The Absent One
by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Danish / translated)
2008 (2012 US) / 402 pages
Read by Stephen Pacey 14h 13m
Rating: B / crime
(2nd in Department Q series)
The serial picks up again with lead detective Carl Mørek who heads up Department Q, cold case files, with the Arabian Assad as his assistant, getting a cheeky new assistant, Rose Knudsen. Their office is in the basement of the police department.
An old and apparently solved case has turned up on Assad’s desk during >>>>MORE>>>>
I Hear the Sirens in the Street
by Adrian McKinty
2013 / 320 pages
Read by Gerard Doyle 9h 40m
Rating: A / crime (historical)
I wasn’t going to read this although it was for a group (4_Mystery_Addicts) and available in Audio format. Then I found out from the early discussion that McKinty’s second novel in the “Troubles” trilogy takes place during The Troubles of Northern Ireland – (1968- 1970s). That got me curious and the sample sounded good.
I found myself thoroughly engaged with finding out whose body (trunk only) that was in the suitcase and who would have killed him but the id on the suitcase is that of a man who died years prior –
The Dog Stars
by Peter Heller
2014 / 336 pages
read by Mark Deakins 10h 41m
Rating: 8/ sci-fi (literary)
… life as we on earth know it ended nine years ago and the first sentence reads “In the beginning there was Fear.” A virus wiped out most of humanity and what is left is probably contagious. So Hig, our first person hero, lives with his dog in an abandoned airport hangar in Colorado – or what was Colorado. Hig lost his wife and child in the epidemic but with him now is his old dog, his “heart,” named Jaspar, and together they fish and hunt and scavenge for food. They sometimes take a flight around to patrol the area in an old Cessna.
Hig and Jason have a neighbor named Bangley who is a curmudgeonly survivalist and would rather kill you than even anywhere risk getting ill – shoot first ask questions later would seem a good motto for him. But their relationship is complex. >>>>MORE>>>>
An Evil Eye
by Jason Goodwin
2011 /301 pages
Read by Stephen Hoye 9h 34m
Rating: B- /historical crime
(Yashim the Eunuch Series, Book 4)
I’ve been reading along in the Yashim series ever since The Janissary Tree (2007) and have to say that so far, The Janissary Tree is far and away the best of the lot, but the books which followed are all well worth reading (except I’ve not read The Baklava Club – 2014). I procrastinated with An Evil Eye for some reason – there are some series I just can’t gobble down all at once – but for some reason the time was finally right.
The series features a eunuch, Yashim, >>>>MORE>>>>
Mrs. Queen Takes the Train
by William Kuhn
2012 / 384 pages
Read by Simon Prebble 9h 33m
Rating: 8 / fun fiction
Okay – in part because William Kuhn, the author, is going to be (is/was) available at the reading group where his book has been chosen for discussion 12/16-12/31, I decided to re-read Mrs Queen Takes the Train. I often read books two or even three times. The first time with this book I listened only and I then I started to re-listen, but it’s clumsy because the changes in point of view within the chapters aren’t terribly well delineated on the Audible version at all – just a tiny bit little longer pause. (Simon Prebble’s voice is great though!) >>>>MORE>>>>
The Drowning Spool
by Monica Ferris
2014 / 304 pages
read by Betsy Bronson 7h 31m
rating A- / crime
#17 in the Betsy Devonshire series
I started reading the Betsy Devonshire a couple years ago at Christmas time with Crewel Yule and enjoyed it so much I started in on book 1 and went through the series fairly quickly and then stayed caught up. I truly enjoyed the stories except that, as usual in long series, the last couple weren’t quite up to the first ones.
So I was looking forward to the new one and then very irritated when the new reader turned out to be such a dud. I procrastinated >>>> MORE>>>>
The Children Act
by Ian McEwan
2013 / 221 pages
Rating: 8/ fiction
When a court determines any question with respect to … the upbringing of a child … the child’s welfare shall be the court’s paramount consideration. —SECTION 1( A), THE CHILDREN ACT, 1989 (Epigraph)
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_Act_1989
British High Court judge Fiona Maye sees a lot of unhappiness in the Family Division where she has to decide the fates of children who have been abused, are the subject of custody battles and so on. The case which concerns her throughout this book is when the parents’ Jehovah’s Witness beliefs regarding blood transfusions interfere with the *necessary* medical treatment of their teen-age son – even when the boy is really a young man and only a few weeks >>>>MORE>>>>
The World’s Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette’s, Faith, Strength and the Power of Family
by Josh Hanagarne
2013 / 30 pages
Read by Stephen R. Thorne 8h 34m
Rating: 7/ memoir
Funny. Funny, funny, funny and with a very warm and inspirational, but low-key message. Also, nicely narrated by Stephen R. Thorne.
Some basics about Harnagarne: He has a very serious case of Tourette Syndrome. He works in a library. He’s 6 feet 7 inches tall. He’s loved books ever since his mother read to him in infancy. He was raised in a strict and very loving Mormon family in a small town in Utah. He seems like a very intelligent, funny and normal guy and the rest of the book shows that totally. >>>>MORE>>>>
Mrs. Queen Takes the Train
by William Kuhn
2012 / 384 pages
Read by Simon Prebble 9h 33m
Rating: 7.5 / fun fiction
This is coming up on a reading group (BookGroupList) and I’m reading it a bit early because I really felt like a “fun” book! I enjoyed getting and reading this book but I did NOT nominate it – correction there – my friend Elaine did that favor. I have to say that an added attraction was that Simon Prebble is such a good reader.
