What Are You Reading the Week of 14 June 2014?

Pauline Kael (19 June 1919 – 3 September 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's, and The New Republic.

Kael was known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated, and sharply focused" reviews, her opinions often contrary to those of her contemporaries. She is often regarded as the most influential American film critic of her day. She left a lasting impression on many major critics, including Armond White, whose reviews are similarly non-conformist, and Roger Ebert, who once said that Kael "had a more positive influence on the climate for film in America than any other single person over the last three decades." Owen Gleiberman, the film critic of Entertainment Weekly, said she "was more than a great critic. She re-invented the form, and pioneered an entire aesthetic of writing. She was like the Elvis or the Beatles of film criticism."

She was born on a chicken farm in Petaluma, California, to Isaac Paul Kael and Judith (Friedman) Kael, Jewish immigrants from Poland. Her parents lost their farm when Kael was eight, and the family moved to San Francisco. In 1936 she matriculated at the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied philosophy, literature, and the arts but dropped out in 1940 before completing her degree. Nevertheless, Kael intended to go on to law school but fell in with a group of artists and moved to New York City with the poet Robert Horan.

Kael returned to San Francisco in 1943 and "led a bohemian life," marrying and divorcing three times, writing plays, and working in experimental film. In 1948, Kael and filmmaker James Broughton had a daughter, Gina, whom Kael would raise alone. Gina had a serious illness through much of her childhood; and, to support Gina and herself, Kael worked a series of such menial jobs as cook and seamstress, along with stints as an advertising copywriter.

In 1953, the editor of City Lights magazine overheard Kael arguing about films in a coffeeshop with a friend and asked her to review Charlie Chaplin's Limelight. Kael dubbed the film "Slimelight," an epithet that stuck, and soon began publishing highly opinionated film criticism regularly in magazines.

Kael later explained her writing style: "I worked to loosen my style—to get away from the term-paper pomposity that we learn at college. I wanted the sentences to breathe, to have the sound of a human voice." Kael disparaged the supposed critic's ideal of objectivity, referring to it as "saphead objectivity," and incorporated aspects of autobiography into her criticism.

In a review of Vittorio De Sica's 1946 neorealist Shoeshine (Sciuscià) that has been ranked by many scholars as among her most memorable, Kael described seeing the film:

{...}after one of those terrible lovers' quarrels that leave one in a state of incomprehensible despair. I came out of the theater, tears streaming, and overheard the petulant voice of a college girl complaining to her boyfriend, 'Well I don't see what was so special about that movie.' I walked up the street, crying blindly, no longer certain whether my tears were for the tragedy on the screen, the hopelessness I felt for myself, or the alienation I felt from those who could not experience the radiance of Shoeshine. For if people cannot feel Shoeshine, what can they feel?... Later I learned that the man with whom I had quarreled had gone the same night and had also emerged in tears. Yet our tears for each other, and for Shoeshine did not bring us together. Life, as Shoeshine demonstrates, is too complex for facile endings.

Kael broadcast many of her early reviews on the alternative public radio station KPFA, in Berkeley, and gained further local-celebrity status as Berkeley Cinema Guild manager from 1955 to 1960. As manager of a two-screen theater, Kael programmed the films that were shown, "unapologetically repeating her favorites until they also became audience favorites." She also wrote "pungent" capsule reviews of the films, which theater patrons began collecting.

Kael continued to juggle writing with other work until she received an offer to publish a book of her criticism. Published in 1965 as I Lost It at the Movies, the collection sold 150,000 paperback copies and was a surprise bestseller. Coinciding with a job at the high-circulation women's magazine McCall's, Kael (as Newsweek put it in a 1966 profile) "went mass."

