Just finished Bone Yard by Jefferson Bass. Found a copy autographed by Bass at a Habitat For Humanity thrift store.
My other recent acquisition is Alice in Sunderland by Bryan Talbot. I don't usually seek out graphic novels, but got a good deal on this one because it was (mis-)classified as children's lit. It looks interesting, broad in scope, and a candidate for the 'beautiful cover' bingo square.
Finished Ireland by Frank Delaney, who fittingly, is himself Irish which I'm claiming solves the top row of my bingo card.
This book follows one of the last traditional itinerant storytellers in Ireland who visits a home in 1950 and has a lasting impact on the young boy there. It's about this mysterious Storyteller, the boy, and Ireland. It includes a decent summary of Irish history from Newgrange to the Easter Rebellion of 1916, which I did need a refresher on. I suspect it's not a very academic history of Ireland and that some of the Storyteller's versions are probably embellished if not fabricated, but it's good enough for me.
No bingo yet, but if I finish the book I'm about 30% through, I can claim the top row^*^. That one seems to be easy mode for my reading strategy (I read what I want, at the pace I want, and think and occasionally comment about if and where it fits.) A few other squares scattered about, and some unscored reads that if applied to free space or alt prompt gets close in other directions.
^*^Considering the content of his novels, I've deemed it within the spirit of the rules to call Frank Delaney an Irish author, even though he eventually moved to my continent.
Finished reading 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, because last month someone here reminded me about it and said it didn't suck. He's right. It's not a best in breed of the alien invasion genre, and some of the YA themes weren't intended to captivate guys who'd cross the street to avoid overhearing teenage girls gushing about dreamy teenage boys. But it's good enough that I can donate it to a neglected little free library and not feel guilty about shortchanging whoever takes it. I think the reason I passed over it earlier was that I thought it was the 5th in the series, not the first.
Now I'm re-reading Bone Collector by Jeffrey Deaver. I've read some of his Lincoln Rhyme mysteries, but couldn't remember which ones. I'm only about 50 pgs in, but it looks familiar. I expect it to end with some unrealistic coincidences, but can't remember what, so I'll continue.
From a little free library, just finished Burn by Nevada Barr, part of her Anna Pigeon series. Normally these are all set in a national park, where the natural geology plays a major role in the mystery. This one happens near the New Orleans Jazz Historical Park, but doesn't have anything to do with the park, or jazz, or even New Orleans and could have taken place anywhere there's a black market for certain illicit services. I liked some of the more outdoorsy ones a bit better, but this was worth the read. I have to think about whether Anna Pigeon qualifies as an E5-caliber grump for bingo card.
It's Banned Books Week, so I downloaded a pdf of The Turner Diaries. I'm told this book is considered inspirational by those who think having a race war would be fun and glorious. It might also be of interest to non-racists with morbid curiosity about White Nationalist ideology. Otherwise, I do not recommend it for its literary value. I read this so you don't have to.
What do you think about 5th Wave? You reminded me that I have a copy on the bottom of a stack, still unread. I'm currently about halfway into Red Sparrow (I like it so far; the author seems to know his stuff), and I'll finish that first, but I could re-sort my piles to make it more visible if given a reason to.
They changed quite a bit, but yes, The Meg (2018).
Jonas Taylor is the human protagonist and megalodon expert. Mac and Heller are approximately the same character as in the book. Most of the Japanese characters got changed to Chinese. The (ex-)Mrs. Taylor got completely remade. There are some other major plot adjustments.
MEG by Steve Alten
The titular megalodon qualifies it for the 1C bingo square. Unfortunately, the human characters were all disappointing, and some of them survive long enough to appear in sequels which I won't bother with.
Asimov's Breeds There a Man ...?
A suicidal genius figures out the relationship between his brilliance and his mental health.
Recently finished Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan.
It starts off by confusingly introducing a large number of characters at the narrator's funeral, but gets good once 12 of them arrive in China for the Burma Road trip she organized for them. She joins them in spirit, but can only observe cultural misunderstandings she would have saved them from had she been alive, culminating in 11 of them going missing without explanation when their lake excursion never returned.
It's surprisingly funny given the subject matter involving oppressive regimes and human rights abuses. It's also entertaining and informative and gets a positive recommendation.
I scored it under Minority Author for bingo as she is Chinese-American. However, I think Amy Tan's more interesting affiliation is as vocalist with the Rock Bottom Remainders, who I learned about after reading a good book by their guitarist.
This week I'll mention John Grisham's The Brethren.
The Brethren are three ex-judges in a low security federal prison who should have been in a harsher one because they're using their time catfishing (though the book predates that term) and extorting closeted gay men who answer pen pal ads. In another thread, I think it was @misericordiae@literature.cafe who conjectured that the LGBTQ hard mode was easier than the easy mode. I'm therefore pleased to report that The Brethren contains mail fraud, wire fraud, bribery, tax evasion, embezzlement, legal malpractice, and even some light treason, but very little romance of any sort. Having seen the result of Grisham trying to write romantic scenes, this is probably for the best. He's much better at these sorts of characters.