Welcome to bookchat where you can talk about anything...books, plays, essays, and books on tape. You don’t have to be reading a book to come in, sit down, and chat with us.
Let your bookcases and your shelves be your gardens and your pleasure-grounds. Pluck the fruit that grows therein, gather the roses, the spices, and the myrrh.
~Judah Ibn Tibbon
What Is So Rare As A Day in June
http://www.theotherpages.org/...
James Russell Lowell
AND what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays;
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And, groping blindly above it for light,
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers;
The flush of life may well be seen
Thrilling back over hills and valleys;
The cowslip startles in meadows green,
The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice...
Now is the high-tide of the year,
And whatever of life hath ebbed away
Comes flooding back with a ripply cheer,
Into every bare inlet and creek and bay...
My own version with apologies to JRL
Summertime for Readers
cfk
What is so rare as a book with bright cover
Title so clever and a favorite author
That cries out to be opened and quickly devoured
When summer provides us with beaches and leisure.
The book is the lair of a bright storyteller
It lures us to adventure and makes us more curious
It takes us on journeys and plies us with treasure
Adds light to our world and brings us great pleasure.
Song from a Secret Garden - Vocals
http://www.youtube.com/...
Because I live in a state where winter is domineering, June is a special, luxurious time. The garden begins to produce small things like radishes and lettuce and peas. Usually it is not too hot yet in June to sit outside and relish the warm breeze and birdsong. It feels like paradise. We store up memories for the winter to come.
What kind of books fit the June mood, I wonder? Travel books, garden books, young adult books that are also for adults, books that make us think or the better romance stories? Self help books on photography or art, mysteries that we can read fast like eating potato chips?
We haven't mentioned mysteries for quite a while so here are a few mysteries for enjoyment.
- One set of books that makes me think of summer are the mysteries set on Martha’s Vineyard by Philip Craig that a friend in CA introduced to me.
Death in Vineyard Waters
A Beautiful Place to Die
Vineyard Deceit
Vineyard Fear
Off Season
Case of Vineyard Poison
Shootout on Martha’s Vineyard
Vineyard Blues
Vineyard Enigma
Deadly Vineyard Holiday
Murder at Vineyard Mansion
Fatal Vineyard Season
My favorite is Vinyard Blues.
Sadly, I didn’t know he had died.
Posthumous publications:
Vineyard Stalker (2007)
Third Strike (2007)
Vineyard Chill (2008)
- The Agatha Raisin stories by M. C. Beaton go down easy and unfortunately the garden part of one story was the setting of one of Agatha’s naughtier doings. She usually repents with the help of her friend, Mrs. Bloxby - the vicar's wife.
Agatha Raisin and a Spoonful of Poison (2008)
There goes the Bride (2009)
- The latest Lyn Hamilton that I could find at Barnes and Noble is The Chinese Alchemist: An Archaeological Mystery by Lyn Hamilton
It seems to be available only in e book though it is from 2008. (Someone is definitely trying to tell me something...sigh). It is available in the used books, too.
The earlier ones of Lyn’s that I liked especially:
The Maltese Goddess
African Quest
- I have fallen behind with this series, but I love Precious in the series by Alexander McCall Smith. Even in the winter I can feel like it is summer when I read this series.
The Double Comfort Safari Club (The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series #11) by Alexander McCall Smith
I seem to have neglected all my mystery writers lately, but I used to try to keep up with Kinsey and V. I.
- U Is For Undertow (Kinsey Millhone Series #21) by Sue Grafton
- Hardball (V.I. Warshawski Series #13) by Sara Paretsky
- Steve Hamilton is from Michigan and I loved his series from the UP, but his new one is not in that series and isn’t about Alex McKnight.
The Lock Artist (2009)
See his list of books set in Michigan's UP below under H.
- Robert Crais’s newest one is #2 in those featuring Joe Pike. I really like the ones with Elvis better where Joe is the backup.
The First Rule (Joe Pike Series #2) by Robert Crais
- It is a good thing I went looking because I am behind with Kate Shugak, too. These stories are set in Alaska.
Whisper to the Blood (Kate Shugak Series #16) by Dana Stabenow
A Night Too Dark (Kate Shugak Series #17) by Dana Stabenow
- Long Lost (Myron Bolitar Series #9) by Harlan Coben
- Nine Dragons (Harry Bosch Series #15) by Michael Connelly
- The Devil Amongst the Lawyers: A Ballad Novel by Sharyn McCrumb
- Look Again by Lisa Scottoline
Think Twice by Lisa Scottoline
What are your favorite mysteries, detective stories, crime, true crime, police or court stories?
