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Recently I:
Met Jeanne from Necromancy Never Pays and her family: I was a lttle nervous about meeting a whole family all together, but they really put me at ease just because they were so full of things to talk about despite their serious jet lag. I took them to ‘The Dirty Duck’ where we talked about all the differences between US and UK stuff, which continue to amaze me, because we absorb so much US tv here that it sometimes seems like we must be one and the same country. Such nice people and it sounds like the rest of their Brit trip was a success.
Went to Madrid with its gorgeous 35 degree heat: Ah if only all life could be a holiday. Highlights were a return to The Prado Museum, a visit inside the Royal Palace, a trip to Retiro Park (home to the only statue to Lucifer and the most gorgeous lakes with waterfalls and black swans) and a look inside a really beautiful cathedral. Sunshine, beer, sangria... If only we hadn’t been caugth up in an international air traffic problem on the way out (which meant we missed a connecting flight, do not even egt me started on why we were on connecting flights) it would have been a holiday without real trouble. Eventually I will get my act together and post photos.
I was out of the country for the riots, so, eh this might seem weird because who cares about one more blogger talking about it, I’d like to acknowledge that think about them, but I don’t really plan on talking about them here.
Booked tickets to see The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Agh!
Agh!
I still can’t believe I’m going! I’m going to have serious ‘these are not real ticket’ nightmares just before that.
Booked tickets to see The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall: Look, while a band which shaped my teenage years and hasn’t done a UK tour in 6 years is clearly the most exciting event here I’m pretty psyched that I get to see Phantom and take my first tour around The Albert Hall all in one giant gulp of a night. It’s a 25th anniversary performance, so I anticipate seeing some hardcore fans there. I will be the newbie who has only seen the film.
Aside from that it’s been reasonably quiet since I last posted. So I’ve been reading a lot of books (and a ton of fanfic, because seriously Sherlock you are not coming back until 2012? What is this? Are you aware the reboot of Torchwood has been massively unfulfilling and Dr Who is meh this year?): Wait, what kind of blog is this again?;) I have a lot of reviews backed up. I’ve been trying to increase all the totals for the kinds of books I wanted to read more of and I think I’m doing pretty well (although I still want to read more sci-fi by women, more of this in the next few months I think). My ‘read more male authors’ target looked like it had gone bubye, but in the last month or so I’ve read enough male authors to almost make my binary author gender split even. Now that we’re past half way through the year I think the main thing I want to read more of is literary fiction, maybe crack open the Dawn Powell and William Maxwell soon?
I have a few books I received for review, which need to go first (‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’, ‘Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman’ and damn, damn me and my procrastination, this is why I don’t take review copies often ‘85A’). There’s also a mini review post written where I talk quickly about ‘Iceland’ and my reread of ‘Jazz’ but after they’re up I was wondering which of these you’d want to hear about first:
‘The Vesuvius Club’ – Mark Gatiss (almost steam punk mystery spy stuff from the guy who needs to bring me my Sherlock)
‘Strong Poison’ – Dorothy L Sayers (mystery)
‘My Legendary Girlfriend’ – Mike Gayle (lad-lit)
‘Miss Hargreaves’ – Frank Baker (classic urban fantasy)
‘Tomorrow Pamplona’ – Jan Van Mersbergen (road trip, lit-fic)
‘Wrapped’ – Jennifer Bradbury (YA Regency mystery, with spies)
‘Behemoth’ – Scott Westerfeld (YA steam punk)
‘The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms’ – N K Jeminsen (fantasy)
‘The Knife of Never Letting Go’ – Patrick Ness (sci-fi)
And I’ll try to order the reviews by level of interest. I have made a lot of notes, so it should all be fine!
Current book reading: I just finished the posthumously published last novel of Eva Ibbotson, whose Secret of Platform 13 I read over and over when I was a kid. Nymeth and I will be discussing ‘One Dog and His Boy’ later in the year. And I hope I can elicit a squeal from her after she emerges from the fug of her thesis by announcing that I have finally started ‘Night Watch’ by Sarah Waters. I really want a big, squishy piece of lit-fic, before I begin the plot driven ‘Goliath’ (no more Deryn, no more Alec).
Like I said, it’s been a bit quietish. Hey, I know what I need, an intensive few weekends of festival going, hen do drinking and wedding attending back to back! This weekend began the end of the summers schedule of fun and the lack of sleep comes to its climax. I think this year was less busy than last year’s epic summer (probably because I’m not attending all three days of a festival) but not by much. Next summer – does nothing. See you in between the events!
