(no subject)

I’m having the kind of week where the high point is getting a new Dyson vacuum cleaner (amazon had a deal on refurbs that got one of their animal-rated models down to $200USD), yay?

I’ll spare you the rest (though I will say that having a team outing to an Indian buffet swapped out for a lunch&learn with takeout pizza almost made me cry.)

Books? Books…

finished
Midnight Riot, Ben Aaronovitch, narrated by Kobda Holbrook-Smith -- So, yes, everyone who has been telling me for forever that I should read this book: yes, you were so right, I had a blast with it, even if it was a little more gruesome than I was expecting. On the flip side, I was laughing out loud in the middle of traffic hell the whole time I was listening to it, which more than balanced out the gore. Also, the narration was outstanding, really one of the best performances I’ve listened to this year.

The Little Beach Street Bakery, Jenny Colgan -- I had some time to kill over the weekend and ended up at a bookstore (shocker, I know.) It wasn’t anything cool or indie (I was forbidden from *that* bookstore as BabyBoy was roaming around with his pack of friends in that area and didn’t need the threat of parental presence), just a random B&N in Spartanburg, South Carolina, but I saw this on an endcap and had loved another book of hers, so I grabbed it on the way out the door & started in on it while I waited for my presence to be allowable again. So, the other one of hers I read centered on books and Scotland, which is a lethal combination for me, but this one had baking (bread baking, not cupcakes, not that there’s anything wrong with the latter other than they’re a wee bit overdone these days) and Cornwall, which is seriously almost as lethal. So yes, once again I fell hard for the setting and didn’t mind the characters along the way. I am also delighted to see there are sequels for the next time I need somewhere to run & hide away (which, let’s be serious here, is possibly the next time I open twitter.)

I dropped When Dimple Met Rishi, mostly because it turns out I’m not really in the mood for NA (I get that the seemingly unending repetition of Dimple’s personal hero’s name was used to define her enthusiastic character, and it was very on point for a young woman of her age and attitude, but holy cow, I was 3 chapters into the book and I was already sick of hearing it), but also because after 3 interactions between our main characters, one of which ended with D (appropriately) throwing her iced coffee at R, I found D’s interior monologue about how ‘easy it was to talk’ to R waaaay too much telling, and decided I was done.

I’m also putting Monstress on hold--I have yet to find a large enough chunk of time to get into the story, which is very in media res, with a judicious amount of time-shifting (so I find myself having to really put a lot of attention into it.) It’s a gorgeous book, but I kept not remembering details and they’re using those details to fill in the backstory, both narratively and graphically, and having to re-read, and re-re-read. Possibly the next time I’m on a plane…?


now
The Darwath Trilogy, Barbara Hambly -- I got sucked into life on a Cornish island; this one fell by the wayside, oops.

The Dark Days Club -- Hmm, so this is sort of turning into a Regency Buffy--complete with the older, more experienced mentor who I am fairly sure is going to turn out to be one of the things Our Heroine is supposed to hunt (Hi Angel!), an enthusiastic non-powered Scooby gang, a clueless mother figure, and your all-purpose-nasty-representation-of-the-patriarchy older rich dude--which is fine, and she’s setting up a lot, I can tell, but I’m going to be really irritated if the lady's maid gets fridged.


next
Probably more of Peter Grant and then I swear I’m going into my TBR pile. SWEAR.