What did you read in February?
Spuddie
the middle of George R.R. Martin's A FEAST FOR CROWS and I know I
won't finish it by tomorrow night so here we go. Down a bit in number
of books this month, but a couple of these are big books and I spent
a fair bit of time busy with other stuff, too. An enjoyable month, to
be sure!
1. DEATH MASKS by Jim Butcher. #5 Harry Dresden paranormal series.
Once again Harry races through the book on 20 minutes sleep chasing
bad guys, trying to earn enough money to stay out of the poorhouse,
and to keep one step ahead of the White Council. In this book, Harry
is challenged to a duel to the death by a warlord vampire of the Red
Court, is hired by a Vatican official to recover the Shroud of Turin,
which has been stolen by an international mob of religious artifacts
thieves known as the Churchmice, and must deal with the return of
Susan, his girlfriend who has been turned into a sort of ‘half a
vampire’ and who has been away from Chicago for a year. Quick-paced,
full of Harry’s usual wit and wisdom, and enjoyable as always. A.
2.AMAGANSETT by Mark Mills. Historical mystery set in coastal NY
after WWII. This book was a slow starter; I nearly gave up after 40
or 50 pages, but I’m glad I didn’t because at some point I found
myself totally sucked in and the book got very difficult to put down.
Story of a young socialite found drowned off the coast of Long
Island, hauled in by two fishermen when her body became tangled in
their nets. The medical examiner lists it as an accidental drowning,
but Deputy Hollis has a ‘feeling’ that she didn’t die of natural
causes although there are no overt signs of foul play. He’s ordered
to leave the case alone but investigates on his own. Told from the
perspective of Hollis as well as Conrad Labarde, one of the fishermen
who found the body. Lots of flashbacking and backstory explanations
which did get a little tedious over time but also helped to really
flesh out the main characters. It’s only this extensive flashbacking
that caused me to lower the grade slightly as I felt it distracting.
Otherwise, excellent story! B+
3. BIG CITY, BAD BLOOD by Sean Chercover. I started reading this book
and after just a few pages, thought to myself, “Oh no! It’s a MOB
book!” Mob books and movies are definitely not my favorites. As in, I
would not knowingly pick one up. LOL But I kept reading for a few
more pages, and the next thing you know, I was coming up for air at
the end of chapter nine. This is the best hardboiled PI mystery that
I’ve read in a long time, mob book or no. PI Ray Dudgeon is a
likable, if doomed character with a set of very interesting friends
and acquaintances, some of whom are affiliated with the
Chicago “Outfit” as we’re told the Mafia are referred to there.
Excellent book. Fast-paced, well-plotted and with well-fleshed
characters, it’s hard to believe that it’s a first novel. A+
4. THE LAST JUDGEMENT by Iain Pears. #4 Jonathan Argyll “art history”
mystery in which ghosts of the past float up to haunt Flavia and
Jonathan as they try to figure out how a painting that Jonathan
bought figures into two murders and a multitude of other curious
incidents. Enjoyable read as always, as our two intrepid heroes jaunt
across Europe chasing answers about an obscure and unimportant
painting, The Death of Socrates, and the people who owned it in the
past. Tied in with Nazi war criminals, Resistance members, and people
who aren’t what they seem, the painting is causing Jonathan more
trouble than he ever dreamed possible. A.
5. FROM TIME TO TIME by Jack Finney. Sequel to Finney’s time-travel
classic, Time and Again, this book begins with Simon Morley, our
intrepid hero, back in the 1880’s, the time he chose to stay in. But
something happens that spurs him to temporarily leave his wife Julia
and their son Willy in 1882 and head back to modern times—and then
again to another time altogether! While I mostly enjoyed this book, I
felt it got a bit draggy and repetitive in spots and it wasn’t quite
as compelling a read as Time and Again. The book raises some
interesting questions: if you could go back in time and change a few
small things that would ultimately change history and affect the
world you live in today in unfathomable ways, would you? I give this
one a B.
