Monday, April 27, 2009

New Hamish Macbeth!

I read Death of a Witch, the newest M.C. Beaton novel, over the weekend. It was pretty good. The Hamish stories do get a bit repetitive after a while. This one has Hamish investigating the death of a woman who had tricked the men of Lochdubh into buying aphrodisiacs that didn't work. The killer is a bit of surprise, and the reasons for the killings is quite sad, and proves that Hamish doesn't know what really goes on behind the doors of his beloved village. The usual Hamish-is-unlucky-in-love subplot appears, too, with his two former loves and a possible new one clashing. That gets boring after a while. It would be nice if Hamish actually picks one and settles down! But then, I guess he wouldn't be Hamish.

So now I've read both new Beaton novels. It will be a long time before a new Hamish or Agatha Raisin story comes out.

That's book number ten. I really need to get back to reading...

Monday, April 20, 2009

R.I.P., J. G. Ballard.

The author of Empire of the Sun, Crash, and other novels died yesterday at 78.

Crash was kind of icky (I didn't even bother with the movie version), but Empire was a classic. I need to read it again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._G._Ballard




I finished The Reader (better than the movie), and I'll read either Cranford or A Passage to India next. I've really neglected the books so far this year. :(