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.
Thanks to several posters here and at Susan from 29’s mystery diary on Mondays, I have added some books to my trembling TBR pile along with some from my favorite authors. I am really glad when I find a new author to enjoy and I try to start back with the first book if possible to understand the story arc.
I could not wait to buy and read the newest Harlan Coben story, Six Years, so it is not on the pile any more. I read it quickly and it was a puzzle all the way through. I am not sure what I think about the story per se, but it kept me turning the pages. Sometimes that is all I want while other times I need more.
I just read In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming which is the kind of mystery that I think offers something more than a strong plot. I came to care for the two main characters as they revealed their backgrounds and how they had reached their current professions. I have put more of Julia's books on my wish list.
In any case, thanks to all of you, I have the following stories on hand:
The Baker Street Letters by Michael Robertson and I have just ordered the next two:
Brothers of Baker Street
Baker Street Translations coming out on April 2nd.
Savage Run by C. J. Box and Winterkill and Trophy Hunt.
I read the first one with Joe Pickett as a game warden in Wyoming called Open Season and ordered three more.
Ran Away by Barbara Hambly
I have read the previous books of the series with Benjamin January and I had to buy this one used.
I also just ordered, used, The Shirt on His Back which I think is the last one in the series.
I also ordered Safe House by Chris Ewan and Don’t Go by Lisa Scottoline which is coming out on April 9th.
Don't Go
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Overview
When Dr. Mike Scanlon is called to serve as an army doctor in Afghanistan, he’s acutely aware of the dangers he’ll face and the hardships it will cause his wife Chloe and newborn baby. And deep inside, he doesn’t think of himself as a warrior, but a healer.
However, in an ironic turn of events, as Mike operates on a wounded soldier in a war-torn country, Chloe dies at home in the suburbs, in an apparent household accident. Devastated, he returns home to bury her, only to discover that the life he left behind has fallen apart. His medical practice is in jeopardy, and he is a complete stranger to the only family he has left - his precious baby girl. Worse, he learns a shocking secret that sends him into a downward spiral.
Ultimately, Mike realizes that the most important battle of his life faces him on the home front and he’ll have to put it all on the line to save what’s dearest to him – his family...
I have ordered the most recent mystery by Donna Andrews as a used book, too. It is
Some Like it Hawk. Two new ones will be coming out in 2013, Hen of the Baskervilles on July 16th and Duck the Halls on October 22.
I admit that these are what I call zany mysteries and I just need the laugh. I have been sucked in by Meg’s huge family and interesting characters from the town and country.
Other types of books can also have the aspects of mysteries. I discovered a fantasy series I have been reading had a short story prequel so I ordered it and have it on my TBR pile.
The short story is Cast in Moonlight by Michelle Sagara and is found with two other stories in Harvest Moon. The times before Kaylin hit the streets running in the first novel called Cast in Shadow are often referred to in the later books and so I am glad to be able to read about them. She is a mystery in herself with her body covered by runes and her ability to heal.
In the new fantasy Turn of Light by Julie Czerneda that I am currently reading because Julie is a favorite author, one mystery has been solved that was irritating me. There are still plenty more and the solution to this one has created more hard questions. It is all the mysterious aspects of the heroine that keep me reading. The biggest question is what will happen to the poor girl and her friend if they are caged forever?
Fantasies that I just ordered for my TBR pile are:
Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb
Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh
Wool by Hugh Howey
The Hyperlink by Joel Naftali, a children’s book and a sequel to The Rendering, which is hot off the press.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
The sequel picks up where the first book ended, but now Dr. Roach's army is even more powerful. He is so strong that he is able to do the unthinkable—he's able to scan-in the CyberSkunks! What will happen to the skunks and can they survive?
Will Doug and Jamie be able to save their super-skunk friends and finally stop Dr. Roach, Commander Hund, and VIRUS before they take over the world?
In this series, thirteen-year-old Doug narrates the stories in a series of blog posts (many interrupted by either his best friend, smart girl Jamie, or the artificial intelligence who mothers him, Auntie M) about how he's trying to save the world and clear his name after being branded a terrorist and a murderer.
River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Ren Daiyan was still just a boy when he took the lives of seven men while guarding an imperial magistrate of Kitai. That moment on a lonely road changed his life—in entirely unexpected ways, sending him into the forests of Kitai among the outlaws. From there he emerges years later—and his life changes again, dramatically, as he circles towards the court and emperor, while war approaches Kitai from the north.
Lin Shan is the daughter of a scholar, his beloved only child. Educated by him in ways young women never are, gifted as a songwriter and calligrapher, she finds herself living a life suspended between two worlds. Her intelligence captivates an emperor—and alienates women at the court. But when her father’s life is endangered by the savage politics of the day, Shan must act in ways no woman ever has. In an empire divided by bitter factions circling an exquisitely cultured emperor who loves his gardens and his art far more than the burdens of governing, dramatic events on the northern steppe alter the balance of power in the world, leading to events no one could have foretold, under the river of stars.
The non-fiction story that I am reading about James Garfield,
Destiny of the Republic by Candace Millard is set up as a mystery, too. What are the doctors about to do to the poor wounded man? Lister had come to the US in person in 1876 for the United State’s Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, we are told, but he was not listened to. Tragic.
What stories are you exploring that have mysteries in them?
Diaries of the Week:
Write On! Sub Edition: What's My Motivation Here?
by Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Hill Country Ride for AIDS - going crazy
by anotherdemocrat
http://www.dailykos.com/...
RIP Chinua Achebe - some thoughts on his legacy
by pico
http://www.dailykos.com/...
The Rowan Tree - A Political Novel
by Robert Fuller
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Books Go Boom! Hemingway on Writing
by Brecht
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Political Book Club: A Reading List
by Susan from 29
http://www.dailykos.com/...
NOTE: plf515 has book talk on Wednesday mornings early