Every once in a while I get a book

[bill_schubert]

I'm usually reading two books.  One on Kindle, one in audio usually on Overdrive.  Many of them are forgettable.  I tend towards the mystery and space genre.  Since finding the Literature Map link I've rediscovered a couple of authors and have just decided to read their entire output or at least the series that interest me.

One of the ways I know a lot about the world (other than having travelled it quite a bit) is through the eyes of the local authors when they are writing about other things.  Deon Meyer has written a lot of books all of which are set in South Africa or adjoining countries.  He writes in Afrikaans and so obviously I read the second hand translations.  Rather I listen to them.  This is something much better in audio.

The reader is a guy by the name of Simon Vance and he brings them alive.  Just finished with Thirteen Hours (the second in a series surrounding a detective Benny Griesel but it stands alone).  Written in 2008 it is a freight train of a book that combines the energy of multiple story lines begun and ended in a single 13 hour period (the audio book actually reads in 11.5) with many of the complex socio/political events in South Africa after apartheid.  

This is the best of his books, at least the ones I've read so far, and one of the best of its genres I've ever read.  It is so wonderful to hear a linguist pronounce the various Africaans, Zulu, Corsar, Dutch and German names and words.  And the story is riveting.

Ok, just thought you should know that.

Comments

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

One of my neighbors has family in south Africa and has travelled there often. A month ago she asked me if I had read Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyers and I said no, so she loaned her copy to me. After your recommendation, I think I'll move it up to the top of books to be read stack!

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Don't get in the middle of it at night. Once the train is on the tracks it is hard to put down.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the warning! I have enough trouble getting to sleep as it is!

[sleepybadger.livejournal.com]

Wow, that book sounds amazing!

[amw.livejournal.com]

If you like Deon Meyers, you might like the show Trackers. It's only a few episodes, full-on spy/thriller kinda story in the most beautiful landscapes. It really made me want to go visit the Cape.