What Are We Currently Reading?

[Haleth]

On 2/6/2023 at 7:07 AM, Haleth said:

I'm only 50 pages in so we'll see how it goes, but I'm thoroughly enjoying Ithaca by Claire North.  It's about Penelope and her juggling her many suitors while waiting for Odysseus to return.  The narrator is Hera, who is snarky and hilariously blunt about all the characters from ancient myths and legends.  She tells how it is, disputing how the poets and storytellers chose to portray people and events.  Good fun.

Ok. I finished this today. I loved it!  Quite a few characters from classic Greek literature and mythology show up and Hera doesn’t spare any of them her opinions. Not only does Penelope have to fend off suitors, but she also has to protect Odysseus’s throne from outside threats, but without overstepping her role as a mere woman. It ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, so I don’t know if a sequel is coming, but this was a fun read. 

[Spartan Girl]

1 hour ago, Haleth said:

Ok. I finished this today. I loved it!  Quite a few characters from classic Greek literature and mythology show up and Hera doesn’t spare any of them her opinions. Not only does Penelope have to fend off suitors, but she also has to protect Odysseus’s throne from outside threats, but without overstepping her role as a mere woman. It ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, so I don’t know if a sequel is coming, but this was a fun read. 

Sequel is coming.

[grommit2]

Little Fires Everywhere...the title reflects the various story lines.  What starts out as a relatively idyllic family story...to one with conflagration spouting about mid-way through the book. Renee Zellweger recommends this book, and I agree!

[Spartan Girl]

The Shadow of Perseus by Claire Heywood: Ye Gods, why does everyone have to turn Perseus into a monster all of a sudden? While I loved Daughters of Sparta, what worked in that book—taking away the gods and magic in favor of a more “realistic” take on Greek mythology, did NOT work with this one. Although I do feel it did a better job than Stone Blind showing how this version Perseus went wrong, 

Spoiler

having it end hinting that Perseus could be redeemed rang a bit false considering how many people he murdered.

 

Edited February 23, 2023 by Spartan Girl

[blackwing]

I finished Every Vow You Break by Peter Swanson.  A woman has "one last fling" on her bachelorette weekend, only to have her fling show up on her honeymoon on an isolated island off the coast of New England.  Ohs noes!

This book has all the hallmarks of the classic overdone "women in jeop" genre... woman who makes poor decisions, compounds those poor decisions with even more poor decisions, to the point where she reaches the "too stupid to live" level.  There was a twist that made this book a little different than the usual "women in jeop" book, but all said, she's still in jeop, and having to rely on herself to get herself out of problems that are ultimately of her own doing.

The only other book of Peter Swanson's I have read is "Eight Perfect Murders", and even though I still might read "Nine Lives", this book is making me think twice about reading any more of his work.  I thoroughly hated this book.  I was annoyed by the main character, and at some point the book strangely devolves into an all out assault on women.  If you enjoy reading about women getting psychologically and physically abused, then this book is for you! 😧

[Grrarrggh]

On 2/14/2023 at 12:36 AM, Zella said:

As someone who knows a lot of Russian history, though, I find the premise super implausible, and it's really distracting me, though I like the book otherwise. I've noticed everyone who recommended it to me IRL is pretty unknowledgeable of the time period and subject, and everyone who didn't like it is hung up on the same things I am from knowing the subject. 

Now that I've finished it I'd love to know what specifically seemed distracting and far fetched. Well, beyond the things I'm already thinking about lol. 

[Zella]

6 minutes ago, Grrarrggh said:

Now that I've finished it I'd love to know what specifically seemed distracting and far fetched. Well, beyond the things I'm already thinking about lol. 

Oh let me count the ways. LOL I just finished it a few days ago myself and remained pretty unimpressed with the premise, despite liking the characters.

I don't buy for a minute that he's allowed relatively free reign in a hotel. If he'd been shown mercy, I think that would have been not being killed but still going to a grim prison or a Siberian gulag, not a relatively genteel house arrest in a luxury hotel.

I don't believe for a minute he'd get to keep all of his bougie family heirlooms. 

I don't believe the staff would welcome him back with open arms--I think they'd be paranoid about why he was released and suspicious he was either now an informer or that they'd still be in trouble for interacting with him. 

I don't believe for a minute everyone would continue to address him so deferentially. Even if they liked him otherwise, that's just an invitation to bring down punishment on your own head for being politically unreliable. 

