Register Guidelines E-Books Today's Posts Search

Go Back   MobileRead Forums > E-Book General > Reading Recommendations > Book Clubs

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 02-01-2019, 06:28 AM   #1
issybird
o saeclum infacetum
issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
issybird's Avatar
 
Posts: 20,209
Karma: 222235366
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: New England
Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5
Nominations for March 2019 • Murder, They Wrote: Deadly Pursuits


The neverending month of January has ended, so it's time to help us select the book that the New Leaf Book Club will read in March 2019. The theme is Murder, They Wrote: Deadly Pursuits

Everyone is welcome to join the nomination process even if they'd rather lurk during the voting and discussion; if that is still a little too much commitment, please feel free to suggest titles without making a formal nomination. Also, don't sweat the links. It's helpful to check availability and prices before nominating in order to eliminate anything that's out of the question, but ultimately our global members with different gadgets and preferences will have to check for themselves.

The nominations will run through 7 AM EST, February 7, 2019. Each nomination requires a second and a third to make it to the poll, which will remain open for four days. The discussion of the selection will start on March 15, 2019. Don't forget to show up for the discussion of the February selection, A Delicate Truth, on February 15.

Any questions? See below, or just ask!

FAQs for the Nomination, Selection and Discussion process

General Guidelines for the New Leaf Book Club

Official choices with three nominations:

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann [Bookpossum, Bookworm_Girl, bfisher]
AmazonUS $11.99 | AmazonUK £5.99 | AmazonCA $13.99 | AmazonAU $16.99 | KoboUS $11.99 | $NZ18.66
Spoiler:
Quote:
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.

Then, one by one, they began to be killed off. One Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, watched as her family was murdered. Her older sister was shot. Her mother was then slowly poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances.

In this last remnant of the Wild West—where oilmen like J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes such as Al Spencer, “the Phantom Terror,” roamed – virtually anyone who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll surpassed more than twenty-four Osage, the newly created F.B.I. took up the case, in what became one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations. But the bureau was then notoriously corrupt and initially bungled the case. Eventually the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only Native American agents in the bureau. They infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest modern techniques of detection. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most sinister conspiracies in American history.

A true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history.
359 pp.

Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi (aka GoodFellas) [issybird, bfisher, Bookpossum]
US$9.99, CA$9.99, £6.95, AU$14.95 Kobo/$7.59 Amazon, NZ$15.97 Kobo, OverDrive
Spoiler:
Quote:
Nicholas Pileggi’s vivid, unvarnished, journalistic chronicle of the life of Henry Hill—the working-class Brooklyn kid who knew from age twelve that “to be a wiseguy was to own the world,” who grew up to live the highs and lows of the mafia gangster’s life—has been hailed as “the best book ever written on organized crime” (Cosmopolitan).

This is the true-crime bestseller that was the basis for Martin Scorsese’s film masterpiece GoodFellas, which brought to life the violence, the excess, the families, the wives and girlfriends, the drugs, the payoffs, the paybacks, the jail time, and the Feds…with Henry Hill’s crackling narration drawn straight out of Wiseguy and overseeing all the unforgettable action.
306 pp.

No Rest for the Dead Andrew Gulli, ed. [Dazrin, gmw, stuartjmz]
$8.99 Amazon | Kobo
Spoiler:
Quote:
Contributing authors:
Jeff Abbott, Sandra Brown, Jeffery Deaver, Diana Gabaldon, Tess Gerritsen, Peter James, J.A. Jance, Faye Kellerman, Raymond Khoury, John Lescroart, Jeff Lindsay, Gayle Lynds, Phillip Margolin, Alexander McCall Smith, Michael Palmer, T. Jefferson Parker, Matthew Pearl, Kathy Reichs, Marcus Sakey, Jonathan Santlofer, Lisa Scottoline, R.L. Stine, Marcia Talley, Lori G. Armstrong

Synopsis:
When Christopher Thomas, a ruthless curator at San Francisco’s McFall Art Museum, is murdered and his decaying body is found in an iron maiden in a Berlin museum, his wife, Rosemary, is the primary suspect, and she is tried, convicted, and executed. Ten years later, Jon Nunn, the detective who cracked the case, is convinced that the wrong person was put to death. In the years since the case was closed, he’s discovered a web of deceit and betrayal surrounding the Thomases that could implicate any number of people in the crime. With the help of the dead woman’s friend, he plans to gather everyone who was there the night Christopher died and finally uncover the truth, suspect by suspect. Solving this case may be Nunn’s last chance for redemption…but the shadowy forces behind Christopher’s death will stop at nothing to silence the past forever.
256 pp.

