Recent Reads

Since finishing The Last Chronicle of Barset, I've moved rather quickly through three books: Steven Brust's Sethra Lavode, Georgette Heyer's The Spanish Bride, and Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Tiger.

Sethra Lavode was good, as Brust usually is; I enjoy his Paarfi persona quite a bit. There were no major surprises, given the situation in the Vlad Taltos series (which, after all, is set later in the timeline). I don't really have much to say about it.

The Spanish Bride was... well, unexceptionable, barring the occasionally muddled Spanish (which, I assume, wasn't Heyer's fault). Heyer's romances are without peer, but as a historical novelist she's up against heavyweights like O'Brian and Dunnett, and she really isn't in their league. She doesn't manage to inject the humor and drama (and the kitchen sink) the way O'Brian does, and her characterizations don't have the depth of Dunnett... If I ever read the book again, I'll probably do it with an atlas handy, so I can follow the campaigns in Spain and southern France. Or maybe I'll just read a good history of the Napoleonic era. (Any suggestions?)

Enough people on the LMB list have recommended the Sharpe novels that I finally decided to start them. I picked Sharpe's Tiger on the basis of internal chronology; I assume that publication order is different from internal order. Any recommendations on which to follow? The book itself was fairly interesting. Indian history isn't my forte; I've read The Oxford History of India, but it was rather dry and much of it didn't stick. I do have a general impression of mid-to-late 18th century India: the Sultanate of Delhi in decay, various opportunistic kingdoms - of which I presume Mysore was one - gnawing at its carcass, and the British and French encroaching from the south. Can anyone recommend another history?

Dusty!

I mentioned, at one point, that I love to sing, but I'm rather self-conscious about it these days. Part of the reason is simply lack of practice, and age - my wind isn't what it used to be. The other part is that my singing voice is oddly placed. I can cover most of the tenor range, but not all of it; there're a fair number of songs that make me squeak, if I'm singing that part. I can also cover most, but not all, of the baritone range, with a corresponding tendency to growl. There are songs in which I can handle either part, songs in which I can handle one part but not the other, and songs that are simply impossible. ("On Eagle's Wings" is the canonical example. Yes, I sang in church choir for five or six years.)

The reason I mention this is that I was just listening to Dusty Springfield's version of "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" - which, parenthetically, is far superior to Elvis', in my opinion. (Heresy, I know.) The chorus is right in the sweet spot for me, vocally; when she gets to it, I drop into bary and belt it out right along with her.

Love that song. Love that singer. Dusty, we miss ya!