Reading anything?

[alandhopewell]

     I read this when it first came out, found it in a library recently and decided to read it again....



    Still enjoyable.

[indianasmith]

I just finished reading THE BORGIAS: THE SECRET HISTORY by C. J. Meyer. This carefully researched work makes a convincing argument that the lurid Borgia family of legend was systematically slandered after they were no longer around to defend themselves and that most of the "Borgia legend" is pure bunk. Don't tell Showtime!

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!

6 of 1 mysteries + 1 more mystery

Elsa Hart
an American ex-pat
1st novelist
Jade Dragon Mountain
1st in the Li Du series
at least, hopefully, the 1st in a series

Alexander McCall Smith
an ex-pat from Africa
The Novel Habits of Happiness
10th in the Isabel Dalhousie series

Mark Billingham
Time of Death
13th in the DI Tom Thorne series
If you want something to see, then there is the TV series with David Morrissey

Paul Doiron
award winner
The Precipice
6th in the Mike Bowditch series

Belinda Bauer
Rubber Necker

Andrea Camilleri
A Beam of Light
19th in the Inspector Montalban
If you want to see something, then it is an Italian TV series

Victoria Thompson
Murder in Amsterdam Avenue
17th in the Gaslight Mystery series

Next time: Susan Meissner's "Lady in Waiting"

[FatFreddysCat]

Gilliam-Esque: A Pre-Posthumous Memoir by Terry Gilliam

[Rev. Powell]

Gilliam-Esque: A Pre-Posthumous Memoir by Terry Gilliam

Cool! I thought about buying that. I think it's still in my Amazon wishlist.

[FatFreddysCat]

Gilliam-Esque: A Pre-Posthumous Memoir by Terry Gilliam

Cool! I thought about buying that. I think it's still in my Amazon wishlist.

I got it from the library last week, I'm about halfway thru it at the moment. Very fun read thus far.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Susan Meissner
Lady in waiting
11 more fiction

2 women = 1 from the present + 1 from the past
their connection = a ring with their name JANE on it.

The writer nails the woman from the present.

woman as wife -- woman as sister -- woman as patient -- woman as mother -- woman as friend -- woman as daughter.

She just nails it. The only one where she misses (IMHO) us woman as employer.

On the other hand . . .

If she nails woman from the present, then she fails at woman from the past. For where the people from the past are remarkably like the people from the present,  which we'll get to later, there are differences, which she fails to note. The most obvious way is that JANE in the past was spelled, not as she has it as JANE, but . . .?! as IANE. And we know this, for this is what was carved on the wall of one of the prison cells in the Tower of London. We are not sure for whom it was carved nor who carved it, but . . .?! ask one of the Beefeaters (who do you think makes the gin?) there, and they'll tell you a romantic tale of love won and lost and not regained till the other side of heaven.

No, if one is ever in London (England) I strongly suggest a visit to the Tower, where I have been twice. For when the 1st new white settlement was founded in North America, the Tower was old, as there is over a 1000 years of history there and criminality, literary, militarily, monetarily, politically, zoologically, and almost every type of -ly, -ry, and -ty that can interest one. So . . .?!

Next time: a half dozen mysteries

[FatFreddysCat]

The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time by Douglas Adams

[alandhopewell]

     The latest in one of my favorite series....

[BoyScoutKevin]

Hap and Leonard. A nice series, I haven't read the latest, but . . .?! I have read most of them. Of course, if one wants to watch something rather than read something, then . . .?

The books have been converted into a TV series "Hap and Leonard" w/ James Purfoy as HAP Collins and Michael Kenneith Williams as LEONARD Pine on the Sundance Channel. It's done well enough that's its been renewed for a 2nd season in 2017. I haven't seen the series, so I can't say how closely it follows the books, but . . .?! If one gets the Sundance Channel, then one might want to give it a try.

And that's all folks!

[indianasmith]

Let's see . . . I just finished one that I've been reading on for the last two months, Doris Kearnes Goodwin's THE BULLY PULPIT: ROOSEVELT, TAFT, AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF JOURNALISM.  It was a fascinating look at the friendship and political partnership between Theodore Roosevelt and his Secretary of War, William Taft, and how that friendship was ended when Roosevelt came to believe that Taft had "sold out" his progressive agenda to the party's Old Guard and their robber baron masters.  The book also focused on how the first generation of American investigative journalists, people like Sam McClure, Vincent Steffens, and Ida Tarbell helped bring the facts of abuse and corruption before the American people and create the public outcry for reform.  While not as engrossing as TEAM OF RIVALS, this was still a top-notch work and very readable.

