Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 910300 times)

JoanK · « **Reply #4640 on:** January 05, 2013, 01:54:07 PM »

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Pull up a comfortable chair and join us here to talk about mysteries and their authors.
We love hearing what YOU enjoy and recommend!

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Discussion Leader: JoanK

So many books, luckily so much time!

Ordered a sample of "Ice Princess" on kindle.

On the recommendation of one of you, read "The Thin Woman" by Dorothy Cannell. A light-hearted spoof on "The Thin Man". Fun. I've ordered the next in the series.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/dorothy-cannell/

Steph · « **Reply #4641 on:** January 06, 2013, 06:37:38 AM »

Finished the Susan Isaacs.She used to be a favorite, but now.. I think she ran out of ideas..This was sort of a retread of an earlier book..Different characters, but the same underneath.

FlaJean · « **Reply #4642 on:** January 06, 2013, 10:14:51 AM »

Joank, the Dorothy Cannell books sound good. Was looking for something light.

Several years ago I bought an older book of Sarah Isaacs Shining Through at a book sale. It was excellent but other books of hers I didn't care for at all.

JeanneP · « **Reply #4643 on:** January 06, 2013, 07:24:45 PM »

We are finding that more and more now. Good writers just trying to put out to many books. So they are not making sure they are good stories.

Steph · « **Reply #4644 on:** January 07, 2013, 06:23:12 AM »

I finished an older Janet Evenovich between the numbers book.. Plum Lucky.. Diesel is funny and there is a wonderful car wash scene, that is worth reading the book just for that.. She can put together the most outrageous scenes..

JoanK · « **Reply #4645 on:** January 07, 2013, 04:48:13 PM »

I had read two books by a Chinese writer --one I liked, the second I didn't finish. I read the tie-breaker, "The Red mandarin Dress." A disturbing book with two themes: the damage the (so-called) Cultural Revolution did to some people's lives, and the misogyny (hatred of women) that (according to the author) is part of the Chinese culture. And, like the others, it is full of poetry.

Not a light read, but makes you think. I'll read more

Steph · « **Reply #4646 on:** January 08, 2013, 09:05:22 AM »

Joan,, sounds interesting.. who is the author?

marjifay · « **Reply #4647 on:** January 08, 2013, 10:59:46 AM »

I put The Red Mandarin Dress on my TBR list. Thanks, Joan K.

A couple books by Chinese authors I liked (not mysteries):

THE PIANO TEACHER, a novel, by Janice Y.K. Lee. The story follows a group of characters before, during and after the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in 1941. Very interesting as to the setting and what happened when the Japaneses took over. A woman and her brother collaborated with a Japanese general which may have been their only way to survive. Makes you wonder how you would have behaved had your life depended on it.

I also liked SOUL MOUNTAIN by Gao Xingjian, altho I must confess I did not finish this 510 page book.

Have you seen any films by the Chinese director Yimou Zhang? Great films, such as RAISE THE RED LANTERN, NOT ONE LESS, THE STORY OF QIU JU, and others.

Marj

marjifay · « **Reply #4648 on:** January 08, 2013, 11:15:58 AM »

Oh my, I just heard that Huell Howser died. I guess only those who live in California would know of him. He did a wonderful TV series, California Gold, on PBS TV, where he visited and told about interesting places in Calif. We loved to watch him, and followed in his footsteps to visit many new places we'd never heard of. So sad. He was only 67.

Marj

JeanneP · « **Reply #4649 on:** January 08, 2013, 12:03:40 PM »

"The Piano Teacher " sounds familiar to me. Will have to read a recap.
Love all or most books about China. Love any films but now I don't care to watch if not in English. Watched subtitles for years but no longer.
I take it that the ones you listed are "Sub titles"

marjifay · « **Reply #4650 on:** January 08, 2013, 12:50:04 PM »

Yes, Jeanne, the films I mentioned are sub-titled. I don't mind subtitles if they are large enough to read and the films are good. I dislike films where the speech is really a foreign tongue but made to sound as tho' the actors are speaking English.

