Candle #14: The Big Bounce

Chalk up another one...now done with Elmore Leonard's The Big Bounce. This is another book that just doesn't fit into my normal reading schedule. I've often seen Leonard's name & books listed as award winners from various years. I'd be surprised if I went back and looked at those lists and found this one had garnered any.

The two positive things I can say about this book are 1. It's done. I don't have to read any more and 2. At least now I can say I've tried Leonard. And just like those raw oysters on crackers that I tried once upon a time just so I could say I had....I can now honestly say: I don't care for Leonard's style and I won't be having any more, thank you. Slimy on the way down. Down and dirty. Mean and gritty. Crazy young people on the edges of some kind of personality disorder--firing guns, breaking and entering, and shooting people for the heck of it. This is a book where you are not rooting for the main characters, and, by golly, I wanted them to get caught. Or possibly worse. The plot just doesn't grab me (actually, was there a plot & I just missed it?) and the violence and language seem a bit gratuitous to me. One star out of five on Visual Bookshelf.

Someone on Visual Bookshelf mentions that this isn't Leonard's strongest offering. All I can say is if his stronger offerings are anything like this one, then, as mentioned, I won't be having any more, thank you. And I don't believe I'll give any more a try just to find out. As I've mentioned before, there are way too many books that I want to read and way too little time. No need for another detour. Actually, there's one more positive thing I can say: The book gave me another candle on my Birth Year Reading Challenge. So thank you, Elmore Leonard, for that.

Candle #13: Death of a Dude

Oooh! Candle #13 on Friday the 13th. Better watch that luck, Bev. Finished up Death of a Dude by Rex Stout and knocked out another of my Birth Year Challenge reads. That cake is getting pretty full....

So, Death of a Dude finds Archie Goodwin in Montana doubting the guilt of Harvey Greve (foreman of Lily Rowan's Bar JR Ranch). Greve has been accused of the murder of a dude from St. Louis. Archie (who has been on vacation with Ms. Rowan) informs Nero Wolfe that he'll be staying on in Montana on an indefinite leave of absence to clear the matter up. Wolfe's distaste at the thought of being without his right-hand man outweighs his distaste for travel and he travels to Montana to take things in hand so Archie will be back where he belongs even sooner.

This is a fairly decent Nero Wolfe outing. Although I must say I much prefer Wolfe and Archie Goodwin against the familiar background of New York City and the brownstone house with Fritz and the orchids. The stories I've read where Wolfe leaves his sedentary life to go into unfamiliar territory, just don't ring as true as the others. I usually give Nero Wolfe stories four out of five stars on Visual Bookshelf. This one rates three.

The Friday 56

If it's Friday, then not only is it time for the Hop, but it is also time for the Friday 56 (a bookish meme brought to me by A Simple Love of Reading).

Here are the Rules:

*Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
*Turn to page 56.
*Find the fifth sentence.
*Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have a blog) in the comment section of this blog.
*Post a link on your post back to this blog.
*Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Here's mine from Death of a Dude by Rex Stout:

And it stayed no, though I spent ten minutes trying to budge her. I returned the sawbuck to my wallet. It wouldn't have done any good to double it or even make it a hundred; she wasn't going to risk being asked questions in the courtroom even if I swore on ten saddles that she wouldn't have to.

Candle #12: Gideon's Power

Finished up another of my Birth Year Reading Challenge books. Gideon's Power by J J Marric.

From the back of the book: Gideon is trapped. He was tracking down all the mysterious happenings--the frequent power failures, the raging factory fire that took lives, and the murdering of children. How could he solve them if he himself was caught in a mind-boggling trap?

My take: Decent police procedural. I've read a couple of the Gideon series before and remember liking those better. This one is a tad bit scattered for my taste. I realize that in real life the police are dealing with dozens of cases all at the same time. But that doesn't really make for great story-telling. Marric does a reasonable job juggling the various plot-lines, but naturally, given that this is a short, paperback novel, some of the plots don't get much of a treatment. And, honestly, the main plot (sabotage at the powerplants and factories) doesn't get the treatment deserved.

Oh, and I've mentioned before--I don't like stories that involve children being murdered. The only good thing was that THAT wasnt' the main plot. Otherwise, I might have had to quit--and then I wouldn't have chalked up another candle.

Fictional Men Never Let You Down

Just entered an awesome give-away hosted by I'd So Rather Be Reading. They've got this fantastic t-shirt (see picture) that I just have to have. "Fictional Men Never Let You Down"--ain't it the truth!

iHop, uHop, We All Hop on Friday

It's Friday, so that means it's time for the Book Blogger Hop hosted by Crazy for Books. If you'd like to participate, stop by the main page and leave your info, so folks can visit your blog today. Be sure and check out all the interesting blogs already up for the Hopping.

