Sunday Salon 2009-11-08 – Week in Review

Books Then and Now

This week was a good reading one for me. I finished and reviewed four books starting with a cosy by new to me author Elaine Viets (Murder Between The Covers), moving to a fast-paced thriller by another new to me author Harlan Coben (Tell No One) then an audio version of an Agatha Christie novel that I don’t recall ever reading before (Dead Man’s Folly) and finishing up with the second novel in Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander series (The Dogs of Riga).

Arrivals and Departures

So far this month I have shown unusual restraint, acquiring 6 books (3 of them audio downloads) but giving away 23 books to friends and colleagues. I also have found a charity shop that will take as many books as I can give them so I plan to get rid of a lot more books in the next few weeks. My aim is to keep only the books I might one day read again or the ones that have some sentimental value.

Link Fest

This week, most of what I read online made me cranky for one reason or another.

• This post about authors needing to brand themselves started the trend. I certainly don’t disagree that authors should have decent websites and other promotional tools but I am sick to death of the religion that is branding. Books are not burgers and as a reader I am sick to death of being treated like the kind of moron that picks what I want to read based on the pretty covers. The author of the blog post uses James Patterson as the prime example of a branded author and on that issue I agree with him – Patterson is wonderfully branded. However if all authors become Patterson-like I’ll need to find a new hobby because his product is dross and not remotely the kind of thing I actually want to read.
• It’s nothing to do with books but this news article about the plastic bag ban in my state made me crazier still.  It’s only a few lines but for me it epitomised what is wrong with the media, politicians and society in general (what, me over-react?). Earlier this year the government here banned the use of single-use plastic shopping bags and this is what the relevant government minister had to say

SA Environment Minister Jay Weatherill is happy with the outcome. ”Eighty-two per cent of people think that this has had an impact that is on reducing plastic bags to landfill and also getting it out of our natural environment,” he said.

Nowhere so far has there been any reporting on whether the ban has actually had any impact on the environment but apparently that doesn’t matter as long as a majority of people believe it has. It’s not that I’m opposed to the bag ban (hey I’ve been taking my own bags to the shops for ten years) but I am opposed to making law based on the nebulous beliefs of the majority.

• This press release from Women in Letters and Literary Arts (WILLA) about the lack of women in the Publishers’ Weekly top ten books of the year also made me cranky. I’m not thrilled that the PW list had no women writers in it but neither am I convinced that hurling insults and unhelpful labels at PW is going to do much for the cause. Why does this stuff always have to be so confrontational? To my mind WILLA would have been better off just publishing their own list of ten great books by women writers so that commentators might discuss the differences. WILLA is preparing its own list of books by women authors but as it’s happening via a publicly editable wiki it could conceivably contain any (every?) book published by a woman this year and looks petulant rather than considered.

…and one more thing

I don’t know what’s true and what’s not in the great climate change debate but I do know summer is here with a vengeance a whole month before it’s officially supposed to be and I’ve had enough already.

 

Sunday Salon 2009-10-25: Week In Review

I normally write my Sunday Salon post while sipping coffee at a nearby cafe after my Sunday walk but this week I seem to have made it to Sunday evening without stopping to write my post. How is it that some days disappear without you even noticing?

Books Then and Now

This week I finished Frozen Tracks by Åke Edwardson, Tilt A Whirl by Chris Grabenstein and Born Standing Up by Steve Martin. I enjoyed them all for different reasons although I found Martin reading his own biography on audio book surprisingly disappointing. His delivery was very flat.

I’m currently reading The Trojan Dog by Dorothy Johnston (an Australian book not much talked about that I don’t quite know what to make of yet) and next on my print pile is another new to me author: Tania Carver’s The Surrogate. Before I head off to work tomorrow I have to decide between listening to Sandra Brown’s The Chill Factor or Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express read by David Suchet. Choices Choices Choices.

