My copy of The Creeping Shadow the new Lockwood & Co book arrived today!!! The skull must be acting up because I can hear it whispering my name and telling me to drop everything and read it 
Just finished the first in a new cozy series set in early 20th century Alaska: Murder on the Last Frontier, by Cathy Pegau. Not superb, but not bad, and it avoids some of the stupidity of some cozy plots.
I generally love RR, but think she is often better either writing Wexford books or writing as Barbara Vine. YMMV, but I couldn’t wait to get out of that claustrophobic unpleasant vault! I don’t mind some creepy but I do draw the line at airless.
I’m nearing the end and that skull is definitely acting up. I’m loving him more than ever!
Oh lawd! 
I’m taking it this afternoon to start reading …and if it’s like the prior books, I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow!
Soooooooo… those of us reading The Creeping Shadow surely I’m not the only reading Solomon Grundy instead of Solomon Guppy? 
I am DYING because I have the book sitting here … but I have to finish this other stupid book for book club on Monday. Torture!
Finally finished the humongous Against the Day, by Thomas Pynchon. The worldwide doings of a large cast of characters between the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and the years immediately following World War I. This was my first Pynchon. Very interesting and makes me want to seek out more. I just wish I had gotten around to tackling this telephone-book-size novel before getting caught up in moving a quarter of the way around the globe.
And I have only myself to blame. I obtained this book long ago, back when I was working at The Nation newspaper in Bangkok. It was given to the paper in hopes of a review – “With compliments of Asia Books” is clearly stamped on the side – but no one there wanted to delve into it. During a general clearing out of books, they gave it to me, but I’d never read Pynchon and was a little intimidated by the size. Figuring I may get around to it someday, it stayed on my shelf all the rest of my time at The Nation, then all through my years at the Bangkok Post, until finally, as I was tossing out books in preparation for my big move back to Hawaii, in the waning weeks of my life in Bangkok I finally started reading it. Shlepped it to here, but with so much going on and having to be taken care of, it’s taken me two months to read the thing. It’s falling apart, the pages are all coming out of it. I made it through to the end just minutes ago and recommend it. But be prepared to set aside a chunk of time for it.
Next up is The Eight Curious Cases of Inspector Zhang, a series of short stories involving a Singaporean detective by English writer Stephen Leather. But the wife arrives from Bangkok the day after tomorrow, and I’ll be busy getting her settled in and reacquainted with Honolulu, so who knows how long it will take me to read this despite it’s being rather short.
Still making my way through The Jews in America by Arthur Hertzberg. Rather dry but not without interest. Hadn’t realized that anti-Semitism was a somewhat late arrival in the U.S. - Hertzberg writes that it really didn’t become widespread until after the Civil War.
Continuing my Falklands War reading, I’ve been enjoying Julian Thompson’s No Picnic. Thompson was the top Royal Marine commando leader in the Falklands and has a straightforward, sometimes-acerbic writing style that’s well-suited to the topic.
I finished reading “McTeague” by Frank Norris. Some parts were genuinely chilling but some of it seemed silly or overwrought (by my standards, anyways).
I find it a bit odd that Wikipedia says Trina McTeague won $15,000 in the lottery, but the copy of the book I downloaded from Project Gutenberg said she won $5,000. I wonder why it got changed; maybe $5,000 wasn’t impressive enough.
McTeague didn’t pass my 50-page rule when I tried it last year. It hasn’t aged well at all. Bleh.
Just finished with Rocks Fall Everyone Dies, a YA novel by Lindsay Ribar. It was just okay for me. For some reason I just didn’t “believe” in the magic. Which is a silly thing to say, as if magic’s supposed to make sense. I was kind of wondering if there aren’t other magical families out there, because what happened to the Quicks could have happened to other people too. Also I was disappointed that Willow blocked us from getting some real data on things.
Started this morning on Amy Schumer’s The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo. What can I say? If she’s a comedian you enjoy, you’ll probably like this too.