Come, Tell Me How You Live: An Archaeological Memoir by Agatha Christie [gmw, issybird, Dazrin]
Amazon US $8.99 | Amazon UK - £6.99 | Amazon CA $9.99 | Amazon AU $10.99 | Kobo US $8.99 | Kobo UK - £6.99 | Kobo CA $9.99 | Kobo AU $10.99
Spoiler:
Quote:
Agatha Christie was already a celebrated writer of mysteries in 1930 when she married archaeologist Max Mallowan. She enthusiastically joined him on archaeological expeditions in the Middle East, providing backgrounds for novels and "everyday doings and happenings". Pre-war Syria years are remembered here, not chronologically, but in a cluster of vignettes about servants and aristocrats who peppered their lives with annoyances and pleasures.
236 pp.

Except the Dying by Maureen Jennings [Bookworm_Girl, CRussel, bfisher]
AmazonUS $9.99 | AmazonUK £4.31 | AmazonCA $9.99 | AmazonAU $7.47 | KoboUS $9.99 | OverDrive
Spoiler:
From Amazon:
Quote:
Turn-of-the-century Toronto makes an evocative setting for murder in Except the Dying, a skillful first novel that is interesting both for its historical accuracy and its fully realized characters. The plot concerns the murder of a young housemaid, discovered naked in a snowy lane, and the cast of suspects spans the social strata. Yet it is William Murdoch, the detective in charge of the case, who breathes life into what might otherwise have been a conventional murder mystery. As he pursues his quest for justice, Murdoch also mourns the death of his fiancée; his manner of doing both reveals a compassionate, principled man
362 pp.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens [issybird, CRussel, stuartjmz]
Public domain
Spoiler:
Quote:
Though the novel is named after the character Edwin Drood, it focuses more on Drood's uncle, John Jasper, a precentor, choirmaster and opium addict, who is in love with his pupil, Rosa Bud. Miss Bud, Edwin Drood's fiancée, has also caught the eye of the high-spirited and hot-tempered Neville Landless. Landless and Edwin Drood take an instant dislike to one another. Later Drood disappears
Quote:
Dickens' last novel is a mystery built around a presumed crime - the murder of a nephew by his uncle. Dickens died before completing the story, leaving the mystery unsolved and encouraging successive generations of readers to turn detective. Beyond the preoccupying fact of this intriguing crime, however, the novel also offers readers a characteristically Dickensian mix of the fantastical world of the imagination and a vibrantly journalistic depiction of gritty reality.
300 pp.

The Bride Wore Black by Cornell Woolrich [Catlady, gmw, Bookworm_Girl]
Amazon US $4.99 | omnibus $9.99 | Kobo US $4.99 | omnibus $9.99
Spoiler:
Quote:
“Along with Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich practically invented the genre of noir.”
—Newsday

"Woolrich can distill more terror, more excitement, more downright nail-biting suspense out of even the most commonplace happenings than nearly all his competitors." - Ellery Queen

"An opus out of the ordinary, highly emotional and suspenseful, with a surprise finish that turns somersaults." - The Saturday Review of Literature on The Bride Wore Black.

This novel is not to be missed by crime fiction, suspense thriller and Woolrich fans. It was the first suspense novel that Woolrich wrote following his career as a pulp fiction author. Upon publication, the Kansas City Star said it was "a delicacy for epicures" while the Hartford Courant stated it was "the most exciting experience in crime fiction this reviewer has had in some considerable time." Cleveland's Plain Dealer called it "fresh and tremendously effective." The Baltimore Sun was even more effusive with "If it doesn't freeze your blood, then you are immune to literary chills."

The story is about a woman who is obsessed with a deadly personal mission. She selects her victims with care. She dispatches them with cunningness and then she vanishes as quickly as she surfaces - out of nowhere. No one knows her identity or why she appears to undertake such ghastly deeds. We only know she has terrifying beauty and each time she appears a man dies horribly!
232 pp.

Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith [Catlady, astrangerhere, Pablo]
Amazon US $9.99 | Kobo US $12.79 | OverDrive, Scribd
Spoiler:
Quote:
In Deep Water, set in the quiet, small town of Little Wesley, Patricia Highsmith has created a vicious and suspenseful tale of love gone sour.

Vic and Melinda Van Allen's loveless marriage is held together only by a precarious arrangement whereby, in order to avoid the messiness of divorce, Melinda is allowed to take any number of lovers as long as she does not desert her family. Eventually, Vic can no longer suppress his jealousy and tries to win back his wife by asserting himself through a tall tale of murder—one that soon comes true. In this complex portrayal of a dangerous psychosis emerging in the most unlikely of places, Highsmith examines the chilling reality behind the idyllic facade of American suburban life.
273 pp.

Fadeout by Joseph Hansen [CRussel, Bookpossum, Pablo]
AmazonUS $7.99 | AmazonUK £0.99 | AmazonCA $9.99 | KoboUS $8.69
Spoiler:
Quote:
Dave Brandstetter stands alongside Philip Marlow, Sam Spade and Lew Archer as one of the best fictional PIs in the business. Like them, he was tough, determined, and ruthless when the case demanded it. Unlike them, he was gay.

Joseph Hansen's groundbreaking novels follow Brandstetter as he investigates cases in which motives are murky, passions run high, and nothing is ever as simple as it looks. Set in 1970s and 80s California, the series is a fascinating portrait of a time and a place, with mysteries to match Chandler and Macdonald.

In Fadeout, Dave is sent to investigate the death of radio personality Fox Olsen. His car is found crashed in a dry river bed. But there is no body - and as Dave looks deeper into his life, it seems as though he had good reasons to disappear.
202 pp.

The Sirens Sang of Murder by Sarah Caudwell [sufue, Dazrin, Victoria]
Kindle $7.99 | Kobo $7.99 | Kindle UK £3.99 | Kobo UK £3.99 | OverDrive
Spoiler:
Young barrister Michael Cantrip has skipped off to the Channel Islands to take on a tax-law case that's worth a fortune -- if Cantrip's tax-planning cronies can locate the missing heir. But Cantrip has waded in way over his head. Strange things are happening on these mysterious, isolated isles. Something is going bump in the night -- and bumping off members of the legal team, one by one. Soon Cantrip is telexing the gang at the home office for help. And it's up to amateur investigator Hilary Tamar (Oxford don turned supersleuth) to get Cantrip back to the safety of his chambers -- alive!
277 pp.

Last edited by issybird; 03-01-2019 at 07:33 AM. Reason: Through post #79.
issybird is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-01-2019, 06:29 AM   #2
issybird
o saeclum infacetum
issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
issybird's Avatar
 
Posts: 20,209
Karma: 222235366
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: New England
Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5
Choices with one or two nominations:

**The Englishman's Cameo by Madhulika Liddle [stuartjmz, sufue]
AMAZON | KOBO NZ$24.99
Spoiler:
Quote:
SYNOPSIS
A poisoned paan, a non-government issue arrow and the cameo of a mysterious Englishman...Muzaffar Jang is that rare creature in Mughal Emperor Shahjahan’s Dilli – an aristocrat with friends in low places. One of whom, Faisal, stands accused of murder. When the body of Mirza Murad Begh is found stabbed in the chest, lying in a water channel in the Qila, poor Faisal is the only one around. But what of the fact that, minutes before his demise, the victim had stepped out of the haveli of Shahjahanabad’s most ravishing courtesan? Could not the sultry Mehtab Banu and her pale, delicate sister, Gulnar have something to do with the murder? Determined to save his friend, Muzaffar decides to investigate, with only a cup now and then of that new-fangled brew – ‘Allah, so bitter’ – called coffee to help him. A trail of clues leads him from Mehtab’s haveli out into the streets of seventeenth-century Dilli – rife with rumours of Dara Shukoh’s strange leanings and Prince Aurangzeb’s rebelliousness – into a conspiracy far more sinister than he had imagined...
295 pp.

*Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane [Catlady]
Amazon US $9.99 | Kobo US $9.99 | OverDrive, Scribd, Hoopla, RB Digital
Spoiler:
Quote:
U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels has come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to find an escaped murderer named Rachel Solando.

