The Gratuitous Return of Library Loot

Even though I’m up to my eyeballs in library books I’m back with another Library Loot post. As always I’ll be applying these recently borrowed books towards several reading challenges, including the European Reading Challenge, Historical Fiction Reading Challenge and Nonfiction Reader Challenge.  Once again I’ll need to read like crazy if I’m to put a dent in the tower of library books stacked by my reading chair. Too many books and not enough time. Story of my life! 

• Bohemian Gospel by Dana Chamblee Carpenter (2015) – I’ve been eyeing this one for months and finally decided to give it a chance. Set in 13th century Bohemia it’s perfect for both the European Reading Challenge and Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. 
• Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili (2024) – How often do you get to read a novel set in the Republic of Georgia? This irreverent comedy of a novel is getting rave reviews. 
• Empress of the Nile: The Daredevil Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt’s Ancient Temples from Destruction by Lynne Olson (2023) – I remember watching some documentary back in grade school and  was fascinated seeing people scramble to dismantle a bunch of ancient Egyptian temples and relocate them to higher ground before the area was flooded by some huge dam being built on the Nile. As an adult I’m excited to learn how this unfolded and what crazy stuff went on behind the scenes. 

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading to encourage bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write-up your post, steal the Library Loot icon and link your post using the Mr. Linky on Claire’s Blog. 

Yet Another Return of Library Loot

After going months without posting any Library Loot posts a couple of weeks ago I finally returned with a new one. Foolishly figuring I could use a few more library books I’m back with another post. As always I’ll be applying them towards several reading challenges, including the European Reading Challenge, Historical Fiction Reading Challenge and Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge.  Also as always I’ve borrowed way too many books, but I’ll try to read as many as I can before they’re overdue. Too many library books and not enough time. The story of my life! 

• The Moscow Sleepers by Stella Rimington (2018) – It’s not everyday you get to read a spy novel by the former Director General of Britain’s MI5. Something for the Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge. 
• The Wild One by Nick Petrie (2020) – Hard to resist a thriller set in Iceland. Perfect for the European Reading Challenge.
• The Creation of Eve by Lynn Cullen (2010) – Set in 16th century Spain, this fictionalized account of Sofonisba Anguissola, history’s forgotten female artist of the Renaissance I’ll be applying towards both the European Reading Challenge and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. 

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading to encourage bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write-up your post, steal the Library Loot icon and link your post using the Mr. Linky on Sharlene’s Blog. 

About Time I Read It: The Siberian Dilemma by Martin Cruz Smith

Seeking yet another novel for the Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge I followed my public librarian’s advice and borrowed a copy of Martin Cruz Smith’s 2019 thriller The Siberian Dilemma. And why not I figured since I’d had good luck with his novels in the past. I’m happy to report I enjoyed this one as well. A fast-paced narrative with great dialog featuring everyone’s favorite Russian gumshoe Investigator Arkady Renko once again made for fun reading. While some Cruz Smith aficionados feel The Siberian Dilemma isn’t the author’s best work it left me wanting to read more novels from his acclaimed Arkady Renko series.

When Renko’s Tatiana girlfriend fails to return from her trip to the Russian Far East he grows concerned. An investigative journalist who’s made a name for herself for exposing the high crimes and misdemeanor of Russia’s rich and powerful is the kind of person Putin or one of his sycophantic oligarchs would love to see vanish or plunge from a top story window. Fearing foul play and worried for her safety he drops everything and travels thousands of miles to the frozen wilds of Irkutsk. There, at the opposite end of Eurasia he locates her, and while much to his relief she’s alive and well, she’s on the other hand isn’t too excited to see him. If anything, his arrival as a bit of a nuisance. Far from rescuing some far-flung damsel in distress Renko has instead intruded upon her exclusive journalistic assignment covering oil industry oligarch Mikhail Kuznetsov and his presidential campaign to unseat Putin.

At first Kuznetsov’s fight looks like nothing more than yet another quixotic presidential campaign, doomed to fail like all the others. But despite the current Russian president’s iron grip on the country in reality Kuznetsov’s campaign poses the first serious threat to Putin’s rule in well over a decade. If that wasn’t dangerous enough, Kuznetsov’s friend and business partner Boris Benz soon turns up dead. With Kuznetsov, and in all likelihood Tatiana both in danger it’s up to Renko to keep them alive. Luckily for our intrepid Moscow investigator assisting him in his endeavors is his newly hired Siberian factotum. Born and raised in the region, Renko’s ad hoc right hand man is a self-proclaimed backwoods shaman, well at ease with in the lands and customs of the Russian Far East.

