What are you reading the week of September 21, 2014?

[Enthusiast]

I just finished The Likeness by Tana French. I'm looking forward to Faithful Place but it has not arrived yet.

I'm going to have to decide on a book to read. Maybe one by Randy Wayne White or Tony Hillerman. I haven't read one by James D. Doss for a while.

The spousal unit is reading one by James Lee Burke. She really liked The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg.

What are you reading this week?

[pscot]

1. Sister Noon by Karen Joy Fowler

and The Crying of Lot 49 by Pynchon. Also Asser's Chronicle of Alfred the Great.

[shenmue]

2. 'The Second Deadly Sin,' Asa Larsson

Also , Cat Fancy.

[Enthusiast]

3. Do you have a kitteh, shenmue?

We have a kitteh. He has a toy box. It's just a shoe box filled with squeaky mice, toys and balls. He likes to kick the balls with his back toenails until the balls are all fuzzy. He insists that I play with him or he will tear around the house doing bad kitteh destruction.

[shenmue]

4. Not yet

I want one.

[Enthusiast]

5. I understand they are widely available.

[shenmue]

6. Oh yes

Shelters have the latest models for safe installation.

[scarletwoman]

9. I read "The Second Deadly Sin" a couple of weeks ago.

I thought it was a good story with interesting characters. So far, I've really enjoyed all of the Rebecka Martinsson series, I hope there are more to come.

Btw, I had to look up the Seven Deadly Sins, since that part of my childhood Catholic school education had long faded from my memory. The Second Deadly Sin is "Covetousness" - or avarice, greed.

[shenmue]

10. Aha!

I was thinking it was lust. Oopsie!

[scarletwoman]

13. I was thinking the same thing,

but once I got through the book, it didn't exactly seem to make sense. So I looked them up. Lust is #5 in the Catholic catechism.

[Enthusiast]

17. I share your childhood Catholic school education, scarletwoman.

10 years of it anyway. That was some experience. Not all bad.

[scarletwoman]

19. Kindergarten through 7th grade, for me.

I'm mostly grateful for it, to tell the truth.

For one thing, when I transferred to public school in 8th grade, I was far ahead academically compared to my peers - much as I rejoiced in no longer having to wear a uniform to school, I felt like I was surrounded by uneducated dolts, which was frustrating. I had been a straight-A student for my whole school career, and it took actual work to maintain that. Once in public school, I continued getting straight 'A's, but I could do it with my eyes closed and one hand tied behind my back, metaphorically speaking.

The other thing I've always loved about my Catholic education was growing up steeped in Latin. I sang in choir all through grade school and by the time I was in 4th grade I knew 4 complete Latin masses by heart. We weren't taught Latin formally, but I soaked it up like a sponge and it formed the basis of my lifelong love of etymology.

For that, and for many other reasons, I have long considered my Catholic school experience to be a net positive in my life - for all that I'm an atheistic animist/Buddhist these days.

[Enthusiast]

20. Yes, the Latin. I actually had a high school Freshman Latin class.

Little good it did me. I was also an actual altar boy.

I thought you might be Buddhist from the prayer wheel thingie. I am similarly inclined.

[SheilaT]

7. I want to make sure no one here wastes any time reading Alien Hunter

by Whitley Strieber.

I just spent ten minutes I'll never get back. The first page this guy, Flynn, wakes up, notices that the time is 12:40 a. m. and his wife is missing. He's a cop, a detective specifically, and so he reports her missing immediately. Pretty quickly cops and detectives get there to help him out, and they look at his alarm system to see when it was last turned off and then re-armed, presumably when wife left or was taken. 3:32/3:33. HUUUHHHH??? She left three hours after he woke up? I decided to put it down and then went to Amazon to check reviews there, and several people noted the enormous plot flaws and total lack of editing.

It's incomprehensible that anyone gave it more than one or two stars, but incredibly a number of people who must be semi-literate at best -- actually gave it five stars.

[Enthusiast]

8. I vow not to read it.

Thank you.

[shenmue]

11. I could use a laugh

but I'll read something else. Thanks for the warning.

[SheilaT]

18. Ohh, trust me, it's not in the so bad it's funny category.

It's simply bad. Poorly written, no editing whatsoever. The five or six pages I read seemed rather like a first draft that had not been proofed in any way. There is simply NO excuse for that. None.

[scarletwoman]

12. Well, damn and blast, I finished Håkan Nesser's "The G File" on Friday night.

I was trying to drag it out by taking big pauses in reading it and doing other stuff - and it's 600 pages long, after all - but as I got closer to the end, I just couldn't put it down.

