Not a much reading progress for either one of us this last week. I’m still plugging along in Six Wakes, by Mur Lafferty, a science fiction novel that’s also a murder mystery. I’m enjoying it, but I’ve been busy with other things and so it’s become one of those books I drop into when I can, instead of a leave-me-alone-I’m-reading kind of book.
Meanwhile the library books continue to pile up, so I’d better get my reading act together.
Barb
ara is still reading The Troubled Man by Henning Mankell. She has three other library books stacked up here, so we’re both falling behind.
So how about you?
What have you been reading?
note: replies to your comments will be delayed due to the usual weekday reason.
Tip the Wink 
Read Children of Time by Adam Tchaikovsky. It was okay. Would have been better if it was pruned a hundred or so pages.and tightened up. I don’t mind long books . Lonesome Dove and The Sot Weed Factor are 2 of my favorite books and I wouldn’t cut a page from either. Also read Snowblind by Icelandic writer Ragner Jonasson. Also okay but not great and The Dry by Jane Harper which I liked a lot. Also been reading some short stories by Tanith Lee from her newest collection Redder By Blood. Its a reprint of Red By Blood with three new stories. I have always been fond of Lee and have read or reread a lot of her stuff since she died a couple years back.
Enjoyed Mankell’s Wallender books a lot. Not so much his non series books. One of the better Scandanavian crime writers.
Forgot I had also read The Second Girl by David Swinson which I liked. The second book in the series comes out soon.
Every week I’m impressed all over again by how much you read. It’s slow readers’ envy. I liked Sot Weed Factor a lot too, still haven’t gotten around to Lonesome Dove, though I recently got an ebook of it. Another vote for The Dry. I tried one of the Wallender books, but found it pretty depressing and didn’t finish it (got about 1/3 in).
I don’t read very fast. About 30 pages an hour. I don’t work and live alone so I have a lot of free time.
Can’t see any Wallender book as depressing?
In the one I tried, he was sad, down, depressed. His father had died and he and his sister were going through the house dividing up stuff. There was a crime, in the background, but that wasn’t the focus. He drove back to station, went in\to his desk and weeped. That’s depressing.
I don’t get depressed if depressing stuff happens to the books characters. I get depressed if I spent money on a book that is badly written. You tried one of the later books in the serious. You should start at the beginning.
Just finished COBRA TRAP, a collection of Modesty Blaise stories. Eventually a comment or two about it will appear on my blog.
I don’t think I’ve ever read any Modesty Blaze stories.
Steve and I agree on SNOWBLIND. I also read THE DRY this week and liked it, though I thought the end was a little bit of a cheat, perhaps. Then read Anne Hillerman’s third in the continuation of her father’s series, SONG OF THE LION. I know some people (Rick, for one) only like the Joe Leaphorn books, and the retired Lieutenant does make more of an appearance here than in the first two books, but I like Jim Chee and his wife Bernie Manuelito, who once again are center stage.
I’m about 2/3 of the way through the YA book you recommended last week, MARTIANS ABROAD by Carrie Vaughn, which has grown on me as it’s gone along. I can easily see it becoming a series. I have the Lafferty on hold as a library ebook, along with three other books, and have another five “real” books on hold, along with the six others sitting on the shelf now.
Besides the Saki, I’m reading (library ebook) Steve Earle’s collection of stories, DOGHOUSE ROSES, and enjoying it so far. The guy is multi-talented.
Well, let’s say I prefer the Leaphorn books, then the earlier Chee or Chee and Leaphorn books. The later Chee and girlfriend books had more to do – it seemed to me – with his personal life than solving the crimes, plus the later books just didn’t seem to have depth that the earlier ones did, though I liked the parts where Chee was working to become a medicine man.
I hope the Vaughn does become a series, it sure seems to set up for it. I’m hoping to really dig into Six Wakes today, as it’s quilt group day here, and I stay out of the way in a back room and keep my nose in a book. There’s leftover ham from yesterday, so ham sandwiches will nourish me.
I finished the Vaughn this morning and it certainly seems she has set it up to be a series.
Yes, I liked it but wish she had gone further with it.
Add me to the Falling Behind Club, Richard. The only book I finished this week was my FFB, DEATH OF A GLUTTON by M. C. Beaton, which I liked a lot. I’ll be reading more of her Hamish MacBeth series in the future. I’m almost finished with James Herbert’s SEPULCHRE, a horror novel about a psychic who secretly works for an international corporation, providing them with information that has allowed them to make huge profits. There’s a very slow build-up and most of the characters are unlikable, but Herbert’s writing draws you in (well. not YOU, because I know you don’t like this sort of thing).
Hope you are feeling well. Have a great week!
I haven’t read that Beaton, Jerry, and may not have read any. Hmmm. I have two physical books and an ebook from the library, sitting here, so I need to get going. As to health, the radiation treatments are a hassle, 5 a week, the drive back and forth is a pain. The promised side effects should start kicking in this week, per the doc. Though it’s looking like Spring in the garden, it’s still in the 40s and rainy here, though it did zoom up to 61 Saturday.
Here’s hoping the side effects are minimal, my friend.
So far a lot of it is being tired. Also frequent hot flashes, sometimes even waking me up at night, with cold sweats.
Just finished THE VINYL DETECTIVE’s first case and I’m about to read the second book in the series. If you’re a fan of Jazz, there’s plenty of information about records and artists. And I’m midway through another BIG FAT BOOK, Conrad Black’s FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE, and unconventional history of the United States.
I liked the first VINYL DETECTIVE book, but haven’t gotten around to the 2nd one yet.
I did finish BAD INTENTIONS by Karen Fossum but it was not one of her best. Now I am picking things up and putting the down. 50 pages of this, 25 of that.
Sometimes everything I look at looks really good to me and I can barely wait to start reading it, other times, nothing appeals. It must have to do with my mood, I guess.
Slow reading week for me too; kids home for spring break and so much to try to squeeze in to a few days, reading was somewhat curtailed. I just picked up Sarah Pinborough’s BEHIND HER EYES, which had been on my library list for a while and finally came in. It’s a psychological suspense novel about a love triangle. I’m approaching this with a bit of trepidation because the book seems to have been marketed with emphasis on its big “twist” ending (I’ve even seen references to a #wtf–that ending?!# hashtag on twitter) and those rarely surprise me. I’ll report back next week to let you know if it lived up to the hype.
I eagerly await your evaluation of the book. I also am waiting to know which washer-dryer you got.
I’m a big fan of Pinbourgh but didn’t care much for Behind Her Eyes. Liked everything else I have read by her though.
I don’t think I’ve read anything else by her, but I see I have BREEDING GROUND (apparently a “nature run amok” story) on my ever-expanding tbr list.
As for the washer & dryer, we should be making our final decision in the next couple of weeks. How I wish money were no object…sigh.
Haven’t read Breeding Ground. It is an early book of hers and not considered among her best. I would start with later works .
My reading has been slow as well
Seems to be a lot of that this last week or more. Some kind of Spring malaise, perhaps?