Two fat anthologies and a slender tween/YA sf story this time. My reading has been very scattered.
Bibliomysteries edited by Otto Penzler, mystery short story anthology. Very enjoyable.
CONTENTS:
• “An Acceptable Sacrifice” by Jeffery Deaver deals with a Mexican drug lord with a taste for rare books.
• “Pronghorns of the Third Reich” by CJ Box deals with a man who believes himself wronged and seeks a book collection in order to square things.
• “The Book of Virtue” by Ken Bruen is next. Told in the first person, it deals with an inheritance that consists of a single book.
• “The Books of Ghosts” by Reed Farrell Coleman was a very interesting story. The Book of Ghosts is about a legendary book written in a Nazi Concentration Camp.
• “The Final Testament” by Peter Blauner is a nice piece of historical fiction dealing with Sigmund Freud!
• “What’s in a Name?” by Thomas H Cook relates the story of a world where WWII never took place. In this alternate history, a man is trying to publish a controversial book.
• In the “Book Club” by Loren D Estleman, the prolific author’s hero is a former detective turned bookseller!
• “Death Leaves a Bookmark” by William Link deals with a certain Lieutenant Columbo, who likely needs no introduction!
• In “The Book Thing” by Laura Lippman, the author writes about a real-world bookstore where all books are free.
• “The Scroll” by Anne Perry deals with a scroll found inside an old volume from an estate sale, which has very strange properties…
• “It’s in the Book” by Mickey Spillane and Max Allen Collins. Yes, it’s a Micky Spillane story.
• “The Long Sonata of the Dead” by Andrew Taylor finds two old foes running into each other at the London Library…
• In “Rides a Stranger” by David Bell, a man discovers that his father may have written a rare book…
• “The Caxton Lending Library” by John Connolly deals with a most unusual library in a most unusual place.
• “The Bookcase” by Nelson DeMille tells of a man who died when his heavy bookcase fell on him. Was it an accident, suicide, or murder?
Bibliomysteries II edited by Otto Penzler, mystery short story anthology. Fifteen more mystery stories featuring books. I don’t have the contents on the one, but though slightly weaker than the first volume, still very enjoyable.
Space Hostages by Nicholas Fisk, science fiction YA novel. A “space ship” or “flying saucer” lands on the green of a small British village. Out steps… a human. He’s a test pilot who has stolen the experimental craft, and he has an agenda.
The village children are fascinated, and when he offers them a look inside they scurry to the loading platform and are lifted up. But instead of returning them to the village green, the ship takes off, destination unknown. The children are space hostages. This is a pretty simple tween/YA science fiction story. Probably left to those readers.
So how about you?
What have you been reading?
Tip the Wink 
Finished INHERITANCE and am trying to find a book to read next. Also still reading BECOMING by Michelle Obama. A BORROWING OF BONES was too much about training dogs to assist in military and police work.
Sometimes books take us where we didn’t want to go, don’t they?
I enjoyed both of those BIBLIOMYSTERIES anthologies. My review of the second one can be found here: http://georgekelley.org/bibliomysteries-volume-2-edited-by-otto-penzler/
And the TABLE OF CONTENTS looks like this:
Introduction / Otto Penzler — vii
Remaindered / Peter Lovesey — 1
The compendium of Srem / F. Paul Wilson — 29
The gospel of Sheba / Lyndsay Faye — 71
The nature of my inheritance / Bradford Morrow — 119
The sequel / R.L. Stine — 167
Mystery, Inc. / Joyce Carol Oates — 195
The book of the lion / Thomas Perry — 235
The mysterious disappearance of the reluctant book fairy / Elizabeth George — 267
From the queen / Carolyn Hart — 311
The little men / Megan Abbott — 343
Citadel / Stephen Hunter — 381
Every seven years / Denise Mina — 479
Condor in the stacks / James Grady — 503
The travelling companion / Ian Rankin — 549
The haze / James W. Hall — 585
Thanks, George. I should have looked at your review for the info, though web search didn’t turn up your review… Duh. I thought the 2nd one was weaker.
Laura Lippman, not Lipton. As George will tell you, we went to that free bookstore in Baltimore with Jeff Smith. According to Jeff, it has since had a fire and burned down, but I believe he said they were planning to reopen elsewhere. I read the first BIBLIOMYSTERIES and need to check out the second one.
