Weekend reading roundup (30 Jan 2017)

[nanila]

How did your weekend reading go? If you planned on anything specifically, did you read it?

Comments

[nanila]

I'm nearly finished with The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch. It's fun and distracting.

I also read Twitter and the Guardian too much, and ended up in tears because of the shameful actions of a horrible man, so have banned myself from looking at either for the next two days.

[davidgillon]

Yeah, I got caught up on what he's been up to on the Guardian site yesterday, and it's just so overwhelmingly horrifying.

I've been re-reading Charlie Stross's Laundry Files books*, and realising there are thematic similarities with the Rivers of London series - both have a youngish hero becoming involved in policing hidden magic under the tutelage of an elder adept. The differences being that the Laundry Files are security services rather than police flavoured, and heavier on both humour and horror.

*And was rewarded with a Laundry Files flavoured dream/nightmare. Thanks brain.

[nanila]

For some reason I never thought to compare Rivers of London with the Laundry Files, but you're right about the similarities.

[davidgillon]

Neither did I until this re-read.

To be honest, I only realised because I got confused as to which plot belonged to which series! The entire WWII background for Rivers of London could be ported wholesale to the Laundry Files without any major issues (or vice versa).

[nou]

Apparently I’ve never read any of the Rivers of London series, and I’m not quite sure why, since it sounds like my sort of thing. I’ve just bought the first one in the series and added it to the queue — thanks for the prompt!

[nanila]

Oh, excellent - I hope you enjoy them!

[fred_mouse]

I'm trying to work out whether I read anything at all over the weekend, other than online things. I might have started another book, another one of the library ones that have to be returned at the end of Feb. I definitely read quite a number of patchwork patterns, because I caught up from 0 to 15 completed blocks!

[nou]

That’s a lot of blocks — yay for you!

[fred_mouse]

Thanks. At this point, they are 3" (finished) blocks, but it has still been a bit of a slog.

[nanila]

Huzzah for craft-related reading!

[fred_mouse]

Very enjoyable. And surprisingly well written instructions.

[bonnefois]

I finished Heart 2 Heart by Julie Cannon. I'm now working on The Weekenders by Mary Kay Andrews and You Matter, a self health book. Both are library books, though You Matter is an audiobook.

My next box of books to send is almost full.

[nanila]

Excellent! And it must be exciting, anticipating sending the next box. :)

[nou]

I’ve only read one book since last report, but it was a long one: Hild by Nicola Griffith. I think it was ceb who recommended this. It has a lot of characters with similar-looking names, so I struggled a bit with keeping track of who was who.

Also, it felt rather as though the novel started slightly after the beginning of the actual story, which I know is always going to be an issue with novels based on Actual Historical Events, but I’d have liked to have had a bit more context about Edwin and Hild’s father and why Hild was living where she was living at the start of the book. I’ll re-read it at some point, though, and hopefully manage to follow it better next time.

(I loved the descriptions of day-to-day domestic life, and wished there had been more of that.)

[nanila]

That looks like a fairly epic work. Thank you for the honest review, as I doubt I'd have the brain to complete that book at this point.

[nou]

It definitely requires brain. I wish it had included some sort of “cast of characters” list!

[fred_mouse]

Intriguing! Thanks for the review -- it sounds like something to put on my 'maybe when I have more time' list (at the moment, I'm reading things where I can keep track of the plot/characters even if I'm a bit brain-fogged)

[nou]

Yes, it’s a good read, but not if brain-fogged!