Q&A with Josh Lanyon discussion
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Fadeout
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August 2013: Fadeout
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Yes. I had the same feeling — both happy and sad.
Has anyone else noticed that there have been a few reviews of the Brandstetter books on the Jesse Wave site? Is there some reason why others are remembering these books too?
Antonella wrote: "Reggie wrote: "The following segment is the Preface in the edition put out by U of Wisconsin."Thank you so much, dear Reggie! This was wonderful to read and gives an insight into Hansen's life an..."
Thank you for this, Antonella! And thank you Reggie for posting the introduction! I loved the first book so much! I'm so happy we are doing this challenge, it will be great! The books have been so unexpected for me, in the best way, so ... human.
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I think it's actually you who we can thank for the fact that we are FINALLY going to read the WHOLE Dave Brandstetter series TOGETHER. :-) So... Thank you, KC, for giving us the push to the right direction. ;-)
I have read three of the Brandstetter books and am completely captivated. Two a month is doable. I read that three in July. My problem was finding them.
Hj wrote: "Has anyone else noticed that there have been a few reviews of the Brandstetter books on the Jesse Wave site? Is there some reason why others are remembering these books too?"I was made aware of these books by comments by author Josh Lanyon. He talks about Joseph Hansen.
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Johanna wrote: "If we'll read one or two Brandstetter books a month (along the "normal" BOM books) we could end the challenge maybe sometime in March. That would give us 7-8 months time to complete the challenge."Yes, this doesn't sound so scary for me as reading all the 12 books till December.
Could you or Calathea please change the date of the challenge? Then I would join it. Thank you in advance!
Antonella wrote: "Could you or Calathea please change the date of the challenge?"Will do in an instant. ;-)
For all of us who haven't taken part in any kind of challenge here on GR before (including me):You see the challenge widget on the group's homepage. Fill in the number of books (12 in case of the Brandstetter series) and a name for the bookshelf (that means a bookshelf for yourself where you put the 12 books so they can be counted by the widget). Save your entries.
Go check your bookshelves and put the 12 Brandstetter books on the one you chose/created for the challenge. You have to mark one of those as "Read" and set the date you finished it so that the widget will count it. It will show you your progress on the group's main page.
The fun begins when you click on the titel of the challenge and see everybody else who took up the challenge and how far they got.
Happy reading!
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Yeah, I wouldn't have know about Joseph Hansen and this series if it hadn't been mentioned and talked about here in Josh's group during the years. I've read several other Josh's favorites during the last couple of years and none of them have disappointed me — in fact, all those books have been wonderful. I expect The Dave Brandstetter series to be the same. :-)
It's sunny today after a few rainy days and I started reading Fadeout in the garden. I've only read the first 5 chapters, but I'm already dying to discuss it with you all! I only came inside the house to find my post-its. :-) I agree with Deanna, the book is extremely captivating. I wouldn't want to put it down!
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Cool. :-)
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You see the challenge widget on the group's homepage. Fill in the number of books (12 in case of the Brands..."
Thank you for the instructions and for being our cheerleader, Calathea! ;-)
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I'd never heard of Hansen before joining this group either and I agree, everything I've read that's been recommended by Josh has been superb reading!
I'm really looking forward to reading Michael Nava's series as well. I went out and bought used paperbacks a couple of months ago, but it will still be awhile before I can get to them. They seem to be somewhat similar to Hansen's books, but not quite.
Thank you, Calathea! I managed to set up a shelf for the challenge and to add ''Fadeout'' (even though I still have one third of it to read), but it doesn't appear when I check how many books from the challenge I've read.
Johanna wrote: "Deanna wrote: "I was made aware of these books by comments by author Josh Lanyon. He talks about Joseph Hansen."Yeah, I wouldn't have know about Joseph Hansen and this series if it hadn't been me..."
Moaning here - I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive from the USA! (I do own the complete set, and even started Fadeout ages ago, but the font was too small and the book is currently in a box anyway...).
If I'm going to join the challenge I'll have to find a better way of getting copies of the books.
Antonella wrote: "Thank you, Calathea! I managed to set up a shelf for the challenge and to add ''Fadeout'' (even though I still have one third of it to read), but it doesn't appear when I check how many books from ..."Antonella - did you mark Fadeout as "read"? As I understand the explanation it only shows up in the challenge widget once you do that.
Antonella wrote: "... but it doesn't appear when I check how many books from the challenge I've read. ..."I've never done one of these challenge-y things before, but it appears that it only updates when the book that's on the challenge shelf is marked "read". It's going to be a little while before I can test that theory. (I'm still tracing other rabbit trails.)
