Reading Summary for November 2021

I read 15 books in November, which is a lot for me, but the only reason I read that many was because I read 14 novellas for the Novellas in November event. They ranged from 57 pages to 163 pages in length. The only longer novel I read was The Snack Thief by Andrea Camilleri, book 3 in the Inspector Montalbano series. 

One thing I enjoyed about concentrating on short novels this month is that I read from several genres. I also read five translated novellas, three by French authors and two by Italian authors and I enjoyed all of them.

So, here are the books I read...

Nonfiction

Constructive Living (1984) by David K. Reynolds

This is a short nonfiction book (106 pages) that describes the author's approach to two Japanese psychotherapies, Morita therapy and Naikan therapy. I had read this years ago and found it interesting. The basic concepts were still interesting, but the sections on how they are used did not work so well for me this time.

General Fiction

The Sense of an Ending (2011) by Julian Barnes

Tony Webster, retired and in his later years, looks back on two of his relationships with women, one when he was a student at university, and the other with his wife, Margaret, who divorced him after twelve years of marriage. This 163 page book was one of my favorite reads in November. My review is here. 

Historical Fiction

Train Dreams (2002) by Denis Johnson 

This is a story about the life of a laborer in the American northwest from the early 1900s through the 1960s. Beautifully written, the 114-page book describes fragments of his life. Most of the time, he is living alone, a solitary life, and is struggling to support himself. The descriptions of small town and rural living were interesting. This book has been on my TBR pile for a while and I am glad I finally read it.

Tamburlaine Must Die (2004) by Louise Welsh 

The author imagines the last days of Christopher Marlowe, presenting him as a spy who is searching for the man who wants him dead. I am not sure if it was a positive or a negative that I knew so little about Marlowe going into this book. Regardless, now I am motivated to learn more about him. The book was very well written. This 140 page novella was Louise Welsh's debut book. 

Science Fiction

The Concrete Jungle (2004) by Charles Stross 

This book is part of the Laundry Files series and was written between the first and second book in that series. The series is about former tech support worker, Bob Howard, who becomes a field agent for the Laundry, a British agency that protects the world from supernatural phenomenon. I am new to this series but I read that the novella was a good place to start. The series is a real mishmash of genres, blending spy fiction with fantasy and horror, although it gets categorized mostly as science fiction. This story won the Hugo for Best Novella in 2005. I will be reading more in the series.

The Invisible Man (1987) by H.G. Wells

Most readers are familiar with The Invisible Man either via book or film, so I will just point you toward my review here.

Artificial Condition (2018) by Martha Wells

This is part of the Murderbot Diaries series; I reviewed the first one here. The protagonist is a security robot that has both human and robotic parts. It refers to itself as Murberbot (although it really does not have a sex, I see Murderbot as a he). He wants to investigate the incident, so comes up with a way to travel to the planet where it took place. Along the way, he acquires a new group of humans to assist, and realizes how important that type of interaction is, even though direct contact with humans scares him. I will be continuing with this series. I read the book on my Kindle, only the second e-book I read this year. Length was 149 pages. 

Fantasy

The Silent Gondoliers (1983) by William Goldman 

This novella was whimsical and fun. It is presented as having been written by S. Morgenstern, who was also the "author" of THE PRINCESS BRIDE, and the tone and writing style is very similar. It is a fable about Luigi, a talented gondolier who cannot sing. If I have any complaint, it is that the plot moves very slowly for most of the book. But the ending is wonderful and makes up for any issue I had with the preceding parts of the story. This book was 110 pages but that page count includes a number of full page illustrations.

Crime Fiction

Carte Blanche (1990) Carlo Lucarelli  

This 94-page novella was translated from Italian, the first in a trilogy. The setting is April 1945 in Italy. The story starts shortly before the end of World War II, in the final days of the Fascist regime in Italy. The protagonist is a policeman in the regular police, Commissario De Luca, who only recently transferred from another police group that worked under the direction of Mussolini. See my review here.

Montalbano's First Case (2008) by Andrea Camilleri

This short novel (97 pages) is a prequel to the Inspector Montalbano series. Montalbano gets his first assignment in Vigàta, after spending his time in an apprenticeship as a deputy inspector in Mascalippa. This was a lovely story, and it inspired me to return to the series, which I did before the end of November. See my review here.

