What are you reading at the moment?

[ok-mrs-bee]

Tell us about the book which you're enjoying.  Why is it so enjoyable?  We all like different things so your impression of a book is helpful. 

I added many of the books, which were recommended on the previous thread, to my reading list, based on the poster's comments.

I've been having a crime-fest.  The most recent are ...

Scent of a Killer by Kevin Lewis - I don't really like Brit-cop books - too depressing - and this was no exception.  (What is it with British cops?)  However, apart from some mistakes which should never have got past a decent editor, it was very readable with a good, if meandery, storyline.

The HIdden Man by David Ellis - This author has been likened to John Grisham crossed with Harlen Coben.  Being a fan of both, I poo-pooed this idea.  That was, until I read the book.  How wrong I was!  It is a gripping, fast read and deserves the comparison.

[pinkie_05]

Just finished the fourth in Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series, good wee read, police story with a difference.

[vamo48]

I was about to ask for recommendations in crime fiction, so thanks for that, Pinkie! Not read any of his.  I like private eye and police novels, but am really fed up with the clues-carved-on-the-bodies type!  I like a wide range of authors including Sue Grafton, Peter Temple, Alex Gray, Ian Rankin and Ken McClure.

[jonnoian66]

Not picked a book up in a few months now (shame on me) but finally ordered Tana French - In the woods, heard good things about this book and been meaning to read it for a few years now but never got round to it.

[robynpeter]

Just finished reading the 6th book by Sophie Hannah.. Little Face. Point of Rescue. Hurting Distance. Kind of Cruel etc...

Thoroughly enjoyed them.

Started to read Stephen King  11/22/63   but got bogged down by all the detail he shoves in.. Shame , it looked like a real good story.. 😞

[robynpeter]

Also read Gone Girl..can't remember who wrote it.. Heap of cr@p.

[ok-mrs-bee]

Robyn, thank you, I'm so glad I'm not alone in thinking that Gone Girl was over-hyped.  It is no more than an accomplished story.  I think the success of Gone Girl owes much to the use of English in the writing.  There is no doubt that the use of language made me pause and admire. 

I've just read, 'In the Company of Liars' by David Ellis.  The plot would put Gone Girl in the shade.  David Ellis has written a story backwards.  I didn't think it could work, but it does, very satisfyingly.

Before that I read, Pure by Julianna Baggott.  It is a Sci Fi book with some stunning ideas but it failed to engross me. 

Thank you, Pinkie, for the Ben Aaronovitch recommendation.  I'll look out for those.

I've just started, The Colour of Law by Mark Gimenez. 

[rose2008-2008]

I am reading The Kabul Beauty School by Deboragh Rodriguez.

Very good book if a bit sad and frightening in parts. 

[rose2008-2008]

I am now reading the Cleaner of Chartres by Salley Vickers. The cleaners life is slowly unfurled with most enexpected things cropping up in her past that you would never have thought. Its happy and sad this story. im only a little way in but its gripped me. 

[pinkie_05]

Have finished Random by Craig Robertson, story based in Glasgow, murder story with a twist, bit violent & not for the faint hearted.

Now on the fourth in The Awakened series by Jason Tesar - sort of fantasy adventure-ish, sorry not a great explanation will cp a bit of  the blurb from elsewhere: In his bestselling debut series, Jason Tesar launches an epic saga that will journey from earth’s mythological past to its post-apocalyptic future, blending the genres of fantasy, sci-fi, and military/political suspense. The physical dimension is fractured. What remain are numerous fragmented worlds moving simultaneously through time, sharing a common history, connected only by a guarded portal.  

Well that'll probably put you off....   Not a bad read though and for those with electronic book thingys the first book is a freedownload at the moment.

[pinkie_05]

Vamo, try James Craig's Inspector Carlyle series, very enjoyable.

[ok-mrs-bee]

Thanks, Pinkie, for the Ben Aaronovitch recommendation.  I'm currently reading, 'The Rivers of London', and look forward to others in the series.

As for Jason Tesar -  I was disappointed.  He has a novel, fantasy / SF, idea but his characters are so bland that I can't even remember anything about them.  I really do need to engage with the characters in a novel for it to gel.

[vamo48]

Thanks, Pinkie, will look out for James Craig.

[*bagmonster*]

Hi, I have re discovered Stephen King after reading The Shining on holiday. Devoured Needful Things and now on Insomnia. have collected some more of his but many more to find!

Also love Stephen Booth, Peter Robinson, Peter James,Robert Goddard to name a few others.

Gave up on James Patterson awhile ago, his early stuff is great but the more recent books co written are awful.

[pinkie_05]

Finished the fourth book expecting it to be the last in the Awakened series and it wasn't - that's the worst about electronic readers unless you keep an eye on the percentage thingy you don't know you're coming to the end of the book

Now on Inspector Carlyle / Then we Die - 5th book in the series so far, these stories are always a good wee read.

I also dip in and out of Mark Stevens' Broadmoor Revealed: Victorian Crime & the Lunatic Asylum.

[ok-mrs-bee]

My daughter introduced me to the Kindle, 'ELE' series, by Rebecca Gober and Courtney Nuckels.  This is a teen science fiction series which is enjoyable for all SF lovers,

'Project ELE' is the first in the series and is free on Kindle.  There is no print edition but I hope that a publisher will pick it up because it is very good.  The post-apocalyptic story follows a group of teens who have been sequestered in a dome with other privileged survivors.  I've just done what I never thought I would do and paid money to buy an e-book.  I really want to know what happens next so I had to spend £1.91 to buy the second book in the series.  Clever marketing!

Meanwhile, I'm re-reading the Petaybee (Powers That Be) books of Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough.  I bought the second of the Twins books recently and wanted to enjoy the story from the start before I read it,  It's a long time since I read the early  ones.

[pinkie_05]

Thanks for that Mrs Bee, I've downloaded 'Project ELE' and bought the second in anticipation, just finishing off another Jason Tesar 'Wandering Stars' and then I'll read Ele.

[ryalto-books]

just read something called the memory keepers daughter about twins split up at birth one has downs syndrome and is given away.  not a bad read.

[rose2008-2008]

I am reading Reconstructing Amelia, by Kimberley McCreight. Its very sad even to start but it seems a good read so far. Seems as if it could be true of things that happen in life as youngsters are growing up.

[ok-mrs-bee]

I bought the rest of the ELE e-books and they got weaker and weaker.  Sad, really, because the first book (free) was so good.

I have just read The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey - (there's an author whose parents read Tolkien!).  I found it delightful.  Look at the bumf on book websites and you might think you're in for a downer, but it isn't.  Ivey entwines a tale of early farming in Alaska with an old Russian folk story. I can almost see the three main female characters and as for the landscape ...

It is a book which will stay in my mind.

[len4693]

I am almost at the end of Isaac Asimov's Foundation's Edge. I read the first three of the Foundation series and found them fascinating but this one is like a poor Star Trek episode. I'm on page 300 and I don't really care if Gaia is the old Earth or what the consequences may be if it is or it isn't. However, I am also reading Cornelia Funke's Inkheart and at last, after a long time, I have found a children's (or young person's) novel that offers some depth in its story telling. I am only a quarter of the way through but I feel that I have to finish it - not because I want to know what happens next - but because I have become involved in the author's very adult convolusions twining within literature and attaching themselves to our intelligence and consciousness. Oh dear, I feel as if I have expressed myself as a literary Sheldon Cooper. Sorry - but I am enjoying reading it.