Currently Reading - 2012 version

[Quentin]

Soho have asked to see the manuscript when it's ready, so hopefully they'll go for it.

[Dee, the Insanity Check]

i think Frozen Out is the alternate title for Frozen Assets

[Naomi, the Sanity Check]

Yep..it sure is.

[Dee, the Insanity Check]

i was reading an article about Soho the other day and the YA mystery line they are supposedly launching soon

[Quentin]

Jim asked me to write a blurb for it, so I had to get to read it. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Frozen Out is the UK title of Frozen Assets. Long story, but the UK publisher decided at the last moment to change the title, by which time Soho had already gone with the (original) Frozen Assets title.

[Dee, the Insanity Check]

it's always interesting seeing the different names of books and I wonder why

like The Keeper of Lost Causes was published as Mercy in the UK

[Quentin]

Frozen Assets became Frozen Out in the UK because marketing decided the original title sounded too 'financial'. Also there are plenty of books called Frozen Assets already. Even PG Wodehouse wrote a Frozen Assets back in the 1930s.

[James]

I really like Quentin's writing too.

[James]

Naomi wrote: "I am going to listen to Cold Comfort since Dee has been recommending it that way. I was going to read it, but decided to give it a try through audio book...

Oh..and DAMN IT, JIM...How did Quentin ..."
He's blurbing it for me. I have to hurry up, finish Cold Comfort and review it so we have no conflict of interest. The problem is I like it so much that I'm reading it slowly, savoring it. I blast through books that bore me, read at about a third speed when I find something I truly enjoy.

[James]

Dee wrote: "i would love to chat with her about how she learns to do that - I know many narrators hire language coaches to help them with specific pronunciation"

You know, if they want to know how to pronounce something, they can always just call me and ask.

[Dee, the Insanity Check]

i'm sure they could...i don't remember what narrator it was that mentioned it - maybe Xe Sands who does some of the romances that use romanian...

[Dee, the Insanity Check]

@Quentin - here is my review - http://deesbookblog.com/2012/08/28/re...- i tend to keep them spoiler free and touch more on my general thoughts about the book vice specific plot elements

[Dee, the Insanity Check]

ok, need to listen to The Stonecutter - anyone out there - do I need to listen/read to the 2 previous? i'm behind on reviews and need to get this one done...

[Ken]

The Stonecutter is a stand alone.

[Dee, the Insanity Check]

sweet - so even though its in the series I can read it and not miss too much? thanks Ken

guess what i'm listening to next then...lol!

[Quentin]

Thanks, Dee! Some interesting thoughts there. Now I'll have to get hold of an audio copy of Cold Comfort and find out how all those awkward Icelandic names were handled.

Dee wrote: "@Quentin - here is my review - http://deesbookblog.com/2012/08/28/re...- i tend to keep them spoiler free and touch more on my general thoughts about the boo..."

[Naomi, the Sanity Check]

Kenneth wrote: "The Stonecutter is a stand alone."

Stonecutter isn't a stand alone, Kenneth...it is Patrik Hedstrom #3

[Ken]

Sorry, I read it a long time ago and it didn't stand out like that.

[Naomi, the Sanity Check]

Yeah, he and his wife have their baby...she still is a drama queen wife...with the mama drama stuff, but this one read much better and I liked the mystery more.

[Susan]

Not exactly a mystery, Halldor Laxness's The Fish Can Sing is nevertheless a story about identity, written after he'd won the Nobel Prize. Here's my review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Art]

Reading The Viper right now.

[Susan]

Art wrote: "Reading The Viper right now." The Viper is on my Kindle home page. Comments so far have been positive, and I'll be interested in knowing what you think.

[Susan]

James wrote: "Naomi wrote: "I am going to listen to Cold Comfort since Dee has been recommending it that way. I was going to read it, but decided to give it a try through audio book...

Oh..and DAMN IT, JIM...Ho..."
I didn't love Cold Comfort; it is ok, but the names would make it challenging as an audio book. Here's my little blurb. http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Diane S ☔]

Finally reading Only One Life by Sara Blaedel.

[Bruce]

I'm halfway through Henning Mankell's most recent Wallander novel (I think), The Troubled Man. It's Mankell at his best, in my opinion. Here we see Kurt Wallander at sixty, experiencing the aches, pains and health (and other) worries of a man of around that age, a little different from the younger police inspector. A very good story, too – rooted in real events of Sweden in the eighties.

[Art]

Susan wrote: "Art wrote: "Reading The Viper right now." The Viper is on my Kindle home page. Comments so far have been positive, and I'll be interested in knowing what you think."

Honestly I had a hard time getting into it-but I really don't like getting into a series in the middle-I think they translated the 4th book in the series. I've given up on it for now- but to be fair a lot of that has to do with just not feeling well right now and having a big library stack that needs too much attention for a book I didn't seem to be getting very much out of. I do have it on my reread stack to try again at a later date to try and be fair to it.
I'd be interested in seeing what you think.

