Two "Jane Austen" Mysteries

Jane and the Man of the Cloth: Being the Second Jane Austen Mystery, Stephanie Barron, 1997, Bantam Books, Genre: Cozy Mystery. 274 pages. Finished 4/5/14.

Jane and the Genius of the Place: Being the Fourth Jane Austen Mystery, Stephanie Barron, 1999, Bantam Books, Genre: Cozy Mystery. 290 Pages. Finished 4/26/14.

LesOpinion: These cozy mysteries are part of a series purporting to be from the diaries of Jane Austen. The language is stilted, faux early 19th century (which makes reading a bit of a chore), but the plots are filled with the usual bloodless murder, English country estates, and good manners we expect from the genre. If you can't get enough of Jane Austen, these books might be just the thing.

Jane Austen's Charlotte

Jane Austen's Charlotte, Julia Barrett, 2000, M. Evans & Co., Genre: Fiction. 240 pages. Finished

3/16/14.

LesOpinion: When Jane Austin died in 1817, she left behind a scrap of a novel, tentatively titled Sanditon. Fast forward to the 20th century where writer and scholar, Julia Barrett, gets her hands on it, finishes it off in a fashion that would make the esteemed Austen proud, and publishes it under the title, Charlotte.

The story of an unknown Sussex seashore town in England's post-Napoleonic era trying to strike it rich as the Next Big Thing to hit fashionable society, Charlotte is classic Austen in its skewering of social climbers, posers, and dilettantes. It's also classic Austen in that it isn't written for the contemporary reader, making it a bit of a slog, language-wise.

Circumstances under which I recommend this book: You like Jane Austen and think there's really nothing better than settling down with one of her books.

Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon Series

High Country, Nevada Barr, 2004, GP Putnam's Sons, Genre: Mystery. 323 pages. Finished 2/6/14.

Hard Truth, Nevada Barr, 2005, GP Putnam's Sons, Genre: Mystery. 324 pages. Finished 2/8/14.

Blood Lure, Nevada Barr, 2001, GP Putnam's Sons, Genre: Mystery. 320 pages. Finished 2/12/14.

Hunting Season, Nevada Barr, 2002, GP Putnam's Sons, Genre: Mystery. 322 pages. Finished 2/16/14.

Flashback, Nevada Barr, 2003, GP Putnam's Sons, Genre: Mystery. 387 pages. Finished 2/21/14.

Winter Study, Nevada Barr, 2008, GP Putnam's Sons, Genre: Mystery. 370 pages. Finished 2/25/14.

The Rope, Nevada Barr, 2011, Minotaur Books, Genre: Mystery. 357 pages. Finished 3/2/14.

LesOpinion: Nevada Barr's outdoorsy heroine, Anna Pigeon, is a ranger for the National Park Service. Like most popular sleuths in serial mystery novels, she finds herself in a new and frightening position with each new posting with the NPS. The books are well-written, fast-paced, and have the kind of main female character I fall for: she's smart, physically strong, unapologetically aging, and (best of all) unafraid to hit back.

Bonus points: I read these novels in random order and never felt lost, so adept was Barr at making each story stand on its own without relying on the previous novels.

Circumstances under which I recommend these books: You are not backpacking or otherwise in a wild and lonely place where the stories of backwoods assailants might creep you out. Read them safely at home. Then brush up on your self defense skills before you hit the back country.

The Sense of an Ending

The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes, 2011, Knopf, Genre: Literary fiction. 163 pages. Finished

2/2/14.

LesOpinion: A short book telling a small story about big things, The Sense of an Ending is a slowly unfolding mystery and a meditation on memory, loss, and the life we think we're living. British schoolboys, jealousy, and the prisons we create for ourselves all come together to create a mournful tale best read on a rainy February day.

The Somnambulist

The Somnambulist, Jonathan Barnes, 2007, HarperCollins, Genre: Mystery. 353 pages. Finished

2/1/14.

LesOpinion: I really wanted to like this debut novel. It's literate, amusing in its cleverness and detail, and ambitious in its scope. But it's also all over the place, lacks character development, and can't decide what it wants to be when it grows up. The post-Victorian London created by Jonathan Barnes is a dark, foggy, ugly place filled with miscreants, murderers, and drug addicts. There are bearded ladies, albinos, and giants. Also, utopians, a human fly, and S.T. Coleridge as a dripping zombie. If you enjoy genres that include fantasy, steampunk, or Victorian mystery, this might be for you. If not, give it a pass.

