What We Are Reading

Cara/Andrea here, If you're like me, you spent much of the holiday down time with your nose in a good book (after all, people know what sort of holiday presents we like best!) So for the first Wenchly report of the new year on What We Are  Reading, we have a LOT to share. (Have a notepad and pencil ready!) And please don't forget to share your recent favorites.

Mary Jo:
I always have a novel somewhere within reach, and I just finished the new Jayne Ann Krentz romantic suspense, Trust No One.  It was sleek, fun, and entertaining.

But I've also been reading more non-fiction lately.  A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about Cary Elwes's As You Wish, a delightful memoir of making The Princess Bride.

Also fun but very different is A Slip of the Keyboard, a collection of the non-fiction short pieces of British fantasy writer Terry Pratchett written over the several decades of his novelist's life.
 
Pratchett is one of the world's bestselling fantasy writers and his Discworld series abounds with wacky British wit, memorably eccentric characters, and underlying subversion.  The pieces are a mixture of speeches and articles about his work and his life and his growing up.  There's a lovely long speech he gave when he was made an honorary professor at Trinity College in Dublin.  He asked them, "Are you mad?"  They replied, "Yes. We're Irish."  <G>
 
As he said in his inaugural professorial speech, they were getting a genuine absent minded professor--because he is, famously, suffering from a rare form of Alzheimer's which in these days is truly the disease that dare not speak its name because society collectively doesn't want to think about it.
 
But Terry Pratchett isn't afraid to tackle any subject, as he proves here.  The earlier pieces in the book are witty and insightful and a lot of fun, but he manages to be equally witty and insightful in the last essays, where he talks about his disease and how society darned well needs to figure out how to deal with it better, because the baby boomers are coming.  And he still manages to be funny about it all.  (I've heard him speak in person twice, and the second time was several years after his diagnosis.  He was still very much himself.)

If you like offbeat British humor and stories that slowly build until you can't put the book down, I recommend Terry Pratchett's novels.  (The first I read, at Pat Rice's recommendation, was Witches Abroad.  I've been reading him ever since.)   

And if you enjoy wise and witty essays, I recommend A Slip of the Keyboard.  There is no one, anywhere, who writes like Terry Pratchett!
 
Anne:
After my annual read of Trisha Ashley's Twelve Days of Christmas, I bought another Trisha Ashley book, Every Woman For Herself, in which a recently divorced — ie suddenly dumped after more than 20 years — woman picks up the threads of her pre-marriage life, moving back to The Parsonage, a big old house where her eccentric family gathers. It's an entertaining story with an enjoyable romance and a few laughs. For those who've read other Trisha Ashley books, this is a slightly tweaked edition of one of her old books, and the one in which the Skint Old Northern Woman magazine first appears. (I'm linking here to her amazon page, where I think there are some bargains.)

I also read another story about a woman in the process of being divorced — Sophie Kinsella's Wedding Night and enjoyed it very much. It's a madcap story with a few laughs and a nice romantic happy ending — just my cup of tea for the holidays.

A friend suggested to me I should read some male writers of popular fiction, so I've been reading Lee Child "Jack Reacher" books and enjoying them, too.

Nicola:
I’ve been indulging in some great books this month! On the non-fiction front there was The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors. Dan Jones is a historian who makes history read like a thriller. He tells the intricate story of the family alliances and political enmities that led to the Wars of the Roses and writes vividly and skilfully. It’s one of the most engrossing non-fiction books I’ve read in a very long time and even if it didn’t convert this long-time Yorkist to the Lancastrian cause it was a great read!

The arrival of January also brought with it Sarah Morgan’s latest Harlequin Presents Playing By the Greek’s Rules. Yay! As well as having all of Sarah’s trademark warmth and humour, a sinfully sexy hero and the sort of heroine you would want as your best friend, it also sets the scene for her new Puffin Island Series. I loved it and I can’t wait for the new series!