[Richard]

I'm about two-thirds of the way through Jo Nesbo's HEADHUNTERS and enjoying every page. I have the ebook from my local library and read it on my Droid--a convenient device for traveling. It also cuts down on luggage space devoted to books and I actually checked out and downloaded a new book from my home library while in Florida last month.

Nesbo is in good form in HEADHUNTERS, a bit more comic than Harry Hole's adventures, and with more cultural observations. This is an action thriller rather than a police procedural, but it is darkly amusing.

He did get the origin of "Shotgun seat" completely wrong, but then he is not the authority on American culture he likes to think his characters are. A small blemish in an otherwise completely enjoyable read.

[Susan]

Richard wrote: "I'm about two-thirds of the way through Jo Nesbo's HEADHUNTERS and enjoying every page. I have the ebook from my local library and read it on my Droid--a convenient device for traveling. It also cu..."
I did not like it much. Here's my review. Spoiler alert. http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Diane S ☔]

Starting The Viper. Art did you ever finish and if you did what did you think?

[Mary]

I just finished Karin Fossum's The Caller. Definitely not one of my favorite Scandi crime mysteries.

[Naomi, the Sanity Check]

Ohhhh, ohhhh...what was your take at the end, Mary??? be sure to mark it with a spoiler...Brian and I have a debate going on this

[Richard]

Reading THE PHANTOM by Nesbo, I am starting to realize he has shares many qualities with Nick Hornby. They both sprinkle pop culture comments and opinions, and in this book Nesbo has added quite a bit of English soccer (more so than in HEADHUNTERS), in particular Hornby's favorite team, Arsenal.

I rather quickly surmised who the 'Man from Dubai' was because I follow Arsenal, and you don't need to know that to follow the plot (at least at page 90, where I am). I can put up with Nesbo's opinions on TV, pop music and culture because I do think of Harry Hole as a Hornby character who carries a gun.

But I do wonder if I'm missing a clue when he's rambling about Norwegian rock bands and such.

[Lili]

I'd waited a long time for [book:The Bat|16081696 to be translated in to English and I was a little disappointed. It was confusing, even dreary at times, however there were flashes of brilliance and a taste of what comes in later books. Of course this was the first offering to us of Harry Hole, a fledgling sprouting his wings.

[Pam]

Just found this group by accident and I already see some great suggestions. I have three books that I am reading or will be reading next, The Absent One by Jesse Adler-Olsen - Loved his Keeper of Lost Causes; The Phanatom by Jo Nesbo - He is scary good and The Hypnotist, a new author for me, Lars Kepler, actually a literary couples pen name. I'll let everyone know how they pan out. PS. to those commenting on Anne Holt's 1222, I thought it was horrible, a waste of time when I could have been reading something good and I will not be reading anything else by her.

[Dalia]

I just finished a book by what may have been the original "Nordic Noir" team- Per Wahloo and his wife Maj Sjöwall, their second book Roseanna. I loved it, as much as I like Nesbo et al I think this is better, and didn't feel dated (even though there were no cell phones). I can't wait to read the rest in their series

[Lili]

Dalia wrote: "I just finished a book by what may have been the original "Nordic Noir" team- Per Wahloo and his wife Maj Sjöwall, their second book Roseanna. I loved it, as much as I like Nesbo et al I think thi..."Totally agree

[Diane S ☔]

Reading two non nordic mysteries but am liking both of them Salvation of a Saint and A Study in Revenge

[Anna, the Enabler]

Back to procedurals again... even if not Nordic this time, I'm reading Through a Glass, Darkly. And I've got my UK print of The Bat by Jo Nesbø for my Xmas reads list - planning to resist starting to read that until Xmas eve evening...
On the Xmas list is also a nice DVD box set of all the 007 movies (except Skyfall of course), a remastered set. So time for a Bondathon soon, watching all of them in chronological order with my other half.
And then I do want to read some more Scandi stuff - but can't figure out yet which and in which order.
What are you reading now or planning for xmas reads?

[Naomi, the Sanity Check]

I did Laurie King's Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russel Holmes installment Garment of Shadows and found it the most disappointing in the series. One of the reviewers said that she was finding the series to be kind of tired out and I had to agree with her. The research the LRK does continues to be impeccable though.

[Anna, the Enabler]

< with the voice of Nelson from the Simpsons >Na na na na na na< /end Nelson voice >... The Bat time (the Harry Hole #1, from UK) - just bizarre to finally meet the fresh Harry, before all the mass murderers and Rachel got him in Norway. As in the first Harry there ever was, and the one who started the phenomenon.
... and to be eventually supeceded only by The Cockroaches, a non-English edition before the UK (or any English) edition is out. It's been published in Finnish, and a Finnish friend has promised for me to read her copy :)