Play Book Tag discussion

BooknBlues and I are reading our first Bohjalian fiction read: The Lioness. It's historical fiction set in Tanzania and has Hollywood links and tags.

Every one is welcome to join, whether reading it for the first time as we are, or have read in the past and want to chime in.

Fair warning! BnB and I are the Queens of deep dive into Google rabbit holes!

I own an ebook copy and will start it tomorrow Thursday night. Just have a cozy mystery to finish - plan is to do so tonight.

I'm ready for the wildlife of Africa!

I'm excited about this.

I enjoyed the Lioness, although parts of it were 'tough.'

Chris Bohjahlin is a favorite of mine although I find he can be all over the map. I have loved and adored some of his works, I have 'liked to meh' some of them, and a few of them I have vehemently detested. This pick (since its your first of his) was more in the middle for me. I can tell you the ones I found brilliant.

We picked this one to read because we both had copies of it already. BnB has more of his works on her TBR than I do. But setting, crime fiction, historical - those are all the reasons I acquired the ebook at some point. Should be fun.

*sigh*

Due to work exploding, I'm not starting until either Friday night or Saturday - just had to schedule a whole bunch of meetings, including late afternoon and into evening ones today and tomorrow.

I still have to finish the cozy mystery I'm reading. Work is definitely disrupting my reading time!

But it is the next up after the cozy mystery. Oh, and I'll also be finishing this weekend The Odyssey read along I've been doing. But that's only 20 minutes a day, not intrusive into reading time at all.

I would love to join you, but don't think I can squeeze it in. I'm barely getting back into reading for my book clubs as it is. And February was the first month since I joined PBT that I didn't read for the tag. I was listening to The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness but didn't get it finished on time and had to return the audio to the library. I have it again, and will finish it this week, but too far into March to count it for February.

Oh, well, I'll start a new 8-year streak with March.

I'm good with Friday, I can wrap up Yes, Chef and be ready to go.

Book Concierge wrote: "I would love to join you, but don't think I can squeeze it in. I'm barely getting back into reading for my book clubs as it is. And February was the first month since I joined PBT that I didn't rea..."

Think of it this way: If a streak had to end, your ended spectacularly - selling your house of over 30 years, downsize purchase of a condo, a renovation, and oh, moving! Nothing so tame as just not likely the tag or not getting the book in time!

I am at the 20% mark, just starting the first Terence chapter. Really liking this. Author wastes no time pulling the reader into the danger - that prologue! I find his format of individual character viewpoint chapters very effective at this point - serving as not just introducing the characters and individual pasts, but also moving the plot forward. Potential themes are starting to surface. Yet like the characters, we are very much in the dark.

I am having a little trouble settling into 1964 though.

I've just started. I love the setting.

Now for a first rabbit hole - safari and migration. Here is a link to my friend Shila's blog with photos of a safari she and her husband led recently for her tour company, including the wildebeest river crossing:

https://www.eyhotours.com/post/migrat....

A friend of mine was also on one of those migration tours. My younger sister was on photo safari organized by Shila 8 years ago. Both rave about the experience and the tours.

Theresa wrote: "Now for a first rabbit hole - safari and migration. Here is a link to my friend Shila's blog with photos of a safari she and her husband led recently for her tour company, including the wildebeest ..."

Ooooh ... twin baby elephants!

This is truly a thriller. So exciting.

I am at the 85% mark and I didn't want to put it down, but needed to sleep and eat.

Finding a similar problem though only about 42%. But have a Celebration of Life service to attend and other obligations.

Won't finish today.

Finito!
Mystery-thrillers used to be one of my main go-to reads. I had forgotten how captivating they could be. This had added benefits of things I love - nature, animals, espionage, African setting.

One rabbit hole - CIA and LSD

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/09/758989...

I just finished. I had to stay up a bit later than I should because I could not put it down.

Have not read your rabbit hole link yet but the topic reminded me of learning in A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (and a few rabbit holes while reAding it) about the CIA activities in the Caribbean in the 1960s/70s that led to facilitating that drugs flowed in high quantity from Colombia through gangs in Jamaica to US rather than Cuba or other islands where Russia had toeholds and would gain control over the Colombian drug cartels.

Here's a link to My Review

This really was a true thriller. I think the reason I only gave it 4 stars was that a bit too much about the -shall we say political - background that led to the kidnapping was provided to the reader very late in the plot . That's likely just a quibble on my part.

Fran - (view spoiler)[did you find yourself start looking at the chapters remaining in the table of contents to see when someone likely died? I did as I felt the need of some warning. (hide spoiler)]

I haven't written my review yet but expect to this afternoon.
The reason I gave it 5 stars was I thought if I was that absorbed in a book, it deserves those stars. I was so absorbed in the book< I didn't think about what little quibbles I might have.

Learning that Bohjalian wrote it during the pandemic made sense for the dark nature and wanton destruction of characters in the book and of course the prologue warns us of that.

One of my hesitations of reading the book was the whole movie star/Hollywood scene, which I generally avoid. I was glad that all the characters seemed to rise above that.

(view spoiler)[I've been down rabbit holes in Africa before and particularly with the Congo, so I knew some of the background of that.
I thought part of it was he was quite subtle in bringing David's involvement with it all to the forefront. We were first presented with this happy wholesome newlywed picture and slowly began to see David as he truly was. One wouldn't want to know all at once that he was in on the Russian plot in some way.

I did peek ahead to know that Carmen survived but other than that it was just gut feeling.

Peter Merrick was a bit of a shock to me. (hide spoiler)]

I thought the Hollywood treatment was unusual and very well done. Each of the Hollywood characters revealed depths and histories that were unexpected.

I agree about learning that he'd spent time in East Africa in 2019 so ended up writing this during that first year of global lockdown and pandemic - wonder how much it changed the tone of his writing and even the plot.

It's that particular period -- the 1950s, 60s, and even to some extent 70s - except for Vietnam - that I'm weak on historically - especially in Africa and Central & South America. My academic interest was so centered on France as a student in the 70s. In fact it was reading an excellent mystery set in Kenya on a safari that pulled my interest to Africa -- Deadly Safari - mostly because it put going on a safari on my bucket list (still there) and of course I then start reading fiction set in places that are on my bucket list to visit. I also made some friends raised in Kenya, of Indian descent which sparked more interest.

Google gave me enough to center myself.

I may bump this up to 5 stars.

Oh, I loved that the author included a small bibliography in his acknowledgements and mention fiction authors he read as well while prepping for this one.

As for your spoiler comment in last sentence - me too! And the suddenness of it!

I finished my review and posted here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Theresa wrote: "There are several mystery series that fit Medieval and I think they were all listed:

Authors: Ellis Peters, CJ Sansom - Just to name 2. I have read and liked 2 or 3 more and I think BooknBlues is ..."
Who was wanting medieval mysteries?

Oops, I think that ended up in the wrong thread. Too many interruptions. Try PH discussions.

I deleted my original medieval mystery post. Will do thisone tomorrow.