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Leslie's Reading the Rainbow in 2015
Mod
If you ever want to give her another go, I thought Diving Into the Wreck was incredible the two times I read it, though it has been a while since I read it last. That book is one of her most famous, and it was written from 1971-1972, roughly the timeframe of "Planetarium."
Greg wrote: "I haven't read that one Leslie. I've read and liked several by her, but I think the most recent one I've read was Dark Fields of the Republic (poems from 1991 to 1995). I think "Plane..."Thanks Greg. I read Rich back in my college days and remembered liking her, so when I saw this at the library I checked it out. These poems are from 2004-2006 so much more recent than most of the poetry I read! There was a lot of juxtaposed images and fragmented lines which I found difficult to interpret but overall I got a sense of sadness and even despair from many of the poems. That didn't fit my mood so maybe the poems deserve a better rating as poetry.
Mod
I find her earlier poetry more compelling as well because I love the sense of exhilaration; many of those poems are angry, but instead of despair, they're full of an almost fierce belief.
Perhaps I posted this elsewhere before, but I find the title poem of Diving Into the Wreck particularly striking. Here's a link to it: http://m.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/divi...
Yellow Challenge: Guardian's listBlack Challenge: Hoarder's (#2)
Cloud Atlas
(done 4/23)4★ This book was heading for a 2½ or 3 star rating for me until the last few sections. Perhaps my change of heart came from the book itself but I suspect that participating in a group read of the book helped. Because I was discussing the book with others, I put more thought into questions such as "Why did Mitchell write it this way?" and "What is the purpose of the recurring features?" while I was reading than I would have done if I had been reading this on my own.
I can't claim that I "know" what the book meant or was supposed to mean but I can say that this is a book that has a meaning. It could be about the terrible price greed and selfishness cause the world to pay; it could be about the importance of belief; it could be something else entirely. Different readers will come away with different messages.
For a while, I thought that Mitchell was suggesting that (view spoiler)
I love that message! However, I can't give the book 5 stars because there were some aspects that bothered me. They are probably silly nitpicking details but they prevent me from giving this the highest rating.
The most serious flaw for me was in the Sonmi sections -- (view spoiler)
Purple Challenge: Bingo (Book a friend loves)Black Challenge: Hoarder's (#4)
The Name of the Wind
(done 4/25)4½★ for the audiobook, 4★ for the Kindle book
Audiobook: Nick Podehl does an absolutely marvelous narration of this fantasy novel. Listening to his narration swept me along and I would find myself sitting in the car just listening because I didn't want to break into the story! He also drew me past some bits which in retrospect seem a bit more YA than I typically would like.
Kindle: A great fantasy book. However, in the end, there was something lacking. Perhaps that feeling comes from the fact that the story isn't completed in this book, despite it being over 650 pages long.
I like the way the story is being told through Kote to the Chronicler. There are a few aspects of the plot that seem a little too YA to me but more in retrospect than as I was reading/listening.
Glad you enjoyed it Leslie. Are you going to read the Sequel The Wise Man's Fear? it continues Kvothe's adventures.
Amber wrote: "Glad you enjoyed it Leslie. Are you going to read the Sequel The Wise Man's Fear? it continues Kvothe's adventures."Yes but not right away. My mom said that one was even better than the first book; what did you think?
It was awesome Leslie, I enjoyed it. I actually liked both of them and the slow regard of silent things which is about the girl from the underthing.
Amber wrote: "It was awesome Leslie, I enjoyed it. I actually liked both of them and the slow regard of silent things which is about the girl from the underthing."Good to know!
Leslie wrote: "Updated my bingo graphic in post #13 -- only 4 more squares to go!And I have completed my Pink Category -- to read at least 15 Kindle books owned prior to 2015! :)"
Well done. Leslie.