If you're stopping by on the Hop, please leave a comment below so I can return the favor. Happy Friday & Happy Hopping!

Oh, and this is my 100th post. I'm pretty excited!

Todays' Question: How many books are on your To Be Read shelf?

I don't think I can answer that....Hundreds. Piled in precarious stacks around my room. Sitting on my shelves. Hanging out in the ether (on a Library wish list and in Visual Bookshelf on Facebook). It'd take me quite a while to come up with a real number. And that's time I could spend on actually reading one of the books on the list....

Booking Through Thursday

This week Booking Through Thursday asks: Have your reading choices changed over the years? Or pretty much stayed the same? (And yes, from childhood to adulthood we usually read different things, but some people stick to basically the same kind of book their entire lives, so...)

My answer: I've gone through cycles. When I first started reading, I was hooked on mysteries. My mom gave me her Nancy Drew books (she had a set of 5 that she had gotten as a present in the '50s) and from there on I was a mystery girl. Nancy, the Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden...moving on to Sherlock Holmes and the Alfred Hitchcock collections and Agatha Christie. I've always read other things, too (lit classics, history, essays, biography, poetry)--but there's generally a core genre that I love. Then from about 12 years old through college (1992-ish), I was on a science fiction binge. Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Sturgeon, Heinlein, Le Guin...oh, and Star Trek paperbacks by the score. I still love Golden Age SF, but read it less now that I'm back on the mystery band-wagon. Somewhere in there, I also went through a romance novel phase, but I never thought that was serious. Take away my Georgette Heyer historical romance & I'd get over it. But keep your mitts off my Georgette Heyer mystery collection! Over-all (if we count years spent), I guess I'd have to say I'm a mystery gal. Give me a good British cozy and nice place to read and I'm as happy as I can be.

Monkey Puzzle

I took a break from my Birth Year Challenge reading to work on a book that's been sitting in my TBR pile from the library--Monkey Puzzle by Paula Gosling. This will take care of one of my Library Challenge books. Monkey Puzzle is an academic mystery--one of my favorite kinds. Set at Grantham University, Ohio, we have killer who seems to be following the three monkeys "See no evil, hear no evil speak no evil." Starting with the murder of the university's most unpopular professor--a professor who had a way of speaking evil to his various victims and reminding them of all the little "secrets" they'd rather keep hidden, the killer goes on to attempt a murder of the chair of the department (who should have heard no evil) and a night-time security man who saw evil, didn't report it, and tried a spot of blackmail. What exactly did these three speak, hear and see that was worth killing for?

Gosling does a wonderful job portraying the in and outs of departmental feuds--everything from the petty rivalries and verbal skewerings to the witty byplay of departmental meetings. The obsessive nature of the murderer is very believable--trust me, I've worked in an English Department for 10 years now. I have no problem believing the rationale of the killer. This was a very quick read and I enjoyed it very much. It's a shame that Gosling didn't make a habit of writing about academia--but I believe most of her novels are stand-alone or carry the protagonists to different settings. I would enjoy reading more academic mysteries by her hand...if there are any to be had.

Three stars out of five on Visual Bookshelf

WWW Wednesday: Books for the Week

WWW Wednesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions:

*What are you currently reading?
*What did you recently finish reading?
*What do you think you'll read next?

Current Read: Monkey Puzzle by Paula Gosling (Taking a break from my Birth Year books for an academic mystery. )

Recently Finished: Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock (review here)

Up Next: Death of a Dude by Rex Stout
The Big Bounce by Elmore Leonard
Dress Her in Indigo by John D MacDonald OR
Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
All of which are due up for my Birth Year Reading Challenge.

Behold the Man: Candle #11

Half-way done with my Birth Year Challenge! Finished Michael Moorcock's Behold the Man this morning. This book has the ultimate in Christ imagery. I'm sure it produced more violent reactions when it was published, but I'd still say it's not a book that will go over real well with the close-minded religious set. Interesting premise....A man who has been obsessed with Christ and identifying himself with Christ (even to the point of being "cruicified" while in school) uses time travel to go back to the time of Christ to see for himself what it was like and if it was all real. In the end (dissatisfied with the Jesus he finds), he becomes Christ--having become so obsessed with the story as it has been told through the ages, he must make certain that it all happens as it should.