Met Jeanne from Necromancy Never Pays and her family: I was a lttle nervous about meeting a whole family all together, but they really put me at ease just because they were so full of things to talk about despite their serious jet lag. I took them to ‘The Dirty Duck’ where we talked about all the differences between US and UK stuff, which continue to amaze me, because we absorb so much US tv here that it sometimes seems like we must be one and the same country. Such nice people and it sounds like the rest of their Brit trip was a success.
Went to Madrid with its gorgeous 35 degree heat: Ah if only all life could be a holiday. Highlights were a return to The Prado Museum, a visit inside the Royal Palace, a trip to Retiro Park (home to the only statue to Lucifer and the most gorgeous lakes with waterfalls and black swans) and a look inside a really beautiful cathedral. Sunshine, beer, sangria... If only we hadn’t been caugth up in an international air traffic problem on the way out (which meant we missed a connecting flight, do not even egt me started on why we were on connecting flights) it would have been a holiday without real trouble. Eventually I will get my act together and post photos.
I was out of the country for the riots, so, eh this might seem weird because who cares about one more blogger talking about it, I’d like to acknowledge that think about them, but I don’t really plan on talking about them here.
Booked tickets to see The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Agh!
Agh!
I still can’t believe I’m going! I’m going to have serious ‘these are not real ticket’ nightmares just before that.
Booked tickets to see The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall: Look, while a band which shaped my teenage years and hasn’t done a UK tour in 6 years is clearly the most exciting event here I’m pretty psyched that I get to see Phantom and take my first tour around The Albert Hall all in one giant gulp of a night. It’s a 25th anniversary performance, so I anticipate seeing some hardcore fans there. I will be the newbie who has only seen the film.
Aside from that it’s been reasonably quiet since I last posted. So I’ve been reading a lot of books (and a ton of fanfic, because seriously Sherlock you are not coming back until 2012? What is this? Are you aware the reboot of Torchwood has been massively unfulfilling and Dr Who is meh this year?): Wait, what kind of blog is this again?;) I have a lot of reviews backed up. I’ve been trying to increase all the totals for the kinds of books I wanted to read more of and I think I’m doing pretty well (although I still want to read more sci-fi by women, more of this in the next few months I think). My ‘read more male authors’ target looked like it had gone bubye, but in the last month or so I’ve read enough male authors to almost make my binary author gender split even. Now that we’re past half way through the year I think the main thing I want to read more of is literary fiction, maybe crack open the Dawn Powell and William Maxwell soon?
I have a few books I received for review, which need to go first (‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’, ‘Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman’ and damn, damn me and my procrastination, this is why I don’t take review copies often ‘85A’). There’s also a mini review post written where I talk quickly about ‘Iceland’ and my reread of ‘Jazz’ but after they’re up I was wondering which of these you’d want to hear about first:
‘The Vesuvius Club’ – Mark Gatiss (almost steam punk mystery spy stuff from the guy who needs to bring me my Sherlock)
‘Strong Poison’ – Dorothy L Sayers (mystery)
‘My Legendary Girlfriend’ – Mike Gayle (lad-lit)
‘Miss Hargreaves’ – Frank Baker (classic urban fantasy)
‘Tomorrow Pamplona’ – Jan Van Mersbergen (road trip, lit-fic)
‘Wrapped’ – Jennifer Bradbury (YA Regency mystery, with spies)
‘Behemoth’ – Scott Westerfeld (YA steam punk)
‘The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms’ – N K Jeminsen (fantasy)
‘The Knife of Never Letting Go’ – Patrick Ness (sci-fi)
And I’ll try to order the reviews by level of interest. I have made a lot of notes, so it should all be fine!
Current book reading: I just finished the posthumously published last novel of Eva Ibbotson, whose Secret of Platform 13 I read over and over when I was a kid. Nymeth and I will be discussing ‘One Dog and His Boy’ later in the year. And I hope I can elicit a squeal from her after she emerges from the fug of her thesis by announcing that I have finally started ‘Night Watch’ by Sarah Waters. I really want a big, squishy piece of lit-fic, before I begin the plot driven ‘Goliath’ (no more Deryn, no more Alec).
Like I said, it’s been a bit quietish. Hey, I know what I need, an intensive few weekends of festival going, hen do drinking and wedding attending back to back! This weekend began the end of the summers schedule of fun and the lack of sleep comes to its climax. I think this year was less busy than last year’s epic summer (probably because I’m not attending all three days of a festival) but not by much. Next summer – does nothing. See you in between the events!