I don't believe for a minute that nobody would know where Sofia came from. 

I don't believe for a minute that the hotel staff would have rushed to take care of her once they figured out why she was there. Family members often abandoned kids with her backstory rather than raise them and be associated with them publicly. I can see there being an exception to the rule, but the entire staff doing so, despite the potential cost it could have for them and their only families? 

I don't believe for a minute that Sofia's parents or her adopted father wouldn't have been held against her in her career. Look up Maya Plisetskaya. She is a real Soviet ballerina who has a somewhat similar background to Sofia

Spoiler

in that she lost her family to the Stalinist purges. She was also taken in by family and raised instead of being abandoned. She was not allowed to tour internationally until the late 1950s. 

I don't believe for a minute that the Count

Spoiler

would have been able to evade authorities so easily when he made his escape. Look up Oleg Gordievsky and read Ben Macintyre's fantastic book about him and how extraordinarily difficult it was for MI6 to get him out of Russia in the relatively relaxed 80s. They weren't sure it was possible. I think Americans really underestimate how extremely effective and all-reaching the Soviet surveillance state was within the country. I've read a lot of stuff about the Cold War that talks about how it was virtually impossible to keep double agents alive behind the Iron Curtain due to this and also how the West was blindsided by it in the 1940s because they had such a hard time understanding the extent of surveillance. 

 

[Grrarrggh]

1 minute ago, Zella said:

Oh let me count the ways. LOL I just finished it a few days ago myself and remained pretty unimpressed with the premise, despite liking the characters.

I don't buy for a minute that he's allowed relatively free reign in a hotel. If he'd been shown mercy, I think that would have been not being killed but still going to a grim prison or a Siberian gulag, not a relatively genteel house arrest in a luxury hotel.

I don't believe for a minute he'd get to keep all of his bougie family heirlooms. 

I don't believe the staff would welcome him back with open arms--I think they'd be paranoid about why he was released and suspicious he was either now an informer or that they'd still be in trouble for interacting with him. 

I don't believe for a minute everyone would continue to address him so deferentially. Even if they liked him otherwise, that's just an invitation to bring down punishment on your own head for being politically unreliable. 

I don't believe for a minute that nobody would know where Sofia came from. 

I don't believe for a minute that the hotel staff would have rushed to take care of her once they figured out why she was there. Family members often abandoned kids with her backstory rather than raise them and be associated with them publicly. I can see there being an exception to the rule, but the entire staff doing so, despite the potential cost it could have for them and their only families? 

I don't believe for a minute that Sofia's parents or her adopted father wouldn't have been held against her in her career. Look up Maya Plisetskaya. She is a real Soviet ballerina who has a somewhat similar b

Yeah, it is definitely heavy on the fiction when it's called historic fiction. 

[Zella]

Just now, Grrarrggh said:

Yeah, it is definitely heavy on the fiction when it's called historic fiction. 

I found it so frustrating too because I loved the author's writing style. Like I said, I might try some of his other books where the premise might bug me less. 

[Anduin]

Hyperion, by Dan Simmons. I've read the whole series before, many years ago. Must have been when I was watching Battlestar Galactica, because I've always pictured Silenus as played by James Callis, Gaius Baltar. And John Keats by Jamie Bamber, Apollo. I hate to alarm people, but 2003 was twenty years ago! How did that happen? Also, I've always imagined the Shrike looking like the Skaarj from the first Unreal game. Similar, but not identical. And now I've read the Expanse books, the Ousters look like a possible future of the Belters.

Anyway, it's still very good. Aged all right for something published in 1989, though not perfectly. A few moments here and there, maybe in Silenus' and the Consul's stories.

Bradley Cooper has the movie rights. There's the occasional article every few years, but nothing ever comes of it. Pity. More cinematic space opera would be great.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading the whole series again.

[Zella]

I'm starting Book 10 of the Louise Penny series, The Long Road Home, and also Jeff Guinn's new book, Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage. I'm a big fan of Guinn's--I've really enjoyed his past historical true crime books about Jonestown, Manson, Bonnie and Clyde, and the OK Corral--so I've been wanting to read this one for a while. 

