Two mysteries

The latest Jacqueline Winspear is good, A Lesson in Secrets, 2011. Like comfort food, good to return to familiar characters performing up to speed. Maisie Dobbs solves the problems as usual.

Listened to my first Craig Russell, Blood Eagle, 2005. Pretty grizzly, but a good mystery. I'll probably listen to more by him.

Just started listening to Atlantic by Simon Winchester, 2010. Interesting book. He's a good writer.

mediocre book, good book, new square

Night Work by Steve Hamilton, 2006, was very mediocre. Don't know whether it was because I hated the reader or if it was the book. More the reader I think. It read like a ho-hum cop show, barely kept my interest. Thank god it was short.

The good book is by Diane Ackerman, One Hundred Names for Love, 2011. A non-fiction book about her husband's, Paul West, stroke. He loses all language, and she is going to help to bring that back but I have not got that far. Interesting book.

A good book and a not-so-good book

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova, 2011 is a very good book. It feels like you are inside the head of someone with left neglect. She writes well, researches well. A memorable book with a realisitic plot and good characters.

I gave up on Irma Voth - read 2/3 of it. Written by Miriam Toews in 2011, it just did not hold my interest. I liked her first two books; A Boy of Good Breeding and Summer of my Amazing Luck a lot, but didn't think much of the one that got all the attention; A Complicated Kindness. I really liked the book she wrote about her father, Swing Low. Irma Voth is just not engaging.

first square

a hat and some books

Hat designed by Kate Davies, of Needled. Love the pattern.



The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History by Jonathan Franzen, 2005, was interesting if a bit uneven. Beginning and ending are most interesting, middle a bit dull. He writes well. Interesting to read about his mother.

Finished listening to Dark Fire by C.J. Sansom, 2007. Sure wish that man used a more ruthless editor. It's a good mystery but too long, way too long. Set in London, Matthew Shardlake, the hunchbacked 16th-century attorney, returns in book 2 of a series. I'll probably read more, but read not listen so that I can skip bits.

Enjoyed Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda, 2010. Easy to read, believable characters and a realistic ending.

socks, shawl, hat - recent knitting projects

Friendly, Jerome, Rusty

ah, my childhood favs

It was posted on facebook, I had to copy it.







Just finished listening to John Lee reading John Banville's The Sea, 2006. My goodness, that man can write. Beautiful language. Not a happy-go-lucky writer though, it's pretty heavy going but it is a very good book. I may have to read it in print. Great reader but it goes by too fast.

finished Jane Urquhart's book too, Sanctuary Line, also a very good book. Very effective, the way she weaves memory, family, geography with the here and now.

And I'm almost finished another John Lawton book, Black Out. I do like this writer.