What are you reading the week of July 1, 2012?

[DUgosh]

Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George - Lynley & Havers book # 17

2012 - book # 99

[fadedrose]

1. AGATHA RAISIN AND THE WITCH OF WYCKHADDEN (1999) By M. C. Beaton

9th in the series - and this was a good one...

http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/B_Authors/Beaton_M-C.html

Book 56 of 2012

[matt819]

2. A Deeper Darkness by J.T. Ellison

Appears to be a spin-off from her Taylor Jackson series. Okay enough.

Bag Limit, #9 in the Bill Gastner series by Steven F. Havill. It's not going to win a Pulitzer, but I've come to like the characters in this series.

The Litigators, by John Grisham. On and off. I think I got tired of Grisham years ago, so I put this down to read other books as they come up.

[pscot]

3. The Alienist, by Caleb Carr

New York police commissioner Teddy Roosevelt launches a task force to investigate a series of grizzly murders. I'm finding it slow going, Hope it picks up.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. Purse book: Sidetracked by Henning Menkell (a Wallander book)

Bedside book: Baishou (Restitution) by Kanae Minato, a Japanese novel about four elementary school girls who witness a classmate's abduction and how it affects their lives after the classmate is found murdered.

[SaveOurDemocracy]

5. Snake Skin: A Lucy Guardino FBI Thriller. CJ Lyons

New author for me.

[fadedrose]

6. THE MAN WITH THE BALTIC STARE (2010) by James Church

Last edited Mon Jul 2, 2012, 09:40 PM - Edit history (1)

Am only up to page 70, but Church gets better with each book. This is the fourth...

Inspector O is now "retired" living on a mountaintop in North Korea and is called back into not quite like action, but close. The South Koreans are pulling one way and the Chinese on the north are pulling him another....sounds serious, but book has lots of subtle humor...Inspector O wants no part of either side and is not shy about it. Things may change as I get further into the story..

Church has another book coming out in November about Inspector O's nephew, who lives in China bordering North Korea. It's called A Drop of Chinese Blood

http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/C_Authors/Church_James.html

Book 57 of 2012


(Oh, MVCCD1000 - if you like your heroes to be wise guys with their superiors, you'd just love Inspector O. He's a real smartass (excuse my other "mental" language)...)

[getting old in mke]

7. _The Silent Man_ by Alex Berenson

Third John Wells book. It's tough being an effective spy when most of the world knows you. Also dealing (not well) with PTSD from his years in Afghanistan.

[mvccd1000]

8. "Half of Paradise" by James Lee Burke

Found it on kindle, hadn't heard of it, so I had to try it. Turns out it was his debut novel in 1965, published while he was still in his 20s. While the ability of the prose to conjure up the haunting majesty of of the scenery is not yet up to the level of his later books, it's definitely vintage Burke, and so far (3/4 done), well worth the read.

[bemildred]

9. "Red Mars" -- KSR

Years of Rice & Salt was better, but this is OK.

[bemildred]

13. "The Wild Shore -- KSR

Appears to be a juvenile, slow going at times ...

[whathehell]

10. "Gone Girl", a mystery by Gillian Flynn. It's gotten rave reviews by most

but after reading about 60% of it, I've decided it's hateful,

depressing and manipulative..As a couple of reviewers noted

"I felt dirty after reading this".

Like most, I found the first half of it enjoyable, almost compulsive reading.

In the second half, titled: Part Two: Boy meets Girl, however, things change

significantly and it becomes, in my view, not only unrealistic, but ugly.

[Auggie]

11. The Family Corleone,

prequel to The Godfather, by Ed Falco, based upon an unfinished screenplay by Mario Puzo.

[Lionel Mandrake]

12. Blue Angel, by Francine Prose

This is a first-rate novel about a professor in a second-rate college.

[Lionel Mandrake]

14. About the title ... ** SPOILERS **

"Blue Angel" is the title of several works that are relevant here:

1. the 1930 movie adapted from Heinrich Mann's 1905 novel Professor Unrat


2. the 1959 remake (ugh!)


3. the book by Francine Prose published in 2000, and

4. a book written by the Professor Unrat character in Francine Prose's book.

The Professor Unrat character in #3 borrows #1 from a store and discusses it with the Lola Lola character, who eventually ruins him (no big surprise to anyone who has seen the movie).