10 "books" read in the month, not bad going. Look a bit closer and you'll see that the word book is a bit of a stretch........oh well, my blog, my rules and I'm the official score keeper.
They were......Ariana D. Den Bleyker - Dark Water (2015) (2)
Friedrich Durrenmatt - The Judge and His Hangman (1954) (4)
Dana King - Worst Enemies (2012) (5)
Eric Beetner - The Year I Died Seven Times: Book 3 (2014) (4)
Eric Beetner - The Year I Died Seven Times: Book 4 (2014) (4)
Eryk Pruitt - Dirtbags (2014) (4.5)
Dietrich Kalteis - Triggerfish (2016) (4.5)
Eric Beetner - The Year I Died Seven Times: Book 5 (2014) (4)
Graham Wynd - Smallbany (2015) (4)
Michael Pool - Midnight at the San Franciscan (2015) (4)
My one "5 STAR" read was Dana King's Worst Enemies - it had everything - pace, plot, setting, humour, dialogue, action - a real mix of murder, scheming, duplicity, cops, a PI, sex, a femme fatale and a patsy. I wish I had read it years ago when I bought it.Two reads were close contenders for top marks - Dietrich Kalteis continues to impress me with his cool, sassy Canadian-set crime. Triggerfish was excellent and Eryk Pruitt served up an interesting tale with Dirtbags - both were 4.5 STARS!
Another one from the Number 13 Press stable was read - Dark Water. It wasn't my cup of tea, for some reason I couldn't get into it. The only disappointing read in the month - 2 STARS!
All the rest were 4 STARS reads and fairly short. 3 episodes of Eric Beetner's The Year I Died Seven Times were devoured. I'm only two from home now. There was a bit of Swiss crime from Friedrich Durrenmatt - a re-issue of one of his mid-50s books and a couple of short stories from Graham Wynd (aka K.A. Laity) and Michael Pool.
More useless trivia......10 reads - 8 different authors,
3 of the 8 were new-to-me authors....... Dana King, Michael Pool and Ariana D. Den Bleyker - I have more from King on the Kindle to enjoy.
Of the authors I have read before, I have a ton of Eric Beetner books still to enjoy, a couple more from Durrenmatt and Kalteis and a few from Wynd/Laity.
Gender analysis - 6 male authors, 2 females.
I think 6 of the authors I read are American, 1 is Canadian and the deceased Durrenmatt was from Switzerland.
All 10 were fiction reads - 5 novels and 5 novellas/short stories.
9 were published this decade - 1 from 2016 and 3 from 2015, 4 from 2014, 1 from 2012 and only one older book from 1954.
8 of the 10 books were pre-owned/purchased - 2 came via the publisher - though I did have an old copy of one of them somewhere in my book tubs.
Favourite cover? Eryk Pruitt - Dirtbags!
Second favourite - Triggerfish from Dietrich Kalteis!
My reads were this long - 110 - 128 - 371 - 44 - 45 - 201 - 266 - 50 - 11 - 23
Total page count = 1249 (1775 in July).......over 500 pages down on the previous month.
8 Kindle reads, 2 paperbacks,
5 < 50,
0 between 51 < 100,
2 between 101 < 200,2 between 201 < 300,
1 between 301 < 400,
0 > 400 pages
Dana King's Worst Enemies was the longest read at 371 pages.
Those are some quality covers, Col. Not surprised you chose them. And I'm glad you had a month with so many good reads.
ReplyDeleteCheers Margot - a lot more to like than dislike on both the covers and more importantly the content!
DeleteDana King and Eric Beetner go on my wish-list, to start with.
ReplyDeletePrashant, not a bad start. You can add Kalteis later!
DeleteI am guessing with this set of books, that the one by Friedrich Durrenmatt would appeal most. It is a good month when all your reads are 4 or 5.
ReplyDeleteIf I was picking one for you, I would go for the Durrenmatt too. A decent month's reading even if a lot of them were short.
DeleteCol – I’m reading WORST ENEMIES right now and liking it a lot. Others on this list are going on the TBR. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteElgin, I'm glad WORST ENEMIES is living up to its billing.
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