What Are We Currently Reading?

[GHScorpiosRule]

Sigh...

Legacy is not one that I'll be re-reading again, or had me on the edge of my seat, heart-racing. So much could have been edited out that seemed like filler--like the pages of dialogue talking about stupid yoga and exercise like a freaking Pelaton/Mirror commercial.

The main characters are too often not together when things are happening. There are chapters where it's just Adrian and what's going on with her; then chapters with Raylan and what's going on with him. Of course there's a serial killer whose been stalking Adrian, but only one scene with Adrian and Raylan (who are the "couple") talking about it. And it took FOREVVVVVVVVVER to get them together.

That said, Nora is still TOPS with how she writes dogs and kids. So real and relatable. Meaning they talk like real kids. 

And I'm pretty sure I know who the killer is.

I think I'll re-read The Witness after I'm done with this. According to my kindle, about 3 more hours!

[SmithW6079]

8 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I like books that do that too. And maps! If I start a book and I see maps, I know I'm in for  a good read.

If you read sci-fi and alternate history and depending on your feeling about SM Stirling and his Draka series (in which the Tories, after the American Revolution, move to South Africa and establish a crown colony there, where slavery is still practiced into the 20th century), the books include several appendixes in which he goes into a lot of detail about Drakan society, from government to economy to technology.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Okay, Nora got me. She had my heart racing, teeth gnashing leading up to the climax.

Wish we'd gotten more of the Awesome Sarge Mooney earlier in the book! Loved his no-nonsense, zero tolerance for bullshit.

But a lot of stuff could have been edited out.

[Madding crowd]

I’m reading The Maidens by Alex Michaelides. I liked his first book The Silent Patient, and this one is good so far.

[sugarbaker design]

2 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

I’m reading The Maidens by Alex Michaelides. I liked his first book The Silent Patient, and this one is good so far.

It got quite a decent review in the most recent Sunday NY Times Book Review.

[DearEvette]

On 6/7/2021 at 1:30 PM, GHScorpiosRule said:

Legacy is not one that I'll be re-reading again, or had me on the edge of my seat, heart-racing. So much could have been edited out that seemed like filler--like the pages of dialogue talking about stupid yoga and exercise like a freaking Pelaton/Mirror commercial.

LOL.  Ok I am reading this now and you are so right.  I am really kinda over the yoga. 

This book is very odd to me so far.  I am still very much in the early third of the book and it  feels like a chronicle, very soulless.  Just a march through childhood and making friends. Oh and now everybody is all  grown up and the childhood friends from New York have stuck together and buying houses next to each other in this small town they have all moved back to  Everything is just so very tidy.  It feels like I am still waiting for the story to happen.  And, hate to say, but the villain's pov is very much a copy-paste of previous NR villains.

Unfortunately I am finding it easy to set aside. it sounds like it gets better tho.

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, DearEvette said:

Unfortunately I am finding it easy to set aside. it sounds like it gets better tho.

Yeah. Near the end! Or when, oh wait, I don't want to spoil it. Let's just say the last third.

But not one I'll be picking up to re-read even though I finished it in two and a half days.

[grommit2]

Just finished Japan 1941, by Eri Hotta.  This is an examination of why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.  Really well done (and it has a map!).  Thorough, detailed, insightful. No simple answers.  Excellent combination of psychology, economics, military, etc. 
 

[Jenniferbug]

I finally got around to reading the 2 most recent books in the Gamache series by Louise Penny, A Better Man and All the Devils are Here. 

I didn't much care for the first. It was alright, but I really wish she would stop having some large conspiracy stuff happening every book and just focus on the smaller mystery at hand. The death of the girl was enough, I didn't need all the Surete politics too. Also, I've grown very tired of Clara. I don't care about her art career and find it off putting and disgusting that she constantly has food smeared all over her hair. 

I enjoyed the second much better, and thought the Paris setting was a good change. It too leaned a little too hard into vast conspiracy for plot again, but it worked better here. 

Now I'm onto The Eyre Affair by Jasper Ford, which after one chapter seems like it's going to be a fun read! 

[dubbel zout]

The Tuesday Next series is lots of fun. Heaven for English majors and bibliophiles in general.

[sugarbaker design]

25 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

The Tuesday Next series is lots of fun. Heaven for English majors and bibliophiles in general.

Granny Next!

[Jenniferbug]

30 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

The Tuesday Next series is lots of fun. Heaven for English majors and bibliophiles in general.

Are they still being written? I didn't look at the publication date of the latest so I could avoid accidentally seeing any spoilers. 

