What I’m Reading Now…

 I have been bingeing on my reading the last couple of weeks. I’ve read two books this weekend alone, so I thought I’d share with you. 

I’ve just finished reading Dead And Buried by Barbara Hambly. It’s the ninth book in the Benjamin January series. I thought I’d read the lot - and I’ve ordered the twenty-first novel, which I’m looking forward to reading. But for some reason, I can’t remember reading this one. 

Benjamin January, an African American former slave living in New Orleans where he teaches piano, plays with a dance band and occasionally gets to use his skills as a surgeon, also solves mysteries. Sometimes he’s even paid for it. 

In this novel, he is attending a funeral when the wrong body falls out of the coffin and it turns out to be an old friend of January’s best friend and fellow musician, Irishman Hannibal Sefton. He has been murdered. If the killer isn’t found, someone innocent will be executed. We learn about Hannibal’s back story, and it’s a doozy. A lot of other sub stories are connected. I enjoyed it as always. If you haven’t read this series, give it a go. 

The other book I read this weekend is part of the Rivers Of London series by Ben Aaronovitch, Masquerades Of Spring. In it, we meet Augustus(Gussie), a former schoolmate of Thomas Nightingale, later to become Peter Grant’s mentor at the Folly, the magical section of the police department. It’s in New York in the 1920s, where there is a lot of jazz music. Gussie moves there from England and Nightingale comes to him for help with finding out about a magical saxophone, and where it comes from. It is great fun and reads a lot like the Bertie Wooster/Jeeves stories. I have a strong feeling that was done on purpose. 

I still have some books in the series to read, but this one was a novella and I read it easily in a day. 

Recently, I discovered a trilogy by Rick Riordan. Rick is, of course, best known for the delightful Percy Jackson novels, with Greek mythology. I’ve read several and also his Magnus Chase trilogy, which is set in the same universe and is Norse mythology themed. 

The Kane Chronicles, my latest discovery, is Egyptian mythology themed. I’ve read the first one, The Red Pyramid, and bought a download of the whole trilogy. Siblings Sadie and Carter Kane discover that they are descended from the Pharaohs and have magical abilities due to Egyptian gods they are hosting. It starts off with their archaeologist father blowing up the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum, where he is locked into a coffin by the god Set, and continues with their having to stop Set from destroying America and possibly the world. They do have help from their uncle Amos and various Egyptian gods. Sadie’s cat Muffin, who comes with them on the adventure, is more than she seems.

I really like that Rick Riordan creates entertaining adventures, but gets his child readers interested in learning more about mythology.

I have just started reading Isabelle Carmody’s new novel Comes The Night, which is on this year’s CBCA short list, in the Older Readers category. It’s set in a future Canberra. I really need to finish it quickly and read the rest of the short list, at least in the Older Readers, but it’s a thick as a brick book. It looks good so far. 

I’ve begun reading All The King’s Bastards by G. Lawrence. Gemma Lawrence writes historical fiction, but this is alternative universe, in which she asks “What if Henry VIII actually died in that tournament in which in our world, he nearly died?” I love alternative universe books. This is a fascinating idea.

Speaking of AU, I have just read Harry Turtledove’s Joe Steele, which I had to buy in print from Amazon. I do try to get everything in ebook these days, but this one wasn’t available in ebook, so I ordered it. The premise: what if Joseph Stalin was born in the US, of Russian immigrants, and became President? He is just as dreadful as the one in our world, as you might guess. It’s seen from the viewpoint of two brothers, journalists, one of whom gets a job as a speechwriter at the White House, the other of whom gets into trouble for being rude about the President. 

There are a lot of books in my pile, but these are the most recent. 

The Rick Riordan book I’ve just read was published some years ago, but is still in print, so easy to get. 

If you’re interested in any of them, you should be able to get them all easily in your favourite bookshop or web site, except maybe Joe Steele, which I was lucky to get.