TBR@58 Robertgreaves's challenge for 2015/16 part 1

The story so far can be found here.

Today is my birthday so I'm starting a new phase of the struggle to reduce my TBR pile.

Number of books on the TBR shelves: 51
Number of books in the virtual TBR shelves: 47

Both represent increases over this time last year.

All books purchased up to today count as ROOTs for 2015.

Currently reading
Original Sin by P. D. James
The Mammoth Book of Egyptian Whodunnits edited by Mike Ashley

Happy birthday, Robert! :)

Mike Ashley seems to edit a lot of "mammoth book of X whodunnits". Will be interested to hear whether this one is worth checking out.

Happy Birthday, Robert. Wishing you all the best and may all your wishes come true.

Happy Birthday!
& happy new thread too :)

Happy birthday, and keep up the good fight!

Happy Birthday, Robert!

Continuing from the other thread...........do you read in English, Indonesian, or both?

Thank you, rabbit. I have to admit so far I'm not impressed by the stories. Certainly not enough to go looking for the various authors' other works.

Thank you, Ameise. If I remember rightly it's your birthday as well, isn't it? Happy birthday to you.

Thank you, Ava.

Thank you Miss Watson. It's a lifelong battle and I wouldn't have it any other way :-)

Thank you, Tess.

>7 Tess_W: I mainly read for pleasure in English but occasionally in Indonesian. I read Indonesian for work but that's mainly just a few pages at a time. I have 3 Indonesian books on the TBR shelves.

The TBR shelves:

>9 Robertgreaves: Thanks so much, Robert. It is indeed.

>14 Robertgreaves: nice & organized! (my own TBR shelves were recently .. shuffled, so need to be RE-organized.. (which I quite enjoy ;)))
I can see American Gods in there, though most of the other titles are not quite crisp enough for my weary eyes ;)

Oh, they are so neat looking and not many there! Congrats!

actually there's another shelf in the bookcase that I couldn't get in the photo.

Happy birthday Robert! Did you receive any more books to add to the TBR pile? :)

Thank you Jackie.

Yes, I got three:
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber and
Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare.

>20 Robertgreaves: a good (dark!) selection :)

Starting my new No. 1, The Secret History: A Novel of Empress Theodora by Stephanie Thornton. This is my fifty-third ROOT for 2015.

My review of Original Sin by P. D. James:

When a new generation takes over the running of The Peverell Press, a series of practical jokes culminates in suicide and murder. Adam Dalgleish, Kate Miskin, and a new member of the squad, Daniel Aaron, investigate.

The story unfolds in a leisurely fashion with more emphasis on the running of the press and the lives of its partners and staff than on the actual investigation.

I read this when it first came out in the mid-1990s and re-read it because after P D James's death some people posting about her on FB said that she was anti-semitic, and cited this book as evidence of that fact. I had only the vaguest memory of the plot but couldn't remember why anyone should think so, apart from the fact that the murder's wife and two children had been killed in the Holocaust and the main victims were the two children of the person who had betrayed them to the Nazis. On finding this out, Daniel Aaron then warns the murderer that he is the chief suspect even if the police are unaware of his motive and allows him to evade arrest and commit suicide. Unless this storyline is considered to be intrinsically anti-semitic, I really can't see it.

I keep forgetting you start a new year of reading on your birthday!

Congrats!



>14 Robertgreaves: love the shelves there! Looking good.

Thank you, Connie.

>23 Robertgreaves: nice use of the spoiler code! :) (and always appreciated, from someone who hates books/movies being spoiled for her ;))

>22 Robertgreaves: That book is sitting on my Kindle begging to be read! I will be looking for your review.

>27 Tess_W: I'm reading it because it's my online bookclub's choice for October, so if you want to join in let me know.

>23 Robertgreaves: I've read this book years ago and remember that I liked it.

Starting my No. 2, Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. This is an ebook which I've had long enough for it to count as my fifty-fourth ROOT for 2015. I'm reading it as my real life book club's choice for October.

>28 Robertgreaves: That book will probably be on my Rooting list next year. I have got to get some of these real books read and moved out of here!

Starting my No. 3, Praetorian by Simon Scarrow. This is my fifty-fifth ROOT for 2015 and brings the TBR pile down to 50.

My review of Shantaram:

An Australian escaped convict hides away in Bombay in the early 1980s.

