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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Mar 28 2017, 2:35pm
Post #1 of 6
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It's the well, I'm back, reading thread!
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Greetings TORnsibs one and all, and many thanks to Annael for keeping an eye on you in my absence 
I've been both reading paper books and listening to audio books, but won't take you through the entire list.
Of the former, I most enjoyed Ellis Peters (the author of the Brother Cadfael mysteries) A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs, one of her contemporary mysteries. At least, it was contemporary when it was written, in the 60s, a time period which seems as far away now as Agatha Christie's 30s! The plot concerns the opening of a medieval tomb. While Peters spends too much time psychoanalyzing each of the characters---she has a tendency to do this in the Cadfael novels, too---and there's one plot twist that I predicted very early, overall I enjoyed the book.
Of the audio books, I enjoyed The Golden Egg, by Donna Leon, umpteenth in her Inspector Brunetti series set in Venice---although Leon very skillfully makes this one stand alone. Just to satisfy his curiosity, Brunetti investigates the accidental death of a young acquaintance---and of course reveals a very tangled story. I found the Italian background intriguing and the characters nicely written, plus the reader, British actor David Rintoul, does an excellent job with the Italian words and names.
I also listened to a very short book, Earth by Jon Stewart, which is supposedly a guide to Earth for aliens who come upon us long after the human race has died out. Stewart uses the cast of characters from his TV show to read the entries, and with the addition of Sigourney Weaver as the Table of Contents, I suspect listening to the book is more entertaining than reading it. Very funny.
So what 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....
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Elarie
Grey Havens
Apr 2 2017, 2:36pm
Post #2 of 6
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- The Spritiual World of the Vikings and Germanic Tribes by Hans-Peter Hasenfratz (translated by Michael Moynihan)
I'm part way through and so far it's very interesting and scholarly without being dry, with lots of helpful notes by the translator to help readers make sense of the original text by Hasenfratz and the original ancient source materials. I made the two hour drive to Cincinnati last week to see the traveling exhibit, "Vikings: Beyond the Legend" and after the reading I've been doing on Norse mythology and Viking culture it was amazing finally to see hundreds of original artifacts in person, including the remains of the largest Viking Longship ever found (120 feet). Perfect timing.
__________________
Gold is the strife of kinsmen,
and fire of the flood-tide,
and the path of the serpent.
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Old Toby
Grey Havens
Apr 4 2017, 5:01am
Post #3 of 6
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Now that I'm retired, I have time to read! Yay! So I've re-read Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy (just because they're my favorite books and I can't get enough of her Merlin), I've re-read The Hunger Games, which I still find very entertaining and much better than the movies, and have discovered an author I really enjoy: John Hart. He writes murder mysteries, I gather from the three I've read now. His best I think is The Last Child, but his Iron House is a close second. Both of them are character-driven and gripping.
Oh, and I've recently re-read Hamlet and read Julius Caesar for the first time (thank you for the inspiration Ben Whishaw).
"Age is always advancing and I'm fairly sure it's up to no good." Harry Dresden (Jim Butcher)
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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Apr 4 2017, 2:41pm
Post #4 of 6
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It's the April Fools reading thread---no fooling!
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I'm not too fond of April Fools pranks, although there were some good ones this year, not least ThinkGeek's bicycle horn of Gondor. (See the post on Main.) So this is a perfectly straight-up reading thread, I promise.
I'm listening to Jane Austen's Emma, which I've seen dramatized several times but have never actually read. So it's enjoyable hearing Austen's actual words, even as all those beautifully rounded phrases tend to put me to sleep. 
I was digging through the sales table at our local chain bookstore the other day and found a copy of The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessey, a book I'd been wanting to read ever since I listened to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry last year.
I enjoyed Harold immensely. He gets a letter from Queenie, a co-worker who left his life suddenly 20 years before. On a whim, he starts walking the length of England to see her in the hospice where she's dying.
Queenie is, obviously, Queenie's version of the events of 20 years earlier, as well as her version of Harold's trek to see her. It's a sad, poignant novel in many ways, and yet isn't dark, in that I define "dark" as grim, ugly, meaningless, and hopeless. The author, Rachel Joyce, very skillfully knits the two novels together. She also works in a twist for Queenie's final days that I anticipated but still thought was done deftly.
When I wrote here last year about listening to Harold, someone recommended Queenie. I'm sorry I don't remember who it was, but will say thank you even 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....
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Annael
Immortal
Apr 4 2017, 3:56pm
Post #5 of 6
(346 views)
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I got suckered by George Takei
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who announced that he was running for Congress against a noted conservative. I wanted it to be so!
Anyway, I've been re-reading Mary Stewart myself: The Moonspinners. Odd contradiction in that she has more than one character refer to "female incompetence" and yet her heroine saves the day for everyone involved; I wonder if it was deliberate. This time I also focused more on her amazing descriptive passages, which made me want to go to Crete in spring to see the flowers.
I am a dreamer of words, of written words. I think I am reading; a word stops me. I leave the page. The syllables of the words begin to move around … The words take on other meanings as if they had the right to be young.
-- Gaston Bachelard
* * * * * * * * * *
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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sevilodorf
Tol Eressea
Apr 5 2017, 12:39am
Post #6 of 6
(310 views)
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Fourth Age Adventures at the Inn of the Burping Troll http://burpingtroll.com
Home of TheOneRing.net Best FanFic stories of 2005 and 2006 "The Last Grey Ship" and "Ashes, East Wind, Hope That Rises" by Erin Rua
(Found in Mathoms, LOTR Tales Untold)
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