It seems I got serious about my reading in April, completing 17 books which is the same total I read for the previous two months combined. Most of what I read was really good which is particularly pleasing as I tried a swag of new authors (12) during the month and two of these have tied for my pick of the month. Paradoxically the month also contained the worst book I can remember finishing (ever) but such, as the say, is life.

THE EARTH HUMS IN F FLAT by Mari Strachan was the first reader-submitted book featured on Petrona Remembered, the website a group of us have established in memory of Maxine Clarke which aims to tell the world about great crime fiction. Laura Root’s passionate review of a book I’d never heard of was exactly the kind of thing I hoped the site would attract and so I hunted down a copy of the book in my local library. It is everything Laura promised and then some, an absolute treat of a story about a 12 year old girl in 1950′s Wales whose simplistic take on the disappearance of a local man is compelling.

Antti Tuomainen’s THE HEALER could not, in some ways be more different. It’s set in the near future in Finland and the ravages of climate change have altered the environment and the people. Johanna Lehtinen is a journalist on the trail of the person responsible for a number of brutal killings when she disappears. Her husband Tapani, unable to get the resource-strapped authorities interested in investigating Johanna’s disappearance, takes on the job of finding her. In signs I may be getting soft in my old age I liked this book so very much because, to me anyway, it’s not really a crime story but rather one about a man who loves his wife and isn’t prepared to give up on her. Even though the environment is a grim one THE HEALER is definitely not the kind of dark and depressing novel people think of when they think Scandinavian crime.

Happily most of the rest of my reading for the month was almost as good as this and included (in reading order, with Aussie authors in green)

• John M Green‘s THE TRUSTED – an audacious, fast-paced environmental thriller
• Sean Doolittle’s LAKE COUNTRY – blackly comic noir fiction with a genuine sensitivity for life’s outsiders
• Sue Williams‘ MURDER WITH THE LOT – a zany, cosy kind of mystery set in small-town Australia
• Paul Dorion’s THE POACHER’S SON – exploring a difficult father/son relationship in the woods of Maine – very atmospheric
• Felicity Young‘s ANTIDOTE TO MURDER – a female doctor must clear her name when she is accused of performing an illegal abortion leading to a woman’s death in Edwardian England
• Parker Bilal’s DOGSTAR RISING – a Sudanese refugee works as a PI in Cairo during a time of religious tension and social unrest
• Bateman’s THE DAY OF THE JACK RUSSElL – crime satire bordering on the absurd but hugely funny if you like that kind of thing
• Leif G.W. Persson’s ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER LIFE – a perfectly named and surprisingly compelling tale about a crime with origins and a resolution 25 years apart
• Maggie Groff’s GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS – an investigative journalist looks into the case of a man who was reported dead 25 years ago but has been seen recently
• Lyndsay Faye’s THE GODS OF GOTHAM – a highly atmospheric, if somewhat confronting tale that starts with a child’s death in New York in 1845
• Gianrico Carofiglio’s TEMPORARY PERFECTIONS – an Italian lawyer turns PI in an uneven but sometimes insightful novel (review to come).

Because life doesn’t (and shouldn’t) consist of only good things I read another three forgettable books on top of the worst book ever. But let’s say no more about them eh?

Progress towards my book-ish goals

• I’m pleased that 6 of the books I read for the month were by Australian authors (including the worst book ever) but only 2 of them were by women. I’m relying more on the library this year and books don’t always arrive in a statistically neat order but I’m sure things will round themselves out on this front by the end of the year.
• My goal regarding book acquisition  is to buy less but buy local (audio books excluded) and is going quite well. Audiobooks aside I have only bought 1 book in April this year (though I did receive a few freebies in the form of books for the judging panel I am on).

Snippets

I posted another roundup of the crime category for the Australian Women Writers Challenge, where a début novel called FRACTURED by Dawn Barker received two positive reviews..

I had a grizzle about not being able to find a good replacement for Google Reader and other first world problems.

Was April a good reading month for you? Do you sometimes feel like you’re on a ‘reading roll’ like I did during April? Did you have a favourite book or three for the month? 

