What are you reading the week of January 15, 2012?

[DUgosh]

The Deepest Water by Kate Wilhelm

2012 - Book # 14

[The Straight Story]

1. I am re-reading the Hobbit :)

And a host of horror stories from HP Lovecraft and Algernon Blackwood.

[MaineDem]

2. Another Deboarah Crombie, "Leave the Grave Green."

The third in the series.

[fadedrose]

3. AMOS WALKER; The Complete Story Collection by Loren D. Estleman

About l/2 way thru. I read a few, no more than 3 at a sitting, than go on to a Beaton Book - about 150 pp in these.

Just looking at the cool stuff and wonder if I would screw up this post if I experimented....here goes..

- I don't know why this is here. I just pushed the /b button.

i - I thought this would be italics, but no, it's just an i button.

u - underline doesn't work either.

no link.

excerpt and blockquote - they don't work either.

close tags, same story. How do you open them?

Maybe Skinner will tell me what I'm doing wrong. No link to tell anyone that I am too stupid to figure out these nonworking buttons. Just noticed the bold print. Maybe THAT /b button works.

Old age is no fun.


Book 3 of 2012.

[fadedrose]

4. DEATH OF A PRANKSTER by M. C. Beaton

Book 7 of the Hamish MacBeth series in Scotland...

Book 4 of 2012


Bear with me, am trying to figure out this stuff

Book 7 of the Hamish MacBeth series in Scotland...

Book 4 of 2012

Bear with me, am trying to figure out this stuff

Anybody know what "close tags" means?

[fadedrose]

5. DEATH OF A GLUTTON by M. C. Beaton

This is the 8th of the Hamish MacBeth series.

Didn't care for this one as much as the others. I guess it's because I feel sorry for the glutton and unlike the other characters I don't want to murder her.

Book 5 of 2012.



I would love to fool around with those new buttons..u I wonder how to work the underline....

:i: maybe this will work...:i: No, it didn't.

[jannyk]

6. 3rd Book of the Hunger Games: Mockingjay

Quick and easy read.

[krispos42]

7. "Something Rotten" by Jasper Fforde, part of the Thursday Next series. n/t

[Little Star]

8. The Reversal by Michael Connelly...

So far so good!

[fadedrose]

9. A good place to find out about the new buttons

I put "close tags" in the search engine and came up with this, from the DU Lounge:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101830389#post16

Now that I know more about it I can enjoy reading a book...(notice the smooth segue into fiction).

[Mz Pip]

10. Doc by Mary Doria Russell

Just finished A Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst. Strange book.

[northoftheborder]

11. Tasha Alexander, for a light read:

Dangerous to Know

This is is pretty good, for easy entertainment. However, the first one I read of this author is her latest one: A Crimson Warning I almost didn't finish it, not well written nor plotted.

[elfin]

12. The Leopard by Jo Nesbo

On my IPad as I keep my head down after retinal surgery.

It is so "real" that I had to google Leopold's Apple to see if this particular instrument of torture is real.

Nordic dark thriller to feed my dark side.

[WCIL]

13. The Mists of Avalon

After nearly 30 years of fits and starts, I may actually finish it this time!

[ellie]

14. Still reading The Cider House Rules

by John Irving. I have been traveling a lot and it has been great to read on the plane.

[mvccd1000]

15. "Unforeseen" by Nick Pirog

A new-to-me author, I'm enjoying the book quit a bit. Lead character reminds me of some of Nelson DeMille's characters, or Brain Haig's Sean Drummond character; smart, smart-ass, somewhat self-effacing. I'm only about 1/2 way through, so I can't comment on how much I like it overall, but I'm sure enjoying the ride so far. Several laugh-out-loud moments interspersed with some thrills and who-done-it. I think I'll be picking up more of his books.

[Onceuponalife]

16. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

My first pick for my new Kindle! Really digging it so far.

[mvccd1000]

17. Digging the book or digging the new kindle? :) nt

[fadedrose]

18. Darn you, m

If you keep posting books that are only available on Kindle you'll be responsible for me buying one of those new-fangled gizmos, and gawd only knows how I hate technology...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

20. You can just get a Kindle app for your smartphone

[fadedrose]

21. Lydia, Lydia....

Don't have a smart phone. My children (grown) have them and they sit there screwing around with it and we can't even have a conversation as brief as, "Do you need a spoon?", and get a reply.

I have a dishwasher and automatic washer & dryer. That's it.

And come to think of it, wish I had a place to hang clothes.

But thanks for the suggestion. Between you and m I feel like a freakin pioneer on a covered wagon with injuns attacking me..circle the wagons, the techies are coming!!!

[mvccd1000]

22. Sorry, rose. :)

The thing I'm enjoying most about the kindle is that many authors who simply don't get picked up by the big publishers are choosing to self-publish, and those books are only available in some e-reader format (mostly kindle, as Amazon apparently makes it incredibly easy to self-publish). I'm finding some that I really enjoy that I would have missed if I was limited to paper books.

You really don't have to buy a kindle... I've found that even though I own one, I still mostly read on the computer (either at a desk on the flat screen, or laying in bed with the warm laptop on my chest).

Amazon has a free "kindle for PC" program that you can download (which I have), but I don't even use that any more... the latest trick is "kindle cloud reader" which opens the book you're reading right here in the web browser. All I do is keep my current book in one tab of my browser all day so I can flip over to it when I have a few minutes. When I go home to my room at night and open the 'net, the book synchronizes to the same page I was already on, and I pick up right where I left off. Very handy, and very free!

What did you think of Amos Walker, by the way?

[fadedrose]

23. I like Amos Walker a lot

But I can't go from story to story without a break to digest what I read.

As soon as I finish the several books on my table, I want to get a full length novel - something to look forward to when I sit down to read, you know, after a few of the characters are introduced, etc.

