2Q 2009 - Summary

Here's a quick roundup of the books that I read during the second quarter of 2009—April, May, and June.

April was a very average month in that I completed 9 books containings 2627 pages. Of these, there were two trilogies. Nora Robert's Sign of Seven trilogy: Blood Brothers, The Hollow, and The Pagan Stone. Jacqueline Lichtenburg's Dushau trilogy: Dushau, Farfetch, and Outreach.

Every book read in April was mass-market paperback, every one registered with BookCrossing, and every one sent to a member of BookObsessed. The Nora Roberts trilogy went to BooksnBeer, promised to her since the December 2008 YBS swap, while the Lichtenburg trilogy went to KathyB who won them in April's Series Swap. Two of Vicki Lewis Thompson's “Nerd” books were mailed to Jordanne who won them in February's YBS swap.

In May, I took a long combined business and personal trip which gave me plenty of time to read: 13 books, 4474 pages, and only one was a conventional paper book. I did “read” one book via unabridged audio CD, and the rest were electronic books loaded onto either my Kindle or Sony reader.

By June, I knew I had to buckle down and apply myself to the large stack of books which I had offered in swaps and VBBs at BookObsessed. I only completed eight books in June, with a total of 2407 pages. Half of those went to reading pals at BookObsessed, one was an unabridged audio book, and the other three were electronic books.

Breakdown by genre: 9 mysteries, 8 fantasies, 5 science-fiction, 3 PUF (paranormal & urban fiction), 2 romance/chick-lit, 1 historical fiction, 1 non-fiction, and one book that defies definition so I called it “mainstream”.

• April
1. Nerds Like It Hot by Vicki Lewis Thompson
2. Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts
3. The Hollow by Nora Roberts
4. Dushau by Jacqueline Lichtenburg
5. Farfetch by Jacqueline Lichtenburg
6. Outreach by Jacqueline Lichtenburg
7. Death of an Obnoxious Tourist by Maria Hudgins
8. My Nerdy Valentine by Vicki Lewis Thompson
9. The Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts
• May
1. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
2. The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday by Alexander McCall Smith
3. Winter Study by Nevada Barr
4. In Twilight's Shadow by Patti O'Shea
5. Pendragon: The Merchant of Death by D J MacHale
6. Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas
7. The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
8. Dragon Blood by Patricia Briggs
9. Ashes to Ashes by Lillian Stewart Carl
10. Hal Spacejock by Simon Haynes
11. Swapping Lives by Jane Green
12. Nessie and the Living Stone by Lois Wickstrom and Jean Lorrah
13. Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin
• June
1. The Price of Silence by Kate Wilhelm
2. HeartSick by Chelsea Cain
3. The Art Thief by Noah Charney
4. The Ghost and Mrs. McClure by Alice Kimberly
5. Milford Spitz and the Very Fast Machine by James S Hoch
6. A Betrayal in Winter by Daniel Abraham
7. The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks
8. Nessie and the Viking Gold by Lois Wickstrom & Jean Lorrah

BTT: Niche

This week's prompt at Booking Through Thursday, asks:

“There are certain types of books that I more or less assume all readers read. (Novels, for example.)

But then there are books that only YOU read. Instructional manuals for fly-fishing. How-to books for spinning yarn. How to cook the perfect souffle. Rebuilding car engines in three easy steps. Dog training for dummies. Rewiring your house without electrocuting yourself. Tips on how to build a NASCAR course in your backyard. Stuff like that.

What niche books do YOU read?”

Would you believe that I can't think of a thing? I read very few non-fiction books and even very few magazines. But I do read lots and lots of novels. The majority of the books that I read are mysteries (cozy and hard), science fiction, and fantasy. Actually, fantasy is a fairly new genre for me. At some time in the lost-from-memory past, I must have run across a fantasy novel that I didn't enjoy—probably a swords-and-sorcery type— and disliked it enough that I blamed the whole genre rather than that particular book. But, after encouragement at BookObsessed, I picked up a couple of recommended books and I'm now making up for lost time.

