Books read in 2015
*dusts off the keyboard*
So apparently I didn't post in here at all in 2016, possibly due to the guilty conscience about not having typed up the books I read in 2015.
Apparently LJ is borked today and I cannot use rich text formatting or preview, as it is more interested in pushing options to repost to other social media or pay for targeting or reposts than in being able to post on LJ, so apologies for the lack of formatting behind the cut, as I cannot be bothered to insert all the italics manually.
Fiction - Crime
1. Andrew Taylor, Bleeding Heart Square - the first of his novels I read, and impressed me enough to seek out more of his historical mysteries.
2. Andrew Taylor, The American boy - this one is set around an incident in the boyhood of Edgar Allan Poe in Regency London; we can forgive him knighting John Soane a decade or two ahead of schedule
3. Andrew Taylor, The anatomy of ghosts - now to medieval Cambridge
4. C.J. Sansom, Lamentation (Shardlake ; 6)
5. Andrew Taylor, The four last things (Requiem for an angel/Roth trilogy ; 1) - not historicals, and I didn’t enjoy them as much
6. Andrew Taylor, The judgement of strangers (Requiem for an angel/Roth trilogy ; 2)
7. Andrew Taylor, The office of the dead (Requiem for an angel/Roth trilogy ; 3)
8. Andrew Taylor, The scent of death - New York during the American Revolution/War of Independence
9. Sara Paretsky, Body work (V.I. Warshawski ; 14)
10. Sara Paretsky, Breakdown (V.I. Warshawski ; 15)
Fiction - Fantasy
1. Ben Aaronovitch, Whispers underground (Peter Grant ; 3)
2. Terry Pratchett, The colour of magic (Discworld ; 1)
3. Ben Aaronovitch, Broken homes (Peter Grant ; 4)
4. Ben Aaronovitch, Foxglove summer (Peter Grant ; 5)
5. Johanna Sinisalo, Not before dawn
6. Terry Pratchett, The light fantastic (Discworld ; 2)
7. Terry Pratchett, Equal rites (Discworld ; 3)
8. Terry Pratchett, Mort (Discworld ; 4)
9. Scott Lynch, The republic of thieves (Gentleman Bastard sequence ; 3)
10. Katherine Addison, The goblin emperor
11. Jim Butcher, Fool moon (Dresden files ; 2)
Fiction - SF
1. Joanna Russ, The two of them - I wanted to like this more than I did
2. James S. A. Corey, Abaddon's gate (The Expanse ; 3) - I preferred the earlier, more noirish installments
3. C.J. Cherryh, Tracker (Foreigner ; 16)
4. Ward Moore, Bring the jubilee
5. Charles Stross, The annihilation score (The Laundry files ; 6)
6. Ann Leckie, Ancillary Mercy (Imperial Radch ; 3)
Fiction - Fan fiction
1. Vera Rozalsky, Four o'clock in the morning - I cannot remember a thing about this
2. Selena, Not in words : being married to Londo Mollari : Timov's story - was obviously feeling nostalgic
3-14. Various authors, Alternity: a Harry Potter alternate universe. Year 1, September-August ¬¬- a Harry Potter fanfic, set in a universe where Voldermort won the first wizarding war and adopted Harry as his heir, and the Order of the Phoenix is running the resistance, written over seven years of real time in the form of Livejournal/Dreamwidth posts equivalent to a 200-1300 page PDF export per month; about as bonkers as it sounds, but I basically read nothing else between learning of its existence in September 2015 and finishing it in April 2016, and began twitching at tattoos on passers-by’s arms (THE DARK MARK!)… visit http://hpalternity.com if you dare…
15-26. Various authors, Alternity: a Harry Potter alternate universe. Year 2, September-August
27-38. Various authors, Alternity: a Harry Potter alternate universe. Year 3, September-August
39. Various authors, Alternity: a Harry Potter alternate universe. Year 4, September
Fiction - General
1. Janet MacNeill, Tea at four o'clock
2. Luther Blissett, Q - [in Italian] first attempted to read this when it came out but bogged down in the bloodthirstier parts of the Reformation; made a lot more sense after reading Diarmaid MacCulloch
3. Marina Lewycka, A short history of tractors in Ukrainian
4. Madison Smartt Bell, All souls' rising (Haitian trilogy ; 1) - this was too violent for me to finish the series, no matter how good it was
5. Sarah Waters, The paying guests
Fiction - YA/Children
1. Robin McKinley, Beauty
2. Lynn Weingarten, Suicide notes from beautiful girls - my cousin wrote this!
Non-fiction
1. Rupert Fawcett, Off the leash
2. Voltaire, Lettres philosophiques
3. Cherie Mason, ill. Jo Ellen McAllister Stammen, Wild fox : a true story
Quakers, Advices & queries
4. Aline Associates, Emergency first aid made easy
5. Ha-Joon Chang, Economics : the user's guide
6. George Monbiot, Feral : rewilding the land, sea and human life - this book alternated really thought-provoking insights into the possibility of rewilding, with the most self-indulgent purple prose as George connects with his inner caveman over dead animals
7. David Pearson, Books as history : the importance of books beyond their texts
8. Martin Davies, Aldus Manutius: printer and publisher of Renaissance Venice
9. Laura Bates, Everyday sexism
10. Eckhart Tolle, The power of now: a guide to spiritual enlightenment
11. Susie Orbach, Bodies
12. Oliver Burkeman, The antidote : happiness for people who can't stand positive thinking
13. Steve Hagen, Buddhism plain and simple
14. Eckhart Tolle, A new earth: create a better life
15. Bill Bryson, Shakespeare: the world as a stage (Eminent Lives series)
So apparently I didn't post in here at all in 2016, possibly due to the guilty conscience about not having typed up the books I read in 2015.
