What are you reading the week of March 16, 2023?

Feeling a little better this week. I've started Magnetic Mountain by Stephen Kotkin. It's pretty hefty book, so it may take me a couple of weeks to finish.

I'm about 50 pages into Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell's famous memoir of the Spanish Civil War, and finding it fascinating. Orwell can certainly paint a clear picture, and his wry sense of humor it helpful as well.

Enjoying this via Audible ~

The Hunter: A Novel
by Tana French
(Cal Hooper, #2)

Having knocked off The Tusks of Extinction, for the rest of the week I'm looking at Exordia, A Revolution in Color, and The Other Battle of Britain.

I'm reading the translated The Cat Who Saved Books: A Novel by Sosuke Natsukawa for my book club. The story is just as good as the cover so far.

The Diamond of London: A Fascinating Historical Novel of the Regency Based on True History by Andrea Penrose
A fictional memoir of Lady Hester Stanhope who defied society convention of Regency England.

This week I reread a favourite novel: The House in the Cerulean Sea, and listened to another Pride & Prejudice fanfic novel, Mary B..

Now I'm reading another novel by TJ Klune: Under The Whispering Door and am listening to a thriller called The Kind worth Killing by Peter Swanson

I finished Tropic of Cancer. This was a book of wonderful descriptions and philosophical musings but the amount of testosterone flowing throughout rather swamped the good points for me.

The Edge of the Shadows
Elizabeth George
This is the third book in the Whidbey Island Saga. Becca is still hiding out from her stepfather on the island. However, now someone is setting fires! Who is it? There are couple of suspects. There is one more book left in the series! Whidbey Island Saga

I’m reading Piñata by Leopoldo Gout as well as Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh. Both are promising so far.

Britt-Marie Was Here – Fredrick Backman
Book on CD performed by Joan Walker
3.5***

Reeling from her husband’s latest infidelity, Britt-Marie decides to seek a job and move on. The only position she can get is a temporary one, however, in the small town of Borg, as custodian at the local recreation center. But when she arrives in Borg, she finds a town that is dying, and it was only an oversight that the rec center hasn’t already been closed. Not to worry, she’s been hired to clean and cleaning she can accomplish. But Britt-Marie isn’t really prepared for the residents of Borg, particularly the children whose passion for soccer / football slowly wins Britt-Marie over to their side.

I thought this was a lovely little fairy tale. The scenarios were somewhat improbable, and Britt-Marie didn’t always behave the way I would have expected her to, but just as the residents of Borg grew on her, Britt-Marie grew on me. I found her insistence on structure exasperating at times, but I also loved how determined she was. While she kept her emotions in check, she still showed tenderness and genuine caring.

The ending was not what I was expecting (or originally what I wanted), but I think it was perfect for Britt-Marie.

Joan Walker does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. She had a lot of characters to voice, several of them women, but she sufficiently differentiated them, so it was easy to tell who was speaking. I also had the text handy though the audio uses the term “football” while the text (USA edition) uses “soccer.”

Trunk Music – Michael Connelly
Book on CD read by Dick Hill
3***

Book number 5 in the Harry Bosch series finds the detective back on the job after a previous suspension. He’s also back on homicide and he’s called to the scene of a potential mob hit. The car has been in the woods for a few days and the corpse in the trunk is pretty ripe. Harry and his new partners, Kiz Rider and Jerry Edgar, soon find themselves traveling to Las Vegas to track down leads in the case.

This is a typical Harry Bosch detective mystery. Lots of twists and turns. Lots of Harry battling against the police force bureaucrats that are the bane of his existence. It’s fast-paced and kept me guessing until pretty close to the end. I’m not sure I’m satisfied with the ending, though.

Dick Hill does a great job of narrating. I’ve listened to him voice Harry several times now. However, after the audio arrived from the library I realized it was the abridged version, so I chose to read the book rather than listen. There is an unabridged version that is also narrated by Hill.

I finished Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell's memoir of his time in Spain fighting with the anti-Fascist forces in the Spanish Civil War. Orwell presents a vivid picture, sprinkled with wry humor, of his months in the trenches in the mountains of Catalonia. There are also two detailed chapters on the fighting between the forces of the various anti-Franco militias and the central government forces in the streets of Barcelona in 1937. My longer review is posted on my 50-Book Challenge thread.

I've now started Robert Owen a short biography of a famed English social reform in the mid- to late-19th Century, written by Joseph McCabe and published in 1920.

Strange Brew – Kathy Hogan Trochek
3***

This is book six in the Callahan Garrity Mystery series, featuring former cop Callaghan and her mother, Edna, who run “House Mouse” maid service in Atlanta. Their neighborhood is seeing increased crime, but apparently is still a target for developers to buy up inexpensive properties and gentrify them. On Halloween, Wuvvy, an aging flower child who runs a toy store / head shop, confronts one of these new developers during a party at a local tavern. The next night said developer is found dead inside the Wuvvy’s shop. She swears she had nothing to do with the murder, and Callahan is inclined to believe her. But before she can really begin investigating, Wuvvy is found dead in her car, an apparent suicide.

I like this series. I like Callahan, who does have some reason to investigate and is at least skilled at it. She’s frequently helped by the House Mouse crew of eccentric ladies; I particularly like the elderly sisters Baby and Sister. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep even the best amateur sleuth guessing, and I didn’t figure out the perpetrator much before Callahan did.

Another satisfying cozy mystery from this author, and I’ll keep reading the series.

I am reading The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel. I read The Paris Wife by Paula McLain last month.

The new thread is up over here.

That's weird. I got a message saying the previous message was a duplicate post. Perhaps it's some spam filter they've implemented. I guess that I'll have to start wording them differently.