alwaysamy: (books)
I just finished The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield. WOW. One of the best books I've read in years. It's everything a novel should be, in the most old-fashioned sense of the word, and her style is timeless -- there are no pop culture references here, no mentions of TV or the Internet, or even cell phones. It could be set anytime in the last thirty years or so, and in the end it doesn't matter *when* it's set.

It's got everything -- ghosts, twins, madness, incest, a crumbling old estate, a governess, a secret baby, and most importantly books themselves. The power of story here is the point, and it's magnificent.

I'm finishing up The Sweet Far Thing, by Libba Bray, right now -- I have no idea why it took me so long to get to this book, which is the third in her series. After that, I'm wide open, and remembering what summer usually means to me when it comes to books.

For years, of course, some lucky summers meant a new Harry Potter, and almost every summer means a new Julia Quinn and/or a new Nicci French -- light, sexy or suspenseful beach reads. There's no more Harry (::sobs bitterly::), and I think I've grown out of Quinn and French, much as I liked them in the past.

Any recommendations?

alwaysamy: (book)
With everyone posting their reading lists lately, I thought I would list what I read this year. It's a bit light on heavy, serious reading, that's for sure, and it's a bit light in general -- most of my reading is done before bed, and I tend to get drowsy (reading by the faint glow of the nightlight, since Sara is still in our room) before I get too many pages in.

So here it is, in all its relative glory, in order: )

So, 39 books. And probably nearly a dozen more I started and put down, including The Time Traveler's Wife (which I really want to get back to), Twilight (which sucked), and Rosemary Edgehill's Bast novels, which seemed weirdly dated and not all representative of the New York I know (or even knew fifteen years ago). I'm reading The China Garden by Liz Berry right now, and really enjoying it, but no way will I be done by tomorrow.

Profile

alwaysamy: (Default)
alwaysamy

October 2010

S M T W T F S
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24 252627282930
31      

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 9th, 2025 09:21 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios