--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <jstein@...> wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "wayback71" <wayback71@> wrote:
> >
> > Any good reading suggestions for the summer - fiction or non?
>
> I recently read "A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea" by journalist Joel
> Achenbach, a very well-done blow-by-blow account for the general reader of
> the Deepwater Horizon disaster. One big disappointment: he tells you almost
> nothing about the operators of the underwater remote vehicles that actually
> did most of the incredibly exacting physical work of rebuilding the wellhead
> to stop the gusher.
>
> I read so much "nonfiction" on the Web that I stick mostly with fiction for
> bedtime reading.
>
> "The Brothers Boswell" by Philip Baruth is a sort of literary thriller told
> from the perspective of the brother of James Boswell, the biographer of
> Samuel Johnson. Very offbeat, gorgeously written. I found it oddly
> unsatisfying at the end, but it's one heck of a ride.
>
> I'm on a historical mystery kick and have been working my way through two
> "historical detective" series that I've been greatly enjoying.
>
> One is the Matthew Shardlake novels by C.J. Sansome. Set in Tudor England in
> the waning days of Henry VIII, they involve the attempts of a middle-aged
> hunchbacked London lawyer to unravel various murders and political plots.
> They're generally very well written with a great deal of engrossing period
> detail (although the author has a few careless "tics" that can be annoying
> and should have been cleaned up by his editors). Shardlake is a fascinating
> character study as he develops through the novels in the series, a
> good-hearted, honest, intelligent, reflective man with the best of motives
> whose personality flaws often get him in trouble nonetheless.
>
> These are *long* novels, 500-700 pages, and while there's plenty of action,
> they don't always move at a breakneck pace. You have to be willing to let the
> author take his time unfolding the story and just let yourself soak in the
> setting.
>
> The other set of historical mysteries is the Sugawara Akitada series, set in
> 11th-century Japan, by I.J. Parker. Much of what I said above about the
> Shardlake series applies to this one as well, but the setting is much less
> familiar and even more colorful. For me, the main attraction here is not so
> much the plots (which are intricate and certainly compelling) but the main
> character, who is so enormously engaging in his complexity and humanity that
> I actually feel bereft of his company when I finish one of the novels. He's
> such a vivid personality it's hard not to imagine he must have been a real
> person who has "channeled" himself through Parker.
>
> The quality of Parker's writing is uneven. It's mostly very good--and there
> are some wonderfully lyrical passages--but every now and then you'll run into
> awkward bits, especially in the dialogue.
>
> Both series, although they're very neatly plotted, are primarily character
> driven, so you should, if possible, read them in order, as all the important
> characters develop and change over the course of the series. More than enough
> light but absorbing reading to last through the summer. (And all but the most
> recent in each series are available used on Amazon for under a dollar plus
> $3.98 shipping.)
>
>
> This is my 50th for the week. See you all Friday or Saturday.
>
Thanks for the ideas - will start with Sugara Akitada series
