Now I'm hooked on Inspector Rebus. Funny thing is I don't much like him but what is important to me is that Ranking makes his characters real.

The story of Let it Bleed was just amazing and Inspector Rebus was caught like a fly on fly paper and yet he manages to twist himself to a plausible solution. Since this is my 1st Rankin I don't know if this is typical of his novels, but I hope so.

Kept me wanting for more. I like how real life events are used as a backdrop. His character and morals are always a big part of what happens so the books have a lot of depth. You have many more to peruse and I suspect you will enjoy them all. Thanks for checking in.

Finished "Little Black Lies" by Sharon Bolton. Debating whether I liked it or not.

Haven't been able to read much.

Not familiar with Bolton so I checked Amazon and it seems she has written lots of great mysteries. My library doesn't have any of them. I did read some not-favorable reviews of Little Black Lies so I don't think that's a book I would ever buy. I'd probably get it from the library, though, if I could.

Take care.

So, I finished Karin Fossum's The Drowned Boy the week before last - a tragic story told with great sensitivity. As I've mentioned before, she is one of my favorite Scandinavian authors.

After that one, I read The Hanging Girl by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen, #6 of his Department Q series. This has been a wonderful series, which I would happily recommend to any fan of police procedurals; twisty plots, fascinating protagonists, with touches of dry humor, and genuine human empathy.

I'm now nearly finished with A.D. Scott's A Kind of Grief, also #6 in her Joanne Ross series. This series is set mainly in the Scottish Highlands in the 50s - the author is a Scot. The titular protagonist of the series is sometime investigative reporter/aspriring novelist whose sense of justice and curiosity and willingness to defy the social conventions of her day lead her through various adventures in her determination to uncover the truth. I really enjoy this series, in no small part because of all the Highland history and culture that form the backdrop to the stories.

Next on deck is The Guise of Another, the second book by Minnesota-based author Allen Eskens. I very much enjoyed his first novel, The Life We Bury, so I'm looking to forward to see how he has developed as an author since his fairly impressive, if slightly uneven, debut.

From there I'll be heading back across the Atlantic to England, and the Lake District Mysteries by Martin Edwards. He popped up as a recommendation on GoodReads, so I thought I'd give him a look. I've long been intrigued by the Lake District, so I'm hoping that this series will at least be an entertaining way to pass the time until more of the latest books by my longtime favorite authors become available.

Sad to say, none of them ferriner writers in my libary. Actually, I am thrilled to have a library at all in this little town of 2,000 and I know they have a pretty meager budget.

They do offer The Life We Bury on Overdrive which is some sort of Kindle-like thing that I've not yet tried to use. I prefer my books on paper. Eskens sounds like a good writer, though, and I will always enjoy reading books that take place in MN as that was my home for 15 yrs.

Happy tales to you.....til we meet again.

Hi Hermetic - Always look forward to this thread... thanks. I guess I'm lucky because even though my small public library has a fairly good collection, I can also get inter-library loan books delivered from several larger area libraries. I can search their catalogs online, and then order that title and have it delivered. As TV gets worse and worse, I'm more and more thankful for public libraries.

There is a large library about 25 miles from my town and I ordered a book from there once. It came and inside was a bill for $3.95 for postage. When I returned it I wrote on the back of the bill that they should consider using some of their staff, who I know travel back and forth almost every day, to just bring the books with them. Don't know if they took that to heart or not. In the past year I have donated dozens of books and DVDs to the library, including the entire Harry Potter collection, so I feel I've paid for the privilege of having a few books delivered. But, this is what life is like under Repub gov't. Even though I pay property taxes to support the library.

I don't drive, otherwise I'd just go to the bigger library. And I gave up TV ten years ago. I only have an old set to watch DVD movies. I am eternally grateful for public libraries and am so happy that mine really offers a lot for children.



Thank you for being here. So, what are YOU reading this week?

Haven't had much free time for reading this week. I hope to finish it this weekend. A good book for Halloween.

Thankfully, our inter-library loans are free. Nazareth, PA and Bethlehem, PA exchange once a week.

I have around 100 pages to go on The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I have been thoroughly involved. The characters seem interesting and real.

Mrs. Enthusiast enjoyed Entry Island by Peter May. She had to return it to the library. So I will have to request it again, eventually.

Then she read A Swimming Monk by Malachy McCourt. She wants me to read it next. She laughed often when reading it. Thank you TexasProgresive for calling our attention to A Swimming Monk.

Now she is reading The Black Book by Ian Rankin. She is all caught up in this Rebus adventure.

Last Bus to Wisdom was fun and an enjoyable read, but the people in this book are much more fun and Ivan Doig's wit shines through.

Haven't had much time to read lately with all the animal rescue work, Friends of the Library book sale, and the wallpaper removal project.

A friend who knows how I love dystopian fiction suggested that I try Justin Cronin's Passage trilogy, beginning with The Passage. Has anyone read this work? I read reviews on amazon. Just not sure I want to wade into a series right now. Any thoughts?

I have enjoyed the other dystopian novels. I read about The Passage on Fantastic Fiction and Good Reads. I ordered a used copy. It's long at 700+ pages. I'll give it a try.

books, several of James Michener's and The Poisonwood Bible was pretty hefty. Hope you like The Passage and will keep us posted on your thoughts.

Happy to say my library has lots of Doig's books so I will definitely be checking those out. They also have The Passage which I see is about vampires. I'll be interested to hear what Enthusiast thinks about it. Truth be told, Anne Rice kind of spoiled me off
vampires a long time ago. Lestat forever!

said it was dystopian and that I might like it. Oh well. Maybe Mr. & Mrs. E will like it!

A strange and wonderful novel, full of surprises.

I just found out they actually have Murakami's After Dark at my library so I think I'll give that a read in between my Outlander volumes. Thanks for the tip.

What a superb story and piece of writing.

From the book jacket: "...the first novel by Toni Morrison to be set in our current moment--weaves a tale
about the way the sufferings of childhood can shape, and misshape, the life of the adult."

I'm at the beach and brought a sackful of books from the library to read while here.

I caught up with two of Sue Miller's most recent novels:

The Lake Shore Limited and Lost in the Forest.

Both are carefully crafted stories about individuals dealing with loss of someone important
in their lives as the result of accident or terrorism.

Next up is The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout (author of Olive Kitteridge)

to be at the beach with a sackful of books. I am enjoying seeing your pictures in Photography.

I have added your titles to my list. Thanks.

Safe travels.

which means less time fooling around with the camera and more time reading.

Thanks!