Life got in the way of reading in rather a big way during March and I finished what is for me a paltry 7 books. Which should make picking a book of the month easier than normal but I happened across 4 bloody good reads and I don’t fancy picking a favourite. They are (in reading order):

Gene Kerrigan’s THE RAGE is, for me, a story of two men battling internal demons, one character ostensibly on each side of the law but who live in the giant grey chasm that exists between black and white, right and wrong. It’s a fast-paced, brilliantly complex story, has characters that keep you awake at night and offers a glimpse into a distant, tension-filled world. I’m still mulling it over, 4 weeks after finishing it.

Belinda Bauer’s RUBBERNECKER fits only tenuously within the boundaries of crime fiction, delighting as it does in the details of the stories of Patrick Fort, a young man with Asperger’s Syndrome, and Sam Galen; car accident victim and coma patient. It is full of characters who don’t conform to the roles expected of them and stories within stories.

I HEAR THE SIRENS IN THE STREET is the second of Adrian McKinty’s planned trilogy telling the story of Ireland’s turbulent 1980′s through the eyes of Sean Duffy, a minority Catholic member of the RUC. It is a brilliant book not because it transported me to a time and place that is recognisable and enveloping, taught me things without me really being aware of it and kept me guessing from beginning to end.(though it did all of those) but because it made me laugh, albeit with black, black humour, all the way along.

ROLL WITH IT is a début adult novel from Melbourne-based journalist and children’s author Nick Place and tells the story of Tony “Rocket” Laver who is a senior detective with Victoria’s Major Crimes Unit when he is demoted and sent to work with the bicycle unit who are considered more tour guides than ‘real’ cops. It is a clever mixture of farce, satire and thoughtfulness and the characters are surprisingly nuanced for this kind of book.

Progress towards my book-ish goals

• I only read one more book by an Australian woman during March, and it wasn’t very good so I haven’t reviewed it yet but may do so in the next few days.
• If I count Irish-born, Australian living Adrian McKinty (and I do) I read two more books by Australian male writers this month and I’m pleased with that. I’ve already finished another in this category for April!
• My goal regarding book acquisition  is to buy less but buy local (audio books excluded) is going quite well. Audiobooks aside I have only bought 2 books this year (though have taken advantage of a few freebie deals for eBooks and have received some ARCs too).

Just because it’s been a while since I did a chart here’s a comparison between the first quarter of this year versus last year which shows I’m certainly doing well in acquiring less physical books

Snippets

I posted another roundup of the crime category for the Australian Women Writers Challenge, this month focusing on two individual reviews as I was inspired by Scribe’s prize for good reviewing for last year’s challenge.

I also posted about deleting my Goodreads account following the site’s acquisition by Amazon (which generated a few comments and the most creatively profane email I’ve received via this blog).

Finally I reminded everyone how many ways there are to participate in honouring the member of Maxine Clarke, whose death last December is still keenly felt. The project I am most directly involved with is the new blog called Petrona Remembered which has started a series of weekly posts celebrating great crime fiction, each novel submitted by a reader, writer or other fan of the genre. In four weeks I’ve added four books to my wishlist!

Was March a good reading month for you? Did you have a favourite book or three? Have you lost sight of your new year’s reading resolutions yet?

I’d like to blame the shortness of February for only finishing 10 books in the month but my relative slackness was more likely due to the heat and the crazy business of my non-reading life. There were several days in the month when I didn’t read a word for leisure – a rare thing in my 45 years! However, the quality of my reading continues to make up for the quantity, to the point that I can’t decide which of these two books are my favourite for the month

Wendy James’ OUT OF THE SILENCE was published in 2005 but is set at the turn of the last century when Australia was a collection of separate colonies and society prescribed very strict rules for women. It is a fictional account based on real facts, central among these being that a young woman called Maggie Heffernan was convicted of an awful crime around this time, and addresses the question of how a basically good person might have come to such a point in her life. It’s terrific reading.

Arnaldur Indriðason’s BLACK SKIES is the eighth novel in a series of Icelandic procedurals and is a great example of an author keeping a series fresh and interesting by taking risks. Both he and his publishers are to be congratulated for allowing two books in a row to focus on someone other than the series’ main protagonist. This one features a down to earth cop trying to unravel a strange crime set against the backdrop of the briefly booming Icelandic economy. It’s a treat.