Arrivals and Departures

There’s no way I can twist this to make it sound good. I acquired seven books this week while disposing of only a single book via bookmooch! I swear I will start my own 12 step program if I can’t stop this madness soon. A person with an entire year’s worth of reading on her TBR shelves does not need to be bringing more books into the house but I can’t seem to control myself. The good news is I only paid for three of them (and they were all on special) but still.

Link Fest

Again I’ve spent a limited amount of time online this week. Who’s got time for dithering about on the internet when Australian TV finally started showing one of my favourite shows (previously only available from channel bit torrent) QI? I may have mentioned my adoration of Stephen Fry before (I’d be shocked if I hadn’t) and am delighted I can finally watch this show legally.

Anyway, I did manage to draw myself away from repeated viewings of legal Mr Fry and find a few things of interest

• An article from the UK’s Guardian newspaper that discusses crime fiction reviewer Jessica Mann’s decision to stop reading and reviewing the plethora of crime fiction which depicts women being tortured and brutalised. The article quotes award-winning crime fiction author Val McDermid as saying

There has been a general desensitisation among readers, who are upping the ante by demanding ever more sensationalist and gratuitous plot lines

I’d love to know who exactly is demanding all this extra violence. I read crime fiction and i’m not demanding it. Not a single one of the crime fiction devotees I know is demanding it either. In fact many of us are more likely to join Ms Mann’s boycott of the sub genre than any group demanding more blood, rape and victimisation.

• A tongue-in-cheek essay about whether or not Melbourne is a city of books and how the way we like to think of ourselves is often at odds with reality.

 

Sunday Salon 2009-10-18: Week in Review

Books Then and Now

The two books I finished this week were The Unorthodox Murder of Rabbi Wahl by Joseph Telushkin and Ann Cleeves’ White Nights. Both were above average reads and each offered something unique.

My current reads are all thanks to you, my fellow book bloggers. Last week I asked for audio book recommendations and all the suggestions I hadn’t already read are now waiting patiently in my audible wishlist (I have an account which allows me two downloads per month). Belle of Ms Bookish was so passionate about Chris Grabenstein’s John Ceepack novels narrated by Jeff Woodman that I started listening to the first in the series, Tilt-a-Whirl, immediately.  My current print book, Åke Edwardson’s Frozen Tracks was also recommended by a book blogger: Maxine from Petrona whose review is at Euro Crime. I wouldn’t have chosen either book for myself based on the blurbs alone but I’ve grown to trust my favourite book bloggers and so have been rewarded with two very different but thoroughly enjoyable reading experiences. Lucky me.

I’m not sure what I’ll read next. There are more than a hundred books on my TBR pile but none are screaming at me especially loudly just yet although I suspect it’s time for something Australian.

Arrivals and Departures

Rarely for me this week I have maintained the status quo. I didn’t acquire any books or dispose of any. But before you all congratulate me for my restraint I should declare that I did do some online shopping this week and expect my orders to start trickling in soon. I blame the global financial crisis which has done terrible things to everyone’s economy but ours which means that our little Aussie dollar buys a heck of a lot more than it used to and I’m making hay while the sun shines. Oh and I’m very (very) weak.

Link Fest

I haven’t spend much time online this week but a couple of reports about the multitude of awards handed out at the annual Bouchercon caught my eye:

• I’m sure it’s lovely for the authors and publishers to have so many chances to win something but some of the categories have baffled me. The Barry Awards gave an award for Best British Novel which was won by Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (written by a Swede, set in Sweden) from a field of equally non-British novels. What’s the point?
• I also noticed that there was an Anthony Award for Best Cover Art, which was also won by The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I don’t find the US cover art (which won the award) nearly as striking as the UK/Aust cover sitting on my shelves. What about you?

US TGWTDT

UK TGWTDT

Just so you know The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo also picked up Best First Mystery (Macavity Awards voted on by members of Mystery Readers International) and Best First Novel (Anthony Awards which are voted on by the convention’s attendees).

