September Reading!

[sweet_sparrow]

Hey all! I'm feeling a wee bit swamped in stuff. (And the final days of September/beginning days of October are looking set to be an emotional rollercoaster.)

So I thought I'd inquire into everyone's reading a little earlier. (Obviously, feel free to wait to answer or not answer at all.) What have you been reading in September?

I'd expected to get loads of reading done with classes started up again, but I feel sorely disappointed. That may be because September has been an abysmal month for reviewing, though.

Books I've Read:

Ancient Irish Tales by Cross & Slover (Sorry, lazy. Their names are long.)
Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
Complete Short Fiction by/of Oscar Wilde
Far from You by Lisa Schroeder
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (dnf)
Haiku by Patricia Donegan
Mella and the N'anga by Gail Nyoka
Shine, Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger (I've been trying to say something about this book since I finished it.)
The Sound of Water by various poets
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
Writing with Power by Peter Elbow

It's actually not much different from other months. That's about 12 books. My favourite was definitely Mella and the N'anga. I may finish Cybele's Secret before the month is out, but we'll see... I've also been reading Casting the Runes and Other Stories. Soon I shall be all out of coursework mandatory reading... Well, except for LotR, but I know I like LotR and cannot call it 'mandatory'.

What's your reading been like?

Comments

[marshtide]

Let's see...

Mina öar (My Islands) - Birgitta Stenberg
Essays about her life on a little island off the west coast of Sweden, writing and fishing. Really great. She's terribly blunt, and really gets in at a lot of things about those sorts of communities.

Fröken Markväldig och karriären (Miss Remarkable and The Career) - Joanna Rubin Dranger
A comic book about mental illness, ambition and self-worth. I don't know what to say about this except that it was really, really true.

Mumin samlade serier v.1 (Moomin collected comic strips v.1) - Tove Jansson
I don't love the moomin comics as much as the books, because a lot of the joy is in Tove's written descriptions, but they're pretty good anyway. :)

And I'm currently reading:

Tiger - Mian Lodalen
A book about a girl trying to figure out her sexuality in 70s Jönköping - i.e. not the most tolerant environment ever. I guess this classes as lesbian YA. I don't know what I think of it yet so I guess I'll have to report back next month!

Kärlek i Europa (Love in Europe) - Birgitta Stenberg
About Birgitta's life pre small-island-and-fishing. I'm really loving this one, though it's a lot about terrible terrible things happening. She ran off to Paris in the 50s, when she was in her teens, to try and become a writer. Which is about as smart as it sounds, really. But it's definitely interesting to read about!

I... uh... I think out of all these only the moomin comics are available in English though.

[sweet_sparrow]

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the books you're reading! How's the language learning coming along if you don't mind my asking? I suspect the books are helping loads with that. ^-^ (I'm trying to get more of my younger cousins into reading English to help them improve myself. I have two potential success stories out of six so far.)

[writerlibrarian]

I read only 7 this month a low count for me. A mix bag of genres. I'm still on my African trek of the Around the world in 80 books challenge (4 books to go to finish it). It's done the classical Verne's way. It's been a real challenge.

Highlights of September:

I'm late to the party but Sarah Rees Brennan's The Demon's Lexicon is really good. I'm looking forward to book 2.

Two comfort Alexander McCall Smith reading.

Charley Boorman's Race to Dakar. His account of his crazy dream to race the most dangerous and mad rally. Really good travel book.

[nerakrose]

Ever read "Long Way Round" or "Long Way Down" ?

[sweet_sparrow]

Has it been a fun challenge? It does sound like it'd be, well, challenging, if you'll pardon overuse of the word.

[erebus_x]

• Candide by Voltaire
• The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
• Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

I've been trying to read more classics, but it's be hard fitting reading time in my school schedule.

[silverflight8]

Did you read Candide in French? What did you think? I've been meaning to read it...

[cafeshree]

Slam by Nick Hornby
Lying Tongue by Andrew Wilson
Monk by Matthew Lewis (gothic novel that wow, lots of wild stuff)
Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett (this was a struggle but good in the end)

[sweet_sparrow]

The Monk is sort-of on my course list! It scares me. Is it terribly scary or perfectly non-scary? (Uhm, I should possibly add the caveat that I scare easily.)

