Am now reading Moon over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch after finishing his Rivers of London - it’s billed as Urban Fantasy and living just outside London I’m quite digging it
Just finishing The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton. It won the Edgar Award for Best Mystery Novel last week, so I got it from the library. It’s truly outstanding, but I certainly wouldn’t call it a mystery. Suspense, certainly. A teenage boy who cannot speak, but who has a talent for picking locks is drawn into the underworld and can’t get out. He’s a master safecracker before he’s legal to drink.
“I’m going to need a note, excusing me from school tomorrow so I can go to Pennsylvania and help some men rob a safe.”
I’m in the middle of *The Lock Artist *on audiobook and the reader is wonderful! I don’t really feel like doing the first lawn-mowing of the season yet, but I’m heading out to do it now with my earbuds-inside-earmuffs just so that I can listen to another hour of this great book.
Between the tornadoes last Wednesday and a lack of electricity since then, and going to stay with relatives who still have power, I’ve managed to read all of one book in the last week: Swordspoint, by Ellen Kushner. Some people on Goodreads describe it as a fantasy of manners, or “mannerpunk”, a term I’ve never heard before. It has a medieval setting on an invented world, with preening nobility who hire professional swordsmen to fight duels of honor on their behalf. There’s no magic, but there’s a lot of casual bisexuality. The focus of the book is an intriguing romance between a swordsman and a suicidal guy who appears to be a slumming member of the nobility. The political maneuvering in the background wasn’t as interesting.
Now that I’m back home with electricity I’ve started a re-read of the third Song of Ice & Fire book, the enormous A Storm of Swords. I love the chapters with Jaime and Brienne.
I thought that book would be right up my alley, but it just bored me.
Me, too! A wonderfully odd couple. Brienne is probably my favorite character in all the books - one of the few almost-completely-good (i.e. pure in heart) ones, too, other than some of the children.
Finished Carter Beats The Devil. Very much enjoyed this book. It has mystery, magic, romance (there some genuinely sweet moments), history and twists and turns everywhere. When I was young I was facinated by The Great Houdini and read everything I could find on him. This book is set during that time period (and Houdini makes more than one appearance) and tells the (quite fictionalized) story of a real-life magician Charlie Carter. I recommend it.
I finished In the Woods this morning. I picked it up after having all and sundry recommend it to me. And even though I’m not normally a detective novel fan, I did really enjoy this book. I’m trying to decide if I should pick up the next in the series now or give it a month’s rest. I think it’s called The Likeness… has anyone read it?
I also read Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and found it absolutely delightful, like sherbet on a hot day.
Did a bit of traveling, got more reading in than normal -
The Information (link to thread I started about it)
The Black Swan (link to thread I started about it)
**Mustaine **- an autobiography from the former Metallica/founder of Megadeth guitarist. Smart guy, but rough upbringing and a need to overcome substance abuse and find something to hold onto, which apparently he found via becoming a Christian.
When I Am Playing with My Cat, How Do I Know She Is Not Playing with Me? Montaigne and Being in Touch with Life (amazon link) - another book about Montaigne, a favorite thinker/philosopher (linkto review of another Montaigne book from a few months ago…this book isn’t pulling me in the way the other book did, but I love reading about Montaigne and his thinking, so I am still enjoying it…
Currently reading The Journeyer, by Ken Jennings, author of Aztec. It’s…OK. Maybe I should expand:
I read Aztec, and liked it. However, I remember reading it and thinking, “OK, that’s sensational. And that too, and so is that. Oh, and there’s more over here.” It really seems like Jennings is being sensational just to be sensational. “Look at these crazy guys and what they do!” It’s certainly a fascinating look at an extinct culture, but it just got over the top. And then would top that. And the main character was a bit of a Gary Stu - sure, he was odious at times, and had faults, you definitely got the impression that the main character was wish fulfillment for the author. Even though I liked it, I’d definitely consider it a guilty pleasure.
In The Journeyer, it’s more of the same. I’m not that far into it, but so far Our Hero, Marco Polo, has already had sex with four women, been put into prison for the murder of an important dignitary, and exiled to the holy land. And he’s only 13 or so! So it’s more sensationalism, sex, and wish fulfillment. But that’s OK, because it’s entertaining enough. Great literature, no, but entertaining.
And I’m still working on Auel’s latest, The Land of Painted Caves. It’s awful. I bought it weeks ago and can’t finish it. I’m a fast reader and rarely give up on books, and I can’t finish it. I think I’ll donate it to the library when/if I do finish it. I did read ahead, so I know the basic story. It’s such a clunker and in no way holds my interest.
Thanks, Snickers. As you know, I loved Aztec, which is certainly delightfully over the top (but historically accurate, from what I’ve read elsewhere), and hope to get to Journeyer and Jennings’s other books someday.
Reading a novel called Spy Rules, by Lew Serviss (a personal friend of mine). It’s a good first effort, and he’s very familiar with the terrain he covers, since he was the metro editor for the NYT for some years. It’s only $2.99 for Kindle, so give it a try.
I’m reading The Fifth Witness, by Michael Connelly and though it started out well, it’s turning into a really tedious disappointment. The premise was such a satisfying one, too. Cheesed off lady accused of killing the banker who foreclosed on her home sounded like lots of fun. But boy howdy, by the time they get to the courtroom the thing grinds to a full stop. Procedural is really an understatement. You are told about every motion, every sidebar, every objection, every recess, every time the judge takes sip of water. I swear you can hear the clock ticking. Bah!
I just finished “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler, and while I wait for “Parable of the Talent” to come in, I’m reading “Left Hand of Darkness” by Ursula K. Le Guin. Gettin’ my classic sci fi on. 
Butler’s stuff is fascinating. I enjoyed the Xenogenesis series and The Kindred, too…
I started on Joe R. Lansdale’s Leather Maiden yesterday morning and ditched it in the afternoon. I ran across a sentence early in the book that went something like: “He estimated her age to be between eighty years and the time of the discovery of fire.” I understand what he was getting at, but an editor should have sent that one back to the drawing board.
So this morning I started Dan Wells’ Mr. Monster, second in a series about a young potential serial killer. It may not be a substantially better book, but I’m feeling friendlier towards it.
Richard Stark’s (Donald Westlake pseudonym) Butcher’s Moon. Recently reprinted by University of Chicago Press, after being out of print for over 30 years.
Devil Red (Lansdale) turned out to be even worse than I expected. I hated it so much, I posted a spoiler-filled review at Amazon. (I did warn about the spoilers though.) The plot was so silly and unbelievable, even Joe’s normally witty writing couldn’t save it. Just awful.
Now reading an ARC of The Devil All the Time, the new novel by Donald Ray Pollock, who wrote the awesome Knockemstiff a few years back. The story takes place from the late 40’s to the 60’s, and follows a couple of serial killers, a flim-flam preacher with a crippled sidekick (crippled on purpose a’la Geek Love), and a man who had an unfortunate childhood.
It’s really good, but it made me realize that just about everything I read is loaded with violence. I might be proof that reading about violence doesn’t make one violent.
I’m first in line for that at the library.
oooo - I gotta let **Crotalus **know; Donald Ray Pollack is his neighbor…