What are you reading the week of Sunday, October 26, 2014?

[Enthusiast]

I just finished Deadline by John Sandford. I was thoroughly entertained by Deadline. It was funny, action packed, suspenseful and satisfying. Virgil Flowers is a wonderful character and the supporting cast is equally colorful.

Now I'm reading Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indridason.

Mrs. Enthusiast read Deadline By John Sandford and Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indridason. She was as entertained by Deadline as I was. She was mesmerized by Silence of the Grave. One evening she stayed up way past her bed time to finish it. It was a can't put it down kind of book. I am having a similar impression. Now she is reading Voices by Arnaldur Indridason.

I guess we have both become Erlendur fans. That didn't take long.

[scarletwoman]

1. "I guess we have both become Erlendur fans." Bwahahahahaha! (evil laugh)

[Enthusiast]

2. See what you did?

[scarletwoman]

3. Yes, I've lured you and your innocent wife into the life of a morose Icelandic detective.

And you will be helplessly trapped until you read every last book about him!

[Enthusiast]

4. Yup. I just ordered the next two.

Arnaldur Indridason should write one about the evil scarletwoman.

[CrispyQ]

5. I finished "Gone Girl" a few days ago & started "Cuckoo's Calling" yesterday.

Several months ago I remember seeing five copies of "Cuckoo's Calling" in my library & wondered, "Who is this Robert Galbraith that the library has bought five copies of his book?"

CC is pretty good so far. Never read the Harry Potter series. Tried the first book but couldn't get through it.

[SheilaT]

10. The first time I started the Harry Potter series,

I couldn't get past the first few chapters of the first book. My younger son, who'd read it, assured me it was really good and I should give it another try. So I did. And loved almost all of it. So I'll suggest you give it another try, but if it doesn't work for you, there are a lot of other books out there you will love.

Cuckoo's Calling is pretty good, but the second book by Galbraith, The Silkworm is much better, just like any new writer who is hitting his stride.

I also loved The Casual Vacancy by Rowling. A lot of people didn't get it because it is of course not remotely a Harry Potter book.

[shenmue]

6. I'm trying to finish "Ritual" by Mo Hayder

Indridason is really good. Hayder can be so graphic sometimes, she's almost more like horror than mystery. Well, they do share some aspects.

[pscot]

7. World of Trouble by Ben Winters

This is the last of the Meteor Trilogy. These books will leave a mark. I also have a James Elroy and several guides to moral rearmament.

[Enthusiast]

8. You like the trilogy then, pscot?

[SheilaT]

11. I have read the trilogy and I just love it.

There's a science-fictional background, that earth is going to be essentially destroyed by an incoming asteroid, but meanwhile this one man tries to live his life as normally as possible.

I recently completed the third book, and the last couple of lines just haunt me. It is wonderful. I hope more people read it.

It could also make a very good six part mini series, but I doubt it will be made because of the totally downer ending. Everyone will die, not that that's a plot spoiler.

[Enthusiast]

12. Thank you, SheilaT. I read about the trilogy on Fantastic Fiction.

Of course an incoming asteroid is not outside the realm of possible futures in store for humanity. It appears that the earth's geological history is punctuated by similar events.

The last science fiction I read was A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. It was way out or far out, if you prefer.

[SheilaT]

13. I'm going to go out on a limb and make some

suggestions for some other s-f books you might like.

The Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog both by Connie Willis. About fifty years from now time travel has been invented/discovered (it's not clear or important which)and is controlled by historians who use it to go back and do research. In the first, a young woman is sent back to 1328 to a village in England. Things go awry. In the second, people go back to 19th century England to track down a piece of statuary. Things go comically awry.

A Bridge of Years by Robert Charles Wilson. Man buys an abandoned home in the pacific northwest and finds a door leading to a tunnel that ends in 1962 New York City. Why that tunnel is there is the rest of the novel.

Alternities by Michael P. Kube-McDowell. A man discovers a portal to an alternate world and uses it for his own ends.

Replay by Ken Grimwood. A forty-three year old man has a fatal heart attack, and suddenly finds himself back as his 18 year old self, able to remember the entire coming quarter century.

Time on My Hands by Peter Delacorte. A travel writer is given a time machine by a man who'd like him to use it to go back and keep Ronald Reagan from becoming president.


As you might guess, time travel is one of my favorite type of s-f, and these are especially good books that use it.

[Enthusiast]

14. Those sound very entertaining, SheilaT.

Thanks for the recommendations. You aren't out on a limb.

[Chemisse]

15. I loved both those Connie Willis books.

Intriguing storylines.

