Annie's reading in 2012

Let's see if I will manage to post through the whole year.

I read a lot of short fiction and comics so I will be talking about them a lot.
I also read novels, non-fiction and whatever else has letters that I can recognize and understand.
I read the occasional Poetry book -- and usually promise myself to read more of them - and promptly get distracted.

I had read a lot of the English classics in another language (Bulgarian and/or Russian) so now and again, I would reread some of them in English.

One of the plans for the year is to reread Dickens -- it is a good year for that, I like him a lot so no reason not to.

List started and restarted a few times... so I think I will stop even trying to keep a coherent list in a single message and will just post as I read...

Novels:
1. The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson
2. Call for the Dead by John le Carre
3. A Murder of Quality by John le Carre
4. West of January by Dave Duncan
5. An English Murder by Cyril Hare
6. January Kills Me by Evan Katy
7. The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey
8. The January Corpse by Neil Albert
9. The Nebraska Quotient by William J. Reynolds
10. Blunt Darts by Jeremiah Healy
11. Death in the Stocks by Georgette Heyer
12. February Trouble by Neil Albert
13. Moving Targets by William J. Reynolds
14. Elizabeth I: A Novel by Margaret George
15. Money Trouble by William J. Reynolds
16. The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin
17. Celebrity in Death by J. D. Robb
18. The Spy Who came In from the Cold by John le Carre
19. Good Behaviour by Molly Keane
20. Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey
21. Victims by Jonathan Kellerman
22. Fracture by Megan Miranda
23. Fair Game by Patricia Briggs
24. Curse the Names by Robert Arellano
25. The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton
26. Burning March by Neil Albert

Collections:
1. You Know When the Men are Gone by Siobhan Fallon
2. Shooting Hollywood by Melodie Johnson Howe + "Acting Tips"
3. The Odditorium by Melissa Pritchard

Anthologies:
1. Detection by gaslight
2. Mumbai Noir

Single stories/novellas in separate books
1. Flying Fish by Randall Silvis

Single Printed Stories (at least an attempt).

1. "Acting Tips" by Melodie Johnson Howe

Graphic novels and comics

1. Grandville by Bryan Talbot
2. Aetheric Mechanics by Warren Ellis

Non fiction:
1. Superheroes of the Round Table: Comics Connections to Medieval and Renaissance Literature by Jason Tondro
2. The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick
3. Twilight on the Line: Underworlds and Politics at the U.S.-Mexico Border by Sebastian Rotella
4. This is not the end of the Book by Umberto Eco and Jean-Claude Carrière
5. Why Translation Matters by Edith Grossman
6. Essays in Elizabethan History by J. E. Neale
7. The Age of Catherine de Medici by J. E. Neale
8. Cruising Attitude by Heather Poole
9. Citizen 13660 by Mine Okubo

The list getting restarted in July

Before starting to post but still in July:
Murder, Ancient and Modern by Edward Marston - review pending

1. The Paris Directive by Gerald Jay - review here
2. Ordinary Love and Good Will by Jane Smiley - review here
3. 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - review here
4. Year's Best SF 17 - Hartwell and Cramer selection - review here
5. Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce - review here
6. Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski - review here

1. The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson
Original language: Swedish
Author nationality: Finland
Number of pages: 181 + xvii (198 total)
Original publication date: 1982

A short novel for a start of the year. It could have been a depressing read if I was in another mood. But at the end of the holidays, I choose to see more hope than despair in this book. Highly recommended - as long as you can handle the style (it is unconventional) and the bleak picture that it paints.

Review: in the work page, click here

>6 - Great review of The True Deceiver, which I've wanted to read for a while now. I'm trying not to buy books this year, but maybe I'll ask for it for my birthday... :)

I bought it when it was short listed for Best Translated book last year - and promptly never read it.:) Picking it up as the first book this year was not planned - it just happened. But it started my reading year pretty well so... all is good.

2. Call for the Dead by John le Carre (no cover because it is part of an omnibus - will post the cover when I read and review the whole omnibus.
Original language: English
Author nationality: UK
Number of pages: 169
Original publication date: 1961

The first novel by le Carre -- the usual polished style is still missing, the master storyteller is not fully presented although you can see him under some of the clumsiness of the prose. If you like spy fiction set in the Cold War, you might enjoy this. Although I would not recommend it as the first le Carre book to be read - it might be introducing the main players but he has much better works.

Review for the novel: in the novel work page, click here

PS: I like long novels... how I ended up starting the year with small ones is a surprise. :) But oh well - there is time to get to the longer ones.

> 9

Two already? Janie Mac!

Well - they were very short and I had the full day off. Now when I get around to Don Quixote (reading it with a friend spaced through the year) and the non-fictions, I will slow down... although I suspect that Graphic novels and the like will keep the numbers going. Not to mention that I am back to work come Tue...

