Reading Wednesday
Feb. 19th, 2014 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
st_aurafinaIt has rained and rained today! Really heavy blattery rain, which is lovely and much needed and has cleared the air of this horrible muggy closeness that I hate. Also, it will refill our rainwater tank, which has been secretly seeping precious rainwater from a cracked seal into the lawn. There's a nice green patch there, now, but I'd rather have the water for the vegetable garden.
This is my first Wednesday at work for a good few weeks. I hate Work Wednesday because I have to check the dosettes. Checking dosettes is not my most favourite thing ever. Just so many tablets to count. And so many of them are round and white. I am using my coloured pens (on my checking sheet, not on the little white tablets!) and I have coffee from the cafe next door, but I don't know if I will survive.
Still, I am up front for watching the local rumour mill spin - we've heard that the oldest person in town may have passed away. Nobody knows for sure. Nobody will identify who they heard this from. Everyone is claiming they've only heard it from this one person, and that they've only told this one other person. Reports say there are a lot of cars at the house in question. Small towns are weird. (I wonder if I'm gruesome for trying to figure out who the next oldest person is. I don't think that's gruesome? I'm not going to congratulate them or anything.)
Just finished reading:
Damiano by R A MacAvoy.
So much trippier than I remembered. So many more people died than I remembered. What is it about dreamy hot weather that makes me read trippy, slashy books about angels? I read The Vintner's Luck in similar weather, and it made much more sense then than it did on any re-read.
I started reading the sequel, but the weather had changed and the mood for reading that kind of thing was gone again. Until next year, I suppose.
The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr
Mostly because I was in the mood for YA about the world of prodigies. It was self-indulgent in exactly the way that I wanted it to be: the story of a musically gifted teenager who has lost faith and confidence in her abilities and learns to love music for music's sake. The teenage relationship storyline felt a bit pat, I hated Lucy's crushes on her teachers, but I loved her pressure-cooker family, and the competitive world of teenage prodigies.
Parasite by Mira Grant
I've had it on the to-read shelf for a long time, and randomly picked it up this week. I think I'd been holding off because I half expected to be disappointed by anything that came after Newsflesh, but obviously this week I felt resilient enough to deal with that. It didn't disappoint, though.
She has good science! Mira Grant does her research and writes scientific plots in ways that are accessible to non-science reader without making science readers twitchy. The plot was good, and the premise was clever: in the future, the privileged all have bio-engineered intestinal worms that maintain our health, stop our allergies, boost our immune systems. The Big Pharma bad guys were impressively realistic. (I'm scared of those guys IRL, so I'm not surprised to read about dodgy practices in genetic engineering and patent law.) On the other hand, there's only so much I can read about parasitology before I start to feel gross and covered in egg capsule slime.
I did love Sal, the prickly and defensive POV character, and the neat way Mira Grant worked an amnesia plotline to give us an in on her world.
Currently reading:
India Black and the Widow of Windsor by Carol K Carr.
Seances! Merry Christmas shenanigans at Balmoral! Dour monarchs and feisty maids and presumably espionage at some stage. I've been warned it's not as good as the first book, but my tolerance is high because it's lots of fun
Planning to read next:
Masters of Sex by Thomas Maier. (Because I enjoyed the series.)
Legend by Marie Lu (Because people are talking about the third book in the series, and I haven't started the first one yet.)
Tea With the Black Dragon by R A MacAvoy (When I can find my copy of it. It's here, somewhere.)
This is my first Wednesday at work for a good few weeks. I hate Work Wednesday because I have to check the dosettes. Checking dosettes is not my most favourite thing ever. Just so many tablets to count. And so many of them are round and white. I am using my coloured pens (on my checking sheet, not on the little white tablets!) and I have coffee from the cafe next door, but I don't know if I will survive.
Still, I am up front for watching the local rumour mill spin - we've heard that the oldest person in town may have passed away. Nobody knows for sure. Nobody will identify who they heard this from. Everyone is claiming they've only heard it from this one person, and that they've only told this one other person. Reports say there are a lot of cars at the house in question. Small towns are weird. (I wonder if I'm gruesome for trying to figure out who the next oldest person is. I don't think that's gruesome? I'm not going to congratulate them or anything.)
Just finished reading:
Damiano by R A MacAvoy.
So much trippier than I remembered. So many more people died than I remembered. What is it about dreamy hot weather that makes me read trippy, slashy books about angels? I read The Vintner's Luck in similar weather, and it made much more sense then than it did on any re-read.
I started reading the sequel, but the weather had changed and the mood for reading that kind of thing was gone again. Until next year, I suppose.
The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr
Mostly because I was in the mood for YA about the world of prodigies. It was self-indulgent in exactly the way that I wanted it to be: the story of a musically gifted teenager who has lost faith and confidence in her abilities and learns to love music for music's sake. The teenage relationship storyline felt a bit pat, I hated Lucy's crushes on her teachers, but I loved her pressure-cooker family, and the competitive world of teenage prodigies.
Parasite by Mira Grant
I've had it on the to-read shelf for a long time, and randomly picked it up this week. I think I'd been holding off because I half expected to be disappointed by anything that came after Newsflesh, but obviously this week I felt resilient enough to deal with that. It didn't disappoint, though.
She has good science! Mira Grant does her research and writes scientific plots in ways that are accessible to non-science reader without making science readers twitchy. The plot was good, and the premise was clever: in the future, the privileged all have bio-engineered intestinal worms that maintain our health, stop our allergies, boost our immune systems. The Big Pharma bad guys were impressively realistic. (I'm scared of those guys IRL, so I'm not surprised to read about dodgy practices in genetic engineering and patent law.) On the other hand, there's only so much I can read about parasitology before I start to feel gross and covered in egg capsule slime.
I did love Sal, the prickly and defensive POV character, and the neat way Mira Grant worked an amnesia plotline to give us an in on her world.
Currently reading:
India Black and the Widow of Windsor by Carol K Carr.
Seances! Merry Christmas shenanigans at Balmoral! Dour monarchs and feisty maids and presumably espionage at some stage. I've been warned it's not as good as the first book, but my tolerance is high because it's lots of fun
Planning to read next:
Masters of Sex by Thomas Maier. (Because I enjoyed the series.)
Legend by Marie Lu (Because people are talking about the third book in the series, and I haven't started the first one yet.)
Tea With the Black Dragon by R A MacAvoy (When I can find my copy of it. It's here, somewhere.)