What Fiction are you reading this week, March 26, 2023?

[hermetic]

UCSD Geisel Library

I'm reading Desert Star by Michael Connelly, the 26th Harry Bosch Novel. Bosch is retired now but is still haunted by a case that he was never able to crack -- the murder of an entire family by a psychopath who still walks free. He signs on as a volunteer for old friend Renee Ballard's new Open-Unsolved Unit where hopefully he can find answers.
I always enjoy writers who talk about real music in their books and Connelly has just led me to listen to some King Curtis which is really good. Check out his version of Whiter Shade of Pale. I'll be on the lookout for more.

Listening to The Strange Disappearance of a Bollywood Star by Vaseem Khan. Rising star and incorrigible playboy Vikram Verma has disappeared, leaving his latest film in jeopardy. Hired by Verma's formidable mother to find him, Inspector Chopra and his sidekick, baby elephant Ganesha, embark on a journey deep into the world's most flamboyant movie industry. As Chopra has long suspected, in Bollywood the truth is often stranger than fiction.

What books are you enjoying this week?

[bucolic_frolic]

1. After She's Gone - Camilla Grebe

I set into my local library with the intent of finding a book not on the 65 best seller lists, and it was a hard task. This one is written in Swedish, and translated. And while the translation and editing software had a glitch or two here or there, the quality of content into the thoughts of the characters is a notch or two above the average American grind. That's one of my main beefs with todays literary market. I see the same authors on the new book shelves every month. I've tried a few ... I ask myself, they published this? Who signed off on it, why didn't they edit it? Computers have reduced entry barriers, as has Amazon publishing. In 1950 you could bet the cream of the crop made it to print. Publishers had skin in the game, investors to reward, career editors and agents who survived the battle. Not so any more. I haven't picked up a book in the last 20 years without one or several grammatical mistakes, be it a missed word, mismatched pronoun, missed punctuation. I say to myself, are there no proofreaders anymore? Or does the word processor to publishing software generate these as a feature? or does Legal Department insist on them to catch plagiarizing?

[hermetic]

4. I agree

I spent a good portion of my life as a professional proofreader so I seem to always find errors in books now. My eyes aren't as good as they once were so I have to stop and reread whole sentences to figure out who made the error: me or them. It does interfere with my enjoyment of the book.

I do like Nordic noir, though, and that one sounds like a winner. "Brought together by a brutal murder, a psychological profiler who's lost her memory and a teenage boy with a fiercely guarded secret become unwitting, unlikely partners in this race to stop a killer."

Thanks.

[cbabe]

9. Most proofreading jobs are below minimum wage. And outsourced to non-English speaking countries.

[Srkdqltr]

2. The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear

I'm only part way into it. So far she was a saboteur in WW1. The story is set in 1947 England. I have yet to know what she did in WW2 and between the wars. Very milk interesting so far. Of course Winspear's books are all great. This is not a Mazie Dobbs.

[hermetic]

6. A new one

Sounds like it will get pretty intense: "A reluctant ex-spy with demons of her own, Elinor finds herself facing down one of the most dangerous organized crime gangs in London, and exposing corruption from Scotland Yard to the highest levels of government." Cool.

[japple]

17. I've got this book on my list. Let us know how you liked it. I am a fiend

for WWII books, esp. those that involve spies and those who worked with underground or partisans.

[Aristus]

3. A collection of short stories by Jorge Luis Borges.

Including his mind-blowing story "The Library Of Babel".

[hermetic]

5. Hi! Thanks for joining us

Borges is such a fantastic writer. Hope you get that new job.

[Aristus]

7. Thank you.

For both sentiments.

[cbabe]

8. Read Desert Star. Ok plot. Aging

Bosch in his final glory. (I think.) Felt Ballard was very thin. Much more interesting in first titles.

This week read Sandford’s Righteous Prey. Fun Lucas/Virgil humor. More like a lighthearted caper novel than thriller. Mostly.

Virgil is writing a novel so they talk book talk which is also fun.

Side note: agree publishing seems to have gone off the rails lately. A best selling author lost me when describing Puget Sound as a bay. Were they thinking of Chesapeake Bay? (East coast publishers?) Literacy does not seem to be valued as it once was.

[hermetic]

11. That Prey book is on my list,

to be read. Lighthearted capers are a welcome relief these days.

[japple]

10. Susan Straight's latest work, MECCA. Here's a description

from amazon:

From the National Book Award finalist Susan Straight, a stunning epic tracing the intertwined lives of native Californians fighting for life and land.

Johnny Frias has California in his blood. A descendant of the state’s Indigenous people and Spanish settlers, he has Southern California’s forgotten towns and canyons in his soul. He spends his days working for the California Highway Patrol pulling over speeders, ignoring their racist insults, and pushing past the trauma of his rookie year, when he killed a man who was in the midst of assaulting a young woman named Bunny, who proceeded to run away. But like the Santa Ana winds, which every year bring risk of fire, Johnny’s moment of action 20 years ago sparks a slow-burning chain of connections that unites a vibrant, complex cast of characters in ways they never saw coming.