…and one more thing

Nothing to rant about this week but I would like to announce that I finally did the draw for winners of the Aussie Author Giveaway #2 (yes I know I’m slack). Margot Kinberg and Maggie Mason have won copies of PD Martin’s Body Count while Ann in Ottowa will be receiving a copy of Brian Kavanagh’s The Embroidered Corpse. I have more signed copies of PD Martin’s books for next month’s give away as well as some other titles so please come back on the first of November to enter.

 

Sunday Salon 2009-10-11: Week in Review

I have yet to draw the winners of the Aussie Author Give Away. It should have closed last night local time but as I won’t get around to it until tomorrow now you should stop by and enter if you’d like a good shot at winning some crime fiction by an Aussie author.

In non book-review posts this week I ranted week about people who continue the series of other authors (usually deceased) which is not a practice I’m in favour of. As part of Weekly Geeks I’ve asked for audio book recommendations. Head over and tell me about your favourite audio books if you are a listener.

Books Then and Now

I finally reviewed Donna Moore’s Go to Helena Handbasket this week and highly recommend it to mystery fans with a liking for screwball comedy. And, after a mishap with my first copy of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (bath + heavy book + fear of spiders = pulp-like mess) I finished. There should be a name for the feeling that is the particular blend of satisfaction and melancholy that accompanies the closing of the last book in a series you thoroughly enjoyed. Sigh.

I’ve also had some DNFs of late but the last time I mentioned a DNF here all kinds of hell broke so I’ll not name them. Having read a bunch of fine examples of how it’s possible to do something different, even unique, with this genre I get increasingly bored with the formulaic stuff that used to be my bread and butter reading before I discovered book blogs and realised I didn’t have to rely on the staff at the local chain store for my recommended reading.

But the benefits of a 100+ TBR pile is that there’s always something else to try. I expect to finish listening to Ann Cleeves’ White Nights this week and am currently reading a 22-year-old book called The Unorthodox Murder of Rabbi Wahl by Joseph Telushkin. It was a book I mooched after seeing it discussed somewhere online (note to self, keep a record of who recommended the books I read) and I’m finding it a quite interesting depiction of the Jewish religion intertwined with a classic whodunnit.

Arrivals and Departures

I blame Maxine for this week’s sole purchase of Ake Edwardsson’s Frozen Tracks. She had recommended it some weeks ago and I spied it on a specials table so, being very (very) weak I snapped it up.

In the interests of full disclosure I can’t blame Maxine for me being in the bookstore near the specials table where I really had no need to be and in all likelihood if it hadn’t been that book it would have been something else because, as I mentioned, I’m very (very) weak.

However, I sent two books off to fellow bookmoochers so I’m in front this week, if only by one.

Link Fest

• Am I the last book blogger on the planet who hadn’t discovered the Book Blog Search Engine? Probably. In case I’m the penultimate discoverer I thought I would mention it and its general awesomeness. It’s a customised search engine created by Fyrefly and allows you to search for mentions of a book only on book blogs (i.e. it cuts out all the pesky mainstream media and amazon links that often clutter up search results).
• Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise has a similar customised search that only searches crime fiction blogs (go to her site and scroll down to the 9th box on the right hand side-bar).
• The possible lifting of parallel import bans for Australian booksellers again raised its head in the news this week. I am increasingly of the opinion that lifting the ban won’t do anything for writers or readers. The only thing everyone seems to agree on is that it would help big business get bigger. Which is not the best of all possible outcomes in a market the size of Australia’s.
• I honestly don’t know what to make of this opinion piece that looks positively at the growing phenomenon of self-publishing. The independent thinking part of my brain says “sure, go for it…the technology makes it possible and why should mega-corporations have all the say?”. The part of me that doesn’t believe the old saying ‘everyone has a book in them’ worries that even more trees will die in the pursuit of vanity than is currently the case.