[shanaqui]

I've read less than I wanted to. I've been revisiting Asimov's Elijah Baley books (so far, The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun), and reading Jo Walton's alternate history trilogy, Farthing, Ha'penny and Half a Crown -- I'm halfway through Ha'penny at the moment. It's breaking my heart a bit, and it also might be useful for my housemate's dissertation on gay detectives in fiction.

I've been reading other stuff, too, but that's what leaps to mind.

[sweet_sparrow]

*hug* I've been reading less than I wanted to too, but I seem to be on an upward curve now. I want/need to get to the Jo Walton you sent me... It sounds so fascinating. But my Tam Lin retellings much come first. *nods*

[to_love_a_rose]

I managed to finish three books this month. All on the same day, no less.

The Incendiary: The Misadventures of John the Painter, First Modern Terrorist by Jessica Warner - Th story of a disturbed man during the American Revolution who got it into his head to burn down the Royal Dockyards and thus be the greatest hero of the America. It did not go well for him. It's a fascinating account, full of details of 18th century life. Rather sad, though.

The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby - A collection of essays about reading. I'd actually read it once before, but I own it now and I read it again as soon as I got it. The essays are funny and very easy to read, and introduce you to books you might not have heard of. There are three books in the series. I have the first two.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson - I'm pretty well shocked at myself for reading this at all, much less buying it new in hardcover. It's not at all my usual genre of book, but I was looking for something to read and I ran across recommendations on Amazon and all of the sudden I had to have the book. It wasn't bad. Possibly not worth such an unusual and expensive purchase, and I don't feel fit to judge it's treatment of race in the UK, but as a story, I enjoyed it.

Right now I'm working on Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell and Charles Lamb: Selected Works which is mostly the Essays of Elia interposed with letters by Lamb throughout his life.

[sweet_sparrow]

I wish I could finish three books on the same day! (Of course it might help if I first started reading three books at the same time...)

That first book sounds like one I'll definitely have to recommend to a friend... It sounds like something she'd find utterly fascinating. ^-^ Thank you! ^-^

Are you enjoying the Elizabeth Gaskell? (Since I have an ereader now, eventually I want to read more classics and Gaskell is one of the authors I'd like to read and don't know where to start. I have an aversion to starting with the books everyone and their cat seems to love most.)

[darlingfox]

House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds - I don't usually read scifi but I actually liked this one. It had a great female character (Purslane, I liked her much better than her male counterpart), not too much technobabble and the plot was quite interesting.

Living Dead in Dallas & Club Dead by Charlaine Harris - I liked the first two Sookie Stackhouse novels (they're popcorn for the brain!), but Club Dead was a disappointment. One of these days I might actually write about the problems I had with Harris's portrayal of women other than Sookie in it.

Kirkkaan selkeää by Maarit Verronen - A Finnish scifi novel, the title is a reference to clear weather. This was too bleak, depressing and boring for me. :/

Minne tytöt kadonneet by Leena Lehtolainen - Finnish crime fiction, title is a reference to a song and means "where have the girls disappeared to". Lehtolainen has written a lot of crime novels and this was the first one I read. It was pretty meh: I did finish it but I'm in no hurry to read her other books.

[sweet_sparrow]

Purslane is a brilliant name. It rolls off the tongue wonderfully. I'm slowly (read extremely slowly) branching out into scifi. The hard, technobabble-filled, idea-focused scifi scares me massively, so any time I find something that sounds like it'd be more Shanra-friendly in its way of writing I'm happy. ^-^

Do let me know if you write about those problems! I admit I haven't read the books (and don't plan to since they don't appeal to me), but the topic sounds fascinating (and educational) all the same. ^-^

[amanda_in_pajamas]

September is a bad month for reading for me. In addition to the normal stuff that keeps me from curling up with a good book, it's volleyball season. (I'm a MS and HS volleyball official.)

