Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 910179 times)

Steph · « **Reply #4880 on:** March 07, 2013, 06:15:35 AM »

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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

Dial.. I have a note somewhere that I read one of hers.. no idea which one..Not memorable enough for me to track her down..

JoanP · « **Reply #4881 on:** March 07, 2013, 10:43:57 AM »

I hope you have had a chance to VOTE FOR the APRIL Book Club selection... the poll just opened yesterday - and already, there's a three way tie! It's really important to read the descriptions in the title links before stepping into the voting booth!

ginny · « **Reply #4882 on:** March 07, 2013, 11:58:36 AM »

I did hear from Manny and he's doing fine, Joan K, sounds in great spirits, taking it easy, and says he's enjoying the warm California sun. I loved seeing him called "the legendary Manny Nosowsky," thank you Marcie.

I'll give him your regards.

nlhome · « **Reply #4883 on:** March 07, 2013, 08:44:13 PM »

Steph, my husband told me that he lost his faith in the Catholic Church when he went to Vietnam and saw all the killing and wondered how the god he'd been brought up to believe in could let that happen.

Steph · « **Reply #4884 on:** March 08, 2013, 06:07:48 AM »

Yes, NLHome.. I saw the men who came back and what had happened to them.. Met a nurse and heard her horrors.. All in all I could not believe that our country and religions were not doing something anything to drag us out of that mess.

MaryPage · « **Reply #4885 on:** March 08, 2013, 11:02:01 AM »

There are a lot of books out now telling the people of these United States how very, very badly our armed forces acted in Viet Nam and how ashamed we ought to be. Written by those who were actually THERE. I really have a hard time understanding how those who actually served there line up on one side and the suits with ties who never served a minute and are pontificating about how great we are and how we rule the world line up on the other. And the suits are not listening to the other for a nanosecond. I fear there will be similar books in future about Iraq and Afghanistan. If a woman were president, and since women make up 51% of the population a woman SHOULD be president, I think we would only fight defensive wars, such as World War II.
When men want an attitude to rule the day, they incorporate it into a religious belief. Right now it is that we are an exceptional nation and God loves us best. Such hubris!
Born and raised right here in the good old USA, I love my country, but our way of doing things grants me the right to hate those who lead my country astray. And astray is where we have most definitely been led!

Frybabe · « **Reply #4886 on:** March 08, 2013, 12:18:41 PM »

Ah, MaryPage, your comment just jogged my memory. This morning I saw an article listed (I didn't read it until just now) titled "What if women ruled the world". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21661744 The reader comments , as far as I read them, are a bit less enthusiastic.
I'm going to post this on the politics forum also.

JoanK · « **Reply #4887 on:** March 08, 2013, 03:26:52 PM »

I love Manny's New York Times puzzles. He's the master of the really baaaad pun. if you don't groan at least once, it's not a Manny!!

Steph · « **Reply #4888 on:** March 09, 2013, 06:23:08 AM »

Elizabeth George. I like her, but oh me, this last book badly needed an editor. She seems to be writing two books in one.. I will keep going, but it is discouraging at best, and I love her.
I fear that one day we will in face see books on these wars as on Viet Nam. One of my sons in reserve went to Iran for a year.. He came home and resigned his commission in the reserves. He simply could not believe the whole experience and he was not involved in the fighting, just one of the camps.

MaryPage · « **Reply #4889 on:** March 09, 2013, 09:48:46 AM »

So sad. So unrealistic are we that it is just incomprehensible!

Steph · « **Reply #4890 on:** March 10, 2013, 06:26:12 AM »

Almost done with the Elizabeth George. It is not even really a mystery in the classic sense. I am so disappointed in the book. Some of the problem is the new woman who I really find most unpleasant. David is stupid about women.. Then Deborah is in this one more than I like. She needs to get over herself.. First she kills off Lady Helen, then writes a whole book of excuses for this and now this one.. She is close to getting put on my do not read list.

marjifay · « **Reply #4891 on:** March 10, 2013, 11:48:09 AM »

I guess you're talking about Elizabeth George's BELIEVING THE LIE, Steph? Although it was a bit too long, I was surprized that this long book kept up my interest all the way to the end. Some review called it a "melodrama" and I guess it was, but an interesting one. The only parts that I skimmed over and had trouble understanding why they were included were those with Deborah and Simon St. James.

