Weekly Reading Round-Up

It’s been an eclectic reading week for me.

I started out with Wendy Webb’s The Tale of Halcyon Crane, which reminded me, atmospherically, a lot of one of my old favorites, Barbara Michaels’ The Crying Child, both set on isolated islands, both involving family mysteries, paranormal goings-on, and the ghost of a child.

From there, I went for something completely different and moved on to Jen Lancaster’s latest memoir, The Tao of Martha, about her attempts to channel Martha Stewart for a year (not in a ouija board way; more in a putting glitter on gourds way).

Right now, I’ve just started Lois McMaster Bujold’s Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance. I adore Bujold’s Chalion series, set in a semi-medieval fantasy universe (rather a la Game of Thrones), but I’d never read any of her sci fi before, since I tend to shy away from the futuristic. So far, however, I’m loving this one, futuristic landscape and all.

What are you reading?

16 Comments

  1. Nancy Kvorka on July 5, 2013 at 7:46 pm

    I was able to read The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley yesterday and completed it last night. I really enjoyed it. I hated to see it end.

  2. Am7 on July 5, 2013 at 7:55 pm

    I read Death in the Stocks by Georgette Heyer. Parts of it were really funny, but I didn’t like the ending. I felt the female characters except for Antonia were too stereotyped. I sort of enjoyed it.

  3. CĂ©line on July 5, 2013 at 10:12 pm

    I’m slowly making my way through all of Julie James’ books. Almost done with her FBI/Attorney series and I have a feeling that I’m gonna miss the characters while waiting for the next book in the series! 🙂

  4. Lauren on July 5, 2013 at 10:39 pm

    Celine, I’ve been meaning to try those. Which one would you recommend starting with?

  5. Katie R. on July 5, 2013 at 11:31 pm

    This week I read Ashenden by Elizabeth Wilhide. I was really looking forward to it but was disappointed! It was very well written but the format was frustrating! It tracks the history of a house and its occupants over several hundred years. Every time I would become interested in the people in the story, the chapter would end and the next chapter would only be vaguely related to the previous chapter. I had a hard time keeping track of how all the characters were related. It was okay over all, but I was glad when it was over.

  6. Ca3nea on July 6, 2013 at 4:28 am

    Hi everyone!

    Right now I am 20 pages away from finishing A Hundred Summers and loving it!

    Lauren, I am a huge fan of Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan series. If you are enjoying Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance I think you would really love Shards of Honor and Barrayar, the first two books in the series that show how Miles’ parents met and how Cordelia (Miles mother) struggled to adapt herself to Barrayar… and how much she changed Barrayar in the process. Great characters and great stories!
    Happy reading to all of you and thanks for sharing! 🙂

    • CĂ©line on July 8, 2013 at 10:07 am

      Well, if you are totally new to Julie James, I’d recommend The Sexiest Man alive. It’s not part of the FBI series, but it’s very very good, very witty and very funny, and it’s probably the best introduction to Julie James’ books.
      As far as the FBI series is concerned… I read them in the order of publication, but I guess you can read them in any order you want! I loved the first two books, Something about you (#1) and A lot like love (#2). The book I’ve just finished was About that night (#3), and though it was full of promises, I found it wasn’t as good as I expected it to be, given the main characters. I enjoyed it though, even if less than the two others!
      Now, it leaves me with just Love Irresistibly to read, and I was very much intrigued by the main character in the previous books! I’ll keep you posted if you’d like! 🙂

      • CĂ©line on July 8, 2013 at 10:09 am

        Oooops, sorry, I replied at the wrong place!

  7. Christine on July 6, 2013 at 6:44 am

    I broke my rule about not buying more books until I get through the backlog because 2 that have been on the list went on sale for Kindle – The Firebird and A Spear of Summer Grass (still $2.99 for those who haven’t bought it!). About halfway through The Firebird and loving it. Also read The Anatomist’s Wife earlier in the week, which is very similar to the Lady Julia and Lady Emily books, and also pretty good.

  8. Yvette R on July 6, 2013 at 6:48 am

    YI just finished listening to Georgette Heyer’s “The Black Moth” (unabridged) . It was just added to the Audible website a few days ago and I downloaded it right away. It was great! The reader was a little over the top in a few places, but he got the mid-eighteenth century way of speaking just right. If you have not read this GH book yet, it was her first. She wrote it when in her late teens, and it was published in 1921. It is very swashbuckling in places, TWO sword-fights! Like a few others of her books, it takes place in the eighteenth century – somewhere in the 1750’s. It is very good! You would have no idea from reading it that it was written by someone so young.

  9. Sheila on July 6, 2013 at 2:16 pm

    I am in the middle of Kate Ross’s 2nd Julian Kestrel book and am loving it

  10. Jeffrey on July 6, 2013 at 4:50 pm

    I’m reading Second glances: A Tale of Less Pride and Prejudice by Alexa Adams.

  11. Elizabeth (aka Miss Eliza) on July 6, 2013 at 5:26 pm

    I finished up some random reading earlier in the week (‘The Shining’ for book club and ‘Red Harvest’ by Dashiell Hammett for my blog).

    Then I picked up ‘The Return of Captain John Emmett’ by Elizabeth Speller, and let’s say… well, nothing else got done till I finished it last night. Wonderful mystery about the aftermath of WWI and a man at loose ends looking into the “suicide” of one of his fellow classmates three years after the end of the war. So awesome that I have already started the second book in the series!

  12. Lynne on July 7, 2013 at 12:27 am

    Has anyone tackled Imogen Robertson’s “Instruments of Darkness”? Very intriguing historical piece – late 1700’s – and although I’m only half done I think I’d recommend it to all history buffs. Very good!

  13. Michelle Springer on July 7, 2013 at 8:53 am

    I just finished my yearly reading of “Eat, Pray, Love” and am tackling Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms”- I volunteer with the Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park and we are gearing up for the birthday celebrations on July 21. After that, I hope to finally conquer “Wolf Hall”!

  14. Jessica S. on July 7, 2013 at 2:16 pm

    How did you like The Tao of Martha? I think it’s her best yet, and I cried my EYES out during the July/August/early September bits…

    I’m re-reading Revenge Wears Prada, because it’s THAT GOOD. And then I’ve got a pile I bought at the Poisoned Pen during my trip out West…Eloisa James’s book about living in Paris, a book called Flapper, about Zelda Fitzgerald (can’t remember if it’s a novel or bio). I’m delighted to say that my husband not only accompanied me, but added another book to my pile before I checked out: about WWII women working in the h-bomb factory.

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