Antonella wrote: "Thank you, Calathea! I managed to set up a shelf for the challenge and to add ''Fadeout'' (even though I still have one third of it to read), but it doesn't appear when I check how many books from ..."Ah, I only see this now. I wish GR would be a bit more specific with its instructions (and not just after you start digging for them...).
Okay, so it doesn't suffice to set it as "Read" but you have to set the date you finished it as well. You know when you click "Read" and this box pops up that wants you to fill in a review you can scroll down and mark the dates.
(I'll go and add it in the instructions.)
Thank you for all the instructions, and for setting the whole thing up. I wouldn't have a clue - this is my first challenge!
Hj wrote: "Thank you for all the instructions, and for setting the whole thing up. I wouldn't have a clue - this is my first challenge!"For me too!
Thank you, Calathea, John and Helena. I'll try again.
Hj wrote: "Has anyone else noticed that there have been a few reviews of the Brandstetter books on the Jesse Wave site? Is there some reason why others are remembering these books too?"I think it's because the last 10 books just came out in digital format a couple months ago.
Also, for those of you having trouble finding hard copies, here is the website to get the ebooks directly from Open Roads Media. http://www.openroadmedia.com/troublem...
Their site is a bit annoying. Scroll down to get a list of all the books.
Calathea wrote: "For all of us who haven't taken part in any kind of challenge here on GR before (including me):You see the challenge widget on the group's homepage. Fill in the number of books (12 in case of the..."
Thanks for the tutorial, Calathea. I had no idea you could even do that, since I've never previously done a challenge. (For me it is usually a challenge to NOT read books, so I don't need other reasons to do so. LOL)
I set it up, and I added a brandstetter-series tag to the books already on my read shelf--Fadeout and Death Claims. However, they are not showing up under the challenge that I have read them. :-(
I suppose I could delete them and re-add them to my bookshelves, but that is annoying, and something I don't believe I should have to do.
Marge wrote: "Calathea wrote: "For all of us who haven't taken part in any kind of challenge here on GR before (including me):You see the challenge widget on the group's homepage. Fill in the number of books (..."
Do you have a date entered for when you read them, Marge?
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But note, if you should read the book at a later date, and date the book with a new finish date, it will take it away from this challenge. That's why I started putting up shelves listing the books I read for that year alone, because if I read Strange Fortune this month, count it toward my 2013 goal, then reread it in 2015 and count it toward my 2015 goal, it erases it from my 2013 goal and says I read one less book. But all I have to do is check the shelf of that year's books to know how many books I actually read, vs what the challenge says I read.
Does that make sense? I hope so. If not, scan my challenges (as seen on my profile page lower down on the left hand side, and compare them to the actual shelves (read 2012...).
Jordan wrote: "I forgot about adding the date. I usually do that anyway. This sounds like my personal yearly challenge, where you have to include the date finished to include the book in that year you read it. ..."
I guess that's it, the finishing date has to be in the time bracket of the challenge. Oh, well, we'll find out how it works by trial and error and then all be the champions of setting up GR-challenges.
Johanna wrote: "KC wrote: "I'm so happy we are doing this challenge, it will be great! The books have been so unexpected for me, in the best way, so ... human."I think it's actually you who we can thank for the ..."
Thank you dear Johanna! :-)
Yes, I have a date entered when I finished the books. It is probably as you say, the date must be in the time bracket for the challenge.
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Johanna wrote: "I just finished reading Fadeout and I can't believe I've postponed reading it this long. Why?! It was fantastic in so many ways. I'm so happy I'll get to discuss it with you guys! :-)"So happy you liked it too! :-)
I don't think I've commented here at this group before, but I've been lurking for a while. I'm so glad that people are discovering Joseph Hansen's Brandstetter series. I first heard about Joseph back in 2003/2004 and promptly bought as many of his books as I could. I've re-read them many times, and enjoyed discussing Dave and his mysteries at the Brandstetter community at Live Journal.
I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone goes with the challenge.
HI, Aussie! And welcome!I finished last night the first book. And it was ''wow''! I'm looking forward to the other 11 ;-).
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I can't wait to start reading. Next Saturday at the latest. I'm so glad others are, and have been, enjoying them!
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I'm so glad that people are discovering Joseph Hansen's Brandstetter series. I first heard about Joseph..."
Hey Aussie54! It would be great to have you discussing the series with us! I'm in the middle of #2 Death Claims and I'm enjoying every moment even more than I dared to hope I would.
I finished Fadeout yesterday. Can't wait to start discussing it. :D Really enjoyed it, but I'm not sure if I'll be doing the challenge as it's not easy to get hold of these books here in the UK.