During the same year, she wrote a blistering review of the phenomenally popular The Sound of Music in McCall's. After mentioning that some of the press had dubbed it "The Sound of Money," Kael called the film's message a "sugarcoated lie that people seem to want to eat." Although, according to legend, this review led to her being fired from McCall's (The New York Times printed as much in Kael's obituary), both Kael and the magazine's editor, Robert Stein, denied this. According to Stein, "I fired her months later after she kept panning every commercial movie from Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago to The Pawnbroker and A Hard Day's Night."

Her dismissal from McCall's led to a stint from 1966 to 1967 at The New Republic, whose editors continually altered Kael's writing without permission. In October 1967, Kael wrote a lengthy essay on Bonnie and Clyde, which the magazine declined to publish.

William Shawn of The New Yorker obtained the piece and ran it in the issue of 21October 1967. Kael's review raved about the then controversial film Bonnie and Clyde. According to critic David Thomson, "she was right about a film that had bewildered many other critics." A few months after the essay ran, Kael quit the New Republic "in despair." Kael was asked by Shawn to join The New Yorker staff as one of its two film critics; she alternated every six months with Penelope Gilliatt until 1979, after which she became sole film critic.

Kael battled the editors of the New Yorker as much as her own critics. She fought with William Shawn to review the 1972 pornographic film Deep Throat, though she eventually relented and the film went unreviewed. According to Kael, after reading her negative review of Terrence Malick's 1973 film Badlands, Shawn said, "I guess you didn't know that Terry is like a son to me." Kael responded, "Tough shit, Bill," and her review was printed unchanged. Other than sporadic confrontations with Shawn, Kael said she spent most of her work time at home, writing.

Upon the release of Kael's 1980 collection When the Lights Go Down, her New Yorker colleague Renata Adler published an 8,000-word review in The New York Review of Books that dismissed the book as "jarringly, piece by piece, line by line, and without interruption, worthless." Adler argued that Kael's post-sixties work contained "nothing certainly of intelligence or sensibility," and faulted her "quirks and mannerisms," including Kael's repeated use of the "bullying" imperative and rhetorical question.

The piece, which stunned Kael and quickly became infamous in literary circles, was described by Time magazine as "the New York literary Mafia's bloodiest case of assault and battery in years." Although Kael refused to respond, Adler's review became known as "the most sensational attempt on Kael's reputation;" twenty years later, Salon.com (ironically) referred to Adler's "worthless" denunciation of Kael as Adler's "most famous single sentence."

In the early 1980s, Kael was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. As her illness worsened, she became increasingly depressed about the state of American films, along with feeling that "I had nothing new to say." In a 1991 announcement which The New York Times referred to as "earth-shattering," Kael announced her retirement from reviewing films regularly. At the time, Kael explained that she would still write essays for The New Yorker, along with "some reflections and other pieces of writing about movies." During the next ten years, however, she published no new work besides an introduction to her 1994 compendium, For Keeps. In the introduction (which was reprinted in The New Yorker), Kael stated, in reference to her film criticism, "I'm frequently asked why I don't write my memoirs. I think I have."

She died at her home in Massachusetts, aged 82.

Books
I Lost It at the Movies (1965)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (1968)
Going Steady (1969)
Deeper into Movies (1973)
Reeling (1976)
When the Lights Go Down (1980)
5001 Nights at the Movies (1982, revised in 1984 and 1991)
Taking It All In (1984)
State of the Art (1987)
Hooked (1989)
Movie Love (1991)
For Keeps (1994)
Raising Kane, and other essays (1996)

Pauline Kael. Cool! Her brother and sister-in-law lived very, very close to where I live now in Boonville, CA. In my store I have a copy of Kael's review collection, When the Lights Go Down, signed by her!

I am progressing toward the halfway point of Allen Drury's A Shade of Difference. Drury's political leanings (which are not my own) are beginning to show themselves in a more pronounced way, but the fellow was a good storyteller, so I'm enjoying the experience for the most part. And it's an interesting time capsule visit to Cold War diplomacy, circa 1963.

I read Advise and Consent moons ago, and felt bludgeoned with his authoritarianism. I suspect that's why it's the only one I ever read.