Great review of The True Deceiver

>7 Cheater! ;) Might have to steal that idea.

>13 - Haha, not a cheater, a strategist!

6> I loved The True Deceiver -- it led me to Tove Jansson's books -- but I think it's still my favorite (followed closely by Sun City and The Summer Book ) -- so glad you like it too. Nice review.

>15

That was my first book from her - and I will probably read some more of hers. That is the problem with liking new authors - I end up reading all I can find from them...

3. Superheroes of the Round Table: Comics Connections to Medieval and Renaissance Literature by Jason Tondro
Original language: English
Author nationality: USA?
Number of pages: 231 (notes included - they are part of the text)
Original publication date: 2011

My December ER book - better than I expected. I am not sure what exactly I expected - something centered on Arthur would have been my guess. Instead he went out of his way to find enough parallels in the Elizabethan literature (and masques) and of course in the Arthuriana. It had its flaws and problems but I really enjoyed the book.

Review: in the work page, click here

4. A Murder of Quality by John le Carre (no cover because it is part of an omnibus - will post the cover when I read and review the whole omnibus.
Original language: English
Author nationality: UK
Number of pages: 154
Original publication date: 1962

If the first novel read as a mystery story set in the spy community, this one was a mystery story. le Carre's portrayal of the English lifestyles (yes, plural) in the 60s is fascinating and the best part of the story. Still not le Carre at his best in terms of action but his descriptions and observations are already here.

The mystery is almost in the style of Agatha Christie and the rest of the grand UK authors. Which is not bad. If someone expects Smiley's spy novels in that one, they will be disappointed. If someone likes the small village separated by classes type of mysteries, this one actually works.

Review for the novel: in the novel work page, click here

5. The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick
Original language: English
Author nationality: USA
Number of pages: 320 (notes not included - they are only references) +xviii (even if only a few are actual text...) (338 total)
Original publication date: 2011

The mathematician in me was screaming "but this is way oversimplified"; the reader in me was answering "shut up now, this is not a text book so shut up and let me read". The history of science in the 17th century told in a way that should be understandable even for someone that hates mathematics. The first part of the book is probably the weakest one and while still there I was not sure I was liking the book. At the end - I actually did. Even if I knew all the facts (in a lot more details).

Review: in the work page, click here

Good review of The Clockwork Universe -- sounds like something a literature person like me could understand.

I actually picked this up at the library, but never got around to reading it, now it looks as if I need to check it out again! I don't hate math, but my background in it is meager. Sounds like a good historical look at the subject.

Enjoyed your review of The Clockwork Universe. Sounds like a book I would enjoy. You say in your review that there were some missing viewpoints, and of course, that begs the question: Being someone of a more scientific turn of mind than I am, to be sure, would you have anything in a similar vein to recommend more enthusiastically?

>22

Nope - unless if you want to read my old textbooks. :) I rarely read popular books on such topics - I would rather go for a more academic one in most cases. So my recommendations can be limited. And despite all missing things, the overview IS there - most of the missing things probably registered because I knew them beforehand. It's readable, it gets the facts correctly and it explains complicated terms in simple words (and if it misses a border case or 3, most people don't care about them anyway).

6. West of January by Dave Duncan
(not my cover but I was reading on the kindle... and I like this one)
Original language: English
Author nationality: Canada
Number of pages: 320 (according to amazon)/ 6106 Kindle units
Original publication date: 1989

First book I had read from the author and I loved it. The guy knows how to build a world - the story might not be that original (a boy finding himself while traveling and having adventures) but the world makes it original. Not for the squeamish though - violence and sex are part of the world (and some quite awful things) and the author does not shy from them.

Highly recommended - just don't ask me if it is SF or fantasy. I would call it SF. A lot of sources online disagree. Some agree though. Does not really matter at the end.

Review: in the work page, click here

If I keep waiting until I have time for longer posts, I will get behind again. So just posting a list with short comments; updates in the stats and reviews - later.

7. An English Murder by Cyril Hare - my only issue with this book was that there was no way for someone to guess the exact motive if they did not know the English law. Which I suspect is normal and did not bother me that much - I can reread mystery novels without any issues. The bad news is that I have another author to look for.

8.January Kills Me by Evan Katy - I do not expect great books from the cheap kindle titles. And the book did not start that bad (although a guy that changes his opinion because of something being said a year later was a bit hard to accept). But the last 1/4th of the book was an exercise in how to cram a lot of action without any logic. And somewhere in between all that, the whole initial mystery got resolved... weirdly. Almost to the "what the hell" point. I am planning on checking the second in the series but I am not keeping my hopes high.

9. Detection by gaslight - 14 stories, written at the times of Sherlock Holmes. Some were almost laughably silly; some were surprisingly good. Review to follow (probably next weekend when I am back from my current trip)

10. The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey - I had somehow managed to miss reading any novels by Tey. And I liked that one -- not for the mystery itself but for the language, the description and the pure Englishness of the novel. Review - whenever I can.