My heart sank a bit after reading the preface and the first chapter, thinking "I can't read 40+ chapters of this", but it is a bookclub choice so I persevered. There is actually a decent story struggling to get out but it is overwhelmed by the psuedo-philosophical musings and the attempted lyricism of the writing every time the narrator's love interest appears. There was also far too much of if only I'd thought to ask X this or done that. And how dim is the narrator not to work out who the influential foreign woman who hates him enough to have him thrown in jail was. There is only one possibility. Oh, and there is a limit to the number of times you can have a character who everybody thinks is dead re-appear.

>32 Robertgreaves: I think you did not particularly liked that book, Robert! ;-)
But you have all kinds of subjects to talk about with you fellow book club members.

>32 Robertgreaves: Wow, that's a great case of damning with faint praise. Thanks for the warning.

Starting my No. 4, Under Another Sky by Charlotte Higgins. This is my fifty-sixth ROOT for 2015 and brings the TBR pile down to 49.

My review of Praetorian:

Narcissus sends two legionnaries under cover to investigate a faction of the Praetorian guards who may be plotting to assasssinate the Emperor Claudius and restore the Republic.

In the first few chapters the author seemed quite unable to decide on Messalina or Messallina for the deceased Empress's name but apart from that I enjoyed this exciting thriller. The graphic descriptions of metal pointy bits meeting human flesh may not be to everybody's taste but I found that overall they didn't detract from my enjoyment. This book, the eleventh in the series, was passed on to me by a friend of my father's, and I enjoyed it enough to wishlist the first in the series.

>32 Robertgreaves: >33 connie53: >34 MissWatson: I really didn't love that one either... but I did NOT persevere. I, instead, put it down and decided maybe I'd be in a place for it at another time. There are a lot of people in my life who LOVE that book, so I haven't yet completely given up on it..... But I agree w/ your thoughts so far in my reading!

Starting my No. 5, Map of A Nation by Rachel Hewitt. This is an ebook, but counts as my fifty-seventh ROOT for 2015.

My review of Under Another Sky:

Charlotte Higgins travels round Roman Britain's sites, more or less chronologically, and considers what we know of its history and how people have reacted to the physical remains between then and now.

Fascinating book which made me want to spend the next 10 years holed up in a library reading the books she references and simultaneously travelling round looking at the sites.

Starting my No. 6, Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris. This is my fifty-eighth ROOT for 2015 and brings the TBR pile down to 48.

My review of Map of A Nation:

Government forces were hampered in their attempts to catch Lord Lovat and Bonnie Prince Charlie after Culloden in 1745 by the lack of good maps of Scotland. David Watson and William Roy produced the Military Survey of Scotland and then, amid fears, of a French invasion a map of England's southern coasts. With the enthusiastic support of the Duke of Richmond the project was expanded to include the whole of England and Wales under the Board of Ordnance in 1791 but it was not until 1870 the First Series of Ordnance Survey maps was completed.

Rachel Hewitt tells the story of how Britain and Ireland were mapped amid many distractions with all sorts of interesting nuggets by the way.

Torn whether to go for completing the ROOTs challenge this month with Pagan and Her Parents and Terry Jones's Barbarians or to read The Lily Bard Mysteries Omnibus, which gives the back story to one of the main characters in Midnight Crossroad, which I've just finished.

My review of "Midnight Crossroad":


Manfred Barnado, an online psychic, moves to the small Texas town of Midnight Crossroad, where everyone seems to have secrets. On a town picnic the witch who lives across the street finds the body of Manfred's landlord's girlfriend, who had disappeared a month or so before Manfred's arrival. Was Bobo Winthrop, Manfred's landlord, responsible? Who are the strangers in town who seem to be taking a suspicious interest in Bobo?

A quick, fun read with lots of questions about characters' back stories left unanswered, which hopefully later installments in the series will reveal.

As I'm going to be travelling later in the week I thought I'd go for The Lily Bard Mysteries Omnibus for my No. 7 as something light. It is not Charlaine Harris's usual cozy murder mystery with a supernatural element. Having read Lily Bard's back story I feel a bit sick.

>40 Robertgreaves: hmm it looks like it would be a cozy mystery... quite a bit darker?

The format is definitely cozy: freelance domestic cleaner solves mysteries with her neighbour, the chief of police, but allied with very dark social themes - a vicious gang rape in one of the books and racism leading to the bombing of a black church in another. As a result the books pack quite an emotional punch which I certainly don't expect from cozies.

