Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 906135 times)

marjifay · « **Reply #7400 on:** June 09, 2015, 01:08:49 AM »

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Discussion Leader: JoanK

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I believe The Dante Club was a SrLearn book discussion some time ago. It was a DNF for me. (I don't remember it being anything like a gory thriller, and if it was I don't think it would have been chosen for a SrLearn book, as most SrLearn people don't seem to care for thrillers) I just remember it being awfully boring. The only Matthew Pearl book I could finish was The Last Dickens which I found interesting. I do have his latest, The Last Bookaneer, on my library hold list, as it also sounds kind of interesting. We'll see...

Marj

Frybabe · « **Reply #7401 on:** June 09, 2015, 06:01:32 AM »

Marj, The Dante Club started out with a maggoty corpse. That was gory enough for me at the moment. Then I read that the murders were based on happenings in Dante's Inferno which I haven't read, but expect were somewhat diabolical (were they?). I thought Pearl's writing was excellent, but perhaps a little too fine for a murder mystery. You may be right about the boring. I didn't pick up on that, but there was something a little too, too about it. Too detailed? Too elegant? Think I will look into the discussion archive to see that the group had to say.

BTW, this reminds me of the movie Seven, which was a murder mystery movie based on the seven deadly sins. Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt as I recall. Anyway, it was dark. Seeing that once was more than enough.

Steph · « **Reply #7402 on:** June 09, 2015, 07:31:25 AM »

I did not finish The Dante Club.. Just too involved for me. I went off track for mysteries and decided to try a Jodi Picoult... TheStory Teller.
The reviews sounded interesting and it is somewhat involved at the moment,, but it is old Nazis, who have lived here since the war ,etc.

Frybabe · « **Reply #7403 on:** June 09, 2015, 08:35:50 AM »

I just ordered the next Donna Leon book on my list. It was that or Jane Langton. The Langton, Murder at the Gardner, turns out to be the seventh of a series. Of course the library doesn't have very many of hers; Amazon Unlimited does have her series, but Prime does not. So, she will have to wait awhile.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #7404 on:** June 09, 2015, 11:36:15 AM »

I think we have confused "The Dante Club" with a book, not gory, "The Dante ________, I can't think of the last word in the title right now, Which was about the autistic (?) lady who solves Art crimes. I will look up the remainder of the title so we're all on the right track here. I think it was "The Dante Connection". My "search" thing does not seem to work, so I couldn't locate the precise spot where several of us talked about it, and that author's other books.

Yes, it was "The Dante Connection" by Estelle Ryan, who has several other books.

MaryPage · « **Reply #7405 on:** June 09, 2015, 12:08:09 PM »

And Ryan has a brand new book out: THE LEGER CONNECTION

http://www.estelleryan.com/

marjifay · « **Reply #7406 on:** June 09, 2015, 09:58:47 PM »

Well, I got to page 36 of Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, where Flavia's sister was reading aloud to her from some dumb book she was reading, and I tossed it. Enough for me. Will go on to the C.J. Sansom's Dissolution book.

Marj

Steph · « **Reply #7407 on:** June 10, 2015, 08:52:09 AM »

I love Estelle Ryan and have read all but the newest of her books.. But do not confuse her with The Dante Club. I did not finish that.But loved Dante Connection.

MaryPage · « **Reply #7408 on:** June 10, 2015, 09:28:14 AM »

Actually, Flavia's sisters are, like Flavia, geniuses, each with her speciality. The oldest is musical, the middle a reader/writer, and Flavia is a chemist. Daphne (Daffy) was reading all of the classics and already had, at age thirteen, the equivalent of a classics degree.

JoanK · « **Reply #7409 on:** June 10, 2015, 04:34:02 PM »

I love Jane Langton, and Murder at the Gardner is one of my favorites. But she's not everyone's taste. her writing is like no one else's, and you either like it or you don't. her last few aren't as good -- not surprising since she seems to be 93.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/jane-langton/

Steph · « **Reply #7410 on:** June 11, 2015, 09:12:26 AM »

Actually MaryPage is quite right. Flavias whole family are very odd. The sisters are quite unusual as is Dad and so was her Mother As you go through the books, you also discover an Aunt etc. If you like English eccentricities, it is fun.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #7411 on:** June 12, 2015, 02:45:22 PM »

Got the new Susan W Albert book "Bittersweet" yesterday. Someone - checked, it was Flajean - mentioned it here and i got on the library list.

It sounds like it's going to be more "worldly" then the previous China Bayle books. It starts with a prologue of two brothers turning their ranch into a place where people can pay big money to come and hunt big animals who are essentially trapped. Ala Dick Cheney hunting quail. They are doing illegal acts in order to get the animals to their ranch.

So far it's a good read.

Jean

Steph · « **Reply #7412 on:** June 13, 2015, 08:53:18 AM »

I have read somewhere, that game ranches are common in some parts of the west and although most of them are legitimate, there are some that are not. I cannot imagine the ego of shooting essentially a trapped animal who has been baited to a spot.. Sad,, You want to be brave.. go out and meet them face to face.