Marj

maryz · « **Reply #4651 on:** January 08, 2013, 01:27:25 PM »

marjifay, we had Huell Howser over here before we let you enjoy him. We were living in Nashville when he got his start in TV there. He'll certainly be missed.

JeanneP · « **Reply #4652 on:** January 08, 2013, 03:23:50 PM »

I did order a couple of the Chinese Movies even if Subtitles. Now the ones that Dub them making it look like speaking English. These drive me crazy. Find myself watching their lips which do not move the same as the word. Will not watch them anymore.

JoanK · « **Reply #4653 on:** January 08, 2013, 03:26:44 PM »

The author is Qui Xiaollong. I admit, I avoided typing it. You may not like the book, if you feel he is too sympathetic to the misogynist murderer.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/q/qiu-xiaolong/

Steph · « **Reply #4654 on:** January 09, 2013, 06:32:51 AM »

lCarefully wrote the authors and name and will look for him..I am using Three Day Town as my car book, but thus far it is not my favorite Maron book.. I like Judge Knott back in her own town..

Babi · « **Reply #4655 on:** January 09, 2013, 08:56:23 AM »

Me, too, JEANNE. It was always so obvious the actor had said something other than what you heard. Now that CC is a requirement for me, I'll never again watch a dubbed film.

JoanK · « **Reply #4656 on:** January 09, 2013, 02:44:07 PM »

Looking in the linrary, you only need to remember that his name begins with X. There aren't a lot of authours in that section.

Took to bed a library book that it turned out I had already read I HAVE to start keeping a list!). But pleasant enough to reread. "Well Offed in Vermont." by Meade. I see in FF that she has a "Rosie the Riviter" series. Has anyone read it?

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/m/amy-patricia-meade/

Steph · « **Reply #4657 on:** January 10, 2013, 06:24:22 AM »

Found him with only one l.. in my book swap and ordered one of the books.. Rosie the Riveteer.. hmm. full name for the author?? please.

JoanK · « **Reply #4658 on:** January 10, 2013, 03:25:18 PM »

It's at the end of the link name that I posted: Amy Patricia Meade.

The first book is "Don't Die Under the Apple tree". I started to read it last night. The writing is clunky, but I like it for the background. (If you want to know how to rivit a ship, this is the book for you). And I suspect the portrayal of the harrassment of the women by the male workers and overseers is accurate.

Steph · « **Reply #4659 on:** January 11, 2013, 06:24:56 AM »

I will look on my bookswap site. They have an amazing amount of books and I have tons of credits.

JoanK · « **Reply #4660 on:** January 11, 2013, 03:49:41 PM »

Finished "Don't Die." Not great writing or plotting, but I liked the picture of life as a riveter. A friend said her sister was a riviter and worked in the cone of an airplane: now I appreciate what that meant. (No Apple trees in the story).

The second in the series won't be available til May.

Steph · « **Reply #4661 on:** January 12, 2013, 06:50:21 AM »

I have it on my wish list. She has written several series according to my swap club..

mabel1015j · « **Reply #4662 on:** January 12, 2013, 12:56:19 PM »

I picked up a book at he library book sale that may turn out to be a good one. It is titled "The Librarian" by Larry Beinhart who wrote "An American Hero" which became the move "Wag the Dog". Fantastic Fiction says:

How on earth did nebbish university librarian David Goldberg end up on Virginia's Ten Most Wanted Criminals list for bestiality? And how did he get ensnared in a vast right-wing conspiracy to steal the presidency? It all begins so innocently when Goldberg starts moonlighting for eccentric, conservative billionaire Alan Carston Stowe as an archivist. But Goldberg's appointment worries a cabal of ruthless right-wingers-ostensibly allies of Stowe, whose money lubricates their zany scary conspiracies-with very close ties to the White House. They fear that Goldberg will find something in Stowe's records that will compromise the dirty tricks involved in re-electing Augustus Winthrop Scott, the dim scion of a powerful Republican political family, for a second term. As the presidential election heads into its final stretch, the hunt is on to remove Goldberg from his position-by any means necessary. The acclaimed, Edgar-winning mystery writer Larry Beinhart returns with this timely novel. In the tradition of Carl Hiassen, Elmore Leonard, and Joe Klein, The Librarian is a frenetic, scary and hilarious thriller that goes deep into the dark heart of election year politics.

