WWW Wednesday 5-8-2013

WWW Wednesday. This meme is from shouldbereading.

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

• What are you currently reading?

I’ve yanked myself up by the short hairs on the back of my neck and forced myself to stop reading the series that have swallowed me whole recently. I’ll soon have finished them and then will have to wait for more, so I decided to try something different.

And I’m glad I did. I am loving reading The Chalice, by Nancy Bilyeau, just as I loved her debut novel, the first in the series, The Crown (now available in paperback as well as hardcover, audiobook and ebook). These are medieval mysteries set in the time of Henry VIII, with Joanna Stafford at their center. A novice nun, she has her vocation and life’s work yanked away from her before she can take her vows, when the King severs his ties with Rome. Politics, religion, mystery, history. These books are wonderful. How wonderful? The amazing historian and bestselling author Alison Weir said of The Crown, “A stunning debut. One of the best historical novels I have ever read.”

I’m listening to Tana French’s Faithful Place, the third in her Dublin Murder Squad series. I listened to her first book (In the Woods) years ago and liked it, but never bothered with any of the others. Recently I loved The Likeness (with one major exception, but nothing that stopped me from wanting to listen to this one now). These are character-driven mystery/thrillers set in Ireland and the world is so real and characters so rich, I feel like I’m living in the midst of them, watching everything happen around me.

Frank Mackey is a bitter, snarky, wonderful Irish undercover cop and his mother is amazing. Just saying!

• What did you recently finish reading?

I finished The Remains of an Altar which delves deeply into the music of Edward Elgar and esoteric theory from The Golden Dawn and my list of books to read grows and… yeah, every Merrily book I read adds to my TBR pile o’ books with subject matter I want to investigate further. The music? Right now it’s paralleling my own world-building and writing and so pleasure is combining with research.

 

 

 

 

I also am flying my way through the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. I just finished the Seventh in the series and only have three left before I have to do like most other readers and just cool my heels while I wait for more. Set between the World Wars in England, it explores the era with poignancy and pain as Maisie (who served as a casualty nurse on the battlefield of Flanders) solves murders and mysteries. I’m certain I would love reading these books, as well. But right now it’s the listening I am enjoying, and the reader is terrific, the production values excellent, and there is even a bit of musical intro and outro (?) that fits the tale well. The name Maisie surprised me, though. For some reason, I think of Maisie as someone who should live in Brooklyn in the early part of the 20th Century.

• What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m just overflowing with wonderful books, but the one that has me most excited is the first of Martha Grimes’ Inspector Jury series. I’ve waited years for them to come out in digital. My battered paperback has been read several times and I’m looking forward to collecting them all on my Kindle.  I prebought it today so that it will arrive on my Kindle automagically on May 14! I can’t wait. Each of the books is titled with the name of an actual English pub, and the first is: I Am the Only Running Footman. Fun, eh?

 

Paisely Vandermeir requests the pleasure of your presence.

 

What about you? What have you been reading lately? Put the link to your WWW Wednesday entry in comments, or just tell me!

I’m keeping a running total of my reading challenges–the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge (see banner at the bottom of the right sidebar) and my own challenge, the Embarrassment of Riches Challenge. The January wrap-up is here and here is the February Wrap-Up! And if you missed it, the March Wrap-Up is here and April here. (I haven’t posted mine yet, either!)