As a killer hurricane bears down on the island, the investigation deepens and the questions mount. How has a barefoot woman escaped from a locked room? Who is leaving them clues in the form of cryptic codes? And what really goes on in Ward C?

The closer Teddy gets to the truth, the more elusive it becomes. And the more he begins to believe that he may never leave Shutter Island. Because someone is trying to drive him insane...
Quote:
The basis for the blockbuster motion picture directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Shutter Island by New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane is a gripping and atmospheric psychological thriller where nothing is quite what it seems. The New York Times calls Shutter Island, "Startlingly original." The Washington Post raves, "Brilliantly conceived and executed." A masterwork of suspense and surprise from the author of Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone, Shutter Island carries the reader into a nightmare world of madness, mind control, and CIA Cold War paranoia and is unlike anything you've ever read before.
400 pp.

Last edited by issybird; 02-06-2019 at 03:22 PM. Reason: Through post #78.
issybird is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 02-01-2019, 11:44 AM   #3
Dazrin
Wizard
Dazrin ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Dazrin ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Dazrin ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Dazrin ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Dazrin ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Dazrin ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Dazrin ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Dazrin ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Dazrin ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Dazrin ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Dazrin ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Dazrin's Avatar
 
Posts: 2,631
Karma: 73864785
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: PDXish
Device: Kindle Voyage, various Android devices
With a theme of Murder They Wrote I figure I need to either nominate something with Jessica Fletcher (a.k.a. Donald Bain) or I need to nominate something done by a group of crime authors.

I saw enough Jessica Fletcher* growing up so I wanted to explore the second option.

Collaborative fiction has a fairly long history so there must be some good thrillers in the category. It turns out that there is a group of crime/mystery authors that does exactly this: The Detection Club.

G.K. Chesterton was the first club president and together with some amazing authors, including Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, put together their first collaborative novel in 1931, The Floating Admiral. Wow! Yes please! Sadly it does not appear to be available as a ebook in the US. BOOO! (It is available in the UK though. 8 years to go in the US I guess.)
Spoiler:
The Floating Admiral by The Detection Club (1931)
From Wikipedia:
Quote:
The Floating Admiral is a collaborative detective novel written by fourteen members of the Detection Club in 1931. The twelve chapters of the story were each written by a different author, in the following sequence: Canon Victor Whitechurch, G. D. H. Cole and Margaret Cole, Henry Wade, Agatha Christie, John Rhode, Milward Kennedy, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ronald Knox, Freeman Wills Crofts, Edgar Jepson, Clemence Dane and Anthony Berkeley. G. K. Chesterton contributed a Prologue, which was written after the novel had been completed.

In a literary game of consequences, each author would write one chapter, leaving G.K. Chesterton to write a typically paradoxical prologue and Anthony Berkeley to tie up all the loose ends. In addition, each of the authors provided their own solution in a sealed envelope, all of which appeared at the end of the book.

As Sayers explained in the introduction to the book, "Each writer must construct his instalment with a definite solution in view—that is, he must not introduce new complications merely 'to make it more difficult' ... [E]ach writer was bound to deal faithfully with all the difficulties left for his consideration by his predecessors."

With that lament out of the way, I am nominating another collaborative novel with a more modern Who's-Who list of authors including Jeffery Deaver, Diana Gabaldon, J.A. Jance, Alexander McCall Smith, Tess Geritsen, and many more. It's also available as an ebook and Overdrive has it.

No Rest for the Dead edited by Andrew Gulli
256 pgs
Amazon (Smile) | Kobo
Quote:
Contributing authors:
Jeff Abbott, Sandra Brown, Jeffery Deaver, Diana Gabaldon, Tess Gerritsen, Peter James, J.A. Jance, Faye Kellerman, Raymond Khoury, John Lescroart, Jeff Lindsay, Gayle Lynds, Phillip Margolin, Alexander McCall Smith, Michael Palmer, T. Jefferson Parker, Matthew Pearl, Kathy Reichs, Marcus Sakey, Jonathan Santlofer, Lisa Scottoline, R.L. Stine, Marcia Talley, Lori G. Armstrong

