Words and music

[graculus]

What I've read since my last post about books, a month ago:

Every Which Way But Dead by Kim Harrison (bored now!)
Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (okay but not great)
Pelagia and the Black Monk by Boris Akunin (not as good as the previous one in the series)
Gideon the Cutpurse by Linda Buckley-Archer (why are publishers apparently so obsessed with finding 'the next JKR'?)
The Ninth Stone by Kylie Fitzpatrick (a real curate's egg)
The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke (so good! highly recommended!)
The Ascendancy Veil by Chris Wooding (final book of trilogy, highly recommended!)
The Akhenaten Adventure by PB Kerr (Jonathan Stroud sets a tough act to follow)
Country of the Blind by Christopher Brookmyre (needs a good editor?)

And I'm currently reading Lirael by Garth Nix. As usual, more commentary on the above can be found here.



Gakked from siluria:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your LJ along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening.

It's an eclectic list, to say the least, with no commentary - think of it as a lucky dip! I think I've picked up a couple of these from here, so they're legit, but don't know where else I've sourced stuff from in some cases...

1. Dawn Landes - Bodyguard

2. Suede - Filmstar

3. Jennifer O'Connor - Exeter

4. Maroon 5 - Little of Your Time

5. Nickel Creek - Just (Radiohead cover)

6. Shearwater - Red Sea, Black Sea

7. Billy Bragg - I Keep Faith

And none of this tagging business neither! Pffft.

Comments

[siluria]

Ah Maroon 5 :) *happy sigh*

And I'm trying to branch out with my reading, get away from the non-fiction research and back into fiction - anything you'd particularly recommend? And I've barely read anything so presume I haven't heard of it :) I used to read crime/mystery type stuff but am willing to try anything.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Well, it depends on what you're into in terms of crime/mystery. Historical? Contemporary? Police procedural? ;)

Fortunately most of the crime writers seem to be pretty prolific, though I haven't really read much crime recently that I've been blown away by, whereas some of the fantasy stuff seems to be really covering new ground in comparison...

[siluria]

I'll try anything, so sci-fi/fantasy is all good :) Thank you!

[graculus.livejournal.com]

In terms of crime/mystery, I'd recommend checking out anything by the following, for starters:

Barbara Nadel's books featuring Inspector Ikmen (series starts with Belshazzar's Daughter)

James Lee Burke, who has two series of books, one featuring Detective Dave Robicheaux (series starts with The Neon Rain and another, shorter series which features maverick lawyer Billy Bob Holland (series starts with Cimarron Rose)

Ian Rankin, of course, his Rebus books (series starts with Knots and Crosses)

Walter Mosley's books featuring private eye Easy Rawlins (series starts with Devil in a Blue Dress)

Michael Connelly's books featuring Harry Bosch (series starts with The Black Echo)

Peter Tremayne's series of books featuring Sister Fidelma are quite good reading too (series starts with Absolution by Murder and there's loads of them)

Faye Kellerman's books are good - she's married to another writer but I like her stuff much more than his - her series featuring Detective Peter Decker (series starts with The Ritual Bath)

I'm not a big fan of the forensic stuff, so I've no recs in terms of people like Patricia Cornwell and so on...

[graculus.livejournal.com]

It all starts to blur after a while, but here's some good sci fi/fantasy (mostly the latter, to be honest):

Chris Wooding - his trilogy, The Braided Path (Weavers of Saramyr, Skein of Lament, The Ascendancy Veil)

Jonathan Stroud - the Bartimaeus trilogy (The Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem's Eye, Ptolemy's Gate)

Ursula Le Guin - god, anything by her but particularly The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, also the Earthsea books

Lynn Flewelling has written two series so far, the Nightrunner books (Luck in the Shadows, Stalking Darkness, Traitor's Moon, Shadow's Return) and the Tamir triad (The Bone Doll's Twin, Hidden Warrior, Oracle's Queen) both of which are excellent

Scott Lynch is a newcomer, having written two well-received books so far (The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies) and more on the way

Joe Abercrombie seems to be the UK equivalent of Scott Lynch, another newcomer (The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged and The Last Argument of Kings)

[siluria]

These are fantastic - thank you! I shall go see what I can find on bookmooch to exchange :)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I get most of my books via the local library system, since I already paid for that with my council tax...

[siluria]

Good plan!!! :) I read that slowly that I need to buy them, otherwise I may as well have done with the overdue fees :)