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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Dec 5 2024, 4:41pm
Post #1 of 9
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It's the occasional reading thread!
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It's December! Yikes! Winter has finally arrived in Texas---well, such as "winter" is in this part of the world. We're at last indulging in the yearly ritual of searching closets and drawers for the warm garments we stowed away at half-past February.
I'm enjoying the peace and comfort of listening yet again to LotR in Andy Serkis's superb recording---and am noticing again how his voices channel those of the actors who played the parts in the Jackson movies. I'm only at the hobbits' arrival at Crickhollow so am anticipating many, many good things to come.
I listened to another in my bundle of Josephine Tey Golden Age mysteries, The Singing Sands. She writes beautifully, in a lean and straightforward sequence of events from start to finish---a style that seems to be increasingly relegated to the past (see my comments below). The mystery is intriguing and among the characters is a wonderfully engaging little boy.
I also listened to The Gatekeeper, another mystery in the Ian Rutledge series by Charles Todd. Even though this series is contemporary, it takes place in the 1920s and has many features of a Golden Age mystery, including the presentation of events in sequence. For me, however, Todd's prose has become a little too deliberate, with Rutledge questioning so many people and the plot veering off in different directions, that the audiobook, at least, seems poorly paced.
In order to clear my palate I listened to a novella-length romance, Booked for the Holidays, by Liz Maverick. A book editor has to work with the grandson of one of her authors during Hannukah. Fun, with pleasant characters, and utterly predictable.
I'm now listening to The Last Leonardo: The Secret Lives of the World's Most Expensive Painting, by Ben Lewis. This is specifically a history of Leonard da Vinci's last painting, and generally an examination of the art business. Discursive, but enjoyable.
On paper, I'm reading popular science writer Mary Roach's Six Feet Over, about the science and pseudo-science of life after death. Roach's sense of humor works well even with such a serious subject.
In electronic print I read The Grey Wolf, the latest in Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series. I've read quite a few of the earlier books in the series but was so disappointed in the last two or three, I got this as a library ebook.
What a mess! Her usual quasi-literary, discursive, repetitive style has thickened into sludge, and she's become heavily dependent on quick scenes that not only don't appear in sequence, they jump all over the map. (I'm glad I didn't go with the audiobook!) The plot is another of her tiresome "everyone is corrupt" stories, and is dependent on an earlier book which I've read but had my issues with. Then, so help me, while The Grey Wolf doesn't exactly end on a cliffhanger, it's clear she's setting up a sequel with virtually the same dark, grim plot.
I am, sadly, done with Louise Penny and Gamache.
My library e-copy of a book that's been getting a lot of buzz, The Author's Guide to Murder came in just as I finished The Grey Wolf, so perhaps I was in a bad mood when I segued right into it.
The three authors, Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White, postulate three authors visiting a Scottish island and getting involved in a murder. It's a Python-esque slapstick send-up of mysteries, albeit one cut uncomfortably with some very ugly material. Much of it is quite clever, and I readily identify with the writing and publishing material, but my inner editor keeps getting distracted. Again, there are short bits presented out of sequence, leaving me confused, as well as repetitive musings that I'm tempted to skip. And just how reliable are these narrators anyway? At least I knew I could trust the viewpoint characters in the Penny book.... Well, I'm not finished with Author's Guide and am curious as to how it plays out.
Whew!
So what have you been reading?
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
(This post was edited by Lily Fairbairn on Dec 5 2024, 4:42pm)
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DwellerInDale
Rohan
Dec 5 2024, 9:10pm
Post #2 of 9
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I thought to read this Dune series book in order to see how much the television series Dune: Prophecy follows the source material. Thus, about two weeks ago, I ordered a copy from Amazon Prime (free rapid delivery). Several days later the Amazon truck pulls up outside; I open the door and find an Amazon envelope under the mat- no book, no nothing inside, the envelope flat as a thin crepe. I catch the driver who says he slipped the envelope under the doormat because he thought that "it was something very light (?)". After notifying Amazon, the replacement copy arrived four days ago. I've read enough to know that the series is very, very loosely based on the book.