That being said, I did manage to read...
The Outlaw Demon Wails - Kim Harrison
Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes - and How to Correct Them - Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich
White Witch, Black Curse - Kim Harrison
Black Magic Sanction - Kim Harrison

Short Stories...
The Bridges of Eden Park - in PBK release of For a Few Demons More - Kim Harrison
Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel - Holidays are Hell - Kim Harrison
Dirty Magic - Hotter than Hell - Kim Harrison
Ley Line Drifter - Unbound - Kim Harrison

I'm currently reading The Scientist in the Crib: Minds, Brains, and How Children Learn - Alison Gopnik, Ph.D., Andrew N. Meltzoff, Ph.D., and Patricia K. Kuhl, Ph.D.

[sweet_sparrow]

Looks like you have a Kim Harrison-filled month. ^-^ I've only read one of her books (as Dawn Cook) so far, but liked what I read.

Has it been a good volleyball season so far? (Also rephrasable as "Are you having fun with the volleyball official-ing?")

[jaebility]

I've been reading books by the truckloads, but these are the ones that stood out:
Changeless and Blameless by Gail Carriger
Death of a Gossip by MC Beaton (re-read)
The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte (re-read)
Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

[sweet_sparrow]

One day, when my TBR pile is smaller, I am finding a complete copy of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and reading them in order. I keep on forgetting which of them I have and haven't read. >>

I wish I could read fast enough to read books by truckloads... That would be awesome! (And so helpful in all those "One day when my TBR is tiny" projects I have... ^-~)

[chaobell]

Things I finished:

► Stone of Tears by Terry Goodkind, and at this point I am reeeeeally not sure I'm going to go any further in the Sword of Truth series; maybe after I get some more Discworld in me I'll peek at the third one

► The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket [insert slowpoke.gif here]

► Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett, which sent Vimes rocketing straight to the top of my Favorite Discworld Characters list (along with Rincewind, Death, the Luggage, and You Bastard).

► The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau [slowpoke.gif]; I liked it, I'll probably eventually read the rest of the series, but it's not high on the priority list.

► Dreamcatcher by Stephen King. It quite often reminded me of John Dies at the End, but with less cosmic horror and fewer dick jokes.

[sweet_sparrow]

The Luggage is Awesome, as is Vimes. ^-^ My favourite wizard may well be Ponder, though. I just want to pat him on the head and go "There, there" at him... Don't think I've encountered You Bastard yet. Which subseries/book is he (or she, I suppose) from?

[brigid]

I'm not currently reading anything new, although I do want to pick up "Dreadnaught" by Cherie Priest when I have some money.

I'm reading the collected works of Jane Austen in the bathroom (short chapters, I'm less likely to be bothered in there) and the Great Book of Amber (all the Amber books) by Roger Zelazny when I'm not in the bathroom. I've read both of these a lot before, which makes it easier to keep track of what I've read/am reading as I have an 18 month old which means I don't have a lot of spare reading time.

[sweet_sparrow]

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on Dreadnought too! I really enjoyed the two other books and I'm looking forward to see where this goes.

Rereads sound like they're very useful at the moment indeed. ^-^ Are you still enjoying them? ^-^

[queen_ypolita]

A while ago I was thinking that I was having a lacklustre year of reading, but this month has mostly been enjoyable.

I finished Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger that I was reading for book group: it was fun and easy enough to read, but I felt the Martin-upstairs plot was pretty peripheral to the central story of intense sibling relationships, and I was really upset about what happened to Valentina.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell had an interesting structure, but I struggled with the attempt to visually represent a dialect in the middle section, and I liked some of the sections more than others: I could have easily have read an entire novel of Luisa Rey mysteries.

Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown has been on my TBR list for years and years, so I was a little afraid it wouldn't live up to the build-up, but I really, really liked it.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carre was a Cold War spy novel, I liked the characters, didn't always follow the plot.

Cast Not the Day by Paul Waters has some obvious similarities with his earlier Of Merchants and Heroes, but it set in a different period (4th century Roman Britain vs. Rome in the Carthaginian wars in 3rd century BCE), and is not saddled with a plot element with somewhat OTT action and drama. I liked it and will certainly re-read it at one point or another.

Finally, I'm currently (re-)reading The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry (I know I've read it before, but couldn't remember any details at all), and will probably finish it before the end of the month tomorrow. Again, it's for book group, has amusing bits but feels a bit over the top.

