Reading in Reykjavík

I've been having a major cull of my library and have added some 17 books to my BookMooch inventory, and will be adding more soon. The rest of the culls (mostly heavy books that cost to much to mail abroad) I will be donating to a library. The books are: Margery Allingham: Death of a Ghost Mary Balogh: Slightly Wicked Agatha Christie: A Pocket Full Of Rye Stuart Kaminsky: Murder on the Yellow Brick Road Karen Kijewski: Alley Kat Blues Pamela Labud: Spirited Away Donna Leon: Through a Glass Darkly Charlotte MacLeod: The Luck Runs Out Anne Perry: Rutland Place Ellery Queen: The Siamese Twin Mystery Nora Roberts: Chesapeake Blue Nora Roberts: Inner Harbor Nora Roberts: Rising Tides Nora Roberts: Sea Swept Dorothy L. Sayers: Lord Peter Views The Body Arthur W. Upfield: The Battling Prophet Valerie Wolzien: We Wish You A Merry Murder I have another 70 books in my inventory, mostly mysteries and romances with a few non-fiction books thrown in. Click on the title of this entry to see my Bo...

I think it was Maxine who first recommended Donna Leon to me, and after that I got several more recommendations for her books, so I decided to include her in the challenge. Series detective: Commissario Guido Brunetti Type of mystery: Murder Type of investigator: Police Setting & time: Venice, contemporary -- Title: The Death of Faith (alternative title: Quietly in Their Sleep ) No. in series: 6 Year of publication: 1997 SPOILERS ahead Story: A young nun who has left her order comes to Commissario Brunetti with a story of some deaths at a nursing home where she worked that she finds mysterious but that at first appear to be perfectly normal. She seems to suspect that members of her order or of the Catholic church may be involved. When Brunetti starts digging, the nun is attacked and Brunetti’s boss tries to have him stop the investigation, which just makes him more determined to get to the bottom of the case. Review: The writing and characterisations in the book are very go...

On the Book Design Review last Friday there was a post about an article on the Guardian books blog about the value of reading bad books. In the post, BDR author Joseph Sullivan mentions a bad book that he once read, and, well, I guess you'll have to read it to find out why it was so funny: take me there . I recommend reading the Guardian article as well.

At first I hesitated to include Caroline Graham in this challenge, as I have seen at least a dozen episodes of the television series based on the characters from the Barnaby books. However, I think I am justified in including her, since books and television are different mediums and I have not seen the episodes based on either of the books I read for the review (although I did watch Death of a Hollow Man after I read the book). The first book in the series, The Killings at Badger’s Drift , made it onto the British Crime Writer’s Association list of The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time , despite having won neither the Gold or Silver Dagger, but it must have come close because the books that did get these awards that year are also on the list. Clearly it was a very good year for the Daggers. About the series: Series detective: Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby Type of investigator: Police Setting & time: Causton, a fictional town in southern England, and the surrounding area; cont...

I got through 10 books in October. 3 were rereads and 3 I had been reading for several months. I also discovered that Jennifer Crusie is becoming one of my favourite comfort read authors, and I am now trying to get hold of those of her books I don’t already have. Here are the books: Scott Adams: The Dilbert Future (humour, philosophy, comics) Isabel Allende (text), Robert Shekter (illustrations) & Panchita llona (recipes): Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses (food, erotica) Caroline Graham: The Killings at Badger's Drift (police procedural, murder mystery) Donna Leon: The Death Of Faith (police procedural, murder mystery) Sigurður Ægisson (text) & Jón Baldur Hlíðberg (illustrations): Íslenskar Kynjaskepnur (Meeting with Monsters) (bestiary) Jeffrey Steingarten: It Must've Been Something I Ate (food, article collection) Marion Trutter, ed.: Culinaria: Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan (culinary geography) And the rereads: Jennifer Crusie: Faking It (rom...

Title: The Withdrawing Room No. in series: 2 Year of publication: 1980 Type of mystery: Murder Type of investigator: Amateur & semi-pro Setting & time: Boston, USA; 1970´s Story: Following the deaths of her husband and mother in law (see The Family Vault ), Sarah Kelling is stuck with 2 houses and 2 killer mortgages that may or may not be illegal, but it will take months or perhaps years to sort them out, so until then she is close to broke. Being a practical person and not as proud as her richer society relatives, she turns her townhouse into a boarding house, accepting only people with good references. Soon, however, one of her boarders is murdered, and another one soon afterwards. The case is solved with the help of a bag lady and Max Bittersohn, who has returned to the scene and rented a room in the house. Review: Some of what I wrote about the previous book in the series may be applied to this one as well, except the plotting is even more intricate. The author subtly...

Check this out: book purse I share Penwiper337's opinion of Reader's Digest Condensed Books. However, while I do loathe them, I do think their gilded faux leather bindings look good enough for using as decorations (as long as no-one has to be victimised by the contents), and I think this is a pretty damn good idea. My only concern is that it would be a bit heavy to carry around, but of course it could just be used as decoration by dedicated purse collectors.

Series detective: Carlotta Carlyle No. in series: 4 Year of publication: 1991 Type of mystery: Blackmail/murder Type of investigator: Private detective Setting & time: Boston, Massachusetts, USA, late 20th century Story: Cab-driving PI Carlotta Carlyle runs into her former friend Dee Willis who is now a famous blues singer. Despite ambivalent feelings towards Dee, Carlotta accepts an assignment from her: to find their old friend Dave. At first Dee is unwilling to tell Carlotta why, but then admits that Dave seems to be trying to blackmail her. When Dee's recently fired ex-bass player is found murdered in Dee’s bed, she wants to cry off the search for Dave, but by that time Carlotta has become personally interested in finding him and discovering the truth, and enlists the help of another old friend. Review: While I have read one other book by Barnes (thus making her ineligible for the reading challenge), this was my first book about Carlotta Carlyle. I found the style sna...

Not only will you find people's personal lists there, but also all sorts of other lists, including lists of award winners and official Best of... lists, and you can choose items on the lists to indicate that you have read the book, seen the movie, been to the place, eaten the dish, etc. Clicking the post title will take you directly to the website, clicking the link below will open in it a new window. Lists of Bests