What are you currently reading?

[QualityBookReviews]

An open discussion on what everyone is currently reading. Make recommendations to others, discuss what is new, hot, bestsellers, anything and everything related to books and the authors.

[Sue Dawson]

Am just dipping into Walter Mosley's new novel, THE RIGHT MISTAKE. i have been busy doing repair work from the winter storm. Well, my garden gal has been busy with the chain saw cutting up the downed trees and limbs. I let her keep the wood since I do not have a fireplace. It was wonderful to have power and all utilities back after the Christmas week winter onslaught. I was lucky in the amount of damage I sustained as there were trees down all over the place up our hill (on my property as well)--also all land phones down till a couple of days aft er Christmas. I may have written about the event before, but it was a challenge. When my hubby was alive, he tended to any of the necessary bumps in the road that came our way--slave labor, too. Now it's pay the plumbers ($95/hour, pay the electrician a labor charge plus parts, etc.). I did take a couple of digital pics which I will have developed into paper photo format at Focal Point, the local photography store whichhappens to be right next door to my dentist, a convenient location.

Anyhow Mosley's my man. He does not appeal to all as he is graphic, but the man surely knows hosw t capture and keep the reader's interest. The gritty side of life is fun to read about but not to expereience

[Loretta Wheeler]

I haven't read anything of his Sue, but I do tend to like novels that are more graphic and a little more on the gritty side:)...I'll have to look him up and see if he's another one to add to my shelves:)

I just finished Stephen King's Duma Key and am now on his group of short stories in Just After Sunset...I loved the title and some of the stories, but I feel he is at his best with a novel:)

We're not doing huge winter storms (I'm in Houston) but, we sure had a time recovering from Ike....so you have all my sympathy....:)

[HappyRuby]

I am reading Shot Girl by Karen Olsen and would recommend the book. Just finished Charles Todd's A Matter of Justice - very good. Next up Val McDermid's Darker Domain.

Happy Ruby

[Sue Dawson]

Just got a new copy (autographed, too) of Tim Maleeney's new GREASING THE PINATA (Sorry I do not know where the diacritical markings are for Espanol), A CAPE WEATHERS INVESTIGIATION--3rd in the series. If you enjoy novels with an Asian flavor, you'll like Maleeny's writing.

[Joy Calderwood]

Arthur Upfield's CAKE IN THE HAT BOX, a Napoleon Bonaparte mystery. Who here reads this series? Bony is a half aborigine Detective Inspector. The series is partly about his mysteries, partly his character and the cultures he stands astride, and partly about 1950s Australia. The sense of place is so strong that Australia seems like one of the characters.

I've been rereading these books now and then for decades.

[I. J. Parker]

I read his books. Don't know CAKE IN THE HAT BOX. Is he still active? I thought he was long since gone. Quite right about the sense of place. Though there were some very early Bonaparte novels that were poorly written, Upfield turned out a remarkable series.

[Joy Calderwood]

Yes, he is long since gone. He learned his craft very well, I would say.

CAKE IN THE HAT BOX is about isolated cattle ranchers, a hated bush policeman found in his jeep shot dead, and a secret mine. The Breen family are mysterious characters, isolated even compared to their outback neighbors. An aborigine incursion into the neighborhood brings their version of justice, because one of their family was killed at the same time as the policeman.

Does the description ring any bells for you? I hadn't read this one before. Kimberley Breen is a memorable character.

[I. J. Parker]

No, but that doesn't mean anything. It's been years, and many novels may have had different titles. The setting sounds familiar, but then it's pretty typical.

[Joy Calderwood]

True, Arthur Upfield is one of those authors whose titles have been changed from country to country.

[I. J. Parker]

Okay, I finally got around to THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by Stieg Larsson. This book and its two follow-ups are the mystery publishing sensation of 2008. Published posthumously, the novel became an international bestseller and received extravagant praise.
Here's my take: It moved slowly, involved multiple plots, ranged from international finance to journalism to serial killings, and had at least one rather memorable (eponymous) character. As you may guess, the mystery/thriller subgenres are variously represented and developed. There are women's issues, rapes, pedophilia, sadism, religious symbols. There is even a caper at the end. For me, the greatest weakness was the fact that Larsson evidently did not think a book would sell without sadistic rape scenes, gruesome serial killings, and torture. And I want to make it clear that I only object to these because they are as common as ditchwater. Other than that, it wasn't bad.

[K Barrett]

This is one of those times when changing the book's original title does a disservice to the book.

[Tanja]

Something different: "Song of Ice & Fire" trilogy by George R.R. Martin, not crime but hey.... I am just so curious since a lot of people say it's way much better then Tolkien's LOTR. Not bad so far.... At first I was a bit lost in all the family relations, but once you get used to it it just flows :)

After it it's definitely Larsson's "The girl with the dragon tattoo" and its sequels (I hope to get them by the time I read aformentioned Martin's trilogy), and Palahniuk's "Lullaby".