Take Six Books - October 2011

I have changed this to Six Books as I have recently bought some books.  Though I have decided to keep with an audiobook.  So here is my current crop of books.

The book I’m currently reading - Brighton Rock by Graham Green.  This is the reading group’s choice for the month.  I’ve never read it before, neither have I seen either of the film versions.  So I was quite surprised by the novel.  Not at all what I expected.  It is a darkly funny tale at times and betrays Greene catholicism or at least its obsession with sex, guilt and death.  Very enjoyable.

The last book I finished - Plata Quemada by Ricardo Piglia.  At last I have got round to reading something for the Ficciones Argentinian reading challenge.  Based on a true bank robbery in the 1960s in Buenos Aires.  Not a traditional crime novel in any sense, as we know from the beginning who did it and also know more or less how it ends.  However instead Piglia takes us inside the minds of the main characters and a pretty weird, violent and unattractive place this is.  Good book.

The next book I want to read -  Echoes from the Dead by JohanTheorin.  This is part of my gradual exploration of new Scandinavian writers.  Theorin is from Sweden and this is his first novel.  It is set in the island of Öland off the east coast of the country.  All about a young boy who went missing some time ago.

The last audiobook I listened to - The Gallow’s Bird by Camilla Läckberg.  This is the fourth of Läckberg’s novels I have listened to and all have been very enjoyable.  Läckberg is another Swedish crime writer, and The Gallow’s Bird, like the others, is set in a small town on the west coast of Sweden.  As with the others in the series this is as much about the personal lives of the detectives as the actual murders.  A pretty chilling tale though.

The last book I was given -  Willing Flesh by Adam Creed.  This will be a new one for me, as I have never come across the author before.  Creed is an English writer and this is the second of his novels to feature Detective Inspector Staffe.

The last book I bought - To the Ends of the Earth by T. M Devine.  A rare occurrence for me - buying a book!  Professor Devine’s book is the history of Scotland’s global diaspora as the subtitle puts it.  It has had some great reviews and the man himself came to Dundee to give a talk about the book.  So I just had to get a copy.  This is one book I will take my time to read.  One to dip into and return to.