…and one more thing

My almost least favourite people on the planet are a The Offended. They’re the folks who actively seek out opportunities to be affronted by a movie, TV show, book or work of art, are often members of groups with the word Family in the title and can reliably be guaranteed to have An Opinion about all the things causing Offence throughout the land. Although I despise these people, my absolute least favourite humans are the ones who call themselves ‘journalists’ and report the Opinions of The Offended at length in our so-called news media, often without offering any alternate point of view whatsoever. STOP REPORTING THEM AS REPRESENTATIVE. These people don’t speak for me.

Do you think a lobby group called ‘people who don’t really care what others are doing as long as no one is forced to watch/see/read/participate in anything they don’t want to’ would get as much air time?

 

Sunday Salon 2009-10-04: Fortnight in Review

Yes it’s been 2 weeks since I posted on a Sunday but life seems to have been frantic of late

I have more Aussie crime fiction to give away. Enter here. Your chances of winning are fairly high so give it a go.

Books Then and Now

My leisure reading time is still being curtailed heavily so I have only posted a couple of reviews in the past two weeks: Out by Natsuo Kirino and Bones by Jonathan Kellerman, neither of which were terribly good reads for me. As part of my early entry into a new weekly meme (Crime Fiction Alphabet) I also posted a mini review of a book I read BB (Before Blog) called Absolution. I have finished another book, a romp of a tale called Go to Helena Handbasket but a friend pinched my copy before I could even scribble some review notes but I hope to recapture the book this week for long enough to write a review.

My 4-day weekend was supposed to be devoted to reading the third and final installment of Stieg Larsson’s millennium trilogy: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.  Sadly real life has been annoyingly intrusive and I’ve not finished the book yet but I hope to get back to it soon. I shall make no more comment about the book yet.

I have no other books on the go just now although the next audio book on my play list is Ann Cleeves’ White Nights.

Arrivals and Departures

I posted earlier in the week about my three wickedly expensive new release purchases. But what the heck, a girl’s gotta read right?

I need some more ideas about how to rid myself of books. Book swapping sites are becoming a bit awkward to use as I end up giving many more books than I receive as lots of people won’t send to Australia which means I am seriously out of pocket. I don’t mind giving books away but paying to have them taken off my hands is going a bit far. Any other suggestions much appreciated though (local charity shops are not that interested I’ve found).

Link Fest

Not much of a fest this week but this article about the greatest fictional detectives has some holes in my opinion. Even if I assume they’re only talking about the UK and only about TV detectives they’ve missed, for a start, Andy Dalziel from Dalziel and Pascoe (one of the few transitions from book to TV that depicted the protagonist pretty much as I’d imagined him). And surely George Baker’s portrayal of Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Reg Wexford deserves a look in. Have they missed one of your favourite English fictional detectives seen on TV?

…and one more thing

To all the people who catch public transport (especially the 105 bus) and, for the duration of the trip, carry on your personal telephone calls in which you shout at the top of your lungs about what Cheryl said about Wendy at last Friday’s booze-up and refuse to turn your volume down to a dull roar even when I plead, know this: there is a hell and you’re going straight there.

Now, back to Hornets’ Nest

 

Sunday Salon 2009-09-20 – Week in Review

OK it’s actually Monday but I meant to do this post yesterday which surely counts, right? Two hellish weeks in a row do not make for a pleasant-to-be-around Bernadette so, dear blog reader, be grateful that you only have to deal with me where all the crankiness has been edited out.

I did manage to draw the winners of the first Aussie Author Give Away (although BJ/Moondancer if you’re reading this please contact me as you haven’t responded to my emails and I don’t have a postal address for you). See what people thought about Australia and come back for another round of that give away next month.

Books Then and Now

I have mild photophobia (light sensitivity) which I manage well most of the time but when I spend many successive 12 hour days in fluorescent light it gets considerably worse. This is annoying because it means at the end of a long, tiresome day I can’t indulge in the thing most likely to relax me: reading. So for the second week in a row I have hardly read a word of fiction.

