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.
Just Finished A Beautiful Place to Die, Malla Nunn - South African born / Australian resident author's first book - set in 1950's apartheid South Africa. Very good.
Just Finished - The Final Bet by Abdelilah Hamdouchi - first translated Arabic detective novel (according to the blurb) - really really good
Just started - The Abyssinian Proof by Jenny White
Been a long time... Ross Macdonald's The Instant Enemy. After that I'll try to get some new stuff out of the way, like Guthrie's Savage Night and Zeltserman's Small Crimes.
Recently finished Jonathan Littell's Les bienviellaintes that will come out in English as The Kindly Ones. It's great, but it's also 900 pages...
I just finished listerning to the audio version of SNIP by Doc Macomber, a mystery author who lives on a yacht in Portland, Oregon. His detective is a Vietnamese Air Force sergeant. the recording was excellent and used two readers who did accents well. I recommend it.
Finishing up the Ender sci-fi series. Card didn't write this one last, but it's last chronologically. I've read CHILDREN OF THE MIND twice before, but didn't like it either time. (Because it's part of a masterly series, that's why I'm rereading it.) This time I'm old enough to relate to a former hero who is tiring of life, and at least partially understand the various non-person personalities among the cast.
Tom Bradby, THE WHITE RUSSIAN. A very competent historical crime novel set during the last months of the Czarist regime just before the Russian revolution. My only quibble is with certain cliches: the lovers' ride through the snow, the femme fatale ballet dancer, the night of love in a deserted mansion in the midst of winter, and the lurking sinister dark figures of the secret service. I would add that the tragic family of the last Czar and he himself have a much better reputation than Bradby allows them.
I just finished The Art Thief by Noah Charney which was a little underwhelming, perhaps would appeal more to people who like low (well zero) body counts and want to find out a lot about Art Theft.
I'm being a tad selfish next up so I'm reading A Darker Domain by Val McDermid and then I'll probably follow up with a couple of local books - English Toss on Planet Andong and Witch Doctor's Vengeance.
Oh, good, I have THE ART THIEF and haven't read it yet. I like plots with lots of art and few bodies.
Currently reading two books, one for review and one for Christmas. :-) HOW by Dov Seidman is an insightful and persuasive book on business showing the solid benefits of basing business on values. I'm going to give it an excellent review. PAUL OF DUNE is getting me back into the Dune universe.
Currently airing the movie Bringing Out the Dead; an excellent Scorsese film, for people who have forgotten it from ten years ago.
Post back and tell me what you thought of The Art Thief Joy - after finishing it I've been checking out what other reviewers said and it's getting mixed commentary.