Monday 6 July 2009

A bookish day...

The rain bypassed Spain today and is coming down in stair rods in Devon instead:



So I'm having a bookish day here today with a visit to the library and Waterstones inbetween the torrential showers.

The aim at Waterstones was to get a copy of Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer as I'm halfway through New Moon and absolutely loving it. But it was on offer as a three for two so I picked up a couple of other things too:



Palace Council by Stephen L. Carter is for my husband so I don't really know what that is but the other one, Indian Takeaway by Hardeep Singh Kohli, the comedian and TV presenter, is an investigation into his Indian and Scottish roots. I'm a bit of a fan so this sounded rather good.

And then I found that Waterstone's new edition of their most excellent book magazine, Books Quarterly, is out. After the last one came out I had to go and buy The Gruffalo for my grandson because the picture of the book on the front made him think it was his current favourite book! Heheheh. Anyway, here's this quarter's with its pic from Sarah Waters's new book on the front:



And then it was off to the library:



Three books from there - Another book by P.J. Tracy (see review below), the first in the series this time (I think...) A Georgette Heyer crime yarn, Envious Casca, and a short story collection by E.W. Hornung, Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman.

And this is the library pile as it stands at the moment:



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And last but not least a quick book review - Snow Blind by P.J. Tracy.



This one is set in Minnesota, partly in the city of Minneapolis and partly out in the nearby countryside. The bodies of two dead policemen are discovered, disguised as snowmen, in a park where a lot of children are having a snowman building competition. A day later another body is discovered, also disguised as a snowman, on a frozen lake, north of the city. Detectives Magozzi and Rolseth are sent north to liaise with rookie sheriff, Iris Rikker, to try and discover if this is a copy-cat killing or the same killer at work. They quickly discover that the dead man in this case is a probation officer and that his killer is probably a wife beater he was interviewing who is now on the run. The detectives can't see the connection but unusual facts keep coming to light that connect the two cases in what seem like trivial ways *at first*...

Well, the first thing to say here is that this is the 4th. book in this series. This is typical of me. I had no idea - Hubby just passed it on to me from his library pile, telling me that he quite enjoyed it, which is unusual enough in itself! It seems the first three books are not about these two detectives but more about a team of computer geeks who help the police - 'Monkeywrench' or something. They do appear in this 4th. book but not in any major way.

Anyway, like my husband, I actually quite liked the book too. I liked the two detectives, found the plot pacey and interesting, and absolutely adored the snowy Minneapolis and Minnesota setting (blame Mary Tyler Moore!) I had some idea fairly early on of what was going on but it didn't spoil my enjoyment at all. I suppose if I have a complaint it would be that there does seem to be a slight implication in it that most men are wife beaters and that did get a bit wearing by the end of the book. The 'author' is actually two women, a mother and daughter team, which has got to be slightly unusual? Anyway, not a bad read... and I've just picked up the first in the series from the library.

And now it's stopped raining at long last and the sun's out.

18 comments:

DesLily said...

well you are set for a while! how big is that tbr pile?? hehehe

gee, when Peter reads a book you should ask him to guest "review" the book he read! (I may have just gotten on the wrong side of Peter!)

Cath said...

The tbr pile? Erm, erm... *cough*... well er... might be ummmmm... *about* 300 or so. Give or take. Ahem.

Am having a bit of a giggle here, Pat, at the idea of Peter trying to review a book. For a start off he thinks we're all crazy, plus... he really hasn't got a clue about talking about books. Heheheheh. Also... I don't let him anywhere near my blogs, I'm not even sure he knows where to look for them and long may it continue. LOL!

Shanra said...

*looks at books, looks at comments* I feel better about my TBR pile of 200-odd books now... (Yes, I know this is also horrible!)

It looks like a nice haul, though. ^-^ May you enjoy the lot!

Cath said...

I just keep buying books, Shanra. And I can't see it stopping, though a few go to charity shops, so some do go *out* of the house opposed to coming *in*. :-)

I got halfway through your vlog today and got interupted, which was a real nuisance. I enjoyed what I saw and plan to return to it tomorrow and watch it through properly without interuption.

BooksPlease said...

We're having a summer of extremes - heatwave and monsoon type rain!

I love reading in the rain, better than the heat I think! Those three for two offers are so tempting and usually to allay my "guilt" (not really!)I offer my husband the opportunity to choose one of them - hehe! I've tried to get him to write a review but there's no chance of that.

Cath said...

Margaret: you're right about the weather and monsoon is a good description!

Oh I do so agree... I love sitting in the conservatory with the rain beating down, reading a book. It feels so cosy somehow.

And yes, that's exactly what I do... offer my husband one of the three books to allay my 'guilt'. Sooo funny. My husband thinks that anyone who wants to spend time writing about the books they read is completely mad.

DesLily said...

300??!!! gads Cath you have Chris Beat! lol lol.. we should have a mini challenge and everyone with big tbr piles should join.. the challenge should be to try to figure out which of you books in the tbr pile is the oldest and then read it!
I nearly had a stroke when my pile just broke 100 tbr!!

Jo said...

Stone heart is currently on my son's library pile. I thought it sounded interesting when he brought it home. He insists that he has to read it first though.

Cath said...

Hey Pat! Truthfully, I think have no idea which are the oldest books on my tbr pile. They're scattered all over the house and, if I'm completely honest, there're probably more than 300. And as I only read at the rate of 60 - 70 books a year I fancy the number isn't going to decrease by much any time soon. LOL!

Jo: My eldest (grown-up) daughter recommended Stoneheart to me. I've had it out of the library twice so far and not read it, so perhaps this is third time lucky? I'm determined to read it this time!

DesLily said...

The more we talk the more I know we are sisters! LOL

Cath said...

Proud to be your English sister, Pat! :-D

Shanra said...

Ah, yes... They do have this habit of seducing one, don't they? I had a book arrive today, but I think I'll wait for another to arrive before I do another vlog. I really want to do a vlog on the one yet-to-arrive, though!) And I'm glad to hear you liked what you saw, even if you did get interrupted in the watching of it.

(I'm determined to drag some books along to the second hand store tomorrow... But likely I'll bring them in in 'small' doses. I'm going to have to jot down the titles, though!)

Vipula said...

Oh nice collection. I am definitely buying the Indian Takeaway!

Cath said...

Shanra: books don't need to do much to seduce me. All they need is a pretty cover and I'm reaching for my purse... lol.

Vipula: Indian Takeaway looks like it will be interesting and funny. I'll report back when I've read it.

Vintage Reading said...

I spend a lot of time hanging around Waterstones, too. Rain or shine!

Cath said...

Yeah, I loiter in Waterstones rather more that I should, Nicola. Going there this morning as a matter of fact. Of course it's *purely* to get one of my husband's birthday presents. *Ahem*

DesLily said...

hey cath.. i now tweet on twitter are you on there??

Cath said...

No, I'm an Facebook, Pat. Been thinking about joining Twitter though. is it easy?