A Thursday Reading Update

As I watch (I won't say enjoy) today's Jan 6th Committee hearings and wait for an afternoon Blue Jays game, it's time for a reading update and a look at some new books. I may even continue with my ongoing look at Women Authors whose works I've been enjoying. So let's get on with it you say? Sounds good.

Books Completed

I've finished one book since my last update, or more correctly, gave up on one book and one series.

1. Flashman on the March by George MacDonald Fraser (Flashman Papers #12).

"I'm not providing a rating for Flashman on the March, the last book in the Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser. Unfortunately I didn't finish it. It wasn't as offensive as the last one I tried and also didn't finish. This one just started to bore me. 

The plot had potential. Flash is tasked to go to Abyssinia (Ethiopia) to deliver funds to a British general who is building an army there to attack an Abyssinian general (ruler), Theodore. Theodore is crazy, an insane murderer. Flash is assigned a mission by the general. To go into Abyssinia and meet up with another ruler, a queen. He goes with her sister and gets involved in adventures along the way. But after reading half of the book, I just felt blah about continuing it. I have so many books to read and unfortunately for this series, I just don't see the need to continue with it. Sorry to Mr. Fraser. 

I won't read any more books in this series. No rating."

Currently Reading

1. Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion (2021). I've never read anything by Didion before but her name has come up many times in the last months, the first being that she had passed away in Dec 2021. Since then I've noted that she wrote fiction, non-fiction and screenplays. I found this collection of essays when Jo and I visited Qualicum Beach in January of 2022. I have to say I'm enjoying them very much. I like her clear writing style and her ability to get to her point in such a short format. I may have to check out more of her writing.

"Ten pieces never before collected that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of a legendary writer

Here are six pieces written in 1968 from the "Points West" Saturday Evening Post column Joan Didion shared from 1964 to 1969 with her husband, John Gregory Dunne about: American newspapers; a session with Gamblers Anonymous; a visit to San Simeon; being rejected by Stanford; dropping in on Nancy Reagan, wife of the then-governor of California, while a TV crew filmed her at home; and an evening at the annual reunion of WWII veterans from the 101st Airborne Association at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas. Here too is a 1976 piece from the New York Times magazine on "Why I Write"; a piece about short stories from New West in 1978; and from The New Yorker, a piece on Hemingway from 1998, and on Martha Stewart from 2000. Each one is classic Didion: incisive, bemused, and stunningly prescient."

2. The Nightmare by Lars Kepler (Joona Linna #2 / 2010 ). I read the first book in this series back in 2014 and I've had this next  book on my shelf since 2017. Too many books sometimes that some get forgotten. I've just started this and it's grabbed me right from the get-go.

"On a summer night, police recover the body of a young woman from an abandoned pleasure boat drifting around the Stockholm archipelago. Her lungs are filled with brackish water, and the forensics team is sure that she drowned. Why, then, is the pleasure boat still afloat, and why are there no traces of water on her clothes or body? The next day, a man turns up dead in his state apartment in Stockholm, hanging from a lamp hook in the ceiling. All signs point to suicide, but the room has a high ceiling, and there's not a single piece of furniture around -- nothing to climb on. Joona Linna begins to piece together the two mysteries, but the logistics are a mere prelude to a dizzying and dangerous course of events. At its core, the most frightening aspect of The Nightmare isn't its gruesome crimes -- it's the dark psychology of its characters, who show us how blind we are to our own motives."

New Books

Since my last update, I've received a few books in the mail and also visited Nearly New Books to trade in some books and picked up a few others. So let's take a look at them and I'll provide the synopses for all of them.

1. Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Oz #3 / 1907). I'm enjoying exploring Baum's Oz world.

"Readers of all ages will welcome the chance to be reunited with Dorothy Gale and such beloved characters as the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion, as well as to meet new favorites such as the Hungry Tiger, whose appetite is never satisfied; Princess Langwidere, who has thirty heads; Billina, a talking chicken; and Tiktok, a mechanical man.

Blown overboard while sailing with her uncle, Dorothy finds herself in the fairy realm of Ev. She sets out with her friends to rescue the Queen of Ev and her ten children, who have been imprisoned by the cruel Nome King. But even Ozma, the wise Ruler of Oz, is no match for the clever king, and it's up to Dorothy to save everyone from terrible danger. But will the Nome King's enchantments be too much even for the plucky little girl from Kansas?"

2. The Absolute Death by Neil Gaiman (2012). I recently enjoyed a collection of Sandman by Gaiman and Death, his sister, was one of my favorite characters. I'm looking forward to reading this collection,

"From the pages of Newbery Medal winner Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comes the young, pale, perky, fan-favorite character Death in a new Absolute Edition collecting her solo adventures! Featuring the miniseries Death: The High Cost of Living 1-3, in which Death befriends a teenager and helps a 250-year old homeless woman find her missing heart.

The Absolute Death collects the miniseries Death: The High Cost of Living and Death: The Time of Your Life together with "The Sound of Her Wings" and "Façade" from The Sandman 8 and 20, the P. Craig Russell-illustrated "Death and Venice" from The Sandman: Endless Nights , and the never-before reprinted stories "A Winter's Tale" and "The Wheel." This deluxe volume also features an introduction by The Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer as well as extensive galleries of Death portraits and retail products, sketches by artist Chris Bachalo, and the complete original script by Gaiman for The Sandman 8."

