What we're reading, the MTS edition

muse said:

Just finished 11.22.63 by Stephen King. It's a monster of a book, running to 734 pages.

I'm not a big fan of time travel - it makes my head hurt - and this one was no exception. My head hurt, a lot! But no one does characters like King. Before I knew it I was sucked in and had to read on to see what happened to all those lovely characters.

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Will check that one out, too, Muse. I've read other Stephen King books and enjoyed them.

Okay, just finished Black Echo, by Michael Connelly. First, two points. Yes, I do read very fast, a skill honed since childhood. Second, I had a fair amount of extra reading time this afternoon at the dentist's, where I spent about two hours getting stage one of a new crown. But, fortunately, I'd brought my Kindle and could keep reading Black Echo.

I'd give this one about 4.5 out of 5 stars. It was not an on-the-edge-of-your-seat thriller, but rather focused more on the characters. I really liked the MC, Harry Bosch, in part because he's an insomniac (as am I) but also because I felt like I got to know him. A cynical, not so old but world-weary guy who is fed up with the managing-up bureaucratic games that go on. There were also some very poignant parts that I found touching as well as humorous bits, like the two IAD detectives named Lewis and Clarke. And while I'd gotten the sense that there would be a twist at the end, it wasn't entirely what I'd expected but also wasn't entirely out of the blue, either. A good read that I can recommend to others.

Next up is Black Ice, another Michael Connelly book. (My library had three books -- Black Echo, Black Ice, and Concrete Blonde -- as a package e-read deal.)

Look forward to hearing what others are reading at the moment. Cheers!

You guys! I just read A Dangerous Fiction by AWer BarbaraR (Barbara Rogan) and it was fantastic!

It's set in the world of publishing -- you learn a lot about the business just by reading it.

I just can't say enough about how great it is! I highly recommend it.

Reading 'Clare Dewitt and the Bohemian Highway' by former Southland staff writer Sara Gran. (Here). I'm loving it. Sort of a grown-up, fucked-up Nancy Drew. I'd pretty much read anything by Gran at the moment but this is totally recommended.

I got half-way through Dean Koontz 77 Shadow Street and had to put it down. It was such a chore to read. I didn't seem to connect with the characters at all.

Odd, because I usually love Koontz.

Now reading Buried Alive by J.A Kerley and I'm flying through it. Very enjoyable read.

Reading Kwik Krimes, an anthology of 80+ crime stories of 1,000 words or less. Don't care for the title much, but I love the book, well most of it anyway.

Just finished "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn. Hmm...... how to describe it? Liked certain aspects of it, others not so much. Ending left a bit to be desired. But then, what do I know? It's been made into a movie.

Anyone else read it? What did you think?

vagough said:

Just finished "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn. Hmm...... how to describe it? Liked certain aspects of it, others not so much. Ending left a bit to be desired. But then, what do I know? It's been made into a movie.

Anyone else read it? What did you think?

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I read it. I thought it was awesome, very original and brilliantly written. I'm also one of the few people i know who liked the ending.

I'm about a third of the way through Dodger by Terry Pratchett. I've never read any of his work before. Not sure if I am going to finish it.

Mark, HJ, here's what I liked about Gone Girl:
--I very much liked the writing style, which I thought was fabulous. She has a very easy, smooth, readable prose that pulls one along even through those parts where the action and momentum dragged a bit. And she had a great balance between big-picture sweep and details that added color and vibrancy.
--She created characters (especially Nick, to me at least) who were vivid and memorable, with multiple layers of personality and character, though admittedly that character did not necessarily rise to something admirable.
--The basic premise of the plot was engaging and really hooked the reader (including me) into the story. Basically, "did he or didn't he?" is a great hook and one that wasn't answered right away, as it should be, followed by "will she or won't she?" in the second half.

What I liked less well:
--There were places where I felt a bit manipulated as the reader, especially by the way Nick describes his actions (or lack thereof) in the first half. It's one thing for Amy's diary to be framed the way it was; it was quite another to have a character kind of come across as intentionally misleading the reader.
--The overall structure seemed a tad out of balance, with the first 50% lagging in places and then the ending coming all in a rush in the final 10%. This is what annoyed me about the ending -- not that it ended the way it did (I had no problems with that) but that it seemed all crammed in, even though there were places at the very end where the tension almost crackled off the page. Why not exploit that more fully and cut the slower bits at the beginning?
--There were just enough logical inconsistencies and non-sequiturs to leave me thinking wait a minute, this contradicts what happened before, or if X happened before, then how can Y be happening now, or gee, if Amy's so smart about X, then how could she be so dumb about Y when Y is the logical outcome, or please, was her dumb Missouri neighbor really so dumb that she didn't notice there wasn't any water in the toilet when she tried to flush it?

