Weekly Reading Round-Up

Happy Friday!  I’ve been venturing out of my comfort reads this week to sample some new books, both a little out of my usual reading orbit.

First up was Kristin Contino’s A House Full of Windsor, in which a talk show host who has built her career on being pristine and prepared finds herself strong-armed into appearing on a reality TV show about hoarders with her mother, whose royal family memorabilia has grown to epic proportions.  The book goes back and forth between her mother’s shotgun marriage to an Englishman in the 80s and the family in the present trying to deal with all the baggage, physical and emotional, that comes out of a marriage gone wrong.

Right now, I’m in the middle of Jo Walton’s Tooth and Claw, which was described to me as “Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer– but with dragons”.  I was deeply skeptical.  But it is!  It is absolutely Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer with dragons.  I had no idea that could be done, and done well, but here it is, and it’s excellent.  Just expect eviscerated cattle instead of scones at the vicarage.

I’m also about halfway through my re-read of The Secret History of the Pink Carnation in preparation for our Read Along Zoom event on Wednesday!  (Side note: I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we are nearly out of room for the event, so if you mean to be there, I’d suggest reserving your spot now before it fills up.  You can register here.  I’m so overwhelmed and overjoyed that so many people want to re-read Pink with me!  I’ll post more about the Read Along here on the website on Monday.)

What have you been reading this week?

4 Comments

  1. DJL on February 19, 2021 at 2:06 pm

    Oh, I *loved* Tooth & Claw (was described to me as “an Anthony Trollope novel, with dragons,” but the Austen/Heyer comparison fits too)!

    Finished Stella Riley’s Rockliffe series (including the Christmas time novella she just released last fall), and every book was simply grand. Highly recommended!

    Now going to dive into Sarah J Maas’s latest release in her ACOTAR series, A Court of Silver Flames, which focuses on Nesta & Cassian. Can’t wait!

  2. Heather H. on February 19, 2021 at 2:26 pm

    Well, I had plenty of time to read this week! Texas has been…interesting. Since I couldn’t really work on my own schoolwork or lessons for my student teaching, I got some books and chilled out by the windows. I was able to finish my “The Secret History of the Pink Carnation” reread, plus a reread of two Bridgerton books (“The Duke & I” and “The Viscount Who Loved Me”). I also got started on a Christmas present, “Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon.” It’s an official oral history of “Game of Thrones” from a reporter who covered it from before Season 1 to the end. For school purposes, I have started “Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library,” as that is my students’ next novel study.

  3. Elizabeth (AKA Miss Eliza) on February 19, 2021 at 7:10 pm

    Oh, just checked, I have Tooth and Claw on my Kindle! And in the midst of The Secret History of the Pink Carnation myself. Witty banter on a channel crossing, swoon!

  4. Joan on February 21, 2021 at 12:51 pm

    I’m reading Gentleman Jim by Mimi Matthews and really enjoying it. A regency instead of her usual victorian setting wtih a flavor of the Count of Monte Cristo which I loved reading in high school many moons ago.

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