What are you reading this week of March 13, 2016?

[hermetic]

Gah, so what time IS it, anyway? My clock may have moved ahead but my brain is just not getting with the program. I really hate this day.

I should have just stayed in bed and continued reading Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding, the last book in my collection of hers. Another story of a young girl in the deep South, revealing the anguish of her adolescence and isolation. There are some fun moments but mostly it's just very sad.

What new readings have you all sprung into now?

[pscot]

1. The Great North Road

which is a dystopian, sci-fi police procedural by Peter Hamilton. Also The Dark Net by Jamie Bartlett; a look at the deep web and some of its denizens.

[hermetic]

12. Just a few days ago

I came across a news article about the dark net, but I don't recall where it was. It was rather alarming. They said you could get anything there: guns, drugs, sex, WMDs, whatever floats your boat. The only currency accepted is bitcoin and the police aren't interested in it at all, which I find rather odd. Bartlett's book has received high praise. Tempting...but .

[pscot]

15. Bartlett takes a personal approach

based on how people are using the dark web and what their motives are. He starts with the political/libertarian agenda. Child porn is another area he explores. It's not a difficult read and not really all that horrific. To be honest, some of these folks seem to be living in their own virtual worlds. Still, it's an interesting look at the way we live now. I haven't finished it si I don't know what conclusions he draws

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Depending on what room I am in......

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight,
a memoir of life with Alexandra Fuller and her family on a farm in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe.)
After the Rhodesian Bush War ended in 1980, the Fullers moved to Malawi, and then to Zambia.
The book won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize in 2002, was a New York Times Notable Book for 2002 and a finalist for The Guardian's First Book Award, an award given to the best regional novel of the year.

Well written, we see events thru the eyes and voice of the young woman, with occasional comments which set the historical events into place.
She is sympathetic towards the Africans.

The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton: The First Domestic Goddess, by Kathryn Hughes.
Lovely writer, it is the story behind the famous Victorian household management book, but more importantly it is a social history of what life,customs, behavior, clothes, was like during that period.
I love social histories, they have so many educational tidbits. The best ones read like novels, as this one does.

Speaking of, Shopping, Seduction & Mr. Selfridge is another social history, by Lindy Woodhead ( delicious British name, no?)
if you have been watching the series, which just ended, you know of him as the successful innovative Dept. store owner.
The book goes back to beginning, where he came from what life was like, who were his famous contemporaries.
very readable.

All of these are put down/pick up again books, at least that is the way I like to read them.

[Enthusiast]

3. Hello, everyone! Thank you for the thread, hermetic.

Last week I was reading The Lewis Man by Peter May. I found it to be excellent. I don't know why it has taken me so long to read this second of the Lewis Trillogy. Too many books, I guess.

Now I am reading The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. This is something else. I can understand the appeal it has for so many.

Mrs. Enthusiast is still reading Black and Blue by Ian Rankin. She is having a bit of difficulty with this one. She says there are several cases going on at once. She is having trouble keeping things straight. She will manage.

[hermetic]

13. Whenever I read a book

that starts to have many characters and agencies and such, I keep a tiny notepad handy and jot them down. I had to do that with The Girl in the Spider's Web when it started throwing a bunch of new characters at me.

I'll have to start reading some Peter May soon.

[Enthusiast]

17. Thank you, hermetic. My avid reading girl cousin suggested the same thing.

We are going to do it! We are both 63 years old. Although 63 isn't all that old it seems old when we try to remember a number of characters.

[TexasProgresive]

4. Still reading Henning Mankell's "The Troubled Man"

It's is a great read and I wouldn't put it down but this is a busy time for me. To top it off I have been researching how to install a complete groupset on my bicycle. If anyone is interested I posted about it at the Bicycling group.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1207804

[Enthusiast]

5. I hope to use my Shimano spinning reel more this year. I suppose they are the same company.

It's been an amazing reel for many years.

I cannot bicycle because of the hip/knee thing. But it sounds like fun.

[TexasProgresive]

6. Same company with the same precision machining.

Enjoy the fishing. I was a fanatic about surf cast fishing but as I live 150 miles from the surf that is a long ago pursuit. I' sorry about the knee/hip thing but stay active as you can. My knees are definitely compromised with very little cartilage left. The cycling actually helps with that. It has build up the supporting muscles and the constant spinning seems to increase lubrication in the joint. Or something like that. I just know that I have very little knee pain now.

[scarletwoman]

7. Hi, hermetic! Thanks as always for doing this thread!

The book I just finished yesterday is The Waters of Eternal Youth, by Donna Leon - #25 of her Commissario Brunetti series, which just came out this month. I was the #1 hold for when the new copy hit the library, so I got it the very first day it was available!

I've absolutely loved this series for years, ever since I serendipitously came across the very first book of the series in the communal bookshelf in the breakroom at work. I was immediately hooked, and have faithfullly read every single book in the series in order from then on. The setting in contemporary Venice (Italy) is fabulous, the protatgonist is delightful - as are all the characters that make up the supporting cast, the writing is gorgeous and sensual, and the plotting is always skillfully done. I know I have brought up this series in past posts, and have always highly recommended it. This latest book in the series is particularly poignant, and the ending left me teary-eyed. Yes, I knew I was being emotionally manipulated, but when it comes to Donna Leon, I do not mind at all.