I did spy a copy of one of your Rutledge novels in the used bookshop: A Fatal Lie. I thought that the plot and the writing were quite good most of the way through- but toward the end, the story seemed to run out of gas and the resolution to the mystery was the most obvious one. Plus it seems that Rutledge is never going to have any romantic life- they killed off his lone possible love interest some books ago by conveniently having her fall down a flight of stairs in Belgium, and having word arrive by telegram. Maybe she's not really dead?
Don't mess with my favorite female elves.
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NottaSackville
Valinor
Dec 5 2024, 9:40pm
Post #3 of 9
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Mercury Falls series by Robert Kroese and The Answer is No by Fredrik Backman
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Winter has finally arrived in New York as well! Watching a nice snow squall out the windows right now.
I recently finished the Mercury series (Falls, Rises, Rests, Revolts, Shrugs) of books by Robert Kroese. Kroese writes lighthearted fiction that can get a bit weird at times but was just kind of what I was looking for at this point. Very much enjoyed as something light and crunchy. The series basically follows an angel named Mercury that is very ambivalent about saving the world but still manages to do so.
Most recently I read The Answer is No, a short story by Fredrik Backman of A Man Called Ove fame (or A Man Called Otto if you're Hollywood and Tom Hanks and think Ove is just too foreign for American audiences). It was a quick read, just 68 pages long, But Backman is great at this kind of story. It made me laugh because I identify so well with the main character (as well as Ove), and then it made my wife laugh because the main character was so much like me.
Happiness: money matters, but less than we think and not in the way that we think. Family is important and so are friends, while envy is toxic -- and so is excessive thinking. Beaches are optional. Trust is not. Neither is gratitude. - The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner as summarized by Lily Fairbairn. And a bit of the Hobbit reading thrown in never hurts. - NottaSackville
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Annael
Immortal
Dec 6 2024, 3:34pm
Post #4 of 9
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Burned through the entire Thursday Murder Club series
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Richard Osment does love his red herrings and very convoluted plots, doesn't he? But all is forgiven because I love the characters so much. What a delightfully whacky bunch. I love how they just absorb people into their group, even those who have showed up intending mayhem. No one can resist Joyce's bakes!
But I'm not sure I'd recommend the books to my friends who are losing their spouses to dementia, because . . . ouch. I cried through a lot of the fourth book.
I'm currently reading The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson, and wow. It's a cut above: beautifully written and evocative. I'm a longtime student of Tarot and I'm fascinated by the square of sevens, by which people in the Georgian era told fortunes using an ordinary deck of cards. And the plucky heroine seems to be following the very heroine's journey I wrote about in my own book.
I've also got The Christmas Eve Murders by Noelle Albright on kindle. Albright needs to learn how to "show don't tell," but I'm a sucker for snowed-in-at-Christmas murder mysteries. This one is set at a pub in the Yorkshire Dales that may be haunted and has secret passageways, lots of fun. Another plucky heroine.
And I'm reveling in Buried Deep, a short story collection by the inimitable Naomi Novik. Favorite so far is "Dragons and Decorum," a Temeraire/Pride & Prejudice crossover, featuring Captain Elizabeth Bennet. Novik's ear for Austen's prose is unerring.
I am a dreamer of words, of written words.
-- Gaston Bachelard
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NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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Annael
Immortal
Dec 6 2024, 3:39pm
Post #5 of 9
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We have a friend whom we all referred to as one of Garrison Keillor's "Norwegian bachelor farmers." He'd gone through most of his life solo, and he is a bit of a grump (told me once he never reads books written by women). But he read A Man Called Ove and recognized himself and decided to change, Started dating another mutual friend and married her. I understand it's been rocky at times but he's stuck it out and has softened a bit.
I am a dreamer of words, of written words.
-- Gaston Bachelard
* * * * * * * * * *
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
(This post was edited by Annael on Dec 6 2024, 3:40pm)
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NottaSackville
Valinor
Dec 6 2024, 7:17pm
Post #6 of 9
(320 views)
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For me it just validated my goals in life :D
But of course Ove ends up being a more complex character.