Three to Kill (1976) by Jean-Patrick Manchette

A corporate salesman, Georges Gerfaut, married with two children, is attacked by two hit men on his way home, but they do not succeed in killing him. He goes into hiding and plots his revenge on the men and their boss. An unusual and dark story. I will be looking for more by this author. 132 pages in length. See my thoughts here.

The Front Seat Passenger (1997) by Pascal Garnier

After a man's wife dies in a car crash, he becomes obsessed with Martine, the widow of the man who died with his wife, and begins stalking her. Another strange story with a lot packed into 130 pages, and I enjoyed it very much. See my thoughts here.

Maigret in Retirement (1947) by Georges Simenon 

As the title implies, this is the story of a case that Maigret works on after his retirement. I enjoyed this picture of Maigret's relationship with his wife. This book was also published as Maigret Gets Angry. The story was about 105 pages in the edition I read. See my thoughts here.

Heartstones (1987) by Ruth Rendell 

I have read almost all of the Inspector Wexford books but I have had bad experiences reading Rendell's standalone books. Too tense for me. I was willing to try this one since it was so short, only 71 pages. It filled me with suspense and dread at times, but I enjoyed it. It is the story of a sixteen year old girl living with her father and her younger sister. She is telling the story, and we learn that she is obsessed with her father and is convinced that she will live with him all her life. The ending was a surprise, sort of, and very well done. The edition I read had a few very lovely illustrations. 

The Snack Thief (1996) by Andrea Camilleri

This was a wonderful book with a complicated plot. The primary case is the death of an elderly man who was stabbed in an elevator when leaving his home one morning. Montalbano is trying to avoid another case of a Tunisian seaman killed on an Italian fishing boat, but it keeps coming back to haunt him. Livia has a prominent role in this book. This is the third book in the Inspector Montalbano series. I was glad to get back to the series. 

The photo above is Rosie the cat. The photo at the top of the post shows succulents in pots in our back yard. Click on the images for best viewing quality.

Short Story Wednesday: Stories by Andrea Camilleri

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been reading short stories from Montalbano's First Case and Other Stories by Andrea Camilleri. The first story is Montalbano's First Case, actually a novella. There are twenty other short stories in the book. The book has an excellent Preface by Camilleri, where he discusses his writing and some of the short stories in this book. 

So far I have read 

• "Fifty Pairs of Hobnailed Boots"
• "Fellow Traveler"
• "Dress Rehearsal"
• "Amore"
• "The Artist's Touch"

All of the short stories I read were good reads, and there was variety from story to story, but the last story I read, "The Artist's Touch," is my favorite so far.

It is a story of a meticulously planned suicide. Alberto Larussa, well known for artistic jewelry pieces that he created, had been confined to a wheelchair for the last three decades. He electrocuted himself while strapped into his wheelchair. Larussa was a friend of Montalbano's but Montalbano is not involved in the investigation to prove if it is suicide or not. He begins to believe that the suicide was staged but must make his inquiries outside of normal police channels. 

All of the stories in the book are translated from Italian by Stephen Sartarelli.

Novellas in November: Montalbano's First Case by Andrea Camilleri

Andrea Camilleri’s very popular police procedural series about Inspector Salvo Montalbano is set in a fictional town on the Italian coast, called Vigàta. It consists of 28 novels, all of which were written in Italian and have been translated into English.

Montalbano's First Case is a prequel to the Inspector Montalbano series. In this short novel, Montalbano gets his first assignment in Vigàta, after spending his time in an apprenticeship as a deputy inspector in Mascalippa. 

The story begins with Montalbano's concerns about being stuck in Mascalippa for his new assignment. He just doesn't like the mountainous area he is living in. His boss realizes this and facilitates his assignment to Vigàta, which is a seaside town, the type of terrain that Montalbano wants to live in. Montalbano then goes in advance to check out the town in advance, not announcing himself as the new Chief Inspector. But the word gets around. He finds a good restaurant immediately.

The first case Montalbano takes on is not a murder case, but more of a case of attempted murder. He sees a very young girl hiding a gun in her handbag and takes her in for questioning. He follows up on what she was planning to do with the gun and her motivation. During the investigation, the reader learns more about Montalbano's views on crime and punishment.

I have only read the first two books in the series, but this one seemed to have a much slower pace than the full-length novels. But that was a good thing, I enjoyed it a lot. It also seemed less serious, with more humor. This novella was an introduction to some of Montalbano's quirks and characteristics, that might not be so obvious in the full length novels. I usually don't like prequels to mystery series but this one was very good. 

