Yesterday, and! help Rolanni find something to read
Sunday, November 14th, 2010 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniYesterday was sunny and warm -- more June than November. The tide was out when I arrived, but the sea was active. Waves the pure, hard green of peridot with deep laces of bright white foam rose up as high as a house before coming down with a roar and a crash. The air was full of moisture, which acted like a lens in the brilliant sunshine. I could easily see the houses at Cape Elizabeth, and the waves slamming into the point, shattering into white shards, like ice.
There were scores of people on the beach, most stripped down to t-shirts; sweaters, wind-breakers, or sweatshirts tied around their waists; caps pushed 'way back on their heads. Dogs accompanied many -- dozens of those sturdy orange dogs that everyone seems to have -- yellow lab-and-something-mixes -- big, happy, sociable dogs, with kind brown eyes. Several galloped up to solicit my opinion of the day, offer a nose to be shaken, or a paw to be held.
I could have walked for hours.
But, of course, I didn't.
On the way home, I stopped at Barnes and Noble in Augusta, where I had my first sighting of Carousel Tides in a bookstore, which was exciting.
The store was gratifyingly full of eager shoppers -- this despite the gorgeous weather. Alas, I couldn't find anything on the shelves to tempt me. I think I'm tired of SF/F -- something that happens from time to time.
So -- what have you been reading in mystery, romance, literature that's blown you away? It doesn't have to be new; I'm 'way behind the curve on reading almost anything. SF/F need not apply for this exercise; I'm resting the genre for a while.
There were scores of people on the beach, most stripped down to t-shirts; sweaters, wind-breakers, or sweatshirts tied around their waists; caps pushed 'way back on their heads. Dogs accompanied many -- dozens of those sturdy orange dogs that everyone seems to have -- yellow lab-and-something-mixes -- big, happy, sociable dogs, with kind brown eyes. Several galloped up to solicit my opinion of the day, offer a nose to be shaken, or a paw to be held.
I could have walked for hours.
But, of course, I didn't.
On the way home, I stopped at Barnes and Noble in Augusta, where I had my first sighting of Carousel Tides in a bookstore, which was exciting.
The store was gratifyingly full of eager shoppers -- this despite the gorgeous weather. Alas, I couldn't find anything on the shelves to tempt me. I think I'm tired of SF/F -- something that happens from time to time.
So -- what have you been reading in mystery, romance, literature that's blown you away? It doesn't have to be new; I'm 'way behind the curve on reading almost anything. SF/F need not apply for this exercise; I'm resting the genre for a while.
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Mystery
Date: 2010-11-14 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-14 09:09 pm (UTC)I'm reading the Andrew Jackson bio that's all the rage at the moment--American Lion, by Jon Meacham. It's a fascinating look at one of the important presidents that I didn't know very much about.
I was also fascinated by and devoured The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, by Simon Winchester.
From the description on the Amazon page: "When the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary put out a call during the late 19th century pleading for 'men of letters' to provide help with their mammoth undertaking, hundreds of responses came forth. Some helpers, like Dr. W.C. Minor, provided literally thousands of entries to the editors.
But Minor, an American expatriate in England and a Civil War veteran, was actually a certified lunatic who turned in his dictionary entries from the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.
Simon Winchester has produced a mesmerizing coda to the deeply troubled Minor's life, a life that in one sense began with the senseless murder of an innocent British brewery worker that the deluded Minor believed was an assassin sent by one of his numerous 'enemies.'
Winchester also paints a rich portrait of the OED's leading light, Professor James Murray, who spent more than 40 years of his life on a project he would not see completed in his lifetime."
no subject
Date: 2010-11-15 03:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-14 09:13 pm (UTC)In the meantime, I'll second the Kate Ross recommendation. The books are out of print, though, and my library had only the last in the series. I scrounged copies from several book swap sites and eventually got the whole set.
Have you read Joanna Bourne's historical romances? They're outstanding. The series is loosely connected, and you could probably start with any of them, but I think I'd recommend either The Spymaster's Lady, the first to be published, or the most recent one, The Forbidden Rose, which is set about twenty years before the others (French Revolution instead of Napoleon).
Sherry Thomas and Meredith Duran are also writing great historicals. Duran's latest, Wicked Becomes You, is especially fun -- a romp on the French Riviera, very unexpected since her other books have been full of angst and drama.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-14 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-14 10:32 pm (UTC)Anne in Virginia
Books to read
Date: 2010-11-14 10:36 pm (UTC)mysteries quite often keep me guessing until close to the end.
Also
Date: 2010-11-14 10:37 pm (UTC)Anne in Virginia
no subject
Date: 2010-11-14 11:22 pm (UTC)Nora Roberts - Bride Quartet- four books- pretty much straight romance, but reliable.