The Accident

The Accident, Linwood Barclay, 2011, Bantam Books, Genre: Suspense. 386 pages. Finished 1/25/14.

LesOpinion: A beloved wife and mother causes her own death in a drunk driving accident, taking two other motorists out with her. Her husband spends the next few months flailing around in his grief and disbelief, bumping up against the seamy underbelly (is there any other kind?) of his suburban Connecticut community.

This delicious domestic thriller by an adept writer restores my faith that good writers get published, too. Twists, turns, heartbreak. Wish there were more Barclay on the shelf.

Damn You, Baldacci!

The Mighty Johns, Edited by Otto Penzler, 2002, New Millennium Press. Genre: Collected short

fiction. 316 pages. Finished 1/22/14.

LesOpinion: Just when I thought I was freed from bad Baldacci, this short story collection appeared on the shelves of the S. White Dickinson. Alas, 60 pages of the most hellish and poorly edited Baldacci, yet. The title story in this collection is a Baldacci novella that is the only reason any library has this book on its shelves. Unfortunately, the Baldacci story is the worst of the lot. The real gems are the (all football-themed [!?]) mysteries by some of the best contemporary suspense writers working: Lawrence Block, Dennis Lehane, Brad Meltzer, Anne Perry. Every single other one of these stories deals an embarrassing blow to Baldacci's hackneyed prose.

The Library, er, The Baldacci Quest

-->

The Innocent, David Baldacci, 2012, Grand Central Publishing. Genre: Spy

Thriller. 422 pages. Finished 9/2/13.

Absolute Power, David Baldacci, 1996, Warner Books, Genre: Suspense. 469 pages. Finished 9/13/13.

Total Control, David Baldacci, 1997, Warner Books, Genre: Thriller. 517 pages. Finished 9/20/13.

The Winner, David Baldacci, 1997, Warner Books, Genre: Thriller. 513 pages. Finished 9/30/13.

The Simple Truth, David Baldacci, 1998, Warner Books, Genre: Thriller. 470 pages. Finished 10/6/13.

Wish You Well, David Baldacci, 2000, Warner Books, Genre: Fiction. 399 pages. Finished 10/9/13.

Last Man Standing, David Baldacci, 2001, Warner Books, Genre: Thriller. 548 pages. Finished 10/14/13.

Saving Faith, David Baldacci, 1999, Warner Books, Genre: Thriller. 451 pages. Finished 10/19/13.

The Christmas Train, David Baldacci, 2002, Warner Books, Genre: Mystery/Humor. 258 pages. Finished 10/24/13.

Split Second, David Baldacci, 2003, Warner Books, Genre: Thriller. 404 pages. Finished 10/28/13.

Hour Game, David Baldacci, 2004, Warner Books, Genre: Thriller. 437 pages. Finished 11/6/13.

The Camel Club, David Baldacci, 2005, Warner Books, Genre: Thriller. 435 pages. Finished 11/17/13.

The Collectors, David Baldacci, 2006, Warner Books, Genre: Thriller. 436 pages. Finished 11/20/13.

Simple Genius, David Baldacci, 2007, Warner Books, Genre: Thriller. 420 pages. Finished 11/25/13.

Stone Cold, David Baldacci, 2007, Grand Central Publishing, Genre: Thriller. 388 pages. Finished 11/30/13.

The Whole Truth, David Baldacci, 2008, GCP, Genre: Thriller. 401 pages. Finished 12/3/13.

Divine Justice, David Baldacci, 2008, GCP, Genre: Thriller, 387 pages. Finished 12/7/13.

First Family, David Baldacci, 2009, GCP, Genre: Thriller, 449 pages. Finished 12/11/13.

True Blue, David Baldacci, 2009, GCP, Genre: Thriller, 454 pages. Finished 12/14/13.

Deliver Us From Evil, David Baldacci, 2010, GCP, Genre: Thriller, 406 pages. Finished 12/19/13.

Hell’s Corner, David Baldacci, 2010, GCP, Genre: Thriller, 438 pages. Finished 12/27/13.

Sixth Man, David Baldacci, 2011, GCP, Genre: Thriller, 416 pages. Finished 1/2/14.

One Summer, David Baldacci, 2011, GCP, Genre: Schlocky Fiction, 333 pages. Finished 1/4/14.

Zero Day, David Baldacci, 2011, GCP, Genre: Thriller, 434 pages. Finished 1/9/14.

The Forgotten, David Baldacci, 2012, Genre: Thriller, 422 pages. Finished 1/13/14.

