Book Bingo: March 2020
Mar. 29th, 2020 07:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stonepicnicking_okapiI've just binge-read 4 romance novels in 3 days and I feel a bit hungover.
All were by Cat Sebastian, an author recommended because I like K. J. Charles. All M/M Regency stories. Two e-books and 2 audiobooks (each 7 hours long!).
It Takes Two to Tumble. A The Sound of Music set-up where a vicar takes care of three kids and then the kids' widowed sea captain father returns. Made me think of Hobbit's Leonard. It is part of the Seducing the Segwicks (!) series.
Three were part of the Turner Series, a nice little intertwined AU
The Ruin of a Rake A ludicrous premise, but it (and the next) was an audiobook narrated by the very British and fabulously-named Gary Furlong (!) and I adore the way he says 'fuck' and 'cock-sucking' and he says them in the first 2 minutes, so yay! And it makes accounting and estate management sound sexy. And kittens.
The Laurence Browne Affaire My favourite. The reclusive, brilliant earl inventing the telegraph in his crumbling Cornish castle meets the con man with a heart of gold. And a lovable dog.
The Soldier's Scoundrel Injured soldier and amateur 'problem-solver.' Sound familiar?
My only small qualm is that I don't think pre-come is as lubricating as the author would have us believe or else this particular subset of men just produce copious amounts of extra slippery pre-come. I mean, I don't think it's enough for a whole handjob. And there are A LOT of class issues which got old after 4 books.
I have also read 3 books for the Bingo. And 1 other book. I've listened to tons of audiobooks.
Diverse Reads: The Widows of Malabar Hill. Book 1 in the Perveen Mistry series. It is set in Bombay in the 1920's. She is India's first female lawyer. I liked it a lot and learned a lot. Perveen is sort of an Indian Maisie Dobbs, but with law instead of psychology. And a white British lesbian bestie. And a supportive family and a tragic backstory. At some point, I want to read the next.
More than 300 pages: The Silent Patient [audiobook, 9 hours] by Alex Michaelides. This is a thriller. I checked it out because Louise Brealey (who plays BBC Sherlock's Molly) was the female voice. There's a male voice, too, who looks nothing like Ben Whishaw but whom I imagined was Ben Whishaw. The twist was a 'gotcha' moment for me but readers familiar with the genre might guess it early. A lot of bad shit happens to the main character, and you sort of imagine if she'd had one decent person in her life, things might have been different.
Romance: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. This is the only bingo book that I haven't really enjoyed. It is the GYWO comm book club book at the moment. The First Son and the Prince of England. Very hip and young. A fade-to-black about the sex that striked me as weird and vague (given I'm used to explicit fanfic). I mean, at one point, I asked myself 'But is he topping?' And I felt ashamed but you know, in the Sherlock fandom, you would definitely KNOW who was topping even if it shouldn't matter. Too much Rich People's problems. It was difficult not to cast Prince William of my youth and that actor from High School Muscial as the leads. It reads like a movie, one I would never watch, if that makes sense.
I've also read:
The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz. Book #2 of the Hawthorne series. Anthony Horowitz is still a megalomaniac and he's re-using his tricks from Book 1 so I'm not keen to read anymore. Still Clever, though.
I have also been listening to tons of audiobooks:
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer, read by my favourite narrator David Case.
The 39 Steps by John Buchan, also read by David Case.
Some angel has put all of Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Alleyn novels on the Youtube (all read by the wonderful James Saxon) so I re-listened to Death and the Dancing Footman, Overture to Death, and Death at the Bar.
Previously:
The First Book in a Series: A Death in Vienna by Frank Tallis [ebook]
Humour: Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
Non-fiction: The Interior Castle by Saint Teresa of Avila
Movie/TV tie-in: War Horse by Michael Morpurgo (audiobook)
An Animal on the Cover: Devotions by Mary Oliver
Mystery/Crime: This Poison Will Remain by Fred Vargas
Title has a Name in It: Lord Darcy Investigates by Randall Garrett (e-book)
Children/YA: Clay the Cromer Crab and the Invasion of the Jeellyfish by Salena Dawson
Colour in the Title: Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh [ebook]
An Author You've Never Read Before: The Raven Tower by Anne Leckie (audiobook)
100 pages or less: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
All were by Cat Sebastian, an author recommended because I like K. J. Charles. All M/M Regency stories. Two e-books and 2 audiobooks (each 7 hours long!).
