Oct 17, 2021

Sunday Salon: Suspense in Colorado and in Morocco

 


The Guide by Peter Heller, August 24, 2021, Knopf

Genre: thriller set in Colorado

Source: library book 

My comments: 

A thriller set in modern days, in an isolated area of Colorado, where the very wealthy go for R & R and for fly fishing. Our main character, Jack, is the assigned guide for a famous young singer, Alison, whose only interest is in enjoying the lodge and its amenities for fishing during her week-long stay. 

The two get into deep waters, however, when they suspect there is something more sinister going on at the lodge than harmless outdoor recreation, and they risk their lives trying to find out the problem, and to fix it.  

Nature lovers will enjoy the author's prose and descriptions of the surroundings, the canyon, river, forests, and fly fishing itself. They will also get pulled into the story that becomes more complex and compelling, as time goes on, than a leisurely time on the river. 

Next on my reading list:

Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews, Matrch 2, 2021, Little, Brown & Co.   Genre: suspense   Source: library book 

I almost didn't borrow this book because I thought the title was unimaginative and the cover too subtle. But then I glanced at the book blurb and thought the novel was just up my alley. A case of an assistant assuming an author's identity during a trip to Morocco. Just enough suspense to get my attention. 

What are you reading this week?

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Readingand Sunday Salon 

Oct 9, 2021

Sunday Salon: My Mailbox

My mailbox has begun to see some action again!
Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland
Published June 1, 2021; Simon & Schuster
Genre: historical fiction
Source: Wiley Sachek Publicity

Over the course of one summer that begins with a shocking tragedy, three generations of the Adler family grapple with heartbreak, romance, and the weight of family secrets in this stunning debut novel (publisher)


My Annihilation by Fuminori Nakamura
Publication: January 11, 2022, Soho Crime
Genre: literary noir
Source: advance uncopyedited edition from Soho Press

With My Annihilation, Fuminori Nakamura, master of literary noir, has constructed a puzzle box of a narrative in the form of a confessional diary that implicates its reader in a heinous crime. (publisher)




People Like Them by Samira Sedira
Published July 8, 2021, Raven Books, Bloomsbury
Genre: psychological suspense
Source: advance uncorrected proof, won from France Book Tours

(I)ntense psychological suspense novel inspired by a true story about a couple in an insular French village whose lives are upended when a family of outsiders moves in. (publisher)

I browsed the first pages of Florence Adler Swims Forever and am captivated. It will be first on my list after my current reads are done. 
Nakamura's noir fiction is a favorite of mine, so I'm pretty happy to have  My Annihilation. Insular French villages always capture my interest, and so does People Like Them. 

What are you reading this week?

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Readingand Sunday Salon 

Oct 7, 2021

The Cat and the City by Nick Bradley: Book Beginning

 

The Cat and the City by Nick Bradley, August 1, 2021, Atlantic Books

Genre: stories set in Tokyo.  Source: library book

Book beginning:

Tattoo

Kentaro held the cup of hot coffee to his lips and blew at the rising steam. The back office of his tattoo parlor was dimly lit, and the light from his laptop screen gave his dirty white stubble a blueish hue. Reflected in his glasses, a long list of links on an open webpage scrolled up slowly. His hand gripped a Blutooth mouse, the buttons covered with greasy finger marks...


Page 56:

Street Fighter II (Turbo)

The screen froze, went white, then displayed two words.

GAME OVER

"What the hell!" I beat the side of the machine with my fist. "Come on."


Comments from readers...interlocking stories of cats, Tokyo, loneliness and redemption. (David Mitchell, via Twitter) 

The Cat and The City is a love letter to Japan and its literature.... He is also very clearly a man with a great tenderness for cats. (Rowan Hisayo Buchanan)


Would you read on?

The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice.
Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

Oct 3, 2021

Sunday Salon: Novels with Widows and a CIA Agent

 New reads from the library:

An Ambush of Widows by Jeff Abbott,  July 6, 2021, Grand Central Publishing
Genre: psychological suspense

About: two widows delve into their husbands’ deadly and dangerous secrets—as they try to protect their own.

The women, who know each other only because their husbands were killed in the same location, join to find the secrets behind the murders and to protect their families. 

The Last Tourist by Olen Steinhauer, March 24, 2020, Minotaur Books
Genre: political thriller

About: This is the fourth book in the CIA agent's, Milo Weaver, series. Milo is hiding out in Western Sahara when a young CIA analyst arrives to question him about a series of suspicious deaths and terrorist chatter linked to him.

