They’re in my pile, too, about three books down. At the rate I’m going, we’ll be able to read them together!
Ohh I love Gideon Oliver, I need to see if the local bookstore has the couple I’ve missed…
Finished Chasing Fire, it was better than I expected, still don’t like the way she writes dialog.
Stated Black Echo by Michael Connelly, to early to form an opinion but he does draw the characters quite weel right off the bat.
When I showed my 10-year-son Goldfinger, because it is obviously one of (if not THE) coolest Bond movies evah, he said about two-thirds of the way through, “For a super agent, Bond sure gets captured a lot, doesn’t he?”
Picked up Duel with the Devil: The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take on America’s First Sensational Murder Mystery from the local library thanks to delphica’s recommendation; I’d also two other books by Paul Collins ) that I enjoyed: Sixpence House and Banvard’s Folly.
Collins recounts the story behind the murder trial of Levi Weeks - accused of killing fellow boarder Elma Sands (with whom he was rumoured to be romantically involved) and dumping her body in a local well. This trial, held in early 1800, was the first to be fully documented in the press in America, and featured two of the Founding Fathers as defense lawyers - Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Even amateur students of history (like myself) might find it surprising that these two men would have worked together on anything together after the Revolution, but Collins explains the connection.
There’s plenty of research, and plenty of detail - resulting in 45-ish pages in the Notes section! Collins does a good job of weaving it all together into an engaging story, focussing on Sands and Elma, while still providing details on the famous figures as well. Collins delves a bit into New York City history as well - wrapping up the book with not only the story of the Burr/Hamilton duel - but the fallout of the duel as well. It was an interesting read about a time in history I wasn’t very familiar with - recommended as at least a library read.
I didn’t like the serial killer reveal but I was okay with the rest of the ending.
Just started The Long Ships, a total change of pace. I think that was on at least one Doper’s Best of 2013 list.
I love that book!
I’m in the middle of The Grapes of Wrath, and it’s really, really good. I was prepared to slog through it for the sake of reading a classic, but it’s riveting.
Finished Our Kind of Traitor, by John Le Carre. The top Russian money launderer wants asylum for himself and his family in Britain, where he promises to name embarrassing names. I was pleasantly surprised. This was very good. I’d say it’s his best one in years. Love his earlier work but until now have always been somewhat disappointed with his newer novels. Le Carre has clearly never gotten over the end of the Cold War. Ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall and Soviet Russia, he’s tried desperately to continue the same angst for his post-Cold War world, and it’s just never seemed to work. There was always this “uncanny valley” effect with all the characters hyper-analyzing themselves and their shitty lives. Gets tiresome. There’s some of that here, but it’s a much better story this time. Maybe we really do need the Russians as an enemy.
I was going to return to George Martin now, but a friend last week passed on his copy of John Grisham’s The Racketeer to me, so I’ll read that next.
FYI - The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker is on the Kindle Daily Deal today (19 Jan 2014) for $1.99 - I picked this up from the library back in June and quite enjoyed it.
I’m working on The Persian Boy by Mary Renault - checked it out from the library based on a mention in Jo Walton’s Among Others - I think someone here mentioned it as well, but didn’t make note of it. It tells the story of Bagoas, a Persian eunuch who became a companion/lover of Alexander the Great - starting with his childhood. I’m up to the start of their relationship, with Bagoas being around 17 and Alexander perhaps in his early 30’s.
Having only a basic knowledge of this time period/historical age, I can’t speak to Renault’s research, but the story has felt very believable and engaging so far, and I feel I’m learning a bit along the way.
I haven’t read the first in this series: Fire From Heaven, but don’t feel I’ve missed much. I will probably go back and pick it up at some point, as I’m enjoying the story quite a bit. It reminds me a bit of Richard Adams’ Maia, in terms of the court intrigue as well as the role of the main character. Renault’s sex scenes are not nearly as … detailed … as Adams’ mind you, but Bagoas is clearly a courtesan. I would not be surprised to learn that Renault’s novel (published in 1972) was an inspiration for Maia (published 1984). Recommended to those looking for well-written historical fiction set in the Middle East of the 4th century BC.
I finished re-reading “The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes”. I can’t actually recall how often I’ve read my way through the complete Holmes - more than five, less than ten - and yet, I had never noticed the similarities between the Holmes/Watson relationship and the Quixote/Panza relationship until this time around. It goes right down to the rather ‘meta’ references to publication of their previous adventures, Watson’s/Panza’s marriage (though we never see his wife). The reversal, of course, is that Quixote is delusional while Holmes is utterly rational, but each of them still has to take the time to explain what he sees to his companion, who does not see it.
I have absolutely no evidence of a direct influence of Cervantes on Sir Arthur, I was just struck by the archetypal similarities.
I’m now reading Stephen Booth’s “Blind to the Bones”, the fourth in the Ben Cooper/Diane Fry series of mysteries, which is an engaging bit of light reading.
