Posted: 2018/10/09 | Author: gr4c5 | Filed under: Book Reviews, E-Books, Early Review, Fiction, NonFiction | Tags: africa, Amanda Boyden, Amy Armbruster, audio books, biography, Bryce Courtenay, Dorothy Dunnett, e-books, Early Review, Ed McNain, essays, Fiction, florida, historical, hurricane, india, Judith Heimann, librarything, Miami, mystery, new orleans, NonFiction, Nora Roberts, Peter Bridgford, romance, series, short stories, Tarquin Hall, Tom Grimes, Tom Harrisson |
What can I say about September? It sucked. There. I did have something to say after all. It sucked because I didn’t diverge or divulge. I like epiphanies that flash like light bulbs and bring about great catapults of change. None of that happened. I barely did anything worth mentioning except a great trip to Colorado. Then Jones died. That really sucked. What else? I didn’t run at all. That also sucked. My uncle started hospice care and do I dare mention September is the anniversary month for my grandmother, father, and high school friend’s passings. An ugly and sucky month all the way around. Silver linings: my 14th wedding anniversary and two opportunities to hear Natalie Merchant sing. Then! And then there were the books. I can’t forget the books! Here they are:
Fiction:
- Babylon Rolling by Amanda Boyden (EB & print)
Nonfiction:
- Most Offending Soul Alive by Judith Heimann (EB & print)
- Life and Times of Miami Beach by Amy Armbruster (print)
- The Workshop: Seven Decades of ther Iowa Writers’ Workshop edited by Tom Grimes (print)
Series continuations:
- Fuzz by Ed McBain (print and EB)
- Case of the Man Who Died Laughing by Tarquin Hall (AB & print)
- The Spring of the Ram by Dorothy Dunnett (print)
- Holding the Dream by Nora Roberts (EB)
- Tandia by Bryce Courtenay (print & EB)
Early Review for LibraryThing:
- Where Eagles Dare Not Perch by Peter Bridgford (EB) – finally, finally finished it!
Posted: 2018/09/18 | Author: gr4c5 | Filed under: Book Reviews, Fiction, Lust To Go | Tags: 2018, book lust iii, book review, Fiction, india, mystery, september, series, Tarquin Hall |
Hall, Tarquin. The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing. Read by Sam Dastor.
Reason read: to finish the series started in August in honor of Rajiv Ratna Gandgi being born in August.
Vish Puri is India’s most Private Investigator. Confidentiality is his watchword. His bread and butter cases mostly consist of background and character checks for betrothed couples. In a culture where prearranged marriages are the norm it is critical for parents to know they have chosen wisely for their offspring. Other cases involve revealing hoaxes or frauds, but every once in awhile a case with more significance comes along. Such is the case of the man who died laughing. A prominent scientist while in a laughing class was seemingly murdered by the Hindu goddess Kali. She appeared to be floating above the crowd brandishing a huge sword. Many thought it was a supernatural occurrence because Kali was devoid of strings or wires. She really seemed to be hovering above the crowd. Lucky for India that Puri retained a kernel of skepticism. Along with his trusty team, Facecream, Tubelight and Flush, Puri is on the case.
Author fact: I love with when people or places connect. One of the most influential books I read earlier this year was by Emmanuel Jal who was mentored by Emma McCune. Tarquin Hall did a profile on Emma when he was a news reporter.
Book trivia: Hall started writing the Puri series in 2008. There are two others after The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing, but I’m not reading them.
Lines I liked: none enough to quote this time.
Nancy said: nothing special.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Sojourns in South Asia” (p 212). Here’s what happens when the title of a book is incorrectly indexed in Book Lust To Go: Somehow The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing was indexed as The Man Who Died Laughing. Alphabetically under M instead of C which meant that I had to change four different spreadsheets.
Posted: 2018/09/06 | Author: gr4c5 | Filed under: E-Books, Early Review, Fiction, NonFiction | Tags: africa, Amanda Boyden, Ann Armbruster, biography, books, Bryce Courtenay, coming of age, Dorothy Dunnett, Early Review, Ed McBain, Fiction, florida, hurricane, india, Judith Heinmann, librarything, lists, Miami, mystery, new orleans, NonFiction, Nora Roberts, Peter Bridgford, romance, series, Tarquin Hall, Tom Grimes, Tom Harrisson, writing |
I don’t post a lot of personal stuff on this side of the writing. Not usually. Typically, I leave all that other blathering on JustCauseICan. I may write about the run or the island, a brief sentence here or there, but of little else…except for today. When you lose someone you adore it is hard to focus. That is precisely my problem today. I am shattered by grief and only put back together again by words. So, I must read. Here are the books planned for September. I hope they heal:
Fiction:
- Babylon Rolling by Amanda Boyden – to remember Hurricane Ivan as it wreaked havoc on my 2004 September wedding.
