Books read in June and July

Man, getting married put my book recording completely out of whack. And I'm too exhausted by the size of this list, and how long ago I read some of these books, to do proper summaries of them. So I'm breaking the formula and doing a few descriptive words by each one. (I wrote this before I started writing little descriptions, and obviously I couldn't stick to my self-imposed limit).

The Rottweiler by Ruth Rendell - psychological thriller, usual Ruth Rendell style, enjoyed it.

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold - excellent fantasy, loved it.

Sorcery Rising by Jude Fisher - hmm, ok - I was disturbed by a character whose only purpose was to inspire sexual desire in men, without pleasure herself. It was a little creepy.

The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris - I mostly enjoyed it, but it was much more fantastical than its prequel, Chocolat, and sometimes to its detriment (although it did make me long for some really bright shoes).

The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon - an interesting novel about a (very) high functioning autistic man (and I'm not actually sure how accurate that depiction is) and what happens when the company he works for offers him a cure. I really enjoyed it, but I get the feeling it's not really a very true picture of autism.

The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar - depressing but well-written novel about class differences in Bombay, played out by a wealthy woman and her vastly poorer servant.

Odalisque by Fiona McIntosh - some parts of this Ottoman-inspired fantasy were good, some parts were rather awful. The number of times a particular character, whom everyone believes is mad, reveals himself to another character began to get on my nerves - there's only so many times you can read different versions of, "Actually, I'm sane!" I'm not sure how the entire population of the city doesn't know his "secret" by then. Also, his faked bouts of madness, mostly consisting of childlike chanting, are supremely annoying. It's not good that those are the things that stuck in my head about this book - I'm not sure whether I'd read more of the series.

The Painted Drum by Lousie Erdrich - an excellent novel. I really love Louise Erdrich's books - her imagery and lyricism are just gorgeous.

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (audio book) - this is one of my favourite books, and it was fun to listen to it in audio. Unfortunately, the footnotes just didn't work in an audio format - they needed to be refitted into the text somehow, because they're so long it was very confusing when the reader would go back to where he was in the main story. Also, he began the book by pronouncing Crowley as crow-ley (to rhyme with lowly) and ended it pronouncing it as crau-ley (to rhym with frau-ley, or frowny). Distracting.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey - bleh - I was looking for something to complement David Allen's Getting Things Done, but I found this too old-fashioned and high-minded, almost. I was after something practical.

Whispers in the Sand by Barbara Erskine - this was a book I bought in a newsagent on honeymoon, having run out of reading material. I used to love Barbara Erskine's books as a teenager - these very dramatic, mildly gothic sagas. All their women protagonists spent most of the story being tremendously unhappy (with bouts of happiness, usually when they're having an affair with their illicit lover) and generally find happiness in the end. This is an Egyptian saga, complete with ghosts, two irritating men (one of whom our heroine falls in love with) and many dramatic disasters. It was quite good lazy honeymoon reading.

The Burning Times by Jeanne Kalogridis - another newsagent acquisition, this is a rather silly fantasy novel about the Inquisition, with awful overuse of capitalisation (the Gift, the Sight, Evil) which is sometimes unintentionally funny.

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett - a re-read, bought in a secondhand bookshop in Launceston (did I spend my entire honeymoon buying books? Yes, I did). Probably one of my favourite Discworld novels, but then Vimes is one of my favourite characters, and this novel is very much all about Vimes.

A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay - secondhand bookshop in Launceston again, and another re-read. I think I've re-read every single one of Kay's books this year, and this one is particularly overrought. Lovely to read, but I found myself thinking that the Court of Love culture we're supposed to be empathising with was one I found a little silly - I adored it the first time I read it though.

Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller - the Doctor bought this to read on the plane when coming over for the wedding, and left it with me. I really enjoyed it, and its very unreliable narrator, and want to give the movie a try. I left it with my mother, who found it too creepy (the teacher/student relationship), and stopped reading.

Towelhead by Alicia Erian - another book from the Doctor (I guess she reads a lot during plane trips - she also passed on The Lovely Bones to me, but I'd already read it), which was good, but I found all the sexual abuse a bit tough to read. I also passed that one on to Mum, which in retrospect might have been a mistake, given that she didn't like Notes on a Scandal.

Laurie and Claire by Kathleen Rowntree - another book picked up in Launceston (I was so delighted to be somewhere with a bookstore, I went a little crazy, not considering the weight of my suitcase). I thought from the blurb that the author sounded a little similar to Joanna Trollope or Mary Wesley, both whom I enjoy, and I was right to an extent. She's a little darker than Trollope or Wesley, with a little more bite. I really enjoyed this, and will definitely be picking up some more of Rowntree's work.

The Seduction of Water by Carol Goodman - read frantically when I return from holiday because it was getting expensively overdue at the library. I really enjoyed it - a very lovely murder mystery, with a gorgeous interwoven theme of the Selkie myth.

Dark Angels by Karleen Koen - I loved this historical novel, set in England and occasionally France in 1670 in the court of King Charles II. Great fun, lots of intrigue, and a heroine whom I really liked, despite her being thoroughly self-centred.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling - I enjoyed reading this at the same time so many other people were. Sure, there were some flaws with it, like the pacing, but I enjoyed it, and thought it was a great end to the series. I wonder whether there'll be a further publishing wave of YA fantasy in the wake of the end of Harry Potter. And I'll be interested to see what JK Rowling does next (apart from rolling around on her giant piles of cash and cacking hysterically).

OK, I'm exhausted now. Remind me never to let books build up for two months again.