This detailed, complex book takes some time to get into and to read, but seems worth it. 

What are you reading this week?

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Readingand Sunday Salon

Sep 13, 2021

I Thought You Said This Would Work by Ann Garvin: Sunday Salon

 The title of this book  made me choose it, and I'm not disappointed so far.


I Thought You Said This Would Work by Ann Garvin

Published May 1, 2021, Lake Union Publishing

Genre: contemporary fiction, humor

Source: ebook 

Three women are off in a broken down camper, driving cross country on an errand for their friend Karen, who is undergoing cancer treatment. The goal? Bring back Karen's beloved diabetic Great Pyrenees dog from LA to her bedside in Wisconsin. Karen's ex has already shipped the unwanted giant dog to a rescue center in Utah and the three women must travel to Utah, find the dog and bring him to Karen, who needs him as her therapy pet. The dog needs insulin shots regularly, so putting him in a crate in the belly of a plane, to fly to Wisconsin, is out of the question. 

What's the novel's interest besides this unusual quest? The three women are not compatible, two of them are barely talking to each other, and the third is a new LA friend who has hopped on for the ride. But their getting along is crucial on the trip. The situation calls for either comedy or tragedy and the book is hilarious so far.


What book is keeping you up this week? 

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Readingand Sunday Salon

Sep 9, 2021

Book Beginning: Hanging Falls, a mystery by Margaret Mizushima

 

Hanging Falls by Margaret Mizushima, August 10, 2021, Crooked Lane Books

Genre: mystery in a series, police procedural

Murder stalks the rugged Colorado high country--and sends officer Mattie Cobb on a quest to uncover the darkest secrets from her past (publisher)


Book beginning:


Friday morning, mid-July

A stitch in her side plagued Deputy Mattie Cobb as she jogged uphill, telling her that her level of anxiety and this form of exercise didn't mix. Running in the Colorado high country around Timber Creek had soothed her for years, but not today. Her mind kept jumping back to the one thing that made her so...well, she'd have to say frightened, excited, and nervous all at once. 


Page 56:

"In Colorado you can possess a small amount of marijuana for use in your own home, but it's against the law to smoke it in a national forest." Mattie recited the code, watching his face fall. 


Would you read on?

Memes: The Friday 56. Find any sentence that grabs you on page 56 of your book. Post it, and add your URL to Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

Aug 22, 2021

Sunday Salon: Books Published in 1941

 Reading Books published 1941


I found on my shelves a first edition of The End is Not Yet: China at War by Herrymon Maurer, printed 1941 by Robert M. McBride & Company, NY

A withdrawn library book that I've had for umpteen years, it's description on Goodreads:

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations.

The book begins with the August 1937 attack on Shanghai, China by Japanese forces, starting a years' long occupation of several major cities and an attempt at complete subjugation of China at the beginnings of WWII. This period of time is known as the Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese did not give up their attempts or withdraw from China until their defeat in WWII in 1945. Thus the title, The End Is Not Yet, as this book was printed in 1941, four years before the defeat. 

The book describes the surprise attacks and takeover of major cities by the Japanese troops, and the unrelenting Chinese resistance, with what amounts to mainly guerilla warfare to counter the superior tanks and armored vehicles and the bombs of the invading country. The Chinese resistance continued for about eight years, from 1937 to 1945,  and was successful because of their numbers, the mountainous nature of the landscape, the unforgiving and uncontrollable great rivers of the Yellow River and the Yangtze, the Chinese guerilla tactics, and their determination to keep their country free. 

The author received first hand information for this partial history from friends, foreign and Chinese, in Szechwan and primarily in Chengtu.

I am in the middle of reading The End is Not Yet, and am totally captivated, as I've always been fascinated by this period of Chinese history.  I'm so glad I finally noticed this book on my shelves!


From the Library: 



The title of this small green hardcover on the mystery shelves of our library caught my eye. This title was new to me, and I believed I had read all of Du Maurier's novels. 

I'll Never Be Young Again by Daphne du Maurier was first printed in 1932. This edition is a 1941 publication by the Sun Dial Press, New York. 

It's a coming-of-age story, with  a 20-year-old who was rescued from self-destruction by a slightly older man, who takes him on journeys far away from the stifling and loveless home life and family in London which had led him to near suicide.

I'm in the middle of the book and curious about the final outcome, as the young man, Dick, reacts to his new environments and meeting and interacting with new people his own age, far from home.  It seems a little different from her previous novels and is relatively unknown, it appears. 


These are my current books. 

What are you reading this week?

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Readingand Sunday Salon

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