Oh and Replay was great!

I am going to investigate the others in your list.

[applegrove]

9. "Paris" by Rutherford.

[SheilaT]

16. Finally finished

Don't Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman.

87 year old retired Memphis detective learns that a Nazi who nearly killed him when he was a POW in WWII, survived the war and apparently made off with some gold. Our detective decides to try to track down the Nazi and perhaps take possession of any gold still left after all these years.

All during the book I was mightily annoyed at the way this old guy keeps on lighting up his cigarettes almost everywhere, as if the fact the entire country has gone non-smoking somehow escaped him. But I'm glad I stuck it out, because in the end there is a lot of moral ambiguity, which belongs in the book and is very well handled.

He has a second book out, Don't Ever Look Back which I hope to get around to reading. I already have too many books checked out of the library. Sigh.

[Enthusiast]

17. You have captured my interest.

Those damned Nazis! It's so easy to root against them.

[SheilaT]

18. It's not just a simple morality tale about the evils of the Nazis.

Buck Schatz, the retired detective of the story, is getting older, slowing down, is perhaps beginning to have some dementia and initially has no interest at all in tracking down the Nazi. Then things happen that get him involved. And I have to say, it is the very moral ambiguity in the last few chapters that made this rise to a nearly great novel in my opinion.

Perhaps because I'm 66 years old myself, that I can see a bit of my future in this book. If I live another twenty or thirty years, I will not be quite as spry as I am now, I know. But right now it's not easy to actually imagine what it will be like. It does feel as if the author has gotten very much inside what it's like to be that old.

[Enthusiast]

19. Oh, maybe I should not read that one.

I am having some anxiety about aging. I am only 62. But due to several bad accidents I am no longer at all spry. The worst is my one knee in bad need of replacement, but I fear, and my wife shares my sentiments, that there would likely be complications. She does not want me to have a knee replacement. At least I can walk. Still, I want to do things, but I cannot. It is best that I don't think about growing old. I often see octogenarians that are far more active and capable than I am.

[scarletwoman]

21. Just thought I'd mention that my dad has had both knees replaced, and he swears by it!

He had the first knee done while he was in his 70s, and the second one done about 4 years ago, when he was in his mid 80s. He does really great now! He got artificial joints, not cadaver transplants - which I would have totally been against!

My knees are going, too (I'll be 65 in 2 weeks) and he's constantly after me to get the surgery. But I definitely feel a lot of resistance to the idea.

For one thing, he was already retired when he got the first one done, so he had plenty of time to focus solely on healing and recovery. I'm still working, and I can't imagine how I can possibly afford to take the 6 weeks off that would be required to get back to normal mobility. So I've told him that I'm just going to have to wait until I don't have to work anymore - which, unfortunately, may be years yet.

Meanwhile, I've been getting cortisone shots in my knees about twice a year so I can at least manage with a minimum of limping.

[Enthusiast]

23. Oh, I'm a firm believer in joint replacement surgery. Not in the surgery so much but the results.

I already have one hip replacement.

I'll explain more in my response to SheilaT.

[scarletwoman]

27. I've read your response to SheilaT, and I totally understand now where you're coming from.

I'm so sorry for all you've had to go through!

And, I must say, I'm even more impressed with your unfailing good nature, kindness, and patience than I already was.

[Enthusiast]

31. Thank you for the kind words, scarletwoman.

[SheilaT]

22. It's up to you.

I'm the sort of person who will tell you that you should read it, because this guy isn't at all spry, certainly not like he used to be, and he manages. You need to be thinking ahead, just from the little you said.

Why in the world would you not get a knee replacement? Every single person I've known who has had one says how wonderful it is, how amazing to get mobility back, and even more amazing is that the post surgical pain is usually less than the pain before. Ask around, find people who've had a knee replacement and see what they say. Also, if you can have a choice in which doctors do the surgery, research them.

Anyway, even though the aging issues are somewhat front and center in the book, it's the moral ambiguity at the end that made it so interesting for me.

[Enthusiast]

24. The concerns I have with knee replacement are

the condition of my knee, tibia, fibula and femur.

I was in a terrible auto accident. The leg in question narrowly escaped amputation. The tibia and fibula directly below the knee were in tiny pieces—shards really.

I feel the surgeon did an amazing job in saving my leg and preserving its function. Then came the infection. The metal structure that held the damaged leg bones together had to be removed prematurely during emergency surgery.

Still, I recovered. But that same leg has avascular necrosis or osteonecrosis in the femur. The femoral head is dead. Clear dead. Both hips are dead. So far one side has been replaced.

