The "I am currently reading" thread

[wearysmith 141]

Up next on the pile:

 

[metalman 21]

April's roundup.

 

Stephen Booth - Blood on the Tongue. A woman freezing to death on the moors, and a mystery surrounding a Dark Peak aircraft wreck come together as Cooper and Fry take 630 pages to join the dots. I do like these, but I wish he had the economy of Simenon or even John Wainwright.

Stephen Booth - Blind to the Bones. A man murdered near an air shaft of the Woodhead Tunnel and a girl student missing for two years come together as Cooper and Fry take 630 pages to join the dots etc. I might have to take a temporary hiatus on this series because I don't seem to be able to find my copy of the next one at the moment.

Ethel Lina White - The First Time He Died. Charlie Baxter fakes his own death in an insurance fraud, but things don't go according to plan afterwards. Very cleverly plotted 1930s story by White, who is mainly remembered today for writing a book called The Wheel Spins, which was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock as The Lady Vanishes. Fans of Francis Iles will like this one.

Donald E. Westlake - Pity Him Afterwards. Escaped homicidal maniac assumes the identity of an actor in a summer season at a lakeside theatre. Another good one.

Dell Shannon - Ace of Spades. Luis Mendoza's girlfriend's car is stolen but when she gets it back, it contains something which a gang of crooks are desperate to get back. An early (1961) Mendoza case.

Philip Purcer - Where is he now? The subject of this non-fiction book was Edward James, the rich eccentric who was the patron of surrealist artists such as Dali and Magritte. At the time it was written (1978) the answer was that James was in the jungles of Mexico designing and building his own bizarre city from scratch. He died in 1984 and the answer now is that he's buried at his family seat, West Dean in Sussex. 

S.S. van Dine - The Canary murder case. Party animal Margaret Odell, known as the Canary, is found strangled in her apartment. Philo Vance helps District Attorney Markham to solve the case, which is basically a locked room problem. Good if you can put up with Vance.

Harry Stephen Keeler - Sing Sing Nights. On the eve of their execution, three men on Death Row tell stories to their guard; the one he likes best will be pardoned. This being Keeler, the stories have plots of ridiculous complexity and coincidence, not to mention racial stereotyping of pretty much every ethnic group under the sun,  but you can't help admire his imagination. Every Keeler is a magical mystery tour of bonkersness; some love them, some can't stand them, I'm in the former group.

Ruth Rendell - To Fear a Painted Devil. Early (1965) Rendell that's one of her standalone novels (i.e. no Inspector Wexford). This one features possible murder by wasp sting in a posh housing development. Excellent.

 

Now reading: Colin Gale & Robert Howard - Presumed Curable. Absolutely fascinating book - about 60 case histories of people admitted to Bethlem Hospital, the Victorian lunatic asylum, illustrated by photographs of them taken on admission.

[Rockers rule 673]

The essential history of Rangers, 2002 Stephen Halliday.

For someone who don't do football.

Been to 4 matches in my life - last one 'was' to see Rangers (lose  ) against Chesterfield 28th Oct 1981 😢😢.

Party on Woodseats after was fun .

 

Excellent book, a well written history of how Rangers started in the late 1800's by a set of brothers deciding to start a football team. 

Interspersed with short run downs of their top players, managers and match repots from over the years.

OK, since the book was printed over 20 years ago a lot has happened since, still worth reading ✔️ fully recommend.

 

Keep safe and read well  .

Edited May 8, 2022 by Rockers rule
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[Rockers rule 673]

I Didn't Know You Cared; Peter Tinniswood 1973 pagination 298.

 

Well, after watching all 27 episodes of the TV series, researching (& finding) all the locations in and around Sheff where filming took place,

I'd no option but to read the book.

Right! where to start?

Most of the characters in the TV series are there in the book while others are missing, notably the Three great aunts from Glossop and uncle Staveley. Linda Preston doesn't get that much of a mention and Carters 'Aye, Well, Mm,' doesn't come in until page 112.

The writing for Pat's character keeps true to its origins, in the TV series, you can almost hear her speaking as you read.

While admittedly the TV series does say 'Loosely based on the book'  both should be considered separate entities.

So which is the best?

For me it has to be the TV series. I like the almost innocent'ness of characters in the series, while the book (for my way of thinking) is typical of 1970's pulp fiction. Having found publishers would print swear words, outright racism and graphic sexual encounters, authors took advantage, and I think this falls into that category.

Strange that the TV series goes for the almost innocent approach of it's characters and while racism is prevalent almost from the start in the book it doesn't rear its ugly head until Series 2.