The other notable books I read for the month were

• Attica Locke’s BLACK WATER RISING which I thought worked better as a piece of historical fiction (it’s set in Texas in the early 80′s with flashbacks to the previous two decades of civil rights activism) than as a crime novel though it did attempt to be both. The characters and writing though are both outstanding and I’ll be reading more of Locke’s work
• Martin Limon’s MR KILL takes place in 1970′s South Korea and sees two US military investigators on the trail of a rapist and murderer who is probably another military man/. The setting and plot are first rate and the characterisations are good too though one is so repugnant a human being that I was glad to see the back of him.
• Julie Hyzy’s FONDUING FATHERS is a light but fun read in which a woman uncovers the secret of her father’s death
• Robert Gott’s GOOD MURDER took me to war time Queensland where a troupe of travelling actors was attempting to stage Shakespeare but got caught up in the investigation into a series of murders. A must read for fans of satire or caper novels.
• I thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with my old friends Ruth, Harry, Cathbad and co in Elly Griffiths’ DYING FALL
• Peter Corris’ THE DUNBAR CASE took his intrepid private eye to Newcastle and beyond on the trail of an old manuscript.
• Shona MacLean’s CRUCIBLE OF SECRETS is the third novel to feature 17th century amateur sleuth Alexander Seaton and, for me, was a return to the excellence of the series’ first novel. It is a novel in which everyone has secrets, many of which would seem innocuous today but which, in austere and conservative Aberdeen in the early 1600′s, could get you killed.

I didn’t make a conscious decision for this to be the case but it seems I am drawn to historical crimes at the moment – with 5 of the 10 books I read for the month having been set in the past (1631. 1900, 1944, 1974 and 1981). Still I’m not doing too badly on my personal diversity index having read an equal mix of male and female authors, visited 6 different countries and read books by three new-to-me authors. Only one of my books for the month was a translated one though so I must improve on that score.

Progress towards my book-ish goals

• I’ve read and reviewed 4 of my nominated 10 books by Australian women for this year’s version of the Australian Women Writers Challenge and am relatively happy with that progress. I’ve got a couple of titles awating me at the library (and one of them isn’t even a crime novel!).
• I read two books by Australian male writers this month which has helped even up the numbers on that score
• My goal regarding book acquisition  is to buy less but buy local (audio books excluded) and I have done well, buying only one non-audio book during February and buying it from a local store (I had a voucher which makes it OK to have bought a book I know absolutely nothing about other than the fact it is set in Tasmania and is written by an Australian woman)

Snippets

I posted two different wrap-ups of Aussie crime fiction news and reviews during February. One was the first wrap up of reviews posted around the web as part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge for 2013 that were tagged crime, mystery, detective, thriller or true crime - it’s great to see so many Australian women crime writers being read and discussed. The second was my semi-regular roundup of reviews and news about all Aussie crime fiction that I posted at my other blog.

Was February a good reading month for you? Did you have a favourite book or three? Have you lost sight of your new year’s reading resolutions yet?

Quantitatively speaking I started the year off reasonably well, completing 12 books, including 5 by new-to-me authors. Fortunately the quality was generally good too and it was difficult to choose a favourite for the month but I’ve selected Katherine Howell’s WEB OF DECEIT. It was gripping enough to keep me glued for a single sitting stretching long into the night and it maintains Howell’s consistently excellent record of producing almost frenetically paced stories that manage not to feel rushed or lacking depth. There is a kind of surprising interconnectedness about Howell’s plots that I find particularly compelling and I loved this latest instalment about a man who survives a car crash only to die under a train later the same day.

I wonder if at the beginning of January I had some kind of a ‘we survived the Mayan apocalypse’ hangover because I seemed drawn to end of the world scenarios of one sort or another and read three quite different books somehow related to the subject in quick succession

• AFTERLIGHT, Alex Scarrow (a thoughtful thriller set in the UK some 10 years after civilisation as we know it has collapsed due to a lack of oil, I particularly liked the way that men with guns don’t get it all their own way in Scarrow’s version of a post apocalyptic world)
• THE LAST POLICEMAN, Ben H. Winters (a pre-apocalypse tale about a young man who gets his dream job just before the world is due to end)
• THIRST, L.A. Larkin (a more straightforward thriller I suppose but its theme concerning the world’s need for more water than is available struck a chord with me)

All three books were very good and I did enjoy the various contemplations about the possible end of the world.