In Mecca, the celebrated novelist Susan Straight crafts an unforgettable American epic, examining race, history, family, and destiny through the interlocking stories of a group of native Californians all gasping for air. With sensitivity, furor, and a cinematic scope that captures California in all its injustice, history, and glory, she tells a story of the American West through the eyes of the people who built it—and continue to sustain it. As the stakes get higher and the intertwined characters in Mecca slam against barrier after barrier, we find that when push comes to shove, it’s always better to push back.

I've been a big fan of Susan Straight since her 1st book--I've Been In Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots, and loved the Rio Seco trilogy. So far, Mecca, has hooked me into the many lives of her many and varied characters.

[hermetic]

12. Coincidentally,

Michael Connelly calls that one "A masterpiece."

Sounds superb.

[yellowdogintexas]

13. Murder at the Grand Raj Palace (Baby Ganesh #4)

I really like Vaseem Khan's books both serious and lighthearted.

For those of you who don't know, Baby Ganesh is an elephant who was willed to Inspector Chopra as a retirement gift from his uncle. He may be the cutest sidekick ever!! Anyway, here are the jacket notes

The last thing the venerable old hotel needs is a murder. . .

When American billionaire Hollis Burbank is found dead -- the day after buying India's most expensive painting -- the authorities are keen to label it a suicide. But the man in charge of the investigation is not so sure. Inspector Chopra is called in -- and discovers a hotel full of people with a reason to want Burbank dead.

Accompanied by his sidekick, baby elephant Ganesha, Chopra navigates his way through the palatial building, a journey that leads him steadily to a killer, and into the heart of darkness . . .

I was reading it on my Kindle and for some reason it did not charge properly, so I had to resort (gasp) to reading an actual book!
This a murder mystery by the venerable Charlaine Harris, and iss #3 in a series. It was a Christmas gift from Mr YD so I can't complain.
Shakespeare's Christmas
For Lily Bard, the idea of “going home for Christmas” summons nothing but dread. She wants to stay in her real home in Shakespeare, Arkansas, where her friendships are blooming, nobody dares mess with her, and her new private-eye boyfriend could make it a very cozy holiday indeed.

Back in Bartley, all people see when they look at Lily is a victim. But her sister is getting married, and Lily’s determined to give her family what they want. She’ll be present, be pleasant, and let her sister have the spotlight. Or so she thinks, until she discovers her boyfriend in town on a case, chasing a lead that could blow up the whole celebration.

One of the little girls in Bartley isn’t who she thinks she is. And one of the town’s respectable parents is a cold-blooded kidnapper ready to kill to hide their secrets. For her sister—and her sister’s eight-year-old stepdaughter-to-be—Lily will find the truth. Even if it means she’ll never go home again…

It's a good story, and now I definitely want to read the first 2. If I am lucky I can get them from the library.

I will do another post on the books I finished earlier in the week

[yellowdogintexas]

14. I finished two Preston & Child books (Pendergast)

City of Endless Night and Verses for the Dead.

Both were the kind you read all night and real page turners!!
Last week I added jacket notes for Verses for the Dead.

So here goes for City of Endless Night

When Grace Ozmian, the beautiful and reckless daughter of a wealthy tech billionaire, first goes missing, the NYPD assumes she has simply sped off on another wild adventure. Until the young woman's body is discovered in an abandoned warehouse in Queens, the head nowhere to be found.
Lieutenant CDS Vincent D'Agosta quickly takes the lead. He knows his investigation will attract fierce scrutiny, so D'Agosta is delighted when FBI Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast shows up at the crime scene assigned to the case. "I feel rather like Brer Rabbit being thrown into the briar patch," Pendergast tells D'Agosta, "because I have found you here, in charge. Just like when we first met, back at the Museum of Natural History."
But neither Pendergast nor D'Agosta are prepared for what lies ahead. A diabolical presence is haunting the greater metropolitan area, and Grace Ozmian was only the first of many victims to be murdered . . . and decapitated. Worse still, there's something unique to the city itself that has attracted the evil eye of the killer.
As mass hysteria sets in, Pendergast and D'Agosta find themselves in the crosshairs of an opponent who has threatened the very lifeblood of the city. It'll take all of Pendergast's skill to unmask this most dangerous foe-let alone survive to tell the tale.

I would recommend starting this book when you do not have to get up the next morning!!!

[joshdawg]

15. I've read both and totally agree with you.

[hermetic]

16. Yeah, read and enjoyed Verses

Endless Night sounds perfect for a long, sleepless night. Thanks, as ever, for your detailed descriptions. Much appreciated.