BOOKS: October Reads

Since I don't seem to be able to get many book reviews written, I'm going to try to do a montly summary of my reading. I still like to share what I've read, and would love to hear your comments on any of these books. Did you love it? Hate it? What are you reading that you'd recommend? What's new with you?


October

93. The Calling - Inger Ash Wolfe
reviewed here
Start to a good Canadian series, written by Michael Redhill. Book number 3 has been released recently.

 94. The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley, 343 pages


Canadian Book Challenge; RIP 7

My book club read the first book in the series, so I took the opportunity to read the second book about Flavia de Luce. I forgot how much I enjoyed The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, and now really want to get caught up in the series. They read fast and fun, with a precocious narrator that some readers find annoying, but I adore. She's into chemistry and poison, and the book is set in a 1950s post-war British village. Book club loved the book; one of the ladies was already half way through this one by the time we met. I definitely need more Flavia.




95. Bossypants - Tina Fey (audiobook)
reviewed here 
Tina Fey is fabulous. the end.


96.  The Black Echo by Michael Connelly, 481 pages

RIP 7

First Harry Bosch novel. Published in early 1990s about a Vietnam vet struggling in Los Angeles. Read slower than I would have expected for a mystery/thriller, but still enjoyable. Liked Harry and some of his close friends. Internal Affairs is out to get him and looks like an ongoing plot.
Picked up the next two at the library sale shelf for 25 cents each.






97.  The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey, 208 pages

Librarything recommended book as a quick read. It was delightful, and peaceful, and charming. The author was struggling with a viral infection that left her immobile and exhausted. She took to watching a snail who arrived in a wild violet dish from a friend. There is much about the science of snails, but it is also a philosophical look at life. Wonderful find.







98. Stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers - Mary Roach (audiobook)
How can something be so gross and so funny at the same time? Possibly more to come on this book.


99. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, 320 pages 

Man Booker Prize longlist 2012

I won this book from lori at she treads softly after she had a giveaway, and she loved the book. I liked it a lot as well, but found the tone a bit off. It was a little light and humorous, but also there was a really dark overtone that kept me worried. Finding a way to have an existential crisis for a boring plain man as he decides to walk across England with no planning (or hiking shoes or money) was a tricky tone to maintain, especially with the info that gets revealed as he walked.

Closest book that one reminded me of was Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, but this one didn't completely charm me in the same way; but I can see how on a different day or at a differnt time, this could be a favorite book.