[Anduin]

I finished Hyperion, which I'd had on the go for a couple of weeks. Onto Fall of Hyperion. I know I've read the books before, but I've forgotten half of them. At this point I'm worried that Rachel might become Moneta. I hope not. She deserves better than that. She might become the girl from Endymion, which is a better fate. Or she might have the long and happy life she deserves. The best alternative. But I've got a feeling it's not going to go so easy for her. :(

[Scatterbrained]

Recently read Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes.  Plotwise, it’s about an unintended shoe trade due to mixed up gym bags and crazy life circumstances on the part of both main characters that prohibit an easy correction of this mistake.  In the world of the characters, middle aged females support each other greatly even when they are strangers to each other.  It’s TOTALLY unbelievable.  I thought it started off ok, was very weighed down in the middle (I think the depressed husband and crazy parent sections should have been greatly reduced to a few sentences or left out altogether) and ended in a very fantastical, too easy sort of way.  I stuck with the book because there were certain phrases that spoke to me in my current mid-life crisis state, and because reviewers on good reads promised a hilarious ending (personally, I didn’t think it was amusing).

I am currently reading All Signs Point to Paris by Natasha Sizlo.  Something about the cover and the way the book started made me think it was a fictional account.  I guess I thought A Memoir printed on the cover was a subtitle.  It starts out with a messy backstory that includes getting kicked out of boarding school, a great group of girlfriends, a French boyfriend who feels good but really isn’t, a job in a reality tv show real estate agency, a dying dad dance-off, and an astrologer.  There was a lot of name dropping.  In the beginning when I still thought it was fiction, I assumed there was a deal for soft advertising and/or there was a publicity deal in place.  The record scratch moment for me came when Anna Farris entered the picture.  Right now I’m trying to decide whether or not I’ll finish it.  Many good reads reviews say it is easier to read when you pretend it’s a fictional account.  

[sugarbaker design]

On 2/27/2023 at 9:17 PM, Zella said:

I'm starting Book 10 of the Louise Penny series, The Long Road Home,

I loved that one, it's one of the darker Three Pines novels.

[Zella]

1 hour ago, sugarbaker design said:

I loved that one, it's one of the darker Three Pines novels.

I'm enjoying it so far! I think Penny has done a good job of depicting the erosion of that marriage for a long time, so I'm interested to see where it goes. I can't imagine it ending well. 

Edited March 1, 2023 by Zella

[sugarbaker design]

8 minutes ago, Zella said:

I'm enjoying it so far! I think Penny has done a good job of depicting the erosion of that marriage for a long time,

I so agree, the pacing on this subplot was wonderful, this breakdown didn't just happen overnight, it was over years (and novels).

[Zella]

8 minutes ago, sugarbaker design said:

I so agree, the pacing on this subplot was wonderful, this breakdown didn't just happen overnight, it was over years (and novels).

I need to post some further thoughts in the show thread, but another thing I like is that when you first meet the couple, they seem so idyllic. And I love how even as the marriage is revealed to be a lot more complicated and problematic than that, it doesn't negate what you were shown in the beginning. It's just that there was only a very narrow range of situations that would allow it to be idyllic. I can't offhand think of any other books that really depict that with married characters. 

[blackwing]

Has anyone here read Mark Pryor?  He has a long running series with a character named Hugo Marston, a former FBI agent who is currently head of security at the U.S. Embassy in Paris.  I really enjoy this series, and I like the Paris setting.

I just finished his newest book which seems to be billed as a new series, called Die Around Sundown.  This book features a French policeman and is set in Paris during WW2.

From Goodreads:

Quote

Mark Pryor's Die Around Sundown is the first entry in an exciting mystery series set in Paris during World War II, where a detective is forced to solve a murder while protecting his own secrets.

Summer 1940: In German-occupied Paris, Inspector Henri Lefort has been given just five days to solve the murder of a German major that took place in the Louvre Museum. Blocked from the crime scene but given a list of suspects, Henri encounters a group of artists, including Pablo Picasso, who know more than they're willing to share.

With the clock ticking, Henri must uncover a web of lies while overcoming impossible odds to save his own life and prove his loyalty to his country. Will he rise to the task or become another tragic story of a tragic time?

Five days. One murder. A masterpiece of a mystery.

I enjoyed this book.  I was a bit puzzled as to why seemingly a third of the book features Henri telling someone about another mystery that occurred  20 years earlier.  It was a bit confusing why this was happening, but I get that it provided backstory about Henri.