=
Jennifer Crusie - Maybe This Time - a bit of ghost and gruesomeness, but an interesting exploration of a couple that has been divorced ten years.
Anne Stuart - Recent trilogy - Ruthless, Reckless, Breathless
There is a free prequel ebook, Wicked House of Rohan available in various venues. Anne Stuart's heroes are absolutely total jerks, and somehow she makes it work. Anybody else I'd throw the book across the room and never pick up another book by her, but somehow they find redemption.
Kristan Higgins has mostly first person romances set in new England towns.
Karin Slaughter's mysteries.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-15 03:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2010-11-15 12:27 am (UTC)Speaking of series that were abandoned at the most frustrating point, Jane Haddam wrote a short set of fabulous, clever, gut-busting funny mysteries under her birth name of Oriana Papazoglou -- the protagonist is a romance writer, and all of the stories revolve around the romance publishing industry during its most Old Skool-ish of Old Skool days. They're out of print, of course, but can be found used or through ILL.
As far as romances go, I'm going on a personal glom of old Regencies -- not Old Skool, but the traditional kind, with longing looks and chaste kisses and sternly repressed passions and stunning outfits. Early Mary Balogh, Edith Layton, Elisabeth Mansfield, and especially Loretta Chase (THE ENGLISH WITCH is my personal favorite). Chase's later stuff is terrific, too, if you're in the mood for the smexxy; LORD OF SCOUNDRELS is practically perfect in every way, and any of the Carsington books promises a good time (love love love MR IMPOSSIBLE)
no subject
Date: 2010-11-15 12:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-15 12:50 am (UTC)It was very popular last year so you might have read it, but I recommend the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
And if you like memoir/essay, I just finished and really enjoyed Mennonite in a Little Black Dress. The author goes back to stay with her parents while she's rebuilding her life after her husband left her ("for a guy named Bob that he met on gay.com") and she had a serious car accident the same week. I found the balance of snark-to-warmer-feelings just right and some of the musings on the ways we incorporate and reject our upbringing into our adult lives were thought-provoking.
I've been reading my way through the Swallows and Amazons children's books, which somehow I missed over the past 45+ years of reading. They take a little tolerance of outdated social attitudes, but not nearly as much as some things of their vintage.
An older mystery series I still enjoy rereading are the Fiddler and Fiora books by A.E. Maxwell (Elizabeth Lowell and her husband). Just Another Day in Paradise is the first; they get better as they go along but are good to begin with.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-15 01:09 am (UTC)For mysteries, I've enjoyed the mystery series by Donna Andrews. My favourite one is Crouching Buzzard Leaping Loon (http://www.amazon.com/Crouching-Buzzard-Leaping-Donna-Andrews/dp/0312990014)
I've also enjoyed Steven Saylor's historical mysteries set in Ancient Rome. He really brings the city of Rome alive to me. The first one is called Roman Blood (http://www.amazon.com/Roman-Blood-Ancient-Minotaur-Mysteries/dp/0312972962).
Maurice Leblanc's Arsene Lupin mysteries are a lot of fun. Some of them are also available at Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/l#a1358).
For romance, I recently enjoyed Savor The Moment (http://www.amazon.com/Savor-Moment-Bride-Quartet-Roberts/dp/1423368894/) by Nora Roberts. I liked it better than the others in the Bride Quartet series. I am quite amazed at how well the author succeeds at writing a novel about talking with your friends, baking cakes, getting up to go to the gym in the morning, and other sort of everyday events that I've been told are very difficult to turn into a novel. There are a lot of things that tend to annoy me about romance novels, so it's hard for me to find one I like, but this one didn't have cooties for me, or at least, not very many.
For literature, I enjoyed A Suitable Boy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Suitable_Boy) by Vikram Seth. I've read other books set in India, but this is my favourite so far.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-15 01:18 am (UTC)For straight mysteries, there's also Donna Andrews's Meg Lanslow(a female blacksmith) myseries --'Stork Raving Mad' is the newest,#12; funny, interesting(even the minor characters. All the books have a 'bird' title.
For historical mysteries, I'd second Ellis Peters's Brother Cadfael books, and add Lindsay Davis's Marcus Didius Falco books(ancient Rome, early Vespasian, Nemesis is the just-out newest)
no subject
Date: 2010-11-15 01:52 am (UTC)In non-fiction, OH just finished Sheep: The Remarkable Story of the Humble Animal That Built the Modern World, which sounded fascinating (although possibly more of interest to Brits).