It Takes Two to Tumble. A The Sound of Music set-up where a vicar takes care of three kids and then the kids' widowed sea captain father returns. Made me think of Hobbit's Leonard. It is part of the Seducing the Segwicks (!) series.
Three were part of the Turner Series, a nice little intertwined AU
The Ruin of a Rake A ludicrous premise, but it (and the next) was an audiobook narrated by the very British and fabulously-named Gary Furlong (!) and I adore the way he says 'fuck' and 'cock-sucking' and he says them in the first 2 minutes, so yay! And it makes accounting and estate management sound sexy. And kittens.
The Laurence Browne Affaire My favourite. The reclusive, brilliant earl inventing the telegraph in his crumbling Cornish castle meets the con man with a heart of gold. And a lovable dog.
The Soldier's Scoundrel Injured soldier and amateur 'problem-solver.' Sound familiar?
My only small qualm is that I don't think pre-come is as lubricating as the author would have us believe or else this particular subset of men just produce copious amounts of extra slippery pre-come. I mean, I don't think it's enough for a whole handjob. And there are A LOT of class issues which got old after 4 books.
I have also read 3 books for the Bingo. And 1 other book. I've listened to tons of audiobooks.
Diverse Reads: The Widows of Malabar Hill. Book 1 in the Perveen Mistry series. It is set in Bombay in the 1920's. She is India's first female lawyer. I liked it a lot and learned a lot. Perveen is sort of an Indian Maisie Dobbs, but with law instead of psychology. And a white British lesbian bestie. And a supportive family and a tragic backstory. At some point, I want to read the next.
More than 300 pages: The Silent Patient [audiobook, 9 hours] by Alex Michaelides. This is a thriller. I checked it out because Louise Brealey (who plays BBC Sherlock's Molly) was the female voice. There's a male voice, too, who looks nothing like Ben Whishaw but whom I imagined was Ben Whishaw. The twist was a 'gotcha' moment for me but readers familiar with the genre might guess it early. A lot of bad shit happens to the main character, and you sort of imagine if she'd had one decent person in her life, things might have been different.
Romance: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. This is the only bingo book that I haven't really enjoyed. It is the GYWO comm book club book at the moment. The First Son and the Prince of England. Very hip and young. A fade-to-black about the sex that striked me as weird and vague (given I'm used to explicit fanfic). I mean, at one point, I asked myself 'But is he topping?' And I felt ashamed but you know, in the Sherlock fandom, you would definitely KNOW who was topping even if it shouldn't matter. Too much Rich People's problems. It was difficult not to cast Prince William of my youth and that actor from High School Muscial as the leads. It reads like a movie, one I would never watch, if that makes sense.
I've also read:
The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz. Book #2 of the Hawthorne series. Anthony Horowitz is still a megalomaniac and he's re-using his tricks from Book 1 so I'm not keen to read anymore. Still Clever, though.
I have also been listening to tons of audiobooks:
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer, read by my favourite narrator David Case.
The 39 Steps by John Buchan, also read by David Case.
Some angel has put all of Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Alleyn novels on the Youtube (all read by the wonderful James Saxon) so I re-listened to Death and the Dancing Footman, Overture to Death, and Death at the Bar.
Previously:
The First Book in a Series: A Death in Vienna by Frank Tallis [ebook]
Humour: Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
Non-fiction: The Interior Castle by Saint Teresa of Avila
Movie/TV tie-in: War Horse by Michael Morpurgo (audiobook)
An Animal on the Cover: Devotions by Mary Oliver
Mystery/Crime: This Poison Will Remain by Fred Vargas
Title has a Name in It: Lord Darcy Investigates by Randall Garrett (e-book)
Children/YA: Clay the Cromer Crab and the Invasion of the Jeellyfish by Salena Dawson
Colour in the Title: Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh [ebook]
An Author You've Never Read Before: The Raven Tower by Anne Leckie (audiobook)
100 pages or less: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
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Date: 2020-03-30 04:41 pm (UTC)If you like Maisie Dobbs, I think you'll like Perveen. I was happy that it showed Indian families in a more realistic light (sometimes supportive, sometimes not). I think often they are shown as conservative and uncaring and caste-ish. And the case is about Muslim widows in seclusion. So there is a lot I didn't know. But Perveen's story is sad but she is Very Competent :) and not a victim. I don't know. I liked it. And the author is a Indian woman from Baltimore.
Yes, that kind angel also posted a lot of Maigret, Ruth Rendell, and Wodehouse. He really is a blessing (until the copyright folks yank him).