Friday Reads 4/28

The Currently Reading stack, as it stands, minus the TBR, and everything on my Kindle. 

I'm still working on my Tana French reread - I started, for some reason, with Broken Harbor, and am now partway through The Witch Elm. French has this magical ability to create the most vivid, human of characters, many of whom I actively dislike, but whose stories I love reading. I love, love Cassie, and Frank, and Mick, and Steve, and Antoinette from her Dublin Murder Squad series (note that I left out Rob; I wasn't a Rob fan, though his book is a stellar intro to the series) but the MC of The Witch Elm, Toby, definitely falls into the "you're awful, but love the book!" realm of French characters. I love the way she does something a little different with each novel; plays with the prose in a different way and clearly tries something new, but is such a stellar talent that she pulls it off each time. The dread she conjures in this book, that sense of sliding, all your perceptions skewed as Toby deals with the aftermath of his head injury, is such a subtle, creeping sensation, like fingers down the back of your neck. I'd forgotten how unsettling this book is, and it's just what I need to be reading as I tackle my new WIP.

I'm starting a reread of Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles - all the great discussion of it online in the midst of the Centenary gathering have broken my resolve and now I must return to Francis's world. The first time around was more of a passive experience, soaking up the story for the first time. On the reread, I want to approach it in a more active way, so I imagine I'll be posting about The Game of Kings a good deal more than I did a few years ago during my initial read. 

Then I've got a Dorothy Dunnett society Twitter rec in The Forsyte Saga. I picked up a really affordable paperback copy of the complete trilogy, so that was a lucky break. I'm not in deep enough to have much to share yet, but I imagine the twisted family drama aspect will be excellent background reading for the family drama I'm writing now.

Finally, Dan Jones's first foray into historical fiction, Essex Dogs. I've really enjoyed his non-fiction about the Plantagenets, the Templars, and the Crusaders, so I'm hopeful for an enjoyable read here. 

On my Kindle, I'm still inching my way through Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, and just finished my first ever read of Dune. I decided I wanted to read the book before I watched the movie; also, it's one of those modern sci-fi classics that's constantly used as a reference in discussions of newer sci-fi releases, and I wanted the frame of reference. I can now see just how much the novel, and its sequels, have affected the current landscape of the genre. I enjoyed it; I'm a sucker for a good people-at-war-with-their-empire story, and I'm now really looking forward to watching the film. I will say that this book was a perfect example of reading being a very personal endeavor: Is Dune a "good book?" Yes. Imaginative, inventive, ground-breaking, epic, all of those things. But as far as my personal, emotional engagement goes, I wasn't in love with the book. I hate seeing reviews in which this happens, and then a reader turns around and says the author was somehow at fault; blames a lack of love on a "lack of editing," or some such. That's not the case here, nor is it the case in most reviews for other books. A novel is a very specific sampling of an individual's imagination, and we don't always "click" perfectly with the inside of someone's mind. With his or her voice. I liked it, but don't envision rereading it. That bit of cool distance in the characterization - especially of Paul - reinforced my enjoyment of writing characters in a really hot-blooded, visceral way to facilitate a more intimate connection between hero and reader. 

As I write this, books three and four of Sanderson's Stormlight Archive are screaming, "Lauren, what about us?? When will you finally read us???" They're a bit muffled by the winter coats, though. Sorry, guys. Perhaps next reading stack.