MaryPage · « **Reply #7413 on:** June 13, 2015, 11:28:56 AM »

I have never been able to imagine hunting (or fishing, for that matter) just for the sport of it. The fact gives me cold chills. The psyche of someone who wants to kill a living thing just for the conquest and a trophy head or whatever is to me an omen of the killer instinct within my species which will, I have no doubt, kill us all off eventually.

My dad hunted deer with groups, and always brought home the meat, which we ate for ages. I came to love venison. And I can remember when he laid a deerskin out on the concrete in front of our garage and taught me how to work it in the tanning process. My mother's kin, also in my lifetime, took their shotguns and walked off into the mountain woods behind their homes in Essex County, New York and brought home dinner. They literally used every scrap, one way or another. But they never shot more than they could use.

JoanK · « **Reply #7414 on:** June 13, 2015, 02:20:16 PM »

I'm reading "A Jam of a Different Color" by the Benreys.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/ron-and-janet-benrey/

It's the third in the Royal Tunbridge Wells series, about the British tea museum. So far, it's not as fun as the first two, maybe because there isn't enough about tea.

Frybabe · « **Reply #7415 on:** June 13, 2015, 05:37:29 PM »

I just discovered that Carmen De Sousa has a few more books/short stories freebie on Amazon. I downloaded the four I haven't read yet. I like her. She is a little Suspense/Detective, a little Romance, and a little Paranormal all rolled into one. The first two I read were The Depot and The Pit Stop.

Steph · « **Reply #7416 on:** June 14, 2015, 09:42:27 AM »

will check my kindle stuff. I love freebies.

JoanK · « **Reply #7417 on:** June 14, 2015, 04:26:58 PM »

And here is a list of her free ones:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_3_12?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=carmen+desousa+free+books&rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Acarmen+desousa+free+books

Steph · « **Reply #7418 on:** June 15, 2015, 08:38:16 AM »

read her reviews and descriptions and decided probably not for me. when romance is the first word of the description, I tend to shy away.

Frybabe · « **Reply #7419 on:** June 15, 2015, 08:47:47 AM »

Steph, the first two short stories I read were light on the romance, and as a matter of fact, the paranormal part was hinted at rather than a full-blown spook story. An interesting mix. Neither romance nor paranormal get my attention. That I actually finished the stories, say something of her light touch in both areas. Some of her other works look like they may be heavier on the romance side.

I haven't decided about my next SciFi read, but it will most likely be Jack Campbell's latest Lost Fleet entry. I think I am one behind on his Lost Stars series too. Meantime, I am continuing with my Donna Leon mystery.

FlaJean · « **Reply #7420 on:** June 15, 2015, 10:48:34 AM »

I downloaded the three free books but haven't read one yet. I'm not a fan of romance books but a little romance thrown into the story sometimes makes the story more interesting.

MaryPage · « **Reply #7421 on:** June 15, 2015, 01:04:03 PM »

Frybabe, have you ever read Sir Fred Hoyle's THE BLACK CLOUD? It is Science Fiction, but not Fantasy. Fred Hoyle was an Astrophysicist professor at Cambridge University eons ago. I just bought the book brand new as a gift for my almost thirteen year old great granddaughter Bella, advising her that IMHO it is the very best ever written in that genre. Yep, it is STILL in print after all these years. He, of course, is dead.

JoanK · « **Reply #7422 on:** June 15, 2015, 04:35:27 PM »

I remember Fred Hoyle for his popular nonfiction astronomy books.

PatH · « **Reply #7423 on:** June 15, 2015, 08:07:54 PM »

The Black Cloud is excellent; I'm glad it's still in print--my yellowing paperback was printed in 1968.

Frybabe · « **Reply #7424 on:** June 15, 2015, 08:55:00 PM »

No, MaryPage, I didn't know Hoyle wrote fiction. I have at least one of his non-fiction works downstairs in my Astronomy/Cosmology section. I will look into his fictional works. Thanks for pointing it out.

Steph · « **Reply #7425 on:** June 16, 2015, 07:59:02 AM »

Oh my, yes Hoyle wrote very good science fiction, but my all time heros from when I was a teeny were Robert Heinlin, Arthur Clarke. Howver I agree that I am not a big fan of hard core science type science fiction. Lean heavily toward fantasy as Anne McCaffrey or alternate worlds like Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Frybabe · « **Reply #7426 on:** June 16, 2015, 08:38:28 AM »

Sad to say, I did not start out reading Science Fiction. In my teen years, I can only remember an Arthur C. Clark short story (published in Playboy, for heaven sake) and Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Through the years I read some but not regularly until relatively recently. Can't say what exactly triggered the big urge to read Science Fiction, but Greg Bear, S.H. Viehl, the Halo books, and my all time favorites, Jack Campbell and Jack McDevitt, started appearing on my bookshelf. When I got my Kindle, and subsequently discovered Project Gutenberg, well, the dam broke. I have about 140 Scifi books/short stories on my kindle that are waiting to be read. In the meantime, I am also borrowing from my library, the Kindle Lending Library, and soon, the Free Library of Philadelphia.

