pedanther

Fiction books
Tina Jones. The Thing About Weddings
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller. Conflict of Honors (e) (re-read)
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller. Local Custom (e) (re-read)
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller. Mouse and Dragon (e) (re-read)
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller. Scout's Progress (e) (re-read)
Tim Powers. Hide Me Among the Graves (e)
David Whitaker. Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks (audio book) (re-read)

In progress
Grant Allen. An African Millionaire: Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay (e)
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller. Fledgling (e) (re-read)
Terry Pratchett. Snuff (e) (re-read)

Non-fiction books in progress
Christopher Lascelles. Pontifex Maximus (e)

( short, screen, and stage )
( books bought and borrowed )

Top of the to-read pile
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller. Agent of Change

Fiction books
Ben Aaronovitch. The October Man (e)
James Hilton. Goodbye, Mr Chips (e)
James Hilton. To You, Mr Chips (e)
Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale. Batman: Dark Victory
Terry Pratchett. Unseen Academicals (e) (re-read)

In progress
Kim Newman. The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School (e) (re-read)
Terry Pratchett. I Shall Wear Midnight (e) (re-read)

Non-fiction books in progress
Bob Altemeyer. The Authoritarians (e)

( short, screen, and stage )
( books bought and borrowed )

Top of the to-read pile
PC Hodgell. By Demons Possessed

Fiction books
R Austin Freeman. Mr Pottermack's Oversight (e)
Sharon Lee. Barnburner (e)
Sharon Lee. Gunshy (e)
Alan Moore, Gene Ha, Zander Cannon. Top 10 volume 1 (re-read)
Alan Moore, Gene Ha, Zander Cannon. Top 10 volume 2 (re-read)
Alan Moore, Gene Ha. Top 10: The Forty-Niners (re-read)
Kim Newman. The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School (e)
Terry Pratchett. Men at Arms (e) (re-read)
Anthony Price. The '44 Vintage (e)
Anthony Price. The Hour of the Donkey (e)
Anthony Price. Soldier No More (e)
Anthony Price. Tomorrow's Ghost (e)
Dorothy L Sayers. Strong Poison (e) (re-read)

In progress
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener. Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire (e)
Terry Pratchett. Soul Music (e) (re-read)

Picture books
Russell Hoban. Best Friends for Frances
Russell Hoban. Bread and Jam for Frances

Non-fiction books
Jung Chang. Empress Dowager Cixi

( short, screen, and stage )
( books bought and borrowed )

Top of the to-read pile
Ryk E Spoor. Phoenix in Shadow

Fiction books
Ben Aaronovitch. Broken Homes (e)
Diana Wynne Jones. Deep Secret (e) (re-read)
Sharon Lee. Carousel Sun (e)
Sharon Lee. Carousel Tides (e) (re-read)
Terry Pratchett. The Colour of Magic (e) (re-read)

In progress
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller. Conflict of Honors (re-read)
Terry Pratchett. The Light Fantastic (e) (re-read)
Patricia C Wrede. Talking to Dragons (e) (re-read)

Non-fiction books in progress
Adrian Goldsworthy. Antony and Cleopatra
Nigel West. MI5

( short, screen, and stage )
( books bought and borrowed )

Top of the to-read pile
Jason Aaron, Esad Ribic. Thor, God of Thunder: The God Butcher

Fiction books
Barbara Hambly. Bride of the Rat God (re-read)
Neil Gaiman, et al. Sandman: Worlds' End (re-read)

In progress
Neil Gaiman, et al. Sandman: The Kindly Ones (re-read)
Naomi Novik. Crucible of Gold

Non-fiction books
Di Trevis. Being a Director

In progress
Barbara Sher, Barbara Smith. I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was

( short, screen, and stage )
( books bought and borrowed )

Top of the to-read pile
Ben Aaronovitch. Whispers Under Ground

1. If I had known how much Jago (which was marketed as a standalone horror novel) tied in to Kim Newman's other works, I'd have read it years ago.

2. Apparently, this is now a Thing: Wholock, in which people edit together screencaps (or, if they're feeling ambitious, video clips) to create Doctor Who-Sherlock crossover stories. For technical proficiency, my favourite is still the first one I ever saw, A Study in Time, but for story-being-told, my favourite is Why me?.

3. This weekend, I competed in the area final of the Toastmasters evaluation contest. (As noted in a previous post, I didn't win in the previous round, but the person who did bowed out due to unavailability.) I didn't win in this round either, but I enjoyed attending the contest. There were some very good speeches.

4. Also, I caught up with my brother and sister, who I don't get to see often enough. That was nice.

5. I have written fic for the prompts I got in the iPod Shuffle meme. I'll do a proper post for that later, when I've got time to do a proper post.

I read Mysteries of the Diogenes Club today. I'm not sure there's much point in a detailed post on it, since there's maybe two people on my friendslist who'll be interested and I expect they'll read it themselves anyway. This also means there's no point me being smug about having predicted what the cover illustration signified (and anyway that wasn't actually very hard, to be honest).

I think my favourite new story in the collection was the girls' boarding school story homage, "The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School". It's breezy and cheerful (which not all the stories in this book are) and gave me the LOLs at several points.

If you're one of the people who's going to read the book anyway, don't neglect the explanatory notes at the end. The notes on obscure British culture for foreigners are always informative and frequently witty, but I also enjoy spotting the ring-ins -- there's always a couple of notes for each story that provide background information on some fictional aspect of the story while neglecting to mention that it actually is fictional.

One of these in the present volume belatedly gave me another LOL from the boarding-school story: the story mentions in passing that one of the students at Drearcliff is a pale dark-haired American girl with the unfortunate name of Ticia Frump, which didn't ring any bells until I got to the endnote:

Ticia Frump. Later married into a distinguished New England family. At Drearcliff, she came top in French.

Kim Newman publication news, in case any of the other Newman fans on my friendslist (all two of you) hadn't heard already:

1. The next Diogenes Club collection, Mysteries of the Diogenes Club, is set to come out in October. It's already available for pre-order from Amazon, if you and Amazon are still on speaking terms. [ETA: And if you're not, apparently it's also available for pre-order from Book Depository.]

2. Beginning in May next year, Titan Books is bringing the entire Anno Dracula series back into print - including the notoriously impossible-to-get-hold-of fourth volume, Johnny Alucard, now due out in October 2012. In addition, the new editions of The Bloody Red Baron and Dracula Cha Cha Cha are set to include bonus never-before-published short stories, set in 1925 and 1967 respectively. (The latter will feature Richard Jeperson of the Diogenes Club; as, if memory serves, will one of the stories in Johnny Alucard.)

(via)

Fiction books
Raymond Chandler. The Big Sleep
Gail Carson Levine. Ella Enchanted
Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli. Batman: Year One
Alan Moore, Zander Cannon, Gene Ha. Top 10 volume 2
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener. Atomic Robo and the Fightin' Scientists of Tesladyne
Ursula Vernon. Digger Volume Four
Roger Zelazny. A Night in the Lonesome October

Non-fiction books
Stephen Dando-Collins. Caesar's Legion (didn't finish; authorial voice problems)
Ursula Vernon. It made Sense at the Time...

( short, screen, and stage )
( books bought and borrowed )

Top of the to-read pile
Cherry Wilder. Second Nature