After finishing that epic work of history, I was in a mood for some good fiction, and Stephen King's END OF WATCH fit the bill very nicely.  This is the final volume of a trilogy that began with MR. MERCEDES, and it follows the twisted machinations of the brain-damaged killer, Brady Hartsfield, as he uses his psychic power to continue his homicidal pursuits, with retired Detective Bill Hodges trying to unravel how he is forcing people to commit suicide without ever leaving his hospital room.  This was a very enjoyable conclusion to a good series by a great author.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!
A half dozen mysteries

Peter May
Entry island
19 more fiction
1 more non-fiction

Linda Castillo
award winner
After the storm
7th in the Kate Burkholder series

Sarah Ward
In bitter chill
1st novel
1st in the Sadler and Childs series
Or, at least, I hope the 1st in a series

Bampton -- Eyam -- Hattersley -- Hattersage -- Clawton -- Matlock
An area that has not much changed in 1700 years.

Where the major crimes are . . .
bicycle thefts -- burglary -- minor drug offenses

No wonder director/writer Ken Russell set his "Lair of the White Worm" in Derbyshire.

Lynda Laplace
award winner
Wrongful death
in the Anna Travis series
If you want to see something, rather than read something, then the TV series "Above Suspicion."

Elly Griffith
award winner
The zig zag girl
1st in the Magic men series

She comes by her knowledge honestly. Her grandfather worked this vaudeville circuit in the U.K.
There is another title in the series, which I have not seen. I just hope the villain less obvious, then in this one. If I can figure out the villain ere the end, then it is too easy.
And she has another series, which we'll get to later.

Steven Saylor
Wrath of the Furies :
a novel of the Ancient World
15th in the Roma Sub Rosa series

Along with Lindsay Davis, the 2 greater writers of mysteries set in Ancient Rome.
Both have a new hero take o'er from the old hero in the series.

He: son takes o'er from father.
She: stepdaughter takes o'er from stepfather

He: a man, of course
She: a woman, of course

He: an American
She: a Brit

He: openly homosexual
She: heterosexual

(IMHO) he does the more credible characters that are children, from royalty to slavery

Next time: again, if I can find my notes, another compare and contrast

[Rev. Powell]

An abridged translation/adaptation of the epic Hindu poem rendered in modern English.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Okay. I found my notes, so . . .

Reading books at random, one sometimes comes across books, back-to-back, that are eerily similar. For example . . .

Ace Atkins
The redeemers
5th in the Quinn Colson series

and

Charlene Harris
An ice  cold grave
3rd in the Harper Connelly series

Both feature a southern location
He: Mississippi
She: western North Carolina

Both feature heroes that are outsiders.

Both feature a hero(ine) that has difficulty with a sibling.
He: he an younger sister
She: she an older stepbrother

Both feature more than one villain.

Both feature a female sheriff.
He: acting
She: elected

Both feature teenage villains.

In both Texarkana (Texas) plays a part.
He: the present
She: the past

Both feature villains that are shot and killed.

Both feature sex scenes
He: more sedate
She: more graphic

Both feature villains that go to prison.

Both feature the sexual assault of a child.
He: a girl
She: a boy(s)
He: more graphic
She: more sedate

Both feature more than one law enforcement agency working together in conjunction and cooperation to take down the villains.

Both feature the murder of a child.
He: in the past
She: in the present

Both feature characters that are not all that they seem.

Both feature a major storm.
He: a tornado
She: an ice storm
He: in the past
She: in the present

Both feature an attack with a shovel or spade.

Both feature a suicide.
He: in the past
She: in the present

Both feature profane conversations.

Both feature a hero suffering a wound in the left arm.

Both hint at characters that are not heterosexuals.

Both feature a knife attack.

Both feature a chase thru a forest.

And they live . . .
He: in Mississippi
She: southern Arkansas

But?! . . . after reading both books (IMHO) he could not have written her story, and she could not have written his story.

Next time: magazines read . . . and why

[indianasmith]

I just finished an interesting book called THE RETURN OF GEORGE WASHINGTON: 1783-1789 by Edward Larson.  Here is my Amazon Review:

This is an invaluable book for Washington scholars, shedding light on a seldom studied era of our first President's life - the six years between the time he surrendered command of the Continental Army to Congress and his taking the oath of office as President in 1789.  We see here how instrumental he was in the framing of the U.S. Constitution, and the crucial role he played during the battle for ratification and the election of the first Federal Congress.  There are also many personal touches, too - his letters to Lafayette, Hamilton, and Madison, his comments during and after the Convention in Philadelphia. Too often seen as the "marble man," here we see a very human and at times anxious Washington, doing all he can to secure the liberties won in the Revolution for future generations.  Well-written, flawlessly researched, and extremely readable, I highly recommend this book!