Maroon Challenge: Paperbacks Already OwnedYellow Challenge: Guardian's list
The Three Coffins
(done 4/26)4★ Clever locked room mystery. Carr's style when writing Dr. Fell is a bit didatic and may turn off some readers but I loved the (somewhat lengthy) exposition Fell gives about the various types of so-called "locked room" mysteries. As he says himself:
" "When the cry of 'This-sort-of-thing-wouldn't-happen!' goes up, when you complain about half-faced fiends and hooded phantoms and blond hypnotic sirens, you are merely saying, 'I don't like this sort of story.' That's fair enough. If you do not like it, you are howlingly right to say so. But when you twist this matter of taste into a rule for judging the merit or even the probability of the story, you are merely saying, 'This series of events couldn't happen, because I shouldn't enjoy it if it did.'"
As I was starting this book, I realized that I had read a few other Gideon Fell mysteries before and that Fell wasn't as much fun as Gervase Fen. In other words, I do not much like Carr's mysteries or perhaps just not his writing style.
However, this seemingly insoluble, improbable locked-room mystery in which the murderer didn't even leave footprints in the snow was extremely clever. I thought I had suspected everyone in turn but not once did I come close to the true culprit! Carr plays fair with the reader -- there are no hidden facts brought out only during the solution. In fact, he tells you in the first chapter the names of certain witnesses whose testimony can be relied on to be truthful and complete!! Yet despite this broad hint and Fell uttering cryptic clues periodically, I only deciphered one small aspect of the crime.
In addition, Gideon Fell did make me chuckle several times with his pronouncements, such as when he gives rules about what ghosts should be like in English fiction (they should be seen in old abbeys or cemeteries, not lemonade stands). I also liked his mention of several other mystery novels and authors who excelled at certain types of mysteries during his discourse mentioned above.
Overall, I would recommend this as an excellent example of a certain style of mystery (the locked room) which is no longer fashionable.
Tan Challenge: Historical FictionPink Challenge: Kindle Catch up
Wine of Violence
(done 4/27)3★ I hovered between 2.5 and 3 stars for this historical fiction mystery. I liked the setting and the characters were believable for the most part. I only skimmed the foreword but the author has clearly taken the time to research the Fontevraud order and the time period of the late 13th century England. But some parts of it still struck me as a bit off (Eleanor, the daughter of a Norman noble, being taught to read and write in English for example).
I also found the plot, while probable, slightly distasteful. (view spoiler) I will try another from the series before coming to a final judgement.
Ruby Challenge: Foreign mysteriesThe Purity of Vengeance
(done 4/28)4★ Adler-Olsen continues to keep me glued to the page in this 4th installment of the Department Q series. Although I am not usually a fan of mysteries which feature interspersed sections from the killer's point of view, this style worked well here as we slowly learn about Nete's life. Meanwhile, there are some intriguing developments on the attack on Karl & his colleagues which crippled Hardy. (view spoiler).
Yellow Challenge: Guardian's listBrick Challenge: Books in translation
Chéri
(done 5/5)2★ I think this was the wrong book for me at this time. However, it would never be a favorite as I found the pace too slow. Colette gives beautifully written descriptions so I can understand why some would appreciate her writing more than I did.
As for the plot, I could relate to Léa (as I am also a woman of a certain age) but Chéri struck me as a lout and so I couldn't really understand the strength of Léa's attachment.
Orange Challenge: Short StoriesAAB Seasonal Author for Spring
The Grey Woman And Other Tales
(done 5/11)3★ This collection was a mixed bag -- a couple of European Gothic stories, a couple of moralizing tales, and one set of anecdotes about people disappearing. "The Grey Woman" was the best of the collection but except for the last one ("Disappearances"), I liked them all.
The middle stories ("Libbie Marsh's Three Eras", "Christmas Storms and Sunshine", "Hand and Heart" and "Bessie's Troubles at Home") I found reminiscent of Gaskell's American contemporary Louisa May Alcott. These stories are much what I had anticipated Gaskell's short fiction to be. The first three stories were unexpected in both being set in Europe and in style. I am curious now to read some more of her short stories!
Violet Challenge: PoetryAAB Seasonal Poet for Spring
The Jacob's Ladder
(done 5/20)3★ While I enjoyed this collection more than the one I read in April, Levertov's poetry is very hit or miss for me.