Well-written, disturbing, and obviously meant to shock. I enjoyed it even though it made me uncomfortable. Three and a half stars out of five.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a bookish meme hosted by Miz B of
Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along. Just do the following:


*Grab your current read
*Open to a random page
*Share two (2) "teaser sentences from somewere on that page
*Be careful not to include spoilers! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book
for others
*Share the title & author too so that other TT participants can add
the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

My teaser for the week: "That old rationaliser of his own mysticism. No wonder you never became a psychiatrist." from Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock

Cop Out: Candle #10

Oh. Ick. I mentioned in the previous posting that this did not sound like my kind of book. I like Ellery Queen. The writing is a little more hard-boiled than I like...but the stories with Ellery & Inspector Queen are more medium-hard than hard. Cop Out definitely breaks this pattern. While the Ellery Queen novels I've read in the past have been more 30s-50s in nature, this book is definitely a product of the 60s and has a mean-streets feel to it. It's not that the writing is not well done; it's just that it's not the style to which I've been accustomed and I think Queen did best sticking to what they did so well.

You have your hard-nosed, small-time gangster types. Trying to be tough and throwing their weight around with the cop that they've "put the screws" on. And then they grab the cop's kid. I hate books that put children in danger or where children are killed. I just can't take it--I'm too sensitive on that issue.

The plot works and the action is well-done. I just don't appreciate the harsher side of detective novels. Give me a good ol' British cozy. May have to take a break and read an Agatha Christie just to settle my mind. One star out of five.

The Andromeda Strain: Candle #9

It felt really good to get back to a book that I enjoyed reading. And it's good to know that sometimes one's taste does stay the same. Just finished re-reading The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton as another of my Birth Year Challenge books. This is Michael Crichton before Jurassic Park and before Prey. Naturally, some of the science doesn't hold up now. And the pacing may seem a bit slow for those used to more modern biological thrillers. But, even though I knew the plot--having both read the book before and having seen the movie--Crichton still managed to hold me in the palm of his hand.

I was amazed for the second time at how well he works in all the scientific terms and jargon. Using language that laymen can easily understand (which helps, because some of the graphs baffled me), he introduces the reader to various "fundamentals" of biological experimentation and research that might intimidate. It was also good to see the mistakes that were made along the way. Every good scientists knows that mistakes are made...they may not be pubicized, but they can be useful if used to promote learning. Who wants scientists who automatically do everything right during the whole book? Where would be the suspense in that?

Crichton has a way with language that pulls the reader into the situation and maintains the suspense without taking it over the top. The only let-down is in the ending--it's just a bit anti-climatic. But it does serve to underscore how much we don't know about what's out there. Even though man may think he's master of this planet and, to some extent, space, he really doesn't have near the control he believes he has.

Chalk up a happy Birth Year Candle and four stars out of five on Visual Bookshelf. Now, I'm off to read Cop Out by Ellery Queen. This one should be intriguing. The two-man writing team decided to use my birth year to do something different. No Ellery and Inspector Queen in this one. To quote the book blurb: It is "an exciting new departure...Cop Out is a chilling tale of a payroll robbery-murder and its unexpected, stunning aftermath during seven unbearable days in and around a small, typically American town." Not my usual stuff. Gonna be interesting to see what I think.

The French Lieutenant's Woman: Candle #8

First comment: Sometimes "they" are right...you can't go home again. I read this book in college some twenty years ago or so and I remember thinking it was great. I don't know if that had anything to do with the influence of the professor. The course was taught by one of my all-time favorites. But I remember having a greater compassion for Sarah and Charles at the time and understanding the fragility of love and all that. This time around--rereading it for my Birth Year Reading Challenge--not so much. I actually got a bit exasperated with Charles' infatuation and rejection of Ernestina. I was also a bit outraged by Charles' denunciation of Sarah in the second ending. Blaming everything on her "manipulation" of him seems to me a bit of a cop-out. He's the one who kept going back for more. And with all the talk (both within the story and in the narrative asides) about "duty," it would have been nice if he had remembered his towards his intended. This is another one (like The Green Man) that I am glad to have gotten over and done with. Previous rating on Visual Bookshelf: four out of five stars. This time around: two out of five. Onward to The Andromeda Strain!

Friday 56

The Friday 56 idea came to me from A Simple Love of Reading

The Rules:

*Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
*Turn to page 56.
*Find the fifth sentence.
*Post that sentence (plus one or two other if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments below.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
*Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the nearest.

Here's mine from The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles:

So the rarest flower, forgiveness, was given a pecarious footing in Marlborough House; and when the doctor came to look at the maid, and pronounced green sickness, Mrs. Poulteney discovered the perverse pleasure of seeming truly kind.