The damaged leg is a bit twisted. It's off kilter. The fibula and tibia are not aligned properly with the knee.

I think you can understand my reluctance to have another surgery. I fear the results will be even worse than what I have now. And of course I fear the risk of MRSA. In addition to the emergency surgery I had massive doses of an extremely expensive exotic (at the time) IV antibiotic. This was twenty five years ago. The newly evolved bugs are now resistant to antibiotics.

So, in conclusion, it is not the surgery procedure that I fear. What I fear is losing my ability to be independent, to remain ambulatory and to escape the risk of infection.

[scarletwoman]

20. When I checked in last week, I was about to start on Michael Ridpath's #s 3 & 4,

Meltwater and Sea of Stone. Meltwater was a bit uneven I thought, and the identity of the murderer was a total surprise - there were barely any clues at all foreshadowing who it turned out to be. It felt like a bit of a cheat actually.

However, the thing is, the main protagonist's family history in Iceland is woven into each of the books in this series, and THOSE parts are unequivocally fascinating. So while the foreground elements in each book - the modern day murders to be solved and the straightforward police procedural stuff - do seem to vary in interest and credibility, the historical threads have been consistently compelling.

Book #3 ended in a total cliffhanger in the ongoing family history part of the narrative, and I was really grateful that I already had #4 at hand! I finished #4, Sea of Stone on Wednesday and I was just, "WOW!"

There is no other unrelated (so to speak ) story interwoven with the police procedural stuff in book #4, because the murder to be investigated in this one is the protagonist's own grandfather, and the protagonist himself is accused of committing this murder, and is arrested and jailed. (It's complicated!) Anyway, it was a wonderful read after following the family history through all the first three books. I can't imagine that it would have anywhere near the impact if one had not been following the series from the very first book, so I would not recommend it unless someone has read the first 3 books of the series.

And while Sea of Stone tied up many loose ends in the family story, it left some things unresolved. I certainly hope there is a 5th book on the way - although I haven't found any indications yet that one is planned. But the minute I hear that a #5 has been written, it will go on my library wish list.

I have to admit, when I started the Ridpath series I sort of felt like I was cheating on my beloved Scandinavian authors. Ridpath is a Brit, he's never lived in Iceland (only visited), so how dare he do all these books taking place in Iceland? And while he's clearly a skillful author, he is not someone I would class with the "Nordic Noir" genre - he just doesn't have that dark, gloomy Scandinavian sensibility. Still, he does quite well with bringing his characters to life, and I give him high marks on his descriptions of the Icelandic countryside. When he describes an old lava field, you can absolutely see the lava field, and the fields and the mountains around it.

And he clearly has studied the Icelandic Sagas, Icelandic history, as well as the geography, topography, the political and social history and current events - the whole series takes place against the backdrop of the bank failures from 2008, on. So maybe, as an outsider he has a particularly clear view to share. All I can say is that his books have only deepened my fascination with Iceland.

Meanwhile, after finishing Ridpath's #4, I'm back in Sweden, making my way once again through my trove of the old Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö Martin Beck series. I'm on #9 of the series, Cop Killer - out of order because that one was due back at the library on Wednesday, so I'm reading it now before the fine gets too big. The rest aren't due until November 6th.

Yesterday I got notification that the latest Tana French book is in, The Secret Place - but I'm waiting until next week to pick it up. Hoping to have time to read a little more Martin Beck before I get something else.

[Enthusiast]

25. scarletwoman, you write such interesting reports.

Last edited Sat Nov 1, 2014, 06:36 PM - Edit history (1)

Have you ever considered trying your hand at writing a novel? Maybe you addressed this before I became a regular on the Fiction group.

[scarletwoman]

28. I'm so glad you find them interesting!

I really appreciate it.

Anyway, about writing - I've thought about for many years, have made a few feeble attempts now and again, but not really seriously dedicated myself to it. Maybe once I retire from my job. I would very much like to leave something behind that might outlast my own mortality.

[Enthusiast]

29. Work can get in the way, I'm sure.

I think it would be so rewarding to write your own novel. Especially one that would turn out to be even moderately successful. I envy the authors of the books we read. It must be wonderfully satisfying.

[YankeyMCC]

26. And the Mountain's Echoed

by Khaled Hosseini

[Enthusiast]

30. I read The Kite Runner.

Are the next two books related to The Kite Runner?

[YankeyMCC]

32. They are all set in Afghanistan and span

generations but there's no other relation

Or maybe it's more accurate to say, they all center around Afgan families.