October 2017-What are you reading?

Starting the new month.

Started listening to A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley as read by Jayne Entwistle.

Random library pick - Midnight by Kevin Egan. It's good. Not outstanding and it reminds me of something else which I can't quite put my finger on. Basically a judge dies in chambers on the worst day possible. December 31st. Because of a rule that his staff can remain employed for the rest of the calendar year this means that his clerk and secretary are about to get the bum's rush. Unless they can make it look like he lived until the new year. A large suitcase is involved.

My Margaret Maron jag continues with Slow Dollar.

I've started the newest Longmire, The Western Star.

Tomorrow I'll be starting a new bus book: The Devil in Velvet, by John Dickson Carr.

I am rereading via audiobook They Do It With Mirrors, narrated by Joan Hickson.

Finished listening to A Red Herring Without Mustard. Enjoyed the story. Enjoyed the reader.

>8 seitherin: I've listened to a lot of the books in the series and I agree the reader is very good. Of course, I think it helps that the books are terrific on their own.

I finished an Australian mystery, The Dry by Jane Harper.

I just finished another good Travis McGee mystery, Pale Gray for Guilt. I'm working my way through the series.

I've just finished reading through the five short stories that are nominated for Anthony awards this year:
http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2017/10/links-to-texts-2017-best-short-story.h...

>11 jnwelch: Yay for ole Trav!

Travis McGee was a literary hero of my late teens and early twenties when I read all of MacDonald's "colorful" Florida murder mysteries. I'm a native of the state and have lived there most of my life and was intimately acquainted with his locales and felt the same about the issues JD tackled -- especially the over-development and ecological wrecking of a natural wonder that was the FL of my growing up years.

Great reads, masterful plotting and vivid characterizations were his hallmark as a writer.

Just finished Blind justice: A Sir John Fielding Mystery by Bruce Alexander. Excellent period piece set in 18th C. England. Dunno how long it will be until I get to another murder as it's not a genre I eagerly pursue. But I'm always open to a very good murder. Maybe I'll read my newly acquired PD James soon. It's really a re-read since I consumed most of her Dalgliesh novels shortly after my passion for Travis McGee cooled.

I finished another Michael Innes' Appleby mystery, An Awkward Lie. This one features the son Bobby - he is shaping up to be a good replacement protagonist for his father!

>11 jnwelch: I too have been making my way through the McGee series -- just about to start the last one, The Lonely Silver Rain...

Raiding my stockpile of French books by picking up a Fred Vargas: L'homme aux cercles bleus, published in English as The Chalk Circle Man.

>15 leslie.98: Nice. There are many more in the Travis McGee series than I expected!

Just finished Heaven's Keep and starting the next in the series Vermilion Drift.

>15 leslie.98:
>17 jnwelch:

I am reading the McGee series as well. But I am only 4 in, and have been sidetracked for months. I'm eventually working my way back there though. They are fun books.

I started reading the Travis McGee novels a few years ago and Pale Gray for Guilt was the last one I read (although I read The Green Ripper a couple decades ago because it was left on a shore rental book shelf). I need to get back to them.

Currently, I'm reading Michael Connelly's City of Bones, a Bosch novel.

I needed a little snark in my life, so I'm reading Stalking the Angel.

Below is the schedule for the Group Read of Sandstorm by James Rollins, which is book 1 in the Popular Sigma Force Series. This is quite a long book so I have spread it over 7 days. It was a nightmare to seperate evenly because it has such long chapters (who chose this book!😂). It does mean some sections, e.g. Day 1 and 7, are longer than others but tried my best!

Tuesday 10th October : Chapters 1 to 3
Wednesday 11th October : Chapters 4 to 7
Thursday 12th October : Chapters 8 to 10
Friday 13th October : Chapters 11 to 13
Saturday 14th October : Chapters 14 to 16
Sunday 15th October : Chapters 17 to 19
Monday 16th October : Chapters 20 to 22 and Epilogue

This is a perfect time to join a book Discussion at the start of a new series. You don't have to have finished the sections by the time of the dates above. This is just a guide when the questions for the section will be posted. We will all come back and discuss with you whenever you post discussion points based on the questions. Feel free to answer as many or as few questions that you want to.