I just finished and reviewed Love, Nina:A nanny writes home which gets better the more I read. How great it would be to have Alan Bennett living across the hall. Next up is Blasphemy. I haven't yet read a book by Sherman Alexie that I didn't love.
I'm on the last 1/3 of The Penelopiad and thinking Margaret Atwood is writing my own thoughts.
On E-Audio I'm listening to my first Jo Nesbo, The Bat and am so impressed. I'm glad I finally got to him, only because of the praise here. I'm still reluctant to read mysteries because they so love to focus on the rape and murder of women, and people mention that after the 3rd in the series he get's even darker, so I guess I'll just have to envelope myself in his writing for 3 books.
On E-book from the library I'm reading Bark. I do love Lorrie Moore. Describing a preteen's teen-age personality, she has a father say his daughter was full of rage at the incompetent waitstaff that life had hired to take and bring her order. The same man, on seeing and being stunned by his reflection after hearing horrifying news about the war says, It wasn't the same as self-knowledge, but life was long and not that edifying, and one sometimes had to make do with randomly seized tidbits.
Plus, for my birthday we went to see The Book of Mormon, and I've been singing the songs all day. What a great play!

I finally finished Three Junes and still wonder why it won such a major award. I started on Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay and wonder why I agreed to read another Holocaust book. A couple of years ago I said I wasn't going to read another as I didn't need to keep putting myself through that emotional wringer. However, my book discussion group is reading it so I guess I will soldier on. It is reading fast, so maybe I won't be in that world for long.

Still working on Rebecca and The Shadow of the Torturer.

>4 Citizenjoyce: Thumbs-upped the four-star review, and *almost* landed it in my Ammy cart...but the Guardian review of The Fly Trap dissuaded me, since I haven't got much money to spend.

The review of which I speak.

Posted this on the old thread by mistake so here is my copy and paste:

For my commute, I'm still listening to Short nights of the Shadow Catcher : the epic life and immortal photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan . I think it's another home run by Egan.

I'm also reading my first PD James mystery, The Lighthouse. I can see why she is considered one of the masters of the craft.

And finally, I'm reading Karen Armstrong's biography of The Buddha which is a bit oxymoronic. As Ms. Armstrong says, if it calls itself a biography of the Buddha, it's not a biography of the Buddha; as in the phrase, 'if you see the Buddha on the road, kill him."

I finished The End of the Affair on audio today. It was very good with the combination of excellent writing and incredible narration. I am half way through The Little Princess which I am also loving. Wonderful old fashioned story-telling.

I just finished The House on Tradd Street and starting book #2 in the series called The Girl on Legare Street by Karen White. I have enjoyed the book so far. I'm just getting back into pleasure ready since finishing nursing school last year. I rediscovered I actually LOVE reading for pleasure!

I was poking around in a local second-hand bookstore the other day and I found a beautiful hard-cover reprint edition of In Our Time, Ernest Hemingway's collection of short stories from his early Paris years. I've read most of Hemingway's longer works, but I've never read this book. I know Hemingway is somewhat out of fashion these days, but I'm really enjoying these stories so far. The man could definitely write.

>11 browner56: I am very public about disliking ol' Ernie, but that's based on his novels. I think, had he stuck to short fiction, non-fiction, and The Sun Also Rises, I'd be his biggest booster anywhere. The Green Hills of Africa is an amazing and beautiful story about a horribly difficult conversation surrounding a heartbreaking decision to face...the competitive and cooperative natures we harbor, the definitions of self we shift and change and adapt to the eyes of a world we don't always understand (like Africa to the hunters).

>12 richardderus: That's great insight, Richard. I think what I'm enjoying so much about these stories is that they were all written before Hemingway really was Hemingway. So, it's all about the writing without any of the author's baggage that he brought to his later work.

