Wednesday is in annoying trough between books

What I read

Rather in installments, got to the end of Clear Horizon: boy, she has Hypo/Wells bang to rights, doesn't she? (His urging her to write The Great Dental Novel based on her experience working in the dental practice, reminds me of Wells' letter to Katherine Mansfield, asking when she was Going To Write A Novel: point thahr, misst, Bert.)

Went straight through Phoenix Feather III and IV, Firebolt and Dragon and Phoenix, which were gripping.

Barbara Hambly, Death and Hard Cider, arrived on Sunday: good as always, but perhaps a little sparse as regards the various series recurring characters - there but rather background?

On the go

I am not sure if these count as on the go, as they are in the category of, picked these up having finished all the above and expecting the new Sara Paretsky tomorrow.

Richard Garnett, The Twilight of the Gods and other tales (1888), which partner has been reading and raving about, but I'm not sure it's quite hitting the spot for me.

Alice Campbell, Water Weed (1929), another freebie from publisher still furiously putting out forgotten 'gems' of the Golden Age of crime fiction - I am a bit put off when there is a crashing coincidental overhearing of conversation in Kensington Gardens about people our heroine has only just heard of. Also, fat-shaming.

Up next

New Paretsky, I hope.

Also I ordered copy of bio of Marquess of Queensberry (yes, that one, the horrible one) which has arrived.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30	31

Most Popular Tags

aaaargh - 355 uses
academic - 643 uses
advice - 249 uses
age - 267 uses
animals - 340 uses
annoyance - 463 uses
archives - 451 uses
art - 364 uses
biography - 418 uses
books - 1335 uses
cooking - 1127 uses
crime - 248 uses
facile-preconceptions - 373 uses
fantasy - 273 uses
feminism - 649 uses
fiction - 278 uses
food - 317 uses
gender - 918 uses
health - 491 uses
history - 940 uses
homosexuality - 301 uses
internet - 258 uses
life - 261 uses
links - 361 uses
litcrit - 332 uses
litfic - 757 uses
london - 386 uses
marriage - 297 uses
masculinity - 548 uses
meme - 959 uses
mysteries - 531 uses
nature - 306 uses
politics - 266 uses
reading - 1232 uses
recipes - 992 uses
relationships - 406 uses
religion - 355 uses
research - 385 uses
romance - 414 uses
sex - 430 uses
sff - 751 uses
social history - 498 uses
thrillers - 379 uses
travel - 476 uses
tropes - 343 uses
unexamined-assumptions - 550 uses
victorians - 321 uses
women - 973 uses
work - 327 uses
writers - 245 uses

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

kore

Re the Hambly: ....yeah, there is never enough Rose for me, and she seems pretty sidelined in the mother role. There wasn't much Hannibal Sefton either (fine by me, I usually want to drown him in a bucket) but there certainly was tropey h/c goodness with Shaw the Kaintuck, wasn't there? Then again, Catherine and her daughter were great, as was the escaped African, and Benjamin's thoughts on Henry Clay were very interesting.

I love her writing style but it didn't seem to quite pick up for me until the second half, but then there were lots of beautiful passages again. And the epilogue felt a bit off. But I think the only other author I've read with such total control over their chosen historical period -- making you feel you're there seemingly effortlessly, with natural grace -- is Mary Renault.

It's Always More Complicated

The wandering thoughts of a wandering hedgehog