This was not a great week for reading as we spent a ton of time at the house painting, fixing, scrubbing, sweeping, trashing, and recycling to get it ready to sell.
Read:
I read Megan Whalen Turner's 6th book in The Thief series, Return of the Thief, a book, among others, which I have been looking forward to seeing published. While this was certainly worth the wait, 3 years is too long for me to go between series books. My only dissatisfaction with this final in the series is that there were too many details it would have been helpful to have remembered from the previous book. My own fault of course. I could have reread or tried to find a detailed summary filled with spoilers, but I didn't, so I went into this one without enough recollection and therefore felt a little lost at times. I'd like to reread all six books sometime because I loved them all individually and think the continuity would make them even more powerful.
I also read Serpentine by Philip Pullman, which I thought was a novella. It was a short story in a lovely little illustrated book. I read it twice. The author's note at the end indicated that the ideas just kept pushing at him so he went ahead and wrote it. The story is about Lyra and Pan after The Subtle Knife during which (spoiler ahead) they separate without dying, though it is painful. This new characteristic of their relationship will change the way they experience the world.
I also finished listening to The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell. I did quite a bit of listening while I was painting.
Reading:
I found myself with a few down moments over the past week, with only my Kindle on hand so I started The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. I sought this book on NetGalley after having read How to Stop Time. I would have discussed this one in my post on time-travel books if it had not been focused on two of my favorite authors of the sub-genre rather than all the time-travel works I have read.
Tonight I will leap back in to The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty to finish this week.
Listening:
I started Meaty by Samantha Irby. This is one of her earlier titles, but she says in a forward that the essays have been re-edited and polished up for this re-release. So far it is just as hilarious as I had expected. M. asked a few times why my painting was so funny. I think he might like her work.
I am not sure what is up next after this listen. Any suggestions?
What have you read? What are you reading and listening to?