Two other genres have been added to my menu because of the folks at BookObsessed: PUF (paranormal and urban fantasy) and Historical Fiction. And, with both of these, there are a lot of very good books available from the used book stores. While I have to plop down top dollar for the newest book from Janet Evanovich or Orson Scott Card, I can satisfy myself picking up the backlist from PUF authors like Charlaine Harris and Kim Harrison or historical fiction writers such as Sarah Dunant and Philippa Gregory.

So, unfortunately, while this week's Booking Through Thursday prompt didn't really apply to me and my reading, it did prod me to think about the types of books that I've been reading.

Kindle: Samples

In Monday's post, I talked about how I use features of Amazon's Kindle to mark books that I might want to read in the future. While the “Save for Later” list is available, I don't find it particularly convenient since I tend to avoid using the Kindle's Whispernet to browse the Amazon bookstore. Rather, I am most comfortable browsing and shopping through my laptop and its Firefox browser.

Therefore, I currently have 51 samples on my Kindle. Once I have bought a book—or decided from the sample that I just don't want it—I delete the sample. Any samples still on my Kindle act as a reminder when I'm trying to decide what to read next. Here's a sampling of the samples on my Kindle; books that I want to buy and read. Eventually.

Blue Smoke and Murder by Elizabeth Lowell

Blue Smoke and Mirrors by Elizabeth Lowell is one of the earliest samples I downloaded; well at least the earliest that hasn't been deleted. This particular book draws some of its characters from St. Kilda Consulting, a company formed by ex-military and ex-law enforcement officers who accept jobs in the shadowy world where official agencies can't operate. St. Kilda was introduced in Always Time to Die, which I read in late 2007, and pops back up in The Wrong Hostage, which I read last year. This particular series combines strongly written suspense with romantic attraction. Amazon classifies the books first as “Mystery & Thrillers” and second as “Romantic Suspense”. I don't care what they call it, it's just a genre that I enjoy, and Lowell is an author whose books I always enjoy. There's another book in this series that I should read before Blue Smoke and Mirrors, so I need to add Innocent as Sin to my wishlist.

Mysteries, Thrillers, and Suspense

There are a number of other samples of mystery novels on my Kindle—some romantic, some cozy, and some just straight mystery or thriller. Notable are:

Fantasy and Science Fiction

I'm a long-time fan of science fiction and have recently starting reading fantasy. There are many SF/F books that I want to read eventually, and I have the following samples on my Kindle:

Mysteries!

Today, I completed the fourth book read in June and the fourth mystery in June. Yes, every book I've read so far has been a mystery. Therefore, I'm going to make sure to pick another genre for the next book. Year-to-date, I've read 22 mysteries—the one genre that dominates my reading list. Well, if you were to combine the science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal books, they'd add up to 23 and be just slightly ahead of mysteries.

The Ghost and Mrs. McClure had been on my wishlist for a long time before SciFisstrs sent it to me as a Boxing Day present last December. I'm fortunate that she included two others in the series and I can read more about Pen (short for Penelope) McClure, co-owner of a mystery bookshop, and Jack Shepard, the former PI and ghost who haunts her shop.

The other mysteries read thus far in June are The Price of Silence by Kate Wilhelm, Heartsick by Chelsea Cain, and The Art Thief by Noah Charney. I posted a review of Heartsick a couple of days ago, and put a very small review of The Art Thief on Goodreads.

The Edge of the World, Kevin J Anderson

Today's Orbiteer newsletter from Orbit books carries an announcement that Kevin Anderson's first fantasy novel, The Edge of the World was released this week. And, the newsletter asked for bloggers to help promote the book by posting the widget you see below. It's my pleasure to do so—for several reasons. First, is that I have enjoyed several of Anderson's SF novels, particularly his Craig Kreident novels from the 1990s. Second, Orbit books has been very generous in offering a $1.00 e-Book each month and it's nice to have a chance to pay back the favor.

I will point out that not only is The Edge of the World available as a trade paperback, the e-Books are available for Kindle and Sony readers.

