Friday, April 24, 2020

Bookshelf Traveling For Insane Times No. 6

I am participating in the Bookshelf Traveling For Insane Times meme, hosted by Judith at Reader in the Wilderness. This time I am looking at newly purchased books. I have bought a lot of books recently and these are just a few of them. Two of them I bought from Daedalus at a discount, but they still were not cheap. Two have only been recently published and they were bought from a local bookseller, Chaucer's Books, with sidewalk pickup. We have done two orders that way since the stores have been closed.


The first book is ...
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute, originally published in 1950.

I don't know much about this book except that it is set (at least in part) in Australia. I read On the Beach in 2019; it was on my Classics Club list. I liked that book very much so I asked for recommendations for other books. This was one that was recommended by several bloggers.

Per the back of the book, the heroine is Jean Paget, and the book starts out in Malaysia during World War II and ends up in the Australian outback.


Next is...
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, published this year.

I bought this book because I enjoyed Station Eleven so much, and I read good things about this book. 

The Glass Hotel focuses on two people, a female bartender named Vincent and Paul Alkaitis, who is running an international Ponzi scheme. The financier is based on Bernie Madoff, but other than that the story is entirely fictional. It is not apocalyptic fiction like Station Eleven. But I think the writing style is similar.


The next two books are spy fiction...

A Divided Spy by Charles Cumming, published in 2017

I consider Charles Cumming to be a promising new spy fiction writer (to add to my list of favorites). But the jury is still out. He has published nine novels, starting with A Spy by Nature in 2001, but I did not read any of his books before 2011, when I read The Trinity Six (which was just OK in my opinion). But that might have just been due to my lack of knowledge of the Cambridge spies. Now I know a little more about the subject.

Then, in 2018 I read A Spy by Nature (Alec Milius #1) and in 2019 I read A Foreign Country (Thomas Kell #1). I liked both of those novels and this month I read Thomas Kell #2, A Colder War, and was also impressed with it. Thus I purchased A Divided Spy, to continue reading about Thomas Kell.


Cumming is a Scottish author, and his character in this series is an MI6 agent who is on extended leave with pay due to an incident still under investigation. He is occasionally called in for special assignments.

The next spy fiction author I am featuring is from the US.

The Last Tourist by Olen Steinhauer, published this year.

Olen Steinhauer is already on my list of favorite spy fiction authors. He has published 12 novels and I have read 10 of them and I liked them all. His first five novels were historical novels (the Yalta Boulevard series set in a fictional Eastern bloc country) and not strictly spy fiction but there were some espionage elements.

The Last Tourist is the 4th book in the Milo Weaver series. Weaver is in the CIA; in the first book he is in the "Tourist" division, a group that does dirty work for the CIA. I loved that series so of course I have to read this book. Soon, I hope.



23 comments:

Cath said...

Heavens, I remember reading A Town Like Alice in my teens and thinking it was utterly brilliant. I don't remember whether I read any of his other books but I've since discovered that there are quite a few that sound very good. I just have to get around to them.... Nice Insane post, Tracy, mine is half done so will post it tomorrow.

TracyK said...

Thanks, Cath. I definitely liked the writing in On the Beach so I thought this would be a safe bet. This is probably the earliest I have gotten one of these posts done.

Bill Selnes said...

I did not know there is a new Milo Weaver book. I have enjoyed the series. I was not as excited about the Cairo Project. I think I shall have to go looking for The Last Tourist.

Neeru said...

The only one I have heard of is ALICE. Looking forward to your reviews.

TracyK said...

Bill, when I saw that there was another Milo Weaver book, I was eager to read it. Maybe the series will continue after that one. I liked another standalone book, All the Old Knives, and there is a third standalone book, The Middleman, that I have not read yet.

TracyK said...

Neeru, of these four books, I will probably read The Last Tourist first, and the other one that appeals most is The Glass Hotel. Both books published this year and I usually don't read books that soon.

pattinase (abbott) said...

A TOWN LIKE ALICE was on Masterpiece Theater, probably in the seventies. I remember enjoying it. And my husband loved both of these spy writers. Station Eleven was a good novel too.

pattinase (abbott) said...

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081949/

1981

Margot Kinberg said...

I have wanted to read A Town Like Alice for years, Tracy, and just...haven't. I'm so glad you reminded us of it! Along with that, you've got a fine selection here.

Rick Robinson said...

I think the was a (BBC? PBS?) acted version of A TOWN LIKE ALICE, but I may be mistaken. Otherwise, all these are new to me.

Oh, and the Captcha just put me through 11 screens! What?

TracyK said...

Patti, Thanks for the link to that adaptation of A Town Like Alice. It looks good but not easily available.

I am glad to hear that your husband liked Charles Cumming's books. It seems that we shared the same taste in spy fiction. And with Cumming, I still have a few books of his I haven't read.

TracyK said...

Margot, I am glad I got a copy of A Town Like Alice, and look forward to reading it.

TracyK said...

Rick, Patti pointed me to an adaptation of A Town Like Alice, PBS I assume.

Sorry you had problems with Captcha, I used to have that happen to me periodically when I commented at Patti's blog, but not recently.

Katrina said...

I enjoyed A Town Like Alice but I preferred The Chequer Board. I feel I really should read Charles Cumming as he's Scottish and I enjoy spy fiction.

TracyK said...

Katrina, I just purchased The Chequer Board as a Kindle, but may look for it later in a print copy.

I agree, since Charles Cumming is Scottish you should give his novels a try. He has written two short series and several standalone books, and I think that they are all spy fiction.

col2910 said...

Thanks for the reminder of Olen Steinhauer. I've not yet started the Milo Weaver series, so I should rectify that.

Judith said...

Hi Tracy,
Sorry to be so late with comments!
I quite simply *loved* A Town Like Alice, just about as much as I adored On the Beach. It was such a deeply, deeply satisfying read. I love the worlds that Shute creates with his settings and his characters. So good! I long to read it again. Maybe soon! I think I have a paperback copy hanging about somewhere.
I'm interested in the spy series you've been enjoying. Will definitely look it up because Ken would like it, too.

Rick Robinson said...

Apparently I have been too negative and expressive of anger. If so, I’m very sorry and will make every effort to be positive and upbeat thenceforth. My sincerest apologies.

TracyK said...

Col, I agree, you should try the Milo Weaver series. It is a bit different but I liked that.

TracyK said...

Judith, I am amazed at how popular A Town Like Alice is and how I have missed it for all these years. I heartily recommend both of the spy fiction authors I noted in this post, but only for people who like spy fiction. And even then we all have different tastes.

TracyK said...

Rick, I appreciate your concern, but I am fine with your comments and how you express yourself. You can be yourself.

Mathew Paust said...

Intriguing set, Tracy. I've read none of them, altho looong ago I read On the Beach. Well constructed, as I recall, and chilling story.

TracyK said...

Matt, I am glad I finally read On the Beach last year, and I think I will enjoy more books by that author.