January 2013

Stuff I’ve Been Reading: January 2013

1. The Rook – O’Malley, Daniel
2. Quiet – Cain, Susan
3. Drawing Conclusions – Leon, Donna
4. Run – Patchett, Ann*
5. Beastly Things – Leon, Donna
6. Hawkwood – McGee, James
7. Ysabel – Kay, Guy Gavriel
8. The Girl with Glass Feet – Smith, Ali
9. Death of an Englishman – Nabb, Magdalen
10. Invisible Cities – Calvino, Italo
11. Use of Weapons – Banks, Iain M.
12. Ship Breaker – Bacigalupi, Paolo
13. The Unconsoled – Ishiguro, Kazuo
14. The Graveyard Book – Gaiman, Neil*
15. The Name of the Rose – Eco, Umberto
16. Remake – Willis, Connie
17. Speaking from Among the Bones – Bradley, Alan

Asterisks indicate audiobooks. Italics indicate library books. See previous post for this month’s unfinished books.

The best read of the month–and for the foreseeable part of the year–was Speaking from Among the Bones. Upon reflection, I would call it the best Flavia de Luce novel since the first one, and it has a tremendous cliffhanger. Flavia solves the mystery, of course, and with great aplomb, but the story of her family history is yet unfinished. I can hardly wait for the next book!

WWW Wed Jan 16

Here’s my WWW Wednesday update.

1. What are you currently reading?
2. What did you recently finish reading?
3. What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently. I am between books as of noon today. I have almost convinced myself to commit to Death of an Englishman by Magdalen Nabb, a first in a mystery series I ordered through Inter-Library Loan (ILL) on a whim. If the series is good, it might serve to fill the gap left by Donna Leon’s Venice mysteries. We’ll see.

Recently. Today I finished The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Smith. I didn’t care for it, though I’m not entirely sure why. It was magical realism in that there really was a girl with feet turning to glass, but I found the glacial pace a bit trying, and I didn’t manage to empathize with the main character, Midas.

Next. I also ILLed Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, a thin book, or there is the fat modernist novel The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, which Ann Patchett likes. Or Ian McEwan’s Sweet Tooth, which another library patron has had the nerve to reserve, preventing me from being able to renew it on the 24th. Hard to know what I will be in the mood for.

Audiobook update. The Hound of the Baskerville discs wouldn’t play in my car, so I switched to Dracula, which is horrible. I can’t believe how stupid Jonathan Harker is, and I can’t believe that this was cutting-edge horror rather than, as it sounds today, melodrama. I will be making the switch tomorrow to Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard Book. Read by the author. Should be better.