You'll be happy to know that I've completed my library's winter reading program, so there'll be no more moaning from this corner of the blogworld about not clicking with the right book or wondering if I'll get them all read in time. (I hear a few sighs of relief, I think). But don't think you're going to get out of hearing about library books in general, as there'll still be plenty of those kinds of posts. Don't worry, I'll make them as painless as I possibly can.
I wrote about the first four books I read, but I'm going to bail out on writing in detail about the fifth, Yrsa Sigurdardottir's Last Rituals. She's an Icelandic writer who's written books for children, but this is her first novel. Sometimes first novels, especially first mysteries, feel like first mysteries. In this case I have to agree with another reader who left a comment on an earlier post that the story felt unnecessarily complicated with too much plot for one novel. The story concerns the murder of a German student studying in Iceland. This isn't just your run of the mill murder, as the body was mutilated. He had been studying the history of witch hunts and torture in both Iceland and Europe, so the police aren't sure if there's a connection between what he'd been studying and his death. To top things off the victim had been into drugs, strange sexual practices and what I suppose might be termed body decoration?
Unhappy with the way the investigation is proceeding, the family hires attorney Thóra Gudmundsdóttir to look into the matter privately. The story did indeed get complicated with lots of historical details about sorcery and witchcraft and how it all related to the victim's messy home life. Thóra is a single mother and the reader gets to know her family as well, though perhaps there were a few too many subplots for a first novel when some of the details could easily be fleshed out more in later books? That said, I really liked Thóra. She's a little unconventional and slightly irreverant and I liked her 'voice'. I think that as the author finds her footing with this character, the series has real possibilities. She has a new book coming out this spring, My Soul to Take, which I am already in line for at the library. Oh, and if you're curious but a little concerned, don't worry--the subject matter is on the gruesome side, but she's never really graphic in her descriptions.
Last night I returned a stack of books to the library--several read, a few partially read (one all the way to page 136--maybe I'll check that one out again somday and finish it), and most of the rest with turned down pages as I tried to get a taste of the book while deciding whether I'd read it or not. A few I wanted to keep, but I had to pass them along to the next reader in line as my time was up. That's okay as I have a new stack of fresh possibilities:
- Disquiet: A Story, Julia Leigh - Lovely cover, the story sounds a little disturbing.
- The Inner Circle, Mari Jungstedt - More Scandinavian crime and again a story involving ritualistic murder. I'm not really sure I can read two similar books like this back to back, but I do want to read something set in Sweden.
- Blood Wedding, P.J. Brooke - I took this suggestion from Iliana. It's set in Granada, Spain.
- Cambridge Blue, Alison Bruce - A new series featuring a young dettective, set in, you guessd it, Cambridge.
- By a Slow River, Philippe Claudel - I want to read his new novel (highly recommended), but it is only out in the UK and only in cloth. I usually give in to bookbuying urges, but even I have to draw the line at hardcovers ordered from outside the US. Maybe it's just as well to start with an earlier novel. This one is set during WWI and twenty years later--a mystery of sorts.
- Rose Variations, Marisha Chamberlain - This novel is "a picaresque journey of self-discovery". The author is from Minnesota.
I'm not sure how I managed to find nearly all mysteries and crime novels, but I guess that's what's appealing to me right now. I don't have any library books on the go at the moment, so I'll get to choose one to read (I try and stick with one library book at a time).
And by the way, when I dropped off my list of books read for the reading program I was told they were out of bookbags! That's what I get for being an indecisive, pokey library book reader! I won't say all that work for nothing, as I read five great books.