I finished Ethan Canin’s first collection of stories, EMPEROR OF THE AIR, which was written when he was in med school and published at 25. A little uneven but worth a read. The one story written from a woman’s point of view didn’t work for me, but several others were very good. Barry Hannah’s AIRSHIPS has some very odd stories indeed. I mentioned the William Brittain collection last week. I also have started Robert Silverberg’s collection of 16 of his time travel stories. I thought I’d read them all and this would be a reread, but there are at least a couple of the early ones that I haven’t read before. I always enjoy his new introductions. I know you aren’t a fan.
Read the latest (#23?) of Steven F. Havill’s Posadas County (NM) series, featuring (as the later ones all do) Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman. This is one of my favorite regional mystery series, set near the border of Mexico and Arizona. I’d definitely start with book #1, though.
I read a mention here or on another blog of a new Bill Pronzini western, GIVE-A-DAMN JONES, so got that from the library and started it yesterday. Jones is an itinerant typesetter in the Old West, and like many of Pronzini’s recent stand alone mysteries, each chapter is narrated by a different character.
The latest Insp. Salvo Montalbano Sicilian mystery by Andrea Camilleri (now in his 90s) is supposed to get here tomorrow.
Jeff, I’m sorry to say I did a cut/paste on the contents, not noticing the Lippman misspelling. (hangs head).
Seems like you’re getting more reading done, which is good, you must be able to concentrate better these days, as you heal. You’re right Silverberg (and Westlake) are not-liked authors. There are a few others, but not a lot.
I really do mean to try that Posadas County series. I wonder if the library has them? Hmmm. Okay, they have the first one as an ebook, I’ve put a hold on it, but there’ll be a wait, I’m #4 on 1 copy, and they always got the full three weeks.
I’m way behind, Barbara is further along, on Montalbano, but still read one now and then. Do you know when the final Crider book is due out?
February, I believe. I got an ARC from Angela at Bouchercon, but have been saving it for as long as possible.
Ah, I see it, Feb 13. I just did my preorder.
I read just one novel this week: THE GOLDEN TRESSES OF THE DEAD, the latest Flavia de Luce novel from Alan Bradley. Flavia, everyone’s favorite poison expert, is now twelve and her life is still in flux. She and redoubtable servant Dogger have opened a detective agency. Not only do they a client, but they have an additional mystery: Who put the severed finger in Flavia’s sister’s wedding cake? I have been a big fan of this series since the first book THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE, which won the Agatha, Barry, Dilys, Arthur Ellis, and Macavity awards. Big changes may be coming in the series as this latest hints strongly that flavia is about to enter puberty.
Other books read this week were the Henry Kuttner collection of Cthulhu Mythos stories, THE BOOK OF IOD, which was my FFB and much better thanit should be, and Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham’s graphic novel MIRACLEMAN BY GAIMAN AND BUCKINGHAM BOOK 1: THE GOLDEN AGE PREMIERE, a 2Oth anniversary edition of MIRACLEMAN, BOOK 4: THE GOLDEN AGE. This is a collection of individual stories concentrating on the effects of the Golden Age brought about by Miracleman. Great stuff, but not to everyone’s taste.
The rest of my reading — and most of the week — was taken up with many, many short stories from various anthologies on Mount TBR and from old pulps online…Sf, mysteries, horror, and westerns. I’ll probably be concentrating on more short stories over the next few weeks.
Have a great week, Rick!
Thanks, Jerry. I have been meaning to read the first Flavia de Luce book for years, have even had it out from the library twice, and something has always gotten in the way. One of these days! I’m plugging along with this and that, including a lot of short stories as reported in this post.
I am currently reading A Chill Rain in January by L. R. Wright. This is the third in the Karl Alberg series set in Canada. I loved the first one, did not like the 2nd one so well, but I am enjoying this one.
I have the first Bibliomysteries anthology, but haven’t read any of the stories yet. From your assessment, it looks like I should do that.
On your recommendation, I got the first Wright book. Barbara is reading it now, and I will do so after she’s done.
I do hope you both enjoy it.