With the start of the school year comes a drastic decrease in leisure reading. So sad. Still, here’s what we’re up to.
Bookhunter by Jason Shiga. You should read this book. Simple yet attractive drawings, and Library Police who will kick your butt if you don’t return books. It’s a trip to read the ’70s-era technological conversation, too!
The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World, by Guillaume De Laubier. Harrrrrgle.
Fields of Play (Constructing an academic life) by Laurel Richardson. I just started this one, so not much to say about it yet. The original essays seem thick slogging, but the little foreword and afterword bits are cute.
I’ve recently loved graphic novel The Professor’s Daughter. Beautifully gorgeous artwork, madcap plot! Surrealism abounds, and some slapstick too. Something uncomfortable happens to Queen Victoria.
And, of course, more Georgette Heyer. #2 has gorged herself on cheap Kindle copies of her work. Current working theory: The best Heyer novels are the ones with a title that is just a woman’s name. Including, of course, The Grand Sophy, which isn’t quite just one name, but is almost as good as Frederica. #1 just finished False Colours. (#2 is currently reading The Foundling)
#1 also just finished The City of Ember, which is good for kids and (spoiler!) has a happy ending.
#2 Strongly recommends that Kindle/e-readers take a whirl with The Enchanted April. It is lovely and free (on Kindle).
What are you reading these days?
September 21, 2011 at 2:30 am
Never read any Georgette Heyer. Will try Frederica on my Kindle. Cheers.
September 21, 2011 at 5:23 pm
Good stuff!
September 21, 2011 at 4:38 am
I’m in the middle of reading:
The Dog’s Mind – Understanding Your Dog’s Behavior, by Bruce Fogle
The Introvert Advantage, by Olsen Laney
Extranos Peregrinos: Doce Cuentos, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Oh and some nights “Auntie Robbo” by Ann Scott-Moncrief, this great British childrens book we’ve had since I was a kid (First published in 1941. This edition published by The Bodly Head Ltd, 1985 – love British names.)
September 21, 2011 at 4:40 am
It’s out of print, but there’s an e-version here:
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700301h.html
September 21, 2011 at 5:24 pm
I wonder why it’s not kindle… most project gutenberg stuff is…
September 21, 2011 at 6:36 am
Halfway through the Little House boxette. I’m smack in the middle of the long winter now. Still wanting to slap pa. He’s hardworking yes, but my god does that guy live hand to mouth.
I’ll be on the lookout for some cheap Georgette soon. Next on my list after these books are the 4 WIll Thomas books. My husband says it’s Will’s interpretation of Sherlock Holmes and I loved all the holmes books.
September 21, 2011 at 6:45 am
With what happens to Jack and Mary in “By the Shores,” I stopped reading the series. (I was young; I found it too depressing.) For me, there is nothing written after “On the Banks of Plum Creek.”
September 21, 2011 at 7:04 am
I’ve read through the entire series once. But through On the Banks of Plum Creek multiple times. As a child I thought Pa was great, but reading Little House in the Big Woods to DC recently, I felt exactly as FGA did. Ah, the cynical eye of being a grown-up.
September 21, 2011 at 7:37 am
Now I have a mental image of Suze Orman giving Pa a “Suze Smackdown.”
September 21, 2011 at 7:39 am
Do you think it would have helped?
September 21, 2011 at 10:47 am
“You are telling me, Suze Orman, on the Suze Orman Show, that you have one home in X state and now you want to go out and build another one in Y state? Are you kidding me, boyfriend? You have no savings. Your wife just had another baby. One of your daughters is blind and needs medical attention. Oh, you are so “denied”! My next caller is Huckleberry Finn. Boyfriend, I see here you want to take a trip with someone else down the Mississippi River to the Deep South. Okay, show me the money!”
I should stop myself now.
September 21, 2011 at 3:41 pm
ROFL!!!!!
September 22, 2011 at 7:46 am
Ditto..ROFL.
September 21, 2011 at 8:17 am
I just finished Mindset, at Cloud’s recommendation, I think. In same vein, I want to read the Price of Privilege referenced in the NYT magazine this past weekend in the article on success/failure. Right now I’m reading Outlaw Seas, a book I picked up off a “free books” stack, and finding it pretty interesting, as I know nothing about shipping law, or privacy (of course for the same reason the book may be a bunch of hogwash and I wouldn’t know, but it’s interestingly written hogwash).
Mostly a non-fiction kind of gal. Though there’s a PD James I pulled off that same stack of free books — I forget which one except to know I haven’t read it — that I’m also looking forward to.
We’re not up to the Little House books yet, should be an interesting re-read.
September 21, 2011 at 5:22 pm
We liked mindset! http://nicoleandmaggie.wordpress.com/?s=mindset
September 21, 2011 at 7:52 pm
So you did. To be honest I found it sort of annoying; there were weird disconnects (describe some athlete but don’t really reconnect the description back to the point in a reasonable way) and I thought the whole book could be condensed down to 100 pages, to good effect. OTOH, it was a quick read, made useful points, and of course I could have read her scholarly stuff if I wanted something more “put together” (at least, I assume it’s more put together).
September 22, 2011 at 4:46 am
I skipped a few chapters in the middle. Like the one on athletes.
September 21, 2011 at 3:04 pm
My Super Sexy Bookclub is reading the Karen Moning ‘Fae’ series. I’m on book two and besides the sub-par writing I’m way turned off from book 1′s aliens taking a woman’s life force away by having the most pleasurable sex with them….please get me out of this! I think there’s 5 books! I’m only on #2!
September 21, 2011 at 5:22 pm
ick
September 22, 2011 at 9:49 am
I just started “Reading Godot” by Lois Gordon. That Samuel Beckett…
September 22, 2011 at 8:43 pm
You will NOT BELIEVE what came to my library after MONTHS of waiting and which I began reading today.
Ready?
Are you Sure?
The Iron Duke!!!