6. THE MAGICIAN’S GUILD by Trudi Canavan. Black Magician trilogy Book
1, about a teenage girl named Sonea, a commoner who gets caught up in
a protest against the Magicians on Purge day. When she becomes very
angry and throws a rock that breaches the Magicians’ magical barrier,
it’s obvious that Sonea must have latent magical power. Soon everyone
is searching for her—from the Guild itself to fellow slum-dwellers,
eager for the reward that turning her in would bring. Sonea is
shuttled from hiding place to hiding place by a small group of
friends while trying to make sense of her new-found magic power—only
to discover just how dangerous it can be when she has no idea how to
control it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The writing style kept
you reading on and on, and while it contains many of the elements
that make up other fantasy books and is not a terribly unique story-
line, I thought it was a very well-told story and the author was able
to make her characters and settings come to life. A.
7. THE MUGGER by Ed McBain. #2 in the 87th Precinct police procedural
series, this book is an oldy moldy! It’s older than I am, and that’s
pretty darned old. LOL I’ve read many of these years ago and am now
in the process of re-reading them all and will eventually catch up
with the newer ones. This book features a mugger who wears sunglasses
at night, robs women of their money, slugs them in the face and then
bows at the waist and says, “Clifford thanks you” before running off.
It’s a foregone conclusion that things are going to go beyond mugging
at some point, and they do. The book is a bit dated (this WAS written
in 1956 after all!) so there were some things I had a good chuckle
about, like a Detective 2nd Grade making just over $5k a year, and
other things that were sort of annoying—like a stool pigeon who talks
constantly in that 50’s hip slang, daddy-o, you dig? (I kept thinking
of him as Maynard G. Krebs! LOL) But it was a quick, enjoyable read
and I look forward to the rest of the series. B+
8. THIRTY-THREE TEETH by Colin Cotterill. #2 Dr. Siri Paiboun
mystery, set in 1970’s Laos. Dr. Siri is the reluctant 72-year-old
national coroner in post-Vietnam war Laos, as well as the current
embodiment of an ancient Hmong shaman. Thus, he sees ghosts and hears
spirits which help him in his mystery-solving. With his devil-may-
care attitude, he is often bordering on running afoul of the new
Communist regime in Laos, mostly because he would love nothing more
than for his superiors to remove him from office and let him retire
in peace. As with the last book, several mysteries and sub-plots join
forces to make this a full and interesting book. Full of ‘woo woo’
(supernatural stuff) so if you don’t like that sort of thing, you may
as well just stay away from this one. Except that Dr. Siri is such a
delightful character I would recommend him to anyone! A+.
9. DEAD SOULS by Ian Rankin. #10 Inspector Rebus British police
procedural. For some reason, I had a hard time getting into and
getting through this book. Rebus investigates the disappearance of
the 19-year-old son of some old school friends from Fife, and the
whole issue of “MisPers” (missing persons) is explored. While that is
happening, he also contemplates the suicide death of a fellow officer
who seemed to have it all going for him, and Rebus believes he was
murdered for some reason. Then the subject of paedophiles and
childhood abuse comes up, with that theme running through several
cases, old and new. The book seemed a bit ‘bloated’ though, the
storylines getting sidetracked from time to time, and this detracted
from the story rather than enhancing it as sometimes is the case.
Usually when I pick up a Rebus book, it’s hard for me to put it down
and I’m done in a day or two. This one, I would read a couple dozen
pages and become distracted, set it aside to go read something else
for awhile and it took me nearly a week to get through it. C+
10. THE LAST JEW by Noah Gordon. Historical fiction taking place in
1490’s to early 1500’s during the expulsion of the Jews from Spain.
Many converted to Catholicism rather than leave, but many who
converted (‘conversos’) were later hunted down by the Inquisition,
persecuted and burned at the stake. This is the story of Yonah
Toledano, teenage son of a master silversmith who is separated from
his family during their hasty flight from their home. His father is
killed, his younger brother, aunt and uncle flee to who knows where,
and Yonah finds himself totally alone, to the point where he feels
like the last Jew in Spain. As he wanders from town to town, farm to
farm, working manual labor jobs and staying in each place for only a
few seasons (occasionally a few years until trouble managed to find
him again) and eventually apprenticing himself to a physician in
Saragossa, pretending outwardly to be Christian but inside still
trying to stay true to the memory of his father and remain a Jew,
Yonah meets many fascinating people and has many adventures.
