Reading is in
slow motion here. A few warmer, sunny days got us outside, then the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament took four days of what would have been reading time. That’s okay, it’s only once a year and I enjoy it. But little reading has happened.
Last week I said I was starting Mort(e) by Robert Repino. I read some of it but couldn’t get interested. The writing was flat enough that, for me, it got in the way of the story. So back to the library it goes. Instead I read another library book, Escape From Mr. Lenoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein which, on a whim, I’d decided to try. It’s fun, kind of goofy. As it’s aimed at a young audience, goofy is perfectly okay. I liked the puzzle aspect.
Barbara is about half done with Henning Mankill’s Sidetracked, the book she’d just started last week. She has some things waiting at the library on her “for later” shelf, but hasn’t decided which to read next.
Tip the Wink 
Glad you liked the Grabenstein, one of those I read in Florida. As you might expect, I didn’t have much time to read this week, as I spent most of Tuesday packing and four days on the road, followed by unpacking. I did read IN ASHES BORN, the first book in Nathan Lowell’s spinoff from the Ishmael Wang/Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series. It was mostly a setup, as Wang returns to his roots, reconnects with people from book one, and decides what to do next. Not a lot of action here, as it is obviously setting up future books.
I did read a book of stores, Tom Piccirilli’s horror title PENTACLE – A SELF COLLECTION, about the unnamed Necromancer and his familiar Self. I’ve also read about 100 pages in John Scalzi’s amusing first book, AGENT TO THE STARS, with a Hollywood agent trying to find a way to make a Blob-like, smelly alien palatable to humans.
Overall, I did better this year. Last year in 9 weeks away I read 22 books. This year, in 7 1/2 weeks I read 24, including 9 collections of stories on the Kindle.
I was trying to remember where I heard about the Grabenstein, now I know. Thanks for the tip. I’m still not tempted to try the Lowell, I’ve moved on, as it were, and there are too many other things I want/need to read. I have that Scalzi, but haven’t gotten around to reading it.
That’s a lot of reading. I’m not at the computer with Word on it, so I can’t reply with my own reading numbers, but no doubt you have far outstripped me.
I just got 5 library books that were waiting for me, including the collection of HAP AND LEONARD stories and SERPENTS IN EDEN (ed. Edwards), plus INK AND BONE and THE READERS OF BROKEN WHEEL RECOMMEND.
And Jackie asked the librarian how to download OverDrive books to the Kindle, so that’s more. I got the Grisham ROGUE LAWYER there.
Wow, you came home with a vengeance. I’ll be very interested in your opinion of INK AND BONE, and also SERPENTS IN EDEN, which I have but haven’t begun. Whilst browsing BookSwap, I came across an Anne McCaffrey novel I’d not heard of, and I thought I’d read them all. So it’s here waiting while I read THE WHEEL ON THE SCHOOL by Meindert DeJong, a children’s Newberry winning novel set in Holland. I seem to be reading a lot of YR and YA books all of a sudden.
Our librarian told us Overdrive is iffy for Apple users. More “Apple users don’t count” thinking on the software developers part, I guess. Anyway, the librarian said every time there is an Overdrive update they get flooded with people having trouble with Apple devices. Barbara still hasn’t been able to get books on her phone, though I have gotten a couple on the iPad.
Reading MY FATHER, THE PORNOGRAPHER (Chris Offutt) and still finishing up DARK WINGS HAS MY ANGEL, a pretty amazing book,
Patti, what is DARK WINGS HAS MY ANGEL about?
I’m on SPRING BREAK next week so I have a stack of Big Fat Books to read. Right now I’m reading a short story collection of Longmire stories by Craig Johnson that Bill Crider recommended in his MYSTERY SCENE column.
George, as you may have seen here, I also read WAIT FOR SIGNS a couple of months ago. I really liked it, as it was my introduction to Longmire. Johnson’s first in the series, THE COLD DISH is only a couple from the top of my TBR pile.
my reading has been slow too. Too much school work!
A teacher’s work is never done.
After finishing Melanie Benjamin’s fictionalization of the life of Truman Capote, THE SWANS OF FIFTH AVENUE, I decided to read Capote’s ANSWERED PRAYERS, three interconnected short stories, one of which, “La Cote Basque,” was the cause of a rupture between Capote and his high-society swans. I was very disappointed. The stories were nothing but spiteful, salacious gossip not even attempting to masquerade as art. Plus, I’m no prude, but the endless sex in the stories is nasty and joyless; at no point is there any indication that sex (of whatever stripe) can be anything other than a monetary exchange between the beautiful poor and the ugly rich. A thoroughly reprehensible piece of writing. (Queen Victoria adjusts her bustle now!)
On the other hand, let me give a plug for BLACK WINGS HAS MY ANGEL, one if the best and bleakest noirs ever written.
I’ve read just the one Capote, IN COLD BLOOD. That was fine, I guess, but otherwise I’m not a fan, and would have expected no more from the book you read. BLACK WINGS would be tempting, but I’m pretty much skipping bleak and grim these days.
I remember searching for BLACK WINGS HAS MY ANGEL for years before I found a copy in a bookstore near the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus back in 1970. Let me echo Deb’s recommendation: great book!