Death Most Definite

I always have a huge TBR pile, books I pick up that look interesting that live in a stack by my bed or in the living room until I get around to reading them. And I turn 49 in a few days. Don't have all the time in the world anymore, so if a book doesn't reel me in quickly me, I throw it back.

This week I've had two false starts, books I started to read but couldn't feel the groove. Both, fortunately, are library books, so I'm not out any money. I try to buy used books, since I read so fast, so it wouldn't be a big deal even if I'd paid for them. It's the principle of the thing. The first of the false starts was The Necromancer by Michael Scott. This is the 5th book in a young adult series. I've read the first four, admittedly with dwindling interest. The only reason I reserved this book was because, well, I'd read the first four. I made it to page 75, then went and checked the last couple pages and yes, there'll be a book six. I threw in the towel. I think there's not enough sense of resolution to make any of the books really satisfying, and at this point I just don't care. The author seems to think that it's enough to have the characters survive each book. I like them to be happy about it, too.

The second false start was a bigger disappointment. I put An Object Of Beauty, the new book by Steve Martin (yes, that Steve Martin) on hold a while ago. The blurb made the premise sound interesting - a young girl rockets across the New York art scene and then the world - but when I finally got ahold of it, I just couldn't feel it. The narrator, Daniel, is a self-described hip-nerd who writes about the art world and has known Lacey Yeager since college. He tells the story of her early years working for Sotheby's in New York and, well, that's when I quit reading. Both of them annoyed me so thoroughly I couldn't keep going. I found Lacey tiresome rather than fascinating, a completely self-absorbed and unlikeable character. Maybe that marks me as a totally backwater, uncouth bumpkin. So be it.

I had better luck with a couple of genre books. I read Nalini Singh's Bonds of Justice and liked it. I also read The Surrender Of A Lady by Tiffany Clare. Both are romances. Apparently I have no shame, though I thought about putting book covers on both of them. I enjoyed both of them. Sigh. I've read that romances are gaining in popularity because with Kindle, anyone can read one without the whole world seeing the tattooed torso or ripping bodice they always have on the cover. You can get away with reading something that is a very short number of steps from what used to be in Penthouse's Forum and no one will know. It also has something to do with how grim things are in the real world right now. People want a good escapist read that has a happy ending.

If that's what you're looking for, I would recommend either of those two books. Nalini Singh writes paranormal romance. I've heard good things about her and have wanted to check her out. Bonds Of Justice was a pretty fun read. The author lived up to her billing and I will keep an eye out for her at Half Price Books. The Tiffany Clare book was also fun. An English lady of the Victorian era gets sold into a Middle-Eastern slave market to pay her husband's gambling debts. He ends up dead and she ends up in a harem. Hello harem! Okay, as long as I don't think too hard about the underlying political implications of the story, I can say I enjoyed the read.

My discovery of the week has to be Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson. Again with the genre fiction, but so so good. It's the first in a series set in Brisbane, Australia. I loved the novel place names and the petrol and the kilometers and all the colorful language. It was well plotted, got a little excessive towards the climax, but ended well. The main character comes off as a young Harry Dresden with more of the kinks to work out. I think I have a crush on him. Powells is sending me a copy of this one and the sequel so I can lend it to friends. Get in line!

All these books, and I barely made a dent in the stack.....