Wiki has lists:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The Letter H
Mark Haddon (born 1962) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Arthur Hailey 1920–2004 Hotel, Airport
Joe Haldeman (born 1943) The Forever War
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Alex Haley (1921 – 1992) Roots
James Norman Hall (1887 – 1951) Mutiny on the Bounty (with Charles Nordhoff)
Barbara Hambly
Unschooled Wizard series
Ladies of Mandrigyn
Witches of Wenshar
Dark Hand of Magic
Jane Hamilton (born 1957) The Book of Ruth
Laurell K. Hamilton (born 1963) Guilty Pleasures, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series
Lyn Hamilton
Maltese Goddess
Thai Amulet
Magyar Venus
Etruscan Chimera
Xibalba Murders
Celtic Riddle
Mocha Warrior
African Quest
Orkney Scroll
Steve Hamilton
A Cold Day in Paradise
Winter of the Wolf Moon
The Hunting Wind
North of Nowhere
Blood Is the Sky
Ice Run
A Stolen Season
Dashiell Hammett (1894 – 1961) The Maltese Falcon
Brooks Hansen Brotherhood of Joseph: A Father's Memoir of Infertility and Adoption in the 21rst Century
Thomas Hardy
Return of the Native
Far from the Madding Crowd
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse series
Mark Harris (born 1922) Bang the Drum Slowly
Thomas Harris (born 1940) The Silence of the Lambs
Jim Harrison (born 1937) Legends of the Fall
Bret Harte (1836–1902) short stories: The Luck of Roaring Camp, The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Kent Haruf (born 1943) Plainsong
Stephen Hawking A Brief History of Time
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 – 1864) The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, The Marble Faun
Vaclav Havel To the Castle and Back, Letters to Olga
Shirley Hazzard (born 1931) The Great Fire, Transit of Venus
Lian Hearn
Heaven’s Net Is Wide
Across the Nightingale Floor
Grass for His Pillow
Brilliance of the Moon
William Least Heat-Moon Blue Highways, River-Horse
Peter Hedges (born 1962) What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Ursula Hegi (born 1946) Stones from the River
Robert A. Heinlein (1907 – 1988) Stranger in a Strange Land, The Door into Summer
Joseph Heller (1923 – 1999) Catch-22
Mark Helprin (born 1947) Winter's Tale, A Soldier of the Great War
Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961)
By-Line Ernest Hemingway
Old Man and the Sea
Islands in the Sun
Sun Also Rises
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Farewell to Arms
Short Stories
Marguerite Henry (1902-1997) King of the Wind, Misty of Chincoteague
O. Henry (1862-1910) short stories: The Ransom of Red Chief
The story is here:
http://fiction.eserver.org/...
The Ransom of Red Chief
by O. Henry
It looked like a good thing: but wait till I tell you. We were down South, in Alabama--Bill Driscoll and myself-when this kidnapping idea struck us. It was, as Bill afterward expressed it, 'during a moment of temporary mental apparition'; but we didn't find that out till later. There was a town down there, as flat as a flannel-cake, and called Summit, of course. It contained inhabitants of as undeleterious and self-satisfied a class of peasantry as ever clustered around a Maypole.
Bill and me had a joint capital of about six hundred dollars, and we needed just two thousand dollars more to pull off a fraudulent town-lot scheme in Western Illinois with. We talked it over on the front steps of the hotel. Philoprogenitiveness, says we, is strong in semi-rural communities therefore, and for other reasons, a kidnapping project ought to do better there than in the radius of newspapers that send reporters out in plain clothes to stir up talk about such things. We knew that Summit couldn't get after us with anything stronger than constables and, maybe, some lackadaisical bloodhounds and a diatribe or two in the Weekly Farmers' Budget. So, it looked good.
We selected for our victim the only child of a prominent citizen named Ebenezer Dorset. The father was respectable and tight, a mortgage fancier and a stern, upright collection-plate passer and forecloser. The kid was a boy of ten, with bas-relief freckles, and hair the colour of the cover of the magazine you buy at the news-stand when you want to catch a train. Bill and me figured that Ebenezer would melt down for a ransom of two thousand dollars to a cent. But wait till I tell you...
Nat Hentoff Jazz Country, Does This School Have Capital Punishment?