I finished The Prophecy Con the 2nd Rogues of the Republic book by Patrick Weekes. Every bit as much fun as the first one, though fewer “your mother” jokes. The book slowed a bit in the middle as we got a bit of unknown info revealed but the action scenes were smooth and page turning, the characters true to their natures, a jealous unicorn is a sight to see and the deus ex machina moment greatly reduced. I don’t think the author is really familiar with poker though, his characters talked way to much and moved around unrealistically during the tournament, but it was some of the most humourous parts of the book, so I forgive him.
I am three quarters of the way through The Creeping Shadow the 4th lLockwood & Co book from Jonathon Stroud and it is EVERYTHING I hoped it would be!
Reading Ancillary Sword which is the sequel to the Hugo winning Ancillary Justice. And…eh. Lead character remains unsympathetic. Plot arc begun in part I remains pretty much stalled. Leckie continues her study into the themes of, I guess, free will and various kinds of morality in sort of a heavy-handed way. The most interesting potential story doesn’t really get told
One of Breq’s lieutenants is actually an ancillary of the ruler of the Radch and Breq has her implants removed. We’re told that the original personality is destroyed, but we don’t get a very good idea of what is left and what it becomes.
The book also continues the practice of referring to everyone as female gender, regardless of the equipment they carry. I sort of understand the point Leckie is trying to make, but I find it blurs my already incomplete mental picture of the characters and their motivations. As a result there’s a certain, I don’t know, sameness to all the characters.
I guess I’ll eventually read the third in the series, but I’m not going to 2-day order it from Amazon and camp by the mailbox.
In other news, the new Cabal book, Fall of the House of Cabal, just arrived after having been pre-ordered since July. So that’s in the queue. Hopefully it’s just a bit less twee and arch than the last one.
Gah! I’m trying to get my library to order it for me.
I finished The Creeping Shadow by Jonathon Stroud in a rush tonight. That book just never let up from the first page to the last! Absolutely excellent!
Dung Beetle: I have two comments
- Was that a proposal I heard?
2 For a smart woman Penelope Fittes is an absolute HORRIBLE judge of character!
- Was that a smokin’ hot scene or what? And there’s absolutely nothing overt in the whole series, you just fill it in yourself.
- I’ve had a feeling about that woman…
- Oh, Skull! I love you.
Just finished The Highwayman, the latest Longmire book by Craig Johnson. It’s a stand-alone that doesn’t require having read the other eleven books first.
Now reading Morning Star, the third book in the Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown.
Dog walking audiobook: I am about a third of the way into The Scarlet Pimpernel. So far, so pretty good - the idea of who is “that damned elusive Pimpernel” is a teensy bit heavy-handed, but perhaps I have been spoiled by Clark Kent/Superman comics. And maybe it is necessary to set up the dramatic situation of the noble wife who does not respect her husband which will (I assume) be resolved heroically. The latest scene between Lady Whozit the French and Sir Percy Britishboob reminds me a bit of Darcy giving Elizabeth Bennett the letter at the climax of Pride and Prejudice. But overall, pretty good - I am enjoying it.
On paper, last night I started Stephen King’s latest End of Watch. I grew to dislike King ever since The Tommyknockers and his Dark Tower series, but I thought I would give him a chance again. Too soon to tell if it is going to be worth it. But there are a lot of cliché characters and situations that might be King’s literary downfall - the soon-to-be-retired detective, the semi-autistic detective savant, the Evil Murderer with magic powers, a Nurse Ratched retread, etc. We shall see.
Regards,
Shodan
That was a FABULOUSLY awesome moment. Talk about crackling.
And skull Yup, I love your snarky err not ass? ANd I’d hoped at some point we’d get a clue about “appearance”
And I started Paladin Caper by Patrick Weekes this morning. This is the third and final(?) book in his Rogues of the Republic series. I will be VERY sad if he doesn’t write more about these rogues.