Now that all the secrets are on the table, I hope that the next entry can be a bit more straightforward.

But I really hope Pryor continues the Hugo Marston series as well.

[Grrarrggh]

Listening to Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold.

[Grrarrggh]

Just finished listening to The Villa by Rachel Hawkins. Quite liked it. A fun listen, but if you don't like jumping timelines it might not be for you. 

[blackwing]

14 hours ago, Grrarrggh said:

Just finished listening to The Villa by Rachel Hawkins. Quite liked it. A fun listen, but if you don't like jumping timelines it might not be for you. 

How does it compare to her "Reckless Girls", and is it another "woman in jeop" book set at an isolated location? 

I remember liking "Reckless Girls" but I did notice that, as with many books in this genre, the author relied on the use of flashbacks in alternate chapters.  It doesn't necessarily bother me that much, however I do think the use of the alternating flashback for books in this genre is a bit overdone.

[Grrarrggh]

1 hour ago, blackwing said:

How does it compare to her "Reckless Girls", and is it another "woman in jeop" book set at an isolated location? 

I remember liking "Reckless Girls" but I did notice that, as with many books in this genre, the author relied on the use of flashbacks in alternate chapters.  It doesn't necessarily bother me that much, however I do think the use of the alternating flashback for books in this genre is a bit overdone.

This is the first of her books that I've read, but I'd have to say no to the "woman in jeop" trope. In either timeline. Nor was there any gratuitous violence against females, which I try very hard to avoid. Have you read any of her other books? Like I said, I liked this one but I'm not sure on some of the others, based on reviews I've seen. 

[blackwing]

1 hour ago, Grrarrggh said:

This is the first of her books that I've read, but I'd have to say no to the "woman in jeop" trope. In either timeline. Nor was there any gratuitous violence against females, which I try very hard to avoid. Have you read any of her other books? Like I said, I liked this one but I'm not sure on some of the others, based on reviews I've seen. 

I haven't read any of the rest of her books besides "Reckless Girls", which is very much in vein with the Agatha Christie "And Then There Were None" type of book.  I would recommend "Reckless Girls", it was a decent read and I liked the island setting.

[Grrarrggh]

Just finished Dragon Bones by Patricia Briggs. It was okay, but I won't be bothering with the sequel.

[Haleth]

I finished the third of Fredrick Backman's books about Beartown the other night, called The Winners.  It wrapped everything up so there is no need for any more about this town and its toxic hockey culture.  It's a big book, nearly 700 pages and could have used some snipping here and there.  (I was thinking about what could have been trimmed; there's a whole new family he drops into the story that really wasn't necessary.  There's an awful lot going on as it is.)  I did like it though.  By now the characters are comfortable old friends and it was nice to follow up with them about where their lives took them.

[blackwing]

Against my better judgement, I read The Retreat by Sarah Pearse.  I am a glutton for punishment and seem determined to seek out any and all "And Then Were None"-adjacent type books.

I remember distinctly disliking Pearse's debut novel "The Sanatorium", which featured a detective who was on a break from her job who travelled to an isolated hotel (formerly a sanatorium) in the mountains to meet up with her brother and his fiance.  Things went wrong, and she was left trying to solve the crime.  I remember thinking she was a terrible detective, she was wrong almost every step of the way and didn't seem to have a good instinct for detective work.

Somehow, that book got picked by Reese Witherspoon in her "I wanna be like Oprah and make authors rich" book club, and it was very popular.  

Well, now that same terrible detective is back in "The Retreat".  I thought, how bad can it be, it's on a remote island off the coast of England.  Just like ATTWN!  Nope.

Quote

Most are here to recharge and refresh. But someone's here for revenge. . .

An eco-wellness retreat has opened on an island off the English coast, promising rest and relaxation—but the island itself, known locally as Reaper’s Rock, has a dark past. Once the playground of a serial killer, it’s rumored to be cursed.

Detective Elin Warner is called to the retreat when a young woman’s body is found on the rocks below the yoga pavilion in what seems to be a tragic fall. But the victim wasn’t a guest—she wasn’t meant to be on the island at all.

When a guest drowns in a diving incident the following day, Elin starts to suspect that there’s nothing accidental about these deaths. But why would someone target the guests, and who else is in danger?

Elin must find the killer—before the island’s history starts to repeat itself . . .

