FF: Busy Week

Despite a very busy week, I managed to squeeze in reading time.

Kwhahe’e Contemplates Ravens

For those of you just discovering this feature, the Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week.  Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazine articles.

The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.  If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.  It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of description or a few opinions tossed in.

Recently Completed:

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater.  Solid conclusion to the excellent “Raven Cycle.”

Guinea Dog by Patrick Jennings.  Middle grade.  I still like the cover, but I am always concerned about books that misrepresent animal behavior, even when – as in this book – there is eventually a gimmick to explain it.

The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse.  Audiobook.  Read by David Case, who is one of my personal favorite readers.  Enjoyed.  Again.  I’d forgotten how much Wodehouse’s language can carry me along.

The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie by John Bellairs, posthumous completed by Brad Strickland.  I’m a great admirer of Bellair’s middle grade horror/mysteries.  Somehow, I’d missed this one.  Strickland does a good job keeping the feel of Bellairs’ prose without be strangled by it.

In Progress:

A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie.  Audiobook.  Reader has no idea how to do American accents, but otherwise is fine.  Miss Marple looks for trouble – and finds it.  An old favorite.

Nobody’s Princess by Esther Friesner.  Helen of Troy was a Spartan.  Esther Friesner brings out a new dimension of a classic mythological figure.

Also:

I’m still behind on Archeology and Smithsonian, and now quarterly periodicals are coming in.  Arrgh!