What are you reading the week of Sunday, May 24, 2015? [View all]

Another late evening start this week. Hopefully, you've all been out enjoying the weekend!

Well, after finishing the extraordinary Sweetland (my review is elsewhere on this page), I looked over my pile of books and had a hard time deciding on what to read next. Having just read such a moving story, I knew there was nothing I had on hand that could possibly come anywhere close to comparing with it.

I went with the latest entry in one of my longtime favorite detective fiction series, Falling in Love, by Donna Leon, #24 in her long-running Commissario Guido Brunetti series which are centered on the city of Venice. I've read the entire series in order as they've been published, and opening up the newest book was like revisiting an old familiar neighborhood, and an old familiar cast of characters - basically an indulgence in a sort of literary comfort food after the stunning impact of the Michael Crummey book.

Donna Leon is actually an American, so her novels are all written in English - no translation needed - however she's lived in Venice for over 30 years, and her passionate love for her adopted home shines through in all her books. The Brunetti series is a lovely, genteel series, with very little violence (aside from the usually single murder per book that Commissario Brunetti sets out to solve), with exquisite descriptions of the art, architecture, and food of Venice.

And, oh my goodness, the food! Do not read these books while you are hungry, or you will be dripping saliva on the pages! In every book of the series, you find yourself sitting at the dinner table with the Brunetti family, witnessing course after course of the most marvelous culinary delicacies being served up, along with the intelligent and always gently humorous banter between husband and wife and their two children. They are a lovely and loving family, Brunetti himself is a dignified, old world gentleman of impeccible integrity, even as he must do daily battle with a corrupt and incompetent bureaucracy.

These are entertaining and endearing stories - nothing heavy or grim, no Scandinavian angst here. And learning so much about the city of Venice has been a pure delight.

However, speaking of Scandinavian angst - I've moved on to northern Sweden with my next selection, an older novel from 1995 by Kerstin Ekman: Blackwater. I've barely started it, since I've been out and about for the past 2 days with no time for reading. I have 4 Ekman novels in my stack - her books caught my eye as recommendations on GoodReads, so in keeping with my determination to read as many Scandinavian crime novels as are available in translation, I had ordered the only four that were available in my library system - and they all came in at once.

So, I'm back to dark and cold and grim for a while...

What are you reading this week?