I will post a link for the Group below when it is set up on Tuesday 10th October.

I'm about halfway through Jo Nesbo's The Snowman. Dark and good Scandi noir.

Adding The Bookseller's Tale by Ann Swinfen to my reading rotation.

>24 seitherin: I enjoyed that one -- I am a historical fiction buff.

Having completed the Travis McGee series with The Lonely Silver Rain, I decided to read Angelica's Smile by Andrea Camilleri. That is such a fun series & I love all the details about Montalbano's food (which were more sparse this time).

Next up is The Instant Enemy by Ross MacDonald...

>25 leslie.98: Only about a quarter thru the book and I'm enjoying it. I'm a fan of historical fiction as well.

I'm reading an ARC of Artemis by Andy Weir. It's a sort of heist story on the moon. I'm really enjoying it.

>27 cmbohn: I'm very curious about that one. I loved The Martian.

>27 cmbohn: >28 jnwelch: Same. The Martian was a lot of fun and I’ll be interested to see how his sophomore effort reads.

Finished a book by one of my favourite authors: Ann Cleeves. This one was Cold Earth, in her Shetland Island series; very good, as usual.

>30 ted74ca: Love the Shetland Islands Series.

In order to cover both this month's RandomCAT & CATWoman categories in the 2017 Category Challenge group, I have decided to read Dark Nantucket Noon -- I presume I have read it before as I seem to have given it a rating but I don't remember it at all! In fact, although I own several of Jane Langton's mysteries, the only one I do recall with any clarity is The Memorial Hall Murder...

Hadn't checked in with Ian Rutledge and Hamish for a while, so I recently picked up A Matter of Justice.

Just started My Soul to Take, by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (translated by Bernard Scudder and Anna Yates). With its talk of ghosts, it feels like an appropriate read for the second half of October.

Finished The Bookseller's Tale by Ann Swinfen. Really enjoyed the book.

Next into my reading rotation is The Snowman by Jo Nesbø.

I really liked it. Not quite as much as The Martian, maybe, but it was extremely entertaining. The worldbuilding was first rate and the characters were well done.

>25 leslie.98: If you enjoy historical fiction I can recommend Rose Tremain

Finished The Snowman by Jo Nesbø. Really enjoyed it.

Thanks for the recommendation >37 aussieh:! I will add her to my TBR wish list :)

I'm listening to Even Money by Dick Francis. It's not as good as the first time I read it, although I like the narrator. I just don't find the main character as sympathetic this time.

Just finished Invisible Prey by John Sandford. A friend from Minneapolis recommended it and gave it to me because the Prey series is set in and around Minneapolis. Almost from the beginning we know who the killers are but the mystery is how Lucas Davenport will go about finding them. I thought it was well done and I think I will look for more from this series.

Finished L'Homme aux cercles bleus, by Fred Vargas, and will be starting They Came to Baghdad, by Agatha Christie.

I am reading Ashenden, a WW1 spy story by W. Somerset Maugham.

43 - I've only read one by him, Cakes and Ale. It was about a writer doing a biography of another writer. It was rather funny in parts, but definitely not a thriller.

>44 cmbohn: This is definitely different from his normal books but it's based upon his own experience as a spy in pre-revolution Russia (though it isn't set in Russia).

Finished the thoroughly delightful They Came to Baghdad and have now started Reykjavik Nights, by Arnaldur Indriðason (translated by Victoria Cribb).

Just started The Magpie Murders and it’s quite enjoyable so far. The whole meta fiction thing.

>47 Bookmarque: Good to hear! I just got an email from the library saying that I have surfaced at the top of the holds list, so I hope to be digging into that one in the next few days.

Just finished the 11th in the Cork O'Conner series, Northwest Angle by William Kent Krueger. I am thoroughly enjoying the series and on to the 12th Trickster's Point.

I listened to the audiobook of Artists in Crime, narrated by Nadia May. This was a great way to reread this Golden Age mystery!

Now I am reading Blood Shot...

NEW THREAD: http://www.librarything.com/topic/273222