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Wednesday What Are You Reading
Sep. 17th, 2014 09:42 pmCurrently Reading
The Lantern (Deborah Lawrenson) – I read this while I eat a sandwich - twenty minutes two lunchtimes per week, hence the slow progress. I’m about half way through and the action is just starting to pick up. I think the author is concentrating so much on describing the vivid Provence landscape that little things like suspense, characterisation and plot have been lost.
Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the labyrinth as a spiritual practice (Lauren Artress) – as someone for whom the labyrinth is useful but Not All That, this is interesting but pushing my personal woo envelope a bit: the phrase ‘sacred geometry’ is, I think, the sticking point. Reading it properly, there’s nothing I actively disagree with, but I keep expecting there to be.
Recently Finished
Like Water For Chocolate (Laura Esquivel) – this worked better for me than Malinche did. Esquivel’s noble and heady disregard for the normal laws of science is more appropriate in this folk tale than in the quasi-biography. I am not usually one for recipes in novels, but the ones in this book felt like an organic part of the story rather than a self-conscious gimmick. While there were parts of this that concerned and/or irritated me, I did enjoy this book.
Cell (Stephen King) – well, he’s very good at what he does, but my goodness, it’s a depressing world to wander through. This one has of course dated quite dramatically, what with the rise in smartphones; it’s comparatively rare to see someone actually talking on a mobile phone. And I did wonder what was meant to be going on in the rest of the world.
The Spirit Level (Richard Wilkinson; Kate Pickett) - very suspicious of this, on account of the inadequately labelled graph axes, and by how much I want it all to be true.
Abandoned
Cat’s Eyewitness (Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown) – Don’t anthropomorphise animals. They don’t like it. All the animal dialogue in this made me cringe so much I had to give up on it.
Up Next
Whatever gets picked for the next book club.The Left Hand of Darkness, which I've already read, so I will not break my heart over getting it. And probably Ancillary Justice (Ann Leckie), though it is rare for me to get round to reading or watching something the same year that the rest of the world raves about it.
Other Media
Well, this week's Doctor Who was not without faults but was amazingly powerful. I’m re-watching The Way, in chunks, and thinking about how real life makes for a terrible story. Run out of cycling (at least until the world championships) and cautiously pleased with Formula E (although approving neither of FanBoost nor of playing music over the race). And I say again: I will miss the Mythbusters build team.
The Lantern (Deborah Lawrenson) – I read this while I eat a sandwich - twenty minutes two lunchtimes per week, hence the slow progress. I’m about half way through and the action is just starting to pick up. I think the author is concentrating so much on describing the vivid Provence landscape that little things like suspense, characterisation and plot have been lost.
Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the labyrinth as a spiritual practice (Lauren Artress) – as someone for whom the labyrinth is useful but Not All That, this is interesting but pushing my personal woo envelope a bit: the phrase ‘sacred geometry’ is, I think, the sticking point. Reading it properly, there’s nothing I actively disagree with, but I keep expecting there to be.
Recently Finished
Like Water For Chocolate (Laura Esquivel) – this worked better for me than Malinche did. Esquivel’s noble and heady disregard for the normal laws of science is more appropriate in this folk tale than in the quasi-biography. I am not usually one for recipes in novels, but the ones in this book felt like an organic part of the story rather than a self-conscious gimmick. While there were parts of this that concerned and/or irritated me, I did enjoy this book.
Cell (Stephen King) – well, he’s very good at what he does, but my goodness, it’s a depressing world to wander through. This one has of course dated quite dramatically, what with the rise in smartphones; it’s comparatively rare to see someone actually talking on a mobile phone. And I did wonder what was meant to be going on in the rest of the world.
The Spirit Level (Richard Wilkinson; Kate Pickett) - very suspicious of this, on account of the inadequately labelled graph axes, and by how much I want it all to be true.
Abandoned
Cat’s Eyewitness (Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown) – Don’t anthropomorphise animals. They don’t like it. All the animal dialogue in this made me cringe so much I had to give up on it.
Up Next
Other Media
Well, this week's Doctor Who was not without faults but was amazingly powerful. I’m re-watching The Way, in chunks, and thinking about how real life makes for a terrible story. Run out of cycling (at least until the world championships) and cautiously pleased with Formula E (although approving neither of FanBoost nor of playing music over the race). And I say again: I will miss the Mythbusters build team.