LesOpinion: The David Baldacci Slog had a slow start. His first 10 books are among the most poorly written of the entire Quest (in his first novel, Baldacci refers to a baseball as "the white orb." The prosecution rests).

To be fair, Baldacci was clearly learning the ropes and working at the mercy of a tenderhearted editor (one too soft to point out that thrillers written with an abundance of the word "suddenly" could benefit from a bit more subtlety). There is a direct correlation between a lowering page count and the books getting better. By the time Baldacci switched publishing houses (from Warner to Grand Central), his books became worth reading (for the most part).

Look, the man tells a good story in a made-for-the-big-screen kind of way. You can't go wrong picking one up for a ride on the train or a day sick in bed. This reviewer's recommendation is to start with books written after 1998 and never, under any circumstances, read the schlocky fiction he writes to take a break from his action-packed thrillers. Take it from me, Gentle Reader, you will much prefer a hot stick in the eye.

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, Tiffany Baker, 2009, Grand Central Publishing. Genre: Fiction. 341 pages. Finished 8/30/13.

LesOpinion: This is a book about beauty, love, and family ties. It's also about what it means to be ugly, silent, and selfish. It's also quirky, weird, eccentric, bittersweet, and crazy-making. Read it.

Remains Silent

Remains Silent, Michael Baden and Linda Kenney, 2005, Knopf, Genre: Mystery. 228 pages. Finished 8/24/13.

LesOpinion: This is the debut novel by real life husband/medical examiner and wife/attorney, Baden and Kenney. Guess who the main characters are? If you guessed a medical examiner and an attorney who fall in love, you win our prize!

Despite its leaky plot and gratuitous suspense, Remains Silent was a quick read and a pleasant way to pass a day on the porch.

Blaze

Blaze, Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King), 2007, Scribner, Genre: Suspense. Also includes short story, "Memory," by Stephen King. 285 pages. Finished 8/23/13.

LesOpinion: When he writes books like this, Stephen King can be one of my favorite popular authors. Blaze is a melancholy, suspenseful book that will have you pulling for its antihero--a giant, mentally disabled man (a nod to Of Mice and Men) who carries out a crime-of-the-century kidnapping.

Blaze was written in the '70's during King's "Richard Bachman" period, but the master recently dusted it off, re-worked it, and published it (with an entertaining forward) in 2007. If you're looking for a good book to read as the summer fades away, head on down to the library and pick up Blaze.

Thinner, or How Stephen King Snuck Up on Me

Thinner, Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King), 1984, New American Library, Genre: Horror. 309 pages. Finished 8/22/13.

LesOpinion: In the early '70's, when Stephen King was just starting out, he wrote so many books that his editor suggested that he write some of them under a pen name so he wouldn't freak out the publishing world (never mind that he was launching a career wherein he would freak the rest of us out for the next 40 years). So King invented "Richard Bachman." "Richard" wrote Thinner just before and on the same typewriter as King wrote Carrie.

I've long been dreading my arrival in the K section of the S. White Dickinson, because it means delving into the wacky world of Stephen King--not because he's a terrible writer, but because I'm not a fan of horror. So imagine my surprise when King jumped off the shelf and scared me just as I got into the B's.

Thinner is Horror Lite (seriously, it has a Gypsy curse at its core), and it isn't particularly well-written. The plot drags, and every single character is so unsympathetic that I found myself  hoping they would all die. The good news? I wasn't afraid to turn out the lights.

Two by Jane Austen, or, The End of the A's

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen, Originally published in 1811; this edition gave no publication date, Nelson Doubleday. Genre: Fiction. 276 pages. Finished 8/8/13.

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, Originally published in 1813; this edition published in 1991, Everyman's Library/Knopf. Genre: Fiction. 368 pages. Finished 8/20/13.

LesOpinion: Remember how I made it through to a Bachelor's degree in English literature from a pretty good university without having ever read Moby Dick? It is now time to confess that I also made it through without having ever read either of these two seminal Austens (I get dispensation for having read--and hated--Northanger Abbey).

In an uncharacteristic bout of cockeyed optimism, I believed at the outset of the Library Quest that I'd spend my days reading foundation works like these--sharpening my brain, filling the gaps in my reading repertoire and generally getting more literate as time went by. Of course, I was wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. Instead of great works by great authors, I've been hammered with pablum, puke, and pandering. These Austens are the first classic literature I've come across in nearly 100 books (these are numbers 98 and 99, respectively). I may as well stop reading and start keeping up with the Kardashians for all the good this Quest is doing my brain.