This does not mean to say that I have totally neglected other genres. I am back to reading Donna Leon, continuing my Roman histories, and next up on my library wishlist is either Murder at the Gardner or a nonfiction about Teddy Roosevelt and what the creation of the National Park system, called The Big Burn...

BTW, there don't seem to be any Fred Hoyle books formatted for Kindle. Hmmmmm.

maryz · « **Reply #7427 on:** June 16, 2015, 11:12:09 AM »

Bit of trivia for you SciFi fans. Do you know the work of Clifford Simak? He is an early SciFi writer and, I gather, quite influential. I don't read SciFi, but we know his daughter. She is the retired curator of our local art museum, and is now working on assembling, curating, etc., her father's work. Just an author you might want to check out.

PatH · « **Reply #7428 on:** June 16, 2015, 02:00:31 PM »

Yes, Simak is one of the classic writers. It's been a long time since I read any of his works though, so they've kind of blended into the mists of time. It's good that his daughter is assembling his work. Sometimes it's especially hard to track down all a writer's short stories.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/s/clifford-d-simak/

Steph · « **Reply #7429 on:** June 17, 2015, 09:12:20 AM »

I know I read Simak, but cannot remember either.. But it should be fun to see and remember some of his stuff. I read nothing but science fiction in the so called golden age, but branched out as an adult and read a wide variety now no romance, just makes me slightly nauseous..

salan · « **Reply #7430 on:** June 17, 2015, 06:05:40 PM »

I am not a fan of science fiction, but I absolutely loved Anne Macaffrey's dragon rider series; plus some others of hers (did she write about the crystal singers??. I loved those too).
Sally

PatH · « **Reply #7431 on:** June 17, 2015, 07:07:05 PM »

Yes, she wrote the crystal singers books too. There's a lengthy series by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller that McCaffrey lovers tend to love (so did McCaffrey). They are more space-oriented than the Dragonriders, but there is some of the same feel about the books. The first few have to be read in order. If you think you might like to try them, tell me here and I'll help you sort out the order.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #7432 on:** June 17, 2015, 08:49:08 PM »

I finished Susan Albert's "Bittersweet". It was very interesting. As i mentioned she includes the story of big game hunting ranches, but also along with those ranches comes smuggling of non-native deer and stealing of very expensive semen. Non-native animals can be as destructive as non-native plants, ala kudzu and Japanese bittersweet plants. I liked it very much.

Jean

Frybabe · « **Reply #7433 on:** June 18, 2015, 06:48:59 AM »

I've finished Dona Leon's, Death of Faith. Now that I have my Free Library of Philadelphia card and the Overdrive add installed on my Kindle, I have a hold on an ebook version Death and Judgment, which my library doesn't have.

Steph · « **Reply #7434 on:** June 18, 2015, 08:23:06 AM »

Since I am and always was a serious Anne McCaffrey fan.. The Ship who sang still makes me cry,, tell me the sequence of the Lee books. So I can get them.
Oh just finished a truly powerful book "Every Last One" by Anna Quindlen. It is about losing everything indeed. Oh my, kept me up after I finished to wonder if I could have survived.

PatH · « **Reply #7435 on:** June 18, 2015, 11:34:15 AM »

The first 5 are:

Conflict of Honors
Agent of Change
Carpe Diem
Plan B
I Dare

I recommend only getting one until you see if you like them. They are more military than McCaffrey, and there's a complicated universe and social system to keep track of. They tend to be paired up in a confusing number of ways, so you have to work to avoid duplication or gaps. Sometimes you see the first three together in one book, titled Partners in Necessity. Don't read her Duainfey books; they're dreadful.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/sharon-lee/

Frybabe · « **Reply #7436 on:** June 18, 2015, 02:12:29 PM »

Sharon Lee has a nice website where she introduces herself, has a blog, and lists the "correct reading order" for the Liaden Universe. She breaks them out into several different lists. http://sharonleewriter.com/correct-reading-order/
The first book, Agent of Change, is free on Amazon, as is another book of a different series.

PatH · « **Reply #7437 on:** June 18, 2015, 03:03:18 PM »

Thanks, Frybabe, that's a useful list. Either Agent of Change or Conflict of Honors could be the first book you read. Conflict of Honors occurs earlier in time, and is a separate story from the other four, with some of the same characters. The others make a long narrative, but I would read Conflict sometime before you finish all the rest, or you won't know some things about some of the characters.

Frybabe · « **Reply #7438 on:** June 18, 2015, 03:20:27 PM »

I was misled. Fledgling, which is the other free book on Amazon is also part of the Liaden Universe. They list it as book 11.

PatH · « **Reply #7439 on:** June 18, 2015, 08:31:39 PM »

Fledgling is the first of a series (so far 4) which runs parallel to the Agent of Change series and eventually intersects it.

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 906135 times)