Vacation: Shopping
Jan. 6th, 2013 05:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowI did finally manage to get over to Barnes & Noble for a little book shopping; I'll discuss my purchases under a cut. As I mentioned before, they don't have a music section anymore, but I did find a couple of items later at Target. (D used to work there and gets a substantial discount, so he does a fair amount of shopping there.)
At B&N, I picked up copies of Neil Stephenson's Reamde, a book on Roger Williams and religious freedom by John Barry, Margaret Macmillan's Paris 1919 (which I had confused with another recommended book on the Versailles conference), and a cookbook - 50 Great Curries of India. I haven't read any of these yet. The ones I have at least started reading were:
David Weber, Mission of Honor. I don't know whether it says more about me or about Weber that I was a third of the way into the book before beginning to suspect that I'd read it already, and halfway in before I became sure of it.
Thomas de Waal, The Caucasus. This looks interesting; I'm about halfway through. The editing is, I think, a little sloppy, and there are some linguistic howlers - at one point, de Waal says that the many Persian loanwords in Armenian made some linguists think it was an Iranian language, rather than being Indo-European - but the historical and religious material seems more reliable.
Patricia Briggs, Masques. This was her first novel, recently revised and reissued, and it shows. In plot and characterization, it's about on a par with Jane Lindskold, although without her skill at worldbuilding. Briggs admits that revision to meet her current standards would have been a massive task, which she chose not to undertake. Had this been my first experience with her work, I doubt I would have persisted.
Carl Hiaasen, Tourist Season. I've seen lots of praise for Hiaasen, so I decided to give him a try. I don't know what I was expecting, but this wasn't it; it's an interesting melange of farce, horror, petty romance and serious issues. I'm not sure whether I like it; I think I'll look for more of his work, to try to decide.
Patricia McKillip, The Bards of Bone Plain. Another little gem of a novel, with her trademark abrupt reversal near the end.
In addition to these, I received a copy of Jim Butcher's Cold Days at the family gift exchange. Butcher has been sliding towards the ever-more-dangerous-foes pitfall for a while, but he hasn't gone over the edge yet, and the climactic events with Molly open new doors. (Charity is really going to be unhappy with Dresden now, even more than before....)
The music pickings at Target were pretty slim, but I did come up with a Drifters album and an Etta James collection. Haven't begun listening to them yet, but between one thing and another I expect them to be good additions to the collection.
At B&N, I picked up copies of Neil Stephenson's Reamde, a book on Roger Williams and religious freedom by John Barry, Margaret Macmillan's Paris 1919 (which I had confused with another recommended book on the Versailles conference), and a cookbook - 50 Great Curries of India. I haven't read any of these yet. The ones I have at least started reading were:
David Weber, Mission of Honor. I don't know whether it says more about me or about Weber that I was a third of the way into the book before beginning to suspect that I'd read it already, and halfway in before I became sure of it.
Thomas de Waal, The Caucasus. This looks interesting; I'm about halfway through. The editing is, I think, a little sloppy, and there are some linguistic howlers - at one point, de Waal says that the many Persian loanwords in Armenian made some linguists think it was an Iranian language, rather than being Indo-European - but the historical and religious material seems more reliable.
Patricia Briggs, Masques. This was her first novel, recently revised and reissued, and it shows. In plot and characterization, it's about on a par with Jane Lindskold, although without her skill at worldbuilding. Briggs admits that revision to meet her current standards would have been a massive task, which she chose not to undertake. Had this been my first experience with her work, I doubt I would have persisted.
Carl Hiaasen, Tourist Season. I've seen lots of praise for Hiaasen, so I decided to give him a try. I don't know what I was expecting, but this wasn't it; it's an interesting melange of farce, horror, petty romance and serious issues. I'm not sure whether I like it; I think I'll look for more of his work, to try to decide.
Patricia McKillip, The Bards of Bone Plain. Another little gem of a novel, with her trademark abrupt reversal near the end.
In addition to these, I received a copy of Jim Butcher's Cold Days at the family gift exchange. Butcher has been sliding towards the ever-more-dangerous-foes pitfall for a while, but he hasn't gone over the edge yet, and the climactic events with Molly open new doors. (Charity is really going to be unhappy with Dresden now, even more than before....)
The music pickings at Target were pretty slim, but I did come up with a Drifters album and an Etta James collection. Haven't begun listening to them yet, but between one thing and another I expect them to be good additions to the collection.
