A very nice, very British, mystery novel.
I had read several P.D. James novels prior to this one, The Children of Men & Innocent Blood, and liked them immensely so I bought several others at a discount book store near my old office (this book has been sitting in my house for at least a year). Didn't realize this was the 1st of a series (Cordelia Gray Mysteries), or that it was a supplemental series to another larger series (the Adam Dalgliesh books).
I enjoyed this book a lot. It is very interesting to follow someone who doesn't really know what they are doing, in a professional sense not in an incompetent sense, try to investigate a suspicious death using just her wits and the axioms of a dead investigator. As is always the case, things are not as they originally seem once Cordelia heads to Cambridge and begins her investigation. In Cordelia, we have the absolute outsider seemingly trying to find her way in world, but also performing a job that will serve to continue to isolate her from everyone else -it is hard to make friends with people if you open with questions about where they were when their friend died. Again this is another book that no one that matters makes it out cleanly.
I am also in the middle of Netflixing the TV series made about this show, starring Emily from Friends, Helen Baxendale. It isn't bad, but apparently P.D. James has dissociated herself from it since they changed he character a lot from the one in the books when they wrote in Helen's pregnancy. This might be why she stopped after 2 Cordelia Gray books.
Book can be found here (I didn't buy it here):
http://www.amazon.com/Unsuitable-Woman-Cordelia-Gray-Mysteries/dp/0743219554/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230518018&sr=1-1
3 down, 97 to go. Finished 12/26/2008.
This post was written listening to and watching Iron Chef America
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Keeper by Gene Rucka
Shooting abortion doctors is so 1990's.
Read this book. No better way to say it.
A taut, exciting read that keeps you interested all the way through and no part of the book ever seems implausible. No happy endings either, which I sometimes like in my fiction.
Atticus Kodiak, so The Man by the way and very much in need of a TV show, (FX, what are you replacing "The Shield" with?) and his small private security force try to protect an abortion doctor in 1996 or so against the crazed attempts on her life. Much heartache and tragedy befall the characters along their path from clinic to Peace Conference to cemetery
My path to this book - I was reading the 3rd Queen & Country Definitive Edition TPB. Preceding one chapter was a note that it followed the novel A Gentleman's Game. After clicking around Amazon for a couple of minutes it turns out Gene has written many books. Bought several, this was the 1st I read.While I know they don't count to the 100, I highly suggest everyone read Queen & Country as well.
Book can be found here:
http://www.amazon.com/Keeper-Greg-Rucka/dp/0553574280/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230518200&sr=1-2
2 down, 98 to go. Going to say I finished this early December as well.
This post was written listening to the sweet sounds of Al & John Live from San Diego.Looks like we got ourselves an 8-8 NFL team hosting a playoff team
Read this book. No better way to say it.
A taut, exciting read that keeps you interested all the way through and no part of the book ever seems implausible. No happy endings either, which I sometimes like in my fiction.
Atticus Kodiak, so The Man by the way and very much in need of a TV show, (FX, what are you replacing "The Shield" with?) and his small private security force try to protect an abortion doctor in 1996 or so against the crazed attempts on her life. Much heartache and tragedy befall the characters along their path from clinic to Peace Conference to cemetery
My path to this book - I was reading the 3rd Queen & Country Definitive Edition TPB. Preceding one chapter was a note that it followed the novel A Gentleman's Game. After clicking around Amazon for a couple of minutes it turns out Gene has written many books. Bought several, this was the 1st I read.While I know they don't count to the 100, I highly suggest everyone read Queen & Country as well.
Book can be found here:
http://www.amazon.com/Keeper-Greg-Rucka/dp/0553574280/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230518200&sr=1-2
2 down, 98 to go. Going to say I finished this early December as well.
This post was written listening to the sweet sounds of Al & John Live from San Diego.Looks like we got ourselves an 8-8 NFL team hosting a playoff team
Spook by Mary Roach
What better way to follow up on a successful book about the trials & tribulations of dead bodies than to move onto the souls of the dearly departed.
A fun and interesting read. Similarly to her previous book, Stiff, Mary Roach examines current and past scientific studies, stories, reported cases and the like relating to seeing, weighing, measuring & general attempts to prove the existence of souls. All of this done through an inquisitive, skeptical and sarcastic lens that we all wish we had access to.
Ms. (Mrs.?) Roach's approach to her subject, as a non-believer in the existence of of her book's subject (I think), is one that I think can best be summed up as "Let me work my way through published history and current academia to learn all I can about my subject and see if I can make a better, more informed decision about it, or at least learn something on the way." Her chapters on the early 1900's devices built for weighing souls were hilarious and bravo to her for finding the descendants of her "Will From the Grave" story.
Looking forward to Bonk
Question remains if this one will show up on HBO (if it hasn't already)
Book can be found here (didn't get my copy from here, but I do get most of my books from Amazon):
http://www.amazon.com/Spook-Science-Afterlife-Mary-Roach/dp/0393329127/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230518433&sr=1-1
1 down, 99 to go. Going to say I finished this early December.
To steal an old idea from David Fleming's weekly football column on ESPN.com (from about 3 years ago): This post was written listening to the sweet sounds of Al & John Live from San Diego
A fun and interesting read. Similarly to her previous book, Stiff, Mary Roach examines current and past scientific studies, stories, reported cases and the like relating to seeing, weighing, measuring & general attempts to prove the existence of souls. All of this done through an inquisitive, skeptical and sarcastic lens that we all wish we had access to.
Ms. (Mrs.?) Roach's approach to her subject, as a non-believer in the existence of of her book's subject (I think), is one that I think can best be summed up as "Let me work my way through published history and current academia to learn all I can about my subject and see if I can make a better, more informed decision about it, or at least learn something on the way." Her chapters on the early 1900's devices built for weighing souls were hilarious and bravo to her for finding the descendants of her "Will From the Grave" story.
Looking forward to Bonk
Question remains if this one will show up on HBO (if it hasn't already)
Book can be found here (didn't get my copy from here, but I do get most of my books from Amazon):
http://www.amazon.com/Spook-Science-Afterlife-Mary-Roach/dp/0393329127/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230518433&sr=1-1
1 down, 99 to go. Going to say I finished this early December.
To steal an old idea from David Fleming's weekly football column on ESPN.com (from about 3 years ago): This post was written listening to the sweet sounds of Al & John Live from San Diego
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