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Catching up on books. Didn't read much the first two weeks of the month for obvious reasons.
33. The Bullet Catcher's Daughter - Rod Duncan
Alternate Timeline, Steampunk, good fun. Have![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
girfan to thank for it!
34. Us Conductors - Sean Michaels
A debut Canadian book, fictional account of the man that invented the theremin, an early electronic instrument. I didn't know anything about it but apparently it's the instrument used in the original Star Trek theme! This is more fiction than fact. The inventor spent some years in America flogging the instrument and also, allegedly, spying for Mother Russia/USSR then was taken back and kept in a prison camp for awhile both in Siberia and then outside Moscow. The book covers those years too. The Russian bits were more interesting than the American bits. It won the 2014 Giller Prize though I think I would have chosen something else. I read a couple of the other shortlisted books and enjoyed them more.
35. The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic - Emily Croy Barker
Fantasy, mixing romance and magic. Not bad. Slow in bits. Something a bit different.
36. The Crow Trap - Ann Cleeves
The first book about Inspector Vera Stanhope, which is a series in the UK. Hard to picture her as depicted in the book when the tv version is the lovely Brenda Blethyn.
37 - Sweetland - Michael Crummey
Another Canadian author, about an old man in a remote Newfoundland village. The government is paying them all to relocate to the mainland or elsewhere. Sweetland is the last holdout and fakes his own death so he can stay on the island, alone. It's way better than it sounds. Most of the book is his relations with the rest of the villagers, mixed in with memories of the past, little by little building up to who he has become over the years. Really good book.
38 - We Are Not Ourselves - Matthew Thomas
This is about a woman, daughter of an Irish immigrant. She marries a scientist, eventually has a son. She's ambitious, snobby, and pushy with her family, high expectations but is thwarted by their resistence. Told from her perspective but also from her son's at times as they both deal with her husband's illness later on. Character study, not really plot driven, but absorbing just the same.
So there you are, half a dozen books, fairly different from each other. I"m reading Out of Africa now, a book I've always wanted to read. I loved the movie and though have only just started the book, I think it's going to be good. Karen Blixen writes words that flow like melted butter! That alone is going to make it worth while.
33. The Bullet Catcher's Daughter - Rod Duncan
Alternate Timeline, Steampunk, good fun. Have
girfan to thank for it!34. Us Conductors - Sean Michaels
A debut Canadian book, fictional account of the man that invented the theremin, an early electronic instrument. I didn't know anything about it but apparently it's the instrument used in the original Star Trek theme! This is more fiction than fact. The inventor spent some years in America flogging the instrument and also, allegedly, spying for Mother Russia/USSR then was taken back and kept in a prison camp for awhile both in Siberia and then outside Moscow. The book covers those years too. The Russian bits were more interesting than the American bits. It won the 2014 Giller Prize though I think I would have chosen something else. I read a couple of the other shortlisted books and enjoyed them more.
35. The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic - Emily Croy Barker
Fantasy, mixing romance and magic. Not bad. Slow in bits. Something a bit different.
36. The Crow Trap - Ann Cleeves
The first book about Inspector Vera Stanhope, which is a series in the UK. Hard to picture her as depicted in the book when the tv version is the lovely Brenda Blethyn.
37 - Sweetland - Michael Crummey
Another Canadian author, about an old man in a remote Newfoundland village. The government is paying them all to relocate to the mainland or elsewhere. Sweetland is the last holdout and fakes his own death so he can stay on the island, alone. It's way better than it sounds. Most of the book is his relations with the rest of the villagers, mixed in with memories of the past, little by little building up to who he has become over the years. Really good book.
38 - We Are Not Ourselves - Matthew Thomas
This is about a woman, daughter of an Irish immigrant. She marries a scientist, eventually has a son. She's ambitious, snobby, and pushy with her family, high expectations but is thwarted by their resistence. Told from her perspective but also from her son's at times as they both deal with her husband's illness later on. Character study, not really plot driven, but absorbing just the same.
So there you are, half a dozen books, fairly different from each other. I"m reading Out of Africa now, a book I've always wanted to read. I loved the movie and though have only just started the book, I think it's going to be good. Karen Blixen writes words that flow like melted butter! That alone is going to make it worth while.
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I just finished a book, Uprooted by Naomi Novik, which is fantasy, but not a dragons/quest type book. It's really excellent and I recommend it.
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