[sweet_sparrow]

*perks up ears* Oh? Does Mitchell use a method other than phonetics to try and present the dialect? Because that would be awesome to read if he were, if potentially difficult. Most people think a dialect is just phonetic, but it's not and I'm always curious how people tackle it.

[phoenix]

I started the month without Internet, so read a ton of books in the first couple of weeks. Now I have the net and college is back - it's been over a week since I finished a book! I'm looking forward to reading Mockingjay now.

Read this month:
An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (because someone suggested the iPad was like the Primer)
Lightborn by Alison Sinclair
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (reread)
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman (reread)
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (reread)
Blameless by Gail Carriger
Changeless by Gail Carriger
Soulless by Gail Carriger
Beautiful Data from O'Reilly
The Battle of Evernight by Cecelia Dart-Thornton
I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett
The Lady of the Sorrows by Cecelia Dart-Thornton
The Ill-made Mute by Cecelia Dart-Thornton

[sweet_sparrow]

Books I've read and not just heard of! *beams*

Sometimes the question posts make me feel horribly illiterate and badly read. Which is Silly since I have a degree in literature, but there are so many books out there... It's always fun to know a few books. What did you think of the Dart-Thornton ones? It's been... Wow, almost ten years since I read those. I remember loving them a lot when I read them, but I'm pretty scared they won't live up to memory. (Most of the books I read in the same period and tried to revisit don't.)

Would you recommend Lightborn? I think I have that on my wishlist, though it might be another book by the same author.

[archersangel]

i've been averaging about 5 books a month this year. this month is was;
hotel bablyon by imogen edwards-jones & anonymous
blood and roses by helen castor
people of the fire by kathleen o'neal gear and w. michael gear

i'm currently reading people of the earth by kathleen o'neal gear and w. michael gear

[sweet_sparrow]

Is that an average you're happy with? *curious* I was sure I'd read barely anything for September... Turns out reviewing just skews my sense of proportion.

How are you enjoying the O'Neal/Gear books? I have a few of them still on my TBR list. I've enjoyed what I've read, but I'm so slow at getting to them...

[presently]

I just finished Duma Key by Stephen King and LOVED ITOMG. It had the right amount of suspense (as in, I finished it last night, in bed, in the dark, with a flashlight so as not to wake the BF, and I had chills during the climatic chapters. And it also had a little... loved, in it. Not like a love interest/romantic storyline, but family. Your real family and the one you make.

I'm also reading The Regulators by Stephen King (though, I think that one's under his pen name; just can't remember it at the moment). Though, I put that one down for so long to continue with Duma Key that I think I might be better off restarting it (didn't get very far, at least) so I have a better idea of what's going on.

Prior to those, I read:

The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz

I thought there was more than that, but I think most of the stuff I'm thinking of, I read in July and August.

I'm also working my way through The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, but I put that down months ago and haven't picked it up again because it's just... so detailed and finicky, it's hard for me to get through more than a chapter or two at a time without being like 'OMG. TOO MUCH TO TAKE IN' and putting it down again.

[sweet_sparrow]

I'm glad you enjoyed it so! ^-^ That sounds like a wonderful way to read a suspense book! I hope the BF didn't wake up (or, if he did, that he didn't mind waking up).

Sounds like restarting The Regulators may indeed be a good idea. Hopefully that will help you follow the story! (And hopefully any remaining confusion will end up falling into place!)

I'm sorry you're having so much trouble with The Historian. DO you think you'll restart it to try again and/or finish it? I've heard good things about it, but never read it myself.

[alltheevil]

Besides my textbooks, I've been reading:
Tenth Grade Bleeds by Heather Brewer (Book three of The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod)
Dawn & Moonrise & Midnight by Erin Hunter (first three books of Warriors: The New Prophecy)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson (Book one of the Millennium Trilogy)
Million Little Mistakes by Heather McElhatton

and quite a few children's books or junior fiction that I didn't write full reviews for, but included in the mini-reviews section I've started on my book blog.

[sweet_sparrow]

Ooooh. Books with cats in... It gets tedious after the third book, though?

(And I remember reading about Anne Frank. You'd think I'd have grown up with her diary, living in the Netherlands, but I didn't. I'm really glad that I did read it eventually, though. I wish it'd had more presence in my schools. Don't think it's the same book we read, but still...)

