Cadfael: a reprise

A posting on Books to the Ceiling today had the following wonderful picture of Sir Derek Jacobi as Brother Cadfael with Cadfael's creator Ellis Peters.

I blogged about the series last week in Forgotten Book: A MORBID TASTE FOR BONES, Ellis Peters saying I thought it would be a rare reader of crime fiction who hadn't read at least one.

Books to the Ceiling concurs with my view:
If you haven’t read the Brother Cadfael novels, give yourself a treat and pick one up. Then watch the DVD’s in which Sir Derek Jacobi brings the sleuthing monk (monkish sleuth?) memorably to life.

I decided to see what I could find on YouTube for you to enjoy.
Here are a couple:

A Tribute to Cadfael



Virgin On the Ice

Weekly Geeks 2009 #1 - Blogs I Follow

Many thanks to Marg at Reading Adventures who brought to my attention the fact that Weekly Geeks is up and running again. Click on the image to the right to find out more from the Weekly Geeks Home Page.
Apparently each week this year will be hosted by a different person.

This week's main assignment:
tell us about your favorite blogs, the ones you have bookmarked or subscribe to in your Google Reader, that you visit on a regular basis. Tell us what it is about these blogs that you love, that inspire or educate you or make you laugh. Be sure to link to them so we can find them too.

I'm going to cheat a bit here and point you to my other site Crime Fiction Journeys which I created last year to feature the blog postings of fellow crime fiction readers.
You'll see that I have 15 featured blogs and another 81 that I follow as well.
I get great pleasure in seeing what they are writing about, in visiting their blogs, and leaving comments when I can.

Another option: Reading goals for ’09 and wrap ups for ’08 have been pretty well covered by now on a lot of blogs and other memes. But if you haven’t done this, feel free to make that your first WG of the new year, in addition to or instead of the above.

I've pretty well covered these in earlier postings but you can find them at

• 2009 - What Challenges does it hold?
• Summing Up my blogging year 2008
• Our best crime fiction authors in 2008
• What we said - tops in 2008
• Good Crime Fiction we read in 2008

Sunday Salon #2 (39) - 11 January 2009

First of all my apologies for not getting around to people's blogs in the last week.
I've got a bit over ambitious with things and snowed under with emails and blog postings.

I hope your new year has started well with some good books. Mine certainly has.

This week's postings

• Review: BRIGHT AIR, Barry Maitland
  Maitland is well known for his Brock and Kolla series. This stand alone does not disappoint.
• Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Monthly Carnival
  If you read Agatha Christie and post reviews on your blog, then this will be of interest. A Monthly Carnival where you can contribute links to your reviews.
• ACRC: Short Stories, Update #2
  An update of the short stories list in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge.
• Great Buddy Award
  Marg at Reading Adventures gave me a Great Buddy Award and I have handed it on to the 40 people who contributed to my Best Reads of 2008 project.
• Forgotten Book: A MORBID TASTE FOR BONES, Ellis Peters
  The first in the Brother Cadfael series. Have you read them?
• Good Crime Fiction we read in 2008
  40 crime fiction readers listed 396 books. Here is the full list.
• ACRC Update - 6 January 2009
  I've finished reading Agatha Christie's first 6 novels, and her first collection of short stories. Would you like to join me on my Agatha Christie Reading Challenge?
• Review: POIROT INVESTIGATES, Agatha Christie
  A collection of 11 short stories published in 2004
• Our best crime fiction authors in 2008
  The top 10 authors were Stieg Larsson, Chris Grabenstein, Craig Johnson, Michael Robotham, Adrian McKinty, Kate Atkinson, Tana French, Agatha Christie, Arnaldur Indridason, and Jo Nesbo.
  Check the post for the books another 28 authors to look for.
• What we said - tops in 2008
  40 participants chose top crime fiction reads for 2008.
  The top 10 were
  THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by Stieg Larsson
  SHATTER by Michael Robotham
  WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS? by Kate Atkinson
  THE COLD DISH by Craig Johnson
  NO TIME FOR GOODBYE by Linwood Barclay
  A SLIP OF THE KNIFE by Denise Mina
  BLACK SECONDS by Karin Fossum
  CHILD 44 by Tom Rob Smith
  DIAMOND DOVE by Adrian Hyland
  EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE by John McFetridge
  Check the post for 10 more top books.
  

What I've read so far in 2009
I'm participating in National Just Read More Novels Month:NaJuReMoNoMo site

• BRIGHT AIR, Barry Maitland
• POIROT INVESTIGATES, Agatha Christie
• THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS, Agatha Christie
• THE SWEETNESS OF LIFE, Paulus Hochgatterer

Breaking News:

• Competition on Rafe's Blog
  Rafe McGregor is giving away a hamper of six mystery and supernatural books, all signed by their respective authors (and editors for the collections)
• Book Review Carnival at Bloody-Kisses.Org
  If you want to advertise your book reviews more widely, here is your chance. The Book Review Carnival happens every fortnight, so you can make it an ongoing project.
  

I'm currently reading

• now - AGATHA RAISIN and the WELLSPRING of DEATH
• sometime soon - THE 19TH WIFE, David Ebershoff
• also listening to - CORDUROY MANSIONS, Alexander McCall Smith, up to ch. 74
  
• in the car - SEVEN ANCIENT WONDERS, Matthew Reilly

Looking for Australian crime fiction to read? Don't forget to check Carnival of Criminal Minds #29 - Murder in the Outback

Review: BRIGHT AIR, Barry Maitland

Allen & Unwin, 2008, 295 pages, ISBN 978-1-74114-817-6

Josh Ambler was working in London four years ago when his ex-lover Lucy Corcoran went missing on Lord Howe Island during a climbing accident. During his university days he had joined a climbing group that Luce was part of, along with Anna, Damien, Curtis and Owen. The glue that held the group together was biologist and lecturer Dr. Marcus Fenn, once a climber himself but injured in a particularly severe fall. Marcus had mentored the group in climbing, particularly on difficult and hazardous expeditions related to endangered flora and birds.