Nonfiction:
- The Most Offending Soul Alive: Tom Harrisson and His Remarkable Life by Judith M. Heinmann – in honor of Harrisson’s birth month being in September.
- Life and Times of Miami Beach by Ann Armbruster – in honor of Hurricane Irma.
- Workshop: Seven Decades of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop: 43 Stories, Recollections, and Essays on Iowa’s Place in Twentieth Century American Literature edited by Tom Grimes – in honor of Grimes’ birth month being in September.
Series Continuations:
- Fuzz by Ed McBain – to end the series started in July in memory of McBain’s passing.
- Case of the Man Who Died Laughing by Tarquin Hall – to end the series started in August in honor of Rajiv Ratna Ganghi, India’s youngest Prime Minister’s birth month.
- Spring of the Ram by Dorothy Dunnett – to continue the series started in honor of Dunnett’s birth month (August).
- Holding the Dream by Nora Roberts – to continue the series started in honor of August being Dream Month.
- Tandia by Bryce Courtenay – to end the series started in August in honor of Courtenay’s birth month.
Early Review for LibraryThing:
Confessional: I am still reading Where Eagles Dare Not Perch by Peter Bridgford.
Posted: 2018/09/05 | Author: gr4c5 | Filed under: BookLust I, BookLust II, E-Books, Fiction, NonFiction | Tags: africa, Arnaldur Indridason, audio book, books, Bryce Courtenay, chick lit, china, civil war, colorado, crime, Donna Jo Napoli, Dorothy Dunnett, e-books, Early Review, Ed McBain, fairy tale, greece, historical, Iceland, india, Isabella Bird, Kerstin Ekman, Kirsty Needham, librarything, lists, mystery, NonFiction, Nora Roberts, Peter Bridgford, romance, Rona Jaffe, series, Sofka Zinovieff, sweden, Tarquin Hall, travel, women |
So. I’ve done a few short runs here and there. Nothing crazy, but at least I’m back in it somewhat. Spent more time with the books. Speaking of which, here they are:
Fiction:
- Under the Snow by Kerstin Ekman (EB/print)
- The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe
- The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall (AB)
- Crazy Jack by Donna Jo Napoli (EB)
- Power of One by Bryce Courtenay (EB)
- Niccolo Rising by Dorothy Dunnett (EB/print)
- Daring to Dream by Nora Roberts (EB)
Nonfiction:
- A Season in Red: My Great Leap Forward into the New China by Kirsty Needham
- A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella L. Bird
- Eurydice Street by Sofka Zinovieff
Series continuation:
- Arctic Chill by Arnuldur Indridason (EB/print) – which I forgot to mention when I was plotting the month. It’s the last book of the series -that I’m reading. (There are others.)
- Big Bad City by Ed McBain
LibraryThing Early Review:
- Where Eagles Dare Not Perch by Peter Bridgford (EB) – which came after I plotted the month of reading so it wasn’t mentioned before.
Posted: 2018/08/24 | Author: gr4c5 | Filed under: Book Reviews, Fiction, Lust To Go | Tags: 2018, august, book lust iii, book review, Fiction, india, mystery, series, Tarquin Hall |
Hall, Tarquin. The Case of the Missing Servant. Read by Sam Dastor. North Kingston, RI: BBC Audiobooks America, 2009.
Hall, Tarquin. The Case of the Missing Servant. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009.
Reason read: Rajir Ratna Ganghi, the youngest Indian Prime Minister was born in August.
Vish Puri is India’s Most Private Investigator. Confidentiality is his game. His bread and butter cases consist mostly of scoping out potential partners in a culture where prearranged marriages are the norm. Fathers consider the services Puri and his team provides a deeper background check of eligible mates for their daughters. Then one day a servant girl goes missing. Rumor has it, her own employer (a wealthy lawyer) murdered her. All the evidence points to him so this should be an easy case…
Interesting tidbit – Puri doesn’t like being compared to Sherlock Holmes. “Sherlock is a fictional character” he sniffs.
As an aside, I loved the nicknames of Puri’s Most Private investigation team. Tubelight and Facecream were my favorites.
