April 2013

Here’s April’s Stuff I’ve Been Reading list.

1. Ironskin by Connolly, Tina
2. The Snow Child by Ivey, Eowyn
3. The Escapement by Parker, K. J.
4. A Hat Full of Sky by Pratchett, Terry*
5. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Moggach, Deborah
6. The Golden Egg by Leon, Donna
7. Without a Summer by Kowal, Mary Robinette
8. River of Stars by Kay, Guy Gavriel
9. Wintersmith by Pratchett, Terry*
10. Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Fowler, Therese Anne
11. Pride and Prejudice by Austen, Jane

Italics indicate library books, asterisks indicate audiobooks, and I didn’t finish reading number 10.

The best read was River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay, though it had stiff competition. The conclusion to the Engineer Trilogy (The Escapement) was great, but not quite as great as its beginning; and Jane Austen has her own class, of course. The third Glamourist History (Without a Summer) was a very fun read too, but it did not have that sense of destiny, of fatedness, that often attracts me.

Also I’ve listened to so many Terry Pratchett audiobooks excellently narrated by Stephen Briggs that I definitely had at least one dream in his voice.

WWW Wed Apr 10

What are you currently reading? The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach (originally titled These Fragile Things, prior to the 2011 film). In order to get his aging father-in-law out of the house, a British doctor decides to open a retirement home with his cousin in his home country of India. The rundown, ramshackle Marigold Hotel attracts residents who are each looking for something out of life. Their stories are funny and sad and profound, even if the latter trait is sometimes a bit forced.

What have you recently finished reading? The Escapement by K. J. Parker. The final book in this fantasy trilogy, like the others, contains no magic. It does, however, contain the choice piece of wisdom that the easiest way to do something is properly. Even if that includes destroying cities.

What do you think you’ll read next? Heart’s Blood, a standalone novel by Juliet Marillier, author of Wildwood Dancing, which I liked a lot, has tied with The Golden Egg by Donna Leon, the newest Guido Brunetti mystery just in from the library. But since I left my currently-reading at work, I might have to crack one of these open tonight.

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.

WWW Wed Jan 9

Oh, hello, Wednesday. I knew this would happen to my blogging when I got back to work after vacation. And by ‘this’ I mean the mid-week “Is it Friday yet?” haze.

Anyway, here’s the reading update.

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

Currently. Beastly Things by Donna Leon. The twenty-first and I think last my library has of the Commissario Guido Brunetti series. Guido, it’s been fun.

Recently. Er, Drawing Conclusions by Donna Leon. The twentieth one. And before that Quiet by Susan Cain.

Next. I’m not sure. If I’m in the mood for a reread, I might go for Gifts by Ursula K. Le Guin; if I’m in the mood for something literary, I have The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Audiobook update: I’m about done with Run by Ann Patchett, and up next is The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (and it’s only five discs long! Dune, by comparison, was eighteen). Now I want to watch the Baskerville episode of the BBC Sherlock. Tomorrow, perhaps, because this evening I intend to make gingersnaps.