Finally a really interesting and charming read from Jenny Kane called Romancing Robin Hood. If like me you were a fan of Robin of Sherwood this might appeal to you! The heroine, Grace Harper, is an academic who is supposed to be writing a textbook on the Folvilles, a gang of medieval criminals. However she keeps getting distracted by the book she is secretly writing, a romantic mystery that entwines the Folvilles with her long-time addiction to Robin Hood. There’s a current day romance as well and the wholestory is funny, unusual and totally charming.

Pat:
I’ve been hunkered down working this past month and don’t have a lot to report. Found an author new to me but well known to mystery lovers—Dorothy Cannell. She does lovely English mysteries full of entertaining characters and crumbling mansions and the murder tends to be off screen. I enjoy the fun of perfectly ordinary people bumbling around, trying to figure out what and why and who.  I just finished Down The Garden Path.

And I read another Rose Lerner... Sweet Disorder. I really love that she doesn’t do dukes and bored aristocrats and spoiled little rich girls and Cinderella tales. Instead, she creates solid characters with middling lives who are getting along but who have dreams...or not. The hero in this one is a wounded army vet simply doing what his family tells him to keep his allowance, and his family most certainly doesn’t tell him to go bug-eyed over the busty newspaper editor’s widow. Lerner weaves in nice bits of history, family drama, and a truly brilliant love story. Even the sex scenes are out of the ordinary.

Susan:
I'm a multi-media reader these days, juggling print, ebook and audio, and lately I'm juggling several books in various formats, depending on where I am and how much reading time I have. Here's what I'm enjoying currently--

I've just finished Bill Bryson's biography of Shakespeare in its ebook incarnation. It's a fun Brysonesque read and an excellent overview, filled with great research and thoughtful insights. On Mary Jo's recommendation, I've nearly finished As You Wish, Cary Elwes' highly entertaining memoir of the making of The Princess Bride, and I'm loving it. So of course I've picked up The Princess Bride again, 25th anniversary edition with William Goldman's fascinating intro ("I do not not not like being on a movie set"). I'm also reading Leonardo's Lost Princess by Peter Silverman, about the discovery and authentication of a Leonardo drawing of a young woman of the Sforzi family. The art historian in me is loving the steps from the "anonymous" drawing up for sale in a gallery to the identification of an unknown Da Vinci. Very cool stuff.

I n audio, I'm listening to Alan Bradley's newest Flavia de Luce installment, As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust. The intrepid and mischievous Flavia is shipped off to Canada to attend a school for girls, where she stumbles upon a dessicated corpse in the chimney. I adore Flavia and her narrator, Jayne Entwistle, who so brilliantly portrays Flavia and her adventures--and I've never heard a better match of narrator and character!  

Cara/Andrea:
I’ve been doing my usual ying and yang reading over the past month, switching back and forth between fiction and non-fiction. My local library’s recent newsletter spotlighted a Lynn Shepherd, a new-to-me historical mystery writer, who bases her books on literary inspiration from the 19th century. The series sounded intriguing so I picked up The Solitary House, which is based on Dickens’s Bleak House (with a dash of Wilkie Collins thrown in.) It took me a bit to get used to her style—it’s written in Wolf Hall-style of present tense, with a very detached narrator describing what is happening. However, I was drawn into the story and the interesting cast of characters. The protagonist is a Victorian private investigator whose uncle was the most famous thief taker from the Regency era. The uncle is brilliant but sinking into the first stages of dementia, and there are some very poignant scenes. It will probably not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I found it an interesting read. (p.s. There are a MASSIVE amount of one star reviews on Amazon because apparently the author did a blog slamming J. K. Rowling . . . admitting she hadn’t actually read the book in question. Not EVER a wise idea, especially with Rowling fans.)

I’ve also been really enjoying Against the Gods, The Remarkable Story of Risk by Peter Bernstein.  It’s a very thought-provoking book, tracing the concept of risk, which is based on how we see the future and our ability to control it. Staring with the Greeks, the author traces the changing perception of how much we feel that we can affect “Fate” through understanding probability, statistics, etc. There are wonderful anecdotes of key people throughout history whose thoughts affected the way we deal with the world. There are lots of mathematicians mentioned (many of them loved to gamble) along with concepts like utility theory and game theory. But it’s written for the general public, even though it’s a best-selling financial book, and the prose is terrific and highly entertaining. And I’m learning a lot that helps me better understand a broad range of financial/economic issues. Highly recommended!