>42 Robertgreaves: oooh, interesting. I'll definitely stay away from that one ;) Thanks for the add'l info!

Making an early start on Terry Jones's Barbarians by Terry Jones and Alan Ereira, my online book club's November read. This is my book No. 8 and my fifty-ninth ROOT for 2015.

My review of The Lily Bard Mysteries Omnibus:

Shakespeare's Landlord
Returning from a late night walk, Lily Bard sees someone using her dustbin trolley to carry something over to the park over the road. After the intruder has gone she investigates and finds it was the body of the owner of the small apartment building next door.

Interesting start to this series. I did find Lily's back story a bit too much (and yes, I know such things happen, I just didn't expect that kind of thing based on the author's other books).

Shakespeare's Champion
When Lily Bard agrees to open up Body Time, the gym owned by her boyfriend, when he's down with a serious case of flu, she finds the body of Del Packard, whose neck was crushed in what appears to be a weightlifting accident. But who turned out the lights afterwards?

More dark themes in this installment which pack quite an emotional wallop when allied with the cozy mystery format.

Shakespeare's Christmas
Lily Bard returns to her hometown to be a bridesmaid at her sister's wedding on Christmas Eve. Jack accepts a case in the same town and then the bodies start multiplying.

A more traditional cozy territory in this one. As Lily's confidence grows she finds that her family don't view her as only a victim.

Shakespeare's Trollop
Lily finds her neighbour's corpse posed naked in a car parked in the woods. Everyone thinks it was the result of a tryst gone wrong, but was it?

Good story keeps you turning the pages. Lily continues to grow and establish herself as more than a victim.

Shakespeare's Counselor
Lily joins a therapy group for rape survivors but the next woman who applies to join the group is murdered, her body pinned to the group's notice board.

Perhaps I was just tired, but this one was really confusing. I didn't understand the dynamic between the therapist and her husband at all.

Starting my No. 9, The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse. This brings the TBR pile down to 47 and brings me up to my ROOT target of 60 in 2015.

My review of Terry Jones's Barbarians:

Terry Jones tells the history of Rome as the Barbarians Rome fought against would have told it if they had written history themselves.

I found the tone condescending in the early part of the book and quite a few errors of fact throughout which made me very suspicious of his conclusions.

Yay, congratulations on reaching your target!

Congratulations Robert!

>45 Robertgreaves: Yeah, Congratulations!

Good Job, Robert

Thank you, all.

Yeah, way to go!

Congrats on reaching your target. Well done.

Thank you Ameise and Tess.

Starting my No. 10, The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. This brings the TBR pile down to 46 and is my sixty-first ROOT for 2015.

My review of The Glass Bead Game:

The life of Joseph Knecht, describing his ascension through the Castalian hierarchy to become the Magister Ludi and eventual renunciation of that role and passing into legend.

When I first read this as a teenager I would have loved to have come a Glass Bead Game player or at least a Castalian scholar. Now there is much food for thought about the relationship between the pursuit of knowledge and ideas and the "real" world as the crisis of the Feuilletonistic Age becomes more acute, not to mention the underlying assumptions of what kind of knowledge is pursued in Castalia and what seems to be considered beneath a scholar's interest.

Starting my No. 11 Pompeii: Boudicca In The Arena by Robert Colton. This is my sixty-second ROOT for 2015.

My review of The Black Swan:

I'm a bit hesitant to summarise this book as the author says in a postscript essay that much of the reaction to the book has misunderstood it, but here goes.

The Black Swan of the title refers to the European belief that all swans are white until the Europeans got to Australia and found that there were indeed black swans. Hence, the author coins the phrase "Black Swan event" for rare events that cannot be foreseen and which have massive consequences. Although the odds of a particular event might be very small, the odds of something among the many possibilities happening is not. Whether they cannot be foreseen because it is intrinsically impossible or because we don't have enough information is irrelevant. Although after the event people will come up with 'causes' that is due to the way our minds work, we can't cope with just dumb luck.

Actually the problem is made worse by the illusory confidence produced by the use of sophisticated statistical projections based on probabilities because such tools are being used by people who don't really understand them and being applied to situations which they are not really suitable for. They work fine for controlled situations like calculating the odds in a casino or for physical attributes where the amount of possible variation is limited but not for the complex situations real life offers.

