A decent month's reading to start the year. I managed to complete 11 books in the month, a couple of which were re-reads.
They were......
Robin Sloan - Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (2012) (3)
Mark J. Newman - Violence in the Blood (2016) (4)
Barbara Vine - King Solomon's Carpet (1991) (4)
Jaime Raven - The Madam (2016) (4)
Bryan Smith - 68 Kill (2013) (4.5)
Lawrence Block - Hit Man (1998) (5)
Joe R. Lansdale - Dead Aim (2013) (4)
Catriona McPherson - The Child Garden (2015) (4)
Elmore Leonard - Maximum Bob (1991) (4.5)
Charles Bukowski - South of No North (1975) (3)
Jo Nesbo - Blood on Snow (2015) (4)
Book of the month - Lawrence Block - Hit Man - second time of reading and just as enthralling as the first!More useless trivia......
11 different authors.
5 of the 11 were new-to-me authors........ Robin Sloan, Catriona McPherson, Jaime Raven, Bryan Smith and Barbara Vine. I'd be interested in reading more from 4 of them in the future.
I'm probably done with Robin Sloan.
I must have a couple of dozen books on the shelves and device from each of Elmore Leonard, Lawrence Block and Joe R. Lansdale - all are firm favourites!
Jo Nesbo - I'm not quite convinced on him yet - Blood on Snow was my 3rd book from him.
Charles Bukowski has been enjoyed in the past with more to come in the future, but the short story collection I read had a few flat notes.
Young gun Mark J. Newman writes the short, sharp, snappy violent gangster crime books I like to read. Two down from him, with two to go!
Gender analysis - no surprises here - 9 male, 2 females
I think 6 authors hail from the US, though Charles Bukowski was actually born in Germany
3 authors are English, 1 Scottish, 1 from Norway
All 11 were fiction, 1 was a collection of short stories.7 were published this decade - with 1 from 1970s, 3 from the 90s.
8 of the 11 books were pre-owned! 1 came from the publisher, 2 from the authors.
Favourite cover? Elmore Leonard - Maximum Bob
South of No North is my second favourite cover.
My reads were this long 304 - 51 - 358 - 330 - 258 - 310 - 104 - 294 - 298 - 192 - 188
Total page count = 2687 (890 in December)
0 < 50,
1 between 51 < 100,
3 between 101 < 200,
3 between 201 < 300,
4 between 301 < 400,
0 > 400 pages
Barbara Vine's King Solomon's Carpet was the longest @ 358.
Charles Bukowski is on my mind. He comes with high recommendation from a colleague.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested to see what you make of him. A lot of his work is quite bleak. A lot of stuff about the ordinary man living a mundane existence - drinking and womanising to excess. Probably not ordinary at all in my experience!
ReplyDeleteI can see why your pick of the month was the Block, Col. He is, plain and simple, just that talented. And, yes, that cover for Maximum Bob is a good 'un. I liked the story, too, and I was glad to see that you did as well.
ReplyDeleteI do need to get back to reading more Scudder and Keller books Margot. Plus a bit more from Elmore as well...I need more reading time!
DeleteAn interesting collection, Col. I really must give McPherson another try.
ReplyDeleteJohn cheers. I may or may not read more from McPherson, depends on the story. It's not like I'm hurting for books without her.
DeleteOf all of these, Lawrence Block's Hit Man is the one I want to read the most. Followed by Maximum Bob.
ReplyDeleteThey were probably my top two reads in the month and both were rereads for me.
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