Weekly Reading Round-Up
Happy Friday! Here’s what I’ve been reading this week:
— Isabelle Holland, The Marchington Inheritance
Remember that care package my roommate sent me over the summer? I’ve been eking it out, book by book. This one felt bizarrely topical, since it was set in New York and involved a UN meeting.
— John Harwood, The Seance
I scared myself silly last year with The Ghost Writer
— Georgette Heyer, Sylvester
This book is really about the growth and development of the hero. Heyer takes a man who has the external hero qualities (title, consequence, etc.), shows his flaws, and forces him, painfully, to realize his shortcomings and grow up. With, of course, all of the usual madcap humor.
— Liza Picard, Victorian London: The Tale of a City 1840–1870
A lively whirl through the various facets of daily life in mid-nineteenth century London.
— E.F. Benson, The Collected Ghost Stories of E. F. Benson
Classic British ghost stories– after all, we are heading towards Halloween.
What have you been reading?
I have taken a break from my Georgette Heyer marathon and am getting caught up on more recent releases:
The Ugly Duchess by Eloisa James: Did like how fast she took him back. She should have made him work for it.
Lily and Rose by Lauren Royal: Finished up this series of the Ashcroft sisters. The best part about the series was the relationship between the sisters.
The Seduction of Sebastian Trantor: This was a re-read. It’s a fun whodunit romance.
The Lady Risks All: I am only a third of the way through and wondering where this is going. It seems very long.
This is Eloisa James week for me also. I just re-read her novella Winning the Wallflower. Couldn’t put it down the 1st time and couldn’t put it down the 2nd time either! I’m now reading (and loving) The Duke Is Mine and have Storming The Castle in the wings. She’s a richly talented fellow author and I believe a friend of yours(?)
Finished The Phantom Lady, a noir mystery by the late Cornell Woolrich, a short Agatha Christie story called The Yellow Irises and now starting on Summer, by Edith Wharton.
I been re-reading some gothics this week, started with some wonderful Holt stuff including The Mistress of Mellyn, a favorite. Then, I took an unfortunate turn into a couple of Caribbean island gothics, Dark Talisman by Anne-Marie Bretonne and Isle of the Undead by Virginia Coffman. Not so great. Although, of the two, I preferred Dark Talisman. Getting ready to delve into The Colours of Snow by Kate Fenton. Someone recommended this book to me years ago and I’ve just found a copy, so here’s hoping it lives up to the hype.
After just finishing Arabella, I am now reading Friday’s Child. It took me a while to get back into the GH swing of things, but I’m there now!
The Fallen Angel, by Daniel Silva. I love this series of spy thrillers, and it is very topical at the moment.
The Fallen Angel, by Daniel Silva. I love this series of spy thrillers, and it is very topical at the moment. hoping this is not a double entry
I’ve been too busy to read much so I’ve been working on 666 Charing Cross Road in my spare time. There’s so much I want to read though! The new Terry Pratchett and JK Rowling being on the top of that list.
It was G.M. Malliet’s Death of a Cozy Writer for me this week. It’s a fun send-up of the British “cozy” mystery, with a gathering of eccentric characters (in this case a mad, dysfunctional family) at an old country house, murder in the night, and everyone’s a suspect. I liked how a few of the grittier elements of police procedurals were written in alongside the more homey, comedic bits. It fell apart a bit in the end, but I’ll read more of her work for sure.
Now I’m on to a new (to me) Heyer: Regency Buck! So far great fun.
Lauren–I’m glad to hear you liked The Seance, it’s on my list. Would you say it’s as scary as The Ghost Writer (e.g. should I not read it alone at night)?
Pam, I was all prepared for that and made sure to read it in a well lit room with another person nearby! But it turned out to be distinctly less scary than “The Ghost Writer”. More cerebral/puzzle-based and much less sheer fear.
I read Joanna Bourne’s Her Ladyship’s Companion. I was expecting it to be a typical trad Regency but it had a very gothic feel to it a la Victoria Holt or Jane Aiken Hodge. (Not a bad thing; I was just surprised.)
just finished Wilkie Collins The Moonstone and now definitely want to read The Woman in White. Though, I’m finally getting around to reading Game of Thrones and hoping it will prove as good as all the hype says it is.