AnnieMod, in case you haven't come across them, Josephine Tey's novels are available on Gutenberg Australia. I'm a fan.

http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-n-z.html#letterT

Enjoyed your review of West of January

You are a prolific reader! I cannot hope to keep up. Haven't thought about Josephine Tey for ages. Just one more reminder of books I've missed over the years.

Just short notes again.... Stats will wait.

11. The January Corpse by Neil Albert - Just in case it looks like I read way too many novels with the word January in them, it's simply because I am planning it. Kinda - I was thinking of reading one book like that and see what happened. This one is also part of my newest project to read all the Shamus nominated novels.

Set mainly in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the novel is what you would expect from a Shamus nominee (and first in a series)-- private eye, hard on his luck; a complicated case and some pretty shocking developments. The PI is an ex-lawyer (disbarred for dishonesty...) and the case is a missing person, with a hearing pending to declare him dead after missing for 7 years. Of course Dave Garrett (the PI) will get beaten, what happened 7 years ago will end up a lot different from what anyone expected and believed and the truth will come up, even if it comes out only for some people. I did not see the end coming (although there were no tricks...) and it might be a very uncomfortable ending for some readers (open minds for sexual preferences are required). I actually quite enjoyed it -- and I look forward to #2

12. You Know When the Men are Gone by Siobhan Fallon - Bought it at the airport for my take-off/landing book(Kindle is not allowed) and ended up reading it for most of my flight. Interconnected short stories about the life around war - there is a story for the war itself but most of them are about the ones that stay home - the wives of the soldiers. Ranging from sweet to cruel, the stories are just slices of life - even if something does happen in all of them, they feel like a glimpse in another world. And the author decides to leave the most suspenseful stories open ended - and leave the reader to decide how they could have ended.

13. The Nebraska Quotient by William J. Reynolds - One more of my Shamus project (and the author actually managed to use both the words quotient and shamus in the text). Nebraska is an ex-PI, working as a writer these days, living in Omaha (now... if the guy was living in California, I suspect we would have seen a lot of cracks about his name...) and keeping away from his old life. Until his ex-partner shows up and dies... after giving him some photos. And our guy forgets his ideas of not being a PI anymore and sets off to figure out what happened. Add 2 beautiful women, a wife that had kinda left him, the mafia, the police warning him off the case, any potential client asking him off the case and the story gets in the predictable way. Of course he gets beaten, of course he figures it out; of course it is where he had seen it but decided not to believe it. Besides all the of courses, it was a very enjoyable book (some of the detective novels references took me a while to figure -- most were clear enough though -- the guy is a writer, of course he will use them). The epilogue end made me laugh. I will be interested to see where this goes next (especially considering that even the author was not planning on a series...).

14. Blunt Darts by Jeremiah Healy - My Shamus project again. Boston-based detective John Francis Cuddy is hired to find a missing 14 years old. Except that everyone seem to try to stop him - including the boy's father, the Judge Kinnington. Despite all, the PI decides to pursue the threads everyone seems to ignore, get beaten in the process (I really really want a PI novel where the poor PI does not get beaten), uncover a boatload of family secrets (do not read the description at the back of the novel before you read the novel) and stumbled into the truth. Except that he does not see it -- and when he finally does it is almost too late. A pretty fast read, pretty well done - it was leading to the end even if the end was not very convincing in some ways - don't get me wrong - it was logical and made sense. Just some events leading to it were a bit overdone... One more series to read through now...

>26

Thanks. There went my "restricted by not having the books excuse"

>27

:)

>28

I'll get stuck on some longer work sooner or later - especially if/when I do not travel that much. Travel makes me read a lot more though - not many things to do in a hotel room when I do not feel like working or something like that.

And wrapping up January

15. Death in the Stocks by Georgette Heyer - which went from annoying to very annoying and ended up almost good. For half of the book, I wanted to kill the brother and the sister... then suddenly I started almost liking them. Emphasis on almost though. I will probably read more of her detective stories - the style is not that bad and the second part of the book was good enough.

On the magazines side, the only one I managed to finish in January (after i started keeping track of them) was Harper's January issue and I am yet to write anything about it. I started on the February issue of Harper's but I finish it on Feb 1 so it goes in next month.

And then February started (already? It will be Easter before we know it).

Just magazines reading for me for now:

2M. Harper's February 2012 - thoughts over here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/131558#3213138 and over here for the second part of it: http://www.librarything.com/topic/131558#3213218

3M. Apex Magazine 32 - January 2012 which was predictably good. Thoughts here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/131558#3217488

Note to self: Post here...

16. February Trouble by Neil Albert

#2 in the series. Lancaster County again, Dave Garrett again. He managed to break off the relationship that he started the first time around and is off to his neck in issues again.