There are major plot changes straight from the start. Carter and Pat are already married in the book, where as in the TV series it's their courtship that is the main focus of the story's.

 

No! I'm not a prude, but un-fortunately (or fortunately) like 1970's comedy, the book shows it's age. crude, embarrassing or pushing the boundary's of 1970's writing?  You decide.  £2.87 cheapest (including the postage) on Ebay.

 

Just starting Mog also by Tilliswood, let you know how I get on with that.

 

Keep save read well  .

 

 

 

[metalman 21]

Here's my round up of what I've read in May.

 

Janice Hallett - The Appeal. Clever crime novel written in the form of e-mail exchanges and text messages between the participants. An ill-fated am dram production and a dodgy appeal for a child with cancer lead to murder. Full marks to her for trying to do something different and on the whole it comes off.

Janice Hallett - The Twyford code. Children's author Edith Twyford (clearly based on Enid Blyton) has been cancelled, but has she left a series of coded messages in her books? This one is told in the form of transcribed audio conversations, which isn't quite as effective, but it's cleverly done and the solution is also suitably clever. Another good effort.

Roy Vickers - Find the innocent. Three scientists share a house. One night, two of them go off to town and murder their boss. One stays behind. When they are questioned by the police, each claims to be the one left behind. The set up is impossibly contrived, but it wasn't bad.

A.E. Coppard - Adam and Eve and pinch me. Short story collection from 1921. Coppard was one of the best short story writers in the early to mid part of the last century, but seems to be pretty much forgotten today.

John Scalzi - The collapsing empire. The scattered worlds of Earth's far future empire face being cut off from each other when the hyperspace network that links them starts to fail. Scalzi's back in space opera mode with a new series, but the mix of action, smart wisecracking and political manoeuvering is the same.

John Scalzi - The consuming fire. The second part of the series and Scalzi throws in some unexpected plot twists for good measure.

Dell Shannon - Felony at random. Another instalment in the Lt. Luis Mendoza series of police procedurals, this time from 1979, as the team takes on a wave of murders and hold-ups. Good as ever.

C. Henry Warren - Happy countryman. Non-fiction. The reminiscences of farm worker Mark Thurston from the Suffolk/Essex border, as recorded by Warren in 1939 when Thurston was already nearly 80. 

Frank Parrish - Voices from the Dark. The last in the series featuring poacher and crime solver Dan Mallett. This one is written differently from the rest, in that we don't see events from Dan's viewpoint, and I thought that perhaps didn't do it any favours, but still pretty good.

Ruth Rendell - One across, Two down. Crossword fanatic Stanley wants to dispose of his nagging mother-in-law for her money and finally gets his chance, but things don't go according to plan. Another good early Rendell from 1971.

Elly Griffiths - The Crossing Places. The first in her series featuring forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway. OK, though the baddie was easy to spot and the motive pretty thin.

 

Just started: Eric Thacker & Anthony Earnshaw - Musrum. Bizarre illustrated surrealist novel from 1968 by artist Earnshaw and his friend Thacker. Intriguing so far.

[Rockers rule 673]

More Tinniswood.

Read Mog circa 1970 & where it does mention  the Brandon Family they are only bit players in this rather strange novel about care in the community.

There was a TV series to MOG but can only find a small clip on Utube.

 

Read the 'I didn't know you cared' thinking it would have some resemblance to the TV see #3101.

 

The first book 'A touch of Daniel' I've just finished but should really have been called 'I didn't know you cared' because it has more in common with the TV series.

Well, I say that, because after a while it just disintegrates into nothing like the TV series.

The blurb for the TV series say's 'loosely based on the book.

I think 'Loosely is about as Loosely as loose can be  .

Describing Tilliswood as 'The funniest writer of his generation' (The Times) is probably (was) a little ambitious.

 

The old adage 'whats better the book or the film is never a simple yes or no.

In this case, I'd say the TV series is the better.

Apart from the annoying over use of catchphrases there is an innocence of the characters that makes the TV series.

Some of the characters in the books 'missing' in the TV s series could have worked, while the spooky going on's in the book would have distracted from the Carter and Pat story in the TV series

Don't expect a great deal of Sheffield ness in the book neither.

Some of the street names have some similarities but are rather tenuous at best.

 

Keep safe out there  .

 

 

 

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by Rockers rule
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[nikki-red 308]

I’ve just finished The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern.

 

On the front cover it claims to be ‘breathtaking’, ‘dazzling’ and ‘enchanting’. I’ve got to say I totally agree with all three. 
I loved it. It’s a beautiful book and I actually feel quite sad that it’s now over for me.