I read this novella in a book of short stories, titled Montalbano's First Case and Other Stories. I have now read a few of the shorter stories and I highly recommend that book. All of the stories in the book are translated by Stephen Sartarelli.

This is the third novella I have reviewed for the Novellas in November 2021 reading event. It fits in the "Literature in Translation" theme. The host blogs are 746 Books and Bookish Beck. 

Short Story Wednesday: Anthologies and Collections from the Book Sale

Today, for Short Story Wednesday, I am sharing a few short story anthologies or collections that I purchased at a book sale this weekend. This year Planned Parenthood is having their annual book sale, after having to call it off in 2020. The sale started on Friday, September 17 and will continue through Sunday, September 26. We went to the book sale on both Friday and Saturday, and on the first day I picked up several short story books. I have not sampled any of them yet. So, here they are.

Montalbano’s First Case and Other Stories by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartorelli, translator

The late Andrea Camilleri is the author of a long-running police procedural series featuring Inspector Montalbano. The series is set in Italy. For this volume, Camilleri selected twenty-one short stories that follow Italy’s famous detective through cases throughout his career.  The introduction by the author is interesting.

Maigret's Christmas by Georges Simenon, Jean Stewart (translator)

From the back of the book:

It's Christmastime in Paris, and the great detective Maigret is investigating holiday mayhem in nine delightful short stories. The mysteries abound: an otherwise sensible little girl insists that she has seen Father Christmas, a statement alarming to her neighbors, Monsieur and Madame Maigret. Then, a choirboy helps the inspector solve a crime while he lies in bed with a cold; and another boy, pursued by a criminal, ingeniously leaves a trail to help Maigret track him.

Alabama Noir, edited by Don Noble

I was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. I did not even know that this book existed; it was published fairly recently, in 2020. I don't believe that the cover photo is identified, but it is the perfect representation of what I remember about Alabama. Lush green landscapes, trees reflected in a body of water. I am very excited to read the stories in this book.

Hard-Boiled, edited by Bill Pronzini and Jack Adrian

I was also very excited to find a copy of this book. It had been on my want list for a couple of years, and when I looked for it initially, it was hard to find a copy at a price I was willing to pay. The subtitle of this book is "An Anthology of American Crime Stories." It contains over 500 pages of stories published from the 1920s through the 1990s. 

See a very good review by Bill Crider at his Pop Culture Magazine blog. The review also lists the Table of Contents.

Dublin Noir edited by Ken Bruen

The subtitle of this book is "The Celtic Tiger vs. the Ugly American." I don't know exactly what that means, but there is this explanation in the introduction by Ken Bruen:

At first it was straightforward -- Dublin authors to write on their city... Then we turned the concept on its head, as you do in noir. The Irish are fascinated by how we appear to the world, so let's have a look, we thought, at how this city appears from the outside. In addition to a couple of us locals, let's take a cross section of the very best of today's crime writers from America, as well as Britain, Europe, and Canada.

European Reading Challenge 2018: Wrap Up Post

This is my wrap up post for the 2018 European Reading Challenge. The goal was to read and review five books set in different European countries and by different authors. I enjoyed reading these books and will be signing up for this challenge in 2019.

My biggest problem is getting books reviewed but I made an effort to get most of the books that I read for this challenge reviewed.  I have linked the title to posts if I wrote one, otherwise I have included a short summary and comments.

The Whip Hand by Victor Canning (Croatia)
The hero, Rex Carver, visits many countries in this adventure, but he spends a good amount of time in Yugoslavia (1960s) in the area which is now Croatia.

Lumen by Ben Pastor (Poland)

The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall (Germany)

Love & Treasure by Ayelet Waldman (Hungary)
The first part of the book is set in Salzburg, Austria; 2nd and 3rd parts are mainly in Budapest, Hungary. Also some of the 2nd part takes place in Israel.

The Black Seraphim by Michael Gilbert (UK)

A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson (Portugal)

Eva's Eye by Karin Fossum (Norway)
The story begins with a woman discovering a body while walking on a river bank with her young daughter. The woman is Eva Magnus, and soon we learn that she is also linked to another unsolved case, the murder of a prostitute.  The police get to work on figuring out how the two cases are related. I enjoyed this first book in the Inspector Konrad Sejer series very much, although I found the ending quite sad.

Death of a Nationalist by Rebecca Pawel (Spain)

The Terra-Cotta Dog by Andrea Camilleri (Italy)
The second Inspector Montalbano mystery, set in Italy, part of a long-running series. Montalbano finds a cave filled with artifacts and the bodies of two young lovers who have been dead for 50 years. I had read the previous book in the series but had forgotten how much of an independent loner the inspector is. The story is very complex.