I had the same issues with this character that I did the first time.  She's just not very competent or believable as a detective.  Worse is that she apparently has some lingering PTSD or whatever she is calling her "trauma" from the events of the first book.  It's mentioned several times that she's not even supposed to be investigating murder cases, and yet here she is.  I found her just as bad at her job as the first time around.  Is the fact that she clearly has some issues and flaws supposed to make her more relatable?  Because it didn't work for me. 

I prefer my detectives to be strong-willed and assured and competent.  I want to see the story unfold through the eyes of someone who is supposed to be the alter ego of the reader.  As they discover the truths, so do I.  I don't really care for the "unreliable" type of narrator/detective.

Even without my issues with the main character, I have issues with Sarah Pearse's writing.  She namedrops names of characters that I vaguely recall from her first book, but there are other characters in the detective's circle that are supporting characters in this book.  I think I am supposed to remember them but have absolutely no recollection of them at all, and Pearse doesn't help me at all.  

I don't think she knows how to tell a good story.  The resolution of the mystery was predictable and not satisfying.  The identity of those responsible was telegraphed early on.

I'm done with Sarah Pearse.  She joins Lucy Foley in my "don't even think about reading another by this author" list.

Edited March 6, 2023 by blackwing

[Zella]

2 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I prefer my detectives to be strong-willed and assured and competent. 

I did a lot of thinking about what I like in my fictional detectives for a work presentation I did last year. (I work in a library, and it was about conducting readers' advisory effectively, so I used myself as an example patron. Which meant I needed to think way more in-depth about my reading preferences than I'd ever done before.)

And yes for me a big thing is competence too. Basically, I want my detectives to be adults who are good at their job and not insufferable assholes who abuse their power. I don't really care about their home lives, and interestingly enough (at least to me), most of the ones I really like have very little personal drama. 

I feel like a lot of fictional mediums now--not just books but also TV and movies--are premised on the idea that the protagonist must have some deep dark backstory. And I almost never care about it in the way that I think I'm supposed to. It's not even that I want my reading to be particularly light and trouble-free. But in mysteries, I am there for the murder and the crime-solving, and I don't enjoy having to go on that journey with a really troubled detective whose issues and personal narrative keep overtaking the mystery. 

[Rushmoras]

Bought yesterday in a book fare for 5 euros 'To Sleep in A Sea of Stars' by Christopher Paolini (the original price was like 35 euros), but I think I'm gonna hold off on reading it until I read through Tolstoy's 'War and Peace'.

[Razzberry]

Currently reading American Sphinx by Joseph Ellis about the character of Thomas Jefferson, but it's kind of a slog.  Some parts are interesting, but maybe I'm just not as fascinated with him as some historians are.  

Hamilton summed up his opinion of his character in one paragraph:  "I admit that his politics are tinctured with fanaticism, that he is too much in earnest in his democracy, that he has been a mischievous enemy to the principal measures of the past administration, that he is crafty and persevering in his objects, that he is not scrupulous about the means of success, nor very mindful of truth, and is a contemptible hypocrite."

🤣

[annzeepark914]

On 11/16/2022 at 5:07 PM, isalicat said:

I just finished the first of the Patricia Sprinkle mystery novels as I had completed the Margaret Maron (20 book!) series set in the South and was looking for more of the same. This was pretty good but nowhere as good as the Margaret Maron books - I think having the principal character a lady of approximately my age (i.e. a senior citizen) is a bit less fun - no romantic opportunities as she is in a long term, very happy marriage, which is great but again, less fun.

Is this the Southern Mystery Series featuring a woman (first name is MacLaren I think) who's married to a magistrate? If so, I loved that series and sent an email to Sprinkle almost begging her to continue the series. But she was moving on to some other type of stories. Anyway...the series doesn't get really good until the magistrate is shot and she starts solving mysteries in her town. She has a few character townsfolk who reappear in her mysteries. They're amusing (but not in a hokey way!) 

[Crs97]

I just finished Deliberate Cruelty, the story of Ann Woodward’s trial and Truman Capote’s time as a darling of high society.  It was well-written, no revelations but kept my interest.  I was frustrated, though, that the author did not really explain why Truman hated Ann so much that she was the main character in his diatribe against New York society.  I’m not a Truman Capote fan, but I am fascinated by this time period.  It made me want to reread (or at least skim portions of) Swans of Fifth Avenue.

