Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Time has passed but, with only one exception, I'm still reading the same books I was reading the last time I posted. I'm both being distracted by real-life matters (we now live only five minutes from our older son and his family) and am working my way through long books.
The exception was the library ebook of Anne Hillerman's latest Chee and Manuelito mystery, Bears Ears. (Like the other books in the series, the title comes from a site revered by the Navajo people.) I'd hoped that Anne would eventually learn her father Tony's writing skills, but no. While I still like the characters and the settings of her sequels to Tony's series, when it comes to plot she's running on fumes. This installment in particular was, sadly, repetitive and disjointed. There's a reason I've gone from buying a paperback copy to borrowing an electronic copy from the library.
I set aside my own ebook of Terry Pratchett's Night Watch to read the Hillerman but am now back to it, luxuriating in Prachett's voice and prose. He can go from tragic to funny to philosophically profound on the same page. This particular book, a time-travel story, is a bit of an anomaly in the splendid Guards series, but heck, I'd read Sam Vimes's grocery list! And this installment has some unforgettable moments.
I'm still enjoying the audio of Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages, written and narrated by British historian Dan Jones. He's now considered the rise of monasticism and moved on to the development of knights and through them the feudal system, using Spain's El Cid as an example. My only problem with the book is that Jones seems to have forgotten that half the population of the time period was female. I admit that few women were movers and shakers then, but still, I'm hoping that as he moves into the tropes and traditions of chivalry he'll recognize the women who influenced their development.
I'm also still listening to the complete Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, narrated by Stephen Fry. Fry not only skillfully reads the stories with their varieties of voices, he has written introductions to the novels and the collections. Who knew that a meeting with Oscar Wilde may have influenced Conan Doyle's description of Holmes? This entire audiobook lasts about 61 hours [shocked] and I'm not even halfway through, but I'll soon be setting it aside for something else and will return to it later. There can be, after all, too much of a good thing.
On paper I'm now nearing the end of London Lore: The Legends and Traditions of the World's Most Vibrant City, by Steve Roud. I'm still enjoying the anecdotes, which include ghost stories, quirky historical events, architectural oddities, and more, not least because Roud not only narrates them, he also comments on how the stories might have originated.
So what have you been reading?
The exception was the library ebook of Anne Hillerman's latest Chee and Manuelito mystery, Bears Ears. (Like the other books in the series, the title comes from a site revered by the Navajo people.) I'd hoped that Anne would eventually learn her father Tony's writing skills, but no. While I still like the characters and the settings of her sequels to Tony's series, when it comes to plot she's running on fumes. This installment in particular was, sadly, repetitive and disjointed. There's a reason I've gone from buying a paperback copy to borrowing an electronic copy from the library.
I set aside my own ebook of Terry Pratchett's Night Watch to read the Hillerman but am now back to it, luxuriating in Prachett's voice and prose. He can go from tragic to funny to philosophically profound on the same page. This particular book, a time-travel story, is a bit of an anomaly in the splendid Guards series, but heck, I'd read Sam Vimes's grocery list! And this installment has some unforgettable moments.
I'm still enjoying the audio of Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages, written and narrated by British historian Dan Jones. He's now considered the rise of monasticism and moved on to the development of knights and through them the feudal system, using Spain's El Cid as an example. My only problem with the book is that Jones seems to have forgotten that half the population of the time period was female. I admit that few women were movers and shakers then, but still, I'm hoping that as he moves into the tropes and traditions of chivalry he'll recognize the women who influenced their development.
I'm also still listening to the complete Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, narrated by Stephen Fry. Fry not only skillfully reads the stories with their varieties of voices, he has written introductions to the novels and the collections. Who knew that a meeting with Oscar Wilde may have influenced Conan Doyle's description of Holmes? This entire audiobook lasts about 61 hours [shocked] and I'm not even halfway through, but I'll soon be setting it aside for something else and will return to it later. There can be, after all, too much of a good thing.
On paper I'm now nearing the end of London Lore: The Legends and Traditions of the World's Most Vibrant City, by Steve Roud. I'm still enjoying the anecdotes, which include ghost stories, quirky historical events, architectural oddities, and more, not least because Roud not only narrates them, he also comments on how the stories might have originated.
So what have you been reading?
