Reading Antics: What've you been reading?

[sweet_sparrow]

But first, a quick question for everyone: should I find a way to remember asking this every month, would people rather I stop asking alltogether, or should I just continue on and make it a bi-monthly thing as it's been the past few months?

I can make it a poll if people prefer, but it'd detract from the main reason I'm posting.
Basic gist, as always: what've you been reading the past two months and would you recommend it to others? Have you made any reading plans for this September? (Course work reading, perhaps.)

I've had an extremely productive July. I read 21 (!) books. So you'll have to forgive me if I link what I actually read. (It's a long post. Be prepared to do a little scrolling.) Most of the books were books for my courses and most of them were also sorely disappointing, but the non-course literature I read was pretty amazing. My favourite reads from this month include Potiki by Patricia Grace and Voodoo Dreams by Jewell Parker Rhodes, both of which are gorgeously written.

My August reading dropped back to the average amount of books I read in a month, mostly because I'm almost through my course books and decided to take a break that turned out longer than it was supposed to. (I'm still on break. Bad Shanra. Uni starts next week.)

- Clementine by Cherie Priest
- Chocolat by Joanne Harris
- Dracula by Bram Stoker (reread)
- In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente (dnf)
- The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones
- Idylls of the King by Lord Alfred Tennyson
- Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
- The Rose and the Beast by Francesca Lia Block
- Seven Men and Two Others by Max Beerbohm
- Perfume by Patrick Süskind (reread, dnf)

Of those, my favourite would have to be Clementine, I think. It was action-packed, it was fun, it was fast... I had a blast with it. It's not been a great reading month. I've enjoyed a fair few of the books I read, but fell head over heels for none of them.

Reading plans for September include finishing up Ancient Irish Tales by Tom Peete Cross and Clark Harris Slover, reading The Swan Maiden by Jules Watson, Graceling by Kristin Cashore and Oscar Wilde's short stories. Beyond that all's game. ^-^ I'm hoping to balance my genres a little better again too, though it probably doesn't seem it...

Comments

[sweet_sparrow]

So far monthly seems to be the preferred timing of everyone. (I prefer it too, actually. I just have a sieve-for-brain. *sigh*)

Dare I ask what the dealbreakers on Healey are? It sounds fascinating. Please tell me the dealbreaker isn't zombies... *goes look it up on amazon* Please, Amazon, don't say zom -- Ooooooooooooooooh. SOLD! I want this book. Even if it ends up having zombies. And I have to mention that book to a friend of mine too. *happy bunny*

I really liked Whale Rider too, but I can't remember how well it compares to the movie as I watched both a while ago. I do remember liking both. ^-^

And very interesting to hear your opinion on Mélusine and Shine, Coconut Moon as I have both on my TBR pile. I'll have to try and keep your experiences of how the discussions you've experienced were in mind for it. ^-^ I'm going to add Climbing the Stairs to my wishlist too. It sounds fascinating! (They all do, but that one stands out a lot.)

Oooh, can I ask which branch of linguistics? I'm hoping I'll be able to take a course on morphology next semester. My uni courses focus more on syntax and phonology, though, so it'll be a whole new experience. ^-^ /random Shanra-information.

[holyschist]

The two things I have seen Guardian of the Dead critiqued on were portrayal of a fat teenager (not so much because it was bad but because it was painfully triggering for some people) and there are a couple comments regarding a Chinese New Zealander which were something I saw some readers weren't able to get past. I haven't seen anything on how the Maori aspects were handled. But basically, people who try to write diverse casts are going to mess it up sometimes, and different readers have different things that ruin their ability to enjoy a book. No zombies!

I picked up Climbing the Stairs because it was on the "new YA shelf" at the library and was really glad I did! It's the author's first novel (she's a marine biologist normally), and I really hope she writes more books. A lot of interesting stuff packed into a pretty short book--I try to write longer reviews usually, but I'm WAY behind.

I'm a totally linguistics amateur, so probably going for some basic texts on historical linguistics. I'm interested in Chinese grammar, too, but from the POV of someone who doesn't know any Chinese, so I probably need more of a basic linguistics grounding before I try to read about that.

[sweet_sparrow]

Hmmm. I think for me it'd depend on how the comments were made, but as long as it's not zombies I'm happy. ^-^

Can I borrow your library? It sounds like heaven. (Well, compared to mine which pretty much sticks to adding whatever's on the bestseller lists.)

You're in good company! ^-^ Having some basic grounding sounds like a good idea. It might be an idea to try and approach some of it with a focus on a language you do know? My linguistics books have all been incredibly English-centric, but they still use some examples from languages I don't speak and it doesn't always help me/people to understand the concepts fully because there's nothing concrete in the example that I can hold onto.
If that sounds a useful place to start, though, you might be interested in The Linguistic History of English by Manfred Görlach. Er, if you don't already have that, that is. But I warn you that his writing style is incredibly dry. (Sadly, my edition doesn't come with a glossary, but it's about 8 years old, so a newer version might.) It's touted as an introductory textbook, but I daren't vouch for how well it actually works as such.

I'll go poke my nose elsewhere now. ^-^; Unless you say you don't mind.

[holyschist]

My library is pretty great! I live in a suburban area and go to one of the urban libraries, though, since my actual local system is much more limited.

Thanks for the rec! I read super-dry scholarly books for fun all the time, so no worries. I'll add it to my list (need to go get my alumni library card set up soon). And talking about books is basically my favorite thing ever. :-)

[sweet_sparrow]

Mmmm.... Libraries that have books I'd want to read... Mine stopped having them once I reached YA age. Partially because I'd read all their fantasy books, partially because that's when I started shifting away from reading in Dutch. (Which reminds me that I wanted to suggest looking up Max Havelaar by Multatuli if you've not read that. It's non-US/UK literature. I haven't read it myself yet, but it's one of the Dutch literary books.)

Oh, I'm glad! I really, really liked the subject matter of the book, but it was so dry. (It's a prime example of why I dislike non-fiction, actually. Most of the ones I seem to get my hands on are written like that and it makes it so much harder for my poor, Failmory to remember things that are awesome.)