What I have discovered about reading in a time of COVID-19 is that everyone is having a different experience. Some people are reading more than ever thanks to abundant time and opportunity, others are struggling to read because they can’t focus thanks to all the worry and anxiety about what is happening. I fall somewhere in between, I think. The nature of my work is that it has not changed at all but for the fact that I hide in my basement office for 8 hours a day instead of driving to my actual office. But when I do come upstairs, my exhausted husband and MIL are happy to relinquish childcare to me, so by the time Penny has gone to bed I don’t always have the energy to read. Likewise, I’m working through a horrendous backlog of a To Read pile plus I recently received a shipment of new books from the store, so I am trying to balance reading the old and the new.
Among the new(er) was Genevieve Cogman’s The Secret Chapter, book #6 in her excellent ‘Invisible Library’ series. Irene and Kai are charged this time with an art heist with a motley crew of villains to help them pull it off. It was fun to meet some new characters, although I missed some old favorites from previous books. Book #7, The Dark Archive, is scheduled for trade paperback in December 2020. We’ve got book #1, The Invisible Library, on order and books 3 and 4 in store as well, with the rest available to order.
I suspect we all have books that we enjoy and we can’t quite explain why. I am that way with Will Thomas’ ‘Barker & Llewelyn’ series. How did I come to start reading it? Why do I continue to read it, when on the surface it really is not at all in my wheelhouse? And yet here I am, 11 books in, still buying the hardcover. As ever, I thoroughly enjoyed Lethal Pursuit, with the street smart Thomas Llewelyn and the esoteric Cyrus Barker. It’s 1892 and the Prime Minister has a task for our enquiry agents, but all the criminals and law enforcement in London have an interest. The trade paperback of Lethal Pursuit is due in December 2020 with book #12, A Dance with Death, in April of 2021.
I never feel guilty about not getting to a book right away because somehow books have a way of being read at the right time. Jasper Fforde’s Early Riser came out in hardcover in February of 2019 and I’ve been sitting on it since then. It’s come on two vacations even (remember vacations?). But somehow, a few weeks back, it felt like the right time to read it. And was it ever the right time. Set in a Wales where most people hibernate for the winter but for a “select” few who are charged with keeping the peace. Much like Fforde’s other books, like the excellent Thursday Next series, you will either love this book or you won’t. It’s pretty weird and at first you’re wondering what the hell is going on and then it grows on you and you can’t put it down. The trade paperback has since come into the store and if you liked the Thursday Next series, I would recommend giving it a try. He’s got a third stand alone book coming out in late September 2020 about human-size rabbits called, of course, The Constant Rabbit. I will obviously be pre-ordering it. I am also considering a re-read of Thursday Next, although that will negatively impact my To Read pile beyond measure.
And speaking of that To Read pile, it features A Murderous Relation by Deanna Raybourn, book #5 in her ‘Veronica Speedwell’ series. This one is in hardcover, but if you’re reading the trade paperbacks, A Dangerous Collboration (book #4) is now available.
A Stroke of Malice, book #8 in the ‘Lady Darby’ series also arrived. I’ll admit I stalled starting Penny for Your Secrets (book #3 in her Verity Kent series), but I am more excited to give this one a go. And consider that Who Slays the Wicked by C.S. Harris (book #14) was my book of the year for 2020, I am obviously very excited for Who Speaks for the Damned (book #15), which just arrived in hardcover.
I don’t honestly know when I will be back to Winnipeg, which is sort of the worst, but I suspect Laurie R. King’s Riviera Gold will have to be shipped to me in Toronto. This is book #16 in the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series and after a two year break, I am ready to dive back into their world.