I did incorporate mini-reviews of two books into other posts this week. Death on the Nile featured heavily in my contribution to Kerrie’s Christie Week Blog Tour and I also participated for the first time in Friday’s Forgotten Books by talking about a little-known Australian book called Ligney’s Lake by S H Courtier.

I’m currently listening to Jonathan Kellerman’s Bones (which is in the meh category so far although I’ll keep listening) and reading Colin Cotterill’s The Coroner’s Lunch (delightful).

Work should be slowing down now so hopefully I’ll be able to read something I want to read this week

Arrivals and Departures

I acquired only the one book this week (it’s Graham Greene’s The Quiet American if you can’t see the cover, a book I mooched after having it recommended by Bibliojunkie). I’d like to think this is the start of a new trend of austerity but I know I’m going to buy a couple of books next week as two of my favourite authors have new books coming out on 1 October.

I didn’t manage to rid myself of any books aside from my give aways

Link Fest

Barely any time for surfing or reading news feeds this week but I will share my new favourite You Tube clip. A young lady on Bulgaria’s version of American Idol had a little trouble with the English language and created an…interesting…cover of Maria Carey’s song “Ken Lee” (you might have thought it was called Without You). I know it’s not politically correct to laugh at such things but, seriously, couldn’t she Google the correct lyrics before going on national television?

…and one more thing

I subscribe to around 150 book blogs and, due primarily to BBAW, most of them had a post each day last week, with more than a handful posting multiple times per day. I’m afraid I suffered from over-supply and did the only thing I could to cope (consigned the entire lot to the ‘mark all as read’ button). I know it’s not terribly fair given that everyone went to so much effort but 1000+ posts a week is way more than I can process. So I offer my deepest apologies to all the book blogs I love for not helping you celebrate and think in future I’ll do my book blogger appreciating during the other 51 weeks of the year.

 

Sunday Salon 2009-09-13: Week in Review

What a week! I won’t bore you with the details, just know that Murphy’s Law ruled my life this week.

There are only 2 days left to go in the running to win my first Aussie Author Give Away so hurry and enter to win one of two great Aussie crime novels.

Don’t forget that Book Blogger Appreciation Week starts tomorrow. You should have already voted for your favourite blogs in the various award categories (and if you haven’t it’s too late now) but there are many other ways you can participate in the week’s activities and say thanks to the book bloggers that make your world a more bookish place.

This week (starting today in fact) is also Agatha Christie week.  As part of festivities Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is hosting a Christie blog tour all week (my contribution is scheduled for tomorrow).

Books Then and Now

Regular readers will see that I haven’t reviewed a single book this week which is a rarity for me. I have actually finished two books (Ligny’s Lake and Death on the Nile) but they’re both the subject of posts which are due on specific days next week so you’ll have to wait for my opinions (how on earth will you sleep?).

I have partly-finished books all over the place, most of which I hope to finish soon. All except the one I slammed on the desk of the Nurse Ratched I came across at a local aged care facility. Thankfully it wasn’t a library book as it would have lessened the impact of my dramatic exit if I’d had to retrieve the thing.

Arrivals and Departures

Again I acquired more books than I managed to rid myself of this week. These are the four books that have a new home with me (the second one along is Fergus Hume’s Mystery of a Hansom Cab and was first published in 1886 though this is a new edition). I sent 2 books off to a new home with a fellow BookMooch member.

