FF: What’s On Deck

Roary Researches

This week I seem to have slipped into mostly non-fiction, and I haven’t chosen my next audiobook, having just finished the current one.

For those of you unfamiliar with this column, 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 magazines.  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.  And it’s also a great place to tell me what you’re reading. 

Completed:

The Lost Book of the Grail by Charlie Lovett.  Audiobook.  Overall enjoyable.  Warning for Americans.  The one character from the U.S. has a really annoying and inappropriate accent.  Otherwise, the reader does a good job.

Wonders of the Invisible World by Patricia A. McKillip.  Short story collection.  Lovely prose, but many of the stories seem like Part One of a novel.  My favorite was “Knight of the Well,” which seemed like a complete tale.  Also, a definite tendency toward “environmental cautionary tales.”

The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill (illustrated by her as well).  A Cat Club book.

Captains of the City Streets by Esther Averill (illustrated by her as well).   A Cat Club book.

In Progress:

The Animal World of the Pharaohs by Patrick F. Houlihan.  This 1996 study is enjoyable and engrossing.  Enjoying, although it’s such a big tome I can’t read it before bed, which is slowing me down.  Nearly done.

The Rails that Bind: America’s Freedom Trains as Reflections of Efforts to Form Cultural Consensus and Indicators of the Weakness of Cold War Memory by Daniel Speer.  A William & Mary Honor’s Thesis.  Very interesting thus far.

Also:

Finished Archeology and am on the latest Smithsonian.