All we can do is attempt to reduce the harm done by unforeseen catastrophic events but an inter-related globalised system where certain entities are "too big to fail" magnifies the damage rather than reduces it.

A mind-stretching book, partly because of the subject matter and partly because clarity of exposition is not always the author's strong point. For example, if you haven't already read the book or aren't familiar with the author's work, the introduction/prologue is very hard to follow.

Starting my No. 12, Civil War by Lucan. This brings the TBR pile down to 45 and is my sixty-third ROOT for 2015.

My review of Pompeii: Boudicca in the Arena:

While preparations are underway to re-open Pompeii's arena for gladiatorial games, a severed head is found on a pole one morning, with the rest of the body having been partially burned in a nearby stretch of woodland. The fathers of the sponsors of the games ask Tay to investigate.

The latest installment in this series is a quick, fun read but doesn't seem to do much to move the overall story arc along.

>54 Robertgreaves: sounds very interesting! Thanks for attempting a summary despite the author's comments :)

Starting my No. 13, A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay. This is my sixty-fourth ROOT for 2015.

Starting my No. 14 The Marathon Conspiracy by Gary Corby. This is my sixty-fifth ROOT for 2015.

My review of A Voyage to Arcturus:

When a seance is interrupted by a mysterious stranger endeavouring to strangle an ectoplasmic manifestation, Maskull follows his companion Nightspore and the stranger, Krag, to an observatory in Scotland from where he is transported to Tormance, a planet orbiting the twin stars of Arcturus. Drawn onwards in a quest to find Surtur (aka Shaping), Maskull travels across Tormance.

The beginning is very strange. The people attending the seance are all described in minute detail and then are simply ignored for the rest of the book. The scenes on Tormance are like a dream with random conversations and events which seem to be in a general way symbolic of life as lived by the ignorant soul trying to find its way to some sort of gnostic vision of God, though quite what sort of events or conditions in life are symbolised it's difficult to see.

Written in 1920, it was a strong influence on CS Lewis and his SF trilogy.

Starting my No. 15, Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey. This is my sixty-sixth ROOT for 2015.

My review of The Marathon Conspiracy:

Two schoolgirls from the shrine of Artemis at Brauron find a body in a cave which appears to be that of the former tyrant Hippias who was supposed to have fled back to Persia after the battle of Marathon twenty years ago. One of the girls is later found apparently the victim of a wild bear while the other disappears. Nicolaos and Diotima investigate.

Quick, enjoyable read combining history, detection and humour. The ending reads like it should be the last in the series, but apparently there a fifth and sixth out there.

Starting my No. 19, Love Lies Bleeding by Edmund Crispin. This is my sixty-seventh ROOT for 2015 and brings the TBR pile down to 44.

My review of Elizabeth is Missing:

82-year-old Maud is getting increasingly forgetful, but of one thing she is sure, her friend Elizabeth is missing and it's somehow connected with the disappearance of her, Maud's, sister just after the Second World War.

Aspects of the central mystery of Sukey's disappearance were predictable enough but set in a very unsettling first-person account of life as experienced by someone who's mind is ebbing away.

>60 Robertgreaves: Robert, would you recommend Elizabeth is Missing? My library has got an audio.

>61 Ameise1: Most definitely. I can't say how it would work as an audio book as I don't have much experience of them but as a book it was a very impressive debut.

Thanks Robert.

Starting my No. 20, The Classical Compendium by Philip Matyszak. This is my sixty-eighth ROOT for 2015 and brings the TBR down to 43.

My review of Love Lies Bleeding:

A schoolgirl is badly frightened at a Shakespeare rehearsal but before she can be made to say what happened, two teachers at a boys' school are murdered and the girl herself has disappeared. Fortunately Professor Gervase Fen is on the spot, having been asked to come down to give the prizes on Speech Day.

The usual splendid romp.

Starting my No. 21, Lily of the Nile by Stephanie Dray. This is my sixty-ninth ROOT for 2015.

Moving on to the second in the trilogy about Cleopatra Selene, Song of the Nile as my no. 22. A new ebook, so not a ROOT.

My review of Lily of the Nile:

Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Antony and Cleopatra, is brought to Rome as a captive and brought up in Augustus's household by his sister, Antony's Roman wife. Can she live, love, and learn as Isis commands?

The author knows her history and has written a convincing captive's viewpoint of Augustus's Rome, but I found her account of Isis worship and insistence on Selene's importance in history less convincing. Despite that, it's a great story and I shall certainly read the rest of the trilogy.

