Monday, January 04, 2021

Four Days into the New Year and Here They Come

 Four days into the new year, and I'm already stacking up new books at an impossible reading-pace. They are coming from several different directions, but the primary culprit has been my local library branch (the Harris County, Texas, public library system is wonderful). 

I came into January already having several library books on hand from December, but I picked up three new ones this morning. Thankfully I was able to extend the check-out time on all three of them to six weeks:

This one comes highly recommended by a blogger whose opinion I trust, so I expect to enjoy it. It's set in 1964 Texas, a time period and a place I remember well for having experienced them for myself.



I've been a fan of Denise Mina for years, but haven't read anything new from her for a while. As part of my new year's cleanup, I replaced my digital subscription to the New York Times Book Review with a full-access digital subscription to the U.K.'s Times and Sunday Times newspaper. I trust the paper's book section to be more complete and inclusive than what I've been getting from the New York Times for the last couple of years, and I remember it fondly from my London years. And that decision directly led me to this Denise Mina book. 



This one came in quicker than I expected it, so I'm going to have to work it into the schedule. I'm a Jo Nesbø fan, but this thing is a doorstop, coming in at 550 pages. I've read the first several pages, though, and it appears to be a fairly quick read.


I've also purchased one tree-book:


This one is officially called "Mickey Haller Book Six," but because the Harry Bosch character is on hand to work with his half-brother in this new Haller book, I couldn't resist it when I found it for a good price at a local retailer.

And then, there are the two free e-books that Prime gave me yesterday: 



I knew nothing about either of these before they showed up on the Amazon Prime First Reads list, but both show some promise. I'm familiar with Rice's books and like them, and the Hadley & Grace novel is said to be sort of a Thelma & Louise situation. Now, the problem is going to be finding the time to read them.

So there you have it: four days and six new books in my life already. Along with that subscription to the Times and Sunday Times, that means I need to start turning some pages.

11 comments:

  1. You know me-- I'm most excited for The Rock Hole. I'm really looking forward to your opinion of it, Sam.

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    1. I've flipped through it and I'm looking forward to getting into the story. Probably another month since I've buried myself in books to the point that I'm already overwhelmed by choices I have in-hand. I love it...

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  2. This is a great list with some favorite authors!

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    1. I'm hoping that we all regain our freedom this year, Jen, but in the meantime...books.

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  3. Library holds do have a way of complicating our reading plans! I also picked Hadley & Grace, along with Gerta, for Prime First Reads. We'll see if either get read this month. I'm not familiar with Denis Mina... off to look her up now. Good luck with your list!

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    1. I have read an embarrassingly few of my Prime First Reads selections, JoAnn, but it's kind of like having money in the bank. They'll be there when I need them most.

      Denise Mina is one of the best British (Scotland, in this case) crime writers in the business, in my opinion. I think you'll enjoy her work.

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  4. Cath...If I remember correctly you had a comment on this page (if not this one, than another) that I had to delete yesterday because some weird porn site found a way of embedding something into your comment after you posted it. The only way to get rid of their trash was to delete the whole thing.

    My apologies for having to do that.

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    1. LOL... and I thought I was going crazy, thinking, 'I'm *sure* I left a comment here on this post'. That's a bit odd about the porn site. Hope I haven't been hacked or something.

      My comment was to the effect that I was trying to do the impossible, read your post with my eyes shut so I wasn't tempted to buy any new books!

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    2. I picked up two more since this post, Cath. I really need to use a little bit of self-control or this is going to get crazy. Both sound great, and one of them is by a favorite author of mine, so it was impossible to turn down the chance at review copies.

      Not sure how the porn site guy got inside your reply, but I couldn't do it, so I had to delete the whole thing before someone got a nasty (literally) surprise. :-)

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  5. Too many books is a problem...but a kind of nice problem to have. At least in my opinion. Good luck reading all of them! :D

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