Yellow Challenge: Guardian's listThe Left Hand of Darkness
(done 5/24)4★ Despite how slowly I read this, I really liked it. Typically when I like a book, I devour it (sometimes staying up all night to do so!). For some reason, I couldn't do that with this novel.
Le Guin has created another world in vivid detail, as she has done in her other works. The world and people of Gethen (also known as Winter) struck me as more alien not due solely to the physical differences; perhaps because of the details such as the calendar.
"The Left Hand of Darkness" is about the reaction of a world to what is called First Contact in Star Trek terminology. Although the book deals with a world of aliens with a single Terran visiting as a envoy of the Ekumen (similar to the Federation to continue the Star Trek terms), the reactions described would not be surprising in the reverse situation of Earth being visited by an alien envoy.
Brick Challenge: Books in TranslationGreen Challenge: Plays
Pink Challenge: Kindle Catch up
Right You Are! (If You Think So)
(done 5/27)4★ Read as part of the omnibus Three Plays which has been on my Kindle since 2013.
Thought-provoking play about varying perspectives and the impossibility of knowing absolute truth. As my favorite character Laudisi says in the first act:
"Laudisi: ... do not tell your husband, nor my sister, nor my niece, nor Signora Cini here, what you think of me; because, if you were to do that they would all tell you that you are completely wrong. But, you see, you are really right; because I am really what you take me to be; though, my dear madam, that does not prevent me from also being really what your husband, my sister, my niece, and Signora Cini take me to be -- because they also are absolutely right!
Signora Sirelli: In other words you are a different person for each of us.
Laudisi: Of course I'm a different person!..."
I liked how Pirandello described the characters' dress and personality in the stage directions. This play struck me as a good one to read as it is mostly talk. I'd still watch a performance but I had less feeling of missing something with this one than typical.
I should read more by Pirandello. I totally agree with his statement and I hate it when people say "I know you and I know how you are". They don't understand that they know only a little part of me (and sometimes it's also wrong) and others see and know other parts. Not because I behave in a different way with different people, but because they see me with different eyes.
dely wrote: "I should read more by Pirandello. I totally agree with his statement and I hate it when people say "I know you and I know how you are". They don't understand that they know only a little part of me..."Yes & you have shared different experiences together.
Brick Challenge: Books in Translation (French)Tan Challenge: Historical fiction
Pink Challenge: Kindle Catch up
The Vicomte de Bragelonne
(done 5/28)3½★ I was a bit surprised to have the book end as I still had several CDs of the audiobook to go! This discrepancy is annoying but understandable as both the book and the audiobook are just the first part of the book Dumas originally wrote as the final novel of the d'Artagnan trilogy called The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. This last book was so enormous (over 1000 pages) that it is almost always divided into 3, 4 or even 5 separate volumes. I am reading the Project Gutenberg Kindle editions which are using the 4 volume division (although there was a nice little note showing where the book would have ended in a 5 volume split!). I thought that the audiobook I was listening to was also from a 4 volume split but perhaps it was from a 3 volume split instead.
I found sections of this volume very interesting and/or exciting (such as the parts about General Monk) but some of it was rather too long-winded (even for me!). Despite the title, the main character of this is our friend d'Artagnan. Porthos and Aramis don't appear until quite close to the end (Chapter 70 or so), which was a bit disappointing. Athos was present for much of the story although (view spoiler). As in the previous book, Twenty Years After, the four friends are not in close contact as the book opens & sadly are (view spoiler)
Powder Blue Challenge: Discworld seriesThe Color of Magic
(done 5/30)3½★ I had fun reading this first book in the Discworld series but I am glad that a friend started me off elsewhere in the series. I like Pratchett's humor but it wasn't fully realized yet in this one. The bits about the Counterweight Continent were pretty good though! I especially chuckled at the confusion Rincewind showed about inn-sewer-ants. The best part was the Luggage -- if you have read this, you know what I mean & if you haven't, I can't do it justice with a description.
