I found THE ART OF ASKING to be a rather strange read. A lot of it was familiar to me in one way or another: I’ve watched Amanda Palmer’s TED Talk, I followed her Kickstarter and its aftermath, I periodically read her blog, I used to read Neil Gaiman’s blog regularly, etc. I’m not a fan of either Palmer or Gaiman, which is to say their art doesn’t particularly speak to me, but I’ve met them both, albeit briefly, and it’s hard to be in my line of work and…
Tag: recent reads
Recent Reads: Mansfield Park
I’ve finally finished reading Austen’s MANSFIELD PARK, which I found remarkably hard going. This was not helped by reading the first half over the course of several months in dribs and drabs; the second half, which I read over the past several days, went more easily. But I struggled with remembering who the characters were in relation to one another, and it was made worse by some of the longest sentences I’ve ever been dragged down by. I had a hell of a time remembering what had happened at the…
Recent Reads: Edwardian Murder Mysteries
Last fall sometime I read MC Beaton’s SNOBBERY WITH VIOLENCE, which I enjoyed very much (as I do nearly all of Beaton’s historical romancs) and asked for the rest of the quartet for Christmas so I could finish them all before doing a Recent Reads on them. A couple weeks ago I picked up the 2nd book and found it…incredibly disjointed. There was no flow from book 1 to book 2, and while it had been a few months since I’d read the first, I didn’t think it had been…
Recent Reads: The Paradox Trilogy
As mentioned in last week’s post, I got Rachel Bach (Aaron)’s military sf/space opera last year on the strength of her Eli Monpress books, and, in my quest to get through my TBR shelf in order, read them this month. They’re not as easy to fall into as the Monpress books; Devi Morris, the main character, isn’t as charming or delightful as Eli Monpress. Then again, she’s not supposed to be, so frankly that speaks to Aaron’s strengths as a writer. Book one found its footing after a few chapters,…
Recent Reads: The Grand Sophy
I started reading Georgette Hayer probably because of Sarah Rees Brennan and Chrysoula Tzavelas, who are both big Regency fans. I’ve read three or four of her books now and enjoyed them all, but THE GRAND SOPHY is one of Chrysoula’s favourites, and I can entirely see why. Unlike the other Heyer books I’ve read, I actually found THE GRAND SOPHY a bit hard to get into. That all changes when Sophy herself arrives on the scene, because– –we often hear characters described as exploding onto the page, but I…