I love the location and the culture - perfect for someone like me who loves to read both Scandinavian and Scottish mysteries.

I read Dead Water a few weeks ago, and now I'm anxiously awaiting the newest entry in the series, Thin Air.

Me too!

Historical fiction. Found it at an estate sale last weekend.

St.Aubyn is best known for the Patrick Melrose novels, which are an autobiographical exorcism of a horrific childhood. He is savagely funny and probably not for everyone. If you're interested, here's a New Yorker article that gives some idea of what you may be letting yourself in for..

I wasn't familiar with St. Aubyn. Poor guy, that was awful. I'm going to read the article more carefully later on.

That's impressive! May you have many, many more years together!

The Phantom of Fifth Avenue by Meryl Gordon, but I'm putting it down after 79 pages because of several annoying and unnecessary factual errors. It was the one getting the address of the Clark Mansion on Fifth Avenue wrong that was the final straw.

Think I'll start in on The Pot Thief Who Studied D. H. Lawrence by J. Michael Orenduff. It's a charming series about a guy who often does steal pots. He lives in Albuquerque, has a shop in Old Town where he sells pots. Sometimes he makes copies of ancient pots, sometimes he steals a pot for someone else. Because the author actually grew up in New Mexico and lives in or near Albuquerque, all of the locational details are accurate. Plus, his pot thief spends a good deal of time drinking margaritas and eating chips & salsa with a friend, so he's a man after my own heart.

Hope you are enjoying the Tana French books as much as I have.

Faithful Place has me by the butt.

I'm crazy about Southwest cuisine.

are to be had in the lobby bar of the Congress Hotel in Tucson, Arizona.

Gabriel's Restaurant, just north of Santa Fe, also has an exceptionally good specialty margarita. I just went to their website and alas, the menu posted doesn't give the margaritas.

I think it would be giant fun to organize a margarita sampling tour of Arizona and New Mexico. We'd need a designated driver, of course, but as a week-long vacation it could be lots of fun. Heck, even a couple of days would work. If going to Tucson, I'd include a side trip down to Nogales, Sonora, across the border into Mexico for some margaritas there. Also to buy tequila that can't be gotten here in the States.

Margaritas in Ohio wouldn't stack up.

and a couple of weeks ago we got together to watch science fiction movies and drink margaritas she made from a recipe she got on the internet, something that was supposedly George Clooney's favorite. It was interesting and worth drinking, but I'm still hoping to get her to Tucson someday.

let me know.

Three of the books on my longstanding library order list all came in at once! And this, just a week after getting the long-awaited Håkan Nesser Inspector Van Veeteren #10 the week before.

I've been in Nordic Noir heaven!

1st book: Sun on Fire, by Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson - Iceland. To be honest, I wasn't terribly impressed - sadly. This is the 4th of his books to be available in English translation. I got a sense of what he was trying for, but felt like he just didn't bring it off very well. A disappointment, especially since I thought his first two books were exceptionally original. I also realized that I must not have ever gotten my hands on his 3rd book - in which the police protagonists of this 4th book were first introduced. His first two books were stand-alones, with no recurring characters. I'm going to immediately order that 3rd book, just so I'm for sure up to date on his work. Sun on Fire was still an interesting police procedural, just not on a par with his first two books.

2nd book: The Marco Effect, by Jussi Adler-Olsen - Denmark. This is book #5 of his "Department Q" series. It's been a fabulous series so far, full of wonderful characters and unique, complex plots. I could not put this one down and stayed up 'til after 3am this morning to finish it, because I absolutely had to keep reading "just a few more pages..."! I highly recommend this series, and I'll be chomping at the bit waiting for the next one to come out.

3rd book: Strange Shores, by Arnaldur Indriðason - Iceland. This one is the pièce de résistance for me - I've been waiting for it since December 2013! After such an extended period of delayed gratification, I decided that I would put off reading this one until last. It is the 9th and supposedly final chapter for Detective Erlander - although there is a prequel coming out next year, a story about his early years on the Reykjavik police force. I love this character, I love this author - so I'm operating under the assumption that I have saved the best for last. (fingers crossed)

I loves me some Nordic mysteries! Whee!

the many books now available from that part of the world, I appreciate how much a different culture can me so fascinating. I've been reading the books by Tana French, an Irish writer, and while the culture presented is only a little different from ours, there are enough differences to make that aspect as fascinating as the plot itself.

I may eventually get around to some of the books and authors from Scandinavia, and meanwhile it is so nice getting different suggestions from here. This is one of the very best parts of DU.

We are going to continue with the Detective Erlander series. Eventually.

I'm not far in yet, but it's just a fabulously written book - very honest, and bold (for its time). Just in the first chapter, the narrator has made me feel almost like, 'what, is this the story of MY life, so many parallels here.'

Need eyes lasered or something since cataract surgery a few years ago, and yard cleanup time....

But I love stopping in Fiction to see old friends still here.....

Nice job, Enthusiast, best to you and the Missus.

I suggest they make you a host . . .

Nice to see you.

I have cataracts too. The lady that administered my eye test said not to worry, that most of us over 50 years old have cataracts. But, since then mine have gotten worse. A friend of mine has gone almost completely blind. It's a scary thought.

The doctor told me that in time (about a year or so), my eyes will collect not dust, but a film, and I would need to come in and he'd use a laser to clear them up. He said it takes 5 minutes and is no big deal....

The surgery was nothing to fuss about...for the first time I could see people's faces across the street, and make out bird features.

Don't wait, you may not be able to pass your drivers test when your license expires....you will pass quickly with the new lenses. No pain.

I tell people that the best thing that ever happened to me was my cataracts. In first grade I could not see the blackboard, which gives you a clue as to how very nearsighted I was. Luckily, I was born in a century where I could get good glasses, and later contact lenses. The cataracts happened later. I'd been aware for about fifteen years that I was growing them, and then my current eye doctor told me it was time for the surgery.

At first I thought about putting it off until Medicare, because I might not have to pay as much. I phoned a friend of mine a woman a good fifteen years older, and she said, "Sheila, are you nuts??? Get the surgery!" I followed her advice.

Yes, I paid several hundred dollars out of pocket, and I appreciate that I could afford to do so. The most interesting thing was that at age 63 I was invariably the youngest person in the room when I went to my various appointments connected to the cataract surgery. Partly because I was a bit on the young side for this, but more because the slightly older generation remembered when their own parents had gone through it, and what a big deal cataract surgery was back then.

Now, it's a piece of cake. My vision is better than it has ever been in my life. Yeah, I still need reading glasses, but that's trivial. I CAN SEE! What I like best is looking off in the distance. Everything is sharp in a way I had never experienced before.

So get the surgery.

done and it's like washing centuries of dirt off your eyes. I've had multiple retinal detachments in both eyes, which accelerated the cataract development process, though nothing has been happening for the past two years. Now, I can see without glasses for the first time since 1959!!! I still need reading glasses, but it's like a miracle for a lot of us.

I used to do patient call-back surveys for our hospital's surgery dept. The cataract patients were, without a doubt, the most grateful, satisfied patients in the whole surgery experience.