>13 browner56: Agreed...the baggage that led to a road in Idaho. It's not a surprise he killed himself, based on what's now known about depression, but what's hardest for me to reconcile myself to is the dark suspicion I have that his depression led to him taking on most of the baggage that weighed his writing hand down for so long.

>1 richardderus: In honor of your selection this week, I looked up and read Kael's review of Bonnie and Clyde. I liked this quote:

Too many people--including some movie reviewers--want the law to take over the job of movie criticism; perhaps what they really want is for their own criticisms to have the force of law. Such people see "Bonnie and Clyde" as a danger to public morality; they think an audience goes to a play or a movie and takes the actions in it as examples for imitation. They look at the world and blame the movies. But if women who are angry with their husbands take it out on the kids, I don't think we can blame "Medea" for it; or if, as has been said, we are a nation of mother-lovers, I don't think we can place the blame on "Oedipus Rex." Part of the power of art lies in showing us what we are not capable of. We see that killers are not a different breed but are us without the insight or understanding or self-control that works of art strengthen. The tragedy of "Macbeth" is the fall from nobility to horror; the comic tragedy of "Bonnie and Clyde" is that although you can't fall from the bottom you can reach the same horror.

--Pauline Kael, review of "Bonnie and Clyde," The New Yorker, October 21, 1967

What astonished me, though, was that nowhere in her very long and wide-ranging critique did she say a word about how and why that movie struck a chord with the youth of the sixties counterculture, then in its heyday. Perhaps 1967 was too early to have a perspective on that; but it wouldn't have taken perspective to see how we (I was a part of that generation)--perhaps blindly and narcissistically--saw ourselves mirrored in that movie and how it spoke to us.

I guess this theme is off topic for the present thread, but since it prompted my reading, I thought it was the right place for a comment.

>15 Meredy: Thanks for the excerpt, Meredy, and for the insight. I suspect another part of the reason that Kael didn't find the identification of the major movie-going audience, then as now, the youffs: She was almost 50 in 1967. Her daughter was 19!

It doesn't ever do, in my observation, to forget the biographical facts of a reviewer's life in assessing their reviews. Her age is a big factor in her "standing" (a term I don't like, but don't have a ready subsitute for) as a critic. Old enough to know better, young enough not to care, perhaps?

I remember her defenses of violent movies being puzzled over by my (same-aged) parents because she was them, she was part of the generation whose menfolk fought, bled, and died in WWII and Korea. That seemed to my mothers of varying sorts to be utterly mystifying. None of those ladies could *abide* violent entertainment.

So. Another perspective.

About to begin my first Martin Amis: Lionel Asbo: State of England.

>7 richardderus: Thanks, Richard.
>15 Meredy: Thanks for the excerpt.
Richard, I didn't realize Kael so loved violent movies. Like your mothers, I hate violent movies - except for Bonnie and Clyde and Pulp Fiction. I also hate Hemingway except for A Moveable Feast. So, what I'm happy to say is that even though I can sometimes be straight-jacketingly opinionated, occasionally I can see past an initial revulsion and connect with the artists revelation of the world.
Oh, instead of Blasphemy I've decided my next read will be While Beauty Slept for the Women in Science Fiction/Fantasy month. (Also because it's due back at the library sooner.)

I'm reading Written in my own heart's blood by Diana Gabaldon, latest in the Outlander series.
and
Book of Atrix Wolfe by Paatricia McKillip.

I love fantasy, time travel and historical fiction!

>4 Citizenjoyce: We saw The Book of Mormon when it was in Denver last fall. It was a lot of fun!

Loved this week's bio, Richard. Her reviews in The New Yorker were always very entertaining.

I'm still reading and very much enjoying both Full Body Burden and Summer House With Swimming Pool. I've also been dipping into a book of short stories, Love, In Theory by E. J. Levy.

I have also been spending time (reluctantly) with Lisa See's latest, China Dolls. Its an ER book so I've kept at it longer than I normally would.