I’m also having a blast reading Frederic Morton’s “A Nervous Splendour”, a history of ten months in the history of Vienna. July, 1888 until April 1889 was an incredible period for the intellectual life of one of the world’s greatest cities, and Morton is doing a fantastic job of pointing out just how close all those influential people were to each other.
I’m happy to report that I’m coming to the end of several projects that have collectively restricted my reading and online time. I look forward to reading more and resuming Botticelli playing in the near future!
I have a sample on the Kindle. I need maps. Did you read the paper version? Does it have maps? I looked at the Amazon description and there’s nothing about maps.
I finished The Grapes of Wrath. I liked it very much, but I don’t know what I think about the ending. The book just kind of stopped.
I bought a copy today. I’ve been hearing good things about this.
I have this paperback edition, and you absolutely need maps with this book. There are three maps at the front with the routes of Orm’s voyages marked. If you do a “Look Inside” on that edition you can see them.
I don’t know if they will be readable on the Kindle. I just got a Paperwhite, and I haven’t yet tried to read a book with maps on it, but I really disliked using maps on my old Kindle keyboard. They were hard to see, and it was a pain to jump back and forth between the maps and the narrative.
Thanks – that takes care of the last of my gift certificate. 
I forgot all about Look Inside.
The Golem and the Jinni almost made my 2013 Top Ten. No complaints about that book – it was a fun read, with some originality.
That’s one of my favorites.
Amusing trivia I’ve no doubt mentioned before: “Bluetooth” technology was named “Bluetooth” because the developer of it was a fan of this book; the symbol for it is a norse “bind rune” for Harald’s initials.
I’m in the middle of the second Vish Puri mystery, The Man Who Died Laughing. I love it so far, especially Mummy-ji, Vish’s mother. She solves mysteries, too, but Vish doesn’t want her to because “Mummys can’t be detectives.” She’s just as good as her son and uses the same undercover techniques he does, but India’s still a conservative country in many ways. In this book she’s solving the mystery of who robbed a kitty party she and Vish’s wife Rumpi were attending by using the tried-and-true technique of listening to and encouraging gossip. Mummy-ji would be an excellent Old Southern Grandma.
Edit: I just noticed that Tarquin Hall is a Goodreads Author so I became a fan. There’s a *fourth *Vish Puri mystery out!
I finished “Catch-22,” which is my book club’s January selection. I’m still digesting it. I loved about half of it and the other half I hated. I really could have done without most of the rambling, nonsensical conversations. I almost didn’t even bother to finish it because of that, which would have been sad because the last few chapters are pretty amazing.
Over the weekend I read (if that’s what you can call it — looked at might be more accurate) “Talking Pictures” by Ransom Riggs. He’s the guy who wrote “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” which had all those cool old pictures (the best part of that book, IMO). “Talking Pictures” is a compilation of old photographs Riggs and a few others have picked up at antique shops, garage sales, etc. What sets them apart is the captions that have been written on them. The captions bring a sense of intimacy to the photographs. The chapter called “Janet Lee” absolutely broke my heart and I had to go compose myself in the bathroom. So, um…yeah. It was good. I can definitely see myself reading it again.
As has happened in the past… I was reading a tangible, paper book (A Clockwork Orange) which I misplaced. In the meantime, I started reading something else on my Kindle.
So, I just finished the old British mystery novel ***Trent’s Last Case ***by E.C. Bentley. A funny, clever book in which the brilliant, funny, immensely likable detective solves the case through reasoned observation and keen insight… but comes to all the wrong conclusions. It’s his “last case” because after finding out the turth, he laughingly resolves to give up sleuthing.
I’m now 20% of the way into Ralph Ellison’s Invisble Man.
I love Tarquin Hall, too! His non-fiction is good too, notably To the Elephant Graveyard and Salaam Brick Lane. I’ve never read Mercenaries, Missionaries, and Misfits.
The edition I read was a movie tie-in version released at the same time as the 1964 film. and had a version of one of the posters as a cover
My copy, IIRC, had maps in it.
The movie only covers one part of the book. There’s a lot more in Bengtsson’s novel than is encompassed by that movie.
Finished The Black Echo by Michael Connelly. I raced through it and in the last 15 pages hit the brakes with an audible “Oh no, he didn’t! Oh Hell yes he did…”
Not so much a plot twist there as a headsmack in my opinion.
While waiting for The Long Ships to arrive, I started Binscombe Tales by John Whitbourn (originally recommended by Fenris). I’d had the book for a couple years but it was a big fat hardcover, so it languished on the shelf. Then it showed up on Kindle Matchbook so I could get the Kindle version cheap, so I did. 
Binscombe is a small village in England where strange things happen, sorta like Twilight Zone. Some of the stories are very dark. I’m enjoying it.