Since finishing The Siberian Dilemma I’ve followed things up with his 1992 novel Red Square. After reading several hundred pages I can confidently say it’s shaping up to be an excellent thriller. So with that in mind, get ready to see more of Cruz Smith’s novels featured on my blog.

About Time I Read It: City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin

Several years ago at a yard sale I picked up a copy of Ariana Franklin’s 2006 historical thriller City of Shadows. After letting it sit ignored and unread in my personal library I recently decided to give it a shot since I wanted to read something set in Germany for the European Reading Challenge I could also apply it towards both the Cloak and Dagger and Historical Fiction reading challenges. Similar to Juan Gómez-Jurado’s 2011 The Traitor’s Emblem it’s set in Germany during the interwar years, one that begins with political turmoil and economic misery and ends with Hitler and the Nazis seizing power.

In the period following Germany’s surrender after World War I the German people, their lives wrecked by unemployment and hyperinflation find themselves desperately needing entertainment to help them forget their troubles, if only for a few fleeting hours. Filling the void is “Prince” Nick, a Russian exile and self-proclaimed nobleman whose small network of cabarets provide pleasure-seeking Berliners with deliciously unwholesome entertainment. Assisting him in his sordid venture is his full-time secretary and occasional lover Esther Solomonova. Another Russian refugee but Jewish, she’s a multilingual, scar-faced survivor of one of the many deadly pogroms spawned by Russia’s bloody Civil War.

Nick has even grander ambitions, chief of which is playing Svengali to a troubled, young amnesiac currently confined to an insane asylum and pass her off as Grand Duchess Anastasia. Thought to have been murdered along with the rest of the Romanovs by the Bolsheviks a few years earlier, throughout Europe and much of the world rumors nevertheless persist she’d someone survived. If certain powerful interests in Germany and beyond could be convinced Nick’s protégé is the real deal he could profit financially as well as politically.

Standing in the way Nick’s grand scheme is a mysterious stranger who’s been stalking the amnesiac since her days at the asylum, and has taken to murdering one by one those associated with her. Before long her safety, as well as others rest in the hands of an intrepid Berlin police detective with help by the equally brave and intelligent Esther.

One of the things that made this novel a fun read was seeing the story unfold against the backdrop of rising Nazism. Even though it’s hard in this day and age to take to whole Anastasia might not have been murdered thing with any seriousness I enjoyed City of Shadows and would like to explore more of Ariana Franklin’s fiction.

The Return of Library Loot

It’s been a few months since I’ve done a Library Loot post so I figured now’s a good a time as any. Half these books I’ve had eye on for quite some time and the other half are recent discoveries. As always I’ll be applying them towards several reading challenges, including the European Reading Challenge, Historical Fiction Reading Challenge and Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge. Six out of the nine are from my small town public library and the remaining three I borrowed through my library’s Overdrive portal. I’m sure I’ve borrowed way too many books at one time but I’ll try to read as many as I can before they’re overdue. Too many library books and not enough time. The story of my life! 

• Istanbul Passage by Joseph Kanon (2012) – A little World War II espionage set in Turkey.
• Red Square by Martin Cruz Smith (1992) – Moscow homicide investigator Arkady Renko fighting crime as the Soviet Union crumbles around him. 
• The Green Shore by Natalie Bakopoulos (2012) – I’m excited to read something set during Greece’s 1967 military coup. 
• Sisi: Empress on Her Own by Allison Pataki (2016) – Hard to pass up a novel about the old Austro-Hungarian Empire.
• The Begotten: A Novel of the Gifted by Lisa T. Bergren (2006) – I usually don’t read “Christian speculative fiction” but somehow this one still managed to grab my attention.
• Codex by Lev Grossman (2004) – A thriller involving a mysterious medieval codex is always hard to resist. 
• The Peking Express: The Bandits Who Stole a Train, Stunned the West, and Broke the Republic of China by James M. Zimmerman (2023) – Had to grab this one just based on the book’s subtitle. 
• A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza’s Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age by Steven Nadler (2011) (On Kindle) – With a little luck I’ll apply this towards the European Reading Challenge. 
• The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance by Ross King (2021) (On Kindle)- I’m a huge sucker for books about books. 