So far - 70 pages in, - FF is right. It's well written and subtlely funny. Also some literary references, of course! I'll let you know how it goes.

Jean

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #4663 on:** January 12, 2013, 01:01:40 PM »

That sounds like one I will really like...putting it in my little blacknotebook as one to look for at the library. Speaking of which, I had 7 books on my request list; most of them had many, many in line. All of a sudden, I have four of them, with only three left with 20 or more still in front of me. Lot of folks may have gotten a book, didn't like it and returned it quickly! Thus moving me up on the queue.

MaryPage · « **Reply #4664 on:** January 12, 2013, 01:13:41 PM »

Well, I just finished reading Julia Spencer-Fleming's IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER. And I bought the hymn (from iTunes) as sung by the Robert Shaw Chorale (remember them?) for .99¢ and put it on my iPad so I could listen along while reading. I do love that hymn anyway, and now I love it even more.

What a good read! No wonder she won so many prizes for this book. I have never in my entire lifetime of reading with such a huge thirst read such a wonderfully descriptive story of two people falling in love. This writer is truly gifted. Her abilities seem almost unlimited.

And there is so much in our backgrounds to make us soul sisters. We were both born army brats. I know Plattsburgh Air Force Base extremely well, as my mother, who was an Army nurse, was stationed there for some time and, because that part of New York State was her family home for hundreds of years, she went there to shop in the base commissary and to use the medical facilities after retirement. I used to go up to AuSable Forks to visit my mother at least once a year, and, after she got sick, several times a year, and then at the end I stayed from June to October up there with her, so Plattsburgh became very familiar. And the drive up was up the Northway, which has won a prize as the world's most scenic highway, and through Glens Falls and up to Lake George, the section of New York State in the book. Oh, the book does not mention Plattsburgh that I can remember; it just appears in the author's biographic paragraph as the place in which she was born.

Anyway, we have that part of our country in common, and then I was born and raised Episcopalian and my twin first cousin was a female Episcopalian priest, like the heroine in this book. Bea died in 1994, but she was a lot like Clare philosophically. Yes, I love this book and look forward to the next 6 in this series. Thank you, someone in here; I forget who.

JoanK · « **Reply #4665 on:** January 12, 2013, 01:30:08 PM »

Mary: I love that series, too, even without the parallels to my own experience.

Mabel: There's a zany adventure movie series about a librarian ("I'm a librarian: I know pain!) with Bob Newhart as a zany recluse. Could it be based on the book.

Answer: no, that's another author. Ordered a sample of Beinhart for my kindle. (AAAACK, I have today to read the next section of Herododus for the discussion AND the whole of the latest Evanovitch before I pass it on to my daughter)

Babi · « **Reply #4666 on:** January 13, 2013, 08:32:53 AM »

Sounds good, JEAN. And my library has it! 'The Librarian' will go on my
book list.

Ah, yes, JOANK. All that, and the multiple thick crossword puzzle magazines I
got for Christmas, as well. There's just no end to the demands on our time.

marjifay · « **Reply #4667 on:** January 13, 2013, 09:21:12 AM »

Mary, Julia Spencer-Fleming's next book after Bleak Midwinter is even better: A FOUNTAIN FILLED WITH BLOOD. I have her third on hold at the library, OUT OF THE DEEP I CRY.

Marj

MaryPage · « **Reply #4668 on:** January 13, 2013, 09:39:37 AM »

I bought all SEVEN (7) of them from Thrift books. Paid less than twenty-five dollars for the entire set; each one bought as a separate item. I felt I had a bargain there.

