What are you reading these days?

Hittite, you say?

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How does the woman who wrote 50 Shades of Grey feel about the book now?

I believe she’s too busy counting her money to have artistic sensibilities.

Finished reading a new book about the letters of Mary Queen of Scots last night, Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots by Jade Scott. Review to follow soon on my academic blog. Meanwhile, and continuing the literary theme, I’ve started reading about a 1930s book forgery case, The Book Forger: The true story of a literary crime that fooled the world by Joseph Hone. Likely to review that book in due course too.

Pics of the two books with alt text below:


Alt text for both book cover pictures above

Cover of “Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots” by Jade Scott. The cover is richly designed, with emblems such as the thistle and rose against a rich blue background. At the top of the cover is a contemporary image of Mary herself. Around the edge designs twine further.

Cover of “The Book Forger: The true story of a literary crime that fooled the world” by Joseph Hone. The image shows a partially torn book being looked at through a magnifying glass. In the background and around the edge are green art deco style detailing, harking back to the 1930s era being discussed in the book.

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Just finished No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain’t Never Coming Home Again (succinctly retitled Vidamía for the Dutch translation) by Edgardo Vega Yunqué.

A novel about strands and weavings, knots and threads and tapestries, be it in the lives of the characters, American history, Puerto Rican culture, or Jazz music.

Impressive.

No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain’t Never Coming Home Again - Wikipedia

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I just read The Drowning Pool by Ross Macdonald, again. I read a German translation a year or two ago, under the strangely dubbed title Unter Wasser stirbt man nicht! (you don’t die under water) and I was probably just as surprised by the course of the story as I was the first time.

The Lew Archer novels are categorized as hard boiled genre, but from my point of view he doesn’t act like a tough guy, more like a sociologist dissecting society.

I’m a total sucker for Lew Archer novels.

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I’ve been reading Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series. A thinly disguised Alice has created a boarding school for fellow survivors of portal fantasies.

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I’ve heard Lloyd Alexander mentioned a few times on this forum so I’m giving Prydain a shot…

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