[Mindthinkr]

I just finished The Scorpions Tail by Preston and Child. I really enjoyed it and there was even a twist I wasn’t expecting at the end. 

[Constant Viewer]

1 hour ago, Jenniferbug said:

Now I'm onto The Eyre Affair by Jasper Ford, which after one chapter seems like it's going to be a fun read! 

It was for me, I hope you like it!

Just got A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes from the library, but haven't started it yet.

[sugarbaker design]

43 minutes ago, Jenniferbug said:

Are they still being written? I didn't look at the publication date of the latest so I could avoid accidentally seeing any spoilers. 

Last one was published in 2012. 

[Black Knight]

Fforde had a general hiatus for a few years, but he's back at it and writing and releasing new books. For his Thursday Next series, he intends to write the next book next year, for publication in 2023.

I really liked Eyre Affair, but the next two are what really dropped my jaw in terms of the inventiveness. (Why yes, my avatar is one of the covers for Lost in a Good Book!)

If one should ever have the chance to attend one of Fforde's book readings, do so. I've been to three. He's so funny. At one he had his wife with him, who participated in a humorous skit, it was like the take-off prep speech of an airplane flight but for reading a book - for example, a dictionary coming down from overhead instead of an oxygen mask. Ha! When he was signing my book at that one, I asked him if we would ever find out about the lobsters (which had only been briefly mentioned in a Thursday Next book but clearly had been significant at some point), and he and his wife simultaneously held out their hands and showed me that their wedding rings have lobsters on them. Then I pointed to a book directly behind them that featured lobsters (it was some kind of popular science book IIRC). Afterwards, I was at the counter buying some books when I saw a bookstore employee coming to the counter with that book in hand, to ring it up, and I knew the Ffordes had bought it!

[sugarbaker design]

9 hours ago, Black Knight said:

For his Thursday Next series, he intends to write the next book next year, for publication in 2023.

That is great news!

 

[Ohiopirate02]

9 hours ago, Black Knight said:

Fforde had a general hiatus for a few years, but he's back at it and writing and releasing new books. For his Thursday Next series, he intends to write the next book next year, for publication in 2023.

 

This is good news, but I'm still waiting on the sequel to 2009's Shades of Grey that was promised.

[Black Knight]

6 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

This is good news, but I'm still waiting on the sequel to 2009's Shades of Grey that was promised.

He's writing that now, to be released next year.

[SmithW6079]

I'm currently reading one of the Judge Dee mysteries. Judge Dee is a Chinese magistrate during the Tang Dynasty who solves crimes. I first read about the character a number of years ago. This version of the character was created by Robert Hans van Gulik in the 1950s; apparently there was a historic Judge Dee. Van Gulik spent most of his life in East Asia as a Dutch diplomat and scholar of Asia. I went through all the books in my local library & discovered a few more through library's e-collection. There are about three mysteries per novel, most times occurring simultaneously (Judge Dee can, apparently, multitask, given that he has three wives). They're interesting reads.

I've also read several books of science fiction by Chinese authors, mostly short stories. There's a lyrical quality about many of them that I don't think you find in Western sci-fi. An author I especially like is Ted Chiang, a Chinese-American author whose short story "Story of Your Life" became the movie "Arrival." I also loved his collection "Exhalation: Stories." The novella "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" is especially haunting.

[peacheslatour]

I'm about to start The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard. It's about a brilliant NYC police detective who is called in on a shocking murder at West Point and is aided by an even better detective - a young cadet named Edgar Allen Poe.

[sugarbaker design]

2 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

I'm about to start The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard. It's about a brilliant NYC police detective who is called in on a shocking murder at West Point and is aided by an even better detective - a young cadet named Edgar Allen Poe.

It's so good, let us know what you think of it after you've finished.

[peacheslatour]

7 minutes ago, sugarbaker design said:

It's so good, let us know what you think of it after you've finished.

I will!

[krankydoodle]

8 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

I'm about to start The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard.

I really enjoyed that one and am looking forward to the film adaptation. I don't know why I still haven't picked up Bayard's Mr. Timothy (a mystery featuring adult Timothy Cratchit) even though I've owned it for years. Maybe this Christmas...

[sugarbaker design]

1 minute ago, krankydoodle said:

I really enjoyed that one and am looking forward to the film adaptation. 

What?!?!?!

[krankydoodle]

Harry Potter’s Harry Melling is your new Edgar Allan Poe

Quote

Directed by Scott Cooper, Melling will, you guessed it, solve mysteries as the young Edgar Allan Poe alongside a veteran detective played by Christian Bale.

The book was published in 2006, but I saw in another article that Cooper's been interested in making the film for at least 10 years.

