Good morning, folks! Luckily, I am connected to the world again: we left Virgin Media and signed up with a new ISP whose service has, so far, been seamless. Zen Internet have a thumbs up from us so far!
It’s been a quiet week in terms of book purchases, in that I have made none! But I have got some reading done.
Books read this week:
Reviews posted this week:
–The Red House Mystery, by A.A. Milne. An okay but not astounding foray into detective fiction by A.A. Milne, decidedly shaped by his preferences (for instance, for a solution based on pure deduction, not forensic evidence, and for the main character to be an amateur detective). 3/5 stars
–Magic Slays, by Ilona Andrews. The latest in my reread of the series! I continue to marvel at how often people write it off when it has so much to offer. 4/5 stars
–Murder by Matchlight, by E.C.R. Lorac. Very atmospheric and of its moment in a positive way: it evokes London during the Blitz beautifully, and the mystery uses every ounce of that atmosphere. 3/5 stars
–The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics, by Olivia Waite. A lovely historical romance featuring female scientists, and mostly steering away from the guilt and shame sometimes attendant upon LGBT fiction set in that era. Wish the rival love interest wasn’t so immature and manipulative, though. 3/5 stars
–Unnatural Death, by Dorothy L. Sayers. A beloved reread with much to recommend it, though with period-typical hints of racism and a hefty dollop of class snobbery. 4/5 stars
–Fascism: A Warning, by Madeleine Albright. Part history, part memoir, part political treatise, this book gives a good overview of what fascism looks like, sounds a warning about various current regimes, and points several accusing fingers straight at Trump. It’s very readable, if not surprising in its slant and what it covers. 4/5 stars
–Fire in the Thatch, by E.C.R. Lorac. This one is really very sad, because we meet the victim in the first chapters and really get to like him. Mystery-wise, it’s well-written without being groundbreaking, as I’m coming to expect from Lorac. 4/5 stars
Other posts:
–WWW Wednesday. The usual mid-week update!
So that’s it for this week! How’s everyone doing?
I’d like to leave Virgin Media too but my dad is clinging to his BT Sports and Racing channels and I can’t persuade him!
Oh no! But their customer service is just DIRE.
TGIS – it’s been a very long tiring week for work, so HOORAY for the weekend. I’m trying to ignore that I’ve got a stack of tax paperwork to do and get some blog stuff done instead, but I guess I should adult sooner rather than later 🙂 Otherwise – picked up my second P Djeli Clark novella this week (The Haunting of Tram Car 015) and loved it – which was lovely, as I’d been avoiding it (steampunk is not my favourite) and now I feel stupid. I think it’s safe to say I now trust PDC to write novellas I want to read and thoroughly enjoy as I loved The Black God’s Drums too.
imyril recently posted…Blog Tour: Foxfire, Wolfskin and other Stories of Shapeshifting Woman
Tax, meeehhhh.
I liked both, though I didn’t adore Haunting — it just felt like there were some loose ends I’d have preferred to see tied up, mostly!
Interesting selection of books. I’ve seen a few reviews of The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics on Goodreads and I’m intrigued. As for Ilona Andrews, she’s been far too long lingering on my TBR list.
Bob @ She Leads he Reads recently posted…Stacking the Shelves
Oh I really enjoy Ilona Andrews’ books! Kate Daniels is a lot of fun.
It was a long work week but I managed to finish one book. I’m so behind on putting up book reviews but I hope to catch up this weekend.
I think I juuuust caught up on all my backlogged ones! I’ve got to say, writing them (and posting them) as soon as I’ve read the book is much easier to keep track of. It means I never put it off!