While I haven’t had much time over the past months for blogging, I’ve certainly managed time for reading. A partial list:
- Nita Abrams, A Question of Honor. A historical romance in which the heroine is Jewish (though, I gather, not strongly observant).
- Kathleen Korbel, A Rose for Maggie. A pleasant romance, and occasionally borderline treacly, but what makes it stand out: This author gets the mixed emotions of having a disabled child spot-on.
- Martine Leavitt, Keturah and Lord Death. I found the story a little choppy in places (or perhaps I was too sleep-deprived to follow the narrator’s logic), but it was interesting, and the closing passage is beautiful.
- M. T. Anderson, Whales on Stilts and The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen. The first is absolutely wacky and hilarious; the second is wacky and hilarious and has a few bits that kick you in the chest. Heartily recommended.
- Scott Westerfeld, Peeps. An interesting take on vampires. Yep, he’s deservedly popular.
- Robin McKinley, Sunshine. Another interesting take on vampires, and I want one of Sunshine’s cinnamon rolls.
- C. A. Belmond, A Rather Lovely Inheritance. A charming book with interesting characters that find out interesting things about their pasts.
- Laurie Viera Rigler, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. I’ve never actually had the urge to live in Jane Austen’s time, and now that I’ve read this book I never will. But it gives an interesting picture of what life may have been like for a well-off woman in Austen’s era.
- Hilary McKay, Saffy’s Angel. A family that I’d hate to live in but am fascinated to read about.
- Neil Shubin, Your Inner Fish. A really cool and very readable book on human body structures and their relation to structures in other critters.
- Loretta Chase, Lord of Scoundrels, The Last Hellion, and Your Scandalous Ways. Enjoyable historical romances. I really liked the first and last and expect to reread them many times, but while the second was fun and I liked the heroine’s occupation and interests, there was too much BS about the heroine’s ancestry for me to want to buy the book. (I also reread Mr. Impossible and still find it a wonderful book; the characters have actual brains, and their interactions are delightful to read.)
- Alan Weisman, The World Without Us. A fascinating look at how long human structures and artifacts will last after we’re no longer around to maintain them. (Warning: after reading this, you may decide to switch to cloth grocery bags when possible.)