Happiness: money matters, but less than we think and not in the way that we think. Family is important and so are friends, while envy is toxic -- and so is excessive thinking. Beaches are optional. Trust is not. Neither is gratitude. - The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner as summarized by Lily Fairbairn. And a bit of the Hobbit reading thrown in never hurts. - NottaSackville
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Kimi
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Dec 6 2024, 8:35pm
Post #7 of 9
(318 views)
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I love those characters of his, too. He's begun a new series, "We Solve Murders", which I did enjoy, but wasn't drawn into quite as much, for the most part because I didn't find the characters as engaging. Although Elizabeth gets a small (and uncredited) cameo!
Yes, there's a lot to weep over in that fourth book. I imagine most of us have watched a loved one slip away like that, but reading such a realistic account while still in the process of losing someone would be too raw.
The Passing of Mistress Rose
My historical novels
Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?
- A Room With a View
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Kimi
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Dec 7 2024, 1:33am
Post #8 of 9
(310 views)
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The Masquerades of Spring by Ben Aaronovitch.
A novella in his fabulous "Rivers" of London" series, though not in London, and with little river-involvement. Set in Jazz Age New York. Self-consciously Wodehousean, with some laugh-out-loud lines and much good fun. Enjoyable, but not nearly as much so as the main series (eagerly awaiting the next one), and at times I had a bit of trouble following just what the motivations and machinations were. But a fun interlude, with some welcome extra background on Nightingale.
Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld.
A "modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice", as it's described in several places. Huge fun, and very clever. It's interesting to see the parts where she could actually stick quite closely to the original plot-wise, as well as the very clever ways she came up with for other elements. Some changes were straightforward and reasonably obvious, like making the Bennet "girls" much older (a 15-year-old Lydia really wouldn't work); others like tech-bro Mr Collins were so clever and funny, and what she did with "Kathy De Bourgh" took me by surprise in a very good way. There were elements that brought me up short, and made it at times seem very dated for a contemporary story (for example, Mrs Bennet sometimes speaks in ways that would've seemed outmoded to me 30 years ago) and young women in their 20s who neither work nor study while unabashedly being supported by their parents, even to the extent of having their own cars, really startled me), but perhaps that's all part of a lack of self-awareness that all the Bennets have to a greater or lesser degree. And regarding my comment about outdatedness: given the author's inclusion of the Mark Twain (possibly apocryphal) quote about Cincinnati at the beginning of the story, this may well be a deliberate piece of wittiness.
Now a couple with a heavier tone:
The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle.
A Kiwi author, though the book is set in Australia, Thailand (briefly), the Seychelles, and the ocean between. The central premise is of a set of identical twins whose lives twine in and around each other's. It starts with a wonderful image, of our narrator twin looking at her reflection in the mirror. Because, you see, these two are mirror twins, and when Iris looks in the mirror she does not see herself, she sees her twin. There's a hint right from the beginning that she may somehow "become" her twin. And does she? Well, that would be telling.
I have very mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand: it's very well-written, with a clever, twisty-turny plot, a fascinating main character/first-person narrator who may or may not be unreliable, especially when it comes to undervaluing herself. I read much of it almost breathlessly, looking for opportunities to grab just another page or two.
But, but, but. I really, really disliked the ending - to the extent that I found it distressing and even disturbing - it preyed on my thoughts afterwards. This is a matter of personal taste, not a criticism of the writing, it's just me. But it makes me cautious about recommending it, especially to fellow sensitive souls.
Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz
Another Kiwi author, this book's set in New York and (a little in) Melbourne. The potted description sounds weird, but here it is: the.. well, not lives exactly, but paths of a young woman who's been murdered and a woman who's run away to escape heartbreak intertwine in New York City.
It took me a long time to really get into this book, and I'm still not sure why, as it's well-written, with interesting characters and nicely drawn settings. I enjoyed it enough to stay with it, though, and from a certain point (I think about halfway through, when Alice's and Ruby's stories collide) I was properly hooked. And as for the ending: I loved it. To have a story that includes a brutal crime end so beautifully but not tritely is quite an achievement. An ending that makes me smile to remember it.