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading to encourage bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write-up your post, steal the Library Loot icon and link your post using the Mr. Linky on Sharlene’s Blog. 

About Time I Read It: Murder in Passy by Cara Black

I’m sure it’s no surprise to any of you I don’t get around to reading all the books I borrow from the library. That’s why one of my reading goals for 2024 is to finally read a few of those books I’ve borrowed from the library yet never read. Needing something I could apply towards both the European Reading Challenge and Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge I once again borrowed a copy of Black’s 2011 Murder in Passy, a Paris-set whodunit I originally borrowed back in 2022 only to return without reading a single page. This time around I knuckled down and gave it my full attention, finishing Murder in Passy in just a few days. Smart, decently written and entertaining Black’s novel exceeded my admittedly modest expectations leaving me wanting to explore more than a few other books in Black’s series.

Suspicious something might be awry, private detective Aimée Leduc is asked by her godfather Police Commissioner Morbier to check in on his love interest Xavierre, a upper class Parisian matron of Basque extraction. Arriving at Xavierre’s swanky digs in the upscale neighborhood of Passy she finds a wedding reception in full swing as Xavierre’s grown daughter has recently tied the knot. Aimée and her investigative partner find little is a miss, other than the mother of the bride too busy with wedding details to return Morbier’s calls and texts. However, just before the two detectives leave Xavierre is mysteriously murdered. To make matters worse, Morbier  quickly becomes a suspect, arrested and pressured by the Paris police to confess. His spirit broken by the death of his girlfriend, the rejection of his colleagues and the growing realization he’s been framed he turns to his god daughter to find the real murderer and clear his name. Aimée agrees, but deep down despite his innocence she senses he’s hiding something.

According to Cara Black’s webpage, Murder in Passy is one of  a dozen or so murder mysteries in the Aimée Leduc series, each one set in a different district of Paris. From what I can tell many or perhaps most of these novels feature different immigrant communities commonly associated with each districts. With such ample opportunities for international intrigue there’s a strong likelihood you’ll see more of Cara Black’s murder mysteries featured on my blog.

About Time I Read It: The Second Sleep by Robert Harris

Back in 2017 I was in the need for something set in Vatican City for Rose City Reader‘s European Reading Challenge so I borrowed an ebook of Robert Harris’s 2016 Conclave, figuring if I enjoyed it only half as much as his 1992 best seller Fatherland I’d be a happy camper. I’m happy to say I enjoyed Conclave, so much so it made my year-end list of Favorite Fiction.

Fast forward to 2024 and I’ve decided to revisit a few of my favorite authors of thrillers and historical fiction, starting with Robert Harris. Luckily for me my small town public library has lots of his  stuff so I picked up a copy of his 2019 The Second Sleep. Billed as a murder mystery set in England in the year 1468 I figured I could read it not just for the European Reading Challenge but also the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge and the Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge. After starting it, I quickly realized I’d be unable to apply it towards the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge because The Second Sleep is set not in the medieval past but in some post-apocalyptic future. Since I don’t like revealing spoilers I won’t elaborate, but fans of the 1959 post-apocalyptic social science fiction novel A Canticle for Leibowitz should feel quite at home with The Second Sleep.

A beloved priest dies unexpectedly and Father Christopher Fairfax is dispatched to an isolated English village to minister to the deceased’s mourning flock and pave the way for a suitable replacement. Told the former village priest’s death was an accident after a heckler disturbs his funeral Father Fairfax begins having doubts, and before long suspects foul play. Adding to the mystery Father Fairfax discovers the priest in question was secretly a collector of ancient artifacts like coins, pieces of broken glass and fragments of plastic. Officially prohibited by the Church as grave robbing, nevertheless the excavation of the these items bear witness to a mysterious ancient era dominated by fantastic machines of unlimited power and ability that suddenly came to an end over 800 years ago. Religious prohibitions aside, anyone bold enough to re-harness this ancient technology could potentially rule the world. Was the village priest murdered to keep such ancient secrets hidden from the dangerously ambitious, and if so did the Church play any role?

While The Second Sleep is a pretty good thriller powered by a clever concept unfortunately I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as Fatherland or Conclave. Fortunately, it hasn’t deterred me from exploring the rest of Harris’s fiction which luckily for me my small town public library has no shortage for me to enjoy.