Yellow Challenge: Guardian's list booksThe Remains of the Day
(done 5/31)4½★ Maybe even 5 stars. I was very impressed by how Ishiguro managed to convey so much emotion in such spare & unemotional writing! I deliberately took my time reading this but this would have been easy to read in one or two big gulps.
Stevens, butler of Darlington Hall, is a man completely out of touch with his own emotions. I wondered at first if he was putting up a front or pretending for some reason (pride perhaps) but by the end, it was clear that he really didn't have any idea of his own feelings.
In the process of showing us this man, Ishiguro also provides us with a look at some of the pro-German British in the years leading up to World War II. While Stevens denies that Lord Darlington was a fascist and an anti-Semite, he then goes on to illustrate his point with reminiscences which belie his position.
Before reading this book, I had seen the movie. Based on that, I thought of this book as being about that part of history but my feeling after reading the book is that this just provided an interesting backdrop to the story of Stevens the man. Perhaps that is because the book is written in the first person, in the form of a journal, whilst the film of necessity is more outside looking in at Stevens, Miss Kenton, and the other occupants of Darlington Hall. It presents a more objective feeling to the action than the book does.
Maroon Challenge: Paperback Mystery ROOTsBlack Hoarder's Challenge: book with an ugly cover
A Deadly Shade of Gold
(done 5/31)4★ In this 5th book in the Travis McGee series MacDonald showed more of his opinions than in the previous books. For example,
"When dawn came, there would be a hundred thousand more souls alive in the world than on the previous day, three quarters of a million more every week. This is the virus theory of mankind. The pretentious virus, never knowing that it is a disease. Imagine a great ship from a far galaxy which inspects a thousand green planets and then comes to ours and, from on high, looks down at all the scabs, the buzzings, the electronic jabberings, the poisoned air and water, the fetid night glow. A little cave-dwelling virus mutated, slew the things which balanced the ecology, and turned the fair planet sick. An overnight disease, racing and explosive compared with geological time. I think they would be concerned. They would be glad to have caught it in time. By the time of their next inspection, a hundred thousand years hence, this scabrous growth might have infected this whole region of an unimportant galaxy. They would push the button. Too bad. This happens every once in a while. Make a note to re-seed it the next time around, after it has cooled down."
What struck me about them is that so many of these 1960s feelings are so relevant to now, such as:
"If we can restrain ourselves from killing off our own rebels, our doubters and dreamers, all in the name of making ourselves strong, then we can prevail." or
"The president is selling the country down the river with the help of the Supreme Court. Agree with us or you are a marked traitor. You know the sort of thing, all that tiresome pea-brained nonsense that attracts those people who are so dim-witted that the only way they can understand the world is to believe that it is all some kind of conspiracy."
As for the mystery, it didn't really read like a mystery but as a revenge play. And just like the revenge plays, there were a lot of deaths. If I hadn't been enjoying the snide comments on society so much, I am uncertain I would have liked this plot. While not a typical hard-boiled detective story, it is more hard-boiled than I usually like.
Falling a bit behind with my updates. Maybe that is what I will do today... In any case, while it is fresh in my mind:Yellow Challenge: Guardian's list
The New York Trilogy
(done 6/6)3★ I might have liked this more if I hadn't gone into it thinking it was a crime novel... but probably not. I found this term on Wikipedia's entry for Auster's trilogy, metafiction or even metamystery. I had to look up what metafiction was:
"Metafiction is a literary device used to self-consciously and systematically draw attention to a work's status as an artifact. It poses questions about the relationship between fiction and reality, usually using irony and self-reflection."
While I have seen plays that use this sort of device (and liked them), I felt it was too self-conscious in this book. The questions were being shoved in my face with little subtlety and there was no feeling of resolution (at least for me). I guess I'm just not a modern (or postmodern) kind of gal...
Green Challenge: PlaysBrick Challenge: Books in Translation (Russian)
The Sea-Gull
(done 6/1)3★ In addition to reading this play, I watched a performance on YouTube:
http://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=qiPfP...