Now I’m starting Lost Coast Literary.  A young woman inherits her estranged grandmother’s estate with the stipulation that she must edit the “forsaken novels.”  Fun, light read thus far.

[Zella]

Didn't she rather infamously call him slurs about his sexual orientation?

He and Jackie Onassis's sister had a really heated falling-out after being close friends, and he was pretty open in talking about her using the same slur was extremely hurtful to him and as far as he was concerned was the same as a declaration of war. I doubt it was any different with Woodward, and she didn't have the benefit of a long-time friendship with him either. (Not that being friends with Capote was a guarantee you were safe from his pen but still. I can understand why he had animosity toward her.) 

[sugarbaker design]

Sometimes one reads a book and is so impressed, so moved, that one has to post about it.  I've been reading the Donna Leon mysteries for years, I'm reading them sequentially, and because they're so good, I want them to last, I read one a  year.  It takes all the restraint I possess to do so, but it's so worth it.  I just finished Earthly Remains, her 26th Guido Brunetti book, I'm just awestruck how the 26th in a series of mystery books can be so well-written, so unlike the other 25, and so moving.  I can't say enough of this series.  Brunetti is a deeply principled commissario in Venice, he's seen the worst of humanity, but he's no brooding Swede or alcoholic Norwegian, Brunetti is sophisticated, he reads the classics, he enjoys a good meal, he loves his wife and children, all the while painfully aware the city he loves is dying around him.  Each of the novels, so far, feature an ugly aspect of the city, yet Brunetti remains above the ugliness.  I'm only posting this because I don't recall anyone posting about Leon.  She certainly deserves it.

[blackwing]

I finished a few books lately:

Dissolution, the first book in C.J. Sansom's series featuring a lawyer who works for Thomas Cromwell.  He is asked to investigate a murder at a monastery that is in the process of being dissolved by Henry VIII.

The Curse of Braeburn Castle, the third book in a series by Karen Baugh Menuhin featuring Heathcliff Lennox, a minor lord who lives in the English countryside in the 1920s.  This time, he travels to Scotland to investigate the mystery of a skeleton found bricked up in the walls of his friend's castle.

Storm Watch, the latest book in the long-running series by C.J. Box featuring a Wyoming game warden named Joe Pickett.

Emperor: the Gods of War, the fourth book in Conn Iggulden's series about the life of Julius Caesar.

I enjoyed all of these.

I'm currently reading The Winter King, the first book in Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles series about King Arthur.  Has anyone read this?  This series seems to get very good reviews.  But I'm about halfway through and I'm kind of finding it to be a slog.  Too many names of people and places, too many vignettes or descriptions that aren't adding to the story, and worst of all, not heavy on plot.  Sure, things happen, but very slowly.  This book reminds me very much of "The Once and Future King" in terms of slowness and overabundance of names.  

I hope the series gets better.

[Zella]

27 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I finished a few books lately:

Dissolution, the first book in C.J. Sansom's series featuring a lawyer who works for Thomas Cromwell.  He is asked to investigate a murder at a monastery that is in the process of being dissolved by Henry VIII.

The Curse of Braeburn Castle, the third book in a series by Karen Baugh Menuhin featuring Heathcliff Lennox, a minor lord who lives in the English countryside in the 1920s.  This time, he travels to Scotland to investigate the mystery of a skeleton found bricked up in the walls of his friend's castle.

Storm Watch, the latest book in the long-running series by C.J. Box featuring a Wyoming game warden named Joe Pickett.

Emperor: the Gods of War, the fourth book in Conn Iggulden's series about the life of Julius Caesar.

I enjoyed all of these.

I'm currently reading The Winter King, the first book in Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles series about King Arthur.  Has anyone read this?  This series seems to get very good reviews.  But I'm about halfway through and I'm kind of finding it to be a slog.  Too many names of people and places, too many vignettes or descriptions that aren't adding to the story, and worst of all, not heavy on plot.  Sure, things happen, but very slowly.  This book reminds me very much of "The Once and Future King" in terms of slowness and overabundance of names.  

I hope the series gets better.

Did you like Dissolution? I have been interested in the series for a while. 

I've not read that Cornwell series. I read the first book in The Last Kingdom series of his and liked it well enough but not enough to read any more of them. 