Apparently LJ is borked today and I cannot use rich text formatting or preview, as it is more interested in pushing options to repost to other social media or pay for targeting or reposts than in being able to post on LJ, so apologies for the lack of formatting behind the cut, as I cannot be bothered to insert all the italics manually.
Fiction - Crime
1. Andrew Taylor, Bleeding Heart Square - the first of his novels I read, and impressed me enough to seek out more of his historical mysteries.
2. Andrew Taylor, The American boy - this one is set around an incident in the boyhood of Edgar Allan Poe in Regency London; we can forgive him knighting John Soane a decade or two ahead of schedule
3. Andrew Taylor, The anatomy of ghosts - now to medieval Cambridge
4. C.J. Sansom, Lamentation (Shardlake ; 6)
5. Andrew Taylor, The four last things (Requiem for an angel/Roth trilogy ; 1) - not historicals, and I didn’t enjoy them as much
6. Andrew Taylor, The judgement of strangers (Requiem for an angel/Roth trilogy ; 2)
7. Andrew Taylor, The office of the dead (Requiem for an angel/Roth trilogy ; 3)
8. Andrew Taylor, The scent of death - New York during the American Revolution/War of Independence
9. Sara Paretsky, Body work (V.I. Warshawski ; 14)
10. Sara Paretsky, Breakdown (V.I. Warshawski ; 15)
Fiction - Fantasy
1. Ben Aaronovitch, Whispers underground (Peter Grant ; 3)
2. Terry Pratchett, The colour of magic (Discworld ; 1)
3. Ben Aaronovitch, Broken homes (Peter Grant ; 4)
4. Ben Aaronovitch, Foxglove summer (Peter Grant ; 5)
5. Johanna Sinisalo, Not before dawn
6. Terry Pratchett, The light fantastic (Discworld ; 2)
7. Terry Pratchett, Equal rites (Discworld ; 3)
8. Terry Pratchett, Mort (Discworld ; 4)
9. Scott Lynch, The republic of thieves (Gentleman Bastard sequence ; 3)
10. Katherine Addison, The goblin emperor
11. Jim Butcher, Fool moon (Dresden files ; 2)
Fiction - SF
1. Joanna Russ, The two of them - I wanted to like this more than I did
2. James S. A. Corey, Abaddon's gate (The Expanse ; 3) - I preferred the earlier, more noirish installments
3. C.J. Cherryh, Tracker (Foreigner ; 16)
4. Ward Moore, Bring the jubilee
5. Charles Stross, The annihilation score (The Laundry files ; 6)
6. Ann Leckie, Ancillary Mercy (Imperial Radch ; 3)
Fiction - Fan fiction
1. Vera Rozalsky, Four o'clock in the morning - I cannot remember a thing about this
2. Selena, Not in words : being married to Londo Mollari : Timov's story - was obviously feeling nostalgic
3-14. Various authors, Alternity: a Harry Potter alternate universe. Year 1, September-August ¬¬- a Harry Potter fanfic, set in a universe where Voldermort won the first wizarding war and adopted Harry as his heir, and the Order of the Phoenix is running the resistance, written over seven years of real time in the form of Livejournal/Dreamwidth posts equivalent to a 200-1300 page PDF export per month; about as bonkers as it sounds, but I basically read nothing else between learning of its existence in September 2015 and finishing it in April 2016, and began twitching at tattoos on passers-by’s arms (THE DARK MARK!)… visit http://hpalternity.com if you dare…
15-26. Various authors, Alternity: a Harry Potter alternate universe. Year 2, September-August
27-38. Various authors, Alternity: a Harry Potter alternate universe. Year 3, September-August
39. Various authors, Alternity: a Harry Potter alternate universe. Year 4, September
Fiction - General
1. Janet MacNeill, Tea at four o'clock
2. Luther Blissett, Q - [in Italian] first attempted to read this when it came out but bogged down in the bloodthirstier parts of the Reformation; made a lot more sense after reading Diarmaid MacCulloch
3. Marina Lewycka, A short history of tractors in Ukrainian
4. Madison Smartt Bell, All souls' rising (Haitian trilogy ; 1) - this was too violent for me to finish the series, no matter how good it was
5. Sarah Waters, The paying guests
Fiction - YA/Children
1. Robin McKinley, Beauty
2. Lynn Weingarten, Suicide notes from beautiful girls - my cousin wrote this!
Non-fiction
1. Rupert Fawcett, Off the leash
2. Voltaire, Lettres philosophiques
3. Cherie Mason, ill. Jo Ellen McAllister Stammen, Wild fox : a true story
Quakers, Advices & queries
4. Aline Associates, Emergency first aid made easy
5. Ha-Joon Chang, Economics : the user's guide
6. George Monbiot, Feral : rewilding the land, sea and human life - this book alternated really thought-provoking insights into the possibility of rewilding, with the most self-indulgent purple prose as George connects with his inner caveman over dead animals
7. David Pearson, Books as history : the importance of books beyond their texts
8. Martin Davies, Aldus Manutius: printer and publisher of Renaissance Venice
9. Laura Bates, Everyday sexism
10. Eckhart Tolle, The power of now: a guide to spiritual enlightenment
11. Susie Orbach, Bodies
12. Oliver Burkeman, The antidote : happiness for people who can't stand positive thinking
13. Steve Hagen, Buddhism plain and simple
14. Eckhart Tolle, A new earth: create a better life
15. Bill Bryson, Shakespeare: the world as a stage (Eminent Lives series)