About Time I Read It: Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone

Back in 2014 I followed the advice of an annoymous librarian and took a chance on Chris Pavone’s 2012 debut novel The Expats. Set in the small European country of Luxemburg I thoroughly enjoyed Pavone’s best-selling thriller easily putting in on that year’s list of Favorite Fiction. Wanting to read more from this promising author later that year I dived into his follow-up novel The Accident. Sadly, I found it a bit disappointing and as a result I’ve steered clear of his writing. But needing something set in Portugal for Rose City Reader‘s European Reading Challenge I recently decided to give Pavone another chance by borrowing a copy of his 2020 Two Nights in Lisbon. This time I was not disappointed and now find myself once again wanting to read more of his fiction.

Ariel Pryce should be having a lovely time in Lisbon. Recently remarried, her new husband was kind enough to bring her along on his business trip. Due to his busy work schedule they mostly see each other on the weekends so she’s more than happy to join him on what arguably could be considered a financially subsidized second honeymoon. But her little dream vacation unexpectedly becomes a nightmare when early one morning Ariel’s husband goes missing. At first Lisbon police and United States embassy officials  thinks she’s merely overreacting, believing he’s merely wrapped up with clients, engaged in some sort of extramarital activity, or at the very worse seduced by the city’s permissive drug culture. As the hours stretch by however it looks more and more likely foul play is involved. Each time Ariel is interviewed by the authorities the endless rounds of questioning feel more and more like an interrogation with Ariel one is left wondering who exactly is this man she married and what secrets could he be hiding. Ironically, could Ariel’s mysterious past, one she’s gone great lengths to keep hidden be somehow related to her husband’s recent disappearance?

Two Nights in Lisbon is a great novel and well worth the time. Unlike Pavone’s 2014 thriller The Accident I have no problems recommending this intelligent and entertaining thriller.

2023 In Review: My Favorite Fiction

Sorry this is a few days late but these are my favorite novels I read in 2023. I’m please to report all I borrowed all of these from my small town library or through Overdrive.

My Favorites of 2023

• Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby (2020)
• My Father’s House by Joseph O’Connor (2023)
• The Vienna Writers Circle by J.C. Maetis (2023)
• The Increment by David Ignatius (2009)
• The Traitor’s Emblem by Juan Gómez-Jurado (2011)
• Greeks Bearing Gifts by Philip Kerr (2018)
• The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak (2021)
• Under Occupation by Alan Furst (2019)
• The Girl From Venice by Martin Cruz Smith (2016)
• Operation Napoleon by Arnaldur Indriðason (2011)
• The Woman From Prague by Rob Hart (2017)
• Jade Dragon Mountain by Elsa Hart (2015)

Honorable Mentions

• Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian (2008)
• 1222 by Anne Holt (2011)

2023 In Review: My Favorite Nonfiction

Sorry this is a few days late but these are my favorite nonfiction books I read in 2023. Almost all of these came from my small town library or were Kindle editions I borrowed through Overdrive.

My Favorites of 2023

• The Good Assassin: How a Mossad Agent and a Band of Survivors Hunted Down the Butcher of Latvia by Stephan Talty (2020)
• Goodbye, Eastern Europe: An Intimate History of a Divided Land by Jacob Mikanowski (2023)
• A Man and His Ship: America’s Greatest Naval Architect and His Quest to Build the S.S. United States by Steven Ujifusa (2012)
• In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri (2015)
• Archduke Franz Ferdinand Lives!: A World without World War I by Richard Ned Lebow (2014)
• How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them by Barbara F. Walter (2022)
• Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning by Timothy Snyder (2015)
• I Was Vermeer: The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century’s Greatest Forger by Frank Wynne (2006)
• Street of Eternal Happiness: Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road by Rob Schmitz (2016)
• On the Eve: The Jews of Europe Before the Second World War by Bernard Wasserstein (2012)
• The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal by David E. Hoffman (2015)

Honorable Mentions

• The World’s Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette’s, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family by Josh Hanagarne (2013)
• Things I’ve Been Silent About by Azar Nafisi (2008)
• Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life by Amber Scorah (2019)
• Lost Boy by Brent W. Jeffs with Maia Szalavitz (2009)
• What’s the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank (2004)
• The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age by James Kirchick (2017)