I started Maurice Druon's The Accursed Kings series, and it seems like it's going to be a lot of fun. It's historical fiction about the French monarchy in the 1300s and was a big inspiration for the political squabbling in George R. R. Martin's ASOIAF series. He actually wrote the preface to the edition I'm reading. 

[sugarbaker design]

28 minutes ago, blackwing said:

Dissolution, the first book in C.J. Sansom's series featuring a lawyer who works for Thomas Cromwell.  He is asked to investigate a murder at a monastery that is in the process of being dissolved by Henry VIII.

Love Shardlake and this series!

30 minutes ago, blackwing said:

The Curse of Braeburn Castle, the third book in a series by Karen Baugh Menuhin

I'll try to remember Menuhin.

[blackwing]

1 hour ago, Zella said:

Did you like Dissolution? I have been interested in the series for a while. 

I've not read that Cornwell series. I read the first book in The Last Kingdom series of his and liked it well enough but not enough to read any more of them. 

I loved Dissolution.  Taking the second book with me on Spring Break, need a long book that will last for some long plane and train rides.  I know that these books get progressively longer, I think the most recent one might qualify for "doorstop" status!

[blackwing]

1 hour ago, sugarbaker design said:

I'll try to remember Menuhin.

I discovered this series through, of all things, a Facebook ad.  The series is billed as "Downton Abbey" meets Agatha Christie with a touch of Wodehouse, so seemed right up my alley.  I do like the humour in these books.  Interestingly, several other series have popped up in my Facebook feed with similar "Downton Abbey", Agatha Christie, and PG Wodehouse comparisons.  Hmmmm.

They are set in the 1920's in England, say they are like Agatha Christie, and say there is humour.  One that I flagged to look further into is the "Lord Edgington Investigates" series by Benedict Brown.

I'm assuming these authors or their publishers are paying Facebook to push out these recommendations.  It's worked at least once with me, so must be a good strategy.

[Zella]

28 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I loved Dissolution.  Taking the second book with me on Spring Break, need a long book that will last for some long plane and train rides.  I know that these books get progressively longer, I think the most recent one might qualify for "doorstop" status!

Thank you! I'll have to get a copy from my library. 

[Crs97]

17 hours ago, Zella said:

Didn't she rather infamously call him slurs about his sexual orientation?

Supposedly he saw her and a male companion in a restaurant in Europe after the murder, went up to say something to her, and she responded with the slur. I don’t know what he said to her or whether they ever met before or after that one time.  It just seems like such a singular moment in their lives to be the genesis of both their ruins.  I was hoping to find out if there was more to their relationship than that, but I guess not.

[isalicat]

5 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

Sometimes one reads a book and is so impressed, so moved, that one has to post about it.  I've been reading the Donna Leon mysteries for years, I'm reading them sequentially, and because they're so good, I want them to last, I read one a  year.  It takes all the restraint I possess to do so, but it's so worth it.  I just finished Earthly Remains, her 26th Guido Brunetti book, I'm just awestruck how the 26th in a series of mystery books can be so well-written, so unlike the other 25, and so moving.  I can't say enough of this series.  Brunetti is a deeply principled commissario in Venice, he's seen the worst of humanity, but he's no brooding Swede or alcoholic Norwegian, Brunetti is sophisticated, he reads the classics, he enjoys a good meal, he loves his wife and children, all the while painfully aware the city he loves is dying around him.  Each of the novels, so far, feature an ugly aspect of the city, yet Brunetti remains above the ugliness.  I'm only posting this because I don't recall anyone posting about Leon.  She certainly deserves it.

I've read them all sequentially as well and join you in praising Donna Leon - I keep recommending the Guido Brunetti series to everyone I know that likes mysteries - and food! the descriptions of the family dinners and what Brunetti eats when he is out in Venice are scrumptious. There are a couple of novels in the series that get a bit preachy and the mystery element does take a back seat to Leon's concern for Venice itself but its still a great, great series.

By the way, if you do like brooding Nordic detectives, I cannot recommend more highly the Department Q series by Jussi Adler-Olsen (set in Denmark). I'm on number 3 in the series now and they are brilliant!!

[Zella]

I really liked the Department Q mysteries. I read the first several before I sort of lost track of them, but they're all really good. If you can find them, there's some Danish language adaptations of them starring Nikolai Lie Kaas that are really well done too, though apparently the author didn't like him as Carl. 

