A note about books I've been reading

As previously mentioned, I've been reading a lot more this year due to a) no freelance work, b) a bus commute, and c) a concerted effort to do so. I have friends and acquaintances who have read twenty or thirty books at this point in the year--I am not so fast a reader. But I also read the news and magazines (and the interwebs), so some of my bandwidth is otherwise spoken for. But this is a list and brief summary of the books I've read so far this year:

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins: Second book in the Hunger Games trilogy, I read it in preparation for the release of the movie later this year. The horrific turn of events in this volume just escalates the tension and the stakes. Enjoyed it very much.

Redshirts by John Scalzi: Breezy, easy read. It's great fun, very clever, and ended with more of a sense of resonance than I expected. Unexpected twists make it more than it initially appears to be. Light on the detail, heavy on the dialog--and I was OK with that for what it is. The author brings the reader to the characters via familiarity and humor and sympathy.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins: Last book of the Hunger Games trilogy, and a good wrap up. Collins doesn't make anything easy for a her characters, and she makes them work for every inch they take. Good stuff.

Murder in the Marais by Cara Black: Murder mystery, the first in a series, set in Paris centering around private investigator Aimee LeDuc. The story starts with a Nazi hunter asking LeDuc to deliver an envelop to a Holocaust survivor, and LeDuc finding the woman in question dead when she arrives. LeDuc quit investigating murders years ago; this case draws her back into the game. In the course of her investigation, LeDuc encounters international intrigue, skinheads with undiscovered secrets, Nazi fugitives and more. Marvelous evocation of Paris (fun to recognize the locations as I read), terrific PI. I want to read more of the series.

Collared by L.A. Kornetsky (also known as our own suricattus) (Laura Anne Gilman): Fun little mystery, first in a series, set in Seattle, about professional concierge Ginny Mallard who is engaged to find a missing person. She enlists her buddy bartender Teddy Tonica to help, and the game's afoot. This first Gin & Tonic mystery also features their pets, a cat and a dog, who are funny and very true.

Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore, which I wrote about here. In short: excellent and recommended. Highly.

Farthing by our own papersky (Jo Walton): Before Jo gave us the marvelous Among Others, which, like so many others, I just loved, she gave us Farthing, set in a post-World War II England that capitulated with Hitler and is slowly descending into fascism. Its protagonist character Lucy Kahn is the daughter of the people at the center of the Peace with Honor, the Farthing Set, a group of clubby, conservative nobility who are pushing an even more conservative agenda. Lucy's cardinal sin: marrying a Jew. What starts as an alternate history murder mystery rapidly evolves into an odyssey in which every character has to decide what's important and what's right. Everyone should read this book. I'm looking forward to its two sequels, Ha'Penny and Half a Crown.

Without a Summer by our own maryrobinette (Mary Robinette Kowal): The third book in The Glamourist Histories, the novel recounts the latest adventure of glamourists Lady Jane and Sir David Vincent in an alternate Regency period where magic exists (shorthand: Jane Austen with magic, and mightily well done). The story centers around the Luddite uprisings in London in the early 1800s, overlayed with concerns about an unnaturally cold summer (these two elements based on actual history), which the population blames on the coldmongers--glamourists who essentially provide refrigeration. In the mix is also the search for a husband for Jane's sister Melody, and a lesson about examining prejudice of all kinds. I think it's the strongest book in the series so far.

In the background, I've been slowly reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin and My Dearest Friend: the Letters of John and Abigail Adams--both wonderful reading, but denser and requiring slower reading and more attention.

I've also just started reading Ironskin by Tina Connolly. If The Glamourist Histories are Jane Austen with magic, then this one is Jane Eyre with magic. Will review when I'm done.