Oh, wow. Coming back from vacation has convinced me that I need another one. I’m behind on everything–personal stuff, work, the blog, exercise, and more…for this to be the first thing I composed/assembled since before I left? That’s just not good.
Still, good to be back, putting out mostly new things–nothing scheduled in advance, we’re live again.
Hope you all enjoyed the series from the last week and a half! Let’s dive into this week’s WWW Wednesday!
This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Easy enough, right?
What are you currently reading?
I’m still re-reading The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher, and am listening to But Have You Read the Book?: 52 Literary Gems That Inspired Our Favorite Films by Kristen Lopez, Tanis Parenteau (Narrator) on audiobook. Which may have been better to read on paper.
What did you recently finish reading?
I got a little bit of reading in last week, so this answer will be a bit fuller than normal. I recently finished Evidence Pool by Ian Robinson, Evil Embers by Cristelle Comby, The Ostler by Susan Grossey, Partial Function by JCM Berne, Love Stories by Robert Germaux, That Old Cloak and Dagger Routine by Anne Louise Bannon, Death on the Beach by Steph Broadribb, Winter’s Gift by Ben Aaronovitch, and Blood Runs Cold by Neil Lancaster. I enjoyed them all, and wish I’d read all of them earlier (including the one that has yet to be published). In some cases years earlier.
The last audiobook I finished was the utterly delightful and silly The Third Eye by Felicia Day, Narrated by a full cast including: Sean Astin, Felicia Day, Neil Gaiman, LilyPichu, London Hughes, and Wil Wheaton.
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What do you think you’ll read next?
My next book should be a little change of pace for me, Healed by Carrie Alani and my next audiobook should be How I Won a Nobel Prize by Julius Taranto, Lauren Fortgang (Narrator). I’m also not sure that this is something that’ll work on audio for me, but I’ll give it a whirl.
What’ve you been reading lately?
allyson johnson
I am currently up to page 290 in “War and Peace”. Berg is buttering up Prince Andrei in order to get a cushy role as army adjutant, while Nikolai is refusing any help through his connections and has tried to pick a fight with Andrei, whom he secretly admires.
If I hadn’t polished off a lot of other stuff, I would be further along with W&P:
I finished “The Sun Walks Down”, an ambitious but eventually not quite successful attempt to portray Australian colonialism through as many stake holder viewpoints as possible, using the stock situation of a lost child in the Outback as the frame.
I also reread “Meet the Austins”, an early Madeleine L’Engle effort which foreshadows but does not equal her later “Wrinkle in Time” series.
I picked up another Dick Francis thriller, “Knockdown”, which has a lot of the standard elements (ex- jockey protagonist trying to Do the Right Thing, unexpected corruption and chicanery, horses, the easily dislocated shoulder) and outlines the issues clearly, but the villain and resolution of the story seem pasted on as an afterthought.
I also re-read Tony Hillerman’s “The Ghost Way”, featuring Jim Chee before he hooks up with Joe Leaphorn. This one takes Jim off the Rez all the way to Los Angeles, and brings in a really nasty villain, right up there with the ones Stephen King and Lee Child routinely feature.
I took a look at “The Game of Thrones” but after reading the first chapter I decided that reading it would not make me a better or happier person, and returned it to my Little Free Library.
And I read Judy Blume’s “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret” because it was published too late for me to read it when it might have helped me, and I was curious about what made it a “classic”. It is a bit dated, but charming, and I certainly recognized the pre-teen angst.
And I finished Nadine Gordimer’s short story collection “Jump”. She dissects the thoughts and euphemisms, and double-thinking of South African apartheid, and won a well deserved Nobel Prize for it. I’ve taken a long time to finish the collection because each story deserves a lot of thoughtful examination. Not light reading, this one.
Next (in parallel with W&P) I plan to read Paulette Giles’ “Simon the Fiddler” and her new release “Chenneville”, because I LOVED her “News of the World.” I also have on hand “Vinegar Girl” by Anne Tyler, a retelling of “Taming of the Shrew”.
HCNewton
Wow. That’s a lot.
I think you made the right call with Game of Thrones–I don’t see that working out well for you. (there’s a little bit of projection there, sure, by the time I finished the latest, I was done with the series and it’s going to take a lot to get me to change my mind if/when Martin actually finishes it).
I’ve heard of most of the rest of those–some of them seem like great reads. And anyone with the patience and grit to get through W&P deserves a round of applause.
Allyson Johnson
but you stuck with it through the first seven volumes? Glutton for punishment?