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| mitty |
 Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 8:16 pm |
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Joined: 02 Aug 2004
Posts: 1359
Location: Way Down Yonder.......
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I'm trudging my way through The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. It isn't that the book isn't informative, interesting and well written. It's just that when I've read 20-30 pages I fall asleep. 
He has some horrifying and fascinating information, well presented. Certainly makes one never, ever want to use anything plastic in any universe. Crikey. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2014 11:06 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Mitty, have you tried any of Charles Stross's Laundry Files novels? The protagonist, Bob Howard, works in a British government agency much like MI6, except that its purpose is to cope with the occult and magical adversaries that are always making trouble (that traffic congestion on the M3 yesterday wasn't really caused by a overturned truck--there was a medusa turning people to stone, and she had to be taken out). They're funny and clever and sometimes a bit too convoluted, but I find them rather addictive. My favorite Stross is still the first one I read--"Glasshouse," not part of a series--but the Laundry is a fascinating construct. (I read one Dresden novel but didn't get hooked. I do want to check out Harry Hole, though.) |
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| mitty |
| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2014 12:04 pm |
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Joined: 02 Aug 2004
Posts: 1359
Location: Way Down Yonder.......
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No, I'd not even heard of the Laundry Files! Sounds interesting, thanks for mentioning. 
I just finished the 6th Harry Dresden...Um...Dead Beat. They do improve as they go on, but I'm not compelled at the moment to pick up the next one. But it made a great palette cleaner after The World Without Us. hah
I was rather falling asleep on TWWU, for a while, but it picked up nicely, and while telling more or less what could happen if humans disappeared, Weisman also covered much of the history of many places, interesting stuff. The history of the Panama Canal, an interesting little town in Cyprus, Varosha...it was a newly built touristy sort of place and was caught in the war, then some tried to rebuild. The engineer that was sent told an interesting story.
Weismann told of the underground city....Cappadocia. Fascinating stuff.
The way he described the Houston/Galveston/Texas City area and what could happen was terrifying.
BTW, this last Nesbo I read was not a Harry Hole, but with Harry Hole, I picked up with The Redbreast. Devil's Star and The Snowman are good too. I don't think one has to read them in order. Not that they are stand alones, but enough is told in each to keep the reader more or less in touch with the past, at least as needed for that particular story. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2014 4:15 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6944
Location: Black Hills
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Funny, I just picked up a Nesbo (who I had not heard of) novel the other day, "The Son." Not one of the Hole series. Very readable, though the translator is so very British that he has all these Norwegians talking like Brits and it sounds a little odd.
For some reason, I want to misread the name Jo Nesbo, as "Jones, Bo." |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| mitty |
| Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2014 9:12 pm |
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Joined: 02 Aug 2004
Posts: 1359
Location: Way Down Yonder.......
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Carrobin, I just downloaded The Atrocity Archive and a previously unpublished novella, The Concrete Jungle. Both sound good.
Have you heard of The Rook by Daniel O' Malley? Somewhat along the same lines, but with a wonderful twist that the reader is made aware of at the beginning. Here is the review I wrote last year for it.
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The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
"Dear You,
The body you are wearing used to be mine. The scar on the inner left thigh is there because I fell out of a tree and impaled my leg at the age of nine."
Thus begins one of the strangest book journeys I've taken.
Myfanwy Alice Thomas, or her body at least, awakens in a park, in the rain, with many bodies surrounding her, all wearing latex gloves. No memory, soaked to the skin, with two black eyes, she finds two notes in her jacket pocket. What follows is at first a missing person mystery. But, what if you are the missing person, and you haven't a clue? The story evolves into a spy story as it becomes obvious Myfanwy is.......just what she isn't sure at first.
In what I consider a fantastic twist, she finds she has amazing, "powers". The notes found in her pocket give her some information, and a choice. I'll leave it to you to find out what those choices are, and the course she decides upon. Whoever "she" is. Perhaps she is Myfanwy, perhaps not.
I truly loved the fascinating combination of mystery, spy story, and science fiction/fantasy. The combination is just right for fans of all of the above genres.
Oh, yes. O'Malley is writing a sequel.
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| mitty |
| Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2014 9:14 pm |
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Joined: 02 Aug 2004
Posts: 1359
Location: Way Down Yonder.......
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bartist wrote: For some reason, I want to misread the name Jo Nesbo, as "Jones, Bo."