I found that this play had several similarities with the last Chekhov play I read, "Uncle Vanya". There is even (view spoiler) which made me come away with a much darker impression. Watching the performance did help me with this play but overall, Chekhov feels too bleak for me. I will come back and try him again some day but not right away.
Navy Challenge: Vorkosigan seriesMemory
(audiobook) (done 6/8)4★ for the book & 4½ for the audiobook.
Grover Gardner did a terrific narration of this entry in the Vorkosigan series. Very glad that I decided to check this audiobook edition out of the library!
This 10th or 11th entry in the Vorkosigan series (depending on how you count them) was clearly a pivotal point. Lots of previous plotlines & relationships were ended and in the end, Miles is setting out in a new direction. I was a bit sad (view spoiler) I am curious to see what happens next!
Regarding this book's plot, I thought that it was fairly obvious that (view spoiler). I was slightly disappointed that it wasn't obvious to Miles.
This is how I would like to spend my summer:
There is also the cat! I was looking specifically for it in the picture!Really lovely place to read.
dely wrote: "There is also the cat! I was looking specifically for it in the picture!Really lovely place to read."
Yup, cushions, cat and dog as well (on the ground, mostly hidden), nearby table to put my drink on... looks very comfy to me!
I didn't see the dog! The table should be next to the armchair so we mustn't stand up to take the drink :D
I would move the table also! But otherwise very close to perfection :D
Mod
Yellow Challenge: Guardian's list
The New York Trilogy (don..."
I definitly agree! Also on your summer plann
Alabaster Challenge: A-to-Z titlesPink Challenge: Kindle Catch up
Yesterday's Body
(done 6/11)3★ Not bad for a first novel, self-published. The writing is good & I noticed very few typos or grammatical errors.
I found the main character, Jo Durbin, was a bit unclear to me -- she kept referring to herself as an old lady but she didn't act or talk like someone old. I couldn't get a handle on what her age was supposed to be. Her research for a book about homeless people was interesting but the bit about her imaginary cat was overdone -- I assume she isn't actually supposed to be mentally ill!
The mystery itself was OK -- the solution seemed obvious after about halfway through, although the red herrings were convoluted enough that I was willing to think I was mistaken.
Green Challenge: PlaysLong Day's Journey into Night
(done 6/15)5★ Amazing if depressing play about a dysfunctional family in the early part of the 20th century (to be exact, August 1912). Unlike some of the other O'Neill plays I have read, this one has extensive stage directions which are critical if you have never seen a performance. I have seen the film with Jason Robards and Katherine Hepburn years ago -- as I read, I could recall certain scenes vividly!
While nothing much actually happens during this play, the family is slowly laid bare. The weaknesses of each member is revealed during the course of the day (the play takes place on a single day) as well as the tangled combination of love, hate, anger and sorrow that each feels for the others. Despite its setting, there nothing dated about this play -- this could be a family struggling with (view spoiler) today.
Tan Challenge: Historical FictionBrick Challenge: Books in Translation (French -> English)
Ten Years Later
(done 6/16)3★
This volume (#3.2 in the D'Artagnan series) had less adventure and more plotting than the previous ones in the series. I have already read "The Man in the Iron Mask" (volume #3.4) and I could see that a lot of groundwork for that volume was being laid. I am unhappy about Aramis who (view spoiler)
D'Artagnan & Athos hardly appear in this volume -- I hope they appear more in the next volume, "Louise de la Valliere" (#3.3).
Scarlet Challenge: Read-the-USA mysteries (Wyoming)Orange Challenge: Short Stories
A Deal on a Handshake
(done 6/18)2★ This Kindle freebie has a fair number of formatting (scanning?) errors (such as "bu t" instead of "but"). If the stories had been better, I could have probably ignored these errors more easily and conversely, if these errors hadn't been annoying me, I probably would have liked the stories a bit more. Oh well, at least I managed to cross Wyoming off my list!