17. Moving Targets by William J. Reynolds
#2 in the series - Nebraska is still in his non-marriage (but this time he will meet a woman that might get him off...). Our hero is asked to talk to a girl that has the tendency to disappear... and somehow all ends up with a few dead bodies, a truckload of family secrets being exposed and a somewhat stunning end (no dirty tricks - all ends up logical)

18. Shooting Hollywood by Melodie Johnson Howe
9 stories about Diana Poole - an ex-actress that need to come back to work after her husband dies. And someone manages to get herself in the middle of a murder investigation every single time. I've read a couple of those in EQMM - they are rarely amongst my favorite in any issue but there is something to be said about the Hollywood they are painting. Now - why someone will keep talking to Diana after all these is beyond me but then any amateur sleuth is in the same shoes. Add to that her neighbor and the nice police detective and you have the cast in most of the stories (plus whoever will play the victim and his/her surrounding). Reading the 9 stories in a row may be a bit repetitive - they are consecutive but they are written as standalones so all the back story is there.

And my copy of the book also had the "Acting Lessons" story - which was ok. Hilarious in some ways.

19. Elizabeth I: A Novel by Margaret George
The last 15 years of the life of Elizabeth. The Armada, Essex and the death of all her advisers and friends (including Leicester). And Lettice of course - the woman that got what Elizabeth could not and that is maybe the only person that the monarch hold such a long grudge against. Something in the middle of the book did not work very well - at least for me. But as a whole I think I like it.

20. Money Trouble by William J. Reynolds

And back to Omaha to pick up our detective (still a detective, even if the Book is out and the Next Book is in writing) who managed to run into an old love. Add a few bank robberies and a dead man and Nebraska is in the middle of a big mess again. He manages not to die at the end but he gets close...

I still like the series - it's an easy read and Nebraska do not get beaten almost to death every book... which is a good thing in this genre if you ask me. :)

Reviews - whenever..

I felt like that about Elizabeth I: A Novel as well - "I think I like it". It was my first book by Margaret George so I'm curious to read another to see if I feel the same way. Have you read any of her others that you'd recommend?

The Henry VIII book is good - I actually like it a lot more than the Elizabeth one.. the style just seem to be working a bit better. Haven't read anything else...

Thanks! I've been curious about Helen of Troy as well. I'll probably get to either that or Henry VIII this year.

Wrapping up February

21. The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin - #2 in the new series which Rankin started - the Complaints department gets a trivial task to followup after an officer had been confirmed as an abuser. Except that there is nothing trivial about the case -- people start turning up dead, the accusation start looking funny and an old story start getting untangled. I still miss Rebus but I like the new books - I am not sure I am a huge fan of Malcolm Fox or his team but the mysteries are good.

22. Celebrity in Death by J. D. Robb - #34 in its respective series :) It's time for the film about the Icove case to be done and Eve need to be pulled into the glamorous world of Hollywood - screaming and kicking :) Luckily enough bodies start turning up. Someone want to bet that a future book will deal with the book based on what happened here and then again a film deal? :) It's brain candy -- but part of the reason I like it I guess - you know what you get with each book.

23. Twilight on the Line: Underworlds and Politics at the U.S.-Mexico Border by Sebastian Rotella - for a book written pre 9/11, it is chillingly current. Rotella's border is the San Diego one - he explores the Mexican Gulf and the Arizona and Texas ones where needed but the story is about the San Diego part of the U.S.-Mexico border. It is more a series if interconnected articles than a real narrative book - with the exception of a few chapters, you can read a random chapter and not loose anything by not reading the rest. The same people and places show up -- but this is because the story is there and connected.

24. The Spy Who came In from the Cold by John le Carre - the Novel of the Cold War. I am doing a proper review but the short version: "The girl that was where she should not have been; the assignment which noone understood; and the last 2 lines that change anything you had believed and thought you know".

25. Good Behaviour by Molly Keane - when a book starts with a murder, you have no idea where it can go. Especially when you know that it is not a mystery. By the middle of the book, you understand the murder; by the end, you almost want to see it happening faster. A story of Ireland and the good behaviour -where pretenses and what the people will say is more important than human lives. It is not exactly the usual style of novels that I read but I l really liked it.

26. Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey - an impostor, an old mystery and the lyrical world of horses. And just when you think you know what is going on, things get turned around and you are back to trying to catch the storyline. No cheating - just very good storytelling. As I said earlier, Tey is getting very high in my list. :)

And to start off March:

27. This is not the end of the Book by Umberto Eco and Jean-Claude Carrière in a conversation about books, book history, collecting, good books, bad books, early Italian and French cinema (it is connected to books actually), incunabulum (had no idea that books printed before 31 Dec 1500 are called like that), stupidity, culture filtering and what's not. Loved it :)

I really need to get my draft reviews finalized and posted. :)

Somehow I missed the bulletin about This is Not the End of the Book, which shocks and embarrasses me because I am such an Eco afficionado. This goes straight to the wishlist!