Link Fest

• According to the bloke who runs BookMooch Amazon is getting stricter on allowing use of its product database. Sites like BookMooch and Good Reads and the many others that use Amazon’s data might be forced to stop using the data or pay handsomely for the privilege. Amazon only wants its data used to promote the purchase of products via Amazon. Of course it’s Amazon’s right to set whatever rules it wants for its data but it won’t win them more customers.
• Scott Parker writes passionately about the joy to be obtained from audio books. As someone who has dreamt of having my own personal narrator on permanent stand-by I share his enthusiasm.
• Stephen Fry is (as always) (to me anyway) cleverly funny about book cover quotes from famous people such as himself
• At the Villa Rose has prepared a quiz for classic mystery enthusiasts. I love my crime fiction but didn’t score terribly well (in fact I only knew the answer to one of the 27 questions and only because one of my acquisitions this week was the right answer). But I am comfortable with my scope for improvement
• This article about what makes a publishable crime novel made me chuckle. Several successful authors were queried for advice and while much of it is not exclusively applicable to crime fiction writing, most of it does make sense. The bit that made me chuckle is that I read it shortly after hearing that James Patterson’s name will appear on 17 new books between now and 2012. If that doesn’t make a mockery of decent writing everywhere I don’t know what does.
• Page247 continued a discussion about Google Reader that I started here last Sunday. It was interesting to read other people’s thoughts about how RSS readers can make it easier to stop visiting blogs properly. In my case I wouldn’t visit blogs at all if it weren’t for my Google Reader account and I don’t mind if that’s all people do with my own blog (in fact I am chuffed anyone at all bothers to do even that given the staggeringly huge amount of content there is on the Net).

…and one more thing

When major companies release new versions of their software is it too much to ask that they do bit of product testing? Apple’s new version of iTunes released this week completely screwed with smart playlists containing non-music file formats (e.g. podcasts or audiobooks). So, instead of my regular Saturday morning walk listening to my favourite podcasts I spent 2 hours scouring the web to find a workaround to the bug. I pay a ridiculous amount of money for your shiny gadgets and musical bytes precisely so that the products you release are trustworthy Apple. So lift your damned game.

 

Sunday Salon 6 Sept 2009 – Week in Review

This has been a fun week for me as I launched this blog’s first giveaway known as the Aussie Author Give Away. Each month I’m giving away a couple of books by Australian crime fiction authors to share the great stuff produced by Australian writers (and also because I could do with a few less books on my shelves).

The inaugural giveaway provides the opportunity to win a copy of either The Consequences of Sin by Clare Langley-Hawthorne (a thoroughly delightful historical mystery set in Edwardian England) or The Dragon Man by Garry Disher (a top notch police procedural set in present day rural Victoria during a typical Aussie summer).

The Internet being a sometimes wondrous thing I was contacted by Clare to offer a signed copy of her book to give away on top of the pre-loved book I was already offering so there are now two copies of that one to win. Read the rules and leave your entry here by 15 September.

While I’m in competition mode I should also point out that Craig over at Crime Watch is offering you the chance to win the book of your choice by a New Zealand crime fiction writer. You’ll soon have no excuse not to have read something by an antipodean crime writer.

Books then and now

Reading wasn’t quite so much fun this week. It started wonderfully with Phillip Gwynne’s The Build Up (I’m still yammering about that one to friends) but after that I got a bit stuck when I started a big brick of a thing: Jo Nesbo’s The Redbreast (614 pages!). I’m not marking the book as a DNF because my lack of concentration wasn’t really the book’s fault and I’ll get back to it when life settles down a bit. However, I put it aside for a bit of comfort reading instead and read Carolyn Hart’s Dead Days of Summer and Dick Francis’ Silks.

I’m still listening to and enjoying Death on the Nile narrated by David Suchet in preparation for Agatha Christie week (starting September 13).

My current print book is a 1970’s Australian mystery I picked up from the library called Ligny’s Lake by S H Courtier. In one of those strange moments that small-ish cities can throw at you the copy I borrowed had a bookplate in the front with hand-writing I recognised. My best friend’s mum had given the book to her sister 15 odd years ago and she had donated it to the library some years later. I do love the journeys books take through the world.