[Luckylyn]

I’m half way through Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory . This is the fifth book in The Wedding Date Series.  In this one Olivia who is the sister of the heroine of book one falls for a Senator.  I feel like this one started slow for me but I am really enjoying it.  I like that the characters are flawed and have depth.   

[blackwing]

On 6/6/2021 at 11:34 PM, SmithW6079 said:

I just finished "Artemis," the second book by Andy Weir (he just came out with his third, I think). I really liked "The Martian," but I had heard mixed reviews about this one. 

I liked the world building he did for the lunar city, but the story is uneven, the main character not all that likable, and the "epilogue" seems a little farfetched.

He also includes an appendix, which is an essay on how the lunar economy would work. I love it when we can learn more about the fictional society, even if everything isn't used. 

I enjoyed it.  I listened to the audio book version narrated by Rosario Dawson and would love to see her starring in a film adaptation.  I agree with you that the story was a little uneven but the world building and the concept of the lunar city more than made up for it.

[BlackberryJam]

I'm listening to the Gethsemane Brown mystery series by Alexia Gordon. They aren't brilliant, but the audiobooks are a nice gentle listen. 

Five so far and hopefully more to come.

Speaking of light mysteries, I used to like the Fortune Redding series by Jana DeLeon because it was mostly fun Southern old lady nonsense, but they've just turned into a pile of crap. Just end it already. 

[DearEvette]

12 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:

I'm listening to the Gethsemane Brown mystery series by Alexia Gordon. They aren't brilliant, but the audiobooks are a nice gentle listen. 

 

I like the Gethsemane Brown cozies as well. I like her little supernatural twist.  Also I really appreciate the sense of place the author gives.  The main character is an American but she is in Ireland but the author doesn't attempt to Americanize everything for the reader.  She uses the Irish terminology that the locals use e.g when a local refers to the police they don't just say 'Dunmallach police' but  rather uses the term 'Dunmullach An Garda Síoichána' or Garda for short.

I enjoyed ... I think it was the third one... about the competitive rose society.  Man, who knew gardeners and rose growers were so bloodthirsty?

[BlackberryJam]

32 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

I like the Gethsemane Brown cozies as well. I like her little supernatural twist.  Also I really appreciate the sense of place the author gives.  The main character is an American but she is in Ireland but the author doesn't attempt to Americanize everything for the reader.  She uses the Irish terminology that the locals use e.g when a local refers to the police they don't just say 'Dunmallach police' but  rather uses the term 'Dunmullach An Garda Síoichána' or Garda for short.

I enjoyed ... I think it was the third one... about the competitive rose society.  Man, who knew gardeners and rose growers were so bloodthirsty?

Absolutely. And she’s great about using the correct terminology, like Rosarian. The village is a little quirky without being overly quirky. The cranky police detective (Sutton) is just the right level of annoyed without being blind to what Gethsemane tells him. It’s slightly paranormal without the paranormal taking over everything.

I sort of wish there were 30 books in the series and I was just discovering them, but alas. 

The only thing I dislike, and I may put this in tropes, is people who won’t listen to reasonable medical advice. Like “get checked for a concussion,” and “take an ambulance to the hospital after your bike wreck.”

 

[sugarbaker design]

1 hour ago, BlackberryJam said:

I'm listening to the Gethsemane Brown mystery series by Alexia Gordon.

 

45 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

I like the Gethsemane Brown cozies as well.

I've been looking for a cozy series that isn't cloyingly sweet, I'll see if I can find a cheap copy of the first one Murder in G Major on abe.com.

 

[BlackberryJam]

8 minutes ago, sugarbaker design said:

 

I've been looking for a cozy series that isn't cloyingly sweet, I'll see if I can find a cheap copy of the first one Murder in G Major on abe.com.

 

I get them on the Libby app from my local library. The pandemic really converted me to eBooks.

[sugarbaker design]

12 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:

I get them on the Libby app from my local library. The pandemic really converted me to eBooks.

Checked my local library system.  Only available in audio book.  I'm a dinosaur, prefer an old fashioned book with a book mark.   I have a cap for used books - $5.  Over the cap.

[Crs97]

Finished The Paris Library, which I absolutely adored until the ending.  Four stars nonetheless.  Now starting Ross King’s Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling.  Only have read one chapter, but I think I will love it.

[Vanderboom]

Yes! I loved the Gethsemane Brown books! I remember hearing that the series was discontinued because of some issue with the publisher, but I hope I'm wrong.

[Jeanne222]

I just finished reading American Dirt. Quite a page turner. 

