Last book you bought - or read

A few posts back I was rather dismissive about the first Wheel Of Time book, and rightly so, it was indeed an unimaginative, formulaic bore of a book.
But with my local library not having anything interesting this week I have been tempted back to book two and this one is surprisingly better so far. The characters seem to have grown a little beyond the obvious Tolkein stereotypes they were based on and the scenarios appear to be a bit less predictable. Hopefully it will continue that way!

I’ve just finished reading ‘Geek Love’ ( for about the 5th time) by Katharine Dunn.
It charts the rise and fall of a freak show circus and the main characters later life as she struggles to exist in ‘normal’ society.
The blurb on the cover says
‘So disturbing the book should be accompanied by a sick bag’ but I found it really life affirming and beautifully and tragically poetic.
If you fancy something a little different I can highly recommend it.
Edit: It’s a work of fiction by the way if that didn’t come across.

Since I am unpacking things VERY slowly, I've spent more time than usual reading.
I finished Blood and Fire a while back. That's George RR Martin, if you don't know. In Sweden it was published as two books, so I was happy to get the English "complete" book, but.... I think it's still part one of two. It follows the Targaryen dynasty from their conquering Westeros to about halfway through their 300 or so years in power.

It's written a bit like a history recorded by a maester, with comments by the narrator and references to various source materials. I thought it might be a somewhat boring read at first, but even though it breezes through a bunch of regents and their family members and allies rather quickly, you still get the sense that the Game of the Iron Throne was always complicated and full of deviousness.

After that I read an old detective novel I got second hand from a friend. "Blunt" something, about an inspector Cardinal. Wouldn't surprise me one bit if there's a TV series based on the characters. Or I've read another book before. The name Cardinal seems very familiar. The story wasn't much to call home about.... The usual sick serial killer, an inspector with personal problems and an annoying boss... Yesterday I started reading Belgravia by Julian Fellowes (the man behind Downton Abbey) but I find myself more in the mood for more detective stories. Luckily I got two books about Cardinal so I guess I'll be reading the second one next.

Unfortunately my local library is closed until further notice.

I still have a couple of books from there that I've finished and can't return but thankfully they've cancelled the concept of late fees. *phew*
So I guess I'll just be continuing through that long Wheel Of Time series.

Just finished a re-read of His Dark Materials (yep, still no library ) and it didn't seem quite as good this time around. I remember the first time I read it I thought it was quite profound and provocative but I guess I'm just a bit more cynical now.
I was gonna dig out my Lord Of The Rings books next but they look very old and grubby on the shelf. Perhaps I'll pick them up after I've dusted.... sometime.

Until then, the seemingly endless Wheel Of Time continues to turn.

I finished "Belgravia" by Julian Fellowes today. No sci fi at all, just plain old Downton Abbey style "secrets and scandal". Which turned out to be not much of either. You suspect the secret in chapter 1, have it confirmed in chapter 2, suspect how the book will end about midway through and have that confirmed in the next to last chapter. Then the last chapter brings a bit of suspense, for a page or two, wrap everything up, and end kind of weirdly (I suspect in a "bad people always get their comeuppance" sort of way). Still, was an OK read if you like 19th century type stuff, and I do.

EDIT: And speaking of 19th century books, I just found that there's been a TV series made of the unfinished book Jane Austen left behind. As far as I recall she wrote it as a series of letters between two friends, but the TV series seem to follow normal format. We have all episodes currently available online here in Sweden, so... I guess I know what I'll do now I've finished the second season of the Order (which I binged, largely 'cause I have a friend who's in the background in some episodes).

Did she leave it behind because it wasn't finished, or did she just forget she had it with her at the time?

she ded.

After finishing my re-read of Lord of The Rings I've decided not to go straight back to the endless Wheel of Time and instead have started on those also endless Malazan books that Atto previously talked about.

Yay, maps!
And a long list of characters!
Thankfully there's no dictionary of words in a made-up language. Yet.
Sixty pages in and it's a slower start than I would have expected but we'll see how it goes.

Yay! I hope you enjoy them. If you started on the first one, Gardens of the Moon it does take sometime to get going. I read Deadhouse Gates first which imho is still the best in the series. I’ve just finished The Crippled God (again). Casting about right now to find something else though I do have some Richard Dawkins and Naomi Klein stuff I haven’t read yet.