For those of you unfamiliar with this column, the Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week. Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazines. The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list. If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.
Once again, this is not a book review column. It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of description or a few opinions tossed in. And it’s also a great place to tell me what you’re reading.
Completed:
DreamForge Anvil, issue 8. Enjoyed most of the stories.
In Progress:
The Lost Book of the Grail by Charlie Lovett. Audiobook. I find Arthur a bit annoying in his complacent privilege and technophobia, but I realize the latter other is something some of my friends would say I share, as I do prefer print to electronic books! However, I use tech quite a lot for research, which Arthur is unbelievably clueless about for a modern college professor.
Wonders of the Invisible World by Patricia A. McKillip. Short story collection. Lovely prose, but many of the stories seem like part one of a novel. My favorite so far is “Knight of the Well,” which seemed like a complete tale.
The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill (illustrated by her as well). My “before bed” book right now.
The Animal World of the Pharaohs by Patrick F. Houlihan. This 1996 study is enjoyable and engrossing. Over half-way, enjoying, although it’s such a big tome I can’t read it before bed, which is slowing me down.
Also:
The latest issue of Archeology.
Jane Lindskold: Wednesday Wanderings 
July 1, 2022 at 2:11 pm |
Currently reading:
Attack and Decay (The Vinyl Detective 6) by Andrew Cartmel
Offbeat characters who usually have cozy murder mystery in Britain travel to Sweden, land of Swedish noir mysteries, insearch of a rare demonic metal album. There’s a subreference for Roger Zelazny’s (and other SF writers’) mystery novel, which I now need to re-read. The series is starting to suffer under the weight of the previous 5 books, the author apparently feeling a need to reference every character from the previous books (it’s not needed). It’s still enjoyable to read, though.
July 2, 2022 at 7:40 am |
Thanks for reminding me of this series. My library didn’t have it last time I checked, but now I can again. I usually test series via the library but often buy my own copies thereafter.
July 2, 2022 at 6:18 pm |
I started reading the “Kydd” series by Julien Stockwin. Very interesting series of stories during the late 1700’s and early to mid 1800’s. Sailing ships is where the narrative comes alive. The author went to a nautical school at the age of 14 where he learned about the sea in a sailing ship. Decent reading but it can be challenging since it is written for the English audience rather than the American audience.
Another series, but fantasy this time, is by Ava Richardson. Her stories are of the Akademy of dragons.
July 4, 2022 at 7:36 am |
Jim’s been reading a lot of “Age of Sail” books. I shall make sure he knows about this author.
July 2, 2022 at 6:18 pm |
The last month has been rather crazy, so aside from trying to decipher user manuals – and then reading back-to-front menus on projectors – I’ve only managed to finish Nine Nasty Words.
Which was great fun, as McWhorter never looses sight of the fact that language, particularly “bad” language, exists in a _society_ not in a book. Not that he has no use at all for grammar nazis and such like: they’re handy as bad examples, after all. But he has little time for claims of immutability, or even novelty, sometimes, of usage. In fact he takes some delight in tracing the evolution of some of our nastier words from verb to noun to adjective to pronoun. He also pointed out the [new, to me] observation that yet another outcome of the Reformation was the shift of profanity from matters religious and spiritual to bodily parts and functions. The one minor flaw, if flaw it is, is that his focus is primarily on American, and especially Black American, English – fair enough in that he is both of those, and a scholar thereof. And he does have fun wandering across the ponds when the divergences create the potential for especially amusing faux pas.
July 4, 2022 at 7:37 am |
Knocking someone up is definitely one of those faux pas phrases.
July 2, 2022 at 6:19 pm |
HAPPY 4TH OF JULY to all American readers. To all the rest, enjoy your July!
July 4, 2022 at 7:38 am |
Pecan pie on your menu?