Powder Blue Challenge: DiscworldFeet of Clay
(done 6/19)3★ While I enjoyed this 3rd book of the City Watch, it wasn't as humorous as the first two. I am glad Captain Carrot still has his trademark simplicity though.
Navy Challenge: Vorkosigan seriesKomarr
(contained in the omnibus Miles in Love, done 6/21) 
4½★ What a marvelously fun and exciting entry in the Vorkosigan series! While probably a good story as a stand-alone, it is much better read as part of the series (especially after the omnibus Young Miles and the novel Memory).
I couldn't stop listening to Grover Gardner's excellent narration but did read along a fair amount. So glad to see Miles happily (view spoiler)
Green Challenge: PlaysPink Challenge: Kindle Catch up
Two Gentlemen of Verona
(done 6/22) (contained in the Kindle omnibus of Shakespeare's "The Complete Works")3½★ I need to think over this play but my first thought is that I would have liked it more if the ending hadn't been so rushed. It didn't strike me as very believable that (view spoiler).
I also watched a performance of this play on YouTube as I read: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWEif...
Violet Challenge: PoetryC. P. Cavafy: Collected Poems
(done 6/23)4★ Cavafy's poetry often strikes a chord with me. I like the form of his poetry as well as the content & felt that Mendelsohn did a good translation. Of course, I am unable to read the original Greek so I can't really judge!
I did skip the prose poems at the end of the volume but spent some time looking at the extensive notes on the historical & mythological persons mentioned or implied in the poems. Having been a fan of all things Greek from an early age (my 11th birthday to be exact!), I was familiar with most of the people from ancient times but the notes were still interesting and informative.
Although I think that the two poems most familiar to me before reading this volume, Ithaca and Waiting for the Barbarians, were the best, I did discover several others that I liked almost as much such as As Much As You Can, Second Odyssey and Safe Haven. I was pleasantly surprised by some of Cavafy's pastoral poems such "Rain" and "Morning Sea". I also
The love poems often showed the stigma he felt being homosexual, calling it an "illicit pleasure" among other terms. Poems such a He Asked About the Quality, The 25th Year of His Life and Hidden indicate a life lived "in the closet" as we now call it. While well crafted (and some of the passages about desire were decidedly erotic even to me!), these had less resonance with me.
Ruby Challenge: Foreign mysteries (Danish)Tan Challenge: Historical Fiction
Alabaster Challenge: A-to-Z
The King's Hounds
(done 6/26)3½★ I might have given this 4 stars if I hadn't been annoyed by a glaring historical inaccuracy in the very beginning -- Winston, the illuminator of manuscripts, was using a graphite pencil. While graphite was discovered (in the early 1500s) much earlier than I had expected when I looked into this, it was still much later than the setting of this novel in 1018. This was the only such inaccuracy that I noticed so it is too bad that it happened so early and tinged my opinion of the book.
This Danish mystery is set in England a few years after King Cnut (Canute was the way I would have spelled it) began ruling. I found this early medieval setting, when Angles, Jutes, Saxons, and Danes (Vikings) were first coming together into a unified country very interesting. While I had heard of King Canute before, I hadn't really realized that there was a time when England (and apparently Ireland too?) was under the rule of the Danes. One thing I would have liked that was missing was an appendix with definitions of some of the historical terms (such as housecarls, Witenagemot, etc.). Most of the meanings became clear from the context but it would have been a nice addition to the book.
I liked the use of the Saxon Winston coupled with Halfdan, a young dispossessed nobleman -- whose mother was Danish and father Saxon -- as main characters. Not only do the two provide a way to see different ethnicities but Winston had a background in the religious life (monasteries and abbeys) while Halfdan knew more about the "wild" side of life from his days of living hand-to-mouth. The murder investigation by these two was fine with the caveat that this was not a mystery that the reader could solve before the 'detectives'. I will be reading more from this series.
Orange Challenge: Short StoriesAAB Spring Author: Elizabeth Gaskell
Curious, if True: Strange Tales
(abandoned 6/26)1½★ Not enjoying these stories -- the moralizing irritates me and the paranormal (ghosts and demons) bores rather than frightens. I read the first 2 stories and the first chapter of the third; the last two stories I have read previously in "The Grey Woman and Other Tales". Those two would be the best in this collection...
