Category Archives: books

in praise of Rick Riordan: increasing diversity

Posted on January 10, 2019 by dichroic

I originally wrote the following as a comment on Tor.com, but realized they might not appreciate a paean to a Disney/Hyperion author! One thing I have really enjoyed in Rick Riordan’s books is watching how each new series takes a … Continue reading →

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Local wine!

Posted on August 24, 2018 by dichroic

What’s better than a festival where you can taste wine from a bunch of local wineries in one place? A wine festival a little more than a mile from your own house … that happens a day after the weather … Continue reading →

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the second stage

Posted on August 1, 2017 by dichroic

I have been reading Victor Kloss’s Royal Institute of Magic series – a somewhat depressing endeavor, since I just finished book 5 and he died (tragically, of lymphoma at age 35) while writing book 6. They are fun, though there … Continue reading →

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Aaronovitch and Anglophilia

Posted on March 4, 2017 by dichroic

After reading the latest of Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant books, The Hanging, Tree, I started over from the beginning of the series to refresh my memory of the details, and also because it got me thinking. In this series, which … Continue reading →

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book: Fallen into the Pit (Inspector Felse)

Posted on November 30, 2016 by dichroic

One of the books I’m recently read is Fallen Into the Pit, by Ellis Peters. She’s best known for Brother Cadfael, but this one is an Inspector Felse mystery (contemporary, published 1951). Lately I’ve been reading a lot of BritLit … Continue reading →

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Conflicting bookery

Posted on September 29, 2016 by dichroic

Perhaps not the best combination: reading Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth while my workout audiobook is Connie Willis’s Blackput. Death and destruction in all directions 🙁 And I keep hearing the refrain, “For, Willie McBride, it all happened again, and … Continue reading →

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a few more things about St. Mary’s

Posted on August 22, 2016 by dichroic

(See previous post for context.) These books are absolute time travel crack, but they move along so damned fast, apparently, even the author can’t keep up. Just a few of the continuity errors, behind a cut because spoilers are unavoidable … Continue reading →

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a concise St. Mary’s reference

Posted on August 19, 2016 by dichroic

I really like The Chronicles of St. Mary’s series by Jodi Taylor; the first book was a bit awkward, as first books so often are, but they’ve smoothed out. There are faults, of course – a ton of minor characters … Continue reading →

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windfall

Posted on June 21, 2016 by dichroic

Good heavens. I’ve just gotten a credit on Amazon from the Apple price-fixing settlement … for a hair under $250. The time span the settlement covers falls within my expat years; I bought a *lot* of books in those years. … Continue reading →

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on immersion in October Daye

Posted on May 25, 2016 by dichroic

I’ve been rereading the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. Their plots are very twisty, an I’d realized I was missing a lot of the connections when I read the books as they came out, a year or so apart … Continue reading →

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