The audio of Elizabeth is Missing is on my mp3 now.

>67 Ameise1: Hope you enjoy it

Starting my No. 23, Daughters of the Nile by Stephanie Dray, a new ebook and so not a ROOT.

My review of Song of the Nile:

Cleopatra Selene marries Juba II, King of Numidia, and joins him as Queen of Mauretania, but they have a country to build. But Selene has unfinished business with two other men, the Emperor Augustus and her twin brother Alexander Helios. One represents her past and passionate love, one represents her future and domesticity, and one represents her attempts to re-create the past in the present and political power. Which will she choose?

Another thrilling adventure in the life of Cleopatra Selene. I still have my doubts about the magical elements but I can't wait for the final volume.

Starting my No. 24, Peace and War by Joe Haldeman. This is an omnibus edition containing three novels, "The Forever War", "Forever Free" and "Forever Peace". It is my seventieth ROOT for 2015 and brings the TBR pile down to 42.

My review of Daughters of the Nile:

The final instalment of Stephanie Dray's trilogy about Cleopatra Selene.

Despite family tragedies, Cleopatra Selene and Juba win their way through to a better, happier, relationship. Wonderful deathbed scene.

Starting my No. 25, Last Seen in Massilia by Steven Saylor. This is my seventy-first ROOT for 2015.

My review of Peace and War:

The Forever War
William Mandella is drafted into fighting for Earth against the alien Taurans near the beginning of a war which lasts for 1143 years due to relativity effects as each side flies through collapsars (wormholes) to gain territory at the other's expense.

Not bad, not good. I don't see why it has received so much acclaim.

Forever Free
William Mandella and other veterans of the Forever War have settled as farmers and fishers on Middle Finger. Tired of life as a gene bank under the supervision of the cloned collective consciousness that is Man they plot to steal a space ship head out as far as possible and then come back, by which time relativity will have let 40,000 years pass.

I enjoyed the set up with descriptions of life on Middle Finger and the mysterious events on the voyage and the veterans' return but the deus ex machina type resolution at the end was disappointing.

Forever Peace
Earth is split into two opposing camps, the Alliance and the Ngumi. Jason Class is a mathematical physicist who has to do National Service for 10 days a month as operator of a mechanical soldier for the Alliance. Working with his lover/colleague Amelia Harding, they realise that an experiment colliding elementary particles put in orbit round Jupiter will re-create the Big Bang, starting a new universe and ending this one. Can the experiment be stopped and can the ultimate weapon be kept out of an apocalyptic group's hands?

Ideas fizz off the page in this one, with lots of excitement in the race against time. However, the switching back and forth between omniscient 3rd person narrator and first person narrative got annoying after a while.

Robert, I started to listen Elizabeth is Missing. It is fantastic and reminds me very much of my FIL who is suffering from dementia.

We can't really know what it feels like from the inside, but it's a very convincing picture, isn't it? The more experience members of my bookclub had had with caring for people with dementia, the more true to nature they found it. Glad you're enjoying it.

Starting my No. 26, A Mist of Prophecies by Steven Saylor. This is a new ebook and so not a ROOT.

My review of Last Seen in Massilia:

Gordianus the Finder has travelled to Massilia (Marseille) with his son-in-law, Davus, because he received an anonymous message to say that his son, Meto, had been killed in Massilia. Although Massilia is under siege by one of Julius Caesar's legates, Gordianus and Davus manage to get in and receive confirmation from witnesses that Meto had drowned in the harbour. Now how can Gordianus and Davus get out of the besieged city? And before they do so can they find out what happened to Rindel, the ex-girlfriend of the city leader's son-in-law?

An enjoyable, fast-moving story.

Read on a long plane trip, Nos. 27 and 28, The Judgement of Caesar (not a ROOT), The Triumph of Caesar(not a ROOT) (both by Steven Saylor) and No. 29 Murder in the Garden District by Greg Herren (my seventy-second ROOT of 2015.

Starting my No. 30, Murder in the Irish Channel by Greg Herren (a new ebook and so not a ROOT).

Review of A Mist of Prophecies:

A beggar woman reputed to have a gift of prophecy collapses and dies in the forum at Gordianus's feet. Her last words were "She's poisoned me." Gordianus gives her a funeral and to his surprise some of the wealthiest, most powerful, and most notorious women in Rome come to witness the cremation. Was one of them the poisoner?