Absolutely wonderful story—a bit wandering at times, but very
atmospheric and moving. A+
11. AGATHA RAISIN AND THE FAIRIES OF FRYFAM by M.C. Beaton. #10
Agatha Raisin mystery in which Agatha (once again fleeing Carsely to
try to escape the memory of her beloved James who is still “away”)
ventures off to rent a cottage in the little Norfolk village of
Fryfam. It’s not long before Agatha’s out of sorts, a murder has
occurred and she’s tangled up right in the midst of it. Meanwhile,
little mysterious lights keep appearing in her garden, and the
neighbors, a superstitious lot, attribute them to ‘the fairies’ since
this is such an ‘old country’ and all. A typical, light enjoyable
Agatha Raisin book with a bit of a surprise ending. B+
12. CROWNER’S QUEST by Bernard Knight. #3 in the Crowner John
historical mystery series set in 1190’s Devon, UK. A priest is found
hanged in the privy behind his home, at first presumed a suicide but
upon further investigation, it’s obvious someone else did the deed.
Why would anyone kill such a quiet, mousy little man who was happiest
in the church library poring over history books, especially on a holy
day such as the Eve of Christ’s Mass? When a second murder takes
place a few days later, Crowner John de Wolfe begins to see the
connections though of course his brother-in-law the Sheriff would
disagree and seems to be deliberately trying to keep the coroner from
investigating fully. Political intrigues and women troubles plague
the Crowner in this book and a simple little murder is never quite
what it seems. Enjoyable historical mystery with refreshingly
realistic characters. A.
13. GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE by Susan Vreeland. Historical fiction,
actually a book of short stories that follow a painting from modern
times back to the painter and the subject of the painting. It’s many
different stories and varied lives woven into one tale. I like
stories like this that follow an object (a painting, a house, a
place) through history, and Vreeland did this one very well, able to
narrate a story from the perspective of a wide variety of characters,
from a modern-day math professor in the USA to a French Lady in the
time of Louis XIV, to a poor Dutch farm wife. I enjoyed it very much
and will be looking for more from this author. A.
DNF: SHADOWMANCER by G.P. Taylor. Fantasy book that was (to me)
childishly and amateurishly written. Gave it a good 40 pages but
couldn’t get interested in the story or the characters and the
author’s writing style I just found annoying.
Cheryl
~~~Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this: that you are
dreadfully like other people.~~~ (James Russell Lowell)
Mike Blake
> I like stories like this that follow an object
> (a painting, a house, a place) through history,
> and Vreeland did this one very well
It strikes me you might enjoy the movies THE YELLOW ROLLS-ROYCE and THE RED
VIOLIN, which have this plot. I'll leave it to you to guess what the object
is in those stories. <g>
In fact, I just looked up the former on IMDB, and they mentioned several of
them, at least one of them had bookly origins:
"...a Rolls Royce that passes hands from star to star. It is a formula used
before many times, most successfully in Julian Duvivier's "Tales of
Manhattan" in which a dinner jacket plays an important part in the destinies
of Edward G Robinson, Charles Laughton, Henry Fonda and Paul Robson among
others. More recently the formula was used by John Badham in his "The Gun"
and then Martin Donovan in the lyrically powerful "Seeds of Tragedy" in
which the Rolls Royce there is cocaine."
TALES OF MANHATTAN is also a great book by Louis Auchincloss.
--Mike Blake
Spuddie
Somewhere Else, Richard Burke <in...@richardburke.co.uk> gobbled the
last of the quail's eggs and serenely whispered:
>Wow! Busy lady! Thanks for these.