[quackaquacka]

Here's the list of everything I've read this month. I did something a little different this month - kept track by day of what I was reading, instead of just posting in groups of 10 - and I think that actually made me read more, because this has been the most prolific month so far. I don't know why that is, but it's interesting.

http://quackaquacka.dreamwidth.org/1491.html

[sweet_sparrow]

... Seriously, I want your reading speed...

Also looks like an incredibly varied reading month was had. ^-^ Did you enjoy most of the books you read?

[sage]

82. A Letter of Mary (Mary Russell #3) - Laurie R. King
83. A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle
84. Sherlock Holmes and the King's Evil: And Other New Tales Featuring the World's Greatest Detective - Donald Thomas
85. The Moor (Mary Russell #4) - Laurie R. King
86. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle (1892)
87. O Jerusalem (Mary Russell, #5) - Laurie R. King
88. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle (1893)
89. The Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle
90. Faithful Place - Tana French
91. The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
92. The Valley of Fear - Arthur Conan Doyle
93. Justice Hall (Mary Russell, #6) - Laurie R. King
94. His Last Bow - Arthur Conan Doyle
95. Hand of Isis - Jo Graham

...and I'll be done with The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes by tonight, thus completing my reread of the ACD Holmes canon.

This is way above my average monthly reading, largely thanks to the ACD books being incredibly fast reads.

(Um, don't necessarily take these as recs. Granted, I either liked or loved nearly all of them, but there's an anti-rec for the D. Thomas book on my goodreads.)

[sweet_sparrow]

No worries. I just like hearing about people's reading experiences. Finding something that sounds really good or really bad is just a neat bonus. ^-^ I always include books I didn't like, or even didn't finish, in my own lists. I did (attempt to) read them, after all.

Did you get the last of the ACD Holmes books finished indeed? ^-^ I hope so!

[nerakrose]

I've read:

Clive Cussler - Cyclops
Clive Cussler - Treasure
Trudi Canavan - The Magician's Apprentice
Dan Brown - The Lost Symbol
Anne Rice - Memnoch the Devil
Eoin Colfer - Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident
Johanna Spyri - Heidi

I really enjoyed the Cussler books. They're such hysterical fun to read. XD Unintentionally funny, better put. I just love them in their cheesiness and clichés and whatnot.

The Magician's Apprentice is not something I'll reread. I picked it up secondhand out of need for something to read, and just... no. here's a link to my review of the book.

The Lost Symbol ... anyone who knows me, knows that I do not endorse Dan Brown. I read this because I was stuck at my mum's house with nothing else to read. Robert Langdon is a Mary Sue. The conspiracy was okay, but the plot development and the way the mystery was unravelled could've been done much much better. I don't like authors who talk down to their readers, and I feel that Dan Brown does that. I also don't like authors who withhold information from their readers on purpose and create a cliffhanger that spans several pages. Cliffhangers are okay, but Brown overdoes it. And now I'll shut up before I offend someone. Sorry. Do Not Like.

Memnoch the Devil is not something I'm likely to pick up again, either. I've been reading The Vampire Chronicles over the summer and after Memnoch I decided that I'm just not going to finish reading them. For anyone interested in reviews of these, that can be found in this post.

Artemis Fowl I enjoyed loads. I'm working on getting the series read and I think I'll make a post of reviews of all the books when I'm done. It's a young adult/children's fantasy/sci-fi series but I think you don't have to be a child to enjoy it. It's light reading but with an edge.

Heidi I simply loved. It's a classic I've been meaning to read for ages and when I found it second hand for 50 cents, that book was so mine. It's very lovely and touching.

[sweet_sparrow]

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed Heidi so much after having wanted to read it for so long! ^-^ Though I'm sad the rest of your month seems to have been so bad for reading. At least you really enjoyed Heidi and Artemis Fowl! ^-^ I hope that balanced things out for you a little enjoyment-wise!

[akk]

Late to the game, but anyway...