Glad to be helpful :) And it's a very nice book - nothing Earth shattering but I like books about books. And there are a lot of small gems in this one :)

In the meantime:

28. Victims by Jonathan Kellerman - #27 in its respective series. Alex, Milo and the bad guys and what nasty things they can come up. A favorite author so I usually would like even the lesser works. This one was solid - gruesome, bothering and in some places scary.

Nice to catch up on your reading Annie. I also love Rankin's Rebus; and I have still got a couple to read - I am saving them for a rainy day. It's good to hear he is still writing good mysteries and so I won't hesitate to pick one up at the local book swop.

I find Jonathan Kellerman just too gruesome, although he is an excellent story teller. I prefer his wife's books.

I like all the Kellermans - Mom, Dad and kid (Jesse) :) Gruesome - yes... but then when you expect that, they are readable and the stories are good. I had been planning a rereading of all of his (and her) books -- had been way too many years; I had read some out of order, some in different languages and I am pretty sure I had missed some.

As for Rankin - I miss Rebus. :) But I already said so. If you do not expect to meet another protagonist with the personal charm of Rebus (well... you know what I mean), his newer books are good. People trashes Doors Open but I liked even it - it is different, it is a lot more sedate and calm and what's not but the style is there. And this is what I like :)

Years ago, I read both Kellermans, back when there was a mystery bookstore in my neighborhood. I don't think I've read any in more than 10 years, but I've been reading a lot fewer mysteries in general.

29. Why Translation Matters by Edith Grossman
I should have loved this book. I like languages. I love reading about the translation art. Somehow Grossman manages to make a complete mess of the book. And the few bright moments in the text do not help to get the bad taste out of my mouth. She comes up as a whining primadona that believes that the world should bow to translators because they are translators. I really did not need half the book (and at 119 pages it is a short one anyway) dealing with the reviewers, publishers and what's not.

Review available on the work page...

I am disappointed that you didn't like Why Translation Matters, as I've been looking forward to reading it!

>42 and >43 Back in the New Year, I asked anisoara for some recommendations on books on translation, as I am always ranting on about it when I find a book which seems to be harmed by a bad translation. The Grossman book was one she recommended. The reviews of the Grossman book on the work page seem split, so I thought I might mention the other two books she recommended: Theories of Translation: An Anthology of Essays from Dryden to Derrida and Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything. I haven't read them yet, but perhaps they would offer a different perspective to Grossman's.

I also have Is That a Fish in Your Ear? but haven't read it yet, and I really enjoyed (although some people didn't) If This Be Treason: Translation and Its Dyscontents by Gregory Rabassa, which I read several years ago.

>44

Thanks - I have both :) I need to get to reading that collection of mine :)

>43,45
It was a bummer -- I was looking forward to reading it. Maybe if I knew Spanish, that last chapter would have redeemed the book. Or maybe not - she really ticked me off with her rants about the publishers and the reviewers (especially the reviewers). One of the things that got to me was that she basically blew a perfect opportunity to explain translation to the people that do not speak more than one language. The worst thing is that the book actually do have a lot of good moments - a lot of stories and explanations... but they got lost under the rest.

I did some translating for a while - technical articles and poetry (I know, I know... weird combination). Yes - translator's profession is hard and blah blah but tough life. You want your name in reviews, write a book. Demanding a reviewer to discuss the translator is... weird. The less you can feel the hand of the translator, the better the translation flows. Oh well. :)

30. Mumbai Noir
The newest addition to the series - just don't expect too much Noir. A few great stories, a few good ones. None that really did not work. Brutal and very explicit in a lot of the stories. Mumbai is an interesting place and the ugliness and badness in people is all the stories. Plus a heavy dose of hope.And a very good addition to the series. review here

31. Fracture by Megan Miranda - a pretty good YA novel. Has its issues but pretty good. - review here

32. Fair Game by Patricia Briggs - Niiice. :) One of my other guilty pleasures. pretty good - but then this is expected. Not a good way to start reading about the world of the Marrok though - review here

33. Curse the Names by Robert Arellano
One of those surreal novels where you are not exactly sure what happens half of the time, things get weird and have mundane explanations or things look mundane and end up being strange. Not bad, not my style exactly but readable. review here

34.The Odditorium by Melissa Pritchard -it took me forever to finish this book - mainly because for some reason I could not get into the last story a few times (and when I finally did, I liked it). A solid collection with only 2 stories that did not work for me (funnily enough - the very first one and the one that gave its name to the whole collection). review here

I cannot really believe that it took me 34 books to go around and read any comics this year - I tend to get into weird moods and not touch certain type of books for a while... Back to the world of the Graphical art for me though

By some coincidence both books I read were alternative history but they could not be more different

35. Grandville by Bryan Talbot - France won the Napoleonic wars and humans evolved parallel to all other animals and ended up the dead end of evolution and doing the menial work for everyone else. A great story with a bit too many parallels to real events but then this adds a layer to the whole thing. Review here

36. Aetheric Mechanics by Warren Ellis - for most of its pages, this reads as a Sherlock Holmes knock-off. Except it is not and once you read the end, you appreciate the rest of the story. And the black and white art adds something to the story and makes it even better. Review here

>36 I'm a few days behind here. I would love to read This is not the end of the Book and Twilight on the Line, but neither is available in to me in a Kindle edition and our library system does not have them either. Frustrating.