Interesting premise but disappointing execution. Lots of repeated material about the suspects and their backgrounds.

Review of The Judgement of Caesar:

Bethesda is very ill and is feared to be dying. She asks to be taken back to Alexandria so she can bathe in the Nile. Gordianus agrees only to be caught up in the death of Pompey, the civil war in Egypt between Cleopatra VII and her brother Ptolemy XIII, and Caesar's Alexandrian war. In all the chaos, Meto, Gordianus's estranged son, is accused of attempting to poison either Cleopatra or Caesar. Gordianus attempts to clear his son's name before he is executed.

Saylor is back on form with this one. Enjoyable portrayals of the characters and their complex relationships.

Review of The Triumph of Caesar:

Caesar is back in Rome as dictator for life and is planning to celebrate triumphs for his exploits in war and to reform the calendar. Calpurnia calls in Gordianus to investigate a prophecy from her pet haruspex that Caesar's life is in danger.

I must admit it was with some trepidation that I read this on the flight home. I knew it was the last in the series and wondered whether I would be having a meltdown over a deathbed scene. Fortunately this was avoided. I picked the culprit fairly early on but it was still very enjoyable except for some heavy-handed nudge-nudge moments about the real plot against Caesar which takes place after the end of the book.

Review of Murder in the Garden District:

Wendell Sheehan is found murdered. His mother's fingerprints are on the gun and she admits having fired it when she found the gun by the body. But she insists her daughter-in-law did the deed. She hires Chanse MacLeod to investigate in the hope that he will find enough evidence to cast doubt on her daughter-in-law's guilt so that no-one in the family will be convicted.

The cover does rather lead one to suspect lurid revelations about the deceased which did not happen (well, there were lurid revelations, just not the ones the cover implies) but nevertheless a fun read. Some unfinished business from earlier books in the series which I read so long ago I only had a vague memory of them but there was enough context for it not to matter.

Starting my No. 31, the last so far in the Chanse MacLeod series, Murder in the Arts District. A new ebook so not a ROOT.

My review of Murder in the Irish Channel:

As a favour to his new love interest, Chanse MacLeod takes on the case of a young man whose mother has disappeared but who is unable to afford Chanse's fees.

Another quick and enjoyable read. It was noticeable that although Chanse has now made Amy his partner, he still treats her like an employee.

Starting my No. 32, The Truth Can Get You Killed by Mark Richard Zubro, which is my seventy-third ROOT for 2015.

My review of Murder in the Arts District:

Chanse MacLeod is asked to investigate the theft of some valuable paintings as the police don't seem to be inclined to take the case seriously. But can he function while trying to cope with a debilitating back injury from a car crash?

A nice farewell to the series.

>75 Robertgreaves: oooh I love reading on long plane rides! So much nothing-else-going-on ;)

>79 avanders: :-)

Starting my No. 33, the next in Mark Richard Zubro's series, Drop Dead.

My review of The Truth Can Get You Killed:

Gay police detective Paul Turner and fellow detective Buck Fenwick investigate the murder of a judge notorious for his anti-gay rulings whose body has been found in a dumpster behind a gay bar.

A bit heavy-handed with the political and social commentary, but a good mystery.

>76 Robertgreaves: "I must admit it was with some trepidation that I read this on the flight home. I knew it was the last in the series and wondered whether I would be having a meltdown over a deathbed scene. Fortunately this was avoided." Good to see that you avoided public meltdown, Robert. I have avoided reading certain books in public for just that reason - The Lovely Bones springs to mind. Which is probably why it is still sitting on the shelf only partly read.

>81 Familyhistorian: I think having meltdowns over books in public places is as awkward as laughing out loud. The stares you get!

Onto the next in the series, my No. 34, Sex and Murder.com.

My review of Drop Dead:

Male supermodel, Cullom Furyk, falls to his death from the penthouse of the annoyingly named Archange Hotel. But a witness says he was pushed. Paul Turner and Buck Fenwick are the detectives assigned to the case.

After a while the different suspects and supporting characters blurred into each other, which meant I spent far too often thinking "who?".

I think I've overdosed on mysteries a bit, so now reading my No. 35, 1177 BC, The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline. This is my seventy-fourth ROOT for 2015.

