I would lie if I said that nothing much is going on in my life and that's why posting is light. In reality, lots of stuff is going on but I'm also exceedingly tired and exhausted (months of worrying will do that for you), so I can't really write a decent post. In lieu of the story of the teacher (who is, btw, GONE!) which will come soon, I promise, here a quick post about the books I've read lately. I'm going to be shameless and link the books to my Amazon Associate account - I've had it for years and never used it. It's only pennies but the washing machine just died on us, so there you go.
We got a great package from our friend Carlos a few weeks back, so I've read a few books I would have never touched which is always good.
Heris Serrano by Elizabeth Moon. I didn't think so in the beginning but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Nothing heavy, nothing weird, nothing complicated - just straight-forward space opera. I see there are more books available in the same universe and I might be tempted. I had a good time reading this omnibus of over 1,000 pages and impressed my boys with my reading speed. Always good, that.
The Great Brain series by John F. Fitzgerald. I've read the first of those as a child and was delighted to find it again. I still remembered the ice cream machine, and the bread heels with butter and brown sugar. Figures that I would remember the food, eh? Great storytelling and I will definitely read these to the boys. I've read the first three and now want the other ones, too.
The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan. I really liked those - I know, they are all the hype at the moment. We picked them up before the hype but I never got around to reading them. I wasn't even aware of the movie when I read them, that's how clueless I am at the moment. If you have an ADHD child, these are the books for him/her with a hero they can relate to! Our boys also totally dig Greek mythology, so this is a winner for sure.
Soulless by Gail Carriger. Hm. I like one of the premises of the book. Otherwise, I'm not much into werewolves and vampires and this book is fluff and, um, not that great fluff, either. If someone gave me the follow-on books I would read them but I doubt I'd buy them. (Hm, wait - wasn't I supposed to make you buy books?)
The One Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin. Dark. Oh, boy, that was dark. I also read it on a day where I was in a dark mood to begin with, so that was not the best of combinations. Definitely not a light and fluffy book, it was full of surprises and twists I didn't expect. Well done.
The Tattoo Murder Case by Akimitsu Takagi. A Japanese murder mystery set after WWII. I really liked it but I do like exotic settings. I'll read more of his for sure!
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. A tour de force - gripping, horrible, evil, it won't let you go. I did begin to suspect part of the solution halfway through the book but I didn't guess the murderer. It's also one of those books that goes on much longer than you thought -- and you don't mind. The only disconcerting thing for me was to read a Swedish book in an English translation. I won't do that again. It is jarring for me to read about miles and feet in a Swedish setting, and sometimes it just sounded wrong to me. That's a personal pet peeve and has nothing to do with your reading pleasure which, if you like dark mysteries and especially Scandinavian mysteries, you will surely have.
So far, so good. Those pesky kids want to be fed. Off I go.
I've read a lot of Elizabeth Moon and really like her space opera. The Heris Serrano books were esp good.
I also read the sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and found it to be fascinating reading. I hadn't read the first one, but just dove in to the second. Need to go back and read the first now!
Posted by: Christine | March 30, 2010 at 07:20 PM
Make sure you read Stieg Larson's the Girl Who Played with Fire as well.
Posted by: Stephanie | March 31, 2010 at 01:02 AM
The German translations of Larsson are perfectly good, aren't they? Or is it a matter of sharing books with someone who doesn't want to read that much German?
Posted by: Doug (not Muir) | April 19, 2010 at 11:00 PM