Book trivia: The Case of the Missing Servant is the first in a series featuring Vish Puri. But, as a reader you feel as though you were dropped in the middle of Vish’s life as he remembers other, earlier cases.
Author fact: The Case of the Missing Servant is Hall’s first book.
Nancy said: nothing specific about The Case of the Missing Servant.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Sojourns in South Asia: India” (p 212).
Posted: 2018/08/01 | Author: gr4c5 | Filed under: audio book, E-Books, Fiction, NonFiction | Tags: Athens, audio book, books, Bryce Courtenay, chick lit, china, colorado, crime, Donna Jo Napoli, Ed McBain, fairytale, Fiction, greece, india, Isabella Bird, Kerstin Ekman, Kirsty Needham, list, memoir, mystery, NonFiction, Nora Roberts, romance, Rona Jaffe, series, Sofka Zinovieff, sweden, Tarquin Hall, travel |
Since the Run for Nancy was only a few days ago I am still on a high from not only running four miles, but running four miles without pain. No pain whatsoever. The pain is so gone it’s as if I imagined the whole thing. Weird. Weird. Weird. As for books, since I don’t have any other running plans in the near future:
Fiction:
- The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe – in honor of August being Chick Lit month.
- The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay – in honor of Courtenay’s birth month being in August.
- Daring to Dream by Nora Roberts – in honor of August being Dream Month (hey, I read it somewhere).
- Niccolo Rising by Dorothy Dunnett – in honor of Dunnett’s birth month being in August.
- The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall – in honor of Rajir Ratna Gandhi’s birth in August.
Nonfiction:
- A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird – in honor of Colorado becoming a state in August.
- Eurydice Street: a Place in Athens by Sofka Zinovieff – in honor of the Dormition of the Holy Virgin.
- A Season in Red by Kirsty Needham – in honor of the Double Seven festival in China.
Series continuations:
- The Big Bad City by Ed McBain – to continue the series started in July.
If there is time:
Fiction:
- Under the Snow by Kerstin Ekman – in honor of Ekman’s birth month.
- Crazy Jack by Donna Jo Napoli – in honor of Fairy Tale Month.
Posted: 2017/12/31 | Author: gr4c5 | Filed under: Early Review, Fiction, NonFiction | Tags: Alex Garland, audio book, Avarind Adiga, books, childrens book, china, Connie Willis, Dorothy Gilman, Early Review, Erin Taylor, Fiction, india, Larry Brown, librarything, Lisa Mosconi, lists, Mark Salzman, memoir, mississippi, mystery, Noel Streatfeild, NonFiction, Richard Flanagan, Running, russia, science fiction, series, short stories, Thailand, Tom Bissell, William Baring-Gould, yoga |
I opted out of the cutesy title for this blog because…well…I simply wasn’t in the mood to come up with anything clever. What was December all about? For the run it was a 5k that I finished in “about 30 minutes” as my running partner put it. I also ran a mile every day (from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day). I think I’m satisfied with that accomplishment the most because I ran even when we were traveling, even when we were completely swamped with other things going on, even when I didn’t feel like lifting a finger. Despite it all, I still ran at least one mile.
Enough of that. In addition to running I read. Here are the books finished in the month of December. For some reason I surrounded myself with some of the most depressing books imaginable:
Fiction:
-
- Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild – read in two lazy afternoons
- Fay by Larry Brown – devoured in a week (super sad).
- Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (AB/print) – confessional: I started this the last week of November fearing I wouldn’t conquer all 600 pages before 12/31/17 but I did. (again, super sad book).
- Wanting by Richard Flanagan (really, really sad when you consider Mathinna’s fate).
- Between the Assassinations by Avarind Adiga (sad).
- The Beach by Alex Garland (again, sad in a weird way).
- God Lives in St. Petersburg and Other Stories by Tom Bissell (the last of the sad books).
- Nero Wolf of West Thirty-fifth Street: the Life and Times of America’s Largest Detective by William Stuart Baring-Gould.
Nonfiction:
- Iron & Silk by Mark Salzman – read in three days. The only real funny book read this month.
Series continuations:
- Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha by Dorothy Gilman – read in the same weekend as Ballet Shoes.
Early Review for LibraryThing:
- Brain Food: the Surprising Science of Eating for Cognitive Power by Lisa Mosconi (started).
For fun:
- Hit Reset: Revolutionary Yoga for Athletes by Erin Taylor.
