What I’m reading
Dodger by Terry Pratchett (YA, quasi-historical fiction, Dickensian, street urchins, humor, ARC) pub. 9/13
I’m 44% of the way through Dodger and it has moved to the top of my ‘reading’ pile because I’m getting into the story. I love the characters and the Dickensian tone, and I can’t wait to unravel the mystery of the girl. While I am enjoying the who-dunit story, the tone of Dodger is different from any other Pratchett book I have read. The writing is a bit melancholy and introspective — characters spend a lot of time thinking about death and their legacies. Perhaps this book is more influenced by Pratchett’s life than previous books?
On a different note, historically inaccurate word usage is a pet peeve. This book has several annoying errors. For example, the informal use of the word ‘kosher’ to mean ‘legitimate’ did not enter the lexicon until the 1920’s (long after Dickens’ time). It was just beginning to be used to mean ‘fit to be eaten’ in the 1850’s. A minor but aggravating quibble.
Forest Born this is the fourth book in the Goose Girl series by Shannon Hale (YA or older MG, fairy tales, beautiful writing)
I’ve had some ups and downs with this series. I’ve enjoyed all the books but none quite so much as Goose Girl (the first book). I’ll go through my thoughts on the whole series when I finish it.
What I’m listening to:
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (Japanese magic-realism, doorstop, rated R)
I’m 6 hours into it and I’m looking for opportunities to listen to this book — definitely a good sign. It’s a huge book (46 hrs), it has explicit sexual content (so I can’t listen to it while the kids are around), and it requires a fair bit of attention (I couldn’t focus at the dentist’s or at sports (while wearing headphones)).
The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle (mystery, Sherlock Holmes, PG-13)
The kids are enjoying this one so much that Gearbox has asked that I put it on his Kindle so he can listen to the whole thing himself. Another generation getting into Mr. Holmes. My work as a parent is done.
What’s on my TBR pile?
Uncontrollable by S.R. Johannes (indie, mystery, outdoorsy, strong-girl protagonist, YA) comes out today. Hurray! I’ll have a giveaway of an e-book in early October so stay tuned.
Raven Boys came out last week — I’m so, so excited. Her book tour swung through my state so my husband took a half day off and we drove down to a signing. Maggie was awesome — gracious and welcoming. We got to chat with her a little bit about the race car she bought. The bookstore was a disaster. When we arrived (10 minutes before the signing) the people who worked at the front desk had no idea there was a signing. And the bookstore HAD NO BOOKS for her to sign. What?! I don’t normally buy paper books any more but I had been planning on buying 3 copies to give as gifts. Luckily her publicist (?) had some book plates she could sign… I was tempted to have her sign my kindle.
For more It’s Monday, What Are You Reading, visit Kellee and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Sheila at Book Journey.
I would love to read Uncontrollable and just got an ARC of Raven Boys! I cannot wait to read it.
Have a great week, and happy reading!
Ashley
#BookNerd
Come back on October 9th and enter the ebook giveaway!
I lvoe that there are so many outstanding books coming out this fall. It sounds as though you are very busy!
Have a great week!
Lisa
Lisa’s World of Books, Weekly Recap
I’m contemplating on getting myself a copy of IQ84. Iphigene is really the Murakami fan among the three of us in GatheringBooks, but I’ve read one of his novels – can’t remember the title now – and I did enjoy it a little bit. :) I have quite a growing number of Terry Pratchett books in my shelves now, but I have not started reading them yet. I’d probably wait until I have the complete Discworld set. :)
My favorite Discworld books are the books about Tiffany Aching (Wee Free Men, Wintersmith, Hat Full of Sky). The first book in the series, The Color of Magic, is an awesome audiobook for car trips.
Great to hear about all the reading, Katya. Love that you’ve introduced Holmes & they are enjoying the story. I still find them very, very good. I just got The Raven Boys through Anderson’s, couldn’t resist having an autographed copy, but wish Stiefvater would come out west! Sorry you didn’t get the books themselves. Have a nice week!
I’ve been surprised how much I still love Sherlock Holmes. My husband got me the annotated edition a couple of years ago when they came out for my birthday!
You might want to check her latest tour schedule — she’s added a lot of stops. She’s going to be in Denver & Boulder on Oct. 7&8
http://maggiestiefvater.com/blog/tour-schedule-one-last-time/
Enjoy your books this week!
Thank goodness the book signing turned out great for you and Maggie – that’s one author I would love to meet in person too, and I’m looking forward to reading The Raven Boys soon.
My husband beat me to the punch… now I have to wait for him to be done before I can read it. :-)
That book signing story is crazy! Hopefully her publicist was taking good notes to give to the publisher on that fiasco. I’m glad you were able to make the best of it!
Dodger does sound interesting–I love that setting! We started Goose Girl last winter-driving to the ski slopes, but after an hour and half of being very confused, we realized it was on shuffle. I took a while, oddly enough for us to get back on track with that one!
Oh, no. That must have been very confusing. I’ve done that before on my Shuffle when listening to audiobooks.