What I read

Well, I finally came to the end of Mary Shelley, and it is a good solidly researched biography (even if a pedantic medical historian noted an error in the dating of when the connection was made between cholera and the water-supply and therefore upgrading of the sewers), and on Mary's side without being unduly hagiographic, but really, ( Read more... )

What I read
Finished Redbark (The Phoenix Feather #2) and am longing for the next installment.
Two Robert B Parkers, Paper Doll (1993) and Dream Girl (2006) (Spenser #20 and 34), which passed an idle hour or so.
Re-read after many years of Angus Wilson, Anglo-Saxon Attitudes (1956), and it is still, yay, Sir Angus for the win. Reading this, I ( Read more... )

What I read
Finished Stripping Gypsy, which was interesting, but I think it had a bit that problem of Doing A Biography when, if you know a bit about the period and other women doing similar things, you think, well, she was part of a context? and probably not the only woman making a remunerative career who had Issues with Men and Marriage, and ( Read more... )

What I read
Finished A Civil Campaign and honestly, would we really recommend that she marries him? really?
However, I did then re-read The Flowers of Vashnoi (2018) and the short story 'Winterfair Gifts' (2004) to round off the binge.
On Thursday subscribers to KJ Charles' newsletter got a freebie short story tying up threads from Think of England ( Read more... )

What I read
There was a massive re-read of AJ Hall's Queen of Gondal saga - including I think a couple at least of episodes I'd missed, at least, I didn't have them on my Kobo.
Barbara Hambly, Scandal in Babylon (Silver Screen #1) (2021) - very good, not perhaps one of the absolutely top Hamblys, but that is a very high bar. While there is a ( Read more... )

What I read
Finished A Lady and Her Husband and was very prepossessed. Among other things, because her husband, though he had his faults, was not an out and out villain, and having encountered a number of late C20th 'coming up to middle-aged woman finds herself' narratives in which the husband is a sleaze with a side-piece, intending to shaft her ( Read more... )

Article in the Guardian 'The Guide' section, which is not online (at least as yet) - it's in the series 'Solved! your crucial cultural questions answered', on the question 'Do uncertain times always result in great art?'

(Historian, remembering an undergraduate lecture during which lecturer on ye medeevles remarked that 'all ages were ages of ( Read more... )

What I read

Finished Dead Land, read the short story collection V.I. for Short, still jonesing a bit for snarky Chicago noir. There is allegedly another short story collection out in a fortnight or so, details are a bit sparse.

Thought I might try a re-read of Laurie R King's Kate Martinelli mysteries and started A Grave Talent (1993) but really ( Read more... )

What I read
Finished the re-read of the Society of Gentlemen series, including the additional bits and bobs.
Back to Warshawski: Brushback (2015), FallOut (2017) and Shell Game (2018). Realise that one of the things I like about this series is that people are not doing baroque serial killings for twisted psychopathic reasons: the murders are ( Read more... )

What I read
Finished Fire Sale, took a brief break from all Paretsky's Warshawski all the time to read Peter Dickinson, Skeleton in Waiting (1989), in which I realised memory had conflated some plot elements that were actually from King and Joker.
Then it was back to those ol' mean streets: Hard Ball (2009), Body Work (2010), Breakdown (2012), and ( Read more... )