What I've Been Reading (a day late because I did a newsletter yesterday, thanks)

[thisbluespirit]

My last Reading Weds was in November last year, and before that in June, and, as I said, I got a bit weird about not wanting to talk about the books I was reading in case I stopped being able to read them, or I wasn't being fair to them anyway because of not taking things in, but if I don't write these entries I forget everything about almost everything I read, and it is nice to chat, and I think I should at least try again.

What I've Finished Reading

Of note (one way or another) since November, I got Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold for Christmas from a friend and enjoyed that very much (as I mentioned to hamsterwoman. I'm not actually sure which of the two Chalion books I enjoyed the most, in the end. Maybe a little more the first, because of all the world building, but it was good to follow Ista's story as well.

I got around to reading The Dragon and the Rose by Roberta Gellis, which I think I must have found in the magic free book shop when it was still here - it is famous in tumblr Henry VII/Elizabeth of York fandom as it is a 1970s historical novel that is only just shy of a Henry/Elizabeth romance novel. It was enjoyably bad; I could not part with it afterwards. I mean, it's not the sort of thing you find every day in a charity shop.

Another from the TBR pile was Black is the Colour of My True Love's Heart, one of Ellis Peters's contemporary murder titles. It wasn't as memorable as a good Cadfael installment (it was a later one, but there was very little to illuminate the main detective and his family), but it was really lovely as ever & a good read, and the guest characters were vivid. I'm not sure why I'd always avoided her modern ones before being ill, but clearly I shall make amends on that score now if I can.

In other murder mysteries, I read the last two Adelia Aguilar books, Relics of the Dead and The Assassin's Prayer (but the series was new to me), which were 12th C historical murder books. The first was set in Glastonbury, Somerset, so I enjoyed that one more than the second. Somerset settings are surprisingly rare, so I treasure them when they come along. They both edged a little more to the thriller than the detective story in places for my taste, but they were lively and I enjoyed them. (Adelia was a little too much Not Like the Other 12th Century People, but at least she had decent reasons for it.) I enjoyed the second slightly less because it wasn't set in Somerset and had a murderer POV (although to be fair it was helpfully marked out in italics so I could skip all of it very easily), but, as I said, I enjoyed both of them and could read them pretty easily, which is the most important thing these days.

Also from the TBR pile, I had picked up Greenmantle by John Buchan, one of his Dick Hannay books, which was also surprisingly lively and readable with a nifty turn of phrase, although it was written in 1916 with a particular voice and seemed to be trying for an offensiveness bingo (it succeeded) that made Golden Age detective writers suddenly look like paragons of restraint in that department, especially in the first third. But overall, it was interesting, and I'm glad to have read at least one his oeuvre. It was not anywhere near as good as the 1936 film of The 39 Steps, though. No handcuffed-together shenanigans here!


What I'm Reading Now

I found another Daisy Dalrymple on the charity bookstand at Tesco! (The bookstand keeps moving about alarmingly, worrying me that Tesco have taken it away, but, no, just moved it again. Happily they've at least realised that maybe outside the loos was not in fact ideal, after a fancy noticeboard displaced it from where it had been for three years.) Anyway, this one is a later one, The Bloody Tower (set in the Tower of London, as you may imagine) and obviously Daisy has immediately fallen over the dead body of a beefeater, much to her Scotland Yard DCI husband Alec's embarrassment. (He is, though, resigned to it by now. It is just Fate that wherever Daisy goes corpses crop up in her wake.)

I haven't got much further, but it's nice to have a familiar friend in my hands again, as it were.

What I'm Reading Next

One never knows, meme! I am, though, having the curious pleasure of actually being able to read almost anything I pull off the TBR pile, though, so maybe something off that. I feel highly wary of this lasting, though. Maybe I'll find something else at Tesco, or re-read something, so you never can tell.

Comments

[sovay]

I'm not sure why I'd always avoided her modern ones before being ill, but clearly I shall make amends on that score now if I can.

I'm glad to hear it was good. I have also never read any of Peters' contemporary mysteries, but I've been seeing that title on the shelves of used book stores for years and always curious about it.

[thisbluespirit]

It was! As I said, it didn't provide me with much idea of her detective for that series yet, but everything in it was eclipsed by the gothic setting of the music school and the folk music festival taking place, and the singer who alters the traditional song lyrics to those used in the title. It is a fairly easy detective piece, but I would imagine you would enjoy those bits too.

[scripsi]

I think I like Paladin of Souls best, but then I love all the Chalion books, so it's only by little. :)

[thisbluespirit]

I'm not even certain which one I do prefer!

[scripsi]

:D

[theuncertainhour]

I've been racing through the Cadfael books like nobody's business lately but I've never read any of Peters' modern stuff - I will keep an eye out!

[thisbluespirit]

Going by that one, I'd imagine they'd also be pretty enjoyable too! (Although Cadfael is the best.)

[vilakins]

For me Paladin of Souls came out ahead, but both are excellent. I haven't read The Hallowed Hunt; it's been years and I hadn't realised there was a prequel.

