Bookish Thoughts

Because what I need in my life right now is yet another series with more than ten books. At least these can all be read in a single sitting. The Bad Beginning  is the first in Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events. I first read it and the second book years ago when I was baby-sitting for my cousins. But at the time the series wasn't complete and I had no real incentive to track it down and read the whole thing. Then I kept hearing about it. Then Netflix announced their adaptation of it. Then it was my birthday. So I finally bought The Complete Wreck and doubled the length of my reading list in one fell swoop. But it is a very short book. 160 pages, with illustrations and large type on small pages. I read it quickly and found it delightful. Even though these books are about the terrible things that happen to the Baudelaire orphans, beginning with them becoming orphans, Snicket has a sense of humor that elevates the story. It's funny and charming while refusing to...

Before I read this book, I was warned that there was a cannibalism aspect to the murder mystery. Fearing the absolute worst, I braced myself. But it turned out that the cannibalism was mostly metaphorical, part of the book within a book that the murder is based on. So my first thought upon finishing was that it was much milder than I expected. And my second thought was that that was the strangest reaction I've had to a book in a long time. I love JK Rowling's Cormoran Strike series. Only two books in, but he and Robin are fun, smart people to hang out with. I like the way Rowling doles out clues, which leaves me feeling like I'm constantly on the verge of figuring things out. And I certainly could if I paid closer attention or flipped back to re-read passages. But as it stands I haven't been able to solve the mystery before the big reveal in either of her books. Which is a nice change of pace for someone who often sees the ending coming a mile away. If I have a comp...

Code Name Verity  is one of those books that I feel like everyone's been talking about for years. But for all that people were gushing about this book online, I managed to avoid hearing anything specific about it for a while. Then a few keywords entered my subconscious: female fighter pilots, female friendships, spies. I knew I had to read it. It's difficult to talk about this book. It deals with spies during WWII, so right off the bat you've got an unreliable narrator. As the details of her situation become more clear, it also becomes clear that something big is coming. But it's impossible to discern what that something is. Suffice it to say that this book was amazing. It deals first and foremost with female friendship, but it also focuses on women's war effort during WWII. There are female pilots and radio operators, interrogators and spies. It's refreshing to get a book that focuses on this side of the war effort, bringing to light things that have been o...

I was beyond excited when Bujold announced recently that she was releasing another story in the same universe as  The Curse of Chalion . I was even more excited when that book showed up sooner than I could have hoped for. Of course, this ended up being because it was released only as an eBook, which dampened my excitement somewhat. As much as it makes sense to release electronic copies of stories with no physical counterpart, especially for short stories and novellas, I still prefer the physical book. But it gave me an opportunity to check out the new Kindle app on my tablet, which actually has a few features that I like. Notably the "timer" that told me how long it would take to finish a chapter (or in this case the whole story). I also liked being able to change the background color - sepia was easier on my eyes in the late evening. The story itself was fun. Penric is so innocent and good-hearted (the classic third son) that you can't help but root for him. He's p...

Side Jobs  is not entirely part of the Dresden Series proper. As the title implies, it's the smaller cases that have less to do with the larger arcs. It's a collection of short stories that provide some history for fans of the series. Some alternate perspectives and smaller cases. It was a lot of fun to read, especially the stories narrated by characters other than Harry. This book collects stories ranging the whole course of the series thus far. From  A Restoration of Faith , which was written and takes place before the first book to  Aftermath , told from Murphy's perspective immediately following Harry's death in  Changes . The stories themselves are fun little bite-sized adventures. More interesting for the background they provide: Billy and Georgia's wedding, Thomas' involvement with the Oblivion War, Murphy's first meeting with Dresden, their relationship, and her grief when he dies. I really should have picked this book up before  Ghost Story . Th...

The internal chronological order of the Vorkosigan Saga bears no resemblance to the publication order. For the past 30 years, Bujold has written the stories she feels like writing when the inspiration strikes. Given this, it's actually a little amazing how well the references to earlier events work in her series. And because of it, each book contains a timeline with a brief synopsis of each book, to help orient the reader. The entry for this book simply reads "Miles hits 30. 30 hits back." Which is why I went ahead and bought this book over a year ago, even though I had, as yet, read only the beginning of the series and was intending to read the rest in chronological order. So it's been sitting on my shelf, and I have restrained myself from diving into it while I hunted down and read all the stories that came before it. This decision paid off in spades. The series has been building very organically, and now there are all sorts of great hints and references. There we...

If this book hadn't been a pick for my book club, I doubt I would have finished it. The ending lasted longer than  Return of the King 's. It's not that this book was bad. In fact it was a lot more readable than I expected it to be. Especially after I gave up on  Middlemarch  last month. But it is so far outside my normal wheelhouse. A sensation novel from the 1860s that moves impossibly slow for my more modern sensibilities. And completely predictable to boot. But getting exposure to stuff like this is why I joined a book club in the first place. There were some highlights. Lady Audley, the villainess of the piece, is nearly sympathetic until she basically throws it all away in the end. She was so close to escaping scot free. But we can't have that. So her nephew, who spends the book investigating the disappearance of his friend and having long-winded inner monologues about women, convinces her to confess her sins and locks her away in a mad house. And everyone exce...