recent reading

[geekchick]

61. The Constant Princess, Philippa Gregory. A sympathetic (fictional) portrayal of Catalina of Aragon and her transformation into Queen Katherine, Henry VIII's first wife. I read this in an evening, I loved the character and couldn't put the book down, although the ending obviously was already known.


62. The Naming of the Dead, Ian Rankin. I totally fangirled this and ordered it from Amazon.co.uk in October rather than waiting for it to come out here in April. It's not my favorite of the Rebus novels though, I thought it was kind of "eh". Lots of focus on Siobhan this time around.


63. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2005, Jonathan Weiner. An anthology of selected pieces from various publications in 2004. There were several very interesting (Cliff Stoll's "The Curious History of the First Pocket Calculator" about the inventor of the Curta calculator) and thought-provoking (Malcolm Gladwell's piece from The New Yorker on the usefulness (or not) of personality tests) pieces. There's a piece on Bill Stone in Wired that is not my favorite article in the collection, but I wasn't actually familiar with the guy and was amused to find that he lives up the road a piece in Gaithersburg.


64. Brooklyn Noir, Tim McLoughlin. Another excellent entry in Akashic Books' Noir series. Maggie Estep's name in particular caught my eye. If you like the genre, definitely go pick up this one or one of the other volumes in the series.


65. The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, Susanna Clarke. I still haven't slogged all the way through Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (I just got the physical book, since listening to the audiobook wasn't going as consistently as I might've hoped), but this was a quick, entertaining read set in the same magic-filled England. Illustrations by Charles Vess. *swoon*


66. Pirates of the Caribbean Visual Guide. Mmm, pirates. Pretty pictures from "Dead Man's Chest", with close-ups of some of the costumes.


67. March of the Penguins. Still haven't seen the movie, although the pictures in the book are adorable.


68. Last Stand: America's Virgin Lands. Pretty pictures, with text by Barbara Kingsolver

Comments

[crouchback.livejournal.com]

I'll have to read the Phillipa Gregory books. I've liked her other works.

When I was in the UK, I visited ,a href="http://www.peterborough-cathedral.org.uk/">Peterborough Cathedral and was surprised when I rounded a corner and found Katherine of Aragon's grave. I had thought Henry had shipped her corpse back to Spain.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Extended squeeing over the POTC Visual Guide - DK always does such a great job with those. Tell me there are closeups of the costumes!

[geekchick]

Huh, thought I replied to this before, but it appears I didn't. There are a few close-ups of the costumes, Elizabeth's wedding dress is the one they use to illustrate her character. Annoying fold-out of the Flying Dutchman, which ripped the first time I tried to unfold it. But yes, plenty of pretty pictures. =)