Funniest was Sgt Haver's T-Shirt which she wore into Scotland Yard on her day off, infuriating her boss, which said "Jesus died for our sins...Let's not disappoint him." Barabara Havers is my favorite character in this series. I didn't want to see the film made of one of George's books because the woman who played Havers was slim and good-looking, which Havers defintely is not, and which for me, is part of her charm.

The book ends with a cliffhanger, so happily she'll have another one out before long.

Marj

pedln · « **Reply #4892 on:** March 10, 2013, 12:10:18 PM »

Ginny, I'm glad to hear that Manny is ok and doing well. I remember him fondly from Latin class.

Steph, I'm really disappointed to read your comments about the recent Elizabeth George. I haven't read any of hers since she killed Helen, and was hoping she would get back to her Lynley-Havers plots. Barbara Havers is my favorite in the series, too.

On Facebook, I "LIKED" (please don't tell me that's a new definition) Random House and was looking back at some of their book-cover photos and came across a writer I'd never heard of before. Susan MacNeal, whose character is Maggie Hope. The books are Mr. Churchill's Secretary and Princess Elizabeth's Spy. Are these familiar to any of you? Are they any good? Susan MacNeal

Marjifay, I loved the T-Shirt. That would shock more than a few.

MaryPage · « **Reply #4893 on:** March 10, 2013, 02:54:21 PM »

I have not read a single book since she killed off Helen, either. I do own one or two in paperback, but they sit on my bookshelves unread as yet.

I own all of the DVDs of the various series made from these books by the BBC. I did not find the Barbara Havers actress all that physically attractive and I thought she fit the role very well. Different strokes for different folks, as they say.

JoanK · « **Reply #4894 on:** March 10, 2013, 04:29:28 PM »

I admit to having given up on Elizabeth George several books ago. Although I admire her for being one of the first to have a handicapped character who doesn't turn out to be either the victem or the murderer. Now it is common.

Finally reading "The Technologists" by Matthew Pearl: don't know why I wated so long. It's about the founding of MIT and the first graduating class (in the 1860s). Interestingly, there's one woman in the class. She has classes separately, not with the men, as being too distracting, and has her own separate labratory.

Don't know yet how much of this is historical. Pearl usually has an afterward where he explains the history in detail -- I'm waiting to the end to read it in case of spoilers.

marjifay · « **Reply #4895 on:** March 10, 2013, 07:07:29 PM »

I've got Matthew Pearl's The Technologists on my TBR list. I'll be interested to know how you liked it when you finish, JoanK. I was disappointed in his Poe Shadow and Dante Club; both were boring to me and DNFs, altho I liked his The Last Dickens.

Marj

Steph · « **Reply #4896 on:** March 11, 2013, 06:26:25 AM »

Believing the Lie..Yes, that is the book and melodrama is accurate actually. I found the book overwrought and that is new for her.. Yes, I liked the ending,, since I like Barbara very much. I think she is a bit much in the clothing types, since that is easy to look ok, all you have to do it think a bit. Lindsey is hopefully back on track and out of that wretched womans life. I dislike her intensely.. A drunk as a head of a department..Stupid..She is a truly unpleasant bully.
Oh well. once upon a time, I loved Elizabeth George,, now I will truly have to think before picking up another book.
I found a Jane Haddam in my tbr collections..A Gregor book , and I do love Gregor.. The premise. a whole town on religious and social misfits.. Ugh, but I will keep going for a while.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #4897 on:** March 11, 2013, 12:31:59 PM »

I'm laughed OUTLOUD thru the first chapter of Janet Evanovich's Notorious Nineteen! The first sentence is "i don't know why we gotta sit here baking in your car in the middle of the day, in the middle of summer, in the middle of this crummy neighborhood." (echos of Flip Wilson "in the corner, in the dark......") if you know the series, you know that's Lulu, and it's Trenton! That made me smile, but i continued w/ outright laughter thru the next 10 pages and thought "this is gonna be a good book." Unfortunately, it became rather dull in the next 100 pages. Maybe my expectations were too great. However, the mystery part of it got pretty good about 2/3rds of the way through and the end was good.

Lulu was a major character. Sometimes for a page or two Stephanie was "saying" nothing. I thought that was stange. The battle of Ranger/Morelli continued. My theory is in "20" she'll make a decision and that will end the series. This story provided some opportunities to kill off one of them and i thought that was going to be the solution. Interestingly, Ranger gives her a very serious, potentially dangerous job working w/ him on an escapade. I realized that he values her and never puts her down in the way Morelli sometimes does. When she needs a new car

he just delivers it and asks if she's o.k. He never chides her about the cars. Morelli has had some negative things to say about those events. Is Evanovich leading us toward Ranger? I'm actually leaning toward him.