[thisbluespirit]

They're the only two books of hers I've read - they're hard to get hold of here unless you're specifically trying, but the Chalion two seem to have been given a fairly widespread release & can be picked up second hand. I knew there were some others set in Chalion, but I thought they were all a sequence of novellas.

[vilakins]

I've read the whole Vorkosigan saga which is great space opera, but the Sharing Knife repelled me (skeevy; I didn't even finish the first book) and I wasn't interested in the Rusalka series.

[thisbluespirit]

I haven't read any of those, though I suspect I'd probably like the Vorkosigan saga, given the people on my flist who do, but aren't the Rusalka ones C J Cherryh not Bujold?

[vilakins]

Ahhhh, yes, they are! Mixing up good SF authors who wrote weird series. I've read a lot of C J Cherryh (all of her Foreigner, Morgaine, and Chanur series plus various others, but that series just didn't appeal.

[pedanther]

The Hallowed Hunt is a third full-length novel that was published between Paladin of Souls and the first of the Penric novellas. It's not really connected to the first two novels except by being set in the same world; the plots aren't linked and there are no recurring characters except the gods.

[pedanther]

it was a later one, but there was very little to illuminate the main detective and his family

I think the appropriate conjunction there might be and: the earlier books in the series do more work on characterising the regulars, while in the later books they're taken as read to some extent and the main effort goes toward the new characters. Or, to put it another way, in some of the later ones it's really the new characters' story and the supporting character of the detective who helps them sort things out just happens to be somebody we've met before.

(I've read all the Felse novels, and I like them a lot. I'm not sure if I like them more than the Cadfael novels, or if it's just that my affection for the Cadfael novels is more diffuse because there are so many more of them.)

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, as I said, I assumed with it being a later one that probably more introductions and character stuff had happened earlier, but it wasn't really possible to comment on the strength of that one at all.

I want to read the rest, but I'll just have to see if I can pick them up. They used to be around a lot in the libraries and charity shops, but now I want them, of course, they're nowhere to be seen!

[oracne]

Roberta Gellis - I had forgotten about her books. I did not get as into them as some friends did.

[thisbluespirit]

Ha, I never thought about her having written others, but it would have been unlikely for her not to have!

[liadt]

I glad you had fun with the 70s romance novel. I read two of the 70s Cecily Neville books and they were sensible, more sensible than the sampler of modern romance one I read! Quite amusing that the authors had chosen different sisters to be the 'evil' one though.

Also 50% sale on at Network until Monday, inc 'Shoestring' at last \o/

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, well this one didn't have Margaret Beaufort murdering anyone either, although they didn't much like Elizabeth Woodville.

Also 50% sale on at Network until Monday, inc 'Shoestring' at last \o/

Hurrah, although rubbish timing for me! Thanks, Network! :lol:

Ohh, and THANK YOU for the surprise package that came yesterday! I haven't tested to see whether or not it works yet but I suspect I will just have to tomorrow! <3 (I am always delighted to watch things on my telly in comfort.)

(Btw, my real name isn't Victoria, my parents couldn't be bothered to run to full names, so there is no such person at this address.)

[liadt]

What no murdering Margaret? A first, lol.

Sorry for name assumption, hopefully Jm will make up for it!

[thisbluespirit]

JM most certainly does! <3

What no murdering Margaret? A first, lol.

It is mainly only Philippa Gregory who goes for serial killer Margaret Beaufort. Princes in the Tower, brothers in law, random unwanted non-existent babies, she's up for the lot! And probably more. They needed a Tudor Detective on hand.

[liadt]

I wouldn't trust a Tudor Detective conclusions as written by Gregory!

[thisbluespirit]

I suspect TWQ and TWP might have been more fun as detective novels where useless detectives keep arresting anyone but Margaret Beaufort...

[dimity_blue]

Ooh, I love Ellis Peters' modern novels! "City of Gold and Shadows" has lots of hero h/c. He's drowned but saved by the heroine, briefy buried and concussed, then really knocked out and buried alive in a tiny archeological site on the Welsh border.

Also, "Never Pick Up Hitchhikers!" The hero is the hitchhiker and he's a walking trouble magnet. He was supposed to be killed but he gets lost, meets a girl, they get to the right address but she thinks it's fishy so they leave. But the place burns down and there's a dead guy in there. And who's living in the student room under the hero's name?

You have to read them!

[thisbluespirit]

You have to read them!

LOL, clearly I do!! I really liked the one I read, but of course after years of seeing loads of them around and ignoring them, now I want to read them, are any more of them to be found anywhere? No, they are not.

[halotolerant]

I loved the Adelia Aguilar books! I like a historical murder mystery and those are a cut above I think *g*

[thisbluespirit]

I enjoyed them! My one reservation for me was that they tended not to go through the mystery-solving process but rapidly become more thriller-y, but they were definitely very readable, and I'd like to get hold of the first two now as well.