My review of Sex and Murder.com:

Paul Turner and Buck Fenwick investigate the savage murder by multiple stabbings of a billionaire designer of computer security systems. Meanwhile a serial killer who appears to be moving across the US targeting detectives seems to have Paul in his sights as his next victim.

These books do get better as the series progresses but still don't really get my juices flowing. They pass the time reasonably pleasantly but that's all. I want to like them because more and more the story is about a detective who happens to be gay rather than a GAY DETECTIVE but they are like watching a TV programme because that's what's on rather than because it's something you want to watch.

Starting my No. 36, The Baritone Wore Chiffon by Mark Schweizer, which is my seventy-fifth ROOT for 2015.

My review of 1177 BC, The Year Civilization Collapsed:

A re-evaluation of the 12th century BC collapse of the Bronze Age civilisations of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. Rather than the traditional pointing of fingers at the Sea Peoples referred to by the Egyptians, the author describes the complex interdependence of these civilizations and the probable multiplicity of factors such as earthquakes, droughts, and possible disruption to trade routes by movements of peoples which all combined to destabilise the system.

>85 Robertgreaves: Seventy five is a very nice number, Robert!

Starting my No. 37, The Tenor Wore Tapshoes, which is a new ebook and so not a ROOT.

My review of The Baritone Wore Chiffon:

St. Barnabas has a new temporary clergyman who introduces a Clown Eucharist and whose wife remodels the church on feng shui principles. Fortunately Hayden Konig can distract himself from these goings on with his work as Police Chief of the small town of St. Germaine and his writing as he attempts to become a worthy successor to Raymond Chandler. An American studying choral music at York Minster has been murdered and Hayden is asked to help the investigation.

The second entry in this series is just as funny as the first, and that is saying a lot.

Starting my No. 38, the next in the series, The Soprano Wore Falsettos, and my No. 39, Accidental Contact and Other Mahu Investigations by Neil Plakcy as a short story collection for when I can't read my main book for some reason.

My review of The Tenor Wore Tapshoes:

A body is found hidden in the altar at St. Barnabas, various pranks are played for which Hayden Konig is blamed, and a new member of the congregation seems to be trying to edge Hayden out.

A good mystery but not as funny as the earlier two in the series.

>86 connie53: wow! yeah, it is!

Starting my no. 40, Freud's Couch, Scott's Buttocks, Brontë's Grave, which is my seventy-sixth ROOT.

My review of The Soprano Wore Falsettos:

Agnes Day, the substitute organist at St. Barnabas, is murdered during the Palm Sunday service. The St. Germaine police force investigate with the usual hilarity. Sign me up for the Pirate Eucharist.

A Pirate Eucharist (or should that be EuchARRRRRRist?) sounds like fun!

Wishing you all the best for the holiday season!

Same to you. Thanks for dropping by.

>90 Robertgreaves: That is somewhere in my Mount TBR - I thought it sounded interesting (and it was free!), I'll be interested in your review.

Merry Christmas! (what's left of it)

>93 Jackie_K: My thoughts exactly, Jackie. Same to you.

Starting my No. 41, A Vote For Murder by David Wishart. This is my seventy-seventh ROOT for 2015.

My review of Freud's Couch, Scott's Buttocks, Brontë's Grave:

Simon Goldhill visits various places in the UK associated with writers, specifically Scott, Wordsworth, Brontë, Shakespeare, and Freud, in the hope of finding why they became places of pilgrimage for the Victorians (except Freud obviously) and now for us.

Interesting and enjoyable nuggets of information and musings but no profound insights.

Hi Robert. I was wondering if you were going to ROOT again in 2016. The 2016 group has started, so I would love to see you there.

http://www.librarything.nl/groups/2016rootchallengerea

I will be, but won't be starting till I get home from my Christmas/New Year holiday.

>97 Robertgreaves: Enjoy your holiday, Robert! See you in the 2016 group.

Starting the next in David Wishart's Corvinus series, Parthian Shot. This is a new ebook and so not a ROOT.

My review of A Vote For Murder:

One of the candidates for censor in the town of Castroemenium is murdered. Was it the rival candidate, the victim's fiancée, or someone else entirely? Marcus Corvinus, visiting his aunt-in-law, Marcia Fulvina, who lives nearby, is asked to help with the investigation.

Despite the rather heavy-handed way modern parallels are used for the relations between Latins and Romans as described here, I do love Marcus Corvinus's narrative voice.

Next in the series is my No. 43, Food for the Fishes.

