wednesday reading, unplugged!

[eleanorjane]

Well, today I finished Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch, the fourth Peter Grant book. I have really enjoyed the entire series, and loved the sense of place in all of them -- it's clearly written by a Londoner who is writing what he knows, which means that the sense of place is effortless rather than the writer working hard for it. (I remember an Oklahoma native saying that about the TV series Saving Grace, and my understanding of what they meant had always been academic until I read these books.)

Of course, now I don't have anything lined up to read next. I have a ton of books on my iPad, but none of them are really leaping out at me; I've been idly dipping into a whole bunch of memoirs but the fact that none of them are sticking rather suggests that I'm in a fiction mood. I've been thinking about trying the Demon's Lexicon series by Sarah Rees Brennan, purely on the strength of her fanfic, but I suspect that whatever I read next will have a hard time living up to the Peter Grant books.

Which is a problem, because I find I need books to make the workday bearable.

Any recommendations? I'm looking for stuff that's going to be readable in chunks and doesn't require a huge amount of brainpower, preferably with a good sense of humour and minimal angst. Preferably without stupid characters who do stupid things in the name of plot devices. :)

Comments

[redsnake05]

I don't have any recommendations, because during term time my reading habits begin and end with things I have read before and therefore won't feel compelled to sit up all night finishing. I made an exception this term for Howl's Moving Castle, and though I loved the book, I didn't love school the next day after staying up till 1am. Sorry that's not very helpful. Um, I can talk about Georgette Heyer novels?

[eleanorjane]

Please do feel free! Lots of people say great things about Heyer's stuff; I've never read any of it, but I'm certainly open to checking it out!

(And re Howl's Moving Castle, I concur -- I read it a few years ago and thought it was lovely.)

[musesfool]

I was going to recommend Mike Carey's Felix Castor series as methadone for Rivers of London - Castor is an exorcist who works in London in a world where the supernatural has recently gone public, and it has some similarities to the Rivers of London series, but it is far angstier because Carey's mining a different vein - the noir PI genre.

Have you read Melina Marchetta's Lumatere Chronicles? They've got some angst but they're also really interesting and have some great female characters.

[eleanorjane]

Both sound interesting and worth checking out, at least, especially the Lumatere Chronicles. Thankyou!

[branchandroot]

The Demon's Lexicon trilogy didn't really live up to her fanfic, which is a shame. If she'd just let the "this isn't even subtext" brother incest happen, and maybe hooked the two plucky girls up with each other to rule the world, I can't help feeling it would have been a far stronger series.

[eleanorjane]

That is disappointing. :/ I was sort of getting that feeling from the first few pages, but didn't get a chance to try more before I posted.