Friday

[nightdog_barks]

Sunny, warm, humid. Didn't sleep much last night but this morning had another one of those long, detailed dreams, the only detail of which I can remember is that there was a young woman named "Garland." Mmmm-kay.

Must vacuum today and look at ficly stuff. And that's all I got.

Comments

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, what are you reading? Must be something good.

Perspi, Mare, and I all stayed up way too late last night brainstorming a possible plotbunny. My brain is pretty much frazzled today. *g*

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

It's "A Test of Wills" by Charles Todd. It's the first in a series of mysteries set in England in 1919. The protagonist is a Scotland Yard inspector named Ian Rutledge who was treated for shell-shock during World War I and is still suffering the after-effects, mainly related to his intense guilt over executing a soldier under his command when the man refused to go over the top.

For a piece of historical fiction, it has very little scene-setting, with most of the story taking place in the thoughts, action and dialogue of the characters. Once I got used to that, it was a really gripping read.

This week, all on the same day, I got in an order of four books from the deep clearance sale at Daedalus Books and two free paperbacks from PaperBackSwap -- the Ian Rutledge book was one of those, so I'm pretty much set for a while for reading material. :)

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Heh ... no wonder you were interested in the Pat Barker Regeneration trilogy! A Test of Wills sounds very familiar -- I think I have that written down somewhere on a "To Read" list.

For a piece of historical fiction, it has very little scene-setting ...

*nods* That's one of the real challenges in writing historical fiction -- the question of how many small details to add in order to make it "real" to the reader, and at the same time not overwhelm them with too many details. It's a real tightrope to walk, sometimes.

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

Actually, you got me hooked on Pat Barker first. :) Then I branched out to this series. Corgiguy was busy reading a history of World War I while I was reading the "Regeneration" trilogy, so our suppertime conversation was about 90 years behind the times there for a while.

One of his degrees is in history, and he reads histories constantly, while I tend to get my history through novels.

[blackmare-9.livejournal.com]

Oh, my.

If I were to start reading that? Chances are I wouldn't sleep until I'd finished.

This is why I don't read more novels than I do.

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

I stayed up until a little past midnight three nights running to finish it. Since my husband's alarm goes off at 5:10 a.m., I've been shambling around like a zombie from sleep debt today.

I can exercise restraint about many things, but reading (and chocolate!) are not two of them. :)