My review of Parthian Shot:

When the entourage of a Parthian prince kept in Rome as a hostage is attacked and some of his guards killed, Corvinus reluctantly investigates.

Not as convoluted as some of the Corvinus's political cases can be. Very enjoyable.

My No. 44 is the next in the series In at the Death:

My review of Food for the Fishes:

Licinius Murena drowns at his fish farm and is half devoured by carnivorous eels. An evicted tenant is arrested but there is no shortage of other suspects in the victim's very dysfunctional family.

Another entertaining entry in the series.

Thank you, Ameise. The same to you.

Starting my first book of 2016, my No. 45 The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller

My review of In At the Death:

Corvinus is asked to look into why Sextus Papinius, a young fire compensation claims assessor, committed suicide. As he looks into the young man's working and personal relationships he becomes convinced that it was murder and not suicide, but who and why are still niggling questions.

The scenes involving the sadly misnamed dog, Placida, provided some very funny light relief in another excellent entry in this series.

Starting my No. 46, Age of Bronze, Volume 3A: Betrayal Part 1.

My review of The Year of Reading Dangerously:

After reading "The Master and Margarita", Andy Miller decides to atone for the number of times he's said he's read books which in fact he hasn't by reading the books he compiles on his List of Betterment.

Variable. I suspect there are stylistic jokes which are going over my head for the books I don't know. The author's pop music world is not mine so there are names which mean nothing to me. But where we share points of reference he is a genial companion talking about his life and reading.

Quotes:
"... if I had learned one thing from the List of Betterment, it was that a love of reading and a love of books are not necessarily the same thing."

"... the middlebrow .... consists of people who are hoping that some day they will get used to the stuff they ought to like."

& a fun start to 2016! :)

Thank you, Ava.

Starting my No. 47, Mosaic: The Pavement that Walked by Clive Ashman

My review of Age of Bronze, Volume 3A: Betrayal Part 1:

Eric Shanower's Trojan War saga starts the stories of Polyctetes and Troilus and Cressida.

Also reading my No. 48, Ghostwritten by David Mitchell

>110 Robertgreaves: Curious to know what you think of that book, Robert. I'm reading Dertien by the same writer.

>110 Robertgreaves: and >111 connie53: me too! :) Bone Clocks is on my short list for this year...

My review of Mosaic: The Pavement That Walked:

This novel takes as its starting point the true story of a Roman mosaic excavated near Hull in 1948 stolen while awaiting transport to the local museum, and never recovered. The novel interweaves the story of the policeman investigating the theft and a Roman beneficarius consularis investigating abuse of office by the local bigwig who owned the villa where the mosaic came from.

This sounds a great premise but I had to abandon the book half way through and to be honest I think I did very well getting that far. The book desperately needs the services of an editor. The author seems to have no idea what a sentence is. Participles are not so much dangled as completely severed. Indirect questions appear again and again as separate sentences with no introduction. Prepositional phrases are cut off from their verbs. The first few sentences are typical:

"No niceties, only that brusque 'phone message sent out by Superintendant Maister, so typical of his boss. Received at Inglemire Police Box and requiring the immediate return of his duty-inspector to the Central Police Station in Hull. Via the usual plain Wolsely sent out by Maister for his deliverance, auspice to their mission."

200 pages of this was enough.

Great review! Even that little snippet of the book was enough to make me queasy.

On the flight home I finished Ghostwritten and also read my No. 49, Murder Most Egyptological: A Mrs. Xavier Stayton Mystery by Robert Colton.

My review of Ghostwritten:

A novel consisting of a series of linked short stories moving East to West across the Earth from Japan to America and then back to Japan again.

Each story was enjoyable in itself and seeing how each one picked up details from the previous stories and developed them gave them an extra intellectual pleasure.

My review of Murder Most Egyptological:

When a mummy is lost in transit and a member of an archaeological expedition sponsored by Mrs. Stayton disappears, she has to investigate.

Another quick and easy 1920s romp.

>115 Robertgreaves: That's a good review for Geestverwantschap, Robert. It's very high on my TBR pile and moving up because of your review.

Does the Dutch title preserve the pun in the title, Connie? The ghost could be a spirit or it could be somebody who writes books to be published under somebody else's name (like a pop star's "autobiography").

I don't think so. Geestverwantschap is something like affinity of spirits.

Continued in 2016 ROOT challenge here