And finally, one so well-known that I probably don't really need to describe the plot: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. I loved this; simply loved it. If you dislike feminist literature it's probably best avoided, but that caveat aside an enthusiastic recommendation from me. I see that it's been made into a mini-series starring Brie Larsen, and hope I have the chance to see it at some point.
The Passing of Mistress Rose
My historical novels
Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?
- A Room With a View
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Felagund
Rohan
Dec 8 2024, 7:17pm
Post #9 of 9
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a not quite as late as usual book report!
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Another late book report from me. And always a pleasure to see what people have been enjoying over the past weeks and months.
Similar to other readers, I've been reading Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series. I read Amongst our Weapons, catching on with the latest entry (I think!) in the main storyline. Without giving away too much for those who haven't read this installment, I very much enjoyed the pulling together of a few threads with regard to the other non-malign 'puissant' actors in this world. As well as the continued development of the main protagonist Peter Grant. Having several police officers in my friendship circle, I've always thought that even the unorthodox Peter can be expected to ascend the ranks at some point! Also enjoyed the trip 'up North'. I love the London settings but a sojourn outside the M25 keeps things fresh, even the relatively short trips, I reckon. The author continues to play with 'what's on the other side' and the nature of magic, and the Spanish Inquisition arc was, I thought, a great way of nudging things along. And finally, having been in the London Silver Vaults, I very much appreciated the opening scenes :)
I've continued my reading journey along the Webway of the Horus Heresy series - the precursor to the grim darkness of the Warhammer 40,000 future. I read Books 7 & 8 in quick succession, Echoes of Eternity and The End and the Death, Volume I, by Aaron Dembski-Bowden and Dan Abnett respectively. The long-awaited, long-trailed, and in many respects already revealed decades ago 'end' is in sight for me. I think I started reading this series around 2011, five years after the series kicked off. For those not familiar with the series, The End and the Death Volume I is the 62nd book in the series, written by a stable of half a dozen authors or more - and there are still two installments to come! Anyway, this grand space opera, in all its drama - sometimes over the top, sometimes cheesy, sometimes very well written - has well and truly come home to Earth, or Terra as Warhammer 40K and so many other S/F series would have it. Accounts are due, long grudges and reckonings are on display, with some of the biggest dramatis personae in the thick of it. Dembski-Bowden does a good job of handling the final arc of one of the main and most popular 'good guys' of the series, the angelic and angsty Sanguinius. It's also fitting that Abnett gets to write the finale, having written the opening book of the mega-series and, well, he's clearly got a new editor, who doesn't seem worried about the amount of words head print. or perhaps no editor at all! I hasten to add that it's been satisfying watching that author evolve over 20 years or so (I got hooked on some of his earlier work, pre-dating this material). And for the final arc of this series, he's clearly enjoying himself playing with a few nroms, shifting from first person to third person, present and past tense and so on. I enjoyed the style, as it captures quite nicely just the utter unreality of what's going on at the tail end of a cataclysmic, species-extinction level war.
Keen to wrench myself out of the world of fiction for a bit, I then traded a Galactic imperium for that of the Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia. I picked up the first entry in Giovanni Vale's 'Extinguished Countries' series, The Republic of Venice, a present from an old comrade from my archaeology days. It was at that point in my career, when our friendship began, that I was working on sites and material where I would often see the Lion of St. Mark, the symbol of the Venetian Republic, in the stone facades of buildings and fortresses in the Eastern Mediterranean. So, reading this very thoughtful gift, years after those first projects in and around the overseas territories of Venice, was an extra treat! Part travel guide, part light touch history, the book starts in Venice, as you'd expect, and although it was the perfect place to begin, I was hungry to get to the 'Stato da Màr' sections, covering Venice's overseas empire, which spanned territories in the modern-day countries of Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece and Cyprus, to name the main ones. I really like the concept that Vale and his team have going with this series - there are two volumes now, the other covering the Hapsburg Empire. They aptly call them 'guidebooks' and tell history through interviews with people who live in these places today and who care about their local piece of history or cultural legacy, through food, linguistics, architecture and so on. Yes, you'll find 'this is what happened at the Battle of Lepanto' etc but there is so much more.
