Thanks for the new thread, southeast. Bringing over my list and (finally) catching up.
1.) Winter, by Ali Smith
2.) The City and the City, by China Mieville*
3.) Meddling Kids, by Edgar Cantero
4.) One Corpse Too Many, Ellis Peters
5.) Somebody I Used to Know, Wendy Mitchell
6.) The Diary of a Bookseller, Shaun Bythell
7.) Erebus, The Story of a Ship, Michael Palin
8.) How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain, Ruth Goodman
9.) Blood Cruise, Mats Strandberg
10.) Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death, M. C. Beaton
11.) The Children's Book, A. S. Byatt
12.) Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
13.) The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, Sam Kean
14.) The Green Man's Heir, Juliet E McKenna
and my recent reads:
15.) Men at Arms, Terry Pratchett -- the follow up to Guards! Guards! and a reread. Still as brilliant as ever.
16.) Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet, MC Beaton
and
19.) Agatha Raison and the Potted Gardener, MC Beaton
After being a bit sniffy about this series, I've found it's starting to grow on me. They're quite moreish, very quick to read murder mysteries set in a charming village in the Cotswolds.
17.) Globe: Life in Shakespeare's London, Catharine Arnold -- social history, which focuses on the beginnings of London's theatres, the creation of the Globe, its destruction, and then its subsequent rebirth in the 90s, with a little bit of literary analysis of Shakespeare thrown in. Really entertaining, bringing to life Elizabethan London, with plenty of entertaining anecdotes.
18.) The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures, Aaron Mahnke -- Apparently based on a podcast, non-fiction collection of folklore, running from vampires, to fairies, to haunted objects. It's very readable, and beautifully illustrated with creepy Edward Gorey type drawings. I enjoyed it a lot, but the scant references suggest it isn't exactly the most scholarly work, although I suppose that's not surprising considering its origins as a podcast.
20.) The Tyrannosaur Chronicles: The Biology of the Tyrant Dinosaurs, David Hone -- In-depth exploration of the group of dinosaurs in the tyrannosaurus family. Everything you never knew you needed to know about tyrannosaurs, and I doubt any of it will do me a lick of good if I ever find myself stranded in Jurassic Park. Bloody typical. Very interesting though.
21.) Sugar Money, Jane Harris -- in 1756, two enslaved brothers, Lucien and Emile, are sent by a group of French monks to the island of Grenada to steal 42 slaves from the English. Something about the set-up of this (the found-manuscript epilogue) put me in mind of Andrea Levy's The Long Song, which I thought was better on the whole. This is an important story, and it's gripping and very much told as an adventure, but there's not a whole lot of plot here and what there is feels a little bit drawn out, particularly in the earlier part of the novel.
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Current read is a Nigerian science fiction novel about first contact called Lagoon.