Do yourself a favor, Gentle Reader, and go re-visit your Austens. Never read them and don't want to read both? Read Pride and Prejudice. Its humor is more developed and its social critique more scathing. The Kardashians have nothing on these 19th-century social climbing, materialistic manipulators.

Cave Lady Love: Four by Jean M. Auel

The Valley of the Horses, Jean M. Auel, 1982, Crown Publishers. Genre: Fiction. 502 pages. Finished 4/19/13.

The Mammoth Hunters, Jean M. Auel, 1985, Crown Publishers. Genre: Fiction. 645 pages. Finished 5/20/13.

Shelters of Stone, Jean M. Auel, 2002, Crown Publishers. Genre: Fiction. 749 pages. Finished 6/26/13/13.

The Land of Painted Caves, Jean M. Auel, 2011, Crown Publishers. Genre: Fiction. 757 pages. Finished 7/31/13.

LesOpinion: Have you ever disliked a book but liked its author? Jean M. Auel's iconic fiction/fantasy Earth's Children series is the long (and, Gentle Reader, I do mean long) story of Cro-Magnon lady, Ayla, and the Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons she meets in the course of her travels. On the positive side, the stories have cliffhanging adventure, hot cave man sex, and interesting, research-based imaginings of Stone Age life. On the negative side, the books are long. They are long, in part, because they are repetitive (the first and third books in the series are not at S. White Dickinson Library or I'd still be reading). They are repetitive, in part, because the author cares that you understand all elements of the saga, even if you haven't had the pleasure of wasting months of your life reading the previous books. Because Jean M. Auel cares about your reading pleasure, she spends at least 1/3 of each book bringing you up to speed on the parts you might have missed. Bless her heart.

But here's why I really want to like Jean M. Auel: She's us. She is this chubby lady with nerdy glasses who had an idea and wrote a book. She then just kept on writing. Sure, she wrote about cave people. But she busted her butt to learn as much as she could about them, traveling to archaeological sites, meeting with pre-eminent researchers, and reading everything she could get her hands on. Her books aren't great art, but they are interesting just in their conception.

If you have a couple of years to kill and want to try something different, you can do worse than picking up a Jean M. Auel book. As for me, I'm ready to move on.

The Year of the Flood

The Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood, 2009, Doubleday. Genre: SciFi. 434 pages. Finished 3/23/13.

LesOpinion: Gentle Reader, you already know my thoughts about SciFi as a genre. The saving grace of Atwood's SciFi is that the woman can write. The Year of the Flood is another dystopian novel--the contemporary world beset by the tyranny of corporations, Big Pharma, and climate change. Good luck to us all.

Circumstances under which I recommend this book: You like SciFi and want to read a reasonably good book. If you don't like SciFi, you should stick with The Handmaid's Tale.

Wilderness Tips

Wilderness Tips, Margaret Atwood, 1991, Doubleday, Genre: Collected Short Fiction. 227 pages. Finished 3/16/13.

LesOpinion: Margaret Atwood is one of those authors so prolific that you get the feeling that she never stops writing. That she has to collect short fiction (and poetry), because her brain just keeps churning out tale after tale. The good news is that Atwood is a terrific writer.

Short fiction doesn't get much attention in popular circles, being reserved these days for the academic set. That's a shame. In Wilderness Tips, Atwood tells full stories about small incidences of the everyday world.

Circumstances under which I recommend this book: You want to keep some excellent nightstand or bathtub reading at hand.

The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood, 1986, Houghton Mifflin, Genre: SciFi. 311 pages. Finished 3/9/13.

LesOpinion: The first rule of The Library Quest is that you don't talk about The Lib...wait, no, it's "If I've already read the book at a different time, I can choose whether to re-read it." This is the first previously read book I chose to read again.

The Handmaid's Tale envisions a dystopia in which right wing attitudes toward women's reproductive capacity are taken to their logical extreme. In light of the recent "Republican war on women," the story is particularly harrowing, the horror of the book exacerbated by its sparing, restrained prose.

Circumstances under which I recommend this book: All.

Thumbs Up for Three by Kate Atkinson

One Good Turn, Kate Atkinson, 2006, Little Brown and Co., Genre: Fiction. 418 pages. Finished 2/17/13.

When Will There Be Good News?, Kate Atkinson, 2008, Little Brown and Co., Genre: Fiction. 388 pages. Finished 2/24/13.