Immigrants traveling through Mexico in hopes of entering the USA.

The story is about a mother and her child fleeing the cartel in Mexico. 

It’s very good. 

[BlackberryJam]

20 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

Checked my local library system.  Only available in audio book.  I'm a dinosaur, prefer an old fashioned book with a book mark.   I have a cap for used books - $5.  Over the cap.

I spend about an hour each day in the car. Since I don't enjoy music that much, I've really become a fan of audiobooks. The Brown ones are really well done.

18 hours ago, Vanderboom said:

Yes! I loved the Gethsemane Brown books! I remember hearing that the series was discontinued because of some issue with the publisher, but I hope I'm wrong.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. 

I need a new nice cozy series. Suggestions? I like cozy, but not completely ridiculous (like the Hannah Swenson books by Joanne Fluke.)

17 hours ago, Jeanne222 said:

I just finished reading American Dirt. Quite a page turner. 

Immigrants traveling through Mexico in hopes of entering the USA.

The story is about a mother and her child fleeing the cartel in Mexico. 

It’s very good. 

The book made a lot of headlines after Oprah picked it. I read it. Hated it. Maybe because I knew she was getting betrayed all along? It's been a while and I disliked it so much that I put it down and blocked it from my brain.

I know a lot of other people loved it.

 

[sugarbaker design]

31 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:

I need a new nice cozy series. Suggestions? I like cozy, but not completely ridiculous (like the Hannah Swenson books by Joanne Fluke.)

Me too.  But if I come across another plucky female amateur detective with a competitive/flirtatious relationship with a member of the local constabulary I'll scream bloody (definitely not cozy) murder.

[BlackberryJam]

3 minutes ago, sugarbaker design said:

Me too.  But if I come across another plucky female amateur detective with a competitive/flirtatious relationship with a member of the local constabulary I'll scream bloody (definitely not cozy) murder.

Oh? But what if she's recently out of a terrible relationship and been forced to move back to her quirky hometown and take over running the bakery/chocolate shop/bed and breakfast and that member of the local constabulary was her high school ex boyfriend that she left to go off to college and live in the big city?

*barf*

I enjoyed the Wendy Roberts Ghost Dusters series because the amateur detective worked cleaning up crime scenes, a job based more in science and not in that 1950s "good skill for a wife" profession.  

[sugarbaker design]

15 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:

I enjoyed the Wendy Roberts Ghost Dusters series because the amateur detective worked cleaning up crime scenes, a job based more in science and not in that 1950s "good skill for a wife" profession.  

Thanks, I'll check them out.

[BlackberryJam]

5 minutes ago, sugarbaker design said:

Thanks, I'll check them out.

The last one had a few issues for me on the romance side, but I think it's the first three that are really solid.

The first of her second series, A Grave Calling is great, well-done and surprising. That series also goes off the rails with the romance, especially in Book 3. I think the author shoehorns in the romance because she feels she has to, but she's really not good at it.

I also recommend the Emily Littlejohn Gemma Monroe series. No really paranormal. Gemma is a detective in her small Colorado town, which has interesting characters, but isn't super quirky. The books fall between cozy and procedural with a hint of thriller. There are relationship issues, but not romance in the traditional sense. I'm spoilering this, but it's not really a spoiler because I think it's in the first chapter of the first book. 

Spoiler

Gemma is about six months pregnant when it starts, but her boyfriend has been unfaithful to her and she doesn't trust him. Without getting into too much detail, as the books go along and she has the baby, she's just fine with leaving the child with the nanny while she's at work. She doesn't call and check in 50 times and beat herself up for working. It's really refreshing

 

[sugarbaker design]

19 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:

I also recommend the Emily Littlejohn Gemma Monroe series.

I just requested Inherit The Bones from my local library lending system.  Thanks!

[Mabinogia]

6 hours ago, BlackberryJam said:

I think the author shoehorns in the romance because she feels she has to, but she's really not good at it.

I am not anti-romance, but I am always a little less interested in a book as soon as I see that it is going to lean into a romance. If the lead character is single and the main cop character is of the opposite sex I groan because I know were it's headed and I know there's going to be what the author thinks is cute banter, there's going to be a power struggle, there is going to be some butting of heads and a misunderstanding or two but despite all that I'm supposed to root for these two crazy kids to hook up, so I usually actively root against it, and end up disappointed. 

I get really excited, though, when a mystery or crime thriller opts out of the romantic storylines. 

