Finished an audio book!

One thing I've learned, while listening to (one and a half) audio books, is that I am a fast and impatient reader. I did listen to it while cooking, painting, driving and resting. But this story was not only long, it was gruesome and depressing most of the way. I read it because it's on our Book Club list. Its full title is: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. It was written by Laura Hillenbrand and narrated by Edward Herrmann. The main character does survive and does find redemption, and lives into his 90s, apparently with a great deal of fame although I never had heard of him, but that was not enough to offset all the horror he went through as a Japanese POW. Not for the delicate!

Another day, another book!

Holidays at the cottage: in between bouts of yard work or painting, there's lots of time to read.  I had to pick up a new stock of books at the second-hand store in Perth. Even Neil has read 2 books.

 

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Baltimore's Mansion is a memoir. I read Wayne Johnston's Navigator of New York and, a long time ago, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. Those were excellent, history-based novels. This memoir is very good, although not quite as satisfying as the novels. All about Newfoundland and his family's history there, especially the Confederation year, 1949, and what a mark it made on people for many years after. The story is told from the points of view of three men: Wayne, his father Arthur, and grandfather Charlie. That took a little getting used to, as the voices were similar. Definitely recommended.

Vacation reading: thrillers and mysteries

Do you read books lying down when you're on vacation?  It seems these two want to lie down and I can't get them up again.  Just turn your head and I'll tell you about them.

 

Christopher Hyde, thriller writer, is the brother and sometimes a co-author with an old friend of mine, Anthony Hyde. So I felt there would be a good tale in this book, The House of Special Purpose. It is quite dense, with many characters and locations. It is set in the early days of World War II, with references back to events in the Russian Revolution. Historical, then? Quite! And it involves a number of non-fictional people, in roles they might have played, or perhaps did. It was a complex story, with some politics and violence, but in the end, I found it not very satisfying.

Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus mysteries are well-known, and I thought I had read one before, but it didn't seem all that familiar after all. The story was well told, as a police-procedural mystery, but the language, ah, the language. The story is set in Edinburgh and the Scottishness of the language can be quite mystifying. I suppose I learned some new words, which may be useful in Scrabble.  The motivation of some characters mystified me, too, but it was an interesting read.

A mystery: why haven't I read more of these?

Here is a Sue Grafton Alphabet mystery, E is for Evidence. Strangely, I don't think I've read any of these before. I will now seek out another volume in this series. It has a good plot, interesting characters, and it moves right along. What more can one ask for? A few interesting tidbits of general knowledge? Yes, those, too.

There will be more of these in my future, I think.

It took me a year to read this

I remember buying this biography of Hunter Thompson in an interesting bookstore in Stratford, Ontario, when we went to the festival last summer. It has taken me all year to read it. Why? Because it is long, dense and heavy. I have read some of HST's writing, and have a nodding acquaintance with his persona. But the book did not compel me to finish it, so I put it aside once or twice. After all, I know how it turns out (that is actually covered in the first chapter). There are interesting facts and excerpts, and stories galore. There is an index, too, which may be useful.

Also, being a hardcover, it is literally a heavy book. And there are pictures, but printed on glossy paper as inserts, and they have a tendency to fall apart. Just little logistical problems, but they make for a non-portable book.

So if you are a hardcore HST fan, you are welcome to borrow this volume.

A variety of early-summer reading

I was in an airport: I bought two books.



 Tina Fey's autobiographical stories in Bossypants were very amusing. They made me chuckle quite a lot. It was "an easy read" and one that could be set down and dipped into later, without losing any plot. As an occasional viewer of 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live, though not a true fan, I enjoyed this inside view.
I paid full (U.S.) price.
I find the cover photo disturbing, not funny.


My second airport book was "a Grisham", specifically, The Litigators.
I really enjoy John Grisham's legal tales. Perhaps it comes from my background reading every Perry Mason novel and watching every episode of the TV series. Perhaps it's because there is often a mystery to be solved, and justice to be done. His writing is clear and descriptive and I usually learn something. Some people think they are formulaic, but I don't. Yes, the protagonist is usually a lawyer and yes, there are courtroom scenes, but otherwise, each book is different.
Some are better than others, and this is one of the good ones.

Back to the second-hand bookshelf

I stopped in at the St Vincent de Paul second-hand store and picked up 4 books for $1. That seems like a good price. I have now finished the first one, and while I won't demand my money back (all 25 cents), I am not really satisfied. It is a mystery by Ngaio Marsh, When in Rome. It was first published in 1970. I felt as if I were reading in a foreign language, with odd British words and dated slang. The Italian bits weren't much of a problem, but the English.... 

The plot seemed complex, but not at a Dan-Brown level, and the motivation of the characters a bit antiquated.  I thought I had read another of Marsh's detective Alleyn novels, but I don't remember the style being such a nuisance.

The cover illustration, by the way, has nothing to do with the plot.