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Frank Herbert (1920 – 1986) Dune
James Herriot
All Creatures Great and Small
All Things Bright and Beautiful
All Things Wise and Wonderful
The Lord God Made Them All
John Hersey (1914 – 1993)
A Bell for Adano
The Wall
Hiroshima
White Lotus
The Call
Georgette Heyer (1902-1974) The Black Moth
DuBose Heyward (1885 – 1940) Porgy
Carl Hiaasen (born 1953) Sick Puppy, Hoot, Flush
Homer Hickam
Torpedo Junction
Rocket Boys
The Coalwood Way
Sky of Stone
Patricia Highsmith (1921 – 1995) The Talented Mr. Ripley
Jim Hightower Thieves in High Places : They've Stolen Our Country and It's Time to Take It Back
Oscar Hijuelos (born 1951) The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
Julia Butterfly Hill Legacy of Luna
Tony Hillerman (1925 – 2008)
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
A Thief of Time
Coyote Wars
Talking God
Dark Wind
Skinwalkers
Fallen Man
Ghost Way
Dance Hall of the Dead
Fly on the Wall
People of Darkness
Blessing Way
Sacred Clowns
Listening Woman
Wailing Wind
First Eagle, The
Hunting Badger
Sinister Pig
Skeleton Man
Seldom Disappointed (autobiography)
James Hilton (1900–1954) Lost Horizon
S. E. Hinton (born 1948) The Outsiders
Jack Hitt Off the Road
Russell Hoban (born 1925) Riddley Walker, The Mouse and His Child
Robin Hobb
Farseer Trilogy
Royal Assassin
Assassin's Apprentice
Assassin's Quest
Liveship Traders series
Ship of Magic
Madship
Ship of Destiny
Tawny Man
Fool’s Errand
Golden Fool
Fool’s Fate
The Rain Wilds Chronicles
Dragon Keeper
Dragon Haven
Laura Z. Hobson (1900 – 1986) Gentleman's Agreement
Alice Hoffman (born 1952)
Blue Diary
Here on Earth
Practical Magic
Blackbird House
Foretelling, The
Skylight Confessions
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 – 1894) Elsie Venner
Victoria Holt (1906–1993)
Mistress of Mellyn (1960)
Menfreya in the Morning (1966)
The Shivering Sands (1969)
The Secret Woman (1970)
Shadow of the Lynx (1971)
On the Night of the Seventh Moon (1972)
The Curse of the Kings (1973)
The House of a Thousand Lanterns
Khaled Hosseini (born 1965) The Kite Runner
William Dean Howells (1837 – 1920) The Rise of Silas Lapham
Barry Hughart The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox
Langston Hughes (1902 – 1967)
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Not Without Laughter
Short Stories of Langston Hughes
The Best of Simple
Victor Hugo (1802–1885) Les Misérables
Irene Hunt (1907-2001) Up a Road Slowly, The Lottery Rose
Fannie Hurst (1885 – 1968) Imitation of Life
Zora Neale Hurston (1891 – 1960) Their Eyes Were Watching God
Aldous Huxley (1884–1963) Brave New World
I have read 39 of these authors.
Diaries of the Week
Write On! The Ingermanson Snowflake
by SensibleShoes
http://www.dailykos.com/...
How to Change US Energy in One Growing Season
by gmoke
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Helping Haiti - bookish Thursday
by RunawayRose
http://www.dailykos.com/...
An Unimaginable Choice
by Elisa
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Memorial Day: "Sacrifice, Death and Divorce"
by justiceputnam
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Book Review: The Evolution of Everything
by DarkSyde
The Evolution of Everything: How Selection Shapes Culture, Commerce, and Nature
Author Mark Sumner AKA DevilsTower
Publisher PoliPointPress
220 Pages; About $12.00 New
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Let's read a book together: Ideas: A history of thought and invention Chapter 21: The 'Indian' mind
by plf515
http://www.dailykos.com/...
NOTE: plf515 has changed his book talk to Wednesday mornings early.
sarahnity’s list of DKos authors has grown so much that she has her own diary.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
sarahnity says:
It turns out that we have quite a few authors hanging out here who have published books in the real world. A while ago, I started keeping a list of books by Kossacks, former Kossacks and Kossacks-once-removed. I was posting it each week to the diary series What Are You Reading and Bookflurries, but the list has grown long enough, that I've decided to turn it into a diary and post it as a weekly series on Tuesday evenings.
Not all Kossack authors may wish to lose their anonymity, so I am only including the author's UID if he has outed herself here (gender confusion intended). If you'd like to be included on the list, or if you know of an author who is left off, please leave a comment or email me.
(sarahnity@gmail.com)