Synopsis:
When Christopher Thomas, a ruthless curator at San Francisco’s McFall Art Museum, is murdered and his decaying body is found in an iron maiden in a Berlin museum, his wife, Rosemary, is the primary suspect, and she is tried, convicted, and executed. Ten years later, Jon Nunn, the detective who cracked the case, is convinced that the wrong person was put to death. In the years since the case was closed, he’s discovered a web of deceit and betrayal surrounding the Thomases that could implicate any number of people in the crime. With the help of the dead woman’s friend, he plans to gather everyone who was there the night Christopher died and finally uncover the truth, suspect by suspect. Solving this case may be Nunn’s last chance for redemption…but the shadowy forces behind Christopher’s death will stop at nothing to silence the past forever.
* I figure she must have been the world's most proficient serial killer, no one can have that many friends and acquaintances killed and not be involved.
Dazrin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-01-2019, 01:10 PM   #4
issybird
o saeclum infacetum
issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
issybird's Avatar
 
Posts: 20,209
Karma: 222235366
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: New England
Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5
I used to be addicted, but I've gone off mystery novels. In any case, I thought that if I looked at the theme as someone who chose to write about murder or deadly pursuits, true crime was the way to go. The real deal.

Loved the film, never read the book, so I'm nominating Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, the source for the wonderful Scorcese film GoodFellas (the book is also titled GoodFellas in the UK and Australia).

Quote:
Nicholas Pileggi’s vivid, unvarnished, journalistic chronicle of the life of Henry Hill—the working-class Brooklyn kid who knew from age twelve that “to be a wiseguy was to own the world,” who grew up to live the highs and lows of the mafia gangster’s life—has been hailed as “the best book ever written on organized crime” (Cosmopolitan).

This is the true-crime bestseller that was the basis for Martin Scorsese’s film masterpiece GoodFellas, which brought to life the violence, the excess, the families, the wives and girlfriends, the drugs, the payoffs, the paybacks, the jail time, and the Feds…with Henry Hill’s crackling narration drawn straight out of Wiseguy and overseeing all the unforgettable action.
US$9.99, CA$9.99, £6.95, AU$14.95 Kobo/$7.59 Amazon, OverDrive
306 pp.

Last edited by issybird; 02-01-2019 at 01:14 PM.
issybird is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-01-2019, 02:38 PM   #5
CRussel
(he/him/his)
CRussel ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.CRussel ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.CRussel ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.CRussel ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.CRussel ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.CRussel ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.CRussel ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.CRussel ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.CRussel ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.CRussel ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.CRussel ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
CRussel's Avatar
 
Posts: 12,157
Karma: 79742714
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Sunshine Coast, BC
Device: Oasis (Gen3),Paperwhite (Gen10), Voyage, Paperwhite(orig), Fire HD 8
Fadeout by Joseph Hansen

I'd like to nominate the first of the Dave Brandstetter mysteries from Joseph Hansen: Fadeout.

This is an absolute classic, possibly the first modern crossover. I first read it back in the 70's, and it had a significant impact on me, since I'd grown up in a WASP household. When I re-read it last year, I was pleased to find it's held up well. This is a short book, ~200 pages, and a good read.

From Goodreads:
Quote:
Dave Brandstetter stands alongside Philip Marlow, Sam Spade and Lew Archer as one of the best fictional PIs in the business. Like them, he was tough, determined, and ruthless when the case demanded it. Unlike them, he was gay.

Joseph Hansen's groundbreaking novels follow Brandstetter as he investigates cases in which motives are murky, passions run high, and nothing is ever as simple as it looks. Set in 1970s and 80s California, the series is a fascinating portrait of a time and a place, with mysteries to match Chandler and Macdonald.

In Fadeout, Dave is sent to investigate the death of radio personality Fox Olsen. His car is found crashed in a dry river bed. But there is no body - and as Dave looks deeper into his life, it seems as though he had good reasons to disappear.
Length: 202 pages.
Available from:

AmazonUS: $7.99

AmazonUK: £0.99

AmazonCA: $9.99CDN

KoboUS: $8.69

I originally nominated this for our very first month, and it didn't get through that time, but I figure it never hurts to try again. This is a good book, and it had a significant impact on me when I read it the first time.
CRussel is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 02-01-2019, 04:35 PM   #6
bfisher
Wizard
bfisher ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bfisher ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bfisher ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bfisher ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bfisher ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bfisher ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bfisher ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bfisher ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bfisher ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bfisher ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bfisher ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 1,638
Karma: 28483498
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Ottawa Canada
Device: Sony PRS-T3, Galaxy (Aldiko, Kobo app)
I second Wiseguy.

