A Reader Is Me!

Title: Прогулки по Парижу [Parisian Walks], read in Russian
Author:  Борис Носик [Boris Nosik]
Genre: travel
Book Number/Goal: 64/175

The author is a Russian travel writer living in Paris. He obviously knows the city well and has a lot of interesting details to tell, but I disliked his bias for Orthodox Christianity and against any revolutions and his propensity for self-aggrandizement.

Title: Four and Twenty Blackbirds
Author: Cherie Priest
Genre: thriller
Book Number/Goal: 65/175

The protagonist of this book had a number of strange things happening around her when she was a child, and when she grew up she finally had to find what it all meant. I love the type of thrillers which deals with someone dealing with family mysteries, and this is quite well done, with an engaging heroine.

Title: Everyday Life in Florence in Dante’s Times
Author:  Pierre Antonetti
Genre: History
Book Number/Goal: 66/175

The Everyday Life series include books of varying quality, but this one is well organized and clearly written.

Title: MAN, OH, MAN! Writing M/M Fiction for Kinks and Ca$h
Author:  Josh Lanyon
Genre: writing
Book Number/Goal: 67/175

Not many new writing advices for me, but an interesting look at the genre/

Title: Dead in the Morning
Author:  Margaret Yorke
Genre: mystery
Book Number/Goal: 68/175

A nosy college don deals with a murder in a family mansion; a typical cozy mystery, which was just what I wanted.

Title: In Search of London
Author:  Henry Morton
Genre: travel
Book Number/Goal: 69/175

Travels around London in early 1950s — both a travel guide and a journey back in time told by a man with a lively interest in people and an eye for description. I liked this book a lot.

Title: A Night in the Lonesome October/Doorways in the Sand
Author:  Roger Zelazny
Genre: fantasy, SF
Book Number/Goal: 70/175

Two novels in one book; the first is a fantasy of a kind, a story of some Halloween ritual told by a dog. The second is a SF mystery and the protagonist, though human, seems intriguing and entertaining. Liked both books

Title: Шик, блеск, красота [Chic and Beauty], read in Russian
Author:  Марина Серова [Marina Serova]
Genre: mystery
Book Number/Goal: 71/175

A female PI investigates a murder at a fashion show. The writing is flat, and the protagonist seems incompetent.

Title: Convergence Culture
Author:  Henry Jenkins
Genre: cultural history
Book Number/Goal: 72/175

This book shows how today’s culture works across many types of media and how the audience participates in all this. Lots of things to think about.

Title: The Partner
Author:  John Grisham
Genre: thriller
Book Number/Goal: 73/175

A lawyer who embezzled 90 million dollars from his firm is found and brought home for trial, but things aren’t what they seem to be. Clever and entertaining; I read this in 3 hours in a train. Interesting how the author found necessary to give at least _some_ punishment to the protagonist.

Title: Murder on the Menu
Author:  Beverly Byrne
Genre: mystery
Book Number/Goal: 74/175

Not a cozy mystery I expected, but a man’s journey into his memories with a murder as more or less a pretext/starting point.

Title: Calahari Typing School for Men
Author:  Alexander McCall Smith
Genre: mystery
Book Number/Goal: 75/175

Mma Ramotswe has competition in business, mma Makutsi starts a new venture and meets a man. Everything ends well, of course, and keeps getting me into a good mood.