My other good reads for the month included

• DEATH DELIGHTS by Gabrielle Lord (the first novel I highlighted for a series of posts I’m planning this year to focus on classic crime novels by Australian women writers was this winner of the 2002 Ned Kelly Award)
• ENTANGLEMENT by Zygmunt Miloszewski (in Poland in 2005 the death of a man during a group therapy retreat is investigated by a jaded but dogged prosecutor)
• GOOD PEOPLE by Ewart Hutton (an investigation based in a remote part of Wales where the locals do not take kindly to the perceived interference by a blow-in from Cardiff)
• THE SEA DETECTIVE by Mark Douglas-Home was the other book vying most closely for my favourite of the month (A Scottish environmentalist and expert on ocean currents uncovers the secrets of his grandfather’s wartime death while investigating the death of a young prostitute and the mysterious appearance of sneaker-clad feet being washed up on European beaches)

I did review two more books but neither was particularly to my taste so we’ll say no more about them eh? (Jo Nesbo’s THE BAT and Tony Cavanaugh’s PROMISE)

Not about reviewing

I only managed one post not containing a book review this month and, sadly, it was a return to the old familiar theme of the lunacy of book pricing here in Oz. I wonder if I will ever manage to go through an entire blogging year without ranting about this subject?

Progress towards my book-ish goals

• I’ve read and reviewed 3 of my nominated 10 books by Australian women for this year’s version of the Australian Women Writers Challenge and am happy with that progress.
• I only read one book by an Australian male writer though so I want to even that out a bit in future months
• My slightly complicated goal regarding book acquisition (buy less but buy local, audio books excluded) has proven interesting in that I only bought one book in total but it was from an overseas supplier (though it was an ebook purchased with a Christmas gift voucher that I would have felt ridiculous not using).  My reading for the month came primarily from my pre-existing TBR collection and the local library with one book provided by the publisher. So my finances have done well but the local book selling industry is not, so far, benefiting from my self-imposed restriction on buying books from overseas.

How did your reading year begin? Have you a favourite book for the year so far? Are you progressing well towards some of your reading goals?

Happily I seem to have fully returned to a more normal reading pace and enjoyment, finishing a total of 13 books for November. The cloud in the middle of that silver lining is that it makes choosing my book of the month that much more difficult as virtually all of them were good and several were outstanding. I am sharing the title between two novels though, both written by Australian women (you go girls)

Caroline Overington’s SISTERS OF MERCY is the story of two sisters who grew up half a world apart from each other and who did not learn of each other’s existence until their father died when they were both mature adults. I have not stopped reflecting on this book since finishing it a couple of weeks ago and each time I think of a different theme or idea it explored – the relative roles of nature vs nurture in the adults we become, how public outrage is easily manufactured but practical assistance in mending the broken things that are the subject of that outrage is in short supply and so on.

Favel Parrett’s PAST THE SHALLOWS is the story of three boys growing up in an isolated part of Tasmania (which in itself is as isolated a part of the planet as you can find). The shocking thing is that it’s not a crime novel and I loved it anyway. Its lyrical quality and the fact it managed to be sad without making me feel depressed is something to celebrate. I’ll be reading this one again before long am already wondering who to buy copies for at Christmas time.

Among the other books I read for the month were:

• Kathryn Fox’s COLD GRAVE which put a forensic physician on a luxury cruise liner in international waters and then started killing off her fellow passengers. It’s a tense thriller that has to make a person think twice about taking a cruise
• Allegra Goodman’s INTUITION which made the humble science lab come alive with tension as we wonder if a researcher has faked the data behind the results of his new cancer drug’s  performance
• Tara Moss said farewell to her Mak Vanderwall series in style by having Mak chased across the globe by a hired killer while her former lover searches for a copy cat killer in Sydney in ASSASSIN
• Val McDermid’s THE VANISHING POINT offered an unexpectedly poignant portrait of a reality television star amidst a horror kidnap scenario
• Betty Webb’s DESERT WIVES is a little light on mystery but jam-packed full of insight into the grim world of compounds in which fundamentalist polygamists keep women and children in all kinds of servitude
• Cath Staincliffe’s SPLIT SECOND offers three perspectives on a needless violent death, including one from an innocent bystander too terrified to intervene. I have not been able to forget Emma’s plight.
• Michael Robotham’s SAY YOU’RE SORRY is a harrowing account of the kidnap and imprisonment of two teenage girls, half of which is told in the voice of one of the girls. A difficult but worthwhile read
• AMUSE BOUCHE by Anthony Bidulka is a light but enjoyable and intelligent whodunnit set in Saskatoon, Canada.

