Long Overdue Book Dump

Mostly, I was sewing, stitching, crocheting, etc. over the past few months. So not reading as much during leisure time. And walking and travelling.

Also, there's a dearth of "good" books; here's the best I could do lately:

A couple of crime thrillers by the late Elmore Leonard, namely "52 Pick-Up", published in 1974 and "Rum Punch" from 1992.   This author was a great writer whose chosen genre was gritty, urban crime in such places as Detroit and Miami. The older book delivered a great portrait of the life of Detroit as it was beginning its deep economic dive from which it's not yet recovered. In "Rum Punch" I wonder if we met a prototype for the later famous Raylan Givens? His secondary character, Ray Nicolet, a federal agent, fits to a "T".  The character of Ordell Robbie is perfect as gun-merchant crime boss on his final decline.         Both readable, recommendable little novels, if you like the genre.

The older I get, I find the less I enjoy gritty, violent thrillers; bloody, insane violence is all too present in our world and not that entertaining.

"Rosings Park" by Diane H. Morris is one of those modern novels that leverage on the themes, plots and characters of the various Jane Austin novels.  Full disclosure is that I haven't read a Jane Austin novel since high school--so long ago the author was practically "current"--And maybe I'm the only woman in the world who never got all that into it with Jane Austin.    But this novel was readable and felt authentic, with annotated references and a bibliography.

Sally S. Wright produced a book I wanted to like (similar to the works of Barbara Kingsolver), "Pride & Predator" made me think it was going to be another Jane Austin influenced novel. No. It is a classic sort of "who dunnit" published in 1997, set among the wealthier sorts in Scotland in 1960.  Odd. The plot was just arresting enough so that I was too far into the novel to give up and put it down unfinished; so I was peeved with the book already: it was 350 damn pages long! It needed a good, strict, no-nonsense editing. Too many damn characters, etc.  The hero, Ben Reese, is based on a real person, she says; perhaps someone she knew well; he was a hero of the Second World War, knows about combat and techniques of detection; he is given to odd mannerisms and small gestures; suffers from nightmares about the War. Maybe the author based this character on a relative, her Dad even? The plot? I really didn't care who killed the murder victims, or why. Just wind this thing up!