Jean

JoanK · « **Reply #4898 on:** March 11, 2013, 04:54:58 PM »

Morelli puts her down. But Ranger never says anything but "Babe." that could get awfully old. I'm not crazy about either of them.

Finished "The Technologists." The woman in the first MIT class was a real person. Good for them. Harvard, on the other hand, didn't admit women for another hundred years.

I remember browsing around the Harvard Math library in the 1950s, wondering why I was getting such strange looks: had forgotten they didn't admit women. But no one said anything to me, even though I clearly didn't belong. I tried the samr thing later at cambridge, and they kicked me out in a hurry.

Steph · « **Reply #4899 on:** March 12, 2013, 06:27:22 AM »

I am a fan of Morelli.. Ranger will never be anything but anin and out sort of person in her life. But not sure that Stephanie has any sense at all about men.. Lula.. Oh my, I read every single one of the books, but I really don't like Lula very much.. But I know I will buy it.. One of the few authors, that I have all of the numbered Stephanie and also the Diesel ones.. He has a new main squeeze though.. A witch?? Anyway that small series is fun as well.

marjifay · « **Reply #4900 on:** March 12, 2013, 10:12:27 AM »

Re your getting kicked out of Cambridge's library for being a female -- so nice that things have changed a bit, eh? Onward and upward. England's queen is working on it -- I see that if Prince Andrew's child is a female, she will be queen. Hooray!

Marj

MaryPage · « **Reply #4901 on:** March 12, 2013, 11:16:50 AM »

Prince Andrew already has two daughters, who are 4th & 5th in line for the throne at present. I think you mean Prince William's expected baby, if it is a girl, will be Queen one day, as she will be born 3rd in line for the throne.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #4902 on:** March 12, 2013, 02:15:20 PM »

I've tried 2 of Evanonvich's "wicked" books and just can't get into them, to each her own which makes the world and these discussions so interesting.

Steph · « **Reply #4903 on:** March 13, 2013, 06:13:34 AM »

I just finished a truly odd mystery ( sort of) Jane Haddam.. Living Witness. It is a Gregor book, but it is really about the fights of evolution and Intelligent Design. I cannot believe that any small town would be as bigoted as she made this one..Sad,,, Why oh why would a Christian think that all people who do not believe in Genesis is all bad.. immoral.. wicked and should not be allowed to live.. That is the saddest thing I have ever seen. I don't generally write letters to authors, but I am sorely tempted

MaryPage · « **Reply #4904 on:** March 13, 2013, 03:49:30 PM »

Steph, I have run into "Christians" who are that bigoted. They kill doctors who are performing abortions. They kill homosexuals. They beat and terrorize their wives and children. They declare women witches and burn them to death. And yes, they feel you are of Satan and should be dead if you do not take the Bible literally.
It takes a deep study of history, made with an open mind, to realize how mistaken all this is. But does it exist? You 'betcha!
The Roman Catholic Church has just elected a new pope. He is from Argentina. The first from the Americas! He will be Francis the 1st. He is a JESUIT, which means he has huge brains, is a Liberal thinker, believes the church's main purpose is to take care of the sick and the poor and the meek and the bereaved and the children. Oh, I am so hopeful and so overcome!
By the way, the Catholic Church does not emphasize the Bible, and they have a different, much older version than any of the Protestant sects have. But they have always stressed that the many conflicting aspects to the Bible are not to be taken seriously or literally. The Vulgate was their original Bible, and the Douay version is used today.

JoanK · « **Reply #4905 on:** March 13, 2013, 03:57:49 PM »

That sounds interesting, but scary.

I'm also reading an interesting but scary one: "Desert Wind" by Betty Webb. It is about the cancer-causing effects of atomic testing and uranium mining on people, especially Indians in the Southwest, and the cover-ups involved.

The author obviously loves the desert: all her books have desert in the titles, and she hates places like the one where I live that try to recreate a more lush environment there. I can understand her feelings, although I still want my grass and trees. I'll definitely read more of her

JoanK · « **Reply #4906 on:** March 13, 2013, 04:02:59 PM »

Here she is:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/w/betty-webb/

I see I had already read her -- my memory for names is so bad! She has another series of cozies I like about a zookeeper. I've read the first two, but there's one out I haven't read "The Llama of Death". I got samples of that and her first Desert one (only $2.99) for my kindle. As well as "living Witness". So many books, so little time.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #4907 on:** March 13, 2013, 05:01:31 PM »

The Connie Dial book turned out to be pretty good, despite having 3x too many characters.

