Weekly Reading Round-Up
It’s been a marvelous reading week!
I followed another one of my best friend’s recommendations and picked up Margaret Rogerson’s An Enchantment of Ravens, in which a mortal portrait painter gets dragged into the politics of the faerie courts (confession: I grew up reading fantasy, and always rather wondered how I would cope if I stepped into the wrong patch of woods and found myself dealing with the fae– there’s an unfinished manuscript no one will ever read along these lines floating around my parents’ house somewhere). Anyway, this heroine copes with it marvelously. She’s plucky and resourceful and I absolutely loved both her and the book.
Sticking with the best friend recs, I moved on to the third book in Vivian Shaw’s Greta Helsing series, Grave Matters, in which Dr. Helsing, a human who tends to the medical needs of supernatural creatures, is seconded to a resort for mummies in the south of France. For anyone who like Laura Resnick’s Esther Diamond books or Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London, the Greta Helsing books are very much in the same vein and such fun.
Moving from the supernatural to the French, I caught up a bit with Martin Walker’s Bruno Chief of Police series with the seasonally appropriate short story, “Bruno and the Carol Singers”. Since once you pop, you can’t stop, I’m currently in the middle of the next book in the series, The Resistance Man.
Oh, and while we’re discussing matters bibliophile, look at this gorgeousness that arrived in the mail last night! My publisher sent me a special, commemorative copy of The Summer Country with leather binding, gold-edged pages, and marbled endpapers. Isn’t it the most appropriately Victorian thing you’ve ever seen?
I also got to hang out last night with the fascinating Teru Clavel last night at the Union League Club Book Fair and hear all about her amazing journey through the schools of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, and California, and the very thought-provoking (and not all that flattering) light it shines on our own educational system. I do love books that are part memoir and part deep sociological rumination– so I’m certainly going to be digging into her World Class: One Mother’s Journey Halfway Around the Globe in Search of the Best Education for her Children.
What have you been reading this week?
I’ve read some great books recently, some of them ARCS. The Bachelor by Sabrina Jeffries, part of her new Duke Dynasty series. A Divided Loyalty by Charles Todd. Hid From Our Eyes by Julia Spencer-Fleming. The Devil’s Own Game by Annie Hogsett. A Stroke of Malice by Anna Lee Huber. All of these are in series I love!
Read next in The Orphans of Devon series by Mimi Matthews, A Convenient Fiction, which was excellent. Also the latest Bernard Cornwell, Sword of Kings, was equally great (Lord Uhtred never gets old–though technically he is in his sixties, in the books!). Will be starting The Widow by Mary Kingswood on a friend’s recommendation, looking forward to it (part historical romance part mystery, set in Regency England). Also now will be looking at An Enchantment of Ravens!
I just finished Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callendar, an excellent fantasy set in a Caribbean-inspired setting. Before that I read The Female Man by Joanna Russ, which I knew would have some problematic parts but which I figured would be a good classic to be familiar with, and the ebook was on sale a while back.
If you all think you might be into An Enchantment of Ravens, I must highly recommend Sarah J. Maas’ fae series which begins with A Court of Thorns and Roses.
I’m currently reading Gail Carson Levine’s magical medieval mystery sequel: Stolen Magic; it’s so good!
I loved the ACoTaR series (the first book was my least favorite, oddly, but the way she built on from there was AMAZING)!!
Yes! And, I cannot wait for Crescent City 🙂
Such a wonderful pile of books by the bed right now: Anna Lee Huber – Penny For Your Secrets (Verity Kent); Lara Maiklem – Mudlarking; David McCullough – The Pioneers; Catherine Lloyd – Death Comes to Kurland Hall; Katherine Center – Get Lucky; and JK Rowling – Harry P and the Sorcerer’s Stone illustrated by Jim Kay! So many books, so little time!
Being a HP fan myself, I’ve recently started listening to a new podcast called Harry Potter and the Sacred Text; it’s like going to a college English class for each chapter of the HP books for free. It’s amazing!
I’ve been catching up on Sara Donati’s Waverly Place series. I read The Gilded Hour and am halfway through Where The Light Enters. Highly recommend both – very great historical fiction and fairly long (+600 pages) which I love!