Let’s try this – I read 19 books in September, 2014 – 10 fiction + 7 crime + 2 non-fiction with 6 women writers and 0 translated 😦
by Elena Ferrante
2014 /400 pages
Rating: 8.5 / contemp fict. (Italy)
aka The Caxton Private Lending Library and Book Depository
by John Connolly
2013/ 68 pages
Rating: A / novella? – literary theme
by Nadine Gordimer
1974 / 270 pages
Rating: 9 / 20th century
Fourth of July Creek
by Smith Henderson
2014 / 480 pages –
read by MacLeod Andrews, Jenna Lamia
15h 41m
Rating: 8 / literary thriller
*** Wonderfully well written – a social worker is tracking a paranoid religious fanatic’s family in the Alaskan wilderness – meanwhile his own daughter goes missing. (No, the fanatic does not have the daughter which is not a real spoiler.)
Orfeo
by Richard Powers
2014/369 pages
Rating: 9.5 / contemp fiction
*** History of music up to bio-terrorism – excellent – Powers’ best since The Gold Bug Variations.
The Taliban Cricket Club
by Timeri N. Murari
2012 / 341 pages
read by Sneha Mathan / 10h 59m
Rating: 4
*** Stupid – started good with some basic info and insights re the Taliban in Afghanistan, but turned into a cheap romance.
by Liane Moriarity (Australia)
2014/ 462 pages
read by Caroline Lee 16 h
Rating: A- 8/ crime (literary)
by Charles Palliser
1989 / 781 pages (Kindle)
Rating: 9.25 / 20th century historical fiction
by Francine Prose
read by Edoardo Ballerini, Rosalind Ashford, Geoffrey Cantor, Nicola Barber, Suzanne Toren, Maggi-Meg Reed
2014 / 448 pages
Rating: 8.75 / contemp lit
by Tom Robb Smith
2014 / 369 pages / 9h 24m
read by James Langton & Suzanne Toren
Rating: 7.5 – contemp. fiction (advertised as crime but I don’t think so although …)
*** Who can you believe – can you believe your own mother when she tells you very strange tales about your father?
by David Eimer
2014 / 336 pages
read by Cory Snow – 10h 42m
Rating: 7.5 / travel
by Chris Wiltz
2001/ 288 pages
Rating: 7 / biography – US
by Robert Galbraith
2014/ 464 pages
Rating: A++ / crime (in a literary setting)
narrated by Robert Glenister – 17h 22m
2nd in Cormoran Strike series (?)
*** Fun, old-time “who-done-it” set in publishing industry of contemporary England – fascinating characters and many literary allusions/references –
Fallen
by Karin Slaughter
2014/401 pages
read by Shannon Cochran 13h 23m
Rating: B- / crime
(Georgia Series #5)
*** Fairly clever plot – Will Trent has to investigate his partner’s mother and Amanda, his own boss –
The Gods of Guilt
by Michael Connelly
2014/ 401 pages – 11h 49m
read by Peter Giles
Rating: C
*** Seriously bad organized crime guys, corrupt law enforcement and/or politicians with no motive except control of their turf and the big money in drugs.
The Chatham School Affair
by Thomas Cook
1996 / 335 pages / 10h 6m read by George Guidall
Rating: A+ (8) / literary crime
*** Fairly high-level historical and literary crime novel. Tragedy and who-done-what, when, how as told through the lens of the protagonist’s memory of a trial. Literary interest for style and structure.
by Harlan Coban
read by Scott Brick
2013 / 369 pages
Rating: A/ crime
by James Lee Burke
2014 / 449 pages
read by Will Patton 13h 10m rating
Rating: A++ / literary crime
The Keeper
by John Lescroart
2014 / 321 pages
Rating: B / crime
(#15 in the Dismas Hardy series)
*** Another tale of crime and corruption in the cop-shop. It’s a Dismas Hardy story but Abe Glitsky features prominently in the story.
Mother (did not finish)
by Maxim Gorky
1907 / 400 pages
rating 8.5 / Russian classic (socialist realism)
(but I got about 1/2 way)