[isalicat]

2 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

I am not anti-romance, but I am always a little less interested in a book as soon as I see that it is going to lean into a romance. If the lead character is single and the main cop character is of the opposite sex I groan because I know were it's headed and I know there's going to be what the author thinks is cute banter, there's going to be a power struggle, there is going to be some butting of heads and a misunderstanding or two but despite all that I'm supposed to root for these two crazy kids to hook up, so I usually actively root against it, and end up disappointed. 

I get really excited, though, when a mystery or crime thriller opts out of the romantic storylines. 

Try reading Jane Casey's mystery series then featuring Maeve Kerrigan (all set in London). The relationship between the lead (Maeve) and the main cop characters are definitely NOT romantic but very well written and the mysteries are outstanding.

[Starleigh]

2 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

I am not anti-romance, but I am always a little less interested in a book as soon as I see that it is going to lean into a romance. If the lead character is single and the main cop character is of the opposite sex I groan because I know were it's headed and I know there's going to be what the author thinks is cute banter, there's going to be a power struggle, there is going to be some butting of heads and a misunderstanding or two but despite all that I'm supposed to root for these two crazy kids to hook up, so I usually actively root against it, and end up disappointed. 

I get really excited, though, when a mystery or crime thriller opts out of the romantic storylines. 

This is just one of the reasons why I love Tana French mysteries.

I like the concept of a cozy mystery, I just haven't come across too many series I actually find very readable. I have enjoyed some by M.C. Beaton.

[isalicat]

2 hours ago, Starleigh said:

This is just one of the reasons why I love Tana French mysteries.

I like the concept of a cozy mystery, I just haven't come across too many series I actually find very readable. I have enjoyed some by M.C. Beaton.

P.D. James? The most readable for me... and there is Elizabeth George and Val McDermid and Margaret Maron and Donna Leon and Ann Cleeves to start with in terms of brilliant women mystery writers.

And Dorothy Sayers! Try the Lord Peter Whimsey series for style plus mystery!

If you love Tana French your tastes are already well honed so dip into any of the above and enjoy!

[peacheslatour]

13 hours ago, isalicat said:

P.D. James? The most readable for me... and there is Elizabeth George and Val McDermid and Margaret Maron and Donna Leon and Ann Cleeves to start with in terms of brilliant women mystery writers.

And Dorothy Sayers! Try the Lord Peter Whimsey series for style plus mystery!

If you love Tana French your tastes are already well honed so dip into any of the above and enjoy!

G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown books are a lovely, cozy read. Bonus: Zero romance!

[sugarbaker design]

13 hours ago, isalicat said:

P.D. James? The most readable for me... and there is Elizabeth George and Val McDermid and Margaret Maron and Donna Leon and Ann Cleeves to start with in terms of brilliant women mystery writers.

And Dorothy Sayers! Try the Lord Peter Whimsey series for style plus mystery!

If you love Tana French your tastes are already well honed so dip into any of the above and enjoy!

While I would definitely categorize Maron as a cozy writer, I would have a problem labeling James, Leon and McDermid as such.  James is a classic mystery writer. Leon and McDermid are definitely the cream of the contemporary crop, but they're more of a classic mystery writers than cozy writers.

Edited June 16, 2021 by sugarbaker design

[blackwing]

2 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

While I would definitely categorize Maron as a cozy writer, I would have a problem labeling James, Leon and McDermid as such.  James is a classic mystery writer. Leon and McDermid are definitely the cream of the contemporary crop, but they're more of a classic mystery writers than cozy writers.

I agree.  I read my share of cozies whenever I want a light, quick read.  Ideally they would be set in some historical period, but I've seen my share of the aforementioned "woman running away from big city bad relationship flees home to small town to run the family business" ones too.  The authors I like best are Paige Shelton, Vicki Delany, and Ellery Adams.  If you don't like supernatural, then stay away from Shelton's Country Cooking School (the main character sees ghosts who help her or lead her to some mystery) and Adams' Pie Shop (she bakes magical pies). 

Shelton has a great Scottish Bookshop mystery series (in the earlier books, the main character heard voices of characters speaking quotes from books, they gave advice and often guided her, but in the latest book it has been explained that these voices are just her subconscious talking).

Delany has the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, as well as the Year Round Christmas series which is set in a town called Rudolph that celebrates Christmas year round.  One of my favourites of hers is the Klondike mysteries, set during the Gold Rush in the Yukon.  Sadly there were only four books.

Ellery Adams has two current series.  The Book Retreat series is set at a Storybook Village resort devoted to lovers of books.  I don't care for her other one, the Secret Book and Scone series.

Perhaps my favourite cozy of all is the Renaissance Faire mysteries, written by the husband/wife team Joyce and Jim Lavene, who have both since passed.