Reading in Reykjavík

Well, I did it. Although I had given up actively trying to finish the challenges I signed up for at the start of the year, I managed to finish this one, and didn't even realise it for a couple of months, so completely had I put it out of my mind. The challenge was to finish 6 books with certain types of words in the title, given in the order I finished them: A Size Something Evil Jewelry or a gem Life stage A number Travel or movement Click on the links to see the reviews of the books I read for the challenge. As might be expected, considering my interest in the genre, four of the books were mysteries. Two of those were hard-boiled/noir detective novels, one a cosy police procedural and one a mystery thriller. The others consisted of a romance novel and a memoir-travelogue. Although I was wasn't actively trying to finish this challenge, I am glad I did. I might even participate in next year's What't in a Name.

I decided it was time I finished at least one challenge. As you may remember, I decided to stop trying to finish the challenges I had signed up for (Gothic novels, mythology and What's in a Name), without actually quitting them. The plan was to stop actively looking for books that fit and just wait and see if something I read fit a particular challenge. Well, I didn't realise it at the time, but I actually finished my last What's in a Name challenge book 2 months ago. That's the one with travel or movement in the title, which this book fits perfectly. So here is the review: Year of publication: 1969 No. in series: 2/3 Genre: Memoir, travel Setting & time: England (London) and Spain, 1934-36 Laurie Lee set out on foot from his home in Slad, in 1934, and ended up in London, working as a labourer for a while, before taking a ship to Spain. Starting out in the northern port of Vigo, he walked across Spain, visiting various cities and towns and ending up in th...

This is both a TBR challenge book and a What’s in a Name challenge book – the one with a number in the title. That leaves only one book in that challenge. Year of publication: 1943: English translation: 1991 Translated by: Peter Hudson No. in series: 1 Genre: Detective story Type of mystery: Murder Type of investigator: Private detective Series detective: Nestor "Dynamite" Burma Setting & time: Lyon and Paris, France; 1941. Former private detective Nestor Burma is released from a POW camp in Germany and sent home to France. At the train station in Lyon he spots an old friend and former employee, who is shot before his eyes and mutters the words “120 Rue de la Gare” before he dies. Having heard the words before, from another man who died shortly afterward, Burma becomes curious and begins to investigate. It immediately becomes apparent that he is in the trail of a ruthless killer, but the more the killer tries to stop Burma, the more Burma becomes dete...

I am doing quite well so far in the reading challenges for this year. I have finished 3 Top Mystery Challenge books, which puts me right on schedule. I have finished 4 out of the 6 books in the What’s in a Name challenge and have the remaining two lined up and am already reading one of them. In the Read-a-myth challenge and Gothic Reading challenge I have not yet read any books, but I am reading my first Gothic book and have the two mythology books lined up. It is the TBR challenge I am proudest of. Two weekends ago I met the goal of my TBR reading challenge for 2011: to get the number of TBR books in my stack below 850. This was cause for celebration, because I don't think I have ever finished a reading challenge so quickly. I only did this partially by reading. I have finished 11 TBR books this year, which alone would not have been enough to reach the desired goal. However, the rules were that the reduction of the TBR list could be done by reading or by culling. What I di...

Here is my fourth What’s in a Name Challenge read, the book with a life stage in the title. It is also a TBR challenge read. Genre: Police procedural Year of publication: 1989 No. in series: 1 Series detective: Police Chief Mitchell “Mitch” Bushyhead Type of mystery: Murder Type of investigator: Police Setting & time: Buckskin, a fictional small town in Oklahoma, USA; contemporary A promising Cherokee artist is found murdered in his house with two of his fingers missing, the first murder to take place in Buckskin for 10 years and Chief Bushyhead soon finds himself on the trail of a cold-blooded killer. Pressure for results and information by the town council does not sit well with him and he knows his job may well be on the line, but he still investigates the case methodically, carefully sifting through evidence and clues and questioning witnesses to discover who could have held enough of a grudge to kill the victim. This is a police procedural/murder mystery wi...

This is my third What’s in a Name Challenge book, the one with jewelry or a gem in the title. Genre: Romance, contemporary Themes: Big Secret, Big Misunderstanding, Royalty Year of publication: 2002 No. in series: 4 Setting & time: Vermont, USA and Cordina, a fictional kingdom in Europe Explicitness and number of sex/love scenes: Several rather purple ones Princess Camilla de Cordina is teetering on the verge of a nervous breakdown and decides to take a break from her duties. Keeping a low profile, she goes on a road trip and enjoys being just another young woman. A mishap with her car brings her into the company of grumpy archaeologist Delaney Caine. Being short on money, she accepts a temporary job from him while she waits for the car to be fixed. Since he lives in a rustic cabin in the woods, they are together in close company and as she cleans his house, cooks him proper meals and types up his notes, they begin to fall in love. But he doesn’t know who she reall...

Finishing this book combines two of my challenges: the TBR and the book with a word meaning “evil” in the title in the What’s in a Name challenge . Genre: Thriller Year of publication: 1958 Type of mystery: Murder Type of investigator: Amateur Setting & time: Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA; contemporary. News commentator Zachary Blake returns to Martha’s Vineyard one year after his wife drowned in the sea off the island’s shore. Ostensibly there for a holiday, he is really investigating whether there is any truth in a letter he has received which claims his wife’s death was not accidental. SPOILERS ahead. This is the first McBain book I read that isn’t part of the 87th Precinct series. In terms of quality it is not on par with those Precinct books I have read, but it’s not bad either. Mediocre is more like it. The writing and characters are, as always in McBain, well done, but I have issues with the story, especially the TSTL behaviour of the hero, and I...

This is a triple challenge book for me: A Top Mystery, a TBR book and a What’s in a Name read. I can now strike out the “size” title in the last one. Genre: Hardboiled detective story Year of publication: 1939 Setting & time: The Los Angeles area, USA; contemporary Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by elderly General Sternwood to look into a blackmail attempt, but more may be at stake. The General’s older daughter thinks he has been hired to find her husband, who has been missing for several weeks, and the younger daughter wants to have some fun with him and will not take ‘no’ for an answer. Before long, Marlowe has uncovered some criminal goings-on, including not only blackmail, but also gambling, illegal pornography and murder. Raymond Chandler was a master storyteller, and also had a way with words and poetic and startling turns of phrase pop up from time to time, usually when Marlowe is contemplating things. Characterisations are simple but just escape being...

As my regular readers may know, I considered a number of reading challenges for 2011. In the end I decided to do two year-long ones with numerous books: my very own Top Mysteries and TBR challenges. I am stepping up the TBR challenge with the goal of reducing my TBR stack to below 850 books before the end of the year. The rules are, as before, that the stack can be reduced by reading and by culling and the books allowed for the challenge are the many, many books I have accumulated over the years but never read, provided I have owned them for more than a year. Furthermore, I will be unable to do this unless I cut down even more on my book buying. I plan to focus especially on non-fiction and on further reducing the number of my unread short story collections. In the Top Mysteries Challenge I am planning to read 2 books per month, averaged over the year. I will also continue the Frankfurter Büchmesse Challenge until the book fair starts in October. Additionally, I’ll take part i...