Since she was in LAPD for decades, i assumed it was accurate in her descriptions of the "internal affairs" of the police dept. I would read more of hers.

Steph · « **Reply #4908 on:** March 14, 2013, 06:13:39 AM »

I must dig in my tbr pile. I know I got some Betty Webb books at the used book store in the mountains last summer.. Hmm.I need a decent mystery.

jeriron · « **Reply #4909 on:** March 14, 2013, 11:14:50 AM »

MaryPaige

I am so happy that the new Pope took the name Francis. Frances is my favorite Saint and hopefully Pope Francis will live up to his new name.

marjifay · « **Reply #4910 on:** March 14, 2013, 11:20:24 AM »

To me it's really boring to see a bunch of old male geezers running a church.
I'll get excited about a pope when one of them turns out to be a woman! (LOL)

Marj

MaryPage · « **Reply #4911 on:** March 14, 2013, 01:03:00 PM »

The legend is that there was a woman Pope once. Pope John, she called herself. Some say she was not found out until she had a baby; others say not until she died. Anyway, she is now called Pope Joan.
There are books on the subject. Some books of serious research and history; others historical fiction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Joan

marjifay · « **Reply #4912 on:** March 14, 2013, 06:05:41 PM »

Interestng, MaryPage. I'd not heard that. Don't you think it's about time they had another one, and this time not just a legend?

Marj

MaryPage · « **Reply #4913 on:** March 14, 2013, 07:48:10 PM »

I am personally all for women running the world. We are 51% of the population, and we should have 51% in all legislative bodies and, yes, there should be women in the priesthood. In my church, the Episcopalian, there are women priests. Have been for over 35 years now.

But honestly, I do not know whether the story about the 9th century Pope Joan is true or not. I have read the books. Some are very convincing. Try them and decide for yourself!

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27252.Pope_Joan

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/pope.htm

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/PopeJoanHome.html

mabel1015j · « **Reply #4914 on:** March 15, 2013, 12:20:51 AM »

Charlie Rose just asked some Cardinal if the Church doesn't have to give women more authority in a "time of the woman?" His answer was that more than half of the saints are women and Mary is the most esteemed in the Church, that the church has always raised up women!!! I'm screaming at the tv, i won't tell you what i said.

Jean

Steph · « **Reply #4915 on:** March 15, 2013, 06:31:49 AM »

I am with you Jean.. They made Poor Mary into an unreal character and a good many of the female saints were simply idiots.. Sorry,, my opinion. I would be careful of the new Pope..He is a Jesuit and they do look at the world differently, plus he seems to have been on the militaries side in Argentina in the times of the great murders.

MaryPage · « **Reply #4916 on:** March 15, 2013, 09:42:10 AM »

You know what they say: men are taught there are only two kinds of women, saints or whores.
Good little girls keep their mouths shut, learn to wait on their fathers and brothers, learn housekeeping from their mothers, and either go into the convent or marry (as virgins) and raise lots and lots of children. Sainted they are! (Indeed!)
Those who descend into whoredom sure offer these same men fun and games on the side.
As for a Brain? In a WOMAN? You've got to be kidding!
So ask the good churchmen when they are going to recognize women are betters Brains and better Leaders than men?

JoanK · « **Reply #4917 on:** March 15, 2013, 04:03:47 PM »

An interesting take on the fiction book about her. I would rather read a straightforward examination of the evidence.

I'm reading a cozy, now "Murder in a Basket" by Amanda Flowers. I liked her first book "Maid of Murder" a lot, very funny. This one, less so. It is pedestrian, and you can see the plot coming a mile away.

Steph · « **Reply #4918 on:** March 16, 2013, 05:56:22 AM »

I have had such an exciting day yesterday that I picked up a short story collection.. A Study inSherlock.. All variations on Sherlock.. Some are fun.. some not so.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #4919 on:** March 16, 2013, 02:43:07 PM »

I finished reading a real mind-bender mystery/thriller by Hank Phillipi Ryan (who is a woman). I had never read her before. This book had so many twists/turns/misdirections I could hardly keep up! It was a pretty good read for all that, but I had to keep going back, and reading previous chapter to figure out if I was losing my mind. This Ryan has written many others, and I can't figure why I hadn't read her before. Anyone here follow this author?

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 910179 times)