The non-fictional Queen Elizabeth is a wonder – I really admire her so I hope this won’t be too disrespectful, I doubt it will be. Just good fun.
The main plot is minimal – the Queen goes for a little walk >>>>MORE>>>>
The Testament of Mary
by Colm Toibin
2013 / 97 pages (novella)
Rating: 7.5 / historical fiction
What Tóibín has tried to do is imagine the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and have her tell what she knows about her son. The story starts with a frame consisting of two men who visit her regularly trying to get her to talk about what she witnessed. Then it goes back to when Jesus begins his ministry, continues until some time after his death, and ends with the frame again – the male visitors. (apostles? – )
In the New Testament Mary is only mentioned a very few times after his ministry begins and Tóibín expands on those – the raising of Lazarus from the dead, the wedding at Cana and the crucifixion. In Tóibín’s book Mary is not a total convert, but much of that is left to the reader’s interpretation.
I wasn’t as enthralled by the book as some reviewers, but it was an original concept to actually put into a novel and it was nicely written with an interesting structure.
All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr
*2014 / 531 pages (Kindle)
*Read by Zach Appelman / 16h 2m
Rating: 8 / historical fiction (WWII)
(both listened and read)
Opening Doerr’s second novel which one of my reading groups (BookiesToo) chose for our December 15th selection (I wasn’t thrilled to find another war book) – American bombers are dropping their load on a Saint Malo in northern France. Fortunately, the front lines and bombing raids are not the focus – rather two different children growing up during the war years are the focus of this mesmerizing work of fiction – historical fiction >>>>MORE>>>>
An Unnecessary Woman
by Rabih Alameddine
2014 / 306 pages
read by Suzanne Toren 10h 28m
rating 9+ / fiction –
“A love letter to literature and its power to define who we are, the prodigiously gifted Rabih Alameddine has given us a nuanced rendering of one woman’s life in the Middle East.” From Grove Publishing – http://www.groveatlantic.com/?title=An+Unnecessary+Woman
Aaliya Saleh, the 1st person narrator of Alameddine’s new novel, is a fiercely intelligent, 72-year old widow who lives alone as a virtual shut-in in her apartment in Beirut. She reads voraciously and translates one book a year (working from a French or English version). She has a project coming up but is somewhat unsure. Her translations are not published, but rather they are simply stored in boxes. >>>>MORE>>>>
Gospel Truth: The New Image of Jesus Emerging from Science and History, and Why It Matters
by Russell Shorto
1997 (2012) / 305 pages
Rating: 7.5 / history- New Testament
Having enjoyed Shorto’s much more recent book, Amsterdam:A History of the World’s Most Liberal City, in August I accidentally came across this older Shorto work on sale. I have general interest in the history of the Bible/Jesus/Church anyway, so this piqued my interest.
Shorto starts out with a Preface and then an Introduction for the 2012 edition – good. Then comes the 1997 Introduction before getting to >>>>MORE>>>>
Human Voices
by Penelope Fitzgerald
1988 / Kindle (2013) 144 pages
rating 8 / fiction
The setting is WWII (1940) England in the offices and studios of the BBC where the remaining staff tries to accommodate the new facts and needs of life including making sound recordings for the Archives if not for broadcast.
The character of the Recording Programme Director, Sam Brooks, is called >>>>MORE>>>>
The Amazing Mrs Pollifax
by Dorothy Gillman
1970 /
Well … it was on sale and the sample sounded intriguing. I’ve just finished two rather dark crime novels and I really feel like something a lot lighter – a cozy perhaps – but not too cozy, just fun.
Mrs Emily Pollifax is an undercover CIA agent, so when her agency contact phones her and indicates his immediate need for her assistance, well … what’s a good widow, grandmother and active garden club member to do? She boards the next flight to Turkey where her assignment is to assist a recently defected Soviet spy get to the US. Mrs Pollifax has passports and money for Magda Ferenci-Sabo, but although she is glimpsed at one point, actually finding her is difficult and getting her to safety is tricky what with a double-agent bad-guy and gypsies.
This is a fun little spy novel but I really wasn’t all that take with it for some reason. ?
Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local and Helped Save an American Town
by Beth Macy
2014 / 442 pages (Kindle)
rating: 8.5 / nonfiction-business
“Between 2001 and 2012, 63,300 American factories closed their doors and five million American factory jobs went away. During that same time, China’s manufacturing base ballooned to the tune of 14.1 million new jobs.” (p. 322) This is a problem – a complex problem with various winners and losers. Who pays? >>>>MORE>>>>
Standing in Another Man’s Grave
by Ian Rankin
2013
* narrated by James Macpherson 111h 26m
book 20 of the John Rankin series –
rating – C
Zoe Hazlitt went missing many years ago, but her mother continues to hope. Now this hope is based on a new missing young woman and going on that fact she gets the attention of Rebus, retired but working on cold cases. Rebus isn’t sure about taking this on until a photograph shows up and it stimulates something. >>>>MORE>>>>
Becky's Books - 