My July Reading

Not a bad month, although it bottomed out a bit at the end. I think it may
be partly me as I'm struggling with reading right now.

1. The Life of the World to Come - Kage Baker (10/10)
SF. My favourite so far in the Company series. I am still loving this.
Just waiting for the last one to arrive from Amazon so that I can read the
last two. Saving up the second to last until the last one arrives.

2. Soul Song - Marjorie M. Liu (9/10)
Paranormal Romance. Another great story from Liu, who can do really dark
and nasty villains without going over the top and the story always triumphs
over the villains. Hard to explain, but they have grim components without
being at all grim books (but not light and fluffy either) which not many
authors can do.

3. The Bone Doll's Twin - Lynn Flewelling (9/10)
Fantasy. I really enjoyed this, which while dark in places, was a really
good story. I haven't felt quite like reading the second one yet, but I'm
sure I will, as it's a very good tale.

4. The Children of the Company - Kage Baker (9/10)
SF. Very interesting addition as it focussed on the antagonists of some
previous books and filled in the fates of several characters that were
currently unknown. Another excellent volume.

5. Gods and Pawn - Kage Baker (9/10)
SF. Short stories in the Company universe. Both some completely stand
alone tales and some that fill in more interesting points. I find it
impressive that Baker pulls of short stories and full length novels equally
well.

6. Safe Harbor - Christine Feehan (8/10)
Paranormal Romance. A nice story, neatly told. An improvement over the
last volume I in the series (which I liked but required a serious suspension
of disbelief). This one was more realistic - as far as you can call a book
with witches, magic, the Russian mafia and super models realistic!

7. Dark Lover - J. R. Ward (9/10)
Vampire Romance. Reread. I decided to reread this series in preperation of
the next book coming out in October. It is totally over the top and should
be ridiculous, but it works. Great fun.

8. Fatal Voyage - Kathy Reichs (9/10)
Crime. I find Reichs very easy to read and can usually knock on off in a
day or two. I save her up for when I really need a break from other stuff
I've been reading. She's my palate cleanser I guess and as always, the book
did the job perfectly.

9. Persuasion - Jane Austen (9/10)
Classic. I've wanted to read this ever since I saw the movie. I bought a
copy and the print was so small I couldn't cope with reading it. Recently I
bought an ebook copy so I could make the print whatever size I liked and it
worked a charm. I loved the book. And now I want to watch the movie again.

10. Night Life - Elizabeth Guest (5/10)
Paranormal Romance. A clever variation on vampires that was totally ruined
by poor writing. Cardboard characters and everything very flat. It would
have been a waste of my time, except that I was sick and skimming this was
about all I was up to.

I had a couple of DNFs this month, both of which were really Did Not Starts.
I couldn't get going with either; in one case I think it was me and not
being in the mood, with the other it may be the book.

1. Wildwood Dancing - Juliet Marillier
Fantasy. This is a loose retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses about
five sisters and I think I just wasn't in the mood. I still think it sounds
very interesting and will give it another go some time.

2. Divine by Mistake - P. C. Cast
Fantasy Romance. This has all the components I should like, but I just
couldn't get into it. Not sure if I can take a whole book of the tone
either. May give it another try or may not.

Current Reads are

1. Ship of Destiny - Robin Hobb
Fantasy. Need to get back to reading this but I got worried about the
characters and stopped.

2. Northern Lights - Nora Roberts
Contemporary Romantic Suspense. Audiobook. I'm enjoying this and it's good
to be listening to a book again.

3. Over Sea, Under Stone - Susan Cooper
Children's Fantasy. Reread. After struggling with my last few books, I
looked around the shelves until my eyes lit on something I was drawn to.
This was it. After seeing a trailer for the upcoming "The Dark is Rising"
film which makes it look like the books have been totally destroyed, I
reflected that I might need to reread the books instead. I'm reading the
first one anyway. And loving it all over again.