Jennie recently blogged about where she finds recommendations and inspiration to read various books. In the spirit of turning her original post into a sort-of meme, I’ll start my list the same way she did hers.
Here are the books I read so far this month and why I picked them up:
On Basilisk Station and The Honor of the Queen, by David Weber – If you keep up with my “Reading” page, you’ll see that I put a note by them saying that I read them through the Baen Free Library. I heard about the Free Library on the Goodreads Sci-fi/Fantasy book club. When I found myself with some of the copious downtime that tends to occur when my job enters a period of largely waiting for replies to emails I sent to China, I decided to check it out. I’d heard about the Honor Harrington series and thought it sounded interesting, so just my luck the first two books were there to be read online! I liked them both, but unfortunately the covers of the books in that series are so awful, I’d be embarrassed to read them in public.
Bedlam Boyz, by Ellen Guon – Also from the Baen Free Library. I picked this one while browsing the options because I saw that it was in a series co-written by Mercedes Lackey, and I’ll generally give her stuff a chance. It turned out to be pretty good urban fantasy, although I’m not sure I’m going to bother to track down the rest of the series.
Murder is Binding and Bookmarked for Death, by Lorna Barrett – Yes, Amazon’s suggestions of other things I might be interested in do occasionally work for me. This series is about a woman who owns an independent mystery bookstore in a town known for its street of specialty bookstores. This premise was more or less guaranteed to work for me, even though the main character’s sister is extremely annoying. I can’t wait for there to be more of them!
Death’s Half Acre, by Margaret Maron – I got this one off the library’s new book shelf. My mother and I got started on the Deborah Knott series because Maron is a local author and the books are set in NC, but I have since read all of her books, in this series and others. I’m guaranteed to pick up anything by her.
Brothers of Cain, by Miriam Grace Monfredo – I got into rereading this series last year, and then my closest library branch closed for an 18-month renovation project. I really wanted to read the last two books in the series, and was prepared to go buy them just to make it happen, only to discover that all of her books have suddenly gone out of print. Argh! But I finally got to a library again and found this one. Now I just need the last one. If you can find the Seneca Falls mystery series in your library, read it.
Dead Witch Walking, by Kim Harrison – I confess, I was bored in the bookstore and desperate for something new. I believe this was one of the books Amazon suggested I might like as a “vampire romance,” so I was extremely skeptical, but happily it has less romance elements in it than most of the straight up genre fiction I read, and it was pretty entertaining urban fantasy/alternate reality.
No Phule Like an Old Phule and Phule’s Errand, by Robert Asprin, with Peter J. Heck – The theme for next month’s sci-fi selection on the Goodreads book club is spoof. Someone mistakenly suggested Robert Asprin’s Myth series, which is fantasy, so I countered with the first volume of this series, Phule’s Company, since it’s actually legitimately sci-fi. (This is an annoyingly common occurence in the book club suggestion threads.) While in the bookstore, I saw that there were two new ones that I hadn’t read yet, so I got them in anticipation. Of course, my suggestion didn’t win, but I read them anyway.
The Patriot Witch, by CC Finlay – I found the free PDF version of this on the author’s website, via a link from Jeremy. The premise sounded interesting, so I figured I’d check it out. It turns out to be quite good, the story of witches living in the colonies at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. This one combines my enjoyment of historical fiction with my enjoyment of fantasy in a very smooth way. It doesn’t even really have to edge very far into alternative history, since Finlay works his witches into the fabric of our own history very subtley. Incidentally, the print version was released today! Even better, the other two books in what looks to be a trilogy will be released in May and then June, so we won’t have to wait a year to find out what happens next.
So there you go. I’m well on my way to beating 100 books read this year, if I maintain my current pace, so I’ll be on the lookout for more interesting stuff.