What are you reading the week of Sunday, October 12, 2014?

[scarletwoman]

5. Late getting to this thread - too many other distractions.

First I want to report on what I ended up reading last week.

Strange Shores by Arnaldur Indriðason. I had been waiting for this book to come in for almost a year! I absolutely devoured it in one day, then started over re-reading it immediately because I couldn't bear for it to be over. I still haven't figured out what to say about it without giving away spoilers. All I can say is, for someone like me who has been totally hooked by Arnaldur and his Inspector Erlendur series from the very start, this was the most poignant and touching story of the bunch. It left me speechless and stunned and deeply moved - near to tears.

A hard book to follow, for sure.

What next came in at the library was Norwegian by Night, which was a book that I came across on GoodReads. First book by a new author - an American who lives in Norway, and the story takes place in Norway. It was... strange. Some of it was delightful, some of it was just weird. And I really disliked how the story devolved into bloody violence after there had been so many moments of sweetness and interesting philosophical exposition. It was like the author was trying to go for a somewhat whimsical and original take on Nordic Noir, but then fell back on his Americanist action movie cultural roots. I do not recommend it.

As a palate cleanser, the latest John Sandford Virgil Flowers book, Deadline came in last week, too. It was great fun, and I breezed through it one sitting on Saturday. I forgive Sandford any sins, since both his Virgil Flowers series and his Lucas Davenport series are all located in Minnesota, my home state. And, it must be said, he's a crack writer. Reading Sandford is like eating popcorn - delicious, satisfying, and no regrets.

In the meantime, since I've had to spend so many weeks/months waiting on new books by some of my favorite authors to come in, I decided to forestall any future book droughts by ordering all ten books of the Martin Beck series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (Sweden), which I had read some years ago. It's a wonderful series, excellent writing, fascinating plots, and I figured it would be fun to re-visit them. These books were all published between 1965 and 1975, and the authors are considered to be the godparents of Scandinavian crime fiction - there's hardly a modern Nordic Noir writer out there who doesn't tip the hat to these two authors as one of their major inspirations. Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö were committed Marxists, and throughout their books there are subtle observations about society and politics. I wholeheartedly recommend this series for anyone who has an interest in Scandinavian crime writing.

And, of course, since I put in my order for all ten Marin Beck books, all of sudden a bunch of current titles that I had been waiting for showed up at the library! I haven't had a chance to pick them up yet, but I have the following titles waiting for me:

Daybreak by Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson (Iceland) - his third book. I read his fourth book a couple weeks ago and realized I had missed this one.
An Event in Autumn by Henning Mankell (Sweden)- his latest.
Meltwater by Michael Ridpath - a British author who sets his books in Iceland. I liked his first two Iceland books, so I wanted to read more.
Sea of Stone also by Ridpath - the fourth book in his Iceland series.

Right now I'm a little better than halfway through Rosanna, the first book of the aforementioned Martin Beck series. Most of the rest have also already come in, but I think I'll probably start on the newer books once I pick them up, and set the Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö books aside. If I have to return some of them to the library unread - well, I can always get them again.

At least I will most definitely will NOT be running out of books for awhile!