I'm still at rereading Hardebusch's Sturmwelten trilogy as promised last time. Parallel, I'm reading Tanya Huff's The Blood Books (all six) in English. The books are the source for the Canadian tv series "Blood Ties", which is one of the few "surprise, I love it!" vampire series since "Nick Knight" ages ago. If you like urban fantasy with a distinct base in reality despite vampires, wers & co, the books are a recommended read (they aged nicely, aside from the lack of mobile phones in the books (not in the tv show), it's barely noticeable that they were written in the early 90s of the last Millennium. ;)
Plus Lynn Flewelling's The Bone Doll's Twin, rereading aloud for breathing training. The book sucked me in just like Luck in the Shadows did, so I'll definitely go through this trilogy as well.
And The Sword and the Dragon by M. R. Mathias. Epic high fantasy (dragons, elves, giants, kings, betrayal, sorcerers... and all with a distinct *twist* in the plot). It's only available electronically via Smashwords, but it's nicely formatted, well edited, and a helluva read (so far; I've been probably 20% in). Smashwords offers the first 43% of the 235354 words for free. So there's a chance to give it a try for free in your respective e-format (no DRM afaik). It's also the first of a trilogy, the 2nd book is to be published early next year, and so far, I'm looking forward to it. :)

[sweet_sparrow]

Psssh, only late if you take into account I posted it hell-early.

Rereading for breathing training? As in you're training yourself to breathe whilst reading aloud or?.. Because that might be worth looking into for me. I tutor several hours in a row and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but it's murder on my throat. T-T

Ooh, that sounds like fun! ^-^

[holyschist]

I did a lot of traveling, so didn't really read a lot...also, I read a bunch of Real Grownup Books instead of YA, which took me longer.

Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah (YA contemporary)

This was a quick read; one of those teenager-develops-identity-while-dealing-with-prejudice-and-general-teenage-crappiness books. I liked it, although I felt the author maybe overdid it a bit on the trying to sound teenager-y.

The Virtu, by Sarah Monette
The Mirador, by Sarah Monette (adult fantasy)

Books 2 and 3 of Doctrine of Labyrinths (Book 1 was Mélusine). I have very mixed feelings about these books; they're delicious and kind of cracky, and I absolutely adore one of the main characters (Mildmay, a thief and former assassin). However, I have severe misgivings about the Tragic Gayness of the other main character, Felix (a wizard who has wallowed in angst for 3 solid books now).

Cyteen: The Betrayal, by C.J. Cherryh
Cyteen: The Rebirth, by C.J. Cherryh (adult SF)

These are the first two thirds of Cyteen, published in three separate volumes. So far I am really, really irritated by Cherryh's writing style, and frequently bored. I gather Cyteen is better read after Downbelow Station, and flipping through the sequel Regenesis, it looks like the things that irritate me about Cyteen may be less pronounced there. Anyway, it's dystopian future SF about a society that breeds clone-slaves, and a replicate of a genius scientist who was also a horrible person, and it's got a lot of interesting ideas. I'm not not in love with the execution.

I Shall Wear Midnight, by Terry Pratchett (YA satiric fantasy, lighter on the satire)

The fourth and final Tiffany Aching book. Tiffany is a young witch on the Discworld, and I think the Tiffany books are a good introduction to the Disc. They're some of my favorite books ever. I don't think I Shall Wear Midnight is the absolute strongest of them, but I found it to be a satisfying wrap-up to Tiffany's story, if a little name-droppy.

Slammerkin, by Emma Donoghue (adult historical fiction)

Set in the Georgian era, this is a fictional account of the story of Mary Saunders, a maid who killed her mistress. There isn't a lot known for sure about Saunders' story, and Donoghue has postulated an intelligent, shallow girl raised in poverty and trapped by gender and social station. Mary longs for pretty clothes and fine things, and turns to prostitution. Solidly researched, vividly written, and horrifying; Mary is both sympathetic and repulsive. A very good book, but not exactly an enjoyable read. It's a good antidote to all the historical novels out there about jolly prostitutes who never have violent customers and somehow avoid STDs and dying in the gutter when they're too old. Donoghue is an amazing writer, and I'll definitely read more of her books (not all are so grim).

I'd say the best book in the lot was Slammerkin, but I Shall Wear Midnight was my favorite.

[sweet_sparrow]

I hope the travelling was good fun! ^-^

I have Does My Head Look Big in This? on my TBR pile somewhere...

And Slammerkin sounds awesome. I've heard good things about Room too. ^-^