I'm far behind on mentioning all the other books I've been reading over the past several weeks, so here's a quick list (in order of most recently read):

I Am Your Judge, by Nele Neuhaus. She is a German author, and this is her 4th "Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein" police procedural translated into English (although it's the 6th or 7th novel in the series, since the earliest books have not been translated so far). I did not like this one as well as the earlier 3 I had read. It was overlong, and got very tedious - and I just couldn't really buy into the overall premise. I would still recommend the first 3 translated books, and I'll still keep an out for what she writes next.

An Event in Autumn, by Henning Mankell (Sweden). This is a very short novella that was sort of a late add-on to the Wallender series that came out in 2014, after Mankell had already written his final Wallender book in 2011 (The Troubled Man). Chronologically, it takes place shortly before events in the final book. It's a book I kept meaning to order from the library, and finally got around to remembering to do so. I had already read the entire Wallender series from start to finish once The Troubled Man came out 2011, so it was a pleasant surprise in 2014 to hear about one extra piece being added to the ouvre. It was a pleasure to be back in the world of Wallender, even for just a short while. And a sad reminder of what we readers have lost with Mankell's passing in 2015.

Midnight Sun (Blood on Snow #2), by Jo Nesbø (Norway). Apparently there are no more Harry Hole (Nesbø's famous Norwegian detective) books forthcoming, but because I still like Jo Nesbø, I keep an eye out for whatever new books he writes, and this was his latest. Shockingly, it seemed to have a happy ending! Is Nesbø getting soft? It was a quick but interesting read, with some carry-over of characters from Blood on Snow #1. If anyone is interested, I'll say more about it if asked.

Into Oblivion, by Arnaldur Indriðason (Iceland). This is the second prequel in the Inspector Erlendur series since the final book, Strange Shores came out in 2013. I love Erlendur, and I will happily read as many prequels as Indriðason cares to write. I am a committed devotée.

Open Grave, by Kjell Eriksson (Sweden). The latest in his Inspector Ann Lindell series - #6 of those which have translated into English (there are 10 books in the series so far) - another series I have been fatihfully reading in order over the years. While Ericksson is not nearly as well known as some of the other "Nordic Noir" authors of recent years, his books are definitely worthy reads, and I've always found them uniquely intriguing.

Runaway, by Peter May (Scotland) - which I have posted about separately.

I've started on a new series, this one set in the Périgord region of France, featuring a municipal policeman nicknamed "Bruno", by Martin Walker. Book #1 is Bruno, Chief of Police (2008). There are 9 books so far in the series, so I'm hoping they will be a worthwhile diversion for awhile.

Meanwhile, I'll be waiting for the newest entry in Ann Cleeves' Shetland series (Earth to Earth), and a new Hebrides book by Peter May (Coffin Road)...

[Enthusiast]

8. Wow! Thank you for sharing that, scarletwoman.

I'm going to give Donna Leon a closer look. To start. Thanks.

[hermetic]

11. Good to see you

Donna Leon is in the library here so I will definitely be reading all I can find. Thanks for the tip.

[pscot]

16. I've read the Bruno series

and enjoyed it. In the later books tropes begin to reappear as invention flags somewhat. Still; a lot of fun.

[Number9Dream]

9. Just finished "Blasphemy" by Douglas Preston

Thanks for the thread, hermetic. Thanks for the Preston rec, Enthusiast.

In addition to being a good action, page-turner, it provoked thought regarding science crossing religion. Also, the dangers of religious fanaticism. I'm sure fundamentalist Christians hated this book. Kept you guessing until the end.

Will have to stop by the library after work for a new book.

[hermetic]

10. My library

has a whole bunch of Preston books! I am really looking forward to diving into those after all the good reviews I've seen here. I hope to start with Reliquary and work my way forward through time.

[Number9Dream]

14. If you can find and start with "Relic", that's actually the first book

"Reliquary" can be read as a stand alone, but is really a sequel. If you can find the movie, "The Relic", it wasn't bad either... Penelope Ann Miller, Tom Sizemore, Linda Hunt.

[Enthusiast]

18. I thought the same thing about Blasphemy. What a wild ride of a book!

[japple]

19. Still reading Thomas Savage's book, The Sheep Queen and I, too, should have

started keeping a list of the characters as narration has become a bit confusing.

I've put this one on my list and hope that the library will have it.

Kent Nerburn, Neither Wolf Nor Dog--On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder

Acclaimed author Kent Nerburn creates an incisive character study of a Native American elder, against the unflinching backdrop of contemporary reservation life and the majestic spaces of the western Dakotas. Nerburn draws us deep into the world of this elder, identified only as Dan, as we journey to where the vast Dakota skies overtake us and the whisperings of the wind speak of ancestral voices.

As this spellbinding story unfolds, Dan speaks eloquently on the power of silence, the difference between land and property, white people's urge to claim an Indian heritage, and the selling of sacred ceremonies. This is a story of fathers and sons, of the struggle for redemption after the loss of innocence, of distinct cultures on a common land.

[Number9Dream]

20. Picked up "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara at the library yesterday

It's a fictional, but accurate account of the Battle of Gettysburg. Won a Pulitzer prize. I'll give some thoughts next week, as I get further into it.

[Mary Mac]

21. Stoned, about the jewelry business.

A little too much on pearls, but otherwise enjoyable.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

22. Mary McGrory: The Queen of Journalism

by Robert Norris

Non Fiction. I hope that's ok here. This is my first venture into this group.

I've got a "Jack Reacher" (Lee Child) book ready on deck.

Highly recommend the Norris book.