_The Club Dumas_ by
Pérez-Reverte. Very entertaining but it's been thirty years since I ripped
through basic Dumas and some if it's kind of hazy. Seeing _The Ninth Gate_
(based on this book) is more recent, but probably just as hazy because it was
plain bad...
finished (okay, a while ago) _The
Shadow of the North_ by, yep, Philip Pullman. Much more just a Victorian
mystery story than the adventurish _Ruby in the Smoke_. I preferred the first
book. I think now I'll let Pullman rest--I'm not feeling a need to read the
final two Sally Lockhart books. On to Pérez-Reverte...or back to Patrick
O'Brian.
_The Ruby in the Smoke_ by Philip
Pullman. Interestingly different from "His Dark Materials" series. I
was reminded of loving the Moriarty couple of books that John Gardner back in
the late 70s--seeing Victorian London at the non-drawing room level in an
adventure setting. Or a less racist Dr Fu Manchu with plucky girl heroine...
_The Astonishing Adventures of
Fan Boy and Goth Girl_ by Barry Lyga. Trying to think of a book from last year
to compare it to, but it's not coming in right now. (It was _As Simple As Snow_.)
_Lyra's Oxford by Phillip
Pullman. Seems to be a place holder while he decides what, if anything, he can
do in the Dark Materials universe to top, well, killing off the upper ranks of
Heaven...
_The Amber Spyglass_ by Philip
Pullman. Fun fact: while reading it a show came on PBS about the awakening of
conciousness in humans. That is, the arrival of dust.
_The Cow-Tail Switch_ by Harold
Courlander and George Herzog. Reading it was a trip down memory lane--I recorded
a bunch of these stories for bed-time tapes years ago for the kids. They still
love their Anansi stories, though truth to tell, I think their greatest
trickster love is reserved for Kantchil the mousedeer.
_The Pirate Latitudes_ by Michael
Crichton. Posthumous manuscript that includes just about everything possible in
a pirate story and then some. I'm thinking he wrote it with an eye towards
filming. Still, it made several fun hours. If the rest of 2010 is as much fun
as the first book, that would be good.
(as the last book of the year)
_Loitering with Intent_ by Stuart Woods. Stone and Dino hang around Key West
wisecracking and setting the world to rights.
_Resolution_ by Robert B Parker,
a western. Well, more like Spenser and Hawk in the old west, but western
trappings. With the variety yesterday (fantasy, chick lit, science fiction,
crime thriller) and this, I must admit I'm feeling a lot of genre confusion...