Becky's Books –

The Camel Club by David Balducci
16 h. 10 m.  narrated by Jonathan Davis
rating 5 – (medium for a detective/thriller)

This is the first of Balducci’s Camel Club books featuring Oliver Stone.  They’re good escape books – albeit a bit far-fetched.  >>>> MORE >>>

Has it already been 10 days since my last post?  Oh my.  Well – I am reading away and finished two or three books which I need to get up here and I’m also reading one chapter a week in two books (for a group).   Then I have another long listen I started while playing a mindless game (actually,  Avernum: Escape From the Pit is more like chess).

I’ll post to my books now – they have to get individual posts so the stats show.

by Jo Nesbo
2011 / 304 pages
narrated by Steve West 9h. 38m.
rating 7.5 (very good for a crime novel)

Roger Brown is a professional recruiter for high-profile/power jobs – he’s a corporate “headhunter.”  And he collects fine art.  But the poor man is so insecure >>>>> MORE>>>> 

So Down Cemetery Road was the first post I put up in February?  Oh my –   I’ve been reading a couple of books –  A very careful reading of A Tale of Two Cities (I should really start a page but … ) because I’m leading a discussion on GoodReads.  What else?   The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope.   Kind of rereading The Hare With the Amber Eyes because the discussion has been good.   Kind of checking back on Midnight Rising for the same reason.

I’m listening to The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich but that’s a long term project.  I should get started on Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch  (Booker) or The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst ( BGL).   I guess I’m being lazy?

Down Cemetery Road
by Mick Herron
read by Anna Bentinck
2007 /13h. 32m –
rating 6

This novel started out so great – a missing child, the lone survivor of a house bombing,  whom no one is searching for except  our protagonist, Sarah Tucker, a married but childless   >>>> MORE >>

River of Smoke by Amitov Ghosh
2011 / 528 pages
fiction – 2nd in trilogy  “The Ibis Trilogy”
rating –  9

Whew!   I just finished the second time – and I’m counting it twice.   I listened the first time (see below)  and never quite got interested until about an hour or two from the end.  >>>> MORE>>>> 

Moonwalking With Einstein
by Joshua Foer
non-fiction/science
2011 / US / 320 pages
Audible 9h 33m Mike Chamberlain
Rating 7.5

I enjoyed this for the most part – the mnemonic tricks are pretty widely known but the info on reading, writing and the brain were new to me.  It was interesting from the point >>>MORE >>>>

Ferdydurky
by Witold Gombrowicz
1937 / Poland / 281 pages
Rating – 8.75  (omg)

This is one strange little book. The title is a meaningless bunch of  pronounceable letters possibly indicating the book may be utter nonsense.   It’s major theme is maturity >>> MORE  (notes / no spoilers) >>>> 

The Chicago Way
by Michael Harvy
2007 / 320 pages
Audible – 8h.10m
narrated by Stephen Hoye

The story’s pretty good but the narrator about made me unplug permanently.  For some reason – suspense or coolness, I don’t know which and maybe a combination – Harvy drops his voice for the last syllable of every sentence.   It’s very annoying.  >>MORE >>>> 

The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss
Edmund de Waal
2011 / 368 pages
rating – 9.25

Lord of the Flies
by Arthur Golding
1954 / 203 pages / Kindle
Rating – 9

I don’t know how I never managed to read this book before.  Dad was an English teacher and used this in his classes – no matter.  I kind of knew the story so it was an easy read – nevertheless, >>> MORE >>> 

Well – I’m not finishing much these days –  I’m rereading River of Smoke by Amitov Ghosh – this time in Kindle format.  I’m about 1/3 finished and throwing up some NOTES.   I’m reading The Hair with the Amber Eyes by Edmund De Wall about his search for the trail of the family collection of netsuke.  This is a slow one too but I’m making my little NOTES.   Also rereading Middlemarch and taking NOTES.

I love reading this way but it takes so much time. Oh well  –  do what you like.  There shouldn’t be so much annotating after the Prologue in Hare and I don’t know about the others.

The Crime of Martin Sostre
by Vincent Copeland
1970 / 210 pages
rating – 7.5  (10 for content)

This is an older book but it was very interesting to read, maybe especially in view of recent reading about US Black history.   The only reason I even know about the book and was curious is because Martin is the husband of a good on-line friend.  Curious as I am …  MORE >>> 

River of Smoke by Amitov Ghosh
2011  (528 pages)
Audible by Sanjiv Jhaveri – 22h. 34m.
fiction – 2nd in series
rating

I really didn’t get “into” this book at all.  The last part was quite good but the rest all seemed like it was set-up for that ending and with no involvement of what went on in the prior book,  Sea of  Poppies,  which I really liked.   I decided to reread this in Kindle format – see January 31  – and soooo glad I did.

For a long time I’ve followed the discussions about plagiarism and historical fiction – or literature in general – or other matters pertaining to historical fiction particularly.  How much can you quote without plagiarizing?  When an author uses the words of an historical character taken from diaries or journals or a speech – their real words – and puts them into dialogue for the sake of the story – how much is okay?   Maria Doria Russell provides an answer of sorts:

**  Mary Doria Russell 

Her book Doc is great but I’ll bet she did have some issues there due to the diaries of  Kate Harony, in addition to the issues she talks about in her blog (above.)

****

I’ve been on a reading jag and finished 4  books which were sitting here bogging me down –  Elizabeth the Queen by Sally Beddell Smith (2012), Byzantium by Judith Herrin (2009),  River of Smoke by Amitov Ghosh (2011) and The Crime of Martin Sostre by Vincent Copeland (1970).  I’ve blogged about the first two but I’ve still got the Ghosh and Copeland books to do.   The first two books for a reading group which reads very slowly and that doesn’t work so well for me – I just finished them up.

Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch
by Sally Bedell Smith
2012 /  688 pages
biography
Rating – 7

This book sounds like it would be long and boring but it’s only one of those –  long.  It’s basically a pretty quick and enjoyable read.  I don’t think there’s anything really new in this book but there’s a lot of stuff  I didn’t know.

I suspect that part of the reason for the book’s publication (solicited by the publisher) is that come next …MORE>>> 

Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire
by Judith Herrin
2011 / 440 pages
history/non-fict
rating 9
I spent several weeks reading this – going a chapter or so a week as the group suggested.  Then I coudn’t stand that anymore so I just finished the darned thing.   It’s very good.

There are several good histories of Byzantium out there on the shelves but most of them MORE >>>>>