Arrivals and Departures

I’ve acquired fewer books this week although I did buy one. I justified that because it was one of the books promoted by the Australian Books Alive campaign which is an annual event designed to engender an interest in books and reading. Not that I need my interest engendered any further but I feel I ought to support such a worthy goal. Besides I couldn’t resist the pull of the free book written especially for the campaign which you can only receive if you buy one of the featured books. So, I bought one book, got one book for free and had two mooched books arrive on my doorstep. I didn’t manage to send off a single book

Link Fest

• The Director of literature for the Australian Council for the Arts, Susan Hayes, wrote in our national newspaper this week that she thinks the paper book as we know it will disappear within the next 10 years. Although I disagree with her time frame the article makes some good points and has prompted some comment. There’s no doubt that publishing is changing although I do wish people would stop making comparisons between e-books and e-music. It’s a completely different thing.
• Criminal Brief had a fun post about how to tell what kind of crime or mystery novel you are in based on the ending. As well as being funny it does a good job of explaining all the different sub genres (thanks to BVLawson on Twitter for the link).
• Maxine at Petrona wrote a thought provoking post about where she draws the line in the sand as far as gruesomeness and violence in crime fiction, especially as it relates to women, are concerned. I haven’t left a comment yet because my thoughts are not particularly coherent on the matter but it is a subject I find myself contemplating more and more these days. I haven’t had problems with the same books that Maxine mentions but there are different books and series that I’ve stopped reading due to their particularly nasty violence.

…And one more thing

There’s just time for a short rant before I finish up. To those who think you can force me to go to your site to read your content (either because your ‘blog’ has no RSS feed or you only push teasers to your feed) you can’t. Force me that is. It suits me to read in a single place via my news gathering client of choice and web 2.0 allows me that freedom. I’m not giving that up just so you get more site traffic. Whatever you have to say is lost on me.

Oh and happy father’s day, Dad. Lunch will be ready when you get here.

 

Sunday Salon 2009-08-30 – Week in Review

I’ve been a naughty Sunday Salon-er of late what with international guests, holiday time and general laziness but I’m back in the saddle. At least until the next spell of mega laziness takes hold of me.

Books then and now

I have not read as many books as I normally would during the month or so since last I posted for Sunday Salon but this week I did manage to finish

• The audio version of Reginald Hill’s A Cure for all Diseases narrated by Jonathan Keeble and while I know it’s a great story the brilliant narration really adds an extra dimension.
• A surprisingly delightful historical crime fiction novel called The Consequences of Sin by Clare Langley-Hawthorne which is set in Edwardian England and features a suffragette heroine.

Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise will be hosting a blog tour for Christie week in September so in preparation for my contribution I am listening to my favourite Christie novel, Death on the Nile. Although I’ve read the print version, seen the movie and played the hidden object game I’ve never listened to the book before. This version is narrated by nearly everyone’s favourite Poirot, David Suchet, so it’s a high quality product and I am enjoying it.

My current print book is Phillip Gwynne’s The Build Up which I grabbed from the TBR pile because it will be discussed at Oz Mystery Readers in a few days. The book is set in Australia’s Northern Territory during the build up to the wet season and features a great female character called Dusty Buchanon. Although fiction, it’s clearly inspired by some real-life crimes and it has reminded me how much fun it is to read something with a ‘local’ voice.

I’m not sure what I’ll read or listen to next but I am, as always, spoiled for choice.

Arrivals and Departures

I’m almost embarrassed by the number of books I’ve acquired this month: 22! Seven were free and most of the rest were bought second hand but I was hardly in any great need of more books for Mount TBR.

As part of my effort to dispose of books at a similar rate to my acquisitions I’ll be starting a monthly give away on the 1^st of September so keep an eye out for that. I don’t have the energy to devise difficult quizzes so you won’t have to work too hard to be in the running for a pre-loved book or two.