I then changed gears again with The Last Werewolf, by Glen Duncan - an author I hadn't tried before. From Bram Stoker onwards, I'm certainly familiar with authors providing an erotic slant to vampires but I hadn't come across the approach with werewolves! And it's very much the werewolf's perspective that you get in this novel. Indeed that of the last werewolf. Set in the modern era, at about the time the book was published in 2011, it's a story of an ending and of the eponymous character's world-weary pondering of how to get to that ending. The novel inevitably and quickly introduces an ancillary cast of vampires, wannabe Van Helsings, insiders, outsiders and just normal people who get in the way or are dragged into the way, from London to New York and beyond. But the reader isn't given much of a chance to tear their eyes away from the star of the show, who is telling their story through a journal that we are vicariously reading.
I then went back into the vaults and picked out a Roger Zelazny title. He's one of my favourite authors of all time, who I've been rationing myself with, mainly subconsciously for decades, since his death in 1995 at the too early age of 58. Fortunately, he was prolific, across short stories, novellae and novels but I'm running out, sadly. Anyway, I picked out for a first read Today We Choose Faces, one of several short novels he had published in the early 1970s. It was a fun read, once of his 'trippier' ones, featuring cloning, telepathy, cryogenics - all classic S/F elements he featured in others of his stories but this time bundled up into one narrative. I can't say this one ranks in my Top 10 Zelazny reads but it was entertaining and I fun, if occasionally disturbing, exploration of how humans might be conditioned to be less war-like and more content with, well, just getting along. In space, With a multi-cloned custodian looking over us all, spanning centuries of human development. Until things hit a snag, of course... I'll leave it there!
Having recently started to give audiobooks another go, since last posting on 'It's the occasional reading thread!', I've listened to Andy Serkis' reading of The Silmarillion and the first two entries in the Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber, read by Alessandro Juliani - Nine Princes in Amber and The Guns of Avalon. Turning firstly to The Silmarillion, I'm not going to book review that masterpiece! That ship feels to have sailed, as I've been reading and re-reading it for 35 years or more and I am so obviously biased! Rather, I'll focus on its audio incarnation. I'd listened to, and enjoyed, Martin Shaw's reading a couple of times over the years (still have the CD boxset!), and having read glowing reviews of Serkis's rendition, I was excited to be making a start. And I was very pleased with the listening experience. And the improvement on pronunciation! As great as Shaw's reading is, the utterance of the names are a bit off, occasionally! A minor thing; they're both great and I'm pleased I have access to both now.
Turning now to the other two audiobook experiences, these count for my third 'reading' of the Chronicles of Amber, with the original picking up a book moment for me commencing in the 1980s. Inexperienced as I am with audiobooks, I'm not familiar with Juliani's catalogue, although I know he's done plenty of voiceover work for animation, anime and video games. He's pretty good, bringing to life the different characters well enough (some of his accents are a bit, er amusing but they work, more or less, even as they change a bit mid-sentence!) but the most important thing is that he captures the main character very nicely - essential, particularly, when the narration is first person across the Chronicles of Amber series (and so often in Zelazny's other writing). Thus, Corwin, the hero/anti-hero is pretty much there for the listener, in all his world-weary wryness, insouciance, arrogance, humour, chutzpah, passion and determination to best his rivals in this earlier telling of a fantastical game of thrones, before A Game of Thrones. And for those who don't already know, Zelazny and George RR. Martin were friends, with the former a supporter and perhaps something of a mentor to Martin, when early in his career. I still find Martin's 'In Memoriam: Roger Zelazny' moving and I re-read from time to time, 29 years after it was first written. I'm now part-way through the second volume, The Guns of Avalon and very much loving my third run-through of the series, as I walk to work, cook dinner or catch the train :)
I may have forgotten a book title along the way - it has been a while since I last posted in reply to your always excellent thread series. If I have, I'll just have to add it to your next post!
Welcome to the Mordorfone network, where we put the 'hai' back into Uruk
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