Enjoyed your excellent review of The Odditorium which sounds an interesting collection.

>50

Try Inter-Library Loan?

>51
Considering how I was feeling after the first story, the book really ended up quite enjoyable...

37. Essays in Elizabethan History by J. E. Neale - for someone that likes the period, the book is a gold mine of information. And I like Neale's writing a lot. A very long review here

In the meantime if someone is interested, I am catching up on reviews so reviews for :
Twilight on the Line: Underworlds and Politics at the U.S.-Mexico Border by Sebastian Rotella - here
This is not the end of the Book by Umberto Eco and Jean-Claude Carrière - here

I can't remember if I already recommended Murder City to you or to someone else who read Twilight on the Line, but it is a stunning book.

:) I doubt that anyone else read it lately and I remember the recommendation. Probably will pick it up - I had read a couple from Bowden but not this one...

Enjoyed your review of This Is Not the End of the Book. Confessing to be a huge Eco fan and having a lifelong interest in the history of the book, and embarrassed that I only recently heard of this book, I'm looking forward to reading it soon. In fact, it is winging its way to me even as I speak.

Annie - Finally catching up here...I've been trying for a while. :)

Great stuff here on The Odditorium, and This Is Not the End of the Book, The Clockwork Universe, etc.

>56

Happy reading. I would be interested to see what you think of it -- I am not a huge fan of Eco (for no apparent reason... I read him and like him but don't go out of my way to find a book he had written - I had not even picked up the new book yet...)

>57
Welcome and thanks :)

Update time (before I end up with even more books). Review written and posted for all of them on their work pages :)

38. The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton - when the first book in a trilogy is over 1000 pages, you know what you are dealing with before you even open the book. In this case it is worth the read - the world is vibrant and alive. And surprising. And I really want to know how Hamilton will manage to tie all that at the end.

39. The Age of Catherine de Medici by J. E. Neale - 4 essays from the Elizabethan scholar about France and Catherine de Medici. The book delivers on its promise of what it is all about and it was interesting to see Neale writing about something different.

40. Cruising Attitude by Heather Poole - this could have been so much better. Not that the book is really bad but somewhere halfway through the book, the whining and repetitions start to annoy

41. Flying Fish by Randall Silvis - ask me again in a week, I might think differently. One of those slipstream stories that you either like or not. I kinda liked that one.

42. Burning March by Neil Albert - #3 in its respective series. I still like the PI so I am sticking with the series but the end of this one was worse than the book itself. Which in a book like that is a bad idea. Not that it did not make sense or was not logical - it was just too predictable.

43. Citizen 13660 by Mine Okubo - the true story from WWII. Yes, it has camps but they are in USA. And almost noone dies in them. But it is still terrifying and something that we should never forget. I got this book almost by chance - don't even remember what I was looking for. And I am happy that I did see it.

Annie, The Age of Catherine Medici will interest me. Thanks for the review.

Fixing the touchstone above... (it was leading to one of the combined volumes and my review is not there but on the single one.

And after neglecting the thread for 3 months, I am back and should start reporting my July reads as they happen...

Finished Murder, Ancient and Modern last night and loved it. It is interesting though that the only story that did not work for me was the one that the author admitted to like the most. Will try to write a review later this week.

Starting to count from here again because I definitely lost the numbering

1. The Paris Directive by Gerald Jay - review here

Even with low expectations the novel fails on way too many levels. As a whole it is readable and you want to know what's going on next (but then you also watch a train wreck if one happens when you are around). It was almost funny to look at how many more expected kind of characters he will manage to squeeze into the novel. And it had so much promise - spies, South France, murders... Oh well.

2. Ordinary Love and Good Will by Jane Smiley - review here
A collection of two novellas about families - that could not have been more different. I think I like the book - it's one of those books that I will probably remember in the next weeks. Something does not flow as naturally as it could but then it is just teh author style... and it is not bad.

Enjoyed your excellent review of Ordinary Love and Goodwill by Jane Smiley. She can be heavy going I think.

Yeah - it is a little heavy going. And it is not the topics - just the style is almost halted in places. I rarely read the so-called contemporary fiction (except for short stories) - I find most of them pretentious and utterly unreadable. Smiley is readable.

The weekend reading:

3. 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - review here

If you had read some of his other books, you know what to expect. His characterization is as bad as always (sometimes I wonder if he makes that on purpose...); his world and society building are as good as always.

