I know I read a few short stories in a locked room anthology edited by Martin Edwards, but right now the name of it escapes me. The neighbors are having their 4th loud pool party in a row (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, today). It will stretch into the night like the others, we assume. It’s summer, theirs is the party house of the entire neighborhood, and they live next door to us. So who can read? Not me, I just grind my teeth and take Excedrin™ for my migraines.
Barbara is reading All the President’s Men and enjoying it.
So how about you?
What have you been reading?
Tip the Wink 
Reading Anthony Horowitz’s MAGPIE MURDERS, and ingenious idea with two books in one.
I’ll check it out. How’s the eye?
I read Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr last week. I don’t have the next ones in that series, but I may read Deep South which is set in Mississippi, soonish. Right now I am reading Black Ice by Michael Connelly and I am liking it a lot, but it is taking a while to finish it.
I read the first few, and remember liking SUPERIOR DEATH quite a bit. It’s the second in the series.
As usual, I keep picking up one book or magazine, then find myself picking up yet another. The great unboxing continues at its slow but ever-nostalgic pace. Last prose on paper I was reading was re-reading THE MOVING TARGET from my copy of ARCHER IN HOLLYWOOD by “Ross Macdonald”…having just seen MARLOWE again, in its entirety for the first time in decades, and having been reminded of how much Chandler hated psychiatrists, definitely something Millar didn’t share. Also reminded again of how good Moreno and Farrell are in the film…it sure didn’t do much for anyone’s career.
I have that collection, and like that novel a lot. I guess I’ve read it three or four times. Opening those boxes must be great.
Read the new Denise Mina-The Long Drop and the new Steve Hamilton Exit Strategy and The White Road by Sarah Lotz. Liked The White Road best. Read a couple of Keith Laumers Retief stories which I had not read since the late 60’s. They held up fairly well. Right now I’m reading a short novel by James Morrow called The Asylum of Dr. Caligari. Next up probably Peter Blauners new novel. Love Ross MacDonald . Have read all his books at least twice.
There are at least a half dozen Archer novels I have yet to get to. One of these days.
Ditto. I have several sitting on the shelf here,
It’s been a Spenserish week for me, Richard. I read Robert B. Parker’s THIN AIR and followed it with two by Ace Atkins: ROBERT B. PARKER’S CHEAP SHOT and ROBERT B. PARKER’S LITTLE WHITE LIES. I found the two by Atkins to be meatier and better plotted, with more action, than THIN AIR. Although Atkins has got Spenser down pat, his character seems less irritating than Parker’s LITTLE WHITE LIES is the sixth and latest in Atkins’ continuation; here it seems he is moving farther and farther away from Parker while still staying true to the character — if that makes any sense.
My other read this week was Edgar Rice Burroughs’ THE LAD AND THE LION, one of his standalone adventure novels. Prince Michael is the young heir to a Graustarkian kingdom. While fleeing enemies who have assassinated the king, his ship is wrecked and he is knocked out, finding himself adrift with no memory of anything — even language. Through a totally unbelievable series of events, Michael befriends a huge lion, falls for the daughter of an Arab chieftain, and meets a pretty French girl. Meanwhile, plots and counterplots and assassination plague Michael’s homeland. The book’s great fun with a surprising amount of humor.
It’s been a wet week, raining every day with occasional lash flood warnings, but the weekend was bright and sunny. I spent Saturday removing some recalcitrant bushes in both the front and back yards and Sunday recuperating. At least I am not living next door to party central…
Have a great (and quieter) week!
I am reading the new Elizabeth Strout book,(ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE) in the same vein as Olive Kitteredge. I have a bunch of heist novels and will choose one after this. I wonder if anyone is going this for FFB on mid-July. I better post a reminder.
Phil is reading a war novel called SPOILS (Brian Van Peet)
I am doing a Heist novel for the FFB in mid-July. The Man with the Getaway Face by Richard Stark. I may also try to fit in the 3rd novel in the series before then but I don’t know if I can manage that.
I probably will not have a heist book, or any book, the way things are going just now.
Sorry I’ve been in absentia here lately. I’ve been reading, but life’s been all over the map. Also, I’ve been going through a romance novel binge (which happens periodically–especially when I get an Amazon gift card, as I did for Mother’s Day, and use it to download nothing but romance to my kindle), but I think that’s close to over. Last week, my husband and I were in New York for vacation (we were able to meet up with Jeff & Jackie one afternoon and had a fun time chatting and going over to Staten Island on the ferry), I only took two books with me: Alan Bennett’s THE CLOTHES THEY STOOD UP IN, a short, gentle fable about a repressed British couple who come home from the opera to find everything they possess has been stolen. I also took Truman Capote’s BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S, which I thought I’d read before, but it rang no bells. I tried to read it without seeing Audrey Hepburn, but that was impossible.
The Bennett sounds interesting, and short and gentle sounds appealing.
I’m halfway through WAR & PEACE. Only 700 pages to go! Meanwhile, a lot of books from AMAZON are stacking up. And I’ll be giving the North Tonawanda librarians some Hershey’s chocolate in hopes that they’ll renew my expired library books. Leo Tolstoy has a lot to answer for!
I have that Horowitz book on hold, among others (including the new Michael Connelly, the start of a new series). And unfortunately for me, two more things on my digital hold list popped up and were checked out to me this week: Joan Didion’s SOUTH AND WEST and Andrew Cartmel’s THE VINYL DETECTIVE: The Run-Out Groove. Since I’m already halfway through G. M. Ford’s SALVATION LAKE on the Kindle, this is tricky. Also reading the Saki collection and Bill Crider’s EIGHT ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, which I’m enjoying. So far, I don’t remember any of the stories, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t read them before. Actually, now I think of it, I do remember the Bram Stoker Dracula story.
Jackie read the last Brown & De Luca book by Maggie Shayne (DEADLY OBSESSION) and is reading Shelly Laurenston’s THE UNYIELDING. I have four library books. She has a dozen.
The one thing I did finish (and enjoyed a lot) was John Scalzi’s THE COLLAPSING EMPIRE. Fun book.
Besides the Crider and Saki and Ford books, I’ve started the Didion as well as BY THE BOOK, a collection of the weekly columns (edited by Pamela Paul) of what writers are reading, as well as their favorites, reading histories, etc. I always get recommendations from reading these columns, and I already have from the book. It’s a large paperback format. Recommended.
FIrst Deb and John (it was fun!) and this coming Sunday, the Kelleys! Can’t wait.
Jeff, I cancelled all but one of my library holds. I bought the Crider collection, but it sits on the iPad. I did read Kent Krueger’s Manitou Canyon which was excellent. The man can write a good story.
Call the cops on your inconsiderate neighbors.
They say they don’t have sufficient staffing to respond to noise calls. We can register a noise complaint, but that just goes into a file somewhere. They won’t even send a letter. So it’s up to us to “work it out”.