What Susan's Reading Today

2003-03-10T08:27:00.000-06:00

2003-03-10T08:08:00.000-06:00

Don't think I haven't been reading during the past few weeks - my eyeballs have been as active as ever, but I haven't had time to blog my books.

I read the other two books in the "Ladies Detective Agency" series by Alexander McCall Smith - Tears of the Giraffe and The Morality of Beautiful Girls. They were lush books, redolent of Africa.

I also read a few more mysteries. Rebecca Tope is a new author for me, but I enjoyed A Dirty Death. It's set on a farm in England and the details about modern cattle farming were fascinating. A few weeks ago I read Joanna Trollope's Next of Kin, not a mystery, which had an oddly similar theme, about the effect of the death of a farmer on his family.

I've had a couple of advanced reader's copies to read as well. Donna Andrews has been nominated for an Agatha for her first book in her Turing Hopper series, You've Got Murder. I reviewed this in April, 2002 for my Computer Crimes column. The next, eagerly-awaited book is Click Here for Murder.You will have to wait for my review to learn what i thought of it. It will be published in May.

Another ARC was Gillian Roberts' Claire and Present Danger, due to be published in June. This mystery actually featured a blog! The other mystery I read is Ruth Rendell's Adam and Eve and Pinch Me. I love everything she has written, but as Ruth Rendell and as Barbara Vine. This is a masterful expose of madness - her characters are so alive!

I'm in the midst of several other books. Amin Maalouf In the Name oif Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong is fairly self explanatory. Maalouf is a novelist, and this is an elegant, thoughtful piece about tribalism today, primarily in the Middle East.

I just finished watching the film of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and have started re-reading the book. I first read this when I was in college, but it's central event, the bombing of Dresden, seems vital to revisit now as we once again prepare to drop bombs on civilians. Another book I am re-reading is George Orwell's 1984. Last month I re-read Huxley's Brave New World. I seem to be on a dystopia kick.

Finally, I'm reading Derrick Jensen's The Culture of Make Believe. On the surface it's about racism, and hate, but I think it's even deeper than that - how we have closed our eyes and our hearts to the sordid systems that make life inthe modern world possible. I'm taking this one slowly so I can absorb it all.

2003-02-23T15:01:00.000-06:00

This morning I finished True Believers by Jane Haddam. This is the 17th mystery in her series about Gregor Demarkian, a retired Armenian-American FBI agent who returns to his old Philadelphia neighborhood. It is about belief, set on a street populated by a Catholic, Episcopal and fundementalist Christian churches - and a "professional" athiest. Haddam is an excellent writer, her characters have depth, and surrounding a very good mystery is a discussion of the varieties and meanings of faith. One of the next books in my stack is Charles Kimball's When Religion Becomes Evil, and this is a perfect setup for it.

2003-02-21T08:03:00.000-06:00

Last week I read R.J. Pineiro's Cyberterror and wrote a review for my Computer Crimes column in PC Alamode Magazine. I wrote in my review, "Alamo PC has been good to R.J. Piniero. We invited him to speak at our meeting. We listened, enthralled, as he read from his novels. We bought his books, asked for his autograph, invited him back. So how does he thank us? In his very next book, in chapter one, HE BLOWS UP SAN ANTONIO. If we cheer louder next time, Rogelio, will you blow up Austin instead?" I passed on my advanced reader's copy to a friend who works for the city and has been involved in "Dark Screen" exercises to prevent such an incident happening here. She read a few paragraphs to the group at their next meeting and they were unanimous that the premise - terrorists hacking into the software that controls the city's gas mains - was a non-starter. I love it when fiction and reality converge! Clarke, editor of the Alamode, picks the magazine up from the printer today so I should be able to post the review to the site next week. Nancy's agreed to write a short article about Dark Screen for the April issue of the Alamode, so the discussion will continue.

2003-02-20T10:51:00.000-06:00

I just finished reading The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. It got a good review in the Express-News, and this was well deserved. Precious Ramotswe starts a detective agency in Botswana with money received from the sale of her father's cattle, but the charm of the book is in the loving portrayal of contemporary African life. One qoute struck me: "I love all the people whom God made, but I especially know how to love the people who live in this place." Highly recommended. Can't wait to read the next two in the series, Tears of the Giraffe and The Morality of Beautiful Girls.