[feargal 21]

Nikki-Red, I absolutely love this book! I wasn't so keen on her next one though, over-long and trying too hard 😒

Edited June 19, 2022 by feargal

[nikki-red 308]

2 minutes ago, feargal said:

Nikki-Red, I absolutely love this book! I wasn't so keen on her next one though, over-long and trying too hard 😒

Funnily enough my friend said almost exactly the same things about it. I’ll give it a miss I think.

 

Im reading Storyteller by Dave Grohl now. Slightly different!

[metalman 21]

The usual mix of crime and science fiction mainly for me this month.

 

Peter Ackroyd - The English Ghost. A selection of supposedly true ghost sightings culled from historical sources. Interesting stuff.

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of time. Far future 'humans' visit the site of a terraforming experiment which has gone disastrously wrong. I thought this one was really excellent, but...

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of ruin.  ... the sequel, where the combined species go off to another star system and find another terraforming experiment gone wrong, didn't really work for me. The octopuses seemed a bit forced, as though he'd read that book about octopuses and thought it would be a good idea to put them in, and the ending seemed a bit of a rerun. It was OK, I suppose.

Harry Stephen Keeler - The Green Jade Hand. Coincidence-laden complicated plot, clunky writing, racial stereotyping of everybody concerned, and yet I loved it. 

Heron Carvic - Picture Miss Seeton. Retired art teacher Emily Seeton witnesses a murder in London and then gets inadvertently caught up in its aftermath. Carvic (real name Geoffrey Harris) was an actor and had an actor's ear for dialogue. An enjoyable romp.

Victor L. Whitechurch - The Crime at Diana's Pool. A good old-fashioned detective story from 1926. Garden party host Felix Nayland is stabbed and left face down in said pool; local vicar and police join forces to investigate.

Keigo Higashino - Malice. Writer Kunihiko Hadaka is murdered; his wife and his friend Osamu Nonoguchi find the body. But this is a whydunnit rather than a whodunnit or a howdunnit. Insanely clever, very twisty and altogether excellent.

Elly Griffiths - The Janus Stone. Second in the series featuring forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway, here investigating bones found under a former children's home. OK, but dopey Ruth's main quality as protagonist seems to be to have no common sense whatsoever and constantly put herself in a position to be hit over the head, kidnapped etc.

[metalman 21]

Looks like I'm the only one still reading anything this month!

 

Josef Skvorecky - The mournful demeanour of Lieutenant Boruvka. A dozen clever, witty detective stories featuring pensive Czech policeman Boruvka. Recommended.

P. G. Wodehouse - Spring fever. The usual Wodehouse mayhem. As good as he usually is.

Lynton Lamb - Man in a mist. Murder in the wilds of East Anglia. Lamb was an artist so not surprisingly art does come into it. Not bad.

Henry Wade - The dying alderman

Henry Wade - The Duke of York's Steps

Henry Wade - The hanging captain. Three excellent detective stories from the 1930s by Wade, who was one of the better exponents of the form.

J. Storer Clouston - The lunatic at large. Mr. Beveridge escapes from a private asylum, adopts the name Bunker, joins up with a German Baron with a dubious command of English, and they cause havoc wherever they go. First published in the 1890s, this is a wonderfully funny book and deserves to be as well known as its contemporaries like Diary of a Nobody and the Irish R.M. Best book of the month without a doubt.

Julia Chapman - Date with Danger. The fifth instalment of the Dales-set detective series, and I thought this was an improvement on the last one as it tied up one or two of the loose ends from the last book.

Alex Pavesi - Eight detectives. Yes, it was clever, and yes, I enjoyed it, but I just got the feeling it was trying to be too clever for its own good.

Kenneth Grahame - The golden age. Reminiscences of childhood by the author of The Wind in the Willows. Delightful.

Kameron Hurley - The stars are legion. The author is a feminist SF writer with a special interest in gender. Surprisingly that didn't put me off, and actually it wasn't bad: it's set in a universe where men don't exist but it didn't really matter because the characters could have been men, women, robots, aliens, whatever with little difference to the outcome. Amnesiac Zan gets sent to the bottom level of the world and has to climb back, picking up companions as she goes, to fulfil her destiny on the surface, so it's a sort of snakes & ladders novel really. In a funny way it reminded me of Samuel Delaney's Dhalgren.

 

Now reading: Dell Shannon - Felony file. Back to the cases of Lt. Luis Mendoza of the LAPD with this one from 1980.

Edited July 30, 2022 by metalman

[Garrisonhale670 0]

I finished Tyler the Creator last week, and I'm going to begin Ken Follett's World Without End. It has more than a thousand pages, so it can take me some time to finish!