[books 2012] John Connolly

62. The Wrath of Angels by John Connolly

I've been so busy that it took me in the region of two weeks to read this, and I can't remember taking more than 4 days to read any of his works. OK, also because it was in hardcover so I didn't lug it around on the bus with me.o because it was in hardcover so I didn't lug it around on the bus with me.

Another Charlie Parker mystery. I enjoyed this more than I have the last few. Charlie is hardly in it - most of the book follows the villains and victims. It's truly creepy. Highly recommended.

I got to meet Connolly at a signing for this book and told him the story of how I became familiar with him and his work, and he loved my comment that what hooked me was the "sheer variety of voice" that he used in Nocturnes, because that's exactly what he was trying out - could he convincingly do anything other than Parker? I also learned I'm a very poor fan - the woman in front of me buys *two* copies of all his books, in hardback and paperback, just in case something happens to one of them. I've got most of them out of the library - this is the first I've purchased in hardcover in the week of publication.

[books 2012] BristolCon publication the second

63. Dark Spires edited by Colin Harvey

The second book to come out of BristolCon. In this one the theme was Wessex (the first was Bristol). The quality of the work here is probably more consistently professional than in Future Bristol, and it all ties into the theme extremely neatly, but overall it didn't grab me the way that Future Bristol did.

The entries by hirez and zorz_db are both top notch.

[books 2012] Charles de Lint

64. The Mystery of Grace by Charles de Lint

Grace is a young Hispanic woman who makes a living restoring old hot rods, loves rockabilly music, and is covered in tattoos, who lives in a fictional city in the American south west.

Then she is killed in a convenience store robbery, and ends up in a weird limbo afterlife centered on the apartment building where she lived.

On one of the two nights a year she is allowed to cross over to the land of the living, she meets a guy and falls in love.

Eventually she works out why this particular limbo exists and sets out to free all its inhabitants.

Sounds a bit lame, but I couldn't put this book down for the first half. The second half is still good, but it goes in unexpected directions and is really sad in parts. But it's really interesting and sweet and life affirming too.

This is one of the books I bought when I was depressed and unemployed and if I'd realised it was only going to take 3 days to read (mainly for the can't put it down reasons) I would have read it ages ago.

October reading

So I read 8 books in October.

2 non fiction (part for the course; I keep trying to up this)
Beowulf - something that required more effort than I usually make
Only one of these was a library book, but I bought some books, but it is finally starting to look like I'm making a dent in the to-read pile.

Mainly because I've started about 4 books so they're now sitting around elsewhere.

Both good and bad news at once

I tried on my good skinny fit jeans before sending them to the charity shop, and they still fit.

The bad news is fairly obvious - I'd hoped they'd be falling off me by now.

The good news is this means I actually still own a pair of jeans.