Apples at the Chapel

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Cats are just funny

Parker's future if Lisa was left in charge

Monday, August 30, 2010

Since Blogger lets you add 5 pictures at a time that is what I will do. Plus I will pick the best of each set as a handy dandy reference for you.

Four of the books in this group are continuation of ongoing series.

BOOK #29: Arctic Chill
BOOK #30: Hypothermia
AUTHOR: Arnaldur Indritason
COPYRIGHT: 2005 & 2007

More crime and punishment in Iceland. This series is great for anyone interested in police procedurals and Nordic Noir, which is riding a wave of popularity right now. Similar authors would be Henning Mankell (a favorite) and Jo Nesbo who write about Sweden and Norway respectively.

BOOK #31: The Fixer Upper
AUTHOR: Mary Kay Andrews
COPYRIGHT: 2009

Who can resist a book on Home Improvement? This wasn’t too bad but in the end it was a little romancey* for my taste. I listened to it on CD as I went about my day and it was fun. If you like your mystery more light hearted with down to earth lovable guys just looking for the right woman to love, then this is for you. *Mainly involves name dropping shoe brands and dreamy guys able to give orgasms merely by looking at the female protagonists.

BOOK #32: Flesh House
AUTHOR: Stuart MacBride
COPYRIGHT: 2008

Gritty Tartan Noir with the Aberdeen police force. This is the third book I have seen this year involving cannibalism – I blame Thomas Harris. I can’t imagine that a human steak is so tasty that you can’t fill that need with a New York Strip, but then I am not a evil sociopath; at least not yet.

BOOK #33: The First Rule
AUTHOR: Robert Crais
COPYRIGHT: 2010

Crais writes a longstanding series about the wisecracking PI Elvis Cole and his silent partner, the don’t mess with me or I will kill you with Spartan efficiency Joe Pike. While the books almost always feature both characters, they usually center on Cole. Occasionally we get a Pike centered book and they are always a lot of fun in a kick ass sort of way.

Since these are all ongoing series I can recommend them all, just pick your style. The Arnaldur stuff featuring a sparse landscape and a cop whose personal life is in shambles while he draws the mystery out (standard fare for all Nordic stuff). MacBride’s Scotland with its dismal weather and nasty citizens (and there is some bad stuff about it too). His police officer keeps getting screwed by the man, but somehow maintains his sense of humor and solves the case in spite of it. Or the fun loving California PI’s of Crais, quick with a joke or a gun, whatever works best.

You hipsters will want the first ones as they are so in fashion in the mystery world right now.

You're Still Here? Yay!!

Well, I got caught up doing other things, then my card reader got destroyed, and then the humidity season started and my internet is always spotty when the humidity gets going.

In an effort to get caught up I am going to star posting quick book posts mentioning the stuff I have read. I hit my 100 book goal early than ever this year in late July, and I have over 120 done now.

Otherwise I am going to try and be a little more focused here; reading, running, riding, (a little bit of) religion, and the general ridiculousness that I love – the 5 R’s as they say.

As always this will be sprinkled with family stuff and other social events that come my way. Stay tuned for an update of the side bar as well.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Doors Open – Book #28

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Title Doors Open
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Author Ian Rankin
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Genre Mystery
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Pages 364
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Publisher Little Brown & Company
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Copyright 2010
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Synopsis (from web-site)
Three friends descend upon an art auction in search of some excitement. Mike Mackenzie- retired software mogul, bachelor and fine art enthusiast- wants something that money can't buy. Fellow art-lover Allan Cruickshank is bored with his banking career and burdened by a painful divorce. And Robert Gissing, an art professor, is frustrated that so many paintings stay hidden in corporate boardrooms, safes and private apartments. After the auction- and a chance encounter with crime boss Chib Calloway- Robert and Allan suggest the "liberation" of several paintings from the National Gallery, hoping Mike will dissuade them. Instead, he hopes they are serious. As enterprising girlfriends, clever detectives, seductive auctioneers and a Hell's Angel named Hate enter the picture, Ian Rankin creates a highly-charged thriller, a faced-past story of second guesses and double crosses that keep changing the picture, right until the harrowing finish.

Why I read It
Ian Rankin is one of my top five favorite authors (Rankin, Henning Mankell, Marian Keyes, Haruki Murakami, Stephanie Meyer*). So I read everything he writes as soon as possible.

What I Thought About It
Rankin recently ended his longstanding series featuring Inspector Rebus, and as I here has started another series with another Scottish detective. This book is the sorbet between those two courses. The emotional depth he achieved with the Rebus series was missing, but I don’t feel it is really fair to judge it by that standard. So it was a light, fun book that reminded me of a cross between Ocean’s 11 and the Usual Suspects.

Mormon Mentions
None

Author Biography

Ian Rankin lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with his wife and their two sons.

*Just checking to see if anyone is actually reading this. I enjoyed the Twilight series (though not as much as a lot of you), but she is not in my top 5. My fifth choice is a little bit more fluid and varies depending who has a new book out. But it would include the likes of Laura Lippman, Tess Gerritsen, Christopher Moore, Robert Crais, Denis Lehane, Stuart MacBride, John Burdett, etc..