reading catch-up
Somewhat at random, and largely based on looking at my Kindle organised by Most Recent First, so going backwards, and not including anything read for work or research:
Time for Tea and Time For Fevers by Erica H. Smith - Blog here, with links to sample chapters and to buy the books. Time travel, lots of great immersed experience in the past, and pleasingly complicated relationships and politics in the present and reaching back into the past, that have only got more complicated in the second book. I'm looking forward to the next one.
An Unsuitable Husband, Ros Clarke. Romance novel; by a friend of mine and many of yours; funny and light-hearted. This isn't my favourite genre partly because of the tight focus on the central couple, but Emile and Theresa made me laugh.
For Richer, For Poorer, Victoria Coren. This was on Kindle for 99p the other day, after Victoria Coren became the first person to win a second European Poker Tour title. I have to admit a lodt of the descriptions of poker games went over my head a bit, as I have no idea how to play or much sense of what the slang means (there is a glossary at the back, but that's the drawback of e-books; you can't flip back and forth very easily and I didn't realise it was there until the end), but it doesn't matter; it's a good read, about poker and friends and family and poker and love, interspersed with hands from her first EPT win in 2006.
Re-read Deep Secret and The Merlin Conspiracy, Diana Wynne Jones. Because I love them. Well, I love Deep Secret and am pretty fond of The Merlin Conspiracy, and Mark Reads stuff had been doing Deep Secret on his blog. (He liked it; and it was fascinating to read his reactions.)
And of course the new one, finished by her sister, Islands of Chaldea. I think I was prompted to re-read Merlin Conspiracy because there was somehow a very similar feel to the magic in this - very much linked to the land (I always remember Sybil in Merlin dancing around in bare feet, and Salisbury, and raising the land). Ursula Jones has done a very good job of finishing Chaldea and I enjoyed it, but I don't think I'll be re-reading it particularly soon. Might be time for a Dalemark revisit, though...
MM Kaye's 'Death in...' novels, recommended by
widgetfox when I ran out of Mary Stewarts. Murder plus a romance, set in Kashmir, Cyprus, Berlin and various other places, where she either lived or visited with her Army husband. I think Cyprus is the best one, though Berlin is fascinating about the city before the Wall went up. I don't recommend Death in Kenya.
Mary Stewart - re-read of many of the modern ones, including My Brother Michael (a favourite), Madam will you talk, The Gabriel Hounds, Wildfire at Midnight (really quite bad), The Moonspinners and This Rough Magic.
Georgette Heyer re-reads: Friday's Child (surely it's obvious that this marriage isn't consummated?), Cotillion (fab as ever), False Colours (used not to like this one much, but am a lot fonder of it these days), Black Sheep, Sylvester.
Jennifer Crusie, Crazy People: the Crazy for You Stories
Various Trisha Ashleys. I like these, but think I have had a few too many and need not to eat any chocolate for a while.
Re-read of all Joan Aiken's Armitage stories in The Serial Garden. I love these so much. I have been saying 'Yes, but today is Tuesday' ever since I first got the Puffin All But A Few aged about nine. Mostly in my head these days, what with it tending to make other people look at me oddly.
The Victorian City, Judith Flanders. Enjoyed this, but don't appear to have remembered a huge amount about it.
AJ Hall - reread of the Lopiverse. Again. Because it's great. And if anyone here (which I doubt) hasn't read Boys of Summer in which - well, here's the author's intro:
'The young Bill Weasley persuades his father to take him to the baffling Muggle sport of cricket. It's Headingley, 1981, and history is about to be made - if only Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters don't stop it'
then do.
Kate Fenton, Lions and Liquorice. I like Kate Fenton very much, and originally read a couple of her books from Islington library, then couldn't remember the author for years. This was before the internet was much help in such matters; once I could, when it occurred to me, I put various descriptions of the plot of Dancing to the Pipers into Netscape and found it. And, eventually, a website for Kate herself, where I discovered she was married to Ian Carmichael, and who was very nice when I emailed her. Lions and Liquorice is an updated gender-swapped Pride and Prejudice, set I think around the time that the Ehle/Firth one was being made. It's slightly dated in some ways and a little bit too clever at others, but fun. I like Pipers better, though. I hope she does write some more soon.
Farthing, Jo Walton. Also a re-read.
Call the Midwife, Jennifer Worth. I haven't seen any of the TV programmes, but
liadnan recommended the book and it is excellent. I almost might want to watch the dramatisations.
Acts and Omissions, Catherine Fox - her blogged novel about a fictional diocese of Linchester, to be published this summer. (And she's now started a second one, Unseen Things Above.) I've been waiting for her to write a new novel for years, having loved Angels and Men and the two sequels; this is in the same world and does include a couple of brief appearances by my favourite of her characters, though mainly it's a new cast. Fun, and I am looking forward to reading it again when it's been edited for publication.
Moss Witch, Sara Maitland. Collection of short stories based on Maitland's conversations with scientists about aspects of physics or geology or (obviously) the study of mosses. Some of the stories are more successful than others - I think the title story may be my favourite; it has an Angela-Carterish edge to it - but also has a short piece from the scientists themselves following each story, about the science and the experience of working with Maitland, which I found fascinating.
The Good, The Bad and the Furry - Tom Cox's latest book about The Bear, the saddest and most appealing cat in the world. And all his other cats. And the toad that lived in his dad's shoe. And, you know, life.
I've read quite a few things in hard copy too, but that will have to wait for another post.