Just recently Curtis and Owen have died after a fall on Mt. Cook in the Southern Alps in New Zealand. Curtis died at the scene but Anna had been able to fly to New Zealand in time to be at Owen's death bed before he died. In his final words to Anna, Owen appeared to be confessing that he and Owen had killed Luce.

His lack of closure leads Josh, with Anna, to investigate the circumstances around Luce's disappearance and apparent death, flying to Lord Howe Island where local residents appear to be going out of their way to make them welcome.

BRIGHT AIR is Barry Maitland's first stand alone novel. Readers may be aware of his Brock and Kolla series in which he has published 9 titles between 1994 and 2007. If BRIGHT AIR is an indication of what we can expect in stand alones, then I hope we see many more. Not only was I really impressed with the depth of Maitland's knowledge about climbing and climbing techniques, I thought the characterisation was excellent. I'm not sure that I was totally convinced of the plausibility of the final resolution, but it didn't diminish my enjoyment of the plot.

My rating: 4.3

Read an extract online, or purchase an e-book at Allen &Unwin.
You can see a full listing of his novels on Barry Maitland's own site.
Barry Maitland moved to Australia from London in 1984, and now writes full time.

Other reviews to look at
Reactions to Reading

Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Monthly Carnival Launched

I've been trying to work out a way that those of us who are interested in comparing notes on our journey through Agatha Christie's novels and short stories can keep in touch with each other and I've decided on setting up an "official" Monthly Carnival.

This means that participants can contribute links to their own blog postings and book reviews on a monthly basis. The inaugural Carnival will be posted on about January 23 with submissions closing on January 20. Once one carnival closes, submissions for the next one will open. I plan that submissions will close on 20th of each month, ready for posting on about 23rd of the month.

I'm using Blog Carnival which I discovered late last week.
Click here and you will be taken to the site where the submission space lives.
If you have written any reviews of Agatha Christie books, however brief, I encourage you to participate in the carnival.
I don't mind for this inaugural carnival how many posts you link in but they must all relate in some way to your reading of Agatha Christie novels, and they must be on your blog. You don't have to join anything to create your links. Just use the URL of your particular post, and the system will check for it's existence. Write a brief description of the post in Remarks.

I've decided to create yet another, dedicated, blog for the purpose. It is called the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Carnival. This gives it its own RSS feed and I have set up subscription links too.

If you look right down the the bottom of the column on the right you will see a widget that will take you to the Carnival too. This is something you can put on to your blog if you want. You will also see a link to the Book Review Carnival which I've joined.

So, will you join? Let me know. I don't mind if you are an intermittent participant. Feel free too to post about it on your blog and to use my logo for promotional purposes. A link back to this blog would be appreciated too. There is an initial posting on the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Carnival if you want to respond there.

ACRC: Short Stories, Update #2

In ACRC: Short Stories, I explained how I'm going to keep records of the reading of Agatha Christie's short stories.

As I read another collection, I'll add the stories to the list that I've created and publish a new posting headed ACRC: Short Stories, Update #x, and also link to ACRC: Short Stories which will show my gradual conquering of the short story mountain.

The updates will show the short stories read, listed in the order in which they were written, and the collection(s) in which they were published.

1923, The Adventure of the Western Star - Hercule Poirot - Poirot Investigates publ. 1924
1923, Tragedy at Marsdon Manor - Hercule Poirot - Poirot Investigates publ. 1924
1923, The Adventure of the Cheap Flat - Hercule Poirot - Poirot Investigates publ. 1924
1923, The Mystery of Hunters Lodge - Hercule Poirot - Poirot Investigates publ. 1924
1923, The Million Dollar Bond Robbery - Hercule Poirot - Poirot Investigates publ. 1924
1923, The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb - Hercule Poirot - Poirot Investigates publ. 1924
1923, The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan - Hercule Poirot - Poirot Investigates publ. 1924
1923, The Kidnapped Prime Minister - Hercule Poirot - Poirot Investigates publ. 1924
1923, The Disappearance of Davenheim - Hercule Poirot - Poirot Investigates publ. 1924
1923, The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman - Hercule Poirot - Poirot Investigates publ.1924
1923, The Case of the Missing Will - Hercule Poirot - Poirot Investigates publ. 1924
1926, Magnolia Blossom - romance - Problem at Pollensa Bay publ. 1991
1926, The Love Detectives - Mr Satterthwaite & Harley Quinn - Problem at Pollensa Bay publ. 1991
1929, Next to a Dog - romance - Problem at Pollensa Bay publ. 1991
1932, The Second Gong - Hercule Poirot - Problem at Pollensa Bay publ. 1991
1935, Problem at Pollensa Bay - Parker Pyne - Problem at Pollensa Bay publ. 1991
1936, The Regatta Mystery - Parker Pyne - Problem at Pollensa Bay publ. 1991
1937, Yellow Iris - Hercule Poirot - Problem at Pollensa Bay publ. 1991
1971, The Harlequin Tea Set - Mr Satterthwaite & Harley Quinn - Problem at Pollensa Bay publ. 1991

Great Buddy Award

Many thanks to Marg at Reading Adventures who has kindly given me the Great Buddy Award.

It is my pleasure to hand it on to all of the contributors to my recent Tops in 2008 project. Without their contributions, the project would not have got off the ground.

I think it has been an overwhelming success, so I hope they will accept the award in the spirit in which it is meant, display it on their blogs, and pass it on to at least 5 fellow bloggers.