Reading, Reading, Reading

I’ve done a lot of reading so far this week: Why Shoot a Butler? by Georgette Heyer, Animal Farm by George Orwell, Even Money by Dick Francis and Felix Francis, The Laughter of Dead Kings by Elizabeth Peters, and skimmed through Austenland by Shannon Hale.  I have plans for further reading before the week is done. 

I’ve never read Georgette Heyer’s mysteries before now.  I LOVE her romances, but wasn’t tempted by the mysteries.  Silly me.  I really liked it.  The hero reminded me of the Duke in These Old Shades; he was rude and super smart.  The heroine wasn’t a stupid girl, and it’s set in the ‘30s. 

Animal Farm is just disturbing.  I find myself wondering if I’m like the sheep, or maybe I’m one of the horses, or am I a PIG?!  Are we doomed to repeat the mistakes of the Communist revolution and regime because we refuse to see and think and speak until it’s too late?  I hope not.  I hope we won’t let our fearless leaders guide us by our fears and I hope we won’t keep letting others think for us and tell us they know best, and that what we thought we knew to be true was false.  Freaky.  But it actually happened.  Happens.

Even Money and Laughter of Dead Kings were good.  I like Dick Francis’s stories and this was a good one.  I like how he mixes the adventure/puzzle/mystery with day to day concerns.  This book’s hero has a wife with mental illness, and while he’s dealing with murder, and etc., he’s also caring for his wife and hoping against hope that this time when she leaves the hospital, her medications will work and things will be better.

I pretty much always like Elizabeth Peters, and I haven’t read her stuff in a while, so Laughter was nice and comfy.  She’s starting to bring together her Vicky Bliss series and Amelia Peabody series together, and she even made an appearance in this novel, a la Clive Cussler’s appearances in his own novels.

Austenland was cute.  I read the beginning and the end.  I liked the heroine’s voice and the idea, I just wasn’t in the right mood to read the middle.  Sorry.  Not really.