I was home for a baby-free weekend in Winnipeg a month or so back and we ran into some customer friends at Polo Park who said they were interested to know how I was going to spin my (lack of) reading progress. No spin required! It’s all bad! I have read a measly 22 books so far this year and it’s both shocking and embarrassing. RIP long transit commutes.
What doesn’t help is that every September I reread Deborah Harkness’ ‘All Souls Trilogy’. I just finished A Discovery of Witches, am about halfway through Shadow of Night, and should be onto The Book of Life by the weekend. Of course, now there is a fourth book to add on with Time’s Convert. All are available in store in trade paperback and rereading them is one of my favourite things about fall.
Speaking of rereads, The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman, the first in the ‘Book of Dust’ series that follows ‘His Dark Materials’ is still on my to read pile. Book #2, The Secret Commonwealth, comes out this week in hardcover (and we’ve got the first in stock in trade paperback), so the pressure is further on. But I think I need a reread of The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass before I start the new series. Plus, the new HBO series of His Dark Materials will be released in November. James McAvoy as Lord Asriel? I’m in.
I never really worry about my to-read pile because every book on it will eventually be read and it will have been the right time for that book. I sat on A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder by Dianne Freeman for a year but spent a delightful weekend in August reading it on the porch. It combines all my favourite things: a plucky American heiress, a nascent romance, a know-it-all best friend, and a crime to be solved. We’ve got this first book in the ‘Countess of Harleigh’ series now in trade paperback and book #2, A Lady’s Guide to Gossip and Murder, in store in hardcover. This time Frances’ sister, aunt, and houseguest join the intrigue.
I had been losing interest in Gail Carriger’s ‘Custard Protocol’ series but book #3 in that series, Competence, really reminded me of the joy that is Carriger. I anxiously awaited Reticence, what I assume is the final book in that series (and maybe that world? She has nothing else scheduled) and it did not disappoint. We have come full circle back to Alexia and Connall and Ivy and all the girls from ‘Finishing School’. I will say here again that Soulless, the first book in the ‘Parasol Protectorate’ series is one of my very favorite books and I reread it this spring. It is a true joy to read and we can order in that series in trade paperback as required.
Fall is of course THE time for big books to be published and my most anticipated reads are certainly included (and my to-read pile will bear the brunt of it, certainly).
I believe I already have a copy of Grave Importance by Vivian Shaw, book #3 in her ‘Dr. Greta Helsing’ series sitting on the shelf at the store waiting for me to arrive at Thanksgiving. Equally anticipated, and hopefully arriving just in time, is The Art of Theft by Sherry Thomas (book #4 in the ‘Lady Sherlock’ series). Then we’ve got Penny for Your Secrets by Anna Lee Huber and most excitedly (it’s been a while!), And Dangerous to Know by Darcie Wilde. I won’t even mention what’s coming in January.
I have a list of the authors I read and whenever I have a few hours in the store, I like to hunker down and make sure I know what’s coming next. There are always a number of authors who just sort of trailed off, for reasons that aren’t necessarily clear. The last ‘Dresden Files’ book by Jim Butcher came out in 2014 (Skin Game). When I checked in August, there was suddenly book #15, Peace Talks, scheduled for June 2020. I haven’t seen an ISBN, which is the equivalent of waiting to see the whites of their eyes, but it is still something to maybe look forward to for those of us who miss Harry Dresden (although Ben Aaronovitch, Benedict Jacka, and Andrew Cartmel have certainly filled a part of that hole).