I finished The Bat and have decided not to continue with any more of Jo Nesbo. The writing is very good, and it was a delight at first to read about a super police detective who wasn't self destructive. Turns out Nesbo's is not a woman friendly universe, and I don't need any more of that.
Also finished the delightful Penelopiad. Now on audio I've started When We Were Orphans another of Ishiguro's books about people who closely follow the rules of society but this time the main character is a detective. Let's see if he has any hope of love or happiness.
My dog park audio replacing Nesbo is The Secret Garden another book I neglected as a child and a fine antidote to The Bat.

Reading Spring Snow, listening to The Dark Monk at home, and listening to The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches in the car. Not much read time the last couple of weeks.....

Finished The Shadow of the Torturer and started The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe.

Finished with Kin : Suth's Story by Peter Dickinson late on Friday and Need by Carrie Jones today. Still reading The Losers: Book 2 by Andy Diggle and listening to A Good Thief's Guide to Venice by Chris Ewan. Also up this week are Grass for his Pillow by Lian Hearn and Kin: Noli's Story by Peter Dickinson and will start listening to Wild Swans by Jung Chang in audio at some point.

I finished Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay. This is what I call historical fiction lite. It simply tries to be too nice to everybody - and as I recall there was nothing nice about the Holocaust. I am surprised that this book was such a hit. Doesn't the reading public read any history and therefore already know about the French collaboration, complacency, and barely disguised anti-semitism? It is sad to say that this book should have been no surprise. That it had such resonance tells me it was a surprise and that is sad.

I finished Yiyun Li's beautiful and haunting Kinder Than Solitude. It is a disturbing book, but I think a profound one. I believe the author is showing us what it has meant to be Chinese in the last forty years, from the death of hope at Tiananmen Square and the way since that time that China has stifled or discarded much tradition, the memories and dreams of its people, in order to modernize and compete in the global economy. It is a story about three young people whose friendship ends in 1989 as a result of an event that may have been a murder committed by one of them. Two of them come to America, the other remains in China. Their personal lives are examined as the author takes us back to their student days and the event that has affected all their lives, and then to the present-day, to what has become of them. And we see China, now and then.

Now I am reading Cain by Jose Saramago and The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers.

I started two new books this week, one a hardback and one on my Kindle.

Through The Postern Gate: A Romance in Seven Days by Florence Barclay. This is an 1800's something English manners novella. (As far as I can tell--only on Chapter 1)

Kindred by Octavia Butler, a book given to me by a friend. Part slave novel, part sci fi novel, as far as I can tell!

I started Written in My Own Heart's Blood over the weekend. I have really loved this series so far - and expect to love this novel as well. =:)

I've been doing very little reading in recent weeks, with a couple of exceptions. This is the Story of a Happy Marriage was one. This is my first experience of Ann Patchett - I really enjoy her writing. The title story was actually not my favorite, but I still enjoyed it. I probably still won't read her novels, but I shall look for any and all shorter pieces I can find. I believe that there are many as she wrote for magazines for years. And someday I may work myself up to Truth and Beauty. Her picture on the book jacket is of her in the bookstore she partially owns in Nashville, TN - surrounded by books. What's not to love about an author who chooses THAT picture for the book jacket ?

Right now I am reading The Bartle Bequest which is just right for me right now. Probably not everybody's cuppa, but the characters are well done and the author and characters are generally kind, which I appreciate. Domestic fiction written in the 50s with a bit of a mystery, probably intended for girls who had outgrown boarding school stories. This is one of the Colmskirk series of which The Serendipity Shop is a favorite of mine.

I finished and REVIEWED Cheryl Strayed's unflinching memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail.

Now I'm reading Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.

Gave up on The Lowland after it didn't catch my attention a few pages in. And halfway through Miss Me When I'm Gone by Emily Arsenault, who I have read before. It is a novel about a writer who dies unexpectedly, presumably in an accident. An old friend is given the responsibility of going through her research & notes for her second book, which probes into family history and secrets. A kind of story within a story, it is a quick and interesting read.

