Since I’ve been reading a lot of short books this month, I thought I’d check in twice for readers.
September 4
For “a classic with a twist” (my reading group updated “a classic romance”) I read The Sleeper and The Spindle by Neil Gaiman. It is a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty tale with Snow White as its protagonist. It has absolutely stunning artwork and is a clever, super fast read. I definitely recommend this one.
September 7
For my non-fiction book I read On Writing Well by William Zinsser. I’ve been reading this book in little bits every few days for months. It is a lot of good advice to take in and is good brain food. It is full of such, such good advice. What else can I say? If you’re interested in writing as craft this book is awesome.
September 9
I choose a lot of books based on their covers, but most recently I grabbed one of the newest from Murakami Haruki, which turned out to be a picture book. The entire plot, if you can call it that, is very dreamlike. And I came away from this simpler work the same way I come away from his complex work — feeling like he’s a bit of a genius, and really, super weird. The Strange Library.
September 10
For my SF book I chose Acorna the Unicorn Girl by Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball. I’ve seen it in libraries and bookstores for nearly 20 yrs, and always been intrigued, but I didn’t expect it to actually have ships and space travel, which it did. I always guessed it was Fantasy that gets categorized as SF. So it was good and fun and fast and I’m considering reading the whole migley books in the series.
September 11
For a book recommended by a friend I read the graphic novel God Save the Queen, written by Mike Carey, art by John Bolton. It’s about the war between evil queen Mab and good queen Titania and a human girl who gets caught in the middle. The art style is great and the story is interesting, too.
September 12
For my mystery book I read the eleventh Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris. I couldn’t remember which one I’d left off on, so I ended up rereading one from years ago, but it had been long enough that I didn’t remember what would happen. I remember now why I stopped reading at this point — book 10 had felt so momentous, so game-changing, that book 11 felt like a let-down, back to the same old thing as if nothing had gone horribly awry in the previous book. I got that feeling at some points with the Harry Potter series too. In any case I’m ready now, and there are 2 left in the series I know I haven’t read yet. So those go on the list w the rest of the Acorna series.
Currently Reading:
Next Up?
J. Jobe 