Sunday, December 7, 2014

2014 Books

This year's book list. The (r) denotes a repeat read.
  1. Carte Blanc, Jeffery Deaver; January; A James Bond Novel; Very good, worth reading, but he's no Ian Flemming.
  2. Death of a Policeman, M.C. Beaton; February; Policeman Hamish Macbeth in the Scottish Highlands, aging formulaic series, but still enjoyable. There was a TV series in the late 1990s staring Robert Carlyle as Hamish.
  3. Night Train to Lisbon(r), Pascal Mercer; April; Language Professor meets Portuguese woman in peril, buys Portuguese book, becomes intrigued by the author, takes train to Lisbon and searches for the back story of the authors life. He travels by train, what more could you ask for. The story of the fictional author's life is compelling as are most of the characters. They made a film of the book, the reviews are not good so don't see it before reading the book... or after.
  4. Bryant and May on the Case, Christopher Fowler; May; Quirky Detectives investigating odd cases in London.
  5. Rosanna, Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo; May; First of 10 Martin Beck (a fictional Swedish Police Detective) stories by a Swedish pair written in the 1960s. All the books were very quick reads. Mainly teamwork, hard work, experience and some luck solve these cases. Interestingly, in the 1960s the Swedish Police were acquiring Military hardware and once they had it were itching to use it no matter if there were other ways to solve an issue. Start with #1 and read them all.
  6. The Man who went up in Flames, #2 Maj and Per; June
  7. The Man on the Balcony, #3 Maj and Per; June
  8. Naughty in Nice, Rhys Bowen; June
  9. The Laughing Policeman, #4 Maj and Per; June
  10. The Grand Tour, Agatha Christie; June - September; Postcards and letters from Ms Christie's travel with the Overseas Mission of the British Empire Exhibition. Most interesting thing I learned was she became an accomplished surfer. The difficulties of travel makes me glad for the improvements that have been made in that respect.
  11. Travels with my Aunt(r), Graham Greene; July; I read this every summer. Aunt Agusta (his aunt) is quite amusing, there was a movie with Maggie Smith as the Aunt, miss it.
  12. Hunt for the Southern Continent, James Cook; July; Abridged excerpts of the log book of his travels in the South Pacific, he sails past Staten Island, but not the forgotten borough of NYC. He includes technical bearings and headings which I looked up on the internet to understand.
  13. Trains and Lovers, Alexander McCall Smith; July;
  14. Monsieur Pamplemousse Aloft(r), Michael Bond of Paddington Bear Fame; July; The fifth in the series, all are quick reads and geared towards adults. Monsieur Pamplemousse always seems to gets himself into lots of embarrassing situations while trying to help others.
  15. The Fire Engine that Disappeared, #5 Maj and Per; July 
  16. Murder at the Savoy, #6 Maj and Per; August
  17. The Abominable Man, #7 Maj and Per; 2 days in August
  18. The Locked Room, #8 Maj and Per; August
  19. Cop Killer, #9 Maj and Per; August
  20. The Terrorists, #10 Maj and Per; August
  21. The Grave Maurice, Martha Grimes; August
  22. Scrambles amongst the Alps(r), Edward Whymper; September; An interesting travelog of his attempts up Alps and the first ascent by him of the Matterhorn in Switzerland.
  23. The Restraint of Beasts(r), Magnus Mills; September; An Englishman leads a pair of Scots south of the border to put up fencing and bury bodies.
  24. Rising to the Occasion, Hazard and Pinfold; October
  25. The Great American Weekend book; October; Just browsed through it
  26. Turn Right at Machu Picchu, Mark Adams; November; See the end of this post for a synopsis.
  27. Return of the Thin Man, Dashiell Hammett; November; Screenplays for 2 more Thin Man movies staring Nick and Nora Charles. Some interesting stage directions. TCM movie synopsis for After and Another. Mr. Hammett also wrote the novel, The Maltese Falcon.

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