Showing posts with label Currently reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Currently reading. Show all posts

Mar 5, 2019

Currently Reading: Don 't Let Go by Michel Bussi

French novel: Don't Let Go by Michel Bussi

Don't Let Go
Don't Let Go
Don't Let Go by Michel Bussi is a book I read in the original French, but decided to re-read the English version to see the details I might have missed. My reading French is okay but far from perfect.

The translation as far as I can tell sticks closely to the original and I have picked up lots of small nuances and descriptive information the author wanted the reader to see. The setting is spectacular, the small French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, visited by lots of French tourists because of its dramatic geography - volcanoes, beautiful beaches, rocky and mountainous terrain, etc.

The story involves the disappearance of a French woman from her Reunion hotel. She leaves her husband and six-year-old daughter behind. The police are suspecting foul play though it seemed at the beginning she might have packed a suitcase and run away.

The plot is not straightforward or predictable and things are not what they seem. I am learning a lot about the island geography, people, and culture, while enjoying a suspenseful mystery.

Here is the cover of the original book in French:

Ne lache pas ma main
Ne Lache Pas Ma Main

French version: Ne Lache Pas Ma Main


Have you read books in another language?

Aug 10, 2016

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon: My Current Read

A book I have admired online and on other bloggers' pages is now on my desk, and is my current read. I really enjoy books about youngsters trying to solve mysteries involving the adults around them and observing and commenting on everyone around them.
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon, published July 12, 2016 by Scribner.
England, 1976. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep is a quirky and charming debut about a community in need of absolution and two girls learning what it means to belong. (publisher)

About the author: Joanna Cannon graduated from Leicester Medical School and worked as a hospital doctor, before specialising in psychiatry. She lives in the Peak District with her family and her dog. The Trouble With Goats and Sheep is her first novel.

I am thoroughly loving the novel. The two young protagonists, Gracie and Tillie, are not as precocious as Flavia de Luce, another young fictional sleuth, being much more realistic but equally enjoyable characters.  

Jun 4, 2015

Currently Reading: Slated for Death by Elizabeth J. Duncan

I often like trolling the library for new books and new-to-me writers.
I found Slated for Death, set in Wales in the old slate mines that are now closed except to tourists and school groups.Though the slate industry ran for a couple centuries in north Wales, this mystery novel is set in the present time.
Slated for Death: A Penny Brannigan Mystery #6 by Elizabeth J. Duncan
Published April 14, 2015 by Minotaur
Genre: mystery set in north Wales
Teaser from the page I'm on right now: They are planning to hold the St. David's Day concert down the mine this year and Glenda was organizing it so she was on a site visit. (ch. 4)
 Book description: When the body of well-liked Glenda Roberts is discovered at the bottom of a former slate mine, now a busy tourist attraction, pandemonium erupts in the North Wales town of Llanelen. Penny Brannigan finds herself drawn into the investigation .... A visit to Glenda’s mother deepens her conviction that a hidden family secret is the real reason for the murder.
I'm enjoying it so far - the setting and the characters.


Sep 13, 2012

Desert Wives by Betty Webb; How to Eat a Cupcake by Meg Donohue

I rarely read eBooks except for a select few, but am glad I found Betty Webb's Desert Wives on Kindle, one of her Lena Jones mystery books set in Arizona.

The novel is about a polygamy sect that defies federal and state laws along the Arizona-Utah border by condoning child brides, underage pregnancies, and forced confinement of women and children. Evidently, this is not an uncommon situation in this area of the country, even today, some 9 years after the book was first published in hardcover.

In this mystery novel, a woman escapes with her young child from the compound when the elderly leader of the sect singles the child out to be his next wife. When his body is found in the desert with a fatal shotgun wound, the mother becomes a suspect.  Lena, a P.I., goes undercover as the new wife of one of the members in order to find the true murderer.

Can't wait to find out the who and the why... Desert Wives by Betty Webb is free on Kindle at the moment. This edition was published June 17, 2011.

I often read several books at a time, unfortunately. I do have to keep the plot lines separate. How to Eat a Cupcake is a different book from the others I'm reading. It's a contemporary YA novel about the relationship between two young women, Annie and Julia, who grew up together though their backgrounds are vastly different.

Annie is the privileged child in a household in which Julia's mother lives and works as a cook, one of the hired help. The two children are raised and schooled together, but conflicts and jealousies mar their relationship. They meet again later as adults and try to renew their friendship.

Don't know where this one is going, as I'm only on chapter 3 of the book, which is told from both Annie's and Julia's points of view. It looks like a promising read and is keeping my attention.

How to Eat a Cupcake by Meg Donohue is a paperback published March 13, 2012 by William Morrow. The ARC was sent to me by the publisher.

Sep 7, 2012

Book Feature: Gold by Chris Cleave


Title: Gold by Chris Cleave
Hardcover, July 3, 2012; Simon and Schuster
Genre: fiction

I'm reading Gold, a novel about Kate and Zoe, two friends in England who are also rival Olympic speed cyclists. Zoe is single and Kate is married with a sick child, Sophie, which limits the time Kate can spend on track cycling. So far, Sophie seems to be just as important a part of the story as the two women.
" Look, Zoe. You've done all the hard work. You've made it to the final. Your worst-case scenario here is to be the second-fastest rider on the entire planet. The very worst thing that could happen in the next ten minutes is that you win an Olympic silver medal."
"Exactly."
"You're scared of getting silver?"
She thought about it, then nodded. "I'd rather fucking die." (page 6)
About the author: Chris Cleave studied at Balliol College, Oxford. His debut novel, Incendiary, won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award and is now a feature film. His second novel, Little Bee, is an international bestseller. Cleave lives in London with his family.

Sunday Salon: Letting Go of September by Sandra J. Jackson

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