3. The Fire Witness by Lars Kepler (Joona Linna #3). Since I'm enjoying the 2nd book in the series, I thought it was a good idea to get #3.

"Psychologically tense and as fast-paced as The Hypnotist, the third book in the Joona Linna series by Lars Kepler is already a worldwide sensation, appealing to fans of Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo. 

Detective Inspector Joona Linna, under internal review by the National Police for an alleged infraction, is on leave to solve some troubling personal business when he is called in to "observe" the investigation of a gruesome and strange murder at Birgittagarden, a youth home for wayward teenage girls. But it's not long before Linna is drawn deeply into the intricate, disturbing case. Intriguing, astonishing, and with all of the suspense that first captured audiences in The Hypnotist, The Fire Witness is Lars Kepler at his most psychologically complex and thrilling."

4. A Murder in Time by Julia McElwain (Kendra Donovan #1 / 2016). This is a new author and series for me. It sounds interesting. I enjoy travel through time books. I just hope it's not too much like the Outlander books (and yes, I did enjoy the first 3 or 4 books in that series).

"Beautiful and brilliant, Kendra Donovan is a rising star at the FBI. Yet her path to professional success hits a speed bump during a disastrous raid where half her team is murdered, a mole in the FBI is uncovered and she herself is severely wounded. As soon as she recovers, she goes rogue and travels to England to assassinate the man responsible for the deaths of her teammates.

While fleeing from an unexpected assassin herself, Kendra escapes into a stairwell that promises sanctuary but when she stumbles out again, she is in the same place - Aldrich Castle - but in a different time: 1815, to be exact.

Mistaken for a lady's maid hired to help with weekend guests, Kendra is forced to quickly adapt to the time period until she can figure out how she got there; and, more importantly, how to get back home. However, after the body of a girl is found on the extensive grounds of the county estate, she starts to feel there's some purpose to her bizarre circumstances. Stripped of her twenty-first century tools, Kendra must use her wits alone in order to unmask a cunning madman."

5. Castleview by Gene Wolfe (1990). I've tried two books by Wolfe, one collection of short stories which I enjoyed and one fantasy collection which I just could not get through. This book sounds interesting and I hope it is.

"Castleview, an Illinois town, has a phantom castle that Will Shields sees on his first night there, an experience that involves him in murder and mysterious, life-threatening events, because the castle belongs to Morgan Le Fay."

6. Philip K. Dick: The Last Interview and Other Conversations (2015). I've started to collect this series. I've read the last interviews with Hannah Arendt and Ursula K. Le Guin. There have been a number of such interviews and I'm trying to pick and choose; Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, Lou Reed.... 

"An electric collection of interviews—including the first and the last—with one of the 20th century's most prolific, influential, and dazzlingly original writers of science fiction

Long before Ridley Scott transformed Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? into Blade Runner, Philip K. Dick was banging away at his typewriter in relative obscurity, ostracized by the literary establishment. Today he is widely considered one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. These interviews reveal a man plagued by bouts of manic paranoia and failed suicide attempts; a career fuelled by alcohol, amphetamines, and mystical inspiration; and, above all, a magnificent and generous imagination at work."

Women Authors Whose Works I Have Enjoyed - Sophie Hannah

I'm digressing somewhat with this choice. Sophie Hannah is an English poetess and author who has written a number of works. I haven't yet tried her books (hence my slight digression on the topics of authors I've already enjoyed) but I have two on my bookshelf that I'm looking forward to trying

1. Closed Casket (New Hercule Poirot Mysteries #2) / 2016).

""What I intend to say to you will come as a shock..."

With these words, Lady Athelinda Playford -- one of the world's most beloved children's authors -- springs a surprise on the lawyer entrusted with her will. As guests arrive for a party at her Irish mansion, Lady Playford has decided to cut off her two children without a penny . . . and leave her vast fortune to someone else: an invalid who has only weeks to live.

Among Lady Playford's visitors are two strangers: the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard. Neither knows why he has been invited -- until Poirot begins to wonder if Lady Playford expects a murder. But why does she seem so determined to provoke a killer? And why -- when the crime is committed despite Poirot's best efforts to stop it -- does the identity of the victim make no sense at all?"

 

2. The Monogram Murders (New Hercule Poirot Mysteries #1 / 2014).

"‘I’m a dead woman, or I shall be soon…’

Hercule Poirot's quiet supper in a London coffeehouse is interrupted when a young woman confides to him that she is about to be murdered.  She is terrified – but begs Poirot not to find and punish her killer. Once she is dead, she insists, justice will have been done.

Later that night, Poirot learns that three guests at a fashionable London Hotel have been murdered, and a cufflink has been placed in each one’s mouth. Could there be a connection with the frightened woman? While Poirot struggles to put together the bizarre pieces of the puzzle, the murderer prepares another hotel bedroom for a fourth victim..."

The complete listing of Hannah's works can be found at this link. 

Enjoy the rest of your week. Read a great book.