then that might have given the impression of Boy George playing PI. But the Amazon blurb describes him as "contentedly gay", which leaves me at a bit of a loss.

I think I described Dave Brandstetter offline as a mashup of Raymond Chandler and Christopher Isherwood. Indeed, he reminds me very much of the protagonist in Isherwood's A Single Man - gay man at ease with himself, recently lost his partner, California.

[CRussel]

Well, I just bought Passing from AmazonUK, and got the WhisperSync version from Audible. Just in time for a long road trip to visit my wife's elderly aunt. A good time to get a head start on reading next month's book.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

A good time to get a head start on reading next month's book.

The poll's still got more than three days to run! Things could change easily. But you'd still have time to read the winner.