This month has been quite busy with reviewing for Crime Fiction Lover, so there has been less diversity. 7 out of 11 books written by men. This certainly does not reflect the views of the website, so I wonder if it shows that there are more books by male authors being published, even in the crime genre, and that you have to deliberately seek out women authors. Additionally, I only read 4 books originally written in other languages and only 2 non-crime books, which is quite a low percentage, even for me.
Crime fiction
Marcus Malte: Les harmoniques – jazz, recent European genocides, murder and slapstick make for an unlikely but virtuoso novel – review to come
Kjell Ola Dahl: Faithless, transl. Don Bartlett – realistic police procedural, a good blend of psychology, humour and action
Chris Whitaker: Tall Oaks – Fargo with more warmth and humanity
E.O. Chirovici: The Book of Mirrors – just how reliable are our memories?
Bogdan Hrib: Patimile doamnei ministru (The Passion of Madame Minister) – political thriller taking place mainly in Copenhagen and Bucharest
James Carol: The Quiet Man – a serial killer who operates remotely with bombs – why would anybody do that? -review to come on Crime Fiction Lover
Philippe Georget: Crimes of Winter, trans;. Steven Rendall – 3rd in the Inspector Sebag series, set in beautiful Perpignan, this one is all about adultery and venial sins, review to come on Crime Fiction Lover
and finally two women writers:
Lucy Atkins: The Night Visitor – academic rivalry and personal ambitions take a murderous and chilling turn
Fiona Cummins: Rattle – bone malformations, kidnapped children, a sinister ‘Slender Man’ reference – suspenseful and highly observant of family life – review to come
Non-crime:
Fiona Melrose: Midwinter – or why suffering in secret is not the best solution
Heather O’Neill: The Lonely Hearts Hotel – magical storytelling to make stark reality a bit more bearable
My crime book of the month is Tall Oaks and my non-crime read is Midwinter. I haven’t done much reading for the #EU27Project this month (although the Marcus Malte book could qualify for that, when I write the review), so I want to focus on that in May.
The pictures are not of books this time, but spring landscapes out and about.
An interesting month of reading. I’ve started tracking the gender of my authors and I’m finding it makes me make a conscious effort to read more female writers – which is good! And as for that first picture – gorgeous!!!!
Yes, whenever I don’t consciously track things, it can be very easy to slip into old patterns. Which is, I suppose, a good argument for quotas.
Tall Oaks and Faithless are on my TBR. I find your observation funny because I feel I read more crime from female authors these days 🙂
I certainly enjoy reading female authors more and probably own more books by them, but I find the overall stats seem to still be stacked against them.
Just catching up with the blog posts I missed love your monthly reviews making them instantly accessible (not that I’m lazy of course😉) off to see what you thought if Midwinter – which I loved- and The Night Visitor which is certainly attracting a buzz on social media today…
No worries, I like catching up with any reviews I might have missed in these monthly round-ups, because I don’t get a chance to read all the blogs every day. And sometimes they don’t show up in my feed, for some odd reason.
Oh WHAT delicious photos. I want to teleport into them! I did track my male/female reading retrospectively for a couple of years, and it seems organically to be roughly 50/50. I find books written using regional or country versions of English to be my big challenge. I think I would probably manage audio versions of them better. I find the written versions of pronunciation a challenge – almost like seeing spelling mistakes!
I love your spring photos. It sounds like you had a good reading month however. I keep hearing marvellous things about Midwinter – Do you think I would like it?
It relies much more on emotion and atmosphere and characterisation rather than any plot points, so yes, I think you will be fine!
Atmosphere and characterisation are things I love in my reading. 😊
Interesting question on the gender balance among crime writers. It would be interesting to take a look at the crime shelves in a bookshop and see what picture unfolds from that.
I love those spring ‘photos, Marina Sofia. And thanks for sharing your reading. The Dahl sound really interesting. And, as I mentioned yesterday, Tall Oaks got my attention, too.
Lovely pics. I keep hearing about Tall Oaks. I think I need to read it. I hope you have a wonderful new month. Happy reading 🙂
I remember you really liked Tall Oaks. Have you read all three books in the Georget series?
Just the first and now the third. I somehow missed the second.
IS the quality sustained?
It feels quite different from the first one, more of a meditation on infidelity rather than a clear-cut crime investigation.
I confess I can’t seem to keep up with all your books, though I do try to look them up after reading your posts. But anyway I keep coming back here and today you’ve rewarded me with these delicious spring landscapes 🙂
Oh, good to know that I don’t have to review any quicker, because I can’t seem to be able to keep up with the reviewing! Just come back whenever you can, you are always welcome!
Thanks, I do make lists of all your recommendations though 🙂 for when I’ll be less time-challenged. Whenever that is!
Ah, yes, that elusive future…