Reading Along

I finished my project to read all 79 novel length Agatha Christie books back in January. I still need to write about that. But not today.

After 2.3 years reading one author, I wanted to catch up on a some books by local authors who I have had the pleasure to meet.

First up was Severance Package by Duane Swierczynski . Duane's first novel, The Wheelman, is one of my favorite books. (I loaned it to someone, I forget who, who never gave it back :-(  If you have my copy, could you return it?). Duane is a really great writer. His prose is very concise, every word counts. He's also extremely funny and masterful story teller. Severance Package was too graphically bloody for my tastes in a few parts, but overall it was another great read.

Next up was Dope Thief by Dennis Tafoya. Dennis is one the authors who had a book selling/signing with us at the Grey Lodge. I ran into him after the very cool Retreat to Goodisville trek. I keep all my Philadelphia themed books in a separate bookcase. I try not read them all at once, leaving a few for new discoveries. Seeing Dennis reminded me I hadn't read either of his books, so I started off with his first. Dope Thief takes a few pages to set itself up, but then explodes into greatness. The farmhouse scene is really brilliant. I wound up enjoying it very much.

After reading two local books, I returned to our general fiction collection. Third up was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. This is sort of a mystery narrated in the first person by an autistic English teenager. It does a great job of putting you into the mind of an autistic teenager. It is so well written that I found myself thinking like the narrator, which may not be the best thing. I loved it at the beginning but found it a bit boring and repetitive after the mystery was solved half way through. Well worth a read.