Loved the movie; didn't know it was an adaptation.
bfisher is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-01-2019, 05:58 PM   #7
Bookpossum
Snoozing in the sun
Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Bookpossum's Avatar
 
Posts: 10,137
Karma: 115423645
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Device: iPad Mini, Kobo Touch
I have also decided on a true crime book, which I read about when it was published in 2017, and thought sounded both horrifying and interesting.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann. From Goodreads:

Quote:
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.

Then, one by one, they began to be killed off. One Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, watched as her family was murdered. Her older sister was shot. Her mother was then slowly poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances.

In this last remnant of the Wild West—where oilmen like J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes such as Al Spencer, “the Phantom Terror,” roamed – virtually anyone who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll surpassed more than twenty-four Osage, the newly created F.B.I. took up the case, in what became one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations. But the bureau was then notoriously corrupt and initially bungled the case. Eventually the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only Native American agents in the bureau. They infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest modern techniques of detection. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most sinister conspiracies in American history.

A true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history.
Prices at Kobo: $US11.99, $C13.99, $A16.99, $NZ18.66,£5.99. 359 pages.

Last edited by Bookpossum; 02-02-2019 at 07:23 AM. Reason: Adding in NZ price - sorry stuartjmz!
Bookpossum is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-01-2019, 06:18 PM   #8
stuartjmz
Nameless Being
 
I'd like to nominate The Englishman's Cameo, by Madhulika Liddle. I am very biased toward this book because of personal interactions with the author over many years. The story itself though, holds up without any outside help. The mystery is engaging, and the history is rock solid. Unlike A LOT of "historical mystery" writers, Madhu takes the history part of her stories VERY seriously, and to make sure her stories work in their depiction of the time, she's researched them in depth, and had the help of her sister, a professional, published historian. I learned A LOT about Mughal Delhi over course of the series. Muzaffar is an interesting character, he dabbles in poetry (the "they write" bit, perhaps?) and the series as whole is well worth a read, getting off to a bright start with this book.


Quote:
SYNOPSIS
A poisoned paan, a non-government issue arrow and the cameo of a mysterious Englishman...Muzaffar Jang is that rare creature in Mughal Emperor Shahjahan’s Dilli – an aristocrat with friends in low places. One of whom, Faisal, stands accused of murder. When the body of Mirza Murad Begh is found stabbed in the chest, lying in a water channel in the Qila, poor Faisal is the only one around. But what of the fact that, minutes before his demise, the victim had stepped out of the haveli of Shahjahanabad’s most ravishing courtesan? Could not the sultry Mehtab Banu and her pale, delicate sister, Gulnar have something to do with the murder? Determined to save his friend, Muzaffar decides to investigate, with only a cup now and then of that new-fangled brew – ‘Allah, so bitter’ – called coffee to help him. A trail of clues leads him from Mehtab’s haveli out into the streets of seventeenth-century Dilli – rife with rumours of Dara Shukoh’s strange leanings and Prince Aurangzeb’s rebelliousness – into a conspiracy far more sinister than he had imagined...


AMAZON

KOBO
  Reply With Quote
Old 02-01-2019, 07:00 PM   #9
gmw
cacoethes scribendi
gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
gmw's Avatar
 
Posts: 5,809
Karma: 137770742
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Australia
Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650
I nominate Come, Tell Me How You Live: An Archaeological Memoir by Agatha Christie.

Amazon US - USD$8.99 | Amazon UK - £6.99 | Amazon CA - CDN$9.99 | Amazon AU - AUD$10.99 | Kobo US - USD$8.99 | Kobo UK - £6.99 | Kobo CA - CAD$9.99 | Kobo AU AUD$10.99 | 236 pages

Description from Goodreads:
Quote:
Agatha Christie was already a celebrated writer of mysteries in 1930 when she married archaeologist Max Mallowan. She enthusiastically joined him on archaeological expeditions in the Middle East, providing backgrounds for novels and "everyday doings and happenings". Pre-war Syria years are remembered here, not chronologically, but in a cluster of vignettes about servants and aristocrats who peppered their lives with annoyances and pleasures.
I realise this is rather a different take on the theme, but I figure it fits both parts: A memoir from Agatha Christie who wrote books about murder, and what is archaeology if not the pursuit of things long dead? (Okay, so it's a bit of a twist away from Deadly Pursuits , but close enough.)