I, too, am reading the latest in the Outlander series, Written in My Own Heart's Blood, which I'm enjoying immensely thus far!

I'm also reading All Over But the Shoutin', although I'm not giving it very much attention, as I'm quite engrossed in the new Gabaldon novel. Nevertheless, when I do pick up Bragg's memoir, it's engrossing.

Finally gave up on Soil and Sacrament. I wanted to like Bahnson's book, but just couldn't find it in me to care much about his story. He didn't add anything new to the discussion of food and faith, which disappointed me.

>30 brenzi: brenzi - I bought a copy of Burial Rights yesterday and the bookseller and I had a conversation about the plot. His comment, "So an uplifting book" made me laugh.

My latest is yet another by Frances Fyfield, Seeking Sanctuary.

I finished Jose Saramago's Cain yesterday morning. I enjoyed it -- it made me laugh out loud many times, but it had a much more serious, thoughtful aspect as well. Cain travels back and forth in time through early Old Testament history, participating in and witnessing events while carrying on an argument with God about what he sees. These are questions as old as time, but Saramago tells the story very well.

Last night I finished Carson McCullers' novella, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe -- lots to laugh about here, too, though of course there is a poignancy and a profound look into the nature of love.

Now I'm reading Sebastian Barry's new book, The Temporary Gentleman.

Finished & loved Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore. Perfect summer read - gossipy, suspenseful, scandalous, and very well-written. The ending wasn't quite as explosive as I had hoped, but I think it warrants a reread at some point to pick up on the clues I missed the first time around.

Finished Push by Sapphire for my department's urban fiction genre study. Talk about a brutal read, and yet surprisingly uplifting. I can't accurately say whether I liked or disliked it, but it was certainly powerful.

I'm continuing my urban fiction reading with Payback is a Mutha by Wahida Clark, and I've been trying to keep a straight face every time I say that title out loud, but it's a work in progress...The genre is definitely not my cup of tea, but it's been educational in terms of helping our patrons.

Also reading World War Z which is much more to my liking.

>30 brenzi: Thumbs-upped!

The Jewel in the Crown is keeping me occupied for a while, so I'm trying to catch up on my backlog of reviews. I was in arrears by twelve at one point; so far this month I've posted eight. If anyone would care to take a look, I'd be pleased.

#38
The Jewel in the Crown books are wonderful. It took me months to read the first, and less and less time with each successive book. They remain in a place of honor on my shelves.

I finished Loveability by Robert Holden and well, ha, loved it. Really a wonderful way to approach life, think about things and be love. A soothing read. He's a fascinating guy who seems to truly care about making the world a better place too, which made it a pleasure all around.

I am going to put down Alaska at about 150 pages in. It have no doubt the butchery of native humans and species took place and is an enormous part of the telling of history, but man, it is tough reading story after story about it. The part on the killing of the otters was one of the more cruel things I have ever read. Makes me have a sad, new appreciation for that beautiful territory. But my rule is when I look for anything to do but pick back up a book, that is my sign to move on to something else, at least for the time being. It's almost an epic of short stories over many years, so I can pick up again some other time.

I am finishing up The Power of Kindness for my non-fiction selection; and am about to begin Facing the Music by Larry Brown, one of my favorite writers, to have a chat over in "short story" thread land.

Finished The Good Thief's Guide to Venice by Chris Ewan and The Losers : Book Two by Andy Diggle today. I'm still reading Grass for his Pillow and Noli's Story and instead of following the plan and listening to Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China I'm actually listening to 20,000 Leagues under the Sea - although I think I'll be glad to get to the end of it - the descriptions are a bit tedious in audio. I hope to finish it in the next couple of days, so then it will be on to Wild Swans at home and something else in the car - not sure what yet.

Just started Jinx by Sage Blackwood mainly because it's about due at the library.
I like it!

