A Bed of Earth, by Tanith Lee: I remember reading Saint Fire, the second book in the Secret Books of Venus by Tanith Lee, about six years ago, and I’ve been meaning to finish the series ever since. Much to my delight, the other three books are at the local public library. Set in Venus, [...]
I haven’t updated this blog since last October, due to considerable laziness on my part. But that doesn’t mean I’ve abandoned it, and I shall try my best over the next few days to catch up on the backlog. In this post, some notes on the books I read from October to November [...]
Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett: Another Ankh-Morpork novel along the lines of The Truth, i.e. a look into the chaos that explodes when the Discworld equivalent of a modern-day convenience develops. Vetinari at his absolute best here. There’s definitely a gentle parody of that 50s film stereotype of the con man who ends [...]
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling: I bet it’s still not safe to post spoilers. What I will say is that The Half-Blood Prince has replaced The Prisoner of Azkaban as my favorite in the series. I’m sure some people will violently disagree with me (especially due to the, er, [...]
I finished these books last month. My reactions have muted with time, so I’ll try to note down quickly my most memorable impressions.
Claudius the God, by Robert Graves: I’ve been meaning to read Claudius the God ever since I finished I, Claudius two years ago, and finally I’ve gotten around to borrowing it from Lamont. [...]
The following books were read from late January to March of this year.
Comfort and Joy, by Jim Grimsley: My friend lent me this sequel to Winter Birds after I finished the first two Grimsley books, and despite the lack of novel narrative devices, I think I preferred this novel to its prequel. That being said, [...]
Swordspoint, by Ellen Kushner: I bought this book on the recommendation of my best friend, despite my initial qualms about her plot summary—she described it as a medieval story about a swordsman and a scholar (I thought hopefully of Narcissus und Goldmund and less optimistically of Mercedes Lackey’s numerous swords-and-sworcery novels). Still, I wanted to [...]
I plan to keep this update brief. Five books are a lot to cover in one blog entry, after all.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon: I read a review of this book when it came out in hardcover, a little over a year ago, and have been meaning to [...]