Which reminds me of a mystery I read a few months ago - Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann - a murder mystery where the detectives are a flock of sheep, trying to work out what happened to their shepherd. It didn't blow me away, but was an entertaining read, and the sheep are written with plausibly sheep-like interests and senses.
Caroline
I've given these all 5 stars on GoodReads:
Date: 2010-11-15 02:16 am (UTC)I read this a year ago, and I'm still thinking about it.
A slacker, teenage boy, starts seeing a punked-out angel, figures made of flames, and other odd things. He is diagnosed with Mad Cow disease. It's incredibly rich story of Cam's journey to figure it all out, with the help of a hypochondriac little-person, and a death-defying yard gnome (my favorite character in the book).
Mysteries:
The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde (punny, clever, witty, pure fun!)
It's Easter in Reading - a bad time for eggs - and no one can remember the last sunny day. Ovoid D-class nursery celebrity Humpty Dumpty, minor baronet, lover of women, ex-convict, and former millionaire philanthropist, is found shattered to death beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. Yes, the big egg is down. All those brittle pieces sitting in the morgue point to foul play. Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his new partner, Sergeant Mary Mary, search through Humpty's sordid and secretive past in hopes of finding the key to his death.
In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming (great atmosphere, strong female protagonist, good mystery)
It's a cold, snowy December in the upstate New York town of Millers Kill, and newly-ordained Clare Fergusson is on thin ice as the first female priest of its small Episcopal church. The ancient regime running the parish demands that she prove herself as a leader, Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne dismisses her as a naive do-gooder and her blunt manner, honed by eight years as an Army chaplain, is meeting with a chilly reception from some of her congregation. When a newborn baby is abandoned and a young mother is brutally murdered, Clare has to pick her way through the secrets and silence that shadow the town like the ever-present Adirondack mountains.
One for the Money by Janet Evanovich (silly, fun, romantic)
Stephanie Plum lost her job at the department store and is reduced to working for her New Jersey uncle's bail-bond business as a bounty hunter. How many cars will Stephanie see destroyed before she solves the mystery?
General Fiction: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer
January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb…As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.
Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.
reading suggestions
Date: 2010-11-15 03:11 am (UTC)and more
Date: 2010-11-15 03:18 am (UTC)Nanette
Oopsm for got to sign off on Kim :)
no subject
Date: 2010-11-15 03:24 am (UTC)Things to read
Date: 2010-11-15 03:30 am (UTC)Annemarie
Please don't try this at home
Date: 2010-11-15 04:36 am (UTC)We want you to get back to writing sooner or later!
That being said I'll second the motion on the Donna Andrews books, the ones by Katie Fforde, the Beatrix Potter mysteries, anything by Dick Francis and the 1st century AD Roman Empire mysteries featuring informer/detective named Falco by Lindsey Davis.
For non-fiction you might try 'Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature ' by Linda Lear. (Published Jan 2007)
no subject
Date: 2010-11-15 04:38 am (UTC)The early books are rather heavy-handed, but things smooth out nicely as the series advances.
book recommendations
Date: 2010-11-15 04:55 am (UTC)Easier to make recommendations when one knows what you DON'T like...
romance and mystery recommendations
Date: 2010-11-15 05:23 am (UTC)For a good mystery I would recommend The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. It's set in a fictional world and the main characters are con men. It's hilarious and interesting to see how they con people.
For a good romance, Courting Midnight by Emma Holly. They don't immediately fall into bed and it's sweet to see how their feelings develop for each other. I do warn you it's very, very graphic. And the main character is a vampire in ancient England. Plus, it has funny parts.
For another good romance, Angel's Blood by Nalini Singh. The main character is a vampire hunter who was hired by an angel. The romance is really hot and the world building is amazing. I normally don't read anything about angels but I gave it a shot and was thrilled that I did.
Another awesome romance is Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost. A vampire hunter and a vampire. It's really sexy and funny too. My sister refuses to read vampire books but I read her one page and she was hooked.
And I know you said no sf/f but I have to agree with the person above who mentioned Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell. It was awesome and I loved the look at normal space ship life. Just keep this one until you want to go back to that genre.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-15 05:23 am (UTC)Dan Ariely - Predictably Irrational
Ori and Rom Brafman - two books: Click and Sway
Spark by John Ratey explains why exercise is actually more important for good brain function than fitness.
I'm currently reading Packing for Mars by Mary Roach and finding it very interesting.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-15 08:41 am (UTC)Also, firmly in the land of urban fantasy, I am a huge fan of The Enchantment Emporium, by Tanya Huff. It is a dream of mine that a sequel or three will one day be written.
-Meara
no subject
Date: 2010-11-15 08:48 am (UTC)-Meara
(no subject)
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