Yellow Challenge: Guardian's listPink Challenge: Kindle ROOTs
The Riddle of the Sands
(done 6/28)3★ A lot of technical details about currents, tides and sailing. Best for people familiar with the Friesland area and/or sailing. The espionage aspects were ground-breaking in their realism when first published in 1903 but a bit dated now.
Navy Challenge: Vorkosigan seriesA Civil Campaign
(in omnibus Miles in Love, done 7/4) 5★ More romance and a bit less adventure in this entry of the Vorkosigan series made for a thoroughly satisfying book. Gover Gardner's narration was the icing on the cake & brought this up to a full 5 stars.
Proverbially, the path of true love doesn't run smooth and certainly Miles, his clone brother Mark, and his cousin Ivan all show the truth of that! I was glad to see Mark appear in a more separate storyline; he and Miles were more fraternal. Ivan also had a more independent role this time instead of being Miles' sidekick.
Maroon Challenge: Paperback Mystery ROOTsThe Paper Thunderbolt (also known as Operation Pax)
(done 7/9)4★ This 12th entry in the Inspector Appleby series was more of a suspense thriller than a traditional mystery -- something I am beginning to expect with Innes. Appleby himself plays a minor role with more of the action being done by his youngest (and closest) sister Jane, an Oxford student whose fiancé is missing. However, even this situation is secondary to the sinister criminal conspiracy discovered by the petty con-man Routh. The two become entangled when Jane happens to accidentally knock Routh down with her bicycle... A bit slow getting started but by Part Two, Innes' humor had me chuckling & by Part Three (when Appleby makes his first appearance), the suspense had really built and I was hooked.
I thought I had spotted the "Director" of the evil conspiracy early on and so the climax in the last chapter (when I discovered I was wrong) was a big surprise! I like that & Jane was a great protagonist. I hope she shows up again.
Green Challenge: PlaysPericles, Prince of Tyre
(done 7/10)3★ I'm not sure what to think about this play. It had been listed as one of Shakespeare's comedies but it didn't strike me as humorous. In fact, despite (view spoiler), I found much of the subject matter upsetting.
The play starts with the young prince of Tyre, Pericles, searching for a bride. He visits a neighboring kingdom but unfortunately the beautiful daughter of the king is in an incestuous relationship with her father. Pericles flees upon discovering that secret but the king sends an assassin after him. After this disturbing opening, Pericles undergoes various adventures, mostly standard fare.
Later in the play is another worrisome section, (view spoiler).
I guess it was considered a comedy because it didn't end with a bunch of dead bodies!
Navy Challenge: Vorkosigan seriesWinterfair Gifts
(done 7/11) {finishes omnibus Miles in Love} 3½★ for the story and 4 stars for the audiobook.
This final section of the omnibus "Miles in Love" is a long short story (or a very short novella) featuring Sgt. Taura and Armsman Roic (who first made a brief appearance in the previous book, "A Civil Campaign").
Once again, Grover Gardner does a wonderful narration. I own these omnibus editions in both paperback and Kindle form but the audiobooks (borrowed from the library) are a great way to experience these books. In this case, I did an immersion read using the Kindle edition and discovered that the audiobook edition is based on a slightly different text! Just minor changes but now I am curious whether the paperback matches the Kindle, the audio or neither!
Regarding the entire omnibus: This set of stories mark a change in direction for Miles - both in his career and his personal life. This has been my favorite outing in the Vorkosigan series so far but I don't think that it would have the same appeal if one hasn't read the series in order. Listening to the individual books in this omnibus via library audiobooks narrated by Grover Gardner enhanced the experience for me.
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Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth
2½★ While I did like a few of the poems ("Rhyme", "Hubble Photographs: After Sappho", parts of "Draft #2006"), most left me either unmoved or confused. Perhaps I should have gotten an earlier collection, more similar to "Planetarium".