Link Fest

I’ve only just gotten back into the groove of keeping up with my google reader account (the mark all as read button got a work out over the past month) so haven’t got a lot of links to share this week but did want to highlight a couple of things that piqued my curiosity:

• Author and blogger Martin Edwards posted a question about why crime fiction is so gruesome these days. It generated a load of comments and I admit I’m still thinking about the issue.
• Did you hear who won the Ned Kelly Awards for Australian crime fiction on Friday night? Don’t worry, no one else did either as Kerrie points out in her very polite post about the news leaking through. I’ve been brought up to believe that if a job’s worth doing it’s worth doing properly which I don’t think is the same philosophy used by whoever’s responsible for the awards this year. The website is next to useless as far as information goes, they announced the shortlist too late to generate the sort of speculative interest that prompts book sales and now they can’t even be bothered letting those who weren’t at the ceremony know who won.
• There’s a new group at Good Reads called the Crime and Thriller group. It looks to have been up and running for a couple of months but I just noticed it this week. It’s already far more active than the mysteries group there so looks like a good spot for crime fiction Good Reads members.
• Not at all book related but one of my favourite podcasts talked this week about a nifty new website called everlater that makes it easy to keep an online record of your travel and, should you want to, meet other people who have similar travel interests. I am a travel buff so this one peaked my interest in a way that other social networking sites generally don’t.

 

The Sunday Salon 2009-07-19: Week in Review

Books: then and now

I definitely had better quality reading this week than last. I read a wonderful true crime book about a case that took place in the early years of the field of professional detection called The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale. I then got back into fiction reading with Michael Robotham’s Shatter and Kate Alvtegen’s Missing which ended up being my 7th 5 out 5 rating for the year (out of 71 books so far).

I’m now reading my first book by another new (to me) author that many crime fiction bloggers have talked favourably about, Denise Mina’s Garnethill, and am listening to The Saladin Murders by Matt Beynon Rees whose first book was my favourite read of last year. I still have to squeeze in Ruth Rendell’s From Doon with Death and Peter de Jong’s Shadows Still Remain over the next week or so for different book group discussions. I’m waiting on the library for one of these and am beginning to think there’s a library hog out there somewhere who won’t give it up as it was due back a couple of weeks ago.

Arrivals and departures

Despite my good intentions to stop acquiring books while my TBR pile is so large 2 books I ordered from Book Depository arrived on my doorstep this week: Jo Nesbo’s The Redbreast (the first book in a series that many people are talking about) and Clare Langley-Hawthorne’s The Consequences of Sin which is a historical crime fiction novel by an Australian author I thought I should check out. In my favour though I did send off 8 books to bookmooch members so my overall number of books owned is slightly less than it was

Link Fest

I haven’t done as much online reading this week but a couple of things did catch my eye:

• Australia’s moronic Minister for Communications has been named Internet Villain of the Year for his tireless progression towards censoring the internet in this country despite almost every expert consulted about the plan (technologists, police and child protection groups included) telling him the plan is doomed to failure.
• The Productivity Commission (am I the only one who thinks that’s an oxymoron?)  in Australia released its final report on the parallel importation of books and has recommended the removal of any restrictions by 2012. In short what this would mean if introduced would be that book sellers in Australia would be able to import titles from the cheapest source for sale here rather than having to sell the version by the local publisher. The assumption is that this will make books cheaper here. I’ve been in two minds on this issue because books do cost a lot here in Australia (especially the ones I read which tend not to be mainstream best sellers which are subject to discounting). On the other hand I also really value being able to read a range of books by Aussie authors and know that the proposed dropping of restrictions will probably make it even harder for them to get published. We had a good discussion about the subject at Oz Mystery Readers (you have to be a member of the group to see the posts) and there’s good information at the Aussies for Aussie books site.
• I discovered the bookworms carnival: a twice monthly blog which highlights reviews on a range of themes and is an excellent way to find new blogs that review. The 33rd carnival has just been posted and the theme was a broad “whatcha reading?” and upcoming editions will look at YA Fantasy, really-old classics and historical fiction. Lots of opportunity for bloggers to become involved and readers to find good recommendations.