I'm having a bloody marvelous time with Fadeout. Such a very , well, visual experience. And a treasure trove of references: something is mentioned that leads to something quite outside the novel, but worthy of a revisit. The example I just surfaced from was at the end of Chapter 10: "The weight of the world is love...." (http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Al... will get you the full source); and it's a brilliant thing to see it pop up as it does.
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And a treasure trove of references: something is mentioned that leads to something quite outside the nov..."
Oh, John. That's lovely. Thank you so much for the link. I'm kind of sitting on my fingers right now, trying not to start the discussion!!! I'll only say that when you reflect the poem to the book it seems like the poem captures perfectly the tone of Fadeout. Wonderful.
I'll copy it on our Read Me a Poem topic too, because it's such a beautiful poem.
By the way, I'm having a bloody marvelous time with Death Claims as we speak. This challenge is going to be a piece of cake... ;-) And I can't wait to start discussing Fadeout with you all!!!
John wrote: "The example I just surfaced from was at the end of Chapter 10: "The weight of the world is love...." (http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Al... will get you the full source); and it's a brilliant thing to see it pop up as it does. "Thank you, John. I had marked it and I intended to go and check the reference. You did it for me ;-).
Johanna wrote: "I'm having a bloody marvelous time with Death Claims as we speak."*Too* bloody marvelous. It is so compelling that I jump forward and I have to stop reading.
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Jordan wrote: "Uh Oh. I can't seem to find book two, Death Claims on Amazon for the Kindle. WTH? all the others are listed, but not that one. What does that mean? I don't know."It's available for Nook.
Jordan wrote: "Uh Oh. I can't seem to find book two, Death Claims on Amazon for the Kindle. WTH?."That's weird. Apparently Open Road Media only has the rights for Brandstetter 3-12 - that's the big bunch of the series published last May. Amazon has all of those, and the University of Wisconsin Press issue of Fadeout. Some sort of rights problem, perhaps? A dig at Amazon? UWP does offer Death Claims in (icky) Adobe Digital Editions (http://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/3791.htm). Barnes & Noble has a Nook version of Death Claims at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/death... . I'm not a Nook user, but I think that's a standard .epub format.
John wrote: "Jordan wrote: "Uh Oh. I can't seem to find book two, Death Claims on Amazon for the Kindle. WTH?."That's weird. Apparently Open Road Media only has the rights for Brandstetter 3-12 - that's the ..."
Yep Nook is epub and they have an app for phones and tablets.
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I had the ebook on my Amazon wishlist not that long ago, so I know it was available. I should have bought it then. I would have if I'd known this was going to happen. Oh bugger.
Thanks for those links! I'll check them out.
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Gah! I found Death Claims on B&N. I've got a Nook account - I logged into it. There was a "buy now" button on it even showed the price in Sterling on the page that came up when I clicked buy now. Then ::screech of brakes:: "Sorry this item is unavailable at this time." Gah! Stymied!
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Hello, I am new and unknown in this group (apart from a few members... ;)), but I am really thinking about joining this challenge... Because I bought the whole collection already a few years ago (when it was still available for a ridiculously low price...) and since then it has been sitting on my shelf, because ebooks (or thinner books) are so much more convenient to read, LOL! So, maybe now is the time to finally start!!I am so afraid to ruin the average of the challenge, though... Because I am a slow reader and would only be able to start in a week or so, because I don't have the book with me right now. And will have to take breaks when I am travelling, because there is no way I am going to lug that thing around with me... :D :D
But I will try!! Maybe only enter the challenge, when I see how I am getting along with the first book... :D
(I will probably not join the discussion, though, I'm afraid, as I think I am not really capable of discussing books... :D But will read with interest!!)
Oh, btw. have you seen that another group here on Goodreads has been discussing Fadeout just recently??
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
Not really much discussion going on there, though...
Q&A with Josh Lanyon
Books mentioned in this topic
Death Claims (other topics)Troublemaker (other topics)
In Plain Sight (other topics)
In the Best Families (other topics)
Death Claims (other topics)
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If things go really well with the res..."
That sounds a lot like what Calathea and I have been planning this week when trying to figure out how to make the Brandstetter Challenge work the most enjoyable way for all of us. If we'll read one or two Brandstetter books a month (along the "normal" BOM books) we could end the challenge maybe sometime in March. That would give us 7-8 months time to complete the challenge.
We were also thinking that we won't set up all the 12 topics (for the 12 books) at once, but a couple of topics at a time. That probably helps to keep the discussion somewhat focused, too. And that way we can figure out together what will be the most convenient reading/discussion speed for all of us. :-)