What BOOK are you reading right now?

Did a bit of reading on beaches while holidaying on various Greek Islands.
I didn't actually take any books, so choices were limited to what little English language material you could find in newsagents and bookstores - or what you could swap in accomadation collections.

Leaving Berlin - Joseph Kanon
(a good read about post war Berlin as the cold war begins - Surprisingly emotionally inert protagonist)

Daughters of Mars - Thomas Kenneally
Interestingly written, and entertaining but quite a few of the storylines seemed familiar because I'd watched the ANZAC Girls miniseries (which either plagiarised this novel or both were based on the same diaries.

Edge of Eternity - Ken Follett
Follet being Follet. Meticulously researched then romantically glossed over and made implausible because he wants his characters to be writ large but invisibly on history's stage. Even though I hadn't read the the first two books of the triology it made no difference. Can't wait till they make it into a tv series and merge several characters into one and drive me completely insane. (I'm watching you World Without End screenwriters).

Before I Go To Sleep - S.J. Watson
Didn't realise this had been made into a movie until I finished it. A decent read with elements of Memento - just occasionally it drags but mostly intriguting.

The Sea Detective - Mark Douglas Home
The novel that 'raised the bar for Scottish detective fiction. A good holiday read. If they make it into a movie I have Miranda Hart cast for one the lead roles.

I've liked Kanon, forget the titles and the storylines; that was a while ago.

Greek Islands!!!!

I like that approach to reading - accommodation collections.

It's similar to reading only from the little free library on our block.



(if this isn't ours, it was made from the same template)


I found Raymond Chandler there and I think Set just brought back something interesting from there.

A neighbour recently put about a hundred books out on his driveway for us all to pick through. Even the Korean politics collection found a home. My favourite find from that day (so far) was



I didn't know that Johnny Cash was such a history buff or that he had a massive personal library. I couldn't put the book down. Either Johnny or his ghost writer was very gifted. Some beautiful sentences in that book. A particularly good section on how differently people experiencing the same thing can report/remember it and how that effects our understanding of historical events.

I know what you mean, there's no problem getting hold of The Sun or The Daily Mail over there, but a decent book/paper is another matter.

I'm currently reading a lot of Dean Koontz, I'm on number 4 of the Odd Thomas series.

Finished The Handmaid's Tale tonight. Two books are waiting in the wind (starting one tomorrow).

China Miéville's collection of short stories, Three Moments of an Explosion or Tom Holt's The Outsourcerer's Apprentice.

I've finished Odd Hours now I've started The Taken. It's Dean Koontz but not part of the Odd Thomas series. I picked up a load at the car boot, a nice easy read, not requiring too much concentration, which is just as well because I've got a convalescent cat on my hands right now. He's a white cat and he had his ears amputated on Thursday, he's wearing a cone which he hates, and he has to stay indoors which he also hates. He does seem to be recovering well though.

They have this 'international newstand' thingy all over the Greek islands. So dailies of Der Spiegel, NYT, Le Monde et al. But not the bloody Guardian Weekly. Frustrated the bloody crap out of me.

When I was in Crete I could get a Guardian in Heraklion, but nowhere else. In mainland Europe I've always found the best places are railway stations.

This was our 6th trip European trip and the first where its been nigh impossible to track one down. I concur about train stations but there aren't any in thr Cyclades

Just plenty of Abba songs.

Sorry, I never liked them, nor the Beegees and I hated the Eagles, which got me to avoid regular radio.

I understand those folks could sing well, as singers.

I never liked them either, I was referencing the film Mamma Mia set on a Greek Island. I've not see it btw, it's not my idea of a "feel good" movie, that would be Se7en which ends with Gwyneth Paltrow being decapitated. Cheered me right up.

You're an odd lad!!

Just started to read the paperback version of The Outsorcerer's Apprentice by Tom Holt. Someone needs to start adapting Tom Holt's satirical fantasy works soon enough.

I'm about ten pages from the end of my book, by a new author for me but that was just my ignorance, and one of the more interesting among my last reads. Back soon.

The title alone makes me want to read this.

I finished my book, a police and legal procedural by a woman with quite a background re Boston reportage - Truth Be Told, by Hank Phillippi Ryan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Phillippi_Ryan
https://www.amazon.com/Hank-Phillippi-Ryan/e/B001T2BNEA/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1470259798&sr=1-2-ent

I didn't get bored in the middle of it, or not much, a common reading reaction of mine.

A big part of my interest in procedurals is the locations, often in different places in the world. This one was pretty Boston-y.

I am trying to reread Poe's novels.
I really like them.
I was even writing a term paper based on his novels.
Among my favorite are
"Morella"
"The Murders in the Rue Morgue"
"The Oval Portrait"
"The Pit and the Pendulum"
and many others.

FYI: Edgar Allan Poe wrote short stories not novels.

I'm reading a book that I just had to buy when I saw it at Goodwill since it was about Tuscany, but I was well aware it might be on the syrupy side. On the other hand, the scenes started around 1916, when the author was five, so maybe it would be interesting. That turned out to be true as the book progressed.
The title is A Tuscan Childhood, author is Kinta Beevor, who was, I think, born in Scotland to a British family. There is some going back and forth between London and Tuscany in the book, but the large part of it is about times in Tuscany.

The author's family was well to do, with her grand aunt knowing anyone who was anybody; I figured early on in my reading that this would be a name dropping book, but it was more interesting and more well rounded than that. I learned a lot, including about growing many crops and making olive oil and wine and renovating broken down old castles, and different situations in the WWI and WW2 years, including dealings by italian facists and Germans in Italy and partisans of various sorts.

The people the family and friends were around were the opposite of facist so that was some relief in the reading. For several years, some of the family lived next door to Bernard Berenson, and since the author's later husband was an artist (lots of frescos), I'm going to put the book next to Berenson's The Passionate Sightseer on my art bookshelf. That was a good read, and this book by Kinta Beevor on Tuscany is also keeper.

Re the author titling the book about childhood... she does grow up and older through most of the 20th century, and describes a lot of later years too.