Edited March 17, 2023 by Zella

[sugarbaker design]

1 hour ago, isalicat said:

I've read them all sequentially as well and join you in praising Donna Leon - I keep recommending the Guido Brunetti series to everyone I know that likes mysteries - and food! the descriptions of the family dinners and what Brunetti eats when he is out in Venice are scrumptious. 

Yes! Paola can do no wrong.

1 hour ago, isalicat said:

If you do like brooding Nordic detectives, I cannot recommend more highly the Department Q series by Jussi Adler-Olsen (set in Denmark). I'm on number 3 in the series now and they are brilliant!!

 

38 minutes ago, Zella said:

I really liked the Department Q mysteries. I read the first several before I sort of lost track of them, but they're all really good. 

Since I've read all the Wallander and Nina Borg books, my brooding Nordic detective quotient is low.  I'll see if my library system has any Adler-Olsens.

[annzeepark914]

Just finished rereading Heartburn by Nora Ephron for a book club special "classics" discussion. I first read this roman a clef back in the '80's (& then saw the movie in '89, I think). Geez...I'd forgotten about the hilarious bits in between the sad memories of the book's narrator. I'm now reading a biography of Ephron. What a great writer, gone way too soon. 

[MsNewsradio]

10 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

Sometimes one reads a book and is so impressed, so moved, that one has to post about it.  I've been reading the Donna Leon mysteries for years, I'm reading them sequentially, and because they're so good, I want them to last, I read one a  year.  It takes all the restraint I possess to do so, but it's so worth it.  I just finished Earthly Remains, her 26th Guido Brunetti book, I'm just awestruck how the 26th in a series of mystery books can be so well-written, so unlike the other 25, and so moving.  I can't say enough of this series.  Brunetti is a deeply principled commissario in Venice, he's seen the worst of humanity, but he's no brooding Swede or alcoholic Norwegian, Brunetti is sophisticated, he reads the classics, he enjoys a good meal, he loves his wife and children, all the while painfully aware the city he loves is dying around him.  Each of the novels, so far, feature an ugly aspect of the city, yet Brunetti remains above the ugliness.  I'm only posting this because I don't recall anyone posting about Leon.  She certainly deserves it.

I had purchased Acqua Alta on a whim right before a trip to Italy in 2019 and loved it - when the pandemic began, I went on eBay and bought a giant lot of Donna Leon books and started reading the series from the beginning. Absolutely love those books. 

[Haleth]

20 hours ago, blackwing said:

I'm currently reading The Winter King, the first book in Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles series about King Arthur.  Has anyone read this?  This series seems to get very good reviews.  But I'm about halfway through and I'm kind of finding it to be a slog.  Too many names of people and places, too many vignettes or descriptions that aren't adding to the story, and worst of all, not heavy on plot.  Sure, things happen, but very slowly.  This book reminds me very much of "The Once and Future King" in terms of slowness and overabundance of names.  

I read them many years ago and loved, loved the series.  It's gritty and realistic; no magical wizards.  This series and Mary Stewart's are my favorite takes on Arthurian legend.

[Rushmoras]

Lev Tolstoy's "War And Piece"... um... 100 pages in, I have no idea what the story is about (and it's only the first volume of 400 pages). A lot of shindings and gossiping from the nobility... also, Napoleon something something.

[Grrarrggh]

Just finally got around to reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman and loved it. Now to the sequels!

[akiss]

On 3/18/2023 at 9:33 PM, Rushmoras said:

Lev Tolstoy's "War And Piece"... um... 100 pages in, I have no idea what the story is about (and it's only the first volume of 400 pages). A lot of shindings and gossiping from the nobility... also, Napoleon something something.

I loved War and Peace back in the day, but I was in my "read every known classic" phase. I haven't read it in a long time but I remember quite a lot of it and I was impressed. I hope you grow to like it a little more. I don't know if I'd have the time or the patience for it now.

17 hours ago, Grrarrggh said:

Just finally got around to reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman and loved it. Now to the sequels!

I loved this, too! The second book was equally good imo.

[GaT]

22 hours ago, Grrarrggh said:

Just finally got around to reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman and loved it. Now to the sequels!

 

4 hours ago, akiss said:

I loved this, too! The second book was equally good imo.

And so was the third & hopefully, the fourth book due in September will be too.