So what about you? What new books are tickling your fancy in the new year? From reading this list I've already gone out and bought some of the marvelous-sounding stories to add to my towering TBR stack, but am always happy to add more!

Comments

[Janice]

Still working my way through Alan Furst's WW2-set novels - just read The World at Midnight and Red Gold, set in France. Before the war, Jean Casson is a moderately successful producer of gangster movies who gets involved in various resistance schemes. Alan Furst is a "swept away" writer, in that he always makes me feel as if I am really experiencing a different time and place, a different mindset. I am not getting that feeling from many new romances these days; they often seem much too contemporary.

[Andrea Penrose]

Thanks, for this reminder about Alan Furst, Janice. I keep telling myself that I need to get into his series. I know I would love them. (scribbling a note to myself!)

[Michele]

Thank you for the list; I'm going to be checking out the library's online catalog today, I'm guessing. : )

[Artemisia]

His books are fabulous, carrying a lot of atmosphere. Our America-centric view of the war is limited. All of Europe was struggling long before we charged in and "fixed things."

[Andrea Penrose]

Okay, he's moved ever upward on my TBR!

[Andrea Penrose]

Me, too, Michelle. I love getting recommendations for books . . .because, you know, I don't have enough of them in my house! (seriously, one can NEVER have enough books.)

[Robin Greene]

I read As You Wish and loved it not long after it came out. I've been A Princess Bride fan almost from the beginning. A co-worker mentioned it and I rented it on VHS.

I saw the Nova? episode on the authentication of the Leonardo painting. It was fascinating. I may check out the book now.

[Alison]

I love these lists and I always find new books to check out. Thank you.

I think that the book Nicola recommended, "The Hallow Crown", is titled "The Wars of the Roses" here in the USA.

[Karin]

I have a free 3 month trial of Scribd, so I have been catching up on a lot of older books I never read. One of the most delightful was an older Regency by M.C. Beaton, "Deirdre and Desire". And I found a couple of Anne Gracie's stories that I had somehow missed, "The Virtuous Widow" which was in a Christmas anthology, plus "An Honorable Thief" which I really loved! And in the bookstore, I found a new(to me) author, Darcie Wilde. I loved her book, "The Accidental Abduction", it's got humor, strong characters, and one of my favorite plot devices, a marriage between almost-strangers.

[Janice]

It's not a series per se, Cara; except for the two I mentioned, the books aren't related, except that at some point someone in each book may eat at a fictional restaurant in Paris called Heininger's. I was afraid they'd all be linked team ups, but so far all I've read (except the Casson two) have been standalones. So you can start with any of them. The only caveat I'd have is that people who want their fictional sex to be romantic love may be disappointed -- all these books take a 20th century male point of view.

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks for that Karin — I'm glad you found and enjoyed those old books of mine. They're still favorites for many readers (and me), and some of them are now for sale as e-books, though not in all countries. The ways of amazon and Harlequin can be strange.

Thanks too for those other recommendations. I did try one of MC Beaton's Hamish Macbeth books, but I'd already viewed and bonded with the Hamish of the TV series and found I wanted the books to be the same. Might be time to try her regencies.

[Janice]

Anne, I am amazed that Marion Chesney/MC Beaton hasn't crossed your path as yet. My favorite is The Ghost and Lady Alice, one of the standalones. I understand that some feel she is not "romantic" and don't cotton to her acerbic humor, but I love her awful characters most.

[Andrea Penrose]

I've loved Princess Bride since it came out too. So this book is going to be a delight . . .once I get to it!

[Andrea Penrose]

So glad you enjoy these lists too! I always look forward to them, as I always discover some new, wonderful book.

[Andrea Penrose]

Oh, right. I misspoke—I knew they were a series, but rather books based in the same era. It sounds like he's wonderful at characterization and ambiance. And yes, romance and HEA isn't always part of life. If the people and story are compelling I'm a happy reader.

