I finished Fear of the Dark by Gar Anthony Haywood, thought it was pretty good. Yes, I’m still reading Old Venus, though I have only two stories to go. Rather than discussing it here, I’ll have a review up soon. Time ran out on it at the library and I had to get back on the list for it again, it just came yesterday. Since I watched basketball, ran errands and worked in the garden yesterday, I’ll finish up the book today.
Next up, two more library books, Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear and Old Mars, the first collection by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozos of retro stories, this time about the red planet instead of the swampy green one. I’ll start Karen Memory first, but may dip into Old Mars as well.
Barbara finished Dark Places by Gillian Flynn which she liked pretty well and says she could see it becoming a movie after the success of Gone Girl. She is almost finished with The Pyramid by Henning Mankell, which is a short novel and four short stories. She is reading it as an ebook on the iPad, and mostly likes doing so in that format.
Next up for her is A Darker Domain by Val McDermid, thanks to a blog comment by Jeff Meyerson. Thanks, Jeff!
We both wonder when we’ll get to the books we got at LCC, not to mention the things we’ve gotten for our own shelves recently (as in the last few years…)!
Have you read these books or authors?
What are you reading?
Tip the Wink 
Richard, I’m in the mood for short stories. I recently read THE BLOOD OF THE FALLEN: THE HISTORY THAT NEVER HAPPENED by James Reasoner and THE FOG HORN by Ray Bradbury, and enjoyed both..
Praseuth, “The Fog Horn” is a classic, and inspired a scene in The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. I love Bradbury’s short fiction.
I’ve also started OLD MARS as well as continuing the Futrelle stories. I’m still less than halfway through that ebook, reading one story (or occasionally two) a day.
I read a quick collection from the library, Simon R. Green’s TALES FROM THE NIGHTSIDE. The Nightside (based on the pre-cleanup Soho) is an area of London (actually, under London) where the sun never shines and it is also 3:00 in the morning. All kinds of monsters and other fantasy elements live there and pi John Taylor (with occasional help from his friends) strides through it setting things right. I’ve read the whole series other than the final book.
The other library book read was IN THE MORNING I’LL BE GONE, third in the “Troubles Trilogy” by Adrian McKinty and featuring Sean Duffy – here working for Special Branch – in 1984 Belfast. I mentioned the “locked pub” problem and the solution does work, a variation of one I’ve read before. I liked the way the characters were familiar with locked room mysteries.
Before I get to the new McDermid I’m reading a couple of other libarary books, principally Olen Steinhauer’s new ALL THE OLD KNIVES.
And after weeks without anything there are New Arrivals! I’ll be back with those.
Jeff, I have one story to go in OLD VENUS then will start KAREN MEMORY. I also just got the notification that the third Lady Trent book, VOYAGE OF THE BASILISK. That one is a lower priority – am I really prioritizing my library reading now?? – so it will wait, though there is a waiting list for it, so it’s non-renewable.
You certainly seem to have enjoyed those Irish mysteries. I’m not familiar with the Steinhauer’s book.
I read and reviewed OLD MARS about a year ago. It’s uneven, but I liked many of the stories. Mike Resnick wrote my favorite story in the collection.
George, In Old Venus, about 4/5 of the stories were good, a few very good indeed. That’s a good ratio for a multiple author collection like this.
Richard, I just finished the new Mickey Spillane/Max Allan Collins novel KILL ME, DARLING. It had a slow (I thought) start before bulldozing its way to a bloody conclusion. Good stuff, but not as good as some other Spilane/MAC novels. Speaking of MAC, next up are his latest Quarry novel and volumes 16 & 17 of Chester Gould’s COMPLETE DICK TRACY DAILIES AND SUNDAYS, with intros by MAC.
I’ve been reading mainly short stories lately because it has been hard to concentrate on longer works. (Our kitchen is undergoing a long overdue renovation; the cabinets that came with the house began to really fall apart recently (as did our silverware drawer when my grandaughter tried to open it). I went throught three more Groff Conklin and two William M. Sloane SF anthologies and have been dipping into old SF pulps (STARTLING STORIES, ASTOUNDING, and THRILLING WONDER STORIES). I also read John Dickson Carr’s historical mystery PAPA LA-BAS (my Friday Forgotten Book) and Murray Leinster’s MURDER MADNESS (an SF-ish thriller from 1930).
Warmer weather has finally arrived and I can no longer put off doing yard work. At least I have a bit more than a week left to put off doing taxes.
Jerry, good luck with the kitchen remodeling. We did ours in the previous house, all new cabinets, granite countertops (picking the granite was a lot of fun for us) and we added a pantry with tool-out shelves. It was great. A year later we sold the house and moved to Portland but no regrets, that kitchen helped us get a good price.
I gave up on the continuations of Spillane; there are originals I haven’t even read. Though I read Dick Tracy in the comics section as a kid (I read about all of them, except things like Mary Worth and Apartment 3-G), it was never a favorite, so I’ll skip that reprint series. Are you getting them from the library?
New arrivals:
First, the new ones from Amazon:
Captain’s Share and Owner’s Share by Nathan Lowell, the fifth and sixth in his Ishmael Wang series. I’ve read the first four and wanted to finish the series.
Game of Mirrors, the latest Insp. Salvo Montalbano book by Andrea Camilleri. This is one of my favorite current series and I read each as they are published here.
From ABE I got Sons of Sparta by Jeffrey Siger, the latest Ch. Insp. Andreas Kaldis book. I paid $1.59 plus shipping and it is a virtually new first edition in dust jacket! Nice.
The other two books were from PaperbackSwap.com. First was one I’d read when it first came out but couldn’t pass up what turned out to be another first edition in dust jacket in really nice condition: Bill Crider’s Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen.
Last was a paperback recommended by George Kelley last week, SARGASSO OF SPACE by Andre Norton.
Add that to the 13 library books on hand,,,,
Jeff, I gave up on the Nathan Lowell books after the 3rd book as the series seemed to be going downhill. I’ve been meaning to try the Camilleri books, which is the first in the series? I’m still surprised your library didn’t have that Siger, but it sounds like you got a nice copy. I too am thinking of getting a copy of Sargasso of Space, as my copy seems to have gone the way of old things long in boxes through many moves.
Jeff, what are your thoughts on having to pay for books on BookSwap now?
Haven’t read these. I’m currently in a spate of reading books that are “good for me.” Can’t wait to finish those and get back to just some fun books
Those “ought to read” books can turn out to be quite enjoyable, or the opposite. There are many of them I’ll just never get to. Fun books, on the other hand, well what could possibly go wrong?
It’s Barbara’s quilt friends day here, so I should get some reading done, tucked away in the book den.
Jackie isn’t thrilled about PaperbackSwap in general lately as we seem to be sending stuff out and getting little back. I did pay the one year fee and I guess I’ll see after that. She suggested dropping it but I have hundreds of books listed.
The Shape of Water is the first Camilleri title. They are short and fast reads. There is a lot about food and local color of Sicily. I like the sly sense of humor.
Jeff, I ordered The Shape of Water from BookSwap. I just did the one by one, gave them $5 and will add more as needed. I have only a couple dozen books listed at the moment, and just two or three wish list books (those never seem to show up), so it’s not a big deal, but I like being able to pass along books we get but don’t want so someone gets use from them. We did that with some LCC book bag ones, and they were all one a wish list so off they went. Better than leaving them in the hotel room, as some people do…