Finally, the meme again!
I'm making myself do this just to make an entry. I'm still reading LJ, but I'm finding it harder and harder to post as I seem to have less and less time to do so!
What I Just Finished Reading
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling. Enjoyable first novel in a new mystery series by J.K. Rowling. Her detective Cormoran Strike is an interesting character and I particularly liked his temporary secretary Robin. The mystery is intriguing and the author brings the dead girl to life with all her faults and virtues. The setting of present day London is well done and the passages involving pursuit by the paparazzi ring particularly true. On the downside I wish an editor had dissuaded the author from attempting to write dialect phonetically as it never really works. That aside I'm looking forward to reading the second novel in the series.
Having also listened to the audiobook read by Robert Glenister I can really recommend it as he brings all the character voices to vivid life. The part about the paparazzi actually comes over more vividly on audio than it does on the page and I love the hint of Cornish he gives Cormoran. Also the dialects work better!
Death on the Downs by Simon Brett. When we were on holiday on the Isle of Wight I thought we were staying in a book free zone until on (fortunately) our last day we came across Babushka Books. Apart from the fact that the proprietor was quite young this was a bookshop that could have come straight out of the pages of a mystery novel, so I felt I had to buy one. Simon Brett is the author of the Charles Paris series, perhaps better known on radio than it is on the page as Charles Paris is memorably played by Bill Nighy, but this novel comes from the Fethering series set in Sussex. The protagonist is Carole Seddon, a 50-something woman who has taken early retirement and is adjusting to a quieter life. She is becoming cautiously friendly with her next-door-neighbour Jude, a much more outgoing character than Carole, and they are brought closer together by curiosity about a murder case. It was nice to read a story based round two slightly older women and their developing friendship and Simon Brett takes some neat potshots at the types who live in a village in Sussex. Having two amateur detectives investigate a case has some problems for series set in the present day, but the enjoyment in this book derives more from the characters than the plot. This was the second in the series and though I wasn't knocked out by it it was an entertaining read. Definitely what Americans would call an English cozy.
What I'm Reading Now
Dissolution by C.J. Sansom. It occurred to me that though I've read Sovereign, the third in this series, I've never actually read the first two. As I generally like to read series in order I thought I'd remedy that deficiency, so ransacked my mum's house for my dad's copy of Dissolution. It's a bit bittersweet reading a series he enjoyed when he's not around to read the latest Shardlake novel but apart from that I'm enjoying it a lot.
What I'm Reading Next
Who knows. Certainly not me.
I haven't been very active fannishly recently but I was awestruck by the sheer number of fics that sb_fag_ends managed to produce for their Zombie Uprising challenge. There's a full list here.
And finally there was this. Just for me as I'm sure most interested people will have seen it but I couldn't resist the chance to drool again at the hotness that is Bradley James.
What I Just Finished Reading
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling. Enjoyable first novel in a new mystery series by J.K. Rowling. Her detective Cormoran Strike is an interesting character and I particularly liked his temporary secretary Robin. The mystery is intriguing and the author brings the dead girl to life with all her faults and virtues. The setting of present day London is well done and the passages involving pursuit by the paparazzi ring particularly true. On the downside I wish an editor had dissuaded the author from attempting to write dialect phonetically as it never really works. That aside I'm looking forward to reading the second novel in the series.
Having also listened to the audiobook read by Robert Glenister I can really recommend it as he brings all the character voices to vivid life. The part about the paparazzi actually comes over more vividly on audio than it does on the page and I love the hint of Cornish he gives Cormoran. Also the dialects work better!
Death on the Downs by Simon Brett. When we were on holiday on the Isle of Wight I thought we were staying in a book free zone until on (fortunately) our last day we came across Babushka Books. Apart from the fact that the proprietor was quite young this was a bookshop that could have come straight out of the pages of a mystery novel, so I felt I had to buy one. Simon Brett is the author of the Charles Paris series, perhaps better known on radio than it is on the page as Charles Paris is memorably played by Bill Nighy, but this novel comes from the Fethering series set in Sussex. The protagonist is Carole Seddon, a 50-something woman who has taken early retirement and is adjusting to a quieter life. She is becoming cautiously friendly with her next-door-neighbour Jude, a much more outgoing character than Carole, and they are brought closer together by curiosity about a murder case. It was nice to read a story based round two slightly older women and their developing friendship and Simon Brett takes some neat potshots at the types who live in a village in Sussex. Having two amateur detectives investigate a case has some problems for series set in the present day, but the enjoyment in this book derives more from the characters than the plot. This was the second in the series and though I wasn't knocked out by it it was an entertaining read. Definitely what Americans would call an English cozy.
What I'm Reading Now
Dissolution by C.J. Sansom. It occurred to me that though I've read Sovereign, the third in this series, I've never actually read the first two. As I generally like to read series in order I thought I'd remedy that deficiency, so ransacked my mum's house for my dad's copy of Dissolution. It's a bit bittersweet reading a series he enjoyed when he's not around to read the latest Shardlake novel but apart from that I'm enjoying it a lot.
What I'm Reading Next
Who knows. Certainly not me.
I haven't been very active fannishly recently but I was awestruck by the sheer number of fics that sb_fag_ends managed to produce for their Zombie Uprising challenge. There's a full list here.
And finally there was this. Just for me as I'm sure most interested people will have seen it but I couldn't resist the chance to drool again at the hotness that is Bradley James.