My non reviewing posts were thin on the ground this month but did include a rant about the labelling of books as women’s fiction. I think publishers are doing the men of the world a disservice by doing this as many of the topics raised by these kinds of books are universally interesting and I am sure there are plenty of men who would enjoy them only they’ll never even know about them because they’re pink and only ever appear in Mother’s Day catalogues.

In December I’ve got a couple more books by Australian women I want to finish but I must admit my brain is already starting to switch off in preparation for the first break longer than 3 days I’ll have had all year.

Got any recommendations of light (but clever) books I ought to read?

Was November a good reading month for you? What was your best read?

Are you winding down for the end of the year or cramming in as many books as you can for these last few weeks?

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Having neglected to wrap up September’s reading this is a summary of two months’ worth of topsy turvy reading. And two months deserve two books highlighted. Right?

The first would probably be called a classic, having been published first in 1967.  Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo’s THE MAN ON THE BALCONY takes place at the tail end of the Swedish summer. In quick succession the bodies of two young girls are found in Stockholm parks and despite pouring countless man hours and other resources into the case police are hampered by a lack of evidence and community outrage which leads to a plethora of useless information and the formation of vigilante groups that siphon resources from the main case.

The second is one that deserves to become a classic in the future. Y.A. Erskine’s THE BETRAYAL tells the story of a young Tasmanian policewoman’s decision to bring charges of rape against one of her fellow officers. We see events from various points of view most of which side against the policewoman.

People often think crime fiction offers readers a chance to see the justice that is not available in the real world to play out properly. But if that’s what you’re looking for then neither of these books will fit the bill. Although taking place 45 years apart both novels provide very realistic and uncomfortable depictions of the weaknesses of the justice systems in their respective countries and the apparent unravelling of civilised society. I don’t suppose either could be called entertaining in the traditional sense of the word but both have provided me with much food for thought. And both made me cry.

Other books I’ve finished over the past two months include:

• Charlotte Link’s THE OTHER CHILD which I found pleasant but fairly forgettable
• Daniel Suarez’ KILL DECISION – a topical political/techno thriller which I rather enjoyed for its timely thoughts on the modern military’s move towards unmanned aircraft as weapons
• Belinda Bauer’s FINDERS KEEPERS which I think demonstrated that an author can draw once too often from the same creative well
• Greg Barron’s ROTTEN GODS – another thriller, this time of the environmental kind, which I also enjoyed for its topical subject and non-judgmental take on the complexities of our modern world
• Deon Meyer’s 7 DAYS – the latest procedural thriller from this South African author did not disappoint, its main character and gentle humour are a particular treat
• Ann Holt’s THE BLIND GODDESS – is the first novel of Holt’s series though the most recent to have been translated into English and I found it uneven in quality, its political conspiracy thread in particular was difficult to swallow
• Shona MacLean’s A GAME OF SORROWS might have suffered from my reading slump as I struggled to get through the minutiae of 17th Century Irish politics (one reviewer likened it to Mantel’s WOLF HALL and I’d agree – I thought that was far too stuffed with details too so what do I know)
• Mari Jungstedt’s DARK ANGEL – I liked but did not love the latest in this series set on a Swedish island
• Michael Ridpath’s 66° NORTH which I thought fascinating due to its depiction of Iceland’s experiences of the global financial crisis (and a murder or two as well)

In non reviewing posts I participated in the 2012 version of my life in books (still not too late for you to play with that one), talked about the things readers hate (and don’t), talked about being surprised at how much the physical absence of books around me has impacted my mojo and offered another round of Book vs Adaptation (Peter Temple’s BAD DEBTS) for your consideration.

I am hoping to spend much of November reading books by Australian women writers. Although I have reached my goal of reading 10 books by Aussie women writers (13 so far) I’m falling short of last year’s tally of 20 books by Aussie women (though to be fair to me I have read far fewer books overall this year). Still I’d like to get through a few more of the ones on my TBR shelves, especially one or two of the non-crime novels.