DP9

So yet again I've combined reading with listening to this book. Second time in a month I've had to put up with an audiobook reader who didn't bother to find out how the previous readers for a series have pronounced various character names (e.g. Genghis with a hard G vs a soft G). So irritating!! And yes, I did correct the reader vociferously every time. Just as well I read a big chunk of it rather than listen to the whole thing!

It always fascinates me how synchronicty strikes in my reading material. Both in this book and Lionheart we meet the cult of Assassins, and hear the story of how they left a poisoned cake in Saladin's tent. I had never heard the story before, and then it crops up twice within a couple of weeks.

I've really enjoyed this series so far, and it's a nice thought that when I'm done with it, there's still Iggulden's Emperor series for me to read my way through. 

Read the first section of this while staying with a friend last week. (That's normal, right? Visit a friend you've not seen for a while and go through their bookshelf to see if there is anything you fancy?) So while she did a spot of work in her veggie garden on Sunday afternoon, I sat out in the sunshine "keeping her company" and started reading this, which I'd just helped myself to from her shelves.

I refrained from slipping it into my hand luggage (possibly a guilt-related decision, due to the fact that last time I borrowed a book from her I failed to return it for several years), so Yay public library. So far I'm finding Mark's writing style perfectly satisfactory.

Smiled to myself when I realised I was skimming through the sex scenes to get back to the plot faster; how unlike my normal behaviour!

Have had this out of the library for about a fortnight, and have only just got  around to trying a recipe. The photographs in this book are just fabulous - not just the photos of the food, but also the ones of Jerusalem that give the the recipes their context. The book includes a substantial amount of narrative alongside and within the recipes. Explanation of specialist ingredients including substitutions are excellent.

Please note kids: no trouble with pirates in NZ.

So, I'm on holiday for the next 4 weeks. Woohoo!!! I've a stack of reading lined up... 

  Have had this going in the car for the best part of a week. BC can't write this series fast enough for me.

 Hmm, started this a few days ago. Can't say I'm in love with Adrian's POV, so not racing through this as fast as I might otherwise have.

Sigh. This had slipped my attention earlier in the year, but it fit the bill for something to read at the hairdresser earlier this week. Keeping it to read on my phone for now, for those times you have to wait somewhere and I feel a bit stupid playing pocket frogs in public. I'm sure I'll weaken and knock off the rest of this before too long.

Jim Butcher, you are fucking genius.

I know, I know... you'd think if I truly loved you, I'd be gobbling this series up like there was no tomorrow instead of nibbling away at the rather pathetic rate of one book per year. But I had other stuff to read, y'know? and somehow you kept getting shunted back down the list.

Well no more. I've heard from several sources that the Dresden Files start getting really good from about book 4 onwards. And although I fear I may explode if they get much better than this, I'm bumping you up the list.

(Now, let's all sit back and see if I really do read the next one in the series before a year has passed.)

My pile of summer reading material. Not sure how much I'll get through in the next 6 weeks, although I have nearly finished the Jim Butcher already.

OMG, I just love Jim Butcher's writing...

Sigh, yet another reader for this series. I don't know why they can't just pick a narrator and stick to him. Preferably someone with a Northern accent. This current guy speaks just a little too nicely to be Utred. Oh well, I dare say I'll get used to him.

Chapter 8: Where to stay.

I read Over My Dead Body  when I was at school. I recall being excited to find that someone from NZ was famous enough to have written a book (!!), not to mention that the actual story was very interesting & inspiring. So I'm not re-reading the whole thing (although I probably should given it's probably 30 years since I originally read it), but just the additional section at the back of the book where June talks about her life on her return to NZ.

I borrowed this book from my niece Mel, having spotted it on her bookshelf back in January. Turns out June Opie is an Old Girl of the school Mel attended, and she'd come in to speak at an assembly or some such thing back when Mel was at school. How funny that the same book/woman could inspire both of us, at about the same age, but 15 years and 300 km apart.

Hmm, up to some heavy-duty stuff about the torture of catholics, and persecution of anyone who deviated from the state religion. I've not really read anything factual (and not much fiction) about this time period, so it's all new to me, and terribly interesting.

So, this isn't actually the edition I'm reading. I have the audiobook, narrated by the ubiquitous Cornelius Garrett (well, he is rather good), but I can't find the audio edition anywhere I can easily add to booklikes. And to my great surprise I don't seem to be the edition nazi here on BL that I was on GR. It's just about all I  can manage to find one with the right image on the cover.

Status update 1: I'm partway thru disk 4 (of 8). Although we have had no crime committed yet, I'm suspicious of everyone. The author has certainly chucked in enough dodgy behaviour to make almost the entire cast suspect! weeding out the red herrings when we finally do get to the crime will be great fun! I'm fully expecting to be totally clueless by the time we get to the climax. Thoroughly enjoying it. Oh, and I've decided Hugh is a bit of a git, so that probably puts him in the clear.

Status update 2: Hmm, almost a whole CD still to go, and yet the murder has been solved... what else is there to discuss??

Status update 3: ah, I see. Wrapping up the story properly. *grin* I'm so sad there's only one mystery left in this series, it's such fun!

- Inspector Wilkins