#41
What did you think of Good Thief's Guide? I hear this is a series and with a catchy title like that wonder what the book was like? I am reading Wild Swans. It certainly is an engaging book and I find myself liking it but wondering at its veracity.

So, this was a pretty interesting week in reading for me! On Friday, June 13th, I started reading Who Killed my Daughter? by Lois Duncan. It was a truly heartwrenching book, but there so many names (Vietnamese sounding) that I had trouble keeping them all straight in my mind. Apart from my own problems in discerning who was who among the Vietnamese gang criminal underworld, Ms. Duncan's tenacity in keeping the case alive, shines through on every page and I admire her immensely! ;) I finished reading this book on Tuesday, June 17th!

I immediately started reading The Man Who Died Twice by Lois Paxton on Tuesday, June 17th. I finished it a day later on Wednesday, June 18th! :) I actually enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would - even though, being written in 1968 I imagine that the writing would probably considered very dated by to today's standards.

On Wednesday afternoon, June 18th, I started reading Dream Country by Luanne Rice. At just over 500 pages, I think this book may take slightly longer to read than usual.

Finished Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and started Jamaica Inn.

>43 benitastrnad: With regard to The Good Thief - it is indeed a series, and I am doing exactly what everyone would say not to do (by accident - I hasten to add) - I listened to the last in the series (or the most recent at least) The Good Thief's guide to Berlin and then I've just had the one before it. I've been borrowing from the local library and when I first went in and saw Berlin - I asked the librarian if it was the first in the series and was told it must be because it was the only one they'd got (I should know by now that is no indication!), so I borrowed it and it was only looking on here that I discovered it was the last. Last week on their 'new to our library' shelf was Venice so I just figured I'd try it... They still don't have any of the others because I asked.

I would describe them as 'Crime lite' - they're lightly humorous, the story of a semi-reformed thief who's trying to earn his living as a writer, but seems to get embroiled in various of other people's crimes and mishaps. I enjoyed them as a light distraction, but there is a certain degree of almost eye-rolling inevitability to them I think. I'd love to hear from other people whether the stories in the others vary drastically (just in case the library continues to acquire them in reverse order - lol). I didn't find them as what I would describe 'laugh out loud' amusing, but they are a nice easy read - enough crime and disorder to keep things interesting without getting weighed down and instead it leaves you smiling.

If you get the audio versions - they're read by Simon Vance (or those available via the UK are) and he, as ever, does a great job with them.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has tried reading any of Chris Ewan's other books, not in the Charlie Howard series and what they were like.

I just finished Heartburn which was hilarious. The story centers around a pregnant woman who writes cookbooks and her divorce. I know it doesn't sound like it would be funny, but the writing style was just my sense of humor (sarcastic and slightly dark).

I'm not really a science fiction fan (large understatement), but everyone raves so much about Neil Gaiman that I have had him on my TBR list for a long time. I started The Graveyard Book, and I'm enjoying it so far. I'm guessing it isn't his typical book, but I can already tell that I will read more by him.

I just started reading Lexicon by Max Barry. I have heard a lot about this novel from Book Podcasts like Book Riot and Bookrageous. So I have decided to give it a try. I will post a review when I'm finished.

I finished Sebastian Barry's The Temporary Gentleman -- another compelling and beautifully written work by this author.

I am now reading a Brunetti mystery, The Golden Egg, by Donna Leon.

I finished Beer in the Snooker Club which is a look at what happens to the angry young revolutionary when he's well read, has traveled., and the revolution disappoints. It's a excellent portrayal of a lost and disillusioned young man trying to find a way to live.

Don't know what's next but am working down a list of authors from around the world, reading those that sound interesting and are available on Kindle.

Finished The Claw of the Conciliator (Shadow & Claw) by Gene Wolfe. Started Rogues edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Duzois.

I'm reading several at the same time, of course, but I'm sort of stuck on Killer Ambition by Marcia Clark. I'm not familiar with her books, found it in a reduction bin, and thought it might be light summer reading. I've read the same page 20 times!