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Wed Reading Meme
Jul. 1st, 2015 09:22 pmSo, I decided to join MD's book club. Haven't been in a book club in about six years, so we'll see how this goes. They did my book last month. In August they'll be doing Lindsey Fare's The Gods of Gotham - which is a historical police procedural thriller. Takes place in 1843, features a damaged copper who tends bar, and alas a serial killer. (Sigh, really not a fan of the serial killer trope, but we shall see. The reason I'm not a fan of the serial killer trope is that it has been done to death by now. Almost every mystery novelist has done it. It's really hard to find mystery novels that do not feature a serial killer - on television, film, or in books. I find deathly dull. There's nothing new that you can say about it. Also, there's more serial killers in fiction than actuality. I think mysteries feature them - because they want to provide a "monster" - an "irredeemable" bad guy for the hero to relentlessly pursue and kill. And, that just doesn't seem interesting to me. Life isn't that black and white - it's more various shades of purple.)
Anyhow, I bought it. And I have until August 14th to read it. Here's the blurb on it:
Timothy Wilde, the damaged hero of this juicy novel, reluctantly joins the force after losing his employment, his savings and half his face in the great fire that engulfed part of the city that summer. Making the rounds of the wretched Sixth Ward, with its lawless street gangs, abandoned children and ramshackle slums teeming with impoverished immigrants, proves a harsh education for Timothy. But he encounters new depths of depravity when 10-year-old Bird Daly alerts him to the activities of a serial killer in a black hood who is kidnapping and butchering child prostitutes — “kinchin-mabs,” as they’re known in the street slang called “flash-patter.”
I'm also flirting with East of the Sun by Julia Gregson - which I picked up for free from DS.
The Amazon blurb:
As the Kaisar-I-Hind weighs anchor for Bombay in the autumn of 1928, its passengers ponder their fate in a distant land. They are part of the “Fishing Fleet”—the name given to the legions of English women who sail to India each year in search of husbands, heedless of the life that awaits them. The inexperienced chaperone Viva Holloway has been entrusted to watch over three unsettling charges. There’s Rose, as beautiful as she is naïve, who plans to marry a cavalry officer she has met a mere handful of times. Her bridesmaid, Victoria, is hell-bent on losing her virginity en route before finding a husband of her own. And shadowing them all is the malevolent presence of a disturbed schoolboy named Guy Glover.
From the parties of the wealthy Bombay socialites to the poverty of Tamarind Street, from the sooty streets of London to the genteel conversation of the Bombay Yacht Club, East of the Sun takes us back to a world we hardly understand but yearn to know. This is a book that has it all: glorious detail, fascinating characters, and masterful storytelling.
Or Jaguar: On Man's Struggle to Establish the First Jaguar Preserve by Alan Rabinowitz
Here's the blurb:
n 1983, zoologist Alan Rabinowitz ventured into the rain forest of Belize, determined to study the little-known jaguar in its natural habitat and to establish the world's first jaguar preserve. Within two years, he had succeeded. In "Jaguar" he provides the only first-hand account of a scientist's experience with jaguars in the wild. Originally published in 1986, this edition includes a new preface and epilogue by the author that bring the story up to date with recent events in the region and around the world.
Yes, I've apparently burned out on the cheap romance novels. I know, FINALLY.
Wish more people would read and rate my own little book. It's hard not to worry over it.
I'm currently trying to write my way out of a writer's block (creative block). So I'm rewriting a sci-fi novel that I wrote and heavily outlined over 16 years ago. Not sure it will go anywhere, but who knows, stranger things have happened. At the very least it might spur me to write something else. Ideas come from odd places.
Good news though is the book club. Lots of ladies my age and above. Men, for some reason, don't do book clubs. It's odd. I'd like to join a book club with men in it. I know a lot of men read - I have a flist full of them, not to mention my own family members. I admittedly come from an odd family - at least five of them, outside of myself, have self-published or traditionally published novels. And they all read like crazy.
Anyhow, I bought it. And I have until August 14th to read it. Here's the blurb on it:
Timothy Wilde, the damaged hero of this juicy novel, reluctantly joins the force after losing his employment, his savings and half his face in the great fire that engulfed part of the city that summer. Making the rounds of the wretched Sixth Ward, with its lawless street gangs, abandoned children and ramshackle slums teeming with impoverished immigrants, proves a harsh education for Timothy. But he encounters new depths of depravity when 10-year-old Bird Daly alerts him to the activities of a serial killer in a black hood who is kidnapping and butchering child prostitutes — “kinchin-mabs,” as they’re known in the street slang called “flash-patter.”
I'm also flirting with East of the Sun by Julia Gregson - which I picked up for free from DS.
The Amazon blurb:
As the Kaisar-I-Hind weighs anchor for Bombay in the autumn of 1928, its passengers ponder their fate in a distant land. They are part of the “Fishing Fleet”—the name given to the legions of English women who sail to India each year in search of husbands, heedless of the life that awaits them. The inexperienced chaperone Viva Holloway has been entrusted to watch over three unsettling charges. There’s Rose, as beautiful as she is naïve, who plans to marry a cavalry officer she has met a mere handful of times. Her bridesmaid, Victoria, is hell-bent on losing her virginity en route before finding a husband of her own. And shadowing them all is the malevolent presence of a disturbed schoolboy named Guy Glover.
From the parties of the wealthy Bombay socialites to the poverty of Tamarind Street, from the sooty streets of London to the genteel conversation of the Bombay Yacht Club, East of the Sun takes us back to a world we hardly understand but yearn to know. This is a book that has it all: glorious detail, fascinating characters, and masterful storytelling.
Or Jaguar: On Man's Struggle to Establish the First Jaguar Preserve by Alan Rabinowitz
Here's the blurb:
n 1983, zoologist Alan Rabinowitz ventured into the rain forest of Belize, determined to study the little-known jaguar in its natural habitat and to establish the world's first jaguar preserve. Within two years, he had succeeded. In "Jaguar" he provides the only first-hand account of a scientist's experience with jaguars in the wild. Originally published in 1986, this edition includes a new preface and epilogue by the author that bring the story up to date with recent events in the region and around the world.
Yes, I've apparently burned out on the cheap romance novels. I know, FINALLY.
Wish more people would read and rate my own little book. It's hard not to worry over it.
I'm currently trying to write my way out of a writer's block (creative block). So I'm rewriting a sci-fi novel that I wrote and heavily outlined over 16 years ago. Not sure it will go anywhere, but who knows, stranger things have happened. At the very least it might spur me to write something else. Ideas come from odd places.
Good news though is the book club. Lots of ladies my age and above. Men, for some reason, don't do book clubs. It's odd. I'd like to join a book club with men in it. I know a lot of men read - I have a flist full of them, not to mention my own family members. I admittedly come from an odd family - at least five of them, outside of myself, have self-published or traditionally published novels. And they all read like crazy.