 

Update: 19 April 2012——Well, they've removed the video from the Internet and the widget no longer works. So I'm replacing it with a copy of the book's cover.

Books and Travel

You never know what you'll run across when following random links on the Internet. While reading some old blog posts, I ran across an amazing fact which I've since confirmed by a Google search.

Such was his love of learning that the scholarly grand vizier Abdul Kassem Ismael (935-995) of Persia never left home without his personal library. On his many travels as a statesman and warrior, Ismael traveled with 400 camels who carried his 117,000 volume library wherever he went. Even so, his personal librarians could locate any book almost immediately, because the animals were trained to walk in alphabetical order.

It appears that this is a true fact since it has been quoted in Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts, A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel, and The Library Book: The Story of Libraries from Camels to Computers a book for young readers by Maureen Sawa.

I wouldn't attempt to carry my entire library with me, but I never take a trip without carrying several books along. In fact, I have a small box about 10x15 inches—with books in it arranged spine up so I can see the titles—which goes into the trunk of the car when hubby and I leave the house on one of our cross-country driving trips. Right now, the box has 14 books from various genres so that I have some variety to choose from. But, the box is impractical for a trip that doesn't involve taking the car.

Enter the Kindle and Sony PRS-505 readers. Each one of these is loaded up with over 100 titles—a mixture of contemporary novels and classics. Talk about options! With a couple of SD cards, it would be possible for me to carry 117,000 titles with me just like grand vizier Abdul Kassem Ismael. It might be more difficult for me to locate a specific title because neither the Kindle nor Sony offer robust organization or "folders" for the books. If I had a laptop or netbook with me as well as the readers, then I could easily locate the book I wanted to read and push it to one of the readers. Not as good as traveling with personal librarians and camels trained to walk in alphabetical order, but I guess it beats having to feed the lot of them.

HeartSick by Chelsea Cain

It took me just over four months to reach the end of this fascinating mystery suspense novel. First, one must note that I have been “reading” the unabridged audio CDs rather than a text edition. Second, I only listen to books on CD when I'm alone in the car. When there's someone else in the car (like my husband), I let him drive and I stick my nose in whatever book I'm reading at the time. Besides, he wouldn't enjoy listening to my books. On Friday, I had to drive myself to the office in town and that gave me the opportunity to listen to the ninth and last disk.

Heartsick wraps one murder investigation around another as Detective Archie Sheridan pulls together a task force to find out who is kidnapping teenage girls, murdering them, and dumping their bleach-soaked bodies around the Portland area. It's been two years since serial killer Gretchen Lowell kidnapped Archie, tortured him, and then surprisingly released him and turned herself in. Archie bears both physical and emotional scars, abusing painkillers and other prescription drugs and barely making it from day to day. But now there's a new serial killer and Archie must pull himself together if there's any hope of catching him and ending the string of murders.

Many reviewers have drawn a comparison between HeartSick and Silence of the Lambs, which I can't really address since I never read the books about Hannibal Lecter, nor saw the movies. All I know about them is from the previews I saw on television. I believe, however, that one way in which the two are similar is in the ongoing relationship between Lowell and Sheridan as he visits her prison weekly. Lowell has promised to disclose the locations where she buried other victims—some 200 or so if she is to be believed. She uses this promise as a means of manipulating Archie—continuing her sadistic torture even though she is securely incarcerated. Archie feels, however, that he's the only one who will get this information from her and she might even be able to give him some insight into the mind of the newest serial killer he's tracking.

In addition to the law enforcement professionals and psychologists on the task force, a young reporter, Susan Ward, has been assigned to follow Archie around and profile the processes that he goes through to track down and apprehend this murderer. The current investigation is intermingled with flashbacks to Archie's own torture and suffering, tying the two cases together. Relationships are also intertwined.

This was a fascinating suspense novel, and I'm particularly glad to discover that there is a sequel available today and a third in the series will be released in September. I'm putting Sweetheart and Evil at Heart on my wishlist.

Heartsick is available in a Kindle edition, hardcover, mass market paperback, and audio download as well as the CD edition I read.