Weekly Reading Round-Up
It’s been a Young Adult week for me, reading-wise. Here’s what I’ve been reading this week:
— Robin McKinley, The Hero and the Crown
This is the prequel to one of my all time favorite books, The Blue Sword
— Diana Peterfreund, Across a Star-Swept Sea
Imagine a space-age Scarlet Pimpernel, with a Persis Blake in lieu of Percy Blakeney and a Justen rather than a Marguerite St. Just. With the kingdom of Galatea in the midst of an anti-aristo revolution, aristocrat Persis Blake of the kingdom of Albion poses as a ditz in order to moonlight as the Wild Poppy. Peterfreund does an excellent job transposing The Scarlet Pimpernel
Moving away from YA, I’m just about to start The Art of Detection
What have you been reading this week?
As a matter of fact, per your former suggestions, this week I read Robin McKinley’s Deerskin and The Blue Sword! I also rented the film version of Love in a Cold Climate [LOVE Rosamund Pike] and adored it 🙂
I read Aunt Dimity and the Lost Prince; Bee Ridgway’s River of No Return (it’s great and there will be a sequel!) and I’m in the middle of Amanda Quick’s The Mystery Woman. To be followed by A Spear of Summer Grass, Dead Ever After, and The Paris Affair.
This week, I finished Isabel Allende’s “House of the Spirits” (loved the magical realism, although the last three chapters felt like a completely different book) and Susanna Kearsley’s “The Firebird.” I cannot say enough good things about “The Firebird” AMAZING.
I went to a library book sale yesterday night and found a copy of “Murder with Peacocks”! At last! You’ve been recommending that one for so long, and I could never find a copy. I know what I’ll be doing this weekend…
This week I read The Seven Wonders by Steven Saylor, a prequel collection in the Roma Sub Rosa mystery series. Now I’m reading The Assassin’s Gambit by Amy Raby.
I ordered one of my favorite books on amazon called The Raging Quiet, by Sherryl Jordan. It is a very good book, and I recommend it!
Read a little Agatha Christie and a little Dorothy L Sayers this week. But mainly I devoured the final Sookie Stackhouse book. I know other people are pissed with the ending, but I freakin’ loved it!
I’m also excited for Charlaine Harris’s “What Came Next”, which is released this fall, which will be what happened to everyone in the Sookie-verse.
I just finished “The Secret Keeper”, after putting it aside…I LOVED it, and totally understand how some people would say that that book is similar to “The Ashford Affair”! Before that, I read Lucinda Riley’s “The Orchid House” and “The Girl on the Cliff”…and I’m about to start Karen White’s “The Lost Hours”
This week, I read One good earl deserves a lover, which I found very good, then I started re-reading The Temptation of the Night Jasmine – to get going with my re-reading of the Pink Carnations before Miss Gwen’s story! 🙂
Just finishing C. S. Harris’ first Sebastian St. Cyr book, “What Angels Fear”. It’s set just a bit later than the Pink series but much darker and “on the edge of your seat”. Looks to be another good historical series. And if anyone really wants to know more about the Dust Bowl, read Timothy Egan’s “The Worst Hard Time”. Grim but very interesting.
I’ve been on a bit of a non-fiction kick. I just finished “the Lost German Slave Girl,” which is the true story of how a slave woman was recognized as a long-lost German girl and went on to sue for her freedom. What an incredible story!
1. I’m at the tail-end of the group read of Pride and Prejudice over at http://www.pemberley.com.
2. I just finished High Spirits at Harroweby by Mary Chase Comstock. Yes it is still another regency romance but what makes it unique is the introduction of a benevolent ghost. In the style of Georgette Heyer, it is charming, hilarious and seductively romantic without so much as a kiss or two.
3. I just dropped Cotillion by Georgette Heyer onto my over-burdened Kindle. I haven’t read a Heyer for over a year and several readers here have recommended this particular offering.
I just finished The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley. AMAZING! Her novels are a good mix of time-slip, paranormal (in a good way – think past lives, physics) and British setting. I’m hoping more of her backlist is reprinted in the US
I just finished listening to “The Harper’s Quine” by Pat McIntosh, an author that I had totally missed up until now. I was told that if you liked the Brother Cadfael books, you would like Pat McIntosh; and that person was right. It is the first book in a (so far) nine book series, and it was great! It takes place at the end of the 15th century, and is full of wonderful historical detail, has great character development, and the mystery was very well constructed. Also, if you like audiobooks, this one was very well read (by Andrew Watson) & the production values were excellent. I just love finding a new author who writes well!
I’m super jealous that you got to read Across A Star-Swept Sea! That’s one of the books I’m most looking forward to this fall.
This week has been a week of reading books recommended here eons ago: Patricia Wrede’s Snow White and Rose Red and Ella March Chase’s Three Maids for a Crown.
Snow White and Rose Red was just as good as you said it would be. I love a good remake of fairy tales. I’m not very far into Three Maids for a Crown, but so far am enjoying it very much.