July 2011

So.  July.  Not my favorite month ever, considering all the moving and new job stress, plus the unpleasant news that my job is far more seasonal that I thought, and that in the fall there will be far fewer hours available.  Between working some eleven-hour days and two weeks of living out of boxes, I’ve still managed to read a few books.

Because if I ever go a month without reading anything, aliens have taken over my body.

1. Making Money by Terry Pratchett.  This is the second half of the story of Moist von Lipwig, begun in Going Postal.  What is a former con artist to do when the Patrician offers him the run of the Royal Mint?  Make some money, of course.
2. Going Bovine by Libba Bray (30%).  The seventeen-year-old protagonist, diagnosed with Mad Cow disease, has a few weeks before the end of his life.  What follows is a romp through hallucination, drug, desire, and despair in an all-t00-authentic male teenage voice.  I read the beginning and the end, and was glad I skipped the four hundred pages in between.
3. Devices and Desires by K. J. Parker.  The Engineer Trilogy #1, in which I adore several gloriously pessimistic main characters at once.  See previous post for my thoughts at the time.
4. The Golden Crab by C. A. Cole.  My friend‘s third Pooka novel was a delight to read.  I eagerly await the next book.
5. Evil for Evil by K. J. Parker.  The Engineer Trilogy #2, in which I am amazed that the death toll must be in something like the millions.
6. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.  I liked this book less than I thought I would: an existential sci-fi/crime noir hash, plus androids.
7. The Escapement by K. J. Parker.  The Engineer Trilogy #3, in which all the wheels within wheels are exposed.
8. A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George.  This is the first Lynley/Havers mystery, and while the mystery was told with solid writing, I didn’t much care for the detectives themselves.
9. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (20%).  Thomas Cromwell in present tense turned out not to be quite to my liking.
10. Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell.  This is the first Kurt Wallander mystery and was, if possible, even more pessimistic than the BBC TV series starring Kenneth Branagh.  As it was pessimistic not in a glorious but in a depressing way, I may not read on.
11. The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley.  After a month of reading books I largely turned out not to like (Parker and Cole excepting), I finished things up with a book I was sure to enjoy: a Newbery winner about a princess, a horse, dragons, magic, and destiny.