But I've been reading some very short books (Hamish MacBeth)and Amos is a nice change of pace between them...

If you were to choose for me from any of the books on this list, what would you pick? I like detective as well as western, but I don't know where to start.

The cop that Amos is friends with in many of the short stories (that he went to school with) - is he in any of the novels?

But you know what, I never used the library much, and it is such a luxury to read the newest books and go back and read the oldest books without cost. It's not your gramma's library anymore - all kinds of services and the people are so anxious to please...

http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/E_Authors/Estleman_Loren-D.html

[mvccd1000]

26. Not a fan of Estleman's westerns...

... but I love the Amos Walker stories. I think that if the library still has them, I'd just start near the beginning and go on through. Estleman doesn't do a lot of referring back to earlier works, so it's not vital, and Walker doesn't seem to age a lot (like Spencer did), but I still enjoyed reading them more or less in order.

There was a long break between Walker novels, and I read somewhere that it was due to a contract dispute between publishers.

I really enjoy the way Estleman works in references to the prohibition days, the purple gang, running booze across the frozen river from Canada, etc... interesting tidbits in there. He even used Ford's River Rouge complex (at one time, the largest factory in the world) in one of the novels.... that place took in raw iron ore on one end and spit out complete cars on the other end; they made their own steel, glass, engines, bodies - everything.

I'm a big fan of the library, too (I used to work in one) but it's simply not an option where I'm working now, so I have to get everything online. Enjoy!

[Onceuponalife]

31. Both

But I was mostly speaking of the book. I'd been wanting to read Infinite Jest for a while but really didn't want to lug around a 10-pound book. The Kindle is the PERFECT conveyance for something like that. But...but...all those footnotes!!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

19. Bedside book: Sacrifice by S.J. Bolton; purse book: No Name by Willkie Collins

Sacrifice: An obstetrician recently relocated to the Shetland Islands is digging a grave for her horse when she finds what at first appears to be a bog body. It turns out to be a more recent burial of a woman who had recently given birth and whose heart had been cut out. That's all I know so far. It's a first novel, and quite well written.

No Name (downloaded for free) is a lesser-known work by the Victorian author of The Moonstone and The Woman in White, both of which have been dramatized on Masterpiece Theater. This book, which I have just started, centers on a genteel country family, the parents, two daughters, aged 18 and 26, and their governess, who has stayed on. The parents make a mysterious 3-week trip to London, the younger daughter gets engaged to a neighbor's under-achieving son, and then tragedy strikes. The parents die within a couple of days of each other. Then the father's solicitor arrives with bad news. Instead of inheriting a comfortable income, as they assumed, the daughters receive nothing, because their parents were not legally married when they were born. That's all the farther I've gotten.

[fadedrose]

36. I looked up your two authors...

and am flabbergasted. You sure aren't in a rut...your authors have written books from 1852 through 1890 (Wilkie) and from 2008 thru 2012 (Bolton). You must now find someone who wrote books from 1890 thru 2008, or someone(s) to cover a 108-year gap.




http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/C_Authors/Collins_Wilkie.html

http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/B_Authors/Bolton_S-J.html

My library has no copies of No Name and I'll bet it's not a book easily attainable anywhere but a museum in paper form. I might give it a shot at a different library. I like the story line.

The library has all 4 of Bolton's books.

[fadedrose]

24. DEATH OF A TRAVELLING MAN by M. C. Beaton

Book 9 of the series....

Book 6 of 2012

[fadedrose]

25. DEATH OF A CHARMING MAN by M. C. Beaton

Book 10 of the series..

Book 7 of 2012..

These books are mostly 150 pp and are fairly easy to read...

[NEOhiodemocrat]

27. 77 Shadow Street

by Coontz.

[YankeyMCC]

28. "When we were Orphans" by Kazuo Ishiguro

[ceile]

29. "White Butterfly" Walter Mosley

[fadedrose]

33. He's got two I might try..

I see he writes mysteries, and the one you're reading has won a lot of awards.

http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/M_Authors/Mosley_Walter.html

Walkin the Dog-(1999) and A Little Yellow Dog(1996)/ are two that I may try about 16 books from now.

[ceile]

34. I've only read his Easy Rawlins books.

Want to finish those before I get into the Leonid McGill series. I bought my mother The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey and she said it was excellent.

[russspeakeasy]

30. North River by Pete Hamill

I know it got some bad reviews ......but damn I really like it.

[fadedrose]

32. The hell with the critics...you got me curious

Gave it a look myself at Amazon.

My son and daughter, whenever a film or book has a terrific review, refuse to have a go at it. But Amazon has given this one 4-l/2 Stars, which ain't hay. Sounds like a good story:

One snowy New Year's Day, in the midst of the Great Depression, Dr. James Delaney--haunted by the slaughters of the Great War, and abandoned by his wife and daughter--returns home to find his three-year-old grandson on his doorstep, left by his mother in Delaney's care. Coping with this unexpected arrival, Delaney hires Rose, a tough, decent Sicilian woman with a secret in her past. Slowly, as Rose and the boy begin to care for the good doctor, the numbness in Delaney begins to melt. Recreating 1930s New York with the vibrancy and rich detail that are his trademarks, Pete Hamill weaves a story of honor, family, and one man's simple courage that no reader will soon forget

If this was a mystery, I'd get it for myself.

At this site, I noticed the first title was A Killilng for Christ(1980). Is this a religious writer?

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/pete-hamill/

[russspeakeasy]

35. Most of Hamills books are "observational". he writes a lot

about his battle with alcoholism, growing up, and life in general.

I have never paid much attention to the critics; I get a book,read it until it does, or doesn't grab me and either continue, or grab another book that does.