I have not yet read this, but it's been on my radar since HarryT recommended it to me more than 2 years ago.
gmw is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-01-2019, 07:07 PM   #10
stuartjmz
Nameless Being
 
How do you all find the prices for different sites? Do you login via proxy?
  Reply With Quote
Old 02-01-2019, 07:12 PM   #11
issybird
o saeclum infacetum
issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
issybird's Avatar
 
Posts: 20,209
Karma: 222235366
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: New England
Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5
Kobo is easy; just click on the flag and change it. Amazon can be more problematic, in that sometimes even if you're on a different national site they're showing the availability and price in your own translated currency. In both situations, just looking from an incognito or private window can help get unalloyed results.

ETA: If you hit a snag, someone in the country will be happy to help. I have to say that it seems your nomination isn't available in the US.
issybird is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-01-2019, 07:16 PM   #12
Bookpossum
Snoozing in the sun
Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Bookpossum's Avatar
 
Posts: 10,137
Karma: 115423645
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Device: iPad Mini, Kobo Touch
Quote:
Originally Posted by stuartjmz View Post
How do you all find the prices for different sites? Do you login via proxy?
On Kobo, just click on the flag right up near the top of the page. That offers you a whole lot of flags and the main ones to check for price and availability for our members are the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. If the book isn't available in one of these countries, particularly the US, it may not do very well.

I find that Amazon is more problematic, as the prices given seem to be an Australian version in $US for example, rather than showing me the US page. So I just use Kobo as an indicator, and leave it to the locals to check their own Amazon site if that's their preference.

Hope that helps.

Issybird beat me to it!
Bookpossum is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-01-2019, 07:23 PM   #13
stuartjmz
Nameless Being
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird View Post
I have to say that it seems your nomination isn't available in the US.

Ah, that's a shame. I read it in paper format back when it was first released. when I saw it available as ebook to me, I assumed it would be available to the US as well. Using a proxy to access Amazon US, I see that it's still paper only, and currently ut of stock. Disappointing.
  Reply With Quote
Old 02-01-2019, 07:27 PM   #14
issybird
o saeclum infacetum
issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.issybird ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
issybird's Avatar
 
Posts: 20,209
Karma: 222235366
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: New England
Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5
Quote:
Originally Posted by stuartjmz View Post
Ah, that's a shame. I read it in paper format back when it was first released. when I saw it available as ebook to me, I assumed it would be available to the US as well. Using a proxy to access Amazon US, I see that it's still paper only, and currently ut of stock. Disappointing.
Given that it's unlikely to have much traction under the circumstances, would you like to withdraw the nomination?

ETA: A quick look shows it's available in NZ, AU and UK (cheap!), but not in CA or US

Last edited by issybird; 02-01-2019 at 07:30 PM.
issybird is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-01-2019, 07:30 PM   #15
stuartjmz
Nameless Being
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum View Post

I find that Amazon is more problematic, as the prices given seem to be an Australian version in $US for example, rather than showing me the US page. So I just use Kobo as an indicator, and leave it to the locals to check their own Amazon site if that's their preference.

This confused me at first when I switched to Kobo from Kindle. The price difference seemed HUGE, then I realised that Amazon was showing me books available to NZ but listed in $US, while Kobo was showing me $NZ prices. 75-80% of the books are within $1US of each other, it turns out. But availability is a different kettle of fish, as issy's comment reminded me. It's disappointing because when logged into "amazon.com", as opposed to say "amazon.com.au", I would have expected to see US availability.
  Reply With Quote
Reply


Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
New Leaf Nominations for January 2019 • Lost in Translation: Other Tongues issybird Book Clubs 69 03-06-2019 07:28 AM
New Leaf Nominations for February 2019 • Let's Make a Deal: Trade Secrets issybird Book Clubs 47 01-07-2019 07:11 AM
Literary Non-Fiction Nominations • March 2016 sun surfer Book Clubs 25 03-05-2016 10:00 PM
Literary Non-Fiction Nominations • March 2014 sun surfer Book Clubs 34 03-05-2014 09:18 AM
Literary Non-Fiction Nominations • March 2013 sun surfer Book Clubs 36 03-04-2013 12:59 AM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 11:01 PM.


MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.