 Good one! |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 12:12 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Sounds like a novel I'd enjoy, Mitty--I'll consider it for my next B&N discount purchase. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 7:49 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12890
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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mitty wrote: Syd, just discovered the Dresden Files...have read the first five. Funny as hell. I am quite enjoying them.
Also have started the Jane Whitefield series by Thomas Perry. Boy, can he write!
You're one up on me, then. I just got the fifth one in the mail. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| mitty |
| Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2014 8:54 pm |
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Joined: 02 Aug 2004
Posts: 1359
Location: Way Down Yonder.......
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Syd wrote: mitty wrote: Syd, just discovered the Dresden Files...have read the first five. Funny as hell. I am quite enjoying them.
Also have started the Jane Whitefield series by Thomas Perry. Boy, can he write!
You're one up on me, then. I just got the fifth one in the mail.
I like them Syd, just not too many in a row.
I ran across a new (to me) author, British, detective...I'll post the review I wrote.
The Unquiet Grave by Steven Dunne 5/5
Detective Inspector Damen Brook, a disgraced Derby detective has been assigned to the Cold Case Unit of Derby Constabulary. His superiors feel burying Brook in cold cases will further punish the just returning from suspension policeman. Brook is assigned to work with retired Inspector Clive Copeland to comb through decades of unsolved murders. The files he is handed are child murders that go back 60 years.
Dunne has built a suspenseful police procedural that is multi-layered, and complex. It is rife with emotional connections that span six decades of friendship, trust, and unrequited love, and a murderer that operates with a cold cunning and twisted logic that is ever so patient.
Rarely have I read such a complex murder mystery, it satisfies on all levels. Dunne's prose is clear and concise, cutting to the heart of the matter eloquently. His character building is impeccable and thorough. The reader knows these characters, and finally their motivations.
Highly Recommended. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2014 9:41 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| A Derby detective--got to check out that one. (Alan Bates was from Derbyshire.) I love Peter Robinson's Yorkshire mysteries with Detective Inspector Alan Banks--which are now a TV series, but I find it rather annoying to watch an actor who doesn't fit my image of a character going through the books' plots. |
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| mitty |
| Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 9:00 pm |
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Joined: 02 Aug 2004
Posts: 1359
Location: Way Down Yonder.......
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Quite a while back I read one of DI Alan Banks, Robinson's books.....it was well done. I'll have to see about reading some more. Didn't know there was a TV series.
Being out in the boonies, no TV antenna works, and I cut the cable almost 5 years ago, so it's either streaming or DVDs for us. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 9:33 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| My friend who makes DVDs of things he digs up on his computer sent me the British TV version of P.D. James' "Death Comes to Pemberley." I didn't even realize there was a TV version, and it was very well done--in three parts, no big names but excellent actors, beautiful Austen-era costumes and architecture and landscapes. Good show, and now I don't have to read the book. Though I might put it on my Nook to accompany "Pride and Prejudice." |
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| mitty |
| Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 4:43 pm |
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Joined: 02 Aug 2004
Posts: 1359
Location: Way Down Yonder.......
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From the reports I've seen elsewhere, this may be a case of the film version being better than the book.  Glad it turned out so well. I haven't read it, wasn't inclined after what I've read about it.
I'm rereading American Gods for a discussion elsewhere. I believe I read someplace that someone, somewhere was making a film or mini-series out of that as well. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 5:39 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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Trying to make a movie of "American Gods" seems mind-bending--maybe a series could be managed, though. It's such a complex book.
I've changed my mind about putting any more books on my Nook for a while. For the third time in a year, it froze last night and couldn't be turned off. I thought I'd have to take it back to Barnes & Noble for a replacement (I had to do that once before), but after the battery ran out I tried recharging it (which didn't work before), and it slowly returned to life. Do Kindles have these problems? I no longer think of my Nook purchases as books I'll always have tucked safely away. |
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| mitty |
| Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 6:23 pm |
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Joined: 02 Aug 2004
Posts: 1359
Location: Way Down Yonder.......
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I haven't had my kindle freeze, but it has been acting peculiarly. It'll say it's at 0% charged! but runs. Other times it really does go down all the way and won't work at all. I've procrastinated calling Amazon. But I really must. I've been using my mini iPad with a kindle app far reading kindle books.
Frankly I've never completely trusted the thing. Too ephemeral for my taste.
I remember too vividly not having electricity after hurricanes. No electricity, no e-reader. |
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