I’ve always been a big reader. I ate books up as a kid; I used to get in trouble for having a reading light on way past lights-out, so I could get further into my chapter books. I read at the table; I read while I eat. I LOVE to read; I love a good book; it’s why I became a librarian! Now I’m working at MD Anderson Cancer Center as the Patient/Family Librarian; this means I help provide leisure reading to patients and their families, who often end up with quite a bit of time on their hands.
Now, as a lifelong reader I’ve spent a lot of time on “serious” reading, including classics and nonfiction. But my current library patrons lean towards fiction, and “light” or genre fiction at that, for the most part. And besides, since I finished grad school in December 09, I’ve been leaning towards the light stuff myself. So my most recent fascination is with murder mysteries – long a favorite genre. I’m finally just about caught up on Michael Connelly – there remains only one novel I haven’t read, but I haven’t read any of his nonfiction yet. While reading a biographical blurb on him I discovered that Raymond Chandler was an early inspiration, so I picked him up next, and I can definitely see the relationship. Elizabeth George, James Lee Burker, and Martha Grimes are a couple of favorites as well.
But my latest side-interest is in mysteries related to BOOKS or libraries. first I found The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom; it was fun and funny, really very silly but enjoyable; and I’m now involved in Untitled: a Booklover’s Mystery by Julie Kaewert. It’s back on the shelf for the moment while I immerse myself in books for my readers’ advisory class (more on that in a moment). Next up is Murder Past Due by Miranda James.
So today is the start of my readers’ advisory class (hereby, RA class). It’s taught by a BIG name in the field, Joyce Saricks, author of the textbook used in my grad school RA class, and of course of the text used in this class as well. So that’s exciting. We were given four genre books to read (only had to read one but of course I went for all four!): romance, The Viscount Who Loved Me, Julia Quinn. mystery, The Bootlegger’s Daughter, Margaret Maron. scifi, Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card. action/adventure, Ice Station, Matthew Reilly.
I’ve read very little romance but they seem harmless. I was happy to tackle the Viscount (no pun intended, ha). I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Honestly, it’s not so appealing that I’m going to pick up another romance novel any time soon unless someone insists upon it; but I was surprised at it nonetheless. The characters were cute, if predictable, and I was invested in the plot pretty quickly. I was giggling all along; I have a bad feeling that I was laughing at the book as much as with it, but that works for me too. It’s still entertainment. I really enjoyed The Bootlegger’s Daughter; the characters were fairly real, and diverse, and the small town life drawn by Maron was believable and interesting. I really enjoyed the people, and there was enough sexual tension to be a side entertainment, while not at all taking over (and there was no sex at all in the end, just tension). I’ll be looking for Maron again! Next came Ender’s Game, and here was the real surprise. Even a non-sci-fi-reader like myself recognized the title and author as important in the genre. I loved this book! The fast-paced action drew me along; the characters were surprisingly human and conflicted, not just vehicles for science nerdiness; I really cared what happened. I stayed up til almost 1am, sick, trying to finish (finally had to give up, but eagerly awoke to finish the next morning). I was thoroughly surprised by the surprise towards the end! Very enjoyable. Full credit to Mr. Card.
Now I’m into Ice Station, and it is decidedly fast-paced as well. (In fact, that’s an attribute shared by these 4 books selected for my RA class.) I’m a fan of nonstop action, although some of the tech-y bits are a little contrived: “Please, Ms. Smith, would you demonstrate that again and explain it more fully even though it’s not the least bit necessary to decide my next action? The audience would appreciate it.” That’s ok, I’m forgiving, and I’m enjoying the book. I must say it REALLY reminds me of Dan Brown’s Deception Point, but I point out: Ice Station came out first! Take that, Dan Brown. I’m about halfway through Reilly at the moment, but so far I prefer him over the famous Brown, too.
I’ll keep you posted on Ice Station and anything else I can manage to fit in! Thanks for saying hello!
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