My first name is MaryPage, and I am never called Mary. Not complaining here, as I really don't care, but just explaining that Page is not my last name. I have been MaryPage all of my life; like Betty Jane or Mary Ann or Peggy Sue. Yep, I'm a Southerner! But my mother was from the area of New York these stories are set in.

marjifay · « **Reply #4669 on:** January 13, 2013, 09:41:44 AM »

Beinhart's The Librarian sounds good. I TBR listed it. Thanks, Jean.

Silly, but the title reminded me of the song, Marion the Librarian, from one of my favorite musicals, The Music Man: What can I do, my dear, to catch your ear...I love you madly, madly Madam Librarian...

Marj

Steph · « **Reply #4670 on:** January 13, 2013, 11:29:03 AM »

Julia Spencer Fleming hands you surprise after surprise. I loved the whole series and can hardly wait for the next one. An author who should win all sorts of prizes.

salan · « **Reply #4671 on:** January 13, 2013, 12:02:20 PM »

I am also a Julia Spencer Fleming fan. Thanks to the person here who first recommended them. I have read all of them and am eagerly waiting for the next one.
Sally

JoanK · « **Reply #4672 on:** January 13, 2013, 03:40:04 PM »

MaryPage: so sorry, I had no idea. I undrstand: I have a friend named JoyceAnne, and she hates it when people call her Joyce.

JeanneP · « **Reply #4673 on:** January 13, 2013, 07:18:33 PM »

I came from a long line where the women had those kind of names. Mary Ellen, Sarah Ann. etc. Sort of faded out when it came to me.

I was named after a aunt Jenny and a mother Anne. Jenny being my godmother. I think I was suppose to use Je'Anne. Always just went by Jeanne. People always ask. What is your middle name. In. UK using your mothers Maiden name seemed to be the thing

I remember having this girl friend whose name was Mary Martha Morrison Meir. Family must have wanted no please everyone.

None of the Men in my families had a middle name.

Steph · « **Reply #4674 on:** January 14, 2013, 06:06:42 AM »

In my family, the males always have their grandfathers names. My older son has his paternal grandfather and my younger my Dad..
I picked up Red Mist by Cornwall,, but she has turned Scarpatta into a whiny suspicious paranoid.. What an odd lady.. and the picture on the back?? Hmm, either an older picture or there have been some changes made.

JoanK · « **Reply #4675 on:** January 14, 2013, 02:14:21 PM »

" she has turned Scarpatta into a whiny suspicious paranoid.. "

I confess I always thought of Scarpetta that way: could never like her. There must be something there I'm missing, since so many people like her.

Steph · « **Reply #4676 on:** January 15, 2013, 06:06:58 AM »

I read her, but not always.. At the beginning, she had some really good plots, but then she got carried away with herself. She has the longest squib on herself on the back of the book, that I have ever seen..Oh well.

marjifay · « **Reply #4677 on:** January 15, 2013, 09:42:24 AM »

I'm reading and liking THE STONECUTTER by Camilla Lackberg. Thanks for recommending it, MaryPage. Her first two, Ice Princess and The Preacher, will be discussed in the Yahoo group 4_Mystery_Addicts in February and March, so I think Stonecutter will be discussed in April. That is one of my favorite book groups -- they really know their mysteries.

Marj

Babi · « **Reply #4678 on:** January 15, 2013, 09:53:17 AM »

That is an interesting first name, MARYPAGE. And since of those Southern 'double'
names are written separately, yours may be unique. Ah, nope! I see JoanK has a
friend named JoyceAnne.
JEANNE, 'Mary Martha Morrison Meir' is wonderful. It sounds like the opening
to a song. Remember "John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith"?

One of my ex's sisters married a man named Zadock Monroe Dismukes. All the eldest
sons received the same name, and in alternate generations were nicknamed 'Doc' or
'Diz'. I wonder if generation 5 and 6 continued the tradition?

JeanneP · « **Reply #4679 on:** January 15, 2013, 06:58:04 PM »

I like the way that SMITH got in at the end of that one.

I sort of go for the son's name not being the same as fathers if father still alive. Always read that if and when the "Angel of Death" came later to take one then he could be confused by the person and. taking say the younger " John Jones "instead of the Elder."John Jones"

Creepy arn't we.

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 910300 times)