2016 Reading Log

1. The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

2. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson

3. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two by John Tiffany, JK Rowling

4. Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls, and Everything in Between by Lauren Graham

5. Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

I immediately read another Sherlock book after finishing the first. I think I’d intended to make a run straight through them, but I got sidetracked at some point. I should return to this project.

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson was memorable for being set at the World’s Fair and the “ripped from the headlines” nature of the story. It’s a period of history that doesn’t get a lot of study, but it’s fascinating because it’s right when we were becoming a modern society.

I had to read Cursed Child right when it came out so I didn’t have the surprises spoiled for me, but it’s only an okay extension of the Harry Potter story. I was fortunate to see the play in NYC a couple of years after reading it, and it was only okay live as well. I did like seeing the familiar characters dealing with adult problems, but the shift in medium from “unreliable narrator in a novel” to “dialog-driven stage play” creates too much of a disconnect.

I had to read Lauren Graham’s autobiography for work, but I picked up her slightly autobiographical novel as well because she was such a competent writer. Her autobiography was memorable for the writing advice she gives in it. And the cover, if I’m being honest. I purposely went out and bought the hardback instead of downloading an ebook so I could take this picture. And while I was reading, I was stuck in a row on a full flight with two of the most awful people I’d ever encountered. They were a doctor and a nurse co-workers on their way to a convention. They popped some pills and drank about three screwdrivers apiece, talked trash about their estranged spouses and went into graphic detail about the sexual exploits they were going to get into in the hotel room during the conference. Their plan was to make their first stop a weed dispensary, then have a sex marathon…and I guess attend some of the conference sessions? Anyway, it was harrowing and I almost had them arrested for trying to engage in sex acts on the plane right beside me.

Easy read. Clear writing, engaging style. The characters are all fully realized, but not a lot happens for long stretches. The pace seems to lag in places, and the major developments are all fairly predictable. Still enjoyable despite that.

—From my Goodreads review of Someday, Someday, Maybe, ⭐️⭐️⭐️

2015 Reading Log

1. Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland

2. Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

3. So You Want to Be a P.I. by Pamela Beason

4. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

5. Ross Poldark by Winston Graham

6. Demelza by Winston Graham

7. The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece by Jonathan Harr

8. The Face of Britain: The Nation through its Portraits by Simon Schama

9. A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Clara and Mr. Tiffany and Loving Frank were alike in that they were novels that dealt with the lives of prominent artists. I feel like Clara and Mr. Tiffany relied far less on historical fact and more on the imagination of the artist, which made it a more effective work of fiction. I very much enjoyed both, though, and this is an example of algorithms suggesting things that will appeal.

I read Les Misérables by Victor Hugo as one of my classic self assignments. I didn’t intend to love it as deeply as I do. The thing you don’t get very much of in the musical and movie adaptations is the sheer goodness of Jean Valjean. I had such sympathy for him. It’s a gorgeous piece of writing, as well. I had a good translation, but I believe the excellence will convey even in inferior translations.

I started reading the Poldark series by Winston Graham because I’d like the first season of the mini series starring Aiden Turner so well, but the character of Ross makes me so damned angry, I not only stopped reading the books, I stopped watching the show as well. The final series is set to air soon, so I really should catch up, but Ross makes my blood boil.

The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece was a book I picked up when I started researching for my current novel-in-progress. It’s very engaging, for a work of non-fiction, and I owe a lot of inspiration to this book.

The Face of Britain: The Nation through its Portraits was a bit of a disappointment because I expected the audiobook to be fully narrated by Simon Schama and it is not. Only the foreword and certain chapters are narrated by him, which is a shame, because I could listen to him talk about art for hours on end and never get bored.

A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a classic self-assignment. I’d never read any of the Sherlock Holmes novels before, so I thought it was high time I dig into them. I found it a surprisingly easy read and it was interesting to read the source material to the many adaptations I’d seen, some more faithful than others. I’ve always adored the character of Sherlock in his many, many iterations.

2014 Reading Log

1. Jane Eyre's Husband - The Life of Edward Rochester by Tara Bradley

2. War and Peace* by Leo Tolstoy

3. Raging Heat by Richard Castle

4. Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan

5. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

6. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

7. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

8. The Miniaturist by Jesse Burton

The thriving cottage industry of Jane Austen (etc) re-tellings isn’t a genre I generally engage with, but I did enjoy this soapy romance take on telling Rochester’s side of Jane Eyre. I think it works a little too hard to absolve him of some of his douchier behaviors, though. Rochester is a bad man. He gaslights Jane and manipulates her and is a wee bit emotionally abusive, and none of that can be explained away by being duped into getting into a bad relationship.

Motherfucking War and Peace. I cannot make any headway in this thing. I need like a murder board with photos of each character and all the variations on their names to keep everything straight as I read. I’ve been told that once you get into it, it’s a good book, but I can’t get into it.

I have no memory whatsoever of reading Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan, but it ticks all the boxes for things I should love. Apparently, it’s the story of a strong, independent American woman’s affair with Robert Louis Stevenson, but it made absolutely no impression on me.

I must have decided to re-read the Hunger Games trilogy in advance of one of the movie’s release dates. Never a bad choice.

The Miniaturist by Jesse Burton is an interesting novel. I liked it and was engrossed with the setting and the mystery, but there were some issues. I feel like the ending was rushed, and all of the threads weren’t adequately tied up at the end. I find it fascinating that it was a NaNoWriMo novel, of sorts. The author worked on it over several years during NaNo.