Started Early, Took My Dog, Kate Atkinson, 2011, Little Brown and Co., Genre: Fiction. 371 pages. Finished 3/4/13.

LesOpinion: Although these three fine novels by Kate Atkinson revolve around mysteries and deploy the same central cast of characters, I did not refer to them as "Mystery" so that you, Gentle Reader, would not think of them as simple genre pieces following a recipe, churned out annually to please a commercial audience. No. These are literate, layered, page-turners. They are brooding and dark and let go with the most fleeting moments of human redemption. I only wish there were more on the shelf.

Eight Featuring Aunt Dimity

Aunt Dimity's Christmas, Nancy Atherton, 1999, Viking, Genre: Cozy. 214 pages (215 with the recipe). Finished 1/26/13.

Aunt Dimity: Detective, Nancy Atherton, 2001, Viking, Genre: Cozy, 229 pages (230 with the recipe). Finished 1/27/13.

Aunt Dimity Takes a Holiday, Nancy Atherton, 2003, Viking, Genre: Cozy. 199 pages (200 with the recipe). Finished 1/28/13.

Aunt Dimity: Snowbound, Nancy Atherton, 2004, Viking, Genre: Cozy, 226 pages (227 with the recipe). Finished 1/30/13.

Aunt Dimity and the Next of Kin, Nancy Atherton, 2005, Viking, Genre: Cozy, 227 pages (228 with the recipe). Finished 2/2/13.

Aunt Dimity and the Deep Blue Sea, Nancy Atherton, 2006, Viking, Genre: Cozy, 245 pages (246 with the recipe). Finished 2/6/13.

Aunt Dimity Goes West, Nancy Atherton, 2007, Viking, Genre: Cozy, 227 pages (228 with the recipe). Finished 2/8/13.

Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter, Nancy Atherton, 2008, Viking, Genre: Cozy, 231 pages (232 with the recipe). Finished 2/11/13.

LesOpinion: In a strange coincidence, the best review for these books comes from the next book in The Quest, One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson. One of the protagonists in her (literate, suspenseful) novel is the author of a series of "soft-boiled" crime novels, but his books could be the Aunt Dimity novels.

These are "cozy" mysteries, set in a contemporary English village in the Cotswolds. Atkinson's sneering nod toward her anti-hero's genre schlock applies equally to Atherton's: "...depicting a kind of retro-utopian Britain that was rife with aristocrats and gameskeepers.... It was a nonsensical kind of setting where murders were tidy affairs that resulted in inoffensive corpses...the equivalent of a hot bath and a warm mug of cocoa."

In all fairness, sometimes a hot bath and a warm mug of cocoa are just what the doctor ordered.

Circumstances under which I recommend these books: The doctor has ordered a hot bath and a warm mug of cocoa.

Four by Asimov: Or How Classic SciFi Nearly Ended the Quest

The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov, including Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire (1952), and Second Foundation (1953), Doubleday and Company, Genre: SciFi. 677 pages. Finished 1/11/13.

Prelude to Foundation, Isaac Asimov, 1988, Doubleday, Genre: SciFi. 403 pages. Finished 1/24/13.

Note from the LesBlog Editorial Board: In order to recover from the Epic Archer Slog, I took a few weeks' hiatus to read a few books of some literary merit.  We now return to our regularly scheduled reading.

LesOpinion: In the interest of full disclosure, I'm not a science fiction fan.  As a general rule, I don't read it, watch it on TV, or see it at the movies.  I never understood the appeal of Star Trek, Star Wars, or Star Search.  For this reason, I began my Asimov tour kicking and screaming.

And I was not to be disappointed.  I practically slept my way through some of the worst highly-praised literature ever written in the history of things written.  The Foundation Trilogy is considered classic SciFi; I considered it literary NyQuil.  All personal distaste for science fiction aside, the novels lacked character development, pacing, or suspense.  Worse yet, they lacked the kind of details necessary to bring a world 20,000 years in the future to life.  What a snore-fest.

One supposes that the approximately 8,358,283 books Asimov wrote between 1953 and 1988 honed his skills. In Prelude to Foundation the female characters aren't puling idiots, the culture and technology of the future become plot points, and the suspense keeps the pages turning.  Unfortunately, Prelude to Foundation doesn't really make any sense unless you've done your homework and read the Trilogy.

If you're a SciFi fan, consider it your duty to read these books in the same way that it was my duty to read Moby Dick.  If you aren't a fan, spare yourself.