So, all in all, a book that was a good read, but with caveats.

Just finished Michael Connelly's A Darkness More Than Night. Read it for the first time several years ago, but what the heck: Harry Bosch, a retired FBI profiler, Hollywood, Catalina Island, 15th-century art, a crazed serial killer, and (of course) Connelly's superb writing.

What's not to like?

Best wishes,
Peter DiChellis

PS - You can now read my latest mystery story free (linked in signature line below) by using Amazon's 'Look Inside' feature. Reed Farrel Coleman's stellar intro essay on the PI subgenre is free via that same feature.

heyjude said:

Including me. I thought it was brilliant, start to finish.

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Add me to that list. I loved Gone girl.
Right now I'm reading Book two of Game of Thrones. Really loving it. Started watching it on Netflix as well. Really difficult to keep from spoilers! I just learned today that another character I love dies!

Recently finished Sandra Brown's latest thriller, Deadline. Very good! As always, a twist I never saw coming.

Just finished Stolen Souls by Stuart Neville.

A nice gritty read, brilliant dialogue - really captures the 'feel' of Belfast.

Driven by James Sallis

muse said:

Just finished Stolen Souls by Stuart Neville.

A nice gritty read, brilliant dialogue - really captures the 'feel' of Belfast.

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Hmmm, don't know him at all, Muse. The only book of his that our library has is Ratlines, so I've just gotten that on Kindle loan.

And Then There Were None. Liking it so far.

vagough said:

Hmmm, don't know him at all, Muse. The only book of his that our library has is Ratlines, so I've just gotten that on Kindle loan.

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Let me know what you think of it. Stolen Souls was the first book by him that I've read.

sheadakota said:

Add me to that list. I loved Gone girl.

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I hated it. The writing was fine, but I found it predictable. I never try to figure out what's happening when I read - I'm just along for the ride - but with this one for some reason I knew most of what was happening before it was revealed, and I thoroughly disagreed with the ending.

muse said:

Just finished Stolen Souls by Stuart Neville.

A nice gritty read, brilliant dialogue - really captures the 'feel' of Belfast.

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This one's in my TBR pile. I really enjoyed the first books in this series, Ghosts of Belfast and Collusion. Stolen Souls has such a different plot description that I've been hesitating. You just moved it up a few notches, muse.

I just finished The Maltese Falcon. It goes without saying that it is excellent.

I also just shelved an urban fantasy called Sixty One Nails by Mike Shevdon. I just couldn't get into it, and tbh would rather have just read Neverwhere again. It was going over much the same ground, just not as well...

Just finished re-reading more classic Michael Connelly. This time it was Trunk Music: Harry Bosch, feds and mobsters, a sleazy movie producer found murdered in the trunk of his Rolls Royce, and, oooh-weee . . . Vegas, baby!!

How can you not love it?

Best wishes,
Peter DiChellis

pdichellis said:

Just finished re-reading more classic Michael Connelly. This time it was Trunk Music: Harry Bosch, feds and mobsters, a sleazy movie producer found murdered in the trunk of his Rolls Royce, and, oooh-weee . . . Vegas, baby!!

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I read that one recently, too, Peter, and liked it very much. Am now about halfway through The Black Box, which is about a cold case that Harry Bosch picks up.

Most recent completed book was Hunting Eve, the second in a trilogy by Iris Johansen. Maybe I should have started with the first one (Taking Eve), because I sure couldn't get into this one. By the second half of the book, I was just word-surfing the pages. Anyone read Johansen? Any other books of hers that would be better reads?

Still reading game of Thrones.Holy cow these books are loooong. Or maybe I'm just really slow.

vagough said:

I read that one recently, too, Peter, and liked it very much. Am now about halfway through The Black Box, which is about a cold case that Harry Bosch picks up.

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Yeah, Trunk Music was wild storytelling. Glad you liked it. Connelly is just superb. I liked the intrigue of the Black Box, and the cold case aspect brings in a different angle. A dark story, for sure.