I have been reading...

That header is telling a slight porky as I've not been reading a huge amount this month at all. Being busy, plus having family visiting has curtailed my reading a bit, but I do have three books to report on, one fiction, two non-fiction.

First up, City of Ruins by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. 

This is book 2 in the author's 'Diving' science-fiction series. The main protagonist is a woman known only as 'Boss' who dives abandoned space-craft wrecks in outer space. In book 1, Diving into the Wreck, the chance discovery of a Dignity ship from centuries ago, with lost technology from that era, changes the course of Boss's life. She's now running her own company investigating occurrances of this lost tech. and this takes her and a motley crew of people to the city of Vaycehn to look at something called 'death holes' which suddenly appear and swallow whole neighbourhoods. In order to investigate properly they must keep certain things secret from the authorities, such as the technology they suspect is somewhere deep in the newly discovered cave system under the city. So, if anything this was even better than book 1 and that got a 5 star rating from me. I loved all the cave explorations, what they discovered, the startling thing that happened and the results of that. I'm not giving much away you'll notice but this was seriously good and I'm so pleased to have discovered this series via Tracy.

Next, The Dream of Rome by Boris Johnson.

I've had this on my tbr shelf for about ten years, possibly longer (it was first published in 2007), and as I was looking for background books for my Latin studies, this jumped out at me as I loved Johnson's book on Winston Churchill. The Dream of Rome is like a book-long essay to be honest, exploring the Roman Empire, how they managed to maintain the peace for hundreds of years and why it came to an end. It starts with the first emperor, Augustus, and outlines what a piece of work he was: that was a real eye-opener although my Latin tutor had previously told me that he was a very ambivilent character. Fascinating stuff. Johnson's writing style suits me very well as he's funny and writes in a very accessible manner. I spent a lot of time laughing and I learnt a lot. I will say that this is a good 'starter' book for Roman studies, it's probably not much use to anyone who already knows a lot, I suspect there's not much new in it but I found Johnson's opinions interesting, particularly his way of comparing the Roman Empire to the EU. Some things I agreed with, some I did not, but I do like to listen to and consider 'all' points of view. A more academic viewpoint on the Romans would be the wonderful Mary Beard and I will be moving on to something by her soon, there's quite a lot of choice! And I would really like to read a deeper biography of Augustus, so must look to see what's available.

Lastly, a lovely friend sent me Traces by Patricia Wiltshire as she knew I shared her fascination with how murders are solved.

The author is a palynologist who didn't start out that way but always had a love of the natural world, especially plants. She was born in Wales to rather dysfunctional parents but adored her grandmother to bits. She did allsorts, which I now forget, before ending up qualified to help the police with murder enquiries. Palynology is the scientific study of pollen, spores, fungi, that sort of thing. It seems none of us can go anywhere at all without picking up evidence of where we've been, often in the shape of plant pollen on ourselves or in soil on our shoes, in the car and so on. So when someone is murdered, the study of the area where they're found versus what kind of plant pollen they have on them is vital in deciding where they were killed and who might have done the deed. I found the cases she described quite fascinating... true crime sort of thing. The biographical stuff was ok by me (some on Goodreads did not like that), I too was very attached to my grandmother so I could identify with that. I did find the author a bit prone to waffle, a bit too much repetition, but all in all this was a very interesting read and I'm glad to have increased my scientific knowledge just a little bit, which is not difficult as there's so little to begin with. :-)

So, the two books I'm currently reading are these:

 

Both are absolutely delightful. 

And this is the book themed jigsaw puzzle my daughter and I worked on over the Easter, 2,000 pieces and huge fun to do. Click on it for a clearer view.

 

So I hope you're all keeping well, enjoying spring if you're in the northern hemisphere, autumn if in the southern, and finding lots of lovely books to read.

Books read in March

Spring has definitely sprung here in the UK and because of all the rain we had in the winter everything is green and the spring flowers, especially the primroses, are really lovely this year.

 

I had what I would call a 'fun' reading month. Aside from one book, everything I read was enjoyable in an easy reading manner. Sometimes that's just the ticket.

10. A Mudlarking Year - Lara Maiklem 

11. Stone Maidens - Lloyd Devereux Richards 

12. Lady of Quality - Georgette Heyer 

13. The Aeneid - Virgil. I've been reading this for a few weeks and finished it a week or two ago. I'm not going to try to review it as I wouldn't have a clue where to start. But Virgil was a Roman writer who, it's thought, wrote this epic as a tribute to Emporer Augustus who was 'A piece of work' as we say these days. It charts the journey of Aeneas, after his defeat at Troy, to the shores of Italy where Rome was founded. It was an interesting read for various reasons but I found all the battles and descriptions a bit tedious. At some stage I will go back and reread Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey but not just yet. I am however enjoying this foray into the worlds of ancient Greece and Rome to connect with my Latin studies.

14. Diving into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

This series is set thousands of years into Earth's future where humans are out among the stars. 'Boss' is a female who dives wrecks, not under the sea, but out in deep space: she's definitely a bit of a maverick. She lost her mother when she was a child, to a mysterious room known as the Room of Lost Souls. Boss was with her but somehow survived and no one knows how. She comes across a new wreck, an Earth ship thousands of years old, but it should not be in this part of space, it should actually be impossible for it to be where it is. So how is it here? So I have Tracy at Bitter Tea and Mystery to thank for this wonderful discovery. I thought I was up on sci-fi authors but I'd never heard of this series, or this author. This was top-notch science fiction writing, great characters - I liked Boss and her relationship with her mad scientist, ambivilent father a lot. The world building is excellent and the menace, because there is one, is so well depicted it actually scared me. That's good writing for you. I'm already halfway through book 2, City of Ruins, and if anything, it's even better. 

Tracy's review is HERE 

15. The Marriage Season by Jane Dunn.

Sybella Lovatt is a widow with a young son, her husband having died in the Peninsula War. She has a younger sister, Lucie, who is stunningly beautiful and Bella is determined to find her a good marriage. Off they trot to London to stay with Lucie's elderly godmother so that she can have a proper coming out. Shenanigans ensue of course, including various suitors, not only for Lucie but for Bella, who wasn't even looking. Shades of Sense and Sensibility in this one although Lucie is nowhere near as daft as Marianne and Bella not as self-sacrificing as Eleanor. It's more similar to several Georgette Heyers but, although not badly written at all, not quite on that level. It suffers a little from something I complain about a lot, too much intelligent speech and thoughts coming from very young children, in this case a three year old boy. I also thought the villain in it was too much of a cartoon character. All that said, it was fun, especially the interactions between Bella and Mr. Brabazon, and there were some decent period details. I have a couple more of the author's books on my Kindle so will read more at some stage.

So, that was my March reading month. Six books read, one non-fiction, five fiction, bit of a motley mix, as is usual with me, but no disappointments among them and that's as much as you can ask for really.

I hope you're all keeping well and have some good reading plans for the month of April.