I just realized that I haven't blogged in a couple of months. Here's a few of the books I've read recently:
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
I got this one for Christmas and tackled it mostly to be completist. I'm glad I did. Mantel writes wonderfully well, of course, and there was something satisfying about seeing Cromwell's story to its tragic conclusion.
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
This book is yet another example of why I should overcome my baseline prejudice against literary fiction. It's the first person life story of an unreliable narrator, with a closing twist that makes you want to turn back to the first page to understand everything that went before. Given that it's a novella, I should probably do that, even though the book definitely falls into my literary novel stereotype of being 'about the boring struggles of boring middle class people'.
The Duke of Uranium by John Barnes
Was there really a market for a Heinlein juvenile in the year 2002? I was surprised (and disappointed) by this book after reading Barnes' Orbital Resonance, The Sky so Big and Black, and Candle.
Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham
A surprising number of Golden Age mysteries are well worth reading. Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and Josephine Tey's books are all still entertaining reads. And then there's Margery Allingham. Maybe she wrote better books than Dancers in Mourning? This one wouldn't convince me to read more of her back catalogue.
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