20. Unspoken

Unspoken, by Mari Jungstedt

Oh, hey. Turns out I did read another of Jungstedt's books. I'm going through my draft posts and reading notes and keep having to refresh my own memory of what I read this year.

I liked this book a little better than Unseen--I think the story was stronger. Again, Inspector Anders Knutas is investigating a murder. Reporter Johan Berg is also back in Gotland, and is still having an affair with Emma, whose best friend was the first victim in the earlier novel. See, I do remember some of the story. This time, there's a missing girl, a murdered photographer, and it's wintertime. The descriptions of the season really set the mood for the creepy mystery.

19. Unseen

Unseen, by Mari Jungstedt

I'm really behind on posting these, so some of my reading is kind of hazy. This summer I decided to expand my mystery horizons and try out some Swedish authors. This one is a debut novel by Mari Jungstedt, who worked as a journalist. It's not surprising that one of the main characters is a reporter from Stockholm, who comes out to Gotland to cover a gruesome murder.

I'm not sure why, but all the Swedish mysteries I've read so far have a really dispassionate tone. Maybe that's a function of the translation, but it's keeping me from really getting into the stories. I should really start studying Swedish again and try to read something simple in the original language, but it will take me a while to get to that point.

Anyway, Unseen follows the investigation of the murder, which is followed by two more deaths. The serial killer has a pretty cliched motive, and I figured out who did it too early to really enjoy the climax of the story. Still, it was a good story. I think Jungstedt is a good writer and I'll be on the lookout for her other stuff.

18. Inside the Undergraduate Experience

Inside the Undergraduate Experience: The University of Washington's Study of Undergraduate Learning, by Catherine Hoffman Beyer, Gerald M. Gillmore, and Andrew T. Fisher (2007)

This was a Center for Teaching and Learning selection from back in June. I invariably enjoy the books chosen for discussion, and this one was no different. There's a lot to get through, but it's not as dry as many research studies. The authors included plenty of direct quotes from the students they studied, which made it a much nicer read than I was expecting.

As a humanities librarian, I was most interested in a few specific chapters: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving (ch. 5), Writing (ch.6), and Information Technology and Literacy (ch.8). These sections really got to the heart of what I want to know about what students are thinking as they go through college. The chapters are framed by the researchers, but the students' learning processes are described in their own words. The other thing that really resonated with me was the way students made connections across disciplines and talked about how they became adaptive learners. Fascinating stuff.