This entry was originally posted at http://coughingbear.dreamwidth.org/170309.html and has
comments. Comment here or there using OpenID.
Time for Tea and Time For Fevers by Erica H. Smith - Blog here, with links to sample chapters and to buy the books. Time travel, lots of great immersed experience in the past, and pleasingly complicated relationships and politics in the present and reaching back into the past, that have only got more complicated in the second book. I'm looking forward to the next one.
An Unsuitable Husband, Ros Clarke. Romance novel; by a friend of mine and many of yours; funny and light-hearted. This isn't my favourite genre partly because of the tight focus on the central couple, but Emile and Theresa made me laugh.
For Richer, For Poorer, Victoria Coren. This was on Kindle for 99p the other day, after Victoria Coren became the first person to win a second European Poker Tour title. I have to admit a lodt of the descriptions of poker games went over my head a bit, as I have no idea how to play or much sense of what the slang means (there is a glossary at the back, but that's the drawback of e-books; you can't flip back and forth very easily and I didn't realise it was there until the end), but it doesn't matter; it's a good read, about poker and friends and family and poker and love, interspersed with hands from her first EPT win in 2006.
Re-read Deep Secret and The Merlin Conspiracy, Diana Wynne Jones. Because I love them. Well, I love Deep Secret and am pretty fond of The Merlin Conspiracy, and Mark Reads stuff had been doing Deep Secret on his blog. (He liked it; and it was fascinating to read his reactions.)
And of course the new one, finished by her sister, Islands of Chaldea. I think I was prompted to re-read Merlin Conspiracy because there was somehow a very similar feel to the magic in this - very much linked to the land (I always remember Sybil in Merlin dancing around in bare feet, and Salisbury, and raising the land). Ursula Jones has done a very good job of finishing Chaldea and I enjoyed it, but I don't think I'll be re-reading it particularly soon. Might be time for a Dalemark revisit, though...
MM Kaye's 'Death in...' novels, recommended by
widgetfox when I ran out of Mary Stewarts. Murder plus a romance, set in Kashmir, Cyprus, Berlin and various other places, where she either lived or visited with her Army husband. I think Cyprus is the best one, though Berlin is fascinating about the city before the Wall went up. I don't recommend Death in Kenya.
Mary Stewart - re-read of many of the modern ones, including My Brother Michael (a favourite), Madam will you talk, The Gabriel Hounds, Wildfire at Midnight (really quite bad), The Moonspinners and This Rough Magic.
Georgette Heyer re-reads: Friday's Child (surely it's obvious that this marriage isn't consummated?), Cotillion (fab as ever), False Colours (used not to like this one much, but am a lot fonder of it these days), Black Sheep, Sylvester.
Jennifer Crusie, Crazy People: the Crazy for You Stories
Various Trisha Ashleys. I like these, but think I have had a few too many and need not to eat any chocolate for a while.
Re-read of all Joan Aiken's Armitage stories in The Serial Garden. I love these so much. I have been saying 'Yes, but today is Tuesday' ever since I first got the Puffin All But A Few aged about nine. Mostly in my head these days, what with it tending to make other people look at me oddly.
The Victorian City, Judith Flanders. Enjoyed this, but don't appear to have remembered a huge amount about it.
AJ Hall - reread of the Lopiverse. Again. Because it's great. And if anyone here (which I doubt) hasn't read Boys of Summer in which - well, here's the author's intro:
'The young Bill Weasley persuades his father to take him to the baffling Muggle sport of cricket. It's Headingley, 1981, and history is about to be made - if only Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters don't stop it'
then do.
Kate Fenton, Lions and Liquorice. I like Kate Fenton very much, and originally read a couple of her books from Islington library, then couldn't remember the author for years. This was before the internet was much help in such matters; once I could, when it occurred to me, I put various descriptions of the plot of Dancing to the Pipers into Netscape and found it. And, eventually, a website for Kate herself, where I discovered she was married to Ian Carmichael, and who was very nice when I emailed her. Lions and Liquorice is an updated gender-swapped Pride and Prejudice, set I think around the time that the Ehle/Firth one was being made. It's slightly dated in some ways and a little bit too clever at others, but fun. I like Pipers better, though. I hope she does write some more soon.
Farthing, Jo Walton. Also a re-read.
Call the Midwife, Jennifer Worth. I haven't seen any of the TV programmes, but
liadnan recommended the book and it is excellent. I almost might want to watch the dramatisations.
Acts and Omissions, Catherine Fox - her blogged novel about a fictional diocese of Linchester, to be published this summer. (And she's now started a second one, Unseen Things Above.) I've been waiting for her to write a new novel for years, having loved Angels and Men and the two sequels; this is in the same world and does include a couple of brief appearances by my favourite of her characters, though mainly it's a new cast. Fun, and I am looking forward to reading it again when it's been edited for publication.
Moss Witch, Sara Maitland. Collection of short stories based on Maitland's conversations with scientists about aspects of physics or geology or (obviously) the study of mosses. Some of the stories are more successful than others - I think the title story may be my favourite; it has an Angela-Carterish edge to it - but also has a short piece from the scientists themselves following each story, about the science and the experience of working with Maitland, which I found fascinating.
The Good, The Bad and the Furry - Tom Cox's latest book about The Bear, the saddest and most appealing cat in the world. And all his other cats. And the toad that lived in his dad's shoe. And, you know, life.
I've read quite a few things in hard copy too, but that will have to wait for another post.
This entry was originally posted at http://coughingbear.dreamwidth.org/170309.html and has
comments. Comment here or there using OpenID.