Faithful Place by Tana French (Ireland)
Set in Dublin, this novel features Frank Mackey, a Dublin detective working in the Undercover department. Frank returns to his old neighborhood and the family he left 22 years earlier to investigate a possible crime. Another great story by this author, my favorite of her books ... so far.



Night Rounds by Helene Tursten (Sweden)

Blood & Rubles by Stuart M. Kaminsky (Russia)

Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker (France)
The first installment in a wonderful new series (to me) that follows the exploits of Benoît Courrèges (Bruno for short), a policeman in a small French village. This seemed like a fantasy because the life in the village is (at least on the surface) so rustic. That description makes it sound on the cozy side, and it is not that at all. Although this book is heavy on the details of Bruno's past and the setting of the series, I am sure I am going to enjoy more of these books.

Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg (Denmark)

Reading Summary for June 2018

In 2018, I have been reading more each month (than in previous years) and it still amazes me. This month I read 10 books and they were all good reads. And some of them were spectacular. As usual, most of the books were crime fiction, but I did read two books that were not mystery or crime related. Eight of these books were books on my 20 Books of Summer list.

My two non-mystery reads in June were ...

Auntie Mame (1955) by Patrick Dennis

A story about a young boy raised by his aunt after his father dies. The book reads like connected short stories, each highlighting a different stage in the boy's growing-up years.  It is wacky and entertaining, definitely not my usual fare, and I enjoyed almost every story. The story has been adapted for film and as a play.

Tales of the City (1978) by Armistead Maupin

I really have no idea how I missed this series over the years. Set in San Francisco, California, and very close to the year I visited the city the first time. Not mystery related, so that probably has something to do with it. I did learn about the books in 2014 at Clothes in Books, yet still wasn't tempted to try one. This month the time was right. It took me a while to get into the story, but I ending up loving the book and planning to read more in the series.

And now on to the eight crime fiction reads:

The Bone Garden (2003) by Kate Ellis

This is the fifth book in a series that has an archaeological theme and has two mysteries in each novel, one past, one in the present. This one had interesting characters and a decent story, but I did have some problems with it. Many readers are very happy with the series though, so if you haven't tried it, I do recommend it.

An Expert in Murder (2008) by Nicola Upson

Mystery novelist Josephine Tey is the sleuth in this one. I am not sure how much the sleuth in this book resembles the real Josephine Tey (whose real name was Elizabeth Mackintosh), but I did find the story compelling and enjoyed the setting, so I will read more of this series.

Death in the Garden (1995)
by Elizabeth Ironside

A historical novel, with story lines in two different time periods. In 1925, Diana Pollexfen was accused of killing her husband, but found innocent. Sixty years later, her grandniece decides to find out what really happened. Both stories and the way they tie together are excellent, and the writing is very, very good.

Murder is Academic (2002) by Christine Poulson

This is the first book in Poulson's Cambridge Mystery series, starring Cassandra James. After reading Poulson's most recent mysteries (Deep Water and Cold, Cold Heart) I wanted to go back and read her first series. That was a good decision; this was a lovely book, with interesting, believable characters and a great ending. The UK title is Dead Letters.

The Terra-Cotta Dog (1996) by Andrea Camilleri

The second Inspector Montalbano mystery, set in Italy, part of a long-running series. Montalbano finds a cave filled with artifacts and the bodies of two young lovers who have been dead for 50 years. I had read the previous book in the series but had forgotten how much of an independent loner the inspector is. The story is very complex.

White Sky, Black Ice (1999) by Stan Jones

This series stars Nathan Active, an Alaska state trooper, half Inupiat and half white, assigned to the remote village of Chukchi. The story has an interesting and unusual setting and the plotting is fine, but it is the character that I want to know more about. And it is that element that will bring me back to read more books in the series. 

Thunderball (1961) by Ian Fleming

This is the second James Bond book I read this year. It is the first of three novels featuring Ernst Stavro Blofeld, head of the criminal organization SPECTRE. As always, a good read.

Faithful Place (2010) by Tana French

I read this for the European Challenge for Ireland. Set in Dublin, featuring Frank Mackey, a Dublin detective working in the Undercover department. Frank returns to his old neighborhood and the family he left 22 years earlier to investigate a possible crime. Another great story by this author, my favorite of her books ... so far.