In addition to Spike of Swift River, which was my last week Friday Forgotten Book, I read Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir by Stan Lee and Peter David. The book covers the same ground as Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee also by Lee and David, but this time in a graphic novel format. It was just okay.
Now I’m reading A Perfect Match by Jill McGowan, which is the first in the Detective Inspector Lloyd and Sergeant Judy Hill series. The second book in the series was a recent FFB, and sounded intriguing enough for me to find this one. I’m not far enough along to know if I’ll like it.
I’m continuing to read short stories, mostly from The Big Book of Christmas Mystery Stories. After all, ’tis the season.
Barbara’s finished A Fear of Dark Water by Craig Russell. Now she’s started The Dark by V. M. Giambanco. Barbara liked the author’s first book, The Gift of Darkness, which she tried after reading a review (probably in Mystery Scene). The Dark is the second in the series featuring Detective Alice Madison, who works in the Homicide Unit of the Seattle Police Department. A third book in the series, Blood and Bone, is soon to be published.
Hope you are all reading and enjoying the run-up to the holidays!
Have you read these books or authors?
What are you reading?
Tip the Wink 
I hope the weather in beautiful, water-logged Portland has not had a bad effect on you and Barbara, Richard. I’ve been thinking of you both every time I watch the news. I expect my turn with bad weather will come next hurricane season.
Continuing with my recent Oz theme, I read Eric Shanower’s graphic novel adaptations of THE MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ and OZMA OF OZ. These books (as with Baum’s series) are becoming habit forming. I also read a GN volume of Batman stories, ARKHAM CITY, VOLUME 2, which was very disaappointing; evidently it was based on a computer game and it lacked a cohesiveness that I have found in other Batman GNs. The only other book I finished this past week was my FFB, Henry Kuttner’s Michael Gray mystery THE MURDER OF ANN AVERY. I’ll read anything by Kuttner, who has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid.
I’ve been dipping into stories by Shirley Jackson (in her JUST AN ORDINARY DAY posthumous collection) and by Stephen King (in his latest, THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS). Both the Jackson and the King books are big, fat books chock full of good stuff. The King collection contains, among other tales, “Mile 81” and “UR,” novellas that had previously only been available as e-Books. I know you’re not a horror fan, but it was a joy to read these two stories.
I’m currently reading Hugo Gernsback’s RALPH 124C 41+, an SF book first published in 1911, before there was SF. This one’s creaky but far more entertaining than I had thought it would be. I’ll finish that one today I’ll also finish the King and the Jackson this week. Waiting in the wings is Martin Edward’s THE GOLDEN AGE OF MURDER, as well as anything else bright and shiny that captures my attention.
Stay dry. Stay safe.
Sorry I’m so late with replies! We’re okay with regard to water, but our property is pretty soggy. I found Martin Edward’s book quite interesting.
I’m monitoring my online students taking their FINAL EXAMS. Tomorrow, my classroom students take their FINALS. Wednesday will be CORRECTING DAY and I turn the FINAL GRADES in on Thursday. Friday, I go see the STAR WARS movie! And, I can start reading for pleasure again!
I look forward to your report on the new SW movie.
I’ve read the Jackson and King collections that Jerry talked about and enjoyed both. Also, I am a big fan of Jill McGown’s Lloyd and Hill series. They should be read in order. If you like those you might try Cynthia Harrod-Eagles’s Insp. Bill Slider series next. McGown died way too young.
I did not have a good reading week, though I read quite a bit at times. Mostly it was short stories. I only finished one book, I, ROBOT by Isaac Asimov. I started reading his collection of “early” stories (roughly, the 1940’s) but soon tired of them, but the robot stories, written in the same period and originally collected in 1950, are much, much better than most of the others. I will be reading more of these.
I’m also reading IMPOSSIBLE THINGS, a collection by Connie Willis, and should finish it shortly. Also reading a couple of non fiction books, Mary Karr’s THE ART OF MEMOIR and Colm Toibin & Carmen Callil’s THE MODERN LIBRARY: THE 200 Best Novels in English Since 1950. (George reviewed this a while back. but I’d forgotten that.) The book was originally published in England in 1999. They don’t like fantasy but other genre fiction, including mysteries, are included, so it isn’t all high-minded critical favorites. The Willis was downloaded from the library to the Kindle and the others are all library books.
Jeff, That’s what I started with the first book in McGown’s series. I’m about 90 pages in and so far so good. I’ve read some of the Slider books (also in order) and like them a lot. I’ll get back to that series one of these days.
I like Asimov’s stories, especially the Robot stories and novels. THE MODERN LIBRARY: THE 200 Best Novels in English Since 1950 sounds good, and did when George reviewed it, but alas I’ll probably never get around to it.
I’d rather read Excelsior, I think
That would be smart, Charles.
Also reading THE ART OF THE MEMOIR and going to toy with trying some stuff on my blog.
Sounds smart, Patti.
I loved THE ART OF THE MEMOIR which motivated me to buy a bunch of memoirs that Mary Karr recommended. And I found about a dozen memoirs lurking in my stacks. Some of these books have been on my shelves for decades. Time to read them!
I just finished a Western that was very unsatisfactory and a great disappointment.