Stacked-Up Book Thoughts: From Fantasy to Biography; Or My Reading Life

Baby it's cold outside! Winter is here, even if the calendar says not quite yet. We have snow and the promise of a white Christmas, though there's hardly enough white stuff on the ground to shovel.

We also made enormous progress on our holiday shopping, and I think we're done. Phew. We haven't wrapped anything, but, hey, that's what Christmas Eve is for, right?

All that running around plus two holiday parties meant very little time for reading, though I did manage to finish one book, reread another, ditch one, and start two more.

This Week's Highlight: On Wednesday over on the AudioFile Blog, I will be recommending five good audiobooks for winter solstice listening. Because the kids are likely on school holidays, two of the titles are appropriate for family listening. I hope you take a look.

What I Read Last Week

The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty (Harper Voyager, Nov.): Like many of you, I often shy away from the big-buzz books because they so often fall short of the hype. Not so with The City of Brass. The setting is the Mideast and the time period is likely the turn of the 19th century. The action starts in the streets of Cairo and ends at the magical city of Daevabad, the city of brass where only those with djinn blood may enter. Our protagonist is Nahri, a 20-year-old orphan who has no knowledge of her family or background and who supports herself by attempting to heal the sick and by reading fortunes, with a little swindling and thieving on the side. During a ceremony in which she is pretending to perform a kind of exorcism, she inadvertently conjures up a dangerous djinn warrior, and her life is completely flipped.

Based on Mideast folklore and traditions, Nahri's story is full of adventure, magic, politics, danger, friendship, and intrigue. I loved the setting and the beings Nahri meets on her journey. Secretive Dara, is a djinn of many talents whose legendary reputation is either hero or uber-villain, depending on one's family's history. Ali, the second son of Daevabad's ruler, is both a trained warrior and a devout Islam. Muntadhir, brother to Ali, is the heir to the throne and lives for all the pleasures his money and status can buy. Nahri is streetwise in the human world, but how will she fare in the city of brass, where the king takes a special interest in her and claims she is the half-blood daughter of the djinn's most famous healer?

Complex, different, non-Western, adult and the promise of more books to come. Don't hesitate to give The City of Brass a try.

Audiobook notes: I read most of this novel in print, but I listened to the middle third when cooking last week. I enjoyed Soneela Nankani's performance of the unabridged audiobook (Harper Audio; 19 hr, 35 min). I noted good pacing and and distinct voices for the characters. I especially liked hearing the correct pronunciation of the names, beings, and places. Overall, however, Nankani didn't capture my attention enough to prevent my returning to print.

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman (Roc, 2016): I love this alternate history, time-bending series in which the librarians of an extra-world library engage in espionage and theft, um, preservation of books that are emblematic or important to each of the different versions of the world. When I received The Lost Plot, the newest installment, which is coming out next month, I thought I'd reread the entire series--this time in audio instead of print (Audible Studios; 10 hr, 31 min). It was fun to start over with the first book in the series and see librarian Irene and her assistant, Kai, at the beginning of their working relationship. I had forgotten some of the details of their adventure in an alternative steampunk London, and the overall story held up well to a second reading. I like both the world building and the characters, and the story is light enough for holiday season reading. Book lovers and librarians should give the series a try.

Audiobook notes: Susan Duerden's performance is enthusiastic but almost too dramatic for my tastes. She creates distinct voices and has good pacing, but I felt as if she were reading to children. The protagonists of the series are absolutely adults and there is some mention of sex, so the juxtaposition of the theatrical reading with some of the text was jarring. I noticed that she narrates all the books in the series, and I'm not quite sure if I'm going to finish my reread in print or audio. Stay tuned.

The Shores of Tripoli: Lieutenant Putnam and the Barbary Pirates by James L. Haley (Putnam, 2016). I loved the Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series (you may have seen the movie Master and Commander based on the books), so thought I'd like Haley's new series, which explores the early days of the U.S. Navy. Set in 1801 in the Mediterranean, the book is full of fascinating details of life aboard a naval vessel and introduces us to pirates, privateers, and European and North African politics. Although I have a paperback, I decided to try the audiobook. Sadly, Paul Boehmer's performance (Penguin Audio; 15 hr, 43 min) didn't work at all for me. I could hear breath noises, and there was something about Boehmer's cadence and earnest delivery that bothered me. I listened for almost 2 hours before returning it to Audible. The story definitely has promise, so I'll continue the book in print, but probably not until after the holidays. There is quite a lot of information dumping at the beginning--basically to set up the complex foundation of the series--which may have been some of the problem with the audio. I'll let you know if I carry on.

What I'm Reading Now

I started listening to Felicity Hayes-McCoy's The Library at the Edge of the World, read by Emma Lowe (Dreamscape; 9 hr, 42 min). The story is set in modern times in a remote area of Ireland and is about a woman of a certain age who is taking a chance on new beginnings. I'm enjoying the story and the narration. I also started reading Laura Thompson's The Six (Picador, 2017, paperback). I'm one of those people who's totally fascinated with the Mitford sisters and can't seem to read enough about them (and by them). This new biography is terrific so far.