[Shannon]

It's odd. I've read Sarah Morgan's Christmas story but not her January release. I read the other Rose Lerner story about an election. It was wonderfully convoluted with politics and romance. So I'm off to Amazon, because as you said, there's never enough books.

Oh and on "new" releases, Carla Kelly republished one of her old Regencies in Dec/Jan timeframe.

[Andrea Penrose]

Thanks for the heads-up on the new Carla Kelly release, Shannon. Love her old Regencies!

[Janga]

Pat, if you loved Sweet Disorder, be sure to read Lerner's True Pretenses. It has one of the most unusual romance heroes that I have encountered--a Jewish con man. A third book in the series will be released next year. Lerner had this to say about that one when she visited The Romance Dish a couple of weeks ago: "Book 3, called Listen to the Moon, is out in January 2016. For anyone who's read Sweet Disorder (LStL #1), the hero and heroine are Nick's impassive valet Toogood and Phoebe's snarky maid Sukey."

Deadlines on freelance projects have me running behind on reviews and other romance-related writings, so my most recent reading has been ARCs and rereads. I loved Karina Bliss's Rise--a bad boy/good girl romance that made me fall in love with a hero I thought could never be redeemed convincingly. And Julia Quinn's The Secrets of Sir Richard Kensworthy has one of the funniest scenes I've ever read. Both released this week. I'm also re-reading a stack of Mary Balogh's books as research for a forthcoming essay. I just finished The Temporary Wife, which I loved even more than the first time I read it. I'm still reading Mark Strand's Collected Poems, and I just started a biography of C. S. Lewis.

[Anne Gracie]

Oh, Marion Chesney -- of course. I was thinking of regencies under the name of MC Beaton, and completely forgot that she wrote as Marion Chesney. And I have read some of them and theyre lovely. Sorry. But Havent read them all, so thats a good reminder to chase them up. Thanks, Janice.

[Andrea Penrose]

VERY impressive reading list, Janga! You make me feel like a slug. I must hurry and get the Quinn to read that funny scene, and I'm also now intrigued about Rose Lerner's books. Will have to pick one up. Thanks for sharing!

[Jenny Kane]

Many thanks for recommending my book Nicola. I took a bit of a gamble mixing modern romance with a fourteenth century crime story- but so far the feedback has been positive! Plus it was so much fun to write. Jenny Kane /Kay Jaybee

[Andrea Penrose]

Thanks so much for stopping by, Jenny! Your book sounds wonderful—on Nicola's recommendation, I went right out and bought it. Can't wait to dive in!

[Nicola Cornick]

A pleasure, Jenny! It was a lovely read!

[Angela Booth]

Thank you for the lovely list of books to add to my TBR pile.

I've gone off buying new romances and historical romances for now. I looked at all the new romance books, and wasn't inspired by them.

Instead, I spent January rereading my favorites -- thank you Word Wenches, your books were among them. I've no idea how often I've reread my Jo Beverley et al books; they're my keepers.

While browsing Amazon, I found Lonesome Dove for the Kindle, so I've been rereading Larry McMurtry -- all four of the McCrae and Call books.

It seems I'm on a Westerns binge, because I also downloaded Portis's True Grit; I always meant to read it. Wonderful voice.

Another older book -- I found Arnold Bennett's The Old Wives Tale on Project Gutenberg and loaded it onto my Kindle. I've fond memories of that book, so I'll read it again.

When I start rereading, I know I'll end up reading Heyer again, so I think that's next.

Then I'll be ready for something new. :-)

[Sue W. McCormick]

I am returning to this page to announce a good-result. For various reasons, one "Christmas" get together in our family didn't happen until early in February, just after this page was posted. My husband and I received a gift card to be redeemed at a book store. After our meal, we were taken to the bookstore. Neither one of us had a pressing purchase on our minds, but no sooner did I step into the store than this blog came into mind. I asked the clerk where I could find "As You Wish" and now we are both fascinating our way through the book.

Thank you, Mary Jo for the heads up on an excellent read about one of our favorite movies.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Sue, what a great story!I'm so glad that you found a book you're both enjoying so much. Cary Elwes is very good company, and an excellent use of a gift card. *G*