4. Year's Best SF 17 - Hartwell and Cramer selection - review here

It is this time of the year again and time for the Year Best anthologies reading. Pretty strong even if it has a few weak stories.

Enjoying your new reviews. I haven't read much sci-fi but your review of 2312 gives it some appeal.

As long as weird gender developments and everything coming out of it don't offend your sensibilities (part of the vivid details of what humanity turned into) :) I did not put the word gender in the review anywhere because gender simply does not matter in that world - for various reasons. Besides - it's just part of the story. And some of the things that had happened and are happening should not be revealed before one tries to read the book. :)

Excellent review of 2312. You have reminded me why I find some of Kim Stanley Robinson's writing so tedious - its those cardboard characters.

:) He does have the habit to leave the characters underdeveloped -- but he is still one of the masters of society and world building... :)

5. Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce - review here

I am not sure where to start with that novel. It is a good contemporary novel but for some reason the author decided to throw some fairies in the mix... and things just did not work. On the other hand it is highly readable and the story itself works great. Minus the fairies that is. Or minus trying to make the fairies real (and I read a lot of speculative fiction so I can accept real fairies in a book... if the book makes them an organic part of the novel... which this one does not).

In the meantime, two more reviews up if someone is interested:
Slip &Fall - http://www.librarything.com/review/87785500 (fine for a summer read; nothing too great about the plot or the author besides that)
Venice Noir - http://www.librarything.com/review/85961398 - which could and should have been much better...

And for some weird reason I felt like watching some old SF shows... so had been watching the first episodes of Stargate SG1 (I watched the first movie some time in the last couple of years - otherwise I would have started there) - and realizing how much I had forgotten from the beginning of the franchise.

"there should be better stories out there. Venice is a story in itself and it does not take that much to make something memorable out of it."

I agree, I would expect good stuff on Venice. Too bad. Enjoyed your reviews, and your Graham Joyce review has me thinking.

That's exactly the thing - Venice should have been so easy. But at the end, the most memorable story could have been anywhere (and it is memorable because it is borderline horror... and not so well written at that) and the rest of the good ones don't really need Venice to work. Which in these anthologies is a problem - if you can just move all the good stories and put them in a random city, the opportunity that the anthology opened had been lost. Just throwing in the places does not make the story. "Cloudy Water" is probably the one that need Venice. Oh well - I might have started with high expectations which influenced the review... but even if that's the case, the book could have been much better.

Not in a negative way for Joyce I hope - his writing is pretty good... it's just the mix that failed here. And I have a suspicion that the mix can actually work better for people that rarely read fantasy/surreal books. Cannot judge properly - as the non-mundane is my usual reading preference.

re Joyce - in a good way. The idea of the story intrigues me.

6. Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski - review here

Noir, time travel, family secrets and a very fast action -- Swierczynski makes a mix that is simply irresistible. It's a very fast read and it leaves with you the wish to have more of it. Even of the story actually ends up pretty well and there is nothing unresolved.

No time for reviews but I might as well start posting what I am reading (or I will forget and get behind again) :)

Traveling last week plus a lot of reading both weekends and finally finishing a few anthologies adds up to a lot of books. Reviews later/when I get around to them.

7. Writers of the Future Volume XXVIII - 13 stories, most of them pretty good. More SF than fantasy - which is a bit surprising all things considered. 3 essays/short advices to new authors and/or illustrators (Shaun Tan, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and L. Ron Hubbard. A few nice artists as well - although a few I simply did not understand... Unlike previous years, there was only one story that made me skip it (and get back and read it later - and it ended up being a good one despite its atrocious beginning)

8. Ignition City by Warren Ellis - review here - Alternative Earth, a murder, aliens and space travel. Pretty good. As long as you can take the language and some of the cruder imaginary. It's Ellis after all.

9. Solaris Rising - 19 stories, all SF (well... close enough anyway). There is something to be said about anthologies and the order of the stories inside of them -- and this time Whates is a spot on - the order just works.

10. Among Others by Jo Walton - a love letter to the genre and reading. I've seen comments that if you remove all the books references, the story is trivial and whatsnot but.. you can say the same about removing the Middle Earth from LOTR or the psychohistory from the Foundation. The references and the love for books IS the story here. A review is to follow. It is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but... it is good.

11. Dressed for Death - one of the early Brunetti stories. I had forgotten that Signorina Elettra was not there from the very beginning - she showed up in that one. A pretty good story (even when your plane get delayed)

Kindle Singles:

12. Snatched by Karin Slaughter - Will Trent had been stuck at the airport after pissing his boss off one too many times... and manages to witness something weird. Pretty good.

13. Deep, Dark by Jonathan Maberry - What you would expect from a Joe Ledger story.

14. Lucretia and the Kroons by Victor LaValle - surprisingly good. Do monsters exist or is it just someone's imagination? For most of the story I would have called it horror. And good one at that. A novel is coming up that uses the novella as a pre-story but I am pretty sure that it will play on the part of the story that was just ok. We will see.