>
>Richard
You're welcome...and I promise to get to Frozen before too long. I
have it shut up in a drawer in a storage bin (no room on the TBR
shelves!) but I still hear it hollering, "Me next!" once in awhile
when I get close enough. <g>
Cheryl
~~~Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for
crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty.~~~ (Henry Ford)
Spuddie
Somewhere Else, "Mike Blake" <MikeB...@cox.net> gobbled the last of
the quail's eggs and serenely whispered:
>Cheryl wrote:
>> I like stories like this that follow an object
>> (a painting, a house, a place) through history,
>> and Vreeland did this one very well
>
>It strikes me you might enjoy the movies THE YELLOW ROLLS-ROYCE and THE RED
>VIOLIN, which have this plot. I'll leave it to you to guess what the object
>is in those stories. <g>
I think I have the Red Violin here somewhere...no wait, that's the
BLACK Violin. Different thang all together. I've heard of the red one,
though! The Yellow Rolls Royce doesn't strike me as even coming close
to being old enough to interest me, but I've taken note of it in any
case.
Another one that's extremely well-done in this style is Blackbird
House by Alice Hoffman...short little stories about this one little
piece of property and all the folks who lived there over the course of
a couple hundred years.
Cheryl
~~~The exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess Success is
our national disease.~~~ (William James)
A R Pickett
fleet of British ships to interrupt illegal slave trade along the west coast
of Africa. I'm nearing the end of this series in audio format, narrated by
Patrick Tull. I'm really going to miss these characters!
A False Mirror by Charles Todd - Inspector Rutledge is called to a hostage
situation along the southern coast of Britain. The reader knows quite a bit
the characters don't. The principal conflict between Rutledge and the man
who demands his presence isn't as well developed as it could have been.
The Killing Moon by Chuck Hogan - a small New England town which has hit
bottom economically is threatened by the illegal aspirations of the
personnel in law enforcement. An enigmatic return to the town by a former
resident disturbs an uneasy balance. I like Hogan's books quite a bit.
Walkin' the Dog by Walter Mosley - for a book discussion evening. One of my
groups picks a black American author every February. The discussion was
successful. It was my second time through the book, the first on audio, and
for me at any rate, it didn't stand up to a re-read.
Once in a Promised Land by Laila Halaby - five years and some months past
9/11, the events and their aftermath are beginning to appear in literature.
This is a very thoughtful, excellent read.
The Fall by Ron Franscell - True crime about a rape and murder in a small
Wyoming town in the 60's. Author is a journalist who as a teenager was a
neighbor of the two women who were assaulted.
The Shape Shifter by Tony Hillerman - I think other RAMily have mentioned
that this isn't Hillerman's best, but he still tells an intriguing story.
Joe Leaphorn has center stage, trying to adjust to retirement, and not
having an easy time of it.
Fever Moon by Carolyn Haines - The author of a popular series of cozies
moves on to darker themes. A cop, formerly a WWII infantryman, battles
superstition in a small Louisiana community in the late 40's and struggles
with his own demons as well.
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson - highly readable relating of a cholera
outbreak in 1850's London and the efforts of the community to discover and
isolate the cause.
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E M Delafield - another book discussion group
choice. Light and satiric, and like the best comedy, has a sharper more
serious edge at times.
--
A R Pickett aka Woodstock
"Sometimes the facts threaten the truth"
Amos Oz, prize winning Israeli author
Read my book reviews at:
http://www.booksnbytes.com/reviews/_idx_ws_all_byauth.html
Now blogging!
http://www.journalscape.com/woodstock/
Remove lower case "e" to respond
"Spuddie" <spu...@93xrocks.com> wrote in message
news:0da8u2177a0i36q78...@4ax.com...
> and their son Willy in 1882 and head back to modern times-and then
> again to another time altogether! While I mostly enjoyed this book, I
> felt it got a bit draggy and repetitive in spots and it wasn't quite
> as compelling a read as Time and Again. The book raises some
> interesting questions: if you could go back in time and change a few
> small things that would ultimately change history and affect the
> world you live in today in unfathomable ways, would you? I give this
> one a B.
