What I've Been Reading ...

... catching up ... on this list of what I've read this year.

• Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch**** ... the sequel to The Lies of Locke Lamora which was like Indiana Jones goes to sci-fi adventure land. The Booklist review of "Lies" describes the series best:

  On a distant world, orphan Locke Lamora is sold into a crew of thieves and con artists. Soon his natural gifts make him an underworld celebrity, leader of the flamboyantly larcenous Gentleman Bandits. But there is someone who covets Locke's talents, his success, his very life, forcing him to put everything on the line to protect himself. With a world so vividly realized that it's positively tactile, and characters so richly drawn that they threaten to walk right off the page, this is one of those novels that reaches out and grabs readers, pulling us into the middle of the action. With this debut novel, Lynch immediately establishes himself as a gifted and fearless storyteller, unafraid of comparisons to Silverberg and Jordan, not to mention David Liss and even Dickens (the parallels to Oliver Twist offer an appealing extra dimension to the story, although the novel is no mere reimagining of that Victorian classic). Fans of lavishly appointed fantasy will be in seventh heaven here, but it will be nearly as popular with readers of literary crime fiction. This is a true genre bender, at home on almost any kind of fiction shelf.

  This is a worthy successor, set in another part of Locke Lamora's world and Lynch pulls it off again. A series to treasure, but be sure to begin with the first one or you will be hopelessly lost.
  
  
• Police Operation by H. Beam Piper, read by Mark Nelson *** ... novella-length story about the agent who is to clean up the problems a criminal caused when he went on the lam to another dimension. I don't think I really like Piper's style as this is the third or fourth of his works I have sampled and found uninspiring in general. However, Mark Nelson does a very good job reading the story.
  
  
• White Night by Jim Butcher***** (reread) ... just as good the second time around. It looks as if a group of magic practitioners is committing suicide one by one but Harry can tell it is actually murder, and possibly being committed by a member of the Council. Naturally, that's just the tip of the iceberg. A good hard-boiled detective novel as usual.
  
  
• Magic Street by Orson Scott Card***** (reread) ... also good the second time around. Probably the most creative connection I've ever seen of Shakespeare to our modern world. My previous quick review is here.
  
  
• St. Dale by Sharon McCrumb*** ... an intriguing concept for looking at modern pop culture, McCrumb's story has a tour bus on a modern day pilgrimage of the "sainted" seven-time NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt. It is very clear that McCrumb is not only interested in racing and pop culture but pilgrimages from all times as the priest on the tour can only relate to the entire experience by relating similar pilgrimage experiences from history. Interesting and one certainly learns a lot about racing ...
  
  
• Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely*** - I have enjoyed Neely's previous Blanche mysteries but this one grated on me. As the last book in the series, Blanche's personal issues with her mother and men get sorted out here. However, what I found annoying was her quick and unrelenting charges of racism based simply on a person's appearance, whether black or white. It is tough to meet Blanche's standards and this is the one are where she is apparently blind.
  
  
• Jerome and the Seraph*** - I read a rave review of this somewhere which I am now scratching my head over after having read this book. It is delightful as far as it goes. Brother Jerome dies and then discovers that he is not in heaven or hell but in a midway ground as a sort of a ghost. Advised and guided by the monastery's cat, who has amazing abilities to bend time and space, Jerome goes on to solve an extremely minor mystery (which I figured out very early on in the book). The big mystery is barely touched upon which I found extremely annoying, especially for a $15 price tag. Clearly this is half of an entire book and the second half was later published a year or so later. I don't mind that as a general rule, as witness my extreme fondness for Pamela Dean's Secret Country trilogy, but at least Dean gave us something of depth and complexity. This book, I find, is lacking in both.
  
  
• Uncle Tom's Cabin--A Reader's Companion to the Novel***** - a wonderful resource that answers various objections, both old and new, to Uncle Tom's Cabin as great literature as well as explicating the novel itself.
  
  
• The Ballad of Frankie Silver by Sharyn McCrumb***** - McCrumb has a series of mysteries set in the Appalachians which are titled after old folk ballads. The book generally follows the idea of the song in some way but this one is superior as it tells the story of Frankie Silver and also gives a parallel in modern times which is being investigated. Recommended both to mystery lovers and those with an appreciation for Appalachian folk culture in modern times.
  
  
• Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books by Maureen Corrigan***-fun to read as Corrigan's looks back at the books she's read throughout her life elicits similar reviews from the reader. However, I would have found it more interesting if woman-centric political subjects weren't so much to the forefront all the time.
  
  
  
• Castleview by Gene Wolfe**** - the town of Castleview gets its name from the apparition of a castle that occasionally is sighted by locals. A group of townspeople get caught up in the affairs of Faery on a particular fateful evening and adventure follows. Wolfe tells this story with a minimum of explanation and the reader must be ready to make mental leaps and hold on for dear life as the tale takes up wild momentum. I quite enjoyed it although am going to have to read it multiple times to really understand just what was going on in the middle of the book.
  
  
• Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe*** ... intriguing concept. A soldier, Latros, in ancient Greek times has had a head injury that causes him to have extreme short term memory loss. Every morning he must read what he wrote the night before to know what has happened to him lately. He also can see and interact with local gods and goddesses as he attempts to work his way home, if only he could remember where that was. A good book but not intriguing enough to make me want to read the sequels.
  
  
• Small Favor (The Dresden Files, Book 10)***** - ten books into the series and Jim Butcher is still coming up with fresh and interesting challenges for Harry Dresden, hard-boiled Chicago detective and wizard. It begins with underworld boss Johnny Marcone being kidnapped, ostensibly to gain control of him as he is a member of the Accords (trust me, start at the beginning of the series if you're a newcomer to these books). Harry is dragooned into tracking him down by Mab as one of the two remaining favors he owes her. As with most Dresden books, just when you think you know where you're going, the plot takes an abrupt left turn into new territory. Most interesting to me is Nicodemus' interest in recruiting Harry and Harry's new revelations about relationship with God.

Read reviews of food-ish books here.