Thursday, December 11, 2014

Things I read in May and June

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell- Susanna Clarke
I felt distinctly underwhelmed. Though it was nice to go to Venice.

The Summer without Men- Siri Hustvedt
Wasn't really a summer without men, as one might have guessed.

Americanah- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I loved Half of a Yellow Sun. I am not sure this was as good, though it was nice to go to America with the author, and to look at what returning from foreign might feel like.

The Thing Around Your Neck
Yes. Much better. Short stories are wonderful. Some of these were wonderful.

It Felt Like a Kiss- Sarra Manning
I like Sarra Manning, but as I write this in December I can no longer recall what the book was about. And I am not inclined to check. She does always manage to squeeze the tear out though, much like Marian Keyes, and I would recommend this to anyone sitting in bed with the sniffles and wanting a cuddle. 

Is Everyone Hanging out without Me?- Mindy Kaling
I adore Mindy Kaling. I don't know about this thing where people in their thirties suddenly start writing memoirs, but I would happily listen to Mindy talk about her life, which she does in this set of essays, most amusingly.

The remaining four Bernie Gunther novels- Phillip Kerr
These were not as much fun as the first three, but I like things set in Berlin. I like them so much that I will even read the later books in series that started out being set in Berlin.

Friday, April 4, 2014

Things I have read in the last few months

What I Loved- Siri Hustvedt- 2003
I loved this. I shall be looking for more of her books.

The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage and My Family- Dan Savage- 2005
This was what I read in the month before I got married myself. It sat in the bathroom where all three of us in the apartment read it simultaneously, with three bookmarks marking our different spots in it.

Battle for Bittora- Anuja Chauhan- 2010
I like Anuja Chauhan. I think she's very funny.

Bride Flight- Marieke Van Der Pol- 2011
I read this while on a plane. It seemed like good theme reading. It wasn't very good, and was about some terrible relationships. So in the 1950's at some point a plane full of young brides for immigrants in New Zealand took part in an air race that KLM went on to win. That part of the story is based in fact. Hopefully the tangled and painful lives of three of the girls on board are mostly fiction. I did not have a lot of patience for this book. But I was stuck on a transatlantic flight with not much else to do.

Blood of Tyrants- Naomi Novik-2013
If it has dragons I will read it. There was a long break between the last book in the Temeraire series that I read, and this one, so I had forgotten a lot of the detail. Much like one of the principal characters in the book.

The Berlin Noir Trilogy- Philip Kerr- 1993
I read these over less than a week and enjoyed them thoroughly. In general I wish there had been a bit less anal rape, over all three books. It would also have been nice if some of the women survived. They are not as ghastly as this short review makes them seen. There are four other Bernie Gunther books and I will be starting the next one this evening as soon as I can put it on my Kindle.

Oh yes. I caved and bought a Kindle. It is lovely, light, and has turned up the dial on how much I read and when.