15. Everyone's Reading Bastard by Nick Hornby - what happens when your ex has her own newspaper column? Pretty hilarious :)

16. The Book Case by Nelson DeMille - a murder in a bookstore. I usually like DeMille but that one was weird... the story was not too bad, the style could have been much better. Overall, a decent story... which considering the theme and the author makes it almost a failure.

And back to books:

17. Intrusion by Ken MacLeod - near future SF at its best. The world is so imaginable that you cannot stop wondering if we are going that way.

18.Why I left the Amish by Saloma Miller Furlong - a blend of the current life of the author with memories from her past. Something simply did not work - for more than one reason. The current life sounded as a parody in places (not the actions but the way everyone was talking); the past just did not get fleshed out in places. For example she mentioned more than once that she run away from home twice. Guess how many times she described in the book...

19. You Will Meet a Stranger Far from Home by Alex Jeffers - short story collection, exploring sexuality and what it is to be gay in different contexts and times. And worlds. Some of the stories were almost brutal in their language, some were pretty timid. If you know what to expect from the author, pretty good.

Phew - now I am current on books reading reporting. :) trying very hard to stay this way.

Looks like you've been reading some interesting stuff! I thoroughly agree with you about Among Others: any statement about that novel that starts with "If you take out all the references to books..." is completely missing the point. But I also actually kind of like the way it handles the plot, taking up after the point where a traditional fantasy novel would leave off, letting the fantasy itself happen in the cracks while the main story concentrates on the adventure that is real life. I think that's interesting and original.

And Ignition City sounds up my alley -- I really liked Transmetropolitan -- but I think I'm swearing off starting comics/graphic novel series until they're complete.

>77

I don't think Ignition City will get completed or had ever been planned to be completed... and it is a nice standalone as it is. So you might want to check it.

As for Among Others - I agree. I am working on a review... the novel has its issues but they are not in the handling of the plot or in the references. :) Although the novel is more into the magical realism (or whatever they call it these days) lands than in the pure fantasy world. Which accounts for the way it is built.

And wrapping up July

Kindle single again
20. Lost Things by John Rector - one wrong choice that changes everyone's lives. I have some issues with this story - it is well written and some of the actions come as a surprise but at one point it turns into a cliche - all the way to the end. Still worth reading - for the first 75% of it. Although half of the characters (including the narrator) are really overdone and unbelievable..

And back to full books

21. Monstress by Lysley Tenorio - short stories about Philippine people trying (or not trying) to make new lives in the States. Pretty readable and some of the stories are heartbreaking. And even the few that are more or less predictable are done in a pretty good way.

22. Energized by Edward M. Lerner - in 2014, most of the old fields of the world were contaminated. In 2015, a sudden miracle showed up in space and USA decided to exploit it so by 2020 Earth already has 2 moons. In the aftermath, Russia is the big oil giant, USA is trying to hob along and survive. Until someone comes with a good idea. And this is where this novel opens. Add a murder, a romance story (done almost laughably), the Russians being the bad guys (again?) and you have a futuristic thriller. Not bad at all (but Lerner's depiction of the female characters is almost screaming "SF from the 1960s" - they are simply underdeveloped and/or laughable...

Reviews - later.

Just now reading your July wrap-ups. Enjoyed your comments on the books. You inspired me to look up what a Kindle single is.

(And I need to post updates for August...)

Catching up...I read Swiercynski for the first time just a few weeks ago and found him great fun. There were certainly no slow parts.

It's obvious that I won't catch up so I can as well try to start posting again...

The Mask of Dimitrios - part old style spy novel, park caricature of one, part a portrait of Europe in the late thirties. I cringed every time when I saw a Bulgarian name, city or place mentioned (they were awfully mangled but that might be the way they had been known to the English world back then...). Somewhere mid book I actually flipped to check again if it was written in the 30s or in the 50s - Ambler's perception of what was going on in Europe was way too accurate to be pre-WWII. And yet it was. The big surprise is not really a surprise if you had read enough spy and/or mystery stories but then that does not even matter.

Over Sea, Under Stone - I am going to go in a corner and be very ashamed that I had not read it earlier. More thoughts after I read all 5 books but so far I am really enjoying it. And if that was written in the last 20 years, it would have 10 times more pages. It is refreshing to read a fantasy story that does not try to go forever and at the same time does not oversimplify things - yes, the Good vs. Evil is there in a pure form but it is not that simple. And Joining fantasy with a "children on vacation" just thugs at something.

The Dark is Rising - Very different from the first. To the point where if not for Merriman, there is no link at all. Where the first one was a fantasy in the middle of a children book, this one is a pure fantasy. While the magic in the first is subtle and almost not there, it is the driving force in this one. Now, #3.