Also, in book news
Jul. 25th, 2016 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asraAs an addendum to my last book update, in which I mentioned that I'm reccing 'Guernsey' to everyone I know, one of my students (who wrote a gorgeous piece on a bookshop last year) is already in love with it, and today I passed it on to another student who came into my office and said 'Please give me a book to read' (as they do). It's not a perfect book, but as I said before, I haven't enjoyed the process of reading a book so much in a very long time.
I also mentioned that I was marathoning Michael Connelly, whom I am completely over by now, after a handful of books. The plots were fairly interesting, especially 'The Poet' (serial killer who leaves verses from Poe at the crime scenes) and its sequels, but there's only so much I can read about a straight dude who sleeps with a different stunningly attractive woman in each book. For a satisfyingly long crime series, I'd recommend queer author Patricia Cornwell (who, fun fact, claims to have solved the mystery of Jack the Ripper's identity). Her lead character, Kay Scarpetta, is straight, but Scarpetta's niece Lucy, who's in several of the books, is gay (as well as unusually intelligent).
Because 'Guernsey' left me with a yearning for more of the same, I've procured two recs that showed up at the book's Amazon page: 'Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,' which I hadn't heard of before, and '84, Charing Cross Road,' which I had. I haven't started on them yet because I'm finally reading 'The Book Thief'. After 'The Pianist' (the film) and Elie Wiesel's 'Night' (which was traumatising to both my students and me) last semester, I thought I'd be off Holocaust books for a long time, but 'The Book Thief' is just incredibly beautiful. It's narrated by Death (who of course is Julian Richings in my head), and I can't get over the gloriousness of the many brilliant ways in which the author uses language. More after I finish reading it because this book deserves its own post.
In Americana land, we're up to Washington Irving now. Rip Van Winkle tomorrow!
I also mentioned that I was marathoning Michael Connelly, whom I am completely over by now, after a handful of books. The plots were fairly interesting, especially 'The Poet' (serial killer who leaves verses from Poe at the crime scenes) and its sequels, but there's only so much I can read about a straight dude who sleeps with a different stunningly attractive woman in each book. For a satisfyingly long crime series, I'd recommend queer author Patricia Cornwell (who, fun fact, claims to have solved the mystery of Jack the Ripper's identity). Her lead character, Kay Scarpetta, is straight, but Scarpetta's niece Lucy, who's in several of the books, is gay (as well as unusually intelligent).
Because 'Guernsey' left me with a yearning for more of the same, I've procured two recs that showed up at the book's Amazon page: 'Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,' which I hadn't heard of before, and '84, Charing Cross Road,' which I had. I haven't started on them yet because I'm finally reading 'The Book Thief'. After 'The Pianist' (the film) and Elie Wiesel's 'Night' (which was traumatising to both my students and me) last semester, I thought I'd be off Holocaust books for a long time, but 'The Book Thief' is just incredibly beautiful. It's narrated by Death (who of course is Julian Richings in my head), and I can't get over the gloriousness of the many brilliant ways in which the author uses language. More after I finish reading it because this book deserves its own post.
In Americana land, we're up to Washington Irving now. Rip Van Winkle tomorrow!
