March 2011 Pt. 2

Here’s the rest of the stuff I’ve been reading this month.  Did I finish A Red Herring?  Of course I did.

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (40%).  This book makes more Spring Break reading, but I didn’t enjoy the narrator or his unique narrative style enough to finish the whole thing.
2. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor.  Onyesonwu is a young woman whose heritage causes her to travel across the desert in search of her evil father whose warmongering might destroy all her people.
3. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.  Flavia de Luce is my new favorite detective.  The youngest of three sisters in a rambling old house, she’s eleven years old in 1950.  She, her extensive knowledge of chemistry, and her bike named Gladys get into everyone’s business to help the local constabulary solve a murder.
4. Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett.  “Go for the Throat” is the motto of the Magpyrs, modern vampires with a plan to take over Lancre.  But Granny Weatherwax will stop them, unless she can’t.
5. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin.  The most enjoyable reading for class I’ve ever had.  I read the 40th Anniversary Edition, which includes the short story “Coming of Age in Karhide.”
6. The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley.  More Flavia, because the clues she misinterprets are almost as hysterical as the clever and devious ways she finds them out.
7. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.  I was quite disappointed by the short, choppy stories, largely unrelated save their taking place on Mars and by the fact that the Mars on which they took place was not always consistently described.  The characters’ concerns and social relationships felt, well, dated, and if it hadn’t been Bradbury, I would have stopped reading.
8. A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley.  This is quite possibly the best Flavia yet, because of the delightful nature of the title and all the red herrings placed throughout the novel.  I can’t wait until next year when book four will be released.

That’s all, folks.  Unless you have another equally as charming mystery series to recommend, it’s back to reading academic articles and source materials for my final paper of the semester.