I've enjoyed Nesser's Inspector Van Veeteren series, and it was way cool to have the mystery of the "G File" cleared up at last. And as I wrote in last week's thread when I posted about how excited I was that this book had finally come in, I'm quite fond of Van Veeteren, as fictional characters go. And the "G File" has been referenced numerous times throughout the earlier books of the series.

The book is in two parts - the first part takes place in 1987, when the events that led to original G file occurred - it was the only case that Van Veeteren had never solved in his 30 year career. The second part takes place in 2002, when new events have been set in motion which eventually lead to solving the old case.

The solution to the old case was a nicely crafted surprise - to me, at least. When I went to read the reader reviews on GoodReads (which I often do, but only after I've finished a book), several reviewers claimed to have figured it out long before the actual reveal. So, maybe I'm dense, because it never seemed obvious to me, dammit!

Anyway, for the most part I enjoyed the book - I found that last half of the 1987 part rather dragged a bit, but I kept faithfully plugging away so I could get to the payoff. And once I made it through the draggy stuff, the 2002 part pretty much sped right along.

I would definitely recommend it for readers who have already read and enjoyed the rest of the series. I would not recommend it for anyone for hasn't read the earlier books - there are just too many references and characters in The G File which would mean absolutely nothing to someone who hasn't read the whole series. And a large part of the enjoyment of this book involves the re-introduction of several characters from book 2 of series (Borkmann's Point), as well as the knowledge of how thoroughly this one heretofore unsolved case has haunted Van Veeteren all through the earlier books.

And now I'm left with nothing to read, again.

[shenmue]

14. Yay!

I like Nesser!

[scarletwoman]

15. Cool! If you've the read the rest of the Van Veeteren series, you absolutely *must* read this one.

Rumor has it that The G File may be the final Van Veeteran book.

[shenmue]

16. Le shucks

[getting old in mke]

21. _Raylan_ by Elmore Leonard

Raylan after the start of the "Justified" series--the internal voices are speaking with the the actors' voices.

Not among his best--too much spillover. But, it's still lovely to see Leonard's dialogue--identifying where people do leave out words and the rhythm of the speech.

[Enthusiast]

22. I like Elmore Leonard.

We recently read Glitz. There are many we have not read.

[SheilaT]

23. I have now started

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) and some 60 pages in it's very good. I want to read it quickly as there are 61 holds on the first copy returned of 12 copies. I love it that I can go to my library's website, look at my record and see what I've got checked out, what I've got on hold, and add books to my Check Out Someday list. As well as renew books on-line.

Technology is so wonderful.

[Enthusiast]

24. I decided on a book for this week.

Last edited Wed Sep 24, 2014, 05:25 PM - Edit history (1)

It's Randy Wayne White's Dead of Night.

It's the 24th. I'm about half way done with Dead of Night. I remember why I like these books.

[Goblinmonger]

25. Half of a Yellow Sun

I feel like that was something someone here was reading and I added it to my list.

About 20% through and it's a really compelling read. She does a nice job of bringing characters to life and getting me to care about them quickly.

Not something I would normally pick out but glad I'm reading it.

[Tracer]

26. Every week, I get 3 books from the library.

Three just in case one or more of them are of no interest.

This week I've got:

Heat by Bill Buford. I read half of it, but then it got a little too repetitive (and the fawning over Mario Batali got to be a bit too much).

The Dog by Joseph O'Neill. I've only got a little way into that and was somewhat turned off by the author's inability to break up his paragraphs. It ain't easy to wade through a three page paragraph! I may or may not continue.

Jack of Spies by David Downing. A story set in 1913. Just started it and found the historic background of China quite interesting. We'll see how it progresses.

[politicat]

27. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein.

It's a World War II novel, released in 2012, about the friendship between two young women, one a pilot for the ATA from Manchester, one a radio operator from Scotland. It's classed YA, but that's the most awful misclassification since someone put Left Behind in science fiction.

This is actually my second time through because there's an event about halfway through that changes everything.

The two major characters are both hilarious in their defiance of fascism, and heartbreaking. There are places where it's a little uneven, but for the most part, it's really well written.

Edit: typo'ed the ATA.

[Enthusiast]

28. This appeals to me.

I like historical fiction.

[politicat]

29. There is a caveat

The author makes a point of emphasizing the fiction, in part because of the Official Secrets Act. I've liked it well enough to re-read, which is getting rare as time gets more limited.

[SheilaT]

30. Finished The Silkworm.

I liked it, and think it's significantly better than the first Robert Galbraith novel.

However, I'm rather bothered by how in the last quarter of the book the author keeps withholding important information, simply telling us for instance that the main character tells another character what he wants her to do, and she agrees. But we do not find out what that thing is until a couple of chapters later.

I will say, I was reasonably certain who the killer was by that point.