>
> 6. THE MAGICIAN'S GUILD by Trudi Canavan. Black Magician trilogy Book
> 1, about a teenage girl named Sonea, a commoner who gets caught up in
> a protest against the Magicians on Purge day. When she becomes very
> angry and throws a rock that breaches the Magicians' magical barrier,
> it's obvious that Sonea must have latent magical power. Soon everyone
> is searching for her-from the Guild itself to fellow slum-dwellers,
> eager for the reward that turning her in would bring. Sonea is
> shuttled from hiding place to hiding place by a small group of
> friends while trying to make sense of her new-found magic power-only
> to discover just how dangerous it can be when she has no idea how to
> control it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The writing style kept
> you reading on and on, and while it contains many of the elements
> that make up other fantasy books and is not a terribly unique story-
> line, I thought it was a very well-told story and the author was able
> to make her characters and settings come to life. A.
>
> 7. THE MUGGER by Ed McBain. #2 in the 87th Precinct police procedural
> series, this book is an oldy moldy! It's older than I am, and that's
> pretty darned old. LOL I've read many of these years ago and am now
> in the process of re-reading them all and will eventually catch up
> with the newer ones. This book features a mugger who wears sunglasses
> at night, robs women of their money, slugs them in the face and then
> bows at the waist and says, "Clifford thanks you" before running off.
> It's a foregone conclusion that things are going to go beyond mugging
> at some point, and they do. The book is a bit dated (this WAS written
> in 1956 after all!) so there were some things I had a good chuckle
> about, like a Detective 2nd Grade making just over $5k a year, and
> other things that were sort of annoying-like a stool pigeon who talks
> Absolutely wonderful story-a bit wandering at times, but very
Jill Brickman
>
> Once in a Promised Land by Laila Halaby - five years and some months past
> 9/11, the events and their aftermath are beginning to appear in
> literature.
> This is a very thoughtful, excellent read.
>
book which weaves in cultural aspects to which I've had little exposure.
I'm so glad I read it.
Jill
Jeanmarie Skahan
> again to another time altogether! While I mostly enjoyed this book, I
> felt it got a bit draggy and repetitive in spots and it wasn't quite
> as compelling a read as Time and Again. The book raises some
> interesting questions: if you could go back in time and change a few
> small things that would ultimately change history and affect the
> world you live in today in unfathomable ways, would you? I give this
> one a B.
>
> 6. THE MAGICIAN'S GUILD by Trudi Canavan. Black Magician trilogy Book
> 1, about a teenage girl named Sonea, a commoner who gets caught up in
> a protest against the Magicians on Purge day. When she becomes very
> angry and throws a rock that breaches the Magicians' magical barrier,
> it's obvious that Sonea must have latent magical power. Soon everyone
> eager for the reward that turning her in would bring. Sonea is
> shuttled from hiding place to hiding place by a small group of
> to discover just how dangerous it can be when she has no idea how to
> control it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The writing style kept
> you reading on and on, and while it contains many of the elements
> that make up other fantasy books and is not a terribly unique story-
> line, I thought it was a very well-told story and the author was able
> to make her characters and settings come to life. A.
>
> 7. THE MUGGER by Ed McBain. #2 in the 87th Precinct police procedural
> series, this book is an oldy moldy! It's older than I am, and that's
> pretty darned old. LOL I've read many of these years ago and am now
> in the process of re-reading them all and will eventually catch up
> with the newer ones. This book features a mugger who wears sunglasses
> at night, robs women of their money, slugs them in the face and then
> bows at the waist and says, "Clifford thanks you" before running off.
> It's a foregone conclusion that things are going to go beyond mugging
> at some point, and they do. The book is a bit dated (this WAS written
> in 1956 after all!) so there were some things I had a good chuckle
> about, like a Detective 2nd Grade making just over $5k a year, and
> atmospheric and moving. A+
>
> 11. AGATHA RAISIN AND THE FAIRIES OF FRYFAM by M.C. Beaton. #10
> Agatha Raisin mystery in which Agatha (once again fleeing Carsely to
> try to escape the memory of her beloved James who is still "away")
> ventures off to rent a cottage in the little Norfolk village of
>
> read more »
Thanks for the suggestions. Getting ready to retire in May and need
lots of reading to go along with my volunteer work. Appreciate all
the books.
Jeanmarie Skahan
wrote:
>
> read more »- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Thanks so much for great recommendations.