| Title: | Trance State |
| Author: | John Case |
| Genre: | Thriller |
| Synopsis: | A young researcher disappears after attending a tempting job interview and a troubled woman suicides in connection with a sinister plot. The sister of the dead woman goes looking for answers and finds far more of them than she is ready for. |
| Verdict: | Creepy, plotted well enough to move you along and shock you here and there, a little clunky in places but nice overall. A good holiday read. |
| Pages: | 455 |
| Read: | January 2010 |
30 January 2010
#42. Trance State by John Case
#41. La Bella Figure: An Insider's Guide To The Italian Mind by Beppe Severgnini
| Title: | La Bella Figura: An Insider’s Guide To The Italian Mind |
| Author: | Beppe Severgnini |
| Genre: | Non-Fiction/Travel/Humour |
| Synopsis: | An account of Italy told by an Italian to dispel the over-romanticism shopped about by movies and expatriate and share the truth of Italian life/society. |
| Verdict: | Told as a 10-day journey with each location used to make a point on culture etc. Interesting but slow going. |
| Pages: | 269 |
| Read: | January – March 2010 |
#40. The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon
| Title: | The Yiddish Policeman’s Union |
| Author: | Michael Chabon |
| Genre: | Crime Fiction/Police Procedural/Alternate History |
| Synopsis: | In a remote Jewish community in an alternate history USA a down-and-out detective seeks a murderer, having to push through levels of obstruction and secrecy in an uncertain environment. |
| Verdict: | Beautifully crafted with wonderful turns of phrase and little hints of history and culture scattered about. I loved how Michael Chabon didn’t feel the need to append footnotes or a glossary and just let the reader work out what the different words/terms meant from context or left it up to you whether you wanted to look it up or not. This book sucked me right in. An excellent read. |
| Pages: | 411 |
| Read: | January 2010 |
#39. Sharp Shooter by Marianne Delacourt
| Title: | Sharp Shooter |
| Author: | Marianne Delacourt |
| Genre: | Crime/Detective/Humour |
| Synopsis: | A girl who can see auras finds herself working as a P.I. in Perth and getting drawn into the less legitimate areas of society and quite a bit of danger as a result. |
| Verdict: | It was billed as ‘good for people who like Janet Evanovich’ but doesn’t even live up to that claim. It started off terribly with quite a blunt intro to her abilities, a cut-and-paste obligatory gay friend but by the end it was getting better, less predictable and felt like the author might manage a sequel with an actual structure/plot. |
| Pages: | 311 |
| Read: | January 2010 |
#38. It's Not My Fault They Print Them by Catherine Deveny
| Title: | It’s Not My Fault They Print Them |
| Author: | Catherine Deveny |
| Genre: | Compilation |
| Synopsis: | A collection of Catherine Deveny’s Age columns, loosely divided by subject. |
| Verdict: | Sometimes the ‘like it or lump it’ is laid on a bit thick but overall good for a think and a laugh. Catherine Deveny doesn’t sugar coat her message and doesn’t treat hypocrisy with anything other than gleeful contempt. |
| Pages: | 238 |
| Read: | January 2010 |
#37. Past Reason Hated by Peter Robinson
| Title: | Past Reason Hated |
| Author: | Peter Robinson |
| Genre: | Crime Fiction/Police Procedural |
| Synopsis: | A young woman is murdered shortly before Christmas and the police scramble to try uncover her hidden past in order to discover who could have wanted to do her harm. |
| Verdict: | The descriptions/characters/pacing and so on were… OK but it felt like a second best novel/author, everything felt a bit flat. There was a weird reference to Adam Dalgliesh (P.D. James’ fictional detective) as if he were a real person in the world this book takes place in which reminds the reader sharply in an annoying fashion that this is a work of fiction. Shitty treatment of GLBT characters and poor motives. Not worth reading. |
| Pages: | 398 |
| Read: | January 2010 |
#36. Life After God by Douglas Coupland
| Title: | Life After God |
| Author: | Douglas Coupland |
| Genre: | Fiction |
| Synopsis: | A man muses on his life, memory and religion in a way that seems addressed to his daughter. Structured as little stories and segments told along a journey. |
| Verdict: | It seems more written to provoke thought than give answers. The life recounted through these discourses is a bit depressing but is a good vehicle for the topic. |
| Pages: | 360 |
| Read: | January 2010 |
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