Currently Reading (Take 2)

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Any good page-turner type mysteries you can recommend?

 

Pushkin Press have recently been re-publishing some overlooked suspense classics, and I've read a couple and greatly enjoyed them.

The Disappearance Of Signora Giulia, by Piero Chiara

Every Thursday for three years, Signora Giulia takes the train to Milan to visit her daughter. But one Thursday she simply disappears. how can a young, beautiful high society woman just vanish into thin air? Why does her husband - a prominent criminal lawyer and much older man - know nothing about it? And who was she really visiting during those trips to Milan? For Detective Sciancalepre, the mystery is darker and more tangled than he imagined.

She Who Was No More, by Boileau-Narcejac

Every Saturday evening, travelling salesman Ferdinand Ravinel returns to his wife, Mireille, who waits patiently for him at home. But Ferdinand has another lover, Lucienne, an ambitious doctor, and together the adulterers have devised a murderous plan.Drugging Mireille, the pair drown her in a bathtub, but in the morning, before the "accidental" death can be discovered, the corpse is gone - so begins the unraveling of Ferdinand's plot, and his sanity...   (Later adapted as the movie "Les Diaboliques", fact-fans!)

Hard copies are pretty hard to come by, but you can get them cheap on kindle. For more in the Pushkin Vertigo series, click here!

Also most anything by Patricia Highsmith. If you're looking for something more modern, I can't really help you.  "I Saw A Man" by Owen Sheers is pretty good. Or the Scandinavian crime canon, like Henning Mankell, Camilla Lackberg, Stieg Larsson, Jo Nesbø etc. etc. I finished "Headhunters" by Jo Nesbø a couple of weeks ago, and it's good fun.

 

 

[RippedMan]

Thanks! I'll go to Strand and see what I can find!

[spiderdj822]

I, Ripper by Stephen Hunter

[uncageg]

Simon vs. The Homo Sapien Agenda by Becky Albertalli

 

About a sixteen year old in the south who is "not-so-openly" gay but is having an e-mail relationship with someone called Blue who may or may not go to his school. (Only halfway through the book). If you read it, Simon, the sixteen year old, tells blue in one e-mail to look something up Online. Blue does and responds that it creepy. I looked it up. It exists. And it is creepy! Loving this book. A lot of it reminds me of my teen years in school living in a small town.

Actually finished the book a while after my post. Really enjoyed this and actually checked out some of the recording artists mentioned in the book. Downloaded one album that plays a part in the story.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Mrs. Palfrey At The Claremont (1971) by Elizabeth Taylor is the best book I've read in a long while. Highly recommended! Trudged through some other stuff but this is the first one in a while that might merit a bump of this thread.

[spiderdj82]

Bumping this old gem.

 

THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES - Agatha Christie 

[javero]

Homo Deus by Yoval Noah Harari

[RippedMan]

Any good thrillers?

[javero]

I haven't read a good thriller in awhile but just ordered a copy of

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*CK by blogger Mark Manson

[Cat Guy]

In preparation for a Summer 2018 London and Paris holiday, I am reading (and enjoying) two books by Edward Rutherfurd:  "London:  The Novel" and "Paris:  The Novel".  The nature of the writing is that I can switch back and forth between the books without becoming lost or confused.

 

 

[javero]

Of course I just pre-ordered a copy of Michael Wolff's bombshell Fire and Fury.

[BroadwayNYC2]

Looking for recommendations! I highly recommend "Party of One" by Dave Holmes 

[spiderdj82]

[Dollypop]

Halfway through FIRE AND FURY.

[spiderdj82]

I'm currently reading two books: 

ENEMIES & ALLIES - Kevin J. Anderson

NOS4A2 - Joe Hill 

[Cat Guy]

My husband and I and another couple, our best friends, recently enjoyed an evening of entertainment at San Diego's Old Globe Theater.  We saw a wonderful production of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest".  That spurred me on to read the play, which I am doing now.  Wilde's wit shines through all these many decades later.

[@z5]

Just finished "This Is Me" BY Chrissy Metz today, and gotta say how surprised and impressed I was by this book! Definitely a food read with humor, drama, and heartbreak, all very well told. 

[spiderdj82]

Let's dig this bad boy back up!

I am currently reading: 

[sabrelady]

Circe and Achilles both y Madeline Miller. Had really enjoyed Circe but found the character of Patroclus in    Achilles the equivalent of a teenage girl  for the first half of the book. Did eventually improve and he became a fully defined character but in the beginning  it was tuff.

A Brightness Long Ago- Guy Gavriel Kay  He does alternate historical novels( plus fantasy) but this one set in Renaissance Italy  never really came together. Great characters  but they just die and there is no through line to the story. Disappointed.

 

 

[LxGstv]

Recently finished “The Great Pretender: the undercover mission that changed our understanding of madness” by Susannah Cahalan. It was equally interesting and infuriating. I would highly recommend to those who enjoy nonfiction, it’s not an easy read though. The title is slightly misleading, as “undercover mission” makes it seem like something it’s not, in reality, is about a study that kinda just happened without a lot of preparation. It gets dragged down at times when going into the history of mental illness and different psychiatric methods, but there’s a fascinating story hidden under all those facts.

Started reading “The Family Upstairs” by Lisa Jewell and I’m loving it so far, 80 pages in and it’s kinda all over the place, but I’m looking forward to reading how it all comes together.

[Roscoe]

Just finished A HEART AT FIRE'S CENTER, a biography of Bernard Herrmann, the great composer of film music.  Most informative.

Up next -- MACBETH seems to be in the wind lately, so I picked up a copy and am enjoying it.

[Melissa25]

Just finished My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout and enjoyed it very much.  I am looking forward to seeing the play in January with Laura Linney.

[LxGstv]

Finished The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid and it surprised me in the best way possible!

I usually avoid reading synopsis or reviews because they tend to reveal more than they should so I was not prepared for it at all... it’s not perfect, and I’m not a huge fan of how the novel is structured, but the story is great and I ended up really caring for some of the characters.

The ending felt a little rushed, but that’s probably because I was enjoying it so much and I just didn’t want it to end.

Highly recommend it!

[Roscoe]

Reading Laclos's DANGEROUS LIAISONS, the epistolary novel that's been dramatized and filmed and all.  Good mean stuff.  Valmont's pursuit of Mme Tourvel plods a bit, but Letter #81, where the Marquise de Merteuil delivers the story of her life, is a flat-out marvel.  

And it is impossible to read Merteuil's letters without hearing Glenn Close's voice in your head as you go.